GS Analyst: Daily Current Affairs

A new report of the UN Security Council's Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team assessed the presence of the Al Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) terror groups in Afghanistan.

About the report:

• The monitoring team assists the UNSC sanctions committee.
• Its report, circulated among committee members, informs the formulation of UN strategy in Afghanistan.
• India is currently the chair of the sanctions committee, which comprises all the 15 UNSC members.
• This report is the 13th overall. It is the first since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

How did the monitoring team collect data?

• This is the first of its reports not informed by official Afghan briefings.
• Instead, the team relied on consultations with UN member states, international and regional organisations, private sector financial institutions, and the work of bodies such as the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

Key highlights from report:

• Two India-focussed terrorist groups, Jaish-i-Mohammed (JiM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), are reported to have training camps in Afghanistan.
• The al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) has 180-400 fighters in Afghanistan.
  • As per the report, fighters included nationals from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Pakistan.
• The report notes that the name change of the AQIS magazine from ‘Nawa-i-Afghan Jihad’ to ‘Nawa-e-Gazwah-e-Hind’ suggests a “refocussing of AQIS from Afghanistan to Kashmir”.
• The foremost internal division in the Taliban is between the moderate and hardline blocs.
  • According to the report, under the command of Hibatullah, various Taliban factions are manoeuvring for advantage, with the Haqqani Network cornering most of the influential posts in the administration.
• The report believes the Kandahari (Durrani) Taliban to be in the ascendancy among the Taliban leadership, with Pashtuns getting precedence over non-Pashtuns. 
• The Taliban’s core identity of a Pashtun nationalist cause dominated by southern Taliban has again come to the fore, generating tension and conflict with other ethnic groups.

The Union Health Ministry recently issued ‘Guidelines on Management of Monkeypox Disease’.

• It confirmed that there are no reported cases as on date of monkeypox disease in India.
• India needs to be prepared to tackle cases of monkeypox in view of the increasing reports of cases in non-endemic countries.
• Monkeypox (MPX) is a viral zoonotic disease with symptoms similar to smallpox, although with less clinical severity.

Natural reservoir of Monkeypox Virus:

• The natural reservoir of the virus is yet unknown.
• However, certain rodents (including rope squirrels, tree squirrels, Gambian pouched rats, dormice) and non-human primates are known to be naturally susceptible to monkeypox virus.
• The incubation period (interval from infection to onset of symptoms) of monkeypox is usually from 6 to 13 days, but can range from 5 to 21 days
• The period of communicability is 1-2 days before the rash until all the scabs fall off/get subsided.

Guidelines:

• A patient should be closely monitored for the appearance of symptoms, including
  • pain in the eye or blurring of vision,
  • shortness of breath,
  • chest pain,
  • difficulty in breathing,
  • altered consciousness,
  • seizure,
  • decrease in urine output,
  • poor oral intake,
  • lethargy
• During the period of isolation and nearby healthcare facility/ specialist must be contacted immediately in case of need.
• Daily monitoring: As per the Guidelines, contacts should be monitored at least daily for the onset of signs/symptoms for a period of 21 days from the last contact with a patient or their contaminated materials during the infectious period.
• The guidelines stress on surveillance and rapid identification of new cases as key public health measures for outbreak containment, mandating need to reduce the risk of human-to-human transmission.
  • It explains the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures, IPC at home, patient isolation and ambulance transfer strategies, additional precautions that need to be taken care of and duration of isolation procedures.
• The Guidelines on Management of Monkeypox Disease include
  • epidemiology of the disease, including host, incubation period, period of communicability and mode of transmission;
  • contact and case definitions;
  • clinical features and its complication,
  • diagnosis,
  • case management,
  • risk communication,
  • guidance on Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) including use of personal protective equipment

In 2022 it will be fifty years since the first United Nations conference on the human environment – the 1972 Stockholm Conference.

