Daily Prelims Notes 15 October 2021
- October 15, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
15 October 2021
Table Of Contents
- Palm Oil Imports
- The China-Taiwan tussle
- BSF powers and jurisdiction
- International E-Waste Day
- UN Human Rights Council
- Global Hunger Index 2021
- The declining monsoon rainfall in Punjab over last two decades
- Customs duty waiver on edible oil imports
- WHO says it may be ‘last chance’ to find COVID origins
- Capital Account Convertibility
- Govt Fixes Subsidy For Potash Derived From Molasses
Subject – Economy
Context – Palm oil imports surge to record in September
Concept –
- India palm oil imports in September were the most ever since it began buying in the commodity from Malaysia and Indonesia in 1996, while the country’s purchase of edible oils itself hit a new high during the month as a result.
- Import of RBD palmolien sharply increased during August and September as the Centre relaxed its policy for import of RBD palmolein with effect from July 1.
- Import of RBD palmolein and RBD palm oil moved from the “restricted” to “free” list from July 1.
- The status will continue till the end of the fiscal.
- Indonesia and Malaysia are the major suppliers of RBD palmolein and CPO to India.
- Import of edible oils touched a new peak after six years with the import of 16.98 lt in September. It is a new record in the shipment of edible oil in a single month.
- Earlier, India had imported 16.51 lt in October 2015.
- The overall share of palm oil in the total edible oil imports increased to 63 per cent during November-September 2020-21 against 54 per cent in the previous oil year.
- In the 11 months of the current oil year, India imported more crude soyabean degummed oil from Argentina (22.38 lt) followed by Brazil (3.40 lt).
- The country imported the largest volume of crude sunflower oil from Ukraine (13.19 lt) followed by Russia (2.22 lt) and Argentina (1.99 lt) during the period.
To know about Palm Oil, please click here.
Subject – IR
Context – Tensions between China and Taiwan have escalated since October 1, when China observes its National Day to mark the birth of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Concept –
- Coinciding with the 72nd anniversary celebrations, China flew over 100 fighter jets into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, jangling nerves in Taiwan and setting off alarm around the world that it was prepping to take over the island by force.
- Although largely unrecognised by other countries as such, self-ruled Taiwan sees itself as no less than an independent nation, and its leaders, have vowed to defend its sovereignty against the Chinese goal of “reunification”.
- But Taiwan is entirely dependent on the US for its defence against possible Chinese aggression — and that is why every spike in military tensions between China and Taiwan injects more hostility in the already strained relationship between Washington and Beijing.
1949: Founding of the PRC
- Taiwan, earlier known as Formosa, a tiny island off the east coast of China, is where Chinese republicans of the Kuomintang government retreated after the 1949 victory of the communists — and it has since continued as the Republic of China (RoC).
- The island is located in the East China Sea, to the northeast of Hong Kong, north of the Philippines and south of South Korea, and southwest of Japan.
- Taiwan observes October 10 — “double 10” — as its national day; it was on this day in 1911 that sections of the Manchu army rose in rebellion, leading ultimately to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the end of 4,000 years of the monarchy.
- The RoC was declared on December 29, 1911, and it found its feet in the 1920s under the leadership of Dr Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Kuomintang (KMT) Party.
- Sun was succeeded by General Chiang Kai-shek, whose actions against the Chinese communists, who were part of an alliance with the KMT, triggered the civil war that ended in victory for the communists and retreat of Chiang and the KMT to Taiwan.
- Since its founding in 1949, the PRC has believed that Taiwan must be reunified with the mainland, while the RoC has held out as an “independent” country. The RoC became the non-communist frontier against China during the Cold War, and was the only ‘China’ recognised at the UN until 1971. That was when the US inaugurated ties with China through the secret diplomacy of Henry Kissinger, national security adviser to President Richard Nixon.
- The US backs Taiwan’s independence, maintains ties with Taipei, and sells weapons to it — but officially subscribes to PRC’s “One China Policy”, which means there is only one legitimate Chinese government. Just 15, mostly very small, countries recognise Taiwan.
