Important Definitions-Jan

                                                               UN Human Development Index-

India up one rank in UN development index

India ranks 129 out of 189 countries on the 2019 Human Development Index (HDI) — up one slot from the 130th position last year — according to the Human Development Report (HDR) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Monday.

Norway tops list of 189 countries, India at 129th rank; report flags growing gender inequality

The HDI measures average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development — life expectancy, education and per capita income.

Norway, Switzerland, Ireland occupied the top three positions in that order. Germany is placed fourth along with Hong Kong, and Australia secured the fifth rank on the global ranking.

                                                                      ‘Good Governance Index’ 

Context: Latest edition of the ‘Good Governance Index’ has been launched on the occasion of ‘Good Governance Day’.

Background:

Good Governance Day is observed on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee (25th December). It was observed for the first time in 2014.

What is the Good Governance Index (GGI)?

It is a tool to assess the status of governance and the impact of various interventions taken up by the State Government and UTs.

1. To provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and UTs.
2. To enable states and UTs to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance.
3. To shift to result-oriented approaches and administration.

How is the GGI calculated?

The GGI takes into consideration 10 sectors — agriculture and allied sectors, commerce and industries, human resource development, public health, public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance, social welfare & development, judicial and public security, environment and citizen-centric governance.

• These 10 governance sectors are further measured on a total of 50 indicators. These indicators are given different weightage under one governance sector to calculate the value.

The states and UTs are divided into three groups — big states, north-east and hill states, and Union territories.

Key Findings of the first GGI Report:

• Top performers among the big states:Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The bottom six states are Odisha, Bihar, Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
• Among the North-East & Hill States: Top 3 states are Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Tripura. The bottom 3 states are Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
• Pondicherry leads among the UTs followed closely by Chandigarh with Delhi bagging the third spot. Lakshadweep is at the bottom among the UTs.
• Sector-wise ranking: In the environment sector:
• The top three states are West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• The bottom 3 states are Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.
• Judicial and public security ranking: West Bengal is at the bottom two in the judicial and public security ranking. Tamil Nadu tops the chart here.
• Economic governance:Karnataka is at the top under the economic governance category.
• Health: Kerala is at the top in the public health sector.

 What is Budapest convention?

Also known as the Convention on Cybercrime, it is the first international treaty seeking to address Internet and computer crime by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations.

• It was drawn up by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, with the active participation of the Council of Europe’s observer states Canada, Japan, South Africa and the United States.
• It is open for ratification even to states that are not members of the Council of Europe.

As of September 2019, 64 states have ratified the convention.

What it does?

The Budapest Convention provides for the criminalisation of conduct, ranging from illegal access, data and systems interference to computer-related fraud and child pornography, procedural law tools to make investigation of cybercrime and securing of e-evidence in relation to any crime more effective, and international police and judicial cooperation on cybercrime and e-evidence.

                                                                       Bhima Koregaon anniversary

Context: 202^nd anniversary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle of 1818 was observed on January 1, 2020.

About the Bhima- Koregaon battle:

A battle was fought in Bhima Koregaon, a district in Pune with a strong historical Dalit connection, between the Peshwa forces and the British on January 1, 1818. The British army, which comprised mainly of Dalit soldiers, fought the upper caste-dominated Peshwa army. The British troops defeated the Peshwa army.

Outcomes of the battle:

• Win against caste-based discrimination and oppression. Peshwas were notorious for their oppression and persecution of Mahar dalits. 
• The victory in the battle over Peshwas gave dalits a moral victory a victory against caste-based discrimination and oppression and sense of identity.
• However, the divide and rule policy of the British created multiple fissures in Indian society which is even visible today in the way of excessive caste and religious discrimination which needs to be checked keeping in mind the tenets of the Constitution.

Why Bhima Koregaon is seen as a Dalit symbol?

The battle has come to be seen as a symbol of Dalit pride because a large number of soldiers in the Company force were the Mahar Dalits. Since the Peshwas, who were Brahmins, were seen as oppressors of Dalits, the victory of the Mahar soldiers over the the Peshwa force is seen as Dalit assertion.

On 1 January 1927, B.R. Ambedkar visited the memorial obelisk erected on the spot which bears the names of the dead including nearly two dozen Mahar soldiers. The men who fought in the battle of Koregaon were the Mahars, and the Mahars are Untouchables.

                                            Kerala becomes first state to pass anti-CAA resolution

Context: Kerala has become the first state in India to pass a resolution demanding rollback of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).  

Why? – Kerala’s arguments:

The CAA act contradicts the basic values and principles of the Constitution.

It is against the “secular” outlook and fabric of the country and would lead to religion-based discrimination in granting citizenship.

Background:

The Parliament had passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 on December 11, 2019. The act had triggered widespread protests across India and created fear of discrimination based on religion.

Kerala has already put on hold all the activities in connection with the National Population Register (NPR) considering the anxiety among people that it relates to the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

What’s the issue now?

The Centre has clarified that the CAA act will not impact any Indian citizen including Muslims.

The clarification has failed to have any impact on the protests, with many states announcing that they will not implement the law.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019:

1. It seeks to allow illegal migrants from certain minority communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenshipby amending the Citizenship Act of 1955.
2. It seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities —Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians —after 6 years of stay in India even if they do not possess any proper document. The current requirement is 12 years of stay.
3. The Bill provides that the registration of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders may be cancelled if they violate any law.

Why is it criticised?

1. It violates the basic tenets of the Constitution. Illegal immigrants are distinguished on the basis of religion.
2. It is perceived to be a demographic threat to indigenous communities.
3. It makes illegal migrants eligible for citizenship on the basis of religion. This may violate Article 14 of the Constitution which guarantees the right to equality.
4. It attempts to naturalise the citizenship of illegal immigrants in the region.
5. It allows cancellation of OCI registration for violation of any law. This is a wide ground that may cover a range of violations, including minor offences.

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                                                                          Indian History Congress

   Context: Recently, the 80th session of the Indian History Congress (IHC) was held at Kannur, Kerala.

   It called upon political and administrative authorities to pursue the constitutional duty of promoting composite culture, which is vital to promoting the territorial unity of India.

   What is Indian History Congress?

   Founded in 1935, the Indian History Congress(IHC) is the largest association of professional historians in South Asia.

   • It has about 35000 members of which over 2000 delegates participate in its session every year.
   • It has been holding its sessions very regularly from its inception and publishing its proceedings every year since 1935.
   • Its main objective is to promote secular and scientific writing of history.

     Origin:

           The BISM organised an All India Congress in 1935 to celebrate its silver jubilee in Pune. As an outcome, the Indian History Congress (IHC) was thus born with about               50 delegates.
           The Bharata Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandala (BISM) was founded by Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade in 1910 in Pune with the support of K C Mehendale.

                                                                     Gaganyaan mission

Context: The ISRO Chairman announced in a press briefing that four astronauts have been selected for the country’s first manned mission to space, called Gaganyaan.

Indian Human Space Flight Programme:

ISRO aims to launch its maiden Human Space Mission, Gaganyaan before the 75th anniversary of India’s independence in 2022.

Objectives of the Mission:

1. Enhancement of science and technology levels in the country
2. A national project involving several institutes, academia and industry
3. Improvement of industrial growth
4. Inspiring youth
5. Development of technology for social benefits
6. Improving international collaboration

Relevance of a Manned Space Mission for India:

• Boost to industries: The Indian industry will find large opportunities through participation in the highly demanding Space missions. Gaganyaan Mission is expected will source nearly 60% of its equipment from the Indian private sector.
• Employment: According to the ISRO chief, the Gaganyaan mission would create 15,000 new employment opportunities, 13,000 of them in private industry and the space organisation would need an additional manpower of 900.
• Technological development: Human Space flights are frontier field in the science and technology. The challenges the Human Space Flights provide to India, and the benefits accruing from taking up those missions will be very high and will lead to further thrust for technological developments in India
• Spurs research and development: It will boost good research and technology development. With a large number of researchers with proper equipment involved, HSF will thrust significant research in areas such as materials processing, astro-biology, resources mining, planetary chemistry, planetary orbital calculus and many other areas
• Motivation: Human space flight will provide that inspiration to the youth and also the national public mainstream. It would inspire young generation into notable achievements and enable them to play their legitimate role in challenging future activities
• Prestige: India will be the fourth country to launch human space mission. The Gaganyaan will not only bring about prestige to the nation but also establish India’s role as a key player in the space industry.

Challenges for astronauts:

1. The astronauts will have to adapt to the change in gravitational field. The change in gravity affects hand-eye and head-eye coordination. Bones may lose minerals adding to the risk of osteoporosis related fractures.
2. Lack of exercise and improper diet make them lose muscle strength and cause develop vision problems.
3. Once they are in space, astronauts will receive over 10 times more radiation than what people are subjected to on earth. It can cause cancer, nervous system damage and trigger nausea, vomiting, and anorexia and fatigue. Without pressure, human blood heats up.
4. Despite the training, behavioural issues may crop up due to isolation leading to depression, fatigue, sleep disorders and psychiatric disorders.

New and Emerging Strategic Technologies (NEST)

 Context: With India grappling with issues like the security implications of the introduction of 5G and artificial intelligence, the Indian foreign ministry has announced the setting up of a new division on New and Emerging Strategic Technologies (NEST).

About NEST and it’s functions:

• The division will act as the nodal point in India’s foreign ministry for all matters connected to new and emerging technologies including exchange of views with foreign governments and coordination with domestic ministries and departments.
• It will also help assess foreign policy and international legal implications of emerging technology and technology-based resources.
• The desk will also be involved in negotiations to safeguard Indian interests at multilateral fora like the United Nations or the G20 where rules governing the use and access to such technologies could be decided.

Significance:

The new division is one of the many specialized desks created in recent years to deal with emerging challenges and scenarios.

Zonal Councils

Context: The 25th meeting of the western zonal council will be held in January 2020. Maharashtra will be the lead coordinator this time.

Zonal councils:

Statutory bodies established under the States Reorganisation Act 1956 and not constitutional bodies. They are only deliberative and advisory bodies.

Aim:  to promote interstate cooperation and coordination.

There are five Zonal councils namely:

1. The Northern Zonal Council- Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh.
2. The Central Zonal Council- Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
3. The Eastern Zonal Council- Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and West Bengal.
4. The Western Zonal Council- Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
5. The Southern Zonal Council- Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

The North Eastern States i.e. (i) Assam (ii) Arunachal Pradesh (iii) Manipur (iv) Tripura (v) Mizoram (vi) Meghalaya (vii) Sikkim and (viii) Nagaland are not included in the Zonal Councils and their special problems are looked after by the North Eastern Council, set up under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972.

Composition:

Chairman – The Union Home Minister 

Vice Chairman – The Chief Ministers of the States included in each zone act as Vice-Chairman of the Zonal Council for that zone by rotation, each holding office for a period of one year at a time.

Members– Chief Minister and two other Ministers as nominated by the Governor from each of the States and two members from Union Territories included in the zone.

Advisers– One person nominated by the Planning Commission  for each of the Zonal Councils, Chief Secretaries and another officer/Development Commissioner nominated by each of the States included in the Zone.

Union Ministers are also invited to participate in the meetings of Zonal Councils depending upon necessity.

The main objectives of setting up of Zonal Councils are:

1. Bringing out national integration.
2. Arresting the growth of acute State consciousness, regionalism, linguism and particularistic tendencies.
3. Enabling the Centre and the States to co-operate and exchange ideas and experiences.
4. Establishing a climate of co-operation amongst the States for successful and speedy execution of development projects.

UNESCO creative cities network (UCCN)

Context: The government of Hanoi recently held a ceremony to formally announce that the Vietnamese capital city is joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN). To date, the UCCN has granted membership to 246 cities around the world.

About Creative Cities Network:

The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.

Objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.

The Network covers seven creative fields: Crafts and Folk Arts, Media Arts, Film, Design, Gastronomy, Literature and Music.

Joining the Network, cities commit to sharing their best practices and developing partnerships involving the public and private sectors as well as civil society in order to:

1. Strengthen the creation, production, distribution and dissemination of cultural activities, goods and services;
2. Develop hubs of creativity and innovation and broaden opportunities for creators and professionals in the cultural sector;
3. Improve access to and participation in cultural life, in particular for marginalized or vulnerable groups and individuals;
4. Fully integrate culture and creativity into sustainable development plans.

As of November, 2019, there are five Indian cities in UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) as follows:

1. Jaipur-Crafts and Folk Arts(2015).
2. Varanasi-Creative city of Music (2015).
3. Chennai-Creative city of Music(2017).
4. Mumbai – Film (2019).
5. Hyderabad – Gastronomy (2019).

 Project ‘NETRA’

Context: Indian Space Research Organisation has inked a pact with Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) to pave the way for collaboration in establishing optical telescope facilities under Project ‘NETRA’ for tracking space objects.

What is Project NETRA (Network for space object Tracking and Analysis)?

Under the project, the ISRO plans to put up many observational facilities: connected radars, telescopes; data processing units and a control centre.

They can, among others, spot, track and catalogue objects as small as 10 cm, up to a range of 3,400 km and equal to a space orbit of around 2,000 km.

Significance of the project:

• The project will give India its own capability in space situational awareness (SSA) like the other space powers — which is used to ‘predict’ threats from debris to Indian satellites.
• NETRA’s eventual goal is to capture the GEO, or geostationary orbit, scene at 36,000 km where communication satellites operate.
• The effort would make India a part of international efforts towards tracking, warning about and mitigating space debris.

Need:

Currently there are 15 functional Indian communication satellites in the geostationary orbit of 36,000 km; 13 remote sensing satellites in LEO of up to 2,000 km; and eight navigation satellites in medium earth orbits. Their protection is utmost importance for India.

Background:

• Space junk is an ever-growing problem with more than 7,500 tonnes of redundant hardware now thought to be circling the Earth. Ranging from old rocket bodies and defunct spacecraft through to screws and even flecks of paint – this material poses a collision hazard to operational missions.
• The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station (ISS), space shuttles, satellites and other spacecraft.

Kerala to turn to Miyawaki method

 Context: The Miyawaki method of afforestation is to come up on the government office premises, residential complexes, school premises, and puramboke land in Kerala.

What is Miyawaki method?

The Miyawaki method, developed by a Japanese botanist after whom it is named, involves planting saplings in small areas, causing them to “fight” for resources and grow nearly 10 times quicker.

It originated in Japan, and is now increasingly adopted in other parts of the world, including our Chennai. It has revolutionised the concept of urban afforestation by turning backyards into mini-forests.

The process explained:

1. A pit has to be dug, and its dimensions depend on the available space. Before digging the pit, the list of tree species should be chosen judiciously. As there is very little space to work around with, trees with varying heights should be chosen.
2. Fill it with one layer of compost, followed by a layer of natural waste such as bagasse and coconut shells and then top it with a layer of red soil.
3. Plant the saplings following interval and tree height specifications.
4. The whole process can be completed in two to three weeks. The saplings have to be maintained regularly for a year.

Asia Pacific Drosophila Research Conference

The fifth edition of the Asia Pacific Drosophila Research Conference (APDRC5) is being held at Pune.

• The conference is being organised in the country for the first time by the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER).
• The last four editions of this conference took place in Taipei, Seoul, Beijing and Osaka.

About APDRC:

The Asia Pacific Drosophila Research Conferences (APDRC) are biennial events that aim to promote the interaction of Drosophila Researchers in the Asia-Pacific region with their peers in the rest of the world.

What is Drosophila?

It is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called “small fruit flies” or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit.

• It is one of the most widely-used and preferred model organisms in biological research across the world for the last 100 years. Several discoveries in biology have been made using this.
• Its genome is entirely sequenced and there is enormous information available about its biochemistry, physiology and behaviour.

Eighth Schedule

 Context: A case for including Tulu in the Eighth Schedule.

Why Tulu should be given a place in eighth schedule?

Tulu is a textbook example of linguistic discrimination.

• Tulu is a Dravidian language whose speakers are concentrated in two coastal districts of Karnataka and in Kasaragod district of Kerala. Kasaragod district is called ‘Sapta bhasha Samgama Bhumi (the confluence of seven languages)’, and Tulu is among the seven.
• The Census reports 18,46,427 native speakers of Tulu in India. The Tulu-speaking people are larger in number than speakers of Manipuri and Sanskrit, which have the Eighth Schedule status.
• Robert Caldwell (1814-1891), in his book, A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages, called Tulu as “one of the most highly developed languages of the Dravidian family”.
• The present-day Tulu linguistic majority area is confined to the region of Tulu Nadu, which comprises the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in Karnataka and the northern part of Kasaragod district of Kerala up to the river Payaswani, or Chandragiri. The cities of Mangaluru, Udupi and Kasaragod are the epicentres of Tulu culture.

Why the demand?

Efforts are being made to include Tulu in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. If included in the Eighth Schedule, Tulu would get recognition from the Sahitya Akademi. Tulu books would be translated into other recognised Indian languages. Members of Parliament and MLAs could speak in Tulu in Parliament and State Assemblies, respectively. Candidates could write all-India competitive examinations like the Civil Services exam in Tulu.

Linguistic diversity of India:

• According to the 2001 Census, India has 30 languages that are spoken by more than a million people each.
• Additionally, it has 122 languages that are spoken by at least 10,000 people each.
• It also has 1,599 languages, most of which are dialects. These are restricted to specific regions and many of them are on the verge of extinction.
• India must accommodate this plethora of languages in its cultural discourse and administrative apparatus.

Right to Conserve?

Article 29 of the Constitution provides that a section of citizens having a distinct language, script or culture have the right to conserve the same.

Background:

The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists the official languages of the Republic of India.

As per Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Indian Constitution, the eighth schedule includes the recognition of the following 22 languages.

NetSCoFAN

 NetSCoFAN, a network of research & academic institutions working in the area of food & nutrition.

What is NetSCoFAN?

It would comprise of eight groups of institutions working in different areas viz. biological, chemical, nutrition & labelling, food of animal origin, food of plant origin, water & beverages, food testing, and safer & sustainable packaging.

FSSAI has identified eight Nodal Institutions who would develop a ‘Ready Reckoner’ that will have inventory of all research work, experts and institutions and would carry out and facilitate research, survey and related activities.

• It would identify research gaps in respective areas and collect, collate and develop database on food safety issues for risk assessment activities.

Need for and significance:

The need for identify research gaps in respective areas and collect, collate and develop database on food safety issues for risk assessment activities, will be addressed by NetSCoFAN.

Indian Data Relay Satellite System

 India plans to ring in its own era of space-to-space tracking and communication of its space assets this year by putting up a new satellite series called the Indian Data Relay Satellite System.

What is IDRSS? Why it is vital?

The IDRSS is planned to track and be constantly in touch with Indian satellites, in particular those in low-earth orbits which have limited coverage of earth. 

It will be a set of satellites that will track, send and receive information from other Indian Satellites.

IDRSS satellites of the 2,000 kg class would be launched on the GSLV launcher to geostationary orbits around 36,000 km away.

A satellite in GEO covers a third of the earth below and three of them can provide total coverage.

Significance:

In the coming years, it will be vital to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), whose roadmap is dotted with advanced LEO missions such as space docking, space station, as well as distant expeditions to moon, Mars and Venus. It will also be useful in monitoring launches.

The first beneficiary would be the prospective crew members of the Gaganyaan mission of 2022 who can be fully and continuously in touch with mission control throughout their travel.

What is Protecting Power?

 Following the killing of Iranian military and intelligence commander Major General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in a drone attack carried out by the United States, the Iranian government registered its protest with the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.

Why Switzerland?

Switzerland represents the interests of the US in Iran. This is because the US itself does not have an embassy there.

Iran’s interests in the United States, on the other hand, are represented by the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.

 How can one country represent another country?

In an arrangement such as this, Switzerland is the “Protecting Power” of the United States’ interests in Iran.

The instrument of Protecting Powers is provided for under the 1961 and 1963 Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations.

 What the Vienna rules say?

• 1961 Vienna Convention states, if diplomatic relations are broken off between two States, or if a mission is permanently or temporarily recalled, the sending State may entrust the protection of its interests and those of its nationals to a third State acceptable to the receiving State.
• the 1963 Convention reiterates: “A sending State may with the prior consent of a receiving State, and at the request of a third State not represented in the receiving State, undertake the temporary protection of the interests of the third State and of its nationals.”

Roles of Protecting power:

In the absence of diplomatic and consular relations of the United States of America with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Swiss government, acting through its Embassy in Tehran, serves as the Protecting Power of the USA in Iran since 21 May 1980. The Swiss Embassy’s Foreign Interests Section provides consular services to US citizens living in or travelling to Iran.

The United States government describes the same role on a web page on the “US Virtual Embassy” in Iran.

Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR) Policy

 Centre is in advanced stages of preparing a policy on implementing scientific social responsibility (SSR). The draft has already been released.

About SSR Policy:

India is going to be possibly the first country in the world to implement a Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR) Policy on the lines of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A draft of the new policy was recently made available by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Aims:

1. To encourage science and technology (S&T) institutions and individual scientists in the country to proactively engage in science outreach activities to connect science with the society.
2. To harness latent potential of the scientific community for strengthening linkages between science and society, and for making S&T ecosystem vibrant.
3. To develop a mechanism for ensuring access to scientific knowledge, transferring benefits of science to meet societal needs, promoting collaborations to identify problems and develop solutions.

Highlights of the Draft:

1. Under the proposed policy, individual scientists or knowledge workers will be required to devote at least 10 person-days of SSR per year for exchanging scientific knowledge to society.
2. It also recognises the need to provide incentives for outreach activitieswith necessary budgetary support.
3. It has also been proposed to give credit to knowledge workers/scientists for individual SSR activities in their annual performance appraisal and evaluation.
4. No institution would be allowed to outsource or sub-contract their SSR activities and projects.
5. The draft defines SSR as “the ethical obligation of knowledge workers in all fields of science and technology to voluntarily contribute their knowledge and resources to the widest spectrum of stakeholders in society, in a spirit of service and conscious reciprocity”.
6. A central agency will be established at DST to implement the SSR. Other ministries would also be encouraged to make their own plans to implement SSR as per their mandate.

Need for SSR:

When most research is being done by using taxpayers’ money, the scientific establishment has an ethical obligation of “giving back” to the society. SSR is not only about scientific impact upon society but also about the social impact upon science. SSR would therefore strengthen the knowledge ecosystem and bring efficiencies in harnessing science for the benefit of society.

