Did the ban spare PFI’s political wing? (GS Paper 2, Governance)
Why in news?
- A definitive crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and eight of its affiliates by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with the police was capped by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) declaring them as ‘unlawful associations’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and outlawing them for five years.
- The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), widely thought to be the political wing of the PFI, escaped the ban, with its national president M.K. Faizy ascribing the action against the PFI to ‘an undeclared Emergency’ prevailing in the country.
What would have saved the SDPI for now?
- There’s no official word on what worked in favour of the SDPI, a political party that was formed in June, 2009, “for the advancement and uniform development of all citizenry including Muslims, Dalits, Backward Classes and Adivasis” and registered with the Election Commission of India (ECI) a year later.
- However, it is being surmised that the fact of it being a political dispensation with people’s representatives in close to a dozen States and the lack of any tangible evidence of its involvement in ‘planned unlawful’ activities saved it.
- While some top leaders of the SDPI also figured in the senior leadership of the banned PFI, the party was quick to distance itself from the latter, claiming to be an ‘independent’ entity featuring cadres, members and leaders from all communities and faiths.
Could the ECI have acted against it?
- The ECI is largely powerless to deregister active political parties, leave alone recommending a ban on them.
- Over the last two decades, the ECI has gone to the Government of India several times over with a bouquet of proposals which include amendments to Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, but there has been no progress in this regard.
- Even the limited power of the ECI to deregister a party is not provided by statute, as the Representation of the People Act only empowers the ECI to register a party.
Criteria to deregister a party:
- In a case between the Indian National Congress and the Institute of Social Welfare in 2002, the Supreme Court held that the ECI can deregister a party
- if the registration is obtained fraudulently
- if there is alteration in the original name or other material particulars of the party or
- where a de-registration without even an enquiry is an imperative.
- For example, if the registration of the political party cannot be continued for the very party becoming unlawful by a declaration by the competent authority to that effect.
- But the SC itself, in the context of hate speech, gave indulgence to the Law Commission to examine whether the ECI should be given the powers to deregister a political party and the grounds for deciding so. The ECI, at the moment, has almost insignificant powers to deregister a party for non-furnishing of details of accounts or donations.
How does the SDPI view the development?
- The SDPI insists that it is steadfastly focused on social democracy and equal representation for all backward sections at all levels of government.
- They have close to 800 seats in local bodies across States such as Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. An internal survey is being conducted right now to identify at least 60 constituencies, where a Muslim-Dalit alignment could work from where to contest the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.
- Any Indian citizen regardless of caste or faith who abides by these besides meeting the criteria such as being averse to corruption, social evils like alcoholism or substance abuse and not being a member of any other political formulation, could become a member of the party by paying a fee of ₹5.
- Cadres are selected based on their commitment to the party ideology and activism and given two sessions on social democracy and on the tenets of a cadre.
5G services launched
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Prime Minister launched 5G services at the sixth edition of the India Mobile Congress at New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan.
- 5G services will roll out in 13 cities first. The list includes: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad and Jamnagar.
What is 5G?
- 5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
- 5G is a global wireless network expected to deliver ultra-low latency (the delay users face as data make a round trip), increased reliability, more network capacity and availability.
- 5G services deliver up to 20 GBPS, or gigabytes per second, peak data transfer speeds and 100+ MBPS, or megabytes per second, on average.
- 5G has a latency that is below 5 milliseconds as compared to 60 to 98 ms of 4G. This alone would revolutionise the application of AI, ML and IoT services. Latency is the amount of time data takes to travel between its source and destination.
How does it work?
- 5G works in three bands: low, mid and high frequency spectrum.
Low band spectrum:
- While the low band spectrum has shown great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange, the maximum speed is limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).
- This means that while telcos can use and install it for commercial cellphone users who may not have specific demands for very high speed internet, the low band spectrum may not be optimal for specialised needs of the industry.
Mid-band spectrum:
- The mid-band spectrum, on the other hand, offers higher speeds compared to the low band, but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals. Telcos and companies, which have taken the lead on 5G, have indicated that this band may be used by industries and specialised factory units for building captive networks that can be moulded into the needs of that particular industry.
High-band spectrum:
- The high-band spectrum offers the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
- Internet speeds in the high-band spectrum of 5G has been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (giga bits per second), while, in most cases, the maximum internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps.
