Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Asia has the lowest homicide rate, says UN report

News

• Asia, which accounts for 60% of the global population, recorded the lowest rate of homicide in 2017 with only 2.3 killings per 1,00,000 people while the Americas had the highest homicide rate, according to a UN report.

Findings

• The Global Study on Homicide 2019 published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that about 4,64,000 people across the world were victims of homicidal violence in 2017, an increase from 395,542 in 1992.
• The number of homicides in 2017 far surpassed the 89,000 killed in armed conflicts in the same period.
• The global homicide rate, measured as the victims of homicide per 1,00,000 people, declined from 7.2 in 1992, to 6.1 in 2017.
• The lowest regional rate of homicide in 2017 was reported in Asia, with 104,000 victims representing a rate of 2.3 per 100,000 population. Asia accounted for 23% of total homicide victims worldwide.
• The study seeks to shed light on gender-related killings, lethal gang violence and other challenges, to support prevention and interventions to bring down homicide rates.

Monsoon deficit drops to 21%

News

• Monsoon has covered almost the entire country, but three-fourths of MeT department’s sub-meteorological divisions still fall under the “deficient” rainfall category, the India Meteorological Department’s data shows.

Beyond News

• The overall monsoon deficiency, which was 33% at the start of the month, has dipped to 21%.
• No sub-division in the country recorded “large deficiency”.
• According to the Central Water Commission, of the 91 major reservoirs and 62 water bodies in the country, reported upto 80% normal storage.
• The IMD has four divisions further divided into 36 sub-divisions, of which twenty-four have received “deficient” rainfall.
• The deficiency was highest in east and northeast India 36% followed by 30% in the southern peninsula.
• The data also indicates that central India has received fairly good rainfall over the last week.
• East and northeast divisions of the IMD comprising the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and all the northeastern states have reported deficient rainfall.
• Of the nine sub-divisions of northwest India which comprises all the north Indian states, seven fell under the “deficient rainfall” category. The east Rajasthan sub-division received “larger excess” rainfall.
• Of the ten sub-divisions of the central India division, the Kutch and Saurashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha sub-divisions have reported “deficient rainfall”. East Madhya Pradesh has recorded excess rainfall.
• The south peninsula which has ten sub-divisions has seen rainfall deficiency in seven.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

UAE Foreign minister arrives in India; energy, trade high on agenda of visit

News

• United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan arrived in New Delhi and will hold talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar to boost cooperation in key sectors such as trade and energy.

Beyond News

• The UAE minister will also call on Prime Minister and participate in a business roundtable.
• The visit would provide the two sides an opportunity to explore new areas of cooperation to further strengthen their comprehensive strategic partnership.
• Sheikh Abdullah’s visit comes at a time the issue of energy security is high on India’s agenda due to the situation arising out of US sanctions on importing oil from Iran.
• The ties between India and the UAE are on an upswing in the last few years.
• The UAE is India’s third-largest trade partner and fourth-largest energy supplier. The country is also home to 3.3 million-strong Indian community, largest in the Gulf region.
• Indian Prime Minister had visited the UAE in August 2015 during which the two countries decided to elevate their relation to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
• As the chair of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, UAE invited India as the ‘Guest of Honour’ at the 46th Council of Foreign Ministers meeting of the grouping in Abu Dhabi in March this year.

Proposal to give proxy voting rights to overseas Indians held back for ‘further study’

News

• The government is learnt to have withheld its plan to introduce a fresh bill in Parliament to extend the facility of ‘proxy voting’ to overseas Indians, pending “reconciliation” of varied views on the issue.

Beyond News

• A similar bill had lapsed following the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabhalast month. It was passed by the lower house but was pending in Rajya Sabha.
• Law Ministry proposal came before the Union Cabinet where it was decided that it be held back for “further study”.
• The proposal will move forward after various views are reconciled.
• There have been demands from various parties to extend similar facility to domestic migrants who are unable to vote when elections are held in their native places as most cannot afford to travel or miss work.
• The Bill proposes that overseas Indians, who are entitled to vote in India, could now appoint a proxy voter to cast their vote.
• As of now, overseas Indians were free to cast their votes in the constituencies where they were registered. The Bill seeks to give them the option of proxy voting, which till now was only available to service personnel.
• According to estimates of Ministry of External Affairs, there are about 3.10 crore NRIs living in different countries across the world.
• An expert committee of the Election Commission, working on the issue, had in 2015 forwarded the legal framework to the Law Ministry to amend the electoral laws to allow the overseas Indians to use proxy voting.
• Unofficial data with EC shows that only 10,000 to 12,000 overseas voters have exercised their franchise because they do not want to spend foreign currency to come to India and vote.
• The bill said the necessary provision of coming to India to cast ballot caused hardship for overseas electors.
• Another provision in the amendment bill relates to the spouses of service voters. As of now, an armyman’s wife is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter, but a woman army officer’s husband is not, according to the provisions in the electoral law.
• The bill proposes to replace the term ‘wife’ with ‘spouse’, thus making the provision gender neutral.
• Members of the armed forces, central armed police forces, personnel of state police forces posted outside their state and the central employees posted outside India are eligible to be enrolled as service voters.

National repository of photographs of criminals mooted

News

• The Central government wants to create a “repository of photographs of criminals in the country,” and wants to put a system in place to track “missing children and unidentified dead bodies,” through facial recognition.

Beyond news

• The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has invited bids for Automated Facial Recognition System (AFRS) that would even “capture face images from CCTV feed and generate alerts if a blacklist match is found”.
• To begin with, a repository of 1.5 crore ‘criminals’ is being planned. The data protection law is yet to be passed by Parliament but the bid document referred to this aspect.
• The primary objective was to track missing children and identify unclaimed bodies through the photo records. It will not violate privacy laws, said the official.
• The repository shall act as a foundation for a national level searchable platform of facial images and the data needs to be protected against following threats unauthorised access to database or application, accidental modifications or deletions, confidentiality, integrity and availability breaches of data during data transport and physical storage, encryption/decryption engine.
• The AFRS must allow the implementation of an access control policy based on the use of logins, passwords and/or fingerprint login, multi-layered security should be in place in order to access various features at the central server.
• The system would also enable handheld mobile with “applications to capture a face on the field and get the matching result from the backend server”.
• Facial recognition system shall be enabled at cameras identified by the authority. These cameras identified shall be installed at critical locations finalised by the authority.
• The system should be able to “add photographs obtained from newspapers, raids, sent by people, sketches etc. to the criminal’s repository tagged for sex, age, scars, tattoos, etc. for future searches.
• The system should have option to upload bulk subject images and generate alerts if any of the subject images matches with the registered faces in the database.

India slams U.N. rights office report on J&K as continuation of ‘false narrative’

News

• The UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) said India and Pakistan had failed to improve the situation in Kashmir and not taken any concrete steps to address the numerous concerns raised in its earlier report.
• Last year, the Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released its first-ever report on Kashmir, urging action by both countries to reduce tensions.

Beyond news

• The update made wide ranging recommendations to the governments of India and Pakistan, and urged the Human Rights Council (HRC) to explore possibilities of setting up an international commission of inquiry into the allegations of human rights abuse in Kashmir.
• Responding to the new report, India said it had extended legitimacy to cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
• “It is a matter of deep concern that this update seems to accord a legitimacy to terrorism that is in complete variance with UN Security Council positions,” said External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar. He described the report as part of the continued “motivated narrative” against Indian sovereignty and integrity.
• India also said the update has distorted its policy on the Kashmir issue and failed to recognise that the Indian state ensured justice through a strong judiciary and national human rights mechanism.
• The comprehensive report from the OHCHR said India continues to use pellet-firing shotguns as a crowd control tool and criticised various laws that used for detention and arrest of political activists and civil society figures in Kashmir.
• The new report said Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) has chronicled 160 civilians killed in 2018, the highest in around a decade.
• The MEA response emphasised that the OHCHR report has legitimised the actions of violent groups that champion dismemberment of the Indian state and seems out of the chosen line of the UN.
• In a detailed section on Pakistani activities, the OHCHR report also elaborated on denial of rights by the Pakistani state and violent groups in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Nepal is turning Everest trash into treasure

News

• In a bid to save Mount Everest from trash, Nepal conducted a month-long cleaning campaign and collected around 10,000 kg of rubbish from the region.

