aditya
07:26
Vision IAS Weekly Focus Magazine 2022 Nuclear Disarmament PDF
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Friday, September 23, 2022
Thursday, September 22, 2022
Daily Current Affairs, 22nd September 2022
aditya
18:43
1) World Rhino Day 2022 observed on 22 September
•World Rhino Day is observed on 22nd September to spread awareness about the different Rhinoceros species and the dangers they face. This day also celebrates all five rhino species namely the Sumatran, Black, Greater One-horned, Javan, and White rhino species. The day offers NGOs, zoos, and the general public a chance to honour rhinos in their own special ways. This day aims to spread the importance of protecting these animals, as Rhinoceros have become critically endangered in the wild due to ongoing poaching and habitat loss over many years.
World Rhino Day 2022: Theme
•This year’s World Rhino Day will be observed under the theme “Five Rhino Species Forever”. The goals of this day are to promote the noble cause of raising awareness about the need to save rhinos from danger to their lives. The rhinos are constantly under severe threat.
2) World Rose Day (Welfare of Cancer Patients) 2022
•World Rose Day for the welfare of cancer patients worldwide is celebrated annually on the 22nd of September. This day aims to encourage and support those people who are fighting their battle against cancer. The day aims to bring happiness and hope into the lives of such patients and reminds them that they can emerge victorious in their battle against cancer through determination and positivity.
3) Cabinet Approves An Additional PLI Plan For Solar Cells
•The Union cabinet approved the second tranche of the Performance Linked incentive (PLI) scheme on ‘National programme on High Efficiency Solar PV Modules’ for achieving manufacturing capacity of Giga Watt (GW) scale to boost manufacturing of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules in India, Union minister Anurag Thakur announced in a press briefing.
4) ISRO tests hybrid motors successfully, plans to develop new rocket propulsion technology
•ISRO tests hybrid motors successfully: The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully tested a hybrid motor. This may lead to the development of a new propulsion system for next launch vehicles. The Bengaluru-based space agency claimed that the 30 kN hybrid motor tested at the ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu is stackable and scalable.
5) Delhi Lt General V K Saxena launched ‘We Care’ community policing initiative
•Lt General V K Saxena inaugurated ‘We Care’ a community policing initiative here aimed at spreading awareness about various schemes of the Delhi Police among people. This initiative is inaugurated at an event organised at Kartvaya Path at India Gate on the occasion of ‘Sewa Divas, which is being celebrated to mark the 72nd birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The aim of this initiative is to spread awareness among people about different schemes of the Delhi Police to maintain coordination and establish a police-public interface.
6) Nagaland Prison Department introduced mobile attendance application
•Nagaland Prison Department goes digital by introducing the mobile attendance application for Prison staff. Advisor for Prisons, Printing & Stationery, H. Haiying launched the Prison staff Attendance App at the District Jail Kohima. The mobile app was initiated by the State Prison Department in collaboration with Excellogics Technology Solution Private Limited.
7) Abhyas drill: India & U.S coast guards showcase maritime ties
•Abhyas drill: The Coast Guards of India and the United States participated Off the coast of Chennai in the massive Abhyas drill or the Abhyas joint drill. The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Cutter Midgett’s four-day visit came to an end. The USCG ship and the Indian Coast Guard discussed best practices for search and rescue operations while they were in port.
8) Recession Unlikely To Hit India: S&P
•Global rating agency S&P said even though the US and the Euro zone are headed to recession, India is unlikely to face the impact given the “not so coupled” nature of its economy with the global economy. The US and European recession depends on the central banks ignoring slowing growth and opting to fight inflation instead.
9) RBI Governor Launches 3 key Digital Payment Initiatives at Global Fintech Fest 2022
•The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Shaktikanta Das, launched three key digital payment initiatives at the Global Fintech Fest 2022. The three digital payment initiatives that were launched by the RBI are RuPay Credit Card on Unified Payments Interface (UPI), UPI Lite, and Bharat BillPay Cross-Border Bill Payments.
