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Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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India to impose delayed tariffs on some U.S. goods in September

News

  • India said that delayed higher tariffs against some goods imported from the United States will go into force on September 18.

Beyond News

  • New Delhi, incensed by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new tariffs, decided in June to raise import tax from August 4 on some U.S. products, including almonds, walnuts and apples, and later delayed the move.
  • Officials from New Delhi and Washington, including U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, are scheduled to hold a series of meetings including strategic talks with their Indian counterparts in September.
  • Trade differences between India and the United States have been rising since President Donald Trump took office. Bilateral trade rose to $115 billion in 2016, but the Trump administration wants to reduce its $31 billion deficit with India, and is pressing New Delhi to ease trade barriers.
  • India, the world’s biggest buyer of U.S. almonds, in June decided to raise import duties on the commodity by 20 %, joining the European Union and China in retaliating against Trump’s tariff hikes on steel and aluminium.
  • It had also planned to impose a 120 % duty on the import of walnuts in the strongest action yet against the United States.
  • India has proposed to buy petroleum products from the U.S. to help narrow the trade deficit. The United States has also emerged as a top arms supplier to India and U.S. companies are bidding for military aircraft deals worth billions of dollars.

N.Korea has not stopped nuclear, missile program : confidential U.N. report

News

  • North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs in violation of United Nations sanctions, according to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters.

Beyond News

  • The six-month report by independent experts monitoring the implementation of U.N. sanctions was submitted to the Security Council North Korea sanctions committee late.
  • The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment on the report.
  • The U.N report said North Korea is cooperating militarily with Syria and has been trying to sell weapons to Yemen’s Houthis.
  • Pyongyang also violated a textile ban by exporting more than $100 million in goods between October 2017 and March 2018 to China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey and Uruguay, the report said.
  • The report comes as Russia and China suggest the Security Council discuss easing sanctions after U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met for the first time in June and Mr. Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization.
  • The United States and other council members have said there must be strict enforcement of sanctions until Pyongyang acts.
  • The U.N. experts said illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products in international waters had “increased in scope, scale and sophistication.” They said a key North Korean technique was to turn off a ship’s tracking system, but that they were also physically disguising ships and using smaller vessels.
  • The Security Council has unanimously sanctioned North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.
  • North Korean technicians engaged in ballistic missile and other banned activities have visited Syria in 2011, 2016 and 2017.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

 ‘Night traffic a threat to Bandipur reserve forest’

News

  • If the national highway from Gundlupet in Karnataka to Sultan Bathery in Kerala were to be opened to night traffic, it could prove catastrophic to the wildlife in the Sigur plateau and in the Nilgiris,as the road would pass through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, conservationists have warned.

Beyond News

  • The 34.6-km stretch that skirts the Nilgiris district, through Kerala and Karnataka, will be re-designed to mitigate the effect night traffic has on wildlife.
  • Underpasses will be created to allow wildlife to get across unhindered between different sections of the “most crucial landscape, hosting the world’s largest population of elephants and tigers.
  • However, the proposed fencing along many sections of the road will lead to fragmentation of the elephant and tiger populations in the region, hugely affecting not only the biodiversity of Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary and the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, but also the wildlife throughout the entire region, including the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. The fencing will cut off access for the animals from one forest region to the other.
  • The region has the highest population of Asiatic elephants, estimated between 6,000 and 10,000, and also around 600 tigers. The road will divide the population of tigers and elephants, thus greatly reducing the evolutionary potential of these populations.
  • This is the most important, and last remaining place anywhere on earth where the forests are contiguous for two iconic species of wildlife to thrive in, and there needs to be a groundswell of opposition to the proposal.
  • As wildlife would become hemmed in to different parts of what are currently contiguous forest ranges in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the chances for an increase in human-animal conflicts are high.
  • For instance, if elephants from Mudumalai are unable to make their way across into Bandipur and into Wayanad, there is potential for more of them entering human habitations surrounding Mudumalai, like Gudalur. If the proposal gets the green signal, it will have a tremendous impact on wildlife across the region.
  • A top forest official from the Nilgiris said the ban on night traffic through the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve would continue.

TRAI calls for zero telecom equipment imports by 2022

News

  • Suggesting that India aim at net zero imports of telecommunications equipment by 2022, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended the setting up of a ₹1,000 crore fund for promoting research and innovation in the sector.

Beyond News

  • The recommendations, TRAI said, aimed at enabling Indian telecom equipment manufacturing sector to transition from an import-dependent sector to a global hub of indigenous manufacturing.
  • The import of telecom instruments was far greater than the export of such items, TRAI said.
  • As per available data, the export of telecom instruments stood at $1,201.7 million in 2017-18 while imports totalled $21,847.92 million.
  • The regulator has suggested that the progress of indigenous telecommunication equipment manufacturing be monitored by Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
  • A dedicated unit in DoT should be made responsible for the facilitation and monitoring of telecommunication equipment design, development, and manufacturing in the country.
  • To address security concerns, TRAI had suggested that the telecom service providers be incentivised for deploying indigenous telecom products “beyond the quantities to be mandated” under the preferential market access policy.
  • On setting up the fund, For promoting research, innovation, standardisation, design, testing, certification and manufacturing indigenous telecom equipment, Telecom Research and Development Fund (TRDF), with initial corpus of ₹1,000 crore, should be created.
  • Subsequently, setting up of Telecom Entrepreneurship Promotion Fund(TEPF) and Telecom Manufacturing Promotion Fund(TMPF) should also be considered

J&K Governor seeks Navy’s assistance to save Dal Lake

DAL lake indian navy

News

  • Alarmed over the rapid shrinking of the Dal Lake, Jammu and Kashmir Governor approached Navy chief Sunil Lanba seeking help to save the water body, a major tourist attraction of the State.

Beyond News

  • Governor spoke to Admiral Lanba, “seeking his help in identifying experts who could undertake a benchmark survey of the Dal Lake and the Wular Lake.”
  • Chairman and managing director of the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI), and retired vice-admiral S.K. Jha, a former chief hydrographer, in their latest [but separate] assessments conducted had reported that the size of the Dal Lake had come down from 22 sq.km. to about 10 sq.km. The report cautioned that the water quality of the lake had deteriorated due to intense pollution caused by untreated sewage and solid waste released into the water body.
  • Encroachments of water channels and clogging have diminished the circulation and inflows into the lake, leading to the extensive growth of hyacinth.
  • It added that the depth of the lake had come down at many places and its total capacity had gone down to 40%.
  • The continuing night soil discharge from the 800 to 900 houseboats is causing extreme pollution.
  • The Raj Bhawan spokesperson said Governor had asked the Navy chief for a comprehensive bathymetric survey (measuring depth and mapping underwater features) of the Dal-Nageen water body to establish a benchmark database for deciding on the extent of dredging that needs to be carried out.
  • The Governor has appointed the Dredging Corporation as the nodal consulting agency to formulate a plan for dredging parts of the land masses in the interiors of the lake. The possibility of installing holding tanks and bio-digesters to make sure that houseboats do not discharge sewage will also be examined.

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