Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine standoff, Karim A.A. Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), located in The Hague, The Netherlands, said on February 28, that he will open an investigation into the situation in Ukraine “as rapidly as possible”.
• He believes that both war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine.
• In the past few days, Ukrainian authorities have accused Russian forces of targeting civilian and residential areas.
• While Ukraine is not a state party to the ICC, it has accepted the court’s jurisdiction in its territory twice in the past, adding that the investigation will be built upon what the ICC has found since 2013, while examining possible war crimes in Ukraine.
  • Russia is also not an ICC member.

Background of ICC role in the conflict

• An Investigation was opened into Ukraine first in relation to deaths of countless protesters at the hands of security forces in early 2014 before the ouster of the country’s former pro-Russian leader.
• This was followed by Russia illegally annexing Crimea and backing separatist forces in the eastern Ukraine.
• This conflict between separatist and Ukrainian forces, continuing since 2014, has killed nearly 14,000 people till the start of 2022.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a report in which it reviewed scientific evidence in the natural and social sciences as well as the economy.
• The IPCC came to the conclusion that climate change has already caused irreversible losses and damage to land, coastal and marine ecosystems and that these losses and damages are likely to continue in the future.
• As per report, if global average surface temperature rises by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, it warns of severe consequences for food supply, human health, biodiversity loss, and the integrity of the natural environment.

Key features of the report

• A series of urgent steps that global leaders must take are proposed by Working Group II, based on time frames for the near-term, mid-term, and long-term implications of climate change produced by average temperatures surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• The IPCC’s Working Group II study, titled “Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability,” is one of three expert publications that will contribute to the IPCC’s overall Assessment Report 6, which is scheduled to be released in September of next year.
• The results of one study were published last year. According to scientific estimates, between 3.3 and 3.6 billion people “live in environments that are particularly vulnerable to climate change.”
• Residents in coastal areas who are endangered by rising sea levels and extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods are included in this category. Naturally, India has numerous major coastal cities, like Mumbai and Chennai, that play key roles in the country’s manufacturing, exports, and services industries.
• The IPCC’s assessment indicates that a policy review is needed to assist these cities in adapting to climate change. As a result, IPCC’s judgments are categorised as having varying degrees of “very high confidence” to “low confidence,” depending on how strong the evidence is.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has said that the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which is the country’s largest equities and derivatives exchange, is a systemically significant market infrastructure institution that should be protected (MII).

Market Infrastructure Institution

• Institutions like stock exchanges, depositories, and clearing houses are all examples of Market Infrastructure Institutions, and they all play an important role in the nation’s economic infrastructure.
• Market infrastructure, according to a panel established (in 2010) under the supervision of former Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan, refers to the essential facilities and mechanisms that support the Indian capital market.
• The basic function of the securities and capital markets is to facilitate the allocation and reallocation of money and financial resources.
• MIIs contribute to the efficient use of money in the economy and the promotion of economic growth.
• It is they who provide the foundation of the capital allocation system, and they are essential for economic progress. They also have a net beneficial impact on society, just like any other infrastructural organisation would do.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• Members of the World Health Organisation (WHO) held the first round of negotiations towards the pandemic treaty on February 24, 2022.
• The meeting was aimed at agreeing on ways of working and timelines for a “convention, agreement or other international instrument” to prevent further pandemics and to improve the preparedness and response in case of its occurrence.

What is the pandemic treaty?

• In December 2021, the World Health Assembly agreed to start a global process to draft the pandemic treaty.
• The need for an updated set of rules was felt after the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the shortcomings of global health systems.
• The Health Assembly adopted a decision titled “The World Together” at its second special session since it was founded in 1948.
• Under the decision, the health organisation established an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) to draft and negotiate the contents of the pandemic treaty in compliance with Article 19 of the WHO Constitution.

Context

• The war in Ukraine has brought to the fore the plight of Indian students, many of them pursuing medicine.
• Amidst the turmoil, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a webinar on the Union Budget announcements on the health sector, stated that many young Indians were going to “small countries of the world for medical education” and, therefore, the private sector should be encouraged, along with cooperation from States, to set up more medical collegesand hospitals locally so that such aspirants remain in India.

State of the medical education in India

• The dynamics of India’s medical education system are complex.
• The most sought-after international destinations like U.S., the U.K. are too expensive for most Indians.
• In the last few decades, Russia, China and Ukraine, with their historical commitment to public health care have been able to offer more affordable, yet quality, education.
• India’s huge population still continues to be predominantly rural, but most of the trained medical doctors, paramedics and nurses gravitate towards cities for well-known reasons.
• The very nature of medical education, an empirical field, requires significant infrastructure — land, equipment, and trained faculty at the post graduate level — all of which are in short supply and uneven in their spread.
• Without correcting these deficiencies, India cannot expect to dramatically increase the availability of medical personnel. The Government needs to make health care the centrepiece of its economic rebuilding.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• Russian participation in the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), an international network for banks that facilitates seamless money transactions throughout the world, is being considered by the United States, Europe, and many other western countries.
• Because it has the ability to prevent Russia from obtaining foreign payments, this might be the most severe economic penalty imposed on the country in response to its military actions in Ukraine.

