National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 26th August 2019

Nagaland insurgency and Peace Process

Topic: Internal Security

In News: Less than a month after the Centre ended Jammu and Kashmir’s special status that allowed it to have its own Constitution and a flag, a Naga extremist group has for the first time said a “separate flag and Constitution” were necessary for an “honourable solution” to the 22-year-old Naga peace process.

More on the Topic:

• Despite signing of historic Naga framework agreement 4 years back between the central government and the Naga groups led by National Socialist Council of Nagaland Isak-Muviah (NSCN-IM) long lasting peace remains elusive in the region.
• The peace framework remains a work in progress without a concrete shape and timeline making it nothing but a mere disappointment.Nagaland is called the epicentre of insurgency in north-eastern India running as deep as in the late 50s.

History of Nagaland Insurgency

• The British annexed Assam in 1826, and in 1881, the Naga Hills too became part of British India.
• In 1946 Naga National Council (NNC) was formed under the leadership of Angami Zapu Phizo. It declared Nagaland “an independent state” on August 14, 1947.
• On March 22, 1952, Phizo formed the underground Naga Federal Government (NFG) and the Naga Federal Army (NFA).
• The Government of India sent in the Army to deal with insurgency and, in 1958, Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act was enacted.The Naga Hills, a district of Assam, was upgraded to a Nagaland state in 1963.
• On November 11, 1975, the government got a section of NNC leaders to sign the Shillong Accord, under which this section of NNC agreed to give up arms.
• A group of about 140 members led by Thuingaleng Muivah, who were at that time in China, refused to accept the Shillong Accord, and formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980.
• In 1988, the NSCN split into NSCN (IM) and NSCN (Khaplang) after a violent clash. While the NNC began to fade away, the NSCN (IM) came to be seen as the “mother of all insurgencies” in the region.

Loopholes in the Naga Peace Accord:

• The foremost challenge of the peace accord is the framework without clear mandate or objectives. The accord although remains out of public view but there has been talks about ‘special arrangement’ providing great scope of confusion to both government and the insurgents.
• The Naga issue not only pertains to the Nagas but also impacts the whole region, including Naga-inhabited areas of Myanmar.
• The issue of integration of contiguous Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in view of the demand for territorial unification of ‘Greater Nagalim’ will trigger violent clashes in the different affected states.
• There is a demand for a separate “frontier Nagaland or Eastern Nagaland” under the aegis of the Eastern Nagaland Public Organization (ENPO) which will undermine any attempt at making one greater nagalim.
• Another major hindrance to the peace process in Nagaland is the existence of more than one organisation, each claiming to be representative of the Nagas.
• The state’s dynamics is changing. The RSS’s Northeast veteran P B Acharya is currently Nagaland Governor, and Joint Intelligence Committee chairman R N Ravi, with his IB background, is an old Northeast hand. The state’s political scenario has changed, with T R Zeliang’s Naga People’s Front, an NDA ally, persuading all groups in the Assembly, including the Congress, to become partners in an all-party government.

What Affects the Land of Nagas:

• Armed Cadres or Military Wing of insurgent groups remains Intact in-spite of Ceasefire and despite Suspension of Operations and have not shrunk, neither their resources have dried up which remains a constant threat to peace in the region.
• Insurgent groups have become a way of life in the region, with every group running their own parallel government and extorting huge amount of money from Nagas as well as non-Nagas.
• There are violent differences between the NSCN (IM) and the NSCN (K) led by S.S. Khaplang which are a huge roadblock for any accord to succeed in the region.
• Politics has played a far greater role in destabilising the region. Insurgent groups have been used, raised and protected by political parties to settle scores or to come to power.
• One of the major drivers of any insurgent movement is ideological belief and hope of success. However, the Naga movement seems to have lost its original goals and ideological stand on the basis of which it was initially established.
• The leaders and cadres now seem to be motivated by the more materialistic benefits coming out of the conflict and most of the Naga insurgent groups are no more than extortion and crime syndicates.
• Government has often exploited villager’s land for their resources, violating the constitution which results in corrosion of the tribal’s belief in any governmental scheme.
• Despite resource rich region, development has remained a distant dream for tribal people with very few jobs and scarcity of basic amenities.

The Road to Resolution:

• The history of Indo-Naga conflict shows that various past agreements have broken down due to different interpretations of the provisions by the parties at their convenience.
• A greater understanding of the issue, especially the tribal factor and changing aspirations of the civil society, needs to be developed in order to bring an acceptable and comprehensive solution to the Naga problem.
• One way of dealing with the issue can be maximum decentralisation of powers to the tribal heads and minimum centralisation at the apex level, which should mainly work towards facilitating governance and undertaking large development projects.
• A non-territorial resolution for one of the oldest armed ethnic conflicts in the Northeast will offer a way forward to resolving many other ethnic conflicts such as those involving the Kukis, Meiteis, Bodos, Dimasas, Hmars, and Karbis.
• Any arrangement thus worked out should lead to social and political harmony, economic prosperity and protection of the life and property of all tribes and citizens of the states.

Model Mains Question: Discuss the internal security issues at Nagaland. Suggest solutions to the problems.

Source: Indian Express

Blue Whale

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: A young biologist from Andhra Pradesh recreated a blue whale from bones using remains of several of the giants washed ashore.

More on the Topic:

• The blue whale falls in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Dozens of dead blue and sperm whales have washed ashore on the Nagayalanka, Machilipatnam, Kakinada, and Srikakulam coast in Andhra Pradesh since 2015.
• IUCN Status: Endangered

Source: Hindu, Wikipedia

The Special Data Dissemination Standard

Topic: International Indices

In News: In 2018, India failed to comply with multiple requirements prescribed in the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) mandatory for all IMF members.

More on the Topic:

• According to the IMF’s “Annual Observance Report of the Special Data Dissemination Standard for 2018”, India failed to comply with multiple requirements prescribed in the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).
• Comparable economies comprising the BRICS grouping of Brazil, China, South Africa and Russia, have maintained a near impeccable record in the same period. Also, India’s non-compliance in multiple categories in 2018 and to an extent in 2017 breaks with an otherwise near perfect dissemination record.

Importance of SDDS:

• The IMF launched the SDDS initiative in 1996 to guide members to enhance data transparency and help financial market participants with adequate information to assess the economic situations of individual countries. India subscribed to the SDDS on December 27, 1996.
• The yearly observance report for each member country lists the compliances and deviations from the SDDS under each data category for that year. There are over 20 data categories which IMF considers for this report to capture a nation’s economic health including national accounts (GDP, GNI), production indices, employment, and central government operations.

Source: The Hindu

CSIR to certify air quality monitoring sensors

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: The Union Environment Ministry has tasked the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)-National Physical Laboratory (NPL) with certifying air quality monitoring instruments.

More on the Topic:

• This is in anticipation of a rising demand by States against the backdrop of the National Clean Air Campaign for low cost air quality monitoring instruments that can monitor levels of nitrous oxides, ozone and particulate matter.
• The Centre in January launched a programme to reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution by 20%-30% in at least 102 cities by 2024. An edifice of this initiative is to have a vast monitoring network of sensors that can capture the rapid fluctuations of pollutants, necessary to ascertain how these gases and particles affected health.
• Several monitoring units were in use by state governments and Central Pollution Control Boards are poorly calibrated, that is, over time, they were susceptible to erroneous readings. This is one of the reasons to have a procedure to certify and ensure that instruments are calibrated.

Source: The Hindu

The Kapil Muni temple and Rising sea level

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: The Kapil Muni temple on Sagar Island in the Sunderbans, where a large number of devotees gather every year during the Gangasagar fair, is facing the threat of rising seas and will be submerged in the next few years.

More on the Topic:

• The Finance Department has given in principle approval for the construction of sea walls using offshore submerged geotubes (sand-like material filled into geo-textile tube). The cost is ₹77 crore. The design is being made by IIT-Madras and the project will be implemented by a private sector company.
• This is not the first time that the temple is facing the problem of rising seas. It is believed that the existing temple is the seventh at the site, after six structures built earlier went into the sea.
• The existing temple was built in 1973. According to the West Bengal Tourism Department, the deity in the temple, a stone block considered to be a representation of Sage Kapil, was installed in 1437 by Swami Ramanand.

Source: The Hindu

Fly Ash

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad have developed a cheap waterproofing material by coating fly ash, a waste by-product from coal-based thermal power plants.

More on the Topic:

•  While fly ash is extremely water-loving (hydrophilic), it turns into a highly water-repelling surface once coated with stearic acid.
• The stearic acid-coated fly ash surface can be made to behave like one of the two naturally occurring water-repelling materials rose petals or lotus leaves by the varying the surface roughness.

About Fly Ash:

• Fly ash is a major source of PM 2.5 (fine, respirable pollution particles) in summer. It becomes air borne, and gets transported to a radius of 10 to 20 kms. It can settle on water and other surfaces. Fly ash contains heavy metals from coal, a large amount of PM 2.5 and black carbon (BC). Proper disposal of fly ash is still not happening in many places.
• Fly ash, the end product of combustion during the process of power generation in the coal based thermal power plants, is a proven resource material for many applications of construction industries and currently is being utilized in manufacturing of Portland Cement, bricks/blocks/tiles manufacturing, road embankment construction and low lying area development, etc.

Source: The Hindu and Wikipedia

Rafel fighter jets

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: The first batch of Rafale fighter jets will be handed over to India in September in France but the first batch of jets will arrive in India by end of April 2020.

More on the Topic:

• Introduced in 2001, Rafale is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole combat aircraft designed and built by French company Dassault Aviation. The aircraft is considered one of the most potent combat jets globally.
• The fighter jet, equipped with a wide range of weapons, is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions.
• The aircraft is fitted with an onboard oxygen generation system (OBOGS) which suppresses the need for liquid oxygen re-filling or ground support for oxygen production.
• It is capable of carrying out a wide range of missions including air-defence/air-superiority, reconnaissance, close air support dynamic targeting, air-to-ground precision strike/interdiction, anti-ship attacks, nuclear deterrence and buddy-buddy refuelling.

Source: The Hindu

One Nation, One Ration Card (ONORC)

Topic: Governance

In News: Recently, the government launched the pilot project for the inter-state portability of ration cards between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and between Maharashtra and Gujarat, as part of its ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ scheme.

More on the Topic:

• A ration card is issued to the head of the family, depending on the number of members in a family and the financial status of the applicant.
• It is used by households to get essential food grains at subsidised prices from designated ration shops (also called fair price shops) under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
• Over the years, different types of ration cards were issued depending on the level of deprivation. However, in 2013, when the National Food Security Bill was passed, different ration cards were compressed to just two — priority and Antyodaya (for the most poor).
• The responsibility of identifying eligible families and issuing ration cards to them rests with the state/UT government.This implied that beneficiaries could procure food grains only from the designated ration shops within the concerned state
• ONORC scheme has been launched keeping in mind the internal migration of our country, since people keep moving to different states in search of better job opportunities and higher standards of living.
• ONORC scheme helps the beneficiary to buy food grains from ration shops located in any part of the country.

Source: PIB and Vikaspedia