Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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India leaves out offset clause for S-400

News

• The ₹40,300-crore deal between India and Russia for five S-400 air defence missile systems does not have any offset clause. India has decided to drop it so as to advance deliveries, though it was Russia that initially did not want offsets.

Beyond News

• As per the schedule, Russia will start deliveries after 24 months, which is 2020-end. Contract negotiations started after an inter-governmental agreement was concluded in October 2016.
• Under the defence procurement procedure, deals worth ₹2,000 crore or more have a 30% offset clause. This is meant to bring technologies to the country and build domestic defence manufacturing capabilities. As a result, manufacturers add the cost of fulfilling the offset obligations to the deal.
• In an indication of the tough bargain India has to take up for a sanctions waiver under the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), a spokesperson of the U.S. State Department said that there were “strict criteria” for a waiver, and urged all its allies and partners to “forgo transactions” with Russia.
• The spokesperson said a focus area for the implementation of the CAATSA would be “new or qualitative upgrades in capability,” including the S-400. The recent sanctions on a Chinese government entity for an S-400 delivery underscored the seriousness of the Donald Trump administration’s resolve.

‘Forest Rights Act can give tribal communities their due’

News

• The Forest Rights Act of 2006 could help ensure rights for tribal and other forest-dependent communities.

Beyond News

• As many as 600 claims have been filed by the ISB’s project for Upscaling Community Forest Resource Rights, Recognition and Governance in India.
• Initiative at the Recognition of the Land and Forest Rights of Indigenous People and Local Communities conference, the target is to submit 5,000 such claims, around 600 have been filed within a short span of ‘10 weeks’.
• Project, which is in collaboration with NGOs, intends to empower communities to secure rights to customary forests and build private sector support for community resource rights. The project will also entail setting up of systems for socio-ecological monitoring of community lands and forests.

India plans to take tea delegation to China

     News

• The Union Commerce Ministry is planning to take a tea delegation to China, later this month.

Beyond News

• The visit, scheduled to take place for four days , would coincide with the Tea Fair at Xiamen, China,.
• Enquiries revealed that the delegation is likely to be led by the Deputy Chairman of Tea Board and would comprise about 35 members from the tea trade and industry. Most major tea companies as well as merchant exporters are scheduled to join the delegation.
• Past visits by Indian tea industry representatives have mostly been part of Food and Agricultural Organisation meetings.
• The events that have been lined up for the visit this time include buyer-seller meets, showcasing Indian teas, meeting with government officials and quality inspection officials.
• While India and China are among the top tea producers in the world, until recently there was little common ground between the two as China’s estimated output of 2,300 million kg comprised, mainly green tea while India is a predominant black tea producer producing about 1,200 million kg annually.
• Chinese youth are now preferring black teas and black tea-based beverages and speciality teas, there are complementarities between the two countries as regards their tea consumption habits.
• China imported 8.3 million kgs from India in 2017 at a value of ₹173.9 crore against 5.5 million kgs in 2016.
• Kenya and Sri Lanka are also present in this market. There is an emerging demand in this market said Atul Asthana, Goodricke managing director and CEO. The import price is also in the higher band of about ₹173.9 crore against an average of ₹196.6 crore.

Between April to August 2018-19, exports to China stood at 3.7 million kgs against 2.5 million a year ago. This came against a backdrop of a marginal dip in India’s exports in this period to 88.9 million kgs against 89.7 million kgs a year ago.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Drone tailor-made for disaster zones

News

• Drone capable of transmitting high-definition precision videos and even deliver aid materials in a disaster zone.

Beyond News

• It could be pretty effective during disasters like the floods that hit the State recently. One such product, which was part of the Drone Rescue Team deployed in the flood-hit Muvattupuzha, garnered eyeballs at the exhibition centre at the venue of the 11th edition of Cocon-2018, a two-day international cybersecurity conference that got under way .
• Eventually, it was deployed as part of the Drone Rescue Team under the aegis of the Cyberdome (a technological research and development centre of Kerala Police) for tracing people trapped in marooned areas.
• Ready-made drones come with inbuilt software by which the companies manufacturing them are able to track the flying route and data collected using their products.
• The drone is capable of conducting sorties and sending high-definition videos from within a five-kilometre radius.

Eastern Ghats face loss of forest cover, endemic plants

News

• The Eastern Ghats spread across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, has lost almost 16% of its forest area over a span of 100 years, a recently published study shows.

Findings

• Researchers studied historical maps and satellite images from 1920 to 2015 to understand the changes in land use and land cover. The forest cover, which was 43.4% of the total geographical area in 1920, has reduced drastically to 27.5% in 2015. Over the years, about 8% of forest area was converted into agricultural fields, while about 4% converted into scrub or grassland.
• They also found that the number of patches of land had increased indicating fragmentation. In 1920 there were about 1,379 patches which kept steadily increasing over the years reaching a whopping number of 9,457 in 2015.
• Previous studies have shown that the Eastern Ghats is home to more than 2,600 plant species and this habitat fragmentation and destruction can pose a serious threat to the endemic plants.
• Habitat reduction mainly occurred in the districts of Gajapati (Odisha), Mahbubnagar (Telangana), and also in Nallamalai and Kolli hill ranges.
• While agriculture was the main reason for deforestation during the early years, post 1975, mining and other developmental activities such as the construction of dams, roads were the culprits. In 1920, the mining area was only 622 sq.km, and in 2015 it had increased to 962 sq.km.

Picking out silent ghosts in the deep

News

• Ghost nets are classified under Abandoned, Lost or otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG), which includes lines, traps, hooks, dredges and buoys.

Beyond News

• Ghost nets can kill marine wildlife, including vulnerable species, and destroy the benthic ecosystems that exist at the lowest level of a body of water. The problem has been worsening with the global expansion in fishing operations, and the availability of more durable gear.
• High quality synthetic nets can last in the oceans for centuries, and lead to micro-plastic ingestion by aquatic life.
• A 2010 Marine Fisheries Census by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) said there were about 1,30,000 gillnets and drift nets in operation in India.
• The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in a 2009 study, states that almost 6,40,000 tonnes of all fishing gear (approximately 10% of the total usage) is lost or discarded in our oceans annually, in bad weather or when nets get stuck to the rocky bottom.
• Temple Adventures, a recreational scuba diving operator, has been conducting ghost net removal programmes since its inception in 2008, and with support from the Wildlife Trust of India since February 2018.

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