DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS IAS | UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 21st September 2024

 Syllabus

• Mains – GS 2

Context: International Day of Peace is observed every year on September 21. World is grappling with conflicts, wars and looming threats of escalation in regions like West Asia. In this context, recalling India’s historical role in peacemaking and international mediation is important

Background: –

• The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.

Key takeaways

• India has consistently advocated for democratic dialogue and diplomacy to resolve global conflicts, rooted in its national movement and Non-Aligned Movement policy.
• Under Prime Minister Nehru, India played a significant peacekeeping role, mediating in several international conflicts during the Cold War era.

Key Peace Mediation Efforts:

• Korean Crisis (1950-53): India’s resolution on Korea was adopted by the UN in 1952. India facilitated an armistice in 1953, chaired the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission (NNRC) which was tasked to decide the fate of prisoners of war. A Custodian Force led by Lieutenant General K. S. Thimayya was deployed along the 38th parallel. India was also an active member of the UN Commission on Korea and the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission.
• Vietnam (1950s-60s): India served as co-chair of the International Commission for Supervision and Control, mediating during the Vietnam War.
• Austria (1955): Nehru played key role in mediating between the USSR and Austria for the withdrawal of Soviet troops and successfully convincing Austria to declare neutrality in 1955.
• Protests Against Invasions: India opposed China’s invasion of Vietnam (1979), the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979), the US invasions of Iraq (2003), and Afghanistan (2001).
• India’s image as a neutral power in South Asia, strong political leadership and proactive diplomacy by charismatic leaders alongside institutional support from the UN were the factors that led to the success of India’s mediation in Korea and other international hostilities.

Current Role in Russia-Ukraine Conflict:

• India has consistently called for dialogue and diplomacy since the war began.
• In 2022, Prime Minister Modi, along with other world leaders, helped prevent a nuclear strike by Moscow on Kyiv.
• India has made efforts to revive the Black Sea Grain Initiative, following Russia’s withdrawal in July 2023.
• Modi has engaged with both President Putin and President Zelensky, positioning India as a potential mediator for peace.
• Putin acknowledged India as a sincere peace partner, while Ukraine also expressed trust in India’s peace-making role.

Feasibility of India’s Peace Proposal:

• India’s non-aligned position, close ties with Russia and the West, and diplomatic legacy strengthen its potential as a mediator in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
• India’s successful mediation in past conflicts like Korea could serve as a model for its peace efforts in Ukraine.
• Modi’s upcoming meetings with Zelensky and Putin (BRICS and sidelines of Quad summits) indicate further opportunities for India to facilitate negotiations.
• India’s proactive diplomacy, institutional support from the UN, and humanitarian stance position it as a credible peace mediator, building on its historic legacy of international conflict resolution.

Source: Indian Express

 Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – INTERNATIONAL

Context: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed India in the “regular follow-up” category for its compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing recommendations, saying it has an “effective” system, but added that “major improvements” are needed to strengthen prosecution in these cases.

Background: –

• FATF, in its mutual evaluation report has listed some areas for improvement.

Key takeaways

• The FATF is the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. The Paris-based intergovernmental organisation was formed in 1989 as a G7 initiative to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering. In 2001, the FATF expanded its mandate to also combat terrorist financing.

Key Functions and Objectives:

• Setting Standards: FATF sets international standards to ensure national authorities can effectively combat illicit financial activities. These standards are known as the FATF Recommendations.
• Monitoring Implementation: FATF assesses and monitors the implementation of its standards by member countries. This is done through mutual evaluations and follow-up processes.
• Identifying Risks and Trends: FATF conducts research to identify methods and trends in money laundering and terrorist financing. This helps in updating and refining its standards.
• Promoting Global Cooperation: FATF works with various international bodies, including the IMF and World Bank, to promote global cooperation in combating financial crimes.
• Grey and Black Lists: Countries that do not comply with FATF standards can be placed on the “grey list” (Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring) or the “black list” (High-Risk Jurisdictions). These lists help to pressure countries to improve their compliance.

Structure:

• FATF Plenary: The decision-making body of FATF, which meets three times a year to discuss and make decisions on various issues.
• Members: FATF has 40 member countries, including 38 jurisdictions and two regional organizations. India became a member of FATF in 2020.

Indias Case:

• The “regular follow-up” ranking is being seen as a favourable outcome by New Delhi.
• The “regular follow-up” rating is currently shared by only four other G20 countries — the UK, France, Italy and Russia (suspended from FATF in February 2023). Most of the developing countries are in the “enhanced follow-up” category, which requires submission of reports on an annual basis, as against once in three years in the “regular follow-up” category.

Key takeaways from FATF review report

• FATF report said that the main sources of money laundering in India originate from within, and the country faces a disparate range of terrorism threats from regional insurgencies in the Northeast and North, and Left-Wing Extremist groups. The “most significant” terror threats seem to be related to the Islamic State or al-Qaeda linked groups active in and around Jammu and Kashmir.
• India’s largest money laundering risks are related to fraud including cyber-enabled fraud, corruption and drug trafficking.
• The FATF enlisted several areas for improvement: limited number of prosecutions and convictions, risk-profiling of customers of financial institutions, monitoring of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) registry for availability of accurate owner information, and the link between money laundering and human trafficking.
• The report said that, although the number of money laundering investigations under PMLA act increased since the review period, the number of prosecution complaints and concluded trials did not show a proportionate increase.
• The FATF said India should improve its framework for implementing targeted financial sanctions to ensure freezing of funds and assets without delay.
• The report also flagged the need for India to define domestic PEPs (politically exposed persons) under the anti-money laundering laws. Reporting entities should improve identification of domestic PEPs and take risk-based enhanced measures in relation to them.
• Last year, the government had incorporated the definition of foreign PEPs as individuals who have been “entrusted with prominent public functions by a foreign country, including the heads of states or governments, senior politicians, senior government or judicial or military officers, senior executives of state-owned corporations and important political party officials”. However, it has not defined domestic PEPs under PMLA.

Source: Indian Express

 Syllabus

• Mains – GS 2

Context: Tensions in West Asia have spiked after pagers and hand-held radios exploded in two days of coordinated attacks across Lebanon and parts of Syria, killing at least 37 persons and injuring more than 3,500, according to the Lebanese government.

Background:

• Israel’s military believes that it has been able to “substantially” degrade the capabilities of Hamas in Gaza. Therefore, it believes, the time has come to shift focus more substantially towards Hezbollah, the much more powerful adversary in the north.

Key takeaways

• Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese political party and militant group, has accused Israel of carrying out the attacks, which the Israelis have neither owned nor disowned.
• Israeli fire is reported to have killed more than 450 Hezbollah members and more than 100 civilians in Lebanon over the past 11 months.
• The attacks are also meant to deliver a message to the leadership in Tehran, the main benefactor of not just Hezbollah, but also Hamas and the Houthis of Yemen — that enemies of Israel are not safe anywhere.

Fallout of the attack

• Tehran could coordinate with its partners in the so-called Axis of Resistance — Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — to carry out attacks on Israel. Or it could target Israeli officials in third countries, perhaps after waiting for some time. Israel, on its part, could carry out an aerial offensive against not just Hezbollah but also the Lebanese state apparatus.
• All these scenarios present serious concerns for India.
• India has so far managed to walk the diplomatic tightrope between Israel and the Palestinians. But any escalation between Israel and Hezbollah will mean Iran will be part of the conflict, which could draw in the United States as well — this could present New Delhi with a far more complex diplomatic challenge.
• Some 9 million Indians live and work in the region. These people are often the sole breadwinners of their families, and the largest source of remittances to India. New Delhi would be worried for their safety and security.
• About two-third of India’s crude oil and natural gas comes from the West Asian region, and an impact on crude prices and supply could impact the country’s energy security.

Source: Indian Express

 Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – CURRENT EVENT

Context: A day after data showed that India’s goods exports in August dropped sharply by 9 per cent, marking the second consecutive decline amid the Red Sea crisis, the government announced that the state-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will commence operating a large container ship and purchase five additional second-hand container vessels to alleviate the logistical challenges.

Background: –

• Red Sea crisis had caused shipping rates to rise several fold, prompting exporters to urge the government, to develop Indian shipping lines of global standing to support exports.

About Red Sea

• Location: The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Northeast Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
• Boundaries: It is bordered by Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea on the west and Saudi Arabia and Yemen on the east.
• Temperature and Salinity: It contains some of the world’s warmest and saltiest seawater.
• Colour: Its name comes from the occasional blooms of the algae Trichodesmium erythraeum, which can turn the water a reddish-brown color when they die.
• Connections:
  • North: Connected to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal through the Gulf of Suez.
  • South: Connected to the Arabian Sea (Indian Ocean) through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden.

Strategic Importance:

• Trade Route:
  • The Red Sea forms one of the world’s most important maritime corridors, facilitating trade between Europe and Asia.
  • The Suez Canal, at its northern end, is a critical chokepoint for global shipping, handling about 10% of global trade, especially oil and gas.
• Oil and Energy Security:
  • Significant oil exports from the Middle East to Europe, North America, and Asia pass through the Red Sea.
  • Disruptions in the Red Sea can have global energy and economic impacts.
• Geopolitical Importance:
  • The Red Sea region has seen increasing military and strategic interests from global powers such as the USA, China, and Russia, as well as regional players like Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Iran.
  • Major naval bases have been established in countries like Djibouti (which also sits at the southern entrance to the Red Sea).
• The region is a hotspot for piracy, particularly near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Red Sea Crisis

• The Red Sea crisis began on 19 October 2023, when the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen launched missiles and armed drones at Israel, demanding an end to the invasion of the Gaza Strip.
• The Houthis have since seized and launched aerial attacks against dozens of merchant and naval vessels in the Red Sea, drawing hundreds of air strikes on missile sites and other targets by US and allied forces.
• The crisis is linked to the Israel–Hamas war, the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, the Iran–United States proxy conflict, and the Yemeni crisis.

