Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay - Sarat Chandra IAS Academy

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Intellectual Property | Copyright
International MSMEs Day
Ladakh | Employment
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
Smart Cities Project
Dragon Man

Intellectual Property | Copyright

#GS3 #Intellectual Property Rights #GS2 #Government Policies

Context: Recently, the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology was locked out of his Twitter account for an hour allegedly over a notice received for violation of the US’ Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) 1998.

What is the DMCA and how does it ensure implementation of the WIPO treaties?

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, is a 1998 law passed in the US and is among the world’s first laws recognising intellectual property on the internet.
The law oversees the implementation of the two treaties signed and agreed upon by member nations of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in 1996.
WIPO members had in December 1996 agreed upon two treaties, namely the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
Both the treaties require member nations and signatories to provide in their respective jurisdictions, protection to intellectual property that may have been created by citizens of different nations who are also co-signatories to the treaty.
The said protection, accorded by each member state, must not be any less in any way than the one being given to a domestic copyright holder.
Further, it also obligates that signatories to the treaty ensure ways to prevent circumvention of the technical measures used to protect copyrighted work.
It also provides the necessary international legal protection to digital content.
India is a member of both the treaties.

Who can generate a DMCA notice and how are they sent to companies or websites?

Any content creator of any form, who believes that their original content has been copied by user or a website without authorisation can file an application citing their intellectual property has been stolen or violated.
Users can either approach the website on which the content has been hosted, or third party service providers like DMCA.com, which utilise a team of experts to help take down the stolen content for a small fee.
In the case of social media intermediaries like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, content creators can directly approach the platform with a proof of them being original creators.
Since these companies operate in nations which are signatories to the WIPO treaty, they are obligated to remove the said content if they receive a valid and legal DMCA takedown notice.

Intellectual Property rights:

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are the rights acquired by an owner of an intellectual property.
Intellectual property is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect.
In simple terms, it refers to creations of the mind, such as
- Inventions
- literary & artistic works
- designs & symbols,
- names & images used in commerce.
The main purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods & strike the right balance between the interests of innovators & wider public interest.

World Intellectual Property Organisation:

It is one of the oldest specialised agencies of the United Nations.
It was created in 1967 to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of IP throughout the world.
It currently administers 26 international treaties.
Its headquarters is located at Geneva, Switzerland
As of date, 193 nations across the world, including India, are members of WIPO.

Major Functions:

Policy forum to shape balanced international IP rules for a changing world.
Global services to protect IP across borders and to resolve disputes.
Technical infrastructure to connect IP systems and share knowledge.
Cooperation and capacity-building programs to enable all countries to us
IP for economic, social and cultural development.
A world reference source for IP information.

International MSMEs Day:

#GS3 #Industrial Growth #Resource mobilisation

Context: Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) Day is celebrated on 27th June to recognise the contribution of MSMEs in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) every year by United nations.

Theme of MSME Day 2021: Key to an inclusive and sustainable recovery.
This year, the UN and its partners celebrate the important role that the entrepreneurs play in strengthening the global economy.

History:

The United Nations (UN) designated 27th June as Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day through a resolution passed in the UN General Assembly in April 2017.
In May 2017, a program titled ‘Enhancing National Capacities for Unleashing Full Potentials of MSMEs in Achieving the SDGs in Developing Countries’ was launched.
It has been funded by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Sub-Fund of the United Nations Peace and Development Fund.

Challenges faced by MSMEs due to Pandemic:

Small businesses, including those run by women and young entrepreneurs, are being hit hardest by the economic fall-out of the pandemic
Unprecedented lockdown measures enacted to contain the spread of the coronavirus have resulted in supply chain disruptions and a massive drop in demand in most sectors.
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) identified five main challenges for small scale manufacturers.
- Firstly, unprecedented uncertainty about the further development of the pandemic, its impacts on society and policy responses.
- Secondly, in the area of sales, due to collapsed markets, reduced consumer confidence and changing consumer preferences.
- Thirdly, concerns about availability of a productive workforce and necessary measures to zero out infection risks through changes in workplace and work procedures.
- Fourth, the financial burden of stranded and decaying stocks and equipment, and
- Fifth, the disruption of supply chains.

Significance:

Micro, small and medium sized enterprises are vital in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular in promoting innovation, creativity and decent work for all.
Efforts to enhance access to finance for SMEs across key sectors of national economies are an important element of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
SDG targets 8.3 and 9.3 call for enhancing the access of SMEs to financial services.
SMEs are an important element in the implementation of SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) and SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure.
To continue playing their crucial role in creating decent jobs and improving livelihoods, small businesses depend more than ever on an enabling business environment, including support for access to finance, information, and markets.
These types of enterprises are responsible for significant employment and income generation opportunities across the world and have been identified as a major driver of poverty alleviation and development.
According to the United Nations (UN), as many as 90 per cent of businesses are generated from MSMEs and these businesses provide 60 to 70 per cent of employment.
The contribution of MSME to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) worldwide is 50%.

Measures by India to promote MSME Sector:

MSMEs contribute 30% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
In terms of exports, they are an integral part of the supply chain and contribute about 48% of the overall exports.
MSMEs also play an important role in employment generation, as they employ about 110 million people across the country.
A credit linked subsidy scheme called Prime Minister’s Employment Generation programme (PMEGP) for setting up of new micro-enterprises and to generate employment opportunities in rural as well as urban areas of the country.
A Scheme for Promoting Innovation, Rural Industry & Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE): The scheme promotes innovation & rural entrepreneurship through rural Livelihood Business Incubator (LBI), Technology Business Incubator (TBI) and Fund of Funds for start-up creation in the agro-based industry.
Interest Subvention Scheme was introduced by the Reserve Bank of India wherein relief is provided upto 2% of interest to all the legal MSMEs on their outstanding fresh/incremental term loan/working capital during the period of its validity.
CHAMPIONS portal works to assist Indian MSMEs march into the big league as National and Global CHAMPIONS by solving their grievances and encouraging, supporting, helping and hand holding them.
MSME SAMBANDH: It is a Public Procurement Portal. It was launched to monitor the implementation of the Public Procurement from MSEs by Central Public Sector Enterprises.

Ladakh | Employment

#GS2 #Reservation policies #GS3 #Employment

Context: All jobs in the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh have been reserved for the residents of the region, according to an order issued by Lieutenant-Governor R.K. Mathur.
Key Details:

The population of Ladakh, which comprises the districts of Leh and Kargil, is around 2.8 lakh as per the last census.
The reservation of jobs was one of the key demands of the Leh People’s Movement comprising all political parties and the influential Ladakh Buddhists Association.
The People’s Movement was formed last year to demand protection of jobs and ownership of land to the locals of the region.
As per the Order, no person shall be qualified for appointment to the service unless the person is a resident of the UT of Ladakh.
The new recruitment rules are mentioned in the Clause 11 of the Union Territory of Ladakh Employment (Subordinate) Service Recruitment Rules, 2021.
The notification further said that the appointment to the service shall be made by direct recruitment; or by promotion provided that the terms and manner of appointment by absorption shall be as notified by the Administration by a general or special order.
The competent authority to appoint a person to the service by absorption shall be the UT administration.
Persons who have already been appointed to a post in the cadre of J&K Employment (Subordinate) Service and then allotted for service in the Ladakh in accordance with the provisions of Section 89(2) of the J&K Reorganization Act, 2019, shall be deemed to have been appointed to the Service at the initial constitution.
The eligibility, age limit and other qualifications for direct recruitment shall be as prescribed by the administration.
Last year, J&K introduced the domicile certificate as eligibility criteria for appointment to government services, replacing Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC), which had been rendered null and void after the abrogation of the special status.

About Ladakh:

Ladakh was made a UT after the region was separated from Jammu and Kashmir under the State Reorganisation Act on August 5, 2019.
Ladakh is a mountaneous region which is sandwiched between Karakoram Range in North and Himalyan Range in the South.
It is composed of two districts:
- Leh – It is the 2nd largest district of India and it covers more than half of the area of Jammu and Kashmir.
- Kargil – It lies near Line of Control. Zanskar Range is a part of Kargil.
It is bordered by the Chinese Tibet Autonomous Region to the east, the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to the south, both the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan to the west, and the southwest corner of Xinjiang across the Karakoram Pass in the far north.
The Indus River and its major tributaries, the Shyok-Nubra, Chang Chenmo, Hanle, Zanskar, and Suru-dras rivers, drain the region. Glacio-fluvial processes aided by freeze- thaw weathering have formed the high altitude landscape of Ladakh.
Ladakh has an extremely harsh environment and one of the highest and driest inhabited places on earth. Ladakh’s climate is referred to as a “cold desert” climate due to its combined features of arctic and desert climates.
The entire area is nearly devoid of vegetation with the exception of valley floors and irrigated areas, due to the following factors:
- These include wide diurnal and seasonal fluctuations in temperature, from -40°C in winter to +35°C in summer, and extremely low precipitation, with an annual 10 cm to 30 cm primarily from snow.
- Due to high altitude and low humidity, the radiation level is amongst the highest in the world.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

#GS1 #Modern Indian History #Freedom Movement

Context: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage to Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay on his Jayanti on 27th June.

About:

He was one of the greatest Indian novelists, poets and journalists.
Chattopadhyay is widely regarded as a key figure in literary renaissance of Bengal as well as the broader Indian subcontinent.
He was born on 27th June 1838 in the village of Kanthapura in the town of North 24 Parganas, Naihati, present day West Bengal.
He composed the song Vande Mataram in Sanskrit, which was a source of inspiration to the people in their freedom struggle.
In 1857, there was a strong revolt against the rule of East India Company but Bankim Chandra Chatterjee continued his studies and passed his B.A. Examination in 1859.
The Lieutenant Governor of Calcutta appointed Bankim Chandra Chatterjee as Deputy Collector in the same year.
His years at work were replete with incidents that brought him into conflict with the colonial government.
He was, however, made a Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (CMEOIE) in 1894.
He also received the title of Rai Bahadur in 1891.
He was in Government service for thirty-two years and retired in 1891.
He died on 8th April, 1894.

Contributions to India’s Freedom Struggle:

His epic Novel Anandamath – set in the background of the Sanyasi Rebellion (1770-1820), when Bengal was facing a famine too – made Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay an influential figure on the Bengali renaissance.
He kept the people of Bengal intellectually stimulated through his literary campaign.
He also founded a monthly literary magazine, Bangadarshan, in 1872, through which Bankim is credited with influencing the emergence of a Bengali identity and nationalism.
Bankim Chandra wanted the magazine to work as the medium of communication between the educated and the uneducated classes.
The magazine stopped publication in the late 1880s, but was resurrected in 1901 with Rabindranath Tagore as its editor.
While it carried Tagore’s writings – including his first full-length novel Chokher Bali – the ‘new’ Bangadarshan retained its original philosophy, nurturing the nationalistic spirit.
During the Partition of Bengal (1905), the magazine played a vital role in giving an outlet to the voices of protest and dissent. Tagore’s Amar Sonar Bangla – the national anthem of Bangladesh now – was first published in Bangadarshan.

Other Literary Contributions:

Chattopadhyay wrote fourteen novels and many serious, serio-comic, satirical, scientific and critical treatises in Bengali.
He is known as Sahitya Samrat (Emperor of Literature) in Bengali.
He had studied Sanskrit and was very interested in the subject, but later took on the responsibility to make Bengali the language of the masses. However, his first published work – a novel – was in English.
His famous novels include Kapalkundala (1866), Debi Choudhurani, Bishabriksha (The Poison Tree), Chandrasekhar (1877), Rajmohan’s wife and Krishnakanter Will.

Anandamath:

Anandamath (The Abbey of Bliss, 1882) is a political novel which depicts a Sannyasi (Hindu ascetic) army fighting a British force.
The book calls for the rise of Indian nationalism. The novel was also the source of the song Vande Mataram (I worship my Motherland for she truly is my mother) which, set to music by Rabindranath Tagore, was taken up by many Indian nationalists, and is now the National Song of India.
The plot of the novel is loosely set on the Sannyasi Rebellion. He imagined untrained Sannyasi soldiers fighting and defeated the highly experienced British Army; ultimately, however, he accepted that the British could not be defeated.
The novel first appeared in serial form in Bangadarshan, the literary magazine that Chattopadhyay founded in 1872.
Vande Mataram became prominent during the Swadeshi movement, which was sparked by Lord Curzon’s attempt to partition Bengal into a Hindu majority West and Muslim majority East.
Drawing from the Shakti tradition of Bengali Hindus, Chattopadhyay personified India as a Mother Goddess known as Bharat Mata, which gave the song a Hindu undertone.

Smart Cities Project:

#GS1 #Urbanisation #Polpulation Related Issues #Infrastructure

Context: The Union ministry of housing and urban affairs has released the list of India smart cities awards (ISCA) 2020.

Highlights:

The awards were announced to commemorate six years of the central government’s three initiatives to spur urban development:
- Smart Cities Mission (SCM).
- Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).
- Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U).
Smart City awards were given across the themes of social aspects, governance, culture, urban environment, sanitation, economy, built environment, water, and urban mobility.
For the year of the pandemic, additional parameters of sustainable business model of Integrated Command and Control Centres and innovation in Covid-19 management were also counted for the awards.

Performance of various States and cities:

Uttar Pradesh emerged on the top among all states, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Surat (Gujarat) won the award jointly for their overall development.
Ahmedabad bagged the ‘Smart Cities Leadership Award’ and Chandigarh, the award for union territories, while Indore won the “Innovative Idea Award”.
Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh also took home several honours, in the Social Aspects, Sanitation and Urban Environment categories.

Smart Cities mission:

Government of India launched the smart cities mission in 2015.
It is an innovative initiative under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local development and harnessing technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens.
Objective: To promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of Smart Solutions.
Focus: On sustainable and inclusive development and to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a lighthouse to other aspiring cities.
It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
Smart city is envisaged to have four pillars:
- Social Infrastructure.
- Physical Infrastructure.
- Institutional Infrastructure (including Governance).
- Economic Infrastructure.

Dragon Man

#GS3 #Evolution of Human Species #GS1 #Culture

Context: Researchers from China have found an ancient human skull of new human species dubbed the “Dragaon Man” or Homo longi in the Songhua River in China’s Harbin city that could belong to an altogether.

Key Details:

The name “Dragon Man” has been derived from the Long Jiang or Dragon River in China’ Heilongjiang province where Harbin is located.
The cranium could be over 146,000 years old. Because of the distinctive shape of the skull, some team members have suggested that it be declared a part of a new species of the genus Homo.
The size of the skull, which has a considerable brain capacity, is comparable to that of modern humans and Neanderthals.
Modern humans are considered to have very large brains. While sizes can vary between populations and males and females, the average capacity of a human brain is about 1,300 cubic centimetres, and it can weigh anywhere between 1,300-1,400 grams. In comparison, a cat’s brain weighs just about 30 grams.

Significance of the discovery

If the “Dragon Man” is a new species, it might bridge the gaps between our ancient ancestors called Homo erectus and us.
It brings new knowledge about the evolution of Homo sapiens.
Interbreeding with ancient humans allowed Homo sapiens to acquire genes that improved their chances of survival, and that some of these genes are present in modern humans even today. For instance, some of the DNA inherited from Neanderthals is believed to be involved in boosting immunity.

Other Human Species:

Modern humans are the only human species that exist in the world today. While the exact number of human species is a matter of debate, most scientists believe that there are at least 21 of them.
Sahelanthropus tchadensis is believed to be the oldest member of the human family tree. They lived about 7-6 million years ago near Chad in Africa.
Orrorin tugenensis lived about 6.2-5.8 million years ago in Eastern Africa. As per the Smithsonian Museum, this species is the oldest early human on the family tree and members from this species were approximately the size of a chimpanzee.
The other species that lived in Eastern Africa are Ardipithecus kadabba, Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus anamensis, Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy’s species), etc.
Homo habilis lived about 2.4-1.4 million years ago in Eastern and Southern Africa. This species still retained some of the ape-like features.
Homo erectus lived about 1.89 million-110,000 years ago, in Northern, Eastern, and Southern Africa and Western and East Asia. ‘Turkana Boy’ is the most complete fossil belonging to this species.
Homo floresiensis lived around 100,000-50,000 years ago, in Asia.
Hobbit – It is one of the most recently discovered early human species. Specimens have so far only been found on an Indonesian island.
Homo heidelbergensis lived about 700,000-200,000 years ago in Europe, Asia and Africa. This was the first early human species to live in colder climates.
Homo neanderthalensis lived about 400,000-40,000 years ago, and co-existed with Homo sapiens in Europe and central Asia.
Homo sapiens – This is the species to which all existing humans belong evolved in Africa nearly 300,000 years ago as a result of some dramatic climate change events.
Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) – They are believed to be the closest extinct human relatives and lived about 400,000-40,000 years ago in Europe and southwestern to central Asia.

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