UPSC Key- March 21, 2023: Know about Famine and Drought, Groundwater Depletion and Free and Open Indo-Pacific

Japan PM: India indispensable for free Indo-Pacific

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- Amid increasing concern over China’s aggressive behaviour in the region, Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday emphasised that India is “indispensable” in Tokyo’s plan for a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, underlined the importance of the India-Japan partnership for a stable Indo-Pacific. Following his meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Modi said the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership is based on shared democratic values, and respect for the rule of law in the international arena. “Strengthening this partnership is not only important for both our countries, it also promotes peace, prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.

• Long-standing spiritual affinities as well as powerful cultural and civilizational ties have been the foundation of India and Japan’s friendship-Elaborate

• When Buddhism was brought to Japan in the sixth century, it is believed that trade between Japan and India first started. How has Buddhism improved ties between Japan and India?

• India-Japan Bilateral Relations and Shared Heritage-Know in detail

• What international organisations are Japan and India members of?

• ‘The most comprehensive of all such agreements reached by India is the India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which entered into force in August 2011. It covers not only trade in goods but also services, the movement of natural persons, investments, intellectual property rights, customs procedures, and other trade-related issues’-Elaborate further

• India and Japan-Know Economic Relations, Cooperation in Security Fields, Cultural Relations and Bilateral Treaties and Agreements

• G7 and G20-Compare and Contrast

• Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP)-What is the rationality behind FOIP?

• What Does a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ Actually Mean?

• Do you think that the Free and Open Indo-Pacific is actually meant to contain China?

• India-Japan and China-connect the dots

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Indo-Japan ministerial dialogue points to deepening of strategic and defence partnership

Previous Year Prelims Questions Based on Similar theme:

📍With reference to the “G20 Common Framework”, consider the following statements:
1. It is an initiative endorsed by the G20 together with the Paris Club.
2. It is an initiative to support Low Income Countries with unsustainable debt.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (GS1, 2022)

📍Which one of the following statements best reflects the issue with Senkaku Islands, sometimes mentioned in the news? (Refer GS1 2022 for complete question)

CBI suffers setback as Interpol withdraws notice against Choksi

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.

• General Studies III: Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-In a major setback for the CBI and India’s efforts to get fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi back, the Interpol has withdrawn the Red Corner Notice (RCN) issued against the key accused in the Rs 13,500-crore PNB loan fraud case. The notice is now unavailable on Interpol’s website. Choksi’s lawyer in India, Vijay Aggarwal, said, “Because of the efforts of the legal team and the genuineness of my client’s case, his RCN has been cancelled, and ultimately truth has prevailed.” The CBI, which is probing the case, declined comment.

• What is International Criminal Police Organization?

• Who makes up INTERPOL?

• What INTERPOL do?

• What is the INTERPOL General Assembly?

• INTERPOL’s Global Crime Trends Report-What is this report all about?

• What is a Red Notice?

• Is Red Notice a warrant of arrest?

• For Your Information– Representatives from 195 countries are participating in the three-day session that began at Pragati Maidan. The session will discuss strategies for international cooperation on terrorism, drug trafficking, international crime syndicates and child sex abuse offences.

• “With all this, our police forces work while respecting the diversity and rights of the people promised by the Constitution. They not only protect the people but also serve our democracy”-Despite so much of work, why Indian Police have negative image?

• “A safe and secure world is our shared responsibility. When the forces of good cooperate, the forces of crime cannot operate”-Decode the quote

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Why Interpol needs to get better at countering global challenges

IN PARLIAMENT

Panel suggests prepaid cards for power to save groundwater

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies I: Urbanization, their problems and their remedies.

• 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- Observing that the primary reason for excessive exploitation of groundwater is wide cultivation of water guzzler paddy and sugarcane crops, which are “heavily incentivized”, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has said that use of electric pumps needs to be further discouraged by introducing measures such pre-paid cards for power supply and restricting power supply to few hours a day. The committee has recommended that the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation under Jal Shakti Ministry should take the initiative by urging both the Power Ministry and Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare along with state governments to take measures on the suggested lines.

• What does the repot “Groundwater: A Valuable but Diminishing Resource” says?

• How free electricity to the farmers is the main culprit for the misuse of groundwater?

• How is groundwater misuse primarily caused by the free electricity provided to farmers?

• Why groundwater is one of our most precious resources?

• What are the other reasons for groundwater depletion given in the report?

• What are the Issues with Groundwater Management in India?

• What policy challenges does groundwater depletion impose on policymakers?

• What is the Current Situation of Groundwater in India?

• Water production and distribution system for domestic consumers in India-How water supply is done in metro Cities, Cities and in urban areas?

• India is greatly dependent on which external water resources?

• What the 2030 Water Resources Group’s report “Charting Our Water Future” predicted about India way back in 2009?

• What is the ‘per capita water availability’?

• Map work-Mark India’s Drainage Basins

• What is the National Water Policy, 2002?

• What do you understand by the term ‘water table’?

• Depleting water levels-Reason out

• How water table vary in a region-Know the Long-term reasons

• Groundwater Decline and Depletion-Know the reasons

• What initiatives has the Government of India taken?

