{"id":18511,"date":"2018-04-12T13:19:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T07:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=18511"},"modified":"2018-05-03T11:39:06","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T06:09:06","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-april-11-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-april-11-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 April 11, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/mains-marathon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archives<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.1) It has been three decades since the Government of India had enunciated a National Forest Policy. Forest being a dynamic resource, what are the immediate alterations to be made in the policy for the betterment of the ecosystem? (GS &#8211; 2 ) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction: <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The new draft Forest Policy re-emphasises production forestry, raising many ecological and social concerns.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>From forest policy of pre &amp; post independence to new draft forest policy 2018: changes undergone:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Pre &amp; Post independence: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Forest policy in colonial India focussed on maximising products and revenues for the state through the imperial forest department as sole owner, protector and manager of the forest estate.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In post independent India forests were seen as sources of raw material for industry and local communities were simply treated as labour.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Forest policy 1988: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It recognised the multiple roles of forests and prioritised environmental stability over revenue maximisation. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also acknowledged that the needs of forest-dependent communities must be the first on forest produce. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Equally important, the policy emphasised people\u2019s involvement in protecting and regenerating forests, thus formally recognising the limitations of state-managed forestry.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Joint Forest Management: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Joint forest management (JFM) was initiated in the 1990s to implement the concept of people\u2019s involvement. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But it failed as foresters created thousands of village forest committees but severely limited their autonomy and jurisdictions. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Donor money was spent on plantations but activities were stopped once funds ran out. Instead a meaningful devolution of powers was required.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Forest Rights Act 2006:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It created a historic opportunity for such devolution. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its community forest resource provisions gave communities rights to both access and manage forests. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FRA democratised the forest diversion process by requiring community concurrence for forest diversion once community forest rights are recognised. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Adivasis of Niyamgiri in Odisha exercised this provision to prevent bauxite mining in their sacred hill tracts\\<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>New draft forest policy 2018:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It talks of production forestry &amp; plantations s new thrust area.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The practice of forestry with object of producing maximum quantity of timber, fuel wood and other forest produce is called Production Forestry.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Forest Development Corporations will now enter into public-private partnerships (PPPs) to bring corporate investment into forest lands.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the past production forestry has led to destruction of diversity, dried up streams and undermined local livelihoods.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PPPs will entail more such destruction, with even the profits ending up in corporate hands.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.2) As estimated, 76 million people in India do not have access to safe drinking water. In this context, how floodplains of rivers can provide a new source of water and also a sigh of relief for farmers? (GS &#8211; 3)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Floodplains are a local, non-polluting, perennial and non-invasive source of water for urban centres.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Floodplains of rivers can provide a new source of water. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Palla floodplain scheme which was launched by the Delhi Jal Board in 2016 is a tangible realisation of this idea. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The scheme (on a 25 km stretch of the Yamuna) is currently running at half its potential and providing water to about one million people in the city \u2014 of a daily requirement of 150 litres per person.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Use of floodplains as source of water:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Floodplains can be used as aquifer:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Conservation and use of floodplain can be a self-sustaining aquifer. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Conserve and use scheme:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A socio-economic-environmental scheme, can provide water to urban centres along rivers,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can also engage farmers by providing them an assured income and restore rivers to a healthy condition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Income for farmers:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Farmers on either side of the river can be provided an assured and steady income<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Farmers can grow food forests: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Farmers can grow a food forest, fruit orchards or nut trees but not water-intensive crops on this land. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would guarantee not only a good farming income but also great earnings from the water for the farmers without taking the ownership of the land away from them<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>No Need of subsidies: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0The capital cost for building such a scheme would be minimal (a few hundred crores.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The revenue generated would be able to pay for the costs and for farmers\u2019 income without any subsidy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Prevention of erosion: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ecologically, a water sanctuary would prevent erosion, heal the river ecosystem, and restore the ecological balance in floodplains<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Rivers can be refilled when water levels decrease in them:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Even after withdrawal, floodplains would have enough water to slowly release back into the river in a lean season<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.3) Write short notes on:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is a statutory body.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is administered under the Ministry of Women &amp; Child Development, Government of India. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Function: <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It functions as the nodal body for adoption of Indian children.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It primarily deals with adoption of orphan, abandoned and surrendered children through its associated \/recognised adoption agencies <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Significance:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and <\/span><b>inter-country adoptions. <\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is designated as the <\/span><b>Central Authority <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to deal with inter-country adoptions in accordance with the provisions of the <\/span><b>Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, 1993, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ratified by Government of India in 2003.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Long-Term Capital Gain or Loss (LTCG) Tax in Economy <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A long-term capital gain or loss is a gain or loss from a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">qua<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lifying investment owned for longer than 12 months before it was sold. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The amount of an asset sale that counts toward a capital gain or loss is the difference between the sale value and the purchase value, or simply, the amount of money the investor gained or lost when he sold the asset. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Long-term capital gains are assigned a lower tax rate than short-term capital gains in the United States.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When taxpayers file their returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), they report the net total of their long-term capital gains earned in the tax year.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, if someone has a long-term gain of $50,000 and a long-term loss of $40,000 in a calendar year, he reports $10,000 as a capital gain. However, short-term capital gains are treated differently when calculating net capital gains.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives Q.1) It has been three decades since the Government of India had enunciated a National Forest Policy. Forest being a dynamic resource, what are the immediate alterations to be made in the policy for the betterment of the ecosystem? (GS &#8211; 2 ) Introduction: The new draft Forest Policy re-emphasises production forestry, raising many&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-april-11-2018\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 April 11, 2018<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":2292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mains-marathon-answers","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/pen-paper-laptop.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1701074204},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}