17 Oct 2019: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS1 Related

Nothing here for today!!!

Context:

The US House of Representatives have passed a bill sought by pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong that aims to defend civil rights in the semi-autonomous territory.

Background:

• Millions had taken to the streets of Hong Kong, initially against a now-dropped bid by its leaders to allow extraditions to the authoritarian Chinese mainland.
• The months-long movement expanded into a broader pro-democracy push in the territory where activists say freedoms are being eroded by Beijing, despite a deal that outlined Hong Kong’s 1997 return to China from British colonial rule.
• Beijing promised Hong Kong a “high degree of autonomy” for 50 years when it regained sovereignty over the city in 1997, but protesters say freedoms have been steadily eroded.

Details:

• The US House of Representatives has unanimously passed three pieces of legislation supporting the pro-democracy protests that have engulfed Hong Kong for more than four months.
• The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the most consequential of the bills, would put the former British colony’s special treatment by the United States under tighter scrutiny.
• The Protect Hong Kong Act, also passed recently, seeks to block the sale to Hong Kong of tear gas and other crowd control items, while a non-binding resolution condemns Beijing’s interference in Hong Kong affairs.
• For the two acts to become law, they must pass votes in the Senate and then be signed by President Donald Trump.

What happens if the bill is passed?

• The new Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act is seen as a largely symbolic amendment but it could potentially alter the nature of relations between the United States and Hong Kong.
• It could also exacerbate tensions between Washington and Beijing.
• China’s foreign ministry accused US lawmakers of “sinister intentions” to undermine Hong Kong’s stability and warned that bilateral relations would be damaged should the measures become law.
• The new act is an amendment to a 1992 law that has underpinned US relations with Hong Kong, affording the territory special status as separate from China — in trade, transport and other areas.
• Under the 1992 law, the US president can issue an executive order suspending elements of Hong Kong’s special status if the president determines that the territory is “not sufficiently autonomous” from Beijing.
• The new act requires the US Secretary of State to annually certify to Congress whether Hong Kong “is sufficiently autonomous to justify special treatment by the United States, including the degree to which Hong Kong’s autonomy has been eroded due to actions taken by the Government of China.
• If the Secretary of State deems Hong Kong insufficiently autonomous, that could give the president ammunition for suspending any US laws that set Hong Kong apart, leaving it subject to the same rules that apply to the rest of China.

What effect might the new law have?

• From a business perspective, one of the most important elements of Hong Kong’s special status has been the fact that it is considered a separate customs and trading zone from China.
• That has meant, for instance, that trade war tariffs don’t apply to exports from Hong Kong. If Hong Kong becomes just another Chinese port, companies that rely on Hong Kong as a middleman or for trans-shipping are likely to take their business elsewhere.
• Trade between Hong Kong and the United States was estimated to be $67.3 billion in 2018, with the US running a $33.8 billion surplus, its biggest with any country or territory.
• The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong has said any action to change the status of Hong Kong would have a chilling effect not only on US trade and investment in Hong Kong but would send negative signals internationally about Hong Kong’s trusted position in the global economy.

Context:

Tulagi, part of the Solomon Islands, is about to move into Chinese hands. Under a secretive deal signed recently, with a provincial government in the South Pacific nation, a Beijing-based company with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party has secured exclusive development rights for the entire island of over 1,000 people and its surroundings.

Tulagi Island:

• Tulagi, an island about two square kilometres (0.8 square miles) with a population of 1,200, is the site of a former Japanese naval base and was the scene of fierce fighting in World War II.
• The island of Tulagi served as a South Pacific headquarters for Britain and Then Japan.
• During the Second World War, its natural deepwater harbour across from Guadalcanal made it a military gem.

Details:

• The Solomons cut ties to Taipei and allied with Beijing just a few days before the Tulagi deal.
• A second Pacific nation, Kiribati, followed suit.
• Even compared to previous Chinese development deals in nearby countries — including a wharf in Vanuatu — the Tulagi agreement is remarkable for both its scope and the lack of public input.
• The renewable 75-year lease was granted to the China Sam Enterprise Group, a conglomerate founded in 1985 as a state-owned enterprise, according to corporate records.
• The deal reveals both the immediate ambitions of China Sam Enterprise Group and the potential for infrastructure that could share civilian and military uses.
• The agreement includes provisions for a fishery base, an operations centre, and the building or enhancement of the airport.
• Though there are no confirmed oil or gas reserves in the Solomons, the agreement also notes that China Sam is interested in building an oil and gas terminal.
• The document also states that the government will lease all of Tulagi and the surrounding islands in the province for the development of a special economic zone or any other industry that is suitable for any development.

Concerns:

• The lease agreement has shocked Tulagi residents and alarmed U.S. officials who see the island chains of the South Pacific as crucial to keeping China in check and protecting important sea routes.
• The South Pacific region is rich in natural resources, and China’s investments have provoked worries in the U.S. and Australia that the projects could give Beijing an opening to establish a military foothold for everything from ships and planes to its own version of the GPS.
• China is also pushing to end the region’s status as a diplomatic stronghold for Taiwan.
• The fear is that these zones can, in turn, create enclaves of Chinese operations that could then grow over time into some kind of permanent strategic facility.

Conclusion:

• China’s efforts in the region echo the period before and during the Second World War when Japan wrested control of island assets, which were won back in turn by American and Australian troops in bloody battles.
• China goes where there is value and interest. It is expanding its military assets into the South Pacific and is looking for friendly ports and friendly airfields just like other rising powers before them.
• With the U.S. pulling back in much of the world under President Donald Trump’s America First policy, Beijing is often knocking on doors left open.

Context:

A new study published in a peer-reviewed medical journal states that Deaths due to severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in India could be about a tenth of what was earlier believed.

Details:

• It implies that instead of taking emergency measures such as providing Ready To Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), there needs to be a focus on non-food interventions such as sanitation, health, clean drinking water along with an emphasis on nutrition.
• The paper provides new evidence at a time when inter-ministerial discussions are underway on formulating guidelines for nutritional management of SAM children and when policy-makers and experts are divided on the issue of providing either RUTF or locally made energy-dense food.

Concerns:

• The findings echo results from three other Indian studies, which found fatality rates for SAM to range between 2.7% to 5.2% among children older than 6 months.
• The study also explains that the most vulnerable children probably died before reaching six months, which is before a child begins complementary feeding along and treatment with RUTF becomes relevant.
• These deaths are due to premature birth or low birth weight — factors that account for 46.1% of all deaths of children under five years in 2017.
• According to government data shared before Parliament, there were 93.4 lakh SAM children based on National Family Health Survey-4 in 2015-2016.

Conclusion:

• Given that well over a third of all children aged under five years are stunted or underweight, the implementation of an RUTF regime alone will impose a massive financial burden on the government.
• The scientist who authored the study observed that the children with SAM are not merely nutrition starved, but are hungry for development.
• It is opined that Preventive measures, apt nutrition counselling, and care for illnesses are vital aspects of SAM management.

Ready To Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF):

• RUTF is a tasty nutrient-packed paste UNICEF has found to be the most effective tool for treating acute and severe acute malnutrition.
• RUTF is a mixture of milk powder, vegetable oil, sugar, peanut butter, and powdered vitamins and minerals.
• RUTF is used by UNICEF to help the millions of children threatened by acute malnutrition worldwide.
• It doesn’t require refrigeration and stays fresh for up to two years. Best of all, no mixing with potentially contaminated water is required.
• Proponents of RUTF have argued that RUTF has a “very high energy density” and even severely malnourished children could consume just 5 to 7 spoonfuls of RUTF for sufficient nutrient intake for complete recovery.
• India is one of 16 countries where local manufacturers have been given UNICEF accreditation.

Context:

India slipped to the 102^nd spot in the Global Hunger Index which features 117 countries.

Global Hunger Index:

• The GHI has been brought out almost every year by Welthungerhilfe (lately in partnerships with Concern Worldwide) since 2000.
• Concern Worldwide is an aid agency which compiles the report.
• This year’s report is the 14th one.
• A low score gets a country a higher ranking and implies a better performance.
• The GHI slots countries on a scale ranging from “low” hunger to “moderate”, “serious”, “alarming”, and “extremely alarming”.
• The reason for mapping hunger is to ensure that the world achieves “Zero Hunger by 2030” — one of the Sustainable Development Goals laid out by the United Nations.
• It is for this reason that GHI scores are not calculated for certain high-income countries.
• While in common parlance hunger is understood in terms of food deprivation, in a formal sense it is calculated by mapping the level of calorie intake.
• GHI does not limit itself to this narrow definition of hunger. Instead, it tracks the performance of different countries on four key parameters because, taken together, these parameters capture multiple dimensions — such a deficiency of micronutrients — of hunger, thus providing a far more comprehensive measure of hunger.

How does GHI measure hunger?

• For each country in the list, the GHI looks at four indicators:
  • Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
  • Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, those who have low weight for their height)
  • Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, those who have low height for their age)
  • Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five (a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition).
• Each country’s data are standardised on a 100-point scale and a final score is calculated after giving 33.33% weight each to components 1 and 4, and giving 16.66% weight each to components 2 and 3.

Details:

• On the whole, the 2019 GHI report has found that the number of hungry people has risen from 785 million in 2015 to 822 million.
• It further states that “multiple countries have higher hunger levels now than in 2010, and approximately 45 countries are set to fail to achieve ‘low’ levels of hunger by 2030”.

India’s position:

• India is ranked 102 of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2019, behind its neighbours Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• Among the BRICS grouping, India is ranked the worst, with China at 25.
• Within South Asia, too, India is behind every other country.
• In stark contrast to India, which has the world’s largest democracy and one of the biggest economies, most of the countries below India on the GHI — Afghanistan, Haiti or Yemen etc — are either poorly governed or war-torn or ravaged by natural calamities.
• In 2018, India was pegged at 103 but last year 119 countries were mapped.
• So while the rank is one better this year, in reality, India is not better off in comparison to the other countries.
• India is one of the 47 countries that have “serious” levels of hunger.

Why is India ranked so low on GHI?

• In 2000, India’s hunger level was in the “alarming” category. Since then, India has steadily improved on most counts to reduce its score and is now slotted in the “serious” category.
• But the pace of India’s improvement has been relatively slow.
• So, even though India has improved its score, many others have done more and that explains why despite achieving relatively fast economic growth since 2000, India has not been able to make commensurate strides in reducing hunger.

What are the reasons for which India’s improvements have been slow?

• For one, notwithstanding the broader improvements, there is one category — Child Wasting, that is, children with low weight for their age — where India has worsened.
• The percentage of children under the age of 5 years suffering from wasting has gone up from 16.5 in 2010 to 20.8 now.
• Wasting is indicative of acute undernutrition and India is the worst among all countries on this parameter.
• India’s child wasting rate is extremely high at 20.8 percent — the highest wasting rate of any country in this report for which data or estimates were available.
• Its child stunting rate, 37.9 percent, is also categorized as very high in terms of its public health significance.
• In India, just 9.6 percent of all children between 6 and 23 months of age are fed a minimum acceptable diet,” according to the report.

Way forward:

• The general population’s awareness about a good diet needs improvement.
• There is an urgent need for a candid reassessment of various nutrition schemes to capture where they are falling short.
• Supplementary food programmes may be failing to reach the family’s most vulnerable members. It may need focusing on anaemic mothers, to alleviate low birth weight.
• Suboptimal breastfeeding practices are also a worry.
• Different states will need different medicine, given wide variations.
• Six of the ten districts with the highest rates of stunting are in Uttar Pradesh alone.
• Addressing malnutrition must become a top priority for both Centre and state governments. Not just for humanitarian reasons but also for developmental ones:  Weak human capital prepares us badly for the economy of the future.

C. GS3 Related

Category: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Malaria parasite jumped from gorillas to humans

Context:

A new study published in Cell Reports has honed in on the brain circuitry responsible for upgrading or downgrading pain signals, likening the mechanism to how a home thermostat controls room temperature.

Details:

• The study establishes that pain perception is essential for survival, but how much something hurts can sometimes be amplified or suppressed: for example, soldiers who sustain an injury in battle often recall not feeling anything at the time.
• The scientist said, that the region responsible was the central amygdala, which according to her work appeared to play a dual role.
  • The amygdala is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain’s medial temporal lobe.
  • Shown to play a key role in the processsing of emotions, the amygdala forms part of the limbic system.
  • Amygdala is located close to the hippocampus, in the frontal portion of the temporal lobe.
  • Amygdalae are essential for the ability to feel certain emotions and to perceive them in other people.
  • This includes fear and the many changes that it causes in the body.
• The scientists found that the activity in neurons that express protein kinase C-delta amplified pain, while neurons that express somatostatin inhibited the chain of activity in the nerves required communicating pain.

What is the importance of the findings?

• It is said that experiencing pain can be a vital warning to seek help.
• For example, in a person experiencing appendicitis or heart attack. People who are born with insensitivity to pain, meanwhile, often do not realise the severity of injuries and are at greater risk of early death.
• According to a 2012 survey, about 11% of U.S. adults have pain every day and more than 17% of them have severe levels of pain.
• Often this leads to dependence on potent painkillers like opioids, or attempting to self-medicate through counterfeit or illicit drugs that are increasingly laced with deadly fentanyl.
• By better understanding the brain mechanisms responsible for pain modulation, researchers hope to eventually find better cures: Potentially ones that target only those forms of pain that is not useful.

Context:

Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has released the 20th Livestock Census report. The release contains some key results reflecting the aggregate counts of various species as well as its comparison with previous census. 

Details:

• The Livestock Census has been conducted in the country periodically since 1919-20.
• The Livestock Census covers all domesticated animals and its headcounts.
• So far 19 such censuses have been conducted in participation with State Governments and UT Administrations.
• The 20th Livestock Census was conducted in participation with all States and Union Territories.
• The enumeration was done both in rural and urban areas.
• The 20th livestock census is indeed a unique attempt as for the first time such a major initiative has been taken to digitise household-level data through online transmission from the field.
• National Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed a mobile Application software and was used for data collection as well as online transmission of data from the field to the NIC server.

Findings:

Concerns:

• The Centre’s drive to increase indigenous breeds of cattle seems to have had little impact among cows kept for dairy purposes.
• There are 4.85 crore desi (native) milch cows in the country, less than 1% increase than in the last census in 2012.
• The Rashtriya Gokul Mission, launched by the government in 2014, aimed to promote indigenous desi breeds.
  • However, the total population of such cattle — male and female together, milk-producing or not — actually dropped 6%.
  • Exotic and crossbred cattle saw an overall growth of almost 27% to 5 crore animals.
• The milch population of exotic and crossbred cattle — including varieties such as Jersey or Holsteins which have much higher milk yields — saw a whopping growth of 32% over the last seven years.
• Milch cattle are cows kept for the purpose of milk production. Among this category, therefore, foreign breeds now have a population that is more than half the population of desi breeds.

Rashtriya Gokul Mission:

• The Rashtriya Gokul Mission was launched in December 2014 by the Ministry of Agriculture to develop and conserve indigenous bovine breeds for enhancing productivity and milk production.
• It aimed at achieving the objective through the induction of bulls with high genetic merit for semen production, recording of field performance, setting up Gokul grams, etc. in a scientific way.
  • Sahiwal, Gir, Kankrej, Red Sindhi are a few indigenous cow breeds of India.
• This is a focussed program under the National Programme for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development.

Rashtriya Gokul Mission Objectives:

1. Develop and conserve indigenous breeds.
2. Conduct breed improvement program for indigenous cattle breeds so that their genetic makeup improves and stock increases.
3. Increase milk production and productivity.
4. Upgrade lower cattle breeds using elite indigenous breeds.
5. Distribute high genetic merit bulls which are also disease-free for natural service.

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

Current global scenario:

• The global order is now dipping into a vortex of disruptions largely caused by the United States, China and Brexit.
• A setting where there was a chariot of peace, joint co-operation, multilateralism and liberalism whose strings were controlled by institutions such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Court of Justice has now become one of warhorses pulling in different directions to embrace unilateralism, protectionism and isolationism.

Issue:

• With the Global Politics changing at a fast pace, India stands at the crossroads in terms of its foreign policy approach.
• It has a crucial decision to make in terms of the journey ahead whether to:
  1. Continue with its time-tested stable policy of non-alignment and strategic autonomy;
  2. Join the bandwagon of unilateralism and be a permanent treaty ally of one of the superpowers, and, finally, embark upon a calculated trip with the objective of expansion in terms of forging new relations and exploring fresh territories by adopting a strategy of “multi-alignment and transactional autonomy”.
• Cross-currents in the India-U.S. relationship cannot be ruled out.
• The backstage realities of a no-trade deal, and continuing U.S.-Pakistan bonhomie, among other irritants, have challenged the friendship between the leaders of the two nations.
• One domain of foreign policy which requires a serious relook in the India-U.S. relationship.

The contradictions in the U.S.’s outlook:

The recent and abrupt abandonment by the Trump administration of the Kurds who assisted the Americans in fighting the Islamic State both in terms of resources and manpower should serve as a warning sign to India in terms of its Afghanistan strategy.

• India must prepare for the eventuality of a sudden withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan which could lead to a complete takeover by the Taliban, with potential repercussions on India’s northern front.

• With respect to Pakistan, there is often a fog of uncertainty overstated policy.
  • Trump who was till very recently calling Pakistan a “friend who he does not need” is now projecting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as his “friend in need” (on account of America’s Afghan ‘ejection plan’) without realising Pakistan’s bond with terrorism.
• The U.S. campaigned for Iran’s nuclear deal in 2015, then withdrew itself from the accord in 2018 and has now adopted a blanket sanction policy for any nation dealing in oil transactions with Iran.

Such contradictions in the U.S’s lookout raises concerns that the U.S., which now expects India to forego its age-old friendship with Russia, could start transactions with them later, leaving India out in the cold.

Opportunities for India – Way forward:

• Despite these contradictions and challenges, a number of opportunities in the new world order await India.
• The Prime Minister must ensure that India-U.S. bilateralism survives the axe of unilateralism without sacrificing India’s sweet spot and tag of being everyone’s friend.
• India should assert that, at this juncture, it cannot afford to get derailed from the tracks of globalisation, regional alliances, trade opportunities.
• India must convince the U.S. that it will never take sides hurting U.S. interests in real strategic and economic bilateral terms.
• India must focus on multi-alignment both with the U.S. and Russia especially in terms of getting a waiver under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act in purchasing the S-400 missile system from Russia.

Category: ECONOMY

1. Taking national data seriously

Category: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Not green, but greenwash

Q1. Consider the following statements with respect to River Indus:

Q2. Consider the following statements:

Q3. Consider the following statements with respect to All India Women’s Education 
Fund Association (AIWEFA):

Q4. Consider the following statements with respect to Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri 
Jan Arogya Yojana: