CNA 03 Dec 2021:- Download PDF Here
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. GS 1 Related B. GS 2 Related INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 1. Stop NATO expansion, Russia tells U.S. 2. Four-pronged plan on Sri Lanka crisis C. GS 3 Related D. GS 4 Related E. Editorials AGRICULTURE 1. A white touch to a refreshed green revolution AIR POLLUTION 1. Breathing fresh air into the NCR’s pollution control POLITY AND GOVERNANCE 1. ART Bill Features and Concerns F. Prelims Facts 1. Paika rebellion to be in history textbooks 2. The making of the Republic of Barbados G. Tidbits 1. Wind power up 2. ‘Manpower, training key to success of cyber stations’ H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions
A. GS 1 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
B. GS 2 Related
Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Stop NATO expansion, Russia tells U.S.
Topic: Effect of Policies and Politics of Developed and Developing Countries on India’s interests, Indian Diaspora
Prelims: Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe – members and mandate; NATO – Members; Minsk peace accord
Mains: Tensions over Russian military build-up along the Ukrainian border; Larger geo-political ramifications
Context:
- Meeting between Russian Foreign Minister and U.S. Secretary of State during the ongoing ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Stockholm.
Background:
Tensions over Russian border build-up:
- Russia is believed to have amassed a large number of troops along the Russian border with the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
- The Donbas region is a conflict zone where Ukraine has been battling Russia-backed separatists.
- Russia has claimed that this action is in response to the steady eastward expansion of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Organisation (NATO), gradual expansion of military aid pouring into Ukraine from NATO member countries and Ukraine’s recent statement over the Crimea issue.
- Russia along its western borders is in close proximity with NATO states like Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania. Even former constituents of the erstwhile Soviet Union such as Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have become NATO members. Georgia and Ukraine are also aspiring to become members of NATO.
- Ever since Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and war broke out in eastern Ukraine a month after, bilateral relations between the two countries have been fraught.
- Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of preparing for an invasion. The U.S. has warned that any such move from Russia would invite some counteraction from it. Russia has, in turn, accused the West of ‘anti-Russia’ hysteria.
- Tensions have been escalating along the volatile Russia-Ukraine border.
Image Courtesy: CBS News
Russia’s message:
- The Russian Foreign Minister told the U.S. Secretary of State that Russia is looking forward to guarantees that would halt NATO’s eastward expansion while also stressing that Ukraine should not be allowed to join NATO.
- The Russian Foreign Minister also warned that the failure to do so would force Russia to take up retaliatory measures to maintain the military-strategic balance along its western borders by holding on to its domain of influence in the bordering countries of Belarus and Ukraine.
Analysis of the development:
- While the exact reasons for Russia’s military build-up cannot be deduced, most strategic experts believe that an actual invasion is unlikely. Rather, the move could be interpreted as a stern warning against any plans to escalate NATO activities or presence in Ukraine against the security interests of Russia.
- Some analysts believe that Russia is using this development to test NATO’s (and the U.S.’s) strategic will to get involved in case things escalate in Ukraine at a time when the U.S. has categorically claimed China to be its primary security threat and has shifted its attention to the Asia-Pacific theatre.
- In the event of Russia actually invading Ukraine, it remains doubtful if NATO would intervene militarily to protect Ukraine, which is currently not a member of NATO. The U.S. will mostly increase economic sanctions against Russia; possibly against the Nord Stream-2 pipeline, which delivers Russian gas directly to Germany.
Recommendations:
- The full implementation of the Minsk peace accords seems to be the best bet for peace along the volatile Russia-Ukraine border.
- The Minsk Protocol was an agreement signed by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, OSCE, and the then heads of the two separatist groups, Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, to end the war in the Donbas region. It enjoins Ukraine to devolve more powers to the local governments controlled by the separatist groups in the Donbas region. The Minsk deal has never been enforced.
2. Four-pronged plan on Sri Lanka crisis
Topic: India and its Neighborhood-Relations
Prelims: Currency swap agreement
Mains: Challenges to the bilateral relationship between India and Sri Lanka; Measures being taken
Context:
- Sri Lankan Finance Minister’s visit to New Delhi amid the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
- Sri Lanka’s government has declared an economic emergency amid rising food prices, a depreciating currency, and rapidly depleting forex reserves.