Source: Indian Express

 Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – CURRENT EVENT

Context: Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel (PM MITRA) Park in Maharashtra’s Amravati on Friday.

Background: –

• The 1000-acre park is being developed by the Maharashtra Industrial Development  Corporation (MIDC) as the State Implementation Agency. The central government had approved setting up 7 PM MITRA Parks for the textile industry.

About PM MITRA Scheme

• Ministry of Textiles (MoT) has launched PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel Parks (MITRAs) Scheme to strengthen the Indian textile industry by way of enabling scale of operations, reduce logistics cost by housing entire value chain at one location, attract investment, generate employment and augment export potential.
• The scheme will develop integrated large scale and modern industrial infrastructure facility for total value-chain of the textile industry for example, spinning, weaving, processing, garmenting, textile manufacturing, processing & printing machinery industry.
• These parks are envisaged to be located at sites which have inherent strengths for textile industry to flourish and have necessary linkages to succeed. The scheme envisages to leverage Public Private Partnership model for fast paced implementation in a time-bound manner.
• Vision: Inspired by the 5F vision of the Prime Minister – Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign.
• Financial Support
  • Development Capital Support (DCS): The Central Government will provide DCS in the form of Grant in Aid (Capital) to the Park SPV. DCS is a support for creation of Core Infrastructure as well as Support Infrastructure.
  • Competitive Incentive Support (CIS): For incentivizing manufacturing units to get established early in PM MITRA Park, there is a provision of ₹ 300 Cr per park. Incentive will be provided to manufacturing units up to 3% of the total sales turnover to the unit established in the PM MITRA Park to reduce its cost and offset its disadvantages to a certain extent. The CIS will be Fund Limited and it will be available on a first come first serve basis.

Source: Economic Times

 Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Context: Square Kilometer Array (SKA), the world’s largest radio telescope in the making, has carried out its first observations, signalling that at least a part of the yet-to-be-completed facility has become functional.

Background: –

• The SKA is an international science project with headquarters in the United Kingdom. In December last year, India, which has been collaborating on the project since its inception, became a full member country in the international consortium building this telescope across two continents.

About Square Kilometer Array (SKA)

• The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an ambitious international project aimed at building the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope.
• Purpose: The SKA is designed to explore the universe in unprecedented detail, addressing fundamental questions in astrophysics, cosmology, and even the search for extraterrestrial life.
• Location: The SKA will be split between two primary sites: the Karoo region in South Africa and the Murchison region in Western Australia.

Structure and Technology

• Components: The SKA will consist of two main arrays:
  • SKA-Mid: Located in South Africa, this array will include 197 large dish antennas to observe mid-frequency radio waves (350 MHz to 15.4 GHz).
  • SKA-Low: Located in Australia, this array will feature 131,072 low-frequency (50 – 350 MHz) antennas designed to detect radio waves from the early universe.
• Collecting Area: The combined collecting area of the SKA will be approximately one square kilometre, making it 50 times more sensitive than any current radio telescope.
• Interferometry: The SKA will use a technique called aperture synthesis, linking multiple telescopes to act as a single, large telescope. This will provide extremely high-resolution images.

Scientific Goals

• Cosmology: Study the formation and evolution of the first stars and galaxies after the Big Bang.
• Dark Matter and Dark Energy: Investigate the nature of dark matter and dark energy, which make up most of the universe’s mass-energy content.
• Astrobiology: Search for signs of extraterrestrial life by detecting bio-signatures and techno-signatures.
• Fundamental Physics: Test Einstein’s theories of gravity and explore the properties of gravitational waves.

Source: Indian Express

Q1.) Consider the following statements regarding the Square Kilometre Array (SKA):

1. The SKA will be split between two primary sites: the Karoo region in South Africa and the Atacama Desert in Chile.
2. SKA-Low, located in Australia, is designed to detect low-frequency radio waves from the early universe.
3. The combined collecting area of the SKA will be approximately one square kilometre, making it 50 times more sensitive than any current radio telescope.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2, and 3

Q2.) Consider the following statements regarding the PM MITRA scheme:

1. The scheme is designed to promote the textile industry by developing large-scale, modern industrial infrastructure for the entire value chain at one location.
2. Competitive Incentive Support (CIS) under the scheme provides up to 10% of the total sales turnover to manufacturing units established in PM MITRA parks.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Q3.) Consider the following statements regarding the Red Sea:

1. The Red Sea is connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
2. The Red Sea crisis of 2023 is linked to the Israel–Hamas war and the broader Iran–Israel proxy conflict.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Comment the answers to the above questions in the comment section below!!

ANSWERS FOR ’  21st September 2024 – Daily Practice MCQs’ will be updated along with tomorrow’s Daily Current Affairs

Q.1) –  b

Q.2) – d

Q.3) – b