India Dropped from Chabahar Rail Project

Why in News

Recently, Iran has decided to proceed with the Chabahar rail line construction on its own, citing delays from the Indian side in beginning and funding the project.

Key Points

• Iran has inaugurated the track-laying process for the 628 km Chabahar-Zahedan rail line, which will be extended to Zaranj across the border in Afghanistan.
• The entire project would be completed by March 2022 and Iranian Railways will use approximately USD 400 million from the Iranian National Development Fund.
• Background:
  
  • In May 2016, India, Iran and Afghanistan signed the trilateral agreement which entailed the establishment of Transit and Transport Corridor among the three countries using Chabahar port in Iran as one of the regional hubs for sea transportation.
  • Construction of a rail line from Chabahar port to Zahedan, along the border with Afghanistan as an alternate trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia, was also a part of it.
    
    • The state-owned Indian Railways Construction Ltd. (IRCON) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Iranian Rail Ministry and promised to provide all services, superstructure work and financing (around USD 1.6 billion).
  • The Chabahar port is being considered a gateway to golden opportunities for trade by the three countries with other Central Asian countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to India.
• Reasons:
  
  • Despite several site visits by IRCON engineers and preparations by Iranian railways, India never began the work, worrying that it could attract sanctions by the USA.
    
    • India has already zeroed out its oil imports from Iran due to USA sanctions.
    • The USA had provided a sanctions waiver for the Chabahar port and the rail line but it was difficult to find equipment suppliers and partners due to worries of being targeted by the USA.
  • Another reason could be the ‘Comprehensive Plan for Cooperation between Iran and China’ which is a 25-year and USD 400 billion strategic partnership deal.
    
    • Both nations are close to finalising the deal, which will include Chinese involvement in Chabahar’s duty-free zone, an oil refinery nearby and possibly a larger role in Chabahar port as well.
    • The cooperation will extend from investments in infrastructure, manufacturing and upgrading energy and transport facilities, to refurbishing ports, refineries and other installations and will commit Iranian oil and gas supplies to China during that period.
    • Iran proposed a tie-up between the Chinese-run Pakistani port at Gwadar and Chabahar in 2019 and offered interests to China in the Bandar-e-Jask port 350 km away from Chabahar, as well as in the Chabahar duty-free zone.

Way Forward

• The Iran-China deal impinges on India’s strategic ties with Iran and the use of Chabahar port. Bandar-e-Jask lies to the west of Chabahar and right before the Strait of Hormuz which would allow China to extend its control along the Pakistan-Iran coast.
• Each of these possibilities should be watched closely by India and it should strengthen its relations with the concerned countries.
• As an emerging power, India cannot remain confined to South Asia and a peaceful extended neighbourhood (Iran-Afghanistan) is not only good for trade and energy security but also plays a vital role in India's aspirations of becoming a superpower.

Source: TH

Tiger Census 2018: Guinness Book of World Records

Why in News

India’s 2018 Tiger Census has made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s largest camera trapping wildlife survey.

• India has also fulfilled its resolution to double the Tiger numbers made at St. Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010, before the target year of 2022.
• The tiger numbers in India have increased from around 1500 in 2010 to 2976 in 2020.

Key Points

• Comprehensive: The fourth cycle of the Tiger Census 2018, conducted in 2018-19 is the most comprehensive in terms of both resource and data recorded.
  
  • It counted 2976 tigers which is 75% of the global tiger population.
  • The census is done quadrennially (every four years) by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) with technical help from the Wildlife Institute of India.
    
    • It is done with cooperation from the state Forest Departments and partners.
• Methods:
  
  • Camera traps were placed at multiple locations across different sites and surveyed an effective area of 121,337 square kilometres.
    
    • Camera Traps are outdoor photographic devices fitted with motion sensors that start recording when an animal passes by.
  • It also conducted extensive foot surveys that sampled habitat plots for vegetation and prey dung.
• Identification: From these photographs 83% of the total tiger population were identified using stripe-pattern-recognition software.
  
  • The software helps to match a new image of a tiger already in the database, based on the pattern of stripes.

Project Tiger

• It was launched in 1973 with 9 tiger reserves for conserving our national animal, the tiger.
• It is an ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
• Currently, the Project Tiger coverage has increased to 50 Tiger reserves, spread out in 18 tiger range states which amounts to around 2.21% of the geographical area of our country.
• The tiger reserves are constituted on a core/buffer strategy. The core areas have the legal status of a national park or a sanctuary, whereas the buffer or peripheral areas are a mix of forest and non-forest land, managed as a multiple use area.
• The NTCA was launched in 2005, following the recommendations of the Tiger Task Force. It is a statutory body of the Ministry, with an overarching supervisory/coordination role, performing functions as provided in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers - Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) is an app based monitoring system, launched across Indian tiger reserves by the NTCA in 2010.
  
  • The system would enable field managers to assist intensity and spatial coverage of patrols in a geographic information system (GIS) domain.

Source: PIB

USA: India’s Top Trading Partner

Why in News

As per the data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the USA remained India's top trading partner for the second consecutive fiscal year in 2019-20.

• This indicates increasing economic ties between the two countries.

Key Points

• Trade with the USA:
  
  • In 2019-20, the bilateral trade between the USA and India stood at USD 88.75 billion as against USD 87.96 billion in 2018-19.
  • The USA is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus.
    
    • India’s trade surplus with the USA increased to USD 17.42 billion in 2019-20 from USD 16.86 billion in 2018-19.
  • In 2018-19, the USA surpassed China to become India's top trading partner.
• Trade with China:
  
  • The bilateral trade between India and China has dipped to USD 81.87 billion in 2019-20 from USD 87.08 billion in 2018-19.
  • Trade deficit between the two neighbours has declined to USD 48.66 billion in 2019-20 from USD 53.57 billion in the previous fiscal.
  • China was India's top trading partner from 2013-14 till 2017-18.
    
    • Before China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the country's largest trading nation.
  • Further, India is considering certain steps like framing technical regulations and quality control orders for host of items with a view to cut import dependence on China and boost domestic manufacturing.
    
    • Recently, India banned 59 Chinese apps and made government approval mandatory for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from neighbouring countries.
    • The app ban decision came amid tensions on the border.
• Way Forward for the USA and India:
  
  • There is a huge potential to boost bilateral trade between the countries on account of increasing anti-China sentiment in both the nations.
    
    • Because of the anti-China sentiment, several USA companies are exploring new suppliers in countries like India to cut dependence on China and if this happens, then it will greatly help India to boost exports to the USA.
  • Presence of Indian diaspora in the USA is one of the main reasons for increasing bilateral trade. A balanced trade deal can further boost the economic ties.
    
    • India and the USA are negotiating a limited trade pact with a view to iron out differences at trade front and boost commercial ties.
    • However, India should be a bit cautious while negotiating the pact with the USA in areas such as agriculture, dairy and issues related to intellectual property rights.
    • Recently, the USA administration has extended the ban on immigrant and non-immigrant visas till the end of 2020.
      
      • India’s IT services exports to the USA, which depend significantly on the H-1B visa, has been an important constituent element of bilateral economic trade.

Source: BS

Retail Inflation Growth at 6.09%

Why in News

Recently, the National Statistical Office (NSO) released the retail inflation data, which rose to 6.09% in the month of June, 2020.

• Retail inflation is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Key Points

• The retail inflation growth was mainly due to a rise in pulses and products prices that saw a 16.68% on-year rise in June.
  
  • Apart from pulses and products segment, the meat and fish segment saw a rise of 16.22%, while that of oils and fats rose 12.27% and spices prices gained 11.74%.
• The retail inflation has grown beyond the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upper margin of 6%.
  
  • The Central government has mandated the RBI to keep inflation within the range of 4±2%.
  • This inflation range (4% within a band of +/- 2%) was recommended by the committee headed by Urjit Patel in 2014.
• The NSO also released the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) data which measures the inflation in the food basket.
  
  • The CFPI stood at 7.87% in the month of June. The CFPI for May was revised to 9.20%.
  • The reduction in CFPI is because of ease in supply related issues post lockdown.
• The government has not released the retail inflation data for April and May.
  
  • The price collection of Consumer Price Index (CPI) through personal visits of price collectors was suspended due to the announcement of nation-wide lockdown to contain spread of Covid-19 pandemic.

Source: IE

Language of the Tangams

Why in News

Recently, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh has released a book titled “Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study Of The Critically Endangered Group of Arunachal Pradesh”.

• The book has valuable data on endangered oral narratives like ritual songs, lamentation songs, lullabies and festival songs in Tangam language spoken by the Tangam community, which has reportedly 253 speakers left now.

Key Points

• Tangam People:
  
  • It is a little-known community within the larger Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh which resides in the hamlet of Kugging in Upper Siang district’s Paindem circle.
  • For long, the only account of the Tangams could be found in a book, “Tangams” (1975) where the community’s population was pegged at 2,000 spread across 25 villages.
• Tangam Language:
  
  • Tangam is an oral language that belongs to the Tani group, under the greater Tibeto-Burman language family.
  • It has been marked ‘critically endangered’ by the UNESCO World Atlas of Endangered Languages (2009).

• Reasons for its Decline:
  
  • Low population: Smaller languages are more vulnerable and extinction is directly proportional to population.
    
    • Another critically endangered language is Meyor but it is better off than Tangam because the community has a population of around 1,000 people.
  • Multilingualism: Tangams have become multilingual over time to communicate with their neighbours.
    
    • Kugging is surrounded by a number of villages inhabited by Adi subgroups such as Shimong, Minyongs, as well as the Buddhist tribal community of Khambas, among others.
  • Less or No Use of Tangam: They rarely speak their own language now because their population is restricted to a single village. Moreover, they are relatively unknown even within the state so there was no possibility of its expansion.
  • Lack of Development and Infrastructure: The village lacks proper infrastructure in all basic sectors of education, health, drinking water facilities, road and electricity. Not a single person from the community has gone to a university.

Languages of Arunachal Pradesh

• There has been no systematic, scientific or official survey on the number of languages in Arunachal Pradesh till recently.
  
  • An official linguistic survey by the state government began only in 2018, which is currently underway.
  • Before that, People’s Linguistic Survey of India was published in 2017.
• According to experts, there are around 32-34 languages with a disclaimer that it is not a conclusive figure.
  
  • If various linguistic varieties or dialects embedded within these languages are enlisted then the numbers can go up to 90.
• The languages of Arunachal Pradesh have been classified under the Sino-Tibetan language family and more specifically under the Tibeto-Burman and Tai group of languages, such as Lolo-Burmish, Bodhic, Sal, Tani, Mishmi, Hruissh and Tai.
• The education system introduced Devanagari, Assamese and Roman scripts for most tribal languages but new scripts such as Tani Lipi and Wancho Script have been developed by native scholars as well.
• According to the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, more than 26 languages of Arunachal Pradesh have been identified as endangered with the degrees ranging from ‘unsafe’, ‘definitely endangered’ to ‘critically endangered’.
• Risks:
  
  • The diversity of languages has led various communities to depend on English, Assamese and Arunachalee Hindi as the link languages.
  • The younger generation of various tribes, especially in the urban areas, has mostly discarded the use of their mother tongue.

Way Forward

• The study for the book took a multidisciplinary approach by taking into account not only language but also rituals, folklore, food habits, belief systems, etc.
• The book will help future children retain their unique identity as an ethnolinguistic group and will appeal to those interested in ethnolinguistics, anthropology and folkloristics of lesser studied tribes.

Source: IE

The Padmanabhaswamy Temple Case

Why in News

Recently, the Supreme Court of India upheld the right of the Travancore royal family to manage the property of deity at Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala).

• The Temple has been in the news since 2011 after the discovery of treasure worth over Rs. 1 lakh crore in its underground vaults.

Key Points

• Judgement:
  
  • The Supreme Court (SC) reversed the 2011 Kerala High Court decision, which had directed the Kerala government to set up a trust to control the management and assets of the temple.
  • The High Court (HC) had ruled that the successor to the erstwhile royals could not claim to be in control of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple after the amendment of definition of ‘Ruler’ in Article 366 (22) of the Constitution of India.
    
    • The definition of Ruler was amended by the Twenty Sixth (Constitutional) Amendment Act, 1971, which abolished the privy purses.
    • Article 366 (22) reads, “Ruler” means the Prince, Chief or other person who, at any time before the commencement of the Twenty Sixth (Constitutional) Amendment Act, 1971, was recognised as the Ruler of an Indian State or was recognised as the successor of such Ruler.
  • However, the SC rejected this and said that, as per customary law, the members of the royal family have the shebait rights even after the death of the last ruler.
    
    • Shebait rights means right to manage the financial affairs of the deity.
  • The SC held that, for the purpose of shebait rights the definition of Ruler would apply and would transfer to the successor.
• Administrative Committees:
  
  • The SC accepted the submission of the royal family that the temple is a public temple, and directed setting up of an administrative committee with the Thiruvananthapuram District Judge as its chairperson, for its transparent administration in the future.
    
    • The other members of the Committee would be a nominee of the trustee (royal family), the chief thanthri of the temple, a nominee of the State and a member nominated by the Union Ministry of Culture.
  • The SC also ordered a second committee to be constituted to advise the administrative committee on policy matters.
    
    • This would be chaired by a retired High Court judge nominated by the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court.
  • The primary duties of the two committees would be to preserve the treasures and properties.
• Background:
  
  • As per the Instrument of Accession signed between the princely states and the Government of India, the administration of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple was vested in trust in the Ruler of Travancore, since 1949.
  • In 1971, privy purses to the former royals were abolished through a constitutional amendment stripping their entitlements and privileges.
  • In 1991, when the last ruler of Travancore, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, passed away, his brother Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma took over the temple management.
  • This created a furore that he had no legal right to claim the control or management of the temple.
  • However, the royal family continued to manage the affairs of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple till the Kerala High Court in 2011 ruled that the family cannot continue to exert its shebait rights.

Source: TH

India's Second Voluntary Review of SDGs

Why in News

Recently, India has represented the second voluntary national review of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) report titled as ‘Decade of Action: Taking SDGs from Global to Local’ to the United Nations High-level Political Forum.

• The report, presented by NITI Aayog, discusses SDGs related policy, means of implementation and situation of Covid-19 in India.
• It presented the first voluntary national review of SDGs in 2017.

Key Points

• Localising SDGs: The goal wise account of the progress on SDGs has been represented with examples of a range of diverse practices and success stories of interventions from the States, specifically Aspirational Districts.
• Financial Assistance: Highlighted the challenges thrown up by the Covid-19 outbreak, India has called on developed countries to provide financial assistance to the developing countries, especially for global public good such as climate change mitigation and control of pandemics.
  
  • According to a study conducted by the government in partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — education, health, electricity, roads and water and sanitation — will require additional funding for “significant” progress.
• Curbing Illicit Financial Flows: Deliberating on the “SDG-17” that is about “partnerships for the goals”, the report highlighted the need for international cooperation for curbing illicit financial flows.
• Efforts to curb the Covid-19: It mentioned the vulnerabilities faced by the migrants and the urban poor in the wake of the pandemic.
  
  • India is leading a multi-faceted effort to revamp the public health infrastructure, protect jobs and livelihoods to reduce the impact of the Covid-19.
  • Government has announced economic relief packages for them.

Source: IE

Warning of Higher NPAs

Why in News

Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor has warned that the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic would lead to higher Non-performing Assets and capital erosion of banks.

Key Points

• Reasons:
  
  • Just in a span of decade, Indian economy has been hit by the global financial crisis of 2008-09 and the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
  • The current crisis may leave a longer impact on Indian economy, which is predicted to contract in the Financial Year (FY) 2020-21 for the first time in the past four decades.
  • Uncertainty about:
    
    • Full restoration of supply chains.
    • Normalisation of demand conditions.
    • Long term impact of the pandemic on India’s potential growth.
• Issues Involved:
  
  • Banks have poor asset quality, lack of profitability, loss of capital, excessive risk exposure, poor conduct, and liquidity concerns.
  • There is also a lack of a mechanism to address bank failures.
  • Stress on Non-banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) and mutual funds are emerging as crucial stress points in the financial system.
• Suggestions:
  • The RBI Governor has advised all financial intermediaries to assess the impact of Covid-19 on their balance sheet, asset quality, liquidity, profitability and capital adequacy for the FY 2020-21 and to work out possible mitigating measures.
    • The idea is to ensure continued credit supply to different sectors of the economy and maintain financial stability.
  • Financial intermediaries should make risk management in tune with the emerging contingencies.
    • The risk management includes, building buffers and raising capital, which will strengthen the internal defences of banks against the risks posed by Covid-19 also ensure credit flow.
  • Recapitalisation plan for Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and private banks since the minimum capital requirements of banks may no longer be sufficient enough to absorb the losses.
    • The minimum capital requirements of banks are calibrated based on historical loss events.

Source: TH

App to Monitor Rice Fields: Paddy Watch

Why in News

Researchers from University of Sydney in collaboration with other partners have been developing an app i.e. Paddy watch, which will act as the first real-time monitoring platform for rice fields.

• The project has been undertaken in collaboration with Google Earth and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO).

Key Points

• Development of the App: The Paddy watch is being developed in partnership with Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India along with the research institutes from different countries i.e. China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
  
  • These five countries hold the position of the largest rice-producing countries across the globe.
  • Among these, India, China and Indonesia are the world’s three largest producers of rice and together account for about 60% of the total world production.
• Functioning: The real-time land-use data will be generated using Google Earth and cloud computing technology, and will be verified by field operators in partner countries to ensure accuracy of rice production worldwide.
• Significance:
  
  • Digital Agriculture: The app would work on deep-learning techniques (works on the idea of Artificial Intelligence) to forecast crop yields and water consumption.
    
    • This type of technology would enhance the world's confidence to feed the population in a sustainable way.
  • Accurate Information: Accurate and up-to-date information on rice planted and harvested can be achieved through the app.
    
    • It would allow farmers, agricultural scientists, non-government organisations and government planners to manage land use to ensure food security in the world’s rice bowls.
      
      • Therefore, helps in meeting the United Nations-mandated sustainable development goal No.2 — of ‘Zero Hunger.’
    • It would help in water management and water security by predicting the use of water for the rice fields.
  • GreenHouse Gas Emission: As paddy fields release methane, a significant component to the greenhouse gases, the app would help in the estimation of the emission and impact of global warming.
  • Policy Formulation: The information collected through the app would also help the associated partners to develop policies for education, economic growth, gender equity, and reduction of social inequality.

Source: DTE