Daily Current Affairs : 10th, 11th and 12th

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Ayodhya Verdict
2. Geochemical Baseline Atlas 
3. Tropical Rain Forest
4. Sulphated polysaccharides
5. Challenges for India in Achieving Paris commitment
6. Draft code on social security
7. World Monument Watch list
8. Facts for Prelims : H1B Visa and H4 Visa, Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR), PLIOSAUR, Kalapani , Bulbul, Mihir Shah Committee

1 . Ayodhya Verdict

Context : A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court has allowed the construction of a temple in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya, while ordering the grant of a five-acre plot to the U.P. Central Sunni Wakf Board for the construction of a mosque. 

Background of the Case

• The case consists of Ayodhya and Babri Masjid
  • Ayodhya : In Faizabad district, Awadh, famous for its sunsets by the banks of the River Saryu. Its rich history and symbolism finds space in the writings of Tulsidas and Amir Khusrau. Buddha is said to have preached here. Jainism and Sikhism too have their imprint here.
  • Babri Masjid The three-domed mosque that Mir Baqi built in the name of Emperor Babur, in 1528 in the Jaunpuri style, has been at the centre of the dispute. 
• At the crux of the matter is the belief among sections of Hindus that the Babri Masjid, names after Mughal emperor Babur, was built in Ayodhya after destroying a Ram Temple that marked the birthplace of the deity.
• The Hindu parties wanted the land to themselves, contending that Lord Ram was born at a spot on which later the central dome of the mosque was built.
• The Muslim parties, however, contended that the mosque was constructed in 1528 by Mir Baqi, a commander of Babur’s army, without demolishing any place of worship and since the land rights had not been transferred to any other party, the space was rightfully theirs.

Judicial Proceedings in the case

• The matter went to court as far back as 1885. Mahant Raghubar Dass filed a suit as “mahant of the janmasthan” for permission to build a temple on a 17 feet x 21 feet Chabutra (platform) outside the mosque. The Sub-Judge, Faizabad, dismissed the suit. On appeal, the District Judge also dismissed it. The dispute did not go to courts for many decades and was continuously in the possession of Muslims.
• However, a large crowd of Hindus entered the premises on the night of December 22-23, 1949 and planted idols of Ram surreptitiously under the central dome. Six days later, the City Magistrate, Faizabad, attached the premises and handed it over to an official receiver.
• In January 1950, Gopal Singh Visharad, a local devotee, filed a suit asserting his right to worship at the birthplace of Ram and seeking an injunction against the administration and Muslim residents from interfering with that right. An interim order was passed in his favour against the removal of the idols. This order survives to this day.
• A similar suit was filed by Ram Chandra Paramahans late in 1950, but it was withdrawn in 1990. The Nirmohi Akhara, said to be an age-old institution of Ramanand Vairagis based in Ayodhya, filed a third suit in 1959, seeking removal of the official receiver and asking for the premises to be handed over to itself and its mahants.
• Muslim parties entered the picture in December 1961, when the Uttar Pradesh Central Sunni Wakf Board filed a suit, asserting that the mosque was a public wakf for over 400 years and seeking that the premises, including the mosque and a public Muslim graveyard in the vicinity, to be handed over to it.
• After the ‘Ram Janmabhoomi’ movement, spearheaded by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gathered momentum in the late 1980s, a fifth suit was filed by the ‘deity’ itself. Interestingly, there were three plaintiffs, Ram Lalla, the presiding deity, Ram Janmasthan, the birthplace being considered a divinity in itself, and the believer/worshipper who represented the two deities

Demolition

• BJP leader L.K. Advani led a ‘rath yatra’ across several States, leaving a trail of communal violence. Ultimately, the aggressive mobilisation resulted in the destruction of the masjid on December 6, 1992, despite the assurances given by the BJP government of Kalyan Singh.
• On January 7, 1993, the Centre issued an ordinance taking over the entire disputed area and the land close to it, and declared that all the suits would abate. This was later replaced by the Ayodhya Acquisition Act, 1993.
• However, by a verdict on October 10, 1994, the Supreme Court revived the title suits, and modified the acquisition to the effect that the Centre would not be the owner, but the Receiver of the land and would dispose of the land in terms of the final judgment in the suits.

Allahabad High court Verdict

• Judgment by a Full Bench of the Allahabad High Court had ordered a three-way partition of the disputed area among the deity, Ram Lalla and his ‘janmasthan’, the Nirmohi Akhara, an old order of Hindu saints that was maintaining a part of the area outside the now-demolished Masjid, and the Muslim parties. 

Supreme Court Verdict

• In a 5-0 unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court ruled on Saturday that the 2.77 acres of disputed land in Ayodhya will be handed over to a trust for the construction of a Ram Mandir.
• A 5-acre land will be allotted to the Sunni Waqf Board in an alternate site in Ayodhya.
• Nirmohi Akhara, which was granted one-third title by the Allahabad High Court in 2010, does not have a claim to title or even managerial rights. The temple which will be constructed will be managed by the trust.
• The court directed the central government to frame a scheme within three months to allocate land for the mosque and forming the temple trust.
• While agreeing that Ram Lalla Virajman, the deity has legal character, the court rejected the argument of the Hindus that the Janmasthan (birthplace of Ram Lalla) also had legal character.
• Court said relying on reports of the Archeological Survey of India that there is sufficient proof that the Babri Masjid was not built on an empty land but on an underlying structure that is not Islamic.

Travellers / Books quoted in Ayodhya judgment?

• The travelogues that the court took note of included, among others, those by the European travellers Joseph Tieffenthaler, William Finch, and Montgomery Martin – these being written before the building of the grill-brick wall in front of the mosque during British rule.
  • Joseph Tieffenthaler (1710-1785) : Tieffenthaler was an 18th-century missionary who travelled in India for 27 years, and wrote his travelogue titled “Description Historique et Geographique De l’Inde”. In India, he was commissioned at the famous observatory of Sawai Jai Singh, the Raja of Jaipur, and was later attached at the Jesuit College in Agra which was built with the patronage of Akbar. Tieffenthaler is said to have lived in Awadh, where Ayodhya is located, for over five years.
  • William Finch (died 1613) : William Finch’s account has been recorded in the 1921 book ‘Early Travels in India (1583-1619)’ by the historiographer Sir William Foster. The book contains the narratives of seven travellers from England, including Finch. Finch is known to have arrived in India in 1608 at Surat with Sir William Hawkins, a representative of the East India Company. His is said to be the earliest English language account of Kashmir, as well as trade routes connecting Punjab and eastern Turkistan and western China.
  • Robert Montgomery Martin (1801-1868) : Originally from Dublin in Ireland, Martin was an Anglo-Irish author and civil servant. He practised medicine in Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka), East Africa and Australia. Martin then went on to work in Kolkata where helped found the paper ‘Bengal Herald’. He later returned to England where he wrote about the British Empire. Martin wrote the three-volume work ‘History, Antiquities, Topography and Statistics of Eastern India’.

2 . Geochemical Baseline Atlas 

Context : For the first time, ‘Geochemical Baseline Atlas of India’ developed by CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) for use by policy makers to assess environmental damage was released here on Saturday.

About Geochemical Baseline Atlas

• The atlas consists of 45 maps of metals, oxides and elements present in top and bottom soils across India
• It will serve as a reference against which future generations of the country would be able to assess the chemical compositional changes on Earth’s surface.
• These maps will also help in finding out future contamination caused by industries or other bodies which cause pollution.

Benefits

• Earlier, there was no way to prove if polluters denied causing damage to environment. Now, the baseline maps atlas helps show evidence of it
• For instance, tanneries release chromium. By going through the map of chromium, policy makers will get to know regions with high concentration of it. “Policy makers should not allow tanneries in those regions,” he said.

3 . Sulphated polysaccharides

Context : The medicinal properties of compounds extracted from seaweed have been used for medicinal purposes. These compounds, as a class called sulphated polysaccharides, have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties. Of interest here is their anti-retroviral activity which makes them potential drugs against HIV.

About the Research

• A team from Chennai has extracted one such sulphated polysaccharide known as fucoidan from two seaweed species
• The team further shows that, in vitro, this compound inhibits the functioning of the HIV-1 strain of the human immunodeficiency virus to a degree that is comparable to the drug tenofovir that is presently in vogue for antiretroviral action.
• Two species of marine brown algae, also known as macroalgae (seaweed), Dictiyota bartaysiana and Turbinaria decurrence were chosen by the team for extraction of the bioactive compound.

Key Findings

• HIV comes in two strains, HIV-1 and HIV-2, and of these the former strain is more widespread and this is the strain that the group studied. The proliferation of HIV in cells is related to the expression of a protein called gagP24.
• The bioactive compound extracted from the seaweed and purified was used to treat cell lines (in vitro) and these were compared with two types of control cells. One set of controls were not treated with any chemical, and the second set was treated with tenofovir.
• The HIV cell lines treated with fucoidan did show a high percentage of inhibition (close to 90%) of the expression of the protein as compared with untreated controls. The drug tenofovir had a high degree of inhibition effect also.

4 . Tropical Rain Forest

Context : The northeastern State of Meghalaya known for its wettest districts and living root bridges is also home to a lowland tropical rainforest north of the Tropic of Cancer. A new study discovers that this rainforest, the northernmost in the world, is similar in structure and diversity to the other rainforests found near the Equator.

About Tropical Rain Forest

• Tropical rainforests are the terrestrial areas on the earth teemed with enormous diversity of trees and other life-forms which make the largest sink of carbon.
• Although these forests cover just about 6% of the Earth’s land surface, about four-fifth of world’s documented species can be found in tropical rainforests. Characteristically, tropical rainforests occur in “hot and wet” habitats where all months receive precipitation and there is no dry season.
• Rainforests usually occur near the Equator and about five degrees North and South latitudes from the Equator are considered the real home of the lowland tropical rainforest.
• The extreme spread of tropical rainforests in northern limits in the world has been found in northeastern region of India where high rainfall-receiving habitats with hot and humid climate, especially in Meghalaya and Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh are now known to boast species-rich rainforests.

Key Finding of the Research

• The team found that the climatic conditions in the region — high rainfall and humidity, and perfect annual mean temperature — were conducive for the survival of the rainforests.
• Since rainforests have a complicated structure, the team looked at over two hectares of forest area, studying nearly 2,500 individuals including trees, shrubs and herbs. Over 180 different taxa were identified of the total, and it was noted that tropical Asian species made up 95% of the abundance.
• Although these rainforests had fewer species and individuals of liana or woody climbing plants, the levels of beta diversity were high.
• Also compared to Equatorial rainforests, they had a higher proportion of rare species and good representation of the members of families of Fagaceae and Theaceaein the Meghalayan rainforests.
• Though the species diversity was similar to the other rainforests, the Meghalayan rainforest trees showed short stature. While the trees in the Equatorial region are known to grow from 45 to 60 m in height, the highest ones in Meghalaya could reach only up to about 30 m.
• The region had a high density of 467 trees per hectare. Though this is lower compared with equatorial rainforests, it fell in the intermediate category for rainforests around the Tropic of Cancer. Also, the richness of species per hectare was the highest among all lowland rainforests near the Tropic of Cancer.

5. Challenges for India in Achieving Paris commitment

Background

• It was in 2015 when nations across the globe met in Paris, and 197 signatory countries have promised to own up and to limit the increase to no more than 1.5 degrees over the pre- industrial levels by 2030. India is one of them
• India has promised to cut its emission intensity by 33-35% by the year 2030, as compared to 2015 levels.

Four Big Climate Challenges for India

• First challenge: Most of India’s emissions come from energy (largely coal-based) production (68%), industry (20%), agriculture, food and land use (10%). It becomes vital that we use other means of energy, produced by, for instance, hydroelectric power, windmills, solar power, nuclear power and others. India hopes to produce 40% of its energy from such non-coal sources.
• Second Challenge : Agriculture, land use and water resources, these too contribute to climate change. The minimum support price, subsidies, free 24-hour electric power supply, and water-intensive crops are some. It is high time we restrict these and take to proven methods, and work on innovative ones. Some of these are drip irrigation (as Israel has done), aerobic cultivation (a water- saving agronomic practice, and researching on improving specific traits that lead to better roots that go down to deeper levels in the ground, as initiated by the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru), better and more nutritious grains. Doing these on rice — a major water-guzzling plant of India — will go far in water conservation. More nutritious varieties such as the new Samba Masoori (developed at CCMB and NIPGR, which is incidentally lower in carbohydrate, hence good for diabetics) should be promoted among farmers. Stubble burning must stop; we need to find better ways. This is no ‘rocket science’; Indian scientists and technologists can and should find ways that are better and safer.
• The third is to bring down atmospheric CO2 levels through natural means. Forestation and planting of local varieties of trees must increase. Here, it is worth following the steps taken by the Philippines government. Each student there must plant and nurture 10 locally-suited trees before he/she gets a school certificate/ college degree. Note that local trees absorb water and send it down to earth. India has planned to create additional ‘carbon sinks’ through forestation and tree plantation, so as to bring down 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO2.
• Fourth Challenge Health Issues : Several publications have focused on how climate change and global warming has gradually become injurious to health. The paper “Global climate change and infectious diseases points out, as we burn more fossil fuel, the temperature rise, associated heat wave and heavier rain make perfect conditions for insects (and the germs/viruses they host) to thrive.Due to warmer climate, water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, as well as malaria, dengue and chikungunya have increased in numbers and in geographical spread across hilly, cold as well as warm deserts and sea coasts. 

6 . Draft code on social security

Context : The draft code on social security, which subsumes eight existing laws covering provident fund, maternity benefits and pension, is being further worked upon after a recent round of public consultations, officials of the Labour and Employment Ministry have said.

About the Draft Code

• The draft code says the “Central Government shall formulate and notify, from time to time, suitable welfare schemes for unorganised workers on matter relating to life and disability cover; health and maternity benefits; old age protection; and any other benefit as may be determined by the central government”.
• Draft says the states may also formulate and notify suitable initiatives for unorganized workers, including schemes relating to provident fund, employment injury benefit, housing, educational scheme for their children, old age and funeral assistance.
• Draft also recommends corporatization of EPFO and ESIC
• As per the draft social security code, the “Central Government may formulate and notify, from time to time, suitable social security schemes for gig workers and platform workers” and such schemes would encompass issues like “life and disability cover”, “health and maternity benefits” , “old age protection” and “any other benefit as may be determined by the Central Government”.
• The draft says subject to the other provisions of this Code, every woman shall be entitled to, and her employer shall be liable for, the payment of maternity benefit at the rate of the average daily wage for the period of her actual absence, that is to say, the period immediately preceding the day of her delivery, and any period immediately following that day.
• The Code on Social Security, 2019 once in place will merge eight exiting labour laws including Employees’ Compensation Act, 1923; Employees‘ State Insurance Act, 1948, Employees‘ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952; Maternity Benefit Act, 1961; Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972; Cine Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1981; Building and Other Construction Workers Cess Act, 1996 and Unorganized Workers‘ Social Security Act, 2008.

7 . World Monument Watch list

Context: Suranga Bawadi, an integral part of the ancient Karez system of supplying water through subterranean tunnels built during Adil Shahi era in Vijayapura, is now set to get funding for restoration. 

About World Monument Fund

• World Monuments Fund is a private nonprofit organization founded in 1965 by individuals concerned about the accelerating destruction of important artistic treasures throughout the world.
• World Monuments Fund has orchestrated over 600 projects in 90 countries. Today, with affiliate organizations established in Britain, India, Peru, Portugal, and Spain — World Monuments Fund sponsors an ongoing program for the conservation of cultural heritage worldwide.
• The World Monuments Watch, a global program launched in 1995 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of World Monuments Fund, aims to identify imperiled cultural heritage sites and direct financial and technical support for their preservation.

About World Monument Watch

• The World Monuments Watch is a global, nomination-based program that uses cultural heritage conservation to empower communities and improve human well-being.
• Through heritage, the program seeks to improve the resilience of communities, enhance social inclusion, and build new capacities in the heritage conservation field and beyond.
• Through the Watch, World Monuments Fund partners with local stakeholders to jointly design and implement targeted conservation programs—including advocacy, planning, education, and physical interventions in the historic built environment.
• Since its inception in 1996, the program has included 814 sites in 136 countries and territories.

Sites included in the watch list

• Sites included on the Watch are in need of urgent or timely action. To be selected for inclusion on the program, nominators must describe the major challenges that the stakeholders of a site are confronted with.
• Those challenges are diverse, and they may include the risk that a place may be permanently altered or lost.
• The need for urgent action in response, or other circumstances that make action timely, is a factor in the evaluation of nominations to the Watch.

Assistance

• Inclusion on the Watch program results in various forms of assistance from World Monuments Fund, including financial support for interventions that use heritage conservation to deliver tangible social benefits.
• World Monuments Fund is not a grantmaking institution, and no minimum or maximum amounts of funding are guaranteed. Rather, through the Watch program, World Monuments Fund partners with local stakeholders to jointly design and implement targeted conservation programs, with budgets that vary.

About the News

• The monument has been selected under the ‘Ancient Water System of the Deccan Plateau’ by World Monuments Fund [the NGO], which monitors restoration of ancient monuments across the globe.
• With this, the Suranga Bawadi is expected to get funds for restoration within the next two years.
• The NGO would also coordinate with the authorities concerned for restoration and create public awareness on its importance.

About Karez

• Karez is an ancient water system which is believed to be one of the best systems in the world. But owing to lack of maintenance, the whole structure is in bad condition
• Karez system was built in the 16th century by Ali Adil Shah–I, his successor, Ibrahim Adil Shah–II, brought in several changes by adding more structures to strengthen it.
• According to historians, the Adil Shahis built the magnificent underground system to supply water to the city, which had a population of nearly 12 lakh then.

8 . Facts for Prelims

H-1B and H-4 visas

• The lottery-based H-1B visas allow US companies to employ foreign workers temporarily in specialised occupations for three years, extendable to six years. The issuances are capped at 85,000 a year, but some employers such as universities and research nonprofits are exempt.
• Spouses of H-1B workers are granted an H-4 visa, through which some have been allowed to apply to work in the US since a Barack Obama-era 2015 law. Since the law was instituted, a total of 1,20,514 H-4 visas have been granted, of which 1,10,649 have come from India. Out of the 90,946 that were initially approved, 84,935 were for women.

PLIOSAUR

• Over 150 million years ago, enormous reptiles swam the Jurassic oceans. The largest aquatic carnivorous reptiles that have ever lived, they are often dubbed “sea monsters”.
• Scientifically, they are placed in the suborder Pliosauroidea, whose members are called pliosaurs.

Kalapani

• The new political map of India, recently released by the government to account for the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, has triggered fresh protests over an old issue in Kathmandu.
• Mapped within Uttarakhand is a 372-sq km area called Kalapani, bordering far-west Nepal and Tibet.
• Nepal’s western boundary with India was marked out in the Treaty of Sugauli between the East India Company and Nepal in 1816. Nepali authorities claim that people living in the low-density area were included in the Census of Nepal until 58 years ago.
• Five years ago, Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pande claimed that the late King Mahendra had “handed over the territory to India”. By some accounts in Nepal, this allegedly took place in the wake of India-China War of 1962.
• A committee formed by the Nepal government to study this claim submitted a report to Prime Minister Oli during his first tenure. It claimed that India had “occupied” an additional 62 sq km land.
• At least two former Foreign Ministers of Nepal — Upendra Yadav (now Deputy Prime Minister) and Sujata Koirala — had said that 98 per cent of border-related matters had been settled with India. Apart from Kalapani, another unresolved issue involves a vast area along the Nepal-Uttar Pradesh border. During his visit to Nepal in 2014, Prime Minister Modi had said that the Susta and Kalapani issues would be sorted out.

Mihir Shah Committee

• The Union Water Resources Ministry has finalised a committee to draft a new National Water Policy (NWP). It will be chaired by Mihir Shah, who is a former Planning Commission member and a water expert. The committee has 10 principal members, including Shashi Shekhar, a former secretary of Water Resources, and A.B. Pandya, former chairman of the Central Ground Water Board.
• The NWP currently in force was drafted in 2012 and is the third such policy since 1987. Among the major policy innovations in the 2012 policy was the concept of an Integrated Water Resources Management approach that took the “river basin/ sub-basin” as a unit for planning, development and management of water resources.

Tiger Reserve in News

• Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) in Andhra Pradesh

Bulbul

• Bulbul-Matmo was a strong tropical cyclone which struck Vietnam and the state of West Bengal as well as Bangladesh in November 2019, bringing storm surge, heavy rains, and flash floods.
• Matmo formed on October 28 and made landfall on Vietnam on October 30. Matmo remnants entered the Andaman Sea. Originating from the remnants of the Severe Tropical Storm Matmo over the southern Bay of Bengal in early November Bulbul slowly intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm