UPSC Daily Current Affairs- 21st April 2023 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-I

Why in News?

The State of World Population Report, 2023 by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) was recently released.

About the Report

• The State of World Population report is UNFPA’s annual flagship publication.
• It has been published yearly since 1978.
• It shines a light on emerging issues in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights, bringing them into the mainstream and exploring the challenges and opportunities they present for international development.

Report highlights

• Population data:
  • India Overtaking China:
    • India is set to overtake China to become the world’s most populous country by the middle of 2023, according to data released by the United Nations.
    • India’s population is pegged to reach 142.86 crore against China’s 142.57 crore. 
      • This shows India will have 29 lakh more people than China.
• Globally:
  • The world’s population hit the 800-crore mark in November 2022.
  • Just eight countries will account for half the projected growth in global population by 2050- 
    • The Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania 
  • Two-thirds of people now live in a country where lifetime fertility corresponds with zero growth.
  • The United States is a distant third, with an estimated population of 34 crore.
• Slowing of population growth:
  • The report says that contrary to the alarm bells about exploding numbers, population trends everywhere point to slower growth and ageing societies. 

Addressing changing demographies

• Caution against family planning:
  • The report called for a radical rethink on how countries address changing demographics and cautioned against use of family planning as a tool for achieving fertility targets. 
  • It warned that global experience showed that family planning targets can lead to gender-based discrimination and harmful practices such as prenatal sex determination leading to sex-selective abortion.
• Policy framing:
  • The report strongly recommended that governments introduce policies with gender equality and rights at their heart, such as 
    • Parental leave programmes, 
    • Child tax credits, 
    • Policies that promote gender equality in the workplace, and 
    • Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
• For India:
  • Opportunity:
    • With close to 50% of its population below the age of 25, India has a time-bound opportunity to benefit from the demographic dividend, and that it must convert this into “economic benefits through additional investments in health, education, and quality jobs for young people — including targeted investments in women and girls.”
  • India’s population anxieties:
    • There have been increasing calls for imposing a two-child norm in India by various political leaders, and some States such as Assam have issued an order in 2021 to bar those with more than two children from government jobs, the UN agency said its findings for India too had suggested that “population anxieties have seeped into large portions of the general public”.
  • Cautionary: 
    • Imposition of such targets can lead to imbalanced sex ratios, preferential health and nutrition for male children, denial of the paternity of female children, violence against women for giving birth to girl children, and coercion of women to have fewer or greater numbers of children.

Challenges for India

• Delayed Census
  • An authoritative assessment of India’s current population has been hampered by an intriguing delay in carrying out the Census 2021 exercise & the government is yet to reveal its plans for Census 2021.
  • The Census exercise produces basic input data for all sorts of indicators used for planning and policy implementation.
  • In the absence of reliable indicators, based on solid numbers from the Census, the quality of these decisions could suffer.
• Focus on key areas:
  • A population of more than 1.4 billion will require the unflinching focus of policymakers on areas fundamental to human well-being — education, nutrition, healthcare, housing, and employment. 
• Productivity and economy:
  • The youth will have to be equipped with skills that are indispensable to the knowledge economy. 
  • People’s productivity will have to increase for any given per capita income.
  • Will need policies to increase jobs so that labour force participation rate increases for both men and women.
• Climate change:
  • The climate crisis and other ecological imperatives will mean that the footprints of many activities are kept light. 
• Democratic challenges:
  • Most importantly, the challenges will spur debate, discussion, even dissension, and require that diverse voices are heard. 
  • India’s democratic traditions and the strength of its institutions will be needed to navigate the way forward from here.
• State-wise focus:
  • Much more needs to be done on this, of course, in large parts of the country, including in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, whose TFR is higher than the national average and where gender discrimination has deep social roots.
• Choice to women:
  • To actually realise Population Control, educating women and giving them freedom to make choice and implement it, should be first to have attention by the Government.
  • State must ensure contraceptives are accessible, affordable and available in a range of forms acceptable to those using them.

Way ahead

• India has a window of opportunity well into the 2040s for reaping its “demographic dividend”, like China did from the late 1980s until up to 2015. 
• However, this is entirely contingent upon the creation of meaningful employment opportunities for a young population — in the absence of which, the demographic dividend can well turn into a demographic nightmare.

Source: Indian Express

Why in News?

Recently, the Prime Minister of India appreciated Assam’s landmark Maa Kamakhya temple corridor initiative.

About Kamakhya temple:

• It is situated on Nilachal Hill and adjoining the southern bank of the Brahmaputra River in Guwahati,
• It is one of the most revered centres of Tantric practices.
• It is regarded as one of the oldest of the 51 Shakti Peethas in India.
• Temple Architecture:
  • It had been modelled out of a combination of two different styles namely, the traditional nagara or North Indian and Saracenic or Mughal style of architecture.
  • This unusual combination has been named the Nilachala Style of Architecture.
  • This is the only temple of Assam having a fully developed ground plan.
  • It consists of five chambers, garbhagriha or sanctuary, antarala or vestibule, Jagan Mohan or principal chamber, bhogmandir or ritual chamber and natmandir or opera hall for performing traditional dance and music associated with sukti temples.
  • It is interesting to note that the superstructure of each of the above chambers exhibits different architectural features.
• While the main temple contains a modified Saracenic dome, the antarala carries a two-roofed design, the bhogmandir (also called pancharatna) with five domes similar in appearance to the main temple and the natmandir having a shell-roof with apsidal end similar to some of the impermanent namghars or prayer halls found in Assam.

Ambubachi Mela is one of the major festivals of this temple. The festival is held every year to commemorate the yearly menstruation of Goddess Kamakhya

Source: Indian Express

GS-II

Why in News?

Recently, the President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu presented the National Panchayat Awards.

About National Panchayat Awards:-

• The National Panchayat Awards were given to the best-performing Panchayats by assessing their performance in the attainment of SDGs.
• These annual awards were first instituted in 2011.
• The Awardee Panchayats are awarded under various categories namely:-
  • Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (DDUPSVP) for the performance under individual LSDG themes
  • Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (NDSPSVP) for the aggregate performance under all 9 LSDG themes and green initiative-related Special Categories
  • Gram Urja Swaraj Vishesh Panchayat Puraskar
  • Carbon Neutral Vishesh Panchayat Puraskar were felicitated by the dignitaries and the award money was transferred digitally to the Awardee Panchayats on this occasion.

NIRNAY app:-

• National Initiative for Rural India to Navigate, InnovAte and Resolve PanchaYat decisions (NIRNAY), is a mobile application of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
• It is aimed at empowering rural communities during the National Conference.
• It provides easy access to critical information discussed during a Gram Sabha.
• It will be a game-changer for rural communities in India by acting as a means of verification of facts where necessary or in case of queries that may arise regarding the resolutions undertaken during the Gram Sabha.
• This would bring in more transparency and increase efficiency in the functioning of Panchayats, which play a vital role in decentralized participatory democracy.
• It is a significant step towards realizing the vision of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’ at the grassroots level.
• It is expected to accelerate the pace of rural transformation to achieve the vision of Gram Swaraj laid down by Mahatma Gandhi.

Source: PIB

Why in News?

 India, the world’s second-largest food producer, is an essential partner in the UAE’s ambition to strengthen food security. The India-UAE food security partnership stands to benefit from multiple points of convergence.

India- UAE Relations:

Diplomatic:

• India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) established diplomatic relations in 1972.
• UAE opened its Embassy in Delhi in 1972 and India opened its Embassy in Abu Dhabi in 1973.
• The traditionally strong bilateral relations enjoyed by India and UAE received impetus with the visit of PM Modi to UAE on 16-17 August 2015 that marked the beginning of a new strategic partnership between the two countries.
• Modi’s last visit to the UAE was in August 2019, when he received the UAE’s highest award, ‘Order of Zayed’.

Economic and Commercial Relations:

• Trade, which was dominated by traditional items such as dates, pearl and fishes, underwent a sharp change after the discovery of oil in UAE.
• The real impetus, however, started after Dubai positioned itself as a regional trading hub by the early 1990s and about the same time, the economic liberalization process started in India.
• India-UAE trade is today around US$ 60 billion, making UAE, India’s third largest trading partner for the year 2018-19.
• UAE is the second largest export destination of India (after US) with an amount of over US$ 30 billion for the year 2018-19.
  • For UAE, India was the second largest trading partner during 2018.
• UAE is the 10th biggest FDI investor for India.
• A consortium led by ONGC was awarded a 10 per cent stake in the Lower Zakum Concession in 2018.- first time that the Emirate awarded a stake in a functioning oil field to an Indian group.

Energy Cooperation:

• The UAE is one of India’s key energy providers and remains committed to meeting India’s growing energy demand.
• India imported US $10.9 billion worth of crude oil from the UAE in 2019-20. The UAE is the first international partner to invest by way of crude oil in India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves Program.
• The countries are also collaborating in the renewable energy sector as seen by mutual participation in the International Solar alliance.

Defence and Security Cooperation:

• UAE Air Force Officers participated as Observers in Trilateral Air Exercise on Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief (HADR) in 2018.
• Indian Navy Ships participated in the maiden IN-UAEN Bilateral Exercise in 2018 named Gulf Star 1.
• IN Ships have been regularly participating in IDEX/NAVDEX held in Abu Dhabi biennially.
• ‘Desert Eagle II’, a ten-day air combat exercise, was held in 2016 between the air forces of India and UAE.
• That New Delhi could turn to the UAE for help to deploy its mid-air refuellers for Rafale jets, and it agreed to extend the facility, is seen to reflect the close relationship that India and Abu Dhabi have built.

Indian Community:

• The Indian expatriate community of approximately 3.4 million is the largest ethnic community in UAE constituting roughly about 35% of the country’s population.

Significance of India-UAE relationship:

• Remittances to India: India had received over US $83 billion in remittances in 2020 which was one of the highest in the world.
  • The remittances from the UAE in the first half of 2020 accounted for US $21 billion.
• Strategic considerations: The UAE, due to its strategic location, has emerged as an important economic centre in the world and is also a major re-export hub for India.
  • Further good relations with the UAE are imperative to counter China’s influence in the Middle-east region.
• Security of the region: The Middle-east region is still witnessing a lot of conflicts in Syria, Iraq etc.
  • Good relations with UAE are imperative to give India a core place in discussion surrounding the Middle-east region.
  • Further UAE can support India in strengthening the security of the Indian ocean region especially along the western coast of Somalia that is prone to piracy.
• Gateway to Africa: Engagement with the UAE will pave the way for India to leverage UAE’s easy access to the African market and its various trade partners.
  • This can help India to become a part of the supply chain especially in handlooms, handicrafts, textiles and pharma.
• Entry into regional groupings: UAE commands a significant respect in regional groupings like OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation).
  • An improvement in relation will open India’s door for an OIC membership.
• India’s Soft Power: Good relations with UAE is a sine qua non for enhancing India’s Soft power in the Middle-east region.
• A recent progression of it was witnessed in 2021 when both Abu Dhabi and Dubai celebrated Diwali.

Challenges in the Ties:

• Recent Turbulence in relations: It is caused by the comments on Prophet Mohammed by Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal
• Balancing geopolitics: India with Iran (also played out over Yemen) and UAE with China.
• Energy pricing: As an OPEC country UAE is on the side of the debate, where India as a major oil consumer is arguing for a cap on prices- this has seen some heated words between oil ministers in the past
  • India and UAE are yet to renegotiate their air services agreement, which has become a thorn in ties, because the UAE wants to increase the number of flights to India and the number of destinations, but India continues to cap these to protect Indian airlines.
• Treatment of Indian labour: This frequently flares up as Indians aren’t granted citizenship in the UAE, and conditions at Indian labour camps become a matter of concern.
  • During the pandemic much of the labour to the gulf has had to return, and remittances are likely to be slashed in the next few years
• Treatment of minorities in India is becoming a big issue: After the CAA protests, social media controversies, now the Hijab Ban has raised concerns in Gulf countries, and the OIC issued a very strong statement.
• Legal Issues: Legal problems have in the past dampened foreign investments from coming to India.
  • Checks and regulations are needed, better streamlining of the procedures and processes help in avoiding such problems.

Way Forward:

The UAE today is India’s closest partner in the Arab world and fortunately, there is enough resilience in bilateral ties to withstand the recent convulsions. It will continue to forge closer partnership in these areas, building on their close and friendly relations and historical people-to-people connect.

India-UAE has a strong energy partnership which is now acquiring a new focus on renewable energy. It will take a sustained public diplomacy effort to further improve the relations

Source: The Hindu

GS-III

Why in News?

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had sent two varieties of seeds, arabidopsis and sorghum to space. 

About

• This is the first feasibility study by these organisations to determine the effect of cosmic radiation, microgravity and extreme temperatures on plant genomes and biology.

Impacts 

• Increased radiation creates genetic changes in plant seeds that would make them adaptable to harsh environmental conditions like greater temperatures, arid soils, diseases and rising sea levels. This adaptation process is known as space mutagenesis.

Significance of the Cosmic Experiment

• The experiment aims to develop new crops that can adapt to climate change and help boost global food security. 
• With the population reaching almost 10 billion by 2050, there's a clear need for innovative solutions aimed at producing more food, as well as crops that are more resilient and farming methods that are more sustainable.
• Global warming is making it difficult for farmers to sustain yields. The rising costs for essential grains and political instability have been aggravating it.

About Sorghum & Arabidopsis

• Sorghum: Sorghum belongs to the family of millets and is a drought- and heat-tolerant grain grown in many developing countries for food.
• Arabidopsis: It is a small flowering plant that belongs to the mustard family (Brassicaceae).
  • It is widely used as a model organism in plant biology research due to its small size, rapid life cycle, and easily manipulable genetics.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (HO: Vienna, Austria)

• Established on 29th July 1957, independent of the UN but the agency reports to the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.
• It is entrusted with the task of upholding the principles of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, 1970. India is not a signatory to the treaty.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

• Established by the United Nations in 1945; dealing with international efforts to defeat hunger.
• HO: Rome, Italy

Source: DTE

Why in News?

Recently, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) revised the financial grants for biomass pellet manufacturing units.

About Biomass pellets:

• These are a type of renewable fuel made from organic materials such as wood, agricultural residues, and energy crops.
• These are produced by compressing organic materials under high pressure.
• The compression process removes the moisture content and increases the energy density of the biomass.
• It is mandatory in India to use biomass or agricultural residue as combustion fuel along with coal in coal-fired thermal power plants.
• The biomass used for co-combustion in the power plants is processed and refined into pellets with a calorific value comparable to coal.
• These are two kinds
  • Torrefied: It is processed at 250-350°C in the absence of oxygen, leading to the formation of torrefied biomass.
  • Non-torrefied: In this biomass is shredded, grinded and sent to a pellet reactor, where it is compressed into pellet form with the help of binders such as sawdust, bagasse, molasses, starch and others.

What is Torrefaction?

• It is a thermochemical process that aims to decrease the water and volatile contents from the biomass, thus improving some of its fuel properties like higher energy density, hydrophobic behaviour, elimination of biological activity etc.

Key Facts about Central Pollution Control Board

• It is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
• It was constituted under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
• It is entrusted with the powers and functions under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
• It serves as a field formation and also provides technical services to the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
• The principal Functions of the CPCB, as spelt out in the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 are;
• To promote the cleanliness of streams and wells in different areas of the States by prevention, control and abatement of water pollution, and
• To improve the quality of air and to prevent, control or abate air pollution in the country.

Source: DTE

Why in News?

Nigeria made history with the approval granted a new malaria vaccine- R21/Matrix-M, which has been developed by the University of Oxford and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

• It is the second country to do so after Ghana. 

About

• The R21, otherwise referred to as Matrix-M malaria vaccine, is the second vaccine ever developed for a disease.
• The first-ever malaria vaccine, RTS, S or mosquirix was approved by the WHO in 2021.
• Since 2015, 9 countries have been certified by the WHO Director-General as malaria-free, including Maldives, Sri Lanka , Kyrgyzstan, Paraguay, Uzbekistan, Argentina, Algeria, China (2021) and El Salvador (2021).

Malaria

• About
  • It is a mosquito-borne blood disease caused by plasmodium protozoa.
  • The parasites spread through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
• Cause: 
  • It is a life threatening disease caused by plasmodium parasites.
• Transmission: 
  • The parasites spread through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
  • In the human body, parasites initially multiply in liver cells and then attack the Red Blood Cells (RBCs).
  • There are 5 parasite species that cause Malaria in humans and 2 of these species (Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax) pose the greatest threat.
• Distribution: 
  • It is predominantly found in the tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, South America and Asia.
• Symptoms: 
  • Fever and flu-like illness, including chills, headache, muscle ache and fatigue.

Disease burden

• According to the latest World malaria report, there were 247 million cases of malaria in 2021 compared to 245 million cases in 2020.
• In 2022 there were over 45 thousand  cases of malaria reported in India.
• Children under five years of age accounted for about 80 per cent of all malaria deaths in the WHO African Region. 

 Initiatives to Curb Malaria

• Global Initiatives: 
  • The WHO has also identified 25 countries with the potential to eradicate malaria by 2025 under its ‘E-2025 Initiative’.
  • The WHO’s Global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030 aims to reduce malaria case incidence and mortality rates by at least 40% by 2020, at least 75% by 2025 and at least 90% by 2030 against a 2015 baseline.
  • WHO has initiated the High Burden to High Impact (HBHI) initiative in 11 high malaria burden countries, including India. 
  • Implementation of “High Burden to High Impact (HBHI)” initiative has been started in four states i.e. West Bengal and Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
• Indian Initiatives: 
  • The Government of India set a target to eliminate malaria in India by 2027.
  • It developed a National Framework for Malaria Elimination (2016-2030) 
  • National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination for 5 years.
    • Launched in 2017
    • It shifted focus from Malaria control to elimination.
    • It provided a roadmap to end malaria in 571 districts out of India’s 678 districts by 2022.
  • Malaria Elimination Research Alliance-India (MERA-India)
    • Established by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
    • It is a conglomeration of partners working on malaria control

Source: Economic Times

Why in News?

Recently, the Indian scientists working in the Garbh-Ini programme have identified 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or genetic markers, that are associated with preterm or premature birth.

About the Garbh-Ini programme:

• It promotes Maternal and Child Health and develops prediction tools for preterm birth.
• It is an initiative under the Department of Biotechnology of the Union Ministry of Science and Technology as a collaborative interdisciplinary programme.
• This program is led by the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), NCR Biotech cluster, Faridabad.
• It is part of the Atal JaiAnusandhan Biotech Mission - Undertaking Nationally Relevant Technology Innovation (UNaTI).

What is single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)?

• It is the most common type of genetic variation among people.
• Each SNP represents a difference in a single DNA building block, called a nucleotide.
• For example, an SNP may replace the nucleotide cytosine (C) with the nucleotide thymine (T) in a certain stretch of DNA.
• Most commonly these are found in the DNA between genes.
• Significance:
  • These help in predicting an individual’s response to certain drugs, susceptibility to environmental factors such as toxins, and risk of developing diseases.
  • These can also be used to track the inheritance of disease-associated genetic variants within families.
  • They can act as biological markers which help scientists locate genes that are associated with the disease.

What is a pre-term birth?

• It is defined as babies born alive before 37 weeks of pregnancy are completed. There are sub-categories of preterm birth, based on gestational age:
  • Extremely preterm (less than 28 weeks)
  • Very preterm (28 to 32 weeks)
  • Moderate to late preterm (32 to 37 weeks).

Source: Indian Express