The Hindu Editorial Analysis In English | Free PDF Download

Table of Contents

Poverty assessment

Poverty assessments focus on households, never the individual.
So, a person automatically gets classified as either poor or non-poor based on the poverty status of the household to which she belongs.
But, do all experience the same deprivation and challenges within the household?
Globally, female and male poverty rates—defined as the share of women and men who live in poor households—are very similar (12.8% and 12.3%, respectively, based on 2013 data).
Even in the two regions with the largest number of poor people (and highest poverty rates)—South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa— gender differences in poverty rates are quite small.
This approach critically assumes everyone in the household shares equally in household consumption—be they the father, child or daughter-in-law.
By design, it thus masks differences in individual poverty within a household.
In a report published by The World Bank, Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018, data has been gathered at an individual level.
From these findings, stark differences appear between men and women during the peak productive and reproductive years.
The poverty rate of women aged 25-34 in SubSaharan Africa and South Asia is, on average, 5.5 percentage points higher than that of men (27.8% vs 22.3%).
Factors such as age of marriage and childbearing, the presence of young children in the household—and the related likelihood of women leaving (or not engaging in) economic activities because of the time they allocate to unpaid care and domestic work—can be linked to the gender gap in poverty rates.
These factors relate to an unequal distribution of power inside a household, which tends to favour men in many countries.
However, data gathering at an individual level is not easy, due to both data and methodological constraints.
Lack of data remains a critical problem in many countries—particularly low-income and conflict-affected states.
Collecting this data, in turn, can support more effective targeting of social protection and broader development programmes.

Amritsar train accident

In Punjab, relief and rehabilitation efforts for the Amritsar train accident victims are on in full swing.
People injured in the train accident last evening are being treated at various hospitals. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said, 59 people were killed and 57 were injured in the accident.
Captain Amarinder said, action will be taken against those responsible for the tragedy once the magisterial inquiry ordered by the state government is complete.
He was talking to mediapersons after reviewing the situation on the ground and meeting the injured in three hospitals.
Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha has blamed the organisers of the Dussehra celebrations for the train accident.
Mr Sinha who visited the accident site, said, whenever such functions are organised, the local administration gives permission but in this case it was not done.
Mr Sinha said, people should restrain from organizing such events near railway tracks in future.
Meanwhile, the train services on JalandharAmritsar and Pathankot-Amritsar sections are yet to become normal.

Asia-Europe meeting sidelines

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu today called upon Indian community in Brussels to protect and preserve the culture, heritage and customs of their country of origin while following the rules & regulations of Belgian government.
He emphasized on continuing good work and initiatives undertaken by the Indian community in different fields, including trade, while adapting to contemporary challenges and competition in the global market.
He was addressing the Indian Diaspora at the Jain Cultural Centre adjacent to Jain Temple built in Antwerp.

India – Sri Lanka

India and Sri Lanka today discussed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and ways to further deepen the historically close and friendly relations between the two countries.
During the delegation level talks held in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe exchanged views on regional and global issues.
External Affairs Ministry, in a release said, the two leaders reviewed the progress in implementation of various decisions taken during high level exchanges in the recent past. Mr Modi hosted a luncheon for the visiting dignitary.

Saudi Arabia admits Khashoggi was killed in its Istanbul consulate

Saudi Arabia on Saturday admitted that critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul.
The Gulf kingdom had been facing one of its worst international crises since his disappearance for many days now.
“Preliminary investigations… revealed that the discussions that took place between him and the persons who met him… at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul led to a brawl and a fist fight with the citizen, Jamal Khashoggi, which led to his death, may his soul rest in peace,” the Attorney General said in a statement.

NCCR develops system to estimate, predict flooding within Chennai

In 2015, unprecedented and sudden floods paralysed Chennai with over 18 lakh people being displaced.
Following this, at the behest of the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to government of India, research institutions, chief among them the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Chennai, and IITs, got together to build a flood warning system customised for use in Chennai.
Carrying the acronym C-FLOWS, which stands for Chennai FLOod Warning System, the six-module ensemble can predict flooding due to heavy rainfall, sea-level rise and increase in water levels of the three rivers — Cooum, Adyar and Kosasthalaiyar — that traverse the city.
“The State government shared data such as ward boundaries, population details, infrastructure available across Tamil Nadu, which have been used in the warning system,” says M. V. Ramana Murthy, Director, NCCR.
The topography data was obtained from the Indian Remote Sensing programme. “Next we plan to develop such a system for Mumbai city and Cochin area,” he adds.
Knowing the elevation at different spots, the system can predict the way the area would flood based on different scenarios that have been simulated.
Thus, early warnings could be issued. “The flood itself cannot be avoided, but it can be managed and the disaster mitigated,” says Dr Usha.

Native shade trees better for carbon storage

The exotic silver oak may be coffee growers’ preferred shade tree now, but research shows that it affects carbon sequestration and tree diversity in Kodagu’s agroforest systems.
Kodagu’s coffee farms were created when farmers cleared forest undergrowth and started growing coffee under the shade of giant evergreen trees.
This ‘native shade’ coffee is still prevalent in the district, but evergreen trees are quickly losing out to the fast-growing silver oak.
Farmers do not need permission from forest officials to lop or cut silver oak; this also contributes to its popularity.
However, old forest trees make up a huge portion of carbon stocks here, and carbon stocks matter because the higher the carbon contained in vegetation, the more it helps with mitigating climate change.
The introduction of silver oak negatively impacted both carbon stock and diversity.
Hence, the current trend of replacing native shade trees in coffee estates with silver oaks is detrimental for carbon storage and tree diversity, especially in robusta farms.
Current policies do play a role in this change, because the exotics can be cut for timber without prior permission.

World Heritage sites threatened by climate change: study

Dozens of UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Mediterranean such as Venice, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Medieval City of Rhodes are under severe threat of coastal erosion and flooding due to rising sea levels within the next 100 years, a study has warned.
The study, published in the journal Nature, presents a risk index that ranks the sites according to the threat they face from today until the end of the century.
The sites featuring highest on this index in current conditions include Venice and its Lagoon, Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia, according to researchers from Kiel University in Germany.
All these sites are located along the northern Adriatic Sea in Italy where extreme sea levels are the highest because high storm surges coincide with high regional sea-level rises.
The study combines model simulations with world heritage site data to assess the risk of both coastal flooding and erosion due to sea level rise at 49 UNESCO coastal Heritage sites by the end of the century.

Europe, Japan send spacecraft on 7-year journey to Mercury

European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit on Saturday for a joint mission to Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.
The European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the unmanned BepiColombo spacecraft successfully separated and was sent into orbit from French Guiana as planned to begin a seven-year journey to Mercury.
They said the spacecraft, named after Italian scientist Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, was in the right orbit and has sent the first signal after the liftoff.

China to launch ‘man-made moons’ to lower electricity costs

China is planning to launch its own ‘artificial moon’ by 2020 to replace streetlamps and lower electricity costs in urban areas, state media reported Friday.
Chengdu, a city in southwestern Sichuan province, is developing “illumination satellites” which will shine in tandem with the real moon, but are eight times brighter, according to China Daily.
By reflecting light from the sun, the satellites could replace streetlamps in urban areas, saving an estimated 1.2 billion yuan (USD 170 million) a year in electricity costs for Chengdu, if the man-made moons illuminate an area of 50 square kilometers.