Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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India to be most populous by 2027: UN

News

• India is set to overtake China as the most populous country by 2027 and will have almost 1.64 billion inhabitants by 2050, says a United Nationsreport, adding that South Asia’s opportunity to reap the “demographic dividend” will peak by 2047.

Findings

• Globally, people aged above 65 are the fastest growing age group, putting pressure on social protection systems as the proportion of the working-age population shrinks.
• According to the World Population Prospects 2019 report, India is expected to add 273 million people by 2050, which will be the largest national increase in the world. China, on the other hand, is expected to become smaller, dropping from its current 1.43 billion people to approximately 1.4 billion by 2050.
• However, while India may have the highest absolute increase in numbers, its rate of growth is slowing. The Central and the Southern Asia region, of which India is a part, is expected to see a 25% increase in population between now and 2050.
• The rate of population growth is the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, where the fertility rate stand at 4.6 births per woman over a lifetime.
• The region is expected to double its population by mid-century. Nigeria is expected to add 200 million people over the next three decades and overtake the U.S. to become the third most populous nation.
• Moving from geographical areas to age cohorts, India is still among the countries where the working-age population (25-64 years) is growing faster than other groups, creating an opportunity for accelerated economic growth. However, the “demographic dividend” will peak by 2047 in the region, meaning that countries such as India must rush to invest in education and health, especially for young people.
• Globally, it’s the post-working-age group that is growing the fastest. By 2050, one in six people will be above 65, compared with one in 11 people in 2019.
• In 2018, for the first time in history, people above 65 outnumbered children under five years of age. By 2050, the number of people over 80 is expected to triple to 426 million.

This trend has also led to falling proportions of working-age people to support an ageing population. By 2050, almost 50 countries are expected to have less than two working-age people to support every person above 65.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

EU leaders to debate push for zero emissions by 2050

News

• EU leaders will discuss setting a target of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Beyond News

• European Union leaders meeting in Brussels will debate the 2050 target of “climate neutrality” that the environmental group WWF says now has the support of 16 of the EU’s 28 countries.
• A number of EU countries want more debate on financing the shift from an economy running on fossil fuels, especially those in eastern Europe, to one driven by clean energy.
• The World Wildlife Fund said Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Britain are “on board” for the 2050 goal.
• The British government presented draft legislation to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

Under the 2015 Paris climate change treaty, the EU pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

DoT panel approves levy of penalty on Airtel, Vodafone Idea

News

• The Digital Communications Commission, the highest decision-making body of the Department of Telecom, has given its approval for imposing penalty on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for denial of interconnection to Reliance Jio when the latter had entered the market.

Beyond News

• However, the inter-ministerial panel has asked the Telecom Regulatory authority of India (TRAI) to review the penalty amount of Rs. 3,050 crore, given the financial stress in the sector, an official source said.
• Reliance Jio had alleged that its subscribers were unable to make calls to other networks as those operators were not providing adequate inter connection points.
• The regulator had, in its recommendations, stated that the act of the three operators was against public interest and in violation of their licence agreement, which warrants revocation of the licence.
• However, it recommended penalty, instead, to avoid consumer inconvenience.

Indian-American population grew by 38% between 2010 and 2017: report

News

• The population of Indian-origin people in America grew by 38% in seven years between 2010 and 2017, a South Asian advocacy group has said in its latest demographic report.

Findings

• There are at least 630,000 Indians who are undocumented, a 72% increase since 2010, the South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT).
• The increase in illegal Indian-Americans can be attributed to Indian immigrants overstaying visas, it said. Nearly 250,000 Indians overstayed their visa in 2016 therefore becoming undocumented, it said.
• In general, the population of American residents tracing their roots to South Asia grew by 40%. In real terms, it increased from 3.5 million in 2010 to 5.4 million in 2017, SAALT said.
• The Nepali community grew by 206.6% since 2010, followed by Indian (38%), Bhutanese (38%), Pakistani (33%), Bangladeshi (26%) and Sri Lankan populations (15%).
• As of August 2018, there are approximately 2,550 active Indian DACA recipients. Only 13% of the overall 20,000 DACA eligible Indians have applied and received DACA.
• SAALT said that as far as DACA recipients from other countries are concerned, there are 1,300 from Pakistan, 470 from Bangladesh, 120 from Sri Lanka and 60 from Nepal.
• The immigrant population density of the country shows that undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants live in New York (19,000); Michigan (4,000); Virginia (3,000); and California (2,000).
• Income inequality has been reported to be the greatest among Asian Americans. Nearly one per cent of the approximately five million South Asians in the US live in poverty.
• SAALT said there has been a rise in the number of South Asians seeking asylum in the US over the last 10 years.
• The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained 3,013 South Asians since 2017. US Customs and Border Patrol arrested 17,119 South Asians between October 2014 and April 2018 through border and interior enforcement.
• Since 1997, more than 1.7 million dependent spouses of H-1B visa holders have received H-4 visas. In 2017, 136,000 individuals received H-4 status. Nearly 86 per cent of H-4 visa holders are from South Asian countries. In 2015, DHS granted work authorisation to certain H-4 visa holders. As of December 2017, approximately 127,000 visa holders were approved for H-4 EAD.
• Nearly 61% of non-citizen Bangladeshi American families receive public benefits for at least one of the four federal programmes including TANF, SSI, SNAP and Medicaid/CHIP, 48% of non-citizen Pakistani families and 11% of non-citizen Indian families also receive public benefits, the report said.
• According to the Current Population Survey (CPS), 49.9% of voting-age Asian American citizens cast a ballot in 2016. The number of Asian American voters in the last decade has nearly doubled from about two million voters in 2001 to 5 million voters in 2016.
• Of these, Indians account for more than 1.5 million, followed by Pakistanis (222,252) and Bangladeshi (69,825), SAALT added.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

