UPSC Key- March 2, 2023: Know about Forest and tree cover, Foreign Contribution and India’s policy on Earthquake Preparedness

Lutyens’ bungalows, RBI, encroachments are ‘forests’ in govt’s forest cover map

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance and General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change

Main Examination: 

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

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

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- That Lutyens’ Delhi is India’s Capital, the seat of power and home to men and women who run the country, is well known. But what’s not so well known is that the bungalows of ministers and senior officers, even the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) building on Sansad Marg, are “forest” in the official forest cover map. Parts of the campuses of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and residential neighbourhoods across Delhi are also “forest”, an investigation by The Indian Express has found.

• ‘For over four decades, around one-fifth of India has remained consistently under green cover on government records’-But what exactly government record says?

• What is “forest”?

• Do You Know-The global standard for “forest” is provided by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations: at least 1 hectare of land with a minimum of 10% per cent tree canopy cover. While the FAO does not include areas “predominantly under agriculture or urban land use” in a forest, India counts all 1-hectare plots with 10% canopy cover “irrespective of land use” as forest. The FSI is not the only one looking at India’s forest cover. Over the years, several independent studies have reported significant loss of forests in India. According to Global Forest Watch, a World Resources Institute platform, India lost 1,270 sq km of natural forest between 2010 and 2021.

• For Your Information-India is one of the few countries to have a scientific system of periodic forest cover assessment that provides “valuable inputs for planning, policy formulation and evidence-based decision-making”. Since 19.53% in the early 1980s, India’s forest cover has increased to 21.71% in 2021. Adding to this a notional 2.91% tree cover estimated in 2021, the country’s total green cover now stands at 24.62%, on paper.

• What is the India State of Forest Report?

• India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021- Major Findings

• New initiative by FSI like ‘Mapping of Climate Change Hotspots in Indian Forests’ and ‘Above Ground Biomass’ documented in IFSR 2021

• What do you understand by ‘Above Ground Biomass’?

• Maximum overall gain in forest cover-Top five States

• Significant losses of dense forests Cover-Bottom five States

• Know the basics- Very Dense Forest, Moderately Dense Forest, Open Forest, Scrub, tree canopy, Forest area and Forest cover

• Why North-Eastern States have been losing forest cover consistently?

• India’s national forest policy-What is the forest cover target set by India?

• Forest Survey of India-About, Role and Under which Ministry?

• Compare both Report (Major Findings)-India State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2019 and India State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2021

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍In chase for growth and carbon targets, questions swirl over forests on paper

📍The case for open, verifiable forest data

📍Explained: Takeaways from Forest Report

Think tank CPR’s FCRA suspended, gets I-T notice on tax exemptions

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Development processes and the development industry, 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-Weeks before it was informed that its registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) had been suspended, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) received a show cause notice from the Income Tax Department, asking why the registration granting it tax exemptions should not be cancelled. On Wednesday, the CPR, one of the leading public policy think tanks, said it had been “intimated” by the Ministry of Home Affairs that its registration under the FCRA had been “suspended for a period of 180 days”. The CPR had been granted tax exemption status until 2027 under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act. That status has now been questioned by the I-T officials, who collected huge amounts of documents and data during a survey on September 7, 2022 and followed it up by dispatching over a dozen summons to its staff — from its senior researchers to the office peon.

• Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA)-What and When it was enacted?

• Rationality behind the enactment of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA)?

• Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation (Amendment) Rules 2020-Key Changes

• NGOs and FCRA-why most of the NGOs are brought under FCRA?

• What is foreign contribution defined in Section 2(1)(h) of FCRA, 2010?

• What is a foreign source?

• Can NGOs use the foreign contributions for investment in Mutual Funds and other speculative investments?

• Who can receive foreign contribution?

• Who cannot receive foreign contribution?

• Are there any banned organisations from whom foreign contribution should not be accepted?

• Whether donation given by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) is treated as ‘foreign contribution’?

• Whether foreign remittances received from a relative are to be treated as foreign contribution as per FCRA, 2010?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: What is FCRA, the law related to NGO funding which certain MHA officials are accused of violating?

📍FCRA licence of think tank CPR suspended: What is FCRA, why the licence matters

THE IDEAS PAGE

Cities that withstand

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.

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.

• General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

• General Studies III: Disaster and disaster management.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Fahad Zuberi Writes: The destruction caused by earthquakes in Turkey should be alarming for us. Over the last three weeks, tremors have been felt in Meghalaya and in the region around Joshimath and Chamoli in Uttarakhand. Moreover, geologists have warned of a probable massive earthquake in the Himalayan state. In this context, we should pay serious attention to the observations made by the Delhi High Court on February 16. The court, while hearing a petition, asked the state government to file a status report and action plan on the structural safety of buildings in Delhi.

• ‘Nearly 58 per cent of the Indian landmass is vulnerable to earthquakes and the concerns that have been raised by the court need a policy response instead’-What kind of policy response?

• What is India’s policy on earthquake preparedness?

• For Your Information-India’s policy on earthquake preparedness operates primarily at the scale of structural details. Guided by the National Building Codes, this includes specifying dimensions of the structural members, columns, beams, etc. and details of the reinforcements that join these elements together.

• Why India’s policy on earthquake preparedness sounds scientifically correct, but on ground level is myopic?

• ‘Japan has invested heavily in technological measures to mitigate the damage from the frequent earthquakes that it experiences’-Know Japan’s way to tackle earthquake

• “At the scale of cities, the problem is more complex, massive, and unattended. None of the urban renewal programmes  including the latest Smart Cities Mission have devised an urban policy for earthquake preparedness”-Analyse

• Recent Turkey and Syria Earthquake-Know in detail

• Map Work-Mark the epicentre of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria

• Which part of Turkey and Syria affected by earthquake?

• Why is Turkey so prone to earthquakes?

• What is Earthquake?

• Do shallow earthquakes cause greater damage?

• What are the pre disaster measures taken to manage earthquake disaster?

• What is post-disaster management of earthquakes?

• “There is an urgent need to combine all efforts to bring succour to the people who face a human tragedy, in this terrible hour”-How India can help in this situation?

• What are the previous instances of India sending aid to natural disaster-hit countries?

• What is the story behind the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)?

• For Your Information- International debate and discussion on disaster response and preparedness peaked in the middle of the 1990s and continued for the next ten years. The UN’s adoption of the Yokohama Strategy Plan (1994) and the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005) were two of the more noteworthy and significant ones. India saw some of its worst natural disasters during that time, including the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the Gujarat Earthquake, and the Orissa Super Cyclone (1999). (2004). The need for an extensive disaster management plan was highlighted by this series of events and the global context. This resulted in the Disaster Management Act being passed on December 26th, 2005. To establish the policies, plans, and procedures for disaster management, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was established.

• What is the role and mandate of NDRF?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Turkey earthquake: File report on structural stability of buildings in Delhi, HC tells city govt

EXPLAINED

Origins of the coronavirus

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-The debate over the origins of SARS-CoV-2 has been reignited with revelations that the United States Department of Energy has changed its opinion and now believes that the virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic most likely leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and did not emerge organically. The department was previously undecided on this issue, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, which also said that this assessment, apparently based on new evidence, was made with “low confidence”.

• The pandemic’s origin has been the subject of vigorous debate among academics, intelligence experts and lawmakers-Why?

• What does the new report highlights?

• Why the Energy Department’s conclusion is significant?

• How China Responded?

• Covid-19 and “laboratory accident”-Connect the dots

• What World Health Organisation said in this regard?

• “The debate is over whether the coronavirus emerged naturally — possibly jumping from an animal host to humans in the same way as the SARS-1 virus in 2002 — or accidentally ‘escaped’ or ‘leaked’ from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the institute in the city where researchers had been working with coronaviruses for several years”-Discuss

• Why the origin question is relevant and important?

• For Your Information-A statement by a group of scientists published in The Lancet on February 18, 2020 called it a “conspiracy”, and claimed that evidence was “overwhelmingly” conclusive that the virus had emerged naturally. In an article in Nature Medicine on March 17, 2020, another set of scientists claimed that their analysis “clearly” showed that the virus was “not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus”. These two articles, published in reputable scientific journals very early in the pandemic when sufficient information or analysis could not have been available, almost completely discounted the possibility of the virus escaping from the laboratory, and shaped the narrative around the origins of the virus.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Covid spread via lab leak in China, claims US report; Beijing dismisses

WHY SARPANCHES ARE PROTESTING AGAINST E-TENDERS IN HARYANA

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Sarpanches of some villages in Haryana Wednesday tried to march to the Chief Minister’s residence in Chandigarh and had to be held back by the police, which resorted to lathicharge. The sarpanches have been protesting for the past two months against the introduction of e-tendering for development works in rural areas.

• Why was the e-tendering system brought in?

• For Your Information-The Haryana government claims it introduced e-tendering for infrastructure projects in villages to ensure transparency, accountability, and faster execution. Under the new system, introduced two years ago, the village panchayat can carry out works up to Rs 2 lakh on their own. Projects of higher value have to be carried out through e-tendering.

• Why are village sarpanches opposing this?

• What is the extent of the agitation?

• What has the government said?

• What is the political angle to the protests?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Haryana sarpanchs protesting e-tender policy break barricades, cops lathicharge

Can’t compare apples to oranges: Govt’s defence of Q3 GDP data

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 quarterly growth of the Indian economy slowed to a three-quarter low of 4.4% in the third quarter (October-December), official data released on Tuesday showed. However, the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) retained the overall growth estimate for the full year 2022-23 at 7%, the same as the first advance estimates released in January. This means India’s GDP is estimated to grow at 5.1% in Q4, significantly higher than the 4.2% projected by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its December policy review. Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran said on Wednesday that there is “much misunderstanding” of the Q3 GDP data, given that it came with revisions in data for previous years.

• What exactly National Statistical Office (NSO) data said?

• What is National Statistical Office (NSO)?

• What is the main function of National Statistical Office (NSO)

• For Your Information-For the full financial year 2022-23, NSO has retained the growth estimate at 7 per cent in the second advance estimates. Revised data for previous financial years was also released which saw growth rate for financial year 2021-22 being revised up by 40 basis points to 9.1 per cent from 8.7 per cent earlier. There was upward revision for Covid-period too with GDP for 2020-21 now estimated at (-) 5.8 per cent instead of (-) 6.6 per cent earlier. The fourth quarter GDP estimate at 5.1 per cent is way higher than the projection of 4.2 per cent for Q4 given by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its December policy review (with FY23 growth estimate at 6.8 per cent).

• What do understand by Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) and Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE)?

• What is Gross domestic product (GDP)?

• GDP-How it is Calculated?

• Gross domestic product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP)-Key Differences

• ‘Nominal’ GDP and ‘Real’ GDP-What is the difference?

• What is the government saying on the GDP data?

• What are first and second advance GDP estimates?

• What have experts said on the revisions?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍How to read Q3 growth data

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