UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis Oct15

A. GS1 Related

B. GS2 Related

In news

• Five new cases of Zika virus were detected in on Sunday, taking the total number of infected people to 60, a Rajasthan health department official said.
• Most of the cases which have been reported are from the area  where fogging and other anti-larvae activities are being carried out to prevent the spread of the virus.
• The State health department has issued an advisory for pregnant women staying outside the affected area to not visit Shastri Nagar.
• The virus, transmitted through the aedes aegypti mosquito, causes fever, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain. It is harmful to pregnant women, as it can lead to microcephaly — a condition in which a baby’s head is significantly smaller than expected — in newborns.

• The victim of a crime should have a say in the punishment of the criminal, the Supreme Court has said in a judgment.
• A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur. S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta held that punishment should be “meaningful” to the victim also.
• For this, “it is necessary to seriously consider giving a hearing to the victim while awarding the sentence to a convict”, the Bench said.
• In criminal prosecution, the State takes the front seat while the victim becomes a prosecution witness. The crime is primarily considered a wrong against society and the punishment, a deterrent for prospective offenders.
• With its order, the Supreme Court, has made it clear that the victim or her family — who has suffered the crime — should have an equal say in the punishment of the perpetrator.
• “A victim impact statement or a victim impact assessment must be given due recognition so that an appropriate punishment is awarded to the convict,” Justice Lokur observed.
• What may be ‘justice’ in the rule book may not serve the victim. Taking another step further, Justice Lokur said even taking a statement from the victim on the sentence of the convict may not mean relief to the victim.
• The case concerned the rejection of an appeal filed by Mallikarjun Kodagali, a victim of an attack in February 2009, by the Karnataka High Court in 2014. The Supreme Court set aside the High Court decision.

• The State government has notified the Tamil Nadu Victim Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault/Other Crimes, 2018, in line with the Supreme Court judgment delivered last month.
• A bench led by Justice Madan B. Lokur had approved the suggestion for compensation while hearing the Nipun Saxena Vs Union of India case and directed that the guidelines be made operational.
• Under the scheme, a rape survivor will get a minimum compensation of ₹4 lakh. In the case of a survivor of gang rape, the compensation would be ₹5 lakh.
• If the woman has lost her life, her dependant would be entitled to a compensation of ₹7 lakh. The maximum compensation that could be granted in cases of loss of life as well as gang rape is ₹10 lakh and the maximum compensation for rape could be ₹7 lakh, as per the scheme.

Funds provided

• The scheme provides funds for the purpose of compensation to women victims or their dependants who have suffered loss or injury as a result of the offence committed and who require rehabilitation.
• Though a woman survivor or her dependants are eligible for compensation from multiple schemes, Section 357-B of the CrPC shall be taken into account while deciding on the quantum of compensation.
• Survivors and their dependants could apply for compensation before the Tamil Nadu Legal Services Authority (TNSLSA) or the respective District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) with the police FIR.
• The scheme covers offences registered under Sections 326A (acid attack), 354A to 354D (sexual harassment), 376A to 376E (sexual intercourse with wife during separation and allied offences), 304B (dowry death) and 498A (cruelty to wife) of the Indian Penal Code.

Offences covered

• The scheme covers offences registered under Sections 326A (acid attack), 354A to 354D (sexual harassment), 376A to 376E (sexual intercourse with wife during separation and allied offences), 304B (dowry death) and 498A (cruelty to wife) of the Indian Penal Code.
• For determining the compensation, issues such as the gravity of the offence and severity of mental or physical harm or injury suffered by the survivor/victim, expenditure incurred or likely to be incurred for medical treatment and loss of educational opportunity or employment as a result of the offence would be taken into account.
• Issues as to whether the abuse was a single isolated incident or took place over a period of time and whether the woman became pregnant are the other factors that would be considered.
• In case of a minor, 80% of the compensation would be deposited in a fixed deposit account and shall be drawn only on attainment of the age of majority of the survivor.

