13 Aug 2023: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
GEOGRAPHY
1. North India more affected by El Nino
B. GS 2 Related
POLITY
1. Govt planning a law on protection of Indian manuscripts
C. GS 3 Related
ENVIRONMENT
1. Saving the Amazon rainforest
SECURITY
1. Assam Rifles
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
F. Prelims Facts
1. Asian Highway 1
2. Flying Fox Bat
3. Nehru Trophy Boat Race
4. Nyoma Advanced Landing Ground
5. Sant Ravidas
6. Sant Ravidas
7. Helium in MRI scanners
8. India-UAE Naval Exercise
9. Suru River
10. Islamic State - Khorasan Province
G. Tidbits
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

Proposed National Manuscripts Bill, 2023

• The primary aim of the Bill is to document and catalogue Indian heritage texts wherever they may be in India or abroad, maintain accurate and up-to-date information about them, and detail the conditions under which they may be consulted.
• The Bill envisages setting up a 10- member National Manuscripts Authority (NMA).
• While the Culture Minister will be the Chairperson of this body, the members will include the Secretaries of Culture, Finance and Education, the Vice Chancellor of Central Sanskrit University, special invitees representing the States, and private agencies.
• The National Manuscripts Authority will be the apex policy making body with regard to digitisation, conservation, preservation, editing, and publication work of manuscripts.
• The NMA will have the powers of a civil court to regulate the allocation of access to manuscripts and will also have an investigation wing for the purpose of conducting an inquiry into thefts and desecration of texts. It will also ensure that the manuscripts are not lost by damage or theft.
• It can collaborate with universities and other educational institutions or agencies to provide fellowships and scholarships for study of manuscripts.
• The NMA will also prepare a dedicated digital portal for indexing, cataloguing, uploading, and downloading copies of manuscripts.
• The special body will be vested with the right to take over a manuscript from a private owner based on the uniqueness and the importance of the content. The sum to be paid will be fixed by an expert committee.

Need for the Bill 

• While 75% of the existing manuscripts are in Sanskrit, 25% are in regional languages, according to the NMM.
• There is a need to link studying and interpreting of manuscripts with livelihood.
• Only then can we bring back the importance of ancient manuscripts into the socio -cultural milieu.
• The documentation of Indian manuscripts abroad will definitely give a boost to an increased global interest in Indian manuscripts.
• The NMM has digitized 3.3 lakh manuscripts, containing about 3.1 crore folios. Though more than 1.18 lakh manuscripts have been uploaded, only about 70,000 have been made available online for public access.

Conclusion:

With the aim to document and catalogue Indian heritage texts wherever they may be in India or abroad, this bill holds great significance for Indian culture.

Nut Graf:   Indian manuscripts are the richest collection of written documents that provide information on the existence of different civilizations and the cultural affluence of the nation. This bill will further enrich our understanding of Indian culture.

Category: SECURITY

1. Assam Rifles

Syllabus:  Security challenges and their management in border areas, Various Security forces and agencies and their mandates.

Prelims: About  Assam Rifles

Mains:  Assam Rifles mandates

Context: The Assam Rifles Manipur Police have registered a case against the oldest paramilitary force deployed in the region, accusing its personnel of obstructing duty.

About Assam Rifles

• It is the oldest paramilitary force of India which was formed under the British in 1835.
• The history of the Assam Rifles dates back to 1835 when it was raised by the British as ‘Cachar Levy’ to protect its settlements from tribals living in the hilly areas.
• Additional units were subsequently merged into the ‘Frontier Force’ that extended the administrative control over remote tribal areas.
• During the First World War, 3,000 men were sent to Europe and West Asia as part of the British Army.
• It was christened the ‘Assam Rifles’ in 1917, in recognition of its services for fighting alongside the rifle regiments of the British Army.
• By the Second World War, the Assam Rifles performed multifarious tasks.
• Besides evacuating refugees from Myanmar (then Burma), it was part of a resistance group, the Victor Force, which countered the Japanese on the Indo- Burmese border.
• Post -Independence, it took part in the 1962 and 1965 wars after which its operational control was given to the Army.
• The Assam Rifles was part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka in 1987 and tackled tribal unrest and insurgency in the northeast.
• It is primarily led by officers of the Indian Army. The northeast is its main area of operation.
• Currently, the Assam Rifles guards the India -Myanmar border
  • Integral part
  • The Assam Rifles has been an integral part of the counter-insurgency operations, which earned it the sobriquet of the ‘sentinels of the northeast’. The paramilitary force, however, has had strained relations with the northeastern region, primarily because of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
  • The Act has repeatedly come under public scrutiny, with the locals accusing the security forces of staging encounters, killing civilians and violating human rights.

Nut Graf: Ambiguity in the command and control of the Assam Rifles has added to its problems. The force operated under the MEA under the North East Frontier policy till 1965. Currently, it is administratively under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), while the operational control is with the Ministry of Defence. This duality has been part of a drawn-out tussle. In 2019, the MHA proposed to take over operational control by merging the force with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). The Army, however, believes that shifting the operational control will jeopardise the surveillance along the LAC and impact the assistance the force provides. The tug of war continues.

2. UN Population Fund (UNFPA)

• A project of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for gender sensitivity in Rajasthan has received support from experts working for the elimination of customs promoting patriarchy. 
• The four-month-long project aims at promoting gender equality and shaping public opinion to end gender-based discrimination.
• The UNFPA has signed an agreement with Haridev Joshi University of Journalism (HJUJ), Jaipur, for capacity building of its students on issues related to gender norms, sexual violence, and human rights.

3. Flying Fox Bat

• India’s largest species of bats, named after a canine fabled to be sly, spends 7% of its day-roosting time being environmentally vigilant, a new study has said.
• The nectar and fruit-eating flying fox (Pteropus giganteus) is generally considered a vermin as they raid orchards. It had a similar official status under the Schedule V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 until it was put on the Schedule II list, entailing a higher degree of protection.
• As a keystone species causing seed dispersals of many plants in tropical systems, the flying fox has fascinated zoologists over the years. This fascination took three scientists to southern Assam’s Barak Valley for 38 days in 2019.
• A keystone species is one that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance, impacting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of other species in an ecological community.
• The study, focussing on the environmental and social vigilance of one of two subspecies of the Indian flying fox, found space in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, a peer-reviewed international journal.
• “The Indian flying fox roost gregariously and externally in tree canopies. In such conditions, hierarchy and competition for preferred roosting positions may result in the social structuring of animal aggregation. Vigilance is a manifestation of competition in canopy roosting bats, which can vary temporally, and according to the spatial position,” the study said.

4. Nehru Trophy Boat Race

Source: The hindu

• The Nehru Trophy Boat Race is a popular Vallam Kali (boat race) held in the Punnamada Lake near Alappuzha, Kerala on the second Saturday of August every year. 
• The most popular event of the race is the competition of Chundan Vallams (snake boats). Hence the race is also known as Snake Boat Race in English. 
• Other categories of boats such as Churulan Vallam, Iruttukuthy Vallam, Odi Vallam etc. also participate in the competition. 
• It is organized by the Nehru Trophy Boat Race Society under the guidance of the district administration. 
• Vembanad is the longest lake in India, which spans several districts in Kerala. It is known as Punnamada Lake in Kuttanad, Kochi Lake in Kochi.

5. Nyoma Advanced Landing Ground

• As part of the continuing infrastructure development along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), work on the expansion of the Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) at Nyoma in eastern Ladakh commenced this week. 
• It will see the runway expanded to beyond 9,000 feet, making it capable of handling fighter jets. In addition, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is also tweaking the engines of fighter jets so that they can be started in high-altitude areas.
• The ground-breaking ceremony was held early this week and it is expected to take two or three years for completion owing to limited working seasons. The concrete runway will be extended to 9,000-10,000 feet and will be able to handle all fighter aircraft
• Nyoma, located at an altitude of about 13,700 feet and close to the south Bank of Pangong Tso, is very close to the LAC in eastern Ladakh.
• The IAF also has airfields in Leh and Thoise and ALGs at Daulat Beg-Oldie (DBO) and Fukche. However, the Leh and Thoise airfields are located much inside and officials with knowledge of the area said that weather at Nyoma is much more stable compared with that in the other two airfields.

