Table of Contents
Reduce, segregate
• Maharashtra bans: introduced after a three-month notice period
• EXTREME?
• Stemming the plastic tide is a national imperative
• Popularity: inexpensive, can be easily produced and offer great convenience.
• India hosted this year’s World Environment Day
• This goal is not yet backed by an action plan so that State governments and local bodies can be in sync: We need a plan
• Sad fact: 9% of about nine billion tonnes of plastic produced getting recycled worldwide
• India’s plastic waste — estimated officially at 26,000 tonnes a day
• Urban Development Secretary should be made responsible
• Segregation at source: no incentive, little awareness, official support or infrastructure
• Potentially, carry bag production using cloth can create more jobs & we as consumers can support it.
• Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s re-election as President of Turkey comes as no surprise.
• Last year’s referendum gave sweeping executive powers given to the presidency.
• The elections were held in a state of emergency, imposed in July 2016
following a coup attempt.
• A faltering economy, characterised by plunging foreign direct investment, high inflation and a depreciating lira, had given the Opposition some hope of taking the fight to Mr. Erdoğan.
• West Asian neighbourhood: blighted by ethnically driven civil wars
An unequal platter
• Development is about expanding the capabilities of the disadvantaged, thereby improving their overall quality of life.
• Maharashtra, one of India’s richest States, is a classic case of a lack of development.
• Mismatch: Growth & Development
• Comparison: National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015–2016 and 2005-06
Though stunting has declined from 46.3% to 34.4%, wasting rates have increased from 16.5% to 25.6%.
Further, the underweight rate (36%) has remained static in the last 10 years.
This is worse than in some of the world’s poorest countries
This level of poor nutrition security disproportionately affects the poorest segment of the population.
• According to NFHS 2015-16, every second tribal child suffers from growth restricting malnutrition due to chronic hunger.
• Vikramgad block of the district last year found that 57%, 21% and 53% of children in this block were stunted, wasted and underweight, respectively; 27% were severely stunted.
• Stunting is caused by an insufficient intake of macro- and micronutrients.
• A critical aspect of nutrient adequacy is diet diversity, calculated by different groupings of foods consumed with the reference period ranging from one to 15 days.
• Such acute food insecurity in tribal households is due to a loss of their traditional dependence on forest livelihood and the State’s deepening agrarian crisis.
Uniquely placed
• The 15th Finance Commission (FC) is in the process of figuring out a fair formula for the distribution of net tax proceeds between the Union and the States, and among States.
• The 14th FC had adopted a formula-based tax devolution approach, apart from grants-in-aid for local bodies, disaster relief, and postdevolution revenue deficit grants.
• The share of devolution to the States was enhanced to 42% from 32%, which gave the States considerable flexibility.
• However, it dispensed with sectoral grants for elementary education, the forest sector and renewable energy sector, among others.
• No State-specific grants were recommended
• The assumption was that a higher level of devolution would offset other requirements.
• The 14th FC accorded 27.5% weight to the population (of which 17.5% was of the 1971 population), 15% to area, 7.5% to forest cover and 50% to income distance.
• Income distance was adopted as a proxy for fiscal capacity, and forest cover was given weightage for the first time, underscoring ecological benefits.
• The Northeast represents a distinct entity for developmental planning and has a special category status.
Low levels of human development indices
A low resource base
Poor connectivity and infrastructure
Pose a different challenge which must be taken into account in the devolution formula
At the crossroads
• We realise more and more that how we communicate determines what we communicate.
• It is as if the mob has taken over history and myth, combining the worst of nature and culture.
• Depraved human behaviour makes savage animal behaviour look tame.
• Gagandeep Singh’s act shows that society has to care to continue.
• One exemplary act shows what is possible with a bit of courage and a touch of patience.
Important News
• 3 get 10 year jail in Naroda Patiya case
• India, Seychelles talk of ‘mutual welfare’
• Modi, Faure discuss stalled Assumption island project
• Vohra, Sitharaman discuss security ahead of yatra
• Centre cannot guarantee power supply to all villages, says official
• Oil blocks: India to bid with UAE firms
• $4.5 tn investment needed for infra: FM
• Australian feral cats kill a million reptiles a day
Answers-
1. ISRO scientists are developing a green propellant to replace which conventional rocket fuel?
A) Liquid Hydrogen
B) Hydrazine
C) Kerosene
D) Liquid Oxygen
2. India signed an agreement on allowing land border crossing with which nation?
A) Bangladesh
B) Myanmar
C) Pakistan
D) China
Questions-
1. NASA is planning to fly a helicopter on which space body?
A) Moon
B) Venus
C) Mars
D) Saturn
2. Which state signed an agreement for solar power with the National Thermal Power Corporation?
A) Goa
B) Karnataka
C) Tamil Nadu
D) Kerala
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