Operators in India:
- There are a few operators that will provide 5G services to its customers. Reliance Jio, which was the top spender at 2020’s 5G spectrum auctions bidding an amount of more than Rs 88,000 crore, said in August that it will roll out high-speed mobile internet services on its 5G network by Diwali.
- Bharti Airtel which was the second highest spender in the auction has said that 5G will be available on its network in all urban parts of the country by the end of 2023.
- Vodafone Idea (VI) is also working hard to launch its 5G service soon.
Challenges in rolling out 5G:
- 5G will require a fundamental change to the core architecture of the communication system. The major flaw of data transfer using 5G is that it can’t carry data over longer distances. Hence, even 5G technology needs to be augmented to enable infrastructure.
- For transition from 4G to 5G technology, one has to upgrade to the latest cellular technology, thereby creating financial liability on consumers.
Why is it important?
- It is designed in such a way that it also supports new services such as mission-critical communications and the massive IoT (Internet of things).
- Eighty crore subscribers have access to broadband today compared to ten crore subscribers in 2014.
- The upcoming 5G services have the potential to create new age businesses, generate additional revenue for enterprises and provide employment arising from the deployment of innovative use-cases and technologies.
Controversies over 5G:
- In January, travel plans of thousands of passengers were disrupted after several airlines cancelled flights to and from the US over the deployment of 5G.
- The aviation industry warned 5G signals over new C-band networks could interfere with aircraft safety equipment, causing jetliners to tumble from the sky or speed off the end of runways.
- Verizon and AT&T agreed not to turn on more than 600 5G transmission towers near the runways of 87 airports and to reduce the power of others.
Health concerns:
- Experts have dismissed any health concerns for consumers. The possible side-effects of 5G are the same as 4G, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi; all these wireless communication technologies use EM waveform that radiates energy.
- Tissue heating is the main mechanism of interaction between radiofrequency fields and the human body. Radiofrequency exposure levels from current technologies result in negligible temperature rise in the human body.
- As the frequency increases, there is less penetration into the body tissues and absorption of the energy becomes more confined to the surface of the body (skin and eye). Provided that the overall exposure remains below international guidelines, no consequences for public health are anticipated.
Way Forward:
- It is hoped that 5G or fifth generation mobile network services will cover the entire country over the next couple of years and will unleash a completely new bunch of economic, industrial and societal benefits.
India’s Carbon footprint
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Context:
- Carbon footprint of India’s farming sector and way out.
Industrial revolution & ‘greenhouse gases’:
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pointed out that since the industrial revolution, which started around 1800, human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to fuel burning and other ‘greenhouse gases’ such as methane, nitrous oxide, and compounds of sulphur, phosphorous, ozone into the atmosphere, changing the earth’s climate.
- Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased by over 40%, from 280 ppm in the 18th century to 414 ppm in 2020, and greenhouse gases level by over these 200 years.
India’s role:
- India had 170 million people in 1800, which has risen to 1.4 billion people today. And industrial revolution started only after India’s Independence 75 years ago.
- While it has helped in reduction of poverty, it has also led to rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.
Role of farming sector in greenhouse gases:
- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) points out that India have a rural population that constitutes 70% of the country, and their main occupation is agriculture. This gives India a total food-grain production of 275 million tonne.
- India is the second largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton and groundnuts. It, thus, becomes important that India try and reduce its carbon footprint as much as possible, more in its farming sector.
Initiatives:
- Farmers have come up with some admirable methods, with the help of agricultural professionals, by using solar panels in their fields, so that they can avoid diesel for groundwater pumps.
- Climate-friendly agriculture offers new income sources and is more sustainable that India’s carbon emissions could drop by 45-62 million tonnes annually. The government and professional groups have helped rural farmers put in solar panels to save money and gain greater income.
Millets:
- Indian farmers not only grow rice and wheat but produce other foodgrains as well. They grew about 121.5 million tonnes of rice and 109 million tonnes of wheat during the year 2020-2021. They also produce other foodgrains such as millets (bajra), cassava and more.
