28 Apr 2021: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

CNA 28th April 2021:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. SC refuses to interfere in work of HCs
C. GS 3 Related
ECONOMY
1. ADB sees India grow by 11%, adds caveat
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. A ceaseless plight
2. Marking the beginning of a green era
ECONOMY
1. A patently wrong regime
F. Prelims Facts
G. Tidbits
1. RBI sets norms for appointing bank auditors
2. HRW: Israel is committing ‘apartheid’
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

2. Marking the beginning of a green era

Context:

Two new initiatives the ‘Saudi Green Initiative’ and the ‘Middle East Green Initiative’ have been launched by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to combat the threat of climate change.

Details:

• Saudi Arabia is committed to lead regional efforts to address climate change and has been making steady progress in this direction.
• One of the main pillars of the Saudi G20 presidency was to “safeguard the planet”.
  • The G20 introduced initiatives like establishing a Global Coral Reef Research and Development Accelerator Platform to accelerate scientific knowledge and technology development in support of coral reef survival, conservation, resilience, adaptation and restoration.
  • G20 leaders also acknowledged the Circular Carbon Economy (CCE) Platform as a tool towards affordable, reliable, and secure energy and economic growth.

Saudi Green Initiative:

• It aims to raise the vegetation cover, reduce carbon emissions, combat pollution and land degradation, and preserve marine life. 10 billion trees will be planted in the Kingdom.
• Saudi Arabia is working towards raising the percentage of its protected areas to more than 30% of its total land area exceeding the global target of 17%.

Middle East Green initiative:

• As part of this initiative, Saudi Arabia will work with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and regional partners to plant an additional 40 billion trees in the West Asian region.
• It represents 5% of the global target of planting one trillion trees and reducing 2.5% of global carbon levels.

India and Saudi Arabia efforts in tackling climate change:

• Saudi Arabia has joined the International Solar Alliance, hence promoting cooperation in the renewable energy sector.
• Several MoUs and agreements in key sectors including renewable energy have been signed.

Working towards Vision 2030:

• In 2016, the Crown Prince unveiled Vision 2030, a comprehensive road map to improve the quality of life of the citizens of the country.
  • As part of this, Saudi Arabia carried out a comprehensive restructuring of the environmental sector and established the Environmental Special Forces in 2019.
  • With the NEOM project and The Line, Saudi Arabia has already redefined the idea of sustainable habitats.
• The pandemic has only strengthened Saudi Arabia’s resolve to realise the goals of Vision 2030 and become one of the major producers of renewable energy with a capacity to generate 9.5 GW by 2023.

Note:

• Saudi Arabia currently operates the largest carbon capture and utilisation plant in the world, turning half a million tonnes of CO2 annually into products such as fertilizers and methanol.
• It also operates one of the region’s most advanced CO2-enhanced oil recovery plants that captures and stores 8,00,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
• India has made remarkable commitments to tackle climate change and is on track to achieve its Paris Agreement targets.
• India’s renewable energy capacity is the fourth largest in the world.
• India has an ambitious target of achieving 450 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Category: ECONOMY

1. A patently wrong regime

The reaffirmation of intellectual property rules has served as a lethal barrier to the right to access healthcare over the last few decades. The article throws light upon how over the last few decades, intellectual property rules have served as a lethal barrier to the right to access healthcare.

Context:

• India and South Africa had submitted a joint petition to the WTO, requesting a temporary suspension of rules under the 1995 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Details:

• A waiver was sought to the extent that the TRIPS rules impinged on the containment and treatment of COVID-19. The request for the waiver has, since, found support from more than 100 nations.
• But a small group of states including the U.S., the European Union, the U.K. and Canada continue to block the move.
• Their reluctance comes despite these countries having already secured the majority of available vaccines, with the stocks that they hold far exceeding the amounts necessary to inoculate the whole of their populations.

Issue:

• Each of these justifications for patents has long been a matter of contest, especially in the application of claims of monopoly over pharmaceutical drugs and technologies.
• In India, the question of connecting the idea of promoting invention and offering exclusive rights over medicines on the one hand with the state’s obligation of ensuring that every person has equal access to basic healthcare on the other has been a source of constant tension.
• The colonial-era laws that the country inherited expressly allowed for pharmaceutical patents.
• But, in 1959, a committee chaired by Justice N. Rajagopala Ayyangar objected to this on ethical grounds.
  • The Parliament put this into law through the Patents Act, 1970, that monopolies over pharmaceutical drugs be altogether removed, with protections offered only over claims to processes. This change in rule allowed generic manufacturers in India to grow.
  • As a result, life-saving drugs were made available to people at more affordable prices.
• With the advent of the TRIPS agreement in 1995, and compelling signatories to introduce intellectual property laws, drugs that reduced AIDS deaths in developed nations were placed out of reach for the rest of the world.

Way Forward:

• Two common arguments are made in response to objections against the prevailing patent regime. However, they have been debunked time and again.
  • Unless corporations are rewarded for their inventions, they would be unable to recoup amounts invested by them in research and development.
  • Without the right to monopolise production there will be no incentive to innovate. Both of these claims have been refuted time and again.
• The claim that the removal of patents would somehow invade a company’s ability to recover costs is untrue.
  • Big pharma has never been forthright about the quantum of monies directed by it into research and development.
  • Its research is usually driven towards diseases that afflict people in the developed world.
• The idea that patents are the only means available to promote innovation has become something of a dogma. Proposals have been made for a prize fund for medical research in place of patents.
• There is a need for global collective action. If nation-states are to act as a force of good, they must each attend to the demands of global justice.
• Rules granting monopolies that place the right to access basic healthcare in a position of constant peril must end.

Conclusion:

• Reports suggest that for most poor countries it would take until at least 2024 before widespread vaccination is achieved. Quick and efficient vaccination is the surest route to achieving global herd immunity against the virus.
• The waiver will allow countries to facilitate a free exchange of know-how and technology surrounding the production of vaccines.

2. HRW: Israel is committing ‘apartheid’

What’s in News?

Human Rights Watch said that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid by seeking to maintain Jewish domination over Palestinians and its own Arab population.

Details:

• Human Rights Watch pointed to measures, including movement restrictions, land confiscation, forcible population transfer, denial of residency rights and suspension of civil rights.
• It details how Israel has sought to maintain Jewish-Israeli hegemony over the Palestinian people from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
• Israel is currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes.
  • The investigation looks at events in the territories from 2014 onwards.
  • It focuses on the Gaza war fought between Israel and Hamas in the summer of 2014, actions by the Israeli army during hostilities along the Gaza fence in 2018, as well as Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank.
• The HRW report recommended that the international community must adopt a rights-based and accountability approach regarding engagement with Israel instead of relying on the peace process.

Q1. Consider the following statements:

Q2. With reference to Asian Development Bank (ADB), which of the following statements is/are 
correct?

Q3. Which of the following is/are correctly matched?

Q4. Jaivik Kheti Portal is a unique initiative by the Government of India:

Q5. What is the use of Biochar in farming? [UPSC 2020]

Read the previous CNA here.

CNA 28th April 2021:- Download PDF Here