Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Climate change threatens Nilgiri tahr

News

• The antics of the sure-footed Nilgiri tahr are a treat to watch, but these endangered wild mountain goats found only in high altitudes in India’s Western Ghats  could be losing their footing with increasing climate change.

Findings

• Even under moderate scenarios of future climate change, tahrs could lose approximately 60% of their habitats from the 2030s on, predict scientists in their study.
• Scientists tried to predict how climate change can affect tahr habitat in the Ghats by mapping tahr distribution (using existing information and field surveys) and then using climatic factors of these locations to see where tahrs would be able to survive, given current and future climate change scenarios.
• They found that tahr strongholds such as Chinnar, Eravikulam and Parambikulam in Kerala will still be stable habitats under different climate change scenarios.
• However, other regions, including parts of Tamil Nadu’s Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and the wildlife sanctuaries of Peppara, Neyyar, Schenduruny and Srivilliputhur, could experience severe habitat loss in future; in total, approx. 60% of tahr habitat could be lost across the Ghats from 2030s onwards.
• There are only around 2,500 tahrs left in the wild and their population small and isolated, making them vulnerable to local extinction  shows a decreasing trend, as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
• The study has to be seen in the context of this identified vulnerability; the impacts of climate change may further increase the chances of local extinction.
• The study’s findings demand a comprehensive species management plan.
• According to the report, only the Eravikulam and Mukurthi National Parks stress on tahr-centered conservation activities in their management plans.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Supreme Court decries pathetic state of Taj Mahal

News

• The Supreme Courtcondemned the apathy shown by the authorities to the cause of protecting the Taj Mahal, saying the preservation of the monument may be a “hopeless cause.”

Beyond News

• The Green Bench of Justices was miffed to find out that the authority in charge of the Taj Trapezium Zone was still entertaining applications from industrialists to expand their factories into the protected zone despite a long-standing moratorium from the Supreme Court.
• Justice compared the Taj to the Eiffel Tower of Paris, saying the 16th century marble mausoleum built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his departed wife, Mumtaz Mahal, was far more beautiful.
• The court said that while Eiffel saw 80 million visitors, Taj had five million, and yet it was crumbling.
• In May, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) said unwashed socks worn by visitors and rampant algae seem to turn the Taj Mahal from its natural white to yellow, brown and green.
• The ASI, charged with the maintenance of the monument, said numerous footfalls everyday had taken a toll on the Taj. It was not possible to distribute socks to all the visitors. Many go wearing their own socks.
• The discussion in the court ranged from the commitment or the lack of it on the part of the authorities to protect the monument to getting disposable socks from abroad.
• Petitioner told the court that the upkeep of the UNESCO World Heritage site was in shambles. River Yamuna, which used to flow nearby, has dried up. Encroachments and industries have cropped up in the neighbourhood of the white marble mausoleum. CCTVs hardly work. The government merely viewed the Taj as a money-making venture.
• Justice had wondered whether the Taj Mahal in its present discoloured form would end being the “eighth wonder of the world.”

SC raps Centre over groundwater level

News

• The Supreme Court came down heavily on the Centre, the Delhi government and for not taking any steps to tackle the “serious problem” of groundwater depletion in the Capital.

Beyond News

• The court perused a NITI Aayog report which said that many authorities were passing the buck and shying away from their responsibility.
• It asked the Centre for immediate, intermediary and long-term measures to check the depletion of city’s groundwater.
• The apex court expressed grave concern over “over-exploitation” of groundwater in most parts of Delhi and asked the authorities to avert a crisis, saying the situation was “semi-critical”.
• It had then perused a report filed by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) on the status of groundwater level in Delhi from May 2000 till May 2017 and said it indicated an “extremely sad state of affairs” and the situation was serious.
• The groundwater issue had cropped up when the court was hearing a matter relating to the sealing of unauthorised constructions in Delhi.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Telecom Commission approves net neutrality, new telecom policy

News

• In a move that will ensure open and free Internet in India, the government has approved the principle of net neutrality.

Beyond News

• This means that telecom and Internet service providers must treat all data on the Internet equally, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, site, platform, or application.
• They cannot engage in practices such as blocking, slowing down or granting preferential speeds to any content.
• The Telecom Commission (TC) which is the highest decision-making body in the Department of Telecom, approved the recommendation made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the subject eight months ago.
• A separate committee has been set up under the Department of Telecom (DoT) to examine what these critical services will be. These may include autonomous vehicles, digital healthcare services or disaster management.
• The regulator, in November 2017, batted in favour of net neutrality – which has been one of the most hotly debated topics in India for over 4 years now.
• India’s decision to uphold Net neutrality assumes greater significance given that in the U.S., the rules on Net neutrality were repealed. The decision, which came into effect in June, paves the way for service providers to block or slow down access to particular content for users.
• To implement Net neutrality, the regulator had recommended that the terms of licence agreements that govern the provision of Internet services in India be amended “to incorporate the principles of non-discriminatory treatment of content along with the appropriate exclusions and exceptions.”

It has further recommended establishing a multi-stakeholder not-for-profit body for the monitoring and enforcement of these principles.

China eyes Indian pharma as U.S. trade turns cloudy

News

• China is preparing to give swift regulatory approvals to India-manufactured drugs, the head of an Indian export promotion group said, as Beijing looks for new commercial partners ahead of what could be a protracted trade war with the United States.

Beyond News

• Indian firms are looking to fill gaps in Chinese demand for generic drugs, software, sugar and some varieties of rice, trade officials in New Delhi said.
• India dominates the world’s generic drugs market, exporting $17.3 billion of drugs in the 2017/18 (April-March) year, including to the U.S. and the EU. But only 1% of that went to China, the world’s second-largest market for pharmaceuticals, industry data shows.
• Swift regulatory approvals in China would allow Indian companies to boost revenue at a time when pricing scrutiny and regulatory troubles have hurt U.S. sales.
• Some of India’s largest drugmakers, Sun Pharmaceutical and Lupin as well as Aurobindo Pharma, have been trying for years to expand in the massive Chinese market, which is second only to the U.S.
• In May, China exempted import tariffs on 28 drugs, including all cancer drugs, a move that would help India reduce its trade imbalance with China, the Chinese ambassador to India said.
• China has been touting greater access to cancer drugs and pushing to lower prices in a bid to soothe a major social issue in the country, where traditionally many patients with serious illness have had to pay out of their pocket for cutting-edge drugs or have had to buy medicines through unapproved grey market channels.
• The issue was highlighted in a recent film that went viral in China which echoed the U.S. Dallas Buyers Club about a Chinese cancer patient who had helped others getting unapproved cancer drugs at lower prices shipped in from India.

1st Nepal India broad gauge railway likely in Dec

News

• Nepal plans to operate its first ever broad-gauge passenger railway service from Janakpur town to Indian border town Jayanagar in Bihar starting December, a senior Nepalese rail official has said.

Beyond News

• This is a 69 km section of Nepal-India cross border railway line from Jayanagar to Nepal’s southeastern region.
• The other five cross-border railway lines between the two neighbours are either being constructed or on the drawing board, Xinhua news agency reported.
• There was a narrow gauge Janakpur-Jaynagar line in the past, but that service came to a halt around five years ago after renovation and upgrading work began.

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