Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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BIMSTEC envoys bat for FTA

News

• BIMSTEC suffers from a “lack of visibility” in the region, said the envoys of seven member countries who form the “Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.
• They also called for the speedy conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement within the group comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.

BIMSTEC

• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation(BIMSTEC) is an international organisation of seven nations of South Asia and South East Asia, housing 1.5 billion people and having a combined gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion (2014). The BIMSTEC member states—Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan, and Nepal—are among the countries dependent on the Bay of Bengal.

Beyond News

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join a summit of leaders from BIMSTEC countries in Kathmandu and hold bilateral talks with most of them, including Bangladesh Prime Minister and Nepal Prime Minister. At an event organised by business chamber FICCI just ahead of the summit, envoys of BIMSTEC countries said the FTA should be the top priority for them.
• It is really disappointing that they are yet to finalise and conclude the FTA which was negotiated in 2004. They need to expedite the BIMSTEC FTA to boost our intra-regional trade from its present level of 7% to 21%.
• The visibility of BIMSTEC needs to be enhanced in a region where already a few other regional cooperation groups like ASEAN, SAARC, SASEC are in place.
• Even for the framework (2004) it took seven years. It is easy to negotiate an FTA between two countries. India and Sri Lanka have it. But when seven countries are involved maybe it is not so easy.
• Others added that at present the negotiations of the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), due to be completed by the end of 2018, were taking precedence.
• The envoys also spoke about the need for the upcoming summit to promote security issues including “terrorism and violent extremism” in the region.
• Terrorism is the most significant threat in the Bay of Bengal region as well as South East Asia and we call for more cooperation amongst the member states on this issue, said Myanmar Ambassador.

Thailand’s Ambassador pointed out that the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway had not been completed, which is crucial to trade movement between the countries.

WHO highlights ways to reduce cancer risk

News

• With cancer emerging as the second leading cause of death globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) has listed ways to reduce cancer risk.

Ways to reduce cancer risk

• It advised not to consume any form of tobacco, to make one’s home smoke-free, to enjoy a healthy diet, to vaccinate children against Hepatitis B and HPV, to use sun protections, to be physically active, to limit alcohol intake and take part in organised screening programmes, adding that breastfeeding reduces a mother’s cancer risk.
• The WHO said consumption of tobacco and alcohol, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity are major factors that increases cancer risk worldwide and are also the four shared risk factors for other non-communicable diseases.
• Some chronic infections are risk factors for cancer and have major relevance in low and middle-income countries. Approximately 15% of cancers diagnosed in 2012 were attributed to carcinogenic infections, including Helicobacter pylori, Human papillomavirus (HPV), Hepatitis B virus, Hepatitis C virus, and Epstein-Barr virus. Hepatitis B and C viruses and some types of HPV increase the risk for liver and cervical cancer, respectively.
• Infection with HIV substantially increases the risk of cancers such as cervical cancer, the WHO said.
• Cancer is the uncontrolled multiplication of cells. Cancer can spread from where it started to another part of the body. The original cancer is called the primary tumour. The cancer in another part of the body is called metastatic or secondary cancer. Metastatic cancer has the same type of cancer cells as the primary cancer. The term metastatic cancer is usually used to describe solid tumours that have spread to another part of the body.
• Doctors have warned that prevalence of cancer cases are on the rise in India.
• The Indian Council of Medical Research stated that approximately 12 to 13 lakh new cases of cancer are being diagnosed every year along with an existing 25 to 30 lakh cancer cases at any given time in India.
• Majority of cancer cases are diagnosed in the early stages in developed countries, including Europe and the U.S.A.

In a letter to Imran, Modi says India looks for meaningful engagement with Pakistan

News:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent a letter to his newly-elected Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan, conveying that New Delhi was looking for constructive and meaningful engagement with Islamabad.

Beyond News:

• Prime Minister noted that India was committed to peaceful neighbourly ties with Pakistan, official sources said, quoting from the letter.
• The Prime Minister also stressed the need to work for a terror-free South Asia.
• Khan was sworn in as Pakistan’s 22nd Prime Minister .

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Saving the red panda

News

• A red panda (Ailurus fulgens), also called the lesser panda or the red bear-cat. This cute mammal lives in the eastern Himalayas. Sadly, the red panda is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and categorised as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List. But now, the Himalayan people have come together to protect the animal.

Beyond News

• In Arunachal Pradesh, more than 60% of forest land (roughly 30,000 sq km) belongs to local communities and is governed by traditional laws. Unless the people come forward to protect the red panda, conservation efforts by the government will fail.
• A habitat for this creature has been earmarked in Arunachal Pradesh, with 114 sq km in West Kameng district. It will be declared a “community-conserved area”. The area shares its western boundary with Shaktem wildlife sanctuary in Bhutan.
• The community-conserved area is Mandala-Phudung-Khellong, situated at a height of 4,000 metres above sea level. Signboards of the community-conserved area will be installed at different locations. A red-panda management committee will be formed.
• Wildlife conservation would get a big boost with this movement. Besides red panda, tragopan is also found in those Himalayan foothills with a population of nearly 3,000 people.
• Arunachal Pradesh has seven community-conserved areas spread over 1,500 square km. WWF-India introduced the concept of community-conserved areas in 2004. The 2018 draft National Forest Policy highlighted community forests in the Northeast and called for its mapping and defined boundaries. The policy says these forests would be treated as a mosaic of community forest management landscapes and mapped, having well-defined, digitised boundaries.

NDRF aid only for severe calamities

News:

• The Union government has declared the Kerala floods a “calamity of severe nature”.