• For Your Information-In Nov 2022, the report “National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources Of India, 2022” was released which said: “The total annual groundwater recharge for the entire country as of 2022 has increased by 1.29 bcm as compared to the last assessment (2020). The total annual extractable GW resources has also increased by 0.56 bcm. The annual groundwater extraction for irrigation, domestic and Industrial uses has also decreased by 5.76 bcm during this period.”

• So, what exactly Parliamentary Standing Committee recommend?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Groundwater extraction this yr down 6 bn cubic metres from ’20

Previous Year Prelims Questions Based on Similar theme:

📍On the planet earth, most of the freshwater exists as ice caps and glaciers. Out of the remaining freshwater, the largest proportion (Please refer GS1 2013 for the complete question)

📍Consider the following statements:
1. 36% of India’s districts are classified as “overexploited” or “critical” by the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA).
2. CGWA was formed under the Environment (Protection) Act.
3. India has the largest area under groundwater irrigation in the world.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (Please refer GS1 2020)

 

Extend PMAY-U to cover all deserving, assess needy afresh: House panel report

Syllabus:

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

Main Examination: 

• General Studies I: Poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.

• General Studies II: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs has raised concerns that some people could not avail of the benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) due to the eligibility criteria or other impediments, and has asked the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry to conduct an assessment. In its report on the implementation of the PMAY-U that was presented to the Lok Sabha on Monday, the committee recommended that the ministry extend the scheme, which is set to end on December 31, 2024, if need be, to cover those who remain in need of houses.

• What is the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban?

• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G)-Features of the Scheme and Nodal Ministry

• PMAY (Rural or Gramin) and PMAY (Urban)-Difference

• What is situ slum redevelopment in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)?

• For Your Information-The government had launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) on June 25, 2015, to provide pucca houses to all eligible beneficiaries by 2022. The PMAY-U is one of the two schemes envisioned under the PMAY-U. It is focused on the urban areas, while the other one—PMAY-G—is for rural areas. The scheme has four verticals: “In-situ” Slum Redevelopment (ISSR); Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS); Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) and Beneficiary-led individual house construction/enhancements (BLC),

• How many houses have been built?

• How much money has been spent on the PMAY-U?

• What is the Beneficiary-led individual house construction/enhancements (BLC)?

• What is geotagging and is it mandatory under the PMAY-U?

• What is Bhuvan HFA?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: What is PMAY-U? Who can avail it?

EXPRESS NETWORK

Not doing enough to limit warming at 1.5o C: IPCC

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization.

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

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Reiterating its earlier findings, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Monday reminded the world yet again that it was still not doing enough to rein in global temperatures from breaching the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold despite there being “multiple, feasible and effective options” to do so. In its latest report, the IPCC, a UN-backed global scientific body, said average temperatures had already touched 1.1 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial times, and the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold was “more likely than not” to be reached in the “near term” itself.

• The recent Synthesis Report, a summary of the five earlier reports released between 2018 and 2022, marks the culmination of IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle that began in 2015-What exactly report said?

• What is Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?

• Do You Know- The IPCC, a UN-backed scientific body whose periodic assessments of climate science form the basis of global climate action, finalised its Synthesis Report, incorporating the findings of the five reports that it has released in the sixth assessment cycle since 2018. The Synthesis Report is supposed to be a relatively non-technical summary of the previous reports, aimed largely at policymakers around the world. It is meant to address a wide range of policy-relevant scientific questions related to climate change, but, like all IPCC reports, in a non-prescriptive manner. This has brought an end to the Sixth Assessment Report, the collective work of thousands of scientists over a period of eight years, starting in February 2015.

• “The Synthesis Report has revealed nothing new”-Discuss

• What are the new insights on climate impacts, vulnerability and adaptation from IPCC?

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports (ARs)-Key Highlights

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (Third Part)-Key Highlights

• How will nature and the benefits it provides to people be affected by higher levels of warming?

• How will climate change affect the lives of today’s children tomorrow, if no immediate action is taken?

• Climate Change and India’s Strategy to deal with Climate Change

• What is Climate Resilient Development?

• 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?

• What Is Climate Change?

• How Is Climate Change measured over time?

• What Causes Climate Change?

• What are the effects of Climate Change?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: What is the IPCC, and why are its Assessment Reports important?

THE WORLD

43,000 estimated dead in Somalia’s longest-ever drought last year: Report

Syllabus:

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

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

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- – A new report says an estimated 43,000 people died amid Somalia’s longest drought on record last year and half of them likely were children under 5 years old. It is the first official death toll announced in the drought withering large parts of the Horn of Africa. At least 18,000 people, and as many as 34,000, are forecast to die in the first six months of this year.

• Map Work-Somalia

• What is Horn of Africa?

• Why it is called Horn of Africa?

• What is famine?

• What are the causes of famine?

• What is difference between famine and drought?

• What is Drought?

• What are the types of Drought?

• What causes a droughts?

• What are the effects of drought?

• Map Work-Mark the key rivers in Africa

• Know the impact of drought in Africa

• What these droughts say about Global climate future?

• What is the difference between droughts and desertification?

• What is meant by climate migration?

• Do you agree that the primary reasons for climate-related migration are famine and drought?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍‘So many children dying’: Somalia drought brings famine near

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