IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Climate change may have wiped out Saraswati river, Harappan city of Dholavira: Study

News

• Almost 4,000 years ago, climate change may have triggered a severe drought that wiped off the Saraswati river, which is believed to have once flown through present-day Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, according to a recent study.
• These changes also led to the collapse of Dholavira, one of the most advanced cities of the Harappan era, which was located in western India, within present-day Gujarat.

Climate change

• According to archaeologists, the city had a sound architectural design, as its remains have revealed the presence of a citadel, a bailey, as well as ‘lower and middle’ towns. The city thrived between 5,500 and 3,800 years Before Present Era (BPE).
• The team carried out carbon dating of archaeological carbonates like molluscs, gathered from the unearthed remains of Dholavira. The fossils of these shell creatures traced at the site indicate that the city could have thrived due to the abundant mangroves that grew in the Rann of Kutch, which has turned into a white desert today.
• Brackish water, a saline mixture of fresh water and seawater, helps in the growth of mangroves.
• The team believes the river that supplied fresh water to Dholavira has to be Saraswati.
• Analysis of the fossil samples has led researchers to believe that during the 1,700 years of its existence, the city may have witnessed regular monsoon, with the inhabitants consuming shells as one of their foods from the river.
• Archaeologists managed to trace the remains of abundant mangroves growing around the Great Rann of Kutch, from which the researchers concluded that molluscs survived in the region.
• The gastropod shell suggests seasonal mixing of some depleted river water during summer or monsoon months that periodically inundated the present-day desert. But importantly, the mixing happened through river Saraswati or Indus tributaries.
• During dry months, evaporation from this semi-enclosed water body enriched these seashells.
• But the decline of this city and its ecosystem occurred when a mega drought hit the coastal city at the onset of Meghalayan stage, approximately 4,300 to 4,000 years ago.

Manipur: Forests being lost to poppy cultivation, developmental works, says Forest Minister

News

• Manipur Forest and Environment Minister said that extensive felling of trees for poppy cultivation and developmental works have resulted in the loss of a significant area of forest cover in the state, particularly in Hill districts.

Loss of a significant area of forest

• Of the total area lost, 491 sq km is in Hill districts of the state which include Churachandpur, Tamenglong, Senapati, Chandel and Ukhrul. The maximum loss of forest cover is in Churachandpur district alone, which is about 250 sq km. However the ISFR date interpretation period is from October 2017 to February 2018. The status indicated in the report mainly belongs to the period of 2016-17.
• In the Hill districts the state has mainly “unclassed forest” which is under the control of the communities.
• The rampant felling of trees for poppy cultivation by the anti-social elements in Hill districts has also contributed tremendously to the depletion of forest cover.
• As per the police report, a total area of 3,015 acres of poppy and 18.51 acres of ganja plantations were destroyed in 2019 alone.
• Diversion of large area under forest cover for railways, construction of highways particularly PMGS roads in Hill districts is another factor. Jhum cultivation, forest fire, timber logging and felling of trees of fire-wood were other factors.
• In the valley, about 8 sq km forest cover is lost largely due to rampant encroachment and illegal earth cutting in Imphal and Thoubal districts.
• The state also lost bamboo cover by 784 sq km between 2017 to 2019. Manipur’s contribution to the country’s growing stock of bamboo has decreased tremendously from 8.33 to 2.79 per cent the same period.

The Government is focusing on converting un-classed forest into community reserves, regular destructions of poppy cultivation with Police and Narcotics Police and incorporation of livelihood components in every scheme of the departments to reduce Jhums among others.

Punjab’s sex ratio falls by 7 points, lags behind national average

News

• According to the NITI Aayog’s SDG 2019 Index, the sex ratio in Punjab fell from 893 to 886 in 2019, and the state lagged behind the national average of sex ratio indicator as India’s sex ratio average is 896.
• On the gender equality goal, state has achieved 46 points.

Sex ratio falls

• Though it has gained three points compared to last year, as its score was 43 in 2018, it is still in the list of aspirant states on the index as far as gender equality is considered.
• Punjab has to learn from neighbouring Himachal Pradesh on sex ratio indicator as the hill state has a sex ratio of 918.
• Haryana, Punjab’s other neighbour, has performed worse than Punjab, having a sex ratio of 833. Even Delhi’s score at 850 is worse than Punjab. The target national average is 954. Punjab’s sex ratio at birth is 44 as compared to national average of 52.
• The skewed sex ratio has been a major issue in Punjab in the previous decade. Successive governments have taken up several schemes to sensitise people so that the state does not earn the sobriquet of “kudi maar” (girl-child killer) state.
• India has banned female foeticide. Even the Jathedar of Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, had issued an edict against female foeticide.
  On other indicators like operational land holdings, Punjab’s women have a long way to go. The state’s points on the gender-wise operational land holdings indicator is 0.01 against a national average of 13.
• Punjab fares better than the national average on male-female ratio of average wage/salary having 0.96 points compared to national average of 0.78 points.
• Even on the domestic violence front, Punjab’s women face lesser spousal violence compared to national average. Punjab’s score is 21.2 compared to India’s 33.
• The state’s rank slipped from 10 to 12 in the 2019 index and it did not find a special mention on any of 17 goals. The survey was carried on 36 states and UTs.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Aim of killing Iranian general was to ‘stop a war’: Trump

News

• President Donald Trump said he ordered the killing of a top Iranian general “to stop a war,” not start one, but in the tense aftermath the Pentagon braced for retaliation by sending more troops to the Middle East.

Stop a war’

• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argued the US case with allies in the Middle East and beyond, asserting that Friday’s drone strike killing Gen. Qassem Soleimani was a necessary act of self defense. He asserted that Soleimani was plotting a series of attacks that endangered many American troops and officials across the Middle East.
• The ramifications of Trump’s decision to kill Soleimani were still coming into focus Friday; they could include an end to the US military partnership with Iraq in fighting the Islamic State extremist group. The US has about 5,200 troops in Iraq, mostly to train and advise Iraqi forces fighting IS.
• The president warned Iran against retaliating. He said the US military has Iranian targets “fully identified” for counter-retaliation. The US has a wide range of offensive and defensive forces in the Gulf area within range of Iran.
• Senior State Department officials,said the drone strike near the Baghdad international airport was based on intelligence that suggested Soleimani was traveling in the area to put final touches on plans for attacks that would have hit US diplomats, troops and American facilities in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere in the Mideast.
• A decades-long US nemesis, Iran holds a range of options for striking back, militarily or otherwise. Tens of thousands of American troops in the Persian Gulf area, including in Iraq and Qatar, are within easy range of Iranian missiles, and Iran has the capability to act more clandestinely with cyber attacks or military proxy strikes on US targets abroad.
• Last summer, following a string of intelligence indications that Iran was planning attacks on US targets in the Gulf area, the Pentagon accelerated the deployment of an aircraft carrier to the region and deployed additional missile defenses.
• In all, about 14,000 additional US troops were sent to the area over the summer and fall, but that did not deter Iran, which is feeling an extreme squeeze from US sanctions that have all but shut off its oil exports.
• After the Soleimani killing, Pompeo announced that he was placing the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Asaib Ahl al-Haq on the State Department’s “foreign terrorist organization” blacklist, which blocks any assets the group may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from providing it with material support.

PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana

News

• The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-Kisan Yojana) is a central sector scheme for the families of farmers across the country.

PM-Kisan Yojana

• Prime Minister released the third installment of the scheme to approximately 6 crore beneficiaries in Karnataka’s Tumakuru.
• The scheme defines family as husband, wife and minor children. The scheme, which came into effect from December 1, 2018, provides Rs 2,000 each in three installments for every four months to the farmer families.
• The fund is directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. The entire identification of the family rests with the state and Union Territory governments.
• To enroll for the scheme, farmers are required to approach the local revenue officer or PM-KISAN Nodal Officer who has been nominated by the state government. Farmers can also self-register themselves through the Farmers Corner on the PM-Kisan website.
• According to the government website of PM-Kisan, farmers covered under the Exclusion Criteria of the Operational Guidelines are not eligible for the scheme.
• The Exclusion Criteria of the Operational Guidelines say that members of the farmer family who are/were former or present holders of any constitutional posts, or former/present ministers/state ministers or former/present members of the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha or any legislative assembly/councils are not eligible to avail the scheme.

Explained: Maharashtra’s second farm loan waiver in 2½ years — what is different

News

• Last week, the new Maharashtra government announced a loan waiver for farmers who had up to Rs 2 lakh in pending loans between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2019.
• Maharashtra thus became possibly the only state to have offered two consecutive farm loan waivers within two-and-a-half years of each other. The previous loan waiver was announced by the government in June 2017.

The loans, the defaults

• At the start of the cropping cycle, banks extend short term credits to farmers to finance their need of capital for purchase of seeds, fertilisers etc.
• Financial institutions usually provide this loan at 7 per cent interest. Timely repayments allows farmers to get a 3 per cent interest subvention from the central government and a further 2 per cent subvention from the state government, thus effectively reducing the interest rate to just 1 per cent.
• This is envisioned to help farmers access credit at the right time and keep them away from the clutches of money lenders who lend at exorbitant rates.
• A spate of extreme weather events, like droughts, floods, hailstorms etc, often results in farmers defaulting on their repayment. As of September 30, 2019 the outstanding crop loan in Maharashtra was Rs 1,08,781.90 crore.
• Defaulting farmers become ineligible for new capital from the banks and are forced to knock at the door of private money lenders.

