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Daily News Simplified - DNS

23 09 19

Notes

SL.

NO. TOPICS

THE HINDU

PAGE NO.

1 The Nationalist Hindrance to Climate Action 10

2 Home and the World (Data Point) 11

3 Endosulfan Victims Send notice to Kerala 08

4 Ayurvedic Pain Therapy gets North-eastern Twist with Chilli 10

5 Ahead of ‘Howdy Modi’, India Struck big-ticket LNG Deal 13

Dated: 23.Sep.2019 DNS Notes

Title 1. The Nationalist Hindrance to Climate Actions (The Hindu, Page 10)

Syllabus GS mains paper 3 : Economy

Theme Budget

Highligh

ts

Background:

CO2 Emission: Carbon dioxide concentrations are at a record high of 411 parts per million (ppm)

(an increase of over 45% on pre-industrial levels).

Rise in temperature: Human activities have caused the planet’s average surface temperature to rise

about 1.1°C since the late 19th century. Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years.

Air Pollution: All forms of pollution were responsible in 2015 for an estimated 9 million premature

deaths—16% of all deaths worldwide. Pollution is thus the world’s largest environmental cause of

disease and premature death.

Mass extinction: The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

report produced in 2019 shows the biodiversity crisis is on a par with the threat posed by climate

change. We are part of the natural world and we depend on it to stay alive.

Food insecurity: More frequent and severe water extremes, including droughts and floods, impact

agricultural production, while rising temperatures translate into increased water demand in

agriculture sectors.

Water Stress: Water withdrawals grew at almost twice the rate of population increase in the

twentieth century.

Rise in Sea level: Sea level is rising faster in recent decades. Sea level rise is caused primarily by

two factors related to global warming: the added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers and the

expansion of seawater as it warms. Sea level rises will cause inundation of low lying land, islands

and coastal cities globally.

Ocean Acidification: The oceans are already become 30% more acidic, as carbon dioxide from the

burning of fossil fuels dissolves it alters the chemistry of the sea water. On our current emission

trajectory, in 2100, the pH increase of the ocean will see a 150% increase in acidity!

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on all leaders to come to New York on 23 September with

concrete, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, in line with reducing

greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent over the next decade, and to net zero emissions by 2050.

Finance: mobilizing public and private sources of finance to drive decarbonization of all priority

sectors and advance resilience;

Energy Transition: accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy, as

well as making significant gains in energy efficiency;

Industry Transition: transforming industries such as Oil and Gas, Steel, Cement, Chemicals and

Information Technology;

Nature-Based Solutions: Reducing emissions, increasing sink capacity and enhancing resilience

within and across forestry, agriculture, oceans and food systems, including through biodiversity

conservation, leveraging supply chains and technology;

Cities and Local Action: Advancing mitigation and resilience at urban and local levels, with a focus

on new commitments on low-emission buildings, mass transport and urban infrastructure; and

resilience for the urban poor;

Resilience and Adaptation: advancing global efforts to address and manage the impacts and risks of

climate change, particularly in those communities and nations most vulnerable.

In addition, there are three additional key areas:

Mitigation Strategy: to generate momentum for ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions

(NDCs) and long-term strategies to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Youth Engagement and Public Mobilization: To mobilize people worldwide to take action on

climate change and ensure that young people are integrated and represented across all aspects of the

Summit, including the six transformational areas.

Social and Political Drivers: to advance commitments in areas that affect people’s well-being, such

as reducing air pollution, generating decent jobs, and strengthening climate adaptation strategies and

protect workers and vulnerable groups.

Global Action so far


A number of small and mid-sized countries, including the United Kingdom, have already committed

to achieving the objective of making their economies net carbon neutral by 2050

Several large countries, notably the United States, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Japan and Mexico are

reportedly not even going to participate in the event at a high level.

China and India have issued statements hinting that they are doing quite enough, and India has

highlighted the need for enhanced finance if it is.

What should be India’s Policy stance?

Enhanced Global Action: India as a country is deeply vulnerable to climate impacts and hence, it is

India’s interest to participate in an active manner.

Demonstrate integration of Low Carbon growth model into development policies: India can lead

the pathway to accelerating action on climate change without sacrificing development goals. Energy

Efficiency Programs which can lead to 50,000 tonnes and reduction of 110 million tonnes of carbon

dioxide.


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Title 2. Home and the World (Data Point) (The Hindu page no. 11)

Syllabus Mains GS Paper II : International Relations

Theme Diaspora

Highlights Context: The Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) has released

Dataset International Migrant Stock 2019. The report takes into account the number of migrants by age, sex

and origin for all countries and areas of the world. It is important to note that these estimates are based

on official national statistics on the foreign born or the foreign population obtained from the population

census, population registers etc.

Important Points of the report:

Globally the total number of international migrants is estimated to be 272 million (Indian share is

about 6.4 %). Some of the key findings of the report are:

a) India was the leading country of international migrants in 2019 with 17.5 million migrants. Mexico and

China are the next

b) India also hosted 5.1 million international migrants in 2019 and most of them came from Bangladesh,

Pakistan and Nepal.

c) All most half of the Indian migrants have gone to the west Asia with the UAE as the most preferred

destination.

d) UAE has the highest population of migrants (Approx. 88%).

d) Globally the share of women migrants in 2019 was 48% (1 percent less than last year)

e) In terms of age, one out of every seven international migrants is below the age of 20 years.

The Indian Diaspora is very important for India and it contributes to Indian Economy in a significant way.

India has around 30 million strong diaspora and this includes

a) person of Indian origin,

b) non-resident Indians, and

c) overseas citizen of India)

1. One of the major benefits of diaspora for the Indian economy is the remittances. India has received

remittances of about $ 79 billion in 2018. This is about 3 percent of India’s GDP and it helps in maintaining

India’s forex. This can also be utilized for nation building in a significant fashion.

2. A subtle but a very important as part of diaspora is its impact on diplomacy and between the home and

adopted countries. As the people of Indian origin rise in the political, economic and social echelons of their

adopted country, they help in building strong bridges and relations.

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Title 3 . Endosulfan Victims Send notice to Kerala – (The Hindu, Page 08)

Syllabus Prelims-Environment

Theme Endosulphan

Highlights Context:

The representative of the victims of use of Endosulphan poisoning in the Kasargod District of Kerala are

staging a protest in Thiruvanathpuram. Supreme Court has ordered the state to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation

to each of the victim.

What is Endosulphan?

Endosulfan is an organochlorine insecticide, introduced in the 1950s as a pesticide, and is

commonly known by its trade name Thiodan. It is being phased out globally due to its acute

toxicity.

Stockholm Convention (2011) started global ban on the manufacture and its use sighting ill-

effects on human health and environment.

It is also included under Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent.

So far, more than 80 countries have banned the use of the chemical in the agriculture

Ban on Endosulphan in India

The Supreme Court has banned the manufacture, storage and sale of Endosulphan in 2011.

However, the state of Kerala banned it in 2001.

Ill-effects of Endosulphan

Ensulphan has numerous negative health effects on human health. It may cause endocrine disruption, cancer and reproduction and development deformity.

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Title 4. Ayurvedic Pain Therapy (The Hindu, Page 08)

Syllabus GS Paper-II Social Issues

Theme Health

Highlights Context:

Dr. Imlikumba Jamir, who is the sole Naga practitioner specialist in India has developed a altered a

mainstream ayurvedic pain therapy procedure by using Naga Chilli and betel leaf. This process has been

approved by AYUSH.

Ayurveda prescribes a pungent paste to be used as shoolaprashamana, or pain reliever. Dr. Jamir used

principles of pain-gap theory in acupuncture to give more pain to affected part for reducing or killing the

original pain.

He wanted to use easily available local substitutes and in the right proportion to make the paste least

expensive and most effective. The higher degree of pungency compared to the traditional mix makes the

nutrients penetrate deeper to particular tissues that need to be stimulated for pain relief.

Impact:

It resulted in considerable pain reduction for the patients along with a reduction in swelling.

However, it can cause in irritation and itching in some patients.

Naga Chilli

Also known as King Chilli, is locally known as Bhot Jolokia, which derives its name from the popular

belief that it originated in the hills of Bhutan.

The Guinness Book of World Records had in 2007 named it as the hottest chilli but lost its position first to

Infinity from the UK and then to Carolina Reaper of the US.

Panchakarma is a mainstream ayurvedic medicine procedure which entails 5 procedures.

AYUSH stands for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan

traditional medicine) and Homeopathy.

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Title 5. Ahead of ‘Howdy Modi’, India Struck big-ticket LNG Deal (The Hindu, Page 13)

Syllabus Mains GS Paper III: International Relations

Theme Agreements

Highlights Context:

Ahead of the Sunday (22Sep) rally with President Trump, PM Modi met heads of 17 energy companies.

Herein, India updated the MoU it signed with American company Tellurian in February this year. Petronet,

Indian LNG importer will invest $2.5 billion in Tellurian’s $29 billion Driftwood project .

The deal has mutual benefits for the US as well as India.

Benefits for the US:

i. Manufacturing will be supported in 18 U.S. States.

ii. Creation of 50,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Benefits for India:

i. Access of upto 5 million tonnes of LNG for India per year.

ii. India’s vision of achieving a $5trillion economy will get a shot in the arm.

iii. It will contribute to a cleaner environment.

The heads of energy companies at the meeting appreciated India on following grounds:

i. India’s oil and gas purchases have more than doubled in the last year.

ii. India’s initiatives towards ease of doing business.

iii. India’s steps towards deregulation in the energy sector.

Notwithstanding the praises, certain concerns and suggestions were also highlighted:

i. Issues with India’s arbitration and dispute resolution mechanism.

ii. Suggestion was made to consider a unified ministry for all energy issues, as against the

existence of separate ministries like Petroleum and Natural gas, Coal and Renewable

energy.

This deal holds great significance for India US energy cooperation. India-U.S. energy cooperation is

gaining momentum with the passage of time. Following points further corroborate this:

Both India and the U.S. have acknowledged that energy can emerge as the main fulcrum of their

bilateral relationship. With this in view both countries consider it as an important element of their

strategic ties.

Oil and gas, energy efficiency, renewable energy, coal and nuclear energy are acknowledged as

important pillars of energy cooperation.

The U.S. today is the world's leading producer of oil and natural gas, and is setting and regularly

breaking records for oil and natural gas production, and exporting LNG to 30 countries now on five

continents. Accordingly, U.S.-India Gas task force has been formed, to help India unleash its own

natural gas potential.

The U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) aims to enhance energy security and

accelerate the adoption of clean energy. Begun in 2009, it focuses on spurring low carbon

development by supporting research and deployment of clean energy; strengthening institutional and

human capacity; improving the enabling environment; mobilizing financing for clean energy; and

increasing awareness and understanding of clean energy technologies. The two countries have helped

finance, with private funds, a Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center, which supports

research and development in solar energy, biofuels and energy efficient buildings.

India’s purchase of oil and gas from the U.S. has doubled in the last year. This can be seen in the light

of India stopping the imports of oil from Iran and Venezuela.


Shale gas accounts for 33% of electricity production in the U.S. It is worth noting that India has huge

reserves of shale gas, sufficient enough to meet Natural gas demand for the next 25 years. U.S. can

help India with fracking technique for extracting shale.

Despite all the positivity surrounding the LNG deal, a difficult question stands in front of India as to how

soon India would be able to consume the 5 million tonnes of LNG per year. In 2011, GAIL signed a 20 year

contract with U.S. firms for supplying 5.8 million tonnes of LNG per year. However, due to lower demand

much of it had to be reselled.

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