Daily Prelims Notes 27 October 2021

Daily Prelims Notes

27 October 2021

Table Of Contents

1. Climate Change Jargon
2. Appointment of Chief Economic Advisor
3. Credit Outreach Programme
4. Critical Wildlife Habitats
5. Biodiversity Hotspots
6. Field Trials
7. Drones
8. CERT-In authorized as CVE Numbering Authority (CNA)
9. Mapping India’s Climate Vulnerability — A District Level Assessment
10. Sudan Mapping
11. East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM)
12. Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea
13. Parambikulam Aliyar Project
14. National Population Register
15. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

1. Climate Change Jargon

Subject – Environment

Context – U.N. climate conference gets underway on Oct. 31, 2021 in Glasgow

Concept –

2. Appointment of Chief Economic Advisor

Subject – Economy

Context – Centre invites applications for CEA post

Concept –

• The Centre has invited applications for the post of Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to replace incumbent Krishnamurthy Subramanian, who is to complete his three-year term in December.
• The Department of Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry said in the order that officers of Central, State governments, RBI and public sector banks holding analogous posts on a regular basis in parent cadres or department are eligible to apply.
• Candidates from recognised universities, recognised research institutions, central regulatory bodies registered private institutions or financial institutions are also eligible.
• According to the notification, the minimum educational qualification is a master’s degree in economics. A doctoral degree in finance or economics is desirable.
• For government employees, six years’ experience in economic research or providing economic advice or evaluating economic reforms, including one year of administrative experience, has been made mandatory.
• The selection committee reserves the right to invite and shortlist suitable individuals from outside the list of applicants for the posts

To know about functions of CEA, please refer to September 2021 DPN.

3. Credit Outreach Programme

Subject – Economy

Context – Loan outreach: PSBs sanction ‘11,168 cr to 1.93 lakh accounts’

Concept –

• Banks have sanctioned loans worth Rs 11,168 crore to about 1.93 lakh accounts under the credit outreach programme, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
• Banks are holding special camps across the country to sanction loans to eligible borrowers ahead of the festival season.
• The loans under the credit outreach programme are over and above those sanctioned and disbursed under the various central government loan guarantee schemes.
• The government had earlier this month urged public sector banks (PSBs) to start a nationwide credit outreach programme to take advantage of the potential loan demand during the festival season ahead of Diwali.
• Banks will go about to exhibit loan offerings in every district of the country in a bid to enhance the credit demand.

4. Critical Wildlife Habitats

Subject – Environment

Context – When conservation efforts collide with tribal rights in Maharashtra

Concept –

• A Public Interest Litigation in the Bombay High Court, originally filed in 2013, has gathered momentum over the issue of critical wildlife habitat in the past couple of years.
• As the High Court enquired about government action, the state forest department declared 54 sites as critical wildlife habitats, in an effort to protect endangered wildlife.
• However, activists and academics allege that there has been undue haste and several violations in this implementation. Local communities say that their claims under the Forest Rights Act are yet to be settled and this move of declaring the sites as critical wildlife habitats under the same act will come in the way of fair and just treatment to the tribals.

About Critical Wildlife Habitats –

• CWLHs are meant to be areas of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries that are required to be kept as inviolate for the purpose of wildlife conservation (not just tigers). CWLH mandatorily requires settlement of forest rights under FRA.
• The two processes are, thus, independent of each other where the settlement of forest rights comes at different stages.
• As envisaged in the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, Critical Wildlife Habitats are to be declared by the Central Government in the Ministry of Environment and Forests after a process of consultation by Expert Committees.

History of Critical Wildlife Habitat Guidelines

• In order to notify a CWH, the Act requires state governments to establish that the presence of right-holders is causing irreversible damage to wildlife and their habitats, and that co-existence between rights holders and wildlife was not a reasonable option.
• In 2007 and 2011, two versions of the guidelines for notifying CWHs were drafted by the MoEF&CC (then MoEF), but withdrawn amidst lack of consensus between foresters and forest rights groups. The result was that after more than a decade of FRA’s existence, not a single CWH had been notified, creating uproar from wildlife conservation groups.
• In March 2017, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) issuedan order to deny forest rights in critical tiger habitats (core areas of tiger reserves) in the absence of CWH guidelines.
• MoEF&CC finally issued CWH guidelines in 2018

Notifying CWHs: Key features of guidelines

• The Chief Wildlife Warden of a state will notify an Expert Committee for the purpose of identification of critical wildlife habitats (CWH) in a national park or sanctuary.

• The Expert Committee will identify areas within national parks and sanctuaries, based on scientific and objective criteria relevant to the protected area, required to be kept inviolate for the purpose of wildlife conservation.
• The Expert Committee shall issue a public notice on the intention to notify CWH. The public notice shall include details of areas required to be kept inviolate, criteria adopted for CWH identification, implication of the notification on existing rights, and all options of resettlement and rehabilitation schemes, if applicable.
• The Expert Committee shall carry out open consultations with all stakeholders, and the proceedings of the consultations, especially the objections, will be documented appropriately.
• The committee will submit the CWH proposal to the Chief Wildlife Warden. The decision on the proposal will taken by the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife.
• A MoTA representative would be invited during the deliberation of the proposal by the standing committee. Following the committee’s recommendation, the notification of CWH will be published in the official gazette.

Critical Tiger Habitats

• Critical ‘tiger’ habitats (CTHs), also known as core areas of tiger reserves—are identified under the Wild Life Protection Act (WLPA), 1972 based on scientific evidence that “such areas are required to be kept as inviolate for the purpose of tiger conservation, without affecting the rights of the Scheduled Tribes or such other forest dwellers”.
• The notification of CTH is done by the state government in consultation with the expert committee constituted for the purpose.
• ‘Inviolate’ is a general term used to indicate no human settlement and usage. This inevitably implies that establishing CTHs as inviolate areas requires relocation of people living in such areas.

5. Biodiversity Hotspots

Subject – Environment

Context – Jackie Chan, Balerion and Smaug inspire names of gecko species described from Western Ghats

Concept –

• Researchers have described 12 gecko species from the Western Ghats, ten of which are found nowhere else.
• The geckos were given some creative names, including a quick and nimble species named after martial arts superstar Jackie Chan, a couple named after fictional dragons, and one named after the cosmos.
• The quest to find geckos was part of a larger survey to document the diversity of the frogs, lizards and snakes of the Western Ghats and to search for critically endangered species in the diverse region.
• The Western Ghats have been identified as a biodiversity hotspot and there are many protected areas in the region, but a growing human population is putting pressure on the unprotected habitats through expanding urban areas, logging, dams, and the spread of agriculture.

About Biodiversity Hotspots –

• Biodiversity hotspots are regions with high species richness and a high degree of endemism.
• The British biologist Norman Myers coined the term “biodiversity hotspot” in 1988 as a biogeographic region characterized both by exceptional levels of plant endemism and by serious levels of habitat loss.
• Conservation International (CI) adopted Myers’ hotspots and in 1996, the organization made the decision to undertake a reassessment of the hotspots concept.

• According to CI, to qualify as a hotspot a region must meet two strict criteria:
  • It must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants (> 0.5% of the world’s total) as endemics – which is to say, it must have a high percentage of plant life found nowhere else on the planet. A hotspot, in other words, is irreplaceable.
  • It has to have lost at least 70% of its original habitat. (It must have 30% or less of its original natural vegetation). In other words, it must be threatened.
• The 35 biodiversity hotspots cover 2.3% of the Earth’s land surface, yet more than 50% of the world’s plant species and 42% of all terrestrial vertebrate species are endemic to these areas.
• In 2011, the Forests of East Australia region was identified as the 35th biodiversity hotspot.

Biodiversity hotspots in India

• Himalaya: Includes the entire Indian Himalayan region (and that falling in Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar).
• Indo-Burma: Includes entire North-eastern India, except Assam and Andaman group of Islands (and Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China)
• Western Ghats and Sri Lanka: Includes entire Western Ghats (and Sri Lanka).
• Sundalands: Includes Nicobar group of Islands (and Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines).

Note –

Eastern Himalayas, was originally part of the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. In 2004, a hotspot reappraisal classified the region as part of two hotspots: Indo-Burma and the newly distinguished Himalaya.

Range Shifts –

• As temperatures rise, some plants and animals are experiencing range shifts, or movement to higher elevations and cooler habitats.
• Range shifts are usually defined as changes of the distribution limits of a species, generally along altitudinal or latitudinal gradients.
• Range shift is a relatively well-understood response to climate change, but our ability to predict shifts is limited.
• Two factors that may cause variation in range shifts across species are dispersal ability and varying rates of climate change through time and across space.

6. Field Trials

Subject – Agriculture

Context – Rallis India seeks ‘no objection’ to hold GM cotton, maize trials

Concept –

• Field trials are an important component of the process for approval of a genetically engineered (GE) crop for commercial cultivation.
• These trials represent the first controlled introduction of a GE crop into the environment falling in between experiments in contained facilities and commercial release to farmers.
• “Guidelines for Research in Transgenic Crops, 1998” issued by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) briefly describe the considerations for limited field experiments.
• In view of the enormous progress made during the last decade in the research and development of GE crops a need was felt to revisit these guidelines to streamline the procedures for the safe conduct of confined field trials and methodical evaluation of the same.
• In this context, the “Guidelines for the conduct of confined field trials of regulated, GE plants in India” have been prepared to provide instructions to help applicants meet requirements for the application and authorization/ approval of confined field trials of regulated, GE plants under Rules for Manufacture, Use, Import, Export and Storage of Hazardous Micro-Organisms, Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells Rules, 1989 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
• These guidelines summarize the information requirements and procedures used by the two regulatory committees, the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) and the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), that are responsible for evaluating and approving applications for confined field trials.

Contained Conditions

• Contained conditions refer to work with GE organisms within contained facilities, such as a laboratory, a greenhouse, a nethouse, and areas used for the storage and handling of experimental GE organisms.

Confined Field Trial

• A confined field trial is a field experiment of growing a regulated, GE plant in the environment under specified terms and conditions that are intended to mitigate the establishment and spread of the plant.
• Experimental plant/species/varieties/hybrids grown in confined trials are those that have yet to receive regulatory approval for environmental release from GEAC.
• Embodied in this definition of confinement are three important considerations.
  • Firstly, confined field trials are typically carried out on a small scale, usually to a maximum of one hectare (ha). There may be exceptions to this.
  • Secondly, a confined trial is an experimental activity conducted to collect data on potential biosafety impacts. The collection of such field trial data is a prerequisite for safety assessment of the GE crop under evaluation.
  • Additionally, field trials are carried out to produce sufficient plant material so that the developer can undertake research to address the information and data requirements for livestock feed and human food safety assessments.
• Finally, the trial is conducted under conditions known to mitigate:
  • Pollen- or seed-mediated dissemination of the experimental plant;
  • Persistence of the GE plant or its progeny in the environment, and;
  • Introduction of the GE plant or plant products into the human food or livestock feed pathways.

Regulatory Authorities –

• The activities involving the use of GE organisms and products thereof are regulated under the “Rules for the manufacture, use/import/export and storage of hazardous microorganisms/genetically engineered organisms or cells” notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, commonly referred as Rules, 1989.
• These rules and regulations are implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and State Governments. S
• ix competent authorities and their composition have been provided for in the Rules to handle various aspects i.e.,
  • Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RDAC),
  • Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM),
  • Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC),
  • Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBSC) attached to every organization engaged in rDNA research,
  • State Biotechnology Coordination Committee (SBCC)
  • District Level Committees (DLCs).
• While the RDAC is advisory in function, the IBSC, RCGM, and GEAC are of regulatory function. SBCC and DLC are for monitoring purposes.
• GEAC, functioning in the MoEF, is the Regulatory Authority for Biosafety Research Level II (BRLII) trials.

7. Drones

Subject – Security and Defence

Context – Drone deliveries a step closer: Public, private providers to manage traffic

Concept –

• In what could be the first step towards allowing beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has notified a traffic management framework for drones, under which public and private third-party service providers will manage the traffic movement in the airspace under 1,000 feet.
• It requires the creation of a separate, modern, primarily software-based, automated UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system, adding such systems may subsequently be integrated into traditional ATM systems.
• The framework allows third-party service providers to give services such as registration, flight planning, dynamic deconfliction and access to supplementary data like weather, terrain and position of manned aircraft.
• Also, a set of supplementary service providers will also be permitted under the framework to provide services such as insurance and data analytics.
• DigitalSky platform shall continue to be the interface for government stakeholders to provide approvals and permissions to drone operators. All drones (except nano drones operating in the green zone) shall be required to share their real-time location through the network to the Centre.
• It said the third-party providers will first be deployed in small geographical areas that could be increased gradually. They will be permitted to charge drone operators a service fee and a small portion of it might have to be shared with the Airports Authority of India.

DigitalSky platform

• The Digital Sky Platform is the first-of-its-kind national unmanned traffic management (UTM) platform that implements “no permission, no takeoff” (NPNT).
• Users will be required to do a one-time registration of their drones, pilots and owners.
• For every flight (exempted for the nano category), users will be required to ask for permission to fly on a mobile app and an automated process permits or denies the request instantly.
• To prevent unauthorized flights and to ensure public safety, any drone without a digital permit to fly will simply not be able to takeoff.
• The UTM operates as a traffic regulator in the drone airspace and coordinates closely with the defense and civilian air traffic controllers (ATCs) to ensure that drones remain on the approved flight paths.

To know about Drone Rules 2021, please refer August 2021 DPN.

To know about Airspace map of India, please refer September 2021 DPN.

8. CERT-In authorized as CVE Numbering Authority (CNA)

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – CERT-In authorized as CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) for vulnerabilities impacting all products designed, developed and manufactured in India.

Concept –

• Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has been authorized by the CVE Program, as a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) for vulnerabilities impacting all products designed, developed and manufactured in India.
• CVE is an international, community-based effort and relies on the community to discover vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities are discovered then assigned and published to the CVE List.
• Information technology and cybersecurity professionals use CVE Records to ensure they are discussing the same issue, and to coordinate their efforts to prioritize and address the vulnerabilities.
• The mission of the CVE Program is to identify, define, and catalog publicly disclosed cybersecurity vulnerabilities. It is an international, community-based effort and relies on the community to discover vulnerabilities.
• The vulnerabilities are discovered then assigned and published by organizations from around the world that have partnered with the CVE Program. Partners publish CVE Records to communicate consistent descriptions of vulnerabilities.
• CNAs are organizations responsible for the regular assignment of CVE IDs to vulnerabilities, and for creating and publishing information about the Vulnerability in the associated CVE Record. The CVE List is built by CVE Numbering Authorities (CNAs). Every CVE Record added to the list is assigned by a CNA.
• The CVE Records published in the catalog enable program stakeholders to rapidly discover and correlate vulnerability information used to protect systems against attacks. Each CNA has a specific Scope of responsibility for vulnerability identification and publishing.

9. Mapping India’s Climate Vulnerability — A District Level Assessment

Subject – Disaster Management

Context – 74% of India’s districts prone to extreme climate like droughts, floods & cyclones, says study

Concept –

• Over 74 per cent of India’s districts are vulnerable to extreme climate events, with 27 out of 35 states and union territories being affected, a study by the Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) has found.
• Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Bihar are the five states most vulnerable to droughts, floods, cyclones, or a combination of the three, says the study titled ‘Mapping India’s Climate Vulnerability — A District Level Assessment.’
• The most vulnerable districts are Dhemaji and Nagaon (Assam), Khammam (Telangana), Gajapati (Odisha), Vizianagaram (Andhra Pradesh), Sangli (Maharashtra) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu).
• The study measured each district’s vulnerability to climate change by examining exposure (the nature and degree to which a system is exposed), sensitivity (the degree to which a system is affected), and adaptive capacity (the ability of a system to adjust to climate change) using spatio-temporal analysis, that is, data across geographies and time.
• Of the districts vulnerable to climate change, more than 45 per cent have undergone unsustainable landscape and infrastructure changes, exacerbating the effects of extreme weather events.
• According to the analysis, India has seen over 300 extreme events in recent decades, amounting to a loss of Rs 5.60 lakh crore.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released in August had said India would see more intense and frequent precipitation and heatwaves in the decades to come due to global warming.

Vulnerability across India

• The CEEW analysis also examines climate vulnerability across various zones of the country, and finds that western and central India are more vulnerable to drought-like conditions and their compounding effects, while northern and north-eastern zones are more vulnerable to extreme floods and their compounding effects.
• The southern and eastern zones are becoming extremely prone to cyclones, floods, and droughts combined.
• While exposure to extreme weather events is linear, the impacts are non-linear, depending on the sensitivity and adaptive capacity of the affected systems.
• Only 63 per cent of Indian districts have a disaster management plan, with 32 per cent of these being up-to-date till 2019.

10. Sudan Mapping

Subject – IR

Context – Sudan General defends power grab

Concept –

11. East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM)

Subject – IR

Context – China’s Foreign Minister meets Taliban in Doha, offers support

Concept –

• An extremist group of native Uyghurs, a Muslim minority in China, the ETIM’s stated objective is to form a sovereign nation of East Turkestan, carved out from the Xinjiang province.
• Almost 40 years after its founding, around the 1980s, the group’s co-founder Abdul Hakeem took radicalisation to the next level and began teaching fundamentalist interpretations of Islam to Uyghur students.
• While the group identified itself as the ‘East Turkestan Islamic Movement’ only in 1997 under Hakeem’s leadership, China held the ETIM responsible for over 200 terrorist attacks in Xinjiang between 1990 and 2001, which have killed 162 people.
• In 2002, the United Nations and the US also officially designated the ETIM as a terrorist group, citing China’s figures as well as the 9/11 attacks. This is because the ETIM was also affiliated to the al Qaeda, the group which had carried out the terror attacks on 11 September 2001 in the US.
• However, by 2020, the US controversially removed the group from its terror list, stating that “there has been no credible evidence” of the group’s continued existence for over a decade.
  • The US’ move was criticised by China but celebrated by members of the Uyghur diaspora.
• ETIM has long been suspected of maintaining links with al Qaeda.

12. Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea

Subject – IR

Context – Expedite talks on South China Sea: Beijing

Concept –

• In 2002, ASEAN and China signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
• Year 2022 is the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).
• The Parties reaffirm their commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and other universally recognized principles of international law which shall serve as the basic norms governing state-to-state relations.

South China Sea Code of Conduct

• The COC is an upgraded version of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).
• A code of conduct in the South China Sea is a set of rules outlining the norms and responsibilities for ensuring peace and stability in the region. It guides proper practice for an individual, party or organization, and aims to create an effective mechanism in safeguarding safety and freedom of navigation.

13. Parambikulam Aliyar Project

Subject – Geography

Context – With political will, Kerala and Tamil Nadu can overcome hurdles to renew the Parambikulam Aliyar Project agreement

Concept –

• The prosperity of the Pollachi region of Tamil Nadu is attributed to the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP). The project paved the way for surplus waters from eight west-flowing rivers to irrigate eastern Tamil Nadu.
• Of the eight rivers, six — Anamalaiyar, Thunacadavu, Sholayar, Nirar, Peruvaripallam and Parambikulam — are in the Anamalai hills. Two — Aliyar and Palar — are in the plains.
• The project is an exemplar of co-operative federalism, in this case between Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• Using inter-basin diversion, the project irrigates drought-prone areas in the Coimbatore and Erode districts of Tamil Nadu.
• It also stabilises the existing irrigation system in the Chittoorpuzha valley in Kerala.
• The PAP agreement was signed between Kerala and Tamil Nadu on May 29, 1970, with retrospective effect from November 1958. It provides for the diversion of 30.5 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) annually from Kerala to Tamil Nadu.
• The agreement ensures Kerala’s riparian share in the Sholayar and Chittoorpuzha sub-basins as a guaranteed annual entitlement without applying the distress-sharing formula.
• Except for the Kerala Sholayar dam, the Parambikulam, Peruvaripallam and Tunacadavu dams are situated inside Kerala territory but are controlled and operated by Tamil Nadu.
• The agreement provides for review every 30 years since November 9, 1958.

14. National Population Register

Subject – Polity

Context – Updated NPR form appears to retain contentious questions

Concept –

National Population Register

• It is a list of “usual residents of the country”.
• A “usual resident of the country” is one who has been residing in a local area for at least the last six months, or intends to stay in a particular location for the next six months.

Legal Provisions:

• The NPR is being prepared under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
• It is mandatory for every “usual resident of India” to register in the NPR.

Background:

• The data for the NPR was first collected in 2010 along with the house listing phase of Census 2011.
• In 2015, this data was further updated by conducting a door-to-door survey.
• However, with the use of Aadhaar as the key vehicle for transfer of government benefits in the last few years, the NPR has taken a backseat.

Scope:

• The NPR exercise is conducted at the local, sub-district, district, state and national levels.
• The NPR will collect both demographic data and biometric data. Biometric data will be updated through Aadhar details.
• In the 2010 exercise, the RGI had collected only demographic details.
• In 2015, it updated the data further with the mobile, Aadhaar and ration card numbers of residents.
• For the 2020 exercise, it has dropped the ration card number but added other categories.

NPR and the NRC:

• Unlike the NRC, the NPR is not a citizenship enumeration drive, as it would record even a foreigner staying in a locality for more than six months.
• With the government insisting that the NRC would be implemented across the country, the NPR has raised anxieties around the idea of citizenship in the country.
• All this is happening in the backdrop of the NRC in Assam which has excluded 19 lakh among the 3.3 crore who had applied.
• NRC countrywide would only happen on the basis of the upcoming NPR.
• After a list of residents is created (i.e. NPR), a nationwide NRC could go about verifying the citizens from that list.

15. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

Subject – IR

Context – India needs to bolster its health infrastructure: AIIB

Concept –

• The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia.
• Headquartered in Beijing, it began operations in January 2016 and have now grown to 102 approved members worldwide.
• It invests in sustainable infrastructure and other productive sectors in Asia and beyond.
• Membership in AIIB shall be open to members of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the Asian Development Bank.
• China is the largest contributor to the Bank, contributing USD 50 billion, half of the initial subscribed capital.
• India is the second-largest shareholder, contributing USD 8.4 billion.
• Fourteen of the G-20 nations are AIIB members including France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.