Details:
- India and Sri Lanka have agreed to a four-pronged approach to help mitigate Sri Lanka’s economic crisis.
- India would provide lines of credit for food, medicines and fuel purchases.
- India and Sri Lanka would sign a currency swap agreement to help Sri Lanka deal with its balance of payment issues.
- A currency swap is a transaction in which two parties exchange an equivalent amount of money with each other but in different currencies. The parties are essentially loaning each other money and will repay the amounts at a specified date and exchange rate.
- Central banks and Governments engage in currency swaps with foreign counterparts to meet short term foreign exchange liquidity requirements or to ensure adequate foreign currency to avoid the Balance of Payments (BOP) crisis till longer arrangements can be made.
- Sri Lanka has committed to finalizing quickly the proposed modernisation project of the Trincomalee oil farms by India.
- Sri Lanka has also committed to facilitating Indian investments in various sectors.
- India and Sri Lanka have had a number of differences on economic issues in the past two years, particularly over the perception that the current Sri Lankan Government has favoured Chinese companies over Indian companies in infrastructural projects.
- India and Sri Lanka have agreed to open direct lines of communication and to be in direct and regular contact with each other to coordinate the proposed four-pillar initiative.
For more related information refer to the following article:
UPSC Exam CNA of 1st Aug 2021: Sri Lanka seeks to reset relations with India
C. GS 3 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
D. GS 4 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
E. Editorials
1. A white touch to a refreshed green revolution
Topic: Major crops and cropping pattern in different parts of the country.
Prelims: White revolution, Green revolution, Cooperatives.
Mains: Applying the principles of cooperative management of the White Revolution in farming.
Context
This article discusses the 100th birth anniversary of Verghese Kurien, the leader of India’s ‘white revolution’, which increased the incomes and the wealth of millions of cattle-owning small farmers in India, many of them women.
What is White Revolution and the Green Revolution?
- The white revolution in India started with the motive of increasing milk production to make the country one of the largest producers of milk in the world.
- It created a national milk grid linking producers throughout India to consumers in over 700 towns and cities and reducing seasonal and regional price variations while ensuring that producers get a major share of the profit by eliminating the middlemen.
- Today, India is the world’s largest producer of milk and Dr Verghese Kurien is known as the father of the White Revolution in India.
- The Green Revolution is referred to as the process of increasing agricultural production by incorporating modern tools and techniques.
- In the year 1965, the government of India launched the Green Revolution with the help of M.S. Swaminathan. The movement of the green revolution was a great success and changed the country’s status from a food-deficient economy to one of the world’s leading agricultural nations.
- The Green Revolution within India led to an increase in agricultural production, especially in Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. Major milestones in this undertaking were the development of a high-yielding variety of seeds of wheat and rust-resistant strains of wheat.
The varied purposes of the two Revolutions –
| Green Revolution | White Revolution | |
| Purpose | To increase the output of agriculture to prevent shortages of food. | To increase the incomes of small farmers in Gujarat, not the output of milk. |
| Mechanism | The green revolution was largely a technocratic enterprise driven by science and the principles of efficiency. | The white revolution was a socio-economic enterprise driven by political leaders and principles of equity. |
| Focus | Its aim was to increase output by applying scientific breakthroughs with methods of management to obtain economies of scale. | It was more based on the socio-economic movement. |
Problems with the Green Revolution:
- Retardation of agricultural growth due to inadequate irrigation cover, shrinking farm size, failure to evolve new technologies, inadequate use of technology, declining plan outlay, imbalanced use of inputs, and weaknesses in credit delivery system.
- The regional dispersal of the revolution created regional inequalities. The benefits of the green revolution remained concentrated in the areas where the new technology was used.
- Moreover, since the revolution for a number of years remained limited to wheat production, its benefits were mostly accrued only to wheat-growing areas.
- Interpersonal inequalities between large and small scale farmers. The new technologies introduced during the revolution called for substantial investments which were beyond the means of a majority of small farmers.
- Farmers having large farmlands continued to make greater absolute gains in income by reinvesting the earnings in farm and non-farm assets, purchasing land from the smaller cultivators, etc.
Significance of White Revolution:
- The White Revolution in India helped in reducing malpractice by traders and merchants.
- It also helped in eradicating poverty and made India the largest producer of milk and milk products.
- Operation Flood empowered the dairy farmers with control of the resource created by them. It helped them in directing their own development.
- To connect milk producers with the consumers of more than 700 cities and towns and throughout the country, a ‘National Milk Grid’ was formed.
- The revolution also reduced regional and seasonal price variations ensuring customer satisfaction and at the same time, it ensured that the producers get a major share of the price that customers pay.
- Improved the living standards of the rural people and led to the progress of the rural economy.
- Amul has become one of India’s most loved brands, and is respected internationally too for the quality of its products and the efficiency of its management.
On productivity:
- Kurien repeatedly emphasised the enterprise achieved its outcome of empowering farmers because the governance of the enterprise to achieve equity was always kept in the foreground, with the efficiency of its production processes in the background as a means to the outcome.
- In large, modern factories, workers are only a means for producing outputs. Thus, ‘productivity’, when defined as output per worker, can be increased by eliminating workers. This may be an acceptable way to measure and increase productivity when the purpose of the enterprise is to increase the profits of investors in the enterprise.
- It is a wrong approach to productivity when the purpose of the enterprise is to enable more workers to increase their incomes, which must be the aim of any policy to increase small farmers’ incomes.
Way forward:
- Inclusion and equity in governance: The increase in the incomes and wealth of the workers and small asset owners in the enterprise must be the purpose of the enterprise, rather than the production of better returns for investors.
- Social side of the enterprise: The metrics of performance must be used, and many ‘non-corporate’ methods of management learned and applied to strengthen the social fabric of the organisation.
- Local system solutions: The resources in the local environment (including local workers) must be the principal resources of the enterprise, rather than ‘global (or national) scale’ solutions. The enterprise must be embedded in the local community from whom it gets its environmental resources, and whose well-being it must nourish by its operations.
- Practical and useable science: Science should be developed for the use of the people on the ground rather than developed to convince other experts. Moreover, people on the ground are often better scientists from whom scientists in universities can learn useful science.
- Sustainable transformations: Transformation should be brought through a steady process of evolution, not by drastic revolution. Like strong drugs to treat specific ailments, large-scale transformations imposed from the top can have strong side effects too. They slowly weaken the patient’s health, as the scientific managerial solutions of the green revolution have harmed the soil and water resources of northern India.
Conclusion:
The essence of democratic economic governance is that an enterprise must be of the people, for the people, and governed by the people too.
1. Breathing fresh air into the NCR’s pollution control
Topic: Environmental pollution and degradation
Prelims: National Green Tribunal, National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
Mains: Various steps to control the menace of air pollution in Delhi-NCR
Context
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had begun the process of taking a new look at the menace of air pollution in Delhi-NCR by asking the Government to list its causes.
Air pollution in Delhi-NCR
For more on the air pollution in Delhi-NCR, its causes and the steps taken to control it, click on the linked article.
Lessons from Beijing:
The UN Environment Programme’s review of Beijing’s control of air pollution provides useful lessons for policymakers. The population size of both cities, Beijing and Delhi, is comparable.
- The need is to deal with urban air pollution in three stages. It starts with end-of-pipe air pollution control gradually moving to integrated measures targeting primary pollutants (SO2, NO2, PM10, and CO), with the Government playing the main role. Later, secondary pollutants, or particulate matter leading to smog, primarily PM2.5, become the main focus for control.
- In Beijing what really made a difference was not shutting down polluting units, restricting car ownership and travel, and improved fuel standards but the approach to urbanisation. Beijing provides more space for public transport and mixed land use spatial planning minimising travel.
- In Beijing, policy focus gradually changed from gasoline vehicle emissions to heavy-duty diesel vehicle emissions. Phasing out older vehicles made the most significant contribution. Beijing plans to have 48 lakh charging points by 2022 to push the use of electric vehicles.
- Innovative implementation steps were instituted in Beijing, like economic incentives were tailored for the specific problem. Municipal environmental enforcement teams do specific inspections and hotspot grid supervision based on a detailed emission inventory for each source.