Telcos seek open court hearing on AGR

 Telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, have urged an open court hearing of their petitions seeking a review of a Supreme Court judgment upholding the recovery of past dues amounting to ₹1.47 lakh crore from them.

What is AGR?

It is the usage and licensing fee that telecom operators are charged by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

It is divided into spectrum usage charges and licensing fees, pegged between 3-5 percent and 8 percent respectively.

The judgment had said that the gross revenue would be inclusive of installation charges, late fees, sale proceeds of handsets (or any other terminal equipment etc.), revenue on account of interest, dividend, value-added services, supplementary services, access or interconnection charges, roaming charges, revenue from permissible sharing of infrastructure and any other miscellaneous revenue, without any set-off for related item of expense, etc.

Why the Court had upheld DOT’s move?- Observations made by the Court:

• The telecom sector had long reaped the fruits of the Centre’s liberalised mode of payment by revenue sharing regime.
• The sector has benefited immensely under the scheme as apparent from the gross revenue trend from 2004 to 2015.
• But, the service providers had failed to fulfil their obligations to the government and raised frivolous objections.

World’s most efficient lithium sulphur battery developed in Australia

Researchers at the University of Monash in Australia have managed to create a super-capacity prototype by re-engineering a Lithium Sulphur (Li-S) battery.

Is it new?

Li-S batteries are not new. But they had an intrinsic problem with the sulphur electrode, which would break after repeated charge cycles, making its superior capacity redundant.

The sulphur cathode would break because of expansion and contraction during cycles.

How was this problem overcome?

• To overcome this problem, the researchers gave the electrodes more space to expand and contract. The electrodes are bound inside the battery using polymers. The research team used lesser quantity of these adhesives so that the electrodes had more spaceout structures inside them.
• These structures behaved more like bridges between the sulphur particles rather than a dense network, which stopped the electrodes from disintegrating.

 How it works?

The lithium-sulphur batteries operate in the same way as regular lithium-ion work- lithium ions flow between electrodes producing power while not being chemically changed. Charging a battery involves those ions being returned to their starting positions for the process to begin anew.

Significance:

This battery that has five times the capacity of a traditional lithium ion battery. It can retain 99 per cent of its charge even after 200 charge cycles.

Li-S batteries are also many times cheaper than lithium ion batteries that could bring down the cost of electric mobility.

Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) project

An international team led by LIGO-Virgo scientists has identified another event of gravitational ripples from a collision of two neutron stars, making it the second time this type of occurrence has ever been observed in gravitational waves.

Background:

In August 2017, the first observation of gravitational ripples from a neutron star collision made history for being the first time that both gravitational waves and light were detected from the same cosmic occurrence.

What is LIGO?

It is a massive observatory for detecting cosmic gravitational waves and for carrying out experiments.

The objective is to use gravitational-wave observations in astronomical studies.

The project operates three gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. Two are at Hanford, Washington, north-western US, and one is at Livingston in Louisiana, south-eastern US.

The proposed LIGO India project aims to move one advanced LIGO detector from Hanford to India.

About LIGO- India project:

It is piloted by Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The LIGO-India project will be jointly coordinated and executed by three Indian research institutions: the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune and Department of Atomic Energy organisations: Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar and the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore.

Benefits for India:

1. The project will bring unprecedented opportunities for scientists and engineers to dig deeper into the realm of gravitational wave and take global leadership in this new astronomical frontier.
2. The LIGO-India project will also bring considerable opportunities in cutting-edge technology for the Indian industry which will be engaged in the construction of the eight-km long beam tube at ultra-high vacuum on a levelled terrain.
3. With its establishment, India will join the global network of gravitational wave detectors.
4. Establishing an observatory in India also assumes importance because the further the distance between the observatories, the greater will be the accuracy in locating gravity waves.

Black Box in an airplane

What is a Black Box?

Any commercial aeroplane or corporate jet is required to be equipped with a cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder. It is these two items of separate equipment which we commonly refer to as a ‘Black Box.’

While they do nothing to help the plane when it is in the air, both these pieces of equipment are vitally important should the plane crash, as they help crash investigators find out what happened just before the crash.

To help locate the cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder in the aftermath of a plane crash that occurs at sea, each recorder has a device fitted to it known as an Underwater Locator Beacon (ULB). The device is activated as soon as the recorder comes into contact with water and it can transmit from a depth as deep as 14,000 feet. Also, to help investigators find them; a Black Box is not actually black at all, but bright orange.

What is H9N2?

 Indian scientists have detected the country’s first case of infection with a rare variant of the virus- H9N2- that causes avian influenza, or bird flu.

About H9N2:

H9N2 is a subtype of the influenza A virus, which causes human influenza as well as bird flu.

The H9N2 subtype was isolated for the first time in Wisconsin, US in 1966 from turkey flocks.

H9N2 viruses are found worldwide in wild birds and are endemic in poultry in many areas.

Threats and concerns:

H9N2 viruses could potentially play a major role in the emergence of the next influenza pandemic.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), with avian influenza viruses circulating in poultry, there is a risk for sporadic infection and small clusters of human cases due to exposure to infected poultry or contaminated environments. Therefore, sporadic human cases are not unexpected.

Artemis Mission

NASA announces graduating class of 11 astronauts for upcoming space missions including the Artemis Mission.

The team includes an Indian American- Raja Chari.

About Artemis:

NASA wants to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon by the year 2024, which it plans on doing through the Artemis lunar exploration program.

ARTEMIS stands for Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon’s Interaction with the Sun.

The mission was named Artemis after the Greek mythological goddess of the Moon and twin sister to Apollo, namesake of the program that sent 12 American astronauts to the Moon between 1969 and 1972.

Objective:

The main objective is to measure what happens when the Sun’s radiation hits our rocky moon, where there is no magnetic field to protect it.

The mission:

For the Artemis program, NASA’s new rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft a quarter of a million miles away from Earth to the lunar orbit.

Once astronauts dock Orion at the Gateway — which is a small spaceship in orbit around the moon — the astronauts will be able to live and work around the Moon, and from the spaceship, astronauts will take expeditions to the surface of the Moon.

Lunar missions- key facts:

• Before the US sent the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon, it sent three classes of robotic missions between 1961 and 1968. 
• On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission.
• After July 1969, 12 American astronauts walked on the surface of the Moon until 1972.
• In 1959, the Soviet Union’s uncrewed Luna 1 and 2 became the first rover to visit the Moon. Since then, seven nations have followed suit.
• In the 1990s, the US resumed lunar exploration with robotic missions Clementine and Lunar Prospector.
• In 2009, it began a new series of robotic lunar missions with the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS).
• In 2011, NASA began the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) mission using a pair of repurposed spacecraft and in 2012 the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft studied the Moon’s gravity.
• Apart from the US, the European Space Agency, Japan, China, and India have sent missions to explore the Moon.
• China landed two rovers on the surface, which includes the first-ever landing on the Moon’s far side in 2019.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently announced India’s third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, which will comprise a lander and a rover.

What are CRZ rules?

SC backs order to demolish 59 villas on Kerala island for violating CRZ norms.

The villas are constructed in the Vembanad backwaters — a Ramsar site. The wetland is of international importance and protected by the Ramsar Convention.

What are CRZ norms?

In India, the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Rules govern human and industrial activity close to the coastline, in order to protect the fragile ecosystems near the sea. They restrict certain kinds of activities — like large constructions, setting up of new industries, storage or disposal of hazardous material, mining, reclamation and bunding — within a certain distance from the coastline.

Background:

After the passing of the Environment Protection Act in 1986, CRZ Rules were first framed in 1991. After these were found to be restrictive, the Centre notified new Rules in 2011, which also included exemptions for the construction of the Navi Mumbai airport and for projects of the Department of Atomic Energy.

In 2018, fresh Rules were issued, which aimed to remove certain restrictions on building, streamlined the clearance process, and aimed to encourage tourism in coastal areas.

What is the regulation zone?

In all Rules, the regulation zone has been defined as the area up to 500 m from the high-tide line.

What are the restrictions?

The restrictions depend on criteria such as the population of the area, the ecological sensitivity, the distance from the shore, and whether the area had been designated as a natural park or wildlife zone.

The latest Rules have a no-development zone of 20 m for all islands close to the mainland coast, and for all backwater islands in the mainland.

For the so-called CRZ-III (Rural) areas, two separate categories have been stipulated.

1. In the densely populated rural areas (CRZ-IIIA) with a population density of 2,161 per sq km as per the 2011 Census, the no-development zone is 50 m from the high-tide level, as against the 200 m stipulated earlier.
2. CRZ-IIIB category (rural areas with population density below 2,161 per sq km) areas continue to have a no-development zone extending up to 200 m from the high-tide line.

Implementation:

While the CRZ Rules are made by the Union environment ministry, implementation is to be ensured by state governments through their Coastal Zone Management Authorities.

‘8 Wonders of SCO’

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has included the Statue of Unity among the ‘Eight Wonders of the SCO.

Key facts:

1. At 182 metre, the statue is 23 metre taller than China’s Spring Temple Buddha statue and almost double the height of the Statue of Liberty (93 metre tall) in US.
2. Located on the Sadhu Bet island, near Rajpipla on the Narmada river, the Statue of Unity is located between the Satpura and the Vindhya mountain ranges.

 The Eight Wonders of the SCO are:

1. India — the Statue of Unity.
2. Kazakhstan — the Archaeological Landscape of Tamgaly.
3. China — The Daming imperial palace complex.
4. Kyrgyzstan — Lake Issyk-Kul.
5. Pakistan — The Great Mughals’ heritage at Lahore.
6. Russia — The Golden Ring cities.
7. Tajikistan — The Palace of Nowruz.
8. Uzbekistan — the Poi Kalon complex.

About the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO):

It is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation.

It’s creation was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Charter was signed during the St.Petersburg SCO Heads of State meeting in June 2002, and entered into force on 19 September 2003.

The SCO’s main goals are as follows:

Strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states; promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and other areas; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region; and moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

The SCO’s official languages are Russian and Chinese.

Bodies under SCO:

Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO. It meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation.

SCO Heads of Government Council (HGC) meets once a year to discuss the organisation’s multilateral cooperation strategy and priority areas, to resolve current important economic and other cooperation issues, and also to approve the organisation’s annual budget.

The organisation has two permanent bodies — the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.

The SCO Secretary-General and the Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO RATS are appointed by the Council of Heads of State for a term of three years.

Currently:

SCO comprises eight member states, namely the Republic of India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan;

SCO counts four observer states, namely the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Mongolia;

SCO has six dialogue partners, namely the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the Republic of Turkey, and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

Hormuz peace initiative

The meeting of Hormuz Peace Initiative was recently held in Iran.

The meeting saw participation from key regional players including Oman and India besides Afghanistan and China.

About the Initiative:

The initiative is led by Iran.

It aims to stabilise the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway for a significant amount of global oil supplies.

What is the Strait of Hormuz?

It is the waterway separates Iran and Oman, linking the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

• On the north coast lies Iran, and on the south are the UAE and Musandam, an enclave of Oman.
• The Strait is 21 miles (33 km) wide at its narrowest point, but the shipping lane is just two miles (three km) wide in either direction.

Why does Strait of Hormuz matter?

• The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most strategically important choke points.
• Two-thirds of the oil and half the liquefied natural gas India imports come through the strait between Iran and Oman.
• As much as 18 million barrels of oil pass through the Strait of Hormuz every day, accounting for one-third of the global oil trade. A third of the world’s LNG trade also passes through the strait.

