National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 27th August 2019

UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: India will be hosting the 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) from 2-13 September 2019.

More on the Topic:

• Desertification is a worldwide problem directly affecting 250 million people and a third of the earth’s land surface. To fight this menace, India will convert degraded land of nearly 50 lakh hectares to fertile land in next 10 years; it will implement provisions of New Delhi Declaration which is to be adopted at the end of conference and a Centre for Excellence will be established at Dehradun.
• The Environment Minister also expressed India’s continued commitment to stay on track on a sustainable path to land use and land management.
• Member countries should constitute a National Action Programmes.
• Under this member countries will identify the factors contributing to desertification and the practical measures necessary to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought.

About UNCCD:

• It is the first and only internationally legally binding framework set up to address the problem of desertification.
• Objective: To combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought and desertification.
• Secretariat location: Bonn, Germany.
• Members: 196 (195 states + the European Union)
• Rio conference of 1992 resulted in 5 document’s. One of them was Agenda 21. UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) stems from a direct recommendation of agenda 21.UNCCD was finally adopted in Paris, France on June 17, 1994. That’s why June 17 has been observed as the ‘World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD).It was ratified in December 1996.
• The Conference of the Parties is the supreme decision-making body. It reviews the implementation of the Convention.It meets on a biannual basis as at 2001.

India and UNCCD:

• India became a signatory to UNCCD on October 14, 1994 and ratified it on December 17, 1996. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the nodal Ministry for the Convention.

Model Mains Question: What is desertification? Suggest measures to combat the same.

Source: Hindu

Economic Capital Framework (ECF)

Topic: Economy

In News: The Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to transfer a surplus of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer, nearly double the estimated Rs 90,000 crore in the Budget for 2019-20.

More on the Topic:

• The move could enable the government kick-start a much needed public spending push, alongside possibly paring of the fiscal deficit, estimated at 3.3 per cent of the GDP.
• The transfer includes Rs 1.23 lakh crore of surplus for 2018-19 and Rs 52,637 crore of excess provisions identified under a revised Economic Capital Framework (ECF) adopted by the RBI board. The transferred amount is over three times the five-year average of Rs 53,000 crore.
• Economic capital framework refers to the risk capital required by the central bank while taking into account different risks. The economic capital framework reflects the capital that an institution requires or needs to hold as a counter against unforeseen risks or events or losses in the future.
• Although RBI was promoted as a private shareholders’ bank in 1935 with a paid up capital of Rs 5 crore, the government nationalised RBI in January 1949, making the sovereign its “owner”. What the central bank does, therefore, is transfer the “surplus” that is, the excess of income over expenditure to the government, in accordance with Section 47 (Allocation of Surplus Profits) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
• The RBI needs adequate capital reserves for monetary policy operations, currency fluctuations, possible fall in value of bonds, sterilisation costs related to open-market operations, credit risks arising from the lender of last resort function and other risks from unexpected increase in its expenditure.

Source: Indian Express

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

Topic: International Relations

In News: The Commerce Ministry said that over 100 stakeholder consultations have been held on the mega free trade agreement RCEP in the last 6 years.

More on the Topic:

• The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement being negotiated by 16 countries. The members include ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam — and China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
• The Department of Commerce received industry feedback in the area of rules of origin, Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), anti-dumping, countervailing duties, safeguards measures and Intellectual Property Rights as well.
• RCEP negotiations were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.
• RCEP aims to boost goods trade by eliminating most tariff and non-tariff barriers a move that is expected to provide the region’s consumers greater choice of quality products at affordable rates. It also seeks to liberalise investment norms and do away with services trade restrictions.
• When inked, it would become the world’s biggest free trade pact. This is because the 16 nations account for a total GDP of about $50 trillion and house close to 3.5 billion people. India (GDP-PPP worth $9.5 trillion and population of 1.3 billion) and China (GDP-PPP of $23.2 trillion and population of 1.4 billion) together comprise the RCEP’s biggest component in terms of market size.

India’s Concerns:

• India is not comfortable with opening markets in goods being pushed especially by China. India wants to offer much lower market access in goods to China compared to other members such as the ASEAN, Japan and South Korea. However, China is not willing to accept it.
• India wants clearly defined rules of origin to ensure integrity and sanctity of tariff differentiation. This is to prevent Chinese goods from flooding the country through member countries that may have lower or no duty levels.
• India had a trade deficit with 11 RCEP members including China, South Korea and Australia in 2018-19.
• China runs a trade surplus of over $60 billion with India and the domestic industry is reeling under heavy competition from Chinese goods.
• Exports from ASEAN into India have grown far quicker than Indian exports to the bloc, which they attribute to the fact that India is a “services economy.”
• Apart from China, India is also losing out to financial and technological hub of Singapore, agriculture and dairy majors Australia and New Zealand, plantations of South East Asian countries, and pharmaceutical trade with China and the US.
• With e-commerce as part of the discussion, the Indian resistance at WTO of not letting the discussion on digital trade will weaken.
• The free movement of investments will benefit investors in the US, Singapore, Japan and China, but very few Indians will be taking advantage of this.
• New Delhi is also worried that the RCEP will open backdoor negotiations and may lead to the country losing out on TRIPS agreements. This may result in giving way to global majors in agriculture seed and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Why India should not miss RCEP:

• If India is out of the RCEP, it would make its exports price uncompetitive with other RCEP members’ exports in each RCEP market, and the ensuing export-losses contributing to foreign exchange shortages and the subsequent extent of depreciation of the rupee can only be left to imagination. Some of the sectors that have been identified as potential sources of India’s export growth impulses under RCEP to the tune of approximately $200 billion.
• There are more compelling trade and economic reasons for RCEP to become India-led in future, than otherwise. India would get greater market access in other countries not only in terms of goods, but in services and investments also.

Conclusion:

• Indian policymakers need to be mindful of domestic sectors’ concerns before agreeing on terms of deal. Simultaneously, there is a necessity to improve our competitiveness in the economy. India must play its due role to get its due place in the regional economic configurations.

Source: Hindu, Wikipedia

Krishna temple in Bahrain

Topic: Art and Culture

In News: PM Narendra Modi has announced a renovation project of USD 4.2 million for the iconic Shri Krishna Temple in Bahrain.

More on the Topic:

• The temple completes 200 years this year.
• The temple is estimated to have been established around 1817 and was built by Thathai Bhatia Hindu community, and is still being managed by them.
• It is considered to be the first and the oldest temple in the Gulf countries and has been a place of worship for a host of Hindus since centuries.

Source: Hindu

Project SURE

Topic: Government Policies

In News: The Union Minister for Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani launched Project SU.RE, a move towards sustainable fashion, at Lakme Fashion Winter/Festive 2019, in Mumbai.

More on the Topic:

• The SU.RE project is a commitment by India’s apparel industry to set a sustainable pathway for the Indian fashion industry.RE stands for ‘Sustainable Resolution’ – a firm commitment from the industry to move towards fashion that contributes to a clean environment.

The five-point Sustainable Resolution is as follows:

• Develop a complete understanding of the environmental impact of the garments being currently produced by our brand.
• Develop a sustainable sourcing policy for consistently prioritizing and utilizing certified raw materials that have a positive impact on the environment.
• Through these actions, shift a significant percentage ofsupply chain to a sustainable chain by the year 2025, addressing critical global issues such as climate change, contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and building a world that is safe for the future generations, as an acceptance of a responsibility we all share.

Source: Hindu

Gravitational Lensing

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: USA’s space agency NASA is planning to launch James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in 2021, which will use a natural phenomenon called “gravitational lensing” to carry out astronomical observations.

More on the Topic:

• Gravitational lensing is an effect of Einstein’s theory of general relativity – simply put, mass bends light.
• The gravitational field of a massive object will extend far into space, and cause light rays passing close to that object (and thus through its gravitational field) to be bent and refocused somewhere else.
• The more massive the object, the stronger its gravitational field and hence the greater the bending of light rays – just like using denser materials to make optical lenses results in a greater amount of refraction.
• Gravitational lensing is useful to cosmologists because it is directly sensitive to the amount and distribution of dark matter.
• Lensing can help astronomers work out exactly how much dark matter there is in the Universe as a whole and also how it is distributed. Lensing has also been used to help verify the existence of dark matter itself.

The James Webb Space Telescope:

• The James Webb Space Telescope, also called Webb or JWST, is a large, space-based observatory, optimized for infrared wavelengths, which will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope.
• It will have longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity. The longer wavelengths enable Webb to look further back in time to find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, and to peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today.

Source: NASA