United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Conference):

• Stockholm Conference marked the first global effort to treat the environment as a worldwide policy issue and define the core principles for its management.
• It was first worldwide convergence on planetary environment, with the theme ‘Only One Earth’.
• Participating 122 countries essentially committed to 26 principles and an action plan that set in a multilateral environmental regime.
• One of the overarching principles was that sovereignty should be subject to not causing harm to the environment of other countries as well.
• The three dimensions of this conference were:
• Countries agreeing not to “harm each other’s environment or the areas beyond national jurisdiction”;
• an action plan to study the threat to Earth’s environment; and
• establishment of an international body called the UN Environment programme (UNEP) to bring in cooperation among countries
• The creation of U.N. Environment Program led to monitor the state of the environment and coordinate responses to the major environmental problems.
• It also raised questions that continue to challenge international negotiations to this day, such as who is responsible for cleaning up environmental damage, and how much poorer countries can be expected to do.

Historic beginnings 

• Until 1972, no country had an environment ministry. 
• In 1968, when Sweden first proposed the idea of the Stockholm conference (this is why it was referred to as the Swedish Initiative).
• The cases of environmental degradation and hints of a meltdown of the planet’s atmospheric system had started making news.
• Rachel Carson’s now famous book Silent Springwas just six-years-old but attained biblical status in terms of readership and impact on public consciousness. 
• Species extinction made headlines, like that of the humpback whales and Bengal tigers; the mercury poisoning caused by methylmercury release into the Minamata Bay in Japan entered public discourse.

Stockholm 2022:

• Commemorating fifty years since the environment first took centre stage with the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, the Stockholm+50 meeting will drive action to achieve sustainable development for the well-being of current and future generations.
• It is aptly themed as “Stockholm+50: A healthy planet for the prosperity of all — our responsibility, our opportunity.”
• The aim is to contribute to accelerating a transformation that leads to sustainable and green economies, more jobs, and a healthy planet for all, where no one is left behind.

Wildlife scientists and conservationists in Arunachal Pradesh flagged threats to local biodiversity from the proposed Etalin hydroelectric project in a letter to the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

Etalin hydroelectric project:

• The contentious 3,097-megawatt Etalin Hydroelectric Project (EHEP) — proposed to be developed as a joint venture between Jindal Power Ltd and the Hydropower Development Corporation of Arunachal Pradesh Ltd — in the state’s Dibang Valley.
• The ambitious project — a combination of two run-of-the-river schemes with limited storage requiring concrete gravity dams on rivers Tangon and Dri.
• Impact:
  • Forest: The hydroelectric project will require diversion of 1,165.66 hectares of forest land and felling of more than 280,000 trees in the area.
  • Drainage: The land in which the project is proposed covers two pristine forests with riverine growth that once cut cannot be replaced.
  • The Idu Mishmi:
    • The Idu Mishmi is an animist tribe in the Dibang valley.
    • The Etalin project and the Dibang Multipurpose Dam (DMD) will directly affect their living areas and imperil their existence.
      
      

The Ministry of Defence has recently signed a contract with the Hyderabad-based public-sector Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) for supply of the Astra Mark-1.

About Astra Mark-1:

• The Astra Mk-1 is a beyond visual range (BVR), air-to-air missile (AAM).
• The missile has been designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• It will used for deployment on fighter jets like Sukhoi-30 MKI and Tejas of the IAF and the Mig-29K of the Navy.
• BVM missiles are capable of engaging beyond the range of 20 nautical miles or 37 kilometers.
• AAMs are fired from an airborne asset to destroy an airborne target.
• The missile can travel at speeds more than four times that of sound and can reach a maximum altitude of 20 km, making it extremely flexible for air combat.

About Astra project:

• The Astra project was officially launched in the early 2000s with defined parameters and proposed future variants.
  • Around 2017, the development phase of Mk-1 version was complete.
• While the range for Astra Mk-1 is around 110 km, the Mk-2 with a range over 150 km is under development and Mk-3 version with a longer range is being envisaged.
• One more version of Astra, with a range smaller than Mk-1 is also under development.