The current tensions
- Last year, amid worsening US-China relations over Covid and trade, the State Department sent its highest ranking delegation yet to Taipei. During the visit, the Chinese conducted a military exercise in the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from mainland China.
- In October 2020, President Xi Jinping asked the PLA to prepare for war, triggering alarm in Taiwan, which read it as an open threat.
- Early in the Biden Administration, which has declared “rock solid” commitment to Taiwan, Taipei raised an alert about an incursion by Chinese warplanes. In April, Taiwan reported Chinese jets in its air defence zone. In July, Xi warned that he would “smash” any Taiwanese move towards independence.
- In a speech on October 10, Xi appeared to allay fears of a forcible takeover, and spoke about “peaceful reunification”.
Challenge for the US
- As tensions rise, the world is watching the US, whose status as the world’s pre-eminent power has been dented by the messy exit from Afghanistan. In East and Southeast Asia, several countries including Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines, which are sheltered under the protective umbrella of the US, are reading the tea leaves.
- President Joe Biden has so far walked a thin line between pledging support for Taiwan, and keeping the lid on tensions with Beijing. After speaking with Xi earlier this month, he said they had agreed to abide by the “Taiwan Agreement”, under which US support for the “One China Policy” is premised on Beijing not invading Taiwan.
- The AUKUS pact among the US, UK, and Australia, under which Australia will be supplied with nuclear submarines, has imparted a new dimension to the security dynamics of the Indo-Pacific. Taiwan has welcomed the pact, while China has denounced it as seriously undermining regional peace.
Implications for India
- With India facing its own problems with China at the LAC, there have been suggestions that it should review its One China Policy — it has in any case long stopped reiterating this officially — and use not just the Tibet card, but also develop more robust relations with Taiwan to send a message to Beijing.
- India and Taiwan currently maintain “trade and cultural exchange” offices in each other’s capitals.
- In May 2020, the swearing-in of Tsai was attended virtually by BJP MPs Meenakshi Lekhi (now MoS External Affairs) and Rahul Kaswan. In 2016, New Delhi had dropped plans to send two representatives for Tsai’s first inaugural at the last minute.
- Bloomberg has reported that talks with Taipei are ongoing to bring a $7.5-billion semiconductor or chip manufacturing plant to India. Chips are used in a range of devices from computers to 5G smartphones, to electric cars and medical equipment.
3. BSF powers and jurisdiction
Subject – Defence and Security
Context – The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has extended the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF)
Concept –
- The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has extended the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) up to 50 km inside the international borders in Punjab, West Bengal and Assam.
- The BSF’s powers — which include arrest, search and seizure — were limited to up to 15 km in these states. At the same time, the Ministry has reduced BSF’s area of operation in Gujarat from 80 km from the border, to 50 km.
- The government said it was exercising the powers under the Border Security Force Act of 1968.
- In its 2014 notification, the MHA had outlined BSF’s jurisdiction as “the whole of the area comprised in the States of Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya and so much of the area comprised within a belt of eighty kilometres in the State of Gujarat, fifty kilometres in the State of Rajasthan and fifteen kilometres in the States of Punjab, West Bengal and Assam, running along the borders of India”.
- What kind of powers can the BSF exercise in this jurisdiction?
- Its jurisdiction has been extended only in respect of the powers it enjoys under Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and the Passport Act, 1967. BSF currently has powers to arrest and search under these laws.
- It also has powers to arrest, search and seize under the NDPS Act, Arms Act, Customs Act and certain other laws. Its jurisdiction under these laws has not been changed, meaning its powers under these will continue to be only up to 15 km inside the border in Punjab, Assam and West Bengal, and will remain as far as 80 km in Gujarat.
Why and when were these powers given to BSF?
