Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Karnataka Hijab Ban Verdict
- CICA
- Paddy straw pelletisation and torrefcation plant
- Snow Leopard and Namdapha National Park
- Facts for Prelims
1 . Supreme Court Verdict on Hijab
Context: The Supreme Court delivered a split verdict on whether Muslim students should shed their hijabs at their school gates.
Background
- The State government had authorized the College Development Committees to impose a ban on hijab and the girl students had challenged this order in the Karnataka High Court, which dismissed their pleas on March 15.
Highlights of the Verdict
- Justice Hemant Gupta dismissed the petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court order and upheld the hijab ban in educational institutions in the state, while Justice Dhulia said, “wearing hijab is a matter of choice”.
- After the split opinion, the matter will be placed before the Chief Justice to be referred to a larger bench.
Split Verdict
- A split verdict is passed when the Bench cannot decide one way or the other in a case, either by a unanimous decision or by a majority verdict. Split verdicts can only happen when the Bench has an even number of judges. This is why judges usually sit in Benches of odd numbers (three, five, seven, etc.) for important cases, even though two-judge Benches — known as Division Benches — are not uncommon.
- In case of a split verdict, the case is heard by a larger Bench. The larger Bench to which a split verdict goes can be a three-judge Bench of the High Court, or an appeal can be preferred before the Supreme Court. In the case of the hijab verdict, the CJI, who is the ‘master of the roster’, will constitute a new, larger Bench to hear the matter.
Key observation made by judges
- Justice Gupta upheld Karnataka’s prohibitive government order, saying “apparent symbols of religious belief cannot be worn to secular schools maintained from State funds”. It said ‘secularity’ meant uniformity, manifested by parity among students in terms of uniform. It held that adherence to uniform was a reasonable restriction to free expression.
- According to judgement the judge agreed with the government that the “ethic of fraternity is best served by complete erasure of all differences”, especially religious. Wearing hijabs in secular schools “would stand out and overtly appear differently. But he disagreed with the idea of forced homogeneity. He said schools and pre-university colleges were the “perfect institutions” for children to learn the rich diversity of India and imbibe values of tolerance and accommodation.
- In a divergent verdict Justice Dhulia opined that asking the girls to take off their hijab before they enter the school is first, an invasion of their privacy, then it is an attack on their dignity, and then ultimately it is a denial to them of secular education. There shall be no restriction on the wearing of hijab anywhere in schools and colleges in Karnataka.Wearing or not wearing a hijab to school was “ultimately a matter of choice”. For girls from conservative family’s hijab is their ticket to education.
2 . Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia
Context: Speaking at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) held in Astana, Minister of State for External Affairsannounced that India would host a number of high-profile conferences on countering terror this year
About Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA)
- The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is a multi-national forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.
- It is a forum based on the recognition that there is a close link between peace, security and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world.
- The Member States, while affirming their commitment to the UN Charter, believe that peace and security in Asia can be achieved through dialogue and cooperation leading to a common indivisible area of security in Asia where all states co-exist peacefully, and their peoples live in peace, freedom and prosperity.
Origin
- The idea of convening CICA was first proposed by the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Elbasy H.E. Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, on 5 October 1992, at the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
- The moving spirit behind this initiative was the aspiration to set up an efficient and acceptable structure for ensuring peace and security in Asia.
- This initiative was supported by a number of Asian countries who felt that such a structure was the need of the time.
Objectives
- Creating an environment of confidence among Member States is central to the basic objectives of CICA.
- The CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures describes various measures and the Cooperative Approach for the Implementation of the CICA CBMs lays down the procedures for implementing the confidence building measures.
- Within the framework, confidence building measures are categorized under five broad domains: economic dimension, environmental dimension, human dimension, new challenges and threats, and military-political dimension.
Members
- To be a member of CICA, a state must have at least a part of its territory in Asia.
- Fifteen states meeting this criterion signed the Declaration on the Principles Guiding Relations between the CICA Member States at the First Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in 1999 and became founding members of CICA.
