IASbaba's Daily Current Affairs Analysis

IAS UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 10th September 2019

(PRELIMS + MAINS FOCUS)

Salt Consumption

Part of: GS Prelims – Health issues

In News

The study shows that 76.3% of Indian households consumed adequately iodised salt, which is salt with at least 15 parts per million of iodine.
The survey also revealed that 13 out of 36 States have already achieved Universal Salt Iodisation or have 90% of households with access to adequately iodised salt.
The five worst performers were Tamil Nadu (61.9%), Andhra Pradesh (63.9%), Rajasthan (65.5%), Odisha (65.8%) and Jharkhand (68.8%).
The survey was conducted by Nutrition International in collaboration with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Indian Coalition for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders
Gujarat produces 71% of salt in the country, followed by Rajasthan at 17% and Tamil Nadu at 11%. The rest of the country accounts for a mere 1% of salt produced.
India made fortification of salt with iodine mandatory for direct human consumption in 1992.
Iodine is a vital micro-nutrient for optimal mental and physical development of human beings. Deficiency of iodine can result in a range of disabilities and disorders such as goitre, hypothyroidism, cretinism, abortion, still births, mental retardation and psychomotor defects

DESERTIFICATION

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains GS-III- Environmental Conservation

In News

PM Modi addressed the High Level Segment of the 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, held at New Delhi
India has raised the target of restoring land with degraded status from 21 million hectares to 26 million hectares (27% of total degraded land) by 2030.
Area of India undergoing the process of land degradation, as of 2011-13 is 96.5 million hectares of land – 29% of total geographical area
India called upon the leadership of UNCCD to conceive a “Global Water Action Agenda”which is central to the Land Degradation Neutrality strategy.
To further develop a scientific approach and facilitate induction of technology to land degradation issues, India has decided to set up a centre for excellence in India at the Indian Council for Forest Research and Education.
India became part of the “Bonn Challenge”, a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030

National Genomic Grid (cancer)

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains GS-II – Issues relating to Health

In News

Government plans to set up a National Genomic Grid, so as to take cancer research to the next level and make treatment viable for people of different economic classes.
The National Genomic Grid for India-specific cancer research will collect samples from cancer patients to study genomic factors influencing cancer and identifying the right treatment modalities for the Indian population.
The grid to be formed will be in line with the National Cancer Tissue Biobank (NCTB) set up at the IIT Madras, which is functioning in close association with the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR)
The grid will have four parts, with the country divided into east, west, north and south
The first set of 350 genomic data of stomach and breast cancer patients developed from the 3,000 samples at NCTB will be released by the end of October

Indian Skill Development Service (ISDS)

Part of: GS Prelims and GS Mains III – Economy

In News

The first batch of the Indian Skill Development Services (ISDS) commenced their training program at the Administrative Training Institute (ATI), Mysuru
This is the first batch which is joining the ISDS cadre from the Indian Engineering Service Examination conducted by UPSC.
ISDS is the newest central government services, which presently has 263 all India posts.
This service has been specially created for the Training Directorate of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and is a Group ‘A’ service.
The induction of young talent as ISDS officers is one of the special initiatives taken by the MSDE to attract young and talented administrators towards institutionalizing the Skill Development environment in the country

(MAINS FOCUS)

ECONOMY/ENVIRONMENT

TOPIC: General Studies 3:

Environment and Ecology, Bio diversity – Conservation, environmental degradation, environmental impact assessment, Environment versus Development

Issues relating to deforestation, land use pattern and use of fossil fuel.

Carbon emission and global warming related issues

The Amazon forest fire – Consequences from global warming and climatic change

Context:

Forest fire in the Amazon gave an indication for the human community about the devastating effects of deforestation, land-use change and rising fossil fuels emissions.

Climate change and its impacts

Many cities have seen high temperatures never before experienced
Heat waves have accelerated
Melting of glaciers (esp. in Greenland)
Recent floods in Mumbai, Kerala and North Karnataka

Energy and transport are mainly responsible for the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere.

Fossil fuel emissions and changes in land use patterns – deforestation, industrial agricultural systems and desertification – are major drivers of climate change.

IPCC Report

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently brought out a special report on Climate Change and Land.

It covers desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems.

According to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) –

Cumulative carbon emissions from land-use change since 1750 amounted to almost 180 Gigatonne (Gt), driven largely by the more than six-fold expansion of cropland.
Fossil fuel use contributed 375 Gigatonne (Gt) since 1750, that is more than 12 times that of the net cumulative emissions from terrestrial ecosystems.

However, the AR5 report also points out that –

The net carbon emission of terrestrial ecosystem from deforestation and land-use pattern remains neutral since 1750.
Even though the cumulative land-use change increased the levels of carbon emission; it was absorbed from the existing vegetation, thus maintaining the carbon emission level at minimal.

According to Global Carbon Project reports –

Fossil fuel emits about 9.9 Gt (Gigatonne) of carbon annually to the environment compared to 1.5Gt from land-use change. Terrestrial ecosystem absorbs ~3.8 Gt of carbon annually, indicating carbon emission from fossil fuels remain in the atmosphere compared to other sources.

About Global Carbon Project (GCP)

GCP is an organisation established in 2001, working on checking the quantity of global greenhouse gas emissions mainly carbon di oxide, methane and nitrous oxide and their causes.

Concerns:

From the literature in IPCC AR5, carbon emission from deforestation and logging was compensated to carbon absorption from the forest re-growth, thereby keeping the overall carbon emission at 0.11 Gt per year.
But the carbon emissions from fossil fuels are majorly leading to global warming and increases the summer temperature remarkably compared to deforestation and land-use change.
The emission effect from deforestation and land-use change can be reversed by planting more vegetation, carbon absorption from untouched forest areas and biomass, but the fossil fuel emission from coal, gas, oil cannot be reversed and even cannot be compensated from the existing vegetation.

Conclusion:

The forest fire in Amazon is not a first time case, but the fact is that the forest fire is increasing year after year devastating larger ecosystem every year. Similar forest fires are seen in Africa (Zambia, Angola, Democratic republic of Congo), Siberia and in Canada majorly due to increase in the summer temperatures.

The Amazon forest is a conservator of millions of species of vegetation, animals, birds, ecosystem and biodiversity but preventing deforestation is a real challenge.

Use of alternate source of energy in place of fossil fuels may minimize the effects of global warming and reduce carbon emission to the atmosphere.

The efforts from developed countries to minimize the use of fossil fuel has been less and according to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), they have achieved only 1.3% reduction in use of fossil fuels in 26 years from 1990. So if the countries join their hands to agree on Paris’s Agreement on climate change which aims to keep the global temperature to 2% at industrial levels and 1.5% at non industrial areas may help to conserve our terrestrial ecosystems and mitigate global warming drastically.

Connecting the dots:

Discuss the factors responsible for long term climate change. What evidences do we have that support current global warming. Explain.
The fight against climate change is more effective at the household level than macro level policy formulations. Do you agree? Substantiate.
Critically evaluate the emerging trends in global climate change negotiations. Is the world heading in the right direction in its fight against climate change? Critically examine.

(TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE)

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

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Q.1) Consider the following statements

Gujarat produces 71% of salt in the country.
India made fortification of salt with iodine mandatory for direct human consumption in 1992.

Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?

1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

Q.2) Consider the following statements about Bonn Challenge

It aims to aims to conserve terrestrial, aquatic and avian migratory species throughout their range.
India has also joined the voluntary Bonn Challenge pledge.

Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?

1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

Q.3) Consider the following statements about Indian Skill Development Services (ISDS)

ISDS is the newest All India Services, who gets recruited after passing Indian Engineering Service Examination conducted by UPSC.
It is special initiative taken by the Ministry of Labour to attract young and talented administrators towards institutionalizing the Skill Development environment in the country

Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?