- They grow about 12 million tonnes of millets annually. Likewise, the amount of maize produced per year is about 28.6 million tonnes. It may also be added that millets have more proteins (7.3 m per 100 g), fat (1.7 g per 100 g) and fibre content (4.22g per 100g) than rice (protein content 2.7 g per 100 g; fat content 0.3 g per 100 g; and fibre content 0.4 g per 100 g).
- It is, thus, healthier to add more millets in our diet, besides rice and wheat. And wheat is superior to rice as it has more proteins (13.2 g per 100 g), fat (2.5 g per 100 g), and fibre (10.7 g per 100 g).
Way Forward:
- India has about 20-39% vegetarians and 70% of the population eat meat mainly chicken, mutton and fish. India, with its many rivers, has a vast coastline which is rich in fishes.
- And fishes have high nutritional value and help in reducing carbon footprint. Thus, with farmers, meat sellers and fishermen, each contributing to India in reducing carbon footprint, can hope to be an exemplary nation for the EPA.
National Mission for Clean Ganga: Executive Committee approves 14 projects
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Recently, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) held the 45th meeting of the Executive Committee.
- It approved 14 projects worth Rs. 1145 crores.
Details:
- The approved projects pertain to sewerage management, industrial pollution abatement, biodiversity conservation, afforestation, river front development and decentralized wastewater treatment and include eight projects of sewerage management in five main stem Ganga basin states – Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Sewerage management:
- For sewerage management, four projects in Uttar Pradesh were approved including the tapping of the Assi drain in Varanasi by constructing a 55 MLD Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and other works costing Rs 308.09 crores.
- One project of sewerage management has also been approved for Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand each including the construction of 2 STPs (17 MLD and 23 MLD).
Biodiversity Parks:
- A big project for the establishment of four Biodiversity Parks in four districts of Uttar Pradesh – Hapur, Bulandshahar, Badaun and Mirzapur – has also been approved at an estimated cost of Rs. 24.97 crores.
- All four locations are situated along the Gangetic floodplains. The proposed parks are part of Reserve Forests along Gangetic floodplains and will play a key role in river restoration and conservation of biodiversity.
- The Biodiversity Parks will also provide a unique landscape of wilderness with an assemblage of native plant and animal species that form self-sustaining biological communities recreated in a region and serve both in-situ and ex-situ conservation of biodiversity, gene pool, and ecosystem services in a natural and agricultural landscape.
- The overall outcome of the Ganga Biodiversity Parks would help to sustain ecosystem services, biodiversity and rejuvenation of the river Ganga at a basin scale.
Afforestation component:
- Under the Afforestation component, a project at an estimated cost of Rs. 1.56 crore was approved for the State of Jharkhand.
- The interventions seek improved forest cover, enhanced forest diversity and productivity, biodiversity conservation and sustainable land and ecosystem management for better flow of ecosystem services, sustainable livelihood and overall conservation of Ganga River scape.
River Front Development:
- For River Front Development, a ghat development project in the Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh was also approved at an estimated cost of Rs. 5.07 crore.
- The location of the project is an important pilgrimage site attracting lots of people during festive seasons to take a holy dip in River Gomti, a tributary of River Ganga.
- The project includes the construction of a 4m wide walking promenade connecting Hanuman Ghat with Sadbhavna Bridge, ghat steps, landscaping, toilet blocks etc. Another project for the construction of an electric crematorium at Kaliganj, Murshidabad, West Bengal costing Rs. 4.14 crore was also approved.
Pollution Prevention and Effective Waste Management:
- A project for ‘Pollution Prevention and Effective Waste Management of Panipat Textile Cluster to Optimize the Trade Potential’ has also been approved at an estimated cost of Rs. 18.95 crores in the EC meeting.
- The principal objective of the project is to improve the water quality of river Ganga as well as river Yamuna by avoiding the discharge of untreated effluent into river Ganga/river Yamuna by preventing the discharge of effluent from the textile cluster.
- The project aims to reduce water consumption (up to 30 per cent) by adopting Best Management practices, reducing wastewater discharge (pollution load) through the demonstration of green technologies and developing of in-house Chemical Management System (reduction in consumption of chemicals by 25 per cent), promote the efficient working of Effluent Treatment Plants, improve the quality of treated effluent.
- The project also looks to provide in-depth training and generate internal teams to develop their own systems for quality, environmental aspects, employees’ skill development, conservation of natural resources etc. for continual improvements.
