National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams- 8th February 2020

India: Need To improve presence and interventions in International Maritime Organization (IMO)

Topic: International Affairs

In News: India’s negligible presence and interventions in the International Maritime Organization is affecting its interests.

More on the Topic:

Concerns Indian Shipping Industry:

• The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations agency tasked with regulating shipping, had mandated that merchant ships should not burn fuel with sulphur content greater than 0.5% beginning January 1.
• Before the ban, fuel had a comfortable sulphur content limit of 3.5%, which was applicable to most parts of the world.
• Despite the industry gradually gearing up to introduce the new fuel, many industry professionals feared that the new very-low-sulphur fuel would be incompatible with the engines and other vessel equipment.
• Past mandates on sulphur limits in American waters had led to many technical problems.
• Efforts are ongoing to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) and ozone-depleting gases.
• Further, the IMO has announced an ambitious project to decarbonise shipping in order to reduce carbon emissions.
• These regulations are triggering massive technological, operational and structural changes; they come at a price which will have to be borne to a large extent by developing countries such as India.

IMO and its Significance:

• Shipping, which accounts for over 90% by volume and about 80% by value of global trade, is a highly regulated industry with a range of legislation promulgated by the IMO.
• The IMO currently has 174 member states and three associate members; there are also scores of non-governmental and inter-governmental organisations.
• The IMO’s policies or conventions have a serious impact on every aspect of shipping including the cost of maritime trade.
• The sulphur cap, for instance, will reduce emissions and reduce the health impact on coastal populations but ship operational costs are going up since the new fuel product is more expensive. As refineries including those in India struggle to meet the demand, freight costs have started moving up, with a cascading effect on retail prices.
• The IMO, like any other UN agency, is primarily a secretariat, which facilitates decision-making processes on all maritime matters through meetings of member states. The binding instruments are brought in through the conventions to which member states sign on to for compliance as well as amendments to the same and related codes.

IMO and India:

• The IMO currently lists India as among the 10 states with the “largest interest in international seaborne trade”. But India’s participation in the IMO to advance its national interests has been desultory and woefully inadequate.
• To ensure that their maritime interests are protected, the European countries move their proposals in unison and voting or support are given en bloc. China, Japan, Singapore, Korea and a few others represent their interests through their permanent representative as well as ensuring that a large delegation takes part and intervenes in the meetings.
• While these countries have fiercely protected their interests, India has not. For example, its permanent representative post at London has remained vacant for the last 25 years.
• Representation at meetings is often through a skeletal delegation, approved by the Ministry. Participation in IMO meetings is seen more as a junket.
• A review of IMO documents shows that the number of submissions made by India in the recent past has been measly and not in proportion to India’s stakes in global shipping.
• There have also been obstacles in pushing issues which are of importance to India. A classic case was the promulgation of “High Risk Areas” when piracy was at its peak and dominated media headlines.
• The IMO’s demarcation resulted in half the Arabian Sea and virtually the entire south-west coast of India being seen as piracy-infested, despite the presence of the Indian Navy and Coast Guard.
• The “Enrica Lexie” shooting incident of 2012, off the coast of Kerala was a direct fallout of the demarcation.
• The “High Risk Area” formulation led to a ballooning of insurance costs; it affected goods coming into or out of India.
• It took great efforts to revoke the promulgation and negate the financial burden. The episode highlighted India’s apathy and inadequate representation at the IMO.
• There was also great difficulty in introducing the indigenously designed NavIC (NAVigation with Indian Constellation) in the worldwide maritime navigation system.
• In contrast, the European Union has a documented procedure on how to influence the IMO.

Way Ahead:

• So far, India’s presence and participation in the IMO has been at the individual level. India should now make its presence felt so that its national interests are served. It is time India regained its status as a major maritime power.

Source: Hindu

Indian Leopards

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: Research findings published in one of the leading journal indecates that India’s leopard population may be only a tenth of what it was a little over a century ago, experiencing catastrophic declines due to human pressures.

