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The government’s ambitious ‘Har Ghar Jal’ initiative to provide all rural households in India with potable water connections by 2024 under its flagship Jal Jeevan Mission is likely to fall short of its target.
Only 75% of village homes are likely to have taps delivering drinking water by April 2024, has learnt from multiple sources and an analysis of publicly available data.
Despite the scheme having been announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, a time only 16% of rural households had tap water, officials say a slew of challenges — such as the pandemic, a dearth of qualified manpower in States, the scale of the exercise, State-specific issues and even the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war — meant that the project only picked up speed in several States in 2022.
While the pandemic led to delays, the Ukraine war resulted in major shortages of steel and cement, [which are] critical to the manufacture and connection of metal pipes.
This led to major price revisions and considerable time was lost in renegotiating contracts and improving supply. There was also a huge problem in many States of not finding enough skilled manpower to make tanks, cisterns and water connections of acceptable quality.
There are States, for instance Rajasthan, where actual availability of water is a challenge. In West Bengal and Kerala, there are problems with water contamination.
So ensuring adequate water quality is an issue. It is not enough to just provide a piped connection, we expect about 75% households to be covered by March 2024 and 80% by December.
States
Tribal people opposed to UCC, plan protests (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
While the debate on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has once again been centred around whether religious minorities can continue following their respective personal laws, any framework for the UCC — which is to govern aspects of marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance — is bound to run into conflict with the customary laws and practices of a varied number of tribal communities as well.
Even as Islamic bodies, which have codified personal law, have opposed the proposal, tribal bodies in States like Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Nagaland have taken a similar position, insisting that it would infringe upon their customary laws of marriage, divorce, inheritance and transfer of land.
Fulchand Tirkey of the Kendriya Sarna Samiti, an Adivasi body in Jharkhand, said, “Our tribal customs do not grant women the right to inherit property.
We have no system of dowry. If any form of UCC comes into play, the property ownership will be affected and then women will also be able to claim dowry harassment, which might lead to more complex problems in the tribal villages.
We are now discussing how to plan protests and demonstrations against the UCC and this will become clear in the coming weeks.
In addition to this, sub-tribes within larger tribal groups tend to have their own set of separate customary laws for marriage, divorce and child custody, prompting tribal activists to say that any attempt to bring uniformity in civil procedure will, by default, trigger opposition from one tribe or the other.
There is already a separate tribal platform being formed for the upcoming State elections. And given the noise around UCC currently, opposition to it is bound to become a key poll plank.
There are more than 700 recognised tribes in India, all of whom have their own set of customary laws and practices governing aspects of civil and sometimes criminal disputes.
And while uncodified, in several tribal-dominated States, these are protected by the Constitution, under the Sixth Schedule, in Articles 371A through 371I, or have been recognised through judicial decisions.
News
India adds 664 animal species to its fauna database, 339 taxa to its flora (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
India added 664 animal species to its faunal database in the year 2022. These comprise 467 new species and 197 new records (species found in India for the first time).
The country also added 339 new plant taxa — 186 taxa that are new to science and 153 taxa as new distributional records from the country in 2022.
The details of new discoveries and new records were released by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The faunal discoveries have been compiled in a publication by Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) titled Animal Discoveries - New Species and New Records 2023, whereas floral discoveries are contained in Plant Discoveries 2022 published by the Botanical Survey of India (BSI).
Among the major fauna species discovered are three new species and one new record of mammals; two new records of birds; 30 new species and two new records of reptiles; six new species and one new record of amphibia; and 28 new species and eight new records of fish.
The mammal species discovered include two species of bats — Miniopterus phillipsi, a long-fingered bat, and Glischropus meghalayanus, a bamboo-dwelling bat — both from Meghalaya.
Sela macaque (Macaca selai), a new macaque species discovered in the western and central Arunachal Pradesh and named after the Sela Pass, is also among the highlights of Animal Discoveries 2022.
The new records include Macaca leucogenys, a white-cheeked macaque earlier found in Modog, southeastern Tibet, and sighted in India for the first time in 2022 in West Siang, Arunachal Pradesh.
World
Macron drops Germany state visit to deal with riot situation in France (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
President Emmanuel Macron informed Berlin he was postponing a state visit to deal with the urban rioting that has rocked France for the last four nights, as the 17-year-old whose killing by police sparked the protests was laid to rest.
The police arrested 1,311 people overnight on Friday to Saturday, the highest figure since the violent protests began over the point-blank killing by a policeman of Nahel M. in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
The protests over the death of teenager Nahel M., who was of Algerian origin, have again exposed the severe racial tensions in modern France and increased scrutiny on the police who have long been accused of singling out minorities.
The crisis is a hugely unwelcome development for Mr. Macron, who was looking forward to pressing on with his second mandate after seeing off protests that erupted in January over raising the pensions age.
The German presidency announced that Mr. Macron spoke by telephone with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier “and informed him of the situation in his country” as he requested the visit scheduled to begin be postponed.
The move is hugely embarrassing for Mr. Macron who earlier this year was forced to postpone a visit by Britain’s King Charles III to France due to the protests over pensions. Nahel’s funeral ceremony began in the Paris suburb of Nanterre where he lived.