 About SWIFT

• SWIFT is a messaging network that is used by banks and financial institutions all over the world to send information relevant to financial transactions in a timely and error-free manner.
• The SWIFT network, which is based in Belgium, connects more than 11,000 banking and securities organisations in more than 200 nations and jurisdictions.
• Each participant on the platform is issued a unique eight-digit SWIFT number or a bank identity code, which is different from the other participants (BIC).
• If a person in New York with a Citibank account wants to send money to someone in London with an HSBC account, the payee would have to submit to his bank the account number of the London-based beneficiary as well as the eight-digit SWIFT code of the latter’s bank in order for the transaction to be processed.
• After then, Citi would send a SWIFT communication to HSBC. Once that has been received and authorised, the funds will be sent to the appropriate account. SWIFT is only a messaging platform that does not retain any securities or money; it is not a financial institution. It allows for standardised and dependable communication, which makes the transaction easier to complete.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• Urbanisation is an inevitable process of development that has the potential to provide privileged social and economic advantages, including better education, health, housing and employment opportunities.
• Though only half the world’s population lives in urban areas with the ability to generate 80% of the Global Gross Domestic Product (GDP),urbanisation has a good capacity and rich potential to improve well-being in societies.
• Rising Urban population-As the UN World Cities report highlights, we expect the present population of urban areas to increase from 55% to 68% by 2050. The urban population of Indian cities is projected to reach near 60% from 31% (2011) by 2050.
  • By 2030, India will have seven megacities which will include Ahmedabad and Hyderabad apart from New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru.

Benefits of green spaces

• Green spaces in cities and towns besides providing various ecosystem services and public health benefits also offer services of psychological relaxation, stress reduction, physical activities and reduction of climate-related vagaries such as pollution, heat waves, etc.
• Almost 70% of all greenhouse emissions is generated from an urban built environment. The ever-increasing pace of urbanisation is going to make this condition worse in the years ahead. Astudy shows  trees in megacities may save nearly $500 million per year in services including environmental protection making urban environments cleaner, more affordable and more pleasant places to live in.
• Urban green spaces have become essential for city planners and managers to mitigate negative environmental consequences and ensure a delicate balance between development and the environment.
• Ensuring environmental sustainability is one of the three interlinked principles of theNew Urban Agenda adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in 2016. The importance of green space has also been highlighted in Self Development Goal 11 dealing with sustainable cities and communities to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• In an effort to spur national and regional action to deliver the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through transforming food systems, the UN Food Systems Summit called for action by governments in five areas:
  • nourish all people;
  • boost nature-based solutions;
  • advance equitable livelihoods,
  • decent work and empowered communities; build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses; and
  • accelerate the means of implementation.
• Such a transformation in the Indian context would involve enhancing interfaces between the spheres of science, society and policy, focusing on sustainability, resource efficiency and circularity.

Mix of science and policy

• India’s Green Revolution in the 1960s, enabling food security and addressing widespread hunger and poverty, was achieved not only through science and technology and the development of improved high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat but also through policy measures and development of institutional structure.
• It included a vast agricultural research and technology transfer system at the national, regional, State and local levels.
• Although India is now self-sufficient in food grains production in the macro sense, it has about a quarter of the world’s food insecure people, a pointer to the amount of food necessary to allow all income groups to reach the caloric target (2,400 kcal in rural and 2,100 kcal in the urban set-up).
  • Nutrition indicators have marginally improved over the years. However, macro- and micronutrient malnutrition is widespread, with 18.7% of women and 16.2% of men unable to access enough food to meet basic nutritional needs, and over 32% of children below five years still underweight as per the recently released fifth National Family Health Survey (2019-2021) phase 2 compendium.
• India is ranked 101 out of 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index, 2021.
• Not surprisingly, widespread concerns about poverty, malnutrition and the need for a second Green Revolution are being made in tandem.
• The country faces the dual challenge of achieving nutrition security, as well as addressing declining land productivity, land degradation and loss of ecological services with change in land use.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• A full-scale invasion of Ukraine was initiated by Russian forces. The Russian activities have been extensively denounced, and they pose a number of issues about whether or not they violated international law.
• Background- The annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, following the overthrow of Victor Yanukovych from his position as President, marked the beginning of a massive military escalation in the ties between Russia and Ukraine. The annexation of Crimea by Russia was greeted with the implementation of sanctions by the international community. Russia, on the other hand, is still in control of Crimea, and its operations since 2014 have been focused on fomenting separatists in Ukraine’s eastern regions.
• In January 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the United States to let the country to become a member of NATO, prompting Russia to begin mobilising soldiers along the country’s eastern border. Tensions grew rapidly after Russia asked that NATO cease its military activity in eastern Europe and Ukraine in December 2021, which was followed by a Russian hack on the Ukrainian government website.
• It was on February 22^nd that Russia recognised the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass area, and it dispatched Russian soldiers to these regions. Finally, Russia started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine .
• The Russian activities have been extensively denounced, and they pose a number of issues about whether international law has been violated.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• In her budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman reaffirmed the Centre’s commitment to natural, chemical-free, organic and zero-budget farming.
• While the FM talked of promoting natural or chemical-free farming across the country, especially in a corridor in the Gangetic basin, no specific allocations have been made to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• In fact, currently-operational schemes such as the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana and the National Project on Organic Farming did not find any mention in the budget.
• The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, which has received a 4.2-times (year-on-year) larger allocation of Rs 10,433 crore, will earmark some funds for the on-ground implementation of chemical-free farming.