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IAS UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 12th September 2019

(PRELIMS + MAINS FOCUS)

Bombay Blood Group

Part of: GS Prelims – Science

In News

Over the last two weeks, demand for the “Bombay blood group” has coincidentally spiked at Mumbai’s hospitals, but supply has been scarce.
The rare, Bombay blood group was first discovered in Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1952 by Dr Y M Bhende.
The Bombay blood group, also called hh, is deficient in expressing antigen H, meaning the RBC has no antigen H
Globally, the hh blood type has an incidence of one in four million. It has a higher incidence in South Asia; in India, one in 7,600 to 10,000 are born with this type.
This blood type is more common in South Asia than anywhere else because of inbreeding and close community marriages.
The individuals with Bombay blood group can only be transfused blood from individuals of Bombay hh phenotype only which is very rare.

Blood Grouping:

When we say someone has blood group A, it means that the person has antigen of type ‘A’ and antibody of type ‘B’ in his/her blood.
People with AB have both antigen A and B in their blood and no antibodies.
People with O blood group have only antibodies A and B and no antigens. However what is not generally known is that all these groups have an antigen H in the blood as well.
There are very few people who do not have this antigen H also in their blood. Instead they have antibody H because of which no other blood can be given to them.

India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX)

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains GS-II- Local Governance

In News

IUDX is a research project under smart cities mission being implemented by Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in collaboration with Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
IUDX will be an open source software platform for cities, industry and researchers to share Smart City data with each other that could be monetised in the future, similar to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for bank accounts and digital payments.
It will facilitate secure, authenticated and managed exchange of data amongst various data platforms, third-party authenticated and authorized applications and other data sources
The India Urban Data Exchange set up by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) for its Smart Cities would be expanded, eventually leading to a “marketplace”.
MoHUA said that the open data platform for the 100 cities would be expanded to cover 500 cities by 2022 and all urban centres in the country by 2024.

(MAINS FOCUS)

ENVIRONMENT

TOPIC: General Studies 3:

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

Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.

Issues relating to renewable energy technology and developing new technology.

Carbon Tax – New approach to mitigate global warming

Context:

Global warming is a serious concern which needs to be addressed globally.

According to Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) report – Global carbon emissions have to fall by 45% from 2010 to 2030 and has to reach zero at the end of 2050.

So we are left with a decade to control global warming. If we do not meet these figures by the next 10 yrs, then the tropical regions of the World, mainly the global South will be impacted more because of their low altitudes and relatively high temperatures. The impact was already seen in Tamil Nadu crisis which had scarcity of water during 2019 summer.

Although the global South has impacted less for the global warming, it is acting as a receiver from the life style change towards the Global North.

Environment is becoming a casualty but a genuine global consensus to address the problem is yet to be found.

So both North and South parts of world must work collaboratively towards addressing the issue and plan measures to control it. But as the relationship between both is unequal, there is a call for a balanced approach to address global warming together.

What is Carbon Tax?

The carbon tax is a term used to represent the tax imposed to the countries based on the carbon content of the fuels (oil, petroleum, gas products) resources that they have.
This has been the approach involved in sharing the responsibility towards global warming depending on their share in global carbon emissions.
This is the most accepted model of mitigating the problem.

Just Energy Transition (JET)

On the other hand, Just Energy Transition (JET), approach gives global justice in terms of climatic changes and the contribution of global emissions from the countries.
It will also help fuel poor countries to shift their fuel requirements to other energy sources without compensating their economic losses.

Need for more green energy resources

As the financially rich countries are concentrating on their own energy resources, priority must be given to shift their energy resources into green energy resources.
This global green energy needs a massive infrastructure and investment. This can be achieved if the rich countries share the burden from the poor countries.
In other words, instead of funding their own energy transition, they can share the burden with the poor nations so that the injustice funnel is inverted.
To achieve this greener energy program, the countries may have to invest 1.5% of their GDP. This can be done by getting funds from global carbon tax which is $46.1 per metric tonne of CO2 emitted and the average global carbon emission is 36.1 billion metric tonne of CO2 from these energy rich countries.

Emission Ladder:

Pic: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/e7amvt/article29394219.ece/alternates/FREE_320/level-of-incomecol

What is Carbon tax sharing?

This is a process of energy transition wherein the countries which are emitting more than average per capita carbon will fund a part of their energy transition with countries which are below average in carbon emission.
This will compensate the energy transitions to greener environment from the receiving countries thereby compensating to the greener Earth.
So the countries which are emitting high levels of carbon per capita will share their energy transitions with the beneficiary countries which are emitting below average carbon.

How to calculate carbon tax?

The average carbon compensation from the donor nations is around $570 billion. This amount is distributed among the donor countries depending on their distance from the global average (fixed for their population size).
The same is the case for the receiving countries which receives the amount based on the carbon emission compared to the global average.
So when we add the carbon compensation to each of these countries, we can generate the carbon tax for each of them.

USA and China ranked the top two payer nations list as their absolute amount of energy transfers is higher compared to the global averages.

India on the contrary comes in the compensated countries list because of its high population size and low global emission rates.

Conclusion:

The time has come for all of us to focus on mitigating the global carbon emission rate to the lower levels.

This can be achieved from combined efforts of payer nations and compensated nations by sharing their per capita carbon emission.

With this global policy approach, even the high income nations whose per capita emissions are lower will also be benefitted along with poor energy countries. All that needs is the countries to step down their emission ladders without compensating their standard of living there by achieving global green Robin Hood tax.

Connecting the dots:

What is global carbon tax and how it is calculated?
What are the measures to mitigate the global warming in terms of carbon emission?

CONSTITUTION/POLITY

TOPIC: General Studies 2:

Parliament and State Legislatures—Structure, Functioning, Conduct of Business, Powers & Privileges and Issues Arising out of these.

Structure, Organization and Functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary—Ministries and Departments of the Government; Pressure Groups and Formal/Informal Associations and their Role in the Polity.

Habeas corpus judgement – Its impact on the civil society

What is Habeas corpus judgment?

Habeas corpus judgment is a court verdict which defines detaining the liberty of civil society and locking them from the fundamental rights.
This is based on the principle of Supreme Court verdict which suspended the fundamental rights to life and liberty of the civil society during the ‘times of peril’.

Note:

The ‘times of peril’ will be decided from the government about what and whose rights will be suspended? When it will be suspended? and when it will be restored etc?
Habeas corpus judgment came into light after Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. As there was absolute power in the beginning which caused torture and murder of the innocents, the Supreme Court made a checks and balances for the government, to be accountable for all their actions through habeas corpus judgment.

Based on the statement from H R Khanna who opinioned that ‘the greatest danger to liberty lies in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but lacking in due deference for the rule of law’. According to which if the state government decides to infringe people’s right with respect to a larger goal, then it must prove a rational relationship for the goal and measure the adoption demonstration. The decision to implement or to take off entirely depends on the Supreme Court in synchrony with the state government. This also gives the right to court to decide when to detain, how long to detain, whom to detain depending on local conditions at state.

Example of Habeas corpus judgment in 2019

The state of Jammu & Kashmir was kept under communication breakdown/lockdown starting from 5^th of August 2019. Based on which many political leaders along with common man were detained from their fundamental rights. This was followed by downgrading Article 370 in the state which converted these two states into union territories.

Effects of Habeas corpus judgment and communication lockdown:

Both these moves have damaged the fundamental rights. Right to speak and right to express has been violated.
Prevented the people outside the state to be in touch with their family members.
Caused damage to the entire infrastructure of health, transport and food.
Causes suffering to the individual liberty.

Views about communication lockdown:

Our national security Advisor Mr. Ajit Doval justified detention and said that the political leaders will remain in custody till the environment is safe for them to function at the democratic level but did not confirm how long this would last.
According to few experts from United Nations, they called the communication lockdown as a “Collective punishment” where the entire community is punished due to the action of few. This will affect the civil people to use their fundamental rights.

Even though there are arguments regarding the detention of communication lockdown in the public, newspapers, interviews etc, the court have not given any explanation about this matter. Delhi High Court is continuously adjourning the petition of a political leader Shah Faesal who challenged about his detention in the state. The same case is the Supreme Court which is repeatedly adjourning the petitions with respect to the detention.

Conclusion:

No civilian need a permission from the court to travel within India. Even though the court have granted liberty to travel anywhere in India, it failed to give the validity of detention by itself. Habeas corpus judgment or communication lockdown in India does not always end in violence. It is simply to take off the fundamental rights from the people for time being until the law is back in place. Even the individuals are adjusting and abide to the court rules and regulation without raising their voice for their fundamental rights. So this shows the complete executive supremacy from the government bodies to bring in law and order in place which is making the people of Jammu and Kashmir to remain silent.

Connecting the dots:

Is Habeas corpus judgment is beneficial for the public in J&K?
Why the courts are not answering the petitions about the detentions?

(TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE)

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Q.1) Consider the following statements about Bombay Blood Group

The rare, Bombay blood group was first discovered in Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1952 by Dr Y M Bhende.
The Bombay blood group, also called hh, is deficient in expressing antigen H, meaning the RBC has no antigen H

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 Indian Urban Data Exchange (IUDX)

IUDX will be an open source software platform for cities, industry and researchers to share Smart City data with each other that could be monetised in the future
It is being implemented by NITI Aayog

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