Daily Prelims Notes 23 June 2020

June 23, 2020
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Table Of Contents

Subject: IR

Context:

US government has extended the 60-day ban on immigration and non-immigrant worker visas till the end of 2020. The suspension of H-1B and other work will likely to have a severe impact on majority of Indian IT companies

Concept:

The lottery-based H-1B visas allow US companies to employ foreign workers temporarily in specialised occupations for three years, extendable to six years. The issuances are capped at 85,000 a year, but some employers such as universities and research nonprofits are exempt.
Spouses of H-1B workers are granted an H-4 visa, through which some have been allowed to apply to work in the US since a Barack Obama-era 2015 law.

2. What is Basel Committee on Banking Supervision?

Subject: Economy

Context:

The Discussion Paper on “Governance in Commercial Banks” released by the RBI is a high-quality document that contains principles drawn from those released by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in 2015.

Concept:

The Basel Committee – initially named the Committee on Banking Regulations and Supervisory Practices was established by the central bank Governors of the Group of Ten countries at the end of 1974 in the aftermath of serious disturbances in international currency and banking markets
The BCBS is the primary global standard setter for the prudential regulation of banks and provides a forum for cooperation on banking supervisory matters.
Its mandate is to strengthen the regulation, supervision and practices of banks worldwide with the purpose of enhancing financial stability.
The BCBS does not possess any formal supranational authority.
Its decisions do not have legal force. Rather, the BCBS relies on its members’ commitments
BCBS members include organizations with direct banking supervisory authority and central banks.

Basel Accords

The Basel Accords are three series of banking regulations (Basel I, II, and III) set by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision (BCBS).
The committee provides recommendations on banking regulations, specifically, concerning capital risk, market risk, and operational risk. The accords ensure that financial institutions have enough capital on account to absorb unexpected losses.
In 2010, Basel III guidelines were concluded. These guidelines were introduced in response to the financial crisis of 2008. The guidelines aim to promote a more resilient banking system by focusing on four vital banking parameters viz. capital, leverage, funding and liquidity.

3. Russia-India-China (RIC) RIC

Subject: IR

Context:

Ministry of External Affairs has announced that it will participate in the virtual meeting of the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping scheduled to be held on 23rd June, 2020.

Concept:

RIC is a strategic grouping, conceived by the then Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov in 1998.
But the idea of meeting at the leader’s level on a more sustained has not happened.
2nd Russia-India-China ‘RIC’ Trilateral Summit took place in Buenos Aires after a gap of 12 years in 2018.
They emphasised on the need to promote multilateralism, reform institutions of global governance like the UN and the WTO and highlighted the need to work together to steer global economic governance.
The three countries agreed to have regular consultations to jointly promote international and regional peace and stability, to strengthen cooperation through BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) and the East Asia Summit (EAS) mechanisms, to address global challenges such as terrorism and climate change, and to encourage peaceful resolution of all differences.

4. What are EEZ and Continental Self?

Subject: Geography

Context:

Indian navy has stopped Chinese maritime research and survey vessels that entered Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and Continental Shelf (CS) of India without prior consent in 2018 and 2019

Concept:

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as generally extending 200 nautical miles from shore, within which the coastal state has the right to explore and exploit, and the responsibility to conserve and manage, both living and non-living resources.
Within its EEZ, a coastal state has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing natural resources, whether living or nonliving, of the seabed and subsoil and rights to carry out activities like the production of energy from the water, currents and wind.

Continental shelf

The continental shelf is the extended margin of each continent occupied by relatively shallow seas and gulfs.
It is the shallowest part of the ocean showing an average gradient of 1° or even less.
The shelf typically ends at a very steep slope, called the shelf break.
The width of the continental shelves varies from one ocean to another. The average width of continental shelves is about 80 km.
The shelves are almost absent or very narrow along some of the margins like the coasts of Chile, the west coast of Sumatra, etc.
On the contrary, the Siberian shelf in the Arctic Ocean, the largest in the world, stretches to 1,500 km in width.
The depth of the shelves also varies. It may be as shallow as 30 m in some areas while in some areas it is as deep as 600 m.
The continental shelves are covered with variable thicknesses of sediments brought down by rivers, glaciers, wind, from the land and distributed by waves and currents.
Importance of continent shelves
Marine food comes almost entirely from continental shelves.
They provide the richest fishing grounds.
They are potential sites for economic minerals

5. Shyama Prasad Mookherjee

Subject: History

Context:

On the 66th death anniversary of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh has been observed.

Concept:

He was the independent India’s first Minister of Industry and Supply and founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
He became a member of the Bengal Legislative Council in 1929, and was the youngest Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta from 1934 to 1938.
Later, he became the finance minister of the Province of Bengal, and was subsequently elected the national president of the All India Hindu Mahasabha, the Mahabodhi Society and the Royal Asiatic Society.
Mookerjee was also a member of the Constituent Assembly.
He was against Article 370 and had expressed his displeasure at special status for J&K.
After he left the Indian National Congress due to difference of opinion with the then-Prime Minister Dr Jawaharlal Nehru on Jammu and Kashmir issues, he co- founded Janata Party in the year 1977-1979, which later on became the Bharatiya Janata Party.

6. 74th Constitutional Amendment

Subject: Polity

Context:

The pandemic has shown bad state of urban local bodies, without enough power and funds.

Concept:

This Act has added a new Part IX-A to the Constitution of India. It is entitled ‘The Municipalities and consists of provisions from Articles 243-P to 243-ZG.
In addition, the act has also added a new Twelfth Schedule to the Constitution. This schedule contains eighteen functional items of municipalities. It deals with Article 243-W.
The act gave constitutional status to the municipalities. It has brought them under the purview of justiciable part of the Constitution.
The act aims at revitalizing and strengthening the urban governments so that they function effectively as units of local government.
The salient features of the act are:
Three Types of Municipalities The act provides for the constitution of the following three types of municipalities in every state : nagar panchayat, municipal council and municipal corporation
Composition: All the members of a municipality shall be elected directly by the people of the municipal area. For this purpose, each municipal area shall be divided into territorial constituencies to be known as wards. The state legislature may provide the manner of election of the chairperson of a municipality.
Reservation of Seats :The act provides for the reservation of seats for the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes in every municipality in proportion of their population to the total population in the municipal area. Further, it provides for the reservation of not less than one-third of the total number of seats for women.
Duration of Municipalities: The act provides for a five-year term of office for every municipality. However, it can be dissolved before the completion of its term.
State Election Commission: The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of all elections to the municipalities shall be vested in the state election commission.
Finance Commission The finance commission (which is constituted for the panchayats) shall also, for every five years, review the financial position of municipalities and make recommendation to the governor as to:

The principles that should govern: (a) The distribution between the state and the municipalities, the net proceeds of the taxes, duties, tolls and fees levied by the state. (b) The determination of the taxes, duties, tolls and fees that may be assigned to the municipalities. (c) The grants-in-aid to the municipalities from the consolidated fund of the state.
The measures needed to improve the financial position of the municipalities.
Any other matter referred to it by the governor in the interests of sound finance of municipalities.

District Planning Committee: Every state shall constitute at the district level, a district planning committee to consolidate the plans prepared by panchayats and municipalities in the district, and to prepare a draft development plan for the district as a whole.

7. What is Patent Pooling?

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

COVID-19 puts a spotlight on importance of Medicines Patent Pool as it helps in reducing cost of medicines and makes it accessible.

Concept:

Patent pools can be defined as an agreement between two or more patent owners to license one or more of their patents to one another or to third parties.
In a patent pool, patent rights are aggregated amongst multiple patent holders. Then, the pooled patents are made available to member and non-member licensees and typically the pool allocates a portion of the licensing fees it collects to each member in proportion to each patent’s value.
Often, patent pools are associated with complex technologies that require complementary patents in order to provide efficient technical solutions.

What is Albany Agreement?

On October 24, 1856, history was made through the Albany Agreement, resulting in the first patent pool in US history.
This was in response to the sewing machine war with nine patents pooled together on manufacture of sewing machines.

What is Nagoya Protocol?

The Nagoya Protocol on sharing biological resources can be a guiding principle for improved access to COVID care.
The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) to the Convention on Biological Diversityis a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
It provides a transparent legal framework for the effective implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
The Nagoya Protocol applies to genetic resources that are covered by the CBD, and to the benefits arising from their utilization. The Nagoya Protocol also covers traditional knowledge (TK) associated with genetic resources that are covered by the CBD and the benefits arising from its utilization.

8. What are Exotic Species?

Subject: Environment

Context:

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested two persons involved in an alleged wildlife smuggling syndicate and seized a consignment of 22 exotic macaws.

Concept:

The birds were identified as Hyacinth Macaw, Pesquet’s Parrot, Severe Macaw and Hahn’s Macaw.
They are all protected species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), with Hyacinth Macaw being accorded the highest protection and listed under Appendix I.
Protection under CITES implies ban in global and domestic trade of the species.
All the birds were seized under provisions of the Customs Act and Wild Life Protection Act, 1972.

Exotic species:

As opposed to native species, which are indigenous and found naturally in an environment, animals and plant species introduced from other countries and which are not otherwise found locally are termed exotic.
These introduced or exotic species can adversely affect the ecosystem.
In India, large varieties of exotic animal and plant species have been introduced from other parts of the world through the ages. Some exotic plants have turned into weeds, multiplying fast and causing harm to the ecosystem, e.g. water hyacinth and lantana