Here is the link to Newspaper notes for UPSC 06-06-18 PDF and please do leave your valuable comments , feedback and suggestions, kalyan@iksa.in , telegram @naylak . Do subscribe to our website and please share to your friends about us.

Army will abide by govt. peace plan

• The decision to suspend military operations in Jammu and Kashmir during the month of Ramzan was a government decision and would be respected by all, Defence Minister said.
• There has been a sharp rise in ceasefire violations along the Line of Control. Last week, the Directors-General of Military Operations of India and Pakistan agreed to implement the 2003 ceasefire agreement in “letter and spirit.”

The Line of Control (LOC) is the line that marks where the region of Kashmir is divided. The land on one side of the line is controlled by India, and the land on the other side is controlled by Pakistan. It is not a legal international border, but is the effective boundary between the two countries

Centre not to file counter-affidavit on Article 35A

Please read Laxmiakth for this topic, the more you revise the better in the long run .

• The Centre has decided not to file any “counter-affidavit” on Article 35A, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition.
• Article 35A allows the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to decide the “permanent residents” of the State, prohibits a non-State resident from buying property in the State and ensures reservation in employment for residents.
• Article 35A was incorporated into the Constitution by an order of the then President Rajendra Prasad on the advice of the Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet in 1954.It grants a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
• The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order followed the 1952 Delhi Agreement between Nehru and the then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah, which extended Indian citizenship to the ‘State subjects’ of Jammu and Kashmir.

What is article 35A?

• Article 35 in The Constitution Of India 1949
• What is Article 35A? – The Hindu

 

What is Public interest litigation ?

• What is Public Interest Litigation?
• Restoring legitimacy to PILs – The Hindu
• Disturbing trends in judicial activism – The Hindu
• Judicial activism: a perspective – OPINION – The Hindu

It will be a war on single-use plastic

• As the global host nation for the 2018 World Environment Day (June 5), and as a country that generates over 25,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day, India led the charge against plastic on Tuesday, with programmes in different parts of the country focussed on the theme of ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’.

Promotions in govt. offices should go ahead, says SC

• The Supreme Court on Tuesday orally observed that promotions in government offices should go ahead in “accordance with law.”
• The court was responding to the government’s complaint that the entire promotion process was in limbo because of uncertainty over reservation in promotion for the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe employees.

Life in plastic – OPINION

• India is hosting World Environment Day, the theme is Beat Plastic Pollution.
• Issues :Both the Solid Waste Management Rules and the Plastic Waste Management Rules of 2016, which built on previous regulations, mostly remain on paper.
• State governments did not implement them seriously, producers of plastic articles that are invariably used just for a few minutes have shown little concern about their negative environmental impact.
• over 60% of about 25,000 tonnes of plastic waste generated daily is collected. That essentially means a staggering 10,000 tonnes of trash is being released into the environment, a lot of it going into the sea.
• Not every piece of plastic collected by the system is scientifically processed.
• Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna river system is on the UN map of 10 rivers worldwide that collectively carry the bulk of the plastic waste into the oceans.
• The effects are evident: they threaten marine life and the well-being of people, as microplastics are now found even in drinking water.
• Response:  communities and environmentally minded individuals are ahead of governments and municipal authorities. They segregate waste, compost at home, conduct “plastic free” social events and help recover materials that would otherwise just be dumped in the suburbs and wetlands.
• Policy: It is the Centre’s responsibility to ensure that the Environment (Protection) Act, the overarching law that enables anti-pollution rules to be issued, is implemented in letter and spirit.
• Ideally, regulation should help stop the manufacture of single-use plastic articles such as carry bags and cutlery, and encourage the use of biodegradable materials.
• Local bodies mandated under rules to ensure segregation, collection and transfer of waste to registered recyclers have failed to fulfil their responsibilities.
• The State Level Monitoring Committees provided for under the rules have not been made accountable. The waste management framework is dysfunctional.

 

Familiar moorings – OPINION

• Prime Minister’s visit to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, three of India’s most important partners in Southeast Asia, the visits took place at important moment in Indian foreign policy positioning.
• The government has shifted considerably in its signalling, with PM visiting China and Russia for informal summits. India’s membership of both the Quadrilateral and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation whose summit PM will attend this week is also an indicator of the new balance that New Delhi seeks.
• These visits have taken place at a time the U.S. administration has sharpened its aim at China and Russia with sanctions and threats of a trade war suggests.
• India is attempting to moderate it’s strategic posturing on the global stage, and striving for a more balanced approach
• India has also maintained its commitment to relations with the U.S. in order to build a “free and open” Indo-Pacific region, maintain the “international rules-based order”, and work together to combat terrorism and terror financing.
• PM chose the platform of the Shangri-La Dialogue of defence leaders of the Asia-Pacific region to emphasise Indian “strategic autonomy”. In his speech on the concept of the “Indo-Pacific” he referred to India’s relations with Russia, the U.S. and China.
• PM unveiled a seven-point vision for the Indo-Pacific region. While warning the world about the possible return of “great power rivalries”, he emphasised the importance and centrality of the ASEAN in the concept of the Indo-Pacific.

SCO is a Eurasian political, economic,and  military  organisation which  was founded by the  leaders of China,Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan has recently

become members of SCO in its 2017 meeting held at Astana, Kazhakhstan.

 

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD, also known as the Quad) is an informal strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan, Australia and India that is maintained by talks between member countries.

Preventing the next health crisis

• The government announced that it would release an annual “state of nutrition” report, detailing India’s level of stunting, malnutrition and feature best practices for States to scale up nutrition interventions.
• Nutrition challenges : 26 million children suffer from wasting (a low weight-for-height ratio), more than in any other country. Yet, the country has the second highest number of obese children in the world — 15.3 million in China and 4 million in India.
• The issue:India must step up its efforts to fight overweight and obesity just as it has been doing with wasting and stunting. Between 1980and 2015, obesity doubled for children and tripled for adults; an additional 2.6 million children will be obese in India by 2025.
• Rising obesity is putting pressure on already fragile health systems in India with increase in non-communicable diseases, or NCDs.
• The potent combination of Indian children eating more junk food while becoming increasingly sedentary puts them at an even greater risk. Research has shown that early warning signs for fatty liver disease can be found in children as young as eight.
• Policy responses should include agricultural systems that promote crop diversity (to enable dietary diversity) as well as regulatory and fiscal measures (to decrease the availability, affordability and promotion of unhealthy foods, while making healthy foods more accessible).
• Clinical setting: obesity management, prevention and treatment should be provided as essential health services targeted at a condition that undermines health in many ways.
• There is compelling evidence that heart disease and diabetes impose high burdens o health expenditure, result in a loss of livelihoods and crush people into poverty. With no insurance or personal savings, a heart disease diagnosis can compromise a person’s wealth as well as health.
• Way Forward: 
  • India should link obesity and undernutrition and treat them as twinned challenges to be jointly addressed under the universal health coverage umbrella.
  • While tackling undernutrition through assurance of adequate nutrition (usually interpreted as dietary calories), we need to ensure that it is also about appropriate nutrition (the right balance of nutrients).
  • Our policy response has to move from “food security” to “nutrition security”.

A failure of governance

• The board of ICICI Bank has ordered a probe into allegations levelled against its CEO, Chanda Kochhar.
• There are lapses in governance at a bank that has been characterised as “systemically important” by the regulator.
• The decision to go in for a probe is clearly prompted by widespread dissatisfaction with the clean chit given by the Chairman last March. It is also possible that the board has been rattled by show-cause notices issued by SEBI on May 24.
• Crux of the issue:  In April 2012, ICICI Bank made a loan of Rs. 3,250 crore to the Videocon group. Ms. Kochhar was the bank’s CEO at the time. Mr. Gupta’s letter to the PM had said that Ms. Kochhar’s husband had had a business partnership with the Videocon group prior to the sanction of the ICICI loan. There would thus be a clear conflict of interest in Ms. Kochhar being party to the sanction of a loan to Videocon.
• The issue at the heart of the controversy is simple enough: did Ms. Kochhar disclose the conflict of interest to the board and recuse herself from all matters concerning Videocon? If she did not do so, it is sufficient ground for the board to ask Ms. Kochhar to step down as CEO.
• Non-disclosure of conflict of interest and non-recusal are grave enough lapses.
• State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and HDFC are classified as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIB).
• D-SIB  are  big  banks  of  the  country  as  the  national  economy  is dependent  on  these  banks  so  they  are  seen  as  banks  that  are  too  Big  to  fail.
• Moreover  the  classification  means  the  collapse  of  these  lenders  could  have a cascading impact on the entire financial system and the economy.