- In 1969, the BSF first got powers to arrest and search under the CrPC with respect to certain laws such as the Foreigners Act, The Passport Act, forex laws and Customs Act. BSF sources said even before 2014, they had a jurisdiction of 15 km inside the border in several states.
- “At that time, border areas were sparsely populated and there were hardly any police stations for miles. To prevent trans-border crimes, it was felt necessary that BSF is given powers to arrest. While police stations have now come up near the border, they continue to be short-staffed.”
Will it impact police jurisdiction?
- At a basic level, the states can argue that law and order is a state subject and enhancing BSF’s jurisdiction infringes upon powers of the state government.
- This is not an attack on the federal structure. Rather this is going to complement the efforts of the local police. It is an enabling provision. It’s not that the local police can’t act within the jurisdiction of the BSF
How will it be implemented?
- Until now, state police and border forces have been working in tandem with minor, occasional differences. Now, with the issue taking political colour, implementation could be tricky if there are difficulties in coordination in future.
To know more about it, please click here.
Subject – Environment
Context – This International E-Waste Day, give your used electronic devices for recycling, urges non-profit
Concept –
- International E-Waste Day has been observed on October 14 every year since 2018.
- The recycling will enable the recovery of “a king’s fortune in valuable materials and reduce the need for new resources”, the WEEE Forum said in a statement.
- WEEE stands for waste electronic and electrical equipment. The Brussels-based non-profit gave some shocking statistics about the rising tide of e-waste.
- This year’s WEEE will total about 57.4 million tonnes (MT). This will be greater than the weight of the Great Wall of China, Earth’s heaviest artificial object.
- Last year’s Global E-waste Monitor reported that 53.6 MT of WEEE were generated in 2019. That represented a 21 per cent jump in the five years since 2014 (with e-waste predicted to reach 74 MT by 2030).
- E-waste generation was increasing annually by 2 MT, according to the WEEE Forum statement. It attributed the rise to a higher consumption rate of electronics, shorter product lifecycles and limited repair options.
- The Environmental Protection Agency of the United States estimates that more than 151 million phones a year — approximately 416,000 a day — are trashed and end up incinerated or landfilled.
- An estimated 40 per cent of heavy metals in US landfills come from discarded electronics.
- As long as citizens don’t return their used, broken gear, sell it, or donate it, we will need to continue mining all-new materials causing great environmental damage. This year’s focus for International E-Waste Day is the crucial role each of us has in making circularity a reality for e-products.
- A tonne of discarded mobile phones is richer in gold than a tonne of gold ore.
- Embedded in 1 million cell phones, for example, are 24 kg of gold, 16,000 kg of copper, 350 kg of silver and 14 kg of palladium — resources that could be recovered and returned to the production cycle. And if we fail to recycle these materials, new supplies need to be mined, harming the environment.
- Moreover, the recovery of gold and other material from waste saves a lot of carbon dioxide emissions when compared with virgin metal mining.
- High-value, recoverable materials conservatively valued at $57 billion — a sum greater than the Gross Domestic Product of most countries — were mostly dumped or burned in 2019 rather than being collected for treatment and reuse.
To know about Smartphones killing the planet, please click here.
Subject – IR
Context – India gets re-elected to UN Human Rights Council for 2022-24 term
Concept –
- India was re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2022-24 term and vowed to continue to work for the promotion and protection of Human Rights through “Samman, Samvad and Sahyog.”
- India gets re-elected to the @UN_HRC (2022-24) for a 6th term with overwhelming majority.
- “We will continue to work for promotion and protection of Human Rights through #Samman #Samvad #Sahyog #Samman #Samvad #Sahyog,” India’s Permanent Mission to the UN tweeted.
- The UN General Assembly elected by secret ballot Argentina, Benin, Cameroon, Eritrea, Finland, Gambia, Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Montenegro, Paraguay, Qatar, Somalia, UAE and the USA.
Membership –
- The UNHRC has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis from 5 groups.
- Five regional groups for membership: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Europe and Eastern Europe.
- To become a member, a country must receive the votes of at least 96 of the 191 states of the UN General Assembly (an absolute majority).
- According to Resolution 60/251, which created the council, members are elected directly by secret ballot by the majority of the UN General Assembly. Membership has to be equally distributed geographically.
- The members are elected for a period of three years, with a maximum of two consecutive terms.
To know more about UNHRC, please click here and here.
Subject – Governance
Context – Global Hunger Index 2021: India slips to 101st spot, behind Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal
Concept –
- India has slipped to the 101st position among 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 from its 2020 ranking (94), to be placed behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
- With this, only 15 countries — Papua New Guinea (102), Afghanistan (103), Nigeria (103), Congo (105), Mozambique (106), Sierra Leone (106), Timor-Leste (108), Haiti (109), Liberia (110), Madagascar (111), Democratic Republic of Congo (112), Chad (113), Central African Republic (114), Yemen (115) and Somalia (116) — fared worse than India this year.
- A total of 18 countries, including China, Kuwait and Brazil, shared the top rank with GHI score of less than five.
- The report, prepared jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe, mentioned the level of hunger in India as “alarming” with its GHI score decelerating from 38.8 in 2000 to the range of 28.8 – 27.5 between 2012 and 2021.
- The GHI score is calculated on four indicators — undernourishment; child wasting (the share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition); child stunting (children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition); child mortality (the mortality rate of children under the age of five).
Hunger in India –
- According to the report, the share of wasting among children in India rose from 17.1 per cent between 1998-2002 to 17.3 per cent between 2016-2020. People have been severely hit by COVID-19 and by pandemic related restrictions in India, the country with highest child wasting rate worldwide.
- Neighbouring countries like Nepal (76), Bangladesh (76), Myanmar (71) and Pakistan (92), which are still ahead of India at feeding its citizens, are also in the ‘alarming’ hunger category.
- However, India has shown improvement in indicators like the under-5 mortality rate, prevalence of stunting among children and prevalence of undernourishment owing to inadequate food, the report said.
- Stating that the fight against hunger is dangerously off track, the report said based on the current GHI projections, the world as a whole — and 47 countries in particular — will fail to achieve even a low level of hunger by 2030.
- While the GHI score for the world fell 4.7 points, from 25.1 to 20.4, between 2006 and 2012, it has fallen just 2.5 points since 2012.
- After decades of decline, the global prevalence of undernourishment — one of the four indicators used to calculate GHI scores — is increasing.
7. The declining monsoon rainfall in Punjab over last two decades
Subject – Geography
Context – Punjab has received below normal rainfall this monsoon, which has withdrawn in the past couple of days from the state.
Concept –
- Punjab has received below normal rainfall this monsoon, which has withdrawn in the past couple of days from the state. Not just this year, the state has seen a declining trend in rainfall during monsoon in the past two decades.
- The only silver lining was that the rainfall pattern was good this year, which was witnessed after a long gap.
- Less rain in the monsoon period leads to less annual rainfall in the state because around 79 per cent of the annual rain of the state takes place in monsoon period. Punjab’s annual rainfall is around 650 mm, which has decreased from around 800 mm in the 1980s.
- Weather scientists say Punjab has not only been recording below normal rainfall but also deficient rainfall in the past two decades.
- Anything less than the normal, which can be even 1 per cent less, is called below average rain, but rainfall is categorised as ‘deficient’ when it is less than 20 per cent of the normal average.
- This is a very bad trend for a state like Punjab where less rain means extracting more water from the ground for irrigation purposes, when the water table in 84 per cent of the state is already over-exploited.
- According to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), there were 35 years of deficient rain in Punjab between 1901 and 2017 (117 years) out of which 10 years of deficient rain were recorded between 2000 and 2019 itself, which means 29 per cent deficient rainfall years in just 17 per cent of over a century.
8. Customs duty waiver on edible oil imports
Subject – Economy
Context – Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal announced that the government has decided to waive customs duty on import of crude sunflower, palm and soyabean oil, a move aimed at controlling their prices.
Concept –
- Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal announced that the government has decided to waive customs duty on import of crude sunflower, palm and soyabean oil, a move aimed at controlling their prices.
Consumption & imports
- Of the 20-21 million tonnes of edible oil that India consumes annually, around `4-15 mt is imported.
- India is second only to China (34-35 mt) in terms of consumption of edible oil.
- Palm oil (45%) is the largest consumed oil, mainly used by the food industry for frying namkeen, mithai, etc, followed by soyabean oil (20%) and mustard oil (10%), with the rest accounted for by sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, groundnut oil etc.
- Crude and food-grade refined oil is imported in large vessels, mainly from Malaysia, Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia etc.
- Given the heavy dependency on imports, the Indian edible oil market is influenced by the international markets.
- Home-grown oilseeds such as soyabean, groundnut, mustard, cottonseed etc find their way to domestic solvent and expellers plants, where both the oil and the protein-rich component is extracted. The latter is an exportable commodity.
Prices and politics
- Prices of edible oil have been rising across the country In the last few months. Data collated by the Price Monitoring Cell (PMC) of the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs show that most edible oils are trading between Rs 130-Rs 190/litre.
- The government has not only abolished the basic customs duty on crude palm, soyabean and sunflower oil, but also slashed the agri cess levied on these until March 31, 2022.
- This comes days after the Centre authorised the states to impose a stock limit on oilseeds and oil to control prices.
- The government has been slashing duty rates on both crude and refined oils since February. This will be the fifth such intervention to control prices.
- Be it the production of palm in Indonesia and Malaysia, or soyabean in Argentina/Brazil, or sunflower in Ukraine, chances of immediate improvement of supplies are slim.
- Farmers fear the present decision will hit their earnings further.
To know more about this, please click here.
9. WHO says it may be ‘last chance’ to find COVID origins
Subject – Science and Tech
Context – The World Health Organization said its newly formed advisory group on dangerous pathogens may be “our last chance” to determine the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and urged China to provide data from early cases.
Concept –
- The first human cases of COVID-19 were reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. China has repeatedly dismissed theories that the virus leaked from one of its laboratories and has said no more visits are needed.
- A WHO-led team spent four weeks in and around Wuhan earlier this year with Chinese scientists, and said in a joint report in March that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal but further research was needed.
- WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the investigation was hampered by a dearth of raw data pertaining to the first days of the outbreak and has called for lab audits.
- More than three dozen recommended studies” must still to be carried out to determine how the virus crossed from the animal species to humans.
- The WHO, in an editorial in Science, said that detailed investigations of the earliest known and suspected cases in China prior to December 2019 were still needed, including analyses of stored blood samples from 2019 in Wuhan and retrospective searches of hospital and mortality data for earlier cases.
10. Capital Account Convertibility
Subject – Economy
Context – India On Verge Of Achieving Capital Account Convertibility: RBI Deputy Governor
Concept –
- India is on the cusp of fundamental shifts in the capital account convertibility space, with increased market integration in the offing and freer non-resident access to debt on the table, according to T Rabi Sankar, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
- Capital account of any country records the net changes in its foreign assets and liabilities, while convertibility refers to the ability to convert domestic currency into foreign currencies and vice versa for making payments for balance of payments (BoP) transactions.
- BoP refers to financial transactions undertaken by a country with other nations across the world during a particular period of time, normally one year.
- The Tarapore Committee (2006) defined capital account convertibility as the “freedom to convert local financial assets into foreign financial assets and vice versa.”
- The country is also on the cusp of witnessing some fundamental shifts in this space with greater market integration expected in the near future.
- The rate of capital account convertibility will also accerate through measures like freer non-resident access to debt and greater market integration.
- There is an effort to liberalise foreign portfolio investment (FPI) debt flows further, with the introduction of the Fully Accessible Route (FAR), which places no limit on non-resident investment in specified benchmark securities.