Way Forward
Reducing air pollution in the national capital is a pressing need for which both the governments and the citizens should play their part. The government should enforce all the legislations necessary and see that they are properly implemented. Citizens should comply with the laws and regulations and do their part as well. Afforestation measures should be encouraged. Renewable energy sources should be adopted more and the usage of electric vehicles encouraged, for which the necessary infrastructure should also be built. Farmers should also be provided with viable alternatives to stubble burning.
Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. ART Bill Features and Concerns
Topic: Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and issues arising out of their Design and Implementation.
Prelims: Key Features of the ART Bill
Mains: Provisions and Concerns Related to ART Bill
Context:
- Recently, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020 has been passed in the Lok Sabha.
The objective of the bill:
- The Bill seeks to provide for the regulation of Assisted Reproductive Technology services in the country and make provisions for its safe and ethical practice.
Definition of ART:
- The Bill defines ART to include all techniques that seek to obtain a pregnancy by handling the sperm or the oocyte (immature egg cell) outside the human body and transferring the gamete or the embryo into the reproductive system of a woman.
Key Features of the Bill:
- Registration of ART clinics and banks: The Bill provides that every ART clinic and bank must be registered under the National Registry of Banks and Clinics of India. The National Registry will be established under the Bill and will act as a central database with details of all ART clinics and banks in the country.
- Boards: The Bill provides that the National and State Boards constituted under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019 will also act as the National and State Boards for the regulation of ART services.
- Eligibility criteria for donors: A bank can obtain semen from males between 21 and 55 years of age, and eggs from females between 23 and 35 years of age. An egg donor should be an ever-married woman having at least one alive child of her own (minimum three years of age). The woman can donate eggs only once in her life and not more than seven eggs can be retrieved from her.
- Conditions for offering services: ART procedures can only be carried out with the written consent of the commissioning parties and the donor. The party seeking ART services will be required to provide insurance coverage in the favour of the oocyte donor (for any loss, damage, or death of the donor).
- Rights of a child born through ART: A child born through ART will be deemed to be a biological child of the commissioning couple and will be entitled to the rights and privileges available to a natural child of the commissioning couple. A donor will not have any parental rights over the child.
- Offences and penalties: Offences under the Bill include: (i) abandoning, or exploiting children born through ART, (ii) selling, purchasing, trading, or importing human embryos or gametes, and (iii) exploiting the commissioning couple, woman, or the gamete donor in any form. These offences will be punishable with a fine between five and ten lakh rupees for the first contravention. For subsequent contraventions, these offences will be punishable with imprisonment between eight and twelve years, and a fine between 10 and 20 lakh rupees.
Concerns:
Exclusivity:
- Although the bill is very progressive by its very nature, it glaringly excludes members of the LGBTQIA+ community, single men and cohabiting heterosexual couples from accessing ARTs. As citizens, these groups too have the right to exercise reproductive rights.
- Bill allows foreigners to access ART but not Indian citizens in loving relationships. This is an illogical result that fails to represent the actual spirit of the Constitution.
Inadequate protection for donors:
- The Bill mandates the egg donor’s written consent but fails to provide for her counselling or the ability to withdraw her consent before or during the procedure.
- For loss of salary, time and effort, the donor receives no compensation or reimbursement of expenses. Failing to pay for bodily services amounts to unfree labour, which is outlawed by Article 23 of the Constitution.
Overlap between ART and SSB (Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, (SRB) 2019):
- Surrogacy and ART procedures are regulated by different bills. These bills provide for different registration procedures for clinics and specify different age-related eligibility criteria. It is unclear why the two Bills differ on these common aspects of registration and eligibility.
Know more about the Surrogacy Regulation Bill in the linked article.
Conclusion:
- Bill that the government of the land intends to make law, cannot be exclusivist at the very outset. The laws on reproductive rights must recognise differences in orientation, relationship choices.
- The ART Bill must be thoroughly reviewed before it is passed as it involves various constitutional, medico-legal, ethical, and regulatory concerns.
F. Prelims Facts
1. Paika rebellion to be in history textbooks
Paika rebellion:
Know more about the Paika Rebellion in the linked article.
Context:
- The Union Culture Minister’s statement on the Paika rebellion in the ongoing parliamentary session over demands for declaration of the Paika rebellion as the first war of Indian independence.
2. The making of the Republic of Barbados
Republic:
- A republic is a form of government in which “power is held by the people and their elected representatives”. Here the citizens have the supreme power, and they exercise that power by voting and electing representatives to make decisions and govern.
- A Republic means the head of the State is elected and not a hereditary monarch. India is considered as a ‘Republic’ mainly because: the head of the State (President) is elected.
- Republics come in different forms of government, but a common one is a democracy.
Context:
- The Caribbean island nation of Barbados has declared itself a republic, making it the newest republic in the world.
G. Tidbits
- The total installed capacity of wind power in India as of October 2021 stands at 39.99 GW. It accounts for nearly 10% of India’s total installed electrical generation capacity.
- The wind resource assessment conducted by the National Institute of Wind Energy indicates an estimated wind power potential of 695.5 GW in India.
2. ‘Manpower, training key to success of cyber stations’
- Dedicated cybercrime police stations have been opened in Delhi.
- Given the increasing digitalization and the increasing threat of cybercrimes, dedicated police stations are a good initiative. Dedicated cybercrime police stations will allow for prompt action against cases of cybercrime.
- To make this initiative a success there is the need to ensure that the required manpower is deployed in such stations and they are well-trained and are provided with the necessary and latest technological tools and infrastructure to handle such cybercrime cases.
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
Q1. With reference to extra-tropical cyclones, which of the following statements is/are correct?
- They have a clear frontal system which is not present in tropical cyclones.
- They can originate over both land and sea.
- They move from west to east.
Options:
- 1 only
- 2 and 3 only
- 2 only
- 1, 2 and 3
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: d
Explanation:
- Extratropical cyclone, also called wave cyclone or midlatitude cyclone, is a type of storm system formed in middle or high latitudes, in regions of large horizontal temperature variations called frontal zones.
Q2. Consider the following statements:
- The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore works on the protection, preservation and documentation of all the mother tongues/languages of India spoken by less than 1,00,000 people.
- UNESCO operates with four levels of language endangerment between “safe” and “extinct”.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
- 1 only
- 2 only
- Both
- None
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: b
Explanation:
- The policy of the Government is to promote all Indian Languages including endangered languages. The Government of India has initiated a Scheme known as “Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India” (SPPEL). Under this Scheme, the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore works on the protection, preservation and documentation of all the mother tongues/languages of India spoken by less than 10,000 people which are called endangered languages.
- UNESCO operates with four levels of language endangerment between “safe” (not endangered) and “extinct” (no living speakers), based on intergenerational transfer: “vulnerable” (not spoken by children outside the home), “definitely endangered” (children not speaking), “severely endangered” (only spoken by the oldest generations), and “critically endangered” (spoken by a few members of the oldest generation, often semi-speakers).
Image source: https://blog.itranslate.com/
Q3. Which of the following pairs is/are correctly matched?
Festival State
- Hornbill Nagaland
- Wangala Meghalaya
- Myoko Assam
Options:
- 1 and 2 only
- 2 and 3 only
- 1 and 3 only
- 1, 2 and 3
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: a
Explanation:
- Myoko festival is associated with the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Q4. Donbas conflict is a dispute between
- Greece and Turkey
- France and United Kingdom
- Russia and Ukraine
- Belarus and Poland
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: c
Explanation:
- The Donbas region is a conflict zone where Ukraine has been battling Russia-backed separatists.
Image source: www.aljazeera.com
Q5. With reference to Indian freedom struggle, consider the following events: (UPSC 2017)
- Mutiny in Royal Indian Navy
- Quit India Movement launched
- Second Round Table Conference
What is the correct chronological sequence of the above events?
- 1-2-3
- 2-1-3
- 3-2-1
- 3-1-2
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: c
Explanation:
- Second Round Table Conference – 1931.
- Quit India Movement was launched on 8 August 1942.
- The Royal Indian Navy mutiny or revolt, also called the 1946 Naval Uprising, was an insurrection of Indian naval ratings, soldiers, police personnel and civilians against the British government in India.
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions
- The answer to birth control lies in ensuring improved access to contraception and not in government-imposed restrictions. Do you agree? Comment. (250 words; 15 marks)[GS-1, Indian Society]
- Throw some light on the lessons that India can learn from China’s fight against air pollution. (250 words; 15 marks)[GS-3, Environment and Ecology]
Read the previous CNA here.
CNA 03 Dec 2021:- Download PDF Here
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