Weekly Current Affairs Webinar

10/04/2019 to 16/04/2019

1. China’s BRI projects in Sri Lanka & Malaysia

Belt and Road Initiative

BRI is an ambitious China’s ambitious development strategy and framework that aims to boost its connectivity and trade that will that will connect Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe.

It was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.

It’s the most ambitious infrastructure and connectivity project in history, aiming to connect China with Europe by land and rail, and to Africa and Asia by sea.

It comprises two components viz. the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

The initiative is part of China’s revived 21st century Silk Road diplomacy that seeks to push it to take a bigger role in global affairs as a major global power.

It is basically investment and trade promotion scheme aiming to deepen economic connections between China and rest of the world.

What are India’s concerns?

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a $50 billion Chinese investment which will link China to the Arabian Sea through the deep sea port of Gwadar in Pakistan.

But it is being constructed in the disputed territory of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir which is claimed by India.

India thinks this affects its sovereignty and it has boycotted the OBOR Summit

India is also concerned about the potential of OBOR in projecting the economic and military might of China in Asia and in the Indian Ocean.

1.1 Sri Lanka opens China-financed railway line

Context:

Sri Lanka has opened a new railway line, built with China’s assistance, connecting its coastal city of Matara and Beliatta in Hambantota.

Details:

This move will boost passenger traffic into the island nation’s deep south. The 26.75-km long Matara-Beliatta railway extension is the first to be constructed in Sri

Lanka since 1948, and it passes through the country’s longest and second-longest railway bridges.

The railway extension was financed by the Export-Import Bank of China and the contract was awarded to the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman termed it as a major Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project in Sri Lanka.

Concerns:

China is Sri Lanka’s biggest lender. Sri Lanka’s envoy to China in February said Colombo will get a $1 billion loan from China and might sign a free trade agreement with Beijing.

Sri Lanka is returning to normalcy after being hit by a deep political crisis last year that plunged the credit rating of the already-indebted country.

Sri Lanka has been the major recipient of Chinese loans and investments in recent years, totalling over $8 billion. The heavy borrowing has raised concerns over Sri Lanka’s ability to repay, after Colombo handed over the Hambantota port to Beijing for a 99-year lease in 2017 as a debt swap.

The Chinese have made deep inroads into the strategically located nation in the Indian Ocean.

The acquisition of the port by China as a debt swap drew criticism from the US which termed the BRI projects as ‘Debt Trap Diplomacy’ towards smaller countries.

Beijing’s growing presence in Sri Lanka worries India which held considerable clout in the country.

India has been looking on nervously, concerned that China is encroaching on its sphere of influence and eroding its commercial and cultural links with the island, some of whose Tamil minority are descendants of colonial-era indentured workers from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Way forward:

Sri Lanka’s geography gives it an advantage disproportionate to its size. Sri Lanka is the pivotal point for a global grand strategy.

As Sri Lanka looks for assistance to reboot its economy, a largely two-way tussle for influence in the country and, in turn, the region is on.

India and China are Sri Lanka’s biggest import markets, count among the top three in terms of tourist inflows and provide significant share of the country’s foreign investment.

Sri Lanka needs to develop its economy using both Indian and Chinese help. But China and India have not always been open to sharing influence, with both trying to leverage their “special relationship” with the island.

The challenge is to find a balance between these two large countries and not take to one bloc.

1.2 Malaysia approves Chinese project after price is slashed

Context:

Malaysia will resume work on the multi-billion dollar East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) after months of negotiations with the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) and the Chinese government brought the cost down by a third.

Details:

China agreed to cut by a third the cost of a rail project in Malaysia, a move that seemed to acknowledge mounting international scepticism about its continent-spanning infrastructure programme- the Belt and Road Initiative.

Malaysian officials announced a new agreement with CCCC, a state-owned company that would allow the rail project to go forward, nearly a year after the Malaysian government suspended it.

The project is meant to connect ports on Malaysia’s east and west coasts. The project, known as the East Coast Rail Link, became a political lightning rod after Mr.

Mahathir (Prime Minister of Malaysia) used its cost as an issue on his way to winning the election last year.

2. BREXIT

Analysis:

The continuing impasse over Brexit has brought an entire continent to a standstill. It has also strained the very unity of the United Kingdom. Nothing illustrated this more clearly than the pro-Brexit demonstrations on March 29, 2019

the original departure date. Protesters, waving the English flag of St. George, denounced the delay as ‘a betrayal of

England’. Note this was not considered a betrayal of the U.K.: in this fight, England has gone its own way. In any case, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union (EU).

The narrowness of the Leave win (52% to 48%) has of course divided communities over positions on Europe.

But it has also highlighted divisions between the constituent nations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to use the formal name of the British state.

A quick look at U.K.’s polity:

The U.K. is not one nation but four: Wales was brought under English rule in the 13th century; Ireland was incorporated by a combination of military force and political persuasion in 1801; Scotland, though never militarily defeated, was persuaded to join the Union in 1707.

Until they joined the U.K., Scotland and Ireland were governed by their own parliaments. These were dissolved and power transferred to Westminster. This transfer of power to London did not go unchallenged locally, and the embers of

resistance were never quite stamped out. The Republic of Ireland eventually gained independence for most of the island, barring the

Protestant majority north, in 1922. Scottish nationalism remained subsumed under the promise of Empire: Scotland had

gained power and wealth from the colonial enterprise, which tempered the loss of sovereignty to Westminster.

View from Scotland:

Indeed, part of the reason that Scotland joined the Union in 1707 was because it was broke: the kingdom had suffered heavy financial losses from a disastrous expedition to secure a trading base in the late 17th century.

The failure of the Darien Scheme, as it was known, was caused in no small part by resistance from Scotland’s southern neighbours who were protecting the trading rights of the East India Company. Once within the Union, the colonial enterprise and then Empire offered not just wealth but all the trappings of great power. The end of the Empire signalled Britain’s departure from the global stage. The Suez crisis of 1956 confirmed its diminished status. And Brexit, Britain’s retreat from its own continent, has completed the project.

Little England has withdrawn into itself to protect mythical ideas of Englishness against the supposed onslaught of waves of foreign immigration and EU rule.

The Scots are only too aware of this. Scottish nationalism has been simmering for years now, only partly placated by the devolution of some domestic powers to a Scottish Parliament under the Scotland Act of 1998.

A referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 ended up being a closer call than had been anticipated (55% vs 45%), though it was clear even then that part of the reason for remaining was that the U.K. offered membership of the EU (which was not automatically on offer for an independent Scotland).

Now, with Brexit looming, Scottish demands for independence resurface regularly.

A fragile peace:

The Northern Ireland question is even more intractable.

Brexit threatens the fragile peace imposed by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which formally ended the Troubles, or decades of bitter sectarian violence.

Between 1968 and 1998, the mainly Protestant Unionists were pitted against the mostly Catholic Republicans, who wished for Northern Ireland to join the Republic of Ireland.

Paramilitary forces grouped on both sides, and the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (the police) were also pulled in. Indeed, the Troubles became the longest major campaign of the British Army. The Good Friday Agreement has allowed the region to move forward.

It is, however, a fragile peace, comprising complex intertwined agreements between first, most of Northern Ireland’s political parties; and second, the British and Irish governments to manage the relationships between Britain and Ireland, and between Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain. Underpinning all of this is the dismantling of the border infrastructure — watch-towers, fences, check posts — that had divided the island of Ireland.

This was only possible because both countries belonged to the EU.

Experts point out that if Britain leaves the customs union and single market of the EU, which guarantees the freedom of movement of people and goods between member states, then some sort of infrastructure will have to come up at the border between the EU and Britain in Ireland.

It is indeed astonishing that the tenuous peace in Northern Ireland did not concentrate minds during the 2016 referendum, or indeed afterwards, when Theresa May’s government decided to opt for the hardest form of exit by declaring that Britain’s future relationship with the EU could not include either a customs union or staying within the single market.

Tellingly, Northern Ireland found only passing mention in her letter of March 29, 2017 to the President of the European Council invoking the Article 50 process and starting the countdown towards leaving. It was disposed of in a sentence expressing a wish ‘to avoid a return to a hard border between [the] two countries’.

And yet, peace in Northern Ireland is still in its infancy. The EU will not imperil this process by allowing a border to come up between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Hence the provision for a backstop in the transition deal that Ms. May negotiated with the EU, which would keep the U.K. in a customs union and Northern Ireland in the customs union and parts of the single market should the two entities fail to arrive at a permanent free trade agreement that continues to negate the need for border infrastructure within the island.

The different status for Northern Ireland would effectively raise a border between the island of Ireland and the rest of Great Britain, something that is unacceptable to the Unionists and Ms. May.

The hard core of Brexiteers, however, are willing to gamble with the unity of Britain — willing indeed, to risk losing Scotland and Northern Ireland — in their quest to be ‘rid’ of Europe once and for all.

3. Black Hole captured on image for the first time

Context:

Astronomers offer an image of the unseeable — a black hole — with the help of eight radio observatories on six mountains and four continents.

The supermassive black hole at the core of supergiant elliptical galaxy Messier 87. Visible are the crescent-shaped emission ring and central shadow, which are gravitationally magnified views of the black hole’s photon ring and the photon capture zone of its event horizon. The crescent shape arises from the black hole’s rotation; the shadow is about 2.6 times the diameter of the event horizon.

Black hole:

A black hole is a region of space-time exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing—not even particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from inside it.

The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform space-time to form a black hole.

The boundary of the region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon.

Although the event horizon has an enormous effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, no locally detectable features appear to be observed.

In many ways a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light.

Details:

Astronomers announced that at last they had seen the unseeable: a black hole, a cosmic abyss so deep and dense that not even light can escape it.

The image, of a lopsided ring of light surrounding a dark circle deep in the heart of the galaxy known as Messier 87, some 55 million light-years away from here, resembled the Eye of Sauron, a reminder yet again of the power and malevolence of nature.

It is a smoke ring framing a one-way portal to eternity.

To capture the image, astronomers reached across intergalactic space to a giant galaxy known as Messier 87, in the constellation Virgo.

There, a black hole about seven billion times more massive than the sun is unleashing a violent jet of energy some 5,000 light years into space.

Most speculation had centred on the other candidate targeted by the Event Horizon Telescope — Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

By comparison, Sag A* is only 26,000 lightyears from Earth. Locking down an image of M87’s supermassive black hole at such distance is comparable to

photographing a pebble on the Moon The image offered a final, ringing affirmation of an idea so disturbing that even Einstein,

from whose equations black holes emerged, was loath to accept it. If too much matter is crammed into one place, the cumulative force of gravity becomes

overwhelming, and the place becomes an eternal trap, a black hole. Here, according to Einstein’s theory, matter, space and time come to an end and vanish like a dream.

The image emerged from two years of computer analysis of observations from a network of radio antennas called the Event Horizon Telescope.

In all, eight radio observatories on six mountains and four continents observed the galaxy in Virgo on and off for 10 days in April 2017.

Over several days in April 2017, eight radio telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, Spain, Mexico, Chile, and the South Pole zeroed in on Sag A* and M87.

Knit together “like fragments of a giant mirror”, in Mr. Bremer’s words, they formed a virtual observatory some 12,000 km across — roughly the diameter of Earth.

In the end, M87 was more photogenic. Like a fidgety child, Sag A* was too “active” to capture a clear picture, the researchers said.

Perhaps even more important, the images provide astrophysicists with the first look at the innards of a black hole.

The energy within is thought to be powerful enough to power quasars and other violent phenomena from the nuclei of galaxies, including the jets of intense radiation that spew 5,000 light years from the galaxy M87.

As hot, dense gas swirls around the black hole, like water headed down a drain, the intense pressures and magnetic fields cause energy to squirt from either side.

As a paradoxical result, supermassive black holes, which lurk in the centres of galaxies, can be the most luminous objects in the universe.

4. Report reveals growing risk to cloud platform

Cybercriminals attempted attacks on a cloud server known as ‘honeypot’ more than 6,78,000 times in a month, which was second to Ohio in the U.S. that recorded more than 9,50,000 login attempts, among a total of 10 honeypots placed globally, global cybersecurity major Sophos said.

