Latest News
Feb 22, 2022
A CASE FOR A MORE FEDERAL JUDICIARY
Nearly 150 years ago, A.V. Dicey, the foremost constitutional lawyer of his day, wrote, “The essential characteristic of federalism is the distribution of limited executive, legislative and judicial authority among bodies which are coordinate with and independent of each other”.
Federalism
Atmospheric Methane
What is Nuclear Power?
India-Germany Relations
New India Literacy Programme
Neutrino
Purpose of surveillance:
About C34
Highlights of study
Highlights of the study
Mental Health
- We now examine the Indian judiciary and the need to strengthen the federal nature of our judiciary. India is a union of States. The Supreme Court of India has held that the federalist nature of our country is part and parcel of the basic structure of the Constitution.
Federalism
- The idea which lies at the bottom of federalism is that each of the separate States should have approximately equal political rights and thereby be able to maintain their non-dependent (for want of a better word) characteristics within the larger union.
- An integral requirement of a federal state is that there be a robust federal judicial system which interprets this constitution, and therefore adjudicates upon the rights of the federal units and the central unit, and between the citizen and these units.
- First, the Supreme Court has the power to appoint judges and chief justices to the High Courts and the Supreme Court. This Collegium also has the power to transfer judges and chief justices from one High Court to another.
- Second, successive governments have passed laws that create parallel judicial systems of courts and tribunals which provide for direct appeals to the Supreme Court, bypassing the High Courts.
- Third, the Supreme Court has been liberal in entertaining cases pertaining to trifling matters.
- Judicial review by a centralized judiciary tends toward unitarism. For example, in the United States, the Supreme Court is far more likely to strike down a state statute as unconstitutional than a federal statute.
- An aggressively interventionist Supreme Court leads many to approach it directly as a panacea for all ills befalling the nation.
- In 2018, a direct petition was filed in the Supreme Court to curtail Deepavali celebrations. The Court promptly issued directions to celebrate Deepavali for only one or two hours in the evening. This led to an uproar because people in South India celebrate Deepavali in the morning.
- Every time the Supreme Court entertains an appeal against a High Court decision, it second guesses the High Court. It sends out the message to the litigant: ‘It does not matter that the High Court ruled against you, you can take one more chance with this appeal.’
- Creation of parallel hierarchies of courts and tribunals, whether it be the Competition Commission, or the company law tribunals, or the consumer courts, all bypassed High Courts. Whether it be the weakening of the authority of the High Courts or the possibility of a tendency towards subservience or apathy of the judges of the High Courts.
- In the decades immediately preceding the French Revolution there was a gradual erosion in the powers of the nobles living in the rural parts of France, and a gradual aggrandizement of powers in the hands of the aristocracy in Paris.
- The conclusion arrives at is that all central units have a natural tendency to aggrandize power to themselves from the state units, believing that centralization enables them to discharge their duties more effectively in relation to the entire state. But in reality, the weakening of the state units sets off a weakening of the entire body of the state, which gradually ossifies into irreversible decay.
- We conclude by hoping that the Supreme Court itself recognizes the importance of self-abnegation and restores the federal balance by re-empowering the High Courts. This will be in the best interest of the nation.
- Scientists say the grim milestone underscores the importance of a pledge made at last year’s COP26 climate summit to curb emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas at least 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide.
Atmospheric Methane
- Methane (CH4) is the most abundant organic trace gas in the atmosphere.
- Following water vapor and carbon dioxide (CO2), methane is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the troposphere.
- Both on a molecule and a mass basis, additional methane is actually much more effective as a greenhouse gas than additional CO2.
- Methane is also the most abundant reactive trace gas in the troposphere and its reactivity is important to both tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry.
- The oxidation of CH4 by hydroxyl (OH) in the troposphere leads to the formation of formaldehyde (CH2O), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3), in the presence of sufficiently high levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx).
- Along with CO2 methane helps control the amount of OH in the troposphere.
- Methane also affects the concentrations of water vapor and ozone in the stratosphere, and plays a key role in the conversion of reactive chlorine to less reactive HCl in the stratosphere.
- For more than a decade, researchers have deployed aircraft, taken satellite measurements and run models in an effort to understand the drivers of the increase.
- Potential explanations range from the expanding exploitation of oil and natural gas and rising emissions from landfills to growing livestock herds and increasing activity by microbes in wetlands.
- Methane molecules sometimes also contain the heavier isotope carbon-13. Methane generated by microbes — after they consume carbon in the mud of a wetland or in the gut of a cow, for instance — contains less 13C than does methane generated by heat and pressure inside Earth, which is released during fossil-fuel extraction.
- By studying methane trapped decades or centuries ago in ice cores and accumulated snow, as well as gas in the atmosphere, they have been able to show that for two centuries after the start of the Industrial Revolution the proportion of methane containing 13C increased.
- But since 2007, when methane levels began to rise more rapidly again, the proportion of methane containing 13C began to fall. Some researchers believe that this suggests that much of the increase in the past 15 years might be due to microbial sources, rather than the extraction of fossil fuels.
- At COP26 in Glasgow, UK, more than 100 countries signed the Global Methane Pledge to cut emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.
- The emphasis must now be on action, including in low- and middle-income countries across the global south.
- Tackling methane is probably the best opportunity we have to buy some time to solve the much bigger challenge of reducing the world’s CO2 emissions.
- Even with present uncertainties on global methane trends, there have been a a number of recent advances in measurement technology that have tremendous potential for opportunistic mitigation (i.e., reducing emissions at no net cost). A few notable examples include identifying large fugitive leaks in oil and gas infrastructure and changing the diet of livestock.
- Specifically, remote sensing has demonstrated the ability to identify anomalous, large emitters and focused programs to use aircraft- or space-based observations to identify and mitigate emissions could prove cost efficient and effective. Recent advances in frequency-comb spectrometers and affordable, small ground-based sensors may also provide a mitigation opportunity for super emitters in oil/gas basins.
- Changes in the diet of livestock could reduce the production of methane in dairy cattle without reducing milk production and, as such, could be an opportunity to reduce methane emissions from livestock. Implementation of these or other mitigation strategies could help to curb future increases in atmospheric methane and provide detectable changes in the global methane burden within decades.
- According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to minimize catastrophic climate impacts, it’s important that humanity work to keep the global mean temperature increase under 1.5 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this goal, the panel said carbon emissions from across the energy system would have to reach zero by the middle of this century.
What is Nuclear Power?
- Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity.
- Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion
- Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power plants.
- Nuclear decay processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators in some space probes such as Voyager 2.
- Generating electricity from fusion power remains the focus of international research.
- Nuclear power is a clean and efficient way of boiling water to make steam, which turns turbines to produce electricity.
- Nuclear power plants use low-enriched uranium fuel to produce electricity through a process called fission—the splitting of uranium atoms in a nuclear reactor.
- Nuclear Power plants don’t burn any materials so they produce no combustion by-products. Additionally, because they don’t produce greenhouse gases, nuclear plants help protect air quality and mitigate climate change.
- Nuclear power plants can continuously generate large-scale, around-the-clock electricity for many months at a time, without interruption.
- Although building nuclear power plants has a high initial cost, it’s relatively cheap to produce energy from them and they have low operating costs.
- Nuclear power doesn’t experience the same kind of price fluctuations that traditional fossil fuel energy sources like coal and natural gas do. Because of that, the price of nuclear energy can be predicted well into the future.
- It will open doors of employment opportunities for a large number of people with required skill sets.
- The nuclear industry supports nearly half a million jobs in the United States and contributes an estimated $60 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product each year.
- It is estimated that the amount of energy released in a nuclear fission reaction is ten million times greater than the amount released when burning fossil fuels.
- Commercial nuclear power is sometimes viewed by the general public as a dangerous or unstable process. This perception is often based on three global nuclear accidents, its false association with nuclear weapons, and how it is portrayed on popular television shows and films.
- Many people view used fuel as a growing problem and are apprehensive about its transportation, storage, and disposal.
- Building a nuclear power plant can be discouraging for stakeholders. Conventional reactor designs are considered multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects. High capital costs, licensing and regulation approvals, coupled with long lead times and construction delays, have also deterred public interest.
- Challenging market conditions have left the nuclear industry struggling to compete. Strict regulations on maintenance, staffing levels, operator training, and plant inspections have become a financial burden for the industry.
- Under strict greenhouse gas emission controls, reliable power generation provided by nuclear power has a lot of potential value in the electricity grid for most nations. Places with poor wind resources can benefit from nuclear earlier in the path to zero emissions, whereas places with very good wind resources would only need it to get rid of the last traces of carbon emissions.
- Our analysis looked at the cheapest way to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions assuming today’s prices. We found that at today’s price, nuclear is the cheapest way to eliminate all electricity-system carbon emissions nearly everywhere. However, if energy storage technologies became very cheap, then wind and solar could potentially be the least-cost path to a zero-emission electricity system
- The Working Group meets annually since 2013, and identifies areas of cooperation to support and strengthen quality infrastructure in country taking into account needs and requirements of relevant stakeholders from diverse technology areas so as to support bilateral trade.
- Two countries to collaborate in quality infrastructure for mobility, energy, circular economy, smart farming/ agriculture, medical devices, digitalization (AI, Industry 4.0 and other new technology areas), machinery safety, medical devices and equipment and market surveillance.
- Global Quality Infrastructure Index (GQII) study places India at 7th position on standardization aspect, 9th for Accreditation activities and 19th for the Metrology related activities.
India-Germany Relations
- India and Germany have a “Strategic Partnership” since 2001, which has been further strengthened with the Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC) at the level of Head of Governments which allows for a comprehensive review of Cooperation and identification of new areas of engagement.
- There is an Indo-German Parliamentary Friendship Group, in German Bundestag since 1971. The Indo-German Parliamentary Friendship Group (constituted in May 2018) for the present term of German Parliament consists of 24 Members from all the six parties represented in the German Parliament. Visits by Parliamentarians from both sides take place regularly.
- Several institutionalized arrangements exist between India and Germany to discuss bilateral and global issues of interest namely, Foreign Office Consultations, High Defence Committee, Indo-German Energy Forum, Indo-German Environment Forum, S&T Committee, and Joint Working Groups in various fields, including skill development, automotive, agriculture, coal, tourism, water and waste management.
- India-Germany Defence Cooperation Agreement (2006) provides a framework for bilateral defence cooperation. To further enhance the Defence Industry and defence cooperation between Germany and India, an Arrangement on Implementation of the Agreement of 6th October 2006 concerning Bilateral Defence Cooperation was signed on February 12, 2019.
- Germany is India's largest trading partner in Europe. Bilateral trade grew from Euro 15.96 billion to Euro 20.41 bn in 2018. In the period January to November 2019, total bilateral trade stood at Euro 19.35 bn. Germany is the 7th largest foreign direct investor in India since April 2000. Germany's total FDI in India from April 2000 until June 2019 amounted to US$ 11.9 billion.
- Indo-German Science & Technology cooperation started with the signing of the Intergovernmental S&T Cooperation Agreement in 1971 and 1974. There are more than 150 joint S&T research projects and 70 direct partnerships between universities of both countries.
- India and Germany have a long tradition of academic and cultural exchange. Max Mueller was the first scholar of Indo-European languages to translate and publish the Upanishads and the Rigveda. German interest in the Indian philosophy and languages resulted in the setting up of the first
- Chair of Indology at the University of Bonn in 1818. Indian films and artists regularly feature at the Berlin International Film Festival and at Indian Film festivals held in other parts of Germany.
- There are about 1.7 lakh Indians and people of Indian origin in Germany. The Indian diaspora mainly comprises of professionals, technocrats, businessmen/traders and nurses. There has been an increase in the last few years in the number of qualified Indian professionals in Germany in the fields of IT, banking, finance, etc.
- Bilateral relations between India and Germany are founded on common democratic principles and are marked by a high degree of trust and mutual respect. India was amongst the first countries to establish diplomatic ties with the Federal Republic of Germany after the Second World War.
- Relations grew significantly following the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany. In the last decade, both economic and political interaction between India and Germany has increased significantly. Today, Germany is amongst India’s most important partners both bilaterally and in the global context.
- The Union Budget 2021-22 announcement was made to enable increased access of resources, online modules covering the entire gamut of adult education will be introduced.
New India Literacy Programme
- The objectives of the scheme are to impart not only foundational literacy and numeracy but also to cover other components which are necessary for a citizen of the 21st century such as
- critical life skills (including financial literacy, digital literacy, commercial skills, health care and awareness, child care and education, and family welfare);
- vocational skills development (with a view towards obtaining local employment);
- basic education (including preparatory, middle, and secondary stage equivalency); and
- continuing education (including engaging holistic adult education courses in arts, sciences, technology, culture, sports, and recreation, as well as other topics of interest or use to local learners, such as more advanced material on critical life skills).
- The scheme will be implemented through volunteerism through online mode.
- The training, orientation, workshops of volunteers, may be organized through face-to-face mode.
- All material and resources shall be provided digitally for easy access to registered volunteers through easily accessible digital modes, viz, TV, radio, cell phone-based free/open-source Apps/portals, etc.
- The scheme will cover non-literates of the age of 15 years and above in all state/UTs in the country.
- The target for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for FYs 2022-27 is 5 crore learners by using “Online Teaching, Learning and Assessment System (OTLAS)” in collaboration with National Informatics Centre, NCERT and NIOS in which a learner may register him/herself with essential information like name, date of birth, gender, Aadhaar number, mobile number etc.
- Schools to be used for conducting surveys of beneficiaries and Voluntary Teachers (VTs).
- Different strategies are to be adopted for different age cohorts. Flexibility for States/UTs will be provided to undertake innovative activities.
- Foundational Literacy and Numeracy will be imparted through Critical Life Skills to all non-literates in the age group of 15 years and above.
- Use of Technologies to impart Adult Education for wider coverage of the scheme.
- Performance Grading Index (PGI) for State/UT and district level will show the performance of States and UTs to implement the scheme and achievements on yearly basis by weighing both the physical and financial progress through UDISE portal.
- The age cohort of 15-35 will be saturated first followed by ages 35 and above.
- Priority will be given in terms of categories to the Girls and women, SC/ST/OBC/Minorities, Persons with Special Needs (Divyangjans), Marginalized/ Nomadic/ construction workers/ laborers/etc. who can substantially and immediately benefit from adult education?
- In terms of location/area, the focus shall be on all aspirational districts of NITI Aayog, districts with literacy rates less than the National/State average, districts with female literacy rates less than 60% as per the 2011 Census, Districts/ Blocks with large SC/ST/ Minority population, Educationally Backward Blocks, Left Wing Extremism Affected districts.
- Adult Education is now ‘Education for All’ in the country: As a progressive step, it has also been decided that from now onwards that the term “Education For All” will be used in place of “Adult Education” by the Ministry in view of the fact that the terminology “Adult Education” is not incorporating appropriately all non-literates of 15 years and above age group.
- As per Census 2011, the absolute number of non-literates of the country in 15 years and above age group is 25.76 crore (Male 9.08 crore, Female 16.68 crore). In consideration of the progress of persons certified as literates being to the tune of 7.64 crore under the Saakshar Bharat programme implemented during 2009-10 to 2017-18, it is estimated that currently around 18.12 crore adults are still non-literate in India.
- Researchers have long had indirect evidence that the particles should be lighter than 1 eV, but this is the first time that this has been shown in a direct measurement. The results were reported on 14 February in Nature Physics.
Neutrino
- A neutrino is a subatomic particle that is very similar to an electron, but has no electrical charge and a very small mass, which might even be zero.
- Neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the universe.
- Because they have very little interaction with matter, however, they are incredibly difficult to detect.
- Neutrinos are created by various radioactive decays; during a supernova, by cosmic rays striking atoms etc.
- Nuclear forces treated electrons and neutrinos identically; neither participated in the strong nuclear force, but both participated equally in the weak nuclear force. Particles with this property are termed leptons.
- In addition to the electron (and the positron), the charged leptons include the muon (with a mass 200 times greater than that of the electron), the tau (with mass 3,500 times greater than that of the electron) and their anti-particles.
- To detect neutrinos, very large and very sensitive detectors are required. Typically, a low-energy neutrino will travel through many light-years of normal matter before interacting with anything. Consequently, all terrestrial neutrinos experiments rely on measuring the tiny fraction of neutrinos that interact in reasonably sized detectors.
- Neutrinos interact very weakly with everything else – trillions of them pass through every human being every second without anyone noticing.
- A neutrino’s spin always points in the opposite direction of its motion.
- It is now generally believed that the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations requires neutrinos to have tiny masses.
- Neutrinos are produced from radiation, so it might be possible for the International Atomic Energy Agency to use neutrinos detectors to monitor which countries are following the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapons.
- The way a beam of neutrinos is spinning after passing through pockets of the Earth could reveal where mineral deposits are.
- It would be faster to send a message through Earth rather than over it. It would also be an easy way to communicate with submarines submerged far below the surface.
- Scientists have theorized that a certain type of neutrino might come from decaying dark matter.
- The IceCube lab has built a neutrino detector in Antarctica that has detected extremely high-energy neutrinos. The lab has paved the way for the new field of neutrino astronomy.
- Neutrinos interact very little with the matter around them, so they travel long distances uninterrupted. These undamaged messengers can give us a clue about the origin of the universe and the early stages of the infant universe, soon after the Big Bang.
- If the properties of neutrinos are understood better, they can be used in astronomy to discover what the universe is made up of. Apart from direct future uses of neutrinos, there are technological applications of the detectors that will be used to study them. For instance, X-ray machines, PET scans, MRI scans, etc., all came out of research into particle detectors.
- Hence, the Neutrino detectors may have applications in medical imaging. Hence, the future of neutrino is very bright. Complete exploration is difficult for the time being but nothing is impossible. Good things always take time to happen.
- For instance, the recent case of Pegasus “snoop gate”—a zero-click malware illustrated the evolution of the surveillance architecture, which can take control over the infected devices without the knowledge of the recipient.
Purpose of surveillance:
- One defined and legitimate purpose is to preserve national security, but the current state of surveillance reform in India is on an uneven keel between national security and privacy.
- To make India’s surveillance system more responsive and predictive to enhance preparedness for action at all levels.
- Citizen-friendly surveillance system will ensure individual privacy and confidentiality, enabled with a client feedback mechanism.
- Improved data-sharing mechanism between Centre and states.
- India aims to provide regional and global leadership in managing events that constitute a public health emergency of international concern.
- An Increased Sense of Security
- Improved Productivity
- Lowered Chance of Crimes
- Protects country from external threats
- Improved information security and business continuity management
- While the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), formed by the parliament, audits the revenue and expenditure of the state, the national security funding like the National Technical Research Organization budget is categorized as special funds which don’t come under the purview of the PAC.
- Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 [Section 5(2)] and Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 (Section 69) legislations are outdated and raise the rights implications for citizens and bring forward concerns that such a broad sweep may undermine the democratic fabric of the nation.
- While under the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009, no agency or a person can perform interception without direction and approval of the competent authority. This is especially concerning as the maximum number of fundamental rights breaches are against the state, whereas excessive executive oversight has also kept the judiciary at arm’s length.
- Mass and lateral surveillance equally curb the right to privacy and freedom of expression.
- The surveillance promotes the spread of authoritarianism in the government functioning since it allows the executive to exercise a disproportionate amount of power over the citizen and impacts their personal lives.
- India can create a skilled and strong workforce dedicated to surveillance activities.
- An amalgamation of plant, animal, and environmental surveillance in a One-Health approach that also includes surveillance for anti-microbial resistance and predictive capability for pandemics is an element suggested within this vision document.
- Public Surveillance could be integrated within India’s three-tiered system.
- Establish a governance framework that is inclusive of political, policy, technical, and managerial leadership at the national and state level.
- Encourage innovations at every step-in surveillance activity.
- India bagged a couple of top ranks in Forbes list of the most surveilled cities in the world, where Delhi stood at rank one with about 1,826.6 cameras per square mile beating Chinese cities like Beijing, Wuhan, Xiamen, etc., and London.
- Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs launched the cyber volunteers’ programme, which seeks citizens to report unlawful activities on the internet and social media.
- The advancement in The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which operates as the national agency for tackling the country’s cybersecurity, has helped in lowering the rate of cyber-attacks on government networks.
- Aiming at strengthening the cybersecurity ecosystem in India — in line with the government’s vision for a ‘Digital India’, The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has launched Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative. This program was in association with the National e-Governance Division (NeGD).
- Amid the increasing number of government website hacking, email phishing, data theft, and privacy breach cases, the Indian government has planned to conduct an audit on all the government websites and applications.
- As a country that houses one of the largest democracies, our duty to empower our citizens towards their rights is as important as our duty to preserve national security. National security and privacy have largely been viewed as competing interests over the years; however, with the advent of technology and means of digital surveillance, protecting citizens’ information is also important. It is perhaps the best time to begin to view protecting the privacy and information of citizens as a facet of preserving national security.
- The system must also strengthen the accountability mechanisms in the form of judicial or parliamentary oversight and establish appropriate procedural safeguards. These steps would help to largely reduce the discretionary powers of the state, which, at present, have a wide scope to determine the extent to which it may use its powers of surveillance.
- The Supreme Court in the K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India upheld a citizen’s right to privacy, specifically including informational privacy. As we adopt newer technologies such as Web 3.0 and increase digital penetration in India, we are hopeful that revamping the framework governing surveillance is amongst the government’s top regulatory priorities.
- Therefore, we believe the push for robust surveillance reform for targeted surveillance will initiate a conversation on laying the pathway and foundations for new legal reforms for other forms of surveillance to find a balance between privacy and national security.
- There are only women officials. Medical staff from hospitals also visit for training and health check-ups.
- While the ground floor of the booth is made for officers to take complaints or grievances from women.
- The first floor has been converted to a hall where sewing machines are kept. The booth also has computers for women.
- The police have also invited nursing staff from AIIMS to provide job training to seven women.
- After completion of the training, police said the women can work as helpers at city hospitals and clinics.
- Access to justice for women is constrained by social barriers ranging from lack of knowledge of their rights, dependence for assistance and resources and the threat of sanction; and lack of capacities in the justice systems to respond to the particular needs of women.
- Violence against sex-workers in India is linked to the perception of sex workers are criminals and not citizens. This has led to systemic, systematic and large-scale violation of human and fundamental rights such as the right to life, dignity, equality, equal protection and due processes under the law.
- The law enforcement is regarded by sex workers as the most repressive state agency. Police abuse sex workers, illegally detain, sexually assault and torture them in custody.
- Stigmatization, which has its roots in standards set by patriarchal morality, is a major factor preventing women from accessing their rights.
- Most of the sex-workers are HIV positive. Most important of all would be getting access to essential health services that include treatment for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, which they are denied.
- Most of them do not have access to clean and safe housing, as they are refused outrightly by owners or society.
- Women in sex-work are entitled to rights in the economic, political, social, civil and cultural spheres of their lives. The rights to education; political participation (including representation at the national and international levels); citizenship; livelihood; health; equality before the law; freedom from gender stereotyped notions about women’s chastity and roles and responsibilities within a hetero- normative and patriarchal family, can only be fully achieved if discrimination is eliminated from all spheres of sex workers’ lives.
- Addressing the accountability of the state for acts or omissions of state and non-state actors, instituting an independent monitoring system to hold the judiciary accountable in maintaining the checks and balance between state organs; is also crucial.
- This year’s intervention by India highlighted the need for optimum use of technology in aid of peacekeeping operations, setting of mandates in consultation with troop contributing countries (TCCs), the need to keep missions time bound, the caution required in adopting new doctrines of peacekeeping, ensuring accountability for crimes against peacekeepers and the need to limit post-deployment caveats to ensure operational successes.
About C34
- The C34 was formed in 1965 as an entity under the 4th Committee of the General Assembly with 34 member states; it now consists of 147 member states.
- The C34 is one among the many UN forums whose deliberations contribute to the governance of peacekeeping.
- The notable others are the Security Council, the 4th Committee of the General Assembly through its annual “Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peacekeeping Operations in all their aspects”, the 5th Committee which debates all financial matters related to peacekeeping and the 6th Committee which discusses legal matters in relation to peacekeeping.
- India has supported the basic principles of peacekeeping namely consent, impartiality and non-use of force.
- India has been very vocal about the need for substantial consultations between the TCCs, the Security Council and the Secretariat.
- India has made the case for an enhanced role for the TCCs and also the police contributing countries (PCCs) by way of using their good offices and diplomatic engagement to bolster peace processes.
- India was actively involved in debating the exit strategy from a peacekeeping operation.
- In this context, India pointed out the negative fallouts of sudden exit from a theatre of conflict considering the proactive role played by peacekeepers in de-mobilization, disarmament and rehabilitation, security sector reform, rule of law, basic governance, institution building and support to the democratic process.
- India has been a strong votary of giving explicit mandates to peacekeeping troops to use force in defending the mandates when confronted with non-state armed groups and trans-border criminal networks.
- India has been an ardent supporter of the safety of peacekeeping troops.
- India suggested several ways in which the working of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support could be improved.
- India has been a strong votary of increasing the role of women in peacekeeping operations.
- India has engaged substantially with the issue of protection of civilians (POC)in armed conflict.
- The 4th Committee holds an annual discussion on peacekeeping under the heading “Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peacekeeping Operations in all their aspects”.
- In the 4th Committee, India was particularly vocal on matters pertaining to the resource–men, material, and financial–for UN peacekeeping operations.
- It supported the stationing of stand-by troops and rapid reaction forces to help in the timely deployment of peacekeeping missions.
- In the 5th Committee of the General Assembly or the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), India made several interventions on matters pertaining to the financing of peacekeeping operations.
- India gave several nitty-gritty suggestions on reducing the expenditure on completed missions by closing them fully, filling up administrative posts and vacancies in missions to ensure their proper functioning, consolidation of peacekeeping accounts, retaining cash balances from closed missions, and rates of reimbursement for troops and equipment that were contributed mainly by developing countries.
- In the6th Committee of the General Assembly or the legal committee, the issue of criminal accountability of UN officials and experts involved in peacekeeping missions has been discussed.
- In the context of rising cases of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by UN troops, there was a demand for a separate convention governing such cases.
- While advocating a policy of zero tolerance towards such acts, India, however, argued against a separate convention for this purpose.
- India was in favour of using national laws on extraterritorial jurisdiction to deal with such cases and adoption of such laws where they were absent.
- Given its critical nature, international peacekeeping may be regarded as one among the many global public goods like non-proliferation or climate change. Hence, it is desirable to have a robust regime to govern the issue.
- However, in the absence of it, discussions in the various forums of the UN remain the only way for countries and other stakeholders to contribute to the governance of international peacekeeping. Indian interventions are an effort in the direction.
- The researchers conducted a comprehensive water quality analysis between 2014 and 2018 to better understand the impact of tides and seasons on the Ganga.
Highlights of study
- The researchers selected five major outfalls, where city wastewater flowed into the Ganga.
- Circular Canal in Bagbazar
- Ghusuri in Howrah
- Dakshineswar Canal in North 24 Parganas
- Ballykhal in Howrah
- Khardah Khal (also known as Titagarh Khal) in North 24 Parganas
- These included measurements known as Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), heavy metals and total faecal coliform level, an indicator of potential contamination by human feces.
- The Ganga in West Bengal, or Hooghly, is tidal in nature and this influences the dispersion of pollutants from different discharge points, draining into the Bay of Bengal.
- High tide increases water levels that reach above the invert level of drains. This results in a backflow of river water into drains.
- Low tide increases the chances of pollution since there is no excess water to dilute pollutants.
- The analysis, which included GIS mapping, showed that DO and BOD, as well as levels of nitrate nitrogen and chloride, were significantly higher at each of the five sites in the pre-monsoon season, compared to the monsoon.
- During the monsoon (August-September) and post-monsoon (November-December), the pollution in water decreased when excess rainwater mixed with river water.
- However, during pre-monsoon (March-April), the level of pollution was high due to minimal volume of water.
- Wastewater is the polluted form of water generated from rainwater runoff and human activities. It is also called sewage. It is typically categorized by the manner in which it is generated—specifically, as domestic sewage, industrial sewage, or storm sewage (stormwater).
- Domestic wastewater results from water use in residences, businesses, and restaurants.
- Industrial wastewater comes from discharges by manufacturing and chemical industries.
- Rainwater in urban and agricultural areas picks up debris, grit, nutrients, and various chemicals, thus contaminating surface runoff water.
- Pollutants are typically categorized as physical, chemical, and biological.
- Common pollutants include complex organic materials, nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich compounds, and pathogenic organisms (bacteria, viruses, and protozoa).
- Synthetic organic chemicals, inorganic chemicals, microplastics, sediments, radioactive substances, oil, heat, and many other pollutants may also be present in wastewater.
- Sewage treatment facilities use physical, chemical, and biological processes for water purification.
- The processes used in these facilities are also categorized as preliminary, primary, secondary, and tertiary.
- Preliminary and primary stages remove rags and suspended solids.
- Secondary processes mainly remove suspended and dissolved organics.
- Tertiary methods achieve nutrient removal and further polishing of wastewater.
- Disinfection, the final step, destroys the remaining pathogens.
- The waste sludge generated during treatment is separately stabilized, dewatered, and sent to landfills or used in land applications.
- Wastewater is a complex blend of metals, nutrients, and specialized chemicals.
- Recovery of these valuable materials can help to offset a community’s growing demands for natural resources.
- Resource recovery concepts are evolving, and researchers are investigating and developing numerous technologies.
- Reclamation and reuse of treated water for irrigation, groundwater recharge, or recreational purposes are particular areas of focus.
- Natural treatments, energy conservation, and carbon footprint reduction are some of the key considerations for communities facing energy and electricity challenges. Green technologies and the use of renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power, for wastewater treatment are evolving and will help minimize the environmental impacts of human activities.
- Ecological and economical natural wastewater treatment and disposal systems have already gained importance in many places, especially in smaller communities. The simplicity, cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability of these systems have provided potential applications for such environmentally friendly technologies.
- Given that wastewater is rich in nutrients and other chemicals, sewage treatment facilities have gained recognition as resource recovery facilities, overcoming their former reputation as mere pollution mitigation entities.
- Newer technologies and approaches have continued to improve the efficiency by which energy, nutrients, and other chemicals are recovered from treatment plants, helping create a sustainable market and becoming a revenue generation source for wastewater processing facilities.
- The study can help reconstruct the original Gondwanaland break up and dispersal that led to present-day configuration of continents, continental fragments, and formation of ocean basins in the Indian Ocean.
Highlights of the study
- The study, based mainly on the interpretation of gravity anomalies (small differences in the pull of gravity caused by the lateral variations of density within the subsurface) with broadband seismic and refraction seismic data, provided for the first time a three-dimensional picture of the variation of Moho along the Greater Maldives Ridge and the adjoining ocean basins.
- The depth to the boundary between the earth’s crust and the mantle or the Mohorovicic discontinuity (Moho) over the GMR was systematically mapped along with the finer variation of effective elastic thickness (Te) at the place.
- The research suggests that Maldives Ridge might have formed in the close vicinity of the Mid-Oceanic Ridge (where creation of a new ocean floor occurs due to divergent motion of lithospheric plates or spreading center).
- Meanwhile, the Deep-Sea Channel (DSC) region was under a long transform fault (offset between the spreading centers, which neither create nor destroy lithosphere), which hindered melt production and gave rise to gap between Chagos and Maldives Ridge during the Plume-ridge interaction.
- The Maldives Ridge is an aseismic ridge that is not associated with earthquake activities.
- This ridge, located in the western Indian Ocean, southwest of India, is not well investigated.
- It is of paramount importance to gain knowledge on the structure and geodynamics of aseismic ridges.
- The crustal architecture and the state of gravitational equilibrium between Earth's crust and mantle (isostasy) of the Greater Maldive Ridge segment of the larger Chagos-Laccadive Ridge (CLR) system.
- Maldive Ridge and Deep-Sea Channel region may probably be oceanic in nature with the presence of underplated materials associated with the Reunion hotspot volcanism.
- Aseismic ridge, a long, linear and mountainous structure that crosses the basin floor of some oceans. Earthquakes do not occur within aseismic ridges, and it is this feature that distinguishes them from oceanic spreading centers.
- Most aseismic ridges are constructed by volcanism from a hot spot and are composed of coalescing volcanoes of various sizes.
- They are all considered stable oceanic regions. These are essentially made up of basaltic and other differentiated volcanics.
- Only a few aseismic ridges have been sampled, because of the thick sediment cover and the difficulty in encountering steep outcrops that would facilitate conventional methods of sampling.
- As aseismic ridges comprise about 25% of the world's ocean floor. Most aseismic ridges are attached to the continental margin.
- All of the aseismic ridges are quite old and represent features that were formed during the early history of the creation of the ocean floor.
- The mid-ocean ridge is the most extensive chain of mountains on Earth, stretching nearly 65,000 kilometers (40,390 miles) and with more than 90 percent of the mountain range lying in the deep ocean.
- Mid-ocean ridges occur along divergent plate boundaries, where new ocean floor is created as the Earth’s tectonic plates spread apart.
- As the plates separate, molten rock rises to the seafloor, producing enormous volcanic eruptions of basalt.
- The speed of spreading affects the shape of a ridge – slower spreading rates result in steep, irregular topography while faster spreading rates produce much wider profiles and more gentle slopes.
- Two well-studied mid-ocean ridges within the global system are the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise.
- Young individuals aged 18-24 years spend excessive time on these applications – with Facebook and Instagram having 97.2 million and 69 million users from this age group alone in India, clearly showcasing growing dependency on social media. The constant use leads to exposure to risky content, changes in behavioural patterns, feeling of inferiority and even cyberbullying, resulting in grave mental health challenges and illnesses.
Mental Health
- Mental health refers to cognitive, behavioural, and emotional well-being. It is all about how people think, feel, and behave. People sometimes use the term “mental health” to mean the absence of a mental disorder.
- Mental health can affect daily living, relationships, and physical health.
- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”
- Mental and physical health are equally important components of overall health.
- For example, depression increases the risk for many types of physical health problems, particularly long-lasting conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
- Similarly, the presence of chronic conditions can increase the risk for mental illness.
- Depression is linked to lack of self-esteem, poor concentration and other maladaptive symptoms, and can lead to difficulties in communication, failure to work or study productively, amplified risk of substance uses and abuse, as well as suicidal thoughts.
- Instagram leads to body image issues I.e., Body Dysmorphia by developing an intrinsic urge for comparison. This is felt worse by women & young girls who are often socialized into prioritizing their looks over other features.
- The discussion on mental health in India is not addressed seriously, and faces stigma and neglect.
- Increase in cases of suicidal deaths.
- The Government of India has launched the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP)in 1982, with the following objectives:
- To ensure the availability and accessibility of minimum mental healthcare for all in the foreseeable future, particularly to the most vulnerable and underprivileged sections of the population;
- To encourage the application of mental health knowledge in general healthcare and in social development; and
- To promote community participation in mental health service development and to stimulate efforts towards self-help in the community.
- The District Mental Health Program (DMHP)was launched under NMHP in the year 1996 (in IX Five Year Plan). The DMHP was based on ‘Bellary Model’ with the following components:
- Early detection & treatment.
- Training: imparting short-term training to general physicians for diagnosis and treatment of common mental illnesses with limited number of drugs under guidance of specialist. The health workers are being trained in identifying mentally ill persons.
- IEC: Public awareness generation.
- Monitoring: the purpose is for simple Record Keeping.
- The power of a tool is only as good as how we use it. It is imperative to address the systemic and current challenges to regulate social media use, especially restricting it for pre-teens. We must also take action on mental health seriously and monitor the incidence of psychiatric disorders (like, depression, anxiety) and identify the factors of risk and resilience.
- There is a need to conduct a disaggregated situational assessment of the diverse young demographic in our country, keeping in mind the differences associated with class, gender and other social factors. This would help in locating the mental health challenges faced by them and develop policy and program solutions for the same.
- However, the first focus needs to be on creating awareness and dialogue that would help in de-stigmatizing the issue, in order to allow autonomy for the individual to share feelings in a safe space. Support systems like family and peers need to be equipped with understanding the factors related to the issue and initiate supportive steps.
- Additionally, to address the structural challenges, there is a need to reimagine the workspace and educational frameworks. It is pertinent to remember that social characteristics impact the needs of individuals differently and thus the methods of intervention should be planned accordingly.
POSTED ON 22-02-2022 BY ADMIN
Next previous 
General Studies
Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
List of previous year essay topics (1997-2019)
IAS GOOGLE is googled by the team of Raja Sir’s Cracking IAS Academy. Sources include The Hindu, Indian Express, pib.nic.in, Down To Earth, Economic Times, Vigyan Prasar, AIR and the like. IAS GOOGLE has been prepared in pace with emerging UPSC Trends.