What is Capital Account Convertibility?
- The balance of payments account, which a statement of all transactions made between a country and the outside world, consists of two accounts — current and capital account. While the current account deals mainly with import and export of goods and services, the capital account is made up of cross-border movement of capital by way of investments and loans.
- Current account convertibility refers to the freedom to convert your rupees into other internationally accepted currencies and vice versa without any restrictions whenever you make payments.
- Similarly, capital account convertibility means the freedom to conduct investment transactions without any constraints. Typically, it would mean no restrictions on the amount of rupees you can convert into foreign currency to enable you, an Indian resident, to acquire any foreign asset. Similarly, there should be no restraints on your NRI cousin bringing in any amount of dollars or dirhams to acquire an asset in India.
- India has come a long way in liberating the capital account transactions in the last three decades and currently has partial capital account convertibility.
- Some of the recent moves include increasing the foreign portfolio investment limits in the Indian debt markets, introducing the Fully Accessible Route (FAR) — through which non-residents can invest in specified government securities without any restrictions and the easing of the external commercial borrowing framework by relaxing end-user restrictions. Inward FDI is allowed in most sectors, and outbound FDI by Indian incorporated entities is allowed as a multiple of their net worth.
Why is it important?
- Developing are usually cautious in opening up their capital account. This is because inflows and outflows of the foreign and domestic capital, which are prone to volatility, can lead to excessive appreciation/depreciation of their currency and impact the monetary and financial stability.
⦁ India’s prudence in opening up its capital account was lauded after the currency crisis in East Asian countries in 1997 exposed the problems arising from the potent combination of high current account imbalances, dependence on short-term capital flows and the whimsical nature of these flows. The SS Tarapore committee’s report on fuller capital account convertibility released in 2006 argued that even countries that had apparently comfortable fiscal positions have experienced currency crises and rapid deterioration of the exchange rate, when the tide turns. - The report further points that most currency crises arise out of prolonged overvaluation in exchange rates leading to unsustainable current account deficits. An excessive appreciation of the exchange rate causes exporting industries to become unviable, and imports to become much more competitive, causing the current account deficit to worsen. Thus, it suggests transparent fiscal consolidation is necessary to reduce the chances of a currency crisis.
- If you are an investor looking to park money overseas or an NRI wanting to invest in Indian assets, full convertibility on capital account may give you a greater opportunity to diversify investments and reduce geographical risk. Note that cross-border investments are allowed even now under RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme but within the overall limit of $250000.
To know more about it, please click here.
11. Govt Fixes Subsidy For Potash Derived From Molasses
Subject – Agriculture
Context – The Centre on Thursday said it has fixed subsidy on potash derived from molasses (PDM) for the first time under the Nutrient Based Subsidy, a move expected to reduce the country’s dependence on mineral-based potash.
Concept –
- The Centre on Thursday said it has fixed subsidy on potash derived from molasses (PDM) for the first time under the Nutrient Based Subsidy, a move expected to reduce the country’s dependence on mineral-based potash.
- The government will offer a subsidy of Rs 73 per 50 kg bag of PDM sold at Rs 600-800 by fertiliser companies to farmers, it said.
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the proposal in its recent meeting.
- This will give a push to sugar mills to manufacture the byproduct ‘molasses’, from which potash can be derived. This will boost the revenue of mills and income of sugarcane growers, the ministry said in a statement.
- Till last year, the government was fixing the subsidy under the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme for 22 varieties of fertilisers having soil nutrients namely Nitrogen (N), Phosphate (P), Potash (K) and Sulphur (S).
- However, in May this year, two complex fertilisers were included under the NBS. The inclusion of PDM takes the total variants of fertiliser to 25.
- The government has also extended the increase in the subsidy of phosphatic (P) and potassic (K) fertiliser from October 1 till March 31 of this financial year, while enhanced subsidy on Diammonium phosphate (DAP) by Rs 438 per bag as a special one-time package.