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The District Tourism Promotion Council, Kozhikode has applied for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the famous BeyporeUru (boat).
It is a wooden dhow (ship / sailing boat / sailing vessel) handcrafted by skilled artisans and carpenters in Beypore, Kerala. According to details provided by the District Tourism Promotion Council in its filing with the Geographical Indications Registry here in Chennai, the Beypore Urus are a symbol of Kerala’s trade relations and friendship with the Gulf countries.
The Beypore Urus are purely made of premium wood, without using any modern techniques. The wood used to build the Uru is still sawed the traditional way which requires immense expertise.
It takes anywhere between 1-4 years to build each Uru and the entire process is done manually, said IPR Attorney P. Sanjai Gandhi, who filed this application on behalf of the District Tourism Promotion Council, Kozhikode.
Many artisans involved in Uru-making are over 50-70 years old and have been in the profession since their fathers passed on the tradition to them.
Historical records quoted in the filing show that Beypore has been a legendary maritime hub for traders from across the world since the 1st Century C.E. and the iconic Uru ships have been in high demand for around 2000 years.
The history of Khalasis, skilled natives engaged in launching the Uru boats at Beypore, dates back to 2000 years. Hence, based on the above discussion on the historical origin and historical records of the Beypore Urus, it can be concluded that this traditional handicraft has been in existence for 2000 years.
Records show that there are several communities traditionally associated with Uru-making. The prominent people among them are Odayis. They manage the technical matters of ship building.
Editorial
Building climate resilience collectively (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
India unveiled its long-term climate action plan at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November.
While the document titled ‘Long-Term Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LT-LCDS)’ has multi-sectoral measures to reach a net-zero emissions status, climate-resilient urbanisation forms a cornerstone of the Government of India’s strategy under the Paris Agreement.
This three-pronged and long-term plan for urban areas focuses on adaptation and resource efficiency in urban planning, climate-responsive and climate-resilient buildings, and municipal service delivery.
There are several flagship missions championed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs as well, which target specific objectives towards creating a smart, sustainable and resilient urban India.
To facilitate implementation of the LT-LCDS and other missions, and enable their integration, a data-driven approach may be useful.
urban planning strategies aimed at climate resilience through specific actions and interventions (backed by sound data) and linking them to various finance streams accessible to the urban local bodies is important.
Cities need effective and efficient planning instruments that translate master plans into transformative business-ready investment projects.
For instance, the Urban Sustainability Assessment Framework (USAF), a decision support tool of UN-Habitat for municipal commissioners and urban practitioners, supports the sustainable and resilient urban planning and management of Indian cities. It enables cities to regularly capture inter-sectoral data and corresponding analysis on urban metrices, thereby helping in monitoring the performance of a city in static and dynamic contexts.
Energy conundrum (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
At the core of India’s energy transformation is its bet on solar power. Based on a commitment to address the global climate crisis, India has promised to source nearly half its energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 and, in the shorter term, source at least 60% of its renewable energy from solar power.
However, a disclosure in Parliament by the Minister for Power, New and Renewable Energy suggests that India faces significant headwind in this quest.
A key central policy to source solar power is facilitating the establishment of large solar parks; small solar power projects usually translate to higher per-unit production costs.
And so, in 2014, the Centre announced the ‘Solar Parks and Ultra-Mega Solar Power Projects’ policy to facilitate the creation of large parks.
The initial plan was to set up 25 parks capable of generating at least 20,000 MW by 2019. In 2017, the Government scaled this to 61 parks with a target of 40,000 MW.
It emerges, however, as of 2022, that only a fourth of the capacity has been achieved, that is, projects worth 10,000 MW have been commissioned.
Four projects have been cancelled, by the Centre’s own admission, due to tardy progress. The roadblocks, in the Centre’s estimate, have been challenges in acquiring land with a clear title, setting up infrastructure necessary to transmit power produced at these parks to the grid and, in an unusual disclosure, “environmental issues” in Rajasthan and Gujarat, where projects have been halted because their transmission lines encroach upon the habitat of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard.
Notwithstanding its claims on international podia that it is on track to meeting renewable energy targets, it is no secret that India is lagging behind.
By the end of 2022, India had committed to having in place 1,75,000 MW of renewable energy capacity, with 1,00,000 MW from solar power.
Explained
How gene therapy could cure cancer (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Scientists in the United Kingdom testing a new form of cancer therapy, reported success in a teenaged girl, Alyssia, with a form of cancer called T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
In this form of blood cancer, the T-cells, which are a class of white blood cells, equipped to hunt and neutralise threats to the body, turn against the body and end up destroying healthy cells that normally help with immunity. The disease is rapid and progressive and is usually treated by chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
The BBC reported that Alyssia, 13, tried several of the standard treatments including chemotherapy and radiation but with limited success. Just when it seemed there was no hope, she was enrolled in the trial testing of an experimental medicine.
This trial was led by doctors and scientists at the University College, London and Great Ormond Street hospital. Alyssia was the first to receive experimental gene therapy that relied on a new technique called ‘base editing.’
A person’s genetic code is several permutations of four bases: Adenine (A), Guanin (G), cytosine (C) and thymine (T). Sequences of these bases, akin to letters in the alphabet, spell out genes that are instructions to produce the wide array of proteins necessary for the body’s functions.
In Alyssia’s case, her T-cells — perhaps because of a mis-arrangement in the sequence of bases — had become cancerous. A way to correct this mis-arrangement could mean a healthier immune system.
Why are India’s slowing exports a cause for concern? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s exports declined about 16.7% in October compared with the year-earlier period. This is the first slide reported for any month since February 2021.
October imports rose at a much milder pace than earlier, most likely because of softening commodity prices worldwide, and trade deficit widened by as much as 50%.
Engineering goods, which have lent a strong shoulder to India’s goods exports in recent years, slid 21%. The Engineering Export Promotion Council of India Chairman Arun Garodia attributed the slowdown to high inflation in developed regions, falling demand in China, slowdown in the EU and the U.S. and the Russia-Ukraine war.
The Commerce Ministry pointed out that for October, a decline of $2 billion worth of exports was seen in steel and allied products, highlighting the fact that the government had levied an export duty on these products to help increase local availability and hence temper local prices.
The government has since removed this duty. The Ministry also highlighted that in the month of Diwali every year, workers tend to take leave, thus impacting output. Therefore, one should wait and see whether export decline was only a blip or whether it was a trend that would stay.
Vietnam, an export-dominated country, recorded a 4.5% growth in exports from a year earlier to $29.18 billion amid ‘sustained foreign demand’, according to tradingeconomics.com.
Similarly, exports by the Philippines grew 20% in October. The government there had said that exports rose for the first time in three months in September amid what it calls ‘signs of reviving foreign demand’.
Text & Context
The race of two Asian giants: the story of India and China so far (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Last month, a United Nations population survey estimated that a milestone may be passed in 2023. For the first time in over two millennia, China will not be the most populous society on earth. Instead India will have the largest population, and China will be second.
It’s a rare example of a global ranking where India sits higher than China, and it’s an ambivalent victory at best: a larger population does not have merit in itself, unless it is well-fed and endowed with economic prospects.
China has other number 2 rankings which may raise its standing, such as the second largest economy in the world. It is not second to India but the U.S.
This is a reminder of how far the two Asian giants have come since their moments of profound political change in the late 1940s: independence for India in 1947, and the victory of the Chinese Communist Party and establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.
In global power terms, China now looms above India, but the fluidity of geopolitics in the 2020s may give India advantages in the world now being shaped.
The world of the late 1940s was one where global order was just as much in turmoil as in the present day. India had become the first major British colony to gain freedom, and its new leader, Jawaharlal Nehru, saw the fate of India as important not only for his country’s own people but also for the other, still-colonised peoples of Asia.
Although the violence of Partition cast a bloody cloud across the landscape, the establishment of India as a multi-party electoral democracy with a free media was a foundation stone of the secular politics that Nehru embodied, and wanted an independent India to represent.
China’s fate at that time was also marked by violence, but it had a very different result. China had fought Japan from 1937 to 1945 during World War II, but was then plunged into a civil war between the ruling Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists under Mao Zedong.
News
India shares Aadhaar rollout experience with G20 members (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Challenges before inclusive digital economy, digital currencies and global economic factors were discussed during the first meeting of the G-20 ‘Finance Track’ in Bengaluru on December 13 and 14.
The meeting included segments on inflation, monetary policy, commodities crisis that intensified after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, sustainable development goals and global public goods like climate, urban planning, and international taxation.
“Substantive discussions were held during the session on international taxation on the priority areas for 2023, including monitoring the progress of the Two-Pillar Tax Package being developed under OECD/G-20 inclusive framework, enhancing tax transparency and multilateral capacity building on taxation,” the G-20 Secretariat said in a press release.
Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, on Wednesday said the Indian side shared its experience in rolling out Aadhaar and the digital payments system during the meeting.
He revealed that India was poised to help others in framing the Financial Inclusion Action Plan for 2024-26. “Digital public infrastructure leading to financial inclusion, and financial inclusion is not limited to just the bank accounts but also transactions and what it can facilitate for the companies as well. That will be one of the priorities where action will be there.
Need for fiscal prudence in Implementing PFMS: panel (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in its 54th report on the “Implementation of Public Financial Management System [PFMS]”, has stressed fiscal prudence in financial planning by incorporating scientific methods into budgeting, projecting and utilisation of funds.
The report was presented by PAC member Satya Pal Singh on behalf of chairperson Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Noting that the actual budgeting and year-to-year phasing of expenditure varied from the plan approved by the government, the committee observed that the tasks related to the implementation of the PFMS appeared to have been dealt with a casual approach and there was no proper financial planning of the process.
The committee held the view that incorporating scientific methods into budgeting, projecting and utilisation of funds would have ensured maintenance of fiscal prudence.
The Ministry should take into cognisance the areas requiring further attention such as infrastructure development and HR policy and consider enhancing the budgetary provisioning and expenditure in these areas, it said.
Stating that initiatives should be taken to attract domain technical experts, the PAC noted that no human resource policy defining roles and responsibilities, as recommended in the guidelines, had been framed.
It observed that in the absence of a dedicated workforce, a key strategic system like the PFMS could possibly encounter new threats every now and then owing to the advancements in technology.
The committee found that separate office infrastructure for the State project management units had not been created in any State and in most cases temporary space had been allotted by the State governments.
Highlighting the critical nature of the PFMS and concerns over data security, it stressed the need for a thorough assessment of physical and technical infrastructure along with back-up arrangements required in the PFMS scheme and necessary action to remedy the lacunae so identified, expeditiously.
House committee calls for more medical facilities for troops at forward locations (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in its 55th report on “Provisioning, procurement and issue of HighAltitude Clothing, Equipment, Ration and Housing”, has said that all efforts should be made to fully implement Phase III of the Central Inventory Control Group (CICG) for effective inventory management and procurement.
The report, presented on Wednesday by Lok Sabha Member Satya Pal Singh on behalf of PAC Chairman Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is based on the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) findings in 2019.
The committee observed that a huge quantity of essential items under Special Clothing and Mountaineering Equipment (SCME) Category-II were procured or held when they were not issued or required for long.
Noting that CICG, an automated centralised database, had been created to mitigate such issues, it said all measures needed to be taken to fully implement Phase III of the project.
On completion of Phase III, computerisation of all India inventory visibility will be achieved. Phase III is at the grant of Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) stage; its roll-out is expected to commence 16 months after the AoN is accorded and is to be deployed fully in the subsequent 24 months thereafter.
The PAC recommended an overhaul of the contracting process between the Defence Ministry and vendors with built-in contractual responses and contractual liabilities on them; and an outcome-oriented monitoring of expenditure and revenue and capital procurement.
This would also aid in reduction of procurement timelines. The procurement processes could be expedited through hand-holding of new Defence Public Sector Undertakings (erstwhile ordnance factories) by the Ministry.
The committee observed that there was extensive shortfall in the receipt of stores from ordnance factories from 2015-16 to 2017-18 in the case of “SCME/Extreme Cold Climate Clothing and Equipment” items.
The percentage supply of most items from the factories remained at 50% or less for consecutive years. The PAC noted that, in the meanwhile, the factories had been corporatised and restructured into government companies. They were now participating in procurement through competitive bidding.
NSCS has prepared a draft cybersecurity strategy: govt. (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Cyber Security)
The National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has formulated a draft National Cyber Security Strategy, which holistically looks at addressing the issue of security of national cyberspace.
Responding to a query from Lok Sabha members Rajveer Singh and Sukanta Majumdar raised in the wake of recent cyber attacks, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said the NSCS had formulated a draft strategy.
To a question whether the government had taken any steps to mitigate citizens’ vulnerability to cyber attacks, the Minister said its policies were aimed at ensuring an open, safe, trusted and accountable Internet for the users.
Listing the measures being taken, the written reply said: “The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats/vulnerabilities and countermeasures to protect computers and networks on an ongoing basis”.
Security tips have been published for users to secure their desktops and mobile phones and to prevent phishing attacks. CERT-In operates the Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre) “to detect malicious programmes and free tools to remove the same, and to provide cyber security tips and best practices for citizens and organisations”.
The organisation regularly disseminates information and shares tips on cyber safety and security through its official social media handles and websites.
CERT-In and the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] jointly carry out a cyber security awareness campaign on ‘Beware and be aware of financial frauds’ through the Digital India Platform.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has been designated as the nodal point in the fight against cybercrime.
The RBI has issued various instructions in respect of security and risk-mitigation measures related to electronic/digital transactions.
The Ministry said pursuant to the United Nations General Assembly resolution 75/282, adopted in May 2021, an ad-hoc committee to elaborate a ‘Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes’ was established with all the member states.
World
Understanding the fusion energy breakthrough announced by the U.S. (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
U.S. government officials announced on December 13 that a federal facility had achieved a significant milestone in nuclear fusion research, to much fanfare.
The feat puts us on the path to “zero-carbon abundant fusion energy powering our society”, energy secretary Jennifer Granholm said.
Officials said that the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), California, had conducted a fusion test on December 5 that produced 153% as much energy as went into triggering it.
NIF uses powerful lasers to heat and compress hydrogen nuclei. When the nuclei fuse, they release heat. When this heat is equal to or greater than the heat delivered to the container, the event is called ignition. The ratio of the output energy to the input delivered to the container is the gain.
Now, it has reportedly achieved ignition with a gain of 1.53 with a yield of 3 megajoules. The recent results from the NIF are a major achievement on the road to fusion energy.
A gain of 1 is called ‘scientific breakeven’ – “an important milestone in the development of fusion energy because it signifies that very significant (but not all) plasma-physics challenges have been retired,” a 2022 paper by U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) scientists wrote. A plasma is a gas of charged particles, ions in this case.
Magnetic confinement and inertial confinement are two popular ways to achieve nuclear fusion. Magnetic confinement uses a torus-shaped reactor called a tokamak, in which a hydrogen plasma is heated to a high temperature and the nuclei are guided by strong magnetic fields to fuse.
ITER is a famous example of an experiment trying to achieve fusion using magnetic confinement. An international collaboration, it is under construction at a site in France and is scheduled to be built by 2025. It is considered to be more technologically mature than what NIF is attempting.
In NIF’s setup, 192 high-power lasers fire pulses at a 2-mm-wide capsule inside a 1-cm-long cylinder called a hohlraum, in less than 10 billionths of a second. The capsule holds deuterium and tritium atoms.