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The Indian Express’ UPSC weekly news express covers some of the important and burning topics of current affairs news from this week to help you prepare for UPSC-CSE. Try out the MCQs and check your answers provided towards the end of the article.
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II- Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.
Why in news?
— Russia-Ukraine war will mark a year on February 24.
— The US-led Western alliance is expecting Russia to launch another big offensive in the coming days. Ukraine fears that a fresh offensive could come as early as on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
— The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which collates official civilian casualty numbers, said on February 13 that from February 24, 2022 to February 12, 2023, there were 18,955 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 7,199 killed and 11,756 injured. Of the fatalities, 2,888 were men, 1,941 women, 226 boys, 180 girls, as well as 32 children and 1,932 adults whose sex was not determined.
— As the war is being fought on Ukrainian territory only, the civilian casualties are entirely in that country. The number of military casualties is not clear yet, but could run into thousands on both sides.
— The war has displaced over 7.5 million people from Ukraine over the last year.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Nirupama Subramanian Explains:
Why is it a war of attrition?
— The expectation that Russian president Vladimir Putin might have had, of a quick operation in Ukraine that would perhaps end with a regime change in Kiev, was belied as Ukraine, under President Vlodymyr Zelensky, fought back.
— Both sides are currently trying to wear down the other by inflicting casualties and attempting to reverse territorial gains or losses. On Thursday, Russia let loose 32 missiles across Ukraine, its 15th such attack since the war began. Ukraine said it intercepted 16 of these missiles.
— A US-led Western alliance, including Germany which was reluctant at first to break out of its pacifist mould and reconsider its economic dependence on Russia, quickly came together. These countries have poured billions of dollars worth of armaments into Ukraine over the last year.
— Germany and the US have promised to send tanks to assist in Ukraine’s war efforts. The US has supplied its Patriot missile system, the UK has also sent missiles and tanks. Turkey chipped in with the Bayraktar attack drone; Australia, Canada and the US gave M777 artillery.
— The US also provided the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or Himars, which are reported to have helped Ukraine recapture Kherson last November.
— The war has transformed the trans-Atlantic partnership, with Europe accepting America’s leadership of the alliance. It has also strengthened NATO. The Biden Administration is leading the show of support with over $50 billion worth of assistance, helping also with military advice and intelligence backing.
— With the promise of tanks and a consideration of Ukraine’s request for F16s, Russia sees this as nothing but a proxy war being fought by Ukraine on behalf of the US and the West. For Russia, this is an existential war.
— The predictions of a long-drawn-out conflict suggest there is a realisation that Putin may still have several steps of escalation available to him, all well below the nuclear threshold.
— For the Western alliance, the question that is likely to come up is how long to keep supporting Ukraine and how to keep their unity intact, especially as the danger of an escalation carries the risk of drawing in the NATO, which in turn would immediately lower the nuclear threshold and bring the war to western Europe in unimaginable ways.
Why is there no peace effort?
— Despite the realisation of the dangers, no serious effort has been made to bring the war to an end. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told the AFP in an interview on Thursday that the security alliance must be prepared for the conflict with Russia to last “many, many years”, beyond the immediate invasion of Ukraine.
— An article in the periodical foreign affairs last autumn claimed that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were close to an interim deal in April: Ukraine would not seek NATO membership and Russia would withdraw to the pre-February 23, 2022 position when it controlled Crimea and parts of the Donbas region.
— There has been considerable speculation about why this did not lead to an agreement, with some reports linking the failure to a visit by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Kiev at the time, during which he is said to have told Zelensky to stop the negotiations.
— Whatever the truth, it appears that President Zelenksy no longer has the agency to sue for peace, with pressure against this from both domestic constituents (Ukraine is due for an election in 2024) and international backers.
— The West may hope that a long-drawn-out war will bleed the Russian economy to the point of collapse. The sanctions, which have cut Russia off from western sources of money, have already affected its economy.
— Puzzlingly though, the International Monetary Fund said in January that the Russian economy would grow by 0.3% this year, and by 2.1% in 2024, mainly on account of its oil exports.
— The US denied reports of backchannel peace talks after the Kremlin leaked that the head of its SVR foreign intelligence service Sergei Naryshkin and CIA boss Bill Burns held a meeting in Ankara on November 14. The meeting, US officials said, was to warn Moscow about the consequences of using nuclear weapons.
India and the war
— Delhi, which has maintained a barely nuanced balance between not condemning Russia outright for the invasion and maintaining important relationships with the US and Europe, has patted itself on the back for displaying strategic autonomy at this consequential moment in world geopolitics. But the difficulties of retaining this balance are becoming evident.
— On the one hand, the pressures from the US to get off the fence have grown over the past year, despite all the public expressions of understanding for the position of a partner whose role is crucial to Washington in the contain China project. On the other, Delhi is facing up to the inevitable economic decline of Russia. India needs Russia to remain an autonomous power in the Eurasian landmass, one that will not accept Chinese geopolitical hegemony. An economically collapsed Russia as a Chinese satellite is the last thing Delhi would want.
— National Security Adviser AK Doval’s visit to Moscow for a conference of regional NSAs, during which he met Putin, has triggered the speculation that Doval may have been carrying a message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Putin is not known to meet foreign dignitaries other than his counterparts, and his meeting with Doval was thus a rare one-off.
— At this point, what Delhi would want most — and the Prime Minister has already articulated this to Putin through his oft-quoted remark “this is not the era of war” — is for this war to end. In the year of its G20 presidency, India has also indicated a willingness to make peace in Europe, and give a voice to the Global South, that wants this war to end quickly. Did Doval convey to Putin that it is time to find a way out of this dead end quickly? Though the proceedings of their meeting have remained under wraps, the two would not have met only to exchange pleasantries or to discuss the weather.
Is India worried about the Russia-China axis?
—India is indeed conscious that the hostility between the West and Russia may push Moscow in the direction of Beijing.
—The West’s approach towards Russia after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 brought Moscow much closer to China. India has always felt that it was the West that enabled this with the anti-Chinese rhetoric from Washington and the collapse of oil prices, making Russia increasingly dependent on Chinese consumption. Western analysts see this as a “friendship of convenience” between two countries led by strongmen.
—Beijing and Moscow, however, do not always see eye to eye with each other. China does not recognise Crimea as part of Russia, and Moscow, formally speaking, takes a neutral stance on Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea.
What are the historical connections?
— Historians say that Russia and Ukraine had been linked since the 9th century when Kyiv became the capital of the ancient state of Rus. From 1654, the two were united by treaty under the rule of the Russian tsar. They speak closely related languages and later formed, with Belarus, the Slav core of the Soviet Union.
— Historian Serhii Plokhy, a professor of Ukrainian history in Harvard University, wrote in The Financial Times that it was during the mid-19th century when, in order to accommodate the rising Ukrainian national movement, Russian imperial thinkers formulated a concept of the tripartite Russian nation consisting of the Great Russians (or Russians in today’s understanding of the word), Little Russians, or Ukrainians, and the White Russians, or Belarusians.
— When the Tsar’s empire collapsed after the revolution led by Lenin, the Ukrainians created a state of their own and declared independence in January 1918. Although it turned out to be short-lived as the Bolsheviks took control over most of Russian Ukraine in 1920, that two-year period planted the seeds of independence among the Ukrainian people.
“The Bolsheviks were forced to recognise Ukraine as a separate nation and even grant a pro forma independence to the Ukrainian Soviet republic,” Plokhy wrote.
— Later, Ukraine played a key role not only in the creation of the USSR but also in its dissolution. It was the Ukrainian referendum of December 1 1991, in which over 90% of participants voted to leave the USSR, that spelt the end of the Cold War superpower. Economics too played a role: Russia could not bear the burden of the Union without its second-largest economy.
Is there a geography and resource angle too?
— After Russia, Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe too. It has major ports on the Black Sea and shares borders with four NATO countries. Europe depends on Russia for about one third of its natural gas – providing enormous leverage for Putin in any dispute with the West – and one of the main pipelines passes through Ukraine. Controlling this Ukrainian territory would enhance Russia’s pipeline security.
Point to ponder: Is telling Russia to abandon war is in India’s interest?
(Sources: One year of war in Ukraine: How West, Russia are placed; India’s concerns by Nirupama Subramanian & What are India’s stakes in its ties with Ukraine & Russia? by Shubhajit Roy )
1. MCQ:
Which of the following statements is not true?
(a) Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe, after Russia.
(b) Ukraine shares border with 5 NATO states.
(c) It has major ports on Black Sea.
(d) Ukraine played a key role not only in the creation of the USSR but also in its dissolution.
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II- Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests.
Why in news?
— The United States and China are currently involved in an extraordinary standoff over allegations of espionage through high-altitude balloons. Last week, the US downed three unidentified ‘objects’ flying over its airspace and that of Canada. The downed objects have not yet been recovered, so it is not clear whether these were balloons.
— But the first incident, on February 4, involved a Chinese balloon that Beijing claimed was meant for research purposes and was accidentally blown off course by wind. The US has also claimed that Chinese balloons entered its airspace on at least four earlier occasions, remaining undetected at that time. China, in turn, has accused the US of sending surveillance balloons over its airspace at least 10 times since last year.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Amitabh Sinha Explains:
High-altitude balloons
— Balloons have been in frequent use for several decades now, though the first uses go back at least 200 years. They are used mainly for scientific purposes but increasingly for tourism and joy rides, surveillance, and disaster relief and rescue.
— The bigger balloons can be as large as a football stadium, go up to 40-50 km from the ground, and carry a few thousand kilograms of payloads. Most of these are built of thin sheets of polyethylene, like the common plastic bags, and are filled mostly with helium gas. Balloons can stay in flight from anywhere between a few hours to a couple of months. Those that are meant to remain in air for long and go higher up in the atmosphere are made of more advanced materials for increased sturdiness.
— Balloons typically have a basket attached to them, called gondolas, that carry instruments or human beings. In unmanned flights, the gondolas are also attached to a parachute. Once the job of the balloon is done, a device in the gondola is triggered to snap its ties with the balloon as well as create a rupture in the fabric of the balloon. With the help of the parachute, the gondola then glides down to the earth, followed by the ruptured balloon. The possible landing zone is calculated ahead of the flight based on weather conditions.
Scientific missions
— The most common use of balloons is in scientific research. In a way, balloons equipped with instruments were able to perform the functions of a satellite before the space age dawned. Even in the times of advanced satellites, there are situations in which balloons are considered more suitable. Weather agencies routinely use balloons to make measurements – of air temperature, pressure, wind speed and direction, aerosol concentrations.
— Because of the high altitudes that today’s giant balloons can attain, they are considered useful for astrophysicists and even space agencies. These are relatively clear spaces, much above the heights at which airplanes fly and far below the nearest orbits, about 200 km from earth, where satellites are placed. Very often, they offer better opportunities to observe specific parts of the earth, and are also thousands of times cheaper than satellites. Moreover, because the balloons are brought down after their job is done, the instruments used are recoverable and reusable.
— NASA has a full-fledged balloon programme that does four-five launches every year. Several universities and research institutions also use balloons for research work.
— Balloon-based experiments have resulted in at least two Nobel prizes for Physics, in 1936 and 2006.
Surveillance
— High-altitude balloons are tempting vehicles for espionage operations, though their use is not known to be very common. Drones and satellites are used more frequently, and spy planes have been in use since World War I. But here again, balloons have certain advantages. They can hover over an area for a prolonged time. Big balloons can carry a few thousand kilograms of payload, which means they can be packed with spying instruments.
— The biggest advantage is the greater prospect of their remaining undetected. Because of their relatively slow movement, balloons are mostly flagged as birds by defence radars, thus escaping attention. In fact, the US has now said it will recalibrate its radar systems to detect slow-moving objects.
— Balloons lack sophisticated navigation systems of an aircraft, drone or satellite, being largely on the mercy of wind speed and direction. But the balloon that was downed on February 4 seemed to have a solar panel attached to it, which has given rise to the possibility of it powering an onboard propulsion device.
Ballooning in India
— Scientific balloons have been used in India for more than 70 years, the first one having been sent in 1948 by Homi Bhabha for cosmic ray research. The Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) started balloon fabrication work in the 1950s, and several balloon flights were launched from Mumbai and Hyderabad.
— Sometimes later, in 1969, the TIFR opened a full-fledged Balloon Facility in Hyderabad, which remains India’s largest such facility today. Scientists from different research institutions have used it to launch more than 500 flights till now. It is regularly used by the space institutions under ISRO, and weather research institutions like the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune.
— Institutions like the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics and Hyderabad’s Osmania University, as well as some private educational institutions, also have balloon programmes.
(Source: US, China trade spying charges: Why are balloons usually sent into air, can they be used for surveillance? by Amitabh Sinha)
Point to ponder: Downing of Chinese spy balloon ends chapter in a diplomatic crisis. Discuss.
2. MCQ:
With reference to high-altitude balloons, which of the following statements is not true?
(a) Balloon-based experiments have resulted in at least two Nobel prizes for Physics.
(b) NASA has a full-fledged balloon programme.
(c) High-altitude balloons are tempting vehicles for espionage operations.
(d) Balloons possess sophisticated navigation systems of an aircraft.
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development – Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.
Mains GS-III: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
Why in news?
— Tata Group-owned Air India (AI) placed two mega orders on Tuesday, adding up to a staggering 470 aircraft — for 250 planes with Europe’s Airbus consortium, and 220 with Boeing Co. of the United States. This is the largest order placed by an airline in one go anywhere in the world, beating the 2011 order by American Airlines for a combined 460 aircraft. The biggest order by an Indian carrier before this was IndiGo’s 300-aircraft order in 2019.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Global significance
— The significance of the order goes far beyond Air India and India’s aviation sector. This was underscored by the lead taken by global leaders Prime Minister Narendra Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron, and US President Joe Biden in making the announcement. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also weighed in.
— Biden said the order to Boeing will support “over one million jobs across 44 [US] states”, and the British government said the order to Airbus is worth “billions of pounds to the UK”. The Airbus deal means big business for engine maker Rolls-Royce, and will create jobs in the UK where parts of the aircraft are expected to be manufactured.
— Major Western economies are in the midst of an economic slowdown, and are looking to spur economic activity and support employment. After irking the West by ramping up its purchase of Russian crude, it is good optics for India to be seen as creating jobs in Europe and the US through the AI order. The message seems to be that India and Indian companies are open to business with the world, irrespective of the region and geopolitics. The fact that the announcement has come in the year of India’s G20 presidency adds strategic value to the order.
Air India and Indian aviation
— Ever since Air India returned to the Tata Group a little more than a year ago, its new owners have been focused on sprucing up the product offering, while also planning an extensive expansion for the airline. A five-year roadmap — Vihaan.AI — was prepared with the aim of substantially growing the network and fleet and putting it on a “path to sustained growth, profitability, and market leadership”.
— The twin orders are a key element in that strategy. Air India is also in the process of refurbishing its existing planes and trying to get a few grounded ones back in the air. In addition, it is leasing aircraft to expand its network and offering till the time the new planes join its fleet.
“The first aircraft to arrive will be 25 brand new Boeing B737-800s and six Airbus A350-900s in the second half of 2023, with deliveries really ramping up in 2025 and beyond. In the meantime, our capacity growth will continue to be supported by the previously announced lease-in of additional narrow-body and wide-body aircraft and the restoration-to-service of the remainder of our grounded fleet,” Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said in a communication to staff following the announcement of the order.
— In the domestic aviation segment, Air India currently has a market share of a little more than 9 per cent, a fraction of market leader IndiGo’s 55 per cent. The Tata Group wants AI to quickly gain market share and the mega order is part of the action plan.
— The company is also working to consolidate and realign its airline business by merging AI with Vistara (a joint venture between the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines) to create a full-service carrier under the Air India brand, and is merging Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) to create a large low-cost carrier that could be a potential rival to IndiGo.
— The order is also significant in terms of the international traffic from and to India, the fastest growing aviation market in the world. While AI is the leader among Indian airlines in international traffic and the only one operating trans-Atlantic flights, it has not been able to effectively compete against major network carriers that offer flights to Europe and the Americas via their home countries. The new wide-body fleet especially, is expected to boost Air India’s competitiveness in the long-haul flight segment and help it emerge as a formidable global network carrier.
— However, an expansion of airport infrastructure is critical to meet that objective — only fleet expansion and refurbishment will not be enough. India will have to develop one or more of its airports as large hubs like Singapore or Dubai for Air India — or indeed, any Indian carrier — to become a truly global network carrier.
Airbus vs Boeing in India
— Over the years, Airbus has emerged as the undisputed leader in India’s domestic aviation space, with the lion’s share of narrow-body planes coming from its stable — specifically, the A320 family. With the exceptions of SpiceJet and new entrant Akasa Air, all major airlines in India — IndiGo, Air India, Vistara, Go First, AIX Connect — depend almost entirely on Airbus for narrow-body operations. Together, these five carriers account for almost 90 per cent of India’s domestic air travel market.
— Boeing had started making inroads a few years ago with large orders for its 737 MAX aircraft from Jet Airways and SpiceJet. However, a combination of factors — the bankruptcy of Jet Airways, financial troubles at SpiceJet, and the grounding of 737 MAX planes globally for an extended period over safety issues — delivered a blow to Boeing’s ambitions in India.
— With the 737 MAXs now back in service globally and Boeing offering faster deliveries, the US-based manufacturer would be looking to give tough competition to Airbus in India.
— Among wide-body aircraft, of which there aren’t too many in India, Boeing is the leader — both Air India and Vistara have all-Boeing wide-body fleets. In fact, the Air India order for 40 Airbus A350s is being seen as a win for Airbus, which has been pitching its wide-body products to Indian carriers for some years now, but had been unable to make inroads into the Boeing-dominated segment. The last Indian carrier to deploy Airbus wide-body planes was Jet Airways.
(Source: Unpacking Air India’s mega Airbus, Boeing order: The details and its significance by Sukalp Sharma)
Point to ponder: Flying is no longer looked upon as an elitist luxury but a necessary service.. Discuss with reference to India’s civil aviation.
3. MCQ:
Which of the statements below are incorrect?
1. India is the second largest domestic civil aviation market in the world after China.
2. UDAN — Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik — expedites connectivity to non-metros is left to private enterprise alone.
(a) Only 1
(b) Only 2
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Why in news?
— Google has started laying off employees in India and handed pink slips to around 450 workers across its offices in the country. The company sent emails to impacted employees on Thursday (February 16) evening, sources told The Indian Express. The action has impacted workers across functions such as sales, marketing and partnerships.
— The move comes after Alphabet Inc, Google’s parent company, announced cutting 12.000 jobs or six percent of its total workforce last month. At the time, the company had said that it hired “for a different economic reality” during the pandemic, when internet usage across the world had soared.
— Currently, the tech industry is seeing a large-scale restructuring after over-hiring during the pandemic on the basis of the assumption that more people will continue to live large parts of their lives online. However, that does not seem to have happened – as the pandemic has eased, so have people’s online lives.
— Meanwhile, as per a Bloomberg report, Twitter has shut down two of its three offices in India afterfiring nearly 90 per cent of its workforce in the country last year after Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Soumyarendra Barik Explains:
— To understand why tech companies are laying off workers now, turn back to the pandemic, when the industry was booming. In the two years of the pandemic, these companies saw record revenues coming in as people shifted to online services to get things done — from buying things on e-commerce platforms like Amazon to shifting their entire working day online on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams.
— This escalation also meant that the demand for skilled tech workers rose during the pandemic, setting off fierce competition to attract talent in tech giants and startups alike. From fat paychecks to perks including expensive superbikes, nothing was off the table. Then, there was the availability of abundant capital to startups, who used the money to ensure that even they could outbid the biggest global tech companies for skilled talent.
— Then came 2022. The pandemic eased. Russia invaded Ukraine and central banks around the world started sounding caution about an impending recession. Worse, these companies’ bet that the pandemic would be reason enough for people to move their entire lives online did not pan out as expected.
— When Google let go of 12,000 employees, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, in a blog post explained what exactly had gone wrong: “Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.” Just a few months before this, Alphabet had posted lower-than-expected numbers for its third financial quarter, where it fell behind both revenue and profit expectations.
Indian start-ups continue to bleed: Let’s know through examples of Swiggy, Ola, BharatPe, and more
— For India’s startups, 2023 has been an extension of a year-long funding winter that kicked in in 2022. More than 20,000 workers at the country’s startups in sectors like edtech and e-commerce were handed pink slips in 2022, as investors who just a year ago had infused large sums of capital in the market pulled back.
— Already in 2023, startups like Swiggy, which in January became a decacorn — a firm with a valuation of $10 billion or more — recently laid off 380 employees, and Google-backed ShareChat fired 20 per cent or around 400 of its workforce. Cab-hailing firm Ola, which had already fired more than 2,000 workers last year following a failed bid to scale up its quick commerce vertical, let go of 200 employees earlier this year.
— “We concluded our performance cycle in October and have announced ratings and promotions at all levels. As with every cycle, we expect exits based on performance,” a Swiggy spokesperson said in a statement. The layoffs also came on the back of Jefferies reporting that Swiggy’s losses during H1 FY23 were six times higher than Zomato’s standalone losses during the same time.
— “Since our launch eight years ago, ShareChat and our short video app Moj have seen incredible growth. However, even as we continue to keep growing, there have been several external macro factors that impact the cost and availability of capital,” ShareChat said. Since the announcement, its co-founders Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan have stepped down from their active roles in the company.
— An Ola spokesperson said the layoffs were because the roles had become redundant. “We regularly conduct restructuring exercises to improve efficiencies, and there are roles which are now redundant. We will continue making new hires in engineering and design including senior talent in our key priority areas,” said the person.
— Where once big valuations were being discussed and decided upon on WhatsApp texts, incidents of alleged corporate fraud at startups like BharatPe meant that investors have upped their due diligence before putting money in a startup. 2023 has already seen an example of a startup that in the quest of growing too fast, committed errors in financial reporting to show bloated numbers to its investors.
— High-flying car servicing startup GoMechanic’s founder Amit Bhasin admitted to financial reporting errorsat the Sequoia-backed car repair startup and stated that the cash-strapped company will lay off roughly 70 per cent of its workforce while also having its accounts audited by a third party.
— “Our passion to survive the intrinsic challenges of this sector and manage capital, took the better of us and we made grave errors in judgement as we followed growth at all costs, particularly in regard to financial reporting, which we deeply regret,” Bhasin wrote in a LinkedIn post. He later edited the post to remove the word ‘grave’.
(Source: Google fires 450 staff, Twitter shuts 2 offices: What’s behind the cutbacks in India? by Soumyarendra Barik)
Point to ponder: Big Tech and unicorns need to reevaluate their hiring policies. Discuss.
4. MCQ:
With reference to unicorn startups, consider the following statements:
1. Unicorns are privately held, venture-capital backed startups that have reached a value of $1 billion.
2. The valuation of unicorns is not expressly linked to their current financial performance and not on their growth potential.
Which of the above statements are true?
(a) Only 1
(b) Only 2
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: History of India
Mains Examination: General Studies I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
Why in news?
— February 14 was the last day for comments and suggestions to be sent in for the draft Geo-heritage Sites and Geo-relics (Preservation and Maintenance) Bill, as notified by the Ministry of Mines.