6. Sant Ravidas

• Laying the foundation stone for a temple dedicated to Sant Ravidas, a 14th century poet and social reformer revered by the Scheduled Castes (SC) in north and central India, to be built at an estimated ₹100 crore in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said marginalised sections of society were the biggest beneficiaries of his government’s policies.
• About Ravidas: 

• • Ravidas, or Raidas, was an Indian mystic poet-saint of the bhakti movement and founder of the Ravidassia religion during the 15th to 16th century CE.
  • He is venerated as a guru (teacher) in the modern regions of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana.
  • He was a poet, social reformer and spiritual figure.
  • The life details of Ravidas are uncertain and contested. He was born in Varanasi into untouchable leather-working Chamar caste.
  • He valued the worship of a formless God.
  • Ravidas’s devotional Verses were included in the Sikh scriptures known as Guru Granth Sahib.
  • The Panch Vani text of the Dadupanthi tradition within Hinduism also includes numerous poems of Ravidas.
  • He taught removal of social divisions of caste and gender, and promoted unity in the pursuit of personal spiritual freedom.
  • Along with Kabir, he was one of the most noted disciples of Bhagat Ramanand.
  • 41 verses of Bhakta Ravidas are incorporated into Sikh’s religious book, Adi Granth.
  • He was vocal against the varna (caste) system

7. Helium in MRI scanners

• First Indian-made MRI scanner to be launched for clinical work in October
• Helium’s most common use is as a coolant in large superconducting magnets powering magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners. The Russia-Ukraine war has further squeezed liquid helium supply with ripple effects on diagnostic facilities around the world, including India, thus unable to fully utilise their MRI scanners.
• A new class of MRI scanners is designed to avoid reliance on liquid helium, and to rapidly cool the scanner’s magnets, the far cheaper and more abundant liquid nitrogen can be used. 
• The first made-in-India MRI scanner, developed by the Bangalore-based Voxelgrids Innovations Private Ltd., is set to unveil its first clinically validated product in October at the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Bengaluru.
• MRI, the definitive tool to provide three-dimensional images of tissues and the best bet for warning of nascent tumours, continues to be inaccessible to several Indians.

8. India-UAE Naval Exercise

• The Navies of India and the UAE carried out a military exercise as part of efforts to boost maritime security cooperation. 
• The Indian naval ships INS Visakhapatnam and INS Trikand were part of the exercise. The ships arrived at Port Rashid in Dubai on August 8. 
• The two Navies conducted the bilateral maritime partnership exercise, aimed to enhance the interoperability and synergy by cross training on tactics, techniques and procedures
• INS Visakhapatnam is one of the largest operational destroyers in the Indian Navy and INS Trikand is an advanced stealth frigate commissioned in 2013.

9. Suru River

• The cold mountains of Kargil in the Union Territory of Ladakh are witnessing a rare humanitarian crisis. 
• The growing number of accidents and flash floods in the Suru river have swept away several local people across the Line of Control (LoC) into Baltistan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) over the past two months. 
• With no exchange point in Ladakh to hand over the bodies, the families of victims witnessed the burial online, streamed on social media platforms run from Baltistan.
  • The Suru River is a tributary of the Indus River that flows largely through the Kargil district of Ladakh, India. The Suru Valley is coextensive with the Kargil tehsil, with the town of Kargil situated on its banks.

10. Islamic State – Khorasan Province

• NATO-calibre weapons were being transferred to the Islamic State – Khorasan Province (IS-K) by groups affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, according to a UN report, with member states expressing concern over the proliferation of military equipment within Afghanistan and into neighbouring countries following the 2021 Taliban takeover.
• The Afghan offshoot of the terror organization “Islamic State,” known as ISIS-Khorasan, IS-K or ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attacks.
• The group takes its name from the Khorasan Province, an area that once included wide swaths of Afghanistan, Iran and central Asia in the Middle Ages.

Source: The economist

Q1. Consider the following statements, with reference to El Nino:

Q2. With reference to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which of the 
following statements is/are correct?

Q3. A keystone species is characterized as:

Q4. Consider the following statements about Sant Ravidas:

Q5. Match the following Indian Navy vessels with their descriptions: