Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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• Bill on reservation in promotions to SC/ST employees gets President’s nod

  News

  • President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the Karnataka Extension of Consequential Seniority to Government Servants Promoted on the Basis of Reservation (To the Posts in the Civil Services of the State) Bill, 2017, for providing reservation in promotions for employees belonging to SC/ST communities.

  Beyond News

  • The Bill was aimed at sidestepping a Supreme Court directive that struck down reservations for SC/ST persons in promotions.
  • The new law is aimed at determining seniority of government servants promoted on the basis of reservation in the civil services posts of the State.
  • The State has been providing reservation in promotions for SC/ST employees since 1978 15% for SCs and 3% for STs.
  • In compliance with the apex court’s order, the State government conducted a study on the backwardness of SCs and STs, inadequacy of their representation in the State civil services, and the effect of reservation in promotion on the State administration.
  • Then Additional Chief Secretary and present Chief Secretary, with the assistance of other officers, collated the data and made a detailed report to the government.
  • The report said overall efficiency of administration has not been affected by extending reservation in promotions to SCs and STs.
  • It recommended continuation of reservation in promotion within the limits that will not hamper the overall efficiency of the administration.
  • The State government accepted the report and decided to provide consequential seniority to persons promoted on the basis of policy of reservation in the State since 1978 to ensure adequate representation of SC/STs across all departments.

U.K. excludes India from relaxed student visa rules

News

• The U.K. government has caused outrage with its decision to exclude Indian students from a new list of countries considered low risk in order to facilitate an easier visa application process to U.K. universities.

Beyond News

• In changes to its immigration policy tabled in Parliament on June 15, the U.K. Home Office announced a relaxation of the Tier 4 visa category for overseas students from around 25 countries.
• On a list already covering countries like the U.S., Canada and New Zealand, the Home Office has added on the likes of China, Bahrain and Serbia as countries from where students would face reduced checks on educational, financial and English language skill requirements to study at British universities.
• The changes, which come into effect on July 6, aim to make it easier for international students to come to study in the U.K.
• However, India has been left out of this new expanded list, which means Indian students applying for similar courses will continue to face rigorous checks and documentary requirements.
• The National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) U.K. also expressed disappointment at India’s exclusion from the list, which it said effectively categorises Indian students as high risk.
• The representative body for Indian students in the U.K. said it was unfair that Indian students should be treated differently from Chinese or other nationals on the list.
• According to latest Office of National Statistics (ONS) data, India is among the top three countries from where overseas students come in to study at U.K. universities, after China and the U.S. While Indian students registered a hike of 30% to hit 15,171 Tier 4 visas last year, the numbers remain a far cry from around 30,000 six years ago.
• Students from an additional 11 countries, including China, will be able to provide a reduced level of documentation when applying for their Tier 4 visa, the Home Office statement notes.

India hits back at the U.S. with tariffs

News

• The Centre has written to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) notifying its decision to increase import tariffs on 30 items from the U.S. amounting to $240 million, in retaliation against tariffs imposed by the latter on aluminium and steel imports.

Beyond News

• The move is significant as it comes a day after Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu returned from the U.S. and just weeks ahead of further talks between the two countries on the issue.
• S. President Donald Trump, in March, signed an order imposing a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminium imports, citing national security as one of the key reasons behind the move.
• The Indian government repeatedly requested an exemption from these tariffs as India did not pose a security threat to the U.S., but to no avail. India has also taken the U.S. to the dispute settlement mechanism in the WTO over the matter.
• The removal of concessions on U.S. imports on items such as chickpeas, lentils, almonds, apples and some metal products  will likely result in a duty collection of $240 million, according to the Centre.
• This, according to the government, was in keeping with the duty increase of $241 million due to the U.S.’ actions.
• Notably, one of the items on which the import concessions have been dropped pertains to high-capacity motorcycles such as those manufactured by Harley Davidson, duties on which were one of the sore points mentioned by Mr. Trump about India’s tariff policy.

China’s approach:

• In a tit-for-tat action, China today imposed additional duties on USD 50 billion worth of American products, a day after U.S President Donald Trumpslapped a stiff 25 per cent tariff on Chinese goods worth similar amount, triggering a full-fledged trade war between the world’s two largest economies. 
• Trump accused China of intellectual property theft and unfair trade practices as he announced 25 per cent tariff on USD 50 billion worth of Chinese goods.
• The Chinese government has decided to impose additional duties of 25 per cent on 659 items of U.S. products worth about USD 50 billion, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
• The government also unveiled a list of US products which will be subjected to additional tariffs, it said.
• Agricultural and aquatic products and vehicles to be affected
• Additional tariffs for 545 items worth about USD 34 billion including agricultural and aquatic products, and vehicles, will be effective from July 6, 2018, a statement issued by China’s Customs Tariffs commission said.
• The implementation date for imposing additional tariffs on the remaining 114 items, covering chemical products, medical equipment and energy products will be announced later, it said.
• The decision has been made in line with relevant stipulations of the Foreign Trade Law of China and the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Import and Export Duties, as well as the fundamental principles of international laws, the statement said.
• S. announced additional tariffs of 25 per cent on Chinese imports worth approximately USD 50 billion.
• The official said the Chinese action was taken in response to the emergent circumstances caused by the U.S. violations of international obligations.
• China has noticed the U.S. statement which said Washington would continue to impose additional tariffs if China takes retaliatory measures. China reserves its rights to take corresponding measures, the unnamed official was quoted as saying in the report.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Time to shift focus from land to water productivity in farming, says NABARD

News

• Indian agriculture needs to stop being “obsessed” with the land productivity and instead start worrying about water productivity, says a report released by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) this week.

Findings

• The report is part of a research project with ICRIER, mapping a water atlas for ten major crops rice, wheat, maize, red gram or tur, chickpea or channa, sugarcane, cotton, groundnut, rapeseed-mustard and potato. These together occupy more than 60% of the country’s gross cropped area.
• Given that Indian agriculture uses almost 80% of all the country’s water resources, which are increasingly under stress, changing the objective of agriculture development to increasing productivity per unit of water, especially irrigation water, is crucial, says the report.
• The most stark differences between land and water productivity are seen in rice and sugarcane cultivation, the report says.
• Punjab reports the highest land productivity for rice, producing four tonnes per hectare. However, it only produces 0.22 kg of rice for every meter cube of irrigation water.
• Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, on the other hand, produce 0.75 and 0.68 kg for the same amount of water. However, low irrigation coverage results in low land productivity in these States. Jharkhand has only 3% of its land under irrigation.
• For sugarcane, another water-guzzling crop, Tamil Nadu reports the highest land productivity, producing 105 tonnes per hectare. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh also have high rates of land productivity.
• The report recommends that cropping patterns be re-aligned to water availability, using both demand and supply side interventions.
• With water and power subsidies skewing cropping patterns, it also recommends reform in these areas, with a shift from the price policy approach of heavily subsidising inputs to an income policy approach of directly giving money farmers on per hectare basis. Prices will then be determined by market forces.

Novel gold nanocomplex for cancer drug delivery

News

• Using gold nanoparticles coated with a simple organic molecule (porphyrin), researchers have designed an efficient drug nanocarrier. The nanocarrier was found to effectively deliver doxorubicin (anti-tumour drug) to the nucleus of the diseased cell and bring about programmed cell death.

Beyond News

• Porphyrin was armoured on the gold nanosurface via continuous stirring method.
• Porphyrin is a simple organic compound and it gives the necessary protection and stability to the nanosurface. Porphyrins are essential co-factors in many human proteins such as hemoglobin and so it can escape from the macrophages in our body.
• The porphyrin molecule was found to be uniformly distributed on gold nanoparticles and the porphyrin–gold complex was stable.
• The anti-tumour drug doxorubicin was then successfully loaded on the porphyrin–gold nanosurface.
• Doxorubicin is selectively released when it reaches the low-pH environment seen in cancerous cells.
• Its activity was then tested on brain and lung cancer cells and normal healthy cells.
• The porphyrin gold complex without the drug showed no toxicity to healthy and cancerous cells. The nanoparticles coated with the drug showed very low toxicity to normal cells and caused programmed cell death both in brain and lung cancer cells.
• Multidrug resistance is one of the major barriers in cancer cells, where the drug is quickly ejected out, reducing the effective drug concentrations within the cells and thus decreases its sensitivity.

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