IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

Centre to form panel to resolve issues relating to Ladakh land, culture

News

  • The Centre has decided to form a committee under Minister of State for Home to find a solution to issues associated with preservation of Ladakh’s land, culture and language apart from demands from the region to be included under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

Preservation of Ladakh’s land, culture and language

  • In 2019, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes recommended inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule.
  • The commission took note of the fact that the newly created Union Territory is predominantly a tribal region.
  • The Sixth Schedule has provisions for the administration of tribal areas in the border states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
  • It has provisions for the constitution of autonomous districts and councils with a varying degree of autonomy to frame laws to protect interests of the tribals.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Government approves Central Sector Scheme for Industrial Development of Jammu & Kashmir

News

  • The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs considered and approved the proposal of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade for Central Sector Scheme for Industrial Development of Jammu & Kashmir.

Scheme for Industrial Development

  • The scheme is approved with a total outlay of Rs. 28,400 crore upto the year 2037.
  • Government of India has formulated New Industrial Development Scheme for Jammu & Kashmir (J&K IDS, 2021) as Central Sector Scheme for the development of Industries in the UT of Jammu & Kashmir.
  • The main purpose of the scheme is to generate employment which directly leads to the socio economic development of the area.

Major Impact and employment generation potential

  • Scheme is to bring about radical transformation in the existing industrial ecosystem of J&K with emphasis on job creation, skill development and sustainable development by attracting new investment and nurturing the existing ones, thereby enabling J&K to compete nationally with other leading industrially developed States/UTs of the country.
  • It is anticipated that the proposed scheme is likely to attract unprecedented investment and give direct and indirect employment to about 4.5 lakh persons.
  • Additionally, because of the working capital interest subvention the scheme is likely to give indirect support to about 35,000 persons.

Meeting India’s air quality targets across South Asia may prevent 7% of pregnancy losses: Lancet study

News

  • Poor air quality is associated with a considerable proportion of pregnancy loss in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, according to a modelling study in The Lancet Planetary Health journal.

Poor air quality

  • An estimated 349,681 pregnancy losses per year in South Asia were associated with exposure to PM2.5 concentrations that exceeded India’s air quality standard (more than 40 µg/m³), accounting for 7% of annual pregnancy loss in the region from 2000-2016
  • To carry out their analysis, the authors combined data from household surveys on health from 1998-2016 and estimated exposure to PM2.5 during pregnancy through combining satellite with atmospheric modelling outputs.
  • They created a model to examine how exposure to PM2.5 increased women’s risk of pregnancy loss, calculating risk for each 10 µg/m³ increased in PM2.5 after adjusting for maternal age, temperature and humidity, seasonal variation, and long-term trends in pregnancy loss.
  • Gestational exposure to PM2.5 was associated with an increased likelihood of pregnancy loss, and this remained significant after adjusting for other factors.
  • Each increase in 10 µg/m³ was estimated to increase a mother’s risk of pregnancy loss by 3%. The increase in risk was greater for mothers from rural areas or those who became pregnant at an older age, compared to younger mothers from urban areas.
  • Although WHO’s guidelines aims for a safer level of air pollution, India’s standard is a more realistic target level, given the high average levels of air pollution in the region and the need to balance practical governance and public health.

Telangana becomes the 3rd State to complete Urban Local Bodies reforms; Additional borrowing permission of Rs.2,508 crore issued

News

  • Telangana has become the 3rd State in the country to successfully undertake “Urban Local Bodies (ULB)” reform stipulated by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.

ULB reform

  • The State has become eligible to mobilise additional financial resources of Rs.2,508 crore through Open Market Borrowings.
  • Permission for the same was issued by the Department of Expenditure on 7thJanuary, 2021. Telangana has now joined the two other States namely, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, who have completed this reform.
  • On completion of urban local bodies reform, these three States have been granted additional borrowing permission of Rs.7,406 crore.
  • Reforms in the urban local bodies and the urban utilities reforms are aimed at financial strenghtening of ULBs in the State and to enable them to provide better public health and sanitation services. Economically rejuvenated ULBs will also be able to create good civic infrastructure.

So far 10 States have implemented the One Nation One Ration Card System, 7 States have done ease of doing business reforms, and 3 States have done local body reforms.

Total additional borrowing permission issued so far to the States who have done the refoms stands at Rs.­­­54,190 crore.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Pakistan’s anti-terrorism court issues arrest warrant for JeM chief Masood Azhar

News

  • In a significant development, an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan issued an arrest warrant for banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar on the charges of terror financing.

Significant development

  • The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Gujranwala issued the warrant during a hearing in a terror financing case instituted by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab police against some members of the JeM.
  • Following immense international pressure after the Pulwama attack, the Pakistan government had arrested over 100 members of banned militant outfits including the JeM chief’s son and brother.
  • The government also took control of the JeM, Mumbai terror attack mastermind Haifiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawah (uD) and Falahai Insaniat Foundation (FIF) properties including seminaries and mosques across the country.
  • JeM had claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF soldiers.
  • In 2019, the United Nations designated Azhar a “global terrorist” after China lifted its hold on a proposal to blacklist the Pakistan-based JeM chief, a decade after New Delhi approached the world body for the first time on the issue.
  • The UN committee listed Azhar on May 1, 2019 as being associated with Al-Qaeda for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of”, “supplying, selling or transferring arms and related material to”, “recruiting for”, “otherwise supporting acts or activities of”, and “other acts or activities indicating association with” the JeM.
  • Azhar is a fugitive released by India in exchange of passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814 in 1999.
  • After his release in 1999, Azhar formed the Jaish-e-Mohammed and scripted many audacious terror strikes in India.
  • The global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is instrumental in pushing Pakistan to take measures against terrorists roaming freely in Pakistan and using its territory to carry out attacks in India and elsewhere.

The Paris-based FATF placed Pakistan on the Grey List in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019.

Tripura: Significant decline in illegal border crossings last year, says BSF

News

  • Illegal cross-border movements in Tripura last year were significantly less than 2019, Inspector General, BSF, Tripura frontiers said.
  • The border personnel apprehended 131 people for unauthorised crossovers in 2020, far less than the previous year’s tally of 236.

Illegal border crossings

  • The border guards are working closely with the state police and other security agencies to curb insurgency and other border crimes.
  • Tripura shares an 856-km-long international boundary with Bangladesh, of which 67km is still unfenced.
  • It was in one of these unfenced patches of land in Dhalai district that an abduction of four border fencing workers by an insurgent outfit was reported recently.
  • The top BSF officer said that fencing has been completed in 95% of border areas and the Bangladeshi authorities are expected to issue a ‘no objection’ to fencing areas they initially had reservations on.

At 313, Mumbai beats Delhi with ‘very poor’ AQI

News

  • Mumbai’s air quality dropped to its worst so far this year with the Air Quality Index (AQI) – a pollutant measuring indicator- at 313 (very poor), worse than Delhi’s.

Very poor AQI

  • The AQI, recorded by the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), for Delhi was 256, which falls in the “poor” category.
  • Mumbai’s AQI has been in the “very poor” category since January 1, with few days of a slight drop in the pollution level this week.
  • The SAFAR categorises AQI levels for PM2.5 in the 0-50 range as good; 51-100 as satisfactory; 101-200 as moderate; 201-300 as poor; 301-400 as very poor and above 400 as severe.