18 Dec 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

B. GS 2 Related

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Farmers have constitutional right to continue protest: SC

Context:

The Supreme Court said that the farmers have a constitutional right to continue with their protest as long as their dissent against the controversial agricultural laws did not slip into violence.

Details:

• It said that the court would not interfere with the protests and that the right to protest is part of a fundamental right and can, as a matter of fact, be exercised subject to public order.
• The court reiterated its suggestion of forming an “impartial and independent committee” of experts in agriculture to hear both the farmers and the Union Government on the laws.

Note:

• The Delhi Assembly passed a resolution rejecting the farm laws, saying that they should be repealed by the Central Government.
• In October 2020, Punjab became the first state to reject the Union Government’s farm laws, by passing four new farm bills in the State Assembly.
• Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh too soon followed suit.

E. Editorials

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. India-UK ties

Context:

• The transition period of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union is drawing closer, allowing the U.K to take steps for the post-Brexit era.

Details

• One of the major arguments behind Brexit is that the membership of the EU keeps Britain from fully capitalising on trade with other major economies such as Japan, India and the US.
• Trade and relationship between India and the UK are expected to flourish in the future and cooperation in several areas is expected to happen.

The diplomatic exchanges

• During the British Foreign Secretary’s visit to New Delhi, the declaration of immediate and long term goals for the India-UK relationship going forward was made.
• The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to be the chief guest at India’s Republic Day, this will be a historic moment as it will be the first visit of a head of state to India post the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Indian Prime Minister has also been invited to the G-7 summit and the UNFCCC Conference of Parties that is scheduled to be held in the UK in 2021.

India-UK bilateral ties

• The need to revise the 2004 India-UK Strategic Partnership to a “Comprehensive” Strategic Partnership was discussed during the British Foreign Secretary’s visit.
• The upgraded version will encompass cooperation and coordination in crucial areas like counter-terrorism, climate change, Indo-Pacific strategies, etc.
• The exit from the EU allows the UK to forge bilateral trade ties with major economies, the UK has made its intentions clear concerning the beginning of talks on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India.
• The UK has already taken the initiative to finalise trade pacts with the US, Japan, Vietnam and several other countries.
• The positive intent of the UK government to begin FTA talks with India will probably enable both the parties to look at important aspects of the relationship. For a long time now, the relationship has been saddled with issues such as visa restrictions or the state of fugitive Indian businessmen in the UK.

COVID-19 vaccine

• The immediate coordination and cooperation between the two countries will be seen in the corona vaccine domain.
• The Serum Institute is set to produce and distribute the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in India and then as a part of COVAX project to other developing countries.

The recent irritations in relations between the two

• There have been several protests at the Indian High Commission in London over India’s bilateral issues such as the abrogation of Article 370 or the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act and more recently the issue of farmer protests.
• This hasn’t gone down well with India and India has expressed its displeasure to the UK government.
• The UK has explained that the vibrant Indian diaspora there play a role in the politics of the UK and thus it is very difficult to completely evade issues happening in India.

Conclusion

• Going forward, India-UK ties will have to invest adequate diplomatic capital to lay a roadmap for the bilateral relationship in the future.

2. Sanctions overreach

Context:

• The imposition of sanctions on Turkey by the US for the acquisition of S-400 missile defence system.

Details:

• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 European and North American countries.
• NATO is a collective defence pact that was signed in 1949, in what was the beginning of the Cold War.
• Turkey’s decision to acquire S-400 missile defence has not gone down well with the US, deepening the tensions between them.

CAATSA

• Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) was enacted in the year 2017 to dissuade third countries from purchasing weapons from Russia.
• CAATSA has been criticized by several experts because they undermine a country’s sovereignty and its national security concerns.

Turkey-USA

• Earlier in 2013, the domestic development and production of a long-range air and missile defence systems became a priority for Turkey, and the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced a tender for the Turkish Long Range Air and Missile Defense Systems (T-LORAMIDS) program.
• Turkey had three major conditions:
  • Co-production,
  • Technology transfer and
  • Partial on-time delivery.
• American defence companies did not include technology transfers or co-productions in their offer and also asked for at least a four times larger payment than what Turkish financial conditions had stated.
• The US and Turkey are NATO members, there have been tensions between the two over the suspension of Turkey over the F-35 jet programme. The US had suspended Turkey from the programme over fears that their programme would be undermined by the Russian system.

Is the US justified?

• Though the decision to suspend Turkey from the programme is justiciable because the US concerns were legitimate as they did not want their defence equipment to be exposed to Russia.
• The sanctions on Turkey through CAATSA for purchasing from Russia can hardly be justified on any logical grounds.
• The S-400 which have been deployed in Syria, on the borders of Eastern Europe are found to be an advanced aerial shield and can be judged by the number of suitors the equipment has. India, China have opted for S-400.

Geopolitical outcomes

• The US has to be careful in dealing with Turkey especially taking into consideration the location of Turkey vis-à-vis the Middle East and Europe.
• Turkey is seen as the land bridge between the two continents and any further antagonization of Turkey could direct them to a path towards close ties with the Kremlin.
• There have been numerous diverging points between the two countries over issues like Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.
• The NATO also has had internal squabbles of late, with a war of words between the heads of states of Turkey and France and the Greece-Turkey spat over the eastern Mediterranean region.

Possible implications for India in the light of CAATSA

• India has always been an ardent champion of strategic autonomy in foreign policymaking. It has always been wary of military alliances.
• The threat of CAATSA is looming menacingly over defence equipment purchases from India’s oldest, largest and reliable supplier of military goods.
• In a multipolar world that is no longer divided into two blocs, countries are expected to choose the path that they feel is appropriate; bullying countries over the defence equipment purchases cannot be justified.

Conclusion

• The 21^st century multipolar world places a lot of importance on national sovereignty, territorial integrity and any efforts to undermine it will be met with resistance.
• The US has to realize that it is no longer the universal hegemon it was in the 1990s and early 2000s. It has to respect the strategic autonomy of other countries in their conduct of foreign policy.

Category: ENVIRONMENT

1. Converting waste to energy

Context:

• An 11.5 MW waste-to-energy plant on the outskirts of Bangalore is expected to process 600 tonnes per day of inorganic waste.

Details:

• Waste-to-energy plants often burn municipal solid waste (MSW), often called garbage or trash, to produce steam in a boiler that is used to generate electricity.
• The new plant at Bangalore has several advantages but also some operational challenges.
• The waste to energy plants will help in reducing the waste management problem and can also help in producing additional energy.

What does it mean for the city of Bangalore?

• Bangalore generates close to 5,000 tonnes of waste daily, of which about 2,500 tonnes is organic, about 1,000 tonnes inert material (sweeping waste) and 1,500 tonnes inorganic.
• This inorganic material, which consists of bad quality plastics and used cloth pieces, can be processed as Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF).
• This material has a calorific value of more than 2,500 kJ/kg and can be used to generate steam energy, which can be converted into electric energy instead of burning coal and other materials used in traditional waste-to-energy plants.

Benefits of the plant

• The waste-to-energy plants usually accept the RDF material generated in organic composting plants. They also segregate the wet and inorganic material near the plant, convert organic waste to compost, and inorganic waste to energy.
• Approximately, about 50 tonnes of RDF generate 1 MW of power. Eight organic waste processing plants are operational within the city and they receive more than 2,000 tonnes of waste collected by households, commercial establishments and markets.
• Although about 30%-40% of the material received is segregated organic waste, and the remainder is mixed waste, the latter consists of about 40% inorganic waste which can be converted into RDF.
• Handling inorganic waste that is not fit for recycling has always been a challenge. At present, these high-calorific materials are landfilled or left unhandled in waste plants and cause fire accidents. Attempts to send this material to cement kilns have not fructified.
• The proposed plant can source 600 tonnes per day of this RDF and generate 11.5 MW of power equivalent to 2.4 lakh units of power per day. This will reduce the city’s dependency on unscientific landfills, reduce fire accidents, and provide a permanent solution to recover value from inorganic waste. However, there are some challenges.

Challenges

1. Absence of a successful model to emulate
   1. In the last several years, many Indian cities have attempted to establish such plants but a good demonstration model is yet to materialize.
   2. Technology suppliers are international organisations who struggle with the change in the quality and nature of waste generated in Indian cities. A few plants in India have stopped operations for this reason.
2. Quality of waste generated
   1. The quality of waste generated in Bengaluru itself could be a hurdle. The plants require fine inorganic material with less than 5% moisture and less than 5% silt and soil contents, whereas the moisture and inert content in the mixed waste generated in the city is more than 15%-20%.
3. Segregation at source
   1. Segregation at source has been a huge problem. The collected waste material needs to be sieved using 80 mm-100 mm sieving machines, this additional step could be avoided if citizens take the responsibility of segregating the domestic waste. Besides, the sticky silt and soil particles can also reduce the calorific value.
4. Pricing of power
   1. The other big challenge for this plant is the power tariff. Generally, the tariff at which the power is purchased by such plants across the country is around ₹7-8 per KwH which is higher than the ₹3-4 per KwH generated through coal and other means.
   2. This could be a serious challenge to state electricity regulators as the selling price of power cannot be increased corresponding to the purchasing price.

Conclusion

• There is a need to have a streamlined process with engagement from multiple stakeholders.
• Municipalities and private players in this business need to ensure segregation at source and support end-to-end segregation, the huge informal sector for recyclables in cities must be integrated.
• Turning a portion of its waste into energy enables the city to reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills and reduce the burden on waste management plants.
• Cities in India have to come up with a roadmap for setting up more waste to energy plants, this roadmap will have to deal with regulatory mechanisms, instilling civic sense by creating awareness and also government support.

Q1. Rivers Icchamati and Hariabhanga are transboundary rivers flowing through India and 
which another country?

Q2. Consider the following statements with respect to CMS-01 satellite:

Q3. Consider the following statements with respect to Human Freedom Index:

Q4. Consider the following statements with respect to the United Nations Office for 
Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR):

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. What are the implications of Brexit on the India-UK relationship? (10 marks, 150 words) [GS 2, International Relations]
2. “Waste management is going to get increasingly difficult with rapid urbanization and also a change in lifestyle.” In light of the above statement, explain some of the strategies that are needed to be implemented to ensure better waste management. (15 marks, 150 words) [GS 3, Environment]

Read the previous CNA here.