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India is willing to join “any peace process” to solve the Ukraine crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. Welcoming German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Mr. Modi urged for reform of the UN Security Council and an end to cross-border terrorism.
The crisis in Ukraine was the main focus of the statement by Mr. Scholz, who said that it’s important to state clearly where members of the United Nations stand on the issue of Ukraine, and declared that he would “personally make sure” the fast completion of negotiation for the EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
COVID pandemic and Ukraine conflict affected the whole world. Developing countries were especially negatively impacted by these.
We both agree that these problems can be solved through joint efforts and in the G-20, we are focusing on this. India has been talking about the need for dialogue and diplomacy since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis. India is willing to join any peace talks to solve this crisis.
Mr. Modi urged reform in multilateral platforms, saying that such moves were necessary to make multilateral forums reflect “global realities”. This is evident in the joint initiative by us under the G-4 to bring reform in the UN Security Council.
News
Strawberry farming making waves in tribal land of Odisha (Page no.7)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The rugged Sunabeda plateau, 3,000 feet above sea level, along the Odisha-Chhattisgarh boundary, has always been a difficult terrain to traverse, but for Yuvraj Chhatria, it is just a part of his journey.
The 30-km ride from the top of the plateau to the plains in Nuapada district of Odisha and the subsequent gruelling 550-km bus journey down the bumpy roads to Bhubaneswar would leave anyone exhausted.
Mr. Chhatria, a member of the Chuktia Bhunjia tribe, one of the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs), has brought with him a fresh harvest of strawberries, and the fruit is selling out. He counts his cash in hand – at ₹37,500 for 1.5 quintals, this is the highest single-day profit he has ever made.
The strawberry harvest has triggered a celebration in the houses of 10 farmers who live in one of the 56 villages in the tropical deciduous forest of the Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary.
The farmers, who from April to October plant paddy, were initiated into strawberry cultivation in November 2022. The government officers persuaded us to take up this new kind of farming. It provided saplings and financial aid to dig a borewell,” says Mr. Chhatria, adding that each family has been given 10 acres, and 20,000 saplings planted on each acre. The horticulture department was roped in for mulching and drip irrigation. Farmers took loans from women’s self-help groups (SHGs) to fund the labour component. Mr. Chhatria took a loan of ₹2 lakh.
Most people in Sunabeda are from the Chuktia Bhunjia tribe. They were given the requisite training by the Nuapada district administration and the Chuktia Bhunjia Development Agency (CBDA), set up in 1994-95 by the State government to work for the development of the tribe.
A CBDA team had gone to Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra, which accounts for 80% of India’s strawberry production. We found that the altitude and climate there are similar to that of Sunabeda.
The soil quality of Sunabeda is better,” says CBDA Special Officer Himansu Mohapatra. He adds the saplings were sourced from Mahabaleshwar. In winter, the maximum daytime temperature of Sunabeda remains at around 25 degree Celsius and at night it drops to 10 degrees Celsius.
World
U.S. hopes India will use its ties with Russia to end war (Page no.1)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The U.S. hopes that India will use its relationship with Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine, a senior U.S. diplomat has said, on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Secretary has said India has had a long and complicated history with Russia going back to the Cold War days — that is a deep and sustained relationship over many decades,” Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu told reporters on a briefing call.
It is our hope that India will use that influence with Russia to support an end to this conflict, and as Foreign Minister Jaishankar has said, end to the conflict according to the principles of the UN Charter [on] territorial integrity and sovereignty. Mr. Blinken is due in New Delhi on March 1 for the G-20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting.
Prior to his arrival in India, he will visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for a meeting of the C5+ 1 (i.e., these countries, plus the U.S., Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) in Astana on February 28.
In response to a question on whether Mr. Blinken will try and convince India and the Central Asian countries to align more with the U.S. on the Ukraine conflict, Mr. Lu described India and the Central Asian countries as having “long, complex” relations with Russia.
We may not share the same approach every day on Ukraine, but I think we do share the goal that this conflict end, and it end based on principles in the UN Charter.
India was among the 32 countries that cast an abstention vote at the UN on a resolution criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and calling for a “just and lasting peace”.
In New Delhi, Mr. Blinken will meet with Mr. Jaishankar and, as per Mr. Lu, there will be discussions on the bilateral relationship, the G20, as well as on the Quad (the group comprised of India, the U.S., Australia and Japan) and the recently launched India-U.S. Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).
Ukraine war is exacerbating fragilities in the global economy: G-20 Ministers (Page no.1)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
At a meeting of G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) on Saturday in Bengaluru, most members called for a “complete and unconditional withdrawal” of the Russian forces from Ukrainian territory.
An ‘Outcome Document’ released at the end of the meeting also hinted at differences of opinion among the G-20 members.
“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy — constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks,” the Outcome Document stated.
A section of the members also raised the impact of the anti-Russia sanctions. Indian side was expected to highlight mainly economic and developmental issues that are vital for the Global South but the Outcome Document stated clearly that “Recognising that that the G-20 is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy.
The document came out strongly in support of international law and reiterated the comment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made at last year’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit at Samarkand that “Today’s era must not be of war.”
The group also called for strengthening of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and FATF Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs) to ensure continued crackdown on money laundering and terrorism.
Science
Are neutrinos their own anti-particles? (Page no.12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Neutrinos are the second most abundant particles in the cosmos. Because they are so ubiquitous, their properties have an important influence on the structure of the universe.
An open question about neutrinos is whether they are their own anti-particles. An experiment in Japan recently reported that it failed to find “strong evidence” that this is so, ruling out a few theories trying to explain neutrinos’ many mysterious properties.
Every elementary particle has an anti-particle. If the two meet, they will destroy each other in a flash of energy. The electron’s anti-particle is the positron. They can be distinguished because they have opposite charges. Similarly, neutrinos have anti-neutrinos.
However, neither is electrically charged, nor possesses any other properties to really differentiate between them.
But physicists working with the Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND) in Japan recently reported that after analysing two years’ data, they could not find signs that neutrinos could be their own anti-particles.
KamLAND looks for an event called neutrinoless double beta-decay. In normal double beta-decay, two neutrons in an atom turn into two protons by emitting two electrons and two anti-neutrinos. In neutrinoless double beta-decay, the anti-neutrinos aren’t emitted, which can happen only if anti-neutrinos are just different kinds of neutrinos.
A KamLAND team looked for signs of neutrinoless double beta-decay in 750 kg of xenon-136. It reported on January 30, inPhysical Review Letters, that if a xenon-136 nucleus does undergo neutrinoless double beta-decay, it happens at most once every 230 million billion billion years. Even the universe is only 13.8 billion years old.
The result rejects theories that predict more frequent occurrences of neutrinoless double beta-decay. The physicists plan to upgrade KamLAND and test theories that predict lower frequencies in future.
The frequency can be used to estimate the mass of neutrinos, explained Itaru Shimizu from the Research Centre for Neutrino Science, Tohoku University, and a KamLAND team member.
Aztec hummingbirds, Indian sunbirds (Page no.12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Huitzilin — a “ray of the sun” — was the name given by the Aztecs to the hummingbird. Natives of the American continent, the iridescent colours of the 350 species of this bird has often fired the imagination of poets and jewellery designers.
They are small: the bee hummingbird is barely 5 cm long and weighs 2 grams. They can beat their wings up to 50 times per second, creating a hum that defines them.
They can hover majestically as they sip nectar from a flower, and even fly backward. Tubular flowers that are bright red or orange (such as lantana and rhododendron) are preferred.
An examination of their wings reveals very long hand bones but very short arm bones that are connected to the body through exceptionally flexible ball-and-socket joints.
These joints allow the wings to rotate after each half-stroke, permitting manoeuvrability and backward flight.
India has its sunbirds which, though unrelated to hummingbirds, share many common features through convergent evolution.
The family that sunbirds are placed in is appropriately named Nectariniidae. Though slightly larger, the sunbirds can hover briefly, and go for bright, tubular flowers.
However, they need to perch while feeding. Like hummingbirds, they may catch insects, especially to feed their young. The purple sunbird is a common sight in India — the larger and brighter male is at his shiny best in March, the mating season.
The energy demands of hovering are very high. Relative to their body mass, hummingbirds have the highest metabolic rate (calories burnt per minute) among vertebrates.
Most of this energy comes from nectar. Rapid sugar uptake by their digestive system ensures that they utilise energy from nectar ingested just a few minutes ago.
FAQ
Will the Seattle move shield against caste bias? (Page no.13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
On February 21, the Seattle City Council became the first U.S. city to ban caste-based discrimination. Amending the City Municipal Code, an ordinance was issued, including caste as a class to be protected against discrimination, alongside race, gender, and religion.
Several universities in the U.S., including Harvard, Brown and California State University, have added the caste criteria to its anti-discrimination policies.
Defining caste as a “rigid social stratification characterised by hereditary status, endogamy and social barriers sanctioned by custom, law or religion,” the council said discrimination based on caste was occurring in Seattle and that the legislation would prohibit “such caste-based discrimination against individuals.”
The fight to address caste discrimination was led by Dalit rights activists and organisations like Equality Labs and other local groups, many of whom originally hailed from India, and yet had felt the long reach of the caste system, rooted in the Manusmriti with its rigid hierarchies, despite being part of the diaspora.
