Thailand beaches lure Leatherback sea turtles
Context :
The largest number of nests of rare leatherback sea turtles in Thailand beaches. The environmentalists said that this has occurred due to the bereft of tourists because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Highlights :
- The highest recorded turtle nests the authorities have found since last November was 11 in the past two decades.
- Phuket Marine Biological Center reported that more number of turtle nests were found this year.
- The turtles had a high risk of getting killed by fishing gear and humans disturbing the beach.
Leatherback Sea Turtles :
Leatherbacks are the world’s most giant sea turtles. The turtles lay their eggs in dark and quiet areas, scarce when tourists thronged the beaches. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has considered the species endangered in Thailand and listed as a vulnerable species globally.
Scientists develop electrocatalysts for rechargeable metal-air battery from Fish gills
Context :
Scientists from the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali, have developed an efficient, low-cost electro-catalyst from fish gills. The catalyst can help develop environmentally friendly renewable energy conversion and storage technologies.
Electro-catalyst :
- The bio-inspired carbon nanostructure will overcome the bottleneck in the realization of several renewable energy conversion and storage technologies such as fuel cell, biofuel cell, and metal-air battery.
- The strategy will enrich a route to bioinspired electrocatalyst that is better than commercial Platinum on carbon (Pt/C) catalysts.
- It can be utilized as next-generation nonprecious carbon-based electrocatalyst for energy conversion and storage applications.
- In this method, the air is used as a catalyst along with a rechargeable Zn-air battery (ZAB).
- With careful selection of transition metals, the synthesis protocol can pave a new way for low-cost electrocatalysts for efficient and environmentally friendly energy conversion devices.
Islamophobia is rising in India : Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
Context :
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has criticised the Indian government for what it called “growing Islamophobia” in India.
Key Points :
- OIC asked the government to take steps to protect Muslim minorities who are being “negatively profiled,” facing “discrimination and violence” amidst the Covid-19 crisis.
- OIC urged the government to protect the rights of its minority as per its obligations under international Human Rights law.
- It also asked the government to take urgent steps to stop the growing tide of Islamophobia (dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims) in India.
- A religious gathering of muslims (Tablighi Jamaat) was held in Delhi in March. The event was linked to many of the Covid-19 positive cases in India.
- After this most sections of the media, people on social media blamed the Tablighi jamaat and muslims for deliberately spreading the Covid-19 in India.
- Earlier, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has also criticised India of “increased stigmatisation” of its muslim minorities.
- It criticized the government for the reports that Covid-19 patients were religiously segregated at a hospital in Ahmedabad.
- According to USCIRF, India continues to remain a “tier 2 country of particular concern” since 2009.
- Tier 2 countries are those in which “violations engaged in or tolerated by the government are serious and characterized by at least one of the elements of the ‘systematic, ongoing, and egregious” Country of Particular Concern (CPC) standard. CPCs are designated by the US State Department.
- The Indian government has denied all the allegations levelled by the USCIRF and accused the USCIRF for spreading misguided reports on the professional medical protocols followed to deal with spread of Covid-19 in India.
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation :
- The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations with a membership of 57 states.
- It is the collective voice of the Muslim world. It endeavors to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world.
- It was established upon a decision of the historical summit which took place in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco on the 25th of September 1969.
- Headquarters: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
New FDI Rule
Context :
The Government of India has made its approval for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by neighbouring countries mandatory.
This revised FDI policy aims to curb opportunistic takeovers/acquisitions of Indian companies due to the current Covid-19 pandemic.
Key Points :
- FDI in India: FDI is allowed under two modes – either through the automatic route, for which companies don’t need government approval, or through the government route, for which companies need a go-ahead from the centre.
- According to the new FDI policy:
- An entity of a country, which shares a land border with India or where the beneficial owner of an investment into India is situated in or is a citizen of any such country, can invest only under the Government route.
- A transfer of ownership in an FDI deal that benefits any country that shares a border with India will also need government approval.
- India shares land borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
- Investors from countries not covered by the new policy only have to inform the RBI after a transaction rather than asking for prior permission from the relevant government department.
- Impact
- The earlier FDI policy was limited to allowing only Bangladesh and Pakistan via the government route in all sectors. The revised rule has now brought companies from China under the government route filter.
- China’s footprint in the Indian business space has been expanding rapidly, especially since 2014.
- Chinese investment in India
- The net Chinese investment in India, which was $1.6 billion in 2014, shot up five-folds to at least $8 billion (Rs 60,800 crore) in the next three years — with a noticeable shift from state-driven to market-driven investment from the Chinese private sector.
- Official figures underestimate the amount of investment: They neither account for all Chinese companies’ acquisitions of stakes in the technology sector nor investments from China routed through third-party countries, such as Singapore.
- For instance, a $ 504-million investment from the Singapore arm of the mobile firm Xiaomi would not figure in official statistics because of how investments are measured.
- It has been seen that the Chinese firms have escaped the kind of scrutiny in India that their investments have attracted in the West despite several high-profile investments and acquisitions.
- Another concern is that there is no clear separation between the Chinese state and private business. They work closely in pursuing many goals.
Source : economic times
Temporary Ration Cards to Access PDS Foodgrain
Context :
Recently, the Pune Zilla Parishad has decided to provide temporary ‘ration cards’ to more than 80,000 undocumented people in the district, so they can receive foodgrains under the Public Distribution System (PDS).
- The delivery of benefits including PDS grain to migrants trapped by the lockdown, and to those who are unable to provide documents, has been a major concern across states.
- Earlier, Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and Abhijit Banerjee, and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had suggested that temporary ration cards should be issued to enable the undocumented to draw rations through the PDS system.
Key Points :
- It is a first innovation of its kind to help larger numbers of people access government benefits during the Covid-19 lockdown.
- Use of Aadhaar: The Pune scheme will use one-time Aadhaar authentication to open accounts for the people with the India Post Payments Bank.
- Once the biometric Aadhaar-based link is established and the account is opened, this would serve as the only authentication that will be needed for these undocumented people to draw rations from the PDS system.
- Home Delivery: It will enable the home delivery of grains at the gram panchayat level to avoid crowds and maintain physical distancing.
- Coverage: It will also include individuals belonging to the Primitive Tribes and the transgender community who are often left out of the ambit of such benefits.
- Identification: The job of identifying the beneficiaries has been given to the village police patil, who maintains records of outsiders in a register.
- Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, the gram sabha has the right to identify beneficiaries — however, in the current situation when the gram sabha is not functional, a committee of three viz., the gram panchayat’s sarpanch, a member of the gram sabha, and the local police patil will identify them.
- Verification: The only verification that will be carried out is that of the kitchen of the beneficiary to prove that they qualify for the scheme.
- Boost to Sharad Bhojan Yojana: The scheme will widen and deepen the scope and reach of the Sharad Bhojan Yojana, under which cooked meals are provided to people in Pune district at concessional rates.
- The Sharad Bhojan Yojana is modelled after the Maharashtra government’s flagship Shiv Bhojan Yojana, which serves subsidised meals to the poor.
- Involvement of a Corporate: The Janakidevi Bajaj Gram Vikas Sansthan, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) wing of the Bajaj Group, will be the corporate CSR partner of the Pune Zilla Parishad for the scheme.