Raisina Dialogue

 Fifth edition of the Raisina Dialogue is being held in New Delhi.

• More than 700 international participants, including 80 from African countries, are attending the meet.

This years Dialogue is titled Navigating the Alpha Century`.

About the Raisina Dialogue:

This is an annual geo-political event, organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

It is designed to explore prospects and opportunities for Asian integration as well as Asia’s integration with the larger world.

It is predicated on India’s vital role in the Indian Ocean Region and how India along with its partners can build a stable regional and world order.

Participants:

The conference is a multi-stakeholder, cross-sectoral meeting involving policy and decision-makers, including but not limited to Foreign, Defence and Finance Ministers of different countries, high-level government officials and policy practitioners, leading personalities from business and industry, and members of the strategic community, media and academia.

Significance of the event:

The Raisina Dialogue was born in 2016, in the belief that the Asian century that the world was talking about was not about any exclusive geographical region. It was rather about the engagement of global actors with Asia and of Asia with the world. So this dialogue took birth as a platform, where the old and the new could work together, to discover their connections, their inter-dependence.

World’s fastest-growing cities

Three Indian cities have been listed as the world’s fastest-growing urban areas, a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) revealed.

How are the cities ranked?

Cities are ranked based on “Total % change, 2015-20 forecast”.

The list is based on data from the United Nations Population Division.

The Economist has listed the rate at which the populations of the “urban agglomerations” (UA) are expected to increase between 2015 and 2020.

 Key facts:

• Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kollam were the only three cities to make it to the top 10 of the world’s fastest-growing cities.
• Malappuram was ranked No. 1 in the world rankings with a 44.1 per cent change between 2015 and 2020.
• While Kozhikode was ranked fourth with 34.5 per cent change and Kollam was at number 10 with 31.1 per cent.

Why then are Malappuram (44%), Kozhikode (34.5%), and Kollam (31%) growing so fast?

These cities are seeing rapid urbanisation, and the main reason is the inclusion of new areas in the UA’s limits.

1. In 2001, there were two municipal corporations within the UA of Malappuram. In 2011, the number of municipal corporations had doubled to four, and an additional 37 CTs were included within Malappuram. The population of the UA (excluding the residents of the outgrowths) increased almost 10 times in the same period — from 1,70,409 to 16,99,060 — obviously because of the inclusion of existing urban areas in the town.
2. Similarly, Kollam UA grew from one municipal corporation in 2001 to 23 CTs, one municipal corporation, and one municipal council in 2011. Its population increased by 130%, even though the population of the original ST of Kollam actually decreased by 4%.

Coronavirus

The United States will begin screening efforts at three US airports to detect travellers from the central Chinese city of Wuhan who may have symptoms of a new respiratory virus- Coronavirus.

About Coronavirus:

• Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).
• Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people.

Symptoms:

Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.

Transmission:

Human coronaviruses most commonly spread from an infected person to others through:

1. the air by coughing and sneezing.
2. close personal contact, such as touching or shaking hands.
3. touching an object or surface with the virus on it, then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes before washing your hands.
4. rarely, fecal contamination.

Development Support Services For States/UTs (DSSS) For Infrastructure Projects

Context: NITI Aayog and Ladakh Union Territory have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, under which NITI Aayog will support the administration of the Ladakh through its initiative “Development Support Services to States for Infrastructure Projects” (DSSS).

About Development Support Services For States/UTs (DSSS) For Infrastructure Projects:

• Implemented by NITI Aayog.
• Aim: To achieve transformational, sustained delivery of infrastructure projects with state of art capacity disseminated at all levels of governance.
• The key objective:Creating PPP success stories and rebooting infrastructure project delivery models so a sustainable infrastructure creation cycle is established.
• How it works?The DSSS Infrastructure initiative involves providing project level support from Concept plan till financial closure to State Governments / UTs.

GSAT-30

 The first mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2020, India’s latest telecommunication satellite GSAT-30 was successfully launched recently.

The launch took place from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

The launch vehicle is named Ariane 5 VA-251.

Key facts:

• GSAT-30 derives its heritage from ISRO’s earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series and will replace INSAT-4A in orbit.
• GSAT-30 is configured on ISRO’s enhanced I-3K Bus structure to provide communication services from Geostationary orbit.

GSAT-30 uses two satellite frequencies:

It gives the Indian mainland and islands coverage in the Ku band, and extended coverage in a wider area stretching from Australia to Europe in the lower-frequency C-band.

The Ku and C bands are part of a spectrum of frequencies, ranging from 1 to 40 gigahertz, that are used in satellite communications.

Services:

With a mission life of over 15 years, GSAT-30 will provide DTH [direct-to-home] television Services, connectivity to VSATs [Very Small Aperture Terminals] for ATM, stock exchange, television uplinking and teleport services, Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) and e-governance applications.

What is Arianespace?

It is the world’s first commercial launch service provider and since the launch of India’s APPLE experimental satellite on Ariane Flight L03 in 1981, Arianespace has orbited 24 satellites, including Gsat-30, for the Indian space agency. 

HSN Code

Context: India not to allow imports without HSN code. This will enable India’s exports to be accepted globally due to the quality of goods and services.

What does the HS code mean?- Harmonised System, or simply ‘HS’:

It is a six-digit identification code. Of the six digits, the first two denote the HS Chapter, the next two give the HS heading, and the last two give the HS subheading.

• Developed by the World Customs Organization (WCO).
• Called the “universal economic language” for goods.
• It is a multipurpose international product nomenclature.
• The system currently comprises of around 5,000 commodity groups.

HSN:

HS Code is also known as HSN Code in India. Goods are classified into Harmonized System of Nomenclature or HSN. It is used up to 8 digit level.

Application:

HSN classification is widely used for taxation purposes by helping to identify the rate of tax applicable to a specific product in a country that is under review. It can also be used in calculations that involve claiming benefits.

HS code are used by Customs authorities, statistical agencies, and other government regulatory bodies, to monitor and control the import and export of commodities through:

1. Customs tariffs
2. Collection of international trade statistics
3. Rules of origin
4. Collection of internal taxes
5. Trade negotiations (e.g., the World Trade Organization schedules of tariff concessions)
6. Transport tariffs and statistics
7. Monitoring of controlled goods (e.g., wastes, narcotics, chemical weapons, ozone layer depleting substances, endangered species, wildlife trade)
8. Areas of Customs controls and procedures, including risk assessment, information technology and compliance.

Need for and significance:

Over 200 countries use the system as a basis for their customs tariffs, gathering international trade statistics, making trade policies, and for monitoring goods.

The system helps in harmonising of customs and trade procedures, thus reducing costs in international trade.

Henley Passport Index

Context: The latest edition of Henley Passport Index has been released.

What is Henley Passport Index (HPI)?

It is a global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom for their citizens.

Started in 2006 as Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index (HVRI) and was modified and renamed in January 2018.

How are the countries ranked?

The ranking is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information, and enhanced by the Henley & Partners Research Department.

The Index lists the world’s passports “according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa”.

The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.

Performance of various Countries:

1. Japan is at the top. It has been topping the Index for three straight years; according to the 2020 index, its citizens are able to access 191 destinations without having to obtain a visa in advance.
2. Singapore, in second place (same as in 2019), has a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 190.
3. Germany is No. 3 (same position as in 2019), with access to 189 destinations;
4. The US and the UK have been falling consistently over successive Indices.

Performance of India:

1. The Indian passport is closer to the bottom, ranked 84th in the world.
2. This translates into visa-free access to 58 destinations, including 33 which give Indians visas on arrival.
3. Twenty of the 58 visa-free access destinations in the 2020 list are in Africa, and 11 each in Asia and the Caribbean. Serbia is the only European country to which Indian passport holders can travel visa-free.

UAE has been declared ‘reciprocating territory’ by India

 Last week, the Ministry of Law and Justice issued an Extraordinary Gazette Notification, declaring the United Arab Emirates to be a “reciprocating territory” under Section 44A of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908.

• The notification also declared a list of courts in the UAE to be “superior Courts” under the same section.
• Apart from UAE, the other countries declared to be “reciprocating territories” are: United Kingdom, Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Trinidad & Tobago, New Zealand, the Cook Islands (including Niue) and the Trust Territories of Western Samoa, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Aden.

What is a ‘reciprocating territory’ and what are superior courts?

“Reciprocating territory” means any country or territory outside India which the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be a reciprocating territory; and “superior Courts”, with reference to any such territory, means such Courts as may be specified in the said notification.”

• Essentially, orders passed by certain designated courts from a ‘reciprocating territory’ can be implemented in India, by filing a copy of the decree concerned in a District Court here.
• The courts so designated are called ‘superior Courts’.

What does Section 44 of the CPC say?

Section 44A, titled “Execution of decrees passed by Courts in reciprocating territory”, provides the law on the subject of execution of decrees of Courts in India by foreign Courts and vice versa.

Section 44A (1) provides that a decree passed by “a superior Court” in any “reciprocating territory” can be executed in India by filing a certified copy of the decree in a District Court, which will treat the decree as if it has been passed by itself.

 Limitations:

The scope of the Section is restricted to decrees for payment of money, not being sums payable “in respect of taxes or other charges of a like nature or in respect of a fine or other penalty”.

It also cannot be based on an arbitration award, even if such an award is enforceable as a decree or judgment.

Why is the move significant?

The decision is believed to help bring down the time required for executing decrees between the two countries.

Indian expatriates in the UAE would no longer be able to seek safe haven in their home country if they are convicted in a civil case in the UAE.

Global social mobility report

 World Economic Forum has come out with its first-ever Global Social Mobility Report.

Performance of India:

1. The report has ranked India a lowly 76 out of the 82 countries profiled.
2. It lists India among the five countries that stand to gain the most from a better social mobility score.
3. It ranks 41st in lifelong learning and 53rd in working conditions.
4. The Areas of improvement for India include social protection (76th) and fair wage distribution (79th).

Global performance:

1. The Nordic nations hold the top five spots, led by Denmark in the first place (scoring 85 points), followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden (all above 83 points) and Iceland (82 points).
2. Among the G7 economies, Germany is the most socially mobile, ranking 11th with 78 points.

What is social mobility?

It can be understood as the movement in personal circumstances either “upwards” or “downwards” of an individual in relation to those of their parents.

• In absolute terms, it is the ability of a child to experience a better life than their parents.
• On the other hand, relative social mobility is an assessment of the impact of socio-economic background on an individual’s outcomes in life. 
• It can be measured against a number of outcomes ranging from health to educational achievement and income.

Why does social mobility matter?

Research has shown that in high-income countries, since the 1990s, there is stagnation at both the bottom and the top end of the income distribution—a phenomenon which social mobility experts describe as ‘sticky floors’ and ‘sticky ceilings’.

• In other words, how far an individual can move up in the society determines a lot whether one is closer to the income “floor” (or poor) or “ceiling” (or rich).
• Social mobility levels, then, can help us understand both the speed – that is, how long it takes for individuals at the bottom of the scale to catch up with those at the top – and the intensity – that is, how many steps it takes for an individual to move up the ladder in a given period – of social mobility.

Why the need for a new index?

• Social mobility has become the pressing issue of modern life, and as the index highlights, while major improvements have been made in some areas, notably extreme poverty, in others, the situation is deteriorating.
• Globalization and technology are frequently blamed for this, but as the report highlights, there are a plethora of reasons – not least of which is poor policy-making – and it is the responsibility of a range of stakeholders to redress these.

What does it do that other indices don’t?

The index considers what a country can do holistically to foster relative social mobility for all citizens, which is markedly different from other methodologies.

• The Global Social Mobility Index, focuses on drivers of relative social mobility instead of outcomes. It looks at policies, practices and institutions. This allows it to enable effective comparisons throughout regions and generations.
• It uses 10 pillars, which in turn are broken down into five determinants of social mobility – health, education, technology access, work opportunities, working conditions and fair wages and finally, social protection and inclusive institutions.

Key findings:

• The Global Social Mobility Index reveals that there are only a handful of nations with the right conditions to foster social mobility.
• Most countries underperform in four areas: fair wages, social protection, working conditions and lifelong learning.
• The index also reveals that achieving higher levels of social mobility needs to be perceived as an important element of a wider move towards a stakeholder-based model of capitalism.
• Looking at all economies and average income levels, those children who are born into less affluent families typically experience greater barriers to success than their more affluently born counterparts.
• Furthermore, inequalities are rising even in countries that have experienced rapid growth.
• In most countries, individuals from certain groups have become historically disadvantaged and poor social mobility perpetuates and exacerbates such inequalities. In turn, these types of inequalities can undermine the cohesiveness of economies and societies.

ASER 2019

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2019 has been published by education non-profit Pratham.

What is ASER and why it matters?

This is an annual survey that aims to provide reliable estimates of children’s enrolment and basic learning levels for each district and state in India.

ASER has been conducted every year since 2005 in all rural districts of India.

• It is the largest citizen-led survey in India.
• It is also the only annual source of information on children’s learning outcomes available in India today.
• Unlike most other large-scale learning assessments, ASER is a household-based rather than school-based survey. This design enables all children to be included – those who have never been to school or have dropped out, as well as those who are in government schools, private schools, religious schools or anywhere else.

How the survey was conducted?

1. The survey was conducted in 26 districts across 24 states in India, covering a total of 1,514 villages, 30,425 households, and 36,930 children in the age group of 4-8 years.
2. The sampled children’s enrolment status in pre-school or school was collected. Children did a variety of cognitive, early language, and early numeracy tasks; and activities to assess the children’s social and emotional development were also undertaken.
3. All tasks were done one-on-one with children in their homes.

What is early years?

The latest edition focuses on early years.

It is defined globally as age 0-8, is known to be the most important stage of cognitive, motor, social and emotional development in the human life cycle.

Key findings:

1. Only 16% of children in Class 1 in 26 surveyed rural districts can read text at the prescribed level, while almost 40% cannot even recognise letters.
2. Only 41% of these children could recognise two digit numbers.
3. Many Indian parents choose government schools for girls in the age group of 4 to 8 years while they favour private schools for boys.
4. At least 25% of school children in the four-eight age group do not have age-appropriate cognitive and numeracy skills, making for a massive learning deficit at a very early stage.
5. More than 90% of children in the 4-8 age group are enrolled in some type of educational institution. This proportion increases with age, from 91.3% of all 4-year-olds to 99.5% of all 8-year-olds in sampled districts.
6. Children from less advantaged homes are disproportionately affected. Although almost half of all 4-year-olds and more than a quarter of all 5-year-olds are enrolled in anganwadis, these children have far lower levels of cognitive skill and foundational ability than their counterparts in private LKG/UKG classes.
7. Overall, 41.7% of children in class I are of the RTE-mandated age.
8. Children’s skills and abilities improve in each subsequent class. As per the report, “children’s ability to read standard I level text improves from 16.2% of children in standard I to 50.8% children in standard III. This means that half of all children in standard III are already at least two years behind where the curriculum expects them to be.”

India-Pakistan trade freeze hits thousands: report

The Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals (BRIEF) has released a report highlighting the impact of trade shutdown between India and Pakistan on people across borders.

The report is called “Unilateral Decisions, Bilateral Losses”.

What has happened?

Following the Pulwama attacks, trade between India and Pakistan across the Wagah-Attari border and the Line of Control (LoC) Salamabad-Chakhan da Bagh routes was closed in 2019.

MFN (most favoured nation) status to Pakistan was also cancelled.

Pakistan has also imposed few counter- measures, including an airspace ban and suspension of trade relations.

Impacts of these decisions:

1. The decisions on trade were meant to be a tough message for Pakistan and would impact Pakistan’s economy even more than India’s. Even though ties have been much worse in the past like after the Parliament attack, trade had never been touched.
2. Now, at least 9,354 families, roughly 50,000 people, in Punjab and about 900 families in Kashmir have been directly impacted.
3. Both countries have lost billions of dollars and hundreds of job days.
4. These measures that led to a 200% duty increase on imports from Pakistan at Punjab saw even the relatively meagre bilateral trade of $2.56 billion in 2018-2019 dropping to $547.22 million (April-August 2019) – imports dropping from about $500 million to just $11.45 million.
5. Similarly, the closure of LoC trading points in Jammu and Kashmir has put small trade, handicrafts sellers, truckers, labourers, and hotel owners near the LoC in Baramulla and Poonch out of business.

What is Most Favoured Nation status?

A treatment accorded to a trade partner to ensure non-discriminatory trade between two countries vis-a-vis other trade partners.

It is the first clause in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Under WTO rules, a member country cannot discriminate between its trade partners. If a special status is granted to a trade partner, it must be extended to all members of the WTO.

MFN at the same time allows some exemptions as well:

• Right to engage in Free Trade Agreements: This means members can participate in regional trade agreements or free trade agreements where there is discrimination between member countries and non-member countries.
• Members can give developing countries special and differential treatment like greater market access. This special concession are in different forms like reduced tariff rates from developing country imports, concessions that allows developing countries to give subsidies to their production sectors etc.

Commission to Examine Sub Categorization of other Backward Classes

 Cabinet approves Extension of term of the commission constituted under Article 340 of the constitution to examine the issue of Sub-categorization within other Backward Classes in the Central List.

Background:

Article 14 of the Constitution guarantees equality before the law.

• That means un-equals cannot be treated equally. Measures are required to be taken for the upliftment of un-equals to bring them on par with the advanced classes.

Sub- categorisation:

In view of this, the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) proposed the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) back in 2015.

In October 2017, President Ram Nath Kovind, in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 340 of the Constitution, appointed a commission to examine the issue of sub-categorisation of OBCs, chaired by retired Justice G. Rohini, to ensure social justice in an efficient manner by prioritising the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs).

Need for subcategorization:

Sub categorization of the OBCs will ensure that the more backward among the OBC communities can also access the benefits of reservation for educational institutions and government jobs.

At present, there is no sub-categorisation and 27% reservation is a monolithic entity.

Significance of this move:

This decision, taken on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, reinforces, in the spirit of his teachings, the Government’s efforts to achieve greater social justice and inclusion for all, and specifically members of the Other Backward Classes.

Analysis:

The decision to set up a commission to examine the issue of sub-categorisation of the Other Backward Classes speaks to the long years of failure in effectively preventing large sections of the creamy layer from taking advantage of the quota system to the detriment of the poorer sections among their own caste groups.

In effect, the Union government is now seeking to ensure a more equitable distribution of reservation benefits by further differentiating caste groups coming under backward classes on the basis of their levels of social and economic backwardness.

Democracy Index 2019

Democracy Index 2019 has been released.

The report ranks 165 independent states and two territories, covering almost the entire population of the world.

About the index:

It is released annually by The Economist Intelligence Unit.

It provides a snapshot of the state of world democracy for 165 independent states and two territories.

 The Index is based on five categories:

1. Electoral process and pluralism.
2. Civil liberties.
3. Functioning of government.
4. Political participation.
5. Political culture.

Classification:

Based on their scores on 60 indicators within these categories, each country is then itself classified as one of four types of regime: full democracy; flawed democracy; hybrid regime; and authoritarian regime.

Performance of India:

In 2019, India slipped 10 places to 51st position.

It is placed in the “flawed democracy” category, which also includes Bangladesh (5.88).

 Its score, down from from 7.23 in 2018 to 6.90 in 2019, is its lowest ever since the Democracy Index was begun in 2006.

On the CAA, the report says, “The new citizenship law has enraged the large Muslim population, stoked communal tensions and generated large protests in major cities.”

What caused democratic regression in India?

As per the report, erosion of civil liberties in the country is main reason.

The report mentioned the stripping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status with the repeal of Articles 370 and 35A, the various security measures that followed the bifurcation of the state including restriction of Internet access, and the exclusion of 1.9 million people from the final NRC (National Register of Citizens) in Assam.

Rankings of various other countries:

1. Norway (top-ranked with 9.87) is counted as a “full democracy”.
2. Following Norway at the top of the rankings are Iceland (9.58), Sweden (9.39) and New Zealand (9.26).
3. Other “full democracies” include Germany, the United Kingdom and France.
4. The United States, with a score of 7.96 is a “flawed democracy”, in the same category as India.
5. In 2019, the average global score fell from 5.48 in 2018 to 5.44, the worst result since 2006.
6. China (2.26) and North Korea (bottom-ranked with 1.08) are categorised as “authoritarian regimes”.
7. Pakistan, with a score of 4.25, is categorised as a “hybrid democracy”.
8. The report describes the year in Asia as one filled with “drama and tumult,” with Hong Kong being the epicentre of protest in the continent.

EAO (East Asian Observatory)

India is in preliminary discussions to be a part of the East Asian Observatories Consortium of eight countries committed to build large telescopes and pool resources.

About EAO (East Asian Observatory):

Formed  by EACOA (East Asian Core Observatories Association) for the purpose of pursuing joint projects in astronomy within the East Asian region.

• The intention of EAO is to build and operate facilities, which will enhance and leverage existing and planned regional facilities.
• It will also raise funding and to build an observatory staff, separate from that of the EACOA institutions.
• The EAO is chartered as a non-profit Hawaii corporation.
• Its first task is to assume the operation of the James Clerk Maxwell Submillimetre Telescope (JCMT) on the summit of Maunakea, Hawaii.
• It consists of China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea as full members and Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia as ‘observers’.

Implications for India:

Having India join the group could mean the establishment of new kinds of telescopes — one proposed being in Tibet — that could aid the observation of new black holes and throw light on cosmic phenomena.

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC)

India has successfully achieved the complete phase out of hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)-141 b, claims the ministry of environment, forest and climate change.

 About HCFC- 141 b:

• It is a chemical used by foam manufacturers.
• It is used mainly as a blowing agent in the production of rigid polyurethane (PU) foams.
• It is one of the most potent ozone depleting chemical after Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

Background:

On 31 December 2019, as part of the move towards environment friendly technologies, the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) also brought out a Gazette notification prohibiting the issuance of import licence for HCFC-141b from 1 January 2020 under Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Amendment Rules, 2019 issued under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

Significance:

Nearly, 50% of the consumption of ozone depleting chemicals in the country was attributable to HCFC-141 b in the foam sector.

India has now emerged as one among the few countries globally and a pioneer in some cases in the use of technologies, which are non-Ozone Depleting and have a low Global Warming Potential (GWP).

Montreal Protocol:

The complete phase out of HCFC 141 b from the country in foam sector is among the first at this scale in Article 5 parties (developing countries) under the Montreal Protocol.

