Snow Leopard Population Assessment

• 44 snow leopards are present in Himachal Pradesh, as part of the Snow Leopard Population Assessment.

Key Findings of Snow Leopard Population Assessment:

• Survey Methodology:The study used camera traps to survey a vast area of the snow leopard’s habitat and also assessed the population of their prey species. 
• Hotspots of Snow Leopards: The highest densities of snow leopards were found in the trans-Himalayan regions of Spiti and Pin valley. 
• Community Involvement: The report emphasizes the importance of involving local communities in conservation efforts. 
• Wild-Prey Population: The trans-Himalayan region also supports the highest densities of wild prey. 
• For Example: The estimate of blue sheep population size was 891 for Spiti, and the ibex population size estimate was 224 for the Pin valley.

Snow Leopard:

• Geographical Spread:  Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, besides Himachal Pradesh. 
• Threat: Habitat destruction, invasive species, climate change and pollution are having an unprecedented impact on the snow leopard worldwide.

• Protection Status:
• Appendix I : Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).
• Schedule I:  Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.
• Conservation Initiatives:
• Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) Programme: India has been part of it since 2013.
• HimalSanrakshak: Launched in 2020 as a community volunteer programme, to protect snow leopards.
• Project Snow Leopard (PSL): It aims to promote an inclusive approach to conserve snow leopards.
• Significance: It serves as an indicator of the health of the Himalayan ecosystems in terms of climate change and biodiversity.

Article 142 of the Constitution

• In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court invoked Article 142 of the Constitution to appoint a postal assistant after the postal department refused to hire him despite his high merit list ranking.

The Supreme Court held that a public employer, which is a ‘state’ within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution, would have no authority to act in an arbitrary manner.

Article 142:

• Article 142 of the Constitution deals with the Supreme Court’s power to exercise its jurisdiction and pass order for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it. 
• It provides the apex court with a special and extraordinary power and is meant to provide justice to litigants who have suffered traversed illegality or injustice in the course of legal proceedings.

Why was Article 142 included in the Constitution?

• Article 142 was envisaged to allow the Supreme Court the opportunity to provide ‘complete justice’ to even those who may have been wrongly sentenced or denied justice due to the intricacies or inefficacies of the legal justice system. 
• The article was meant to empower the apex court to deliver justice in exceptional cases without being hindered by legal or bureaucratic red tape.

Significant cases where Article 142 was invoked:

• Babri Masjid Case: The article was used in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case and was instrumental in the handover of the disputed land to a trust to be formed by the union government.
• Bhopal Gas Tragedy: The Supreme Court invoked its plenary powers in the Union Carbide vs Union Govt case and intervened to provide compensation to victims of the deadly Bhopal Gas Tragedy. 

Cyclone Hamoon

• The weakening of Cyclone Tej in the Arabian Sea might have strengthened its counterpart Cyclone Hamoon across Peninsular India in the Bay of Bengal, as per India Meteorological Department (IMD).
• It is after 5 years that the marginal seas of the Indian Ocean are together witnessing cyclones.
• The last time such a phenomenon took place was in 2018, when Cyclones Luban and Titli formed over the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal respectively.

Factors Responsible for strengthening Hamoon:

• Shifting of Tej in the Arabian Sea:  In a twin cyclonic system — Tej and Hamoon — often one gets stronger at the expense of the other. Since Tej already made landfall  and is gradually weakening, Hamoon now seems to be getting stronger.
• Surface temperature:The sea surface temperature of the region where it is now located is more than the earlier position, further contributing to the intensification.

International Migration Outlook 2023

• India saw the highest migration flows to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2021 and 2022, according to the ‘International Migration Outlook 2023’

Key Findings of International Migration Outlook 2023: 

• India replaces China as the main country of origin of new migrants to OECD countries in 2020. In 2021, for the second consecutive year, India, with 0.41 million new migrants, was the top country of origin.  
• Growing Policy Focus on Climate-Induced Displacement: Few OECD countries have introduced explicit policies to respond to climate-induced displacement.

• For instance, in April 2023, Colombia’s Congress began discussing a bill to recognise climate-induced displacement, the first of its kind in Latin America
• Indian Nationals Acquiring OECD Nationality:  0.13 million Indian citizens acquired the nationality of an OECD country in 2021.
• As in previous years, these acquisitions took place mostly in the United States (56,000), Australia (24,000) and Canada (21,000). 
• Impact of Russia-Ukraine War: Inflows of refugees from Ukraine reached the highest level on record, OECD-wide, due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war; more than 10 million people have become either internally displaced or refugees in the OECD region.
• Workers migration: In terms of workers, migration flows from India (+172 per cent), Uzbekistan (+122 per cent) and Turkey (+240 per cent) rose sharply, making them primary countries of origin after Ukraine.

Challenges around Air Pollution

• The air quality in Mumbai has been consistently declining in recent years.

More about the news: 

• Worsening  air quality index (AQI): It  went beyond 300 in some parts of the city. 
• An AQI of 200 or above is considered ‘poor’ air quality, while 300 and above signifies ‘very poor’ air.

• According to CSE analysis based on real-time data from the working monitoring stations, the number of bad-air days in Mumbai doubled between 2019 and 2021, while good days were down by 20 percent.
• The concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Mumbai was 14.7 times the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of five micrograms per cubic metre. 

Reasons behind increasing pollution in Mumbai:

• Disruption of wind pattern: Mumbai experiences regular wind patterns alternating between sea-to-land and land-to-sea movements every 3-4 days, which naturally clears dust particles. 
• However, current poor air quality is caused by frequent and extended disruptions in this wind cycle, with direction changes occurring after eight to ten days.
• As per scientists, this could be due to the prevailing La Nina conditions in the eastern Pacific Ocean. 
• La Nina is a condition in which the sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean become cooler than normal.
• Calm winds and temperature gradient: The calm winds due to monsoon retreat coupled with high October temperatures caused winds from hilly areas( Sahyadri) to carry dust to the city.
• Increase in number of sources of pollutants: The increasing air pollution levels in Mumbai are an indicator of a high emission load from industrial hotspots and the worsening transport situation in and around the mega city.
• For Example– the Trans-Thane Creek, Taloja, Ambernath and Dombivali are the major industrial clusters surrounding Mumbai. The massive use of coal in them is one of the key factors for the deteriorating air quality.

• Vehicular Pollution: It is the most significant contributor to Mumbai’s air pollution. 
• A study conducted by the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research(SAFAR) shows that the share of vehicular emissions has increased considerably to over 30%, a significant rise from 16% in 2016-17.
• Increased dust pollution: Mumbai’s long-term air quality decline is driven by increased economic activity, more vehicles, extensive construction, and higher emissions, with no matched mitigation norms. 
• Increase in construction activity has resulted in high PM2.5 levels, making it one of the most polluted months in the city’s recent history.

• Increasing deforestation: 
• The metro project claimed over 2100 trees in Aarey forest and over 5000 trees across the city.
• Ahmedabad Mumbai bullet train project sought over 125 hectares of forest land from Sanjay Gandhi national park.
• The Tungareshwar sanctuary in Vasai involves reclamation of 40000 mangroves.

Challenges with air pollution: 

• Premature deaths: As per the Lancet 2022 study, air pollution is estimated to have caused around 1.7 million premature deaths in India in 2019, accounting for nearly 17.8 per cent of the total deaths recorded in the country that year, the highest in the world. 
• Loss of DALY: Nearly 40 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), comprising 11.5 per cent of the total DALYs, are lost due to air pollution. 
• Decrease in life expectancy: As per a study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), life expectancy in India has decreased by 2.6 years due to the diseases brought on by air pollution. 
• Increase in non-communicable diseases: It has emerged as the most significant risk factor for lung cancer, respiratory obstructions, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and acute respiratory infections, etc.
• Impact of child health: As per new epidemiological studies, it impacts child’s birth weight, development and cognition, insomnia, fertility, cerebral health. 
• Economic cost: Air pollution costs about $95 billion annually, i.e., almost 7 lakh crore, forming around 3.3 per cent of India’s total GDP. 
• Welfare cost: According to the report ‘Economic Policy Reforms 2023: Going for Growth’, the Ambient particulate matter led to welfare cost of premature deaths at 8.4 per cent of India’s gross domestic product in 2019.

Steps by the government: 

• Clean Air Mumbai initiative: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced a seven-step action plan to battle air pollution as part of the initiative.
• Installation of artificial lungs: A pair of white artificial lungs were installed in west Mumbai, to create awareness regarding increasing pollution levels and health hazards associated with it.

• Maharashtra Electric Vehicle Policy 2025: Under this, the municipal administration has allocated Rs 99.22 crores towards dust mitigation, Rs 992 crores to public transport electrification.
• Graded Response Action Plan(GRAP): The Maharashtra Government has formulated a GRAP similar to the one planned by the Delhi Government to combat air pollution.
• National Clean Air Programme: It is a national-level strategy to combat rising air pollution by 2024.

Way Forward: 

• Implementation of pollution mitigation plans: The authorities just need to implement them with following of simple measures such as sprinkling of water and dust screens.
• Sectoral emission load reduction targets: Government should include them to move towards better air quality levels.
• A holistic, integrated, and comprehensive year-wide action plan to tackle air pollution must be formulated, as being practiced in Delhi-NCR (the GRAP). 
• Monitoring system: Install a sensor-based monitoring system that can calculate air quality within a radius of three km around it.
• Various air pollution monitoring mechanisms should be consolidated into one robust and standardised monitoring system. 
• Tackling dust pollution: One solution to tackle road dust is to build better roads that do not require revamping.
• Mechanical dust-sweeping machines, using chemical dust suppressants that make the dust particles heavier and prevent them from spreading into the air.
• Fast pacing the drive towards electric vehicles: Indian automobile sector could drive the shift towards electric vehicles and become a world leader in this segment. 
• Environmental sustainability, along with economic growth, is a win-win situation.
• Inculcating environment-positive behaviours: Habits like car-pooling, public transport, cycling to work, circular consumption patterns should be ingrained among the people.

Farmer Producers’ Organisations (FPOs): Engines of agri-innovation

• Eastern Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a hub of vegetable and fruit exports in the past two years. Progressive farmers are associating with FPOs in the region and becoming agents of change.
• The FPO Shakti portal has been launched to provide a platform to all active FPOs in UP. It is a one-stop solution for grievance redressal, forging business partnerships and fostering convergence. 
• As of July 15, close to 1,600 FPOs, with a total turnover of Rs 229 crore have registered on the portal. More than six lakh farmers are associated with these organizations.

What are FPOs:

• An FPO is a collective of farmers with holdings or works in a geographical cluster.
• It can be registered under the Companies Act or as a cooperative under the Societies Registration Act. 

Need for FPOs:

• Fragmented land holdings preventing economies of scale and discouraging investment in agriculture. 
• The average size of operational holding has declined to 1.08 ha. in 2015-16 as compared to 1.15 in 2010-11 (Agriculture Census 2015-16).
• FPOs have demonstrated their potential to trigger cluster-based farming, bringing in economies of scale in input management facilitating agri-extension, enabling technology adoption, providing quality assurance and helping farmers market their produce.
• Current Status:
• As on 30th June, 2023, 10,000 FPOs have been allocated to various Implementing Agencies (IAs) out of which 6319 FPOs have been registered across the country.

Challenges:

Various studies commissioned by NABARD, have established the positive role of FPOs, However, there are challenges and policy gaps in the ecosystem. The important challenges and confronting issues in building sustainable FPOs, are as under: 

• Lack of/ Inadequate Professional Management:FPOs are required to be efficiently managed by experienced, trained and professionally qualified CEO and other personnel under the supervision and control of democratically-elected Boards of Directors. However, such trained manpower is presently not available in the rural space to manage FPO business professionally.

• Poor Capitalization And Funding Scope:
• There is a provision of funding support under various government schemes to the FPOs promoted by NABARD or SFAC. However, such financial assistance is not available to all the FPOs, particularly outside the ambit of NABARD/SFAC. The average paid-up capital (PUC) of the majority of the FPOs is between ₹1.0 to 3.0 lakhs. 
• Due to the lack of any collateral assets with the FPOs, financial institutions are hesitant to finance the FPOs.
• Business plan and scaling opportunities:
• Most FPOs lack a business plan and long-term vision, so they only buy and sell inputs or farm produce in bulk.
• Lack of  Awareness:
• Inadequate awareness among the farmers about the potential benefits of collectivization & non availability of competent agency for providing handholding support. 
• Further, lack of legal and technical knowledge about various Acts and Regulations related to formation of FPOs and statutory compliances thereafter.
• Inadequate Access to Infrastructure: Inadequate access to basic infrastructure required for aggregation like transport facilities, storage, value addition (cleaning, grading, sorting, etc.) and processing, brand building and marketing.
• Lack of Risk Mitigation Mechanism: Presently, while the risks related to production at farmers’ level are partly covered under the existing crop / livestock / other insurance schemes, there is no provision to cover business risks of FPOs.

Way forward: Federation of FPOs: FPO federations foster cross-functional learning through collaboration, knowledge sharing, and collective learning. These platforms let FPOs share knowledge, experiences, and resources to improve learning.

• For example the Maha FPO Federation in Maharashtra demonstrates the positive impact of such federations.
• FPO Gateway platform, developed by Samunnati, connected over 5500 FPO.
• Professional Management: It is urgent to train FPO managers or set qualifications for office bearers. This improves FPO management. An appropriate capacity-building method should be used to enable FPO members and office bearers to make timely and appropriate decisions. 
• Linkage with the financial institutions: Appropriate linkage with the financial institutions and FPO should be strengthened, to promote the establishment of agri-enterprises on a large scale. 
• Allowing private equity, angel investors and venture capital support to FPOs as the lines of support for start-ups can be introduced.
• Grameen Foundation launched the second phase of its Market Access eNabled by Digital Innovation in India (MANDI-II) project, funded by a $2-million grant from Walmart Foundation.
• MANDI-II will aim to address challenges faced by smallholder farmers, especially women, in eastern Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal by building the capacities of farmer producer organisations (FPOs).
• Marketing: Adequate market intelligence, market infrastructure and supply chain should be promoted to get optimum prices for the produce. 
• Adequate skill-embedded knowledge related to processing, value addition, storage of agricultural products and application of Information and Communication Technology in the marketing of produce should be provided. 
• Foster learning and innovation among FPOs: By embracing innovation, FPOs can create a competitive advantage that allows them to thrive in the market. They can differentiate themselves by offering unique products, establishing strong relationships with consumers, and building a reputation for quality and reliability.
• Samunnati, one of India’s largest agri enterprises, has signed an agreement with Singapore-headquartered B2B (business-to-business) SaaS FinTech finbotsAI, to transform credit risk management using artificial intelligence (AI). 
• Comprehensive Policy: A Policy should be developed to establish the FPO as the grassroots organization for extension delivery to scale out the farmers’ agricultural and agri-entrepreneurial knowledge.

Formation & promotion of FPOs is the first step for converting Krishi into Atmanirbhar Krishi. This will enhance cost-effective production and productivity and higher net incomes for the members of the FPO. 

Bishan Singh Bedi

• Context: Recently, the “Sardar of Spin” Bishan Singh Bedi died at the age of 77 after a prolonged illness. 
• Career: Born in Amritsar in 1946, Bedi was an Indian cricketer  who had represented India in 67 Tests and ten ODIs from 1967 to 1979. 
• He took 266 wickets with 14 five-wicket hauls and one 10-wicket haul in test cricket.
• Captaincy: He was also one of the most admired Indian captains and he led the respnsibility for nearly four years in Test cricket between 1975 and 1979.
• Mentor: He was also a national selector and mentor to many talented spinners like Maninder Singh, Sunil Joshi and Murali Kartik.

Bond Yield

• The Yield on 10-year government bonds in the US, the benchmark for asset prices across the globe, rose to hit 5.02 per cent.

More on News:

• In India, the yield on 10-year government bonds is already at a high of 7.38 per cent, a rise of 24 basis points in the last one month.
• Historically, it was observed that bond yields in other countries, including India, rose when US yields showed any uptrend and vice versa.

About Bond and Bond Yield:

• Bond: It is an instrument to borrow money. A bond could be issued by a country’s government or by a company to raise funds.
• A bond can be purchased for more than its face value, at a premium, or less than its face value, at a discount.
• Bond Yield:It is the return an investor realizes on a bond.

Why are yields so high?

• Factors like rising crude oil prices, inflation risks and interest rate signals from the US Federal Reserve have contributed to the hardening of bond yields
• A higher government borrowing is also a reason for the rise in bond yields.

Impact on bond investors:

• Rising Interest Rates: The rise in bond yield means that investors are expecting a rise in interest rates and are therefore selling the bond papers they are holding. 
• Since a rise in interest rates would result in decline in bond price of existing bonds (and thereby capital loss on sale before maturity), investors rush to sell those bonds so as to limit the capital loss.
• Equities: Rising bond yields could also have a cascading negative impact on equities.

DNA and Face Matching

• Context: Centre is ready to roll out DNA, face matching systems at police stations across India.
• Legislative Mandate: The Criminal Procedure Identification Act, 2022, enables police and Central investigating agencies to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples of arrested persons. 
• Implementation: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has constituted a Domain Committee for the successful implementation of the Act with representatives from State police, Central law enforcement agencies and other key stakeholders. 
• Measurement Collection Unit (MCU): The States have been asked to identify the locations and prepare the sites where the MCU may be established. 
• The Central body under MHA will be the repository of the database at national level.

Drug resistance test for tuberculosis (TB)

• Context: An IIT Bombay-incubated company (Haystack Analytics) has created a comprehensive drug resistance test for (TB).
• Whole-Genome Sequencing (WGS): WGS is a genetic fingerprinting technique that determines the entire DNA sequence of an organism which can be used for testing drug resistance TB..
• Analysing the genomic data of the organism is an important molecular tool for TB surveillance and detecting resistance. 
• WGS would allow rapid identification of the origin and drug resistance (DR) profile of TB strains in the patients.

Iron Sting

• Context: It is the latest weapon system used by Israel against Hamas.
• Iron Sting: It is a laser and GPS-guided system that fires 120mm mortar and is built to engage targets in around 1 to 12 km range having around 90% accuracy and ensuring minimal collateral damage. 
• Role: It is designed to engage targets precisely while reducing the possibility of collateral damage and preventing injury to non-combatants.
• Significance: It provides more accurate and effective means to attack potential targets. 
• Project: It is part of the Israel’s military’s “Tnufa” plan.
• It fulfills the needs of adapting combat capabilities to contend with enemies hidden within civilian and urban environments.

Officer as Rathprabharis

• Context: The Centre has planned to depute joint secretaries, directors and deputy directors as district “rath prabharis”.
• Campaign: To highlight achievements of the past 9 years of the Government of India through “Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra” from 20 November 2023 to 25 January 2024.
• Aim: Disseminating information, awareness and extending services at Gram Panchayat level.