UPSC Daily Current Affairs- 26th October 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-I

Context

The partial solar eclipse or Surya Grahan on October 25 marks the last solar eclipse of the year. The eclipse will be visible from parts of Europe, Northern Africa and large parts of western and central Asia. Most of India should be able to view the solar eclipse, apart from some parts in the Northeast.

About Eclipses:

• An eclipse happens when a planet or a moon gets in the way of the sun’s light.
• When the light of the Sun or the Moon is blocked by another body, the sun or Moon is said to be in eclipse.
• Here on Earth, we can experience two kinds of eclipses: solar eclipses and lunar eclipses.

Solar Eclipse:

• Also known as the eclipse of the sun, it occurs when the moon comes in between the sun and the earth. As a result, the moon blocks the light of the sun from reaching the earth’s surface and casts a shadow on it.
• This occurs on a new moon phase.
• We can observe up to 5 solar eclipses per year.

Type of Solar Eclipses:

• Eclipses may be classified into 4 types i.e., Annular, Total, Partial and Hybrid.
• The type of eclipse we experience depends on the type of shadow that is involved.
• Both the Moon and Earth cast 3 shadows: umbra, penumbra, and an antumbra.
• The umbra is a shadow’s dark core: It means If you are standing within the umbra, you will not be able to see any part of the light source as the object blocks all direct light rays.
• The penumbra is a half-shadow that occurs when a light source is only partly covered by an object
• Antumbra – the lighter part of the shadow that begins where the umbra ends.
• Total Eclipse: This occurs when the Sun is completely obscured from the rich. Instead, the Sun’s intense light is replaced by the dark silhouette of the Moon that is outlined by the Sun’s corona (the super-heated plasma extending out from the Sun.
• Annular Eclipse: Occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line but Moon appears smaller than the Sun. During one annular eclipse, the Sun appears as a bright ring around the Moon.
• Partial Eclipse: Occurs when the Sun and Moon are not completely aligned and the Sun is partially obscured.
• Hybrid Eclipse: Hybrid Eclipse is a combination of total and annular eclipse that takes place when a total eclipse changes to an annular eclipse or vice-versa along different sections of the eclipse’s path.

Lunar Eclipse:

• A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth’s shadow.
• This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned with Earth between the other two, which can happen only on the night of a full moon when the moon is near either lunar node.

There are 3 kinds of lunar eclipses:

• A total lunar eclipse occurs when Earth’s umbra – the central, dark part of its shadow – obscures all of the Moon’s surface.
• A partial lunar eclipse can be observed when only part of the Moon’s surface is obscured by Earth’s umbra.
• A penumbral lunar eclipse happens when the Moon travels through the faint penumbral portion of Earth’s shadow.

Context

Bangladesh has been devastated by Cyclone Sitrang, which slammed into densely-populated, low-lying areas.

• Named by Thailand, Sitrang is the first tropical cyclone of the post-monsoon season of 2022.
• In 2018, Titli was the last October cyclone in the Bay of Bengal.

What are the Tropical Cyclones?

• A tropical cyclone is an intense circular storm that originates over warm tropical oceans and is characterized by low atmospheric pressure, high winds, and heavy rain.
• A characteristic feature of tropical cyclones is the eye, a central region of clear skies, warm temperatures, and low atmospheric pressure.
• Storms of this type are called hurricanes in the North Atlantic and eastern Pacific and typhoons in SouthEast Asia and China. They are called tropical cyclones in the southwest Pacific and Indian Ocean region and Willy-willies in north-western Australia.
• Storms rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
• The conditions favourable for the formation and intensification of tropical storms are:
  • Large sea surface with temperature higher than 27°C.
  • Presence of the Coriolis force.
  • Small variations in the vertical wind speed.
  • A pre-existing weak low- pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation.
  • Upper divergence above the sea level system.

How do Tropical Cyclones Form?

The development cycle of tropical cyclones may be divided into three stages:

• Formation and Initial Development Stage:
  • The formation and initial development of a cyclonic storm depends upon the transfer of water vapour and heat from the warm ocean to the overlying air, primarily by evaporation from the sea surface.
  • It encourages formation of massive vertical cumulus clouds due to convection with condensation of rising air above the ocean surface.
• Mature Stage:
  • When a tropical storm intensifies, the air rises in vigorous thunderstorms and tends to spread out horizontally at the tropopause level. Once air spreads out, a positive pressure at high levels is produced, which accelerates the downward motion of air due to convection.
  • With the inducement of subsidence, air warms up by compression and a warm ‘Eye’ (Low pressure centre) is generated. The main physical feature of a mature tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean is a concentric pattern of highly turbulent giant cumulus thundercloud bands.
• Modification and Decay:
  • A tropical cyclone begins to weaken in terms of its central low pressure, internal warmth and extremely high speeds, as soon as its source of warm moist air begins to ebb or is abruptly cut off.

GS-II

Context

Recently, a lot of the pollution observed during Diwali can be attributed to the burning of firecrackers or fireworks.

What are the Green Crackers?

• Green crackers are dubbed as ‘eco-friendly’ crackers and are known to cause less air and noise pollution as compared to traditional firecrackers.
• These crackers were first designed by the National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), under the aegis of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 2018.
• NEERI is a constituent of CSIR to conduct research and developmental studies in environmental science and engineering.
• These crackers replace certain hazardous agents in traditional crackers with less polluting substances with the aim to reduce the noise intensity and emissions.
• Most green crackers do not contain barium nitrate, which is the most dangerous ingredient in conventional crackers.
• Green crackers use alternative chemicals such as potassium nitrate and aluminium instead of magnesium and barium as well as carbon instead of arsenic and other harmful pollutants.
• Regular crackers also produce 160-200 decibels of sound, while that from green crackers are limited to about 100-130 decibels.

How can one Identify Green crackers?

Presently, three brands of green crackers are available for purchase:

• SWAS - Safe Water Releaser: These crackers do not use sulphur or potassium nitrate, and thus release water vapour instead of certain key pollutants. It also deploys the use of diluents, and thus is able to control particulate matter (PM) emissions by upto 30%.
• STAR – Safe Thermite Cracker: Just like SWAS, STAR also does not contain sulphur and potassium nitrate, and besides controlling particulate dust emissions, it also has lower sound intensity.
• SAFAL – Safe Minimal Aluminium: It replaces aluminium content with magnesium and thus produces reduced levels of pollutants.
• All three brands of green crackers can currently only be produced by licensed manufacturers, approved by the CSIR. Additionally, the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) is tasked with certifying that the crackers are made without arsenic, mercury, and barium, and are not loud beyond a certain threshold.
• Furthermore, green crackers can be differentiated from conventional crackers in retail stores by a green logo printed on their boxes, along with a Quick Response (QR) coding system.

What are the Concerns regarding Green Crackers?

• Since green crackers can only be legally manufactured by firms that have signed agreements with the CSIR, no small-scale business or cottage business house can manufacture green crackers, which coupled with a ban on traditional fireworks, would leave very many unemployed this time of the year.
• There is a general lack of awareness amongst both the sellers and the public on how to identify the right green crackers. In fact, experts have cautioned against purchasing green crackers from street vendors as the items may not be credible.
• It is also revealed that most customers prefer ‘traditional’ crackers due to a lack of availability of green crackers, or due to their higher prices.

Way Forward

• There should be efforts by the government to increase their production by giving legal sanctions to small manufacturers for the production activities of green crackers. It will help in tackling the problem of scarcity of Green crackers.
• The people should be made aware of the benefits of green crackers and how to recognize their genuineness.

Context

Recently the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) pitched for regulating all OTT players, including communication over the top (OTT) players such as WhatsApp, and those such as Netflix that consumed huge bandwidth.

About COAI:

• COAI was constituted in 1995 as a registered, non-governmental society. The Association is dedicated to the advancement of modern communication through the establishment of world-class mobile infrastructure, products and services and to delivering the benefits of innovative and affordable mobile communication services to the people of India.
• Over the years COAI has emerged as the official voice for the Indian telecom industry and interacts directly with Ministries, Policy Makers, Regulators, Financial Institutions and Technical Bodies.
• It provides a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas between these bodies and the Service Providers, who share a common interest in the development of mobile telephony in the country. COAI collaborates with other Industry Associations such as CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, AUSPI, ISPAI, VSAT association etc.
• COAI’s core membership includes private Telecom Service Providers, namely – Bharti Airtel Limited., Vodafone Idea Limited and Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, operating across the whole country.
• Having started as an Association for mobile service providers, COAI has today expanded to be a thought leader in the Digital Communications industry, with members including Telecom service providers, telecom infrastructure players, telecom network equipment & device manufacturers, chipsets manufacturers,  Social Media companies, Content Providers, E-commerce players; and still expanding to include other allied and critical stakeholders of the sector.
• COAI’s present Associate Members include –Amazon Seller Services Pvt.Ltd, Apple India, Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Ciena Communications India Pvt. Ltd., Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd., Ericsson India Pvt. Ltd., ECI Telecom India Pvt. Ltd., Facebook India Online Services Pvt. Ltd., Google India Pvt. Ltd., Huawei Telecommunications (India) Co. Pvt. Ltd, Indus Towers Ltd,  Juniper Networks Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., Nokia Networks, Qualcomm India Pvt. Ltd., Sterlite Technologies Limited and ZTE Telecom India Pvt. Ltd.
• Further, COAI has dedicated itself towards the training of skilled manpower to ensure efficient and optimum utilization of human resources to the industry. COAI has played a major role in the setting up and operations of the Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) in India under the aegis of the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC).
• TSSC is registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860, with members from COAI, ICA, TCOE, NSDC, TAIPA, AUSPI, Govt., Telecom Industry and Academia.
• COAI also played a major role in setting up the Telecom Centres of Excellence (TCOE) set up in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, with the Government, the Academia and the Industry working together for the sustained growth and progress of the country.
• The key objective of TCOEs are to create synergy amongst the academia, telecom industry and the government for creation of new services/applications, generation of IPR, development of manufacturing capability, global telecom standardization activities, and promotion of entrepreneurship.
• COAI was instrumental in the formation of the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI), which aims at developing and promoting India-specific requirements, standardizing solutions for meeting these requirements and contributing these to international standards.
• The TSDSI contributes to global standardization in the field of telecommunications by maintaining the technical standards and other deliverables of the organization, safe-guarding the related IPR, helping create manufacturing expertise in the country, and providing leadership to the developing countries in terms of their telecommunications-related standardization needs.
• COAI also interacts with various international organizations such as ITU, GSMA, UMTS, TIA, ITIC, GSA, MMF, Digital Europe, WWRF and 3GPP; Country Embassies as well as the Press & Media to ensure that the issues pertaining to the mobile phone industry are discussed, understood and debated on a wider platform.

Context

India’s External Affairs Minister recently discussed relations between India-U.K. with his British counterpart of UK. The call took place just before he was confirmed to continue in the post of Foreign Secretary by the newly appointed British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

• The two Ministers discussed several issues but the announcement of the phone call did not include the state of negotiation of the India-U.K. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that missed the Deepavali deadline that was given earlier this year by Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his visit to India.

History of India-United Kingdom relations

• 1600-1857: East India Company
  • 1600: Trade was first established between Mughal India and Tudor England. Elizabeth, I granted a royal charter to the East India company.
  • 1757: The Battle of Plassey started the advent of company rule in India. Over the years a series of wars and treaties expanded the company’s influence all over India.
  • Through the Anglo-Mysore wars, Anglo-Maratha wars, and Anglo-Sikh wars- EIC controlled most of the Indian subcontinent.
  • 1857: Indian rebellion of 1857 led to the end of company rule in India. The rule was transferred to the crown and the British government.
• 1858-1947: British Raj
  • 1858: The British Government seized control of the territories and treaty arrangements of the former East India Company.
  • Over the next span of years, the British fought numerous wars including the Anglo-Afghan Wars, the Anglo-Gurkha Wars, the Anglo-Burmese Wars, the First and Second Opium Wars, and World War I and II on the strength of the British Indian Army.

Indian Independence Movement:

• The 1857 rebellion became the inspiration for initiating the struggle for independence in India.
• Many nationalists and revolutionaries and leaders stood up against the British rule like Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, and many more.
• The events of the freedom movement eventually led to the dissolution of the British Raj and the Independence of India on 15 August 1947.
• However, it also resulted in the Partition of India into two new entities, the Dominion of Pakistan (which included the province of East Bengal that would later achieve independence as Bangladesh) and the Dominion of India.
• 1950: India decided to be in the commonwealth of nations after becoming a republic.
• Both Britain and India have since pursued quite divergent diplomatic paths.
• In particular, India became a major force within the Non-Aligned Movement, which initially sought to avoid taking sides during the Cold War. This contrasted with Britain’s position as a founding member of NATO and a key ally of the United States.

Economic and Trade relations:

• India is the 2nd largest investor in the UK. While the UK ranks 18th as a trading partner of India, it is 3rd as an investor in India.
• 2005: The Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) was inaugurated in New Delhi aimed at boosting two-way bilateral investments.
• India’s main exports to the UK are: ready-made garments and textiles, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, petroleum and petrochemical products, transport equipment and parts, spices, manufactures of metals, machinery and instruments, drugs & pharmaceuticals and marine products.
• The main imports from the UK to India are: precious and semi-precious stones, metalliferous, ores and metal scraps, engineering goods, professional instruments other than electronics, non-ferrous metals, chemicals, and machinery.
• In the services sector, the UK is the largest market in Europe for Indian IT services.
• The top sectors attracting FDI from the UK are petroleum, ports, services, roads and highways, and computer software.
• The growth of India’s multinational companies contributed greatly to UK’s business and economy.
• India-UK bilateral merchandise trade (Trade in Goods and Trade in Service) has increased exponentially over the decade.
• Under the Road map, a free trade agreement was signed in 2021.

Cultural relations:

• India and UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cultural Cooperation in July 2010. The Nehru Centre (TNC), established in 1992 in London, is the cultural outreach of the High Commission of India in the UK.

Nuclear Cooperation:

• Both nations have signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Declaration in 2010 to help promote and facilitate cooperation in the nuclear field including nuclear trade and also between the scientific institutions of the two countries
• In 2015, the UK and Indian Prime Ministers signed a Nuclear Collaboration Agreement as part of a comprehensive package of collaboration on energy and climate change, including joint research programs and initiatives to share technical, scientific, financial, and policy expertise.

Education:

• India is the second-largest source of students studying in the UK and the number of Indian students in the UK is approximately 38,000. The UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) was launched in 2005 with a focus on higher education and research, schools, and professional and technical skills.
• 2016 was announced as the UK-India year of Education, Research and Innovation.

Defence cooperation:

• At all the three services level, joint exercises and wide-ranging exchanges between the three services are conducted regularly.
• Prime Ministers Modi and Johnson have set out a shared vision for the UK-India defence partnership and agreed to advance the relationship to a new level.
• India-UK agreed to significant new cooperation on Maritime Domain Awareness, which includes new agreements on maritime information sharing, an invitation to the UK to join India’s Information Fusion Centre in Gurgaon, and an ambitious exercise program that includes joint tri-lateral exercises.

Health:

• As a Global Force for Good in health, the UK and India will use our combined research and innovation strength to address the biggest global health challenges, save lives and improve health and well-being.
• The India-United Kingdom Health Partnership envisions to enhance global health security and pandemic resilience, show leadership in Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR), promote healthy societies and strengthen both our health systems through increased collaboration on clinical education, health worker mobility, and digital health.

Way Forward

• UK values its relationship with India just more than trade and India regards UK as an important player in world politics and development. There is convergence of views on the global issues. Both believe in rule based international order. UK is the permanent member of the UNSC and supports India for its permanent membership. Both support for the development in west Asia.
• There are areas in which UK seeks India’s support, opinion and share their views with us. At a time when UK is not the part of Europe, it is very important to have strong friends outside and India is one of those.
• As the UK prepares to leave the EU, it is time to reset this relationship. Both the countries cannot afford to be complacent or rely on historical connections to deliver a modern partnership.
• Britain could further its relationship with India including through security and defence cooperation, joint exercises of the armed forces, and working with India to achieve reform at international bodies such as the UN and WTO. Trade, security, a shared commitment to the rules-based international system — these are all factors in our growing and evolving partnership.
• India is one of the fastest growing large economies of the world and FTA with the UK has played a significant role in enhancing the trade volume of the country.

GS-III

Context

The Ministry of Home Affairs has cancelled the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) licence of some NGOs associated with the Nehru-Gandhi family, for alleged violations of the provisions of the Act.

What is FCRA?

• The FCRA regulates foreign donations and ensures that such contributions do not adversely affect internal security.
• First enacted in 1976, it was amended in 2010 when a slew of new measures was adopted to regulate foreign donations.
• The FCRA is applicable to all associations, groups and NGOs which intend to receive foreign donations.
• It is mandatory for all such NGOs to register themselves under the FCRA.
• The registration is initially valid for five years and it can be renewed subsequently if they comply with all norms.

Why was FCRA enacted?

• The FCRA sought to consolidate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by individuals, associations or companies.
• It sought to prohibit such contributions from being used for activities detrimental to national interest.

Recent amendments

• An amended FCRA was enacted under the UPA government in 2010.
• The law was amended again by the current government in 2020, giving the government tighter control and scrutiny over the receipt and utilisation of foreign funds by NGOs.
• A legal challenge to the 2020 amendments was rejected by the Supreme Court in April this year.

Registration under FCRA

• NGOs that want to receive foreign funds must apply online in a prescribed format with the required documentation.
• FCRA registrations are granted to individuals or associations that have definite cultural, economic, educational, religious, and social programmes.
• Following the application, the MHA makes inquiries through the Intelligence Bureau into the antecedents of the applicant and accordingly processes the application.
• The MHA is required to approve or reject the application within 90 days — failing which it is expected to inform the NGO of the reasons for the same.
• Once granted, FCRA registration is valid for five years.

Cancellation of approval

• The government reserves the right to cancel the FCRA registration of any NGO if it finds it to be in violation of the Act.
• Registration can be cancelled for a range of reasons including, if “in the opinion of the Central Government, it is necessary for the public interest to cancel the certificate”.
• Once the registration of an NGO is cancelled, it is not eligible for re-registration for three years.
• All orders of the government can be challenged in the High Court.

Why was FCRA enacted?

• The FCRA sought to consolidate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by individuals, associations or companies.
• It sought to prohibit such contributions from being used for activities detrimental to national interest.

What was the recent Amendment?

• The FCRA was amended in September 2020 to introduce some new restrictions.
• The Government says it did so because it found that many recipients were wanting in compliance with provisions relating to filing of annual returns and maintenance of accounts.
• Many did not utilise the funds received for the intended objectives.
• It claimed that the annual inflow as foreign contributions almost doubled between 2010 and 2019.
• The FCRA registration of 19,000 organisations was cancelled and, in some cases, prosecution was also initiated.

How has the law changed?

There are at least three major changes that NGOs find too restrictive.

• Prohibition of fund transfer: An amendment to Section 7 of the Act completely prohibits the transfer of foreign funds received by an organisation to any other individual or association.
• Directed and single bank account: Another amendment mandates that every person (or association) granted a certificate or prior permission to receive overseas funds must open an FCRA bank account in a designated branch of the SBI in New Delhi.
• Utilization of funds: Fund All foreign funds should be received only in this account and none other. However, the recipients are allowed to open another FCRA bank account in any scheduled bank for utilisation.
• Shared information: The designated bank will inform authorities about any foreign remittance with details about its source and the manner in which it was received.
• Aadhaar mandate: In addition, the Government is also authorised to take the Aadhaar numbers of all the key functionaries of any organisation that applies for FCRA registration or for prior approval for receiving foreign funds.
• Cap on administrative expenditure: Another change is that the portion of the receipts allowed as administrative expenditure has been reduced from 50% to 20%.

What is the criticism against these changes?

• Arbitrary restrictions: NGOs questioning the law consider the prohibition on transfer arbitrary and too heavy a restriction.
• Non-sharing of funds: One of its consequences is that recipients cannot fund other organisations. When foreign help is received as material, it becomes impossible to share the aid.
• Irrationality of designated bank accounts: There is no rational link between designating a particular branch of a bank with the objective of preserving national interest.
• Un-ease of operation: Due to Delhi based bank account, it is also inconvenient as the NGOS might be operating elsewhere.
• Illogical narrative: ‘National security’ cannot be cited as a reason without adequate justification as observed by the Supreme Court in Pegasus Case.

What does the Government say?

• Zero tolerance against intervention: The amendments were necessary to prevent foreign state and non-state actors from interfering with the country’s polity and internal matters.
• Diversion of foreign funds: The changes are also needed to prevent malpractices by NGOs and diversion of foreign funds.
• Fund flow monitoring: The provision of having one designated bank for receiving foreign funds is aimed at making it easier to monitor the flow of funds.
• Ease of operation: The Government clarified that there was no need for anyone to come to Delhi to open the account as it can be done remotely.

Way forward

• NGOs could look within the country for donors.
• Fundamental rights have to give way in the larger public interest to the need to insulate the democratic polity from the “adverse influence of foreign contributions”.
• The third-world countries may welcome foreign donations, but it is open to a nation, which is committed and enduring to be self-reliant.
• An unregulated inflow of foreign donations would only indicate that the government was incapable of looking after its own affairs and needs of its citizens.

Context

• PDNA is now being used to evaluate the financial and social cost of local disasters in eight states in India.
• These states all experienced severe flooding in the last few months.
• The results of these assessments are likely to come out next month.

What is PDNA?

• PDNA is an internationally accepted methodology for determining the physical damages, economic losses, and costs of meeting recovery needs after a natural disaster through a government-led process.
• It is an international framework for assessing losses and damages in the aftermath of a disaster.
• The framework helps get recovery and reconstruction efforts right following a disaster.
• Globally, of the 55 PDNAs conducted worldwide since 2008, only two droughts — one in Malawi and the other Marshall Islands in 2016 — were of slow-onset disasters.

Components of PDNA

• PDNA includes a calculation of the disaster’s impact on Gross Domestic Product, the balance of payment and fiscal budget.
• Secondly, how this affects the flow of revenue to multiple sectors is evaluated.
• For example, the number of farmers’ income affected per damaged acre of land and the livelihoods lost.
• Overall, a quantitative assessment is additionally done on the social and environmental impact of the disaster.

History of PDNA in India

• This is not the first time PDNA has been conducted in India.
• It was first adopted during the Kerala floods of 2018 and again during the cyclone in Odisha in 2019, both unprecedented disasters.
• Until now, the assessment was only limited to massive disasters that required international funding from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations.

15th Finance Commission provision

• The 15th finance commission report of 2021, for the first time, made a provision for recovery and reconstruction in the national disaster management budget, which is at the core of the PDNA.
• The states did not receive international funding to do the current ongoing PDNAs, as they are expected to take the money from the budget.