Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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One million species risk extinction due to humans: draft U.N. report

News

• Up to one million species face extinction due to human influence, according to a draft U.N. report obtained by AFP that painstakingly catalogues how humanity has undermined the natural resources upon which its very survival depends.

Findings

• The accelerating loss of clean air, drinkable water, CO2-absorbing forests, pollinating insects, protein-rich fish and storm-blocking mangroves to name but a few of the dwindling services rendered by nature poses no less of a threat than climate change, says the report.
• Deforestation and agriculture, including livestock production, account for about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, and have wreaked havoc on natural ecosystems as well.
• The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report warns of “an imminent rapid acceleration in the global rate of species extinction”.
• The pace of loss “is already tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been, on average, over the last 10 million years”.
• Scientists estimate that Earth is today home to some eight million distinct species, a majority of them insects. A quarter of catalogued animal and plant species are already being crowded, eaten or poisoned out of existence.
• The drop in sheer numbers is even more dramatic, with wild mammal biomass their collective weight down by 82%. Humans and livestock account for more than 95% of mammal biomass.
• The direct causes of species loss, in order of importance, are shrinking habitat and land-use change, hunting for food or illicit trade in body parts, climate change, pollution, and alien species such as rats, mosquitoes and snakes that hitch rides on ships or planes, the report finds.
• Once seen as primarily a future threat to animal and plant life, the disruptive impact of global warming has accelerated.
• Shifts in the distribution of species, for example, will likely double if average temperature go up a notch from 1.5°C to 2°C. So far, the global thermometer has risen 1°C compared with mid-19th century levels.
• The report cautioned against climate change solutions that may inadvertently harm nature.

Other findings in the report include:

• Three-quarters of land surfaces, 40% of the marine environment, and 50% of inland waterways across the globe have been “severely altered”.
• Many of the areas where nature’s contribution to human wellbeing will be most severely compromised are home to indigenous peoples and the world’s poorest communities that are also vulnerable to climate change.
• More than 2 billion people rely on wood fuel for energy, four billion rely on natural medicines, and more than 75% of global food crops require animal pollination.
• Nearly half of land and marine ecosystems have been profoundly compromised by human interference in the last 50 years.
• Subsidies to fisheries, industrial agriculture, livestock raising, forestry, mining and the production of biofuel or fossil fuel energy encourage waste, inefficiency and over-consumption.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

‘U.S. firm with India on Iran oil import curbs’

News

• Negotiations between Indian and U.S. negotiators continued until mid-April, but the Trump administration made it clear that it would make no concessions on its demand that India “zero out” oil imports from Iran, to which India acceded.

Beyond News

• S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Alice Wells flew down to discuss regional issues with Indian officials, including the impact of the U.S. decision, as well as prepare for the visit by U.S. Special envoy on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad.
• In addition, the U.S. has also stipulated that India’s “escrow account” used for Rupee-Rial trade cannot be operated after its May 2 deadline. However, there is no change in the exemption given for India’s investments in Chabahar port as a trade route to Afghanistan.
• The ‘secondary sanctions’ that will go into place next week will see the U.S. placing strict financial curbs on any entities or companies violating the oil sanctions, including a ban on the use of the SWIFT banking international transaction system by the companies, seizure of any U.S. assets of those companies, and curtailing any other dollar transactions.
• Indian officials said that eventually, the cost of importing Iranian oil would be much higher than other sources of oil that it would be unviable.
• The U.S. also drew a direct link between the cooperation it is providing India in investigating the Pulwama terror attacks, shutting down terror havens in Pakistan, and designating Masood Azhar as a terrorist, at the U.N. Security council, and the cooperation it expects in dealing with Iran.

Iran brands entire U.S. military as terrorist

News

• Iranian lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a Bill that labels all U.S. military forces as terrorist, a day after Washington ratcheted up pressure on Tehran by announcing that no country would any longer be exempt from U.S. sanctions if it continues to buy Iranian oil.

Beyond News

• The Bill is a step further from the one last week, when lawmakers approved labelling just U.S. troops in West Asia as terrorist, in response to the U.S. terrorism designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards earlier this month.
• President Donald Trump decided to do away with waivers as part of the administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran’s Foreign Ministry promptly brushed off Mr. Trump’s move to stop the oil waivers, saying the Islamic Republic “basically has not seen and does not see any worth and validity for the waivers.”
• 173 out of 215 lawmakers at the Parliament session in Tehran voted for the new Bill. Only four voted against while the rest abstained; the chamber has 290 seats. The Bill confirms Iran’s earlier label of the U.S. Central Command and all its forces as terrorist.
• The Bill also demands the Iranian government take unspecified action against other governments that formally back the U.S. designation. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel have all supported the Trump administration’s designation.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

RBI swap auction gets bids more than thrice the notified amount

News

• The second dollar-rupee buy/sell auction also saw healthy demand with the Reserve Bank of India getting 255 bids worth $18.65 billion compared with the notified amount of $5 billion.

Beyond News

• Dealers said high cut-off premium indicated banks mostly stayed away but companies and NBFCs saw it as a good opportunity to lower hedging costs compared with the secondary market.
• The cut-off premium was 838 paisa compared with 776 paisa the last time. In a statement after the auction, RBI said liquidity injected in the first leg was ₹34,874 crore.
• The move would help shore up the country’s foreign exchange reserves which are now close to $415 billion.
• RBI had added this new toolkit for liquidity management to ease liquidity to reduce its dependence on open market operations. On March 26, RBI had bought $5 billion through a similar swap auction.
• Large tendering in today’s auction also helped the rupee strengthen in the last trading hour of the day as it cut losses and ended the day at 69.62 a dollar, 5 paisa higher than its previous close.
• After market hours, in a surprise move, the RBI announced bond purchases to ease liquidity further. It said it would buy ₹25,000 crore bonds in two rounds in May.
• Based on a review of evolving liquidity conditions and assessment of the durable liquidity needs going forward, RBI has decided to conduct purchase of Government securities under open market operations for an aggregate amount of ₹250 billion in May 2019 through two auctions of ₹125 billion each.
• The first auction of ₹12,500 crore would be conducted on May 2. Liquidity deficit in the market is more than ₹1 lakh crore. While the market was not expecting an OMO announcement soon after the swap auction, the move is likely to lift spirits in the bond market.

Sri Lanka names local Islamist group for Easter Sunday blasts

News

• Sri Lankan authorities named a little-known local Islamist radical group, the National Thowheed Jamaath, as responsible for the ghastly Easter Sunday serial blasts that claimed nearly 300 lives and injured over 500 at different locations across the island nation.

Beyond News

• The country’s National Security Council has decided to enforce a state of emergency from midnight on Monday. The police have arrested nearly 30 suspects in connection with Sunday’s explosions at churches and hotels in and around Colombo and in Batticaloa, in the island’s Eastern Province.
• Meanwhile, a van parked near one of the attacked churches exploded, but no casualties or injuries were reported. The police also said they found 87 bomb detonators at a Colombo bus station.
• President Maithripala Sirisena convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) and formed a high-level panel to probe the incidents. The Council announced imposition of a “conditional state of emergency”, a statement from the President’s media unit said.
• Indian Prime Minister assured Sri Lankan President Sirisena that New Delhi was ready to “provide any assistance at any time” to help combat terrorism.

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