The honeypots were set up in 10 of the most popular Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres in the world, including California, Frankfurt, Ireland, London, Ohio, Paris, Sao Paulo, Singapore and Sydney over a 30-day-period from mid-January to mid-February.

What is a honeypot?

A honeypot is a system intended to mimic likely targets of cyber-attackers for security researchers to monitor cybercriminal behaviour.

According to the report, ‘Exposed: Cyberattacks on Cloud Honeypots’, over five million attacks were attempted on the global network of honeypots, thus, demonstrating how cybercriminals are automatically scanning for weak open cloud buckets.

With businesses across the globe increasingly adopting cloud technology, the report revealed the extent to which businesses migrating to hybrid and all-cloud platforms are at risk.

The aggressive speed and scale of attacks on devices demonstrates the use of botnets to target an organisation’s cloud platform.

5. India stares at a pile of solar e-waste

Issue:

By 2050, India will likely stare at a pile of a new category of electronic waste, namely solar e-waste, says a study made public.

At present, India’s e-waste rules have no laws mandating solar cell manufacturers to recycle or dispose waste from this sector.

India is poorly positioned to handle Photo Voltaic (PV) waste as it doesn’t yet have policy guidelines on the same.

Lack of a policy framework is coupled with the fact that even basic recycling facilities for laminated glass and e-waste are unavailable.

Despite the e-waste regulation being in place for several years, only less than 4% of estimated e-waste is recycled in the organised sector as per the latest estimates from the Central Pollution Control Board.

Details:

India is among the leading markets for solar cells in the world, buoyed by the government’s commitment to install 100 GW of solar power by 2022.

So far, India has installed solar cells for about 28 GW and this is largely from imported solar PV cells.

Solar cell modules are made by processing sand to make silicon, casting silicon ingots, using wafers to create cells and then assembling them to make modules.

India’s domestic manufacturers are largely involved in assembling cells and modules.

These modules are 80% glass and aluminium, and non-hazardous. Other materials used, including polymers, metals, metallic compounds and alloys, and are classified as potentially hazardous, says the study.

While the solar sector continues to grow robustly, there is no clarity on solar waste management in India.

E- Waste Management Rules:

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notified the E-Waste Management Rules, 2016 in supersession of the e-waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2011.

Features:

E-waste rules include Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) and other mercury containing lamps, as well as other such equipment.

Rules will bring the producers under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), along with targets.

Producers have been made responsible for collection of E-waste and for its exchange

Every producer shall provide detailed information on the constituents of the equipment and their components or consumables or parts or spares, along with a declaration of conformance to the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) provisions in the product user documentation.

A new arrangement entitled, ‘Producer Responsibility Organisation’ (PRO) is introduced to strengthen EPR further. PRO, a professional organisation, would be authorised or financed collectively or individually by producers, to share the responsibility for collection and channelization of e-waste generated from the ‘end-of-life’ products to ensure environmentally sound management of such e-waste.

Deposit Refund Scheme has been introduced as an additional economic instrument wherein the producer charges an additional amount as a deposit at the time of sale of the electrical and electronic equipment and returns it to the consumer along with interest when the end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment is returned.

The process of dismantling and recycling has been simplified through one system of authorization and that the Central Pollution Control Board will give the single authorization throughout the country.

Further CPCB shall conduct random sampling of electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market to monitor and verify the compliance of RoHS provisions and the cost for sample and testing shall be borne by the producer.

The random sampling shall be as per the guidelines of CPCB.

If the product does not comply with RoHS provisions, the producers shall take corrective measures to bring the product into compliance, and withdraw or recall the product from the market, within a reasonable period as per the guidelines of CPCB.

Measures taken:

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, MeitY, has initiated an E-waste Awareness programme under Digital India initiatives, along with industry associations from 2015, to create awareness among the public about the hazards of e-waste recycling by the unorganised sector, and to educate them about alternate methods of disposing of their e-waste.

The programme stresses the need for adopting environmentally friendly e-waste recycling practices.

The general public is also encouraged to participate in ‘Swachh Digital Bharat’, by giving their e-waste to authorised recyclers only.

6. 100th Anniversary of Jallianwala Bagh massacre

What’s in the news?

Recently, British Prime Minister Theresa May, on the occasion of the centenary of the horrific Jallianwala Bagh massacre, said: “We deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused.”

Larger Background:

A Brief Look at the Past:

On April 13, 1919, Baisakhi day, following unrest in Amritsar after protests against the Rowlatt Act, Brigadier General (temporary rank) Reginald Dyer took a strike force of 50 rifles and 40 khukri-wielding Gurkhas into an enclosed ground, Jallianwala Bagh, where a peaceful public meeting of 15,000-20,000 was being held.

Immediately and without warning, he ordered fire to be opened on the crowd.

The firing of 1,650 rounds was deliberate and targeted, using powerful rifles at virtually point-blank range. The “suffering caused” included several hundred dead and many times more wounded. The officially accepted figure of 379 dead is a gross underestimate. Other estimates suggest the count was around 1000-1500 dead.

Eyewitness accounts and information collected by Sewa Samiti, a charity organisation point to much higher numbers. Non-Indian writers place the number killed at anything between 500 to 600, with three times that number wounded.

More was to follow after the proclamation, two days after the massacre, of Martial Law in Punjab: the infamous crawling order, the salaam order, public floggings, arbitrary arrests, torture and bombing of civilians by airplanes — all under a veil of strictly enforced censorship.

A history of evasion

After calls for an investigation, including by liberals in Britain, a Disorders Inquiry Committee, soon to be known by the name of its Chairman, Lord Hunter, was set up.

In his testimony, Dyer asserted that his intention had been to punish the crowd, to make a “wide impression” and to strike terror not only in Amritsar but throughout Punjab.

The committee split along racial lines and submitted a majority and minority report.

The majority report of the Hunter Committee, using tactically selective criticism, established Dyer’s culpability but let off the Lieutenant Governor, Michael O’Dwyer.

The minority report written by the three Indian members was more scathing in its criticism.

By then Dyer had become a liability and he was asked to resign his command, after which he left for England.

This decision for a quiet discharge was approved by the British Secretary of State, Edwin Montagu, and, after an acrimonious debate, also by the House of Commons.

The conservative Lords however took a different tack and rebuked the government for being unjust to the officer.

Similar sentiments in Dyer’s favour came from the right-wing press — the Morning Post started a fund for him which collected £26,000 — as well as from conservative sections of the public who believed he had saved India for the empire.

Rudyard Kipling, who had contributed £10 to the fund put an ambivalent comment on the wreath he sent to Dyer’s funeral in 1927: “He did his duty as he saw it.”

Reflections on a massacre:

For Indians, the massacre that evokes strong emotions is not Nader Shah’s slaughter of 30,000 people in Delhi in 1739 but Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, where, a century ago, on April 13, 1919 troops commanded by General Dyer fired into an unarmed crowd, killing hundreds.

The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh, like later ones in Lidice (1942) and My Lai (1968), was relatively small. It was nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands killed by the Japanese army in Nanjing in 1937-38 or by Indonesian soldiers in East Timor 1975 onward.

Jallianwala Bagh’s importance lies not in the numbers killed but in what preceded it and in what followed. The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, better known as the Rowlatt Act, came into force a month before the massacre in Jallianwala Bagh.

It shocked most Indians who had expected to be rewarded, not punished, for willingly fighting alongside the British in the First World War.

The massacre, followed by the feting and rewarding of its perpetrator, General Dyer, by the British public, removed all illusions about benign British rule in the country.

It also marked the start of a liberation struggle like no other under Mahatma Gandhi.

It took Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore to capture the full import of the outrage at Jallianwala Bagh.

In his letter of protest renouncing the knighthood conferred on him, he wrote: “The accounts of the insults and sufferings by our brothers in Punjab have trickled through the gagged silence, reaching every corner of India, and the universal agony of indignation roused in the hearts of our people has been ignored by our rulers — possibly congratulating themselves for what they imagine as salutary lessons.”

Many massacres in history fade while some linger as grisly curiosities. The killing of every male inhabitant of the Persian town of Kernan in 1794 by Agha Mohammed Khan is better known for the latter’s insistence that the eyeballs be brought to him in baskets and poured on the floor.

Most massacres that endure in public memory are those for which countries are responsible. Like Jallianwala Bagh, they are never forgotten or forgiven but unfailingly recollected through generations with deep loathing for their perpetrators.

No Pole can talk about the 1940 Katyn massacre of over 20,000 Polish soldiers and civilians by the Russians, with equanimity. Another, and more recent, the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Bosnians by break-away Serbians, is commemorated by a vast sombre memorial that doubles up as a cemetery comprising over 6,000 graves in Srebrenica.

Churchill’s Comments:

The speech that carried the day in the House of Commons in 1920 was that of Winston Churchill, no fan of Gandhi and his satyagraha.

He called Dyer’s deed “an extraordinary event, a monstrous event, an event which stands in sinister isolation”; privately he wrote that the “offence amounted to murder, or alternatively manslaughter”.

Significantly, Churchill, likening the event to “Prussian” tactics of terrorism, said that this was “not the British way of doing things”. In other words, he was resorting to British exceptionalism: he was hanging out Dyer to dry as a rogue officer, while saving the larger colonial enterprise as benign.

Dyer was certainly rogue, but he was not alone. He was one of a line of several such — John Nicholson, Frederick Cooper, J.L. Cowan — who resorted to severe disproportionate violence in 1857 and after the 1872 Kuka rebellion; he was also part of the despotic administration led by O’Dwyer (later assassinated by Udham Singh in 1940) which emboldened and then exonerated him.

In 2013, then Prime Minister David Cameron quoted the same Churchill epithet of “monstrous”, adding that this was a “deeply shameful event in British history” and “we must never forget what happened here.”

The Queen had earlier termed it as a “distressing example” of past history. Again, general homilies with hands nicely off and no admission of a larger culpability of racialised colonial violence that underpinned imperialism.

Analysis:

The criticism PM Theresa May has come under for lack of an apology:

There was some expectation of a British apology on the occasion of the centenary of the horrific Jallianwala Bagh massacre, more so since the demand came this time not from Indians alone but also from a strong contingent of British MPs across political parties.

Words are important, especially in the heavily-nuanced English language.

In comparison, in a press conference in Brussels, Ms. May said that she “sincerely regretted” her failure in delivering a Brexit deal so far. “Deeply” is admittedly stronger than “sincerely”, but the nature of contrition expressed is identical.

The second aspect of the statement that stands out is its passiveness — “what happened”, “the suffering caused”. There is no hint of agency here; this could well be the statement of any observer and not of inheritors of the empire that committed the atrocity.

The blandness too is disturbing: one would have expected some sympathy for the victims or their descendants and some reference to the brutality of the massacre.

Concluding Remarks:

Deep regret is all we may get instead of the unequivocal apology that is mandated.

The expectation could be that time will add more distance to the massacre, making these calls for apology increasingly an academic exercise.

We will no doubt also be advised to forgive and move on.

The fact remains that there are many ways to heal a festering wound between nations, as Canada’s apology for the Komagata Maru shows; clever drafting is not one of them.

7. Modi to get Russia’s highest civilian award

Context:

Russia announced that President Vladimir Putin will confer its highest civilian award on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Details:

Russia’s highest civilian award – the “Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First,” will be awarded to PM Narendra Modi for his work on bilateral ties.

Thanking Mr. Putin for the honour, Mr. Modi said that the cooperation between India and Russia had led to extraordinary outcomes for Indian citizens.

“President Putin remains a source of great strength for the India-Russia friendship. Under his visionary leadership, bilateral and multilateral cooperation between our nations has scaled new heights,” he added.

Welcoming the award from Russia, External Affairs Minister said this was the sixth international award for PM Modi in five years, and came in “recognition of India-Russia’s true friendship.

The Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First:

The Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First is awarded to prominent government and public figures, prominent representatives of science, culture, art and various sectors of the economy for “exceptional services that contribute to the prosperity, greatness and glory of Russia”.

It was first awarded by former Russian Tsar ‘Peter the Great’ in 1698 and subsequently discontinued.

In 1998, former President Boris Yeltsin reinstated the honour by a presidential decree.

Previous recipients include Chinese President Xi Jinping, and presidents of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

8. Plea to remove dual control of Assam Rifles

Context:

The Delhi High Court has sought response from Cabinet Secretary, Government of India, on a petition seeking directions to bring the Assam Rifles out of the dual control of the Union Home Ministry and the Defence Ministry (MoD).

Issue:

At present, the administrative control of the Assam Rifles lies with the Home Ministry, while the operational control is with the Defence Ministry leading to the violations of rights of the troopers according to the All India Assam Rifles Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association.

The petitioner said that the objective and functions of Assam Rifles were that of a military and para military force and its categorisation as a police force was arbitrary, unreasonable and in violation of the rights of its personnel.

Details:

The petition filed by the Assam Rifles Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association has sought directions to the government to bring the Assam Rifles under one control, preferably under the MoD.

A Bench of Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice I.S. Mehta, in its April 9 order, had noted that the Union Home Ministry has placed the issue before the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

The court is therefore constrained now to issue a notice to the CCS to explain what decision it has taken on the note forwarded to it by the MHA .

Assam Rifles:

The Assam Rifles (AR) is one of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF’s) under the MHA.

However, only the Assam Rifles functions under the administrative control of the Union Home Ministry.

The Assam Rifles was formed under the British in 1835 by the name of Cachar Levy and had a number of names — the Assam Frontier Police (1883), the Assam Military Police (1891) and Eastern Bengal and Assam Military Police (1913), before finally becoming the Assam Rifles in 1917.

At present, it has 46 battalions and fulfils the dual role of maintaining internal security in the North-eastern region and guarding the Indo-Myanmar Border.

9. Stratolaunch Roc: World’s largest plane makes first test flight

Context:

The world’s largest aircraft took off over the Mojave Desert in California, the first flight for the carbon-composite plane built by Stratolaunch Systems Corp, started by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, as the company entered the lucrative private space market.

Details:

The white airplane is called Roc.

It has a wingspan the length of an American football field and is powered by six engines on a twin fuselage.

The plane stayed aloft for more than two hours before landing safely back at the Mojave Air and Space Port as a crowd of hundreds of people cheered.

The plane is designed to drop rockets and other space vehicles weighing up to 500,000 pounds at an altitude of 35,000 feet and has been billed by the company as making satellite deployment as “easy as booking an airline flight.”

Stratolaunch has said that it intends to launch its first rockets from the Roc in 2020 at the earliest.

10. Oil consuming bacteria found below ocean

Context:

Scientists have discovered a unique oil eating bacteria in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the earth’s oceans.

Mariana Trench:

Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world’s oceans.

It is located in the western Pacific Ocean.

The trench is not the part of the seafloor closest to the center of the Earth. This is because the Earth is not a perfect sphere; its radius is about 25 kilometres (16 mi) less at the poles than at the equator.

The Mariana Trench is part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana subduction system that forms the boundary between two tectonic plates.

In this system, the western edge of one plate, the Pacific Plate, is sub-ducted (i.e., thrust) beneath the smaller Mariana Plate that lies to the west.

Crustal material at the western edge of the Pacific Plate is some of the oldest oceanic crust on earth (up to 170 million years old), and is therefore cooler and more dense; hence its great height difference relative to the higher-riding (and younger) Mariana Plate.

Details:

In an expedition, organised by marine explorer and film director James Cameron, researchers collected samples from the trench.

When researchers analysed the microbial samples collected during the expedition, they found a new group of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria.

The researchers found that nowhere else on Earth are oil-eating bacteria so proportionally dominant.

Scientists found the oil-eating microbes as deep as 4 miles beneath the ocean surface, and researchers suspect the microbes live at even greater depths.

The bacteria are likely deriving a significant portion of their food from pollution that sinks from the ocean surface. But scientists also found evidence that some of the hydrocarbons are sourced from below.

The researchers said that biologically produced hydrocarbons were also found in the ocean sediment at the bottom of the trench which suggests that a unique microbial population is producing hydrocarbons in this environment.

In addition to providing sustenance, researchers suspect the hydrocarbons help microbes survive the crushing pressures of extreme ocean depths.

