Comprehensive News Analysis - 09 March 2016

A. GS1 Related

1. Telangana’s Ojha artisans return to their roots

Topic: Art and Culture

Category: Handicrafts

Location: The Hindu, Page 08

 Keypoints:

• Ojha is a tiny community of artisans in the Adilabad district of Telangana state.
• The Ojhas are also known as ‘Wojaris’

B. GS2 Related

1. Talking to India on religious freedom, says US

Topic: International Relations

Category: Policies, Politics of the developed world affecting India’s interests

Location: The Hindu, Page 12

Keypoints:

• The United States on Monday expressed disappointment over India denying visas to members of the United States Commission of International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

• A USCIRF team was planning to travel to India on March 4, but India did not process their visa applications.

• The Indian Embassy in Washington said that there was no change in India’s policy with respect to such visits and saw no “locus standi of a foreign entity like USCIRF to pass its judgment and comment on the state of Indian citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.”

C. GS3 Related

1. Coast Guard reaches out turtles in distress

Topic: Environment and Ecology

Category: Conservation

Location: The Hindu, Page 08

Keypoints:

Coast Guard has initiated efforts towards conservation of Olive Ridley turtles, whose nesting season in the eastern coast is in its peak.

In a recent incident, it was found the four ‘Olive Ridley’ sea turtles were entangled in a net.

Olive ridley turtles:

• They are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles.
• Found inhabiting warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.
• The species is recognized as ‘Vulnerable’ by the IUCN Red list.

2. With IRNSS almost up in orbit, ground centres get into place

Topic: Science and Technology

Category: Technology missions, ICT

Location: The Hindu, Page 08

Keypoints:

• The IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) has come to be known as the country’s own ‘GPS’.
• Navigation satellites provide three main data, namely PNT: information on position, navigation and time. The data is important for a host of users, from the military to managers of air land and sea transport up to the man on the street looking to reach somewhere.

D. GS4 Related

Nothing here for today folks!

E. Important Editorials : A Quick Glance

1. Don’t compromise on privacy

Topic: Indian Economy

Category:  Inclusive Growth

Location: The Hindu, Page 10

Keypoints:

• The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016, is to provide for “efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services”.
• The Bill has attracted immediate criticism for being introduced as a money bill, by virtue of which it does not require the approval of the Rajya Sabha, where the government does not have the numbers to ensure its passage.

Issues Concerned

• Section 7 of the Bill, makes proof of Aadhaar necessary for “receipt of certain subsidies, benefits and services”. This must be read in the backdrop of a Supreme Court ruling that said Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory.

• With respect to data protection:
• Under Section 29(4), by which no Aadhaar number or biometric information will be made public “except for the purposes as may be specified by regulations”.
• Section(33), under which the inbuilt confidentiality clauses will not stand when it concerns national security.
• It is also being said that in order to be useful and effective, Aadhaar data might have to be used alongside other databases. That could trigger further privacy questions.

Conclusion:
There is little doubt that India needs to streamline the way it delivers benefits, and to empower citizens with a basic identification document. But this cannot be done without ensuring the strictest protection of privacy.

2. Upgrading India’s cyber security architecture

Topic: Internal Security

Category:  Cyber Security

Location: The Hindu, Page 11

Keypoints:

Two things set aside India’s digital spaces from that of major powers such as the United States and China: design and density.

India’s infrastructure is susceptible to four kinds of digital intrusions:
1) espionage, which involves intruding into systems to steal information of strategic or commercial value;
2) cybercrime, referring to electronic fraud or other acts of serious criminal consequence;

3) attacks, intended at disrupting services or systems for a temporary period;

4) war, caused by a large-scale and systematic digital assault on India’s critical installations.

The position of the ‘National Cyber Security Coordinator’ in 2014. No national security architecture today that can assess the nature of cyber threats and respond to them effectively.

Working in Silos:

• India’s civilian institutions have their own firefighting agencies, and the armed forces have their own insulated platforms to counter cyber attacks.

What is required?

• Permanent and semi-permanent staff that is technically proficient in cyber operations,
• National Cyber Security Agency (NCSA) to be created, it should have a functional “nucleus” or secretariat.
• Coordinate the agency’s policy functions and operations.
• The NCSA should be guided by a document outlining India’s cyber strategy,
• India’s intelligence agencies should separately provide their consolidated inputs to aid the operations of the NCSA.
• India should not hesitate to build its offensive cyber capabilities.
• The power entrusted in such an agency should have political or parliamentary oversight.

Tallinn Manual

• It is a set of non-governmental guidelines for engagement during war.
• At these forums, India should underline the basic premise that it is impossible to thwart all cyber attacks, and therefore encourage nation-states to restrain from deploying cyber weapons.

3. Cooling the earth down

Topic: Environment and Ecology

Category:  Climate Change

Location: The Hindu, Page 11

Keypoints:

• The Paris Conference last year primarily discussed plans to reduce carbon emissions.
• Today, climate engineering efforts are viewed either as secondary measures to be undertaken alongside reducing emissions

Types of climate engineering efforts

• Management of Carbon

1. It is directed towards removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. A prominent example is carbon capture and storage (CCS).
2. Another method for removing Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is to increase forest cover as plants will absorb some of the unwanted Carbon dioxide. Increased forestation is part of India’s strategy for reducing Carbon dioxide.

• Management of sunlight/solar radiation management (SRM)

1. Plan is to reduce global warming by cutting down the heat absorbed by our planet from the sun.
2. Techniques being considered are marine cloud brightening, cirrus cloud manipulation and stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI).
3. (SAI) involves spraying into the stratosphere fine, light-coloured particles designed to reflect back part of the solar radiation before it reaches and warms the earth.

The Downside

• As climate change worsens, some coastlands could go underwater
• Other regions could suffer extreme heat and severe droughts causing massive human suffering.
• In the absence of international regulatory regimes, the affected nation, even a small developing one, may well resort to using whatever SAI technology is available by then in the international market.
• Just the fear of possible adverse side effects could lead other nations to take preventive action against the “perpetrator”

Conclusion

• It is only through continuation of responsible research in climate engineering, done under proper regulatory oversight, that the limitations and risks of such interventions can be fully understood and provide the basis for informed decision-making.
• That will call for international governance mechanisms for overseeing the research and development and possible deployment of climate engineering techniques.
• Criteria for permissible work will have to be developed, along with expertise for verification of compliance.

To be Updated

Check Your Answers

.