 

A tale of two countries

• Carved out of the same political fabric in 1947, India and Pakistan were expected to be identical twins.
• Pakistan: But, Soon after Pakistan’s creation, power gravitated to the office of the Governor-General or President outside the control of Parliament. This trend reached it’s peak with the assumption of power in 1958 by Army Chief Ayub Khan.
• India launched itself on a very different route. The Constitution was framed in record time, powers of the different arms of government were clearly demarcated, and above all the armed forces were made subject to civilian authority.​
• Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru made it very clear in the context of the Menon-Thimayya differences in 1959 that, regardless of the merit of the case, “civil authority is and must remain supreme”. This doctrine of civilian supremacy is one of Nehru’s greatest gifts to the nation.​
• The underlying reason for the supremacy of civilian institutions is the difference in the nature of the Congress and the Muslim League.​
• The Congress had a countrywide organisational structure and a leadership whose legitimacy was uncontested. In contrast, the Muslim League hardly had any roots in Pakistan because its base lay in the Muslim minority provinces that remained in India. ​
• The second major reason lay in their radically different ideological underpinnings. Pakistan was created on the basis of an exclusivist ideology. India chose to adopt secularism as its guiding philosophy.​
• What is disturbing is how much India has begun to emulate Pakistan. As the Indian army has become increasingly engaged in domestic order maintenance, its footprint in domestic politics has amplified. Serving generals have taken to making statements that border on the political. Retired officers have entered the political arena in droves.
• The issue: The Indian state’s commitment to the secular ideal has eroded as the ruling party has pursued majoritarian policies and legitimised rhetoric bordering on hate speech. The vision of a “Hindu rashtra” is gaining increasing acceptability.
• Way forward: Unless this exclusivist trend is reversed, India may descend down the same road that Pakistan has done, to its great detriment.​

Nitrogen emissions going up

 

In news: The Indian Nitrogen Assessment assesses the sources, impacts, trends and future scenarios of reactive nitrogen in the Indian environment.

 

The report:

• Nitrogen particles make up the largest fraction of PM2.5, the class of pollutants closely linked to cardiovascular and respiratory illness.
• Agriculture remains the largest contributor to nitrogen emissions, the burning of crop residue is said to be a key contributor to winter smog in many parts of North India, it contributes over 240 million kg of nitrogen oxides (NOx: a generic term for the nitrogen oxides that are most relevant for air pollution, namely nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide) and about 7 million kg of nitrous oxide (N2O) per year.
• Agricultural soils contributed to over 70% of N2O emissions from India in 2010, followed by waste water (12%) and residential and commercial activities (6%). Since 2002, N2O has replaced methane as the second largest Greenhouse Gas (GHG) from Indian agriculture.
• Chemical fertilizers (over 82% of it is urea) account for over 77% of all agricultural N2O emissions in India, while manure, compost and so on make up the rest. Most of the fertilizers consumed (over 70%) go into the production of cereals, especially rice and wheat, which accounts for the bulk of N2O emissions from India.
• Cattle account for 80% of the ammonia production, though their annual growth rate is 1%, due to a stable population.
• Non-agricultural emissions of nitrogen oxides and nitrous oxide are growing rapidly, with sewage and fossil-fuel burning  for power, transport and industry leading the trend.
• Inefficiencies along the food chain mean about 80% of nitrogen is wasted, contributing to air and water pollution plus greenhouse gas emissions, thereby causing threats for human health, ecosystems and livelihoods.
• Factual data: Indian NOx emissions grew at 52% from 1991 to 2001 and 69% from 2001 to 2011. Annual NOx emissions from coal, diesel and other fuel combustion sources are growing at 6.5% a year currently.
• India is globally the biggest source of ammonia emission, nearly double that of NOx emissions.
• Measures: The authors suggest that nutrient recovery/recycling from waste water for agriculture could cut down N2O emissions from sewage and waste water by up to 40%.

India’s per capita plastic use

• According to the Central Pollution Control Board, India generates about 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day, of which about 40% remains uncollected. About 70% of the plastic packaging products become “waste” in a short span of time. While plastics have a wide variety of applications, the global rally is against the so-called “single use” or disposable plastic  used in bottles, cups, wrapping paper and bags. Together, they account for over half the plastic produced.
• The Environment Ministry, two years ago, notified plastic waste management rules that sought to control the manufacture of the particular kind of plastics.

PLASTIC WASTE MANAGEMENT RULES, 2016 – WHAT’S NEW?

