UPSC Daily Current Affairs- 28th October 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-I

Context

Recently, UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) released a report titled “Coldest Year of the Rest of Their Lives - Protecting children from the escalating impacts of heatwaves”, showing that nearly all the children across the world will be exposed to more frequent and severe heat waves by 2050.

• UNICEF is a special program of the United Nations (UN) devoted to aiding national efforts to improve the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children.

What are the Findings of the UNICEF Report?

Current Scenario:

• Around 559 million children are exposed to high heatwave frequency and around 624 million children are exposed to one of three other high heat measures - High heatwave duration, High heatwave severity and Extreme high temperatures.
• One in four children lives in areas where the average heatwave event lasts 4.7 days or longer as of 2020.
• This percentage will rise to over three in four children under a low-emission scenario by 2050.
• Children in southern, western and south-eastern Asia, eastern and southern Europe and northern Africa experience heatwaves of longer duration.

Future Impact:

• The number of children exposed to high heat waves will quadruple to over two billion by 2050 — up from 24% of children in 2020.
• This amounts to an increase of about 1.5 billion children.
• Virtually every child on earth will face severe heat waves even under a low greenhouse gas emission scenario — with an estimated 1.7°C of warming in 2050.
• At 2.4 degrees of warming, 94% of children will be exposed with only small areas of southern America, central Africa, Australasia and Asia not exposed to high heatwave duration.
• Higher Vulnerability of Children:
  • Heat Waves with longer duration pose more risks for children as they spend more time outdoors than adults for — sports and other activities — putting them at greater risk for heat injury.

Impact on Health:

• High temperatures are linked to increased mental health problems in children and adolescents, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.
• Extreme heat will essentially affect children’s education and future livelihoods.
• Heatwave risks to health include — heat stroke, heat stress, allergy, chronic respiratory conditions, asthma, mosquito-borne disease, cardiovascular disease, undernutrition and diarrhoea.
• Threatens Children's Safety:
  • Communities are forced to search for and compete over food and water resources as pastures and household income dry up. The resulting migration, displacement and conflict expose children to serious physical harm and violence risks.

What are the Recommendations?

• There is a need to ensure that the vulnerable have the resources to adopt the critical social services required to protect them.
• It is high time Countries must act now by:
• Protecting children from climate devastation by encouraging social services
• Preparing children to live in a climate-changed world
• Prioritising children and youth in climate finance and resources
• Preventing a climate catastrophe by reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• The 27^th Conference of Parties (COP-27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change must unlock progress on loss and damage, placing the resilience of children and their communities at the centre of discussions on action and support.

What are the Other Related Indices?

• Children’s Climate Risk Index: UNICEF:
  • It ranks countries based on children’s exposure to climate and environmental shocks, such as Cyclones and Heatwaves, as well as their vulnerability to those shocks, based on their access to essential services.
• Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) Index:
  • It has shown the impact of climate change on children across the world.
  • It explains that the children will be impacted by food shortages, diseases and other health threats, water scarcity, or be at risk from rising water levels – or a combination of these factors.

GS-II

Context

• Recently, the Prime Minister emphasised the importance of promoting indigenous products and self-reliance.

What is Self-reliance?