Benefits of this move:

The phase out of HCFC-141b from the country has twin environmental benefits, viz, assisting the healing of the stratospheric ozone layer, and towards climate change mitigation due to transitioning of foam manufacturing enterprises at this scale under HPMP to low global warming potential alternative technologies.

What are HCFCs?

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are a large group of compounds, whose structure is very close to that of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), but including one or more hydrogen atoms.

1. Under normal conditions, HCFCs are gases or liquids which evaporate easily. They are generally fairly stable and unreactive.
2. HCFCs do not usually dissolve in water, but do dissolve in organic (carbon-containing) solvents.
3. HCFCs are chemically similar to Hydrobromofluorocarbons (HBFCs), Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Halons and therefore display some similar properties, though they are much less stable and persistent.
4. HCFCs are also part of a group of chemicals known as the volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

What is a Blue Corner notice?

Interpol has issued a Blue Corner notice to help locate fugitive self-styled godman Nithyananda, weeks after the Gujarat Police sought the agency’s intervention for this. Nithyananda fled India last year amid allegations of rape and sexual abuse.

What is a Interpol notice?

Notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.

There are seven types of notices — Red Notice, Yellow Notice, Blue Notice, Black Notice, Green Notice, Orange Notice, and Purple Notice.

What is blue notice?

Issued to “collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime.”

What is Interpol?

The International Criminal Police Organisation, or Interpol, is a 194-member intergovernmental organisation.

Headquartered in Lyon, France.

Formed in 1923 as the International Criminal Police Commission, and started calling itself Interpol in 1956.

Interpol’s declared global policing goals include countering terrorism, promoting border integrity worldwide, protection of vulnerable communities, providing a secure cyberspace for people and businesses, curbing illicit markets, supporting environment security, and promoting global integrity.

India joined the organisation in 1949.

What is the Interpol General Assembly?

It is Interpol’s supreme governing body, and comprises representatives from all its member countries.

It meets annually for a session lasting approximately four days, to vote on activities and policy.

Each country is represented by one or more delegates at the Assembly, who are typically chiefs of law enforcement agencies.

The Assembly also elects the members of the Interpol Executive Committee, the governing body which “provides guidance and direction in between sessions of the Assembly”.

Govt signs accord with NDFB, ABSU to resolve Bodo issue

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Assam government and the Bodo groups have signed an agreement to redraw and rename the Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) in Assam.

The BTAD district is currently spread over four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri.

Overview of the agreement signed:

As per the agreement, villages dominated by Bodos that were presently outside the BTAD would be included and those with non-Bodo population would be excluded.

The memorandum of settlement says that the criminal cases registered against members of the NDFB factions for “non-heinous” crimes shall be withdrawn by the Assam government and in cases of heinous crimes it will be reviewed.

The families of those killed during the Bodo movement would get Rs. 5 lakh each.

A Special Development Package of Rs. 1500 Crore would be given by the Centre to undertake specific projects for the development of Bodo areas.

A committee will decide the exclusion and inclusion of new areas in the BTAD. Subsequent to this alteration, the total number of Assembly seats will go up to 60, from the existing 40.

 Significance:

The signing of the agreement would end the 50-year-old Bodo crisis.

Around 1500 cadres of NDFB(P), NDFB(RD) and NDFB(S) will be rehabilitated by Centre and Assam Government. They will be assimilated in the mainstream now.

After the agreement, the NDFB factions will leave the path of violence, surrender their weapons and disband their armed organisations within a month of signing the deal.

 Background:

The first Bodo accord was signed with the ABSU in 1993, leading to the creation of a Bodoland Autonomous Council with limited political powers. The BTC was created in 2003 with some more financial and other powers.

The BTAD and other areas mentioned under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution have been exempted from the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, that enables undocumented non-Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 to apply for Indian citizenship.

What next?

As of now the agreement has not addressed the issue of “citizenship or work permit” for non-domiciles in the BTAD, to be renamed as the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).

Several Bodo groups have been demanding a separate land for the ethnic community since 1972, a movement that has claimed nearly 4,000 lives.

Who are the NDFB?

Alongside political movements, armed groups have also sought to create a separate Bodo state.

In October 1986, the prominent group Bodo Security Force (BdSF) was formed by Ranjan Daimary. The BdSF subsequently renamed itself as the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), an organisation that is known to be involved in attacks, killings, and extortions.

Who are Bodos?

Bodos are the single largest tribal community in Assam, making up over 5-6 per cent of the state’s population. They have controlled large parts of Assam in the past.

The four districts in Assam — Kokrajhar, Baksa, Udalguri and Chirang — that constitute the Bodo Territorial Area District (BTAD), are home to several ethnic groups.

The Bodoland dispute:

In 1966-67, the demand for a separate state called Bodoland was raised under the banner of the Plains Tribals Council of Assam (PTCA), a political outfit.

In 1987, the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) renewed the demand. “Divide Assam fifty-fifty”, was a call given by the ABSU’s then leader, Upendra Nath Brahma.

The unrest was a fallout of the Assam Movement (1979-85), whose culmination — the Assam Accord — addressed the demands of protection and safeguards for the “Assamese people”, leading the Bodos to launch a movement to protect their own identity.

Why the demand for separate Bodoland?

1. For centuries, they survived sanskritisation without giving up their original ethnic identity. However in the 20th century, they had to tackle a series of issues such as illegal immigration, encroachment of their lands, forced assimilation, loss of language and culture.
2. The 20th century also witnessed the emergence of Bodos as a leading tribe in Assam which pioneered the movements for safeguarding the rights of the tribal communities in the area.
3. From then on, they have been consistently deprived of the political and socio-economic rights by successive state and central governments.
4. The Bodos have not only become an ethnic minority in their own ancestral land but have also been struggling for their existence and status as an ethnic community.

Nagardhan excavations- findings on Vakataka dynasty

 Archaeological excavations at Nagardhan, near Nagpur, have provided concrete evidence on the life, religious affiliations and trade practices of the Vakataka dynasty and also about the Vakataka rule under Queen Prabhavatigupta.

About findings and their significance:

1. An oval-shaped sealing has been traced. It belongs to the period when Prabhavatigupta was the queen of the Vakataka dynasty.
2. It bears her name in the Brahmi script, along with the depiction of a conch.
3. The presence of the conch, scholars say, is a sign of the Vaishnava affiliation that the Guptas held.
4. A copper plate issued by Queen Prabhavatigupta has also been found. It starts with a genealogy of the Guptas, mentioning the Queen’s grandfather Samudragupta and her father Chandragupta II.
5. Since the Vakataka people traded with Iran and beyond through the Mediterranean Sea, scholars suggest that these sealings could have been used as an official royal permission issued from the capital city. Besides, these were used on documents that sought mandatory royal permissions.

Who was Queen Prabhavatigupta?

• The Vakataka rulers were known to have forged several matrimonial alliances with other dynasties of their times. One of the key alliances was with Prabhavatigupta of the mighty Gupta dynasty, which was then ruling north India.
• After marrying Vakataka king Rudrasena II, Prabhavatigupta enjoyed the position of Chief Queen.
• Scholars say Queen Prabhavatigupta was among a handful of women rulers in India to have reigned over any kingdom during ancient times. Also, there had been no evidence so far of any successor female ruler within the Vakataka dynasty, the researchers suggest.
• She ruled for about 10 years until her son Pravarasena II
• She had a pivotal role in propagation of Vaishnava practices in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

About Vakataka dynasty:

1. Ruled parts of Central and South India between the third and fifth centuries.
2. Rule extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in the south as well as from the Arabian Sea in the west to the edges of Chhattisgarh in the east.
3. They were the most important successors of the Satavahanas in the Deccan and contemporaneous with the Guptas in northern India.
4. They were Shaivite rulers.
5. Nagardhan served as a capital of the Vakataka kingdom.
6. The elephant god was a commonly worshipped deity in those times.
7. Animal rearing was one of the main occupations. Remains of seven species of domestic animals — cattle, goat, sheep, pig, cat, horse and fowl — have been traced.
8. The rock-cut Buddhist viharas and chaityas of Ajanta Caves (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) were built under the patronage of Vakataka emperor, Harishena.

Global Talent Competitiveness Index

 Global Talent Competitive Index (GTCI) for 2020 has been released.

About GTCI:

• GTCI, launched in 2013, is an annual benchmarking report that measures the ability of countries to compete for talent.
• It is released by INSEAD business school in partnership with Adecco Group and Google.
• The report measures levels of Global Talent Competitiveness by looking at 70 variables such as ease of hiring, gender earnings gap, and prevalence of training in firms.

Performance of India:

1. India is placed at no. 72.
2. Although more could be done to improve the country’s educational system (68th in Formal Education), India’s key strength relates to growing (44th) talent, due to its levels of lifelong learning (40th) and access to growth opportunities (39th).
3. The country’s highest-ranked sub-pillar is employability, but the ability to match labour market demand and supply stands in contrast to the country’s poor mid-level skills.

Global performance:

1. Switzerland, the United States and Singapore lead the index.

Key observations:

• The gap between talent champions and the rest of the world is widening.
• A similar gap is also seen in the universe of artificial intelligence. AI talent is scarce and unequally distributed across industries, sectors, and nations.
• More than half of the population in the developing world lacks basic digital skills.

 What next?

1. AI policies and programmes should work to minimise negative outcomes and increase access to AI for those left behind.
2. AI could provide significant opportunities for emerging markets to leapfrog.
3. Some developing countries (e.g., China, Costa Rica, and Malaysia) can become talent champions in their respective regions, while others (e.g., Ghana and India) have significantly improved their capacity to enable, attract, grow, and retain talent over the past few years, and hence can be labelled talent movers.
4. The emergence of AI in the workplace requires a massive re-skilling of the workforce. At all levels of qualifications, workers will need training on adaptability, social intelligence, communication, and problem-solving.

Oslo Accords

 Palestinians threaten to quit Oslo Accords, if U.S. President Donald Trump announces his West Asia peace plan next week.

Why? Palestinians’ concerns:

The main worry is that this initiative will turn Israel’s “temporary occupation (of Palestinian territory) into a permanent occupation”.

The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and believe Mr. Trump’s plan buries the two-state solution that has been for decades the cornerstone of international West Asia diplomacy.

What’s the issue?

Under the Oslo Accords of the 1993, both Israel and the Palestinians agreed that the status of settlements would be decided by negotiations. But the negotiations process has been all but dead for several years now.

Israel walked into East Jerusalem in 1967, and subsequently annexed it. For Israel, Jerusalem is non-negotiable.

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Most of the world’s nations look at it as occupied territory.

About the Oslo Accords:

Formally known as the Declaration of Principles (DOP), the pact established a timetable for the Middle East peace process. It planned for an interim Palestinian government in Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank.

Oslo II, officially called the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza, expanded on Oslo I. It included provisions for the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from six West Bank cities and about 450 towns. Additionally, the pact set a timetable for elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council.

The Details of Oslo Accords:
The Declaration calls for:
– Israel to withdraw from Jericho and Gaza, and eventually the West Bank.
– Five years of limited autonomy for Palestinians in those areas.
– Election of Palestinian Legislative Council within nine months.
– Establishment of a Palestinian police force.
– The question of Jerusalem was left undecided.

 Biorock or mineral accretion technology

 The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), with help from Gujarat’s forest department, is attempting for the first time a process to restore coral reefs using biorock or mineral accretion technology in the Gulf of Kachchh.

What is Biorock?