The HINDU Notes – 22nd September 2022
aditya
18:16
📰 Bihar free of Naxal presence; the fight is in the last stages in Jharkhand, says CRPF chief
Hotbeds of left-wing extremism have been cleared in three States, says Kuldiep Singh; Operations Octopus, Double Bull, Thunderstorm and Chakarbandha led to the arrest or surrender of 592; Maoists using improvised grenade launchers
•Kuldiep Singh, Director-General, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), said on Wednesday that Bihar was free of left-wing extremism now and security forces had made inroads into areas in Jharkhand that were once inaccessible due to the presence of Maoists.
•Mr. Singh said the fight was in its final stages, and the number of districts affected by violence stood at 39, down from 60 in 2010. He said the number of most affected districts, accounting for 90% of the violent incidents, had reduced from 35 in 2015 to 25 in 2021. These districts are mostly in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telengana and Andhra Pradesh.
•Mr. Singh said that considerable success was achieved in 2022 in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh as the CRPF launched Operation Octopus, Operation Double Bull, Operation Thunderstorm and Operation Chakarbandha in the three States. The operations led to the arrest or surrender of 592 Maoists.
Security camps
•“Barring stray elements or extortionists, we can say that Bihar is completely free of Naxals. In Jharkhand too, we reached the top of the Budha Pahar area for the first time on September 5. This was an area under the control of the Maoists so far, we have established a security camp there and road construction has also started,” Mr. Singh said at a press conference. He said that in Chakarbandha in Bihar, an area of 8x7 km had been cleared of Maoist presence and in the Budha Pahar area, around 4x3 km had been cleared. A helicopter landed in Budha Pahar for the first time in September.
•The officer said that since 2019, a unique policy has been adopted against Maoists and in the past four years, the Union Home Ministry had provided ₹4,000 crore to the CRPF to purchase the latest weapons and equipment. The CRPF was one of the largest Central armed police forces deployed in the affected States.
•Mr. Singh said that in all, 20 forward operating bases or security camps have been established in Jharkhand and 11 bases had come up only in the past six months.
•Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted, “For the first time, permanent camps of security forces have been established by successfully evacuating Maoists from the inaccessible areas of Budha Pahar, Chakrabandha and Bhimabandh.” The Minister said the Ministry’s “zero tolerance” to terrorism and left-wing extremism would continue, and the fight would intensify.
•Mr. Singh said Maoists were using improvised grenade launchers to target security camps in Chhattisgarh. “The grenade launchers are assembled locally in a factory. The camps were attacked 28 times by the launchers this year,” he said.
•He said in Jharkhand, security forces recovered a U.S.-made rifle but Maoists mostly used country-made weapons or those snatched from security forces.
📰 The ambit of fraternity and the wages of oblivion
•‘These principles of liberty equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy,’ said B.R. Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly, in 1949.
•It is often forgotten that ‘fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation’ is, along with Justice, Liberty and Equality, among the basic values inscribed in the Preamble of the Constitution of India whose first line asserts, ‘We, the People of India’ have solemnly resolved to ‘secure’ to all the citizens of India.
The responsibility of the individual citizen
•B.R. Ambedkar provided its rationale with remarkable foresight: ‘We must begin by acknowledging the fact there is a complete absence of two things in Indian society. One of these is equality’ and as a result of it we would enter into ‘a life of contradictions’ on January 26, 1950.
•However, practical adherence to this commitment was given shape only by the Forty-Second Amendment (1976) in Article 51A (e) on Fundamental Duties.
•It makes it the duty of every citizen of India ‘to promote harmony and the spirit of common among all the people of India, transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities.
•Significantly, the responsibility for bringing this about does not rest with the state but seems to be the responsibility of the individual citizen. We, therefore, need to comprehend the meaning and relevance of this pious wish. How has it become a political principle of relevance?
•A poet summed it up neatly: Unka jo aqeeda hai who ahl-e-sayaaasat jaanen; Mera paigham mohabbat hai, jahaan tak pahunche (The politicians’ creed, the politicians know/ (Mine is the message of love, be it heard afar)
•The idea of fraternity is based on the view that people have responsibilities to each other. It was defined after the French Revolution in the following terms: ‘Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you; do constantly to others the good which you would wish to receive from them.’ The vagueness of the definition suggests that, despite its place in the revolutionary slogan, the idea of fraternity was not clearly understood. It is generally seen as an emotion rather than a principle.
•In the Indian context however, as understood and articulated by B.R. Ambedkar, there is a sense of the imperative in the emotion. This is reflected in the wording of this section of the Preamble where the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation both necessitate this emotion, and thereby lend a sense of urgency to it. It thus becomes an essential ingredient of citizenship that can be evaded or neglected at the cost of the concept itself.
The shape of inequality
•An aggravating factor, often overlooked, is the shape that inequality takes in different segments of our society. It is economic on one plane; on others it is regional, caste and religious. Some are spelt out, others understated, still others assumed. Sociologists have identified nine categories of people who are determined to be socially and/or politically and/or economically excluded. These particularly include Dalits, Adivasis, women and religious minorities.
•Recent studies on religious minorities who constitute around 20% of India’s population have traced discrimination relating to them to perceptions that relate to the very origins of thinking that brought about the partition of August 1947. They argue that violence was not merely accidental but integral to the foundation of the nation and that the need for fraternity coexisted with the imperative need for restoring social cohesion in segments of society.
•Much blame for the haste displayed by decision-makers has been written about on the basis of the documentation made available subsequently and, at this distance of time, its validity cannot be dismissed altogether.
•A primary concern of the Constitution-makers related to cohesion and integration of the units of the new Republic formally described as ‘A Union of States’. In the words of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, ‘the inspiration and the stimulus came from above rather than from below and unless the transplanted growth takes a healthy root in the soil, there will be a danger of collapse and chaos.’ This was amplified by V.P. Menon as the integration ‘of the minds of the people’.
•In a speech in the Constituent Assembly on December 22, 1952, B.R. Ambedkar dwelt on what he called ‘Conditions Precedent for the Successful Working of Democracy’. He listed these as: absence of glaring inequalities; presence of an opposition; equality of law and administration; observance of constitutional morality; avoidance of tyranny of majority over minority; a functioning of moral order in society, and public conscience.
•Over time, uneven development has characterised the States of the Indian Union. Regional and linguistic diversity characterises them. And so does uneven economic development and progress, resulting in uneven levels of education, employment, social cohesion and contentment.
Question for the leadership
•Seventy-five years on, a candid assessment of the state of the Republic makes us cogitate on evidence of regional diversity, assertion of linguistic identity and emergence of diverging political orientations. While the first two are physical and social realities, the third is a product of thriving diversity. Each is real, each is also disconcerting from the viewpoint of federal governance hitherto practised, and each seeks accommodation in a divergent framework.
•Where does this take fraternity? Article 51A(e) of the Constitution does not differentiate between citizens on any of the categories mentioned above and makes it an all-encompassing duty. Its ambit therefore is universal; its observance, by the same logic, has to begin at the base of the ladder of citizenship rather than the top but does not spare the leadership from the obligation to promote and practise it.
•Has this been done in practice? How often have social and political leaders of opinion promoted fraternity, incidentally or specifically, locally, within the region or nationally? The record is depressing; hence the ease with which non-fraternal patterns of behaviour seem to emerge in our society. Does this promote national integration, rhetoric apart? Was the bloodshed of 1947 (‘10 million or one in every 35 persons in the subcontinent’) a forerunner of lesser ones that followed?
📰 A risky new status quo
Vision IAS Current Affairs Monthly Magazine August 2022 PDF
aditya
07:37
Vision IAS Current Affairs Monthly Magazine August 2022 PDF
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Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Daily Current Affairs, 21st September 2022
aditya
18:47
1) International Day of Peace celebrates on 21st September
•The International Day of Peace is observed globally on September 21. The United National General Assembly marks the day by promoting ideals of peace among nations and people by observing non-violence and ceasefire for 24 hours. This year’s theme is “End racism. Build peace.” The UN General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire.
2) World Alzheimer’s Day 2022 observed on 21st September
•World Alzheimer’s Day is observed annually on September 21 to raise awareness about neurological disorders. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia and affects the person’s memory, mental ability, and ability to carry out simple tasks. On World Alzheimer’s Day, healthcare organisations support Alzheimer’s walks while seminars and public activities are held in communities around the globe to raise awareness on Alzheimer’s.
World Alzheimer’s Day 2022: Theme
•This year’s theme for World Alzheimer’s Month is ‘Know Dementia, know Alzheimer’s’. It is in continuation with the last year’s campaign which focused on warning signs and diagnosis of dementia and also the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dementia community around the world. However, this year, special emphasis will be laid on post-diagnosis support for dementia.
3) India, Egypt sign MoU to bolster defence cooperation in mutual interest sectors
•India and Egypt have signed an MoU to bolster defense cooperation and decided to enhance joint military exercises, training, co-production, and maintenance of equipment. The MoU was signed by Defence Ministry of India Rajnath Singh and General Mohamed Zaki from Egypt at a meeting in Cairo.
4) Bihar govt is set to introduce ‘no-bag day’ in schools
•The Bihar government is set to introduce a “no-bag day” rule in schools and a mandatory games period at least once a week to reduce the burden on students. The weekly ”no-bag day” will have task-based practical classes. At least once a week, students will come to school only with their lunch boxes. They do not need to carry books. The day will be devoted to practical and experiential learning. The objective of such a policy is to engage students in various activities which can positively impact their learning.
5) Indian Army activates satellite-based internet service on Siachen Glacier, world’s highest battlefield
•The Indian Army has achieved a remarkable achievement, activating satellite-based Internet service on the Siachen Glacier, which is the world’s highest battlefield. On the same day, the domestic defense industry was invited to offer critical equipment for emergency procurement in consonance with its commitment to ‘fight future wars with Indigenous solutions’.
•Siachen Glacier is very important for the Indian Army as it is a place of concern and a constant target of attacks from both enemy countries, which is China and Pakistan.
6) Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar addresses Leeds-2022 conference
•The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar virtually addressed the Leeds-2022 conference organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in New Delhi. The Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare informed the conference that India’s agricultural sector has registered a growth of 3.9 percent despite being hit by a global pandemic. India can meet the food needs of a large part of the world as India is moving fast to become a world leader in the agriculture sector.
7) Gross Direct Tax Collection Registered Growth of 30% in 2022-23
•The Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) in a statement said that the net direct tax collections so far this financial year are at ₹700,669 crore, an increase of 23% as compared to ₹568,147 crore till the same period of the corresponding financial year. The total includes corporation tax of ₹368,484 crore and personal income tax (including securities transaction tax) worth ₹330,490 crore.
8) India’s Presidency of AIBD extended for one more year
•India’s Presidency of the Asia-Pacific Institute of Broadcasting Development (AIBD), has been extended for one more year. The Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati and Director General of Doordarshan Mayank Kumar Agrawal is the President of AIBD.
•The decision to extend AIBD was taken at the two-day General Conference of the AIBD held in New Delhi. The conference was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur.
The HINDU Notes – 21st September 2022
aditya
18:19
📰 China remains a formidable challenge, says Navy Chief
Army chief says the immediate aim is to disengage from the two remaining friction points at LAC in eastern Ladakh before looking at the next step of de-escalation
•China remains a formidable challenge and has increased its presence not only along India’s land borders, but also in the maritime domain by leveraging anti-piracy operations to normalise its naval presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), Navy Chief Admiral R. Hari Kumar said on Wednesday.
•Speaking at a separate event, Army chief General Manoj Pande said there are still two friction points at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh that India and China need to move forward.
•Admiral Kumar was speaking on the security challenges that India faces. He noted that China had maintained continuous presence in the IOR since 2008 using anti-piracy operations “as the reason”.
• “At any point we have anything between five to eight Chinese Navy units, be it warships or research vessels and a host of Chinese fishing vessels operating in the IOR. We keep a watch on them and see how they are undertaking their activities in the IOR,” Admiral Kumar said at the 49th annual management convention of the All India Management Association.
•He said China now had a base in Djibouti, and was also involved in the development of various ports in the IOR, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan and many other countries.
•“Our capability plans and developments that we are looking at is not based on a nation, it is based upon our requirements to protect, preserve and promote our national interests,” the Navy chief said.
•“That is how we structure our force and while structuring the force and developing the capability, these get factored and enable us to keep the Indian Ocean under surveillance,” he said, adding that the Navy conducted aircraft sorties and had ships deployed almost 24X7 to keep an eye on the IOR.
•Speaking at an event organised by Bharat Shakti, General Pande said, “I am sure we will be able to find resolution towards these two friction points. That is our immediate aim to disengage from these friction points before we look at the next step of de-escalation, which will involve pullback by troops and tanks.”
•He said the lessons learnt were to maintain high level of operational preparedness at all times whatever be the situation and the importance of infrastructure development, especially along the northern borders.
•We need to develop our grey zone capability, he said, while stating that in the past two years significant enhancement in our infrastructure had taken place, especially in eastern Ladakh, including habitat for 35,000 troops, induction of mechanised forces, covered accommodation for tanks and artillery systems, among others.
•As part of the latest round of disengagement towards ending the stand-off along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, the two sides had undertaken pullback from Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs area last week. This leaves two more friction areas -- Depsang and Demchok.
•On the experience with Russian equipment, Admiral Kumar said they were reliable and while there had been teething issues with some of the systems, they had received good support from Russia.
•Some technologies which we have not been able to get from any other sources, they have been able to support us, he said. “In that sense, we have really been receiving good support from Russia over the years.”
•“While competition is being played out on a daily basis – at times testing limits – but without escalating into armed action, a war with potential adversaries can never be ruled out,” Admiral Kumar said. “To the west, Pakistan, despite economic constraints, has continued its military modernisation, especially its Navy, which is on track to becoming a 50-platform force,” he added.
•Talking of the Indian Navy’s lead in indigenisation efforts, Admiral Kumar said while 29 ships commissioned in the past seven years were all constructed in India, 38 out of 40 ships presently under construction were also being built at Indian shipyards. “Further, 39 ships under contract conclusion, will similarly be indigenous. Our aim is for the Navy to be fully aatmanirbhar by 2047,” he said.
Lessons from Ukraine war
•On a question about the war in Ukraine, the Navy chief said it had important lessons. A key reminder was that it was easy to start a war but a major challenge to terminate it.
•“There are lessons in the naval blockade and use of drones and precision munitions,” Admiral Kumar said as also lessons in the use of media and social media to weaponisation of the cognitive domain. “You don’t know who to believe,” he added.
•In addition to the conventional threats, Admiral Kumar also flagged the threat of terrorism and also challenges imposed by piracy, arms and drug smuggling, illegal immigration, among others.
📰 The lumpy skin disease
How will the spread of the disease affect the diary industry of India? Are there vaccinations for the vector-borne disease?
•The Mumbai Police have ordered the prohibition of cattle transportation in the city to prevent the spread of the lumpy skin disease (LSD). The order came into force on September 14 and will stay in place till October 13. The disease has killed 127 cattle in Maharashtra, having spread to 25 districts. The contagious viral infection has spread in cattle in more than 10 States and Union Territories so far.
•Lumpy skin disease is caused by the lumpy skin disease virus which affects the lymph nodes of the infected animal, causing the nodes to enlarge and appear like lumps on the skin. The cutaneous nodules, 2–5 cm in diameter, appear on the infected cattle’s head, neck, limbs, udder, genitalia, and perineum. The nodules may later turn into ulcers and eventually develop scabs over the skin.
•The spread of the disease can lead to “severe” economic losses according to FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). The disease leads to reduced milk production as the animal becomes weak and also loses appetite due to mouth ulceration. The income losses can also be due to poor growth, reduced draught power capacity and reproductive problems associated with abortions, infertility and lack of semen for artificial insemination. Movement and trade bans after infection also put an economic strain on the whole value chain.
•The story so far: The Mumbai Police have ordered the prohibition of cattle transportation in the city to prevent the spread of the lumpy skin disease (LSD). This means cattle cannot be moved out of the place they are being raised or transported to marketplaces. The order came into force on September 14 and will stay in place till October 13. The disease has killed 127 cattle in Maharashtra, having spread to 25 districts. The contagious viral infection has spread in cattle in more than 10 States and Union Territories so far. Prime Minister Narendra Modi informed last week that the Centre and States are working together to control the spread of the disease, which has emerged as a concern for the dairy sector.
What is the lumpy skin disease and how does it spread?
