National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 10th December 2019

Citizenship Amendment Bill

Topic: Polity and Governance

In News: The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) that seeks to give citizenship to refugees from the Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

More on the Topic:

What does the Bill aim for?

• With The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the government plans to change the definition of illegal migrants. However, the Act doesn’t have a provision for Muslim sects like Shias and Ahmediyas who also face persecution in Pakistan.
• The Bill also seeks to reduce the requirement of 11 years of continuous stay in the country to six years to obtain citizenship by naturalisation.

Who are illegal immigrants?

• According to the Citizenship Act, 1955, an illegal immigrant is one who enters India without a valid passport or with forged documents. Or, a person who stays beyond the visa permit.

Why and who all are opposing the Bill?

• Assam considers the Bill to work against the cultural and linguistic identity of the indigenous people of the State.
• All Opposition parties, including the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front, have opposed the idea of granting citizenship to an individual on the basis of religion.

Concerns:

• A key argument against the CAB is that it will not extend to those persecuted in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, from where Rohingya Muslims and Tamils are staying in the country as refugees.
• Further, it fails to allow Shia and Ahmadiyya Muslims, who also face persecution, to apply for citizenship.
• The exemption from the application of the CAB’s provisions in tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura, and the Inner Line Permit areas in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram, with Manipur to be added soon, is clearly based on political expediency, even if it is in line with the constitutional guarantees given to indigenous populations and statutory protection given to ILP areas.
• It demonstrates the need for careful and meaningful categorisation, something that the main provisions fail to do.
• The central feature of the equal protection of the law envisaged in Article 14 is that the basis for classifying a group for a particular kind of treatment should bear a rational nexus with the overall objective.
• If protecting persecuted neighbourhood minorities is the objective, the classification may fail the test of constitutionality because of the exclusion of some countries and communities using religion.

Source: Hindu

UN development index

Topic: Reports and Indices

In News:  P United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has released Human Development Report (HDR).

More on the Topic:

• The HDI measures average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development — life expectancy, education and per capita income.
• Norway, Switzerland, Ireland occupied the top three positions in that order. Germany is placed fourth along with Hong Kong, and Australia secured the fifth rank on the global ranking.
• Among India’s neighbours, Sri Lanka (71) and China (85) are higher up the rank scale while Bhutan (134), Bangladesh (135), Myanmar (145), Nepal (147), Pakistan (152) and Afghanistan (170) were ranked lower on the list.
• As per the report, South Asia was the fastest growing region in human development progress witnessing a 46% growth over 1990-2018, followed by East Asia and the Pacific at 43%.
• The report notes that the world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030 as per the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It forecasts that it may take 202 years to close the gender gap in economic opportunity one of the three indicators of the GII.

India Specific Findings:

• India’s HDI value increased by 50% (from 0.431 to 0.647), which places it above the average for other South Asian countries (0.642).
• However, for inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI), India’s position drops by one position to 130, losing nearly half the progress (.647 to .477) made in the past 30 years. The IHDI indicates percentage loss in HDI due to inequalities.
• The report notes that group-based inequalities persist, especially affecting women and girls and no place in the world has gender equality. In the Gender Inequality Index (GII), India is at 122 out of 162 countries. Neighbours China (39), Sri Lanka (86), Bhutan (99), Myanmar (106) were placed above India.

A new index:

• The report presents a new index indicating how prejudices and social beliefs obstruct gender equality, which shows that only 14% of women and 10% of men worldwide have no gender bias.
• The report notes that this indicates a backlash to women’s empowerment as these biases have shown a growth especially in areas where more power is involved, including in India.
• The report also highlights that new forms of inequalities will manifest in future through climate change and technological transformation which have the potential to deepen existing social and economic fault lines.

Source: Hindu

White Island

Topic: Geography

In News: White island volcano erupted recently.

More on the Topic:

• Whakaari/White Island (also known as just White Island) is an active andesite stratovolcano, situated 48 km (30 mi) from the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, in the Bay of Plenty.
• It is New Zealand’s most active cone volcano, and has been built up by continuous volcanic activity over the past 150,000 years.
• The exposed island is only the peak of a much larger submarine volcano, which rises up to 1,600 m (5,249 ft) above the nearby seafloor. Sulphur mining takes place on the island.

Source: Hindu

RISAT Satellite

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: PSLV is set to carry out its 50th mission by launching an Earth observation satellite, RISAT-2BR1.

More on the Topic:

• The RISAT-2BR1 will boost Indian military’s Earth surveillance.
• It is radar imaging reconnaissance satellites built by ISRO. These satellites provide all weather earth observations.

Source: Hindu

Platform for Science-Based Ocean Solutions

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: Platform for Science-Based Ocean Solutions was launched in 25th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC.

More on the Topic:

• The platform is an alliance between all stakeholders of civil society and the research community to include the Ocean in solutions relating to climate change.
• It seeks to promote the necessity of addressing ocean and climate issues synergistically in climate commitments and strategies.
• It will engage many actors in ocean-climate action, including the public and private sectors, civil society and academia.
• Chile, as its capacity as a president of COP25, has named COP 25 the ‘Blue COP’ because for the first time the study, protection and sustainable management of oceans was centred in a major climate action conference.
• The COP will also feature several additional discussions on the importance of protecting the ocean.
• The Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change (NWP) has facilitated experts to identify gaps and action on climate change and ocean linkages.
• ‘Because the Ocean’ Declaration was signed in 2015 UNFCCC COP held in Paris that focuses on objectives to advance action on climate change, oceans and sustainable development.

Source: Hindu

Taj Trapezium Zone

Topic: Miscellaneous

In News: Recently, SC lifted its earlier interim order imposing a complete ban on construction, industrial activities and cutting of trees in the TTZ.

More on the Topic:

• Taj Trapezium Zone was established in 1996 through an order of Supreme Court. It is so named since it is located around the Taj Mahal and is shaped like a trapezoid.
• It is a 10,400 sq km area to protect the Taj Mahal from pollution and spreads across the districts of Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Hathras and Etah in Uttar Pradesh and Bharatpur district of Rajasthan.
• It comprises over 40 protected monuments along with 3 world heritage sites such as the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri.
• SC in its order declared it as an eco-sensitive area and banned the use of coal/coke in industries located in the zone with a mandate of switching over to natural gas.

Source: Indian Express

FrogPhone

Topic: Science and Technology/Environment and Ecology

In News: World’s first solar-powered remote survey device that can be installed at any frog pond and which receives a 3G or 4G cellular network was developed by a team from various Australian institutions.

More on the Topic:

• Frog populations are recognised as indicators of environmental health.
• The FrogPhone will allow researchers to dial these devices remotely, and analyse the data later.
• It will reduce costs and risks, including the negative impact of human presence on the field site.
• These devices also allow for monitoring of local frog populations more frequently than before

A bio indicator is any species or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. For example, copepods and other small water crustaceans that are present in many water bodies can be monitored for changes that may indicate a problem within their ecosystem.

Source: Down to Earth