Significance:

The findings may pave way for sustainable ways to clean up oils spills. As similar microorganisms play a role in degrading oil spills during natural and man-made disasters.

11. Voting in women’s health in Assam & SVEEP initiative

One of the responsibilities of a district electoral officer during the poll process is to ensure systematic voters’ eduction and electoral participation, or SVEEP.

Keerthi Jalli, the first woman Deputy Commissioner of southern Assam’s Hailakandi district since its birth in 1989, has packed in other campaigns too – such as promoting menstrual hygiene.

It has turned out to be a ‘SVEEPing’ success, especially among women in some Muslim localities in the district.

Sanitary pads were branded in SVEEP material and were distributed to Muslim women who came out in the open breaking myths on menstrual hygiene besides deciding to cast their votes.

According to the 2011 census, Muslims account for 60.13% of the total population in the Bengali-dominated Hailakandi, one of three districts comprising the Barak Valley. Though the district has a literacy rate of more than 75%, it is skewed against women, many of whom are caught in conservatism.

The district authorities have so far distributed 250 packs of sanitary pads.

The district administration hit upon other ideas too for inspiring people to vote. One of them was presenting shakhas to married Hindu Bengali women in the slums and some villages of the district.

Made of conch-shell, a shakha is a traditional bangle married Bengali women wear along with pola made of red corals.

At North Narainpur village, women received shitalpati sporting the Election Commission’s logo.

Made from the reeds of a marshy plant, shitalpati is a mat so named because it has a cooling effect on the user.

The mats and gamosas (cloth-towel) were sourced from a Muslim self-help group in the district.

The authorities also presented tea-plucking women in the district with jaapi or cane-bamboo sunshades branded with SVEEP material.

SVEEP Initiative

It stands for Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) and is a

flagship programme launched by the Election Commission of India.

The programme was properly established and given its name in 2010.

The main aim of the programme is to inform and educate people about the importance of

voting and to motivate voters.

The Election Commission of India is hoping to make Indian Democracy more participative

through SVEEP.

Targeted interventions are designed based on the socio-economic, cultural and

demographic profile of that state.

Management structure of SVEEP

SVEEP has grown over the last 9 years since it was first established and has played a huge role in

increasing the voter registration over the years. The programme follows a systematic management

structure in order to contribute to the democracy of the country.

National level- The SVEEP part of Electoral Commission of India prepares the policy, the framework,

prepares interventions and ensures that the policies are implemented. It also focuses on educating

the citizens of the country about the democracy and the importance of voting.

State level- An officer in every State CEO’s office is instructed to take charge of the SVEEP

programme. Representatives from universities, youth organisations, educational institutions and

members of Civil Society groups form a core group and ensure volunteers for electoral participation.

District level- At the district level, the administrative head of the district is responsible for the

election management. More often than not, the district collector is the District Election Officer who

implement the SVEEP programme at a district level. A SVEEP committee is formed at the district

level which is headed by the Chief Executive officer of the Zilla Parishad and also the Chief

Development Officer.

Booth level- The ECI introduced the institution of Booth Level officers in 2006. These officers

generally cover one or two polling stations and are responsible for maintaining the electoral roll.

National Voter’s Day

The Election Commission of India initiated the practise of celebrating National Voters’ Day in 2011.

The National Voters’ Day which is celebrated on the 25th of January is considered to be one of the

best initiatives of SVEEP. The day has been celebrated since 2011 in an initiative to increase the

enrolment of voters in the country.

12. Critically Endangered turtle dies; only 3 left in the world

The only known female member of one of the world’s rarest turtle species has died at a zoo in southern China.

The animal was one of four Yangtze giant softshell turtles known to be remaining in the world.

It is also known as the Red River giant softshell turtle, Shanghai softshell turtle, Swinhoe’s softshell turtle or speckled softshell turtle.

The Suzhou zoo, where the female turtle lived, also houses a male Yangtze giant softshell turtle. The other two live in Vietnam.

It is listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List.

It may be the largest living freshwater turtle in the world.

The female of the last breeding pair has died at Suzhou Zoo in China, making the species functionally extinct unless a wild female is found.