9 PM Daily Current Affairs Brief – October 8th, 2022

Current Affairs Compilations for UPSC IAS Prelims 2022

Mains Oriented Articles

GS Paper 1

• Say no to alcohol: The case for abstinence

GS Paper 2

• There are no poor people, only people in poor places

GS Paper 3

• Achieving green steel: How India can bridge the gaps to decarbonise the sector
• Scarred terra pharma: Gambia tragedy needs sharp regulatory response
• Make machines in India: Why economists arguing against policy emphasis on manufacturing are completely wrong
• OPEC+ production cut ahead of winter puts India on a slippery slope
• A synthetic click
• Accounting for subsidies: Let’s build on the ‘revdi’ debate
• Grid cells in our mind map the whole world- focus your attention to use the brain test
• Where the stars must not twinkle

Prelims Oriented Articles (Factly)

• Govt looks to ease compliance burden with new CSR disclosure rules
• World Bank says 70 million plunged into poverty in 2020: What caused setbacks in India, world
• Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) notifies establishment of Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS)
• Cheetah Task Force constituted
• Indian Railways has adopted an integrated approach for a Green Environment
• Panel to study SC status of Dalits post conversion
• Every healthy man is obliged to provide for his wife, children: SC
• Explained | All about the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize
• RBI unveils features of digital rupee, plans to launch pilot soon
• Among the clouds in Mizoram’s Phawngpui National Park

Mains Oriented Articles

GS Paper 1

Say no to alcohol: The case for abstinence

News– The article explains the challenges associated with liquor consumption in India. It also explains the need for communitarian action to reduce liquor consumption.

What is our historical legacy against liquor consumption?

Temperance movement against liquor consumption began in the 1880s. Gandhi ji made it part of the fight against the British state.

Gandhi’s objection was to the state having a role in the production and distribution of alcohol. He did not support the complete prohibition. It will lead to corrupt practices by the state. He advocated self-regulation to avoid liquor consumption.

Rajaji argued in favour of effective state intervention. The Indian culture against liquor consumption would make this process less corrupt.

What are the negative impacts of alcohol consumption?

It leads to violence against women.

It mostly impacts the poorest sections of society.

It is linked with multimorbidity, lower life expectancy, mental impairment, and loss of productivity.

WHO, have issued stronger warnings against risk-free levels of responsible drinking and claims of beneficial health effects.

A 2019 study in Science Direct estimates that alcohol-related deaths in India. It  would lead to a loss of 258 million life years between 2011 and 2050, an average annual loss of 1.45% of GDP.

A Lancet study claims that under 40 groups of people are at greatest risk due to liquor consumption.

What are the reasons behind increasing liquor consumption?

Older cultural norms against liquor consumption have weakened.

Alcohol is being glamorised and normalised by households.

State governments policies have further compounded the problem. They earn higher revenues from the alcohol industry. It disincentives them against making difficult choices against liquor consumption.

Why is there a need for action at the community level?

A study published this year by the US National Bureau of Economic Research states that it takes a village to discourage drinking and sustain abstinence.

All drinking, whether small or large, creates negative impacts that are unpredictable.

GS Paper 2

There are no poor people, only people in poor places

News: India has differences in wages for the same amount of work. For example, an electrician moving from Kanpur to Bangalore gets three times more salary.

The country’s wage differentials reflect massive productivity differences across five areas — states, cities, sectors, firms, and skills.

How will country’s wage differences create productivity differences and what needs to be done?

States

Problems: Six states in South and West India in the next 20 years will account for almost 35 per cent of GDP growth but only 5 per cent of population growth. It is also expected that due to ageing population there will be more deaths than births. This will create wage inequalities across states.

Solution: Therefore, states that provide proper labour laws will attract more high-paying jobs.

Cities

Problems: Hyderabad has a higher GDP than Odisha and four times that of J&K. One of the reasons for low paying cities is the incapable district magistrates. They are unelected, inexperienced, and unempowered for the complex trade-offs needed for well-paying jobs.

Solutions: Cities that can create a divergence between nominal wages (what employers care about) and real wages (what employees care about) will attract high-paying jobs.

Sectors

Problems:  Software sector employs only 0.8 per cent of our labour force but generates 8 per cent of GDP while agriculture has 42 per cent of our labour force but generates only 16 per cent of GDP.

Solution: States that increase manufacturing and service sector jobs and move away their labour from agriculture will have more high-paying jobs. For example, China raised its per capita income 80 times in 40 years by moving 700 million people from farm to non-farm employment.

Firms

Problems: The pre-1991 unfair labour market advantage of multinationals no longer exists as Indian firms have also come up in the competition. But the problem is that out of 6.3 crore enterprises only 23,500 are proper companies. The largest and smallest manufacturing companies have a 24 times difference in productivity.

Solution: Therefore, states that replace rules by reducing regulatory mechanism will attract high-paying jobs.

Skills

Problems: It is impossible to predict wages as people have gained different skills at a young age. Wages are higher for using minds than muscles.

Solution: Therefore, states with high populations of residents with skills in demand will attract more high-paying jobs.

What can be done to reduce wage differences across states?

First, there is a need to empower local bodies and mayors by devolution of funds, functions, and functionaries.

Second, the enrollment in government schools should be raised by 45 percent.

Third, workers should be provided with skills in advance for the upcoming technologies. This will create supply and attract demand.

Fourth, there is also a need to bring reforms in agriculture (prices and distribution), proper and affordable power generation should be provided along with reliable public transport.

Fifth, there should be formalization by employing proper HR in civil services. This will reduce the burden on the state.

Sixth, there is a need to set a 12-month target for paperless and cashless for all citizen interfaces by leveraging India’s unique stack of digital public goods.

GS Paper 3

Achieving green steel: How India can bridge the gaps to decarbonise the sector

News: At present, the iron and steel sectors are highly energy intensive and big on emissions. So, the iron and steel, cement and chemical industries have started to focus their attention on greening the sector.

What is Green Steel?

It is steel which is manufactured without the use of fossil fuels. This can be done by using low-carbon energy sources such as hydrogen, coal gasification, or electricity.

What are the transitions in the Indian steel sector?

More than 80% of the country’s reserves are in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and the northern regions of Andhra Pradesh. Western states Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka have made good use of the available non-conventional sources of energy in the region.

How to decarbonise the Iron and Steel sector?

In order to decarbonise the iron and steel sector, the primary emphasis through technological interventions would be on substituting the primary production processes with cleaner alternatives. Such as, 1) Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), 2) Replacing conventional sources of energy with low-carbon hydrogen, and 3) Direct electrification through electrolysis of iron ore.

What steps can be taken to make Green Steel economical?

a) Increasing energy efficiency through the adoption of technologies that are cost-effective, b) Refurbishing old steel plants, c) Funding for energy efficiency measures for electricity-based manufacturing, d) Constructing a suitable infrastructure for recycling steel and utilising steel scrap, e) Generating green standards and similar types of labels for the market growth of green steel, and f) Amending the Perform Achieve Trade scheme to estimate and check the carbon emissions instead of energy consumed.

Scarred terra pharma: Gambia tragedy needs sharp regulatory response

News: Followed the death of 66 children, the WHO issued an alert on four cough syrups manufactured and exported by Haryana-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals to Gambia.

What is the issue?

What are the implications of the Gambia issue on the Indian pharma sector?

Earlier, Ranbaxy falsified drug data and systemically violated good manufacturing practices and laboratory practices. Indian pharma’s global reputation is once again, after Ranbaxy, at risk.

What are the issues associated with the Indian pharma sector?

State drug controllers tasked with licensing and monitoring manufacturing units and quality control are not functioning effectively. If a drug fails a quality test in one state, the obvious thing to do is suspend the manufacturing licence in the state where it is located till a clean-up.

The Haryana drugs controller certified Maiden as compliant with WHO-Good Manufacturing Practices, making it eligible for exporting drugs. But central regulator CDSCO is now answerable to WHO for the failures.

What should be done to regulate the Indian pharma sector?

Penalties without deterrent effect will not nudge offenders to reform. So, the Centre’s new drugs and cosmetics bill to replace the colonial-era law must be reconfigured with learnings from this tragedy and embarrassment.

A rigorous regulatory regime is needed to ensure India remains the pharmacy of the world and provides affordable medicines to the poorest sections of society also.

Make machines in India: Why economists arguing against policy emphasis on manufacturing are completely wrong

News: Some experts today argue that India should encourage service sectors and the policies for manufacturing sectors are criticized.

One of the reasons for this argument is that the service sector is big and it contributes about 55% of our GDP.

However, size alone is not important as Simon Kuznets (the father of GDP) said that GDP is a measure of wealth not of welfare.

What is the current situation of service sector in India?

Service sectors in India include low-to-unskilled labour force and none of them are skilled enough to be exported to other countries.

80% of jobs in this category are in construction, transport, retail and beauty.

Even Indian doctors are not good at providing required medical services in India as they lack proper training and modern technologies.

How can our service sector become world class and ready for export?

International experience tells us that when the manufacturing sector grows and reaches a certain saturation level then the qualities and skills begin to move towards the service sector.

This has happened in the West, in Europe and the US, and also in the East, in South Korea and Japan.

Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the manufacturing sector because product innovations and differentiation first take place in this sector.

What is the current situation of manufacturing sector in India?

Currently India spends 0.6% of its GDP on R&D in the manufacturing sector which is one of the lowest in the world.

Further, only about 7% of the 2. 5 million engineers in India can perform core engineering tasks.

Land acquisition is one of the problems for setting up manufacturing plants in India. However, the data shows that only 8% of stalled projects are because of land acquisitions problems.

How can the manufacturing sector help in the growth of the service sector?

India’s IT sector only employs 3 million people while in the US there are about 12 million people working in the IT sector. South Korea’s IT sector has moved ahead because manufacturing and R&D.

Therefore, the growth in the manufacturing sector will create an advanced service sector.

Moreover, a mature service sector is hugely dependent on the manufacturing sector and not independent of it. The service sector grows only with a strong manufacturing sector.

Studies in the US show that the largest consumer of services is the manufacturing sector and high-end manufacturing requires the service sector to be attached with it for the best results.

Therefore, India should focus on manufacturing sector to achieve best results from the service sector.

OPEC+ production cut ahead of winter puts India on a slippery slope

News: OPEC Plus countries which includes the world’s biggest oil exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia have decided to cut production from November by 2 million barrels a day.

It will have impact all around the world including India.

What will be the impact on India?

The change in the oil price matters more to India’s economy than any other country’s economy because India imports around 87 per cent of its oil.

Further, the imports this year have increased from last year. For example, petroleum imports accounted for 28 per cent of India’s total import this year while it was 23 percent a year earlier.

India also imported close to $32 billion worth of coal last fiscal which was around one per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

This may widen India’s current account deficit from 1.4 percent in FY22 to 3.5 percent of GDP in FY23.

World bank has also cut economic growth forecast for India from 7 percent to 6.5 per cent this fiscal year due to the high inflation, rising borrowing costs and high commodity prices.

Further, India consumes around 4 million barrels a day and the cut in production will raise oil prices in the upcoming months. This will put more pressure on the rupee and will further weaken the economy.

Natural gas prices have already increased around Rs 2.5 trillion this fiscal year and there may be a further increase in the prices.

OPEC have also agreed to extend its production co-operation agreement with non-OPEC members like Russia until the end of 2023. This means that India should be ready to face the upcoming impact on its economy.

However, the demand in India continues to be strong even with petrol and diesel retailing at close to Rs 100 a litre and the lower oil production will only impact prices, supplies are not an issue.

A synthetic click

News: The Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless. The three chemists have been awarded for ‘click chemistry’.

What is click chemistry?

Click chemistry helps getting molecules bonded together in an efficient and uncomplicated manner that wouldn’t normally bond together.

It can create molecular building blocks like Lego blocks that could hold together quickly and efficiently.

There have been many efforts in the pasts to join molecule together but those efforts were complicated and the result was expensive to be used.

Therefore, the discovery of click chemistry has made it efficient and possible to join two molecules.

What has led the discovery of click chemistry?

The discovery of the copper catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition by Meldal and Sharpless was a breakthrough moment in the click chemistry.

There were previous attempts to join azides and alkynes but they were complicated. However, copper proves to be beneficial in joining the two chemicals.

The discovery has helped chemists to link two different molecules. They just have to introduce an azide in one molecule and an alkyne in the other and they can be joined with the help of copper ions.

Bertozzi took click chemistry to a new dimension and showed that it could be used in living organisms also.

Copper is toxic to living cells but she figured out a way to produce a copper-free click reaction called the strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition. It could be used to treat tumours.

Accounting for subsidies: Let’s build on the ‘revdi’ debate

News– The article explains the freebies culture prevalent in India.

The debate on freebies has begun with an RBI 2022 report on state finances followed by Prime Minister comment.

What are freebies?

Freebies could be defined as non-merit subsidies.

Subsidies are money transfers by the government in an attempt to drive prices artificially below market prices. Money transfer may be implicit or explicit.

Why are subsidies difficult to classify into merit and non-merit?

Freebies empower the state to deliver welfare by providing subsidised merit goods like health and education.

It helps households to combat poverty by providing subsidised public goods like food, electricity. It appeals to the electorate through populist policies.

It becomes difficult to classify freebies as merit and non-merit subsidy when the boundaries between the above mentioned objectives are blurred.

What are the impacts of freebies?

It leads to an increase in fiscal deficit and puts a debt burden on the state.

Debt burden could have an adverse effect on the state finances if iot is not  properly accounted for through transparent budgeting procedures. It threatens fiscal sustainability.

Why is the fiscal council being proposed?

It has been recommended by the FRBM Review Committee (2017) and recently constituted Finance Commissions too including the 15th Finance Commission.

The council will  provide  independent forecasts on key macro variables like real and nominal GDP growth, tax buoyancy, commodity prices. It will also act as a monitoring institution to advise on triggering the escape clause and also specify a path of return.

Monitoring of finances and fiscal rules could also help ensure that states comply with a medium-term fiscal policy framework.

Grid cells in our mind map the whole world- focus your attention to use the brain test

News– The article explains how the brain understands places and memories.

How Brain help in understanding locations?

The part of Brain called the hippocampus plays an important role in understanding locations . Hippocampal cells help in encoding locations in the environment of our Brain.

In people suffering from epileptic seizure, the hippocampus has to be removed. After removing it, people were intellectual and socially fine. But they cannot remember new faces and places.

What is the role of the Entorhinal cortex?

It provides information to the hippocampus. The cells found in this area are called grid cells. They resemble hexagonal tiling on the floor. The working of different grid cells leads to generating information about locations.

These grid cells function constantly. These keep moving around abstract doughnut shapes. This stays the same every time.

Where the stars must not twinkle

News- The article explains the logic behind establishing an astronomical observatory by the Indian government at Hanle, Ladakh. It also explains the major components of observatory and role of other stakeholders

Why has Ladakh been chosen as the location for the observatory?

Earlier the observatory was located in Bengaluru. It is known as Vainu Bapu observatory. The southwest and northeast monsoon forced the observatory for months. The rainclouds absorb starlight and radiation from cosmic objects. It prevents telescopes from capturing these objects.

To capture a cosmic phenomena like supernovae, we need radiation that lies outside the range of visible light. Therefore a dry, high-altitude place is an ideal location to capture these phenomena.

Artificial lights create light pollution. It creates obstacles for natural light. It is a contaminant for astronomy by impeding cosmic radiation. There is a relative absence of artificial lights in Hanle.

What are the major components of this observatory?

The multicoloured dish is the Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment Telescope (MACE)– It is the second largest of its kind in the world and only one at such an elevation. Its goal is to detect Cherenkov radiation from space. This is a special kind of light from gamma rays,or the most energetic sources of radiation. It can result from dying stars or several galaxies.

High Altitude Gamma Ray (HAGAR)– It also looks at Cherenkov radiation, although at a lower range of energies.

Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT)– It is designed to detect light from the visible range

of the electromagnetic spectrum as well as from the infra-red spectrum. The second capsule, situated slightly lower than the

GROWTH-India telescope– It is equipped to track cosmic events that unfurl over time, such as afterglows of a gamma ray burst or tracking the path of asteroids

What is the negative side of the location?

The extreme weather and climate is an issue for people working there. Low atmospheric oxygen may lead to altitude sickness.

But it is widely controlled via satelink link from IIA’s Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology, Bengaluru.

What is unique about Hanle?

Starlight is relatively unimpeded here.

Twinkling stars means starlight is being bounced back by atmospheric gases, clouds. This is relatively absent in Ladakh.

How are other stakeholders involved in this process?

Ladakh’s government is eager to expand economic opportunities via tourism and the Indian Army expanding its infrastructure development, bolster defence at the India-China border. It will create light pollution.

To strike a balance, the Ladakh government along with the IIA and India’s Scientific Ministries

is laying the groundwork to declare Hanleas an International Dark Sky Reserve by the International Dark-Sky Association.

Government is also trying to involve the local community. Eight telescopes will be set up in village clusters. Homestay owners will be trained in elementary astronomy to guide astro tourists. It will promote tourism and encourage the local people to avoid light pollution. This will be a win-win situation for all sides.

Prelims Oriented Articles (Factly)

Govt looks to ease compliance burden with new CSR disclosure rules

Source: The post is based on the article “Govt looks to ease compliance burden with new CSR disclosure rules” published in the Business Standard on 8^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has recently issued Companies (Accounts) Amendment Rules, 2022. This Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) Policy) Amendment Rules did away with a few important rules.

About the recent Companies (Accounts) Amendment Rules, 2022

Earlier, companies have to provide details of their corporate social responsibility projects, such as activity, area, project duration, and mode of implementation, on the MCA21 portal in a form called CSR-2. The form provided a format in which companies had to report their CSR activities in the annual report. But, now the form has been

From now on, the annual report does not require CSR activity details, except the amount spent. If a company has created a capital asset, the form specifies that information like address, location, and pin code has to be mentioned.

What are the other provisions of the Companies (Accounts) Amendment Rules, 2022?

The rules have introduced the e-form CSR-2. The form mandates the disclosure of company information, the composition of the CSR committee, ongoing projects, and the transfer of CSR funds that have not yet been used.

The new rules have also revised the amount to be spent on impact assessment of CSR projects to 2% of total CSR obligation or Rs 5 million, whichever is higher. This expenditure on impact study will be part of the CSR obligation.

What is the need for Companies (Accounts) Amendment Rules, 2022?

According to industry representatives, the CSR-2 form was increasing the compliance burden as they were already providing this information on the MCA21 portal. So, the amendment will reduce the compliance burden on companies and avoid duplication.

What are the implications of the Companies (Accounts) Amendment Rules, 2022?

a) Stakeholders may lose their ability to keep track of companies’ CSR activities, b) The move has taken away the transparency on companies’ CSR spending.

How MCA is planning to improve CSR activities and accountability?

The MCA is planning to make the details of the CSR activities of companies available on the CSR portal from 2023 onwards. These details will be open to the public, and they would be able to see details of CSR projects company-wise.

World Bank says 70 million plunged into poverty in 2020: What caused setbacks in India, world

Source: The post is based on the article “World Bank says 70 million plunged into poverty in 2020: What caused setbacks in India, world” published in the Indian Express on 6^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The World Bank has recently released a report, titled “Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Course.”

What are the key global findings of the report?

Poverty:

– By 2015, the global extreme-poverty rate had been cut by more than half.  Global poverty reduction has been slowing down since 2015 but the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine have completely reversed the outcomes.

-The world is unlikely to meet the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 absent history-defying rates of economic growth over the remainder of this decade.

–In 2020 alone, the number of people living below the extreme poverty line rose by over 70 million. This is the largest one-year increase since global poverty monitoring began in 1990.

The poorest people bore the steepest costs of the pandemic: income losses averaged 4% for the poorest 40%, double the losses of the wealthiest 20% of the income distribution. Global inequality rose for the first time in decades.

Global median income declined by 4% in 2020. This is the first decline since measurements of median income began in 1990.

What are the key findings of the report related to India?

Poverty has gone up in India: Previous estimates suggested a poverty headcount rate at the US$1.90 poverty line of 10.4% in 2017. But the recent report suggests that poverty at the US$1.90 poverty line was 13.6% in 2017.

The report mentions the lack of recent survey data significantly affects the measurement of global poverty.

Note: The report uses data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), because there are no official estimates of poverty available since 2011. The government decided not to release the 2017/18 National Sample Survey (NSS) round because of concerns about data quality.

What are the suggestions mentioned in the report?

The fiscal policy offers opportunities for policymakers in developing economies to step up the fight against poverty and inequality. So, the World Bank has three specific suggestions when it comes to fiscal policy. Such as, 1) Choosing targeted cash transfers instead of broad subsidies, 2) Prioritising public spending for long-term growth, and 3) Mobilizing tax revenues without hurting the poor.

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) notifies establishment of Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS)

Source: The post is based on the article “Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) notifies establishment of Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS)” published in the PIB on 7^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry has notified the establishment of the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS).

About the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS)

The scheme will provide credit guarantees for Startups to loans extended by Scheduled Commercial Banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs).

Aim: Providing credit guarantees up to a specified limit against loans extended by Member Institutions (MIs) to finance eligible borrowers.

Eligibility: To all the startups as defined in the Gazette Notification issued by DPIIT.

Credit guarantee cover: The cover under the Scheme would be transaction-based and umbrella based. The exposure to individual cases would be capped at Rs. 10 crores per case or the actual outstanding credit amount, whichever is less.

Transaction-based guarantees will promote lending by Banks/ NBFCs to eligible startups. On the other hand, umbrella-based guarantee cover will provide guarantee to Venture Debt Funds (VDF) registered under AIF regulations of SEBI.

Operational oversight: DPIIT will be constituting a Management Committee (MC) and a Risk Evaluation Committee (REC) for reviewing, supervising and operational oversight of the Scheme.

Operating agency: The National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC) will be operating the Scheme.

What is the need for a dedicated Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS)?

Startup India Action Plan launched in 2016 lay the foundation of Government support, schemes and incentives envisaged creating a vibrant startup ecosystem in the country. This action plan envisaged a Credit Guarantee Scheme to catalyze entrepreneurship through credit to innovators and encourage banks and other member institutions in the ecosystem for providing venture debt to startups.

The Scheme further reiterates Government’s focus towards promoting innovation and fostering entrepreneurship for making Indian startup ecosystem the best in the world.

What are the advantages of a dedicated Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS)?

The scheme will 1) Address the issue of unavailability of collateral free loans to startups, 2) Enable flow of financial assistance to innovative startups through their journey to becoming full-fledged business entities, 3) Mobilise domestic capital for Indian startups, 4) Act as a key enabler and risk mitigation measure for the lending institutions enabling collateral-free funding to startups, and 5) Complement the existing Schemes under Startup India initiative viz. Fund of Funds for Startups and Startup India Seed Fund Scheme.

Cheetah Task Force constituted

Source: The post is based on the article “Cheetah Task Force constituted” published in the PIB on 7^th October 2022.

What is the News?

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has constituted a Task Force for monitoring Cheetah introduction in Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh and other suitable designated areas.

What is Project Cheetah?

What is the need for Cheetah restoration?

Cheetah restoration is part of a prototype or model for the restoration of original cheetah habitats and their biodiversity. Bringing back a top predator restores historic evolutionary balance resulting in cascading effects on various levels of the ecosystem.

For instance, the cheetah has been the evolutionary natural selection force that has shaped the adaptation of high speeds in Indian antelopes and gazelles. By restoring cheetah, India would also be able to save not only its prey base comprising certain threatened species, but also other endangered species of the grasslands / open forest eco-systems, some of which are on the brink of extinction.

About Cheetah Task Force

The Task Force shall be in force for a period of two years. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) would facilitate the working of the Cheetah Task Force and render all necessary help.

The Cheetah Task Force has been constituted to,

-Review, progress and monitor the health status of the Cheetah, upkeep of the quarantine & soft release enclosures, protection status of the area for Cheetah introduction in India.

-Monitor hunting skills and adaptation of Cheetahs to the habitat of Kuno National Park.

-Monitor release of Cheetah from Quarantine bomas to soft release enclosures and then to grass land and open forest areas.

-Open Cheetah habitat for eco-tourism and suggest regulations in this regard.

-Regularly interact with Cheetah Mitras and local communities for their awareness raising and also about their involvement in the protection of Cheetahs in particular & area in general.

Indian Railways has adopted an integrated approach for a Green Environment

Source: The post is based on the article “Indian Railways has adopted an integrated approach for a Green Environment” published in the PIB on 7^th October 2022.

What is the News?

Indian Railways has a major role in contributing to India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) towards combating Climate Change. Indian Railways plans to become Net Zero Carbon Emitter by 2030 by completing the electrification of all railway tracks and various other measures.

How do Indian Railways plan to become Net Zero Carbon Emitter by 2030?

What are the reforms undertaken by Indian Railways (IR) since 2014 towards this objective?

IR will attempt to reduce its carbon footprint primarily through sourcing its energy requirements from renewable energy sources.

Issuance of Water Policy 2017 for effective water management: Water Policy 2017 has been issued to all Zonal Railways and Production Units for implementation in Railway Stations, Trains, Railway Colonies etc. This is a part of overall efforts to achieve a 20% reduction in water consumption by 2020 by the Government of India as part of a Nationally Determined Contribution.