The 2017 waiver

• Government had announced the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana in June 2017.
• Irrespective of the size of landholding, the scheme waived off outstanding crop loans up to Rs 1.5 lakh per family. Farmers who made regular repayments got Rs 25,000 as incentive for good credit behaviour. The scheme waived off loans pending from April 1, 2012 to March 30, 2016.
• Later, this was extended to include outstanding loans from 2001. Farmers whose outstanding was more than Rs 1.5 lakh were expected to deposit the additional amount to get the waiver.
• Government records show about 44 lakh farmers have benefited from the scheme so far, with loans worth Rs 18,600 crore having been waived.
• The new coalition government announced the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Shetkari Karja Mukti Yojana. This scheme would see Rs 26,000 crore of outstanding loans of over 36 lakh accounts being waived off.

The difference

• Unlike the previous loan waiver, this latest scheme will see outstanding crop loan up to Rs 2 lakh, pending from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2019, being waived off. Farmers with more than Rs 2 lakh outstanding are not eligible for the scheme.
• Also, the scheme has no incentive for farmers who are regular in their repayments. Farmers’ activists have criticised these two provisions which they say defeats the purpose of loan waiver.
• A new provision in the present scheme is that families with more than one loan account are eligible for waiver in each one of their accounts.
• The last waiver was limited to one account per family. Also, this time farmers will not have to file online forms to avail their waivers.

Kerala ordinance to ensure right to burial for Christians

News

• With the denial of burial for several Christians in Kerala due to a dispute between the Jacobite and Orthodox factions of the Malankara Christian Church, the state government has proposed an ordinance to ensure that every faithful has the right to get a burial at his or her home parish.

Ensure right to burial

• The ordinance, which was ratified by the state cabinet, would be sent for the Governor’s consent.
• The ordinance came after the Orthodox faction denied burial for several people who followed the Jacobite faction. The funeral at some of the churches controlled by the Orthodox faction had led to a law and order issue. There have been instances of families keeping the bodies of their dear ones at mobile mortuaries while waiting for an intervention from the judiciary or police.
• The dispute over ownership of parishes and their properties, including cemeteries, has continued for several decades.
• In 2017, the Supreme Court, on a petition by the Orthodox Church, had ruled that all churches under the Malankara Church would be governed as per the Church Constitution of 1934. Accordingly, several churches under dispute came under the control of the Orthodox Church and the court order was implemented with police action in some parishes.
• The issue of denial of burial came up after people from the Orthodox faction refused to allow followers of the Jacobite faction to use their family vaults at cemeteries which were in control of the Orthodox faction. The government had tried to find a solution through discussions but the warring factions refused to budge.

Avoid Pakistan route: US cautions air carriers over risk of extremist activity

News

• The US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration has issued an advisory to all air carriers and commercial operators against flying into or crossing the Pakistan airspace citing “extremist/militant activity”.

Avoid Pakistan route

• There continues to be a risk to US civil aviation from attacks against airports and aircraft, particularly for aircraft on the ground and aircraft operating at low altitudes, including during the arrival and departure phases of the flight.
• The US regulator said in its NOTAM that there continues to be a risk to US civil aviation sector from attacks against airports and aircraft in Pakistan, particularly for aircraft on the ground and aircraft operating at low altitudes, including during the arrival and departure phases of flights.
• In justification to the advisory, the FAA also makes mention of the Balakot airstrike by the IAF and the subsequent capturing of Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman by Pakistan in February last year, besides escalating tensions between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue.
• It has also cited the presence of extremist groups in Pakistan.
• The regulator added that pilots or airlines must report safety or security incidents which may happen in Pakistan to the FAA. Pakistan on July 16 last year opened its airspace for India after about five months of restrictions imposed in the wake of a standoff with New Delhi.
• Following the Balakot airstrikes by the Indian Air Force, Pakistan had closed its airspace on February 26 last year. Pakistan in October last year had also denied India’s request to allow Indian Prime Minister’s VVIP flight to use its airspace for his visit to Saudi Arabia over the Kashmir issue.

Maha slum rehabilitation scheme: Railways discusses plan to hand over encroached plots to govt

News

• SLUM DWELLERS who have encroached upon railway land in Mumbai and suburbs may be rehabilitated under the slum rehabilitation scheme, railway officials said.

