UPSC Daily Current Affairs- September 12, 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-I

Context

A new study shows that a decline in continental plate movement likely controlled the onset and duration of many of the major volcanic events throughout Earth’s history.

Why is the news?

• Previous studies have linked major volcanic eruptions with past mass extinctions and disturbances in the global climatic, environmental and the carbon cycle.
• Large igneous province volcanism, formations due to major volcanic eruptions occurring throughout Earth’s history, released large quantities of greenhouse gasses and toxic compounds into the atmosphere.
• The sea warmed up by 4°C to 10°C, even at low- to mid-latitudes, the study noted.
• Increased acidic levels and a lack of oxygen drove major ocean extinctions.
• Large-scale volcanism took place in southern Africa, Antarctica and Australia. This is known as the Karoo-Ferrar Large Igneous Province.

About Karoo-Ferrar Large Igneous Province

• The Karoo and Ferrar Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) are two large igneous provinces in Southern Africa and Antarctica respectively, collectively known as the Karoo-Ferrar, Gondwana, or Southeast African LIP associated with the initial break-up of the Gondwana supercontinent.
• Its flood basalt mostly covers South Africa and Antarctica but portions extend further into southern Africa and into South America, India, Australia and New Zealand.
• Karoo-Ferrar formed just prior to the breakup of Gondwana in the Lower Jurassic epoch, about 183 million years ago.
• This time corresponds to the early Toarcian anoxic event and the Pliensbachian-Toarcian extinction.

Context

Recent events of targeted killings of Kashmiri pandits and other Hindus by the militants in the valley lead to the protests which once again brought forward the question of their right to return and the safety of minorities living in the valley.

Who are the Kashmiri pandits?

• The Kashmiri Pandits are one of the highest-ranked Brahman castes who are the natives of the valley, locally known as pundits.
• They were the minority in the valley comprising only 5% of the total population.
• Traditionally dependent on agriculture and small-scale business and one of the favored sections in the administration.

What is the conflict?

• Radical Islamists and militants started targeting the Kashmiri pundits putting in front the option of either of conversion or persecution.
• The Growth of militancy in the 1990s forced Kashmiri pandits to leave the valley in greater numbers. They started migrating to the other states, leaving every belonging behind and seeking refuge in other parts.
• While many of them started migrating some decided to stay back in their homeland.
• Conflict arose between radical Islamists organization and the Hindus leading to the mass killings of the Kashmiri Hindus in waves which is termed as exodus.

What has been done so far?

• After the Pandit exodus from the Valley in the 1990s, the first few years of this century saw government efforts to send Pandits back to the Valley.
• Under the Prime Minister’s return and rehabilitation of Kashmir migrants scheme, created government postings in the Valley for Kashmiri Pandit “migrant” youth.
• Mostly, teachers and these government employees have lived in protected high security enclaves, but their work requires them to leave these enclaves and mingle with the rest of the population. Another segment, known as “non-migrant” Pandits because they never left the Valley, has lived in their own homes, without state-provided protection.

What did CDR do in Kashmir?

• CDR supported the initiative for a dialogue proposed by two prominent young Kashmiris one a Muslim and the other a Pandit both who have witnessed the violence of 1990 and the subsequent years.
• They believe in the principle of talking could lead to healing.
• It led to CDR’s ‘Shared Witness’, a Pandit-Muslim dialogue series, in December 2010.
• Public intellectuals and other influential persons from both communities were participants

Observations of the dialogue

• The dialogue series coincided with the launching of the Prime Minister’s job scheme.
• Dialogues created a social environment that enabled Kashmiri Pandits to take up government postings in the Valley.
• They focused on the events in and around 1990, and the incidents that triggered the displacement of the Pandit community.
• By the third dialogue, participants were sharing individual experiences that did not fit into the narrative that each community had built about the other.
• The process of the conversation lead them to think on the actual reason behind the conflict, was it communal differences, or was it only religion?

From the eyes of the pandits

• Pandits were aggrieved that the Muslims did not protest the Pandit killings, not even when the killers claimed them. That greater responsibility lay with the Muslims as they were the majority.
• If some social organizations had acted quickly, the exodus could have been stopped.
• They observed that the Pandit community too had suffered from a lack of leadership.
• They demand an apology and to set up of possible “Truth commission”.

What do the Muslims say?

• The Muslim participants felt the Pandits were in denial of the struggle of the Muslims in the Valley, who were facing violence from the system.
• The Kashmiri Muslim was always portrayed as being misguided, aided, and abetted by Pakistan.
• The protest in Kashmir was not against religion but against structures of power and oppression.

What is the Current situation?
The fresh spate of targeted killings of Kashmir pandits created an environment of fear and provided a major setback to their rehabilitation in the Kashmir valley.

Way ahead

• We need urgent civil society engagement between communities in Kashmir once again.
• The government can enable it, but individuals and civil society will need to create conditions on the ground. They will have to encourage people to give up the blame game.

Context

• The characteristics of cloud burst events remain elusive, and our efforts in monitoring and forecasting them is at an embryonic stage.
• Cyclones can be predicted about one week in advance. However, cloudburst forecasts still remain elusive.

What is Cloudbursts?

• A cloudburst is a localised but intense rainfall activity.
• Short spells of very heavy rainfall over a small geographical area can cause widespread destruction, especially in hilly regions where this phenomenon is the most common.
• Not all instances of very heavy rainfall, however, are cloudbursts.
• A cloudburst has a very specific definition: Rainfall of 10 cm or more in an hour over a roughly 10 km x 10-km area is classified as a cloudburst event.
• By this definition, 5 cm of rainfall in a half-hour period over the same area would also be categorized as a cloudburst.

Which clouds do burst?

• Cloudburst events are often associated with cumulonimbus clouds that cause thunderstorms and occasionally due to monsoon wind surges and other weather phenomena.
• Cumulonimbus clouds can grow up to 12-15 km in height through the entire troposphere (occasionally up to 21 km) and can hold huge amounts of water.
• Tall cumulonimbus clouds can develop in about half an hour as the moisture updraft happens rapidly, at a pace of 60 to 120 km/hr.
• A single-cell cloud may last for an hour and dump all the rain in the last 20 to 30 minutes, while some of these clouds merge to form multi-cell storms and last for several hours.
• However, cloudbursts are not defined based on cloud characteristics and do not indicate clouds exploding. Cloudbursts are defined by the amount of rainfall.

How is it different from normal rainfall?

• According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), 100 mm of rain in an hour is called a cloudburst.
• Usually, cloudbursts occur over a small geographical region of 20 to 30 sq. km.

When do they occur?

• In India, cloudbursts often occur during the monsoon season, when the southwesterly monsoon winds bring in copious amounts of moisture inland.
• The moist air that converges over land gets lifted as they encounter the hills.
• The moist air reaches an altitude and gets saturated, and the water starts condensing out of the air forming clouds.
• This is how clouds usually form, but such an orographic lifting together with a strong moisture convergence can lead to intense cumulonimbus clouds taking in huge volumes of moisture that is dumped during cloudbursts.

Climate change and cloudbursts: How are they related?

• Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of cloudbursts worldwide.
• As the air gets warmer, it can hold more moisture and for a longer time. We call this the Clausius Clapeyron relationship.
• A 1-degree Celsius rise in temperature may correspond to a 7-10% increase in moisture and rainfall.
• This increase in rainfall amount does not get spread moderately throughout the season.
• As the moisture holding capacity of air increases, it results in prolonged dry periods intermittent with short spells of extreme rains.
• Deeper cumulonimbus clouds will form and the chances of cloudbursts also increase.

Why are they so destructive?

• The consequences of these events, however, are not confined to small areas.
• Because of the nature of terrain, the heavy rainfall events often trigger landslides and flash floods, causing extensive destruction downstream.
• This is the reason why every sudden downpour that leads to destruction of life and property in the hilly areas gets described as a “cloudburst”, irrespective of whether the amount of rainfall meets the defining criteria.
• At the same time, it is also possible that actual cloudburst events in remote locations aren’t recorded.

Detecting cloudbursts

• Satellites are extensively useful in detecting large-scale monsoon weather systems.
• However the resolution of the precipitation radars of these satellites can be much smaller than the area of individual cloudburst events, and hence they go undetected.
• Weather forecast models also face a similar challenge in simulating the clouds at a high resolution.
• The skillful forecasting of rainfall in hilly regions remains challenging due to the uncertainties in the interaction between the moisture convergence and the hilly terrain.
• There also involves the cloud microphysics, and the heating-cooling mechanisms at different atmospheric levels.
• Multiple radars can be a quick measure for providing warnings, but radars are an expensive affair, and installing them across the country may not be practically feasible.

Solutions to cloudbursts forecast

• Multiple doppler weather radars can be used to monitor moving cloud droplets and help to provide nowcasts (forecasts for the next three hours).
• A long-term measure would be mapping the cloudburst-prone regions using automatic rain gauges.
• If cloudburst-prone regions are co-located with landslide-prone regions, these locations can be designated as hazardous.

GS-II

Context

Recently, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) launched operation ‘Gear Box’ to stop heroin smuggling, seizes 39.5 kg of contraband from Kolkata port.

• The heroin was examined and seized under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

What is Operation Gear Box?

• Operation Gear Box is conducted to detect the hidden drugs in the gear boxes.
• The gears from old and used gearboxes were removed after opening them and plastic packets containing the narcotic substance were placed in the created cavity and the gearboxes were refitted to avoid detection.
  • The drug syndicate has used this unique modus operandi to conceal heroin.
• These packets were shipped concealing inside this metal scrap with other metal scrap so that it would go unnoticed by the authorities.

What about Drug Addiction in India?

• The menace of drug addiction has spread fast among the youth of India.
  • India is sandwiched between two largest Opium producing regions of the world that is the Golden triangle on one side and the Golden crescent on other.
  • The golden triangle area comprises Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos.
  • The golden crescent area includes Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.
• According to the World Drug Report 2022, India is one of the world's single largest opiate markets in terms of users and would likely be vulnerable to increased supply.
• According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s Crime in India 2020 report, a total of 59,806 cases were lodged under NDPS Act.
• According to the Social Justice Ministry and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) report on magnitude of substance use in 2019, there were:
  • 3.1 crore cannabis users (of which 25 lakhs were dependent users).
  • 2.3 crore opioid users (of which 28 lakhs were dependent users).

What are the International Treaties and Conventions to Combat Drug Menace?

• India is signatory of the following International treaties and conventions to combat the menace of Drug Abuse:
  • United Nations (UN) Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961)
  • UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971)
  • UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988)
  • UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) 2000.

Context

Recently, Germany launched the world’s first fleet of fully hydrogen-powered trains, these are emissions-free trains that can reach speeds of 140 kilometres per hour and can run about 1,000 km before the tank runs dry.

What are the Key Points of Hydrogen Fuel Cell?

• About
  • Hydrogen fuel cells are a clean, reliable, quiet, and efficient source of high-quality electric power.
  • They use hydrogen as a fuel to drive an electrochemical process that produces electricity, with water and heat as the only by-products.
    • Hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements on earth for a cleaner alternative fuel option.
• Significance
  • Best Zero Emission Solutions: It is one of the best Zero Emission solutions. It is completely environment friendly with no tailpipe emissions other than water.
    • Tailpipe emissions: Emission of something such as gas or radiation into the atmosphere.
  • Quiet operation: The fact that the fuel cells make little noise means that they can be used in challenging contexts, such as in hospital buildings.
  • Easier scaling: Operation times of fuel cells are longer than those of batteries, with fuel cells, only the amount of fuel needs to be doubled to double the operation time, while batteries require the capacity of the components to be doubled to achieve the same.
• Issues
  • High Cost: Green hydrogen makes up only 0.03% of global hydrogen production and it is up to five times more expensive than ‘grey’ hydrogen produced from natural gas or worse, ‘brown’ hydrogen produced from coal.
  • Hydrogen Storage: Storage and transportation of hydrogen is more complex than that required for fossil fuels. This implies additional costs to consider for hydrogen fuel cells as a source of energy.
  • Hydrogen Extraction: Despite being the most abundant element in the Universe, hydrogen does not exist on its own so needs to be extracted from water via electrolysis or separated from carbon fossil fuels.
    • Both of these processes require a significant amount of energy to achieve. This energy can be more than that gained from the hydrogen itself as well as being expensive.
    • In addition, this extraction typically requires the use of fossil fuels, which in the absence of carbon capture and storage (CCS) undermines the green credentials of hydrogen.
• Indian Scenario
  • Initiatives Taken: The Union Budget for 2021-22 has announced a National Hydrogen Energy Mission (NHM) that will draw up a road map for using hydrogen as an energy source.
  • Other Initiatives for Renewable Energy:
    • Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).
    • International Solar Alliance.
    • PM- KUSUM.
    • National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy.
    • Rooftop Solar Scheme.
• There is a potential for India to save more than 24 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year and 2,400 million litres of diesel fuel (and associated costs) if the trains are switched to hydrogen.
  • India currently has around 13,500 trains running every day, around 5,000 (37%) of these are diesel locomotives and the rest is fully electrified.

Way Forward

• Emission-Friendly Alternatives: Another alternative that many hydrogen councils across the world are pushing for is ‘blue’ hydrogen, which is grey hydrogen coupled with additional installations for carbon capture and storage incorporated into the production facility.
• This way, up to 90% of the CO2 emitted during hydrogen production can be captured for reuse or storage and prevented from escaping into the atmosphere.

Context

Recently, the second Anniversary of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) was celebrated.

• PMMSY envisages generation of 68 lakh Employment by the end of 2024-25.

What is PMSSY?

• About
  • PMMSY was introduced by the Government of India, as part of the ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ package with the investment of Rs. 20,050 crores, the highest ever investment in the Fishery sector.
  • Fishermen are provided with insurance cover, financial assistance and a facility of Kisan Credit Card as well.
• Aim and Objectives
  • PMMSY aims towards the purpose of rural development by utilizing rural resources and boosting rural economy in a rapid way.
  • The main motto of PMMSY is ‘Reform, Perform and Transform’ in the fisheries sector.
  • The reforms and initiatives in PMMSY scheme have been inculcated in:
    • Core & trunk infrastructure development
    • Modernization of Indian fisheries by undertaking the efforts such as:
      • Push for new fishing harbours/landing centres
      • Modernisation and mechanization of traditional fishermen crafts-trawlers-deep sea going vessels
      • Provision of post-harvest facilities to reduce post-harvest loss
      • Cold chains facilities
      • Clean and hygienic fish markets
      • Two wheelers with ice boxes
• Achievements
  • Fisheries sector showed impressive growth of 14.3% from 2019-20 to 2021-22.
    • Fish production reached an all-time high of 141.64 lakh tons during 2019-20 to 161.87 lakh tons during 2021-22.
    • Fisheries sector saws all-time high exports of 13.64 lakh tonnes valuing Rs 57,587 crore dominated by exports of shrimps.
    • Currently, exports to 123 countries are taking place including China, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Tunisia, the United States, Hong Kong, Kuwait, etc.
  • PMMSY has supported 31.47 lakh farmers under insurance coverage from 22 states and 7 UTs.
• Implementation: It is implemented as an umbrella scheme with two separate components namely:
  • Central Sector Scheme: The project cost will be borne by the Central government.
  • Centrally Sponsored Scheme: All the sub-components/activities will be implemented by the States/UTs and the cost will be shared between the Centre and State.
• Forthcoming Plan
  • Aquaculture promotion will be undertaken especially in the saline and alkaline areas of Northern India.
  • Also, focus will be laid on Aquatic health management involving the address of diseases, antibiotic and residue issues which will be supported by an integrated laboratory network.

Context

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) U U Lalit will hear the challenge to the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

What is Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019?

• The act is sought to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship of India.
• In other words, it intends to make it easier for non-Muslim immigrants from India’s three Muslim-majority neighbours to become citizens of India.
• Under The Citizenship Act, 1955, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalization is that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, as well as for 11 of the previous 14 years.
• The amendment relaxes the second requirement from 11 years to 6 years as a specific condition for applicants belonging to these six religions, and the aforementioned three countries.
• It exempts the members of the six communities from any criminal case under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport Act, 1920 if they entered India before December 31, 2014.

Key feature: Defining illegal migrants

• Illegal migrants cannot become Indian citizens in accordance with the present laws.
• Under the CAA, an illegal migrant is a foreigner who: (i) enters the country without valid travel documents like a passport and visa, or (ii) enters with valid documents, but stays beyond the permitted time period.
• Illegal migrants may be put in jail or deported under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.

Controversy with the Act

• Country of Origin: The Act classifies migrants based on their country of origin to include only Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• Other religious minorities ignored: It is unclear why illegal migrants from only six specified religious minorities have been included in the Act.
• Defiance of purpose: India shares a border with Myanmar, which has had a history of persecution of a religious minority, the Rohingya Muslims.
• Date of Entry: It is also unclear why there is a differential treatment of migrants based on their date of entry into India, i.e., whether they entered India before or after December 31, 2014.
• Against the spirit of Secularism: Further, granting citizenship on the grounds of religion is seen to be against the secular nature of the Constitution which has been recognised as part of the basic structure that cannot be altered by Parliament.

Basis of challenging in Supreme Court

• The challenge rests primarily on the grounds that the law violates Article 14 of the Constitution that guarantees that no person shall be denied the right to equality before law or the equal protection of law in the territory of India.
• The Supreme Court has developed a two-pronged test to examine a law on the grounds of Article 14.
  • First, any differentiation between groups of persons must be founded on “intelligible differentia”
  • Second, that differentia must have a rational nexus to the object sought to be achieved by the Act
• Simply put, for a law to satisfy the conditions under Article 14, it has to first create a “reasonable class” of subjects that it seeks to govern under the law.
• Even if the classification is reasonable, any person who falls in that category has to be treated alike.

What happens next?

• The listing of the CAA challenge indicates that the hearing will be fast-tracked.
• The court will have to ensure that all pleadings, written submissions are filed and served to the opposite party before it is listed for final hearing.
• Some petitioners could also seek a referral to a larger Constitution Bench.
• However, the challenge is to a statute and does not directly involve interpretation of the Constitution.
• These issues are also likely to be debated before the court allots time for the final hearing.

GS-III

Context

• The increasing cost of production and the increase in GST on apple cartons has triggered protests in Himachal Pradesh’s apple farmers.
• The cost of production of agricultural items increased substantially, denying remunerative prices to the poor and marginal apple farmers.

Reason for crisis in apple farming

• Increase in cost of production: The input cost of fertilizers, insecticides, and fungicides has risen in the last decade by 300%, as per some estimates. The cost of apple cartons and trays and packaging has also seen a dramatic rise. In the last decade, the cost of a carton, for instance, has risen from about ₹30 to ₹ The cost borne to market the Produce has also risen.
• High taxation: The increase in the Goods and Services Tax on cartons from 12% to 18%. This was done to ensure that farmers are forced to sell their produce to big buyers instead of selling it in the open market. Just as the three farm laws were designed on the pretext of getting rid of the middlemen, the argument here was that commission agents, who fleece the apple farmers, will be forced to exit the picture. But this leaves the apple growers at the mercy of large giants in procurement, who have precedence of even deciding the procurement price.
• No MSP in Himachal: Unlike in Jammu and Kashmir, where there is a minimum rate for procurement, there is no such law in Himachal. The government also does not seem prepared to bring in such a law. The farmers are demanding that legally guaranteed procurement at a Minimum Support Price (C2+50%) should be ensured to improve apple farmers condition.

How to address this issue?

• Need for a regulator: What is required is an independent body that is duly supported and trusted by the farmers. Such a body should have representatives of apple growers, market players, commission agents and the government. This must be a statutory body that is also given the task of conducting research in the apple economy.
• Directional efforts: Issues such as high input cost, lack of fair price and unavailability of infrastructure such as cold chains should be addressed.
• Required research to support improvements in apple farming systems: Over the past few decades, the priorities in research projects and government policies on apple production were focused on the improvement of tree productivity and product quality. This was important to enhance the net incomes and living standards of apple producers in India. This research should be further enhanced by introducing European varieties in India.
• Focussing on Alternative Market Channels: The alternative market channel works on the principles of decentralisation and direct-to-home delivery. The idea is to create smaller, less congested markets in urban areas with the participation of farmers’ groups and Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) so that farmers have direct access to consumers.
• Logistics transformation: To sustain the demand for agricultural commodities, investments in key logistics must be enhanced. Moreover, e-commerce and delivery companies and start-ups need to be encouraged with suitable policies and incentives. The small and medium enterprises, running with raw materials from the agriculture and allied sector or otherwise, also need special attention so that the rural economy doesn’t collapse.

Conclusion

• Agriculture is dying, not as in the production of food but as a desirable profession. One bad yield, whether due to errant rains, pests, etc., and most farmers have no buffer available. 
• The last point worth considering is that food and agriculture are not the same. Expenditures on food span the value-add, including processing, preparation, service in restaurants, etc. Farmers in India merely get paid for their product and not for the food we eat.