Beyond News

• For the mega clean-up drive, government and non-government agencies, along with a dedicated Sherpa team, not only brought the litter down but also removed four dead bodies from the roof of the world.
• Instead of sending the solid waste straight to the landfill near Kathmandy, the items were segregated, processed and recycled as raw materials for various products.
• Besides recycling the waste, team is also working with municipalities, hospitals, hotels and different offices to maximise value from waste by recycling, reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills and by creating green jobs.
• To make the campaign more effective, the company suggested authorities to set up an initial processing unit in the mountain area itself, so that waste can be segregated immediately and easily managed.
• Though the company does not recycle the materials itself, it collaborates with another firm called Moware Designs to create up-cycled glass bottle products and to sell them online.
• Glass products are trendy and useful for homes home, offices, restaurants and hotels. They are used as decorative items as a flower vase, candle cover, plates, travel cups, regular drinking glasses or as an accessory.
• These products, which range from 350 Nepalese rupees to 2,000 Nepalese rupees ($3 to $18), are bacteria free as they are sterilized. These glass items have also been a means of livelihood for local women who shape them into trendy designs.

320 elephants ‘leased’ by Assam have not returned

News

• Assamhas, over the years, transferred 320 elephants to other States through an ambiguous leasing system. None of these animals has returned, and many are not even traceable.

Beyond News

• A December 2007 report on captive elephants by the State’s Wildlife Crime Prevention Unit (WCPU) said 259 elephants were transferred outside the State between 2003 and 2007. Records with the Assam Forest Department said 61 elephants had been transferred since 2008.
• The WCPU report said corrective steps ought to have been taken for stopping such transfer or transportation and to bring back the captive elephants after the expiry of the permission. It also said that Assam immediately requires the Captive Elephants (Management and Maintenance) Rules, the draft of which was awaiting the approval of the State Cabinet.
• Forest officials dealing with the transfer of the elephants allegedly get a cut from the sale disguised as lease.
• Investigation also revealed most transfers are made on a common plea that the elephant owner is poor and does not have the resources to maintain his elephants.
• The report also said the elephants are “treated inhumanly by their owners”.

Over 2,000 died due to extreme weather events in India in 2018-19: Environment Ministry

News

• More than 2,000 people died in India in the last one year due to extreme weather events, the Environment Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha.
• But, the Ministry denied any direct connection to the global issue of climate change.

Beyond News

• As per the information received from the Ministry of Home Affairs, 2,405 lives have been reported to be lost during the financial year 2018-19 in the country due to cyclonic storm/flash flood/landslides/cloudburst etc.
• India experienced 431 major natural disasters during the period 1980-2010, resulting in the loss of human lives, property and resources. However, any direct attribution to climate change has not been indicated.
• National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), which comprises missions in specific areas of solar energy, energy efficiency, water, agriculture, Himalayan eco-system, sustainable habitat, green India and strategic knowledge on climate change, was being implemented.
• The NAPCC provides the overarching framework for all climate actions. 33 states/Union territories have prepared their State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) in line with NAPCC taking into account the State’s specific issues relating to climate change. These SAPCCs inter-alia outline sector-specific and cross-sectoral priority actions, including adaptation.
• The government was also implementing the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change scheme to support adaptation measures of States and Union Territories in areas that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change.
• The National Disaster Management Authority has issued several disaster specific guidelines for managing extreme weather-related disasters such as cyclones, floods and heat wave. A National Disaster Management Plan has been formulated to assist all stakeholders including State governments in disaster risk management of various hazards including hazards related to climate change.
• The National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project is under implementation in eight coastal States to mitigate the sufferings of the coastal community. Cyclone shelters and early warning system created under this project proved to be of great help during cyclones Phailin in 2013, Hud-Hud in 2014, Titli in 2018 and recent cyclone Fani.

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