— The Bill is aimed at providing for the declaration, preservation, protection and maintenance of geo-heritage sites and geo-relics of national importance, for geological studies, education, research and awareness purposes.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
— According to a 2016 press release by the Ministry of Mines, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) declares geo-heritage sites/ national geological monuments for protection and maintenance. The GSI or the respective state governments take necessary measures to protect these sites.
— Coming under the Ministry of Mines, the GSI was established in 1851 to investigate and assess coal and other mineral resources of the country through regional-level exploration.
— The draft bill defines Geoheritage sites as “sites containing geo-relics and phenomena, stratigraphic type sections, geological structures and geomorphic landforms including caves, natural rock-sculptures of national and international interest; and includes such portion of land adjoining the site,” that may be required for their conservation or to access to such sites.
Varkala Cliff Section of Thiruvanatapuram district in Kerala. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)— And, a Geo-relic is defined as “any relic or material of a geological significance or interest like sediments, rocks, minerals, meteorite or fossils”. The GSI will have the power to acquire geo-relics “for its preservation and maintenance”.
— The 32 geo-heritage sites spread across 13 states include the Volcanogenic bedded Barytes of Mangampeta in Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh, the Akal Fossil Wood Park in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan and others.
What does the Geo-heritage Sites and Geo-relics Bill say?
— The Bill states that despite identifying these sites, there are concerns over their preservation. “Due to the absence of any legislation in the country for the protection, preservation and maintenance of the geoheritage sites, these are increasingly threatened with destruction not only by the natural causes of decay but also by population pressure and changing social and economic conditions which is aggravating the situation.”
— It states, “The fossil wealth of dinosaur remains of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, marine fossils of Kutch and Spiti…oldest life forms viz. stromatolites of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh…are of great geoheritage and geotourism value. The world’s oldest metallurgical records of gold, lead and zinc in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are still preserved but are under great threat.”
What does it say regarding preservation?
The key proposals say:
*It would authorise the Central Government to declare a geoheritage site to be of national importance. This would be under the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (RFCTLARR Act). Through a public notification in the Official Gazette, the government would spell out what areas were to be acquired by it, and objections to this can be raised within two months.
*Provision is made for compensation to the owner or occupier of land who incurs loss or damage from the land due to the exercise of any power under this Act. The market value of any property will be ascertained in accordance with the principles set out in the RFCTLARR Act.
*The Bill imposes a prohibition on construction, reconstruction, repair or renovation of any building within the geoheritage site area or utilisation of such area in any other manner, except for construction for preservation and maintenance of geoheritage site or any public work essential to the public.
*Penalties for destruction, removal, defacement or contravention of any direction issued by the Director General, GSI in the geo-heritage site are mentioned. There is a penalty of imprisonment which may extend to six months or fine which may extend to Rs.5 lakh, or both. In the case of a continuing contravention, additional fine of upto Rs.50,000 for every day of continuing contravention may be imposed.
What are the criticisms?
— The need for the preservation of such sites, and particular laws for them, has been felt for long. But as a Science article points out, there are concerns over the distribution of power as mentioned in the Bill. Guntupalli V R Prasad, a paleontologist at the University of Delhi who was recently leading the team that discovered titanosaur nests in Madhya Pradesh, told Science, “The GSI has been given sweeping powers.”
— It points to how the GSI has the authority to acquire any material of geological significance, including sediments, rocks, minerals, meteorites, and fossils, as well as sites of geological importance. The issue of land acquisition for the purpose of safeguarding these sites could also lead to issues with local communities.
(Source: What the Ministry of Mines’ draft Geo-heritage Sites and Geo-relics Bill says)
Point to ponder: Should private enterprise be involved in preserving heritage?
5. MCQ:
Which of the following geological heritage site /national geological monument not correctly matched with the states?
(a) Lonar Lake – MAHARASHTRA
(b) Natural Geological Arch – TAMIL NADU
(c) Kishangarh Nepheline Syenite – RAJASTHAN
(d) Columnar Lava – KARNATAKA
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