Creation of Additional Carbon sink by Afforestation: Afforestation on vacant railway land and in between sections is carried out by Railways. Further, IR has been planting around 1 crore trees annually since 2017 onwards.

Green certification/Consent to operate from State Pollution Control Board since 2015: Around 700 Railway Stations have been certified for implementation of Environment Management System to ISO:14001. More than 545 stations have achieved Consent to operate (CTO) from the respective State Pollution Control Board.

Third-party Audit/Survey including Passenger feedback on Cleanliness: First ever Third Party audit cum survey on the cleanliness of important trains was carried out in 2018. Such surveys provide independent assessment and also instil a sense of healthy competition in improving cleanliness in passenger interface areas.

Panel to study SC status of Dalits post conversion

Source: The post is based on the article “Panel to study SC status of Dalits post conversion” published in The Hindu on 7^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The Union government has now formed a three-member Commission of Inquiry to examine the issue of whether Scheduled Caste (SC) status can be accorded to Dalits who have over the years converted to religions other than Sikhism or Buddhism.

What is the need for the panel to study SC status post-religious conversion?

About the panel to study SC status post-religious conversion

The commission’s inquiry will look into the changes an SC person goes through after converting to another religion and its implications on the question of including them as SCs.

These will include examining their traditions, customs, social and other forms of discrimination and how and whether they have changed as a result of the conversion.

The commission has also been empowered to examine any other related questions that it deemed appropriate, in consultation with and with the consent of the Central government.

Headed by: Former Chief Justice of India, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan.

Deadline: 2 years.

Findings of various committees on social inequalities post-religious conversion in India

The First Backward Classes Commission headed by Kaka Kalelkar in 1955 documented the existence of caste and caste discrimination among Indian Christians and Indian Muslims, concluding that Dalit converts continued to face the same social disabilities even after leaving the Hindu fold.

The same was also observed in subsequent reports. These include the Report of the Committee on Untouchability Economic and Educational Development Of the Scheduled Castes in 1969, the HPP report on SCs, STs, and Minorities in 1983, the report of the Prime Minister’s High-Level Committee formed in 2006, a 2008 study conducted by the National Commission for Minorities, the Ranganath Mishra Commission Report.

Note: The Kalelkar Commission Report and the 1983 HPP Report on SCs,STs and Minorities were the basis for amending the Order to include Dalit Sikhs and Dalit Buddhists as SCs in 1956 and 1990 respectively.

Further, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Minorities had also recommended providing SC status to Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians.

Why did the Centre not provide SC status after all religious conversions?

This is because, 1) The government refused to accept these reports as evidence of continued social disabilities due to caste identity, noting that there did not exist enough empirical evidence to support this in all of the reports, 2) Dalit Buddhists cannot be compared to Dalits who converted to Islam or Christianity because in case of the former, conversions were voluntary and in case of the latter, the conversions might have taken place “on account of other factors”, and 3) Dalits who converted to Islam or Christianity “ameliorated their social status” by way of their conversion and “cannot claim to be backward” since untouchability is a feature of Hindu religion and its branches alone.

Every healthy man is obliged to provide for his wife, children: SC

Source: The post is based on the article “Every healthy man is obliged to provide for his wife, children: SC” published in The Hindu on 8^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The Supreme Court has recently said that a healthy man is obliged to provide through legal means, even by physical labour, for his wife and minor children.

About the case

A woman failed to win her case for maintenance from her estranged husband in the Family Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The lower court had denied her claim for maintenance on perfunctory grounds. The husband contended that she had failed to prove that she could not maintain herself. So she filed an appeal in Supreme Court.

What are the SC observations on the Rights of Man for the maintenance of family?

The court said it was a basic canon of law “that it is the sacrosanct duty of the husband to provide financial support to the wife and to the minor children. The husband is required to earn money even by physical labour… If he is able-bodied, he cannot avoid his obligation, except on the legally permissible grounds.”

The apex court also said the purpose of maintenance was to prevent even the slightest possibility of an estranged wife facing destitution.

Explained | All about the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize

Source: The post is based on the article “Explained | All about the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize” published in The Hindu on 8^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 has been jointly awarded to Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Centre for Civil Liberties. The award was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.

About Nobel Peace Prize for 2022

The Peace Prize laureates have, for many years, promoting the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens.

They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power.

Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.

What are the individual contributions that led to Nobel Peace Prize for 2022?

Ales Bialiatski: He is the founder of Viasna, a human rights centre in Belarus.

President Alexander Lukashenko, who took over the country in 1994, gradually becameincreasingly autocratic. His rule has been described as “Europe’s last dictatorship”. In 1996, locals protested against Mr. Lukashenko’s rule in large numbers, and the uprising was popularly called the Minsk Spring.

Viasna’s registration was cancelled by the Supreme Court of Belarus in 2003. In 2004, it became a member of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

Bialiatski was arrested many times, but he has not yielded an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus.

Note: At present also, he is detained without trial under very hard conditions. 

Bialiatski was also awarded the Right Livelihood Award, nicknamed the alternative Nobel Prize, in 2020.

Memorial: It is a Russian human rights organisation started in 1987 in the erstwhile Soviet Union. The organisation was started as a movement to expose repression under the regime. Eventually, it expanded into civil society groups that ran a museum, a library, an archive, and support centres to help Soviet-era repression victims and their family members. At present, Memorial is working on the compilation of information on political repression and human rights violations in Russia.

Centre for Civil Liberties: It is a Ukrainian human rights organisation for Civil Liberties, founded in Kyiv in 2007. It aims to transform the country into a full democracy. In 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea, the Centre for Civil Liberties participated in mobile monitoring groups in Crimea as well as Donbas. The organisation is presently focused on identifying and documenting Russian war crimes following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

RBI unveils features of digital rupee, plans to launch pilot soon

Source: The post is based on the article “RBI unveils features of digital rupee, plans to launch pilot soon” published in the Business Standard on 8^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is exploring the possibility to launch its own digital currency or digital rupee (eRe) with minimal disruption to the financial system.

What is the digital rupee (eRe)?

The RBI recently released a concept note on CBDCs. The concept note said that the eRe will provide an additional option to the currently available forms of money. It is substantially not different from banknotes, but being digital, it is likely to be “easier, faster, and cheaper”.

eRe also has all the transactional benefits of other forms of digital money.

eRe will be exchangeable at par with the existing currency and shall be accepted as a medium of payment, legal tender, and a safe store of value.

The retail CBDC can provide access to safe money for payment and settlement as it is a direct liability of the central bank. The wholesale CBDC has the potential to transform the settlement systems for financial transactions and make them relatively efficient and secure.

What are the two models of eRe?

Two models are being examined for the issuance and management of CBDCs.

a) Direct model (single-tier model): Under this, the central bank will be responsible for managing all the aspects of the CBDC system, such as issuance, account-keeping, and transaction verification.

b) Indirect model (two-tier model): Under this model, the central bank will issue the CBDC to consumers indirectly through intermediaries (banks and any other service providers) and any claim by consumers is managed by the intermediary because the central bank will only handle wholesale payments to intermediaries.

The indirect model is akin to the current physical currency management system.

What are the various types of CBDCs?

Two forms of CDBCs are being discussed: Token-based and account-based.

Token-based CBDC: It shall be a bearer instrument like banknotes, meaning whosoever holds the tokens at a given point shall be presumed as the owner. The person receiving a token will verify that his ownership of the token is genuine.

A token-based CBDC is viewed as a preferred mode for CBDC-retail as it will be closer to physical cash.

Account-based CBDC system: It will require maintenance of the record of balances and transactions of all holders of CBDCs and indicate the ownership of monetary balances. In this, an intermediary verifies the identity of an account holder.

Account-based CBDC may be considered for CBDC-wholesale.

What is the choice of technology for eRe?

The infrastructure of CBDCs can be on a conventional centrally controlled database or on distributed ledger technology.

What are the other details mentioned in the concept note on eRe?

The concept note also discussed the need for incorporating all the features that physical currency represents, including anonymity and universality.

The use of the offline feature in CBDC would also be beneficial in remote locations and offer availability and resilience benefits when electrical power or mobile network is not available

According to the concept note, the key motivations for exploring the issuance of CBDC in India include a) reduction in operational costs involved in physical cash management, b) efficiency and innovation in the payments system, c) boosting innovation in cross-border payments space, and d) providing the public with uses that any private virtual currencies can provide, without the associated risks.