[Mission 2023] INSIGHTS DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB SUMMARY 9 January 2023

GS Paper 1

Syllabus: Geophysical Phenomenon

Source: The Hindu

Context: It is clear that climate change increases the upper limit on hurricane strength and rain rate and that it also raises the average sea level and therefore storm surge. 

Factors that fuels tropical cyclones:

Rainfall: Temperature has a clear influence

• The temperature of both the ocean and atmosphere are critical to hurricane development.
• Hurricanes are powered by the release of heat when water that evaporates from the ocean’s surface condenses into the storm’s rain.
• A warmer ocean produces more evaporation, which means more water is available to the atmosphere. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water, which allows more rain.
• More rain means more heat is released, and more heat released means stronger winds.

Storm surge

• The rise in water at a coast caused by a storm – is related to a number of factors including storm speed, storm size, wind direction and coastal sea bottom topography. Climate change could have at least two important influences.

Prelims link.

Cyclone and anticyclones

Bomb Cyclone

Difference between cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons.

Favourable condition for formation of tropical cyclones

Mains Links:

Q. Tropical cyclones are largely confined to South China Sea, Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Mexico. Why? (UPSC CSE MAINS 2014)

GS Paper 1

Syllabus: Important Geophysical Phenomena/Disaster Management

Source: HT

 Direction: The article examines the causes of the recent incidents of land subsidence in Joshimath, as well as the preventive measures that are required.

Context:

• The Uttarakhand government has banned construction work in and around Joshimath due to land subsidence, which has resulted in cracks in over 560 homes, prompting panicked locals to protest.
• Joshimath is the starting point for many Himalayan Mountain climbing expeditions, pilgrimage sites such as Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib
• It is the location of one of Adi Shankara’s four cardinal monasteries.

Science behind the subsidence: 

Location, topography:

• Also known as Jyotirmath, it is a town (of over 20,000 population) in the Garhwal Himalayas in Chamoli District in Uttarakhand, located on the NH-7 (Rishikesh-Badrinath) at an altitude of 1890
• It is situated in the middle slopes of a hill bounded by the Karmanasa and Dhaknala streams on the west and the east and the Dhauliganga and Alaknanda rivers on the south and the north.
• According to the Mishra Commission report (1976), the first instance of subsidence in Joshimath was reported way back in 1976 and the town is –
  • Located on the site of ancient landslides
  • Covered with thick layer of overburden material
• The town area is prone to landslides and highly vulnerable to sinking due to scattered and highly weathered gneissic rocks with a low bearing capacity and loose soil due to seepage from streams uphill.

Extreme weather events:

• Flood events of June 2013 and February 2021 (flooding of Rishi Ganga) had adverse impact on the landslide zone as a result of extreme erosion.
• According to the latest satellite data, mountain streams have expanded their channels and changed course, thereby inducing more slope instability in an already fragile belt.

Geology:

• According to the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA), Joshimath falls in Zone V of the Seismic Zonation Map and has witnessed several earthquakes of magnitude of less than 5 on the Richter scale.
• Joshimath being on a fault line makes it highly vulnerable to sinking because of tectonic activity.

Unplanned construction:

• The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is building the Helang bypass that will reduce the distance to Badrinath shrine by about 30 km, using heavy machinery.
• Hydroelectric (HE) schemes have been sanctioned around Joshimath and Tapovan, including the Vishnugad HE Project and a tunnel boring machine (TBM) was employed for excavating the tunnel for the project.
• In 2009, it punctured a water-bearing strata and experts had warned that this sudden and large-scale dewatering of the strata had the potential of initiating ground subsidence in the region.

Improper water drainage: According to the USDMA, this could be the reason for increase in ground seepage of water from the surface, which is a probable cause for subsidence.

Preventive measures:

Conclusion: To save Joshimath, the government and civil bodies must work together, with the assistance of military organisations such as the Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

Insta Links:

Landslides in India

Mains Links:

Q escribe the various causes and the effects of landslides. Mention the important components of the National Landslide Risk Management Strategy. (UPSC 2021)

GS Paper 2

Syllabus: Indian Society/ Social justice

Source: Businesstimes

Context: With populations across East Asia declining and fewer young people entering the workforce, workers are working well into their 70s and beyond.

Impact of an ageing society:

• On Finance: Early retirement ages have bloated the pension bills, making it difficult for governments in Asia to pay retirees enough money.
• On Workplace: Companies desperately need workers, and older employees desperately need the work. Thereby the working age has gone beyond 70 years.
• On rising poverty: In South Korea, the poverty rate among older people is close to 40 per cent
• On Jobs: Many older workers engage in precarious, low-wage contract jobs after being forced out of their long-term employment by low retirement ages.
• On Successions Plans: Many owners of firms in Japan in their mid-seventies have chosen to accelerate plans to either hand over control or watch their cherished firms disappear.
  • As a consequence, Japan faces the most extensive evaporation of know-how and institutional memory in modern history.

What is ageing?

Ageing is an irreversible, continuous, universal process, by which an individual’s productive contribution declines.

Status of Ageing in India?

• India is ageing much faster than previously thought and is expected to have nearly 20% population of the world’s 60 years.
• This will increase India’s dependency ratio from 9.8 (one of the lowest currently) to 20.3

What is Active Ageing?

Active ageing is a concept (deployed by the European Commission and WHO) for longer activity, with a higher retirement age and working practices adapted to the age of the employee. It sees the ageing population as the demographic dividend

Some of the Government measures for Elderly Population

Steps taken for Active ageing:

• Community support: Germany is one of the super-aged societies but the Elderly are organized into community participants. They take care of children, discuss the important matter and suggest policy initiatives in their community meetings
• Trade Union support: In Japan and South Korea, temporary job agencies and unions have formed to support older labourers.
• Government support: The Japanese government now provides subsidies to small- and medium-sized companies that install accommodations for older workers, such as additional railings on staircases or extra rest areas for workers.
• Increasing Retirement Age: Ireland plans to increase the retirement age to 68 years by 2028.
• Catering to the problems of elderly women: By ensuring women’s property and inheritance rights, promoting literacy rate among elder women, and paying special attention to the rights of marginalized and Transgender women
• Technology measures
  • Use of Data-driven policy for more age-inclusive government interventions:g. Data on old-age homeless persons can help decide the number of Old Age Homes required in the area
  • Technological empowerment of the elderly: Integrating older persons with digital technologies will help them become self-dependent on their needs.
  • g. PMGDISHA can be extended for the digital literacy of Elderly persons
  • Japan is using robots for elderly care. e.g., Paro, a robot seal made in Japan can be used to mitigate loneliness and dementia in the Elderly
  • Tele-Health can be used for elderly care in far and remote areas
• Financial security
  • Enhancing Social security of the Elderly: Experts say that pension for the elderly is currently too meagre and should be at least 50% more than the minimum wage for older persons.
    • Also, Pensions must be indexed to inflation
  • CSR funds can be incorporated to support elderly care
  • A Universal Pension scheme for the elderly will help reduce the fiscal burden for elderly care as well as create a culture of long-term saving and investments
• Behavioural change: By treating Elders as an asset to society and using innovative means such as Switzerland’s Time-Bank
  • Under this bank, young people bank their time by taking care of seniors which they can utilize when they get old or fall sick or need someone to take care of them

Conclusion

Thus India faces unprecedented population ageing due to lengthening lifespans, but this also presents an opportunity for India to bring about complex and ambitious changes in health, fiscal and social policies. Active ageing should be a government priority together with making a long-term policy for Old age. The Elderly in India report 2021 by MOSPI is a welcome step in this regard.

Insta Mains:

Q. India is ageing much faster than previously thought, but unlike many countries, preparation for active ageing is not a priority in India. Highlighting the statement, suggest various measures to address the challenge posed by unprecedented population ageing. (15M)

GS Paper 4

Syllabus: Human Values

Context: Rising incidents of brutality in society (E.g. Shraddha Murder Case, Delhi – Hit and Drag case) have questioned our understanding regarding Human Values.

What is Value?

Value means the worth or utility of a thing.

According to Rokeach, “Value is an enduring belief, a specific mode of conduct or an end state of existence, along a continuum of relative importance.”

What are Human Values?

When we associate the worth or utility of human attributes in life or personality, we refer to them as Human Values. Simply put, values which make us Human.

It promotes harmonious living as well as guides our relationship with the environment across.

In this article, we will be emphasising on value of service to humanity.

Value of service to humanity

Example: Mother Teresa

• One of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th century, she devoted her life serving the poorest of the poor. She was a ray of hope for many, including the aged, the destitute, the unemployed, the diseased, the terminally ill, and those abandoned by their families.
• In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace.” She didn’t attend the ceremonial banquet but asked that the $192,000 fund be given to the poor.
• Mother Teresa was awarded India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, on January 25, 1980, for her humanitarian work.

Example: COVID Pandemic

• This sense of service as key to the human relationship got sharply defined during the pandemic. To care for and serve somebody without any prejudice or immediate interest became the calling card of compassion.
• The values of interpersonal relationships, community bonding, and intrapersonal relationships emerged larger than life.
• Swami Vivekananda affirmed that “if one wants to find God, serve man. To reach Narayana, one must serve the Daridra Narayan.”

Why do we study Human Values as aspiring bureaucrats?

• Governance is based on the ideals of justice, transparency, and the spirit of civil service. It is expected that a civil servant must carry those human feelings or attributes which can do justice and take care of the needs of the last person in society.
• A civil servant must exhibit the values of empathy, transparency, trust, integrity, courage, and many other human values in the execution or decision-making process.
• Human values are equally needed even in policy formulation.

Mains Link: UPSC 2018

Q. State the three basic values, universal in nature, in the context of civil services and bring out their importance.