National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF):

• According to the National Disaster Management Policy, the State governments have to provide disaster relief from their respective State Disaster Response Funds (SDRFs), and only for a “calamity of severe nature”, will additional assistance be provided from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
• There is, however, no provision in the law or rules for the government to designate a disaster as a “national calamity”.
• Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju informed Parliament recently that the guidelines of the NDRF and the SDRFs did not contemplate declaring a disaster a national calamity.
• The NDRF is funded through a National Calamity Contingent Duty levied on pan masala, chewing tobacco and cigarettes, and with budgetary provisions as and when needed. A provision exists to encourage any person or institution to make a contribution to the NDRF.
• The 14th Finance Commission recommended changes to this structure once the cess was discontinued or subsumed within the Goods and Services Tax. However, the government, instead, decided to continue with the National Calamity Contingent Duty even in the GST regime. The SDRF corpus is contributed by the Union government and the respective State governments in a 75:25 ratio for general category States and 90:10 for Special Category States.
• The allocation of the SDRF for each State is done by the Finance Commission, and the Centre contributes its specified share each financial year. The Central share of SDRF is released in two equal instalments, in June and then in December.
• The Union government has maintained a steady flow of funds to the NDRF each year, ranging from Rs. 5,690 crore in 2015-16 to a budgeted amount of Rs. 2,500 crore for the current financial year. In addition, the Centre has also been contributing to the SDRFs every year, amounting to Rs. 8,374.95 crore in 2016-17 and Rs. 7,281.76 crore in 2017-18.
• In 2017-18, up to December 27, 2017, the Union government released NDRF funds to nine States Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, over and above its contributions to their respective SDRFs. The recipient of the highest amount was Karnataka, which got Rs. 913 crore that year.
• For specific calamities, the Centre released Rs. 1,365.67 crore for the Chennai floods of 2015 and Rs. 218.76 crore after Cyclone Vardah in 2016. Andhra Pradesh received Rs. 400 crore and Rs. 230 crore after Hudud ravaged Visakhapatnam.

• Corporation to shelve drone survey

  

  News

  • The Chennai Corporation is planning to shelve the project for drone survey of buildings in 29 wards around the airport owing to security reasons.

   

• Beyond News
  • Drone images of buildings in 29 wards in areas such as Alandur, Adyar, Teynampet, Valasaravakkam and Perungudi have not been generated because of the delay in issuance of permission from the airport.
  • After several days of brainstorming, the civic body officials have decided to approach ISRO for completing the project.
  • Airport authorities have not been able to give clearance for the project because of the high risk associated with flying drones close to the airport funnel area.
  • Forest officials have not cleared the proposal to generate drone images of the Guindy National Park and the Pallikaranai marshland. These images could uncover encroachments in these areas. Raj Bhavan officials have not permitted drone images of the premises, citing security reasons.
  • Currently, the civic body has generated drone images for 319 km of the city.
  • Identification of unassessed and underassessed buildings in the zone is likely to be delayed. In other zones of the city, work on identification of underassessed and unassessed buildings will begin this week. Compilation of data on a few wards is likely to be completed this week.
  • Chennai Corporation will revise the property tax of such buildings after verifying the data, comparing the digitised drone images with the data compiled by tax assessors of the Chennai Corporation Revenue Department. Currently, the city has 12 lakh properties.
  • But the drone images are expected to facilitate the addition of several lakhs of properties in the property tax net. The civic body will also develop an App to check how footpaths have been used by pedestrians.
  • They will link LIDAR data on footpaths with the digitised images. Civic officials will monitor how the situation has improved for pedestrians and suggest changes to improve conditions of footpaths.
  • The civic body will calculate the total number of floors, creating a unique id for every building in the city.
  • Earlier, they did not have data for every building. This data will be used to spot violators. But they will not penalise the people below the poverty line.

  Water level in the Godavari increasing steadily

  News

  • With the water level in the Godavari increasing steadily, the revenue and the police officials of the East and the West Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh were on high alert and shifted their attention to relocating the residents of low-lying areas to safer places, restoring the road traffic and power supply in the vulnerable places.

   

• Beyond News
  • The water level was 14.3 feet at the Dowleswaram barrage, prompting the officials to retain the second warning level. In all, 13.71 lakh cusecs was discharged into the Bay of Bengal from the barrage. Movement of vehicular traffic was suspended on the barrage since the morning.
  • In the absence of mechanised boats, residents in the low-lying areas and island villages faced severe hardship during the day.
  • Home Minister toured the agency area, where a good number of tribal villages and hamlets were cut off. Roads including the highways were marooned and there was no transportation to reach the remote places. Relief camps were arranged with medical facilities.
  • In all, 43 villages in 19 mandals of E. Godavari district were affected and 2,982 people were shifted to the 19 relief camps in the agency area and the Konaseema region. Three NDRF and SDRF teams each aided by two battalions of the APSP were on the job of rescuing the flood-affected.
  • In West Godavari district, the historic Baineru bridge at Jangareddigudem and the Jalleru bridge collapsed due to the floods.

  ‘Blast fishing’ thrives in Libya’s chaos

  News

  • Fishermen using dynamite to maximise their catch, regardless of the damage they are causing to marine life.

   

• Beyond News
  • Dynamite fishing, or “blast fishing”, has flourished with impunity  since Libya’s 2011 uprising that left the country awash with weapons and explosives.
  • Even anonymous videos are posted online of sea water being propelled high into the sky and dozens of dazed or dead fish left behind on the surface.
  • Some marine biologists, fishermen and fishmongers, and even religious leaders have tried to speak out against blast fishing but to no avail.
  • Using dynamite to catch fish “depletes the fish stock in the sea.

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