Weekly Current Affairs (8th to 14th September 2022) - 2 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Acharya Vinoba Bhave

Context:

• Recently, the Prime Minister paid rich tributes to Acharya Vinoba Bhave on his birth Anniversary.

What do we need to know about Acharya Vinoba Bhave?

Birth:

• Vinayak Narahari Bhave was born on 11th September 1895 in Gagode, Bombay Presidency (Maharashtra).
• He was the eldest son of Narahari Shambhu Rao and Rukmini Devi.

Brief Profile:

• Acharya Vinoba Bhave was a nonviolence activist, freedom activist, social reformer and spiritual teacher.
• Being an avid follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba upheld his doctrines of non-violence and equality.
• He dedicated his life to serve the poor and the downtrodden, and stood up for their rights.

Awards & Recognition:

• Vinoba was the first recipient of the international Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1958.
• He was also conferred with the Bharat Ratna (India's highest civilian awards) posthumously in 1983.

Association with Gandhi:

• Vinoba met Gandhi on 7th June 1916 and took residence at the Ashram.
  • Gandhi’s teachings led Bhave to a life of austerity dedicated to improving Indian village life.
• The name Vinoba (a traditional Marathi epithet signifying great respect) was conferred upon him by Mama Phadke, another member of the Ashram.
• On 8th April 1921, Vinoba went to Wardha to take charge of a Gandhi-ashram there under the directives from Gandhi.
  • During his stay at Wardha, Bhave also brought out a monthly in Marathi, named, `Maharashtra Dharma' which consisted of his essays on the Upanishads.

Role in Freedom Struggle:

• He took part in programs of non-cooperation and especially the call for use of Swadeshi goods instead of foreign imports.
• He took up the spinning wheel churning out Khadi and urged others to do so, resulting in mass production of the fabric.
• In 1932, Vinoba was sent to jail for six months to Dhulia as he was accused of conspiracy against British rule.
  • During the imprisonment, he explained to fellow prisoners the different subjects of 'Bhagwad Gita', in Marathi.
  • All the lectures given by him on Gita in Dhulia jail were collected and later published as a book.
• He was also chosen as the first Individual Satyagrahi (an Individual standing up for Truth instead of a collective action) by Gandhi himself.
• He served a five-year prison sentence in the 1940s for leading nonviolent resistance to British rule.
• He was given the honorific title “Acharya” (teacher).

Role in Social Work:

• He worked tirelessly towards eradicating social evils like inequality.
• Influenced by the examples set by Gandhi, he took up the cause of people who were referred to as Harijans by Gandhi.
• He adopted the term Sarvodaya from Gandhi which simply means “Progress for All”.
• The Sarvodaya movement under him implemented various programs during the 1950s, the chief among which is the Bhoodan Movement.

Bhoodan Movement:

• In 1951, Vinoba Bhave started his peace-trek on foot through the violence-torn region of Telangana.
• On 19th 1951, the Harijans of the Pochampalli village requested him to provide them with around 80 acres of land to make a living.
• Vinoba asked the landlords of the village to come forward and save the Harijans.
  • A landlord got up and offered the required land.
  • It was the beginning of the Bhoodan (Gift of the Land) movement.
• The movement continued for thirteen years and Vinoba toured the length and breadth of the country, a total distance of 58741 Km.
• He was successful in collecting around 4.4 million acres of land, of which around 1.3 million was distributed among poor landless farmers.
• The movement attracted admiration from all over the world and was commended for being the only experiment of his kind to incite voluntary social justice.

Religious Work:

• He set up a number of Ashrams to promote a simple way of life, devoid of luxuries that took away one’s focus from the Divine.
• He established the Brahma Vidya Mandir in 1959, a small community for women, aiming at self-sufficiency on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings.
• He took a strong stand on cow slaughter and declared to go on fast until it was banned in India.
• Literary Work:
• His important books include: Swarajya Sastra, Geeta Pravachane, Teesri Shakti or The Third Power etc.

Death:

• Died in 1982, Wardha, Maharashtra.

World Dairy Summit 2022

Context:

• Recently, Prime Minister inaugurated the International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit (IDF WDS) 2022 at India Expo Centre & Mart, Greater Noida.
• International Dairy Federation is the leading source of scientific and technical expertise for all stakeholders of the dairy chain.
• Since 1903, IDF's network of dairy experts has provided a mechanism for the dairy sector to reach a global consensus on how to help feed the world with safe and sustainable dairy products.

