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27th May 2023

IWT task force calls for speedy completion of projects in J&K

Context

A task force overseeing India’s rights under the Indus Waters Treaty emphasised the need to complete various hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir to facilitate the better utilisation of the country’s rights to river waters.

Background
  • The meeting was held against the backdrop of India formally informing Pakistan of its intention to modify the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960

Indus Water Treaty (IWT), 1960:

  • The six-decade-old treaty governs the sharing of waters of six rivers in the Indus system between the two countries. 
  • Main Rivers: Indus River, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej.
  • The basin is mainly shared by India and Pakistan with a small share of China and Afghanistan.
  • Under the treaty signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, all the waters of
    • Eastern rivers, namely Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas (Eastern Rivers) were allocated to India for exclusive use
    • Western riversIndus, Jhelum, and Chenab were allocated to Pakistan except for specified domestic, non-consumptive, and agricultural use permitted to India as provided in the Treaty.
  • India has also been given the right to generate hydroelectricity through run-of-the-river (RoR)projects on the Western Rivers which, subject to specific criteria for design and operation is unrestricted.

River Indus: Geographic Location

  • The Indus is a trans-boundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia.  
  • The 3,120 km (1,940 mi) river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, bends sharply to the left after the Nanga Parbat massif, and flows south-by-southwest through Pakistan, before emptying into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi.
  • Significance:
    • The river has historically been important to many cultures of the region.
    • The 3rd millennium BC saw the rise of the Indus Valley civilization, a major urban civilization of the Bronze Age.
    • During the 2nd millennium BC, the Punjab region was mentioned in the Rigveda hymns as Sapta Sindhu and in the Avesta religious texts as Saptha Hindu (both terms meaning "seven rivers"). 

6 minor tribes in Manipur are Nagas: NSCN (I-M)

Context

Amid the unrest in Manipur, the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland or NSCN (I-M) has claimed that six minor tribes in the State are Nagas.

Background
  • Manipur, a hill state in North East India, is currently experiencing violent ethnic clashes between tribal and non-tribal residents.
  • Both the Meitei (Manipuris) and Kuki tribes have been subjected to attacks, leading to escalating tensions.
  • The recent outbreak of violence can be attributed to the Meitei community's demand for inclusion in the state's Scheduled Tribes (STs) list.
    • The Meiteis have long sought ST status due to economic and cultural reasons.
    • They argue that despite being recognized as a tribe by the British alongside Nagas and Kukis, they were not granted ST status when the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 was enacted.

Key-points made by NSCN (I-M)

  • Six minor tribes are Aimol, Chiru, Chothe, Kharam, Koireng, and Kom.
  • They are part of the Naga community and have been actively involved in the Nagas’ political struggle for their freedom from India and Myanmar till our goal is achieved.

Three communities— Meiteis, Nagas and Kukis— account for much of Manipur’s population. While the Meiteis include the Pangals, who are Muslims, many tribes are clubbed either as Nagas or Kukis.

Understanding the Demographic Background of Manipur’s tribes

Who are Nagas?

  • Nagas in Manipur refers to a collection of tribes that live North of the Imphal valley.
  • These communities form a cultural continuum with the Meiteis that extends to the Naga tribes further North into Nagaland and Assam.
  • There are 16 major tribes such as Angami, Ao, Chakhesang, Chang, Khemungan, Konyak, Lotha, Phom, Pochury, Rengma, Sangtam, Sema, Yimchunger and Zeliang.
  • Of these, the Zeliangrong Nagas who inhabit the Tamenglong district exhibit the closest cultural links with the Meiteis.

Who are Meiteis?

Apart from Meiteis, there is another community which is the epithet of “Manipuri” — the Bishnupriya Manipuri.

  • Manipur’s population has evolved through several waves of immigration from groups originating from both East and West of the region.
  • The origin of the state’s diverse population to be primarily of the Tibeto-Burman stock.
  • Meiteis (also called Manipuris) are the most numerous of all the ethnic groups in the state and largely inhabit the fertile Imphal valley that sits at the centre of the state.
  • Meiteis were originally a set of four different tribes — Khuman, Luwang, Moirang and Meitei.

Who are Kukis?

  • Kukis in the state (called Khongjais in Meiteilon) refers to the Chin tribes that inhabit the Southern Hills and the Kangpokpi region in the Northern Hills.
  • They are culturally closer to the Mizos of Mizoram and the Chin tribes of Myanmar. They are relatively much later migrants to the state compared to the Nagas and the Meiteis.

Navy, ISRO release Gaganyaan Recovery Training Plan

Context

The Indian Space Research Organisation and the Navy released a joint plan to train the crew involved in the recovery operations of the capsule after it lands in the ocean with astronauts onboard. 

Key-highlights (document details)

  • The document outlines the training plan for recovery of the Crew Module for the mission.
  • It defines overall requirements wrt training of various teams participating in recovery operations.
  • The training is planned in incremental phases starting from unmanned recovery to manned recovery training in harbour and open sea conditions.
  • The recovery operations are being led by the Indian Navy in coordination with other government agencies.

About Gaganyaan mission

  • The Gaganyaan mission aims to demonstrate the capability to launch human beings (three crew members) to low earth orbit (LEO) and bring them back safely to earth by landing them in either the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea.
  • Launch Vehicles: The Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) is the launch vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission.
    • All systems in the LVM3 launch vehicle are reconfigured to meet human rating requirements and named Human Rated LVM3 (HLVM3).
      • HLVM3 consists of Crew Escape System (CES) powered by a set of quick acting, high burn rate solid motors which ensures that Crew Module along with the crew is taken to a safe distance in case of any emergency either at launch pad or during ascent phase.

Pre-planning

  • Various precursor missions are planned for demonstrating the technology preparedness levels before carrying out the actual Human Space Flight mission. These demonstrator missions include
    • Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT)
    • Pad Abort Test (PAT)
    • Test Vehicle (TV) flights

World Meteorological Congress approves GHG monitoring initiative

Context

The World Meteorological Congress has approved a new greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring initiative in a landmark decision.

About the new initiative

  • The initiative supports urgent action to reduce heat-trapping gases, which are fuelling temperature increases.
  • The new global GHG watchwill fill critical information gaps and provide an integrated and operational framework.
  • The framework will bring all space-based and surface-based observing systems, as well as modelling and data assimilation capabilities, under one roof.
  • The monitoring infrastructure will build on and expand WMO’s long-standing activities in GHG monitoring, implemented as part of the global atmosphere watchand via its integrated global GHG information system.

Major Components

The GHG watch will consist of four main components:

  • A comprehensive, sustained, global set of surface-based and satellite-based observations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) concentrations, total column amounts, partial column amounts, vertical profiles and fluxes and supporting meteorological, oceanic, and terrestrial variables, internationally exchanged as rapidly as possible, pending capabilities and agreements with the system operators
  • Prior estimates of the GHG emissions based on activity data and process-based models
  • A set of global high-resolution Earth System models representing GHG cycles
  • Associated with the models, data assimilation systems that optimally combine the observations with model calculations to generate products of higher accuracy

Need of the initiative

Greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels — in fact higher than at any time over the last 800,000 years

  • Lack of support: Many of the existing international and national activities dealing with greenhouse gases are supported mainly by the research community.
  • Lack of framework: At present, there is no comprehensive, timely international exchange of surface and space-based greenhouse gas observations or modelling products. 

Short News Article

Polity & Governance (GS-II)

Only 6 religion options make it to next Census

Despite demands from several communities to be counted as a separate religion, the next Census will only count Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain as distinct religion options.

What is a Census?

  • Called a treasure trove of information, the Census encapsulates everything—from the country’s literacy levels, education, housing, household amenities, migration, urbanisation, fertility, mortality, language, religion and disability to other socio-cultural and demographic data such as age, gender and marital status.
  • It is the largest repository of the nation’s people as well as the source of primary data at the village, town, and ward levels.

Post-Independence, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, piloted the 1948 Census Act, a Union subject under Article 246 and listed in the seventh schedule of the Constitution.

Polity & Governance (GS-II)

Insurance Information Bureau of India (IIB)

In a shocking turn of events, the Insurance Information Bureau of India (IIB) fell victim to a ransomware attack.

About

  • The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) established the Insurance Information Bureau (IIB) in 2009.
  • It functions as the exclusive repository and analytics body for the entire insurance sector in India.
  • Every insurance company registered in India is obligated to submit data to the IIB.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is a statutory body set up for protecting the interests of the policyholders and regulating, promoting and ensuring orderly growth of the insurance industry in India.

Economy (GS-III)

SEBI to bring new mutual fund regulations for passive funds

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is planning to bring new mutual fund regulations for passive funds

About Passive Fund

  • A passive fund is an investment vehicle that tracks a market index, or a specific market segment, to determine what to invest in.
  • Unlike with an active fund, the fund manager does not decide what securities the fund takes on.
  • This normally makes passive funds cheaper to invest in than active funds, which require the fund manager to spend time researching and analysing opportunities to invest in.
  • Common type of passive funds:
    • Index Funds
    • ETFs or Exchange-Traded Funds 
    • Fund of Funds

Environment

More birds in Chilika Lake than previous years

More birds flocked to the Chilika Lake in Odisha this summer than the previous years, despite the day temperature in and around Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon hovering 39 to 41 degrees Celsius.

Key-details

  • As many as 62,947 birds of 88 species were found in the vast lake.
  • The highest number of birds has been spotted in the Tangi range (24,285) followed by, Balugaon (20,581), Satapada (8,763), Chilika (6,694) and Rambha (2,624)
  • Reason behind improvement
    • Habitat improvement
    • Availability of food
    • Eviction of the prawn gherries (enclosures)

Chilka Lake Bird Sanctuary

  • Chilka Lake in Odisha is Asia's biggest internal salt water pond.
  • This pear shaped lake, separated from the Bay of Bengal; also imbibes one of the most supportive ecosystem in the name of Chilka Lake Sanctuary in the region.

Science & Technology (GS-III)

Regional Rapid Transit System

India's first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) is set to become operational soon.

About

  • The RRTS is a dedicated, high speed and high-capacity rail-based commuter service that will connect different regions in the national capital region (NCR). 
  • Semi-high speed train: They have a design speed of 180 kmph and will run at a maximum operating speed of 160 kmph, making them semi-high speed train sets.
  • RRTS or the RAPIDX trains will provide a "multi-modal integration" connecting the Railway Stations, Bus Depots, airports, and Metro stations.
  • Manufactured by: French multinational rolling stock firm ‘Alstom’.

Science & Technology (GS-III)

BL Lacertae (BL Lac)

The Indian Astronomical Observatory, situated in Hanle, Ladakh, has partnered with 10 other telescopes worldwide to investigate the brightening phenomenon of BL Lacertae (BL Lac).

About

  • BL Lacertae (BL Lac) is a blazar located approximately 950 million light years away from Earth. 
  • BL Lacertae, a type of galaxy fuelled by an enormous black hole, is recognised as one of the brightest and most potent objects in the cosmos.
  • Known for emitting highly energetic particles and radiation, including gamma rays, X-rays, and radio waves, blazars like BL Lacertae captivate the attention of astronomers.

What are Blazars?

  • Blazars, observed as high-energy gamma ray photon emitters, are known for their remarkable emission spanning the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
  • Blazars, a type of galaxy powered by a ginormous black hole and among the brightest, most energetic objects in the sky, are not unfamiliar to science.

Editorial

A fountainhead of the people’s hopes and aspirations

Context:

The inauguration of a new Parliament building presents an opportunity for us to seriously introspect on our parliamentary conduct

Challenges of Parliament House

  • Shortage of space: There exists shortage of space inside the existing parliament house.
  • Little space for improvements: Present parliament building is retrofitted many times, which has left little space for further improvements.
  • Absence of modern Facilities: The In 2015, the speaker Sumitra Mahajan, wrote to Minister of Urban Affairs to have a new parliament building equipped with state of the art facilities.

Equipped for the needs of today

  • Updated technology: New parliament building is equipped with the state of the art facilities which meets the current and future demands. It is more spacious and energy efficient.
  • Incorporates various languages: New Parliament is building will be able to accommodate various languages with the state of the art facilities for simultaneous interpretations.
  • Improve efficiency of secretariats: Better gadgets, access to an e-library and important reports will enhance the capacity of the legislator and improve the efficiency of the secretariats of parliament.

Way forward

  • Easing tensions: It is hoped that providing members with appropriate functional space and up-to-date amenities will help to ease tension and facilitate meaningful talks.
  • Ready for upcoming difficulties: The new Parliament building should serve as a reminder for us to get ready and outfitted for the upcoming difficulties.
  • Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat: The New Building would serve as a beacon to direct us on our ambitious quest to create "Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat," serving as a source of the people's hopes and aspirations.
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