- India is a founder of the 27-nation CICA peace and confidence-building grouping of Asian countries.
- It became its coordinator for counterterrorism this year, and India would soon host a workshop with members.
- Presently CICA has twenty-seven Member States accounting for nearly ninety percent of the territory and population of Asia.
- Nine countries and five multi-national organizations, including the United Nations, have observer status.
Administration
- The two founding documents of CICA are Declaration on the Principles Guiding Relations between the CICA Member States and the Almaty Act, charter of CICA. These two documents became the steppingstone towards the future evolution of CICA.
- CICA pursues its policy based on the principles of sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs of the Member States and economic, social and cultural cooperation to achieve its main objective of enhancing cooperation through elaborating multilateral approaches towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia.
- All decisions within the CICA framework are taken by consensus.
- The highest decision-making organ of CICA is the Meeting of the CICA Heads of State and Government (Summit).
- The CICA Summit is convened every four years in order to conduct consultations, review the progress of, and set priorities for CICA activities.
- The Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs is required to be held every two years. The Ministerial Meeting is the central forum for consultations and examination of all issues related to CICA activities.
Conference on Counterterrorism
- Next month, India will also host the third “No Money for Terrorism” Ministerial conference with more than 100 countries expected to attend.
- The two-day conference will be addressed by the Prime Minister and Home Minister.
- It would include sessions on terror financing in South Asia, new cyber financing trends and global cooperation mechanisms.
- In October, India will also host a special meeting of the UNSC Counter-Terrorism Committee, ambassadors and representatives of all countries in the Security Council, including the P-5 members the U.S., Russia, China, the U.K. and France.
3 . Paddy straw pelletisation and torrefaction plants
Context: With winter approaching and instances of stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana rising, the Union Environment Ministry announced a ₹50 crore scheme to incentivize industrialists and entrepreneurs to set up paddy straw pelletisation and torrefaction plants.
Pelletisation and torrefaction
- Pelletisation means converting paddy straw into pellets which can be used in thermal power plants and industries as fuel.
- Torrefaction is a process to improve physical properties and chemical composition of biomass.
About the Scheme
- Paddy straw made into pellets or torrefied can be mixed with coal in thermal power plants.
- This saves coal as well as reduces carbon emissions that would otherwise have been emitted were the straw burnt in the fields, as is the regular practice of most farmers in Punjab and Haryana.
- Torrefaction is costlier but can deliver a product whose energy content is much higher and theoretically substitute for more coal in a power plant.
- New units would be eligible for government funding in the form of capital to set up such plants.
- The financial assistance can be availed by individuals and companies setting up new plants and units using only paddy straw generated in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, and NCR districts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Background
- Every year, about 27 million tonne of paddy straw is generated in Punjab and Haryana.
- The problem is that about 75% or 20 million tonne is from non-basmati rice that cannot be fed to cattle because of its high silica content.
- About 11 million tonne can be managed in the field and the rest is usually burnt which adds to the air pollution crisis in Delhi.
- Through the years the government has attempted to dissuade farmers from burning straw through penalising them as well as incentivising them.
Significance of the move
- The move will help in ex-situ management of crop residue through its use as biofuel.
- It will work as an incentive for farmers not to opt for stubble burning that, on average, contributes 10-13% to hazardous particulate matter (PM2.5) in Delhi during winter with peak contribution going up to as high as 48%.
- It will help convert waste to wealth and provide entrepreneurship opportunities to our rural youth in Punjab and Haryana.
4 . Snow Leopard and Namdapha National Park
Context: The snow leopard has never been spotted nor recorded in the Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
Key Highlights
- The 1,985 sq. km reserve bordering Myanmar has an elevation varying from 200 metres to 4,571 metres above sea level.
- However, wildlife officials in the State are awaiting the analysis of the data of a survey conducted in 2021 to ascertain the presence of the elusive snow leopard, often referred to as a mountain ghost because of its coat that helps it blend in a snowy-rocky environment.