What are the Key Highlights of IDF World Dairy Summit?

• The IDF World Dairy Summit is an annual meeting of the global dairy sector, bringing together approximately 1500 participants from all over the world.
• The last such Summit was held in India about half a century ago in 1974.
• The theme for this year is Dairy for Nutrition and Livelihood.
• The IDF World Dairy Summit will provide a forum to industry experts to share knowledge and ideas on how the sector can contribute to nourish the world with safe and sustainable dairying.
• Participants will get an opportunity to acquire knowledge on latest research findings and experiences relevant to the global dairy sector in the broadest sense.

What is the status of Dairy sector in India?

About:

• India is ranked first in milk production contributing 23% of global milk production followed by the United States of America, China, Pakistan and Brazil.
• The top 5 milk-producing states are: Uttar Pradesh (14.9%), Rajasthan (14.6%), Madhya Pradesh (8.6%,), Gujarat (7.6%,) and Andhra Pradesh (7.0%).

Significance:

• The potential of the dairy sector not only gives impetus to the rural economy, but is also a major source of livelihood for crores of people across the world.
• This sector provides employment to more than 8 crore families in the country.
• There are more than a third of the members of dairy cooperatives in India are women.

What are the Challenges of this Sector?

• Shortage of fodder: There is an excessive number of unproductive animals which compete with productive dairy animals in the utilisation of available feeds and fodder.
  • The grazing area is being reduced markedly every year due to industrial development resulting in shortage of supply of feeds and fodder to the total requirement.
• Health: Veterinary health care centres are located in far off places and the ratio between cattle population and veterinary institution is wider, resulting in inadequate health services to animals.
  • Further, no regular and periodical vaccination schedule is followed, regular deworming programme is not done as per schedule, resulting in heavy mortality in calves, especially in buffalo.
• Hygiene Conditions: Many cattle owners do not provide proper shelter for their cattles leaving them exposed to extreme climatic conditions.
• Informal Nature of Dairy Sector: Unlike sugarcane, wheat, and rice-producing farmers, cattle raisers are unorganised and do not have the political clout to advocate for their rights.
• Lack of Remunerative Pricing: Though the value of milk produced outweighs the combined value of the output of wheat and rice in India, there is no official and periodical estimate of the cost of production and Minimum Support Price for milk.

What are the Initiatives taken by Government?

• Rise in Productivity: The government has taken multiple steps for the betterment of the dairy sector resulting in an increase of milk production by more than 44% in the last eight years.
• Further, as compared to the 2% production growth at the global level, India is clocking the milk production growth rate at more than 6%.
• Schemes:
  • Rashtriya Gokul Mission
  • Nationwide Artificial Insemination Programme
  • Rashtriya Gokul Mission
  • Goberdhan Yojna
  • Digitization of dairy sector and universal vaccination of cattle.
  • Animal Husbandry infrastructure development fund: It aims to help to increase meat processing capacity and product diversification thereby providing greater access for unorganized Dairy producers to organized the Dairy market.
  • National Programme for Dairy development
• Upcoming Initiatives:
  • Dairy Ecosystem: The government is working on developing a blanched dairy ecosystem where challenges of the sectors would be addressed along with a focus on increasing production.
    • Further, extra income for the farmers, empowerment of the p jioor, swachhta, chemical-free farming, clean energy and care of the cattle is interlinked in this ecosystem.
  • Pashu Aadhar: Government is building the largest database of dairy animals and every animal associated with the dairy sector is being tagged.
  • By 2025, India will vaccinate 100% of animals against foot, mouth disease and brucellosis.

Hindi Diwas

Context:

• On the occasion of Hindi Diwas, Prime Minister of India has said that the Hindi language has brought India special honour globally and its simplicity and sensitivity always attracts people.

What is the History behind Hindi Diwas?

• Hindi Diwas or the National Hindi Day is celebrated every year in India on September 14 to mark the day of adoption of Hindi as the official language by the Constituent Assembly of India in 1949.
• The decision of using Hindi as an official language of India was legalised by the Constitution of India on January 26, 1950. India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru decided to celebrate Hindi Diwas on this day.
• Hindi is also an eighth schedule language.
• Hindi is not a classical language.
• Article 351 pertains to the ‘Directive for development of the Hindi language’.

