T.N.’s spurious liquor toll rises to 17

Alcoholic beverages are made by fermentation of sugary and starchy substances, followed by distillation to increase alcohol concentration. The active ingredient in them is ethyl alcohol or ethanol.

Illicit liquor (Hooch):

• Any alcoholic beverage made under unlicensed conditions is called illicit liquor. Usually, sub-standard raw material is used, often this is spiked with other chemicals.
• The term hooch is popular slang for illicit liquor. The origin of the term hooch is said to come from the Hoochinoo Indians of Alaska.

What makes it poisonous?

• Under unregulated conditions, methanol or methyl alcohol can be produced with the desired ethanol.
• Sometimes, industrial methyl alcohol or denatured spirit (mixture of ethanol and methanol) is added by illicit brewers to save costs and in the mistaken belief that it’ll increase potency.
• Methyl alcohol is extremely toxic — 10 ml can cause blindness and 30 ml can cause death within 10 to 30 hours. It is like ethyl alcohol in taste and smell.

Treatment:

• Ethyl alcohol and fomepizole are used as antidotes, inhibiting the metabolizing of methyl alcohol so that it passes through urine. Advanced treatment requires haemodialysis to remove toxic substances from the bloodstream.

Alcohol prohibition in India

• Alcohol prohibition is in the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Mizoram, and Nagaland. All other Indian states and union territories permit the sale of alcohol.
• The directive principles of state policy (DPSP) in the constitution of India (article 47) state that "the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health".The Directive Principles are not-justiciable rights of the people but fundamental in the governance of the country. It shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making policy laws per Article 47. As Per Article 38, state and union governments, as duty, shall make further detailed policies and laws for implementation considering DPSPs as fundamental policy.
• National prohibition was advocated by Mahatma Gandhi, as well as by many Indian women. Prohibition in the states of India that have implemented the policy has led to lower rates of drinking among men, as well as a decreased incidence of violence against women.

Dry Days in India

• Dry Days in India are specific days when the sale of alcohol is prohibited in the states which otherwise allow the sale and consumption of alcohol.
• Dry Days are fixed by the respective state government. Most Indian states observe dry days on major religious festivals/occasions depending on the popularity of the festival in that region.
• National holidays such as Republic Day (26 January), Independence Day (15 August) and Gandhi Jayanti (2 October) are usually dry days throughout India. Dry days also depend on the establishment selling alcohol. For example, generally, 5-star hotels do not have to observe all the dry days that liquor stores and small bars may have.
• Dry days are also observed on and around voting days. National dry days also occur during the Election Commission of India-ordained voting and result days.

Bihar

• On 26 November 2015, Bihar Government announced that alcohol would be banned in the state from 1 April 2016. The government officially declared the total ban on 5 April 2016 on all types of liquor, its Sale [and consumption] of any type of alcohol in hotels, bars, clubs, and any other place.
• Violating the law carries a penalty of 5 years to 10 years imprisonment. On 30 September 2016 PatnaHigh Court ruled that the ban is "illegal, impractical and unconstitutional".
• Although even before the High Court order came, the Bihar government had announced a new stringent law on 2 October 2016.
• As per the new liquor law, those found indulging in unlawful import, export, transport, manufacture, possession, sale, intoxicant, or liquor could attract a minimum of 10 years of jail term which may extend to imprisonment for life besides a minimum fine of Rs 1 lakh which may extend to Rs 10 lakh.
• On 3 October 2016, the Bihar government approached the Supreme Court of India challenging the High Court order.
• The Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice T. S. Thakur agreed to give an urgent hearing on the matter and on 7 October 2016, much to the relief of the government, the bench stayed the high court order. "Ban on liquor and fundamental rights do not go together," the SC bench said.
• The act brought in stricter measures, with all Sections in the act being non-bailable and the police being allowed to assume that manufacturing of alcohol was ongoing if utensils containing a mix of jaggery or grapes are found. Under the law, only special courts constituted under Bihar Special Courts Act can try the cases. It also empowered authorities to confiscate properties upon whose premises liquor is either consumed or stored.

Socio-economic effects in Bihar

• Within a year of prohibition, the number of murders and gang robberies decreased by 20%. The number of riots fell by 13% and traffic accidents were reduced by 10%.
• For the economy, spending per household rose: an increase in sales of milk by 10%, cheese by 200%, two-wheeled vehicles by 30%, and electrical appliances by 50%.
• In villages, brick houses are gradually taking the place of more rudimentary cottages since state Prohibition came into effect. At the same time, substance abuse has increased significantly due to liquor being hard to access.

Gujarat

• Bombay State had prohibition between 1948 and 1950, and again from 1958. Gujarat has a sumptuary law in force that proscribes the manufacture, storage, sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.
• The legislation has been in force since 1 May 1960 when Bombay State was bifurcated into the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949 is still in force in Gujarat state, however, there is licensing regime in Maharashtra with granting licenses to vendors and traders.
• Gujarat is the only Indian state with a death penalty for the manufacture and sale of homemade liquor that results in fatalities. The legislation is titled the Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Act, 2009. The legislation was prompted by numerous deaths resulting from the consumption of methyl alcohol.
• Predictably, smuggling and illicit sale of alcohol are very common. "Folder" is a slang term of unknown origin, used in Gujarat to refer to a bootlegger who delivers alcohol on-demand.

Permits

• Foreigners and visitors from other parts of India can apply online for a permit. There are 35 stores across the state including nine in Ahmedabad that sell liquor on production of a physical copy of the permit. Once the permit expires, users are to hand-over the unconsumed liquor to the district collector.

Public Interest Litigation

• Five petitions, including Public Interest Litigation (PIL), have been filed before the Gujarat High Court challenging the prohibition law in the state. Most petitioners have raised concern that prohibition law violates Right to Privacy and are seeking relaxation on consumption in privacy.

Mizoram

• The Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act, 1995 banned sale and consumption of alcohol effective from 20 February 1997. In 2007, the MLTP Act was amended to allow the wine to be made from guavas and grapes, but with restrictions on the alcohol content and the volume possessed. It is illegal to transport these products out of the state.
• Mizoram repealed the prohibition on 10 July 2014, a period of 17 years after it had been imposed. On that date, the state Legislative Assembly passed the Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition and Control) Act, 2014 (MLPC Act), replacing the MLTP Act. The Presbyterian Church had organised mass prayers in all member churches across the state twice that year opposing the repeal of prohibition.
• The Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition and Control) Act, 2014 was repealed on 20 March 2019 with the Mizoram Liquor Prohibition Act, 2019, it was a legislation promised by the Mizo National Front. Rules are yet to be notified for the ban in the state.

Nagaland

• The Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition Act, 1989 (NLTP Act) banned the sale and consumption of alcohol in 1989. Enforcement of the ban is lax and Indian Made Foreign Liquor is readily available. Authorities generally turn a blind eye towards illegal sales. Reports have stated that some police officials themselves engage in bootlegging. The Congress party has termed prohibition a "total failure" and has pleaded for it to be revoked.
• The excise department had earned around ?600 lakh (equivalent to ?50 crore or US$6.6 million in 2020) prior to prohibition. It earned about 10 lakh (US$13,000) annually in NLTP Act-related fines as of June 2014. It is estimated that were about 500 illegal liquor bars in Dimapur, the largest city in the state, as of August 2014. Alcohol is also smuggled in from neighbouring Assam.

Defence Ministry’s iDEX reaches milestone

Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), the flagship initiative of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), has reached a milestone with the signing of the 250th contract, the first one under the Mission DefSpace, and the 100th SPRINT (Navy) contract, on Monday.

• iDEX is an initiative taken by the government to contribute towards modernization of the Defence Industry.
• It was launched by the Government in April 2018.
• iDEX aims to promote innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging Industries (which includes MSMEs, start-ups, individual innovators, R&D institutes & academia).
  • iDEX will provide the engaging industries with funding and other support to carry out Research & Development.
• iDEX will be funded and managed by Defence Innovation Organization (DIO), and will function as the executive arm of DIO.

Why is Turkey likely to hold a second election on May 28 to elect its President?

Erdogan has got more votes than his challenger, why hasn’t he won already?

Turkey does not have a system like India, where the candidate with the most votes is declared elected, irrespective of what percentage of the total vote she gets.

A presidential candidate in Turkey must win at least 50% of the votes cast to be declared elected — and neither of them appear to have achieved that magic percentage.

According to Turkish election law, in a situation where no candidate gets 50% of the vote, the top two candidates will face each other in a direct contest in a runoff election that will be held.

(In 2018, the last time the presidential election was held, there had been no need for a runoff as Erdogan, with 53% of the vote, had won outright against three other candidates in the first round. The next candidate had won 31% of the vote.)

Thawing permafrost in the Arctic could unlock toxic waste buried for decades

• With rising global temperatures, thawing permafrost is likely to destabilise thousands of industrial sites and linked contaminated areas in the Arctic, which could result in the spread of toxic substances across the region, according to a new study.
• The Arctic is far from an uninhabited and untouched region. It’s dotted with countless industrial facilities such as oilfields and pipelines, mines and military bases. All this infrastructure is built on permafrost, which was once believed to be perennially stable and reliable.
• The toxic waste from these industrial facilities has been buried in the permafrost, on the assumption that it would stay locked away permanently. But danger looms as the planet continues to heat up.

Permafrost

• Permafrost is essentially any ground that stays frozen — 0 degree Celsius or lower — for at least two years straight. These permanently frozen grounds are often found in Arctic regions such as Greenland, Alaska (the United States), Canada, Russia and Eastern Europe.
• According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), permafrost is composed of “a combination of soil, rocks and sand that are held together by ice. The soil and ice in permafrost stay frozen all year long.” However, although the ground remains perennially frozen, permafrost regions aren’t always covered with snow.
• Arctic is getting warmer nearly four times as fast as the rest of the planet due to climate change, permafrost is thawing rapidly, which could destabilise not only the industrial sites but also the contaminated areas. And once the destabilisation takes place, toxic substances would be unleashed across the region, threatening numerous species living there and the health of people who depend on them.
• Although the ground is frozen, permafrost regions are not always covered in snow.
• Permafrost is made of a combination of soil, rocks and sand that are held together by ice. The soil and ice in permafrost stay frozen all year long.
• Near the surface, permafrost soils also contain large quantities of organic carbon—a material leftover from dead plants that couldn’t decompose, or rot away, due to the cold. Lower permafrost layers contain soils made mostly of minerals.
• A layer of soil on top of permafrost does not stay frozen all year. This layer, called the active layer, thaws during the warm summer months and freezes again in the fall.
• In colder regions, the ground rarely thaws—even in the summer.
• There, the active layer is very thin—only 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters).
• In warmer permafrost regions, the active layer can be several meters thick

Consequences of thawing permafrost?

• According to experts, thawing permafrost can severely impact the planet. One of its most dangerous consequences is the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
• A 2022 report by NASA said, “Arctic permafrost alone holds an estimated 1,700 billion metric tons of carbon, including methane and carbon dioxide. That’s roughly 51 times the amount of carbon the world released as fossil fuel emissions in 2019.”
• Plant matter frozen in permafrost doesn’t decay, but when permafrost thaws, microbes within the dead plant material start to break the matter down, releasing carbon into the atmosphere
• A pulse of carbon released from the permafrost to the atmosphere within the next hundred years, probably even sooner. It remains unclear how much of the carbon will be released from permafrost in the following years.
• Some of these “could be new viruses or ancient ones for which humans lack immunity and cures, or diseases that society has eliminated, such as smallpox or Bubonic plague.”

Sikkim Day: The story of Sikkim’s integration with India

Sikkim day is annually celebrated on May 16, recalling the history of the former kingdom’s integration with India in 1975.

Sikkim’s history with the Chogyal royals

• The kingdom of Sikkim was established in 1642, when, according to one account, three Tibetan lamas consecrated Phuntsong Namgyal as the first ruler or Chogyal of Sikkim. The monarchy of the Namgyal dynasty was maintained for the next 333 years, until its integration with India in 1975.
• Sikkim’s Chogyal dynasty was of Tibetan origin. Sandwiched between India and China, and often party to conflicts over land with Bhutan and Nepal, the British colonisation of India first led to a kind of formal relationship developing between the two states.
• The British saw Sikkim as a buffer state against China and against Nepal, with whom they fought in the Anglo-Gorkha war of 1814-16, helping Sikkim secure a number of territories that Nepal had previously captured.
• A formal protectorate was established over Sikkim through the Treaty of Tumlong in 1861, meaning the British had control over it but it was not officially under their rule and the Chogyals could continue holding onto power.
• Other official treaties followed: The treaty of Titaliya in 1817 gave the British authorities a number of commercial and political advantages in Sikkim. The Calcutta Convention of 1890 demarcated the border between Sikkim and Tibet, and was signed by Viceroy Lord Lansdowne and Qing China’s Imperial Associate Resident in Tibet. The Lhasa Convention of 1904 affirmed the Calcutta Convention.

Independent India and Sikkim

• Sardar Vallabbhai Patel and the constitutional adviser to the constituent assembly, BN Rau, wanted to integrate the state with India by having the then Chogyal Tashi Namgyal sign the Instrument of Accession.
• India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, noted the unique situation in Sikkim. India was, during meetings with representatives between the two, of the view that it should take control of defence, external affairs and communication subjects for Sikkim. Until this was finalised, it was to sign a Standstill Agreement, keeping things as they were for the time being.
• Meanwhile, there was at least some demand within Sikkim to develop closer ties with India. Sikkim consisted of three communities, the Bhutias, Lepchas and Nepalis, of which the Nepalis formed the largest group. Three political parties, the Sikkim State Congress (SSC) led by a Bhutia man, the Praja Mandal (PM) that had Lepcha leadership and Praja Sudharak Samaj (PSS) was led by a Nepali, passed a resolution in December 1947 demanding a popular government, abolition of landlordism and accession to India.
• PM Indira Gandhi, recalled that she said “in very clear terms” that her father had made a mistake in not heeding the wishes of the people of Sikkim to merge with India.
• In 1950, the Indo-Sikkim Treaty was signed, making Sikkim an Indian protectorate. It would not be sovereign, as India controlled its defence, external affairs and strategic communications. It also secured exclusive rights to build infrastructure there and Sikkimese people would travel abroad with Indian passports. “Internal autonomy” was to be available to Sikkim. Additionally, a clause gave India overriding powers in cases of security threats.

How Sikkim joined India

• Sikkim’s state council or assembly had some elected members and others nominated by the king. In the early years, it saw some political tussle over the representation for various communities, and the Chogyal’s reluctance to let go of his control.
• The 1960s and 1970s would see several events change the course of Sikkim’s status.
• The two states decided to alter existing wording to indicate a “permanent relationship” between them, but the Chogyal wanted further clarity on Sikkim’s independence.
• Anti-monarchy protests grew in Sikkim in 1973, following which the royal palace was surrounded by thousands of protesters. Indian troops arrived after the monarch was left with no choice but to ask New Delhi to send assistance. Finally, a tripartite agreement was signed in the same year between the chogyal, the Indian government, and three major political parties, so that major political reforms could be introduced.
• A year later, in 1974, elections were held, where the Sikkim Congress led by Kazi Dorji won. That year, a new constitution was adopted, which restricted the role of the monarch to a titular post. A referendum was held in Sikkim in 1975, where two-thirds of eligible voters took part. Here, 59,637 votes were cast in favour of abolishing the monarchy and joining India, with 1,496 voting against.
• India’s Ministry of External Affairs introduced the Constitution (Thirty-Sixth Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha to recognise Sikkim as a state in the Union of India. This was passed in the Parliament and assented to by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, coming into effect on May 16, 1975.

New species of gecko, Hemidactylus quartziticolus, has been discovered from the scrub habitats of Vallanadu and Kurumalai reserves forest areas in Tamil Nadu.

• The common name suggested by the authors for the new gecko is Quartzite brookish gecko or Thoothukudi brookish gecko.
• It is the 53rd species of Hemidactylus found in India and the seventh that is endemic to Tamil Nadu.
• It has been named Hemidactylus quartziticolus because it was found over the quartz rocks.
• It is unique in various aspects, including dorsal scalation, the number and arrangement of precloacal-femoral pores, the number of dorsal tubercle rows at midbody, the number of lamellae under digit I and IV of manus and pes.
• It has the most densely packed tubercles among Indian Hemidactylus, almost resembling the most tuberculate Indian Cyrtopodian.
• Three morphological characteristics of Hemidactylus quartziticolus that make it distinct are its enlarged tubercles, continuous series of 34-38 precloacal-female pores and the few lamellae (four) under digit I of manus and pes.

Gecko

• Geckos are small, nocturnal lizardsfound in all the warm parts of the world.
• There are approximately 1**,500 gecko species**, and they vary in size.
• Geckos are found on every continent except Antarctica and live in almost every habitat, including rainforests, deserts and mountains.
• They also possess a short, stout body, a large head, and typically well-developed limbs.