•  Increase minimum thickness of plastic carry bags from 40 to 50 microns and stipulate minimum thickness of 50 micron for  plastic sheets also to facilitate collection and recycle of plastic waste
•  Rural areas have been brought in  ambit of these Rules since plastic has  reached to rural  areas  also.   Responsibility  for  implementation  of  the  rules  is  given  to  Gram Panchayat.
•  First time, responsibility of waste generators is being introduced.  Individual and bulk generators  like  offices,  commercial  establishments,  industries  are  to  segregate  the plastic waste at source, handover segregated waste, pay user fee as per bye-laws of the local bodies.
• Plastic products are left littered after the public events (marriage functions, religious gatherings, public meetings etc) held in open spaces.  First time, persons organising such  events  have  been  made  responsible  for  management  of  waste  generated  from these events.
• Use  of  plastic  sheet  for  packaging,  wrapping  the  commodity  except  those  plastic sheet’s thickness, which will impair the functionality of the product are brought under the ambit of these rules. A large number of commodities are being packed/wrapped in to plastic sheets and thereafter such sheets are left for littered.
• Provisions have been introduced  to  ensure  their  collection  and  channelization  to  authorised  recycling facilities.
• Extended Producer Responsibility: Earlier, EPR was left to the discretion of the local bodies.  First  time,  the  producers  (i.e  persons  engaged  in  manufacture,  or  import  of carry bags, multi-layered packaging and sheets or like and the persons using these for packaging or wrapping their products) and brand owners have been made responsible for  collecting  waste  generated  from  their  products.    They  have  to  approach  local bodies  for  formulation  of  plan/system  for  the  plastic  waste  management  within  the prescribed timeframe.
• SPCBs will not grant/renew registration of plastic bags, or multi-layered packaging unless  the  producer  proposes  the  action  plan  endorsed  by  the  concerned  State Development Department.
• Producers to keep a record of their vendors to whom they have supplied raw materials for manufacturing carry bags, plastic sheets, and multi-layered packaging. This is to curb manufacturing of these products in unorganised sector.
• The  entry  points  of  plastic  bags/plastic  sheets/multi-layered  packaging  in  to commodity  supply  chain  are  primarily  the  retailers  and  street  vendors.  They  havebeen  assigned  the  responsibility  of  not  to  provide  the  commodities  in  plastic bags/plastic  sheets/multi-layered  packaging  which  do  not  conform  to  these  rules. Otherwise, they will have to pay the fine.
• Plastic carry bag will be available only with shopkeepers/street vendors pre-registered with  local  bodies  on  payment  of  certain  registration  fee. The  amount  collected  as registration fee by local bodies is to be used for waste management.
• CPCB  has  been  mandated  to  formulate the  guidelines  for  thermoset  plastic  (plastic difficult to recycle). In the earlier Rules, there was no specific provision for such type
• of plastic.
• Manufacturing  and  use  of  non-recyclable  multi-layered  plastic  to  be phased  in  two years.

  Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018.

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018.  The amended Rules lay down that the phasing out of Multilayered Plastic (MLP) is now applicable to MLP, which are “non-recyclable, or non-energy recoverable, or with no alternate use.”

 

Centre seeks update on SIMI activities

• The Centre has written to the State governments seeking an update on the activities of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) ahead of deciding whether or not to extend the ban on the organisation beyond January 2019.
• In a communication to all States, the Home Ministry said the ban imposed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) came to an end on January 31, 2019, but if the Union government found that the group continued to indulge in unlawful activities, then the prohibition might be imposed afresh.
• Described as a terrorist organisation, the SIMI was first declared an outlawed outfit in 2001.Since then, it has been declared a banned group under the relevant law. The last time it was declared a banned outfit was under the UAPA on February 1, 2014, for a period of five years.
• The SIMI was established on April 25, 1977, in U.P.’s Aligarh, and the organisation’s allegedly agenda is to liberate India by converting it into an Islamic country.

Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is an Indian law aimed at effective prevention of unlawful activities associations in India. Its main objective was to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India.

539 species discovered in India in 2017

• As many as 539 new species of plants and animals were discovered by scientists and taxonomists in the country in 2017, say publications from two major survey organisations: the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and the Botanical Survey of India (BSI).
• Released on World Environment Day, Animal Discoveries, 2017 from the ZSI lists 300 newly discovered species of fauna.
• Plant Discoveries, 2017 lists as many as 239 newly found flora species .
• Just facts: Besides these discoveries, the biodiversity in the country recorded another 263 species with 174 new records of animals and 89 of plants found.The number of discoveries of sub-species and varieties takes the number of floral discoveries to 352.Among the animal discoveries are 241 invertebrates. The number of vertebrates discovered includes 27 species of fish, 18 of amphibians and 12 of reptiles.
• The highlight of the animal discoveries is a new fossil reptilian species Shringasaurus indicus.
• With these discoveries, the number of animal species in India stands at 1,01,167, which is 6.45% of the faunal species found in the world.
• The number of plant species has increased to 49,003, which is 11.4 % of the world flora.
• The Western Ghats and the Himalayas are home to most of the plant and animal discoveries.
• While the Western Ghats contributed 19% of the discoveries of species and sub-species of plants, the number was 37% in terms of animal discoveries.
• The Himalayas contributed 35% of all plant discoveries (18% of the plant discoveries from the western Himalayas and 17% from the eastern Himalayas).
• Among the States, Kerala recorded the highest number of discoveries — 66 species, sub-species and varieties of plants and 52 species of animals.