What are the Government Initiatives to Promote Hindi?

• The Central Hindi Directorate was established in 1960 by the Government of India under the Ministry of Education to promote and propagate Hindi.
• Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has established ‘Hindi Chairs’ in various foreign universities/institutions abroad to promote Hindi language in foreign countries.
• LILA-Rajbhasha (Learn Indian Languages through Artificial Intelligence) is a multimedia based intelligent self-tutoring application for learning Hindi.
• E-Saral Hindi Vakya Kosh and E-Mahashabdkosh Mobile App, both initiatives of the Department of Official Language, aim to harness information technology for the growth of Hindi.
• Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar and Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar recognise contributions to Hindi.

Hindi Language

• Hindi is the fourth most spoken language in the world, and is written in Devanagari script. The language got its name from the Persian word 'Hind' - meaning 'land of the Indus River', and is a descendant of Sanskrit.
• Turk invaders in the early 11th century named the language of the region Hindi, 'language of the land of the Indus River'.
• It is the official language of India, English being the other official language.
• Hindi is also spoken in some countries outside India, such as in Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and Nepal.
• Hindi in its present form emerged through different stages, during which it was known by other names. The earliest form of old Hindi was Apabhramsa. In 400 AD Kalidas wrote a romantic play in Apabhramsa called Vikramorvashiyam.
• The modern Devanagari script came into existence in the 11th century.

Addition of Tribes to ST List

Context:

• Recently, government has approved the inclusion of certain communities in the lists of Scheduled Tribes in Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, fulfilling long-pending demands from these states.

What is the Process of Inclusion in the ST List?

• The process to include tribes in the ST list begins with the recommendation from the respective State governments, which are then sent to the Tribal Affairs Ministry, which reviews and sends them to the Registrar General of India for approval.
• This is followed by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes’ approval before the list is sent to the Cabinet for a final decision.

What do we Know about the Newly Added Tribe?

Hatti Tribe (Himachal Pradesh):

• The Hattis are a close-knit community who got their name from their tradition of selling homegrown vegetables, crops, meat and wool etc. at small markets called ‘haat’ in towns.
• The community has been making the demand since 1967, when tribal status was accorded to people living in the Jaunsar Bawar area of Uttarakhand, which shares a border with Sirmaur district.
• Their demand for tribal status gained strength because of resolutions passed at various maha Khumblis over the years.

Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran (Tamil Nadu):

• Nomadic tribes like the Narikuravas and Kuruvikaras (jackal catchers and bird eaters) pride themselves on their traditional occupations of hunting and gathering.
• Binjhia (Chhattisgarh):
• The Binjhia in Chhattisgarh were listed as ST in Jharkhand and Odisha but not in Chhattisgarh.
• The Binjhia are non-vegetarians and agriculture is the mainstay of their economy. They do not eat beef and pork but consume alcoholic drinks including the handia (rice beer).

Gond Community (Uttar Pradesh):

• The Cabinet approved a proposal to bring the Gond community residing in 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh, under the ST list from the Scheduled Caste list.
• This includes the five subcategories of the Gond community (Dhuria, Nayak, Ojha, Pathari, and Rajgond).

‘Betta-Kuruba’ (Karnataka):

• The ST status granted to the Betta-Kuruba community as a synonym of Kadu Kuruba of Karnataka.
• Betta-Kuruba community has been demanding to include in the ST category for the last 30 years.

What will be the Benefits in the Inclusion in the ST List?

• The move will enable members of the communities newly listed in the revised list of Scheduled Tribes to derive benefits meant for STs under the existing schemes of the government.
• Some of the major benefits include post-matric scholarship, overseas scholarship and the national fellowship, besides education, concessional loans from the National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation, and hostels for students.
• In addition, they will also be entitled to benefits of reservation in services and admission to educational institutions as per the government policy.

What is the Status of Scheduled Tribes in India?

