IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs- 08th July, 2015

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IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs- 08th July, 2015

NATIONAL

India on track in cutting poverty: MDG report 

India has halved its incidence of extreme poverty, from 49.4% in 1994 to 24.7% in 2011 ahead of the deadline of 2015 set by the United Nations, shows the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Report 2015.

Comparing with our Neighbours?

• The report set the limit for extreme poverty as those living on $1.25 or less a day.
• However, this reduction in poverty is still less than that achieved by several of India’s poorer neighbours.
• Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh have each outstripped India in poverty reduction over comparable time periods.

Is India Really on Track?

• While the report says India is on-track to achieving the hunger targets, it still remains home to one quarter of the world’s undernourished population, over a third of the world’s underweight children, and nearly a third of the world’s food-insecure people.
• The report is especially important because it marks the deadline by which the MDG should have been achieved.
• India has already achieved 11 out of 22 parameters in the report spanning issues like education, poverty, health, and education— and is on track to achieve one more by the end of 2015.

Connecting the Dots

• Write a note on Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
• Why India still remains as home to one quarter of the world’s undernourished population?

No mining, polluting units in eco-sensitive zones 

Union Environment Minister held review meeting to check the progress of demarcation of Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) in the Western Ghats region and discuss the further course of action in keeping with the recommendations of the 2013 Kasturirangan Committee report.

What was said about Kasturirangan committee?

• Minister said that earlier people were misled to believe that the Kasturirangan report would destroy the livelihood prospects of people living in the Western Ghats forest regions, but such rumors should not be believed.
• “Only in places demarcated as ecologically sensitive zones, commercial mining and polluting industries would not be started.

What are the conclusions of the Review Meet?

• Since more than 4,000 villages fell in the proposed eco-sensitive zones, consultation with local population was on to seek their recommendation on the plan of action and the process would be completed by month-end.
• The final notification on demarcation of eco-sensitive zones and mining and polluting industries to be banned would be available by August.

Remember the Renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil???

• The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), also known as the Gadgil Commission after its chairman Madhav Gadgil, was an environmental research commission appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests of India.
• The Expert Panel approached the project through a set of tasks such as:

1. Compilation of readily available information about Western Ghats
2. Development of Geo-spatial database based on environmental sensitivity, and
3. Consultation with Government bodies and Civil society groups.

Connecting the dots

• Write a note on
  1. Kasturirangan Report
  2. Madhav Gadgil Report
  3. B Shah Commission
  4. Ecologically Sensitive Areas

Pakistan dismisses India’s objections to China-Pak Economic corridor as ‘intervention’ 

• India has conveyed its objections to Beijing over the project which links China’s Xinjiang province with Pakistan’s Gwadar port through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
• Pakistan says it is a commercial project aimed at improving the livelihood of people.

What is Pakistan’s Voice over this?

• Greater regional connectivity and the Corridor will utterly benefit the whole region including India.
• “Eradicating extremism and terrorism is one of our priorities.
• The present government has formulated the National Action Plan (NAP) with the consensus of other political parties to root out terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

What are its Implications for Regional Security?

• The agreement will give China a land route with the Middle East and South Asia that does not pass through potentially-contested choke points near Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India.
• The move may bring greater prosperity to the region but there are risks of greater tensions and unrest.

How about The India-Pakistan rivalry?

• The arrangement is not being welcomed in India.
• Its security bureaus see it as part of China’s “string of pearls” strategy of surrounding India with potential foes.
• India knows well that the recent deal was preceded by the announced sale of eight Chinese submarines to Pakistan.

Connecting the Dots

• Do you think that the investment program with Pakistan will make China even more of a world actor?
• Write a note on India’s Security concerns of Pakistan-China Economic Corridor

Did you know?

• You can file your application with some designated post offices for getting information under the Right to Information Act
• On the feedback from Secretaries, who were asked by the Prime Minister earlier this year to travel to the districts of their first posting in the civil services, the government proposes to train 3,000 barefoot engineers under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kausalya Yojana for rural infrastructure projects.
• Bio slurry pellet method of rice cultivation to increase production