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Syllabus

• Prelims – Environment

In News: Vembanad lake, is shrinking and its unique biodiversity is under threat of ecological decay despite it being declared as a Ramsar site 20 years ago.

• The lake is a source of livelihood for farmers of Kuttanad and the fisherfolk community, continues to undergo ecological degradation due to pollution and unauthorised constructions on its banks, with experts calling for “committed efforts” to save its wetland ecosystem.

Features of the Lake:

• This is the largest lake in Kerala and the longest Lake in India.
• Vembanad Lake is also known as Vembanad Kayal, Vembanad Kol, Punnamada Lake (in Kuttanad) and Kochi Lake (in Kochi).
• It is bound by Alappuzha, Kottayam and Ernakulam
• Spanning several districts of Kerala and covering a territory of more than 2033.02 km2.
• The lake has its source in four rivers, Meenachil, Achankovil, Pampa and Manimala
• It is separated from the Arabian Sea by a narrow barrier island and is a popular backwater stretch in Kerala.
• Vallam Kali (i.e Nehru Trophy Boat Race) is a Snake Boat Race held every year in the month of August in Vembanad Lake.
• In 2002, it was included in the list of wetlands of international importance, as defined by the Ramsar Convention.
• It is the second-largest Ramsar site in India only after the Sundarbans in West Bengal.
• The Government of India has identified the Vembanad wetland under the National Wetlands Conservation Programme.
• The Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary is located on the east coast of the lake.
• In 2019, Willingdon Island, a seaport located in the city of Kochi, was carved out of Vembanad Lake.

Issues:

• Environmental Degradations: the lake is facing serious environmental degradation
• Causes: recurring floods, increased pollution, reduction in water spread area and increased weed growth
• Bunds on the lake were crumbling at certain places, making fishing difficult and on top of that the lake requires regular dredging and desilting.
• Tourism poses a threat to the ecology nd the water quality of the lake. Resorts and residences discharge their waste into the river and many houseboats do not have bio-toilets

Solutions

• Inter-departmental committee to carry out a comprehensive study on checking the existing backwaters and to take further steps
• Local self-government departments taking action to detect and clear encroachments and demarcate the lake’s boundaries
• Participation of local communities including fisherfolk and farmers in lake’s revival
• Building an outer bund to prevent silt deposition and to regulate saline water intrusion into the freshwater lake
• Swaminathan Foundation report of 2011 – scientific and efficient operation of the lake
• Waste disposal and sewage treatment along the lake to be closely monitored.

Miscellaneous:

• Kuttanad is known as the rice bowl of Kerela

Must Read: India adds 11 more wetlands to the list of Ramsar Sites

Source: The Hindu

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Art and Architecture

In News: An expert team will visit the Hoysala temples at Belur, Halebid and Samanathpur this week before submitting a report to UNESCO ahead of declaring them as World Heritage Site.

• This includes Chennakeshava temple at Belur, The Hoysaleshwara temple at Halebid (together “The Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas”) and the 13^th centure Keshava temple at Somnathpur.

Criteria for declaration as World Heritage Site by UNESCO

Nominated sites must be of “outstanding universal value” and must meet at least one of the following ten criteria

• To represent a masterpiece of human creative genius
• To exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design
• To bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living, or which has disappeared
• To be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history”
• To be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change
• To be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
• To contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance
• To be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth’s history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features
• To be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals
• To contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

Salient features of Hoysala form of Architecture:

• Hoysala temples are hybrid or vesara style temples because of amalgamation of Dravidian and Nagara styles.
• Multiple shrines of different deities around a central pillared hall.
• Stellate plan wherein the shrines are established intricately in the design of a star.
• Soft soapstone being the main building material.
• Decoration of the temple through sculptures – Both the interior and exterior walls, even the pieces of jewellery worn by the deities were intricately carved.
• Upraised platform known as Jagati.
• The walls and stairs of the temple followed a zigzag pattern.

Chennakeshava temple of Somnathpur, Karnataka

• It is a Vaishnava Hindu temple on the banks of River Kaveri
• The temple was constructed in 1258 CE by Somanatha Dandanayaka, a general of the Hoysala King Narasimha III.
• The ornate temple is a model illustration of the Hoysala architecture. T
• The temple is enclosed in a courtyard with a pillared corridor of small shrines (damaged).
• The main temple in the centre is on a high star-shaped platform with three symmetrical sanctums (garbha-griha). The sanctums share a common community hall (sabha-mandapa) with many pillars.
• The outer walls, the inner walls, the pillars and the ceiling of the temple are intricately carved with theological iconography of Hinduism and display Ramayana, the Mahabharata and Bhagavata Purana

International Commission on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS):

• It is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the world.
• Headquartered in Charenton-le-Pont, France, ICOMOS was founded in 1965 in Warsaw as a result of the Venice Charter of 1964, and offers advice to UNESCO on World Heritage Sites.
• Objectives: Restoration of historic buildings and protect the world’s cultural heritage threatened by wars and natural disasters under “Blue Shield”; of which ICOMOS is a partner and founding member

Source: The Hindu

Previous Year Question

Q.1) Building ‘Kalyaana Mandapas’ was a notable feature in the temple construction in the kingdom of

1. Chalukya
2. Chandela
3. Rashtrakuta
4. Vijayanagara

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Syllabus

• Prelims – History

Context: The Prime Minister of India has paid tributes to Acharya Vinoba Bhave on his Jayanti (September 11).

About Vinoba Bhave:

• Vinoba Bhave (1895-1982) was an Indian nationalist and social-reform leader.
• Bhave’s most notable contribution was the creation of the bhoodan (land gift) movement.
• He was born into a high-ranking Chitapavan Brahmin family in Gagode village, south of Bombay.

Bhave and Mahatma Gandhi:

• Vinayak Bhave was renamed with the affectionate diminutive “Vinoba” by Mahatma Gandhi.
• He was associated with Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian independence movement.
• He stayed for some time at Gandhi’s Sabarmati ashram in a cottage that was named after him, ‘Vinoba Kutir’.
• In 1940 he was chosen by Gandhi to be the first individual Satyagrahi (an individual standing up for Truth instead of a collective action) against the British rule.

Sarvodaya and Bhoodan movement:

• Bhave observed the life of the average Indian living in a village and tried to find solutions for the problems he faced with a firm spiritual foundation.
• This formed the core of his Sarvodaya movement.
• Another example of this is the Bhoodan (land gift) movement started at Pochampally on 18 April 1951.
• He walked all across India asking people with land to consider him one of their sons and so gave him one-sixth of their land which he then distributed to landless poor.
• He also campaigned against the slaughtering of cows.

Awards:

• In 1958 Bhave was the first recipient of the international Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.
• He was awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1983.

Literary works:

• He called “Kannada” script the “Queen of World Scripts“
• He wrote brief introductions to, and criticisms of, several religious and philosophical works like:
  • the Bhagavad Gita,
  • works of Adi Shankaracharya,
  • the Bible
  • the Quran.
• Bhave had translated the Bhagavad Gita into Marathi.
• His talks on the Bhagavad Gita were later published in book form, as Talks on the Gita, and it has been translated into many languages both in India and elsewhere.

Source: The Hindu

Previous Year Question

Q.1) Who among the following was associated as Secretary with Hindu Female School which later came to be known as Bethune Female School? (2021)

1. Annie Besant
2. Debendranath Tagore
3. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
4. Sarojini Naidu

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Current Affairs

In News: The Group of Seven countries are working to cap the price of Russian oil in an attempt to limit Moscow’s ability to fund its invasion of Ukraine.

• Russian crude is priced at a discount to the international Brent benchmark and the G7 wants to keep that spread wide, to keep down Russian oil revenue.
• Set to begin on Dec. 5, this move will cut the price Russia receives for oil without reducing its petroleum exports to world consumers.
• Russia may in retaliation withhold exports to countries that enforce the cap.
• Russia is the world’s second-largest crude exporter, after Saudi Arabia.

Who initiated the move?

• The G7 are hammering out details of the plan and wants to enlist other countries, including India and China, which have been snapping up heavily-discounted oil from Russia since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
• Even if India and China don’t join, a cap could help force down prices for Asia and other consumers.
• The consensus on the price cap level will be reached with the aid of a “rotating lead coordinator,” that countries in the coalition will have a temporary leadership role as the plan proceeds.

What is the price cap?