About:

• As per Census-1931, Schedule tribes are termed as "backward tribes” living in the "Excluded" and "Partially Excluded" areas. The Government of India Act of 1935 called for the first time for representatives of "backward tribes" in provincial assemblies.
• The Constitution does not define the criteria for recognition of Scheduled Tribes and hence the definition contained in 1931 Census was used in the initial years after independence.
• However, Article 366(25) of the Constitution only provides process to define Scheduled Tribes: “Scheduled Tribes means such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this Constitution.”
  • 342(1): The President may with respect to any State or Union Territory, and where it is a State, after consultation with the Governor, by a public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within tribes or tribal communities as Scheduled Tribe in relation to that State or Union Territory.
• The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution lays out provision for Administration and Control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes in states other than Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
• The Sixth Schedule deals with the administration of the tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

Legal Provisions:

• Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 against Untouchability.
• Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
• Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996.
• Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

Related Initiatives:

• TRIFED
• Digital Transformation of Tribal Schools
• Development of PVTGs
• Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana

Related Committees:

• Xaxa Committee (2013)
• Bhuria Commission (2002-2004)
• Lokur Committee (1965)

One Water Approach

Context:

• The United Nations has estimated that by the year 2050, four billion people will be seriously affected by water shortages, pushing the One Water approach towards all sources of water.

What is the One Water approach?

About:

• One Water Approach, also referred to as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), is the recognition that all water has value, regardless of its source.
• It includes managing that source in an integrated, inclusive and sustainable manner by including the community, business leaders, industries, farmers, conservationists, policymakers, academics and others for ecological and economic benefits.
• It is an “integrated planning and implementation approach to managing finite water resources for long-term resilience and reliability meeting both community and ecosystem needs.
• One Water is the future of the water industry when the barriers conventionally separating wastewater, stormwater, drinking water, groundwater and the reuse and re-utilisation are broken down, many benefits realised.

Characteristics:

• All Water has Value: The mindset that all water has value — from the water resources in our ecosystems to our drinking water, wastewater and stormwater.
• A Multi-faceted Approach: Our water-related investments should provide economic, environmental, and societal returns.
• Utilising Watershed-Scale Thinking and Action: It should respect and respond to the natural ecosystem, geology, and hydrology of an area.
• Partnerships and Inclusion: Real progress and achievements will only be made when all stakeholders come forward and together will take a decision.

Objectives:

• Reliable, secure, clean water supplies
• Aquifer recharge
• Flood protection
• Minimising environmental pollution
• Efficient use and reuse of natural resources
• Resiliency to climate
• Long-term sustainability
• Equity, affordability and accessibility to safe drinking water
• Economic growth and prosperity
  

Why is the One Water Approach Needed?

• Differences in regional water availability, pricing and affordability, the seasonal and inter-annual variation in supply, water quality and quantity, and unreliability of the resource poses great challenges.
• Aged infrastructure, supply-centric management, polluted waterbodies, agricultural and industrial expansion following changes in consumption and production patterns, a changing climate and disproportionate distribution of the water also push for new water techniques.
• At the global level, 31 countries are already facing a shortage of water and by 2025, there will be 48 countries facing serious water shortages.
• Recognising, measuring and expressing water’s worth and incorporating that into decision-making is still a challenge, apart from the water scarcity.

How is IWRM Superior to Conventional Water Management?

• In the conventional water management approach, drinking water, wastewater and stormwater are managed separately, whereas in ‘One Water’, all the water systems, regardless of its source, are connected intentionally and managed meticulously for water, energy and resources.
• Water is recycled and reused several times in IWRM, in contrast to a one-way route from supply to use, treatment and disposal.
• Stormwater is utilised as a valuable resource to fight against water scarcity, recharge groundwater and support natural vegetation.
• The water system includes green infrastructures and a mix of grey and green infrastructure that form a hybrid system as compared to grey infrastructure in conventional water management.
  • Grey infrastructure refers to structures such as dams, seawalls, roads, pipes or water treatment plants.
  • Green infrastructure refers to natural systems including forests, floodplains, wetlands and soils that provide additional benefits for human well-being, such as flood protection and climate regulation.
• Active collaborations with industry, agencies, policymakers, business leaders and various stakeholders is a regular practice in the ‘One Water’ approach, whereas collaboration is need-based in conventional water management systems.

Way Forward

• Failure to value water in all its forms is considered a prime cause of the mismanagement of water, according to the UN World Water Development Report 2021.
• Therefore, shifting the attention from a single-minded and linear water management to a multi-dimensional integrated water management approach, that is, the ‘One Water’ approach, for a comprehensive, resilient and sustainable management of water resources.