UPSC Key—28th November, 2023: Conference of Parties 28, Kambala, Axolotl and Organ Regeneration

THE WORLD

Irish writer Paul Lynch’s dystopian novel Prophet Song wins Booker Prize

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Irish author Paul Lynch’s “Prophet Song” was named the winner of the Booker Prize 2023, beating London-based Indian-origin author Chetna Maroo’s debut novel “Western Lane”, at a ceremony in London.

• Who is Paul Lynch?

• What is ‘Prophet Song’?

• What has been depicted by ‘Prophet Song’?

• For Your Information-Lynch, 46, won for his novel presenting a dystopian vision of Ireland in the grips of totalitarianism, something the author describes as “an attempt at radical empathy”. Set in Dublin, “Prophet Song” tells the story of a family grappling with a terrifying new world in which the democratic norms they are used to begin to disappear.
“Prophet Song” was the bookies’ favourite to win this year’s Booker Prize and makes Lynch the fifth Irish author to win the prestigious prize after Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright.
“From that first knock at the door, ‘Prophet Song’ forces us out of our complacency as we follow the terrifying plight of a woman seeking to protect her family in an Ireland descending into totalitarianism. We felt unsettled from the start, submerged in – and haunted by – the sustained claustrophobia of Lynch’s powerfully constructed world,” said Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan, the chair of the Booker Prize 2023 judging panel.
Lynch received his trophy from Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka, last year’s Booker winner for “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”, at the awards ceremony held at Old Billingsgate in London.
“The judges established at the start of the final meeting that any of the six books on the shortlist would be a worthy winner,” noted Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation.
The Dublin-based author’s first novel “Red Sky in Morning” was published in 2013 to critical acclaim. His second work “The Black Snow” (2014) won the French booksellers’ prize Prix Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel and the inaugural Prix des Lecteurs Privat. Lynch’s other two novels “Grace” (2017) and “Beyond the Sea” (2019) brought him equal international accolades.
Among the six shortlisted works was Kenya-born Chetna Maroo’s novel set within the context of the British Gujarati milieu, which was praised by the Booker judges for its use of the sport of squash as a metaphor for complex human emotions. It revolves around the story of an 11-year-old girl named Gopi and her bonds with her family.

• What is the Booker Prize?

• What is International Booker Prize?

• Booker Prize and International Booker Prize-Compare

• Why is it called the ‘Booker’?

• Do You Know-The Booker Prize is one of the best-known literary awards for fiction writing in English, including both novels and collections of short stories. It was first awarded in 1969.
Every year a panel of judges decides the best work of the year, with the criteria being that it must be written in English and published in the UK and Ireland. This panel of judges is picked from among eminent cultural historians, writers, professors, and novelists, and others from related fields. The panel this year had five judges.
For the Booker Prize, the winner receives £50,000. The longlist, released prior, has about 12 selections on it.
The International Booker Prize began in 2005. A biennial prize initially, it was then awarded for a body of work available in English, including translations, with Alice Munro, Lydia Davis and Philip Roth becoming some of the early winners. In 2015, the rules of the International prize changed to make it an annual affair. The new rules stipulated that it will be awarded annually for a single book, written in another language and translated into English. The £50,000 prize money is divided equally between the author and translator each year. The Booker Prize, from 1969 to 2001, was named simply after the Booker Group Limited – a British food wholesale operator that was its initial sponsor. The Man Group, an investment management firm based in the UK, began to sponsor the prize in 2002 and it thus came to be known as The Man Booker Prize. The Man Group ended their sponsorship in 2019. Crankstart, an American charitable foundation, has been the sponsor after that. The prize name has changed back to the ‘Booker’ since then.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Paul Lynch’s Booker win: A writer in search of radical empathy

In Mexico, ecologists going all out to save iconic ‘water monster’

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Ecologists from Mexico’s National Autonomous university on Friday relaunched a fundraising campaign to bolster conservation efforts for axolotls, an iconic, endangered fish-like type of salamander.

• What is axolotl?

• Why are axolotls so famous?

• Axolotl populations have declined considerably-Why so?

• “Axolotls have grown into a cultural icon in Mexico”-Elaborate

• Axolotl and Organ Regeneration-Know in detail

• How perfectly can axolotl’s regenerate their brains after injury?

• For Your Information-When the Aztecs established themselves in the nearby city of Tenochtitlan, they found in Xochimilco what appeared to be the larva of a salamander. Fascinated, they called the animal “water monster” and incorporated it into their mythology as the mischievous and renegade brother of the god Quetzalcoatl.
The wild axolotl is racing towards extinction. A 2003 study in Xochimilco by the Mexican Academy of Sciences found an average of 6,000 axolotls for each sq km; the latest survey, in 2015, has that number down to 36.
According to Down to Earth, the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is an aquatic salamander renowned for its ability to regenerate its spinal cord, heart and limbs. These amphibians also readily make new neurons throughout their lives. In 1964, researchers observed that adult axolotls could regenerate parts of their brains, even if a large section was completely removed. But one study found that axolotl brain regeneration has a limited ability to rebuild original tissue structure.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Axolotls in crisis: the fight to save the ‘water monster’ of Mexico City

FRONT PAGE

To curb fraud, 4-hour delay likely in first UPI transfer over Rs 2,000

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-To curb rising instances of online payment frauds, the government is planning to introduce a minimum time for a transaction beyond a particular amount happening for the first time between two persons.The plan likely includes a possible four-hour window for the first transaction between two users for digital payments being processed for all transactions likely above Rs 2,000, government officials told The Indian Express.

• “The government is planning to introduce a minimum time for a transaction beyond a particular amount happening for the first time between two persons”-How this will curb online payment frauds?

• What is digital payments?

• What are the regulatory bodies for digital payment?

• What is online frauds in India?

• Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and even the Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-what you know about these terms?

• Do You Know-Banks witnessed the maximum number of frauds in the digital payment category during the financial year 2022-23, according to the RBI Annual Report 2022-23. In FY2023, the total number of fraud cases in the banking system were pegged at 13,530, involving a total amount of Rs 30,252 crore. Of this, almost 49 per cent or 6,659 cases were in the digital payment – card/internet – category. As per a recent Financial Action Task Force (FATF) report on ‘Illicit Financial Flows From Cyber-enabled Fraud’, Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS) — the online system developed by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) for quick reporting of financial cyber frauds and monetary losses — has intercepted transactions worth Rs 602 crore since its inception in April 2021.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Finance Ministry, other stakeholders to meet on curbing digital frauds, cybersecurity

EXPRESS NETWORK

Bihar orders prohibition survey: Why Nitish wants to test the waters before LS elections

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

Main Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- With the Bihar caste survey wrapped up, the Nitish Kumar government is set to embark on a doorstep survey to evaluate the status of prohibition, which was implemented in the state in April 2016. “Prohibition will not be called off under any circumstances. Almost all women are in favour of prohibition and as per a rough assessment, 92% of men are also in its favour,” Nitish said on Sunday while announcing the survey.

• What will happen?

• Why a survey?

• For Your Information-The government will survey a minimum of 2,500 households in all 38 districts to figure out how many people have quit alcohol consumption due to prohibition, if people’s quality of life has improved because of it, and if domestic violence cases have reduced following the liquor ban. The timeline of the exercise has not been decided yet.
This will be the third such survey. In 2017, the Asian Development Research Institute conducted one along with the Babu Jagjivan Ram Research Institute, while the Chandragupta Management Institute conducted a survey in 2022. Both the surveys, which were based on small sample sizes, found that 99% of women and 92% of men were happy about the liquor ban.
Sources in the state secretariat said the government wanted to review the status of prohibition since, according to the police, of the 6,27,236 arrests between April 2016 and September 2023, more than 80% are out on bail. Only 1,522 people (in 1,215 cases) have been convicted so far for violating the liquor ban, representing 0.002% of those arrested. Prohibition has also failed to check liquor production. In the period mentioned above, the police have seized 2.16 crore litres of liquor, including 74.97 lakh of countrymade liquor.

• Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016-Key Highlights

• Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016- Why so much of criticism? (Recent Critical remarks came from Chief Justice of India)

• Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 – “lack of foresight”, How and Why?

• Issues and Challenges arising out of Prohibition of liquor

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Express View on Bihar’s prohibition policy: A costly ban

In a first, COP28 to see health ministerial meet; declaration Dec 3

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- In a first, the upcoming 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) in Dubai will host a health ministerial meet, likely to be attended by ministers from 65 countries. There will also be a declaration on climate and health on December 3.

• What is Conference of Parties (COP)?

• What is COP 28?

• What is expected at COP28?

• Why is an oil kingdom hosting COP28?

• Why does the host country matter?

• What has happened at past COPs?

• The climate and health declaration at COP28-what is expected?

• For Your Information-“There will be a high level political declaration. It will focus on increasing resilience of health systems, decreasing carbon footprint of the health systems– health sector accounts for around 5% of the total carbon emission–and the need to invest in health. At present, less than 1% of the multi-lateral climate finance goes to health and that has to change,” said Dr Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, WHO Team Lead, Climate Change and Health. The health argument is likely to bring to the fore the health costs of climate change.
Taking the example of just air pollution caused by the same fossil fuel leading to climate change, Dr Campbell-Lendrum said by investing in rapidly moving away from fossil fuels one million lives can be saved every year over the next couple of decades. “It will pay for itself, that’s the message. The sooner and more action we take, the cheaper it will be. Not taking action now would not only mean a lot of carbon released, but also missing the chance to save a lot of lives,” he said, explaining that the investment needed would be less than the current subsidy offered on fossil fuels.
The seven million deaths globally caused by air pollution every year, largely caused by burning fossil fuels, clearly demonstrates the health argument that the WHO and other healthcare professionals are trying to highlight in COP28. “We usually don’t associate lung cancers, obstructive pulmonary diseases, heart diseases, diabetes, and other chronic conditions with climate change. But the same fossil fuels that lead to climate change also lead to air pollution,” said Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health.
Not just air pollution, climate change has and will increase the reach and impact of existing health conditions such as exposure to heat and infectious diseases spread through food, water, and vectors.
Evidence of such an increased spread already exists in India, where spread of dengue has increased over the last two decades from just eight states in 2001 to all by 2022.
According to WHO, heat related deaths among those aged over 65 has already increased by 70% worldwide in two decades. The frequent and severe extreme weather events–droughts, floods and heatwaves–will also strain healthcare infrastructure and lead to migrations.
The climate and health declaration at COP28 will focus on three key areas. First, ensuring a resilient health system that is equipped to deal with climate change and diseases that come with it.
Second, reducing the carbon footprint of the healthcare system itself, and third, financing healthcare.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍COP28 in Dubai: What to expect from the climate meeting

THE IDEAS PAGE

In DBT, D is for dignity

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Shamika Ravi Writes: We need to think hard about how we can replicate the success of DBT, which leveraged technology to efficiently deliver goods and services to the poor in other areas, such as the judiciary, where justice can be efficiently delivered to the poor.

• India’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system has been globally recognised as a logistical marvel-Comment

• What is the meaning of Direct Benefit Transfer?

• What are the Benefits of Direct Benefit Transfer?

• What are the Issues Regarding DBT?

• Crucial beneficial feature of DBT that has received little attention-Discuss

• “DBT preserves the dignity of the poor”-how far you agree?

• “We should attempt to replicate the DBT design in other areas as well”-Discuss

• For Your Information-DBT leverages digital public infrastructure to directly transfer the benefits of various government schemes. Reports indicate that 310 government schemes across 53 ministries have used DBT to reach beneficiaries. DBT has also been used for in-kind transfers to provide subsidised grains via the public distribution system to poor households. Even though the DBT was initiated in 2013, its full potential was realised with the JAM Trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile) post-2017-18. Most discussions on the benefits of DBT have focused on its impact on curbing corruption or reducing leakages, or increasing coverage. It is estimated that DBT has resulted in savings of 1.14 per cent of GDP.
DBT preserves the dignity of the poor. Even though dignity might be challenging to quantify, it should be recognised that even without corruption or leakages, the poor would have to undertake a poverty parade to avail government benefits. This change in approach, where instead of the poor availing of government benefits, it’s the government benefits that reach them without an intermediary, has important implications for their psyche. In a civil and humane society, it is essential to recognise that all individuals, irrespective of their economic and social circumstances, have equal rights to dignity.
Broadly, the rights-based approach highlighted that the state attempts to provide basic security to all its citizens regarding food, shelter, and health. Intuitively, in the rights-based approach to poverty, there is an implicit recognition that people can find themselves in unfortunate economic and social circumstances beyond their control. There could be circumstances when the poor tried and yet did not make it. The corollary to this is that the rich and the powerful owe their success not only to their capabilities but also to luck and other factors beyond their control. In a rights-based approach to poverty, institutions must be designed from the Rawlsian perspective of justice with a veil of ignorance. In such a society, the burden of poverty has to be shared by all members of the society, particularly by the rich and the elite, who have to be more circumspect and humbler about their success.
In the rights-based approach to poverty, it’s not just what we provide to the poor that matters, but also how we provide it. We have to be cognisant in the design of the programmes that while delivering the rightful benefits to the poor, the mechanism is such that their dignity is preserved. Before DBT, the poor would have to knock on the doors of the intermediary elites to receive what was rightfully theirs. They would often be turned away or would have to wait in long lines, which eroded their dignity and deprived them of respect. DBT ended the poverty parade with the government reaching the poor rather than the other way around. In my opinion, restoring the dignity of the poor via DBT is a non-quantifiable but significant benefit that merits attention.
We should attempt to replicate the DBT design in other areas as well. One such area is the judiciary. In November 2022, on the occasion of the 73rd Constitution Day, while addressing the gathering of judges, the first woman tribal President, whose simple and relatable personality, guided by practical wisdom and civic virtue, is an inspiration for all of us, made an earnest appeal to judges in particular and society at large, highlighting the plight of the poor prisoners who have been languishing for years in jails for petty crimes because they do not have the financial or legal resources to fight their cases. She appealed to the judges and government to design a mechanism where justice can reach the poor, not where they have to struggle and fight for justice and still be deprived of it.
We need to think hard about how we can replicate the success of DBT, which leveraged technology to efficiently deliver goods and services to the poor in other areas, such as the judiciary, where justice can be efficiently delivered to the poor. The problem is complex and challenging, but I am sure it is not unsurmountable if we make a collective effort.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍How Direct Benefit Transfer scheme has transformed social welfare in India

ECONOMY

‘Surplus liquidity normalisation, robust credit growth bolstered monetary policy transmission

Syllabus:

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

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- The external benchmark-based lending rate (EBLR) system of loan pricing, calibrated normalisation of surplus liquidity and robust credit growth strengthened the monetary policy transmission during the current rate tightening cycle, according to an article in the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) monthly bulletin.

• What are the key takeaways from Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) monthly bulletin?

• What is external benchmark linked lending rate?

• What is difference between EBLR and MCLR?

• What is the surplus liquidity?

• What is liquidity surplus and deficit?

• Which action did RBI take to address the surplus liquidity situation?

• What are the two types of liquidity?

• How RBI remove excess liquidity from the market?

• For Your Information-Monetary policy in the country moved into a tightening mode in May 2022 amidst inflationary pressures emanating from the conflict in Ukraine, rise in international commodity prices, disruption of supply chains and volatility in global financial market.
Between May 2022 and February 2023, the RBI raised the repo rate – the rate at which the RBI lends money to banks to meet their short-term funding needs – by 250 basis points (bps). One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
“Transmission to banks’ lending and deposit rates has improved in the recent period, facilitated by the introduction of the external benchmark-based lending rate system,” the article – Monetary Policy Transmission in India: Recent Dynamics – published in the November monthly bulletin of the RBI said.
The calibrated normalisation of surplus liquidity and robust credit growth strengthened transmission during the current tightening phase although it is still not complete, it said.
The RBI had mandated banks to link all retail loans and floating rate loans to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to an external benchmark – the repo rate or 3-month T-bill rate or 6-month T-bill rate or any other benchmark market interest rate published by Financial Benchmarks India Private (FBIL), effective October 1, 2019.
In response to the cumulative hike in repo rate by 250 bps during May 2022 to October 2023, banks revised their repo-linked benchmark rates upwards by the same magnitude. The one-year median marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) rose by a relatively lower magnitude of 152 bps, reflecting the trends in banks’ cost of borrowings. Consequently, the weighted average lending rate (WALR) on fresh rupee loans rose by 187 bps, while that on outstanding loans rose by 111 bps during May 2022 to September 2023, the article said.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Why the RBI’s Open Market Operation plan caught the market by surprise

EXPLAINED

Rat-hole mining: risky practice being used in tunnel rescue

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Disaster and disaster management.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Efforts to release 41 workers trapped in the collapsed Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand seemed close to a breakthrough on Tuesday (November 28), after rat-hole miners were reported as being only a few metres away from them.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) stated on Tuesday, “Once a breakthrough is achieved, the process of pulling out each of the 41 men is estimated to take 3-5 minutes per individual. As a result, the overall operation may extend up to 3-4 hours.”

• What is rat-hole mining?

• For Your Information- Rat hole mining is a method of extracting coal from narrow, horizontal seams, prevalent in Meghalaya. The term “rat hole” refers to the narrow pits dug into the ground, typically just large enough for one person to descend and extract coal.
Once the pits are dug, miners descend using ropes or bamboo ladders to reach the coal seams. The coal is then manually extracted using primitive tools such as pickaxes, shovels, and baskets.
OP Singh, professor of environmental studies at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Shillong, told The Indian Express in 2018 that rat-hole mining is broadly of two types. “In the side-cutting procedure, narrow tunnels are dug on the hill slopes and workers go inside until they find the coal seam. The coal seam in hills of Meghalaya is very thin, less than 2 m in most cases,” he said.
In the other type of rat-hole mining, called box-cutting, a rectangular opening is made, varying from 10 to 100 sqm, and through that a vertical pit is dug, 100 to 400 feet deep. Once the coal seam is found, rat-hole-sized tunnels are dug horizontally through which workers can extract the coal.

• ‘Rat hole mining poses significant safety and environmental hazards’-Analyse

• When was it banned, and why?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Where coal is mined via ‘rat-holes’

Growing more from less

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country, – different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- In agriculture, there are four – what economists would call – “factors of production”: Land, water, labour and energy. Farmers use these factors or inputs to produce crops. For a given level of technology, the output produced by them is largely determined by the quantity of inputs used.

• Factors of production and its importance-Explain

• What is “factors of technology” in agriculture?

• Do You Know-The four “factors of technology” are genetics, crop nutrition, crop protection and agronomic interventions.
Genetics is about seeds and plant breeding. There would have been no Green Revolution without the high-yielding wheat and rice varieties that Norman Borlaug, Henry Beachell, Gurdev Singh Khush and other scientists bred. These varieties incorporated dwarfing genes that reduced the height of the plants.
Traditional varieties, having tall and slender plants, didn’t respond much to fertiliser or water application. When their ear-heads were heavy with well-filled grains, they bent over or fell flat on the ground. The new semi-dwarf varieties had strong stems that held the grain-bearing panicles upright even when heavily fertilised, enabling them to absorb more nutrients and convert these to grain.
Just as with reduced height/semi-dwarfing, there are genes in plants that code for proteins (enzymes) responsible for disease and pest resistance, drought and heat stress tolerance, nutrient use efficiency or even stem sturdiness and erect/compact canopy to allow mechanical harvesting. The genetic information for all these desirable traits is contained in the seeds of the plant varieties/hybrids developed through crossbreeding and agricultural biotechnology tools.
Farmers traditionally reared cattle for not just draught power and milk, but also their excreta that provided the nutrients necessary for plant growth. Farmyard manure – the decomposed mixture of dung and urine along with other farm residues – contains 0.5% nitrogen (N), 0.2% phosphorous (P) and 0.5% potassium (K) on an average.
The revolution in crop nutrition happened with chemical fertilisers having much higher NPK content: Urea (46% N), di-ammonium phosphate (18% N and 46% P) and muriate of potash (60% K). Synthetic fertilisers, in combination with the breeding of varieties responsive to high nutrient doses, led to a soaring of crop yields. Farmers also saved on labour in maintaining animals and collecting, storing and composting their manure; the fertilisers came from factories in bagged ready-to-use form.
With higher yields also came technologies for crop protection – defending plants against insect pests, pathogens (fungi, bacteria and viruses) and weeds, from the time of their sowing to harvesting and marketing. Crop protection chemicals are aimed at ensuring that the yield gains from genetics/breeding and nutrition/fertilisers are realised, to the maximum possible extent, in farmers’ fields. Some are labour-saving as well. Herbicides, for instance, can replace the manual removal of weeds.
The last factor of technology is mechanisation and other agronomic interventions. Tractors, apart from rendering bullocks redundant, have made it possible to use implements such as rotavators and reversible mould board ploughs that can do deep tillage, mixing and pulverisation of the soils and break their hardpan layers.
Agronomic interventions also extend to water-saving technologies – drip irrigation and laser land levelers (which help in uniform placement of seed and fertiliser too) – and intercropping or growing more than one crop simultaneously on the same piece of land. There are farmers today cultivating pomegranates in Rajasthan’s arid desert soils through drip irrigation and water-soluble/liquid fertilisers. There are similarly those using tractor-drawn machines to make raised beds in fields. They plant sugarcane on the furrows and various short-cycle crops – potato, onion, garlic, vegetables and pulses – on the raised beds.

• The factors of technology, to use economics jargon, have “shifted up the aggregate production function” in agriculture-Comment

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍From Green Revolution to Amrit Kaal

Kambala comes to Bengaluru: How buffalo race’s popularity outran bans

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies I: Indian culture, Indian Society

• General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- The past weekend saw Bengaluru hold its first Kambala race, with 159 pairs of buffaloes and their jockeys racing through the specially made slush tracks in the city’s Palace Grounds. The final rounds of the races could be concluded only by 2 am on Monday.
Kambala has in the past been banned by the Supreme Court, but the Karnataka government, keeping its popularity in mind, amended legislation to allow the races to go on.

• What is Kambala?

• Do You Know-It is a folk sport practised in coastal Karnataka districts, especially in regions where Tulu speakers form a majority. In the past, races were hosted by various families and groups in sludgy fields in the days after paddy was harvested. More recently, various Kambala Samithis or organising bodies have come up, which host weekly events from the end of November till the first half of April across Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.
Kambala is a matter of prestige for many families, especially from the Bunt community in the coastal areas. Pairs of buffaloes are groomed by them round the year in the hope of winning a Kambala event.

• What are the categories in Kambala?

• Is Kambala popular across Karnataka?

• Why was Kambala outlawed by the Supreme Court?

• How was the ban lifted?

• Why has Kambala been accused of caste discrimination?

• Kambala and Jallikattu-Compare and Contrast

• Bullock Cart Race in many states and cultural heritage of people-Comment

• What you know about Animal Welfare Board of India vs A. Nagaraja & Ors 2014

• What is Article 29 (1) of the Constitution?

• Why was there a ban on the bullock cart races?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍 Explained: Supreme Court allows bullock cart races in Maharashtra, here is why

📍 Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu: pride & politics

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