PERIYAR IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS 17-FEBRUARY-2018
Paper
2:
Topic:
Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and
challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and
finances up to local levels and challenges therein.
Cauvery
water dispute verdict
Context: The
Supreme Court verdict on Cauvery water dispute is out, and it has come as a big
relief for Karnataka. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerhead for
their ‘due share’ of Cauvery river.
What’s
the verdict?
The
apex court directed the Karnataka government to release 177.25 TMC of water to
Tamil Nadu, 14.75 TMC lesser than what was allotted by the tribunal in 2007.
Karnataka will now get 284.75 TMC and Tamil Nadu will get 404.25 TMC of Cauvery
water.
The
top court also made it clear that increase in the share of Cauvery water for
Karnataka has been done keeping in view the fact that there is an increased
demand of drinking water by Bengaluru and also for many industrial activities.
What’s
the dispute?
The
dispute began with Karnataka’s demand of ‘equitable sharing of the waters’
after it expanded farming activities in the Cauvery basin. It claimed that the
previous agreements, which happened between erstwhile Madras Presidency and
Kingdom of Mysore in 1924, were highly skewed to what is present day Tamil
Nadu. Tamil Nadu used to get about 602 TMC of the total water, leaving only
about 138 TMC for Karnataka.
Tribunal
order:
In
1990, the union government set up a Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal or CWDT to
look into inter-state river water disputes. In 2007, the Tribunal came out with
its order. The Tribunal found the total water of the river 740 thousand million
cubic feet (TMC) which it divided (majorly) in Karnataka (270) and Tamil Nadu
(419 TMC). Rest of the water was divided into two other states and several
other basins. It gave Kerala: 30 TMC, Kabini sub-basin: 21 TMC, Bhavani
sub-basin: 6 TMC, Pambar sub-basin: 3 TMC, the Union Territory of Pondicherry:
7 TMC. The Tribunal also awarded 10 TMC for environmental protection and 4 TMC
for inevitable escapages into the sea.
What
was the demand by Karnataka?
The
CWDT had directed Karnataka to release 192 TMC of Cauvery water in normal
monsoon year. Karnataka government wasn’t satisfied with the Tribunal’s order.
It moved to the Supreme Court claiming for 312 TMC of water.
Karnataka
had recently moved a review petition in the apex court against its three orders
on the issue. It said grave miscarriage of justice was caused to it following
the three apex court orders of September 20, 27 and 30, 2016. In all these
orders, Karnataka was directed to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
Sources:
the hindu.
Topic:
Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
Central
Geological Programming Board
Context: The
57th Meeting of the Central Geological Programming Board (CGPB) was recently
held. Representatives of State Departments, Central Ministries/ organizations,
PSUs, academic institutes and private entrepreneurs attended the 57th CGPB
meeting.
Apart
from discussion on achievements of GSI(Geological Survey of India) during the
current year, the proposed Annual Programme for ensuing 2018-19 was presented
before all Board members.
About
CGPB:
The
Central Geological Programming Board (CGPB) is the apex body at the national
level to overview the programme of geoscientific activities including mineral
exploration in the country. It was established through Government of India
Resolution in 1966, and subsequently revamped in 2009 with the constitution of
12 theme based committees. CGPB meetings are held twice in a year.
Composition: The
Secretary (Mines) is the chairman of CGPB. Geological Survey of India is the
nodal department (Member Secretary) and the State Geology and Mining
departments and Central Government institutions, permanent and special invitees
are its participating members.
Functions: CGPB
coordinates activities on geological mapping, mineral prospecting, exploration
and exploitation in the country. It is responsible for providing the general
strategic direction of geosciences activity; effecting programmatic
coordination among agencies; enabling better interaction between central
agencies and state level organizations; human resource, and research
capability; identifying new areas and new technologies for geoscientific
activities; advising on geosciences partnerships between GSI, and State and
Central – level agencies; actively promoting use of information technology; and
approving five-year detailed sub-sectoral targets on a rolling plan basis.
What’s
important?
§ For
Prelims: Composition of CGPB.
§ For
Mains: Nothing much.
Sources:
pib.
Topic:
Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
Botanical
Survey of India
Context: Botanical
Survey of India (BSI) and Natural History Museum (NHM), UK have signed a
Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the field of genetic/taxonomic
studies, research and training, conservation in India, including species and
habitat conservation assessments.
NHM
will help BSI in capacity building in areas of systematic botany and long-term
conservation of plant genetic resources in India.
About
BSI:
The
Botanical Survey of India (BSI) was established in 1890 with the objectives of
exploring the plant resources of the country and identifying plant species with
economic virtue. In 1954, the Government reorganised the BSI with the
objectives of:
§ Undertaking
intensive floristic surveys and collecting accurate and detailed information on
the occurrence, distribution, ecology and economic utility of plants in the
country.
§ Collecting,
identifying and distributing materials that may be of use to educational and
research institutions.
§ Acting
as the custodian of authentic collections in well planned herbaria and
documenting plant resources in the form of local, district, state and national
flora.
Way
ahead:
Open
science and collaboration is a core goal of both Botanical Survey of India and
Natural History Museum, signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between BSI
and NHM is set to develop further to the benefit of both India and the UK.
Capacity building and scientific exchange between India and the UK will also be
central to future work under the Memorandum of Understanding and will enable
learning from each other and work collaboratively to address important
scientific questions and deliver benefit to humanity.
What’s
important?
§ For
Prelims: BSI.
§ For
Mains: Nothing much.
Sources:
pib.
Topic: Important
International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate.
World
Sustainable Development Summit
Context: 2018
World Sustainable Development Summit is being held in New Delhi.
About
World Sustainable Development Summit:
The
World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS), TERI’s flagship event, has been
conceptualized as a single platform to accelerate action towards sustainable
development and especially climate change. The event was earlier known as the
Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS).
Theme: The
theme of the Summit this year is ‘Partnerships for a Resilient Planet’.
The
WSDS series seeks to bring together the finest minds and leading thinkers of
the world to focus attention on the challenge of sustainable development and
has emerged as a landmark event addressing issues pertinent to the future of
humanity.
About
TERI:
The
Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is a leading think tank dedicated to
conducting research for sustainable development of India and the Global South.
TERI was established in 1974 as an information centre on energy issues.
However, over the following decades, it made a mark as a research institute,
whose policy and technology solutions transformed people’s lives and the
environment.
Way
ahead:
India
is ranked 116 out of 157 nations on a global index that assesses the
performance of countries towards achieving the ambitious sustainable
development goals (SDGs). India is ranked 116th on the index with a score of
58.1, behind countries such as Nepal, Iran, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and China.
Pakistan is ranked 122.
There
is need for urgent action on the part of India in making sustainable
development a reality both within and beyond its border. Also, if the world is
to achieve the SDGs, all countries must take up the goals as part of their
national development strategies, and ensure that they take responsibility for
their impact on the rest of the world.
What’s
important?
§ For
Prelims: WSDS, SDGs and SDG Index.
§ For
Mains: Need for Sustainable Development.
Sources:
pib.
Paper
3:
Topic:
Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media
and social networking sites in internal security challenges.
Crime
and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS)
Context: Punjab
government has launched the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems
(CCTNS), a project to keep digitised records of FIRs and information on crimes
and criminals. FIRs and General Diaries can now be updated online by police
officials on CCTNS ‘Go-Live’. They would be provided Tablets for this purpose.
What
is CCTNS project?
Crime
and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) is a project initiated in
June 2009 which aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for
enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at the Police Station
level. This will be done through adoption of principles of e-Governance, and
creation of a nationwide networked infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled
state-of-the-art tracking system around “investigation of crime and detection
of criminals”. CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National
e-Governance Plan of Govt. of India.
What
it does?
The
Project will interconnect about 15000 Police Stations and additional 5000
offices of supervisory police officers across the country and digitize data
related to FIR registration, investigation and charge sheets in all Police
Stations.
It
will not only automate Police functions at Police station and higher levels but
will also create facilities and mechanism to provide public services like
registration of online complaints, ascertaining the status of case registered
at the police station, verification of persons etc. In 2015, an additional
objective of establishing a basic platform for an Inter-operable Criminal
Justice System (ICJS) was added to the Project.
Benefits:
The
Full implementation of the Project with all the new components would lead to a
Central citizen portal having linkages with State level citizen portals that
will provide a number of citizen friendly services like Police Verification for
various purposes including passport verification, reporting a crime including
cyber-crime and online tracking of the case progress etc.
The
project will enable National level crime analytics to be published at increased
frequency, which will help the policy makers as well as lawmakers in taking
appropriate and timely action, it will also enable Pan-India criminal/accused
name search in the regional language for improved inter-state tracking of
criminal movement. This would lead to development of a national database of
crimes and criminals.
Need
for CCTNS:
The
police of any state barely “talked” among themselves, or with the police of
other states. Each police station was an island, where records were maintained
manually. The National Crime Records Bureau and State Crime Records Bureaus
were initial steps towards storage, sharing and accessing data, but the process
was technologically primitive and cumbersome, Chidambaram felt. A seamless, technology-driven
network in which any police station could “talk” to another police station in
real time, was needed.
How
will citizens benefit from CCTNS?
Full
implementation of the project will lead to the creation of a central citizen
portal with links to state-level citizen portals. This will take several
citizen-friendly services online — such as police verification for purposes
including passports, reporting a crime, tracking the progress of a case,
reporting of grievances against police officials, access to victim compensation
fund, and legal services. A list of proclaimed offenders, sex offenders and
most wanted criminals will also be published on the citizen portal.
Investigating
officers across the country will be able to access the crime and criminals
database, and the police will get alerts, dashboards and other CCTNS features
through mobile applications. National-level crime analytics will be published
at an increased frequency, and police station staff will be able to directly
search for information in other national databases such as UIDAI, NPR and the
Transport database.
Way
ahead:
The
success of this potential game-changer project will depend on data accuracy,
and its judicious utilisation, and this is where the government needs to be
extremely careful while going ahead on the creation of this national backbone
for the justice system.
What’s
important?
§ For
Prelims: CCTNS, difference between CCTNS and NATGRID.
§ For
Mains: CCTNS- need and benefits, smart policing, police reforms.
Sources:
the hindu.
Topic:
Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in
everyday life Achievements of Indians in science & technology.
Scientists
find a potentially powerful new antibiotic in dirt
Context: Researchers
have discovered a new class of antibiotics, which they have named malacidins,
which can be extracted from soil bacteria that are notoriously difficult to
culture in labs and study.
Significance
of this discovery:
The
world is facing an epidemic of infections that no longer respond well to the
drugs used to treat them—also known as super bugs. The findings of the research
are encouraging. The researchers say that based on their research, malacidins
may be able to attack and kill many types of super bugs. The new antibiotics
fought off many common infections in lab and mice tests, eliminating some
microbes that have become resistant to existing antibiotics.
What
is a superbug?
A
superbug, also called multiresistant, is a bacterium that carries several
resistance genes. These are resistant to multiple antibiotics and are able to
survive even after exposure to one or more antibiotics.
What
causes them to mutate like that?
Like
any living organism, bacteria can mutate as they multiply. Also like any living
organism, bacteria have a strong evolutionary drive to survive. So, over time,
a select few will mutate in particular ways that make them resistant to
antibiotics. Then, when antibiotics are introduced, only the bacteria that can
resist that treatment can survive to multiply further, proliferating the line
of drug-resistant bugs.
Why
is the medical community worried?
Basically,
superbugs are becoming more powerful and widespread than ever. Medical experts
are afraid that we’re one step away from deadly, untreatable infections.
Antibiotic-resistance is passed relatively easily from one bacteria to the
next, since it is transmitted by way of loose genetic material that most
bacteria have in common. The World Health Organization (WHO) is afraid of a
post-antibiotic world, where loads of bacteria are superbugs. Already,
infections like tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and pneumonia are becoming harder to
treat with typical antibiotics.
Why
India is more vulnerable?
§ Bacteria
spread easily in India because half of Indians defecate outdoors, and much of
the sewage generated by those who do use toilets is untreated. As a result,
Indians have among the highest rates of bacterial infections in the world and
collectively take more antibiotics, which are sold over the counter here, than
any other nationality.
§ A
study found that Indian children living in places where people are less likely
to use a toilet tend to get diarrhoea and be given antibiotics more often than
those in places with more toilet use.
§ All
those drugs that create resistance to antibiotics find their way into hospital
sewage, which is mostly dumped untreated into rivers, canals and pits in the
surrounding community where pregnant women can become infected.
§ Equally
worrisome has been the rapid growth of India’s industrialised animal husbandry,
where antibiotics are widespread. Most large chicken farms here use feed laced
with antibiotics banned for use in animals in the United States.
§ Also,
antibiotics are still readily available over the counter, and people still
self-medicate. The Indian government has notably failed to institute and
implement real regulations to stop chemists from handing out antibiotics like
cheap candy.
Way
ahead:
The
global community needs to urgently address the indiscriminate use of
antibiotics in an actionable manner, and fast-track research on the next
generation of drugs.
What’s
important?
§ For
Prelims: Malacidins.
§ For
Mains: Superbugs- concerns, effects and solutions.
Sources:
the hindu.
Facts
for Prelims:
First
large scale CO2-injected project in Asia:
Context:
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) plans to introduce carbon dioxide
injection in its Gandhar field to recover an extra 20 million barrels of crude
oil under the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) programme which is being undertaken
to improve India’s energy security. While the technology is a proven concept in
the West specially the US and Canada, ONGC’s project would be the first large
scale CO2-injected project in Asia.
Comments
Post a Comment