• The level will be determined by both quantitative and qualitative reasons
• Coalition members with long economic and military relations with Russia could push for a higher cap, while a limit too low could take market share away from Saudi Arabia and other oil producers
• A $40-$60 per barrel range for crude – The upper end of that range is consistent with historical prices for Russian crude, while the lower end is closer to Russia’s marginal production cost.

How the price cap be enforced?

• Vigilance about red flags indicating potential evasion or fraud by Russian oil buyers including evidence of deceptive shipping practices, refusal to provide requested price information, or excessively high services costs.
• Consequences under the domestic law of jurisdictions implementing the price cap for those who falsify documentation or otherwise hide the true origin or price of Russian oil would face.

Maritime Services

• The plan agreed by the G7 calls for participating countries to deny Western-dominated services including insurance, finance, brokering and navigation to oil cargoes priced above the cap.
• To secure those services, petroleum buyers would make “attestations” to providers saying they bought Russian petroleum at or below the cap.
• Moscow is constrained by a small tanker fleet versus the vast scale of exports it needs to get out. If Russia doesn’t want to sell at the cap, it may have to shut in production, which could impose long-term costs on its oilfields.

G7

• The Group of Seven (G7) is an inter-governmental political forum for maintaining mutually close political, economic, social, legal, environmental, military, religious, cultural, and diplomatic relations.
• Members are the world’s largest IMF advanced economies and liberal democracies – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada – and the EU
• Features: shared values of pluralism and representative government. As of 2020, the collective group accounts for over 50 percent of global net wealth and 32 to 46 percent of global gross domestic product including 10 percent of the world’s population.
• From 2022, Germany has taken over the rotating presidency of the G7, following the presidency of the United Kingdom
• Objectives: Discussing and coordinating solutions to major global issues, especially in the areas of trade, security, economics, and climate change.
• The G7 is not based on a treaty and has no permanent secretariat or office
• The group has been criticized for its allegedly outdated and limited membership, narrow global representation, and ineffectualness. It is also opposed by anti-globalization groups, which often protest at summits.

Source: Indian Express

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Current Affairs
• Mains – GS 2 (Governance)

Context: The Supreme Court set the ball rolling on a series of petitions challenging the validity of the Places of Worship Act of 1991, a parliamentary law that protects the identity and character of religious places as on August 15, 1947.

• A slew of petitions has been filed against the Act, contending it has illegally fixed a retrospective cut-off date (August 15, 1947), illegally barring Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs from approaching courts to “re-claim” their places of worship which were “invaded” and “encroached” upon by “fundamentalist barbaric invaders”.
• The main objective of these petitions is to set right a “historical wrong”.
• The court’s readiness to test the law is significant considering the recent happenings in courts in Delhi, Varanasi, Mathura, and the Supreme Court that test the protective grip and probe the boundaries of The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991.
• The Varanasi District Court dismissed the challenge by Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee against the civil suits that sought the right to worship Maa Shringar Gauri and other deities within the Gyanvapi mosque premises.

Must Read:           The Place of Worship Act, 1991

Source: Indian Express

Previous Year question

Q.1) Other than the Fundamental Rights, which of the following parts of the Constitution of India reflect/reflects the principles and provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)?    (2020)

1. Preamble
2. Directive Principles of State Policy
3. Fundamental Duties

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

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Syllabus

• Mains – GS 2 (International Relations)

In News: Indian delegation is in Saudi Arabia, and a talk focuses on improving the relationship between India and Saudi.

• Union Minister of External Affairs co-chaired first ministerial meeting of the Committee on Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation (PSSC) with Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
• Minister also met with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General and the two leaders signed an MoU on the mechanism of consultations between India and the six-nation regional bloc.

Recent Developments:

• On account of remarks on Prophet Mohammad by Nupur Sharma Saudi Arabia issued a strong statement condemning the same.
• Covid-19 pandemic: India provided 4.5 million COVISHIELD vaccines to the Kingdom, whereas, during the second wave, the latter provided India with COVID-relief material, particularly liquid oxygen. Large-scale repatriation exercise of the community due to the pandemic, which has led to more than 8,00,000 Indians being repatriated through Vande Bharat Mission
• Committee on Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation (PSSC): established under the framework of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council.
• India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council – was formed to coordinate on strategically important issues. The council will be headed by the Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed and will meet every two years.
• It has two sub-committees –

1. Committee on Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation; and
2. Committee on Economy and Investments.

India – Saudi Arabia Relationship

• India and Saudi Arabia enjoy cordial and friendly relations reflecting the centuries old economic and socio-cultural ties.
• The year 2021-22 commemorates 75 years of India’s independence as ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’. This celebration also coincides with 75 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Saudi Arabia.
• The establishment of diplomatic relations in 1947 was followed by high-level visits from both sides.

Bilateral Trade:

• Saudi Arabia is India’s 4^th largest trading partner and India is the 4^th largest market for Saudi exports.
• Bilateral trade was $29.28 billion in FY22. During this time, India’s imports from Saudi Arabia were valued at $22.65 billion and exports to Saudi were $6.63 billion.
• More than 18% of India’s crude oil imports are sourced from Saudi Arabia.
• India also imports around 32% of LPG requirements from Saudi Arabia

Economic cooperation:

Investments:

• There are around 745 Indian companies registered as joint ventures/100% owned entities with investments worth approximately US$2 billion in the Kingdom (October, 2021).
• These companies operate in diverse sectors such as management and consultancy services, construction projects, telecommunications, information technology, financial services and software development, pharmaceuticals, etc.
• Saudi Investments in India, as of March 2021, amounted to US$3.13 billion.
• Major Saudi investment groups include ARAMCO, SABIC, ZAMIL, E-holidays, and Al Batterjee Group.
• Other proposed major investments include the US$44 billion ‘West Coast Refinery & Petrochemicals Project’ in Maharashtra, which is being jointly built by Saudi and India corporations.

The Diaspora:

• The 2 million strong Indian community is the largest expatriate community in the country and is ‘most preferred’ due to their expertise, discipline, law abiding spirit and peace-loving nature.
• Saudi Arabia continues to be one of the most preferred destinations for Indians seeking job abroad. Hence, large numbers of remittances are received from the country equalling to $34.5 billion in 2020.
• In 2019, the two sides announced that India’s e-Migrate system would be integrated with the Kingdom’s e-Tawtheeq system to streamline the migration process for workers.

Cultural Relations:

• India participated as the ‘Guest of Honour’ at the 32^nd edition of the prestigious Saudi National Festival of Heritage and Culture – Janadriyah from February 07 – 28, 2018.
• The annual Hajj pilgrimage is another important component of Indo-Saudi bilateral relations.
• Yoga has also become a very popular activity in Saudi Arabia, particularly after it was recognized as a ‘sports activity’ in November 2017
• On IDY 2021, an MoU on Yoga Cooperation was signed between the Saudi Ministry of Sports and India’s Ministry of AYUSH, which paved the way for the establishment of formal Yoga standards and courses in the Kingdom, marking the first time such standards were being implemented by any country in the Gulf region.
• The 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi was marked by a series of events that culminated on October 02, 2019 with the unveiling of the Gandhi bust at the Embassy.

Way forward

• Need for a balance policy in terms of strategic, defence and economic partnership
• Diversification of trade relations beyond crude oil and LPG
• Collaboration on handling terrorism through sharing of military insights and increasing joint military exercises.

Gulf Cooperation Council

• It is a political, economic, social, and regional organisation according to its charter.
• GCC was established by an agreement concluded in 1981 among Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE in view of their special relations, geographic proximity, similar political systems based on Islamic beliefs, joint destiny and common objectives.
• The structure of the GCC consists of the Supreme Council (the highest authority), the Ministerial Council and the Secretariat General.
• The Secretariat is located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Source: Indian Express

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Syllabus

• Mains – GS2 (Governance)

Context: A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) U U Lalit will hear the challenge to the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

What is CAA?

• The CAA, 2019 amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 to make illegal immigrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before December 31 2014 eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.
• According to the Citizenship Act of 1955, a person must have resided in India (or been in the service of the Central Government) for at least 11 years in order to be eligible for citizenship.
• The amended Act reduces that period to five years for all migrants from these three countries belonging to these six religious communities.
• The Act has been introduced ostensibly to aid refugees fleeing religious persecution in the three nations.
• The conspicuous exclusion of Muslims from the purview of the Act has evoked widespread condemnation.

Legal challenge:

The Act is unconstitutional:

• The law was challenged before the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution.
• The challenge rests primarily on the grounds that the law violates Article 14 of the Constitution that guarantees that no person shall be denied the right to equality before law or the equal protection of law in the territory of India.

It is Anti-Muslim:

• Those challenging the law argue that if protecting persecuted minorities is ostensibly the objective of the law, then the exclusion of some countries and using religion as a yardstick may fall foul of the test.

Against the basic structure of the constitution:

• Granting citizenship on the grounds of religion is seen to be against the secular nature of the Constitution which has been recognised as part of the basic structure that cannot be altered by Parliament.

Debate of reasonable classification:

• In the CAA challenge, the petitioners have asked the Court to look into whether the special treatment given to “persecuted minorities” from three Muslim majority neighbouring countries only is a reasonable classification under Article 14 for granting citizenship, and whether the state is discriminating against Muslims by excluding them.

 Why is the northeast against CAA?

• The north-eastern states have for long faced large scale migration from neighbouring countries.
• There were protests from indigenous residents over the strain this migration placed on the social, economic, and political fabric of the region.
• The protest against the provisions of the CAA in these states is against legitimisation of all immigrants from any country irrespective of their faith rather than excluding only Muslims.

Exceptions to the CAA:

• The CAA will not apply to tribal area of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the area covered under The Inner Line notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.
• Apart from the above exceptions, the law shall be applicable across all states.
• The Chief Ministers of Kerala, Punjab, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh have stated that they will not implement the act in their respective states.
• However, states may not have the power to refuse implementation of the law, as it is enacted under the Union List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

The status of the case:

• The Supreme Court has developed a two-pronged test to examine a law on the grounds of Article 14.
• Any differentiation between groups of persons must be founded on intelligible differentia.
• For a law to satisfy the conditions under Article 14, it has to first create a “reasonable class” of subjects that it seeks to govern under the law.
• Differentia must have a rational nexus to the object sought to be achieved by the Act.
• Even if the classification is reasonable, any person who falls in that category has to be treated alike.
• The challenge has had only one substantive hearing since 2020.

Source:  Indian Express

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Syllabus

• Mains: GS 2 (Federalism)

Context: The NITI Aayog and the proposed SITs at the states level will play a critical role in India achieving goals set for 2047, the 100th year of independence.

• A plan has been chalked out by the Niti Aayog to help in the creation of teams that will examine the existing structure of state planning boards, and in the next 4-6 months conceptualise the State Institution for Transformation (SIT).
• Lateral entry of professionals will be encouraged in SITs to undertake high-quality analytical work and policy recommendations.
• The Centre has set up 10 working groups under various secretaries to set those socio-economic goals to achieve sustainable, inclusive, and job-creating high growth, while addressing carbon footprint and energy security.
• The NITI Aayog notes that state government’s role is crucial in improving ease of doing business, land reforms, infrastructure development, credit flow, and urbanisation, all of which are vital for sustained economic growth.

Source:  Financial Express

Syllabus

• GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
• Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections

Context: With the war between Russia and Ukraine having crossed the 200-day mark, Europe is facing a full-blown, unprecedented energy crisis, and the winter season is not too far away.

Read Complete Details on Europe’s Energy Crisis

Q.1) Consider the following statements

1. Hoysala temples are in the form of Panchayatan style.
2. Chennakeshava temple is located at Belur, Karnataka.
3. Jagati is an architectural element that represents the tall tower.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 and 3 only
2. 2 only
3. 3 only
4. 2 and 3 only

Q.2) Consider the following statements about Vembanad Lake

1. It is the longest lake in India.
2. It is the second-largest Ramsar site in India only after the Sundarbans in West Bengal.
3. The Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary is located on the east coast of the lake.

Choose the correct statements:

1. 1 and 2
2. 2 and 3
3. 1, 2 and 3
4. 1 and 3

Q.3) Who among the following chosen by Mahatma Gandhi to be the first individual satyagrahi against British rule in 1940?

1. Jawaharlal Nehru
2. Subhash Chandra Bose
3. Sarojini Naidu
4. Vinoba Bhave

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

ANSWERS FOR ’13th September 2022 – Daily Practice MCQs’ will be updated along with tomorrow’s Daily Current Affairs.

Q.1) – a

Q.2) – b

Q.3) – d