NASA funds programme to produce videos to teach Hindi through Indian scientific innovations

News

• A programme funded by NASA in the U.S. has produced a series of videos about popular archaeological sites and institutions in India.
• The videos come with lesson plans in Hindi, to aid in teaching the language internationally using themes of science and technology .

Beyond News

• The videos focus on scientific innovations at various sites like Amer Fort palace and Hawa Mahal in Jaipur, the rust-resistant Iron Pillar in Delhi, UNESCO Heritage site Qutub Minar, the Chand Bawri stepwell and the Jaipur Foot, a prosthetic given to impoverished amputees in 80 countries for free.
• Context is crucial to learning new languages. Each video, designed for learners from middle school through college, employs a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) perspective “to provide interesting and incredibly rich context to create learning experiences that can push learners to the advanced level of Hindi.

Plan unveiled to protect endangered dolphins

News

• The New Zealand government unveiled a plan to expand and strengthen the protection for the endangered Maui and Hector’s dolphins.

Beyond News

• Proposals for consultation for a revised Threat Management Plan to protect the dolphins released.
• Extending the boundaries of the West Coast North Island Marine Mammal Sanctuary south to Wellington and extending the Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Sanctuary north to Kaikoura, south to Timaru, and offshore to 20 nautical miles are included in the proposals.
• The proposals also include the Department of Conservation developing an action plan to deal with toxoplasmosis, a disease that can affect dolphins and other marine mammals, by targeting research to answer knowledge gaps, enhancing education for cat owners and advocating for riparian and wetland restoration.
• It is estimated that only 63 Maui dolphins are remaining, and Hector’s dolphins are nationally vulnerable with about 15,000 in New Zealand waters.

‘No tree-felling in Kodagu until end of monsoon’

News

• The Kodagu Tree Authority has resolved not to permit tree-felling in the district until the end of monsoon.

Beyond News

• Barring tree-felling for personal use, axing of trees in large numbers would not be allowed in the wake of observations by the Geological Survey of India, which has identified some places that are said to be vulnerable for landslides based on last year’s disaster.
• The authority meeting, decided to allow a farmer-family to use only 300 cft of wood in a span of 15 years for their personal use.

India to actively curb ‘conflict’ diamonds

News

• India has committed to play an active role to curb the circulation of ‘conflict diamonds’ or ‘blood diamonds’ in the international market by further strengthening the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS).

Beyond News

• India will play an active role in the evolution and transformation of the Kimberley Process (KP) and in the transition from conflict diamonds to peace diamonds.
• The 4Cs [cut, clarity, colour and carat] of diamond may soon be expanded to 5Cs with the fifth C being ‘conflict-free’. And the 5Ps of diamond marketing [precious, popular, prestige, priceless] will include ‘peace’ diamonds.
• KPCS Intersessional Meeting is an annual mid-year event of KPCS, which unites administrations, civil societies and diamond industry to reduce the flow of conflict diamonds used to finance wars against governments around the world, mostly in African countries. India is the KP chair for 2019.
• Fifty-five members representating 82 countries, including the U.S., Russia, European Union, Africa, Canada, China, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Australia, UAE, New Zealand and South Africa, are participating in the four-day conference to deliberate on the issue and find a way forward.
• India, supported by the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), is hosting this event for the first time.
• ‘Blood’ or ‘conflict’ diamonds had been almost excluded from global trade and now account for only 2%. Every rough diamond is accompanied by a certificate confirming its non-conflict origin, and export-import procedures in most of the countries are now subject to rigorous control.

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