WHAT IS XENOTRANSPLANTATION, THE PROCESS OF USING AN ANIMAL’S ORGAN TO KEEP A HUMAN ALIVE? Recently, in a landmark surgery in January, a patient whose failing heart had been replaced with the heart of a genetically altered pig in Baltimore, United States, died. What is Xenotransplantation?

• According to the FDA, xenotransplantation is “any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation or infusion into a human recipient of either (a) live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source, or (b) human body fluids, cells, tissues or organs that have had ex vivo contact with live nonhuman animal cells, tissues or organs”.
• Xenotransplantation is seen as an alternative to the clinical transplantation of human organs whose demand around the world exceeds supply by a long distance.
• Xenotransplantation involving the heart was first tried in humans in the 1980s. A well-known case was that of an American baby, Stephanie Fae Beauclair, better known as Baby Fae, who was born with a congenital heart defect, and who received a baboon heart in 1984.

Why the heart of a pig?

• Pig heart valves have been used for replacing damaged valves in humans for over 50 years now. There are several advantages to using the domesticated or farmed pig (Sus scrofa domestica) as the donor animal for xenotransplantation.
• The pig’s anatomical and physiological parameters are similar to that of humans, and the breeding of pigs in farms is widespread and cost-effective. Also, many varieties of pig breeds are farmed, which provides an opportunity for the size of the harvested organs to be matched with the specific needs of the human recipient.
• A genetic engineering is used to tweak the genome of the pig so as to ‘disguise’ it, so that the immune system of the human recipient fails to recognise it, and the reactions that lead to xenograft rejection are not triggered.

Benefits

• Xenotransplantation, if found compatible in the long run, could help provide an alternative supply of organs to those with life-threatening diseases.
• There are over 115,000 people waiting for an organ transplant in the United States. Many of these patients will die before an organ becomes available.
• Efforts to increase organ donation have not resulted in significant changes in transplantable organs. Xenotransplantation offers a radical solution to this organ shortage.
• It has the potential to open up new areas of research, and could end transplant list.
• If xenotransplantation has a positive outcome when transferring pig organs to humans the availability of pig organs is much higher than human organs. This would help decrease the organ transplant list and cut waiting time for patients.
• If we can replace damaged human cells with healthy animal cells, we could find a way to heal diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson’s.
• Along with cells and organs, tissues can also be transplanted into human bodies. These could include corneal transplants to encourage healthier vision and bone transplants.
• Selling human organs on the black market is risky, but some people consider it as an option when they’re desperate to save their lives. The use of animal organs as an alternative could help to reduce this exploitative trade that is very unsafe because you’re not guaranteed of the quality and health of the organs or how they were acquired.

Challenges

• Issues such as high rejection rate, moral/ethical issues, and transfer of diseases from animals to humans can be faced.
• There are concerns that recipients could fall prey to infectious agents, and that these infections could be transmitted to other people as well as the rest of the population.
• One of the biggest fears is cross-species infection by retroviruses, as this could only show up years after the person has become infected with them.
• The molecular incompatibility between pigs and humans can trigger several immune complications after the transplant, which might lead to rejection of the xenograft.
• There are also psychological effects that could be experienced after the transplant, and this combined with the uncertainty of the recipient’s medical future, could certainly impact one’s quality of life. We also don’t know if xenotransplantation could result in other illnesses or health conditions.
• Some of the ethical questions concerning xenotransplantation involve the loss of animal life, not just when it comes to using the healthy animal’s organ for transplantation but also when it comes to how the process needs to be experimented on animals.

Road Ahead:

• Technology is currently being developed to help prevent organ rejection after the xenotransplantation process. It’s a ground breaking advancement that could change organ donation forever. For xenotransplantation to be practical for patients, researchers still need to figure out how to perform modifications to “humanize” the pig organs, at least in terms of the organs’ interaction with human blood and the human immune system.

    WATER MANAGEMENT NEEDS A HYDRO-SOCIAL APPROACH Recently, the latest UN World Water Development Report, 2021, titled ‘Valuing Water’, has laid stress on the proper valuation of water by considering five interrelated perspectives: water sources; water infrastructure; water services; water as an input to production and socio-economic development, and sociocultural values of water. What is Water Management?

• Water management is the control and movement of water resources to minimize damage to life and property and to maximize efficient beneficial use. Good water management of dams and levees reduces the risk of harm due to flooding. Irrigation water management systems make the most efficient use of limited water supplies for agriculture.
• Drainage management involves water budgeting and analysis of surface and sub-surface drainage systems. Sometimes water management involves changing practices, such as groundwater withdrawal rates, or allocation of water to different purposes.

Why There is Need of Water Management?

• The Global Water System Project, which was launched in 2003 as a joint initiative of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) and Global Environmental Change (GEC) programme, epitomises global concern about the human-induced transformation of fresh water and its impact on the earth system and society.
• The fact is that freshwater resources are under stress, the principal driver being human activities in their various forms.
• In its fourth assessment report in 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted the link between societal vulnerability and modifications of water systems. It is globally estimated that the gap between demand for and supply of fresh water may reach up to 40% by 2030 if present practices continue.
• The anthropogenic factors directly influencing a freshwater system are the engineering of river channels, irrigation and other consumptive use of water, widespread land use/land cover change, change in an aquatic habitat, and point and non-point source pollution affecting water quality.
• By 2016, India created an irrigation potential for 112 million hectares, but the gross irrigated area was 93 million hectares. Ground water irrigation now covers 62.8% of net irrigated area.
• The agriculture sector uses a little over 90% of total water use in India. And in industrial plants, consumption is 2 times to 3.5 times higher per unit of production of similar plants in other countries. Similarly, the domestic sector experiences a 30% to 40% loss of water due to leakage.
• The grey water is hardly used in our country. It is estimated that 55% to 75% of domestic water use turns into grey water depending on its nature of use, people’s habits, climatic conditions, etc. The discharge of untreated grey water and industrial effluents into freshwater bodies is cause for concern. The situation will be further complicated if groundwater is affected.
• Apart from the inefficient use of water in all sectors, there is also a reduction in natural storage capacity and deterioration in catchment efficiency.
• The issues are source sustainability, renovation and maintenance of traditional water harvesting structures, grey water management infrastructure, groundwater recharge, increasing water use efficiency, and reuse of water.

Steps Taken

• The formation of the 2030 Water Resource Group in 2008, at the instance of the World Economic Forum, and the World Bank’s promotion of the group’s activity since 2018, is in recognition of this problem and to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on water availability and sanitation for all by 2030 (SDG 6).
• The intra- and inter-basin transfer (IBT) of water is a major hydrological intervention to rectify the imbalance in water availability due to naturally prevailing unequal distribution of water resources within a given territory. The basic premise of IBT is to export water from the surplus basin to a deficit basin.
• The National River Linking Project of India is one of those under construction. These projects, if executed, will create artificial water courses that are more than twice the length of the earth’s equator and will transfer 1,910 km3 of water annually. They will reengineer the hydrological system with considerable local, regional and global ramifications.
• Government of India launched Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) in 2019, a time bound campaign with a mission mode approach intended to improve water availability including ground water conditions in the water stressed blocks of 256 districts in India.
• Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY), a Rs.6000 crore scheme with World Bank funding, for sustainable management of ground water with community participation is being taken up in the identified over-exploited and water stressed areas fall in the States of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. This scheme is expected to contribute significantly towards water and food security of the participating States.

Planning ahead

• Looking into these issues may not be adequate to address all the problems. Nevertheless, these measures will help to reduce demand supply gap in many places, and the remaining areas of scarcity can be catered to using small-scale projects. Water projects are politically charged and manifest an interplay of social relations, social power, and technology.
• It is important to include less predictable variables, revise binary ways of thinking of ‘either or’, and involve non-state actors in decision-making processes. A hybrid water management system is necessary, where (along with professionals and policy makers) the individual, a community and society have definite roles in the value chain. The challenge is not to be techno-centric but anthropogenic.

Supplementary Information River Linking Project

• Recently, inter-basin transfer of water drew attention in India due to a provision made in Budget 2022 for the Ken Betwa River link project which is a part of the National River Linking project (mooted in 1970 and revived in 1999).

Pros of linking rivers: -

• Some rivers cause floods and some other rivers do not have sufficient water, thereby cause droughts in the nearby areas. Interlinking these rivers will achieve water-balance and will solve the problems of floods and droughts to a great extent.
• Agriculture in India is highly dependent on monsoons. Many farmers face losses if there is not sufficient rainfall in the year, and are slipping into poverty. The interlinking of rivers can solve this problem as it reduces the dependence on rainfall.
• Linking rivers can help in installing hydropower plants in many places.
• These projects will create a lot of jobs, which can temporarily reduce the unemployment problem in India.
• This will make many areas habitable. Currently some rural areas are facing severe water shortage and this situation is forcing people to migrate to other areas.
• More inland water ways can be developed, and thereby transportation costs will be reduced.

Cons of linking rivers: -

• Rivers flow naturally. Interlinking and diverting the rivers’ flow causes interference with nature and hence it may threaten the natural ecosystem.
• These projects are very expensive. Instead of spending such a huge investment on interlinking rivers, it would be much better if that is invested in improving ground water levels by installing soak pits, improving watershed management etc.
• The interlinking of rivers demands construction of many dams, which takes up a lot of land and a part of forests in some cases. Reducing the space for forests can impact the cycle of waterfall. Construction of dams causes displacement of many people on the other hand. Many of these projects require large dams, which face strong opposition from environmentalists.
• Many rivers in India are polluted. The pollution levels are different for different rivers. All rivers that are interlinked can become polluted if they are linked.
• Some are of the opinion that these projects are not practically possible, because rivers change their direction periodically.
• Currently states have authority over rivers that are in their region. With this project, these rivers can become a property of center. There are already many disputes among several states regarding river water sharing. Linking rivers may aggregate disputes.
• There is contestation on the concept of the surplus and deficit basin itself as the exercise is substantially hydrological. Water demand within the donor basin by factoring present and future land use, especially cropping patterns, population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation, socio-economic development and environmental flow are hardly worked out.
• Besides this, rainfall in many surplus basins has been reported as declining. The status of the surplus basin may alter if these issues are considered.

    LEAD EXPOSURE IN LAST CENTURY SHRANK IQ SCORES OF HALVES OF AMERICANS, STUDY FINDS A new study calculates that exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood stole a collective 824 million IQ points from more than 170 million Americans alive today, about half the population of the United States. Findings of the Study

• The findings suggest that Americans born before 1996 may now be at greater risk for lead-related health problems, such as faster aging of the brain.
• Leaded gas for cars was banned in the U.S. in 1996, but the researchers say that anyone born before the end of that era, and especially those at the peak of its use in the 1960s and 1970s, had concerningly high lead exposures as children.
• Young children are especially vulnerable to lead's ability to impair brain development and lower cognitive ability. Unfortunately, no matter what age, our brains are ill-equipped to keep it at bay.
• Using publicly available data on U.S. childhood blood-lead levels, leaded-gas use, and population statistics, they determined the likely lifelong burden of lead exposure carried by every American alive in 2015. From this data, they estimated lead's assault on our intelligence by calculating IQ points lost from leaded gas exposure as a proxy for its harmful impact on public health.
• As of 2015, more than 170 million Americans (more than half of the U.S. population) had clinically concerned levels of lead in their blood when they were children, likely resulting in lower IQs and putting them at higher risk for other long-term health impairments, such as reduced brain size, greater likelihood of mental illness, and increased cardiovascular disease in adulthood.
• Leaded gasoline consumption rose rapidly in the early 1960s and peaked in the 1970s. The researchers calculated that at its worst, people born in the mid-to-late 1960s may have lost up to six IQ points, and children registering the highest levels of lead in their blood, eight times the current minimum level to initiate clinical concern, fared even worse, potentially losing more than seven IQ points on average.

About Lead

• Lead is neurotoxic and can erode brain cells after it enters the body. As such, there is no safe level of exposure at any point in life, health experts say.
• Lead is highly toxic to plants and animals including man. Lead generally affects children more severely than adults. Lead poisoning causes a variety of symptoms.
• These include liver and kidney damage, reduction in haemoglobin formulation, mental retardation and abnormality in fertility and pregnancy.

• Symptoms of chronic lead-poisoning are of three general types.
  • Gastrointestinal troubles -most common in industrial workers includes intestinal stress.
  • Neuromuscular effects -collectively called lead palsy, and impairment of muscle metabolism resulting into residual paralysis and muscular atrophy.
  • Central nervous system effects -CNS syndrome - a panoply of nervous system disorders, they may lead to delirium, convulsions coma and death.
• Lead causes damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, blood systems, kidney and reproductive system in humans.It also affects the endocrine system, and impedes brain development among children.

• Lead tends to accumulate in the environment and has high acute and chronic effects on plants, animals and microorganisms.
• Lead is able to reach the bloodstream once it's inhaled as dust, or ingested, or consumed in water. In the bloodstream, it's able to pass into the brain through the blood-brain barrier, which is quite good at keeping a lot of toxicants and pathogens out of the brain, but not all of them.
• The extraction, production, use, and disposal of lead and its products have caused significant contamination of the Earth's soils and waters. Atmospheric emissions of lead were at their peak during the Industrial Revolution, and the lead gasoline period in the second half of the twentieth century.
• Lead can accumulate in soils, especially those with a high organic content, where it remains for hundreds to thousands of years.
• Environmental lead can compete with other metals found in and on plants surfaces potentially inhibiting photosynthesis and at high enough concentrations, negatively affecting plant growth and survival.
• Contamination of soils and plants can lead to ascend the food chain affecting microorganisms and animals.

Lead Prevention

• Lead waste, depending on the jurisdiction and the nature of the waste, may be treated as household waste or potentially hazardous waste requiring specialized treatment or storage.
• Lead is released into the environment in shooting places and a number of lead management practices have been developed to counter the lead contamination.
• Lead migration can be enhanced in acidic soils; to counter that, it is advised soils be treated with lime to neutralize the soils and prevent leaching of lead.
• Withdrawal of lead paint is the need of hour.

    LOK SABHA SPEAKER SHRI OM BIRLA ADDRESSES VALEDICTORY FUNCTION OF 3RD EDITION OF NATIONAL YOUTH PARLIAMENT FESTIVAL 2022 Recently, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla addresses the valedictory function of the 3rd edition of National Youth Parliament Festival (NYPF). National Youth Parliament Festival

• On 31st December in 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the idea of youth becoming the voice of India in his Mann Ki Baat address. He also said that youth should be given a chance to express their views on several issues concerning the country.
• The Objectives of National Youth Parliament Festival
  • To hear the voice of the youth, who will join various careers in coming years, including public services.
  • To listen to the voice of youth between 18 and less than 25 years of age, who are allowed to vote but cannot stand as a candidate for election, through deliberations in Youth Parliaments at the district level and above.
  • To develop and enhance decision-making abilities.
  • To uplift the youth to engage with public issues, understand the view of common man's point, form their opinions, and express it in an articulate manner.
  • To develop in them a respect and tolerance for the views of others.
  • To make their views available to the policymakers and implementers to take it forward.
  • To develop an understanding in them regarding rules that are essential for conducting any discussion systematically and effectively.
  • On Vision of New India in 2022, to obtain and document their opinions.
• Taking inspiration from the idea, the 1st edition of NYPF was organised with the theme, Be the Voice of New India and Find solutions and Contribute to Policy. A total of 88 thousand youth participated in the program.
• 2nd edition of NYPF was organized with the theme YUVAAH- Utsah Naye Bharat Ka through virtual mode which was witnessed by more than 23 lakh youth and stakeholders across the country at District, State and National level.
• 3rd edition of NYPF was launched at District level through virtual mode. More than 2.44 lakh youth across the country participated in the District Youth Parliaments followed by State Youth Parliaments through virtual mode.

National Youth Parliament Festival 2021: Criteria for Participation

• To participate youth in the Youth Parliament festival must be above 18 and less than 25 years of age as of 30th November, 2020.
• It will be the duty of the participant to provide the correct information in this regard. If they provide false information, then it will lead to disqualification from participation in Parliament at whatever stage.
• To participate in the Youth Parliament festival, it is not necessary that the individual be a student of an educational institution.

Significance of Youth in Politics

• Both formal and informal engagement can be understood as political participation, and both are beneficial for a vivid and resilient democracy and should be supported.
• In order to respond to the needs of young people, and to guarantee that their basic human rights are recognized and enforced, young people’s active and meaningful participation in their societies and in democratic practices and processes is of crucial importance.
• Meaningful youth participation and leadership require that young people and young people-led organizations have opportunities, capacities, and benefit from an enabling environment and relevant evidence-based programmes and policies at all levels.
• Realizing young people’s right to participate and be included in democratic processes and practices is also vital to ensure the achievement of internationally agreed development goals and to refresh the development agenda.
• In countries emerging from conflicts, UNDP recognizes that young people can engage in peacebuilding, leading non-violent revolutions, using new technologies to mobilize societies to bring about change. Young people have demonstrated the potential to build bridges across communities, working together, helping to manage conflict and promote peace.
• Young people are vital stakeholders in conflict and in peace-building, and can be agents of change and provide a foundation for rebuilding lives and communities, contributing to a more just and peaceful society.
• The promotion of an enabling environment (legal frameworks, policies and plans) for young people’s participation in a broad range of processes and areas (electoral and parliamentary processes, public administration and local governance, including in peacebuilding environments) at local, sub-national and national levels.
• The promotion of young people’s skills and capacities to participate actively in democratic practices, including in local, national, and global processes (leadership training, etc.)
• The promotion of young women’s participation and presence in political office and decision-making at all levels (participation of young women -through both elected and non-elected positions).

Youth, Governance and Participation – Major issues

• Opportunities for youth to engage in governance and participate in political and decision-making processes depend largely on the political, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts where social norms in many parts of the world result in multiple forms of discrimination against young women.
• There is strong evidence that the participation of young people in formal, institutional political processes is relatively low when compared to older citizens across the globe. This challenges the representativeness of the political system and leads to the disenfranchisement of young people.
• The focus on youth, in terms of their engagement in the political arena, is a relatively new priority but extremely timely, particularly in light of recent events and democratic transitions, in the Arab States as well as other regions.
• People under the age of 35 are rarely found in formal political leadership positions. In a third of countries, eligibility for the national parliament starts at 25 years or higher and it is common practice to refer to politicians as ‘young’ if they are below 35-40 years of age. Youth is not represented adequately in formal political institutions and processes such as Parliaments, political parties, elections, and public administrations.
• With limited opportunities and exposure to meaningfully participate in inclusive decision-making processes, young men and women feel excluded and marginalized in their societies and communities.
• The need for participatory structures and greater trust between youth and institutions and for greater capacity development were also stressed.
• In politics, the feeling of patriotism has been replaced by familism, casteism and sect. The way the tales of corruption of politicians are coming out every day, indifference towards politics is increasing among the youth of the country. Most of the politicians engage in politics of communalism
• There are other things like unemployment, bribes to get a place in government jobs, these are also reasons to take young people away from the country. 

National Youth Festival

• The National Youth Festival is celebrated every year from 12th to 16th January. 12th January, being the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, is observed as National Youth Day. This year, NYPF is also being organized along with the National Youth Festival.
• The aim of celebrating the National Youth Festival is to bring the youth of the country together to showcases their talents, to provide them an arena, by developing a mini-India where youth can share their views, interact in formal and informal settings and exchange their social and cultural uniqueness.
• The festival also promotes national integration, the spirit of communal harmony, brotherhood, courage, and adventure. The main aim is to generate the spirit, essence, and concept of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat.

    RELOCATING FARMLAND COULD TURN BACK CLOCK TWENTY YEARS ON CARBON EMISSIONS, SAY SCIENTISTS Recently, scientists have produced a map showing where the world’s major food crops should be grown to maximise yield and minimise environmental impact. Findings About the Map

• The reimagined world map of agriculture includes large new farming areas for many major crops around the Corn belt in the mid-western US, and below the Sahara Desert. Huge areas of farmland in Europe and India would be restored to natural habitat.
• Previous studies have identified priority areas for ecological restoration, but this is the first to plot the relocation of agricultural land to maximise long-term environmental benefits without compromising food security.
• While a complete global relocation of cropland is clearly not a scenario that could currently be put into practice, the scientists say their models highlight places were croplands are currently very unproductive, but have potential to be hotspots for biodiversity and carbon storage.
• In this optimised scenario, the impact of crop production on the world’s biodiversity would be reduced by 87%. This would drastically reduce the extinction risk for many species, for which agriculture is a major threat.
• The researchers say that croplands would quickly revert back to their natural state, often recovering their original carbon stocks and biodiversity within a few decades.
• The researchers used global maps of the current growing areas of 25 major crops, including wheat, barley and soybean, which together account for over three quarters of croplands worldwide.
• They developed a mathematical model to look at all possible ways to distribute this cropland across the globe, while maintaining overall production levels for each crop.
• A realistic option of only relocating the worst-offending 25% of croplands nationally would result in half of the benefits of optimally moving all croplands.
• The study finds that the optimal distribution of croplands will change very little by the end of the century, irrespective of the specific ways in which the climate may change.
• Optimal cropping locations have no moving target. Areas where environmental footprints would be low, and crop yields high, for the current climate will largely remain optimal in the future.
• The researchers acknowledge that relocating cropland must be done in a way that is acceptable to the people it affects, both economically and socially. They cite examples of set-aside schemes that give farmers financial incentives to retire part of their land for environmental benefit. Financial incentives can also encourage people to farm in better suited locations.

Why There is need of Relocating Farmland?

• The redesign - assuming high-input, mechanised farming - would cut the carbon impact of global croplands by 71%, by allowing land to revert to its natural, forested state. This is the equivalent of capturing twenty years’ worth of our current net CO2 emissions.
• Trees capture carbon as they grow, and also enable more carbon to be captured by the soil than when crops are grown in it.
• The redesign would eliminate the need for irrigation altogether, by growing crops in places where rainfall provides all the water they need to grow.
• Agriculture is currently responsible for around 70% of global freshwater use, and this causes drinking water shortages in many drier parts of the world.
• Taking a pared-back approach and only redistributing croplands within national borders, rather than globally, would still result in significant benefits: global carbon impact would be reduced by 59% and biodiversity impact would be 77% lower than at present.
• The model generated alternative global distribution maps depending on the way the land is farmed – ranging from advanced, fully mechanised production with high-yielding crop varieties and optimum fertiliser and pesticide application, through to traditional subsistence-based organic farming.
• Even redistribution of less intensive farming practices to optimal locations would substantially reduce their carbon and biodiversity impacts.

Benefits of Relocating Farmland

• This could dramatically reduce the risk of extinction for many species as chosen croplands revert to their natural state.
• The authors believe these lands would recover their original ability to trap CO2 and biodiversity levels within a few decades.
• The new farmlands would take advantage of natural rainfall, totally eliminating the need for irrigation.
• Ecosystem restoration has been identified as a key strategy for achieving large-scale carbon sequestration and reducing pressures on terrestrial biodiversity.
• In addition to carbon and biodiversity gains, optimally relocating croplands could also substantially reduce the water footprint of agriculture if new areas were established where sufficient rainfall obviates the need for irrigation.
• Relocating agricultural areas may not only represent an environmental opportunity, but may become a necessity for maintaining global food security as changing precipitation and snowmelt patterns are threatening crop water supply whilst shifting temperature regimes are reducing productivity across large parts of the world.

Challenges

• The lack of suitable long-term projections of future global crop production levels prevents us from determining the optimal distributions of croplands for specific future scenarios of global food production.
• In principle, large-scale dietary shifts could lead to a decrease in the future demand for some of the crops, in which case some areas identified may no longer represent optimal cropping locations.
• Due to short-term marginal economic returns of mechanising production, using high-yielding crop varieties, and improving fertiliser and pesticide or due to local socio-economic, political, or infrastructural constraints.
• Country- and crop-specific data used to generate global maps of observed yields and harvested areas used here differ in quality; however, the derived maps have been curated and validated extensively based on independent regional and national datasets and local expert opinion.
• Estimates of potential crop yields are constrained by the availability and quality of climatic, ecological, and agricultural data required to calibrate yield models; spatially heterogeneous information on global soil properties in particular has been noted as a relevant limitation.
• Potential natural carbon stocks, used here to assess carbon impacts, were derived based on established methodologies that achieves robustness by providing estimates that are generally specific to a given combination of ecosystem, climate, and geographical region, and which may therefore underrepresent finer spatial heterogeneities.

What can be Done?

• A number of national and supranational set-aside schemes, aimed at retiring agricultural land for environmental benefits, can offer useful templates for how payments for ecosystem services can reduce current impacts in socio-economically sustainable ways.
• Designing incentives to encourage the abandonment and regeneration of the least agro-environmentally efficient areas will be crucial for achieving benefits most effectively.
• International climate funds can support countries lacking the financial means for payments to farmers in implementing durable set-aside schemes.
• In addition, in many parts of the world, agricultural subsidies prevent the abandonment of agricultural land that would otherwise occur naturally; reducing subsidies in areas with high potential carbon stocks and biodiversity therefore represents a particularly cost-efficient strategy for generating environmental benefits.
• A number of financial, infrastructural, and policy measures, ranging from land-use zoning to strategic agronomic support and certification schemes, can incentivise the establishment of new agricultural land in optimal target areas.
• Simultaneously, strong legal and policy frameworks are needed to ensure an effective protection of regenerating abandoned croplands, and promote active restoration to support the recovery process when necessary.
• Finally, it is crucial that such measures accommodate the social equity dimension of agricultural land abandonment and relocation. Acknowledging that financial compensation cannot replace social and cultural assets, and that relocation of farmland must be consensual, needs to be a cornerstone of any programme design.

Road Ahead:

• Many of the world's croplands are located in areas where they have a huge environmental footprint, having replaced carbon-rich and biodiversity-rich ecosystems, and are a significant drain on local water resources. These locations were chosen for historical reasons, such as their proximity to human settlements, but the researchers say it is now time to grow food in a more optimal way.

    GOVT INVITES APPLICATIONS FROM DRONE INDUSTRY FOR RS 120 CRORE PLI SCHEME The Government has invited applications from the drone industry for Production Linked Incentive (PLI). PLI Scheme for Drone Industry

• PLI scheme was notified on 30th September 2021. The total incentive is INR 120 crore spread over three financial years, which is nearly double the combined turnover of all domestic drone manufacturers in FY 2020-21.
• The PLI rate is 20% of the value addition, one of the highest among PLI schemes. The value addition shall be calculated as the annual sales revenue from drones and drone components (net of GST) minus the purchase cost (net of GST) of drone and drone components. PLI rate has been kept constant at 20% for all three years, an exceptional treatment for drones.
• As per the scheme, Minimum value addition norm is at 40% of net sales for drones and drone components instead of 50%, an exceptional treatment for drones. Eligibility norm for MSME and startups is at nominal levels.
• Coverage of the scheme includes developers of drone-related software also. PLI for a manufacturer shall be capped at 25% of total annual outlay. This will allow widening the number of beneficiaries.
• In case a manufacturer fails to meet the threshold for the eligible value addition for a particular financial year, he will be allowed to claim the lost incentive in the subsequent year if he makes up the shortfall in the subsequent year.
• More than one company within a Group of Companies may file separate applications under this PLI scheme and the same shall be evaluated independently.
• However, the total PLI payable to such applicants shall be capped at 25% of the total financial outlay under this PLI scheme.

Significance of PLI for Drone Industry

• It will become a step towards realising our collective vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
• Drones offer tremendous benefits to almost all sectors of the economy.  These include– agriculture, mining, infrastructure, surveillance, emergency response, transportation, geo-spatial mapping, defence, and law enforcement to name a few. 
• Drones can be significant creators of employment and economic growth due to their reach, versatility, and ease of use, especially in India’s remote and inaccessible areas.  
• Given its traditional strengths in innovation, information technology, frugal engineering and its huge domestic demand, India has the potential of becoming a global drone hub by 2030.
• The drones and drone components manufacturing industry may see an investment of over INR 5,000 crore over the next three years. 
• The annual sales turnover of the drone manufacturing industry may grow from INR 60 crore in 2020-21-fold to over INR 900 crore in FY 2023-24.  The drone manufacturing industry is expected to generate over 10,000 direct jobs over the next three years.

About PLI Scheme

• Finance Minister has announced an outlay of INR 1.97 Lakh Crores for the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes across 13 key sectors, to create national manufacturing champions and generate employment opportunities for the country’s youth.
• PLI Scheme, as the Production Linked Incentive Scheme is commonly abbreviated as, is an initiative started by the Government of India to not only encourage foreign companies to find workforce in the country and thereby generate employment, but also encourage domestic and local production to create micro jobs.
• PLI scheme is an initiative that provides incentives to domestic industries to boost local production. When that happens, specifically tailored products emerge that satisfy a selected niche of target audience. Domestic businesses also help in cutting down import bills.
• As per the PLI scheme, the government encouraged domestic companies and establishments to set up or expand manufacturing units to increase production, to which the government provides incentives on incremental sales.

• The PLI scheme is essential in the country for many reasons.
  • The prime necessity is to neutralize the number of imports and exports in the country in a non-discriminatory manner. This is possible when domestic industries are given more and due importance.
  • Another reason is that India is primarily a labor-intensive workforce owing to the population, and that the government could focus on capital influx for growth.
  • But capital-intensive growth can generate returns only after a long time, a duration that foreign funding can afford. So instead, the government shifting its focus to boost short term, under a year result driven industry, can potentially balance the trade into and out of the country.
• The PLI scheme can also bring back old designs and product customs that can contribute heavily to diversity, while also empowering forgotten artistry buried due to colonialism.
• The framework of the PLI scheme is to reward increased production.
• Due to the niche and specificity of PLI linked sectors, that mostly involve careful and attentive focus on man force and creating, PLI can enhance building systems to adjust to climate change and even essentially reverse it in the many years to come.

    UPI123PAY IS A GAME CHANGER IN DIGITAL BANKING SPACE RBI in its monetary policy review launched UPI123, assured to come up with digital payment facilities for estimated feature phone holders. What is UPI123Pay?

• The unified payments interface (UPI) service, which was limited to smartphones to date, will be now available for feature phones without internet.
• RBI has come up with a compatible digital banking product for an estimated 400 feature phone holders ‘UPI123Pay.
• Henceforth, feature phone holder will be able to make electronic payment transactions by using UPI.
• Such users can initiate payments to friends and family, pay utility bills, recharge the FAST Tags of their vehicles, pay mobile bills and also allow users to check account balances.
• Customers will also be able to link bank accounts, set or change UPI PINs.
• It is supported by another reinforcing round the clock support services ‘DigiSaathi’ to address the queries of digital payment users.
• Automated responses on information related to digital payment products and services will be available in Hindi/English to begin with. Other languages will be added in due course.
• The service is expected to benefit 40 crore feature phone users and is likely to increase digital financial inclusion, especially in the rural parts of the country.
• The initiative is envisioned to accelerate the process of digital adoption in India, by creating a richer and inclusive ecosystem that can accommodate larger sections of population.

The impact of the move

• The availability of the service on feature phones without an internet connection could help it penetrate into rural areas of the country, enhancing financial inclusion and digital adoption, while also driving payments’ volumes on the platform.
• UPI recorded more than 450 crore transactions worth Rs 8.26 lakh crore in February 2022, almost double when compared to a year ago.
• In 2022-21, the total value of transactions was around Rs 41 lakh crore. In the current fiscal, the total volume of transactions is Rs 76 lakh crore.
• This move is designed to increase digital penetration of financial services and help people at the bottom of the pyramid, who cannot afford smartphones, to participate in UPI transactions. It will thus bring a majority of them into the digitisation fold.

How will users make payments without the internet?

• The new UPI payments system offers users four options to make payments without internet connectivity: Interactive Voice Response (IVR), app-based functionality, missed call facility and proximity sound-based payments.
• Using the IVR option, users would be required to initiate a secured call from their feature phones to a predetermined IVR number and complete UPI on-boarding formalities to be able to start making financial transactions like money transfer, mobile recharge, EMI repayment, balance check, among others.
• The missed call facility will allow users to access their bank account and perform routine transactions such as receiving, transferring funds, regular purchases, bill payments, etc., by giving a missed call on the number displayed at the merchant outlet. The customer will receive an incoming call to authenticate the transaction by entering UPI PIN.
• They could also install an app on their feature phone through which several UPI functions, available on smartphones, will be available on their feature phone, except scan and pay feature which is currently not available.
• Finally, they could utilise the proximity sound-based payments option, which uses sound waves to enable contactless, offline, and proximity data communication on any device.

Do other countries have something similar?

• Mobile payment systems that do not rely on internet connectivity like the ones based on USSD or SMS technology were introduced many years ago and are still being used in some developing countries.
• In fact, one of the major mobile payment systems globally was introduced by Vodafone’s Kenyan associate, Safaricom in 2007.
• M-PESA, which is Africa’s leading mobile money service, operates across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania, with 51 million customers making over $314 billion in transactions per year through the service, according to Vodafone.

How does it take the UPI programme forward?

• Even though UPI can alternatively be accessed through the National Unified USSD Platform using the code *99#, the process has not seen an uptick in adoption or popularity.
• However, with UPI123Pay, it would reach 40 crore feature phone users in the country, potentially making a material improvement in the way they access the popular payments platform.
• The RBI estimates that overall volumes on UPI will touch Rs 100 crore soon and UPI123Pay could play a significant part in it.

What can be Done to Reduce Digital Illiteracy?

• Since this product is going to reduce further footfalls at branches enabling bank branches to undertake more qualitative activities, it will be in the interest of banks to share the information and impart knowledge to the community.
• They can collaborate with village panchayats, post offices and block level authorities to record messages in local language, print small leaflets and broadcast them to bring these services closer to people.
• Some knowledge of the product and its methods of usage is to be spread across the community where the local schools can play a great role.
• The benefits of financial inclusion can be fully harnessed only when the demand side of banking services is created in the community.
• The state government and local self-government should work in collaboration with banks, educational institutes and other agencies to educate people and assure them about safety.

• Multipronged strategies will be needed to
  • create awareness about the new product by promoting digital literacy on a much higher scale and size.
  • Operational risk management in NPCI has to be ramped up to tackle add on risks coming up with the new pack of products.
  • Eventually, new institutions have to be brought in to diversify the payment infrastructure to risk proof of the systems.

Road Ahead:

• It is contextual to put it in perspective that RBI, way forward should create more institutions like NPCI in a burgeoning economic environment where volumes and transactions are set to rise exponentially. Some time back RBI had sought the interest of entrepreneurs to set up New Umbrella Entity (NUE) for payment systems.
• It needs to be followed up to mitigate operational risk in payment systems. In a country with vast diversity, depending on one institution to support the payment system may tantamount to taking too much operational risk.

Supplementary Information About UPI

• UPI was launched on April 11, 2016 on pilot basis and rolled out as UPI app on google Play store on August 25, 2016 marking the beginning of digital payment revolution in India.
• It is the largest retail payment system in the country and has so far processed transactions of over Rs 76 trillion in the current fiscal Year 2021-22 compared to Rs 41 trillion worth of transactions handled in 2020-21 and is likely to process transactions of Rs 100 trillion in the coming fiscal as the scope of its usage is being expanded.
• NPCI has set itself a target of 1 billion transactions a day on the UPI platform in the next three to five years. It is noteworthy that 50 per cent of transactions through UPI were below Rs 200, indicating its success because one of the initial objectives of UPI was to replace cash for low-value transactions.

About Digisaathi

• A 24x7 helpline for digital payments has also been set up by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
• The helpline christened 'Digisaathi' will assist the callers/users with all their queries on digital payments via website and chatbot.

    INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WOMEN JUDGES: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE Recently, the Supreme Court commemorated the first ever 'International Day of Women Judges'. International Day of Women Judges

• The event was organised pursuant to the resolution presented by Qatar before the United Nations General Assembly, whereby member states were called upon to celebrate the full and equal participation of women at all levels of the judiciary on the 10th of March every year, as it was resolved to be proclaimed as the 'International Day of Women Judges.'
• Redressing gender inequalities is also at the core of UNODC's Strategy for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and is a goal shared by the Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration, as it works to promote a culture of lawfulness around the world, providing education and training and supporting the full participation of women in every professional sphere.
• Women’s representation in the judiciary is key to ensuring that courts represent their citizens, address their concerns and hand down sound judgments.
• By their mere presence, women judges enhance the legitimacy of courts, sending a powerful signal that they are open and accessible to those who seek recourse to justice.
• The entry of women judges into spaces from which they had historically been excluded has been a positive step in the direction of judiciaries being perceived as being more transparent, inclusive, and representative of the people whose lives they affect.
• By marking the day, we will reaffirm our commitment to develop and implement appropriate and effective national strategies and plans for the advancement of women in judicial justice systems and institutions at the leadership, managerial and other levels.

Status of Women in Judiciary

• In high courts, the percentage of women judges is a mere 11.5%, while in the Supreme Court there are four sitting women judges out of 33 in office, the Chief Justice of India said.
• On the issue of under-representation of women in the judiciary, he said women on average constitute only around 30% of the judges in the lower judiciary.
• In 15 states, for which data was available, the authors find that 36.5% of the civil judges recruited over the 10 years were women in 15 states.
• Recruitment of civil judges is based on an exam which allows fresh law graduates to apply. Encouragingly, the recruitment of women has increased over time in most states. In 2007, only 27.6% of women were recruited but this increased to 49.2% by 2017.
• Among district judges, who were recruited from state Bar Councils via exams, only 12% were women in the 13 states analysed. The representation was especially low in Jharkhand (1 woman out of 30 district judge appointments), Uttar Pradesh (9/139) and Gujarat (4/57).
• Out of 1.7 million advocates registered, only 15% are women.
• Only 2% of the elected representatives in the State Bar Councils are women.
• There is no woman member in the Bar Council of India.

Benefits of Inclusion of Women in Judiciary

• Specifically, to ensuring that the legal system is developed with all of society in mind, it also inspires the next generation of female judges and motivates them to achieve their goals.
• Only through the active participation of women, on equal terms with men, at all levels of decision-making, we’ll be able to achieve sustainable development, peace and democracy.
• It is essential to further the principles of justice and equality envisaged in the Preamble of our Constitution.
• Gender equality being 5th of the 17 sustainable development goals set out by the United Nations in the year 2015 to be achieved by 2030, it is all the more important to enhance women's representation.
• The importance of equal representation of women in judiciary lies in the fact that it balances the scale of justice which is crucial to dispense complete justice.
• Referring to the goddess of justice as a moral force in the judicial system it has been elucidated that the significance of her attributes, were reflective of the qualities that a woman judge possesses.
• Virtues like honesty, patience, credence, impartiality, independence are the traits which are essential for effectively dispensing justice, are also qualities, largely, imbibed by women.
• The democracy demands equal representation in its strongest pillar.
• Adjudication is enhanced by the presence of women who bring to the fore considerations that would not have been taken into account in their absence; the scope of the discussion is hence enlarged, possibly preventing ill-considered or improper decisions.
• By elucidating how laws and rulings can be based on gender stereotypes, or how they might have a different impact on women and men, a gender perspective enhances the fairness of adjudication, which ultimately benefits both men and women. All judges should strive to bring a gender perspective to adjudication.

Challenges Faced by Women in Judiciary

• There are various barriers that women face in the legal profession, including bias, lack of judicial infrastructure, gender stereotype, etc.
• The continued prevalence of certain attitudes about the role of women in society – is a problem a woman faces regardless of the type of employment.
• Another issue is the bias that women face, whether from their colleagues or litigants. This bias affects not just women advocates, but also those on the bench.
• Judicial infrastructure, or the lack of it, is another barrier to women in the profession, small courtrooms which are crowded and cramped, absence of restrooms, and childcare facilities are all barriers. Nearly 22% of courts in the country did not have washroom facilities.
• Clients’ preference for male advocates.
• A major barrier to women’s recruitment as district judges are the eligibility criteria to take the entrance exams. Lawyers need to have seven years of continuous legal practice and be in the age bracket of 35-45. This is a disadvantage for women as many are married by this age.
• Further, the long and inflexible work hours in law, combined with familial responsibilities, force many women to drop out of practice and they fail to meet the requirement of continuous practice.

What Can be Done?

• Reservation of a significant percentage of seats in law schools and universities for women.
• Focusing on better tertiary education for women and sensitising young girls to career options in the judicial services is the most obvious first step.
• There are deeper systemic changes needed.
• There is need of a more transparent manner of appointing judges. The introduction of clear and transparent criteria for appointing judges, a more even distribution of judges from both the bar and the services, and enhancing accountability are some alternative approaches to creating a judicial quota.
• We must also try and incorporate a lesson from England. It was only in 2003 that Britain got its first female judge in its highest court. The government created an Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity, which was to investigate the barriers to women and in the judiciary and propose suitable remedies and recommendations. India too can look at creating such a body, and strike the problem of low judicial representation of women at its root.

Road Ahead:

• There is no shortage of women entering the legal profession. Women comprised 44% of candidates who qualified in the 2019 Common Law Admission Test for National Law Universities. “Increased judicial diversity enriches and strengthens the ability of judicial reasoning to encompass and respond to varied social contexts and experiences. This can improve justice sector responses to the needs of women and marginalized groups,” found the International Commission of Jurists report.