UPSC Key—29th November, 2023: Postal Ballots, Dollarisation and Bharat Stage Emission Standards

The dig: 400 hrs, dozen agencies, Govts on ground, in the backroom

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

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

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– A dozen agencies from the state and the Centre, regular coordination between the backroom and the ground, and experts from myriad fields collaborating to solve a single puzzle — that’s what it took for rescuers to get 41 men out from Uttarkashi tunnel after 400 hours.

• Map Work-Silkyara-Barkot tunnel

• Why Silkyara-Barkot tunnel was in news?

• How did the workers get trapped in the tunnel?

• What could have caused a part of the tunnel to cave in?

• What are the ways in which tunnels are excavated in rock?

• Does the method of excavation depend on the type of terrain?

• What is the key aspect of building a tunnel?

• What does it take to construct a stable tunnel?

• How workers rescued from tunnels?

• For Your Information-At least 652 government employees were deployed in the rescue operation that lasted 17 days. These included 189 from the police department, 106 from the health department, 77 from the Indo Tibetan Border Police, 62 from the National Disaster Response Force, 39 from the State Disaster Response Force, 46 from Jal Sansthan Uttarkashi, 32 from the electricity department, and 38 from the Border Roads Organisation.
According to Bhaskar Khulbe, a former adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office and Officer on Special Duty to the Uttarakhand tourism department, if one were to include independent workers and private company employees, the number of those who contributed to the operation would cross 1,000.
According to officials, since the dig from the mouth of the tunnel proved more complex than was initially anticipated, rescuers had been working on five simultaneous plans to get to the men. Each was being handled by separate agencies, each of whom brought a different set of skills to the table.
These included the NDRF, SDRF, BRO, National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, Navayuga, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited, Trenchless Engineering Works, as well as the state and district authorities, and the Army and Air Force.
The rescued workers are being kept under medical observation for now. According to medical experts, besides exhaustion, dehydration, nutritional deficiencies and infections, the biggest concern is likely to be post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), requiring careful monitoring in the coming days.
Then there were the countless unnamed heroes — police personnel who stood guard round the clock; cooks who prepared regular meals for rescuers; drivers who worked overtime to ensure equipment reached when it was supposed to. To ensure everyone had a place to rest and recuperate, special arrangements were made by the administration at the site.
Officials from the Prime Minister’s Office were also involved in the operation — from Deputy Secretary Mangesh Ghildiyal to Principal Secretary to the PM, Dr P K Mishra — keeping tabs on every development, big or small.
It is at this meeting that instructions went out to ensure a green corridor for all equipment and machinery meant to be taken to Uttarkashi from across the country.

• 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

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📍Officials to logistics: How PMO moved wheels, kept ops on track

THE CITY

BS III Petrol & BS IV diesel vehicles back in Delhi

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-Petrol and diesel vehicles that were kept off the road because of poor air quality in Delhi will soon be able to return with the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) revoking measures to control pollution under stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan on Tuesday.

• What is the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)?

• What is stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan?

• Bharat Stage III and Bharat Stage IV-what you know about this?

• What are Bharat Stage Emission Standards (BSES)?

• The standards and the timeline for implementation for Bharat stage emission standards (BSES) are set by whom?

• Bharat stage emission standards (BSES) and The European emission standards-Compare and Contrast

• What it means for vehicles

• What area unit BSI, BSII, BSIII, BSIV, and BSVI emission norms?

• The Supreme Court of India’s Verdict on Bharat Stage Emission Standards (BSES)-Know in Detail

• Do You Know-The BS — Bharat Stage — emission standards are norms instituted by the government to regulate the output of air pollutants from internal combustion engine equipment, including motor vehicles. India has been following European (Euro) emission norms, although with a time lag of five years.
India introduced emission norms first in 1991, and tightened them in 1996, when most vehicle manufacturers had to incorporate technology upgrades like catalytic converters to cut exhaust emissions. Fuel specifications based on environmental considerations were notified first in April 1996 — to be implemented by 2000, and incorporated in BIS 2000 standards. Following the landmark Supreme Court order of April 1999, the Centre notified Bharat Stage-I (BIS 2000) and Bharat Stage-II norms, broadly equivalent to Euro I and Euro II respectively. BS-II was for the National Capital Region and other metros; BS-I for the rest of India.
From April 2005, in line with the Auto Fuel Policy of 2003, BS-III and BS-II fuel quality norms came into existence for 13 major cities, and for the rest of the country respectively. From April 2010, BS-IV and BS-III norms were put in place in 13 major cities and the rest of India respectively.
As per the Policy roadmap, BS-V and BS-VI norms were to be implemented from April 1, 2022, and April 1, 2024, respectively. But in November 2015, the Road Transport Ministry issued a draft notification advancing the implementation of BS-V norms for new four-wheel vehicle models to April 1, 2019, and for existing models to April 1, 2020. The corresponding dates for BS-VI norms were brought forward to April 1, 2021, and April 1, 2022, respectively. Soon afterward, however, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that the government had decided to leapfrog to BS-VI from April 1, 2020, skipping BS-V all together.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍BS-VI emission norms for vehicles: So near and yet so far, here is why

GOVT & POLITICS

ASI seeks three more weeks for Gyanvapi scientific survey report

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance and History of India

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL Survey of India (ASI) has moved a fresh application before a Varanasi court seeking an additional three weeks’ time to submit its report on the court-ordered scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex to ascertain whether the mosque was “constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple”.

• Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi mosque controversy- What is the issue thus far?

• For Your Information-The Gyanvapi mosque stands adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi. According to the available historical record, it was built in the 17th century on the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb after destroying the original Kashi Vishwanath Temple. The present temple was subsequently built next to the mosque by the orders of Queen Ahilya Bai Holkar in the late 18th century. The decades-old litigation around the mosque has gained momentum over the last year or so after five Hindu women sought the right to worship Maa Shrinagar Gauri on the outer wall of the mosque complex. The matter has since moved from a magistrate’s court to a district court, to the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court, and then back to the district court and the High Court.
In its application, ASI said that it has completed a scientific investigation/ survey at the site but the preparation of a report conducted by GPR (Ground penetrating radar) is underway, so it needs more time to prepare a detailed survey report for submission.
In July, a Varanasi court ordered a scientific survey of the complex to ascertain whether the mosque was “constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple”. The survey was to exclude the wazukhana area sealed on the Supreme Court order.
Varanasi District and Sessions Judge AK Vishvesha had directed the ASI to “undertake scientific investigation/survey/excavation at the property in question i.e. settlement plot number 9130 (Gyanvapi mosque)”.
However, the survey was halted after the mosque committee approached the Allahabad High Court, and then the Supreme Court, seeking a stay on the survey. Both courts cleared the decks for the survey and it was resumed on August 4 amid security arrangements.
Since August 4, ASI officials have been conducting the survey at the campus.

• What are the historical claims with respect to Gyanvapi mosque?

• Gyanvapi Mosque-Know the Style and Architecture

• Kashi Vishwanath Temple Architecture-Know in detail

• How did the Supreme Court enter the picture?

• What Supreme Court said in this matter?

• What are the issues involved in this case?

• What is the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991?

• Under what circumstances was the Places of Worship Act, 1991 law enacted, and how did the government justify it?

• How Judiciary has interpreted the Places of Worship Act, 1991?

• Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-Powers, Functions, Role and Mandate

• Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-Significance

• Do you Know-A ‘monument of national importance’, if designated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), authorises the central government to “maintain, protect and promote the site”, which may be considered of significant historical importance, as mandated by the Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. Currently, there are around 3,600 monuments of national importance being protected by the ASI.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The Places of Worship Act

📍Court order on Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Mosque site in Varanasi: history and context

EXPRESS NETWORK

Journey of a vote — how EVMs, postal ballots make their way to voters and back

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- In a video that went viral on Monday, Congress workers in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat were seen confronting election officials for opening the strong room where postal ballots had been stored, raising questions about the security of the ballots and electronic voting machines (EVMs).

• What are postal ballots, and where does the EVM journey start?

• Where are EVMs stored after votes are cast?

• What is the procedure for postal ballots, absentee voters?

• Do You Know-Service voters, absentee voters (those above 80 years, those with benchmark disabilities or now Covid-19-infected or suspected patients), voters on election duty, and electors under preventive detention are entitled to vote via postal ballot. After filling out the relevant forms, they are sent postal ballots by the Returning Officer (RO) via post or in case of voters on election duty, visit a facilitation centre.
For EVMs, after the first-level checks and randomisation exercises are completed, the machines are handed over to the ROs under armed police escort, as per the EC’s latest manual issued in August. The EVMs have to be stored in air-conditioned strong rooms in the presence of representatives of political parties. The EVMs are kept in these strong rooms till polling day.
For postal ballots, as per the EC’s instructions on October 31, the facilitation centre in-charge has to open the drop box at the end of each day in the presence of representatives of parties and candidates. The number of ballots has to be written down in a form, Format 1, and the ballots have to be placed in a large envelope or cotton bag for each constituency. This bag has to then be sent to the RO along with Format 1 at the end of each day of voting. All these bags have to be “under custody” of the RO, who is supposed to keep these in a “special strong room”.
For absentee voters, the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) visit the homes of the electors to hand over Form 12D, which is their ballot, and then return within five days of notification of the election to collect the filled-in form. The BLOs are required to submit the forms to the ROs daily. For absentee voters who are part of the essential services, special postal voting centres are set up where voting is conducted for three consecutive days before polling day in the constituency. At the end of each day, the packets of postal ballots are to be sent to the RO.
The EC instructs that ROs have a strong room for postal ballots, and in case votes have to be counted in any place other than the RO’s headquarters, the postal ballots have to be transferred to another strong room at the counting centre a day before counting.
“For this purpose, the RO shall inform in writing to the candidates the time at which this will be done. The strong room for postal ballots shall be opened in the presence of the candidates or their representatives present. All postal ballots will then be kept in a large steel box which will be sealed in the presence of candidates and their representatives. This box will then be carried under guard of armed CPF to the strong room for postal ballots at the counting centre,” the EC guidelines state.

• Know about Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)

• What are Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)?

• What are Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)?

• Do You Know- EVM or Electronic Voting Machines are used to cast vote without revealing your identity. It is used in Indian General and State Elections. It has replaced paper ballots in local, state and general (parliamentary) elections in India.
EVM has two parts, it consists of a ‘control unit’ and a ‘balloting unit’, connected by a 5-metre cable. The control unit is with the Election Commission-appointed polling officer; the balloting unit is in the voting compartment into which the voter enters to cast the vote in secret by pressing the button against the name and symbol of the candidate of her choice. The control unit is the EVM’s ‘brain’ — the balloting unit is turned on only after the polling officer presses the ‘Ballot’ button on it. The EVM runs on a 6 volt single alkaline battery fitted in the control unit, and can even be used in areas that have no electricity. The use of EVM started back in 1982 Kerala Assembly elections. Prior to this only ballot papers and ballot boxes were allowed. There are only two Indian PSUs that manufacture EVM machines. Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) being the first and Electronics Corporation of Indian Limited (ECIL) the other. The secret source code is only accessible to a few engineers. Engineers who are in the factory have no clue about the constituency wise deployment of the machine.
Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines are used during election process to verify that the vote polled by a voter goes to the correct candidate. VVPATs are a second line of verification and are particularly useful in the time when allegations around Electronic Voting Machines’ tampering crop up. Parties have been making regular demands for VVPATs to be used during elections after alleging EVMs may not be completely secure and tamper proof.
VVPAT system gives instant feedback to the voter showing that the vote polled has in fact been allotted against the candidate chosen. After a voter presses the button on the EVM against the chosen candidate, the VVPAT prints a slip containing name of the candidate and the election symbol and drops it automatically into a sealed box. The machines give the chance for the voter to verify their vote. The machine is placed in a glass case in a way that only the voter can see it. The slip is displayed to the voter for seven seconds after which the VVPAT machine cuts it and drops in into the storage box with a beep. The machines can be accessed, though, by the polling officials and not by the voter.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: Postal ballots and why they are fast turning into a political controversy

NASA to train an Indian astronaut for ISS mission

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- US space agency NASA will train an Indian astronaut for a mission to the International Space Station by the end of 2024, said the organisation’s administrator Bill Nelson during his Delhi visit. Terming India as a “great future partner”, Nelson said that US would be open to collaborate on an Indian Space Station. The Prime Minister called on ISRO scientists to set up an Indian Space Station by 2035 and send an Indian to the moon by 2040.

• What is the International Space Station (ISS)?

• How Old Is the Space Station?

• What Are the Parts of the Space Station?

• Why is the Space Station Important?

• What is a space station that India will set up by 2035?

• What is Bharatiya Antariksha Station?

• Which countries have a space station?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍PM Modi spells out ISRO goals: Space station by 2035, Indian on Moon by 2040

THE IDEAS PAGE

A swing in the Maldives

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies II: India and its neighbourhood- relations.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- C. Raja Mohan writes: The international evolution of the Maldives has long been framed in terms of the entrenched geopolitical rivalry between India and China. The new president of Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu, has muddied that framework by choosing Turkey as his first foreign destination.

• “The international evolution of the Maldives has long been framed in terms of the entrenched geopolitical rivalry between India and China”-Elaborate

• “Smaller states of the Subcontinent are becoming attractive geopolitical targets not only for the US, China and Russia but also for middle powers like Turkey”-How far you agree with the given statement?

• Muizzu’s visit is to Turkey- What does this mean for India, which has invested much diplomatic, political, and financial energy in reinforcing its primacy in the Subcontinent?

• What are the three imperatives that are producing structural changes in the geopolitics of the Subcontinent?

• Where does that leave India?

• Map Work-Maldives

• Is Maldives in Indian Ocean or Arabian Sea?

• Which water channel separates Maldives and Lakshadweep?

• India and Maldives Bilateral Relations-Know the Historical Background

• How are things between India and the Maldives now?

• Why Maldives is Geo-Strategically Important to India?

• India and Maldives-What are the Major issues in Bilateral Relations?

• Political developments in the Maldives in the last few years-Know in detail

• ‘The String of Pearls’, Maldives and India-Connect the dots

• What Steps India has taken in the recent years to ensure friendly relations with Maldives?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍India and Maldives ties: Despite China, bound by history and geography

EXPLAINED

Who’s Milei, what’s dollarisation

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.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Last week something quite remarkable happened in the history of global politics: For the first time, a self-proclaimed “libertarian” and “anarcho-capitalist” became the head of one of the world’s biggest economies. Javier Milei, the leader of the Freedom Advances party, registered a stunning electoral victory to become the President-elect of Argentina.

• What is Libertarianism?

• What is Anarcho-capitalism?

• Libertarianism and Anarcho-capitalism-Compare and contrast

• For Your Information-Libertarianism is a political philosophy that gives primacy to individual liberty over everything else. A libertarian believes that individuals have certain God-given rights — such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of speech, right to property, freedom of worship, moral autonomy etc. — and seeks to define the powers of a government in this context.
“The purpose of government, according to liberals, is to protect these and other individual rights, and in general liberals have contended that government power should be limited to that which is necessary to accomplish this task,” states Britannica Encyclopaedia.
Anarcho-capitalism seems to take the libertarian view to what would appear like an extreme. According to Britannica Encyclopaedia, anarcho-capitalism is a political philosophy that advocates the voluntary exchange of goods and services in a society broadly regulated by the market rather than by the state.
“The term anarcho-capitalism was coined by Murray Rothbard, a leading figure in the American libertarian movement from the 1950s until his death in 1995. Rothbard envisioned a ‘contractual society’ in which the production and exchange of all goods and services, including those usually assigned to the state (such as law enforcement, education, and environmental protection) would be conducted through voluntary agreements (contracts) between individuals,” states Brittanica.
Simply put, imagine a society where even law & order as well as justice delivery is privatised. In such a society, the government has no monopoly on police like it has at present. Almost every sector of the economy is run on free market principles with the belief that people, as consumers, will choose the best option among the available ones and that demand for better quality goods and services (say policing) will incentivise entrepreneurs to come up with the most efficient solutions.
That a person — Milei — who subscribes to these beliefs has ended up winning the highest office of government is a surprising result, to say the least. Equally, now that he is going to head the government, it is anyone’s guess how drastic his changes will be to the way Argentina is run and governed.

• Why Milei wants to disband Argentina’s currency and central bank?

• Milei’s solution is Dollarisation-What do you understand by Dollarisation?

• For Your Information-Since it was the excessive and irresponsible spending by the government and the facilitation of that by Argentina’s central bank, Milei proposes to:
1. Severely cut government spending starting with disbanding several departments. These correspond to those sectors where he doesn’t believe the government should be to begin with.
2. Disband the domestic currency and the central bank and shift to the US dollar as the official currency. This is called Dollarisation. In doing so, Argentina will give up its ability to control its monetary policy — its monetary sovereignty.
In other words, there would be no authority in Argentina (neither the government nor the central bank) that can either print money or decide the price of parting with it (also referred to as the interest rate in the economy).
The basic idea behind Milei’s plan to dollarise is two-fold:
To bring price stability to the economy in a quick manner. Since the US dollar is the default currency of the world — in that it is recognised and trusted across the world, even in countries where people may not like the US — its value is not easily altered. Since Argentina’s GDP is barely over $630 billion while the US GDP is over $25 trillion, the dollar will not be affected by Argentina’s shift to using the dollar.
However, shifting to dollars will mean that it will be easier and more predictable for Argentinians to trade among themselves or with the rest of the world. They can plan their production and consumption with much greater clarity and certainty. This will allow Argentina to get off the inflation treadmill that is enervating its productive potential.
To ensure that the government and the central bank are in no position to influence monetary policy.
Since there is no domestic currency to print — and the US central bank, the Fed will not alter its policy stance based on Argentina’s demands — Milei hopes to completely remove the possibility of any kind of populism fuelling inflation.

• Why Dollarisation may work?

• Why Dollarisation may fail?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍What Javier Milei’s win in Argentina’s Presidential election means

WHAT ARE PARTHENON SCULPTURES, AT THE CENTRE OF UK-GREECE ROW

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.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– A diplomatic row sparked between Greece and the UK on Monday after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis over the status of the Parthenon Sculptures housed at the British Museum.

It prompted Athens to accuse London of trying to avoid discussing the contested sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles. Over the years, Greece has repeatedly asked for the sculptures’ permanent return to Athens, but Britain and the British Museum have refused to do so.

• What are the Parthenon Sculptures?

• How did the sculptures reach Britain?

• Were the sculptures stolen?

• How did Britain respond?

• What happens now?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Rishi Sunak cancels meeting with Greek PM in row over Parthenon sculptures

Behind unseasonal rain & lightning strikes in Gujarat

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– Unseasonal and sudden heavy rainfall, accompanied by thunderstorms, hailstorms and lightning strikes, have so far claimed 27 lives in Gujarat on November 26.

While the weatherman says enough warning was given about lightning strikes, the disaster management system is designed more for earthquakes and heavy rainfall, not as much for lightning strikes – which annually contribute to a number of deaths across India.

• What explains the unseasonal rainfall in November?

• Why the lightning?

• Were warnings issued prior to lightning strikes?

• For Your Information-The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has attributed the lightning flashes to three weather systems – cyclonic circulation over the Northeast Arabian Sea and adjoining Saurashtra and Kutch, Western Disturbances, and Easterly trough. Western disturbances are storms that originate over the Mediterranean Sea region and may bring rainfall to northwestern India in the winter. Whereas, easterly winds flow from the east in the equatorial region throughout the year.
Regional director IMD Manorama Mohanty told The Indian Express, “Sunday’s weather phenomenon was due to the three systems of Western Disturbance over Pakistan, induced cyclonic circulation over Pakistan and Rajasthan and upper air trough in easterlies from Southwest Arabian Sea to Northeast Arabian Sea.” She added that the development of three simultaneous systems is not uncommon and has been reported during monsoons, too.
Atul Kumar Varma, group director of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Applications Group, at ISRO’s Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad, said, “In this season we have western disturbances passing over the northern part every year generally, descending towards the lower latitudes. As a result of this, we feel the effect of Western disturbances over the country.”
“This usually brings snowfall over the Himalayan region. But sometimes when the strength (of these disturbances) is more, it may bring rainfall in southern latitude areas, say Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh. This time, it was a passing Western disturbance, moving from west to east, forming somewhere near the Mediterranean Sea. The disturbance has passed over the Gujarat region and is now over Madhya Pradesh. Satellite data from today shows more rainfall occurring over Madhya Pradesh,” he added.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: Why lightning still kills several Indians

As COP28 approaches, six key climate change terms you should know

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- With the COP28 summit just around the corner, terms like the Paris Agreement, Kyoto Protocol, loss and damage, and NDCs will soon make headlines.

• 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?

• What is the Kyoto Protocol?

• What were the key takeaways from the Kyoto Protocol?

• What is the Paris Agreement and its purpose?

• Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol-Know the difference

• What is ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’?

• Which agreement recognised ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’?

• What is the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)?

• Do You Know-Recently, the European Union (EU) has put forward a proposal, called the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). The US, Canada and Japan are planning similar measures. This involves imposing tariffs on imports from other countries that are seen to be using carbon-intensive methods of production. It is argued that the stringent environmental regulation in the EU makes the production of polluting industries move to countries with relatively lax regulation. These sectors will contract in countries where carbon is priced higher, causing a “carbon leakage”. A tariff on the import of these goods by the EU would restore competitive parity to the domestically produced goods that are subject to a higher price of carbon. The CBAM is expected to achieve three objectives. First, reduce EU’s emissions; second, for the EU not to lose competitiveness in carbon-intensive goods; and third, to make the targeted countries reduce the carbon intensity of their exports.

• What are climate negotiations?

• What are the major climate change agreements?

• What is climate change ‘Loss and Damage’?

• How is climate change causing loss and damage?

• What is the extent of loss and damage?

• So why “climate disasters” and “climate negotiations” are much talked terms?

• “The demand for loss and damage finance is quite old, but it has faced strong resistance from the rich and developed countries”-Why?

• What was the rationale behind the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM)?

• How does the Paris Agreement address the loss and damage associated with climate change?

• What is the meaning of climate finance?

• What is the financial mechanism? What are the other funds?

• In accordance with the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities” set out in the Convention, developed country Parties are to provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties in implementing the objectives of the UNFCCC- discuss the objective behind this step?

• What is the Standing Committee on Finance? What is the long-term finance process?

• Green finance and climate finance-Compare

• For Your Information-COP is an international climate meeting organised annually by the United Nations (UN). COP is short for Conference of the Parties. ‘Parties’ is a reference to (now) 198 countries that have joined the international treaty called the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). ‘Parties’ to the treaty have pledged to take voluntary actions to prevent “dangerous anthropogenic [human-caused] interference with the climate system.”
The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty that placed obligations on the set of rich and industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by assigned amounts. It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, and came into effect in 2005. The treaty formally expired in 2020 and was replaced by the Paris Agreement as the main international treaty for coordinating global action against climate change.
Adopted in 2015 at COP21 in Paris, the agreement is aimed to limit rising global average temperature. It’s considered a landmark deal as it legally binds (now) 195 nations, for the first time ever, to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
Under the Paris Agreement, the world governments have agreed to keep average global temperature “well below” 2 degree Celsius this century compared to pre-industrial levels. They have also pledged to pursue efforts to limit the rise to 1.5 degree Celsius — an important threshold, crossing which would unleash far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.
Reached at the COP26 summit in Scotland’s Glasgow, the pact called for phase down of coal and phase out of fossil fuel. This was the first time that a UN climate agreement explicitly mentioned coal. The pact also marked the resolution of the deadlock over carbon markets.
Such markets are essentially trading systems in which carbon credits are sold and bought. They allow countries, or industries, to earn carbon credits for the greenhouse gas emission reductions they make in excess of their targets. These carbon credits can be traded to the highest bidder in exchange for money. The buyers of carbon credits can show the emission reductions as their own and use them to meet their reduction targets.
One tradable carbon credit is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas reduced, sequestered or avoided. Once a credit is used to reduce, sequester, or avoid emissions, it becomes an offset and can no longer be tradable.
The gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are known as greenhouse gases (GHGs). They allow sunlight to pass through the atmosphere, but obstruct the heat the sunlight brings from leaving. The main source of GHGs is the burning of fossil fuels like coal, diesel, gasoline or petrol, kerosene and natural gas. Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are among the most prominent GHGs.
Also referred to as carbon-neutrality, net-zero doesn’t mean that a country would reduce its emissions to zero. Rather, it is a state in which a country’s emissions entering the environment are equal to the greenhouse gases being removed from the atmosphere. The removal can be done by creating more carbon sinks such as forests or by implementing futuristic technologies such as carbon dioxide removal (CDR).
In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) marked 2050 as the deadline by which the world must reach net zero if it wants to limit global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius.
CCS is basically a process that captures carbon dioxide and traps it beneath the earth. It’s usually used at fossil fuel plants and factories, where it prevents the gas from escaping into the atmosphere. Notably, CCS is different from carbon dioxide removal (CDR), which involves sucking out carbon from the atmosphere.
CCUS goes a step further than CCS and uses the captured carbon in the production of goods such as alcohols, biofuels, plastics or concrete.
It is the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems to tackle climate change. There are numerous proposed geo-engineering techniques, including CDR. Their effectiveness and potential side effects, however, remain widely debated.
The IPCC is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). IPCC’s main activity is to prepare Assessment Reports, special reports, and methodology reports assessing the state of knowledge of climate change.
The Paris Agreement requires each country to prepare an outline for their efforts to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. These commitments are known as NDCs. They are submitted every five years, and successive NDCs are supposed to be more ambitious than previous ones.
The NAP helps countries develop plans to respond to climate change’s present and future impacts. They are aimed to reduce vulnerability to the severe effects of climate change and strengthen adaptive capacity and resilience. NAPs also play an essential role in updating and improving the adaptation elements of the NDCs.

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