Rehabilitate

• As Railways doesn’t have a policy to rehabilitate slum dwellers it can neither rehabilitate encroachers on its own nor appoint any private developer to do the same if the Maharashtra government wants to implement a rehabilitation scheme on a railway plot, it has to sign a lease agreement with the RLDA (Railway Land Development Authority).
• In Mumbai and its central suburbs, 55 hectare owned by WR have been encroached upon by slum dwellers. On the other hand, CR’s 37-hectare area have been encroached. In all, around 25,000 slum dwellers reportedly stay in these plots.
• Following an inter-state council meeting, on August 29, 2017, the railway board had given a no objection certificate to the SRA to carry out a biometric survey of those encroaching upon railway land. In a survey that was completed on November 18, 2019, the SRA had found 5,964 slum units on railway plots in various parts in the city, including Kurla, Dharavi, Chembur and Borivali.

Digitising healthcare: New info platform to monitor public health surveillance in Maharashtra

News

• The Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) a real-time, case-based electronic health information system with GIS tagging that will help in prompt prevention and control of epidemic-prone diseases in villages was launched by the state Health Department recently.

Integrated Health Information Platform

• The initiative, which is part of the Integrated Diseases Surveillance Programme (IDSP), will provide near real-time data to policy makers for detecting outbreaks, lessening the disease burden and ensuring better health systems.
• The primary objective of IHIP is to enable the setting up of a Electronic Health Records (EHRs) of citizens across India.
• The EHRs aims to build a comprehensive Health Information Exchange (HIE) as part of this centralised accessible platform.
• The success of this platform will, however, primarily depend on the quality of data shared by the districts with the state, and by states with the Centre.
• To kickstart the programme, state-level ‘training of trainers’ was conducted at YASHADA in Pune and about 160 district-level trainers have been trained.
• IDSP portal is a one-stop portal that has facilities for data entry, viewing reports, reporting outbreaks, data analysis, training modules and resources related to disease surveillance.
• The 2015 Joint Monitoring Mission report of IDSP strongly recommended a review and redesign of the IDSP surveillance system, including re-prioritisation of the list of diseases under the IDSP; assessing the need for collecting more epidemiological data for action, and redefining the required surveillance deliverables.
• In December 2016, IDSP, under the oversight of the National Centre for Disease Control, conducted a disease re-prioritisation workshop and subsequently identified 33 priority health conditions for surveillance.
• In May 2017, IDSP conducted a workshop to develop the Minimum Data Set for diseases and health conditions under IDSP.
• In the first phase, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) module of Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) was soft-launched in selected districts of seven states (Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala). Maharashtra launched IHIP on December 30 last year.
• IDSP captures aggregate data, is a paper-based data collection system, monitors only 18 health conditions and has weekly surveillance, the IHIP captures disaggregate data of persons at all levels, and has mobile and electronic devices for data collection and analysis. It also captures real-time or daily surveillance data and monitors more than 33 health conditions.
• District health officers have been directed to systematically follow guidelines for the proper functionality of IHIP portal.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Explained: What is Extraocular Vision

News

• For the first time, researchers have shown that a species of brittle stars, which are relatives of starfish, can see even though it does not have eyes.

Red brittle star

• The red brittle star (Ophiocoma wendtii), which lives in the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea, becomes only the second creature, after a sea urchin species, known to have this ability (barring freak cases in other species).
• The ability to see without eyes is known as extraocular vision. Previous researchers have defined it as the ability to resolve scenes without discrete eyes.
• The researchers suggest that a brittle star sees with the help of light-sensing cells that cover its entire body. These light-sensing cells give the brittle star visual stimuli, allowing it to recognise coarse structures such as rocks, the research suggests.
• Another peculiar feature of the red brittle star is its signature colour change. While the creature is deep red during the day, it changes its colour to beige at night.

Explained: What Railways restructure means

News

• The Cabinet recently approved trimming of the Railway Board, the powerful body that governs the Indian Railways. From nine, the Board will now have only five Members.
• The Cabinet also decided to merge all central service cadres of Railways officers into a single Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS).

 Present system

• The Indian Railways is governed by a pool of officers, among whom engineers are recruited after the Indian Engineering Service Examination, and civil servants through the Civil Services Examination.
• Until the 1950s, the Railways system was run by officers from just three main streams: Traffic, Civil Engineering, and Mechanical. The other streams emerged as separate services over time.

Why the reform

• The government wants to end inter-departmental rivalries, which it says have been hindering growth for decades.
• Several committees including the Bibek Debroy committee in 2015 have noted that “departmentalism” is a major problem in the system. Most committees have said merger of the services in some form would be a solution.
• The Debroy report recommended merging of all services to create two distinct services: Technical and Logistics. But it did not say how to merge the existing officers.
• A separate exam under the Union Public Service Commission is proposed to be instituted in 2021 to induct IRMS officers.

 

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