UPSC/STATE PSC
Curated by Experts For Civil Service Aspirants
The Hindu & Indian Express
News 1: ‘India may need up to 28 GW in new coal-fired plants by 2032’
Background:
- India may need up to 28 gigawatts of new coal-fired power plants by 2032 to meet power demand that is expected to more than double from the current 404.1 GW, a government advisory body said, signaling more increases in coal use by the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter.
India’s energy demand:
- India’s annual electricity demand could grow by an average of 7.2% over the five years to March 2027, almost double the rate of increase in the fiscal years from 2017 to 2022, the plan said.
- The share of coal in India’s total power generation, however, is likely to fall below 60% by 2027, with India targeting the addition of 500 GW in non-fossil based installed capacity by 2030, according to the plan.
- Although India is a major greenhouse gas producer, its per capita power demand and emissions are much lower than most developed countries.
- It also accounts for a huge share of renewables along with China.
Central Electricity Authority
- Ministry: Ministry of Power
- Type: Statutory
- Vision: To ensure reliable 24×7 power supply of adequate quality to all consumers in the country.
- Function: The functions and duties of CEA are delineated under Section 73 of the Electricity Act, 2003.
- CEA has to discharge various other functions as well:
- Section 3 (National Electricity Policy & Plan)
- Section 8 (Hydro Electric Generation)
- Section 34 (Grid Standards)
- Section 53 (Provision relating to Safety and Electric Supply)
- Section 55 (Use of Meters)
- Section 177 (Making of Regulations) of the Electricity Act, 2003.
News 3: Naga delegation meets Shah, pushes for revival of talks
Background:
- A Naga delegation led by Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday to push for revival of talks between the Centre’s envoy and Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM).
Demands by NSCN-IM:
- Inclusion of Yehzabo (Naga constitution) into the Indian constitution
- Integration of Naga-dominated areas of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur into the existing State of Nagaland
- Creation of regional autonomous territory council for Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
Peace talks:
- The NSCN-IM, a key player in Naga peace talks, has been demanding a separate Constitution and a flag for the Nagas and creation of ‘Greater Nagaland’ or ‘Nagalim’ by integrating Naga-dominated areas in neighbouring Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh to unite 1.2 million Nagas.
News 4: E-FAST- India’s first National Electric Freight Platform Launched by NITI Aayog, WRI
Background:
- NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute (WRI), launched India’s first National Electric Freight Platform- E-FAST India (Electric Freight Accelerator for Sustainable Transport-India).
About E-FAST:
- The platform aims to raise awareness of freight electrification bolstered by an on-ground demonstration pilot and evidence based research.
- It will support scalable pilots and inform policies aimed at accelerating freight electrification in India.
NITI Aayog:
- Established: 2015
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- NITI Aayog replaced erstwhile Planning commission in 2015 and serves as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of India, and the nodal agency tasked with catalyzing economic development, and fostering cooperative federalism through the involvement of State Governments of India in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach.
- Composition:
- Chairperson: Prime Minister
- Vice-Chairperson: To be appointed by Prime-Minister
- Chief Executive Officer: Appointed by Prime minister for a fixed tenure, in rank of Secretary to Government of India.
- Governing Council: Chief Ministers of all states and Lt. Governors of Union Territories.
- Regional Council: To address specific regional issues, Comprising Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors Chaired by Prime Minister or his nominee.
- Ad hoc Membership: 2 members in ex-officio capacity from leading Research institutions on rotational basis.
- Ex-Officio membership: Maximum four from Union council of ministers to be nominated by Prime minister.
- Special Invitees: Experts, Specialists with domain knowledge nominated by Prime minister.
- Hubs of NITI Aayog:
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- Team India Hub acts as an interface between States and Centre.
- Knowledge and Innovation Hub builds the think-tank acumen of NITI Aayog.
- Important index published by NITI Aayog: Composite Water Management Index, Sustainable Development Goal index, India Innovation Index, School Education Quality Index, Export Competitiveness Index
News 5: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- Headquarter: Vienna, Austria
- Membership: 175 member states
- Objective: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons.
- It is known as Atoms for Peace organization and is not a Principal or specialized agency of UN
- It reports to both General Assembly and Security Council of United Nations
- Missions:
- Peaceful uses: Promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy by its member states,
- Safeguards: Implementing safeguards to verify that nuclear energy is not used for military purposes, and
- Nuclear safety: Promoting high standards for nuclear safety
News 6: Rohingya Refugees
- Rohingyas are the minorities, who are predominantly Muslims but also includes people from different religions, are from Rakhine state of Myanmar.
- Several Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh and India.
- Bangladesh has relocated several Rohingyas to Bhasan Char island, which lies in ecologically fragile area, as it is prone to cyclone, floods, erosion.
News 7: National Investigation Agency:
- Established: 2009 constituted under National Investigation Agency Act, 2008
- Ministry: Ministry of Home Affairs
- Headquarter: New Delhi
- NIA is functioning as the Central Counter Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency in India.
- NIA aims at creating deterrence for existing and potential terrorist groups/individuals. It aims to develop as a storehouse of all terrorist related information.
- It can deal with investigation of terror crimes in states without the permission from states under written proclamation of Ministry of Home Affairs.
- Areas of investigation:NIA is mandated to investigate all the offences affecting the sovereignty, security and integrity of India, which includes:
- Friendly relations with foreign states.
- Against atomic and nuclear facilities.
- Smuggling of arms, drugs and fake Indian currency and infiltration from across the borders.
- The offences under the statutory laws enacted to implement international treaties, agreements, conventions and resolutions of the United Nations, its agencies and other international organisations.
Jurisdiction:
- It extends to the whole of India and also applies to Indian citizens outside the country.
- Persons in the service of the government wherever they are posted.
- Persons on ships and aircraft registered in India wherever they may be.
- Persons who commit a scheduled offence beyond India against the Indian citizen or affecting the interest of India.
News 8: G7 countries:
- Formed: 1973
- Members: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
- The Group of Seven (G7) is an inter-governmental political forum.
- In addition, the European Union is a ‘non-enumerated member’.
- Its members are the world’s largest advanced economies and liberal democracies.
- The G7 was founded primarily to facilitate shared macroeconomic initiatives in response to contemporary economic problems; the first gathering was centered on the Nixon shock, the 1970s energy crisis, and the ensuing global recession.
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Recent Posts
- Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund.
- LEAF is supported by transnational corporations (TNCs) like Unilever plc, Amazon.com, Inc, Nestle, Airbnb, Inc as well as Emergent, a US-based non-profit.
- The world lost more than 10 million hectares of primary tropical forest cover last year, an area roughly the size of Switzerland.
- Ending tropical and subtropical forest loss by 2030 is a crucial part of meeting global climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals. Protecting tropical forests offers one of the biggest opportunities for climate action in the coming decade.
- Tropical forests are massive carbon sinks and by investing in their protection, public and private players are likely to stock up on their carbon credits.
- The LEAF coalition initiative is a step towards concretising the aims and objectives of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism.
- REDD+ was created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It monetised the value of carbon locked up in the tropical forests of most developing countries, thereby propelling these countries to help mitigate climate change.
- It is a unique initiative as it seeks to help developing countries in battling the double-edged sword of development versus ecological commitment.
- The initiative comes at a crucial time. The tropics have lost close to 12.2 million hectares (mha) of tree cover last year according to global estimates released by Global Forest Watch.
- Of this, a loss of 4.2 mha occurred within humid tropical primary forests alone. It should come as no surprise that most of these lost forests were located in the developing countries of Latin America, Africa and South Asia.
- Brazil has fared dismally on the parameter of ‘annual primary forest loss’ among all countries. It has lost 1.7 mha of primary forests that are rich storehouse of carbon. India’s estimated loss in 2020 stands at 20.8 kilo hectares.
- Between 2002-2020, Brazil’s total area of humid primary forest reduced by 7.7 per cent while India’s reduced by 3.4 per cent.
- Although the loss in India is not as drastic as in Brazil, its position is nevertheless precarious. For India, this loss is equivalent to 951 metric tonnes worth carbon dioxide emissions released in the atmosphere.
- It is important to draw comparisons between Brazil and India as both countries have adopted a rather lackadaisical attitude towards deforestation-induced climate change. The Brazilian government hardly did anything to control the massive fires that gutted the Amazon rainforest in 2019.
- It is mostly around May that forest fires peak in India. However, this year India, witnessed massive forest fires in early March in states like Odisha, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram among others.
- The European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service claimed that 0.2 metric tonnes of carbon was emitted in the Uttarakhand forest fires.
- Implementation of the LEAF Coalition plan will help pump in fresh rigour among developing countries like India, that are reluctant to recognise the contributions of their forest dwelling populations in mitigating climate change.
- With the deadline for proposal submission fast approaching, India needs to act swiftly on a revised strategy.
- Although India has pledged to carry out its REDD+ commitments, it is impossible to do so without seeking knowledge from its forest dwelling population.
Context:-
At the recently concluded Leaders’ Summit on Climate in April 2021, Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund plan that shall be offered to countries committed to arrest the decline of their tropical forests by 2030.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]What is LEAF Coalition?
Why LEAF Coalition?
Brazil & India
According to the UN-REDD programme, after the energy sector, deforestation accounts for massive carbon emissions — close to 11 per cent — in the atmosphere. Rapid urbanisation and commercialisation of forest produce are the main causes behind rampant deforestation across tropical forests.
Tribes, Forests and Government
Disregarding climate change as a valid excuse for the fires, Indian government officials were quick to lay the blame for deforestation on activities of forest dwellers and even labelled them “mischievous elements” and “unwanted elements”.
Policy makers around the world have emphasised the role of indigenous tribes and local communities in checking deforestation. These communities depend on forests for their survival as well as livelihood. Hence, they understand the need to protect forests. However, by posing legitimate environmental concerns as obstacles to real development, governments of developing countries swiftly avoid protection of forests and rights of forest dwellers.
For instance, the Government of India has not been forthcoming in recognising the socio-economic, civil, political or even cultural rights of forest dwellers. According to data from the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs in December, 2020 over 55 per cent of this population has still not been granted either individual or community ownership of their lands.
To make matters worse, the government has undertaken systematic and sustained measures to render the landmark Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 ineffective in its implementation. The Act had sought to legitimise claims of forest dwellers on occupied forest land.
Various government decisions have seriously undermined the position of indigenous people within India. These include proposing amendments to the obsolete Indian Forest Act, 1927 that give forest officials the power to take away forest dwellers’ rights and to even use firearms with impunity.
There is also the Supreme Court’s order of February, 2019 directing state governments to evict illegal encroachers of forest land or millions of forest dwellers inhabiting forests since generations as a measure to conserve wildlife. Finally, there is the lack of data on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths among the forest dwelling population;
Tardy administration, insufficient supervision, apathetic attitude and a lack of political intent defeat the cause of forest dwelling populations in India, thereby directly affecting efforts at arresting deforestation.
Way Forward
Tuntiak Katan, a global indigenous leader from Ecuador and general coordinator of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, aptly indicated the next steps at the Climate Summit:
“The first step is recognition of land rights. The second step is the recognition of the contributions of local communities and indigenous communities, meaning the contributions of indigenous peoples.We also need recognition of traditional knowledge practices in order to fight climate change”
Perhaps India can begin by taking the first step.