Table of Contents
Flood of despair
• Mumbai is an efficient city in some ways, but this reputation depends on
fair weather.
• Collapse of a pedestrian bridge on a crucial railway line in Andheri
• Not even a year has passed since the ghastly stampede on a foot overbridge
at Elphinstone Road station, that took over 20 lives.
• July 2005 flooding caused by 99.4 cm of rain in a 24-hour period.
• The city continues to attract a large number of people looking for
opportunity — the population rose from 11.9 million in 2001 to 18.4 million
a decade later.
• The recurrent disasters involving infrastructure are proof of the
indifference among policymakers to the city’s needs.
• According to one estimate, the city’s Mithi river, blocked by debris and
garbage, has lost about 60% of its catchment to development.
• World Bank found that half of the poor did not consider moving out of
flood-prone areas
• It is welcome that a joint safety audit with the IIT will be conducted on
public infrastructure, in the wake of the bridge collapse.
How to rule Delhi
• Lieutenant Governor of Delhi has no independent decisionmaking
power.
• Lieutenant Governor has to act mainly on the aid and
advice of the Council of Ministers
• Supreme Court has restored the primary role played by the
“representative government” in the National Capital
Territory.
Delhi
• Seen as a Union Territory
• It was created as a separate category, with an elected
Assembly
• With powers to enact laws in all matters falling under the
State and Concurrent lists
• Exception: public order, police and land Status higher than
other UTs
• Until now, the situation was tilted in favour of the Centre.
• Lt. Governor’s claim that he had the authority to refer any matter to
the President.
• SC has retained the Lt. Governor’s powers to refer matters to the
President for a decision.
• The power to refer “any matter” to the President no longer means
“every matter”.
• Overall, the verdict is an appeal to a sense of constitutional morality
and constitutional trust among high functionaries.
• It has ruled out Mr. Kejriwal’s demand of full statehood
• The basic message is that an elected government cannot be
undermined by an unelected administrator.
Freedom from being ‘India-locked’
• Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli returned from China last month.
• Mr. Oli had made his first visit as Prime Minister to China in 2016.
• 2015: major earthquake
• 2016: Nepal was just recovering from the Indian blockade that had
paralysed lives.
• Nepal has historically remained ‘India-locked’, rather than being
termed landlocked.
• Being landlocked is not much of an issue as one can get sea-locked,
like the Maldives.
• Nepal-China: trade and transit agreement
• Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): Nepal continues to remain the best
conduit for Indian markets for China.
• When one is tired of bad service at a restaurant, it is obvious that
one will start looking for alternatives.
• India needs to also realise the new reality that its monopoly over
geopolitics in Nepal is over
Fuel: getting the mix right
• The entire country is reeling from a fuel price shock, nothing
major has been done to reduce toxic emissions and ease fuel
prices.
• National Policy on Biofuels (NPB)
• 2003: Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme (EBP) focussed on 5%
blending of molasses-based ethanol with petrol.
• 2008: blending target to be 10%.
• National Biodiesel Mission: two-phase strategy for biodiesel
production from Jatropha seeds to achieve a 10% blending
mandate with diesel by 2012.
• 2009: NPB proposed a revised target of 20% blending for ethanol
and biodiesel by 2017.
• Fuel blending with ethanol varies from 85% (E85) in Australia to
vehicles run on 100% (E100) ethanol in Brazil, where the ethanol
blending mandate is 27% (E27).
Government’s priorities in implementing the NPB
Solution to air pollution
Maintain affordable transportation fuel prices
Promote clean and sustainable fuels
Move towards energy self-sufficiency
Reduce dependence on crude oil imports
• National Policy on Biofuels 2018: promising the moon and delivering
little.
• World Health Organisation: 14 Indian cities are world’s most polluted
• The policy is totally silent on octane.
• It assists in proper combustion of fuels, thereby affecting vehicular
emissions.
• Today petrol is blended with cancer-causing imported aromatics to
boost octane rating. This has negative consequences on health.
• So far, there’s an investment of ₹10,000 crore to set up 12 2G
biorefineries across 11 States.
• Biggest irony: spend thousands of crores on building statues but not on
clean energy.
• Import ethanol for time being but supply should not get affected.
• Ethanol has an octane rating of 113, while the mandated octane rating
for fuel is 91.
Opening up to the world
• The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), implemented in
2016, is India’s first government-supported ranking of colleges and
universities.
• It may in the future guide government financial support for higher
education.
• Two additional initiatives build on the idea of creating elite, globally
competitive world-class universities in India
1. Institutions of Eminence (IoE) project: recognise 20 universities, 10
public and 10 private, and provide significant government funds to
the public institutions (no extra money to the privates) and give
enhanced autonomy for them.
2. Graded Autonomy project: considerable freedom for academic,
financial and administrative innovation
• The Graded Autonomy programme makes it easier to hire international
faculty, traditionally very difficult to do.
• India and France to mutually recognise academic qualifications.
• Internationalisation is central to academic success in the 21st century
— and India has been notably weak.
• The national ranking initiative needs to be extended throughout the
higher education system and requires simplification.
• Are Indian universities finally awakening to the challenges of the 21st
century? At least several innovative programmes, backed by
government, are in the works.
• Implementing them effectively remains the key challenge.
Insecurity in cyberspace
• “No CCTV surveillance. Here, it is the watchfulness of concerned
citizens that protects the property.” art décor store in Fort Kochi,
Kerala
• Anxiety about data theft and tampering has become a reality for
social media, Internet and digital service users.
• Breach Level Index, released by digital security firm Gemalto,
reported a 783% increase in cases of data theft in India in 2017.
• Reserve Bank of India reported a 35% increase (from 8,765 cases to
11,997) in ATM credit, debit card and net banking related fraud cases
between 2012-13 and 2015-16
• With India’s Internet users expected to hit the 500 million mark this
year, dispelling data anxieties remains a key challenge.
1. Which state has launched India’s first Integrated Control and
Command Centre (ICCC) for its smart cities?
A) Madhya Pradesh
B) Uttar Pradesh
C) Maharashtra
D) Bihar
2. India got what rank in the 2018 Business Optimism Index?
A) 6th
B) 8th
C) 7th
D) 5th
Answers-
1. Which nation would be getting a grant from the World Bank to meet the basic needs of the Rohingyas?
A) Bangladesh
B) Philippines
C) Myanmar
D) India
2. Which nation moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, despite concerns from the international community?
A) North Korea
B) US
C) Russia
D) China
Questions-
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