Daily Current Affairs : 13th and 14th July 2022

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Retail Inflation
2. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) First Deep Field
3. National Child Labour Project
4. Gender Gap index
5. IU2U2
6. Facts for Prelims

1 . Retail Inflation

Context : India’s retail inflation inched lower to 7.01% in June, from May’s 7.04%, but stayed stuck above the 7% mark for the third straight month. Price gains also exceeded the RBI’s upper tolerance limit of 6% for the sixth month.

About the News

• Rural inflation edged up to 7.09%, from 7.08% in May, while urban consumers faced a 6.92% price rise, as per the Consumer Price Index
• Food price inflation, as per the Consumer Food Price Index, eased to 7.75%, from 7.97%, but remained above 8% in urban areas, at 8.04%.
• Higher costs for cereals, and vegetables such as tomatoes, as well as milk and meat, clothing and footwear and services, were balanced out by slower price gains in edible oils and fuel, following excise and import duty cuts.

How does India measure retail inflation?

•  Rate of inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) is called as Retail Inflation
• The CPI monitors retail prices at a certain level for a particular commodity; price movement of goods and services at rural, urban and all-India levels.
• The change in the price index over a period of time is referred to as CPI-based inflation, or retail inflation.
• The Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data is released monthly by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation

What is Consumer Price Index

• Consumer Price Index is a measure of change in retail prices of goods and services consumed by defined population group in a given area with reference to a base year.
• This basket of goods and services represents the level of living or the utility derived by the consumers at given levels of their income, prices and tastes.
• The consumer price index number measures changes only in one of the factors; prices.
• This index is an important economic indicator and is widely considered as a barometer of inflation, a tool for monitoring price stability and as a deflator in national accounts.
• The dearness allowance of Government employees and wage contracts between labour and employer is based on this index.
• Consumer price indices compiled in India are CPI for Industrial workers CPI(IW), CPI for Agricultural Labourers CPI(AL) and; Rural Labourers CPI(RL) and (Urban) and CPI(Rural).

CPI(IW) and CPI(AL& RL)

• The CPI(IW) and CPI(AL& RL) compiled are occupation specific and centre specific and are compiled by Labour Bureau.
• This means that these index numbers measure changes in the retail price of the basket of goods and services consumed by the specific occupational groups in the specific centres.

CPI(Urban) and CPI(Rural)

• CPI(Urban) and CPI(Rural) are new indices in the group of Consumer price index and has a wider coverage of population.
• This index compiled by Central Statistical Organisation tries to encompass the entire population and is likely to replace all the other indices presently compiled.
• In addition to this, Consumer Food Price Indices (CFPI) for all India for rural, urban and combined separately are also released w.e.f May, 2014.

Other Important Points

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has started using CPI-combined as the sole inflation measure for the purpose of monetary policy.

Why is faster inflation a concern for policymakers?

• Faster retail inflation is indicative of prices of household items rising quickly. While inflation affects everyone, it is often referred to as a ‘tax on the poor’ as the low-income stratum of society bears the brunt.
• Persistent high inflation pushes several items out of reach for this category of consumers. For example, onions and potatoes are generally a key staple in an average Indian family’s diet.
• But, if the price of potatoes starts rising rapidly, a poor household is often forced to sharply reduce or forgo its consumption of this key source of essential nutrients, including carbohydrates.
• Over time, if unchecked, persistent high inflation erodes the value of money and hurts several other segments of the population, including the elderly living off a fixed pension. It hence ends up undermining a society’s consumptive capacity, and thereby, economic growth itself.

What is the RBI’s role in tackling inflation?

• In 2016, the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, was amended to provide a statutory basis for the implementation of a flexible inflation-targeting framework, where the Centre and the RBI would review and agree upon a specific inflation target every five years.
• Under this, 4% was set as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation target for the period from August 5, 2016, to March 31, 2021, with the upper tolerance limit of 6% and the lower tolerance limit of 2%.
• To the extent that ensuring price stability is its primary goal, the RBI through its MPC must constantly assess not just current levels of inflation and prices of various goods and services in the economy, but also take into consideration inflation expectations both of consumers and financial markets so as to use an array of monetary tools, including interest rates, to contain inflation within its target range.

2 . NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) First Deep Field

Context : NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) delivered its deepest and sharpest infrared image of a distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, the image is of
galaxy cluster SMACS 0723.

What is the First Deep Field?

• A composite made from images at various wavelengths captured by the JWST’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the image shows SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.
• The distortion seen in the image is the result of an effect called gravitational lensing, wherein the combined mass of massive celestial objects (a galaxy cluster in this instance) distorts and bends light, essentially acting as a cosmic magnifying glass that brings into view galaxies and other celestial objects far more distant than SMACS 0723.
• Thousands of hitherto unseen galaxies from the distant universe are revealed, including some of the faintest galaxies ever captured by infrared imaging. “Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features,” said a NASA statement. “Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe.”

Why it matters

• While the captured image is a significant scientific achievement, it also demonstrates the JWST’s capabilities, which has long been touted as the successor to the long-serving Hubble Space Telescope (HST). There are several differences between the JWST and the HST but the primary point of distinction is their vastly different imaging capabilities.
• The HST, launched in 1990, was designed primarily as an optical space observatory optimised for capturing light at wavelengths visible to the human eye. This, however, turned out to be a limitation when it came to observing the distant universe and some of the earliest galaxies in the cosmos.
• Due to the expansion of the universe, the further away an object is from the Earth, the faster it moves away. This gives rise to an effect called redshifting, wherein light emitted from the object (even if it is initially of a shorter wavelength) is stretched into longer wavelengths and becomes redder.
• Since infrared light is outside the visible spectrum and because Hubble is optimised for capturing light at visible wavelengths, extremely distant objects, which appear very red, are invisible to the HST. The JSWT, however, is designed specifically for infrared astronomy, allowing it to spot these incredibly distant objects.
• In essence, this allows the JWST to peer deeper into the history of the universe and glean insights into the formation of star systems a mere 100 million to 250 million years after the Big Bang

About NASA’s James Webb Telescope?

• The telescope has been in the works for years. NASA led its development with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency. It was launched aboard a rocket on December 25, 2021, and is currently at a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
• Lagrange Point 2 is one of the five points in the orbital plane of the Earth-Sun system. Named after Italian-French mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange, the points are in any revolving two-body system like Earth and Sun, marking where the gravitational forces of the two large bodies cancel each other out. Objects placed at these positions are relatively stable and require minimal external energy or fuel to keep themselves there, and so many instruments are positioned here.
• L2 is a position directly behind Earth in the line joining the Sun and the Earth. It would be shielded from the Sun by the Earth as it goes around the Sun, in sync with the Earth.

What is the mission of the James Webb Space Telescope?

• It will examine every phase of cosmic history: from the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets to the evolution of our own Solar System.
• The science goals for the Webb can be grouped into four themes. The first is to look back around 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe. Second, to compare the faintest, earliest galaxies to today’s grand spirals and understand how galaxies assemble over billions of years. Third, to see where stars and planetary systems are being born. And fourth, to observe the atmospheres of extrasolar planets (beyond our solar system), and perhaps find the building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe. The telescope will also study objects within our own Solar System.
• The JWST will be able to see right through and into massive clouds of dust that are opaque to earlier generation visible-light observatories like the Hubble Telescope. Another difference is that the Webb is equipped with cameras and other instruments sensitive to infrared or “heat” radiation, and the Hubble is not. The expansion of the universe causes the light that would normally be in wavelengths that are visible to be shifted to longer infrared wavelengths, normally invisible to human eyes, The New York Times said in a report.

3 . National Child Labour project

Context : The Centre does not have any data on child labour in the country and a reason for this is the drying up of budgetary provisions meant for the National Child Labour Project (NCLP), which had been monitoring the issue for about three decades.

About NCLP

• Government had initiated the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme in 1988 to rehabilitate working children in 12 child labour endemic districts of the country.

Objective of the Scheme

• This is the major Central Sector Scheme for the rehabilitation of child labour.
• The Scheme seeks to adopt a sequential approach with focus on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations & processes in the first instance.
• Under the Scheme, survey of child labour engaged in hazardous occupations & processes has been conducted.
• The identified children are to be withdrawn from these occupations & processes and then put into special schools in order to enable them to be mainstreamed into formal schooling system.
• Project Societies at the district level are fully funded for opening up of special schools/Rehabilitation Centres for the rehabilitation of child labour.
• The special schools/Rehabilitation Centres provide:
  1. Non-formal/bridge education
  2. Skilled/vocational training
  3. Mid Day Meal
  4. Stipend @ Rs.150/- per child per month.
  5. Health care facilities through a doctor appointed for a group of 20 schools.

The Target group

• The project societies are required to conduct survey to identify children working in hazardous occupations and processes. These children will then form the target group for the project society.
• Of the children identified those in the age group 5-8 years will have to be mainstreamed directly to formal educational system through the SSA. Working children in the age group of 9- 14 years will have to be rehabilitated through NCLP schools established by the Project Society.

Project Implementation

• The entire project is required to be implemented through a registered society under the Chairmanship of administrative head of the district, namely, District Magistrate/Collector/Dy. Commissioner of the District. Members of the society may be drawn from concerned Government Departments, representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions, NGOs, Trade Unions, etc.

Funding pattern

• The projects have been taken up in the Central Sector, the entire funding is done by the Central Government (Ministry of Labour & Employment). Funds are released to the concerned Project Societies depending upon the progress of project activities.

Present Status of NCLP Scheme

• At present about 6000 special schools are in operation under NCLP scheme. As on date more than 10 lakhs children have been mainstreamed into the formal education system under the Scheme.

4 . Gender Gap Index

Context : The Global Gender Gap Index for 2022 was released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Wednesday, and it ranks India at 135 out of 146 countries. In 2021, India was ranked 140 out of 156 countries.

What is the Global Gender Gap Index?

• The Global Gender Gap index “benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment)”.
• According to the WEF it is the longest-standing index, which tracks progress towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.
• On each of the four sub-indices as well as on the overall index the GGG index provides scores between 0 and 1, where 1 shows full gender parity and 0 is complete imparity. “The cross-country comparisons aim to support the identification of the most effective policies to close gender gaps,” states the report.

How has India fared on different sub-indices?

• India has approximately 662 million (or 66.2 crore) women. In 2022, India’s overall score has improved from 0.625 (in 2021) to 0.629. “India’s (135th) global gender gap score has oscillated between 0.593 and 0.683 since the index was first compiled.
• In 2022, India scored 0.629, which is its seventh-highest score in the last 16 years,” states the report.

India’s Performance in different sub-indices

Political Empowerment

• This includes metrics such as the percentage of women in Parliament, the percentage of women in ministerial positions etc. Of all the sub-indices, this is where India ranks the highest (48th out of 146).
• However, notwithstanding its rank, its score is quite low at 0.267. Some of the best ranking countries in this category score much better. For instance, Iceland is ranked 1 with a score of 0.874 and Bangladesh is ranked 9 with a score of 0.546.
• Moreover, India’s score on this metric has worsened since last year – from 0.276 to 0.267. The silver lining is that despite reduction, India’s score is above the global average in this category.

Economic Participation and Opportunity

• This includes metrics such as the percentage of women who are part of the labour force, wage equality for similar work, earned income etc. Here, too, India ranks a lowly 143 out of the 146 countries in contention even though its score has improved over 2021 from 0.326 to 0.350. Last year, India was pegged at 151 out of the 156 countries ranked.
• India’s score is much lower than the global average, and only Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan are behind India on this metric.

Educational Attainment

• This sub-index includes metrics such as literacy rate and the enrolment rates in primary, secondary and tertiary education. Here India ranks 107th out of 146, and its score has marginally worsened since last year. In 2021, India was ranked 114 out of 156.

Health and Survival

• This includes two metrics: the sex ratio at birth (in %) and healthy life expectancy (in years). In this metric, India is ranked the last (146) among all the countries. Its score hasn’t changed from 2021 when it was ranked 155th out of 156 countries.

5 . I2U2

Context : The U.S. believes that ‘I2U2’, a group comprising India, Israel, the U.S., and the UAE, can become “a feature” of the West Asian region, just like the Quad is for the Indo-Pacific. This idea was articulated by U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on board Air Force One, en route to Israel with U.S. President Joe Biden.

What is I2U2

• Four-nation grouping of India, Israeli, US and UAE is known as ‘I2U2’, with “I” standing for India and Israel and “U” for the US and the UAE.
• Popularly known as the ‘Middle East Quad’ (or ‘West Asia Quad’) in International discourse, the grouping is aimed at promoting joint investments in six mutually identified areas of water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security.
• First mooted as the “International Forum for Economic Cooperation” during the foreign ministers’ meet of the four countries held in October 2021, the grouping is intended to aid in modernising the infrastructure, promoting low-carbon development pathways for industries, promoting public health, and developing green technologies.
• It is widely acknowledged that what kick-started the formation of this grouping was the Abraham Accords, signed a year prior to the group’s first meeting and played a crucial role in the normalisation of Arab-Israel ties.
• The I2U2 has been referred to as the ‘West Asian Quad’ on the lines of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) which has Australia, India, Japan and the US as members.

Importance of India in the Grouping

• I2U2 Summit’s first high-level meeting is a significant development in which India’s partnership can prove to be a “game changer”.
• Since India is a massive market and a producer of high-tech and highly sought-after goods as well, the four countries can work together on several areas, including technology, trade, climate, and Covid-19. He also hinted that security cooperation might be possible in the future.
• Since India enjoys friendly relations with the countries in the region, as well as deep cultural and historical links and vibrant economic ties, it can be called a ‘natural partner’ for the US in its efforts to revitalise its alliances in the region. India has a decent presence in the region as it is a major buyer of energy from the region, and also a major supplier of many consumer goods and human resources to the West Asian region. For the UAE, apart from being an oil importer, India, owing to its massive IT industries, is a source of diversification and modernisation. On a similar note, Indo-Israeli relations are flourishing currently with defence relations being the underpinning of this growing strategic convergence.

Benefits for India

• New Delhi considers the Western Indian Ocean region as an area of geopolitical interest, given the critical SLOCs that pass through the area, and also the presence of key geographical chokepoints like the Suez Canal and Bab-el-Mandeb. Thus, a regional grouping like I2U2 brings with it an abundance of opportunities.
• The grouping helps India in positioning itself as a reliable, strategic and developmental partner in the West Asian region.
• The I2U2 can provide India with an excellent foothold for an even greater role in West Asia. It can lead to the emergence of a stronger and more multifaceted strategic partnership between India and 12 West Asian countries
• With a focus on the food security crisis and clean energy, the grouping has announced a 300 megawatt (MW) hybrid renewable energy project in Gujarat, supplemented by a battery energy storage system. The energy project will also include greater opportunities for public-private sector cooperation. Project has the potential to make India a global hub for alternate supply chains in the renewable energy sector.
• Another initiative announced in India pertains to food security. A series of integrated food parks will be developed across India with $2 billion in UAE funding that will incorporate state-of-the-art climate-smart technologies to reduce food waste and spoilage and conserve fresh water. The recently announced initiative will bring a big technological boost, help maximise crop yields, tackle food insecurity, and enhance our capabilities even further. India already has a ‘Mega Food Park’ Scheme in place since 2008, and the recently announced initiative will help maximize crop yields, tackle food insecurity, and enhance our capabilities further.

Conclusion

• Since the turn of the millennium, Gulf countries and India have witnessed an extraordinary turnaround in their relationship. Because of India’s diaspora presence and its “Look West” policy of intensifying already flourishing relations with major powers in the Middle East, New Delhi holds a deep strategic relationship with the region.
• I2U2 is an ideal example of how ‘minilaterals’ can reshape West Asia’s geopolitical landscape, enabling India to establish both economic relations and long-term security cooperation through a comprehensive engagement strategy. In recent years, India’s footprint in the region has grown substantially, making the I2U2 alliance a natural next step for India to further consolidate those ties.

6 . Facts for Prelims

Digi Locker

• Digi Locker is an Indian digitization online service provided by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India under its Digital India initiative. DigiLocker provides an account in cloud to every Aadhaar holder to access authentic documents/certificates such as driving license, vehicle registration, academic mark sheet in digital format from the original issuers of these certificates.
• It also provides 1GB storage space to each account to upload scanned copies of legacy documents.
• Users need to possess an Aadhaar number to use DigiLocker. For sign-up, the Aadhaar number and the one-time password sent to the Aadhaar-registered mobile number, need to be entered

Scorpene class Submarine

• INS Kalvari 
• INS Khanderi
• INS Karanj
• INS Vela 
• INS Vagir 
• INS Vagsheer