IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs (Prelims + Mains Focus)- 8th June 2018

Archives

(PRELIMS+MAINS FOCUS)

Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Nationalism

Part of: Mains Essay and GS II – Nationalism, Secularism and Tolerance

Key points:

• Secularism and inclusion were a matter of faith to the country.
• “Any attempts at defining our nationhood in terms of dogmas and identities of religion, region, hatred, and intolerance will only lead to dilution of our national identity.”
• Our national identity has emerged through a long- drawn process of confluence, assimilation, and co-existence. We derive our strength from tolerance. We accept and respect our pluralism. We celebrate our diversity. These have been a part of our collective consciousness for centuries.

Constitution is “not merely a legal document but a Magna Carta of socio-economic transformation.”

• It represents the hopes and aspirations of billion plus Indians. From our Constitution flows our nationalism. The construct of Indian nationalism is constitutional patriotism, which consists of an appreciation of our inherited and shared diversity. The soul of India resides in pluralism and tolerance.

Important Value Additions:

IASbaba recommends you to finish following chapters from Class 11 NCERT (Political Science) – Political Theory

• Chapter 7 Nationalism – Class 11 NCERT Political Theory
• Chapter 8 Secularism – Class 11 NCERT Political Theory

Article link: We derive our strength from tolerance, says Pranab at RSS event

Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains Paper II – Welfare and social issue

In news:

• Indian government is not yet ready to sign the Hague Convention on inter-country abduction of children by parents fleeing a bad marriage.
• We had read last month (DNA 7th May 2018) about this Hague Convention on inter-country abduction.

Recap:

• Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a multi-national treaty that seeks to protect children wrongfully removed by one of the parents from the custody of the other parent.
• There has been immense pressure from the U.S. on the government to sign the treaty. However, Indian government has long held the view that the decision could lead to harassment of women escaping marital discord or domestic violence.
• In 2016, the government had decided not to be a signatory to the treaty.
• Justice Rajesh Bindal Committee was set up in 2017 to suggest model legislation in regard to issue of inter-country parental child abduction.

Important value additions:

• The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction or Hague Abduction Convention is a multilateral treaty developed by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).
• The Convention was drafted to ensure the prompt return of children who have been abducted from their country of habitual residence or wrongfully retained in a contracting state not their country of habitual residence.
• The Convention applies only to children under the age of 16.
• Under the Convention, contracting countries must establish a central authority to trace unlawfully removed children and secure their return to the country of habitual residence, irrespective of the country’s own laws on the issue.

Do you know?

• Since Indian government is  not yet ready to sign the Hague Abduction Convention, it is planning to put safeguards by setting up a Child Removal Disputes Resolution Authority to act as a nodal body to decide on the custody of the child as well as a model law to deal with such disputes.

Article link: India not yet ready to sign the Hague treaty: Maneka

UN India-NITI Aayog Investor Consortium for Women Entrepreneurs

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains III – Indian Economy; Inclusive development

In news:

• The UN India Business Forum and the Women Entrepreneurial Platform of NITI Aayog formed a consortium to reduce gender disparities in start-up investments.
• The consortium aims to strengthen women’s entrepreneurship by creating an enabling ecosystem for investments.
• Women entrepreneurs will be identified through key partners, including WEP, UN Women, and UNDP.

Article link: UN India business forum, NITI Aayog form consortium to help women …

DEFENCE: Defence Acquisition Council and ‘Buy (Indian) IDDM’ category

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains III – Defence and Security

In News:

• Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) approved procurement of high powered radars for the Indian Air Force and air cushion vehicles for the Army and the Coast Guard.
• The 12 high power radars will be procured indigenously under the ‘Buy (Indian) IDDM’ category.

Important value additions:

Do you know?

• ‘Indian (Designed, Developed and Manufactured)’, or Buy (IDDM), this category replaces ‘Buy (Indian)’ as the most preferred category in the hierarchical order of procurement categories.
• Besides these two categories, the hierarchy of categories consists of ‘Buy and Make (Indian)’, ‘Buy and Make’, and ‘Buy (Global)’, in that order.
• The ‘Buy (IDDM) category has ostensibly been devised to encourage indigenisation of defence products.

About Defence Acquisition Council (DAC)

• DAC – is the government’s highest decision-making body on procurement.
• DAC is chaired by Union Defence Minister.
• To counter corruption and speed up decision-making in military procurements.

Do you know?

The decision flowing from the Defence Acquisition Council are to be implemented by the following 3 Boards –

• Defence Procurement Board headed by the Defence Secretary
• Defence Production Board headed by the Secretary (Defence Production)
• Defence Research & Development Board headed by the Secretary (Defence Research & Development)

Article link: DAC approves procurementof radars, air cushion vehicles

(MAINS FOCUS)

ENVIRONMENT

TOPIC:General Studies 3:

• Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment
• Environmental conservation and biodiversity

Sustaining earth for the future

Introduction:

India is blessed with an extraordinary richness of life. A great number of unusual and exquisite species occur in the countless ecosystems spread across our vast lands, rivers and oceans.

Woven into this rich fabric of biodiversity is a stunningly vibrant and colourful tapestry of peoples, cultures and traditions.

India’s unique bio-cultural life and diversity has been able to withstand difficult changes and conditions for centuries. However, with the unleashing of unprecedented economic and environmental forces, it is now subject to increasing wear and tear.

Ultimately, these forces could destroy our vibrant and colourful life, cultures and traditions — and in the process, ourselves.

Major concerns –

Biologists all over the world have been documenting the ongoing loss of life forms.

• Modern extinction rates are more than a thousand times greater than the rates of the geological past.
• In recent decades, populations of more than 40% of large mammals have declined and insect biomass has decreased by more than 75%.
• Natural habitats all over the world have shrunk. For these losses, our country ranks higher than most.

Anthropocene era

• According to scientists, we have entered Anthropocene era — a new period in earth’s history, when humans have begun to impact environment at the global scale.
• Forests have degraded and diminished, rivers are getting vanished and our air has become unfit to breathe.
• It is not just only river Ganga which requires cleaning but all life forms including our body requires nurturing.

Concept of Half-Earth

To protect life on earth, the famous American biologist E.O. Wilson has described an ambitious project he calls “Half-Earth”.

He calls for formally protecting 50% of the earth’s land surface in order to conserve our rapidly disappearing natural heritage.

India’s forest policy calls for forests to cover almost a third of the country (33%), and if we include other natural systems such as grasslands and wetlands, the area to be protected could amount to almost 40%.

In a populous country such as ours, that would be a huge achievement. Some areas could be fully protected while others might be managed by stakeholders for sustainable use and enrichment of biodiversity.

The way ahead:

We need a massive new effort to catalogue, map, and monitor life, using fundamentally different approaches.

• Current efforts to map India’s biodiversity are largely restricted to forestlands, while plans for species monitoring are even more inadequate.
• Today, we have the digital tools and artificial intelligence today to efficiently catalogue, map, and monitor life’s fabric in a manner never before attempted — and with the potential engagement of millions of students and citizens.
• This mapping effort would include not only all life, including cultures, ethnicities, and dialects, but also the use of biodiversity and its vulnerability to changes in land use and climate.

Therefore, effective cataloguing, mapping and monitoring life will give us a glimpse of what we have, and what is most vulnerable.

It is important to understand how society interacts with biodiversity, and how economic, social and political forces can erode the biodiversity that ultimately sustains us.

It is important to learn how myriad species interact to drive our ecosystems, and how these systems in turn maintain our soils, water and breathable air.

For instance, it is vital to learn how the wild pollinators, the microbiota of soils, and the many enemies of agricultural pests — and many other natural services — underpin our agricultural productivity and mitigate climate change.

Need for a new science?

Academic institutions need to place far more emphasis on the scientific study of life at higher levels. We also need a comprehensive inquiry into how our society is shaping as well as responding to changes in biodiversity.

A new biodiversity science is taking shape across the globe, focused on the intimate interweaving of nature with human societies. India has not been, but must be, at the forefront of this emerging science, because nowhere on Earth are natural and human systems tied together more inextricably than on the subcontinent.

Fortunately, some in the Indian science establishment, such as the Departments of Biotechnology and of Science and Technology, have recently started programmes and initiatives in the broader areas of science and society.

Several non-government think tanks in the civil society sector have strong interdisciplinary programmes in environmental sustainability.

The India Biodiversity Portal has the ambitious goal of mapping India’s biodiversity with the engagement of civil society though the portal relies largely on private support.

However, the scale of the problem is so massive and its importance so vital for our future that government and private philanthropy need to bring together multiple stakeholders to develop a programme to document, map and monitor all life, and develop a new knowledge enterprise to fully explore various dimensions of biodiversity and ecosystem services and their critical link to our future.

Connecting the dots:

• In spite of environmental moments dating back to post independence years India’s progress in environment conservation and management is not noteworthy. Critically discuss.
• Can biodiversity be integrated with development? Examine.

(TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE)

Model questions: (You can now post your answers in comment section)

Q.1) Consider the following statements about ‘Hague Abduction Convention’

1. It is an international treaty to ensure the prompt return of a child who has been “abducted” from the country of their “habitual residence”.
2. Under the Convention, contracting countries must establish a central authority to trace unlawfully removed children and secure their return to the country of habitual residence, irrespective of the country’s own laws on the issue.
3. The Convention only applies to children under the age 16.
4. India is yet to ratify the convention

Select the correct statements

1. 1 and 2
2. 1, 2 and 3
3. 1, 2 and 4
4. All of the above

Q.2) Recently, Centre had constituted a Committee to suggest a model legislation to safeguard the interest of the child as well as to deal with issue of inter-country parental child abduction. The committee is headed by –

1. Rajesh Bindal Committee
2. Geetam Singh Committee
3. Preetham Reddy Committee
4. Mahendra Lama Committee

Q.3) Consider the following with regard to Defence Acquisition Council (DAC)

1. DAC is the government’s highest decision-making body on procurement.
2. DAC is chaired by Union Defence Minister.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Q.4) Arrange the below categories from most preferred category to least in the hierarchical order of procurement categories.

1. Buy and Make
2. Buy (IDDM)
3. Buy and Make (Indian)
4. Buy (Global)

Code:

1. 4-3-2-1
2. 2-3-1-4
3. 3-2-4-1
4. 3-2-1-4

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