• The first India-U.S. tri-services exercise is likely to take place in 2019, and talks are on to include the special forces of the two countries in the drill, a senior U.S. defence official has said.
• The three forces of each country already take part in bilateral exercises separately — their Armies participate in an annual drill called Yudh Abyaas, whose latest edition took place in September, and the Air Forces take part in a bilateral drill called Cope India.
• The Navies participate in an exercise called Malabar, involving Japan.But this will be the first time, the three services of India and the U.S. will participate in a drill together.
• The drill may take place sometime in late August because U.S. naval ships could be in the region around that time.
• The drill will focus on a United Nations-based scenario and the overarching mission of humanitarian assistance, disaster relief measure.
• India was the natural humanitarian disaster relief hub in the Indo-Pacific region.
• The Indian Army has Para SF, the Navy has Marcos while the Air Force has the Garud as their respective special forces.
• Though the joint tri-services drill was formally announced after the first 2+2 dialogue between the principals of the External Affairs and Defence Ministries of the two countries last month, work on it had begun much before.

C. GS3 Related

Context

• The impact of the windmills in Karnataka was studied by researchers from Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) during a two-year project.

Impact of Windmills

• Windmills pose a threat to wildlife in forests through collisions and noise.
• They found that windmills killed birds and bats in collisions, and that birds and mammals also moved away due to the noise.
• The noise levels near windmills go up to 85 decibels (dB), the equivalent of large trucks. The drone of a turbine, which operates day and night, is above 70dB. By comparison, noise in urban areas is 55 dB and even in industrial areas, is lower at 75dB. Ambient noise in forests is less than 40 dB.
• Such avoidance and movement to forest fringes might increase conflict with humans. This calls for protocols and policy guidelines before diverting forest land for wind farms, states the study funded by Karnataka Forest Department, Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) and National Institute of Wind Energy.

Wind mills in Karnataka

• Karnataka has diverted 37.80 sq. km of forests for wind farms, Union Environment Ministry data show. KREDL says that there are more than 3,857 wind turbines generating 4,730 megawatts of electricity.
• The researchers led by H.N. Kumara looked at windmills in Chitradurga around Jogimatti forests and Gadag, including Kappatagudda, which was recently declared a sanctuary. They recorded between 35% and 40% of Karnataka’s bird diversity in these areas.
• The team saw collisions of 10 animals — 6 bats and four birds — with a collision rate of 0.23 animals per year per turbine.
• While the collision rate was low compared to other locations, it could not be ignored as the bulk of them took place in a short span of time, the study says.
• Researchers found birds avoiding windmill sites. There are 50% fewer birds in the areas compared to undisturbed sites.
• The avoidance is seen among mammals too. Herbivores moved away, with predators following them.

• Given a choice between giving birth on land or sea ice, Pacific walrus mothers would most likely choose ice.
• Likewise, they prefer sea ice for molting, mating, nursing and resting between dives for food. Trouble is, as the U.S. progresses, there’s going to be far less ice around.
• The U.S. government in 2008 listed polar bears as a threatened species because of diminished sea ice brought on by climate warming. That year the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned to do the same for walruses.
• It is unknown whether Pacific walruses can give birth, conduct their nursing during immediate post-natal care period, or complete courtship on land.
• A federal judge in Alaska will hear the center’s lawsuit challenging the government’s decision not to list the walrus as threatened. There is no court date set for the lawsuit.
• Pacific walrus males grow to 12 feet long and up to 1,815 kg more than an average midsize sedan. Females reach half that weight. Walruses dive and use sensitive whiskers to find clams and snails in dim light on the sea floor.
• An Endangered Species Act listing would require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for walruses and plan for their recovery.
• Federal agencies, before issuing permits for development such as offshore drilling, would be required to ensure walruses and their habitat would not be jeopardised.
• Inaccessibility protected walruses for decades, but a rapid decline in summer sea ice has made them vulnerable.
• In the Chukchi Sea between Alaska and Russia, where Pacific walrus females and juveniles spend their summer, ice could be absent during that season by 2060 or sooner, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Since 1981, an area more than double the size of Texas 1.58 million square km has become unavailable to Arctic marine mammals by summer’s end, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
• By late August, as sea ice recedes beyond the shallow continental shelf, female walruses and their calves face a choice — stay on ice over water too deep to reach the ocean floor for feeding or come ashore for rest periods, where the smallest animals can be crushed in stampedes triggered by a hunter, aeroplane or bear.

Human intrusion

• More open water already has meant more ship traffic. Walruses also could find more humans in their habitat with a reversal of U.S. policy on Arctic offshore drilling.
• Former President Barack Obama permanently withdrew most Arctic waters from lease sales, but President Donald Trump in April 2017 announced he was reversing Obama, a decision being challenged in court.
• The administration’s proposed five-year offshore leasing plan includes sales in the Chukchi Sea.
• Designating walruses as threatened would mean oil exploration companies would have to consult with federal wildlife officials to make sure drill rigs don’t endanger the animals.
• However, Mr. Trump’s Interior and Commerce departments in July proposed administrative changes to the species law that would end automatic protections for threatened plants and animals and set limits on designating habitat as crucial to recovery.
• Walruses are notoriously difficult to count and population estimates range widely. The array of stresses and uncertainty about the walruses’ future are enough evidence for listing them as threatened, the Center for Biological Diversity argues.

• The blue crab, once a native of the Red Sea, first showed up in the Gulf of Gabes off Tunisia’s coast in 2014 and immediately set about snapping up the rich pickings it found.It quickly became a curse.It eats all the best fish.
• Tunisian fishermen saw the blue crab wreak such havoc on their catches when it first appeared that they nicknamed it after the terrifying jihadists of the Islamic State group.
• But now — four years after these scourges of the sea invaded their waters — the predators have turned into prey as fishermen in the North African country cash in on the crustaceans.
• Jamel Ben Joma Zayoud pulls his nets out of the water off the Mediterranean island of Djerba to find them full of blue crabs with their fearsome-looking spikes.
• There are two explanations for how the blue crab, or Portunus pelagicus, made it all the way to the shores of Tunisia, said researcher Marouene Bedioui, at the National Institute for Marine Sciences and Technologies.
• Either their eggs were transported on boats to the region or they arrived as part of a lengthy migration that started when the Suez Canal opened in 1869. However, the crabs turned up, their impact has been damaging.
• The hard-up fishermen along the coast, already struggling to make ends meet, felt the pinch as the crabs attacked their nets and the local fish.
• One thousand, one hundred fishermen have been hit by this plague in Gabes.In 2015 and 2016, fishermen demonstrated over the issue — and eventually the government took notice.
• The authorities last year launched a plan aimed at helping fishermen to turn the pest into profit.They were taught how to trap the crabs and the government began subsidising the cost of purchasing what was caught.
• Plants popped up to freeze the crabs and ship them to markets in the Gulf and Asia where customers are willing to shell out for their meat.
• One of them is managed by a Turkish company — putting to use the experience it gained dealing with an influx of the crabs back home.
• In the first seven months of this year, Tunisia produced 1,450 tonnes of blue crab worth around $3.5 million, according to the Ministry of agriculture.

In news

• The multi-agency committee set to finalise the definition of a “shell company” for the purposes of enforcing penal laws for various violations is yet to arrive at a consensus on yardsticks for identification of such entities.
• After a large number of entities, classified as a shell company, challenged the decision, the government had set up the committee to come up with a definition.
• Accordingly, the committee drafted a definition that had to be tested on various yardsticks to determine its legal feasibility.
• The shady financial transactions, ownerships and assets of thousands of companies have been studied in a bid to come up with acceptable criteria to declare an entity a shell company as per the law.
• The committee also examined the definition given by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• The OECD defines a shell firm as “a company that is formally registered, incorporated, or otherwise legally organised in an economy but which does not conduct any operations in that economy other than in a pass-through capacity. Shells tend to be conduits or holding companies and are generally included in the description of Special Purpose Entities”.
• A consensus among the committee members on the definition is yet to be arrived at. Also, the agencies involved in the exercise are getting caught up in investigations into important cases, including those against Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
• Examining the financial records in such cases itself is a time- consuming process and requires constant supervision and huge manpowerl.
• The issue had come up after the government cracked down on dummy companies that were used for round-tripping of funds and money laundering.

In news

• Non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are in the news following the IL&FS fiasco. The fall from grace for the giant has shaken up India’s financial markets.
• The secular upswing enjoyed by NBFCs over the past five years has come to a sudden halt — bond markets are in a tizzy, interest rates have firmed up, asset-liability mismatch is the only point being discussed and business models are being questioned.

