20 May 2024, The Hindu
City records hottest day of season, hotter days ahead
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Prelims syllabus: General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate Change
- The Indian Metrological Department (IMD) on Sunday issued a ‘red alert’ for the Capital due to severe heat wave conditions.
- Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 44.4 degrees Celsius on Sunday, which is four degrees above normal for the season.
- The IMD has urged people to avoid heat exposure and keep cool and to take steps to avoid dehydration.
The systemic change in procurement of wheat that led to grain drain in Uttar Pradesh
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GS 3: Agriculture: Major cropping patterns in various parts of the country, e-technology; Economics of animal rearing
- Struggle is not new to Shajahanpur, a district in the Terai region of Uttar Pradesh that has produced young martyrs — Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, and Thakur Roshan Singh — in India’s freedom movement.
- It is also known for the hardships of its farmers and the vast tracts of arable land that play an important role in feeding the country and its most populous State.
- Today, U.P. produces a little less than 30% of India’s wheat, more than any other State, as per government data.
- Powayan Taluk, less than 30 kilometres away from Shajahanpur, is known as Mini Punjab, as most farmers here are descendants of those who came from the land of the five rivers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in search of cultivable land.
Three-day elephant census in southern States from May 23
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Prelims syllabus: Current events of national and international importance
- A synchronised elephant population estimation will be held across south India for three days commencing May 23.
- The field assessment forms a key aspect of the resolutions put forth by the inter-State Coordination Committee, comprising Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, aimed at addressing human-wildlife conflict through joint action and intelligence sharing. Andhra Pradesh too will join in the collaborative exercise.
A minor girl victim support scheme that loses its way
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GS 2: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and the States and the performance of these schemes.
- On November 30, 2023, the Ministry of Women and Child Development notified the “Scheme for Care and Support to Victims under Section 4 & 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012”.
- The objective is to provide integrated support and assistance to minor pregnant girl child victims “under one roof” and facilitate immediate emergency and non-emergency access to services for long-term rehabilitation.
- For reasons best known to the Ministry though, the name of the scheme does not reflect the intent.
A towering hazard, the height of poor enforcement
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GS 3: Indian Economy - Infrastructure – Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
- This post-facto response is a lack-lustre reaction, especially when deaths caused by illegal hoardings are not new in India.
- Just days after this incident, a hoarding collapsed on on the Pune-Solapur highway, following rain, injuring an animal.
- In May 2023, again in Pune, an unauthorised hoarding collapsed leaving five people dead.
- And in June 2023, three workers were crushed when the huge hoarding that they were erecting collapsed at Thekkalur near Karumathampatti in Coimbatore district.
Talking peace
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GS 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting the Indian interests
- Two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland has stepped in to organise a peace conference, making a special effort to broaden global consensus on the war by enlisting those who have not joined the western coalition thus far.
- As a close partner of Russia, a member of the BRICS and SCO groupings, a leader in the Global South, and an aspirant to world leadership, India is, no doubt, at the top of the list.
- And the Swiss Foreign Secretary Alexandre Fasel’s visit to Delhi this week, following closely those of two Swiss Ministers, and the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba over the past few months, is evidence that the invitation to India at the head of state/head of government level is a priority.
- Of the 160 or so countries that invitations for the conference have gone to — it is to be held in the resort town of Bürgenstock on June 15-16 — about 50 have confirmed their attendance, mostly from the European Union, NATO alliance, G-7 countries and U.S. allies such as Japan, South Korea and Australia.
Renew the generalised system of preferences
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GS 3: Indian Economy (international trade)
- In the pantheon of obscure international trade terminology, the “generalised system of preferences,” or GSP, has a special place.
- GSP refers to an approach that has been adopted by nearly all developed countries for roughly the last half-century to offer incentives for economic reform in developing countries through lower tariffs.
- Each developed country has customised its own GSP programme to identify qualification criteria it deems important in economic reform, although all ensure that their programmes are constructed to avoid harm to domestic production.
- In short, it is the oldest and most far-reaching approach to “aid for trade” in the modern multilateral trading system, embodied in the World Trade Organization.
No violence against Indians in Kyrgyz Republic: officials
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GS 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting the Indian interests
- There has been no report of attacks by local people in Kyrgyz Republic against Indian students over the past three days, official sources informed The Hindu on May 19.
- The clarification came a day after videos were circulated online that depicted purported attacks by local people in capital Bishkek against Pakistani students.
- “There are no reports of any Indian being affected in the incidents that were circulated by unverified videos on Saturday.
- The Kyrgyz authorities have clarified and spoken strongly against circulation of these videos.
- There are 17,000 Indian students and businessmen in Kyrgyz Republic and they are located in various parts of the country,” said an official source, indicating that the situation has returned to normalcy in Bishkek.
Army gets 27,000 AK-203 rifles through joint venture
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GS 3: Various Security forces and agencies and their mandates
- The Indian Army has started receiving the Russian AK-203 assault rifles after the deal with Russia saw back-to-back delays, partly due to the war in Ukraine and payment delays.
- As many as 27,000 rifles have been handed over to the Army so far by the Indo-Russian joint venture established at Korwa in Uttar Pradesh, according to official sources.
- “Everything is on track after initial delays, and 27,000 rifles have been given to the Army.
- Another 8,000 will be handed over in the next two weeks. Indigenisation level achieved is around 25%,” an official in the know said.
Critical priority pathogens continue to pose threat: WHO
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- Critical priority pathogens present major global threats due to their high burden, and ability to resist treatment and spread resistance to other bacteria, noted the latest Bacterial Pathogens Priority List (BPPL) updated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
- This includes gram-negative bacteria resistant to last resort antibiotics, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to the antibiotic Rifampicin.
- The list features 15 families of antibiotic-resistant bacteria grouped into critical, high and medium categories for prioritisation.