Science
Intensity of extreme rainfall estimated to increase by 15% (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Climate warming is causing a decrease in snowfall and increase in rainfall at high altitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. A study published in Nature has predicted an increase in the risk of extreme rainfall events.
The intensity and frequency of extreme precipitation events is expected to increase as global warming continues to affect the planet.
Of particular concern are extremes in rainfall, which often cause more damage than similar snowfall events due to their instantaneous run off, increasing the risk of floods, which can cause infrastructure damage and landslides. Precisely how increase in global temperature will affect extreme rainfall events remains unclear.
To assess how climate change might be driving a shift in precipitation patterns, researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California combined data from climate observations from between 1950 and 2019 with future projections, up to 2100, taken from Earth system models.
The results suggested that warming causes an increase in rainfall extremes within regions of high elevation in the Northern Hemisphere.
On average, the intensity of extreme rainfall events is estimated to increase by 15% per 1 degree C of warming.
FAQ
Will signing Artemis Accords benefit India? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
On June 21, India became the 27th signatory to the Artemis Accords, a set of non-binding guidelines that underpin the Artemis programme, a U.S.-led project to return humans to the moon permanently.
The Artemis programme includes plans for a base on the lunar surface, multiple spacecraft to ferry humans and cargo, an orbiting space station, and a constellation of satellites to help with navigation and communication.
The first Artemis crewed mission to the moon’s surface is likely in 2026. The programme resembles a Chinese-Russian plan for an ‘International Lunar Research Station’.
With Russia reeling under sanctions, China has taken the lead on the project, outlining similar plans for a permanent base and a lunar satellite constellation.
For leaders in the U.S. and China, lunar exploration embodies all that is good about their countries even as they are locked in a bitter rivalry.
Leaders are also betting that the incredible challenges of lunar exploration will spur technological innovation. A sign of power in international politics is the ability to set norms and build multinational collaborations.
The Accords support an America-friendly interpretation of space law. In return, member states get to participate in the Artemis programme, which can bring prestige and technological benefits.
Modern space law is erected on four international agreements that cover issues like the peaceful use of space, registration, and liability. They were struck between 1967 and 1976, at the time of the first Space Race and Cold War detente.
The Accords’ principles are consonant with these agreements. A fifth treaty, the Moon Agreement, was introduced in 1979 but neither the U.S. nor the Soviet Union signed it. India signed it but didn’t ratify it.
One provision in the Artemis Accords allows actors to extract and utilise space resources. This could be at odds with the Moon Agreement, which asks for gains from commercial exploitation of lunar resources to be distributed.
What is China’s new law on foreign relations? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
On June 28, China’s National People’s Congress, the Communist Party-controlled legislature, adopted a new Law on Foreign Relations of the People’s Republic of China, which came into effect on July 1.
The law will tighten President Xi Jinping’s control over foreign policy, which has, since his taking office in 2012, become increasingly centralised.
The law involves foreign affairs, and as the very first article puts it, it was drafted to “safeguard China’s sovereignty, national security and development interests”.
Explaining the need for the law, an unnamed official of the National People’s Congress (NPC) told state media the “legal system concerning foreign affairs still has some shortcomings” and “gaps exist in laws safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests.”
The official said that “speeding up the building of the legal system concerning foreign affairs will help China more effectively deal with risks and challenges.”
The broader aim of the law appears to be aimed at giving a legal stamp to many of the key objectives of Chinese foreign policy under Mr. Xi, and to make it a punishable offence if individuals or organisations were deemed to act against those objectives.
In a similar vein, a border law was adopted in October 2021 that warned against “any act that undermines territorial sovereignty and land boundaries”.
The centralisation of Chinese foreign policy under Mr. Xi now has a legal stamp, and challenging it may be deemed as a violation of Chinese laws.
The law specifically mentions several key initiatives championed by Mr. Xi, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and the Global Security Initiative (GSI).
Why are Indian drugmakers under the lens? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Health)
Since October last year, Indian pharma companies have been under constant international scrutiny for exporting allegedly contaminated drugs, which have led to deaths of children.
Recently, Nigeria raised the red flag on two oral drugs; Cameroon too sounded an alarm over another cough syrup reportedly made in India when several children died. Sri Lanka called out two drugs manufactured in India linking them to adverse reactions in several patients.
In the latest move, Gambia has declared that from July 1, it is running strict quality control checks on all pharma products shipped into the country, before they leave Indian shores.
Soon after Gambia reported deaths of at least 70 children related to a contaminated cough syrup made in India, in December last year, reports from Uzbekistan of at least 18 children dying after consuming cough syrup contaminated with high amounts of diethylene glycol (DEG) or ethylene glycol poured in.
The pharma company, Marion Biotech’s licence was cancelled by the national watchdog — the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) — in March, but the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has not answered any questions on the probe that was launched.
The latest in line are alerts from Sri Lanka, where patients are reported to have died after being administered anaesthetic drugs made in India, and that an eye medication had caused visual impairment in 10 patients.
Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control found a batch of oral paracetamol and another cough medicine manufactured by companies based in Mumbai and Punjab to be sub-standard.
While Gambia has appointed Mumbai-based Quntrol Labs to independently assess the manufacturing plants and drug samples of Indian exporters who ship drugs to Gambia from July onwards, it has learnt that it is not the first such African country to have a checking system in place.