More on the Topic:

• Threats faced by Indian Leopards: Conflicts with humans, poaching, habitat loss, lesser availability of preys etc.
• The leopard population, perceived to be stable due to broad geographic distribution, suffered a possibly human-induced population decline of 75% to 90% between 120 and 200 years ago.
• The population decline in a species seen as wide-ranging and locally abundant suggest that leopards demand conservation attention just like tigers.
• Detailed, landscape-level ecological studies on leopard populations are needed for future conservation efforts.
• Leopards-IUCN Status: Vulnerable

Source: Hindu

Data Leak

Topic: Cyber Security

In News: A Singapore-based cybersecurity company has revealed that a whopping 98% out of a large packet of sensitive credit and debit card details, that have been put up for sale on the dark net, are those of Indian customers.

More on the topic:

• The company has also observed that the data is suspected to have been collected from phishing rackets, which are on the rise in India over the last few years.
• Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has been informed of the security breach.
• This is the second major leak of cards relating to Indian banks detected by Group-IB Threat Intelligence team in the past several months.( Group-IB develops software and hardware for proactive cyber defence(Private firm).
• JavaScript or JS-Sniffers are programmes used for stealing credit and debit card information from e-commerce websites, and are among the latest concerns when it comes to cybersecurity and theft of sensitive card details.

Phishing is the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by disguising oneself as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Source: Hindu

Kaikondrahalli lake

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: NGT cancelled eco-clearance to high-rise near Kaikondrahalli lake.

More on the Topic:

• The EC was granted in January 2018 by the Karnataka State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).
• Kaikondrahalli Lake, a small urban lake in Bengaluru.

Source: Hindu

Lucknow Declaration: India Africa Defence Ministers Conclave, 2020

Topic: International Affairs

In News: Lucknow Declaration was adopted in the first India-Africa Defence Ministers’ Conclave held in Lucknow.

More on the Topic:

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his counterparts from 12 African countries were present at the conclave, along with representatives of 38 other African countries.
• The ‘Lucknow Declaration’ states that all the signatories “commit to continue our collaboration in the fields of peace and security including conflict prevention, resolution, management and peace building through exchange of expertise and training, strengthening regional and continental early warning capacities and mechanisms, enhancing the role of women in peace keeping and propagating the culture of peace”.
• Stating that terrorism is a major threat in the region, the declaration said the signatories “condemn, in the strongest terms, the growing threat of terrorism and acknowledge that it constitutes a major threat to peace and security in the region.

Source: Hindu

National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS)

Topic: Government Policies

In News: According to recent findings of National Institute of Planning and Administration (NIEPA), NMMSS has helped to reduce the dropout rate at the secondary and senior secondary classes.

More on the Topic:

• National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) is a central sector scheme being implemented since 2008.
• It aims to award scholarships to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue the study at secondary stage.
• Under the Scheme one lakh fresh scholarships @ of Rs.12000/- per annum per student are awarded to selected students of class IX every year and their continuation/renewal  in classes X to XII for study in a State Government, Government-aided and Local body schools.
• There is a separate quota of scholarships for each State/UT.
• The selection of students for award of scholarships under the scheme is made through an examination conducted by the States/UTs Governments.
• The scheme is boarded on National Scholarship Portal (NSP) since 2015-16.

Source: Hindu

Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor

Topic: Economy

In News: Asian Development Bank (ADB) had prepared Conceptual Development Plan (CDP) for Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC).

More on the Topic:

• Four nodes for development are Visakhapatnam, Machilipatnam,  Donakonda and Chittoor.
• National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT) approved the development of Vishakhapatnam and Chittoor as priority nodes in phase-1 of VCIC.
• The loan has been agreed between State Government and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
• Grant of USD 5 million from the multi-donor Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund (UCCRTF) to build climate change resilient infrastructure in Visakhapatnam.

Source: PIB