01 Sep 2019: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS1 Related

Context:

• The heavy rains in August has reduced the 2019 monsoon deficit to nearly zero.

Details:

• As of August 31, India received 300 mm of rain, 16% more than the 258 mm that’s typical for the month.
• In July, India received rainfall of about 4% more than what was normal for the month.
• This reduced the seasonal deficit (calculated from June 1 to July 31) from 32.8% on June 30 to 9%, on July 31.
• As of August 31, that deficit is now down to 0.2%.
• A surge of low pressure disturbances in the Bay of Bengal in July and August was responsible for the active monsoon.

El Nino effect:

• The above average monsoon activity was due to “increased activity” in the Indian Ocean.
• The El Nino activity had subsided however we were also seeing an above normal activity in the Indian Ocean.
• Unlike the Pacific Ocean, the impact of the Indian Ocean isn’t as well understood.

Not a Surplus:

• In spite of the heavy rains, meteorologists say that India is unlikely to end the monsoon with surplus rain.
• Monsoon has begun to ebb from August 18 and will continue so until early September.
• India gets about 17-18 cm of rainfall in September and it is unlikely to be above average because of a slight resurgence of El Nino-like conditions.

Context:

Out of the 3.3 Cr. applicants, more than 19 lakh have been left out of Assam’s final National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Details:

• The final NRC was the conclusion of a five year exercise monitored by the Supreme Court that cost ₹1,220 Cr.
• The final version of the NRC contains the names of around 3.11 Cr. of the total of 3.30 Cr. people who had applied for inclusion in the document.
• The number of exclusions has come down from the draft NRC. 41.09 lakh people were left out in the draft list published in July, 2018.
• The representatives of Gurkha community has said that more than one lakh community members have been excluded from the NRC.
• An MLA of the Assam Legislative Assembly is also among those who have been excluded.

How did they got excluded?

• The final NRC has been published after disposal of all claims and objections.
• Those who did not submit claims are also among the 19 lakh people left out.
• It was a huge exercise involving about 52,000 Assam government officials working for a prolonged period.
• Those who are assigned as D (doubtful) voters and surname mismatch cases are also excluded.
• According to the Coordinator for NRC, all decisions of inclusion and exclusion were taken by statutory officers in an objective and transparent manner.
• He added that applicants were provided adequate opportunity of being heard at every stage of the process as per statutory provisions.

Objectives behind NRC:

• Updating the NRC was aimed to filter Indians from illegal immigrants, believed to have come mostly from Bangladesh.
• There is a belief that illegal immigrants are depriving locals of rights and opportunities
• It has been a demand for almost forty years that started in 1980 during the anti-foreigners’ Assam Agitation.
• In 1985, the Assam Accord ended the agitation by incorporating this demand and prescribing 1971 as the base year for detecting and deporting foreigners in the State.

What Lies Ahead for Those Who are excluded?

• Those excluded cannot technically be called foreigners as they have legal options to challenge their exclusion from the NRC.
• Each of them has 120 days to appeal before the Foreigners’ Tribunals.
• The tribunals have six months to dispose of the cases.
• The appellants can thereafter approach the Gauhati High Court and the Supreme Court to establish their citizenship with proper documents.
• Otherwise they will be send to detention camps for foreigners. There are six detention centres in Assam, and 10 more are likely to come up.
• Assam Chief Minister, opposition party and several NGOs have offered legal help to the excluded people.

Supreme Court Denies Request for Re-Verification?

• The Centre and the State government had filed affidavits in the Supreme Court demanding re-verification of 20% of the names in districts bordering Bangladesh and 10% in other districts.
• However, both requests were turned down.

Challenges:

• It is alleged that names of many Indian citizens who migrated from Bangladesh as refugees prior to 1971 have not been included in the NRC because authorities refused to accept refugee certificates.
• On the other hand allegations are also raised about manipulation of legacy data for including names in the NRC.
• Careless implementation has been alleged for disenfranchising many genuine citizens.
• There are several families whose immediate family members have been excluded despite submitting the same documents.
• Spelling errors in documents are also suspected for people being excluded.
• The validity of the tribunals as a body to adjudicate such cases is also questioned.
• Demands have been raising for an exercise similar to Assam’s NRC in the Delhi to address issues such as prevention of possible terror plots to reining in street crimes, drug trafficking, enhancing women’s safety, etc.

Opposition against the Final NRC:

• Most political parties and pressure groups were unhappy with the final NRC data.
• There is a possibility of attempts to create trouble either physically or through social media.
• Even after legal options are exhausted, it will not be possible to send a large number of people to detention centres.
• The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has decided to challenge the findings of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the Supreme Court. They accuse that the NRC has turned out to be incomplete and error-prone.
• AASU had spearheaded the anti-foreigners Assam Agitation four decades ago and demanded an updated NRC in 1980. It was a signatory to the agitation-ending Assam Accord.
• Assam Public Works, an NGO whose petition in the Supreme Court in July 2009 led to the start of the NRC exercise four years later, also criticised the findings.

Citizenship Amendment Bill:

• The previous Lok Sabha had passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill that seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.
• There were concerns in the State that the legislation would render the entire exercise futile as it would pave the way for giving citizenship to illegal Hindu migrants from Bangladesh in Assam who came after March 1971. It will be a violation of the Assam Accord as well.

• Then Home Minister had said that Assam alone should not have to bear the entire burden and the beneficiaries of Citizenship Amendment Bill can reside in any State of the country.
• The bill got lapsed along with the dissolution of the then Lok Sabha.
• Present Home Minister had said that the government would bring a Bill in Parliament to provide citizenship to “Hindu refugees” left out of the NRC.

To know more about NRC, click on the linked article.

Context:

• The Election Commission’s new initiative of Electors Verification Programme (EVP) aims to update the electoral rolls through participation from citizens.

Details:

• The initiative is first being rolled out in Delhi after which it will be undertaken across the country.
• Citizens will have to make an account on the online portal and check the data available and verify the same.
• They can update and verify details in order to remove “logical errors” like multiple entries and missing names among others.
• One can tag family members in the same account to verify and update the respective data.
• Both online and offline modes are available for voters to participate in the EVP.
• In the offline mode, citizens can approach the voters’ centres available in each Assembly constituency or visit the CSCs (Common Service Centres).
• Simultaneous verification will be done by block level officers (BLO) as well.

Objective:

• The programme is aimed at empowering voters by checking data themselves and authenticating the same.
• With the Assembly polls in Delhi due soon, the programme is an opportunity for voters to check the available data, verify it themselves and to ensure that the corrections are made.

C. GS3 Related

Category: ENVIRONMENT

1. Investigation Ordered Into Uranium Contamination

Context:

• With the pumping out of oil from the Malaysian tug, fears of oil spillage in the Chilika lake appears to have diminished.

Details:

• Earlier, the Malaysian tug Jin Hwa 32 was grounded in the vicinity of the lake after drifting away in a storm.
• It was on its way from Mongla Port in Bangladesh to Visakhapatnam.
• The representatives of the vessel in Visakhapatnam hope that it will be ready to be towed to the city shortly.

Fears of Oil Spillage:

• Fearing oil spillage, Odisha government, the Chilika Development Authority, the Department of Forest and Environment and the Odisha Pollution Control Board had directed the vessel owners to immediately remove 30,000 litres of diesel, 2,000 litres of hydraulic oil and 1,000 litres of lube oil.
• Oil spillage can lead to the deterioration of the lake ecosystem.

Chilika Lake:

• Chilika Lake is the largest brackish water lagoon in India.
• In 1981, Chilika Lake was designated the first Indian wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
• In 1993, the lake was put under the ‘Montreux Record’, a register of wetland sites on the List of Ramsar wetlands of international importance where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring, or are likely to occur as a result of technological developments, pollution or other human interference.
• In 2002, Chilika was taken out of the Montreux Record because of the improved conditions of the lake.
• The lake has also been listed in UNESCO World Heritage tentative list.

Context:

A multi-institutional team has developed three cost-effective kits that improve the diagnosis of drug-resistant TB.

Details:

• The three kits are TB Detect, TB Concentration & Transport, and TB DNA Extraction.

• The TB Detect kit is for diagnosis using LED fluorescence microscopy.
• The TB Concentration & Transport, and the TB DNA Extraction kits together are for detection of drug-resistance.
• The team includes researchers from the Department of Biotechnology at AIIMS and the Advanced Microdevices Pvt Ltd, Ambala.

Benefits:

• The TB Detect kit helps increase the positivity of LED fluorescence microscopy by about 5%.
• The TB DNA Extraction kit allows the detection of drug-resistant TB bacteria with a high level of sensitivity.
• The kits are not expensive. The TB Detect kit currently costs Rs.100 per sample, Rs.100 for the TB transport kit and Rs.85 for the DNA extraction kit.
• Diagnosis of drug-resistant TB is carried out only at central laboratories, and so samples have to be transported.
• The TB concentration & transport kit now makes it easy and simple to transport samples, transport it in sealed covers at ambient temperature making containment at low temperature redundant. This is because the bacteria are killed using a disinfectant.
• The developed kits are to be evaluated for operational feasibility and performance in field settings under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP).

Context:

• A study of diarrhoea patients from two sites, Kolkata and Delhi reveals how extensively the Cholera bacteria have developed resistance against most routinely used antibiotics.

Details:

• The highest resistance (99.8%) was seen against the antibiotic sulfamethaxozole, whereas resistance to neomycin was the least, with only 4% showing resistance.
• Isolates collected from Kolkata showed relatively less resistance than isolates collected from Delhi.
• This might probably because the Kolkata isolates were collected between 2008 and 2013, while the Delhi samples were collected during 2014-2015.
• The team sequenced the whole genome of the bacteria isolated during 1980, 2000s, 2014 and 2015.
• In 1980, fewer antibiotics were used and resistance was minimal.
• With increasing usage of different antibiotics, the resistance against them has also increased.
• By 2014-2015 the bacteria have become extensively drug resistant (XDR) to all commonly used antibiotics.

Cholera:

• Cholera is an infectious disease that causes severe watery diarrhoea, which can lead to dehydration and even death if untreated.
• It is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae.
• The occurrence of this disease in India is very rare (less than 100 thousand cases per year).
• However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has in the past warned that cholera can rear its head in India like it used to do in the past.

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

Context:

• Before a ban on single-use plastic items comes into force, it is crucial to formulate a protocol that will identify the functional roles of different stakeholders.

A Movement to Eliminate Single-Use Plastic

• The government is said to be working on a ban on certain plastic items of common use under the Environment (Protection) Act. This may be announced on Gandhi Jayanti.
• Such items include carry bags, cutlery and plates.
• Earlier, the deadline for the ban was
• In his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a movement to eliminate single-use plastic in India, beginning on Gandhi Jayanti (October 2).
• All the stakeholders have their own functional role in the movement:
• Individuals and organisations need to actively remove plastic waste from their surroundings.
• Municipal bodies must make arrangements to collect these articles.
• Start-ups and industries should think of newer ways of recycling.

Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules:

• The Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules were notified in 2016.
• An amendment to the PWM Rules in 2018 mandates a six-month deadline for producers to arrange for recovery of waste.
• They are supposed to carry out this in partnership with State Urban Development

Alternatives to Plastic:

• Compostable, biodegradable or even edible plastics made from various materials such as bagasse (the residue after extracting juice from sugarcane), corn starch, and grain flour.
• Compostable cups and plates made of Polylactic acid require industrial composters. Polylactic acid is derived from biomass such as corn starch.
• Some biodegradable packaging materials require specific microorganisms to be broken down.
• In Britain, articles made through a different process involving potato and corn starch have done better in normal conditions.
• Seaweed is also emerging as a choice to make edible containers.

Challenges:

• Most cities and towns are not prepared to implement the provisions of PWM Rules.
• Recently, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) issued notices to 52 companies asking them to file their plan to fulfil their EPR (extended producer responsibility)
• Even the biggest Municipal Corporations with a huge waste burden have failed to implement segregation of waste.
• Segregation of waste means collecting recyclable plastic, non-recyclable plastic and other waste separately for processing by material recovery facilities.
• There is also criticism of under-reporting of the true extent of plastic waste.
• Most often, plastic is not marked with numerical symbols to facilitate recycling using the correct industrial process. Ex.: 1 for PET, 4 for Low Density Polyethylene, 5 for Polypropylene,
• There are concerns regarding the viability (in terms of scale and cost) of alternative to plastic such as compostable or biodegradable plastics.
• In the absence of robust testing and certification to verify claims made by producers, spurious biodegradable and compostable plastics are entering the markets.
• Recently, the CPCB said that 12 companies were marketing carry bags and products marked ‘compostable’ without any certification. It also asked the respective State Pollution Control Boards to take action on these units.
• Consumers often have no choice in the matter of food packaging used by manufacturers.

Threats in Future:

• According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), per capita consumption of plastic is projected to go up from 11 kg in 2014-15 to 20 kg by 2022.
• About 43% of it will be constituted by single-use packaging with poor rates of recovery.
• Packaging industry is also projected to grow into a $72.6 billion industry in India by 2020 from about $31 billion in 2015.
• There will be a proportionate rise in waste volumes which will increase the pressure on producers to streamline the collection, recycling and processing of all forms of plastic.

Way Forward:

• After reducing the volume, non-recyclables must be disposed of using methods such as co-processing in cement kilns, plasma pyrolysis or land-filling.
• It is required to prioritise the reduction of single-use plastic such as multi-layer packaging, bread bags, food wrap, and protective packaging.
• A comprehensive mechanism need to be laid down to certify the materials marketed as alternatives, and the specific process required to biodegrade or compost them.
• City municipal authorities need to undertake rigorous segregation of waste and scaled up recycling.
• The campaign must focus on tested biodegradable and compostable alternatives for plates, cutlery and cups.
• The packaging industry must take its extended producer responsibility requirements under the law seriously. The industry should also look at innovation and new materials.

Category: ECONOMY

1. Economics behind e-Vehicle Batteries

Q1. Consider the following statements with reference to cholera:

Q2. Which of the following statements describes the ‘Build for Digital India’ programme?

Q3. Consider the following statements with reference to the Electors Verification Programme (EVP) introduced by the Election 
Commission:

Q4. Which of the following does NOT belong to the four ‘mathas’ founded by Sankaracharya across India?

1. Do you agree with the opinion that immigrants are often found depriving locals of their rights and opportunities? Suggest measures for establishing a harmonious relationship between immigrants and locals. (250 words, 15 marks)
2. In India, industry and infrastructure related makeover is a prerequisite for the adoption of electric vehicles. Discuss. (250 words, 15 marks)

Read previous CNA.

September 1st, 2019 CNA:-Download PDF Here