• Self-reliance is the social and economic ability of an individual, a household or a community to meet essential needs (including protection, food, water, shelter, personal safety, health and education) in a sustainable manner and with dignity.
• India’s potential towards self-reliance:
  • Labour force:
  • Self-reliance depends on improving the income and productivity of a majority of the labour force.
  • There are two ways to do this.
    • First, incentivise the farming community to shift from grain-based farming to cash crops, horticulture and livestock products.
    • Second, shift the labour force from agriculture to manufacturing.
  • India can only become self-reliant if it uses its best endowment — 900 million people in the working-age population with an average age of 27 — and appropriates its demographic dividend as China did.
• Global position:
  • India is in a unique position at a time when all other manufacturing giants are ageing sequentially — Japan, EU, the US, and even South Korea and China.
  • Most of these countries have moved out of low-end labour-intensive manufacturing, and that space is being taken by countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Mexico, etc.
• Research & development:
  • State-funded R&D, including in basic research, by PSUs and research institutions and universities needs to be scaled-up significantly, well above the dismal 1% of GDP currently.
• Education:
  • Finally, India’s meagre public expenditure on education needs to be substantially ramped up (as against current trends of privatisation which would only shrink access), including in skill development.
  • No country has achieved self-reliance without mass quality public education.
• Government’s initiatives towards self-reliance:
  • Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan:
    • Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan or Self-reliant India campaign is the vision of new India.
    • Aim: The aim is to make the country and its citizens independent and self-reliant in all senses.
    • There are five pillars of Atama Nirbhar Bharat –
      • Economy,
      • Infrastructure,
      • System,
      • Vibrant Demography and
      • Demand
      • Finance Minister has announced Government Reforms and Enablers across Seven Sectors under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan.
    • The government took several bold reforms such as Supply Chain Reforms for Agriculture, Rational Tax Systems, Simple & Clear Laws, Capable Human Resource and Strong Financial System in this regard.
  • Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana:
    • Aim: It aims to boost employment generation and minimise the socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
    • Features: Under ABRY, Government of India is crediting for a period of two years both the employees’ share (12% of wages) and employers share’ (12% of wages) of contribution payable or only the employees’ share, depending on employment strength of the EPFO registered establishments.
  • Aatmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana
    • Aim: To strengthen India’s critical healthcare network in both urban and rural areas.
    • Establish an IT-enabled disease surveillance system through a network of laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels.
    • Labs will be connected through the Integrated Health Information Portal.
    • Features:
      • To provide support to 17,788 rural Health and Wellness Centres in 10 ‘high focus’ states and establish 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centres.
      • It is in addition to the National Health Mission.
      • Exclusive Critical Care Hospital Blocks with over five lakh population.
  • Make in India
    • Ministry of Commerce & Industry said that the program, which is aimed at self-sufficiency or being ‘aatmanirbhar’, has substantial accomplishments across 27 sectors, including strategic sectors such as manufacturing and services.
    • Make in India, the flagship program of the Government of India that aspires to
    • Facilitate investment,
    • Foster innovation,
    • Enhance skill development,
    • Build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure,
    • Protect the intellectual property,
    • Make India digital,
    • Create healthy relationships with various countries,
    • Provide employment opportunities.
  • “Make in India” had three stated objectives:
    • To increase the manufacturing sector’s growth rate to 12-14% per annum;
    • To create 100 million additional manufacturing jobs in the economy by 2022;
    • To ensure that the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP is increased to 25% by 2022 (later revised to 2025).
  • Startup India:
    • Startup India was introduced in 2016 as a call to innovators, entrepreneurs, and thinkers of the nation to lead from the front in driving India’s sustainable growth and create large scale employment opportunities.
    • The entrepreneurial portal had more than 65,000 startups registered.
    • Of which, 40 attained the ‘unicorn’ status recently, bringing the total as of date to 90.
    • Thus, the significance of promoting indigenous products and self-reliance is for prosperity and by adopting them one can keep India’s traditional art, culture and civilisation alive.
• Additional Information:
• Jain saint Vijay Vallabh Surishwar:
  • The PM was addressing a gathering to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Jain saint Vijay Vallabh Surishwar.
  • The event was organised by the Union Culture Ministry.
  • As part of the occasion, a commemorative postage stamp and coin dedicated to Acharya Surishwar was also released.
• Historical significance:
  • `PM said Acharya Surishwar’s insistence on peace and harmony was clearly visible even during the horrors of Partition.
  • He noted that during the freedom movement Mahatma Gandhi had adopted the path of “aparigraha”, or renunciation, as laid down by the Jain gurus.
• About Aparigraha:
  • Aparigraha or Non-possession is a philosophy that holds that no one or anything possesses anything.
  • in Jainism, aparigraha is the virtue of non-possessiveness, non-grasping or non-greediness.
  • Aparigraha is not only renunciation but also controlling all kinds of attachments.
  • This particular iteration of aparigraha is distinct because it is a component of Gandhiji’s active non-violent resistance to social problems permeating India.

Context

Spanish fast-fashion giant Zara has been facing calls for boycott in Israel, after a franchise owner hosted far-right politician for a campaign event. Many Arab Israelis took to Twitter, where they posted videos of themselves setting the company’s clothes on fire with the hashtag #boycottZara.

About Oslo Accords:

• The Oslo Accords are a series of agreements that launched the Oslo Process, aimed at achieving a comprehensive peace treaty between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
• The Oslo Process was unveiled with the signing of the Declaration of Principles (DOP) by PLO Chairman and Israeli Prime Minister in 1993.
• It was the first peace agreement signed by Israelis and Palestinians.
• The agreement did not directly address the key “permanent status” issues of water, refugees, Jerusalem, settlements and borders, but set up a structure for them to be negotiated at a later stage of the process, once trust was built.
• It also led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of the 1995 Oslo Interim Agreement.
• After the failure of the Camp David (II) Summit in 2000 and the subsequent outbreak of the Second Intifada, the Oslo Process collapsed.

GS-III

Context

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) recently released a report. The title of this report is “The coldest year of the rest of their lives”

• It calls for “Protecting children from the escalating impacts of heatwaves”

Findings:

• Around 559 million children are exposed to high heatwave frequency and around 624 million children are exposed to one of three other high heat measures – high heatwave duration, high heatwave severity or extreme high temperatures.
• By 2050, virtually every child on earth – over 2 billion children – is forecast to face more frequent heatwaves, regardless of whether the world achieves a ‘low greenhouse gas emission scenario’ with an estimated 1.7 degrees of warming in 2050 or a ‘very high greenhouse gas emission scenario’ with an estimated 2.4 degrees of warming in 2050.
• These heat waves will make it difficult for young people to regulate their body temperature. Therefore, resulting in vulnerability to health issues like chronic respiratory conditions, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases.
• Children in northern regions will face the most dramatic increases in high heatwave severity while by 2050, nearly half of all children in Africa and Asia will face sustained exposure to extreme high temperatures.
• Extreme atmospheric heat can result in drought, which will cause hurdles in accessing clean drinking water and healthy food.
• The report highlights that the heatwaves will result in the stunted development of children and force families to migrate.
• These findings underscore the urgent need to adapt the services children rely on as unavoidable impacts of global heating unfold. It also makes a case for more substantial emissions reduction, to prevent the worst impacts of the other high heat measures.
• Suggestions:
  • Protecting children from climate devastation by adapting social services.
  • Preparing children to live in a climate-changed world.
  • Prioritizing children and young people in climate finance and resources.
  • Preventing a climate catastrophe by drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and keep 1.5 degrees Celsius alive.
• Effect of climate change on children:
  • A study has been conducted, based on data from the Inter-sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP). This is a community-driven climate-impacts modelling initiative that assess the differential impacts of climate change. The ISIMIP data were used alongside country-scale, life-expectancy data, population data and temperature trajectories from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
  • During his or her lifetime, a child born in 2021 is likely to experience on average twice as many wildfires, two to three times more droughts, almost three times more river floods and crop failures and about seven times more heat waves compared to a person who is, say, 60 years old today, the researchers have found.
  • Under a scenario of current “insufficient” climate policies, dangerous extreme heatwave events, which affect about 15% of the global land area today, could treble to 46% by the end of this century.
  • However, if countries are able to follow through with their climate policies as decided under the Paris Climate Agreement, this effect could be limited to 22%, which is just seven percentage points more than the global land area that is affected today.
  • A 1.5-degree target will reduce young people’s potential exposure to extreme events on average by 24% globally. For North America it’s minus 26%, for Europe and Central Asia minus 28%, and in the Middle East and North Africa even minus 39%.

Context

A deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently emphasized the advantages and risks of the internationalization of the rupee.

What is Internationalisation of Rupee?

• Internationalisation of the rupee is a process that involves increasing use of the local currency in cross-border transactions.
• It involves promoting the rupee for import and export trade and then other current account transactions followed by its use in capital account transactions.
• As far as the rupee is concerned, it is fully convertible in the current account, but partially in capital account.
• Current and Capital account are the two components of Balance of payments. While the current account deals mainly with the import and export of goods and services, the capital account is made up of the cross-border movement of capital by way of investments and loans.

Why is the Need for Internationalisation of Rupee?

• The dollar accounts for 88.3% of global foreign exchange market turnover, followed by the euro, Japanese Yen and Pound Sterling; the rupee accounts for a mere 1.7%, underlining the need for pushing the currency much farther to get an international tag.
• In the case of the dollar, which is an international currency, the ‘exorbitant’ privileges include immunity from Balance of Payments crises as the USA can pay for its external deficits with its own currency.

What are the Various Advantages of Internationalisation of the Rupee?

• Use of Rupee in cross-border transactions mitigates currency risk for Indian business. Protection from currency volatility not only reduces cost of doing business, it also enables better growth of business, improving the chances for Indian business to grow globally.
• It reduces the need for holding foreign exchange reserves. While reserves help manage exchange rate volatility and project external stability, they impose a cost on the economy.
• Reducing dependence on foreign currency makes India less vulnerable to external shocks. For example, during phases of monetary tightening in US and strengthening dollar, excessive foreign currency liabilities of domestic business results in a de facto domestic tightening. Reduced exposure to currency risk would substantially mitigate the pain of reversal of capital flows.
• As the use of Rupee becomes significant, the bargaining power of Indian business would improve adding weight to the Indian economy, enhancing India’s global stature and respect.

What are the Challenges in Internationalisation of Rupee?

• India is a capital deficient country, and hence needs foreign capital to fund its growth. If a substantial portion of its trade is in Rupee, non-residents would hold Rupee balances in India which would be used to acquire Indian assets. Large holdings of such financial assets could heighten vulnerability to external shocks, managing which would necessitate more effective policy tools.
• A reduced role for convertible currencies in external transactions could lead to reduced reserve accretion. At the same time, however, the need for reserves would also reduce to the extent the trade deficit is funded in Rupees.
• Non-resident holdings of Rupees could exacerbate pass-through of external stimulus to domestic financial markets, increasing volatility. For instance, a global risk-off phase could lead non-residents to convert their Rupee holdings and move out of India.

What are the Steps taken for the Internationalisation of the Rupee?

• In July, 2022 the RBI has introduced a mechanism to facilitate international trade in rupees.
• Enabling external commercial borrowings in Rupees (especially Masala Bonds).
• The Asian Clearing Union is also exploring a scheme of using domestic currencies for settlement. An arrangement, bilateral or among trading blocs, which offers importers of each country the choice to pay in domestic currency is likely to be favoured by all countries, and therefore, is worth exploring.

Way Forward

• The recent initiative of invoicing trade in rupee comes from a different global requirement and order, but for true internationalisation and wider use of the rupee overseas, opening up of trade settlement in rupee alone will not suffice. Further opening up and liberalised settlements in rupee for various financial instruments both in India and overseas markets are more important.
• Rupee internationalization may also require an efficient swap market and a strong foreign exchange market.
• Further improvement in overall economic fundamentals, financial sector health, followed by an upward movement in sovereign ratings will also strengthen confidence in the rupee, making the currency ready for the next step in its international journey.

Context

Two beaches in Lakshadweep, have been accorded the ‘Blue Flag’ tag.

• India now has 12 “blue beaches”.

About:

• The Blue Flag is an exclusive eco-label or certification that is given to coastal locations around the world as a badge of environmental honour.
• The Blue Flag programme started in 1987, initially in Europe and the certification is awarded annually.
• It is one of the world’s most recognised voluntary awards for beaches, marinas, and sustainable boating tourism operators.
• The Blue Flag programme is run by the Copenhagen, Denmark-headquartered Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), a non-profit which, through its work, contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.
• The certification is given by an international jury comprising members of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), besides FEE.
• Aim: connecting the public with their surroundings and encouraging them to learn more about their environment.
• In order to qualify for the Blue Flag, a series of stringent environmental, educational, safety, and accessibility criteria must be met and maintained.
• A marina is a small harbour where mainly pleasure boats and yachts dock.

Beaches in India:

• The two new beaches to have been awarded the eco-label are Minicoy Thundi beach and Kadmat beach, both in Lakshadweep.
• The other 10 Indian beaches on the list are Shivrajpur in Gujarat’s Devbhumi Dwarka district; Ghogla beach in Diu; Kasarkod (Uttara Kannada) and Padubidri (Udupi) in Karnataka; Kappad (Kozhikode) in Kerala; Eden beach in Puducherry; Kovalam (Chennai) in Tamil Nadu; Rushikonda (Visakhapatnam) in Andhra Pradesh; Golden beach in Puri, Odisha; and Radhanagar Swarajdeep in Andaman and Nicobar.
• Kovalam and Eden got the Blue Flag last year. The other eight beaches received the certification in 2020, and were re-certified last year.

Dos and Don’ts:

• In 2020, an Extraordinary Gazette Notification gave a list of permissible activities and facilities in the CRZ of the beaches, including islands, subject to maintaining a minimum distance of 10 metres from the High Tide Line (HTL), for the purposes of Blue Flag certification.
• These included portable toilet blocks, change rooms and shower panels; solid waste management plant; solar power plant; purified drinking water facility; beach access pathways; landscaping lighting; seating benches and sit-out umbrellas; cloak room facility; safety watch towers and beach safety equipment; information boards and other signages; fencing; and parking facilities.
• These activities and facilities would be exempt from prior clearance under the provisions of CRZ Notification, Island Protection Zone Notification and Island Coastal Regulation Zone Notifications.

Context

A favourable policy environment for businesses to start and grow with ease, and a bigger footprint in international markets will help.

About present employment Situation in India:

• Data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) show that 19 lakh people had lost their jobs in August 2021 alone; of this, 10 lakh were from the industrial sector. In July, eight lakh people in this sector lost their jobs.
• India’s industrialisation has been different from that of the rest of the world. The World Bank has calculated that the industrial sector, which contributed 18 per cent to India’s GDP in 1995, is now contributing only 13 per cent.
  • In other countries, there has been no such reversal in contribution. For example, China moved the largest number of workers from farms to factories and became a manufacturing hub of the world.
• In India, CMIE statistics reveal that employment in agriculture, which accounted for 35 per cent of total employment in 2017-18, increased to 39.5 per cent in 2020-21.
• Due to Covid, many industrial units have closed down and pressure on agriculture has increased. As a result, incomes in villages are falling and the purchasing power is weakening.

Government Initiatives for Employment Generation in India:

Aatmanirbhar Bharat package:

• The Government of India has announced Aatmanirbhar Bharat package to provide stimulus to business and to mitigate the adverse impact of Covid 19.
• Under this package, the Government is providing fiscal stimulus of more than Rs. 27 lakh crore.
• This package comprises various long term schemes/ programmes/ policies for making the country self-reliant and to create employment opportunities.

Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan:

• The Government launched the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan (GKRA) of 125 days on 20th June, 2020 to boost employment and livelihood opportunities for returnee migrant workers and similarly affected persons including youth in rural areas.

Mudra Yojana:

• Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) is being implemented by the Government for facilitating self-employment.
• Under PMMY, collateral free loans upto Rs. 10 lakh, are extended to micro/small business enterprises and to individuals to enable them to set up or expand their business activities.

Gati Shakti:

• PM Gati Shakti is a transformative approach for economic growth and sustainable development. The approach is driven by seven engines, namely, Roads, Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass Transport, Waterways and Logistics Infrastructure.
• This approach is powered by Clean Energy and Sabka Prayas leading to huge job and entrepreneurial opportunities for all.

The Government of India is encouraging various projects involving substantial investment and public expenditure on schemes like Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) of the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs etc. for employment generation.

Besides these initiatives, various flagship programmes of the Government such as Make in India, Digital India, Smart City Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, Housing for All, Infrastructure Development and Industrial Corridors are also oriented towards generating employment opportunities.

Measures needed to increase employment:

Favourable business environment

• Reforms should be introduced to shift workers from low income agriculture to the high paying industrial sector.
• To achieve double-digit growth in the industrial sector, the Centre rolled out the ‘Make in India’ scheme. Along with this, a favourable environment should be created for domestic business to start and grow with ease.

Investments:

• Doors should be opened for new investments. Physical and social infrastructure should be expanded. Only when the Central and State governments do so, the industrial sector will witness smooth growth.

Employment gap:

• The industrial sector should plug the employment gap. By providing quality products, the sector should grow to a level where it can gain a large share of the international market and provide employment to lakhs of people.
• The government should identify the problem areas preventing such growth and remove them quickly. For the industrial sector to boom, favourable policy measures should be taken.

Quality centres:

• Quality products are always in demand in the international market. Chinese industries have ramped up the quality of their products, boosting, in the process, exports to American and European markets. India should establish quality centres across the country soon.

Skill training

• Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) should be supported in these hubs by providing adequate investment and skill training.

Way Forward:

• The Central and State governments provide various subsidies to encourage setting up of industries. Henceforth, the more jobs the industries create, the more subsidies should be given.
• These subsidies should be given on the basis of production achieved in a given period and the quality of goods manufactured.
  • Similar subsidies can be provided to service sector units that are closely linked and coordinated with the industrial sector.
• With these incentives, the industrial sector can be transformed into a major employment generator.
  • India cannot achieve balanced and well-rounded development without propping up the industrial sector.