Excesses in NBFC space

• While there have been excesses in the space,the NBFC space is heterogeneous where there are some extraordinary business models, some mediocre ones and some vulnerable spots, it wrote in the report.
• Even after 25 years of private banking, retail credit penetration in India is low, with roughly about 10% of the population having access to banking credit.
• NBFCs currently serve 60 million people through gold, micro, MSME, two-wheeler and commercial vehicle loans and have more than 50% market share in each of these segments.
• Based on the type of products and the category of customers serviced, there is a wide spectrum of NBFCs.
• A large part of the NBFC ecosystem services the retail population directly where the assets financed are liquid, repayments are regular and pricing power reasonable.
• The other part of the NBFC universe helps fill gaps left by PSU bank ‘hibernation’ and this is where the maximum risk lay.

Problems with NBFCs

• Asset liability mismatches arise because of two reasons — either being too reliant on short-term borrowings or illiquidity in the underlying asset being financed.
• Most new-age NBFCs and some housing finance companies (HFCs) having large exposure to developers and large-ticket loans against property, face the most critical challenge.
• For them, both growth and margins will slow down. Post the recent IL&FS fiasco, the risk arose that some financial entities would have issues rolling over their maturing obligations.
• However, that this liquidity constraint will cascade into distress for NBFCs is probably exaggerated, though steps need to be taken in order to safeguard financial firms’ own balancesheets as well as overall financial stability, since we are going to be in a tighter liquidity situation and higher rate environment going forward. That will exert pressure on the margins of these NBFCs.
• Bright spots are segments that service retail customers, have good pricing power, are difficult for banks to disrupt and see good recovery in demand.
• Vehicle finance, consumer finance, MSME and micro banking are likely to remain bright spots over FY19 and beyond.

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

India’s Case

• India needs to strengthen and implement regulations on antibiotic misuse.
• Even as antibiotics lose their efficacy against deadly infectious diseases worldwide, it seems to be business as usual for governments, private corporations and individuals who have the power to stall a post-antibiotic apocalypse.
• In a recent investigation, it was found that the world’s largest veterinary drug-maker, Zoetis, was selling antibiotics as growth promoters to poultry farmers in India, even though it had stopped the practice in the U.S.
• India is yet to regulate antibiotic-use in poultry, while the U.S. banned the use of antibiotics as growth-promoters in early 2017.

• So, technically, the drug-maker was doing nothing illegal and complying with local regulations in both countries.
• But such reasoning is self-defeating, because antibiotic-resistance does not respect political boundaries.
• Of course, the country that stands to lose the most from antibiotic resistance is India, given that its burden of infectious disease is among the world’s highest.
• According to a 2016 PLOS Medicine paper, 416 of every 100,000 Indians die of infectious diseases each year. This is more than twice the U.S.’s crude infectious-disease mortality-rate in the 1940s, when antibiotics were first used there. If these miracle drugs stop working, no one will be hit harder than India.
• This is why the country’s progress towards a tighter regulatory regime must pick up pace.
• Consider the three major sources of resistance: overuse of antibiotics by human beings; overuse in the veterinary sector; and environmental antibiotic contamination due to pharmaceutical and hospital discharge.
• To tackle the first source, India classified important antibiotics under Schedule H1 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945, so that they couldn’t be sold without prescriptions.
• Still, Schedule H1 drugs are freely available in pharmacies, with state drug-controllers unable to enforce the law widely. As far as veterinary use goes, India’s 2017 National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance did talk about restricting antibiotic use as growth promoters. Sadly, no progress has been made on this front yet, allowing companies to sell last-resort drugs to farmers over the counter.
• The 2017 document also spoke about regulating antibiotics levels in discharge from pharmaceutical firms.
• For instance, Hyderabad’s pharmaceutical industry has been pumping massive amounts of antibiotics into local lakes, rivers and sewers.
• This has led to an explosion in resistance genes in these waterbodies. Still, India is yet to introduce standards for antibiotics in waste water, which means antibiotic discharge in sewage is not even being monitored regularly.
• As the country takes its time to formulate regulations, the toll from antibiotic-misuse is growing at an alarming rate.
• According to a 2013 estimate, around 58,000 newborns die in India each year due to sepsis from resistant bacteria. When these numbers mount, India will have no one to blame but itself.

Category: AGRICULTURE

1. Feminisation of agriculture in India

Question 1. Consider the following statements about Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and 
Natural History (SACON):

Question 2. Consider the following statements about Zika Virus:

Question 3. Consider the following statements about Shell Companies:

Question 4. Consider the following statements about NBFCs: