G-7 Ministers commit to work for carbon-free electricity by 2035

• Climate and Energy Ministers and envoys from G-7 countries on Sunday committed to work towards ensuring carbon-free electricity production by 2035 and “accelerating” the phase- out of coal.
• This was part of an agreement by the countries at the end of a two-day conference in Sapporo, Japan, ahead of the G-7 summit in Hiroshima this May.
• Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav had also participated in the summit with India being invited as a ‘guest’, in the context of its presidency of the G-20.
• The participants also agreed to accelerating solar and wind energy investments to produce 1,000 gigawatt (GW) by 2030 from solar power and 150 GW of wind power from off-shore platforms. This, they said, would be in line with recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that repeat the need to ensure that global temperatures not increase by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.

India’s Commitment

• At the United Nations-Conference of Parties (COP) meeting in Glasgow in 2021, India had objected to language in the agreement to “phase out” and pushed instead for a “phase down” of coal.
• At the COP meeting in Sharm el Sheikh last year, India pushed for a proposal to phase out all fossil fuel sources, including coal and gas.
• India and China are significantly dependent on coal for electricity, whereas several developed countries, including the United States, Japan, Canada and Europe, are reliant on gas reserves. The latter however did not find mention in the final text of the Sharm el Sheikh agreement.

Net Zero

• Net Zero is a state in which a country’s total emissions are offset by absorptions of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, like that done by trees and forests, and physical removal of carbon dioxide through futuristic technologies.
• More than 70 countries have promised to become Net Zero by the middle of the century, and this is being considered vital for meeting the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperatures within 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times.
• India’s Net Zero target of 2070 silences its critics but it is along expected lines. The big thing here is not the target itself but the fact that India finally relented and decided to take up a target, something it had been holding back on for quite some time.
• In its climate action plan submitted under the Paris Agreement, India had promised to reduce its emissions intensity, or emissions per unit of Gross Domestic Product, by 33 to 35% by the year 2030 compared to 2005 levels.

61 dead after clashes between Sudan Army and rivals enter second day

• The Sudanese military and a powerful paramilitary group battled for control of the nation for a second day, signalling they were unwilling to end hostilities despite mounting diplomatic pressure to cease fire.
• Heavy fighting in the capital of Khartoum, the adjoining city of Omdurman and in flashpoints across the country. The rival forces are believed to have tens of thousands of fighters each in the capital alone.
• The clashes are part of a power struggle between Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the commander of the armed forces, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces group. The two Generals are former allies who jointly orchestrated an October 2021 military coup that derailed Sudan’s short-lived transition to democracy.

Growing tensions

• In recent months, internationally backed negotiations revived hopes for such a transition, but growing tensions between Gen. Burhan and Gen. Dagalo eventually delayed a deal with political parties.
• Volker Perthes, the UN envoy for Sudan, announced that both Gen. Burhan and Gen. Dagalo agreed to a three-hour humanitarian pause in fighting on Sunday.
• On Sunday, the World Food Programme said it temporarily suspended operations in Sudan after three agency employees were killed in clashes the previous day and an aircraft used by the WFP was damaged.

From the Past

• April 2019, when Sudan''s long-serving authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown by military generals following a countrywide uprising against him.
• Four months later the Sovereignty Council, a power-sharing body of military officers and civilians, was constituted to lead Sudan to elections at the end of 2023. Abdalla Hamdok was appointed Prime Minister for the transitional period, and he took office in August 2019.
• But the military overthrew Hamdok''s government in October 2021, and Burhan be- came the de facto leader of Sudan and he announced that the military would hold power until elections were held in July 2023.

LG Sinha Says His Admin Steering Change in Socio-economic Landscape of J-K with Citizen’s Participation

• Speaking in his monthly “Awaam Ki Awaaz” radio programme, he said the Jammu and Kashmir administration is bringing about a change in the socio-economic scenario of the Union Territory with the participation of citizens.
• Kashmir division is witnessing a ‘yellow revolution’, which has registered a significant increase in oilseed crops. “There will be additional opportunities for oil extraction and value addition and hence more entrepreneurial opportunities for the people,” the Lt Governor said.
• Congratulating the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the GI-tagging of the famous Basholi painting.
• Basohli Painting has become the first independent GI-tagged product of the Jammu region. This will give customers access to authentic produce and give a huge boost to the local economy.”

Basohli School

• This school of Pahari painting received patronage from Raja Kripal Pal
• Famous paintings belonging to this school:
  • An artist named Devidasa executed miniatures in the form of the Rasamanjari illustrations in 1694 A.D.
  • An illustration from a series of Gita Govinda painted by artist Manaku in 1730 A.D is another famous example of this school of painting
• From the paintings
  • There is a change in the facial type which becomes a little heavier and also in the tree forms which assume a somewhat naturalistic character, which may be due to the influence of the Mughal painting.
  • There is the use of strong and contrasting colours, monochrome background, large eyes, bold drawing, use of beetles wings for showing diamonds in ornaments, narrow sky and the red border are observable in this miniature.

Heatstroke deaths in Mumbai

• The deaths of 11 people in Mumbai on Sunday (April 16), apparently due to heatstroke, while they were attending a government meeting in an open space, is possibly the largest heatwave-related death toll from a single event.
• According to the IMD, heatwave conditions are currently prevailing in some areas of Gangetic West Bengal, coastal Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. In most parts of Mumbai, maximum temperatures on Sunday were in the range of 30-35 degrees Celsius.

Wet bulb temperature

• High temperatures in themselves are often not fatal. The combination of high temperature and high humidity, referred to as the “wet bulb temperature”, is what makes heatwaves deadly. Information on wet bulb temperatures in Mumbai on Sunday was not immediately available.

• Humidity is a critical factor in heat exposure because high humidity does not allow sweat to evaporate off the surface of the skin, the primary way in which humans lose the heat generated within the body. The cooling effect that the evaporating sweat produces is essential in maintaining a stable body temperature. Also, the resilience of people to heatwaves varies with age and depends on underlying health conditions.

  

• The summer this year is predicted to be excessively hot because of the end of the La Nina phase in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, something that has a general cooling effect on the Earth’s atmosphere. New forecasts suggest that El Nino, which has the opposite impact of La Nina, is likely to kick in from the May-July period itself, earlier than expected.

A big fat problem in milk: What’s driving up prices?

• The current price inflation in milk has mainly to do with a shortage of fat. It has led dairies to increase full-cream milk prices more or to cut down fat content through rebranding of existing products. There have even been reports of branded ghee and butter disappearing from store shelves.
• This links to the falling contribution of buffaloes to national milk production. The share of buffaloes — their milk has an average 7% fat and 9% SNF content, against 3.5% and 8.5% of cows — to total output was about 46.4% in 2021-22. In 2000-01, it stood at 56.9%, even as the share of crossbred/exotic cows has risen (18.5% to 32.8%) and that of indigenous/non-descript cattle declined (24.6% to 20.8%) over this period.
• Demand is growing for ghee, ice-cream, khoa, paneer, cheese, and other high-fat milk products. But supply is coming more from crossbreds that give low-fat milk. The mismatch is pushing fat prices higher.
• A more immediate reason for rising fat prices is exports. During 2021-22, India exported over 33,000 tonnes of ghee, butter, and anhydrous milk fat valued at Rs 1,281 crore.
• This also due to low prices received during the Covid lockdowns, escalation in fodder and livestock feed costs, and lumpy skin disease outbreak among cattle.

GST

• Milk doesn’t attract any goods and services tax. But SMP is taxed at 5% and milk fat at 12%. So while dairies pay no tax on milk procured from farmers, they have to shell out GST on solids. And input tax credit cannot be claimed, as there’s no GST on milk itself. Moreover, the tax incidence goes up as the fat in the reconstituted milk increases.

Lumpy Skin Disease

• Causes:
  • LSD is caused by infection of cattle or water buffalo with the poxvirus Lumpy Skin Disease Virus (LSDV).
  • According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), The mortality rate is less than 10%.
  • Lumpy skin disease was first seen as an epidemic in Zambia in 1929. Initially, it was thought to be the result of either poisoning or hypersensitivity to insect bites.
• Transmission:
  • Lumpy skin disease is primarily spread between animals by biting insects (vectors), such as mosquitoes and biting flies.
• Symptoms:
  • It primarily consists of fever, fluid excretion from eyes and nose, dribbling of saliva from the mouth and blisters on the body.
  • The animal stops eating and faces problems while chewing or eating, resulting in reduced milk production.
• Prevention and Treatment:
  • Vaccination against these diseases is covered under the Livestock Health and Disease Control Programme of India.
  • There are no specific antiviral drugs available for the treatment of lumpy skin disease. The only treatment available is supportive care of cattle. This can include treatment of skin lesions using wound care sprays and the use of antibiotics to prevent secondary skin infections and pneumonia.
  • Anti-inflammatory painkillers can be used to keep up the appetite of affected animals.