National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams- 18th March 2019

Pollution: 6 States told to submit action plan

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed six States to submit by April 30 action plans for bringing air quality standards within the prescribed norms, failing which they would be liable to pay environment compensation of Rs. 1 crore each.

More on the Topic:

• The tribunal warned that if action plans are not executed within the specified timeline, the defaulting States will be liable to pay environmental compensation and may also be required to furnish performance guarantee for execution of plans in extended timeline as per recommendations received from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
• The direction came after the CPCB informed the green panel that out of 102 cities, action plan has been received from 83 cities, while 19 have not submitted it.
• Concerned over the threat posed to limited natural resources due to their overuse, the tribunal has directed assessment of carrying capacity of 102 cities, including Delhi, where the air quality does not meet the national ambient air quality standards.
• The concept of “carrying capacity” addresses the question as to how many people can be permitted into any area without the risk of degrading the environment there.
• The tribunal had said the Ministry of Urban Development in coordination with the CPCB, Ministry of Transport, authorities such as Planning Commission and States, may carry out such study with the assistance of experts in the field.
• It had said that it is undisputed that air pollution is a matter of serious concern and large number of deaths take place every year in the country on account of air pollution.

About Air pollution in India:

• The open burning of waste is a large source of toxic air pollutants such as particulates, carbon monoxide, black carbon, dioxins, furans, and mercury. Air pollution in India is caused by fuelwood and biomass burning, burning of crop residue in agriculture fields on a large scale, use of adulterated fuel, emission from vehicles and traffic congestion.
• India is the third largest in the emission of greenhouse gases after China and the United State The severity of air pollution is so much that life expectancy among Indians on an average reduces by 3.4 years while among the residents of Delhi it reduces by almost 6.3 years.
• It has been found that, around the world, more deaths occur due to poor air quality than water.

Model Mains uestion: It has been found that, around the world, more deaths occur due to poor air quality than water. Analyse the air pollution scenario in India. Suggest measures for curbing air pollution.

Source: The Hindu

Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) Scheme

Topic: Government Initiatives

In News: Indians’ cultural preference for physical gold, coupled with a lack of incentives on the supply side have meant that the Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) Scheme, launched in late 2015, is yet to take off in any significant way.

More on the Topic:

• The government had announced the SGB scheme in November 2015 in an effort to wean people away from purchasing physical gold and encouraging them to buy gold bonds instead. The idea was to help reduce the quantity of the yellow metal imported every year, thereby reining in a rising current account deficit.
• Instead, gold imports have remained at elevated levels. India’s total gold imports stood at 968 tonnes in 2015-16, the year the SGB scheme was introduced. It fell to 780 tonnes the next year but rose again to 955 million tonnes in 2017-18, according to CMIE data. The latest data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that gold imports in the April-December 2018 period stood at about 750 tonnes.

Missed Targets:

• The SGB scheme, and the other gold schemes the government had introduced, such as the Gold Monetisation Scheme, have all fared fairly poorly compared with their targets over the years.
• The government had estimated it would collect 5,000 crore each in 2018-19 and 2019-20 but experience has shown that the actual collections have invariably been lower.
• Some analysts said the poor response to the SGB scheme is because people prefer physical gold, while others argued that the design of the SGB Scheme is faulty and so, people are not attracted towards it.
• There is a need to re design the scheme and make it attractive to the Indian Buyers.

People should be educated of the benefit of the scheme over physical gold.

Model Mains Question: The Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) Scheme, launched in late 2015, is yet to take off in any significant way. Comment.

Source: The Hindu

New hopes to Coffee Growers

Topic: Agriculture

In News: Giving fresh hope to coffee growers, the State Industries Department is gearing up to set up a carbon neutral farm project in Wayanad district of Kerala .

More on the topic:

• A carbon neutral village coffee park would be set up for which the State government had earmarked Rs. 150 crore for first phase construction works.
• The project envisages doubling the income of coffee farmers of Wayanad who are reeling under an agrarian crisis owing to the low price for produce such as coffee, pepper and arecanut.
• As many as 1.5 lakh coffee plants would be planted as part of making the region a carbon-neutral zone.
• Coffee plantations would be categorised taking into account aspects such as local agrarian climate. Scientific care would be ensured during the second phase.
• Based on this categorisation tag, the products would be taken to local procurement centres.
• The responsibility for this would be with agricultural cooperatives and producer companies. Ripened coffee beans would be procured from farmers.
• The beans would be procured from the farmers at prices ranging from 25-100% above the market rate. The amounts would then be transferred to the farmers’ accounts.
• The value-added coffee powder would be marketed under the brand name of ‘Malabar Coffee.’
• The project would be implemented under public-private partnership mode with the State government holding 26% equity and the balance given to coffee growers and farmer-producer companies.

GI Tagged Coffees:

• Wayanad in north Kerala grows about 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes of robusta coffee annually, making it a prominent region in the country cultivating this variety. The Coffee Board had recived GI status for Wayanad coffee, along with Baba Budan Giri, Araku Valley, Coorg and Chikmagalur coffee

Source: The Hindu

New Hydro Policy

Topic: Renewable Energy

In News:  While the government’s decision to re-classify large hydroelectric projects as renewable energy will certainly help the sector, the move will also go a long way in meeting the targets set by it for the sector.

More On the Topic:

• Earlier this month, the Union Cabinet approved a new hydroelectricity policy that, among other things, included large hydro projects within the ambit of renewable energy.
• Prior to the policy, only small hydro projects of a capacity of less than 25 MW were treated as renewable energy. Large hydro projects were treated as a separate source of energy.
• India’s renewable energy sector had an installed capacity of 75,055.92 MW as of February 2019, according to data with the Central Electricity Authority. This made up about 4% of the overall energy mix, with the rest coming from thermal, nuclear and large hydro sources.
• With the inclusion of large hydro in renewable energy, the energy mix changes drastically.
• Renewable energy capacity would now be 1,20,455.14 MW or 34.4% of the overall energy mix.

No additional resources created:

• It must be noted that this is a purely cosmetic change. No additional resources have been created through this policy. It is a reclassification of existing capacity.
• The policy has meant a drastic change in the renewable energy mix as well. Whereas earlier, wind energy contributed nearly 50% of all renewable energy capacity, it will now make up only 29.3%. Similarly, solar energy’s share will fall from 34.68% to 21.61%. The hydro sector, however, will see its share grow from just over 6% to over 41%.

Source:The Hindu

The problem is jobs, not wages

Topic: Economy

In News: It is well established that India is staring at a massive jobs crisis. Every single survey points to jobs as the biggest issue concerning voters, especially the youth.

More on the Topic:

It is not wage crisis, It is Job crisis:

• The notion that India does not have a jobs crisis but a wages crisis. According to this argument, every Indian youth who wants a job can get one, but not the wages she wants. This is a banal argument.
• Even if we grant the outlandish assertion that India has a jobs bounty but wages are not rising, this points to a labour market failure. Are we then saying that workers need to get unionised more and demand higher wages since the price of labour is not commensurate? It is a facile argument.
• The harsh and simple reality of India’s jobs situation is that we are not creating as many jobs as we need to. There can be many reasons for the lack of our ability to generate enough jobs but at the very least, we must first acknowledge this problem. Calling this a wages crisis and not a jobs crisis is neither helpful nor sensible.
• The proponents of the ‘there is a wage crisis’ argument also go on to say that the largely informal nature of India’s economy leads to low productivity and hence keeps wages low. So, their solution for higher wages is to embark on a mission to explicitly formalise India’s economy.
• Economic history tells us that formalisation is an outcome of economic development, not a cause. No large market economy in history has embarked on an explicit economic policy for forced formalisation.
• India’s economic commentary today carries a ‘blind men and an elephant’ It has a tendency to claim absolute truth based on limited subject experience. There is no need to complicate the state of India’s jobs market. The simple truth of it is that we do not produce enough jobs.

Way Forward:

• India’s jobs crisis is an economic issue, not a political one. India is not unique in experiencing rising joblessness and, consequently, income inequality.
• Many developed and developing nations are grappling with this problem, too. Such a crisis requires acknowledgement of the issue first, then a vibrant public debate on solutions to tackle the crisis, and finally, a coordinated implementation of ideas. Instead, there is much obfuscation of both the existence of a jobs crisis and the diagnosis of it.

Model Mains Question: India’s jobs crisis is an economic issue, not a political one. Comment

Source: The Hindu

Scorpene Submarine

Topic: Defense sector/ Science and Technology

In News:  The Navy is set to induct the second Scorpene submarine Khanderi by early May. The remaining submarines in the series are in advanced stages of manufacturing and trials.

More on the Topic

• Khanderi has completed all trials and is in the final stages of acceptance. It is expected to be commissioned into the Navy by end April or early May.
• Kalvari is the first modern conventional submarine inducted by the Navy in almost two decades.
• In addition, the Navy currently operates four German HDW class submarines and nine Russian Kilo class submarines.
• The Navy had last inducted a conventional diesel-electric submarine, INS Sindhushastra , procured from Russia in July 2000.

About Scorpene class submarine

• The Scorpène-class submarines are a class of diesel-electric attack submarines jointly developed by the French Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN) and the Spanish company Navantia, and now by Naval Group. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion (AIP).

Source: The Hindu

Migration in Bengal delta

Topic: Social Justice

In News: Economic reasons are the precipitating factor for migration in the Indian Bengal Delta that comprises the Sunderbans reveals an international study titled Deltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation (DECMA).

More on the Topic

• The study also points out that there is huge gender disparity when it comes to those migrating from the region.
• The study which covers 51 blocks of districts of South and North 24 Parganas reveals that 64% people migrate because of economic reasons, unsustainable agriculture, lack of economic opportunities and debt; 28 % of the migration from the region is for social reasons and about 7% for environmental reasons like cyclones and flooding.
• The study, held between 2014 and 2018 focusing on three deltas Ganga Brahmaputra Meghna Delta (India and Bangladesh) Volta (Ghana) and Mahanadi (India) looks into the aspect of climate change, adaptation and migration in these deltas.
• DECMA says people surveyed during the study could not relate to reduced agricultural productivity, increased salinity and change in rainfall pattern as environmental reason for their migration. Only in cases of extreme events like flooding and cyclones resulting in loss of livelihood, did the locals say their migration was due to environmental reasons.

Gender Disparity

• When it comes to migration in the Indian Bengal Delta, the study finds a huge gender disparity, with men outnumbering women by almost five times. It shows that of the people migrating 83% are men and only 17 % are women. While most of the men migrate due to economic reasons, women do so, driven by mostly social factors.
• The DECMA report also finds that most migrants both in case of men and women are young, in the age group of 20-30 years.
• Even though the women are doing all the work back home, they have little freedom to take decisions on their own and have to consult their men over telephone for any major decision.

Source: The Hindu

Ramakrishna Mission

Topic: Social Reformers

In News: In a bid to conserve environment, the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission will break an age-old tradition this year and do away with the practice of having a fireworks display as part of the birth-anniversary celebrations of Sri Ramakrishna.

About Ramakrishna Mission:

• Ramakrishna Mission (RKM) is a Hindu religious and spiritual organisation which forms the core of a worldwide spiritual movement known as the Ramakrishna Movement or the Vedanta Movement.
• The mission is named after and inspired by the Indian saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and founded by Ramakrishna’s chief disciple Swami Vivekananda . The organization mainly propagates the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta–Advaita Vedanta and four yogic ideals–jnana, bhakti, karma, and Raja Yoga.
• Apart from religious and spiritual teaching the organization carries out extensive educational and philanthropic work in India. This aspect came to be a feature of many other Hindu movements.
• The mission bases its work on the principles of karma yoga, the principle of selfless work done with dedication to God.

Source: The Hindu

India’s Oil Import Dependence

Topic: Economy

In News: A report predicts that India’s oil dependency will rise as much as 50% in 2040 even if energy production domestically grows faster than it has in the past.

More on the Topic

• India imports over 80% of its crude oil and the largest sources are Iraq, Saudi Arabia and sanctions-hit Iran.
• Overall, India’s import dependency in its energy mix has risen sharply from 21% in 2000 to 36% in 2015.
• As India modernises its economy, it will move away from older, less dense forms of energy such as biomass to more dense ones.
• But India largely lacks proven resources of oil, gas and metallurgical coal on the scale it requires.
• However, the consequence of this continued dependence for the external balance and for overall macro-economic stability is unwelcome.
• It can also drive India close to a crisis in terms of its balance of payments, as it did in 1991 and nearly did in 2013.

Way Forward:

• India will have to think strategically about the effect of continuing import dependence.
• In terms of survival during a crisis, India needs to ensure that there are sufficient reserves on its own soil.
• The strategic oil reserves being set up in cooperation with the UAE and Saudi Arabia are a good step in that direction.
• In terms of preventing macro instability, it must be ensured that the balance of trade becomes healthier.
• India needs to ensure that exports grow sustainably for it to stay confident to pay for imported fuel.

Source: The Hindu