GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

The Punjab and Haryana high court held that a Muslim girl above 15 years of age is competent to enter in a marriage contract with ‘a person of her choice’.

Age to marry according to different religion

Personal laws that govern marriage and other personal practices for communities prescribe certain criteria for marriage, including age of the bride and groom.

• Hindu: Section 5(iii) of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, sets a minimum age of 18 for the bride and 21 for the groom.
• Christian: This is the same for Christians under the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872 and the Special Marriage Act.
• Muslim: For Muslims, the criteria are attaining puberty, which is assumed when the bride or groom turns 15.

Child marriages in India

• According to the Global Childhood Report released by UK-based NGO Save the Children, in India even today child marriage prevalence is higher in rural areas as compared to urban areas as these figures are 14.1% and 6.9% for rural and urban areas respectively for age group 15-19 years.

Why should the marriage age be raised?

• Education:Women have societal pressure to get married early and have children. Due to this they fail to attain education.
• Domestic responsibilities often take over the lives of women and they are unable to pursue higher education.
• Economic Independence:Early marriage of women deprives them of proper education and job prospects and thus economic independence.
• Health issues:Study shows that women who get married before 18 years of age are likely to deal with unwanted pregnancies and are a greater risk of having complications during her pregnancy such as premature babies, retarded growth, prolonged labour and also miscarriage.
• Domestic violence:Getting married early increases the risk of domestic violence.
• According to the International Council of Research on Women (ICRW), women who are less educated and married between 15 to 19 years of age are more likely to be victims of domestic violence compared to more educated women.
• Mental health:Early marriages have a significant impact on the mental health of women. They are likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.
• Poverty:Girls belonging to poor families are more likely to get married at an early age.
  • It may be because her family cannot afford her expenses such as education and other basic commodities so they prefer to get her married so that she can have a better quality of life.

The Australian deputy Prime Minister is to visit India from June 20 to 23, considering India and Australia as closest security partners.

• The Indian government is set to revitalise Australia’s historical engagement across Indo-pacific.

• Ties between India and Australia started right from the time when European settlement began in Australia.
• When New South Wales was founded as a penal colony, all trade with the colony was controlled by the British East India Company.
• Before the Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901, many migrant workers and labourers were taken from the Indian subcontinent to Australia.
• India established a Trade Office in Sydney in 1941.
• After independence, in 1950, Robert Menzies became the first Australian Prime Minister to visit India. He had earlier supported India’s admission into the Commonwealth as a republic.
• In 2009, a ‘Strategic Partnership’ was established between the two countries and relations have significantly expanded since then.
• In 2013, A K Antony became the first-ever Indian Defence Minister to visit Australia. The current PM Narendra Modi visited Australia in November 2014, a few months after he was appointed the PM.

India-Australia ties

• People-to-people ties: There are many citizens in Australia with Indian origins. Out of the country’s 24 million people, about half a million are of Indian origin.
  • The fastest-growing language in Australia is Punjabi.
  • As of 2017, more than 60000 students from India are studying in Australia.
  • More than 2 lakh Indians visit Australia every year.
• Economic Relations: As of the year 2016, the bilateral trade between the two nations is worth $21.9 billion. 
  • India is Australia’s largest export market for gold and chickpeas, the second-largest market for coal and copper ores and the third-largest market for lead and wool.
  • Four products – coal, non-monetary gold, copper ores & concentrates and petroleum – accounted for over 80 per cent of India’s imports from Australia, with coal and gold being the dominant imports in 2011-12.
  • India is Australia’s tenth largest trading partner and the fifth-largest export market.
• Military Relations: A joint naval exercise called AUSINDEXis carried out between India and Australia every year.
  • In 2007, Australia was a participant in the Malabar Exercise which is an annual trilateral naval exercise between India, the USA and Japan.

Significance of Indo-pacific region for both India and Australia

• The reason being maritime routes, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific provide the sea lanes.
• Majority of the world’s trade passes through these oceans.
• The term ‘Indo-Pacific’ is interpreted differently by different stakeholders.
  • India considers the region as an inclusive, open, integrated and balanced space. India continuously emphasises on strategic inter-connections, common challenges and opportunities between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.
  • The U.S. considers it to be a free and open Indo-Pacific, highlighting the importance of rules or norms of conduct in the region, thus trying to contain the role of China in the region.
  • The ASEAN countries look at Indo-Pacific as a consociational model, thus bringing in China not only for the sake of giving it some stake holdership but looking for ways to cooperate with it in the region.

India’s perspective

• A lot of India’s special partners, the US, Australia, Japan and Indonesia actually look at Indo-Pacific as Asia Pacific plus India.
• They try to embed India into the strategic dynamic of Asia Pacific.
• They want India’s presence in the South China Sea, East China Sea, basically to counter China.
• India however, seeks to cooperate for architecture for peace and security in the region.
• The common prosperity and security require the countries to evolve, through dialogue, a common rules-based order for the region. For India, Indo-Pacific stands for a free, open, inclusive region.

A species of Spiny Horntail- Dragonfly is seen in Kottiyoor forests of Kannur district of Kerala.

• This species is endemic to Western Ghats, earlier found in Maharashtra this year.
• In India, they are found in three types of species in genes Burmagomphus.
• cauvericus – restricted to certain areas of western ghats
• pyramidalis- Western Ghats as well as in Peninsular India.
• laidlawi- Found in whole of Western ghats
• Other than these species all species of the genus are found in the Western and Eastern Himalayas.
• The new species is separated from its congeners by the markings on the lateral thorax and peculiar shape of anal appendages.

Other major species in India

• Ditch jewel dragonfly
• Diplacodes trivialis (ground skimmer)- Most abundant species.
• Red Groundling
• Potamarcha congener- Common chaser

A study by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has spoken about the possibility of capital outflows of about $100 billion from India in case of a major global risk scenario called as “black swan” event.

• The black swan theory was put forward by author and investor Nassim Nicholas Taleb in 2001.
• The term originated in lieu of sighting a rare black swan in Australia. Earlier to which Europeans believe that only white swans exists in the world.
• Thus this event is named so, as a remark of an unprecedented event.
• The First time it had noticed in 2008 as global financial crisis – a black swan event triggered by a sudden crash in the booming housing market in the US.
• The fall of the Soviet Union, the terrorist attack in the US on September 11, 2001, also is considered as a Black swan event.

About Black swan event

• A black swan is a rare, unpredictable event that comes as a surprise and has a significant impact on society or the world.
• These events are said to have three distinguishing characteristics – they are extremely rare and outside the realm of regular expectations.
• They have a severe impact after they hit and they seem probable in hindsight when plausible explanations appear.

How India can be safeguarded from Black swan events?

• As a black swan event engulfed the world with Russia and Ukraine at loggerheads,it is a clarion call for economies like India to draw lessons from it.
• Utilising services sector: Since the pandemic the world has changed, offering opportunities for the services sector to create more income, employment, investment and trade.
• Reduce dependency on crude: Exploring and using unconventional energy will not only help the country save billions on imported fuel but also protect it from energy price jolts. The government must step up its efforts in encouraging investors to take interest in alternative fuels like natural gas, solar, coal bed methane and fuel cells, amongst others.
• Diversifying defence sources: All efforts should be made towards India based production of defence equipment and necessarily sharing of technology know-how.
• Financial infrastructure: Besides the on-going crisis in Europe has also shown the dependency and the impact of suspension of popular global platforms like MasterCard, Visa, and American Express. 
• In lieu, Russian banks may possibly issue cards with China’s UnionPay. 
• While RuPay has made significant inroads into the domestic market, it has still to compete with the global majors. India could work along with its counterparts in South Asia in promoting such financial instruments for the common good.

Conclusion

Planning to deal with such concerns successfully is a major challenge for decision-makers, but one that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Delineating here are certain aspects which India can increasingly focus on as a matter of its strategic interest, in the process of becoming more indigenous, and possibly a more indispensable force globally.

Of all the atmospheric phenomena, lightning perhaps is the most dangerous and mysterious. In India, lightning kills about 2,000-2,500 people every year. Recently, Seventeen people have been in various parts of Bihar, Six deaths have been reported from Bhagalpur district, while three people were killed in Vaishali and two each in Banka and Khagaria.

About Lightning:

• Scientifically, lightning is a rapid and massive discharge of electricity in the atmosphere some of which is directed towards earth, generated in giant moisture-bearing clouds.
• Distance of the clouds from the earth’s surface:
  • Base of the clouds: 1-2km from the Earth’s surface
  • Top of the clouds: 12-13km
• Temperature at the top of the clouds: -35^oC to -45^oC

How the lightning is formed?

• As the water vapour moves upward in the clouds, the falling temperature converts the vapour into tiny ice crystals, as the temperature is below the freezing point.
• Collisions follow and trigger the release of electrons, the moving free electrons cause more collisions and more electrons, a chain reaction ensues. 
• This process results into a situation of formation of layers of clouds with alternate positive and negative charge with a huge potential difference, of the order of a billion to 10 billion volts.
• As Earth is a good conductor of electricity 15-20% of the electricity generated by the process is directed to the Earth surface, creating the lightning situation.

Madhya Pradesh government has proposed to open 292 hectares for mining in five stretches on Chambal and its tributary Parvati rivers. Sand mining has been banned in the sanctuary since 2006.

• To free its forest department from devoting too much time, resources, and efforts in fighting illegal mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary.
• Opening up the five stretches would minimise the conflict with illegal miners, gain local support, and fetch revenue from royalty, one-fourth of which could be used to strengthen protection measures.
• The legalisation measure will also help to reduce the pressure of illegal mining.
• Ecological disturbances: The stretches de-notified under the proposal are already disturbed by illegal mining and were no longer used for mating or breeding by gharials or muggers.
• Stricter Provision: The state proposed to tighten monitoring of vehicles carrying sand, by marking them with registration numbers, barcoding royalty receipts with destination and time, and creating a mobile application that allows for verification on-the-spot.
  
  

Areas proposed for Mining:

• Barodia Ghat
• Dalarna
• Rajghat-Piprai
• Barbasin
• Badapura

Chambal River:

• Source: Rises from Vindhya range
• Meets: Yamuna River
• Major dams:

• Gundhi Sagar
• Rana Pratap Sagar
• Jawahar Sagar
• Kota Barrage

• Tributaries:
  • Right Bank: Parbati, Kali Sindh, Shipra.
  • Left Bank: Banas, Mej.
• Sanctuary: National Chambal Sanctuary (Gharials)