Expansion of Dehradun airport. airport.
Environmental
activists and local residents in Uttarakhand are opposing the cutting of trees
for a project to expand Dehradun’s Jolly Grant airport. Political parties too,
have jumped into the controversy.
•
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has asked the
state government to explore the possibility of acquiring a different patch of
land for the expansion, so that the trees could be spared.
•
Of the 9,745 trees that are proposed to be cut, 3,405 are khair, 2,444 are
sheesham, 1,234 teak, 1,121 kanju, 549 jhingan, and 120 are gulmohar. A
government official argued that the majority of these trees do not have very
thick trunks.
What is the project to expand the
airport?
The Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority has proposed the expansion of Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun with the aim of upgrading it to meet international standards.
The
project components include development of the airport and the parking area,
building a new ATC tower, and more than doubling the length of the runway from
the existing 1.7 km to 3.5 km.
It
is proposed to take over 87 hectares of forest land in Doiwala village in
Dehradun district, and another 17.41 hectares of non-forest land for the
project.
For
the runway, the airport area is proposed to be expanded by 885 metres in the
direction of Doiwala, and 2,030 metres towards Rishikesh.
The
forest area earmarked for the expansion is in the Thano range, a prominent
tourism destination where local people run a number of homestays.
Reason behind the protest:
Social
activists and local residents from the Thano forest range and nearby areas of
Dehradun, Rishikesh and Haridwar assembled outside the airport and staged a
protest against the proposal to cut 9,745 trees in the affected area.
Invoking
the famous Chipko movement which began in Uttarakhand in the 1970s, they tied
“raksha sutras” around the trees to express their concern for the environment,
and to demand the conservation of green cover.
They
trended the agitation and streamed it live on social media to garner mass
support.
Birsa Munda Jayanti ..
Indian
PM Modi paid tributes to tribal leader Birsa Munda on his birth anniversary on
Sunday and said his contribution to the freedom movement and social harmony
will always inspire the countrymen.
About:
Birsa Munda (15 November 1875 – 9 June 1900) was an Indian tribal freedom fighter, religious leader, and folk hero who belonged to the Munda tribe.
He
spearheaded a tribal religious millenarian movement that arose in the Bengal
Presidency (now Jharkhand) in the late 19th century, during the British Raj,
thereby making him an important figure in the history of the Indian
independence movement.
The
revolt mainly concentrated in the Munda belt of Khunti, Tamar, Sarwada and
Bandgaon.
His
portrait hangs in the Indian Parliament Museum. He is the only tribal leader to
have been so honored
International Day for Tolerance
November
16 is celebrated as International Day for Tolerance.
In
1996, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 51/95(link is external)
proclaiming 16 November as International Day for Tolerance.
“Tolerance
is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s
cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human.” UNESCO's 1995
Declaration of Principles on Tolerance.
The
UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence
rewards significant activities in the scientific, artistic, cultural or
communication fields aimed at the promotion of a spirit of tolerance and
non-violence.
The
International Day for Tolerance supports the notion that education is a key
factor in preventing intolerance across the human race.
On
this day, we are encouraged to educate and learn how to practice solidarity
between ethnic, social and cultural groups.
India opting out of RCEP.
Fifteen
countries solidified their participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP).
Even
as India opted to stay out after walking out of discussions last year, the new
trading bloc has made it clear that the door will remain open for India to
return to the negotiating table.
What is RCEP?
Described
as the “largest” regional trading agreement to this day, RCEP was originally
being negotiated between 16 countries — ASEAN members and countries with which
they have free trade agreements (FTAs), namely Australia, China, Korea, Japan,
New Zealand and India.
The
purpose of RCEP was to make it easier for products and services of each of
these countries to be available across this region. Negotiations to chart out
this deal had been on since 2013, and India was expected to be a signatory
until its decision last November.
Why did India walk out?
On
November 4, 2019, India decided to exit discussions over “significant
outstanding issues”.
According
to a government official, India had been “consistently” raising “fundamental issues”
and concerns throughout the negotiations and was prompted to take this stand as
they had not been resolved by the deadline to commit to signing the deal.
Its
decision was to safeguard the interests of industries like agriculture and
dairy and to give an advantage to the country’s services sector.
According
to officials, the current structure of RCEP still does not address these issues
and concerns.
IFSC
Authority approves the International Financial Services Centres Authority
(Banking) Regulations, 2020.
Background:
•
Banking constitutes one of the major focus areas of IFSC and is expected to
drive and facilitate the other constituent operations in the IFSC in due
course.
•
A self-contained regulation laying down the major principles of banking
operations at IFSCs is thus an important step in the IFSC reaching its desired
potential.
•
India is trying to promote IFSC, situated at the Gujarat International Finance
Tech (GIFT) City, as an alternative for investors, after Hong Kong’s ability to
function as a global financial centre came under a cloud after China tightened
its grip on the city.
•
IFSCA, which was set up in April 2020, is working to provide an efficient and
facilitative regulatory system comparable with the best jurisdictions in the
world, to develop IFSC in India as a preferred global hub for International
Financial Services Salient features of the Banking Regulations are:
•
Laying down the requirements for setting up IFSC Banking Units (IBUs).
•
Permitting persons resident outside India (having net worth not less than USD 1
Million) to open foreign currency accounts in any freely convertible currency
at IFSC Banking Units
(IBUs).
•
Permitting persons resident in India (having net worth not less than USD 1
Million) to open foreign currency accounts in any freely convertible currency
at IFSC Banking Units
(IBUs)
to undertake any permissible current account or capital account transaction or
any combination thereof under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) of the
Reserve Bank of India.
• Laying down the permissible activities of IBUs including credit enhancement, credit insurance, and sale, purchase of portfolios, engage in factoring and forfaiting of export receivables and undertake equipment leasing, including Aircraft Leasing.
•
Permitting the Authority to determine the Business that a Banking Unit may be
permitted to conduct in INR with persons resident in India and persons resident
outside India, subject to settlement of the financial transaction in relation
to such business in freely Convertible Foreign Currency.
Thirty Meter Telescope Project.
Recently,
the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project being installed at Maunakea in Hawaii
has been developed by close collaboration between the 2020 Physics Nobel
Laureate Prof. Andrea Ghez and Indian astronomers.
Highlights:
•
It is an international partnership between the USA, Canada, Japan, China, and
India.
•
It will allow deeper exploration into space and observe cosmic objects with
unprecedented sensitivity.
•
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Project. The
Indian scientists contributed in several aspects such as designing algorithms
for analysis of signals from gravitational waves, estimating energy and power
radiated from black holes etc.
•
Now LIGO-India is a planned advanced gravitational-wave observatory to be
located in India as part of the worldwide network.
•
CERN Project: India became a full Associate Member of world’s largest particle
Physics laboratory CERN in 2017, thereby getting full access to data generated
there.
•
The contribution of Indian scientists there is mainly in building the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC) and construction of two significant CERN experiments, CMS
and ALICE.
•
It is a sophisticated accelerator complex that will use the high energy and ion
beams to mimic the condition inside the core of the stars and early phase of
the universe.
•
The role of Indian scientists would be to build NUSTAR (Nuclear Structure,
Astrophysics and Reactions), CBM (Compressed Baryonic Matter) and PANDA
(Antiproton Annihilation at Darmstadt).
•
India has joined nine other countries to build the world's largest and most
sophisticated radio telescope called Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
•
The core of the telescope will be based in Karoo desert in South Africa. Since
the total detection area of the receiver dishes would exceed 1 square
kilometer, it is called Square Kilometre Array.
•
The International-Thermonuclear- Experimental-Reactor (ITER) is focused around
creating an environment mimicking the Sun in laboratory conditions using
nuclear fusion.
•
India’s Scientists and Institutions such as Institute for Plasma Research,
Ahmedabad are playing an Important role in this.
Pincer catalytic system
A
research team of IIT Guwahati has formulated efficient “pincer” catalytic
systems that transform biomass wastes into valuable chemicals.
About:
Tiny
amounts of these “pincer catalysts” repeatedly convert large amounts of
industrial waste such as glycerol into lactic acid and hydrogen.
Official
sources said that such catalysts also efficiently convert bioethanol, a
low-energy density fuel, into high-energy density butanol.
The conversion of valuable intermediates such as glycerol and ethanol, produced during the processing of biomass, into industrially useful chemicals has elicited much interest worldwide.
Sripped Bubble-Nest Frog.
Recently,
scientists has reported a new genus of treefrog from the Andaman Islands called
Striped Bubble-Nest Frog.
•
Its Biological name is Rohanixalus vittatus. The new genus ‘Rohanixalus’ is
named after Sri Lankan taxonomist Rohan Pethiyagoda.
•
The Striped Bubble-nest frog belongs to the genus of the Old World treefrog
family Rhacophoridae.
•
It is the first report of a tree frog species from the Andaman Islands.
•
It has a Small and slender body (2-3 cm long).
•
A pair of contrastingly coloured lateral lines on either side of the body.
Minute brown speckles scattered throughout the upper body.
•
The Light green-coloured eggs laid in arboreal bubble-nests. Arboreal means
living in trees or related trees. They are also known as Asian Glass Frog or
see through frogs.
•
While the general background coloration of most glass frogs is primarily lime
green, the abdominal skin of some members of this family is translucent
(allowing light to pass through). The Internal Viscera, including the heart,
liver, and gastrointestinal tract, are visible through this Translucent skin,
hence the Common Name.
Forest Rights Claims of Tribals Rejected.
Nearly
1,200 Tribals in Hunsur taluk of Mysuru district stare at an uncertain future,
as their review petition for recognition of their claims over forest land under
the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights)
Act, 2006, was rejected by the Local Authorities.
About the News:
•
On February 13, 2019 the Supreme Court ordered the eviction of lakhs belonging
to the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs)
categories across 16 States, whose claim as forest-dwellers has been rejected
under the FRA.
•
On February 28, 2019, the court stayed its order and decided to examine whether
due process was followed by the gram sabhas and the States under the FRA before
the claims were rejected.
About Forest Rights Act (FRA):
•
The act was passed in December 2006. It deals with the rights of
forest-dwelling communities over land and other resources. The Act grants legal
recognition to the rights of traditional forest dwelling communities, partially
correcting the injustice caused by the Forest Laws.
Rights under the Act:
•
Title rights – Ownership to land that is being farmed by tribals or forest
dwellers subject to a maximum of 4 hectares; ownership is only for land that is
actually being cultivated by the concerned family, meaning that no new lands
are granted.
•
Use rights – to minor forest produce (also including ownership), to grazing
areas, to pastoralist routes, etc.
•
Relief and development rights – to rehabilitation in case of illegal eviction
or forced displacement; and to basic amenities, subject to restrictions for
Forest Protection.
Eligibility:
•
Eligibility to get rights under the Act is confined to those who “primarily
reside in forests” and who depend on forests and forest land for a livelihood.
Further, either the claimant must be a member of the Scheduled Tribes scheduled
in that area or must have been residing in the forest for 75 years.
Process of Recognition of Rights:
•
The Act provides that the gram sabhas, or village assembly, will initially pass
a resolution recommending whose rights to which resources should be recognised.
•
This resolution is then screened and approved at the level of the sub-division
(or taluk) and subsequently at the district level.
•
The screening committees consist of three government officials (Forest, Revenue
and Tribal Welfare departments) and three elected members of the local body at
that level.
These
committees also hear Appeals.
What is the concern?
•
Nearly 1,200 applications from Hunsur had been rejected and the applicants
received a communique stating that they had failed to furnish evidence to
substantiate the claims of their stay inside the forest.
•
The FRA was enacted 13 years ago to recognise the rights of the Tribals over
the forests apart from community rights over common property resources.
•
But instead of taking steps to correct a historical injustice, the authorities
have discarded their application without application of the mind.
Mega Trade Bloc RCEP takes off.
The
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a mega trade bloc
comprising 15 countries led by China that came into existence recently, and
said India would have to write expressing “intention” to join the organisation
to restart negotiation for Membership.
The
newly formed organisation has laid down the path for restarting discussion that
had failed to admit India earlier and said “new” developments would be taken
into consideration when India re-applied.
•
The mega trade bloc is a landmark trade initiative which is expected to boost
commerce among the member-countries spread across the Asia-Pacific region.
What is RCEP?
•
RCEP is a free trade deal involving the 10 countries of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Australia, China, South Korea, Japan, as well
as New Zealand.
•
The pact aims to cover the trade in goods and services, as well as investment,
intellectual property and dispute resolution.
•
The purpose of the deal is to create an “integrated market” spanning all 16
countries. This means that it would be easier for the products and services of
each of these countries to be available across the entire region.
•
The countries involved account for almost half of the world’s population, over
a quarter of world exports, and make up around 30% of the global Gross Domestic
Product (GDP).
•
Trade Deficit: In financial year 2019, India registered a trade deficit with 11
out of the 16 RCEP countries. India’s trade deficit with RCEP countries stood
at $105 billion, out of
•
Which China alone accounted for $52 billion. At present, India ships 20 percent
of all its exports to the RCEP countries and receives 35 percent of all imports
from them. China is the ringmaster of this export-import circuit.
•
Inadequate protection against surges in imports: There is concern about the dumping
of cheaper goods such as dairy and farm products, and electronic items,
especially from China. The RCEP deal format required India to abolish tariffs
on more than 70% of goods from China, Australia and New Zealand, and nearly 90%
goods from Japan, South Korea and ASEAN. This would have made imports to India,
cheaper.
•
Demand of Market Access: India has also not received any credible assurances on
its demand for more market access and its concerns over non-tariff barriers.
RCEP participants like China are known to have used non-tariff barriers in the
past to prevent India from growing its exports to the country.
•
Country of Origin: Its concerns on a “possible circumvention” of rules of
origin (the criteria used to determine the national source of a product) were
also not addressed.
Current
provisions in the deal reportedly do not prevent countries from routing,
through other countries, products on which India would maintain higher tariffs.
This is anticipated to allow countries like China to pump in more products.
•
Concerns of using base year before 2014: India had sought to safeguard the
interests of its domestic industry through measures like seeking a 2014 base
year for tariff reductions instead of 2013, when negotiations on RCEP began. As
it has raised import duties on several products between 2014 and 2019.
•
Concerns in Agricultural Sector: RCEP will permanently bring down import duties
on most agricultural commodities to zero which will lead to countries looking
to dump their agricultural produce in India which would lead to a drastic drop
in prices. Spices, chiefly pepper and cardamom and coconut would face dumping
from the South Asian spice majors. Sri Lanka is already giving a tough time to
Indian spice growers.
•
Plantation products like rubber: Vietnam and Indonesia have very cheap rubber
to export.
•
Dairy Sector: New Zealand is the second largest exporter of milk and milk
products. New Zealand’s milk producers are more efficient than India’s small
producers. Both Australia and New Zealand are waiting for free access to India
for their dairy products.
Services
trade: India has “long pushed for other countries to allow greater movement of
labour and services” in return for opening up its own market. Any agreement on
trade in goods without simultaneous agreement on services trade and investment
will only harm India’s interests. The ITA was established through a Ministerial
Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products which was concluded on
13 December 1996 at the WTO Singapore Ministerial Conference.
What is the Present Concern?
•
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the ASEAN Summit recently and
highlighted the necessity for peace and stability in the region but maintained
silence regarding RCEP, indicating India’s difficulty in welcoming the
China-backed grouping.
•
India’s ties with China in recent months have been disturbed by the military
tension in eastern Ladakh along the LAC. In the meantime, India has also held
maritime exercise with Japan, Australia, and United States for the “Quad” that
was interpreted as an anti-China move.
•
However, these moves did not influence Japanese and Australian plans regarding
RCEP.
Experts are interpreting the beginning of RCEP as a major development that will help China and trade in Asia-Pacific region in the post-COVID-19 scenario.
Leverage for China:
•
The agreement means a lot for China, as it will give it access to Japanese and
South Korean markets in a big way, as the three countries have not yet agreed
on their FTA.
•
The fact this happened, despite the pandemic, is certainly leverage for China,
and shows the idea of decoupling from China is not a substantive issue in a
Regional Sense.