•Lumpy skin disease is caused by the lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV), which belongs to the genus capripoxvirus, a part of the poxviridae family (smallpox and monkeypox viruses are also a part of the same family). The LSDV shares antigenic similarities with the sheeppox virus (SPPV) and the goatpox virus (GTPV) or is similar in the immune response to those viruses. It is not a zoonotic virus, meaning the disease cannot spread to humans. It is a contagious vector-borne disease spread by vectors like mosquitoes, some biting flies, and ticks and usually affects host animals like cows and water buffaloes. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), infected animals shed the virus through oral and nasal secretions which may contaminate common feeding and water troughs. Thus, the disease can either spread through direct contact with the vectors or through contaminated fodder and water. Studies have also shown that it can spread through animal semen during artificial insemination.
•LSD affects the lymph nodes of the infected animal, causing the nodes to enlarge and appear like lumps on the skin, which is where it derives its name from. The cutaneous nodules, 2–5 cm in diameter, appear on the infected cattle’s head, neck, limbs, udder, genitalia, and perineum. The nodules may later turn into ulcers and eventually develop scabs over the skin. The other symptoms include high fever, sharp drop in milk yield, discharge from the eyes and nose, salivation, loss of appetite, depression, damaged hides, emaciation (thinness or weakness) of animals, infertility and abortions. The incubation period or the time between infection and symptoms is about 28 days according to the FAO, and 4 to 14 days according to some other estimates.
•The morbidity of the disease varies between two to 45% and mortality or rate of date is less than 10%, however, the reported mortality of the current outbreak in India is up to 15%, particularly in cases being reported in the western part (Rajasthan) of the country.
What is the geographical distribution and how did it spread to India?
•The disease was first observed in Zambia in 1929, subsequently spreading to most African countries extensively, followed by West Asia, Southeastern Europe, and Central Asia, and more recently spreading to South Asia and China in 2019. As per the FAO, the LSD disease is currently endemic in several countries across Africa, parts of the West Asia (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic), and Turkey.
•The spread in South Asia first affected Bangladesh in July 2019 and then reached India in August that year, with initial cases being detected in Odisha and West Bengal. The FAO points out: “The long porous borders between India, Nepal and Bangladesh allow for a significant amount of bilateral and informal animal trade, including cattle and buffaloes.” This, the UN body says, may have contributed to the spread of LSD in July-August 2019 between Bangladesh and India. While the 2019 outbreak later subsided, the recent spread in India began in June this year.
Is it safe to consume the milk of affected cattle?
•Studies say that it has not been possible to ascertain the presence of viable and infectious LSDV virus in milk derived from the infected animal. FAO notes, however, that a large portion of the milk in Asia is processed after collection and is either pasteurised or boiled or dried in order to make milk powder. This process ensures that the virus is inactivated or destroyed.
•Notably, Joint Director at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) told PTI that it is safe to consume milk from cattle infected by LSD, as it is a non-zoonotic disease. “It is safe to consume milk from the infected cattle. There is no problem in the quality of milk even if you have it after boiling or without boiling,” Mr. Mohanty said.
What are the economic implications?
•The spread of the disease can lead to “substantial” and “severe” economic losses according to FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). The disease leads to reduced milk production as the animal becomes weak and also loses appetite due to mouth ulceration. The income losses can also be due to poor growth, reduced draught power capacity and reproductive problems associated with abortions, infertility and lack of semen for artificial insemination. Movement and trade bans after infection also put an economic strain on the whole value chain. A risk assessment study conducted by the FAO based on information available from 2019 to October 2020 revealed that the economic impact of LSD for South, East and Southeast Asian countries “was estimated to be up to $1.45 billion in direct losses of livestock and production”.
•The current outbreak in India has emerged as a challenge for the dairy sector. India is the world’s largest milk producer at about 210 million tonnes annually. India also has the largest headcount of cattle and buffalo worldwide. In Rajasthan, which is witnessing the worst impact of LSD , it has led to reduced milk production, which lessened by about three to six lakh litres a day. Reports indicate that milk production has also gone down in Punjab owing to the spread of the disease. According to FAO, the disease threatens the livelihoods of smaller poultry farmers significantly. Notably, farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab have incurred losses due to cattle deaths and are seeking compensation from their State governments.
How bad is the current spread in India and what is the government doing?
•The current outbreak started in Gujarat and Rajashthan around July and had spread to Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar and Uttarakhand by early August. It then spread to Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. In recent weeks, it was reported in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, and Jharkhand. The virus has infected over 16 lakh cattle in 197 districts as of September 11. Of the nearly 75,000 cattle that the disease has killed, more than 50,000 deaths, mostly cows, have been reported from Rajasthan.
•The FAO has suggested a set of spread-control measures for LSD, which involves vaccination of susceptible populations with more than 80% coverage, movement control of bovine animals and quarantining, implementing biosecurity through vector control by sanitising sheds and spraying insecticides, strengthening active and passive surveillance; spreading awareness on risk mitigation among all stakeholders involved, and creating large protection and surveillance zones and vaccination zones.
•The Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying informed that the ‘Goat Pox Vaccine’ is “very effective” against LSD and is being used across affected States to contain the spread. As of the first week of September, 97 lakh doses of vaccination have been administered. The affected States have put movement bans in place and are isolating infected cattle and buffaloes, spraying insecticides to kill vectors like mosquitoes, with some affected States such as Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh also setting up dedicated control rooms and helpline numbers to guide farmers whose cattle have been infected.
•In a major breakthrough, two institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have developed an indigenous vaccine for LSD, which the Centre plans to commercialise and roll out in the next three to four months. The vaccine is based on LSD virus samples from cattle in Ranchi afflicted in the 2019 outbreak and experimental trials conducted on animals afflicted in the ongoing 2022 outbreak with the vaccine have revealed encouraging results, ICAR and the Ministry of Agriculture have stated.
📰 Positioning India in a chaotic world
•India’s foreign policy mandarins are all set to go into overdrive in the wake of new challenges. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting (September 15-16) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, was a test case for governments on how to deal with current conflicts and attempt new guidelines for the future. Along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi were Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the leaders of Pakistan and other SCO nations. The special significance of this in-person SCO meeting lay in the fact that it was taking place when the world stood at the crossroads, in the wake of the Russia-Ukrainian conflict.
•Mr. Xi’s initial remarks to Mr. Putin on the sidelines of the conference signalled the divided nature of the world today. Even as the leaders emphasised the strengthening of their ties in defiance of the West, Mr. Xi’s remarks that ‘China is willing to make efforts with Russia to assume the role of great powers, and play a guiding role to inject stability and positive energy into a world rocked by social turmoil’ were pregnant with many meanings. Mr. Putin’s response further underlined the extent of global disruption taking place today, and the wide chasm that separated the two warring blocs.
New version of non-alignment
•India’s presence at the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO was significant, reflecting a desire to be a part of both blocs, without antagonising either. The justification provided is that it represented a ‘new version’ of Non-alignment, viz., steering an independent course, despite open association with rival blocs. At the meeting, Mr. Modi made certain significant observations which mirror India’s new version of Non-alignment. For instance, after refusing to take sides in the Ukrainian conflict for months, Mr. Modi told Mr. Putin that “this isn’t the era of war”, stressing instead that “it was one of democracy, dialogue and diplomacy”. This has been interpreted as a mild rebuke of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On the other hand, in his formal opening remarks at the summit, Mr. Modi thanked both Russia and Ukraine for the evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine, highlighting India’s posture of equidistance between the two countries.
•The philosophical underpinning for this seems to be that ‘Nonalignment of the past’ had not succeeded, and a way had to be found for “multiple engagements of the future”. Mr. Modi’s presence at this SCO summit is possibly the earliest test case of this unfolding strategy, given that it is only recently that the United States and other western allies had complimented India for its participation in the Quad (Australia, Japan, India and the U.S.). Whether India can make out a case for ‘mixing utopia with reality’ under the label of ‘multi alignment’ is yet to be seen, but it does provide grist to an idea being floated that this provides leeway for India to play a much bigger role in ‘managing conflict’.
•It would be interesting to see whether this SCO summit will pave the way for India to exploit other situations created by political contradictions and use them to its advantage. A test case is India’s relations with Iran which have been on the backburner for some time, following a U.S. threat to impose sanctions on India if it continued to trade with Iran. Iran’s President appears to have floated a suggestion to hold a summit meeting with India’s Prime Minister, and the ball is apparently in India’s court. The cost to India on account of the freeze in relations with Iran has been high, including having to pay higher prices for crude and the inability to utilise the Chabahar Connectivity Project as an alternate route to Afghanistan.
•As of now, all this seems at best, to be ‘work in progress’. Meantime, however, India’s foreign policy is increasingly appearing passive rather than active. Less important events such as abstaining from voting in the United Nations on the Ukraine issue are being touted as policy, ignoring the fact that this has contributed little to peace in Ukraine nor led to a lessening of tensions. This is also the case in our immediate neighbourhood, whether it be Sri Lanka or Afghanistan, where India’s foreign policy prescriptions look better on paper than in reality. A preoccupation with Pakistan and constant references to terrorism have kept India’s domestic population happy and satisfied, but this does not translate into an effective foreign policy.
•Refashioning India’s foreign policy has become vital at a time when India is facing a confluence of old and new situations and threats, which often intersect. Such a situation may not be unique, but the nature of rivalries and present global undercurrents makes this extremely tricky. It may require a major overhaul of how we interpret regional and international tensions that have increased. For India, this poses a whole new paradigm of challenges, and it is important for India not to become the odd man out, as patterns change. New priorities need to be devised without squandering the past inheritance of managing to remain independent of conflicting blocs.
Ties with China
•Jettisoning an erroneous belief that prevails among some sections of India’s foreign policy establishment, viz., that the erstwhile policy of Non-alignment had done little to enhance India’s image, should be the beginning, followed by deeper introspection before effecting fundamental changes in the policy of Non-alignment. While, China today presents an acute ‘near-term problem’ for India, it is important that India does not fall into the trap that the current adversarial relationship with China is ‘carved in stone’, and can or never will be altered. India’s foreign policy should be creative enough to leave an opening for an improvement in India-China relations over the longer term.
•Again, the intensity of the current conflict between India and China should not lead India’s strategic establishment to overlook the fact that the primary conflict between India and China is ‘civilizational’, and not for territory. The two countries may never have a ‘lips and teeth relationship’, but given the history of nations there is enough scope for India to formulate a policy that would not completely close the doors on China for all time. Hence, India’s foreign policy mandarins must look for opportunities for the betterment of relations at an opportune time, which could well arise when China’s economy begins to stall and India’s economy (in-line with the expectations of economists worldwide) rises, moderating China's current aggressive behaviour.
•Refashioning relations with China over the longer term is important, but attention also needs to be given on how to manage relations in the near term in the context of the growing closeness in China-Russia relations. As their relations become closer, they have the potential of adversely impacting the current warmth in India-Russia relations. Our foreign policy experts need to consider how best to manage the relationship with both Russia and China in the extant circumstances. The watchword here again is that there is no permanence in the nature of relationships among nations, more so with the so-called Big Powers.
Nuclear dimension
•An issue that has remained on the backburner for years may now need consideration in the context of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, viz., the nuclear dimension. Seldom mentioned, but present nevertheless like Banquo’s Ghost, are concerns about the possible use of nuclear weapons that have been raised in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. India, no doubt, has been a firm adherent of the ‘No First Use Doctrine’, and while nuclear relationships involving India, China and Pakistan have remained remarkably subdued over many years, India’s strategic and foreign policy establishment cannot afford to overlook the nuclear aspect, given that the country is wedged between two active, and hostile, nuclear powers — China and Pakistan.
•Nuclear stability, as we have known for some years now, could well change in the near future. What cannot also be ignored in this context is the growing sophistication of Chinese nuclear forces, and to a lesser extent that of Pakistan, which has the effect of putting India at a disadvantage with both predictable and unpredictable consequences. India’s new foreign policy imperatives cannot again afford to ignore this aspect, even though at present India is the only one among the three that does not see nuclear weapons as intended for use in the event of a war. Nevertheless, it behoves India’s strategic and foreign policy establishment to consider how best to prevent ‘debilitating strategic instability’ — with regard to China in particular — given the pace at which China’s nuclear arsenal is growing.
•Hence, navigating the coming decade promises to be extremely demanding, if not dangerous, with old fashioned geopolitical risks jostling alongside newer political challenges. It demands a total transformation of the way India’s foreign policy planners look at issues today. It may well necessitate giving up many of the existing policy constructs, providing for a wider outreach, and ensuring that our policy is not merely in step with current needs but is always a step ahead.
📰 A blow for dignity