- The data for the survey was collected from a high-altitude Himalayan belt across 11 wildlife divisions from Tawang in the west and Anini to the east.
Namdhapa National Park
- Namdapha National Park is a 1,985 sq km wildlife park, making it the fourth largest national park in India.
- The first three are Hemis National Park in Ladakh, Desert National Park in Rajasthan, and Gangotri National Park in Uttarakhand.
- Namdapha was established as a national park in 1983.
- This protected area has more than 1000 floral species and more than 1400 faunal species. It is a biodiversity hotspot. In the same year, Namdapha was also declared as a Tiger Reserve.
- Namdapha is the known home of three other large cats — tiger, leopard and clouded leopard.
- Namdapha National Park’s close proximity to Indo-Myanmar-China trijunction also makes it a sensitive zone.
- The park is also very popular among birdwatchers, not just in India, but from all over the world. Namdapha’s birdlife is spectacular and a lot of them are rare and endemic.
- The belief that the national park is also the habitat of the snow leopard is based on the claim of a hunter from the Lisu ethnic community that he possessed the skin of the carnivore.
- A person in Vijaynagar (close to Myanmar border, in Changlang district) had described having a skin that could have been of a snow leopard. He called it Lamaphu, which is possibly the local name for a snow leopard.
- The tiger is called Lama in the Lisu dialect.
- But that person did not have the skin as it was destroyed when his house caught fire.
- The Namdapha National Park authorities have a checklist that mentions “reports of skin with Lisus”.
Snow Leopard
- The snow leopard (Panthera uncia), also known as the ounce, is a felid in the genus Panthera native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia.
- It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because the global population is estimated to number fewer than 10,000 mature individuals and is expected to decline about 10% by 2040.
- It is threatened by poaching and habitat destruction following infrastructural developments.
- It inhabits alpine and subalpine zones at elevations of 3,000–4,500 m (9,800–14,800 ft), ranging from eastern Afghanistan, the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau to southern Siberia, Mongolia and western China.
- In the northern part of its range, it also lives at lower elevations.
5 . Facts for Prelims
Infra Tag for Data Centres
- The Centre has accorded infrastructure status to data centers with at least 5-MW capacity.
- Data Centre is included in the Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure sub-sectors by insertion of a new item in the category of ‘Communication’,
- The move will help data centre firms get easier access to credit at lower rates and attract foreign investments.
- Data centre capacity is measured as power consumed, reflecting the scale of servers they host.
- advantages of getting infrastructure status?
- Now, with infrastructure status, the data centers can get several benefits.
- Several concessions and liberalized treatments are extended to infrastructure sectors in the form of better access to foreign capital, domestic credit, extension services etc.
- Better access to foreign capital and funding: The status will provide the data centre and energy sector access to foreign funding through the external commercial borrowing route.
- Equity investment can be injected with ease with the infrastructure status.
- Regulations are simpler and straight for attracting equity investment for companies in the infrastructure sector.
- Refinancing of the existing loans can be done with a low rate of interest. This means that existing high-cost loans can be replaced with low-interest-rate loans.
- Overall enhanced credit availability from domestic financial institutions.
- Getting long-term loans at concessional rates will help data centers to integrate into a bigger platform and better services.
Next-Gen Launch Vehicle (NGLV)
- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is developing a Next-Gen Launch Vehicle (NGLV), which will one day replace operational systems like the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
- NGLV will be a cost-efficient, three-stage, reusable heavy-lift vehicle with a payload capability of 10 tonnes to Geostationary Transfer Orbit.
- It will feature semi-cryogenic propulsion for the booster stages which is cheaper and more efficient.
- NGLV will feature a simple, robust design that allows bulk manufacturing, modularity in systems, sub-systems and stages and minimal turnaround time.
- Potential uses will be in the areas of launching communication satellites, deep space missions, future human spaceflight and cargo missions.