UPSC Key—25 August, 2023: India-China Relations, Johannesburg Declaration and Road Safety in India

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: India and its neighbourhood- relations

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- In what appeared to be a breakthrough Thursday in efforts to reduce tensions between the two countries over the military standoff in eastern Ladakh since May 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed India’s concerns to Chinese President Xi Jinping on “unresolved issues” along the Line of Actual Control, and the two leaders “agreed” to “direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation” of troops on the ground.

• What is Line of Actual Control?

• Why expeditious disengagement and de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh?

• What happened in the Galwan?

• What had happened in Galwan?

• Friction between India and China-what are the reasons?

• What is the importance of this region for India?

• How significant are they for the military?

• India-China Relations during Nehruvian Era-Know in detail

• The 1962 India-China War-Know the background

• India-China Border Dispute- Know the background

• For Your Information- Since 2020, Corps Commanders of India and China have been discussing resolution of the flashpoints along the LAC, including those which emerged after the standoff began. India and China have held several rounds of military talks and meetings of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC). The talks have led to disengagement of troops at the post 2020 friction points with the creation of buffer zones, but legacy issues such as Depsang Plains and Demchok continue to fester, leading to limited or no patrolling by Indian troops at these points. The last such movement was in September 2023 when both armies disengaged from PP-15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs area after multiple rounds of talks. Disengagement in most of these areas led to the creation of buffer zones – this stops troops of both sides from accessing areas which they patrolled earlier. Other than these friction points, the legacy issues of Depsang Plains and Demchok – which predate the 2020 incursions by the Chinese PLA – continue to fester. At the Depsang Plains, Chinese troops have been blocking Indian access to PPs 10 to 13 from a bottleneck known as the Y-junction as well as the 972 sq km tract of land there. The Depsang Plains are located close to the strategically important Daulat Beg Oldie. The Depsang Plains issue began in 2013 when China carried out an 18-km incursion in the area.
Despite the two countries agreeing then to go back from their positions, the PLA troops did not vacate the area completely. India has since deployed a separate brigade to look after the area. In Demchok, which is in the southern part of eastern Ladakh, the problem is mainly at the Charding Ninglung Nullah (CNN) junction. In multiple instances, the PLA also stopped Indian graziers at the Saddle Pass at the CNN junction, well within India’s perception of the LAC. Following the 19th round of talks this month, Major General-level talks were held to decide the finer details of resolving the existing issues, including the legacy issues along the LAC, as well as gaining access to all pre-2020 patrolling points along the LAC.

• Map Work– Line of Control and Line of Actual Control

• Map Work- Chang Chenmo river, Gogra-Hot Springs, Kongka Pass, Galwan Valley, Depsang Plains, Line of Actual Control, and Charding Nala region

• What is the situation now?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Buffer zones to Depsang to Demchok: Spotlight on pullback plan, the extent

Rover takes walk on Moon, all systems normal, activities on schedule, says ISRO

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-A DAY after the historic lunar landing by Chandrayaan-3, instruments on board the spacecraft began working and the rover took a “walk” on the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Thursday.

• What is rover in Chaandrayaan-3?

• What is name of rover in Chaandrayaan-3?

• What are the intended functions and objectives of the rover deployed in the Chaandrayaan-3 mission?

• Vikram and Pragyan-how they are connected to each other?

• For Your Information-Communication links between the lander and the rover have been established and the first images of the rover have been captured, said sources. While some sources said the images would not be released until the completion of a “key event”, others said the picture quality was “not good” and “new images” were awaited. ISRO released a video, taken by the Horizontal Velocity Camera on the lander, showing the last two minutes of the descent, just ahead of the touchdown on Wednesday evening.
“All activities are on schedule. All systems are normal. Lander module payloads ILSA, RAMBHA and ChaSTE are turned ON today. Rover mobility operations have commenced. SHAPE payload on the propulsion module was turned ON on Sunday,” ISRO tweeted on Thursday evening.
Earlier in the day, ISRO informed the country that the rover had moved out of the lander and roamed around on the Moon overnight. “The Ch-3 (Chandrayaan-3) rover ramped down from the lander and India took a walk on the Moon,” it said.
Establishment of communication links between the rover and the lander is a key step in transmitting data gathered by the instruments, between the two of them, and with the ground stations on Earth.

A screenshot shows the surface of the Moon captured by the Lander Imager Camera aboard Chandrayaan-3 just before its touchdown. (ISRO/ PTI)

• What are Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE), Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA), Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) Rover, and Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA)?

• Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2-What happened to Chandrayaan-2 Mission?

• How and why Chandrayaan-2 Mission failed?

• What will Chandrayaan-3 do on the Moon?

• With Chandrayaan-3 successfully landing on the Moon’s surface, decks have been cleared for ISRO to unveil the next stage of its lunar exploration programme-What are the other missions?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Chandrayaan-3 

BRICS expands from 5 to 11, PM says this sends message to all

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Leaders of the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — decided Thursday to expand the grouping and admit six new members. Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE, Egypt, Ethiopia and Argentina will become part of BRICS with effect from January 1, 2024.

• Map Work-Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE, Egypt, Ethiopia and Argentina

• What is Johannesburg Declaration?

• How the decision on the new members was agreed upon?

• What are the parameters utilised for the induction of new members into the BRICS Grouping?

• For Your Information-At a joint media briefing in Johannesburg, South African President and Summit host Cyril Ramaphosa, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said, “We have consensus on the first phase of this BRICS expansion process… We have decided to invite Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to become full members of BRICS.”
“We value the interests of other countries in building partnership with BRICS and have tasked our Foreign Ministers to further develop the BRICS partnership model and list of prospective countries (which want to join the grouping),” Ramaphosa said.
He said the decision on the new members was agreed upon after firming up the guiding principles, criteria and procedure for the expansion process. There are about 23 countries which have formally applied so far for membership of the grouping.

• How this expansion will make BRICS stronger and more effective?

• For Your Information-The BRICS, in its declaration, said, “We have decided to invite the Argentine Republic, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to become full members of BRICS from 1 January 2024.” The grouping was formed in September 2006 and it originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). It was renamed as BRICS after South Africa was accepted as a full member in September 2010. At present, the BRICS represents 41 per cent of the global population, 24 per cent of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global trade.

• What is the significance of the 15th BRICS summit?

• What are the potential benefits or advantages for India in this context?

• What BRICS expansion means for India?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍UNCHARTED WATERS

📍BRICS gets six new members: Significance, what it means for India

EXPRESS NETWORK

NMC puts on hold rules for doctors to prescribe only generic medicines

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The National Medical Commission (NMC) on Thursday put on hold its new guidelines that made it mandatory for doctors to only prescribe generic drugs. Released on August 2, the National Medical Commission Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023 triggered a huge backlash, with the country’s largest doctors’ body, Indian Medical Association (IMA), as well as the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) calling it “not feasible”. Even the country’s apex drug regulator, the Central Drugs Standard Drug Control Organisation (CDSCO), questioned the language in the notification.

• What was the controversial aspect of the National Medical Commission Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023?

• For Your Information-Released on August 2, the National Medical Commission Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023 triggered a huge backlash, with the country’s largest doctors’ body, Indian Medical Association (IMA), as well as the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) calling it “not feasible”. Even the country’s apex drug regulator, the Central Drugs Standard Drug Control Organisation (CDSCO), questioned the language in the notification. Besides the instructions on generic drugs, the NMC guidelines included directives on issues ranging from continued medical education, usage of social media platforms and maintaining a dynamic register of doctors. It also barred doctors from attending events sponsored by pharmaceutical companies.
Suggesting the guidelines be kept in abeyance until the WHO’s good manufacturing practices are implemented, the participants said that prescribing only generic drugs will prompt pharmacies to sell generic drugs at high-profit margins, disincentivising firms that manufacture quality branded generics. They also raised the issue of combination drugs, saying the Indian Pharmacopoeia (directions on standards of strength & purity for drugs) doesn’t have standards specifically for combination drugs, which could result in quality issues if only generic versions are sold. Among its reservations, the CDSCO specifically pertained to ‘List O’ of “over the counter” drugs that can be suggested on teleconsultation platforms. The NMC’s August 2 notification mentioned 14 therapeutic categories — such as cough syrups, pain medicines, antacids and smoking cessation drugs — in List O while all other drugs “not included in list of prescription drugs are considered as non-prescription drugs”. According to the CDSCO, the 14 therapeutic categories would likely include drugs that are not necessarily to be sold in this manner as per Drugs and Cosmetics Act, meaning NMC regulations would be in contravention of law. On the restrictions on participation of doctors in workshops, symposia, and conferences directly or indirectly sponsored by the pharma industry, the meeting was told that a three-member committee including Niti Aayog member (health) Dr VK Paul had been formed to rationalise the sponsorships by the drug manufacturing industry.

• What new notification says?

• What is the National Medical Commission?

• Quick Recap- After the National Medical Commission notified new guidelines on professional conduct recently, doctors have been protesting one of the stipulations — using generic names of medicines on the prescription instead of a particular brand name. The Indian Medical Association, the largest body of doctors in the country, said in a statement this was akin to “running trains without tracks.” They said before implementing any policy to meaningfully promote generic medicines, the quality of drugs across manufacturers has to be ensured.

• What do the guidelines say?

• For Your Information-The guidelines say that doctors can only write the generic names of the medicine on the prescription. For example, a doctor will have to prescribe paracetamol for fever, instead of Dolo or Calpol “Every RMP should prescribe drugs using generic names written legibly,” the guidelines say. This practice can only be relaxed for medicines with narrow therapeutic index (drugs where a small difference in dosage may lead to adverse outcomes), biosimilars (a different version of biologic products that are manufactured in living systems), and “similar other exceptional cases.” The guideline says that generic medicines, on average, are 30% to 80% cheaper than the branded versions, and are hence likely to bring down healthcare costs.

• What are the major changes?

• Will the changes help?

• What is Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)?

• What are the basic principles of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)?

• How World Health Organisation defines Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)?

• What is generic medicine?

• What is difference between generic medicine and normal medicine?

• Doctor’s Concern-The main reason for doctors protesting the guidelines is the quality of generic medicines, they say. “The biggest impediment to generic drugs is the uncertainty about its quality. The quality control in the nation being very weak, there’s practically no guarantee of the quality of drugs, and prescribing drugs without assured quality would be detrimental to patient health,” IMA said in its statement. Dr Sharad Agarwal, IMA president, said: “What happens if a person takes a generic medicine prescribed by me and doesn’t get better, then buys a branded version from the pharmacy and does? It hampers my reputation. What about hospitalised patients? I give them generics and they do not get better. Later, the family would say they could have paid for any medicine, why did I not use it. This will lead to violence.” He also said that the guidelines were notified without consultation with stakeholders. “IMA demands deferring of this regulation for wider consultations by the Government of India,” the statement from the doctors’ body says.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍IMA slams NMC rules for docs to only prescribe generic drugs

📍Revised manufacturing norms for drug firms: what changes, why

📍Adopt WHO-standard good manufacturing practices: Govt sets deadline for pharmas

📍Cheap generic vs costly branded: Issues in picking right drug in India

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

Growth & the Tier 2 City

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Urbanization, their problems and their remedies.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Ejaz Ghani Writes: As the fastest-growing large economy in the world, India’s high growth has attracted headlines. But, with nearly a quarter of the youth being unemployed, India’s youth unemployment has also attracted attention. More than 50 per cent of India’s population is below the age of 25 and more than 65 per cent is below the age of 35. The coexistence of high economic growth and high unemployment is a puzzle.

• What is India’s current unemployment status?

• “For a young country like India, high growth and unemployment is not a paradox or a reflection of automation or artificial intelligence, but lop-sided development policies”-Comment

• “India’s young demographic is an asset in an ageing world, and changes in the trajectory of globalisation have opened new doors for India”-How?

• “India needs good infrastructure, both physical and human, to create more jobs”-Attest with some example

• Physical Infrastructure and Human Infrastructure-Compare and Contrast

• Critically analyse India’s Physical Infrastructure as well as Human Infrastructure.

• Author’s Point of View on Physical Infrastructure and Human Infrastructure –India needs good infrastructure, both physical and human, to create more jobs. The country has made huge progress in improving its physical infrastructure but has fallen behind on human infrastructure like education and skills. Physical infrastructure in the absence of good human infrastructure has slowed the pace of job growth. Physical infrastructure investments are also focused on urban areas, but the manufacturing sector is migrating away from urban to rural areas to remain cost-competitive. However, poor physical and human infrastructure in rural areas has constrained the growth drivers and limited the size of the manufacturing sector in India.
India has the largest concentration of illiterate people in the world. More than one-third of India’s adult population remains illiterate, and less than 20 per cent have completed secondary education. There are well-understood limits to the pace with which India can accumulate physical infrastructure. But there are no limits to the pace at which India can accelerate human capital.
Returns to investment in education are much higher than the returns to investment in physical investment. The average social rate of returns to primary education is nearly 20 per cent and returns to higher education are increasing rapidly. The World Bank, which for a very long time just focused on basic education, and ignored higher education, has come around.

• What can India do to scale up investments in human infrastructure, particularly education?

• Way ahead Given by the Author of this Article- As the education system becomes more complex with multiple players and multiple pathways, the governance of the education system needs to be improved, and new and better systems must be established. It needs better incentives, monitoring, performance assessment, and accountability both for the internal processes of the education process as well as for students. A key challenge is to scale up tertiary education. This will increase the cadres of professionals who can create new enterprises and maximise job creation. Tertiary education increases the dissemination of knowledge beyond universities, through interactions between firms and the rest of society.
Policymakers need to recognise that investments in education will accelerate the pace of job creation. Most of the jobs are created by new enterprises, and enterprises, both domestic and foreign, look for both skilled workers and a good physical infrastructure. Given India’s large youth bulge, the potential to benefit from education is huge. Education and skills are becoming more important as new enterprises make their location decisions based on the education and skills of the local workforce.
India’s infrastructure investments, which are largely focused on the urban areas, have resulted in lopsided spatial development that has slowed the pace of job creation. India’s manufacturing sector is rapidly de-urbanising and moving from urban to rural areas to remain competitive. However, the manufacturing sector is not able to grow fast, as rural areas lack adequate physical and human infrastructure.
In the early 1990s, India’s manufacturing sector walked hand in hand with urbanisation. This process has reversed from 2000 onwards, with the pace of de-urbanisation of manufacturing gathering momentum. Industrial firms are choosing to locate in rural areas due to a combination of cheaper land prices, lower pollution restrictions, weaker congestion and other spatial factors. India’s urbanisation and industrialisation paths have diverged. India’s pre-mature de-industrialisation, or the secular slow-down in the manufacturing trend, is due to the divergence in the paths of urbanisation and industrialisation.
The future of economic growth will not be in tier I cities, which are already dense with India’s best and brightest, but in tier II cities. New cities have the potential to generate 70 per cent of the country’s new jobs and GDP over the next 20 years — a process that could drive a four-fold increase in per capita incomes. In China and the USA, intermediate cities have become the new drivers of growth and job creation. Globally, manufacturing has been dispersing from high-density clusters to less dense areas.

• The divergence in the paths of urbanisation and industrialisation raises big policy questions for policymakers-What are those big questions?

• What is a tier 2 city?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Why India needs an urbanisation policy

EXPRESS NETWORK

Rocketry best film, Alia, Kriti, Allu Arjun bag acting honours

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- The winners of the 69th National Film Awards were announced at 5 pm on Thursday. While Allu Arjun bagged the Best Actor award for the film Pushpa: The Rise, Alia Bhatt and Kriti Sanon shared the award for Best Actress for the films Gangubai Kathiawadi and Mimi respectively. Rocketry: The Nambi Effect won the award for Best Feature Film. The Kashmir Files won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Film on National Integration at the 69th National Film Awards.

• What are the National Film Awards?

• Who selects the winners?

• Who have been the biggest winners of the Awards?

• Are there any broad trends visible over the decades of the Awards being given?

• Do You Know-The National Film Awards “aim at encouraging the production of films of aesthetic & technical excellence and social relevance”, according to the Directorate of Film Festivals of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Awards also aim to increase appreciation of different cultures and communities across India, thus promoting unity and integrity. They are presented by the President of India each year for the films of the preceding year.
First given out in 1954, they were called the ‘State Awards’ and were limited to recognising the best films from a dozen regional languages. It was in 1968 that separate awards for artists and technicians were given. Nargis won the inaugural Award for Best Actress, for her performance as a schizophrenia patient in ‘Raat Aur Din’, while Uttam Kumar won the Best Actor award for both ‘Antony Firingee’ and ‘Chiriyakhana’.
The Awards were officially designated Urvashi Award and Bharat Award respectively. The actress Sharada who won the Award three times (for ‘Thulabharam’, ‘Swayamvaram’, and ‘Nimajjanam’) came to be known as “Urvashi Sharada”.
There are three sections of the Awards now: ‘Features’, ‘Non-Features’. and ‘Best Writing on Cinema’. The winning entries in the ‘Features’ and ‘Non-Features’ sections are selected on the basis of “cinematic achievements”. The ‘Best Writing on Cinema’ Awards are given with the aim to encourage the “study and appreciation of cinema as an art form”.
This time, no award was given for Best Critic. The Best Book on Cinema went to Kishwar Desai’s ‘The Longest Kiss’, which is about Devika Rani, often called “The First Lady of Indian Cinema”.
• ‘Indian cinema’s cultural influence for the first few decades after Independence was outsized compared to its economic and political might’-Do you agree?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: The National Film Awards, their history, significance, and recent trends

EXPLAINED

ICMR Covid study: key findings on mortality rate, comorbidities

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-A study by the Indian Council of Medical Research published recently said that nearly 6.5% people hospitalised with Covid-19 died in the following year. This is comparable to data from across the world.

• What were the major findings of the study?

• For Your Information-The study is based on the data of 14,419 patients across 31 hospitals. It includes patients who were hospitalised since September 2020, meaning the infections are likely to have been caused by the original, delta, or omicron coronavirus variants. Besides, it looks at outcomes only in those who were hospitalised with moderate to severe disease.
Apart from the findings mentioned above, the study found that 17.1% of the participants experienced post-Covid-19 conditions such as lethargy and breathlessness, and cognitive abnormalities like brain fog and difficulty in concentrating. It also said that people were nearly three times more likely to die if they experienced these post-Covid-19 conditions.
The study put in a caveat that the exact definition of “post-Covid-19 conditions”, as given by World Health Organization or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could not be used, as they came out after patient enrolment had already begun. The ICMR study defines “post Covid-19 conditions” as persistent or new onset of fatigue, breathlessness, or cognitive abnormalities.
The study also showed that even a single dose of the vaccine before the infection reduced the number of deaths in the one-year period by 60%.

• Who was at higher risk of mortality?

• Could people infected with the milder variants also get long Covid?

• Should those at risk of severe disease take precaution doses?

• What are key issues faced by the healthcare sector of India?

• India’s Health Budget-Know the Statistics

• How does the pandemic affected health services?

• How does the impact of the pandemic on health services put the spotlight on the benefits of digital innovation and technology-enabled solutions?

• How implementation of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) united all stakeholders in the digital healthcare ecosystem?

• Public Health Systems in India-Know the Background

• Current state of India’s health infrastructure- What World Bank data says?

• COVID-19 Pandemic and India’s Healthcare System-Connect the dots

• Steps required to strengthen the existing state of Health infrastructure in India

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍6.5% Covid patients died within a year of hospital discharge: study

India’s new car safety rating

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-India has launched its own crash test rating assessment system, joining half a dozen other countries and geographies that have these norms. A crash test is a collision of a vehicle in a controlled environment to assess its safety parameters. The new norms under the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme or Bharat NCAP, will come into effect from October 1. The norms define safety standards of motor vehicles with type approval for seating up to eight people, and with a gross weight of less than 3.5 tonnes, which are either manufactured or sold in the country. Work on drawing up the norms began in 2015.

• India has launched its own crash test rating assessment system-what’s that?

• But why India has launched its own crash test rating assessment system?

• What is a crash test?

• What is Bharat NCAP?

• Global New Car Assessment Programs (NCAP) Vs Bharat New Car Assessment Programs (NCAP)-Compare

• Why testing matters?

• For Your Information-So far, carmakers have been shipping models abroad for testing and star grading, an expensive and time-consuming affair. These tests largely covered petrol and diesel cars. Bharat NCAP will also test and rate CNG and electric vehicles based on their crash performance.
The new norms could lead to an improvement of the quality of cars sold in the country, and the export-worthiness of India-made automobiles. Over time, the programme is expected to catalyse a change in consumer behaviour and lead to an increase in the demand for safer cars, nudging manufacturers to increase focus on safety.
India sees some 1.5 lakh fatalities on its roads every year, and has among the world’s highest rates of road accident deaths. Under the Stockholm Declaration, India is committed to reducing the number of road traffic deaths and injuries by 50 per cent by 2030.

• How crash test rating assessment system will ensure road safety?

• Road Accidents in India-Know Broad Profile of Road Accidents 2020 vis-a-vis 2019

• Why Road Safety is must in India?

• What position does India have in terms of Road safety?

• What are the Initiatives Related to Road Safety?

• What actions are being taken by the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Road Safety?

• What are the Initiatives Related to Road Safety at national as well at international level?

• What is ‘Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety’?

• What is the Significance of Road Safety in India?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍ExplainSpeaking | The economics of road safety: What India can learn from the rest of the world

THE WORLD

Japan starts releasing Fukushima water into Pacific, its seafood banned by China

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

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Chinese customs authorities banned seafood from Japan in response to the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant starting its wastewater release Thursday, customs authorities said in an announcement. The ban starts immediately and will affect all imports of “aquatic products” including seafood, according to the notice. Authorities said they will “dynamically adjust relevant regulatory measures as appropriate to prevent the risks of nuclear-contaminated water discharge to the health and food safety of our country.”

• Fukushima: Why is the water being released into the Pacific Ocean?

• Map Work- Fukushima

• Is Japan allowed to release filtered cooling water into the sea?

• How will the water be prepared before it’s released?

• How dangerous is tritium?

• Do You Know- Tritium is a form of hydrogen that occurs naturally in Earth’s atmosphere. It is radioactive but far less dangerous than cesium-137 or strontium-90 — both of which are life-threatening.
It emits a weak beta particle that can be stopped by a sheet of plastic or human skin.
That’s one reason Georg Steinhauser, a radioecologist at the Vienna University of Technology with expertise in the situation at Fukushima, has said that releasing the filtered water into the ocean is the best solution.
Steinhauser collected samples from the ruined Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant site in 2013 and was a guest professor at Fukushima University a year later.
“If anyone’s worried about tritium, they’re uninformed. Tritium is not dangerous, neither for people nor the environment, if it’s slowly released in diluted form,” said Steinhauser. “It’s a fraction of what is still in the ocean after the nuclear bomb tests. And very soon, it will be diluted to a point at which it is undetectable. So, there’s no need for anyone to be scared.”
Burkhard Heuel-Fabianek, who heads the radiation protection department at Germany’s Forschungszentrum Jülich, has told DW that Japan’s water release plan was “radiological sound.”
Even if tritium gets into the body, the risks are low, said Heuel-Fabianek: “Since tritium is basically part of the water, the body sheds it relatively quickly. So, it lacks the biological effects that other elements have.”
It’s a different story if strontium-90 gets into the human body: “Strontium is absorbed by the bones, and once it’s in the crystalline structure of the bones, you can’t get rid of it again,” he said.

• How the Pacific Ocean acts as a massive dilutant

• Is tritium a distraction tactic?

• What are the alternatives for dealing with the Fukushima cooling water?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Fukushima nuclear water release: How safe is it?

ECONOMY

PM bats for MSMEs, calls for building inclusive value chains

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Emphasising the need for a greater focus on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called for greater participation of MSMEs in global value chains. In his opening remarks at the G20 Trade and Investment Ministers’ Meeting in Jaipur, Modi said resilient and inclusive global value chains have to be built that can withstand future shocks and that India’s proposal to create a ‘generic framework for mapping global value chains’ is important in this context.

• What is the definition of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)?

• How many types of MSME are there?

• What is new criteria for the classification of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises-know in detail

• What are the Schemes and Programmes by union government related to MSME?

• Why Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector is important for Indian Economy?

• Know Issues and challenges faced by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: Why are Medium, Small, Micro Enterprises worst hit by Covid-19 lockdown?

For any queries and feedback, contact priya.shukla@indianexpress.com
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