While Dalit rights activists called the ordinance, proposed by council member Kshama Sawant, historic, it came under attack from groups like the Hindu American Foundation which said caste discrimination must be condemned but by “singling out South Asians,” the move would put communities like the Hindus under more legal scrutiny.
The data, she said, are corroborated by hundreds of testimonies of caste-oppressed people who spoke up against discrimination at workplaces, places of worship, and in community relationships.
Who will benefit from the UPI-PayNow link? (Page no.13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
On Tuesday, India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow were officially connected to allow for “real-time payment linkage”.
Singapore is the first country with which cross-border Person to Person (P2P) payment facilities have been launched.
The plan was first announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in September 2021 to facilitate instant low-cost, cross-border fund transfer.
When the scheme was announced, the RBI had said that the cross-border interoperability of payments using cards and QR codes between India and Singapore would further anchor trade, travel and remittance flows between the two countries.
The initiative is a part of the government’s push towards as UPI-based payment ecosystem. In January 2023, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) enabled international phone numbers to be able to transact using UPI.
The Union Cabinet had approved incentivisation schemes for promoting low-value BHIM-UPI transactions in April 2022.
On February 21, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, attended the virtual launch.
The Ministry of External Affairs said this would help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, especially migrant workers and students and “bring the benefits of digitalisation and fintech to the common man through instantaneous and low-cost transfer of money from Singapore to India and vice-versa.”
For users at the Indian end, State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank and ICICI Bank will facilitate both inward and outward remittances, while Axis Bank and DBS India will only facilitate inward remittances for now.
DBS-Singapore and Liquid Group, a fintech company, will facilitate the service for users in Singapore. More banks will be included in the linkage with time, the RBI said in a press release.
Account holders of listed banks can transfer funds to/from India using their UPI ID, mobile number, or Virtual Payment Address (VPA). To begin with, Indian users can remit up to ₹60,000 per day.
This is equal to around $ (Singapore) 1,000. Cross-border remittances to Singapore can be done through the bank’s mobile application or internet banking facilities.
Business
IMF, FSB to flesh out global crypto rules (Page no.14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) will formulate a technical paper in a bid to gain a coordinated global approach for regulation of crypto assets as proposed by the Indian Presidency of the G20.
While the RBI has been pitching for an outright ban on the use of crypto assets, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made the case for a coordinated regulatory mechanism for such assets rather than individual countries adopting different stances.
The idea had found backing from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who also mooted international cooperation to set high regulatory standards for crypto assets and steps to reduce the cost of cross-border payments.
To weigh the broader macroeconomic and financial stability implications of crypto assets, India had urged the IMF to prepare a discussion paper that was discussed at a seminar titled “Policy Perspectives: Debating the Road to Policy Consensus on Crypto Assets” at the G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies meeting in Bengaluru.
The paper by the division chief in the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, noted the consequences of crypto adoption on the internal and external stability of a country’s economy as well as on the structure of its financial system, according to an official statement.
Mr. Mancini-Griffoli underlined that the purported benefits of crypto assets include cheaper and faster cross border payments, more integrated financial markets, and increased financial inclusion, but these are yet to be realised.
He further added that problems with interoperability, safety and efficiency cannot be guaranteed by the private sector and critical digital infrastructure/platforms for ledgers should be viewed as a public good.
The IMF official also flagged the global information gaps pertaining to the crypto asset universe and the need to build a deeper understanding of the interlinkages, opportunities and risks from crypto assets at the G20 forum.
There was a consensus that there is an existential question on whether crypto assets are the optimal solution for existing global financial system challenges, the Ministry said.
IMF stresses crucial need to fix global debt architecture (Page no.14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Sovereign debt vulnerabilities, already elevated before the pandemic, have been exacerbated by the shocks stemming from COVID-19 and Russia’s war against Ukraine, and the international community must come together to find solutions for the most vulnerable members of the global family, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
“This calls for urgent action to strengthen the international financial architecture, especially in the area of debt resolution and strengthening the global financial safety net,” Ms. Georgieva said at a meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.
This was particularly the case for developing and low-income countries with very limited policy space and huge development needs, she pointed out.
The IMF chief’s comments come in the backdrop of the South Asian nations of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan seeking urgent funds from the Fund amid acute economic stress.
China, the largest bilateral creditor, urged G20 to conduct a fair, objective and in-depth analysis of the causes of global debt issues as clamour grows for lenders to accept losses on loans.
With global growth set to slow in 2023, too many people in too many countries were struggling to make ends meet, the IMF chief cautioned.