CNA 31 March 2023:- Download PDF Here
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. GS 1 Related B. GS 2 Related C. GS 3 Related ECONOMY 1. The issues with the Quality Control Orders for fibres D. GS 4 Related E. Editorials HISTORY 1. Vaikom Satyagraha SECURITY 1. Is the Khalistan movement reviving F. Prelims Facts 1. The piezoelectric effect in liquids 2. Images of Earth captured by EOS-06 satellite 3. Yangli festival G. Tidbits 1. Drugs for rare diseases get customs duty relief 2. Back to school: 22.7 lakh adults gained literacy and numeracy skills this year 3. Ancestry records to shed light on India’s past H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions
A. GS 1 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
B. GS 2 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
C. GS 3 Related
1. The issues with the Quality Control Orders for fibres
Syllabus: Issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth and development
Mains: Quality Control Orders (QCO) on basic fibres, the need for QCO, its implications, challenges and the way forward
Context
- Quality Control Orders (QCO) have been introduced for fibres such as cotton, polyester and viscose which are the basic raw materials in the Indian textile industry.
- Additionally, even the international manufacturers of these fibres supplying to India are required to obtain a certificate from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
Reasons for including fibres under QCOs
- The Indian textile industry utilises both indigenous as well as imported fibres and filaments.
- The Indian textile industry makes use of imported fibres mainly for reasons such as:
- Cost competitiveness of imported fibres
- Their non-availability in the domestic market
- To meet the demands of a few overseas buyers.
- The key objective of bringing these fibres under QCO is to regulate the import of sub-standard and cheaper quality materials and to ensure quality products for the buyers and customers.
Key challenges associated with the move
- According to reports, India imports close to 50,000 – 60,000 tonnes of viscose fibre and its variants every year from about 20 countries.
- Further, about 90,000 tonnes of polyester fibre and 1.25 lakh tonnes of Polyester Partially Oriented Yarn (POY) are imported every year.
- The latest move will make the process of imports more complex.
- Also, the overseas fibre manufacturers not only sell their products to India but also export them to other countries and since obtaining a certificate from the BIS involves a cost, not all the manufacturers would be interested in getting the certificate.
- If such overseas fibre manufacturers exit the Indian market, it would be difficult for the Indian textile manufacturers who are dependent on these suppliers for the raw material as they would be forced to look at other suppliers or lose orders.
- Furthermore, a bed linen exporter from Tiruppur has lost a European order to Pakistan as the European buyers had demanded the use of a polyester filament with functional properties from Turkey.
- Since the Turkey-based company is not interested in getting the BIS certificate, the exporter from Tiruppur could not source the polyester filament thereby losing the order.
- Also, BIS officials are mandated to visit the manufacturing plant overseas before issuing the certificate and this process is still pending for all suppliers who are willing to get the BIS certification.
- Therefore there is a lack of clarity on when the fibres would be shipped and its associated delays.
- There are also concerns about the costs of basic garments going up due to the QCO regime.
Way forward
- Viscose, polyester and a few other varieties of fibre have special functional properties and separate Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) codes when imported.
- However, all these are now subjected to blanket quality standards under QCO.
- The textile industry imports these varieties of fibre in small quantities and regulating and controlling its availability will deny Indian consumers of niche products.
- The textile industry believes that the import of such fibres must be made available without stringent controls or restrictions.
- The overseas applicant must be accorded the BIS certificate without any significant delays after the inspection.
- Further, experts say that various textile units utilise lower-grade fibres that are obtained from rejects and wastes and these are not covered under the QCO regime.
- The polyester spun yarn mills which are mainly part of the MSME sector require capital support to establish their own labs to test the quality of products.
Nut graf: India has issued Quality Control Orders (QCO) for fibres such as cotton, polyester and viscose which are the basic raw materials used in the Indian textile and clothing industry. However, industry experts believe that QCO should only be implemented after clearing all the existing ambiguities and anomalies associated with the sector.
D. GS 4 Related
Nothing here for today!!!
E. Editorials
Syllabus: Modern Indian History – significant events and issues
Mains: Significance of Vaikom Satyagraha in modern Indian history
Context: This article discusses the impact of Vaikom satyagraha on social justice.
Introduction:
- March 30, 2023, marks the commencement of the centenary year of the Vaikom temple street entry movement that was launched in 1924.
- This nonviolent movement was to end the prohibition imposed on backward communities in using the roads around the Vaikom Mahadeva temple in Vaikkom, Kerala.
- It served as a lead-up to Kerala’s declaration of temple entry in 1936.
- It was launched by leaders in Kerala such as T.K. Madhavan, K.P. Kesava Menon and George Joseph, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi.
- The movement was sustained and successfully conducted by Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, then-president of the Tamil Nadu Congress, and others between 1924 and 1925.
- Tamil Nadu also played a pivotal role in Vaikom Satyagraha, which symbolised a struggle by the “untouchables”.
- Periyar and Kovai Ayyamuthu from Tamil Nadu worked in tandem with leaders in Kerala despite facing repressive action.
Relevance of Vaikom Satyagraha:
- The Vaikom Satyagraha, which took place nearly a century ago, continues to hold great significance in the present world.
- The movement was a reminder that discrimination based on caste, race, or any other factor is unacceptable and needs to be challenged.
- It was a powerful demonstration of the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance in achieving social change. The Satyagrahis showed that they could win the battle without resorting to violence, and this lesson remains relevant even today.
- The Vaikom Satyagraha continues to inspire social justice movements around the world. The movement’s legacy shows that ordinary people can come together and challenge oppressive systems and bring about positive change.
- The Vaikom Satyagraha emphasised inclusivity and the importance of treating everyone with respect and dignity. This message is still relevant today, as we continue to grapple with issues of discrimination, intolerance, and inequality.
Read more on Socio-Religious Reform Movements.
Nut Graf: As Vaikom satyagraha enters its centenary year, celebrations to commemorate the movement began in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Today, the Vaikom Satyagraha remains an inspiration for social justice activists and serves as a symbol of the power of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression.
1. Is the Khalistan movement reviving
Syllabus: Role of External State & Non-State Actors in Creating Challenges to Internal Security
Mains: Fall of Khalistan movement.
Context: This article discusses the growing concern about the revival of the Khalistan movement in Punjab.
Introduction:
- The Punjab police have launched a coordinated crackdown against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his associates.
- Amritpal Singh is the leader of Waris Punjab De, a radical organisation that supports the Sikh separatist movement and the creation of a homeland called Khalistan.
- This has resulted in growing concerns about a revival of the Khalistan movement in Punjab.
Ground reality:
- The Khalistan movement has largely been dormant, and its popularity has declined significantly.
- However, there have been sporadic instances of violence and protests in recent years, particularly in the wake of controversial farm bills passed by the Indian government in 2020, which many Sikhs felt were detrimental to their agricultural livelihoods.
- There have also been some attempts by pro-Khalistan groups to revive the movement, particularly through social media campaigns and lobbying efforts in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, where there is a significant Sikh diaspora.
- The Indian government has also been taking measures to counter any attempts to revive the movement, including increased surveillance and crackdowns on pro-Khalistan groups.
- The movement remains a relatively fringe movement with limited support among Sikhs in India and around the world.
Read more on the Khalistan movement in CNA dated Mar 19, 2023.
Nut Graf: The Punjab police have launched a crackdown against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his associates, raising concerns about a revival of the Khalistan movement. However, the movement remains relatively dormant and limited in support, with sporadic violence and social media campaigns being countered by the Indian government’s increased surveillance and crackdowns.
F. Prelims Facts
1. The piezoelectric effect in liquids
Syllabus: GS-3; Science and Technology – developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
Prelims: Piezoelectric effect
Context
Researchers have reported evidence of the piezoelectric effect in liquids for the first time.
Piezoelectric effect
- The piezoelectric effect refers to an instance when a body develops an electric current when it is subjected to mechanical stress.
- When piezoelectric material is placed under mechanical stress, a shifting of the positive and negative charge centres in the material takes place, which then results in an external electrical field.
- Example: Quartz is one of the most famous piezoelectric crystal substances or materials.
- Quartz is a material that is extensively used in analogue wristwatches and clocks.
- Quartz is silicon dioxide (SiO2) i.e. it consists of silicon and oxygen atoms at the four vertices of three-sided pyramids which repeat themselves to form the crystal.
- The effective charge of each pyramid is located slightly away from the centre and when mechanical stress is applied the position of the charge is pushed further from the centre, giving rise to a small voltage which is the source of the effect.
Image source: Research Gate
Piezoelectric effect in liquid
- The piezoelectric effect was so far expected only in solids as the body/object which is being squeezed must have an organised structure such as the pyramids of quartz.
- However, liquids don’t have a definite structure and they only take up the shape of the container.
- Physicists have explained the effect using Hooke’s law.
- According to Hooke’s law, the force required to squeeze an object is linearly proportional to the amount of squeezing and the properties of dielectric materials. These are materials that don’t conduct electricity but whose electrons are still mildly affected by an electric field.
- The piezoelectric effect was observed in ionic liquids and the liquids also displayed the inverse piezoelectric effect i.e. they became distorted when an electric charge was applied.
- This observation of the piezoelectric effect in liquid has opened the door for a wide range of applications as solid-state material and room-temperature ionic liquids are more readily recyclable and are associated with fewer environmental risks than most of the currently used piezoelectric substances.
2. Images of Earth captured by EOS-06 satellite
Syllabus: GS-3; Science and Technology; Awareness in the field of space
Prelims: ISRO’s EOS-06 Satellite
Context
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released images of Earth captured by its EOS-06 satellite.
Details
Image Source: The Hindu
- ISRO has released the mosaic-generated images by its National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC).
- The mosaic with 1 km spatial resolution is generated by combining 2939 images, after processing 300 GB of data to show the Earth as seen during February 1 and 15.
- The Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) payload on board the EOS-06 satellite senses the Earth in 13 different wavelengths to provide information about the vegetation on land and ocean biota for global oceans.
EOS-06 satellite
- The EOS-06 is the third generation satellite in the Oceansat series.
- The EOS-06 satellite was launched by ISRO’s PSLV-C54 along with eight Nano-satellites on the 26th of November 2022.
- EOS-06 carries four payloads namely Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM), Sea Surface Temperature Monitor, Ku-Band Scatterometer, and ARGOS (Advanced Data Collection System).
- The key objective of EOS-06 is to observe ocean colour data, sea surface temperature and wind vector data to use in oceanography, climatic and meteorological applications.
- The satellite also helps value-added products like potential fishing zones using chlorophyll, SST and wind speed and land-based geophysical parameters.
Syllabus: GS-1; Art and culture; salient aspects of Art Forms
Prelims: About Yangli festival
Context
The Yangli festival was celebrated at the Gobha village in the Morigaon district of Assam.
Yangli festival
- Yangli is one of the important festivals of the Tiwa tribesmen.
- Tiwa is one of the major tribes of Assam.
- The Yangli festival is celebrated once every three years.
- During the Yangli festival, the Tiwas celebrate a bountiful harvest and worship to protect their crops from pests and other natural calamities.
- Yangli festival is an important festival of the Tiwas as agriculture is the mainstay of their economy.
G. Tidbits
1. Drugs for rare diseases get customs duty relief
Image Source: The Hindu
- The Union government declared that all the drugs and food for special medical purposes imported for personal use for the treatment of all rare diseases listed under the National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021 will be fully exempted from basic customs duty.
- The Union government has further fully exempted pembrolizumab (Keytruda), used for treating various types of cancers, from basic customs duty.
- Drugs or medicines usually attract basic customs duty of 10%, while some categories of life-saving drugs/vaccines attract a concessional rate of 5% or nil.
- As per the announcements by the government, exemptions are already available for certain drugs for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy or Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
- Since the drugs or special foods used for treating a few diseases are expensive and often need to be imported, the exemption will help reduce the cost and provide much-needed relief to the patients.
2. Back to school: 22.7 lakh adults gained literacy and numeracy skills this year
- Over 22.7 lakh adults from ten States and UTs qualified as literate adults after passing the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Test (FLNAT) for 2022-23.
- Out of the total, over 40% or 9.25 lakh of the successful candidates were from Madhya Pradesh followed by Rajasthan (5.48 lakh), Tamil Nadu (5.28 lakh), and Uttar Pradesh (1.46 lakh).
- In recent years, there has been a renewed push for adult literacy under various initiatives such as the Nav Bharat Saksharta Abhiyan and the New India Literacy Programme (NILP).
- The new NILP has been allocated ₹150 crores for 2022-23. However, this budget does not include funds to hire teachers which means that the scheme is volunteer-driven.
- NILP has also targeted literacy for up to one crore adults in the coming academic year 2023-24.
- NILP is also the first time that a government scheme covers the missing age group of 15 to 18-year-old children as the Right To Education (RTE) covers children till 14 years and adult literacy programmes target persons over 18 years.
- As per the available data from the Education Ministry, there are about 15 to 20 crore people in India who do not know how to read and write.
- For adults, important skills include reading a voter ID card, First Information Report (FIR), opening a Jan Dhan account in a bank, etc.
- According to NILP, an individual should be able to read with comprehension and also have mathematical skills to be declared literate.
- The Education Ministry is also developing a new mobile app that will help adult learners to self-register in the programme and also encourage teaching volunteers to register with various programmes.
3. Ancestry records to shed light on India’s past
- The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is looking to tap rolls of leather-bound record books with details such as place of origin, names, births, deaths, reason of death, place of residence, grants made to temples, caste and clan to fill “gaps” in Indian history.
- These books are available with genealogy priests called “Panda” in Haridwar.
- According to ICHR, these books and records are invaluable sources of the social and economic conditions of the times and have remained untapped because they could not reach the respective archives of States.
- Historians believe that these records can have important information on past famines, epidemics, migration, movement of people, and social history on how clans and communities were organised.
- Apart from Haridwar, similar records are also available in religious centres like Ujjain, Nasik, Gaya, Gangotri, and Rameshwaram.
- According to historians, the records can be a rich source for the history of migration and the ICHR will systematise the process of integrating the data from these records.
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
Q1. Consider the following statements with respect to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB): (Level – Moderate)
- It is a statutory organization constituted under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
- It collects, compiles and publishes technical and statistical data relating to water and air pollution and the measures devised for their effective prevention, control or abatement.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- 1 only
- 2 only
- Both
- None
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: c
Explanation:
- Statement 1 is correct, The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is a statutory organisation constituted in September 1974 under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
- Statement 2 is correct, One of the mandates of CPCB is to collect, compile and publish technical and statistical data relating to water and air pollution and the measures devised for their effective prevention, control or abatement.
Q2. Under the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP), which of the following air pollutants have been identified for regular monitoring at all the locations? (Level – Difficult)
- Carbon Monoxide
- Oxides of Nitrogen
- Sulphur Dioxide (SO2)
- Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM / PM10)
- Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5)
- Ozone
Options:
- 1, 2, 3 and 4 only
- 3, 4, 5 and 6 only
- 2, 3, 4 and 5 only
- 1, 2, 5 and 6 only
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: c
Explanation:
- Under NAMP, four air pollutants have been identified for regular monitoring at all the locations. They are:
- Sulphur Dioxide (SO2)
- Oxides of Nitrogen as NO2
- Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM / PM10)
- Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5)
Q3. With respect to International Court of Justice (ICJ), which of the following statements is/are correct? (Level – Difficult)
- The Court settles legal disputes between nations and between individuals, in accordance with international law.
- The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in New York.
- Judges are eligible for re-election.
Options:
- 1 and 2 only
- 2 only
- 3 only
- 1, 2 and 3
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: c
Explanation:
- Statement 1 is not correct, The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN).
- The Court’s role is to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.
- Therefore, the Court settles legal disputes between nations only and not between individuals.
- Statement 2 is not correct, The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague in the Netherlands.
- Statement 3 is correct, The ICJ is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the Security Council (UNSC).
- Judges are also eligible for re-election.
Q4. 38th parallel frequently in news demarcates (Level – Moderate)
- Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan
- Turkey and Syria
- North and South Korea
- Sudan and South Sudan
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: c
Explanation:
Image Source: The World Atlas
Q5. Who among the following gave a systematic critique of the moderate politics of the Indian National Congress in a series of articles entitled new Lamps for Old? (Level – Moderate) [PYQ-2008]
- Aurobindo Ghosh
- R.C.Dutt
- Syed Ahmad khan
- Viraraghavachari
CHECK ANSWERS:-
Answer: a
Explanation:
- K.G. Deshpande, a friend of Aurobindo, was in charge of a weekly, “Induprakash”, published from Bombay. He requested Sri Aurobindo to write upon the current political situation.
- Aurobindo Ghosh began writing a series of fiery articles under the title “New Lamps for Old”, strongly criticising the Congress for its moderate policy.
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions
- What were the key objectives of the Self-Respect Movement? Critically evaluate the success of this movement. (250 words; 15 marks)[GS-1; History]
- Quality control orders for textiles, despite good intentions, may do more harm to the industry than good. Do you agree? Critically analyze. (250 words; 15 marks) [GS-3; Economy]
Read the previous CNA here.
CNA 31 March 2023:- Download PDF Here
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