General Studies Paper-2

Context: Hamas announced its acceptance of a ceasefire proposal put forth by Egypt and Qatar, signaling a potential breakthrough in the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.

About

• The proposal includes a three-stage truce, each phase lasting 42 days.
• It includes a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a return of displaced Palestinians to their homes as well as an exchange of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners.

What is Hamas?

• Hamas is the largest Palestinian militant Islamist group and one of the two major political parties in the region.
• Currently, it governs more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
• Foundation: The group was founded in the late 1980s, after the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
• Hamas as a whole, or in some cases its military wing, is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other countries.

Israel Palestine Conflict

• It is a decades long dispute between Israel and Palestine that began in the middle of the twentieth century when the Jews from various parts of the world were granted the homeland in present-day Israel by Britain.
• It is one of the world’s longest conflicts where Israel has occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip which the Palestine state claims.
• Numerous attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the peace process by various groups of countries and the United Nation.
• With time, the countries around have normalized the ties with Israel through the Abraham Accord, Oslo Accord, etc.
• But the deadlock still persists and the world community is persistent in its effort to attain the two-state solution.

Present Conflict

• Backdrop of the recent attack: Hamas’s attack follows months of rising violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with stepped-up Israeli raids, Palestinian street attacks and assaults by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages.
• Issue over Jerusalem: Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem as its capital and not just a part of it. But Palestinians don’t agree with that and rather want it to be their capital of future independent Palestine.

Way Ahead

• Peace based on a “two-state solution” is much needed with the help of international organizations and can only be achieved from Israel-Palestine talks.
• Israel said the deal did not meet its “core demands” and its War Cabinet has decided to continue the Rafah operation. However it would send negotiators to Egypt to work on a deal.

General Studies Paper-3

Context: Techniques within carbon farming can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

About

• Carbon farming, also known as carbon sequestration farming or regenerative agriculture, refers to a set of agricultural practices designed to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the soil or biomass.
  • The goal is to mitigate climate change by reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
• Regions with long growing seasons, sufficient rainfall, and substantial irrigation are best suited to practise carbon farming because they provide the best conditions in which to sequester carbon, through vegetation growth.

Common Techniques used in Carbon Farming

• Cover cropping: Planting cover crops like legumes or grasses during fallow periods helps to protect and enrich the soil, promoting carbon storage.
• No-till farming: Avoiding or minimizing tillage helps to preserve soil structure and organic matter, preventing carbon loss from the soil.
• Agroforestry: Integrating trees and shrubs into agricultural landscapes not only sequesters carbon but also provides additional ecosystem services such as shade, windbreaks, and habitat for wildlife.
• Biochar: Biochar is a type of charcoal produced from organic materials like agricultural waste. When added to soil, biochar can enhance fertility and carbon sequestration.
• Perennial crops: Planting perennial crops instead of annuals helps to minimize soil disturbance and increase carbon storage over time.
• Integrated nutrient management practices promote soil fertility and reduce emissions by using organic fertilizers and compost.
• Livestock management strategies including rotational grazing, optimising feed quality, and managing animal waste can reduce methane emissions and increase the amount of carbon stored away in pasture lands.

Significance

• Climate Change Mitigation: By increasing carbon storage in agricultural lands, carbon farming helps mitigate climate change by reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
• Soil Health Improvement: Many carbon farming practices, such as cover cropping, crop rotation, and no-till farming, enhance soil health and fertility.
• Biodiversity Conservation: Carbon farming methods often prioritize the preservation and restoration of natural habitats within agricultural landscapes.
  • These practices provide crucial habitat for native species, support pollinators, and enhance overall biodiversity, contributing to ecosystem resilience.
• Resilience to Climate Change: Climate-resilient agriculture practices, such as agroforestry and diversified cropping systems promoted within carbon farming, help farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change.

What are the Opportunities in India?

• Agro-Ecological Practices: Grassroots initiatives and pioneering agrarian research in India are demonstrating the viability of organic farming to sequester carbon.
  • In this regard, agro-ecological practices in India could yield significant economic benefits, with the potential to generate $63 billion in value from approximately 170 million hectares of arable land.
  • This estimate includes an annual payment of around ₹5,000-6,000 per acre for farmers to provide climate services by adopting sustainable agricultural practices.
• Topography of India: Regions with extensive agricultural land, such as the Indo-Gangetic plains and the Deccan Plateau, are well suited to adopt carbon farming whereas the mountainous terrain of the Himalayan region is less so.
  • Coastal areas are prone to salinisation and have limited access to resources, thus limited the adoption of traditional farming practices.
  • Carbon credit systems can incentivise farmers by providing additional income through environmental services.
  • Studies have shown agricultural soils can absorb 3-8 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent every year over 20-30 years.
  • This capacity can bridge the gap between feasible emissions reductions and the indispensable stabilisation of the climate.
  • So carbon farming could also be a sustainable strategy to mitigate climate change and enhance food security in India.

Challenges to Carbon Farming

• Dependent on Other Factors: Carbon farming effectiveness varies depending on multiple factors — geographical location, soil type, crop selection, water availability, biodiversity, and farm size and scale.
  • It can be challenging in hot and dry areas where the availability of water is limited, and prioritised for drinking and washing needs.
  • Limited water availability can hinder the growth of plants, thus restricting the potential for sequestration through photosynthesis
  • Selecting which plants to grow also becomes crucial because not all species trap and store carbon in the same amounts or in an equally effective manner.
  • Fast-growing trees and deep-rooted perennial grasses tend to be better at this task — but on the flip side, these types of plants may not be well-suited to arid environments.
• Financial Assistance: Adoption of carbon farming practices require financial assistance for farmers to overcome the costs of implementing them.
  • In the context of developing countries like India, small-scale farmers lack the resources to invest in sustainable land management practices and environmental services.

Conclusion

• Scaling up Carbon Farming requires concerted efforts to address several challenges, including limited awareness, inadequate policy support, technological barriers, and an enabling adoption environment.
• Yet promoting carbon farming is in India’s interests — to mitigate climate change while improving soil health, enhancing biodiversity, and creating economic opportunities for its adopters.
• In sum, while carbon farming holds promise as a mitigation strategy, addressing these challenges is essential to realise its full potential in combating climate change.

General Studies Paper-3

Context: The India Employment Report 2024, analyzes job trends over 22 years using surveys. It highlights improvements in job quality, higher female job participation, recovery after COVID-19, and challenges like youth unemployment, informal jobs, and the need for better education and job policies. Key finding and recommendations of the India Employment Report 2024

What improvements are noted in the job market?

Pre COVID-19 Improvements

• From 2000 to 2019, there was a significant shift from agricultural jobs to non-farm sectors, indicating economic progress.
• A steady increase in regular employment was noted, with a decrease in unorganized sector jobs.

During COVID-19 Changes

• Temporary halt in the growth of regular employment and rise in unorganized sector jobs.
• A significant 9% yearly increase in farming jobs during the pandemic.
• Non-farm jobs also increased by more than 2.6%, surpassing growth rates from 2012 to 2019.

Post COVID-19 Recovery

• Recovery in regular and casual wages, with casual wages increasing even more from 2019 to 2022.
• Decrease in unemployment rates from 6% in 2018 to 3.2% in 2023.
• Female workforce participation rose significantly, from 24.5% in 2019 to 37% in 2023.

What are the current employment challenges?

• High Agricultural Employment: About 46.6% of workers are still employed in agriculture as of 2022, a slight increase from 42.4% in 2019, indicating a need to boost non-farm employment.
• Skill and Job Mismatch: The increasing capital and skill intensity of jobs has led to a surplus of unskilled and semi-skilled workers, despite higher educational attainments.
• Low Women’s Participation: Women remain primarily in less remunerative agricultural roles, and the labor market demands more diverse job opportunities for them in non-farm sectors.
• Youth Unemployment: Educated youth face high unemployment rates, with 28% of graduates unemployed in 2022, showcasing a significant mismatch between education levels and job opportunities.
• NEET Challenges: Around 28% of youth were not in employment, education, and training (NEET) in 2022, with females disproportionately affected, highlighting a critical area for policy intervention.

What are the key recommendations of the India Employment Report 2024?

1. Boosting production to create more jobs, focusing on labor-intensive manufacturing, services, and agriculture;
2. Enhancing job quality;
3. Addressing labor market disparities, especially by increasing women’s employment and formulating effective strategies for NEET;
4. Improving training systems and labor market policies to better match job supply and demand, with significant private sector involvement; and
5. Developing accurate statistics to understand labor market changes due to rapid technological advances.

General Studies Paper-2

Context: India’s recent economic success, solid momentum, and promising prospects are making the country more influential

About India’s Global Rise

• India’s aggregate power has grown over the past two decades — evident in robust economic growth, military capabilities, and a largely young demography.
• Its inclusion in key global institutions such as the G-20, as an invitee at G-7 meetings, and active participation in multilateral groups such as the Quad, BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation further highlight its geopolitical significance and its powerful presence globally, even if it is not a member of the United Nations Security Council.
• India’s global rise is also aided by growing international attention on the Indo-Pacific, a theatre that is pivotal to global strategic stability, where India has a central position, geographically and otherwise.
• A major reason why the United States and its allies are keen to accommodate India’s global interests including in order to push back China in the region.

Emerging Challenges

• India’s influence is declining in South Asia.
  • When compared to India’s influence in the region during the Cold War or in comparison to China’s influence in the region today,
• Its waning regional influence is caused by diminishing relative power (vis-à-vis China), loss of primacy in South Asia, and fundamental changes in South Asian geopolitics.
• The arrival of China in South Asia, the withdrawal of the U.S. from the region, and India’s tilt to the Indo-Pacific have shifted the regional balance of power in Beijing’s favour.
• India’s regional decline is a product of the dynamics of comparative power, and geopolitical choices made by the region’s smaller powers.
  • India’s smaller neighbours seem to find China as a useful hedge against India, for the moment at least.
• China’s rise will, therefore, mean that India may no longer be the most consequential power in the region.

Way Forward for India

• India must revisit some of its traditional conceptions of the region, ‘modernise’ its primacy in South Asia, and take proactive and imaginative policy steps to meet the China challenge in the region.
• First of all, India must accept the reality that the region, the neighbours and the region’s geopolitics have fundamentally changed over the decade-and-a-half at the least.
• India must focus on its strengths rather than trying to match the might of the People’s Republic of China in every respect
  • Fashioning a new engagement with the region that reflects India’s traditional strengths and the region’s changed realities is essential.
  • Reclaiming Buddhist heritage is one such example.
• India’s continental strategy is replete with challenges whereas its maritime space has an abundance of opportunities for enhancing trade, joining minilateralism, and creating new issue-based coalitions, among others.
  • India must use its maritime (Indo-Pacific) advantages to cater to its many continental handicaps.
  • Doing so could involve including India’s smaller South Asian neighbours to the Indo-Pacific strategic conversations.
• India and its partners (the U.S., Japan, Australia, the European Union, and others) must find ways of engaging and partnering with Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Bangladesh as part of their larger Indo-Pacific strategy.
  • New Delhi should make creative uses of its soft power to retain its influence in the region.
• One way to do that is to actively encourage informal contacts between political and civil society actors in India and those in other South Asian countries.
• There is a desire to join hands with external friendly partners both in the Indian Ocean and South Asia so as to deal with the region’s common challenges.
  • This openness in New Delhi, and the desire of the external actors to engage the region, must be utilised to address the difficulties arising out of New Delhi’s regional decline.

General Studies Paper -2 

Context: The United Nations summit on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was held in New York recently. It assessed progress towards achieving the 17 SDGs and 169 specific targets set by the agenda-2030, adopted in 2015. The article highlights the slow progress and challenges in achieving SGGs.

What are SDGs?

• SDGs stand for Sustainable Development Goals. They are a set of 17 global objectives established by the United Nations in 2015 as part of the agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
• Coverage-These goals cover a wide range of social, economic, and environmental issues, aiming to address the world’s most pressing challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice.
• Nature-The SDG programme is internationally non-binding. However, all countries have committed to work towards these goals.

What has been the overall progress towards achieving the SDGs?

1. Slow Progress– Reports indicate that progress has been slow and off track. While there were some improvements between 2015 and 2019, they were largely inadequate to meet the goals.
2. Impact of Covid-19-The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global crises have significantly impeded progress.
3. Lack of adequate attention to environmental goals– Not enough focus has been attached to goals about the environment and protecting biodiversity. This slow progress is worrying because it goes against the idea that all the SDGs are connected and cannot be separated. It also puts the environment at risk of getting worse in a faster manner.

What are key areas that require urgent action?

The UN SDG Report 2023 identified five key areas for urgent action: –

1. Commitment of governments to seven years of accelerated, sustained, and transformative actions to deliver on SDG promises.
2. Concrete, integrated, and targeted policies and actions to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality, and end the war on nature, with a focus on advancing women’s and girls’ rights and empowering the vulnerable.
3. Strengthening national and subnational capacity, accountability, and public institutions to deliver accelerated progress.
4. Recommitment of the international community to deliver and mobilize resources to assist developing nations.
5. Continued strengthening of the UN development system.

What is the impact of this slow progress?

1. If the current pattern persists, it will result in a faster decline in environmental quality. This contradicts the aim of moving towards sustainability.
2. The SDGs have not been sufficient in making much political difference at the national or local level, except discussions and some small changes in rules and institutions. It suggests that setting global goals does not directly impact politics on local or national levels.

 What are the suggestions given by 2019 report ‘Future is Now’ for accelerating SDG implementation?

1. Systematic Approach to Achieving the 2030 Agenda –It highlights how the 2030 Agenda can truly change things by using a systematic approach. This implies finding a balance between different results and ensuring that actions help achieve several SDGs at the same time
2. Selecting Priority Areas-It recommends choosing the most suitable starting points based on local needs and regional or national priorities. Then, it suggests using four key tools-governance, economy and money, actions by individuals and groups, and science and technology.
3. Collaborative Partnership for Global Sustainable Development -People in these sectors must collaborate and build new partnerships to develop and execute sustainable development plans that suit each country’s unique needs and priorities. This will help make big changes globally.

Conclusion– In 2024, many countries around the world will have elections, involving 64 nations and nearly half of the world’s population. It’s important for the new governments to think about sustainability and align their national policies accordingly.

General Studies Paper -2 

Context: India and Indonesia agreed to enhance collaboration in areas of defence industry, maritime security and multilateral cooperation.

About the collaboration

• Historical Linkages: India and Indonesia share two-millennia old close cultural and commercial contacts.
  • The Hindu, Buddhist and later Muslim faith travelled to Indonesia from the shores of India.
  • The stories from great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata form a source of Indonesian folk art and dramas.
  • The famous Bali Yatra, a week-long festival, is celebrated with a great deal of fervour and gaiety in both India and Indonesia.
  • Political Relations: The struggle against colonial powers, democratic traditions, pluralist culture, and progressive leadership are some of the common strands connecting India and Indonesia.
  • President Sukarno of Indonesia was the Guest of Honour during the first Republic Day of India in 1950.
  • Independent India and Indonesia became chief votaries of independence of Asian and African countries, the spirit of which led to historic Bandung Conference of 1955 and later formation of Non-aligned Movement in 1961.
  • Since the adoption of India’s ‘Look East Policy’ in 1991, and its upgradation to ‘Act East’ in 2014, there has been a rapid development of bilateral relations in political, security, defence, commercial and cultural fields.
  • India and Indonesia have a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and have arrived at a shared vision of the Indo-Pacific.
• Commercial Relations: Indonesia has emerged as India’s largest trade partner in the ASEAN region.
  • The Total Bilateral Trade during the fiscal year 2022-23 was USD 38.85 Billion (growth of 48% from last FY) with USD 10.02 Billion (18% growth) worth export and USD 28.82 Billion (62% growth) worth imports.
  • India is the second largest buyer of coal and crude palm oil from Indonesia and imports minerals, rubber, pulp and paper and hydrocarbons reserves.
  • India exports refined petroleum products, commercial vehicles, telecommunication equipment, agriculture commodities, bovine meat, steel products and plastics to Indonesia.
  • Indonesia is an attractive destination for Indian investment
  • In the defence sector, both countries have been working closely and organized Samudra Shakti, a bilateral maritime exercise, and Garuda Shakti, a joint military exercise, every year.

Recent Developments

• The first-ever “India-Indonesia Defence Industry Exhibition-cum-Seminar” was organised in Jakarta by the two countries as they marked the 75th year of establishment of diplomatic ties.
• Indonesia is also keen to build its own defence industry and offered to share India’s experiences in this regard and also to partner for long-term collaborations in the defence sector.
• The Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM), and Pinhantanas, Indonesia’s national private defence industry association will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote and strengthen the defence industry partnership between the two countries.

Future Outlook

• India and Indonesia had civilizational connections for more than two thousand years. Both countries being maritime neighbours and strategic partners have important and close relations.
• In current times, this partnership is characterised by close cooperation in bilateral and multilateral arena, including frequent high-level interactions,”
• Indonesia is an important partner in India’s Act East Policy and the Indo-Pacific region.
  • The two countries have the huge potential to grow further in the coming years with increasing bilateral and community relations.

General Studies Paper -2

Context: India lifted 135 million people out of poverty, however, malnutrition still remains an onerous challenge.

India’s Achievements

• Poverty & Hunger:
  • From 2015-16 to 2019-21, India lifted 135 million people out of poverty.
    • This is a commendable achievement based on the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MDPI) prepared by the NITI Aayog.
  • When India got freedom more than 80 percent of people were in extreme poverty, which today hovers around 15 per cent as per MDPI and about 11 per cent based on income criterion ($2.15 PPP).
  • The UNDP has estimated that India lifted 415 million people out of poverty (MDPI) over the period 2005-06 to 2019-21.
• India seems to be on track to almost abolish poverty in the next five to 10 years.
• On hunger, at least in terms of food availability, India has done well.
• Revolutionising India:
  • Green revolution: The Green Revolution turned India from a “ship to mouth” economy to the largest exporter of rice. It has also enabled India to give free rice or wheat (5kg/month/person) to more than 800 million people under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, thus improving their economic access to basic staples.
  • White revolution: India also experienced the White Revolution (milk) and emerged as the largest producer of milk (222 MT), with the US coming at number two with just 102 MT of milk production.
  • Gene revolution: The gene revolution in cotton that was triggered by introduction of Bt cotton, made India the largest producer of cotton.

Challenges

• Malnutrition: Malnutrition is still a challenge, especially amongst children below the age of five.
  • As per NFHS-5 (2019-21), 32 percent of children were underweight, 35 per cent stunted, and 19 per cent wasted.
  • Although India made reasonably good progress in reducing infant mortality from 57 per 1,000 in 2005-06 to 35 per 1,000 in 2019-21, the progress on other indicators of malnutrition is not very satisfactory.
• Climate change & food insecurity: Climate change and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, from heat waves to flash floods, pose a big challenge not only to India’s food system but also to poverty alleviation – gains could reverse with these shocks.
• Non-communicable diseases: The rising burden of cardiovascular and other non-communicable diseases in India, particularly among the rapidly growing “middle class”, is strongly linked to diet and nutrition.

Causes of Malnutrition

• Calorific deficiency: Though the government has surplus of foodgrains, there is calorific deficiency because of improper allocation and distribution. Even the yearly allocated budget is not fully utilized.
• Protein deficiency: Pulses are a major panacea to address protein deficiency. However, there is a lack of budgetary allocation for inclusion of pulses in PDS. With Eggs missing from menus of Mid-day Meals in various States, an easy way to improve protein intake is lost.
• Micronutrient deficiency (hidden hunger): India faces a severe crisis in micronutrient deficiency. Its causes include poor diet, prevalence of disease or non-fulfilment of increased micronutrient needs during pregnancy and lactation.

Suggestions

• Access to nutritious food: It is time to elevate food intake among young children to be of primary importance, as opposed to being referred to as “complementary” in policies and guidelines related to maternal, infant and young child nutrition.
  • Access to adequate and affordable nutritious food is equally necessary for mothers for healthy breastfeeding.
• Need of improved assessments: To better understand food security for all populations in India, assessments using household-level food insecurity modules developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation can be adapted to measure the extent of food insecurity among Indian households.
• Evidence-based policy: Measuring the availability, accessibility and affordability of nutritious food, especially for disadvantaged and vulnerable populations such as young children, constitutes the foundation for any evidence-based policy to end hunger and improve nutritional security among Indians.
• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana: To achieve the SDG of zero hunger, and building on the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, India should consider a strategic initiative led by the Prime Minister’s Office aimed at eliminating food insecurity in India and ensuring affordable access to sufficient quantity and quality of nutritionally diverse food, with a special and immediate focus on India’s youngest children.

Government Interventions

• Eat Right India Movement: An outreach activity organized by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for citizens to nudge them towards eating right.
• POSHAN Abhiyan: Launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2018, it targets to reduce stunting, undernutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls).
• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana: A centrally sponsored scheme executed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, is a maternity benefit programme being implemented in all districts of the country with effect from 1st January, 2017.
• Food Fortification: Food Fortification or Food Enrichment is the addition of key vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine, zinc, and Vitamin A & D to staple foods such as rice, milk and salt to improve their nutritional content.
• National Food Security Act, 2013: It legally entitled up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidized food grains under the Targeted Public Distribution System.
• Mission Indradhanush: It targets children under 2 years of age and pregnant women for immunization against 12 Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (VPD).
• Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme: Launched in 1975, the ICDS Scheme offers a package of six services to children in the age group of 0-6 years and pregnant and lactating mothers

Way ahead

• A straightforward answer to these challenges would be to keep the focus on accelerating economic growth and making it more inclusive.
• Fixing the pre-existing schemes is another important solution to addressing India’s multi-dimensional nutrition challenge.
  • Getting the already existing schemes right requires greater involvement of local government and local community groups in the design and delivery of tailored nutrition interventions.

General Studies Paper -3 

Context: Droughts — and sudden floods which can damage hydropower dams — made more frequent and severe by climate change are an “increasing concern” for hydropower.

About

• Recent droughts in Colombia and Ecuador have severely hampered energy supplied by hydropower.
• This has led Ecuador to declare a state of emergency and institute power cuts.
• Hydropower accounts for over 80% of electricity generation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia — many of which are also struggling with severe droughts.

What is Hydropower?

• Hydropower, or hydroelectric power, is one of the oldest and largest sources of renewable energy, which uses the natural flow of moving water to generate electricity.
• Hydropower currently generates more electricity than all other renewable technologies combined and is expected to remain the world’s largest source of renewable electricity generation into the 2030s.
• Classification of Hydro Projects based on Installed Capacity:
  • Micro: upto 100 KW
  • Mini: 101KW to 2 MW
  • Small: 2 MW to 25 MW
  • Mega: Hydro projects with installed capacity >= 500 MW
• India: In 2022-23, hydropower accounted for 12.5 percent of power generation in India. India had about 4745.6 MW pumped storage capacity in operation in 2023.
  • The hilly States of India mainly Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand constitute around half of this potential.
  • Other potential States are Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Kerala.

Significance of Hydro Power:

• Renewable Energy Source: Hydropower is a renewable energy source because it relies on the water cycle, which is continuously replenished by rainfall and snowmelt.
  • This makes it a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, which are finite and contribute to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions.
• Clean Energy: Hydropower produces minimal greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels, making it an environmentally friendly option for generating electricity.
• Reliable and Predictable: Unlike solar and wind energy, which are intermittent and dependent on weather conditions, hydropower provides a consistent and reliable source of electricity.
• Flexible and Controllable: Hydropower plants can quickly adjust their output to match changes in electricity demand.
• Multipurpose Use: Hydropower projects often serve multiple purposes beyond electricity generation.
  • They can provide flood control by regulating water flow, irrigation for agriculture, water supply for communities, and recreational opportunities such as boating and fishing.
• Long Lifespan: Hydropower infrastructure, such as dams and turbines, can have long lifespans, often exceeding 50 years with proper maintenance. This longevity ensures a stable and enduring source of energy for a longer period of time.

Challenges

• Environmental Impact: Large-scale hydropower projects often require damming rivers, which alter ecosystems, disrupt fish habitats, and impact local biodiversity.
  • It also leads to issues like sediment buildup and water temperature changes downstream, affecting aquatic life.
• Social Impacts: Building dams and reservoirs displace communities and disrupt livelihoods, especially those relying on the affected rivers for fishing or agriculture.
• High Initial Costs: Constructing hydropower facilities involves significant upfront investment costs.
• Climate Change Vulnerability: Hydropower generation relies on consistent water flow, which can be affected by climate change-induced variations in precipitation patterns and glacial melt.
  • A UK based thinktank found that the drought — likely exacerbated by climate change — drove an 8.5% drop in hydroelectricity around the world over the last two decades.
• Sedimentation: Dams trap sediment flowing downstream, leading to reservoirs gradually filling up with sediment over time.
  • This reduces the reservoir’s capacity and impacts the efficiency and lifespan of the hydropower facility.
• Maintenance Challenges: Hydropower infrastructure requires regular maintenance to ensure safe and efficient operation.

Way Ahead

• The solution for the countries is to diversify their power sources by incorporating other renewable technologies — such as wind and solar — into their energy mix.
• Innovations around placing floating solar panels on the water’s surface in hydropower plants — as countries such China and Brazil are exploring — have significant potential.
• Building more medium scale plants, rather than the mega dams of the past, would help mitigate the climate-risks associated with overdependence on one big piece of infrastructure.
• Without major policy changes, global hydropower expansion is expected to slow down this decade.

General Studies Paper-2 

Context: 10 Years of Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act has been completed.

About the Act

• The Act came into effect on May 1, 2014, marking a significant milestone after nearly four decades of legal jurisprudence and the tireless efforts of street vendor movements across India.
• It aimed to ‘protect’ and ‘regulate’ street vending in cities, with State-level rules and schemes, and execution by Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) through by-laws, planning, and regulation.

Feature

• The Act clearly delineates the roles and responsibilities of both vendors and various levels of government.
• It recognises the positive urban role of vendors and the need for livelihood protection.
• It commits to accommodating all ‘existing’ vendors in vending zones and issuing vending certificates.
• The Act establishes a participatory governance structure through Town Vending Committees (TVCs) and mandates that street vendor representatives must constitute 40% of TVC members, with a sub-representation of 33% of women street vendors.
• These committees are tasked with ensuring the inclusion of all existing vendors in vending zones.
• The Act outlines mechanisms for addressing grievances and disputes, proposing the establishment of a Grievance Redressal Committee chaired by a civil judge or judicial magistrate.
• Its provisions set a crucial precedent for inclusive and participatory approaches to address street vending needs in cities, at least in theory.

Need of the law

• Street vendors, estimated to constitute 2.5% of any city’s population, play multifaceted roles in city life.
• Local vegetable sellers and food vendors are essential providers of daily services. Vending offers many migrants and the urban poor a source of modest yet consistent income.
• The vendors also make city life affordable for others by providing vital links in the food, nutrition, and goods distribution chain at reasonable prices.
• Street vendors are also integral to Indian culture — imagine Mumbai without its vada pav or Chennai without its roadside dosai. The law was enacted to acknowledge this reality.

Broad Challenges

• The Act has faced three broad challenges.
  • At the administrative level, there has been a noticeable increase in harassment and evictions of street vendors, despite the Act’s emphasis on their protection and regulation.
  • This is often due to an outdated bureaucratic mindset that views vendors as illegal entities to be cleared.
  • There is also a pervasive lack of awareness and sensitisation about the Act among state authorities, the wider public, and vendors themselves.
  • TVCs often remain under the control of local city authorities, with limited influence from street vendor representatives. And the representation of women vendors in TVCs is mostly tokenistic.
  • At the governance level, existing urban governance mechanisms are often weak.
• The Act does not integrate well with the framework established by the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act for urban governance.
  • ULBs lack sufficient powers and capacities.
  • Schemes like the Smart Cities Mission, laden with resources and pushed through as policy priorities from the top-down, mostly focus on infrastructure development and ignore the provisions of the Act for the inclusion of street vendors in city planning.
• At the societal level, the prevailing image of the ‘world class city tends to be exclusionary.
  • It marginalises and stigmatises street vendors as obstacles to urban development instead of acknowledging them as legitimate contributors to the urban economy.
  • These challenges are reflected in city designs, urban policies, and public perceptions of neighbourhoods.
• The Act now faces new challenges such as the impact of climate change on vendors, a surge in the number of vendors, competition from e-commerce, and reduced incomes.

Way Forward

• While the Act is progressive and detailed, its implementation requires support, possibly (and ironically) necessitating top-down direction and management starting from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• This needs to be decentralised over time to ensure effectiveness in addressing the diverse needs and contexts of street vendors nationwide.
  • PM SVANidhi, a micro-credit facility for street vendors, has been a positive example in that direction.
• There is a strong need to decentralise interventions, enhance the capacities of ULBs to plan for street vending in cities, and move away from high-handed department-led actions to actual deliberative processes at the TVC level.
• Urban schemes, city planning guidelines, and policies need to be amended to include street vending.
• The Act’s broad welfare provisions must be used creatively to meet the emerging needs of street vendors.
• The sub-component on street vendors in the National Urban Livelihood Mission needs to take cognisance of the changed realities and facilitate innovative measures for addressing needs.

General Studies Paper-3 

Context: According to the 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report by Verizon Business, India is one of the key countries affected by phishing attacks.

Key Findings

• The espionage attacks dominate Asia-Pacific’s (APAC) cyber security landscape, including that of India.
• Some 25% of APAC cyberattacks are motivated by espionage, significantly greater than the 6% and 4% in Europe and North America, respectively.
• System intrusion, social engineering, and basic web application attacks represent 95% of breaches in APAC.
  • The most common types of data compromised are credentials (69%), internal (37%), and secrets (24%).

What is a Phishing Attack?

• Phishing is a type of cyberattack which attempts to steal sensitive information, typically in the form of usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, bank account information or other important data in order to utilize or sell the stolen information.
• By pretending as a reputable source with an enticing request, an attacker lures in the victim in order to trick them.

Reasons for phishing attacks

• The report mentioned that In 2023, 15 percent of breaches involve a third party, including data custodians, third-party software vulnerabilities, and other direct or indirect supply chain issues.
• About 68 percent of breaches, whether they include a third party or not, involve a non-malicious human element, which refers to a person making an error or falling prey to a social engineering attack.

Steps taken by Government

• Information Technology Act, 2000: Section 43, 66, 70, and 74 of the IT Act, 2000 deal with hacking and cyber crimes.
• Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats/vulnerabilities and countermeasures to protect computers and networks on a regular basis.
• National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) has been set up to generate necessary situational awareness of existing and potential cyber security threats and enable timely information sharing for proactive, preventive and protective actions by individual entities.
• Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre) has been launched for detection of malicious programs and provides free tools to remove the same.
• Bharat National Cyber Security Exercise 2023: Bharat NCX will help strategic leaders to better understand cyber threats, assess readiness, and develop skills for cyber crisis management and cooperation.
• Chakshu Facility: It is a newly introduced feature on the Sanchar Saathi portal that encourages citizens to proactively report suspected fraudulent communications received via call, SMS, or WhatsApp.

Concluding Remarks

• India is one of the key countries affected by phishing attacks, where employees often click on malicious links or attachments, often leading to severe financial losses.
• However, there’s a silver lining as reporting practices have improved, with 20 percent of users now identifying and reporting phishing during simulation tests.