It is the name given to the substance formed by electro accumulation of minerals dissolved in seawater on steel structures that are lowered onto the sea bed and are connected to a power source, in this case solar panels that float on the surface.

How they are formed?

1. The technology works by passing a small amount of electrical current through electrodes in the water.
2. When a positively charged anode and negatively charged cathode are placed on the sea floor, with an electric current flowing between them, calcium ions combine with carbonate ions and adhere to the structure (cathode).
3. This results in calcium carbonate formation. Coral larvae adhere to the CaCO3 and grow quickly.
4. Fragments of broken corals are tied to the biorock structure, where they are able to grow at least four to six times faster than their actual growth as they need not spend their energy in building their own calcium carbonate skeletons.

Bhuvan Panchayat 3.0

 The Bhuvan Panchayat V 3.0 web portal was recently launched.

About Bhuvan Panchayat Version 3.0:

Bhuvan Panchayat is part of ISRO’s Space-based Information Support for Decentralised Planning Update project.

Aim: For better planning and monitoring of government projects.

Services: This version of the portal will provide database visualisation and services for the benefit of panchayat members, among others.

The targeted audiences for this portal are Public, PRIs and different stakeholders belonging to the gram panchayats.

 Features:

Using Bhuvan satellite imagery, hi-resolution database at 1:10,000 scale is applied to identify land use land cover, settlements, road and rail network etc. The portal offers database visualization, data analytics, generation of automatic reports, model-based products and services for Gram Panchayat members and other stake-holders.

Implementation:

In the project that will last for at least two years, ISRO will collaborate with the gram panchayat members and stakeholders to understand their data requirements.

Significance:

The project is meant to provide geo-spatial services to aid gram panchayat development planning process of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

Background:

The space-based information support for decentralised planning programme was taken up in 2011 to empower panchayati raj institutions and its stake-holders to enable participatory and decentralised planning in the country.

Taking advantage of information and communication technology, the Bhuvan Panchayat web portal was launched for visualisation, planning and monitoring of schemes at panchayat levels.

Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971

 Moving to ease abortion laws in the country, the Union Cabinet is set to consider a host of changes to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971.

Changes planned:

1. Among others, amendments seek to increase the upper limit for termination of a pregnancy from 20 weeks to 24 weeks.
2. It also seeks to extend the contraceptive-failure clause for termination to include “any woman or her partner” from the present provision for “only married woman or her husband 
3. The draft Bill proposes requirement of opinion of one registered medical practitioner (RMP) for termination of pregnancy up to 20 weeks of gestation.
4. It also provides for the requirement of opinion of two RMPs for termination of pregnancy of 20 to 24 weeks.
5. The Bill also seeks to increase the upper gestation limit from 20 to 24 weeks for survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women.
6. For unmarried women, the Bill seeks to relax the contraceptive-failure condition for “any woman or her partner” from the present provision for “only married woman or her husband”, allowing them to medically terminate the pregnancy.

Need for overhaul:

The present abortion law, which is about five decades old, permits abortion up to a maximum foetal gestation period of 20 weeks.

In recent years, there have been strong demands to raise the foetal gestation period for abortion beyond 20 weeks.

 Significance:

The move to amend the MTP Act, 1971 is a progressive step towards empowerment of women. It will provide greater reproductive rights to women as abortion is considered an important aspect of the reproductive health of women. Deaths and injuries from unsafe abortions are largely preventable provided services are performed legally by trained practitioners.

Abortion laws across the world:

Abortion laws vary across the world. It is learnt that around 60 countries prescribe gestational limits.

1. 52 % including France, the UK, Austria, Ethiopia, Italy, Spain, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and even Nepal, allow for termination beyond 20 weeks on the diagnosis of foetal abnormalities.
2. Some countries go beyond even these limits with laws in 23 countries-Canada, Germany, Vietnam, Denmark, Ghana, and Zambia-allowing for abortion at any time during the pregnancy on the request of the mother.
3. In UK, abortions are allowed at up to 24 weeks, with abortion guidelines formulated by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists including procedures for termination of pregnancies older than 20 weeks. It also states that, in pregnancy older than 21 weeks and 6 days, an injection to cause foetal death is given before the foetus is evacuated.

Spitzer telescope

Spitzer space telescope of NASA will be retired on January 30, 2020. Spitzer is going to shut down permanently after about 16 years of exploring the cosmos in infrared light.

Background:

Launched into solar orbit on August 25, 2003, Spitzer was initially scheduled for a minimum 2.5-year primary mission. But the space telescope has lasted far beyond its expected lifetime.

What Will Happen to the Spitzer Space Telescope After It Is Retired?

The telescope has a very particular orbit, trailing about 158 million miles behind the Earth to keep it away from interfering heat.

In about 53 years, Spitzer’s orbit will take it past our planet. But, once the telescope flies by Spaceship Earth, Spitzer will drift off in the opposite direction into the emptiness of space.

Key achievements:

1. Spitzer’s discoveries extend from our own planetary backyard, to planets around other stars, to the far reaches of the universe.
2. Spitzer has logged over 106,000 hours of observation time in the past 15 years. It has illuminated some of the oldest galaxies in the universe, revealed a new ring around Saturn, and peered through shrouds of dust to study newborn stars and black holes.
3. The telescope also assisted in the discovery of planets beyond our solar system, including the detection of seven Earth-size planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1, among other accomplishments.

About Spitzer:

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope was launched in 2003 to study the universe in the infrared.

It is the last mission of the NASA Great Observatories program, which saw four specialized telescopes (including the Hubble Space Telescope) launched between 1990 and 2003.

The goal of the Great Observatories is to observe the universe in distinct wavelengths of light.

The other observatories in Greta Observatories Program looked at visible light (Hubble, still operational), gamma-rays (Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, no longer operational) and X-rays (the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, still operational).

How it works?

1. Spitzer focuses on the infrared band, which normally represents heat radiation from objects.
2. Spitzer’s highly sensitive instruments allow scientists to peer into cosmic regions that are hidden from optical telescopes, including dusty stellar nurseries, the centers of galaxies, and newly forming planetary systems.
3. Spitzer’s infrared eyes also allows astronomers see cooler objects in space, like failed stars (brown dwarfs), extrasolar planets, giant molecular clouds, and organic molecules that may hold the secret to life on other planets.

Cheetah reintroduction project

Context: The Supreme Court has allowed the Centre to introduce the African cheetah to a suitable habitat in India.

Background:

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had previously told the Supreme Court that African cheetahs would be translocated in India from Namibia and would be kept at Nauradehi wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has given a ‘no objection’ for the translocation.

What is reintroduction and why reintroduce Cheetah now?

‘Reintroduction’ of a species means releasing it in an area where it is capable of surviving.

Reintroductions of large carnivores have increasingly been recognised as a strategy to conserve threatened species and restore ecosystem functions.

• The cheetah is the only large carnivore that has been extirpated, mainly by over-hunting in India in historical times.
• India now has the economic ability to consider restoring its lost natural heritage for ethical as well as ecological reasons.

Facts:

• The cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, is one of the oldest of the big cat species, with ancestors that can be traced back more than five million years to the Miocene era.
• The cheetah is also the world’s fastest land mammal.
• It is listed as vulnerable in IUCN red listed species.
• The country’s last spotted feline died in Chhattisgarh in 1947. Later, the cheetah — which is the fastest land animal — was declared extinct in India in 1952.
• The Asiatic cheetah is classified as a “critically endangered” species by the IUCN Red List, and is believed to survive only in Iran.

Cheetah reintroduction programme in India:

The Wildlife Institute of India at Dehradun had prepared a ₹260-crore cheetah re-introduction project seven years ago.

Nauradehi in Madhya Pradesh was found to be the most suitable area for the cheetahs as its forests are not very dense to restrict the fast movement of the spotted cat. Besides, the prey base for cheetahs is also in abundance at the sanctuary.

About NTCA:

a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation.

Ramsar sites in India

 India has added 10 more wetlands to sites protected by the Ramsar Convention.

With this, a total of 37 sites in the country have been recognised under the international treaty.

The 10 new ones are:

Nandur Madhameshwar, a first for Maharashtra; Keshopur-Miani, Beas Conservation Reserve and Nangal in Punjab; and Nawabganj, Parvati Agra, Saman, Samaspur, Sandi and Sarsai Nawar in Uttar Pradesh. 

About Ramsar convention:

• It is an international treaty for the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
• It is named after the Iranian city of Ramsar, on the Caspian Sea, where the treaty was signed on 2 February 1971.
• Known officially as ‘the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat’ (or, more recently, just ‘the Convention on Wetlands’), it came into force in 1975.

Montreux Record:

Montreux Record under the Convention is a register of wetland sites on the List of Wetlands of International Importance where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring, or are likely to occur as a result of technological developments, pollution or other human interference.

It is maintained as part of the Ramsar List.

•  established by Recommendation of the Conference of the Contracting Parties (1990).
• Sites may be added to and removed from the Record only with the approval of the Contracting Parties in which they lie.
• Currently, two wetlands of India are in Montreux record: Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan) and Loktak Lake (Manipur).
• Chilka lake (Odisha)was placed in the record but was later removed from it.

Ranking of Aspirational districts

 NITI Aayog recently released the ranking of Aspirational Districts of the country for the month of December 2019.

Performance of various states:

1. The Chandauli district of UP topped the list followed by Bolangir of Odisha, YSR (AP) in second and third positions respectively.

How are districts ranked?

The districts have been ranked in a transparent basis on parameters across various performance indicators like Health and Nutrition, Education, Skill Development and Basic Infrastructure among others.

The rankings are based on the data that is publicly available through the Champions of Change Dashboard, which includes data entered on a real-time basis at the district level.

About Aspirational Districts Programme:

1. The programme aims to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.
2. The broad contours of the programme are Convergence (of Central & State Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors), and Competition among districts driven by a Mass Movement or a Jan Andolan.
3. With States as the main drivers, this program will focus on the strength of each district, identify low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.

Focus of the programme:

To enable optimum utilization of their potential, this program focuses closely on improving people’s ability to participate fully in the burgeoning economy. Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure are this programme’s core areas of focus.

West Asia Peace Plan

 The West Asia peace plan was recently unveiled by U.S. President Trump.

What is it all about?

It plans to revive the stalled two-state talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. 

It seeks to give the Israelis an expansive state with Jerusalem as its “undivided capital” and tight security control over a future Palestinian state.

Key highlights of the plan:

1. It proposes an independent Palestinian state and the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over West Bank settlements.
2. As per the plan, Israel would be allowed to annex the Jewish settlements on the West Bank as well as the Jordan Valley.
3. The Palestinian refugees, who were forced out from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed the declaration of the state of Israel in the historic Palestine, would not be allowed to return. They could move to the future Palestinian state, be integrated into the host countries or settled in other regional countries.
4. Land swap: The plan proposes some land swap for the Israeli annexation of the West Bank Jewish settlements. It seeks to enlarge Gaza and connect the strip with the West Bank through a tunnel.
5. US has also proposed $50 billion in investment over 10 years should Palestine accept the proposals. In the final settlement, Palestine would get control over more land than what it currently controls.

Background:

Both Israel and the Palestinians hold competing claims to the holy city. The Palestinians insist that East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, be the capital of their future state.

How has the Palestine reacted?

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the plans as a “conspiracy”. Thousands are protesting against this.

The Palestinians want an independent state of their own, comprising the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

India’s response:

• India urged both Israel and Palestine to “engage with each other, including on the recent proposals put forward by the United States, and find an acceptable two-state solution for peaceful coexistence”.
• India has since long been maintaining that Israel-Palestine conflict should be resolved through negotiation “resulting in sovereign, independent, viable and united State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living within secure and recognized borders, side by side at peace with Israel as endorsed in the Quartet Roadmap and relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions”.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)

 NCRB has launched two online national-level services related to Search of Missing Persons and to Generate Vehicle NOC.

• These police-related citizen-centric services have been launched on Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS).
• The services can be accessed through ‘digitalpolicecitizenservices.gov.in’ portal or through a link in the existing ‘Digital Police Portal’.

What is CCTNS project?

Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) is a project initiated in June 2009 which aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at the Police Station level. This will be done through adoption of principles of e-Governance, and creation of a nationwide networked infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system around “investigation of crime and detection of criminals”. CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan of Govt. of India.

What it does?

1. The Project will interconnect about 15000 Police Stations and additional 5000 offices of supervisory police officers across the country and digitize data related to FIR registration, investigation and charge sheets in all Police Stations.
2. It will not only automate Police functions at Police station and higher levels but will also create facilities and mechanism to provide public services like registration of online complaints, ascertaining the status of case registered at the police station, verification of persons etc.
3. In 2015, an additional objective of establishing a basic platform for an Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS)was added to the Project.

Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal

Punjab Says No Surplus Water To Share, Haryana Hits Back.

Punjab has also demanded that suitable amendments be made to the proposed Inter State River Water Disputes Act to set up a new tribunal, to ensure that Punjab gets adequate water “in a just and equitable manner in keeping with its total demand and securing livelihood of the future generations.”

Meanwhile, Haryana has said that the Supreme Court decision on the Sutlej Yamuna link (SYL) canal issue will come soon because in the previous execution order, it was stated that the issue should be resolved amicably.

What is the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal, and the controversy over it?

Historical background:

1. The creation of Haryana from the old (undivided) Punjab in 1966 threw up the problem of giving Haryana its share of river waters.
2. Punjab was opposed to sharing waters of the Ravi and Beas with Haryana, citing riparian principles, and arguing that it had no water to spare.
3. However, Centre, in 1976, issued a notification allocating to Haryana 3.5 million acre feet (MAF) out of undivided Punjab’s 7.2 MAF.
4. The Eradi Tribunal headed by Supreme Court Judge V Balakrishna Eradi was set up to reassess availability and sharing of water. The Tribunal, in 1987, recommended an increase in the shares of Punjab and Haryana to 5 MAF and 3.83 MAF, respectively.

The canal:

To enable Haryana to use its share of the waters of the Sutlej and its tributary Beas, a canal linking the Sutlej with the Yamuna, cutting across the state, was planned.

A tripartite agreement was also negotiated between Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan in this regard.

The Satluj Yamuna Link Canal is a proposed 214-kilometer long canal to connect the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers. However, the proposal met obstacles and was referred to the Supreme Court. It defines river water sharing between Punjab and Haryana.

Background:

Haryana has been seeking the completion of the SYL canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre-feet of river waters. It has maintained that Punjab should comply with the 2002 and 2004 Supreme Court orders in this regard. Haryana is getting 1.62 million acre-feet of the Ravi-Beas waters

What is shamlat land?

Punjab state Cabinet recently approved an amendment to the Village Common Land (Regulation) Rules, 1964, allowing panchayats to sell shamlat land to industrial houses, entrepreneurs, businessmen, and companies for setting up micro, small and medium industrial units.

The underlying objective is to facilitate the “gram panchayats” to promote development of villages by unlocking the value of such land and transfer it for industrial projects to the Industry department and the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC).

What is shamlat land?

Three categories of common land in Punjab villages are:

1. ‘Shamlat’ land is owned by the village panchayat.
2. ‘Jumla mushtraka malkan’ is land in a common pool made with villagers’ personal contributions, and is managed by the panchayat.
3. ‘Gau charan’, too belongs to the panchayat, and is for cattle grazing.

Shamlat land is mainly used for cultivation, and is allotted for this through an open auction that is conducted by the Rural Development and Panchayat Department every year.

What’s the issue now?

Various organisations in Punjab have been protesting against this revised land policy relating to ‘shamlat’ land.

One-third of Punjab’s shamlat lands are reserved for Dalits. Around 25,000 to 26,000 families in the state, mostly Dalits, depend on this land for their livelihood.

The recent government move has sparked fears of unemployment.

US imposes new ‘birth tourism’ visa rules for pregnant women

 The US Department of State has unveiled new rules to deter pregnant women from travelling to the US to give birth.

The policy is intended as a crackdown on what is known as “birth tourism“.

Present scenario:

Currently, pregnant women can enter the US even up until birth, according to US Customs and Border Protection. But the prospective mother’s travel may be restricted if there is reason to believe she intends to remain in the US beyond the time allowed by her visa, or plans for US taxpayers to foot the bill for her childbirth.

Need for the new policy?

Nearly all children born in the US gets automatic citizenship – a law US President Donald Trump has criticised. His administration says the new travel policy is necessary to safeguard US national security and public health.

What is the new rule?

1. The new rule applies to visitors seeking B visas, which are issued to non-immigrants.
2. Under the rule, pregnant women applying for US visitor visas may need to prove they have a specific reason for travel other than giving birth on US soil.
3. It allows consular officials to deny a visa to any individual whose “primary purpose” in obtaining such documentation is to give birth there.

Significance:

The rule addresses concerns about the attendant risks of this activity to national security and law enforcement, including criminal activity associated with the birth tourism industry, as reflected in federal prosecutions of individuals and entities involved in that industry.

How many children are born under ‘birth tourism’?

There are no records of how many babies are born to US visitors each year, but various groups have issued estimates.

• About 10,000 babies were born to a foreign resident in 2017, the latest year that data is available, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• That number is up from about 7,800 in 2007.

President’s address to both Houses of Parliament

On first day of the Budget Session of Parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind will address a joint sitting of the two Houses.

What does the Constitution say about this?

Article 87(1) says: “At the commencement of the first session after each general election to the House of the People and at the commencement of the first session of each year the President shall address both Houses of Parliament assembled together and inform Parliament of the causes of its summons.”

First Constitutional Amendment: Originally, the Constitution required the President to address both Houses of Parliament at the commencement of “every session”. This requirement was changed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

What is in President’s address?

The President’s speech essentially highlights the government’s policy priorities and plans for the upcoming year. It is drafted by the Cabinet, and provides a broad framework of the government’s agenda and direction.

What procedures follow the address?

After the President or Governor delivers the address, a debate takes place not only on the contents of the address but also the broad issues of governance in the country. This then paves the way for discussion on the Budget.

If the President disagrees with the text of the speech, are they still bound to read it?

The President or a Governor cannot refuse to perform the constitutional duty of delivering an address to the legislature. But there can be situations when they deviate from the text of the speech prepared by the government.

So far, there have been no instances of President doing so. But there has been an occasion when a Governor skipped a portion of the address to the Assembly.

• In 1969, the Governor of West Bengal, Dharma Vira, skipped two paragraphs of the address prepared by the United Front government. The skipped portion described as unconstitutional the dismissal of the first United Front government by the Congress-ruled central government.

Are there parallels in other countries?

Similar provisions exist in other democracies.

1. In the United States, it is referred to as the “State of the Union”. The phrase comes from an article in the US Constitution which specifies that the President, “from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
2. In the United Kingdom, it is referred to as the Queen’s Speech and is part of the ceremony to mark the formal start of the parliamentary year.

Who is a star campaigner?

The Election Commission (EC) has removed BJP leaders Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma from the party’s list of star campaigners.

Background:

The move comes after Thakur encouraged the crowd at a rally this week to chant “desh ke gaddaron ko goli maaro (gun down traitors)” and Singh, in an interview, claimed that Shaheen Bagh protestors could “enter homes and rape sisters and daughters”.

Who is a star campaigner? How are they chosen?

A recognised political party can have 40 star campaigners and an unrecognised (but registered) political party can have 20.

The list of star campaigners has to be communicated to the Chief Electoral Officer and Election Commission within a week from the date of notification of an election.

Advantages:

The expenditure incurred on campaigning by such campaigners is exempt from being added to the election expenditure of a candidate. However, this only applies when a star campaigner limits herself to a general campaign for the political party she represents.

Candidates cannot afford to breach their expenditure limit (Rs 28 lakh in case of Delhi elections).

What if a star campaigner campaigns specifically for one candidate?

1. If a candidate or her election agent shares the stage with a star campaigner at a rally, then the entire expenditure on that rally, other than the travel expenses of the star campaigner, is added to the candidate’s expenses.
2. Even if the candidate is not present at the star campaigner’s rally, but there are posters with her photographs or her name on display, the entire expenditure will be added to the candidate’s account.
3. This applies even if the star campaigner mentions the candidate’s name during the event. When more than one candidate shares the stage, or there are posters with their photographs, then the expenses of such rally/meeting are equally divided between all such candidates.

Does removal from the star campaigner’s list bar them from campaigning?

No, that decision will only be taken by the EC once the barred leaders reply to the showcause notices served to them. However, the removal from the star campaigner’s list does make campaigning difficult for them.

This is because whichever constituency they hold their election meeting or rally at, irrespective of whether they limit themselves to general party propaganda or not, the entire expenditure of the event will be added to the account of the candidate contesting from that seat.

What makes WHO declare a disease outbreak a public health emergency?

 World Health Organization declares coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.

What necessitated this?

Rising numbers and evidence of person-to-person transmission in a handful of cases outside of China.

Greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems, and which are ill-prepared to deal with it.

What is a public health emergency of international concern?

As per WHO, it is “an extraordinary event” that constitutes a “public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease” and “to potentially require a coordinated international response.” Previous emergencies have included Ebola, Zika and H1N1.

The responsibility of declaring an event as an emergency lies with the Director-General of the WHO and requires the convening of a committee of members.

Implications:

Declaring the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern would allow WHO to better coordinate the international response and hold nations to account if they overstep the organization’s standards — which may pertain to travel, trade, quarantine or screening.

Background:

The novel coronavirus (a new strain of coronavirus which has not been previously identified in human beings) is one among a large family of coronaviruses that can cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to the more serious Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

• The source of the novel coronavirus is not yet known and there is no treatment for it so far.
• Other countries where confirmed coronavirus cases have been reported include Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Nepal, Germany, France, the US and Canada.

World Sustainable Development Summit

The theme of the 2020 edition of the Summit is ‘Towards 2030 Goals: Making the Decade Count’.

World Sustainable Development Summit:

It is the annual flagship event of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

It is the sole Summit on global issues taking place in the developing world.

It provides a platform for global leaders and practitioners to discuss and deliberate over climatic issues of universal importance.

It strives to provide long-term solutions for the benefit of the global community by assembling the world’s most enlightened leaders and thinkers on a single platform.

It is continuing the legacy of Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) which was initiated in 2001 with the aim of making ‘sustainable development’ a globally shared goal.

The Energy and Resources Institute – TERI:

It is a leading think tank dedicated to conducting research for sustainable development of India and the Global South.

• TERI was established in 1974 as an information centre on energy issues. However, over the following decades, it made a mark as a research institute, whose policy and technology solutions transformed people’s lives and the environment.