CURRENT AFFAIRS 28-10-2021
Topics
- Traffic Management Policy- Drones
- National Population Register (NPR)
- Why India should not join the net zero initiative
- The National Innovation Foundation (NIF)-New Medicine for Bovine Mastitis
- Bush Frog
1.Traffic Management Policy- Drones
#GS2-Government Policies & Interventions
Context
- The Ministry of Civil Aviation recently announced a drone traffic management policy framework. This could be the first step toward legalising drone operations beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).
In depth information
- The rules call for the use of private, third-party service providers to ensure that operations are safe.
- Unmanned Traffic Management Service Providers (UTMSP) will use the framework to provide automated, algorithm-driven software services rather than verbal communication, as in traditional Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems.
- Regulation Scope:
- All drones (excluding nano drones flying in the green zone) must transmit their real-time location with the Center via the network.
- On a need-to-know basis, law enforcement and security agencies will have access to some information in the UTM ecosystem.
- UTMSP’s primary responsibility will be to segregate and separate drones from other drones and manned aircraft in the airspace below 1,000 feet in the country.
- Supplementary Service Providers (SSPs) will aid the UTMSP by maintaining data regarding topography, weather, and the whereabouts of manned aircraft, as well as providing services like as insurance, data analytics, and drone fleet management.
- Authority of Approval:
- The DigitalSky platform will continue to be the interface for government stakeholders to offer drone operators with approvals and licences.
- In India, the DigitalSky platform offers end-to-end governance of drone-related activities.
- Financial Provisions:
- The regulation also authorises UTMSPs to charge users a service fee, with a portion of that price going to the Airports Authority of India.
- The Rules’ Importance: India has begun to take steps toward enabling advanced use cases such as cargo delivery by unmanned aircraft, as well as human transportation by unmanned aircraft.
What made a distinct framework for drones necessary?
- The current air traffic management (ATM) systems are not equipped to handle unmanned aircraft traffic.
- Furthermore, traditional methods of integrating unmanned aircraft into Indian airspace may require unmanned aircraft to be equipped with cumbersome and expensive hardware, which is neither practicable nor advisable.
- Furthermore, because traditional ATM is manual and requires human intervention, existing traffic management services supplied by ATCs (air traffic controllers) for manned aircraft cannot be scaled to manage drone traffic, which is predicted to increase by at least 100 times.
2.National Population Register (NPR)
#GS3-Internal security related issues.
Context:
- According to a document created by a commission under the Registrar General of India, the current version of the National Population Register (NPR) appears to have maintained contentious items such as “mother tongue, place of birth of father and mother, and last place of residency.”
In depth information
Register of the Nation’s Population
- It is a register of the country’s regular residents.
- The Citizenship Act of 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 are being implemented at the local (village/sub-town), sub-district, district, state, and national levels.
- NPR was first implemented in 2010 and was upgraded in 2015 when Aadhar was integrated.
- Every ordinary Indian resident is required to register with the NPR.
- For the purposes of NPR, a regular resident is someone who has lived in a local region for at least 6 months and plans to stay for at least another 6 months.
- The Registrar General of India will serve as the country’s “National Registration Authority” and Census Commissioner.
Current Status:
- The NPR update and the first phase of the Census — the House listing and Housing Census — were scheduled to take place concurrently from April to September 2020, however owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exercise was postponed indefinitely. No new dates have been announced as of yet.
- The goal is to compile a comprehensive identity database for every regular citizen of the country. The database would include both demographic and biometric information.
What exactly is the problem?
- The new questions were part of a trial exercise with 30 lakh respondents in September 2019, despite the fact that NPR was first produced in 2010 and updated in 2015.
- Some states and citizen groups have objected to the exercise, which is the first step toward compiling the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRC) in accordance with the Citizenship Rules of 2003.
Why has it been fought against?
- Because of its connection to the projected National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the yet-to-be-implemented Citizenship Amendment Act, many Opposition-ruled states have rejected updating the NPR (CAA).
- NPR is the initial stage toward compiling the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) or NRC, according to Citizenship Rules enacted in 2003.
- Six undocumented communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 are eligible for citizenship under the CAA, which was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019.
- There are concerns that the CAA, followed by a national NRC, will benefit non-Muslims who are not included in the proposed citizens’ register, while Muslims who are not included will have to prove their citizenship.
- CAA and NRC are not linked, according to the government, and there are no plans to build a national NRC at this time.
What distinguishes NPR from Census?
- The NPR’s goal is to develop a comprehensive identity database for every country resident, and it is “necessary for every country resident of India to register in the NPR.”
- While similar data is collected through Census, all individual level information acquired in Census is confidential, and “only aggregated statistics are provided at various administrative levels,” according to Section 15 of the Census Act of 1948.
3.Why India should not join the net zero initiative
#GS3-: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation
Context:
- Even after accounting for their net zero promises and improved emission reduction plans for 2030, the world’s top three emitters — China, the United States, and the European Union — will emit more than 500 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide before reaching net zero.
- There is no way to “keep 1.5°C alive” with these committed emissions. The goal is doomed from the start.
In depth information
What is the Net-zero output goal?
- Net-zero emissions are a method of calculating the amount of heat gas released into the atmosphere as a result of greenhouse gas absorption.
- The country will concentrate on minimising carbon emissions in zero-carbon combustion. However, under Net-zero carbon, the country will concentrate on achieving carbon neutrality.
- The country will focus on reducing human emissions in the first phase, such as consuming fossil fuels, assessing factory emissions, and so on.
- Net-zero releases, on the other hand, can be gradually expanded to the remaining places.
- The goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is gaining traction around the world. Many countries recommend it as a means of addressing climate change.
- To date, 58 countries have declared zero-emissions goals. These countries account for more than half of current global GHG emissions.
- They are all aiming to cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions during the next 30 years. International forums have requested that India adopt the release of net-zero emissions as well.
- However, there are additional contextual constraints that prevent you from accepting the Net-zero release’s goals. They claim that poor countries aren’t treated fairly.
Why should India not join Net Zero?
- Not included in any Protocols: Neither the Paris Agreement nor climate science compel governments to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Only universal achievement of this target “in the second half of the century” is required under the Paris Agreement.
- Equity Is Ignored by Net Zero: Claims that the world “must” meet specified goals by 2030 or 2050 are based on specific climate economic models. These are intended to meet the Paris targets at the “lowest possible cost,” sacrificing equity and climate justice in the process.
- Against Historical Responsibility: Less than a fifth of the world’s population is accountable for three-fifths of all historical cumulative emissions, with the United States and the European Union alone accounting for 45 percent. Declaring net zero today would be acquiescing to the continued over-appropriation of the global carbon budget by a few.
- India’s commitment will remain unchanged: India’s contribution to global emissions, both in terms of stock and flow, is so disproportionately little that any sacrifice made by the country will be in vain.
- Poor Priority of the West: The developed world’s inability to meet its pre-2020 pledges, as well as its refusal to admit this, gives India little faith in the West’s commitments.
India’s responsibilities
- India’s emissions storey does not fit into the top three. Despite housing more than a sixth of the world’s population, India is responsible for only 4.37 percent of total CO2 emissions since the pre-industrial era.
- India’s per capita emissions are less than half the global average, less than one-eighth that of the United States, and have not increased dramatically since 2000, as China’s have.
- The equal access to any global commons requires the allocation of property rights (Carbon Budget) without grandfathering. In the past and today, there has been no such restriction on the global carbon budget, allowing industrialised countries to fully exploit it.
- India must now assert its claim to a fair share of the global carbon budget in the interests of enlightened self-interest. The lack of such a claim just makes it easier for a few to continue to over-exploit the global commons.
- India’s claim gives it more long-term alternatives, which it desperately needs. It allows for the proper use of coal, oil, and gas in order to develop, eradicate poverty, hunger, and malnutrition for the benefit of all people.
- Even if India increased its short-term NDCs under the Paris Agreement, it should do so while claiming its share of the global commons.
Conclusion:
- Unless India is able to lower its carbon emissions and changes its current trajectory, the world will not be able to meet its targets for preventing global warming. India is now widely seen as having matured into a major global force. Coming of age, on the other hand, comes with the ability to take a stand and resist being buffeted by shifting political agendas.
- While we, like others, have a responsibility to the world community, we also have a responsibility to our population to be careful and deliberate about a decision as important as India’s climate pledge.
4.The National Innovation Foundation (NIF)-New Medicine for Bovine Mastitis
#GS3-Health, Economics of Animal-Rearing
Context
- The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) recently created Mastirak Gel, a poly-herbal medication for treating Mastitis in Dairy Cattle.
In depth information
- NIF is a Department of Science and Technology (DST) autonomous institute that renovates indigenous technology based on farmer wisdom.
- Mastirak Gel’s Importance:
- It has the ability to promote the health of the udder (the part of the cow that produces milk).
- It lowers inflammation, which is bad for the udder.
- It also assists in the cost-effective management of the condition by reducing the need of antibiotics.
- Antibiotic treatment of diseased animals is a public health risk.
- Mastitis is a condition that affects men.
- It’s an infectious condition that causes an inflammatory response in the mammary gland of dairy cows.
- It has varying degrees of severity, ranging from a mild disease with no gross changes in the secretion (milk) but an increase in inflammatory cells (somatic cells) in the milk to a severe disease with no gross changes in the secretion (milk) but an increase in inflammatory cells (somatic cells) in the milk.
- It may be accompanied by symptoms of mammary gland inflammation, such as swelling, redness, and pain.
- Due to a drop in milk quality, it has an impact on farm productivity, as well as income-generating activities.
Mastitis is a disease that affects cattle.
- Mastitis is an infectious disease that causes an inflammatory reaction in the cow’s mammary gland.
- Mastitis can be caused by a number of different microorganism species. Viruses, mycoplasma, fungi, and bacteria are among them.
- Mastitis is characterised by inflammation of the breast gland, which manifests as a red, hard lump. Due to a drop in milk quality, this has an influence on farm productivity and income-generating activities.
- Antibiotics are generally used in the treatment. However, this is a public health risk.
5.Bush Frog
#GS3- Species in News
Context
- The bush frog, Raorchestesponmudi, consumes cardamom moths that kill the pseudo-stem, a severe threat to farmers.
- A cardamom-friendly frog species native to the Western Ghats has been discovered, destroying insects known to harm cardamom’s pseudo-stem, a major threat to farmers.
In depth information
- Raorchestesponmudi is the scientific name for this species.
- It belongs to the Rhacophoridae family of frogs.
- The life cycle of the bush frog differs significantly from that of other frog species, and water is not required for the growth of its eggs.
- It consumes the shoot borer Conogethespunctiferalis, which enters through immature panicles and attacks the shoots and stems of cardamom plants, destroying them on a vast scale.
- The bush frog is common in the Ponmudi district of the Western Ghats (endemic to the Western Ghats), and cardamom planters are familiar with it.
- The bush frog can also be found in the Idukki district’s CHR (Cardamom Hill Reserve) districts of Udumbanchola and Peerumade.
- Pesticides have a negative impact on the environment.
- The bush frog is not found in cardamom plantations, which are sprayed with highly hazardous chemicals.
- Critically Endangered according to the IUCN.