Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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Rajasthan introduces 5% quota bill for Gujjars, four other communities

News

• The Rajasthan government introduced a bill in the Assembly to give 5% quota in jobs and educational institutes for Gujjars and four other communities.

Beyond News

• The Rajasthan Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutes in the State and of Appointments and Posts in Services under the State) Amendment Bill, 2019, was presented by Energy Minister .
• The bill seeks to increase the backward classes’ reservation from the present 21% to 26% with 5% reservation for Gujjars, Banjaras, Gadia Lohars, Raikas and Gadaria
• The statement on the objective and reasons of the bill says that the five castes are most backward and require five per cent separate reservation. It also mentions that the Central government recently passed the constitution amendment bill and the limit of 50 per cent reservation was increased.

Rajya Sabha clears law removing leprosy as ground for divorce

News

• Parliament passed a Bill removing leprosy as a ground for divorce under five personal laws, including the Hindu Marriage Act.

Beyond News

• The Rajya Sabha on the last day of the Budget session passed the Bill without debate after consensus on the issue.
• The Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018 sought to remove leprosy as a ground for divorce in five personal laws Hindu Marriage Act, Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, Divorce Act (for Christians), Special Marriage Act and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act.

‘Only 84% rural households have electricity in four States’

News

• Only 84% of rural households have electricity connection in the four States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Rajasthan, a comprehensive private sector survey of 10,000 households has found.
• This is in contrast to the government’s Saubhagya Scheme data, which shows that 100% household electrification has been achieved in U.P., Bihar and Odisha; and 99.9% in Rajasthan.

Findings

• According to the data, the 84% figure for households with electricity connections could actually be even lower. The report said that 90% of the households surveyed had an electric connection or “electric pole within 50 m distance”.
• Within this figure, 84% of the households were the ones with an actual electricity connection. The report also found that only 75% of all households used electricity from the grid, suggesting that there were several households that relied on off-grid sources of electricity despite having a connection.
• Despite the increasing footprint of grid-electricity, this study finds that several non-grid sources are in use; these include, primarily, solar home systems, followed by rechargeable batteries, mini-grid electricity, and diesel generators.
• Overall 16% of households use non-grid-electricity sources, half of which also have grid connections.
• This is an important finding, as there is an assumption that non-grid sources are popular only among un-electrified households.
• This is probably best explained by the finding that 80% of the households with electricity infrastructure within 50 m said they did not make use of an electricity connection because they could not afford one. Other reasons for choosing off-grid sources included unreliable supply of electricity, inadequate supply of electricity and lack of residence proof.

U.S. to discuss trade, e-com rules with India

News

• S. Ambassador Kenneth I. Juster will lead a delegation of officials to hold talks with Union Commerce to resolve several sore trade points, including the concerns of American CEOs regarding doing business in India and bilateral trade imbalance.

Beyond News

• The status of the review of India’s eligibility for the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) is also likely to come up in the light of recent developments where the U.S. has again threatened to withdraw the export exemptions for India.
• Other issues that had particularly incensed American businesses are India’s new data localisation rules that force foreign companies to store Indians’ data within the country, and rules amending FDI rules in e-commerce that had hurt American giants like Amazon and Walmart. These are likely to be high on the agenda Indo-U.S. CEO Forum.
• Trade tensions between the two countries rose last March when U.S. President Donald Trump notified the imposition of higher import tariffs on steel and aluminium, which affected several countries, including India. In retaliation, India announced counter-tariffs on 29 American goods, worth about $235 million, but has delayed implementing them in the hope of resolving the matter.
• President Trump’s order was followed closely by the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announcing that it was putting India’s eligibility for GSP under which India is allowed duty-free exports to the U.S. for about 2,000 product lines under review. While the move was protested by the Indian government and industry chambers alike, the review was still in progress.

India, Maldives reverse visa stand off

News

• India and Maldives exchanged an agreement to facilitate visas for travel between the two countries in a number of categories, easing a bilateral stand off which had resulted in thousands of Indian job seekers being denied work permits last year.

Beyond News

• This Agreement provides a very liberal visa regime for Maldivian nationals to visit India for tourism, business, education & medical purposes. It also makes it easier for Indians to travel to Maldives for business purposes.
• Under the agreement, the government will free up the visa regime for Maldives citizens who travel to India for medical reasons and for education in particular. This will include allowing Maldives citizens who receive a visa on arrival in India to change their visa status to medical visas if they require hospitalisation during their stay.
• Medical visas will also be granted to attendants to accompany patients. The government has also agreed to grant visas for parents and other dependants to live in India while their children attend school here. The facilitation has been a long pending demand of the Maldives government, given the difficulties faced by thousands of short term visa applicants each year.
• The agreement will ease visas on arrival for Indian businessmen, and bring cheer to Indians applying for work in the Maldives, as it stipulates that work permits will be issued within 15 days to Indian employees, and the visa fees will be paid by employers in the Maldives.
• In another sign of the improving ties, the Maldives cabinet passed a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) to be signed with India. The MLAT or extradition treaty will have to be ratified by the Maldives Parliament Majlis before being signed by the two countries.

UN members discuss peacekeepers safety

News

• Several member states of the United Nations have called for plans to ensure the safety and security of peacekeeping personnel.

Beyond News

• The UN secretary-general’s latest report, presented during the 258th plenary meeting of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, highlighted key developments in UN peacekeeping.
• The report also found that the total cost of occupational safety and health fatalities, injuries and illnesses to the organisation and its peacekeeping operations was approximately 250 million US dollars a year.
• The United Nations Peacekeepers help conflict-torn regions to re-establish peace. The first mission of the UN Peacekeeping was deployed in West Asia in 1948, during the Arab-Israeli war.
• The UN peacekeepers, also known as Blue Berets or Blue Helmets, include soldiers, police and civilians. The role of peacekeepers has evolved from just monitoring ceasefires to a wide array of responsibilities like protecting human rights, disarming ex-combatants, promoting the rule of law, supporting free and fair elections and empowering women.
• Until today, the UN peacekeeping force has been deployed in more than 70 operations. India stands as the largest troop contributor, having provided about 2,00,000 troops in almost 50 of the total number of missions.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

106 coastal sites picked for conservation

News

• The Centre has identified over 100 coastal and marine sites as conservation reserves under its National Wildlife Action Plan for 2017-2031.

Beyond News

• As per the second biennial update report (BUR) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, submitted to the UN body on climate change in December 2018, India is encouraging participation of local communities in governance by recognising the conservation reserves.
• India is implementing measures to sustainably harness the potential of blue economy while building the climate resilience of the ecosystems and local coastal communities.
• Around 106 coastal and marine sites have been identified as conservation or community reserves to increase participation of local communities in governance.

Blink and miss: Kerala’s mystery frog

News

• Scientists have discovered a new amphibian a mysterious narrow-mouthed frog, that makes only a four-day appearance in seasonal roadside puddles every year in Kerala’s Wayanad district .

Findings

• The frog Mysticellus franki(named after evolutionary biologist Franky Bossuyt from Brussel’s Vrije Universiteit) is not just a new species but also belongs to a completely new genus, Mysticellus (after Latin mysticus, meaning mysterious; and ellus, meaning diminutive, for the frog is just around 3 cm long).
• Researchers first found tadpoles of the species whose physical features and DNA did not match any known species during routine field surveys in Wayanad district in 2013. After a long search, the team finally found large groups of around 200 adult frogs in 2015 in a single locality in Wayanad, just metres away from vehicular movement, plantation activities and human settlements.
• Physical features (such as its marble-patterned underside) and DNA studies revealed the frogs to be a completely new species. Adults have two black spots that look like eyes on their backs, a defensive feature.
• Genetic studies further revealed that the frog is around 40 million years old and its nearest relatives live more than 2,000 km away, in southeast Asia (including Indo-Burma, Malaysia and Vietnam).
• This southeast Asian connection adds strength to the theories that India and southeast Asia were connected in the past by land bridges, suggest the authors.

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