Current Affairs 18 May 2021 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 18 May 2021  focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :

1. Subdoluseps Nilgiriensis
2. Common Crane in Ireland
3. Indian Manufacturing Jobs Declining
4. School Education During Pandemic
5. Grant Under Jal Jeevan Mission
6. Farzad B Gas Field

Prelims Facts

1. Language Learning App
2. New Big 5 project

Subdoluseps Nilgiriensis

Source : The Hindu
GS III : Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Why in News ?

Subdoluseps Nilgiriensis found at Anaikatti hills in Coimbatore during the South Asian Reptile Red List Assessment  organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

Key Facts

• Named as Subdoluseps Nilgiriensis the reptile has a slender body of just about 7 cm
• It is sandy brown in colour.
• Based on genetic studies the new species is closely related to Subdoluseps pruthi found in parts of the Eastern Ghats.
• The new species was found in a dry deciduous area, showing that even the dry zones of our country are home to unrealised skink diversity.
• Most skinks are diurnal and are usually secretive.
• This species is only the third skink species discovered from mainland India in the last millennium. 
• Implication of the finding : There is an urgent need to change the notion that high biodiversity can be found only in the wet and evergreen forests.
  • Most of the studies in Tamil Nadu are carried out only in the protected areas and focus only on mega fauna such as tigers, elephants and other such.
  • The identification of species reiterate the need to study the little known animal  groups inside our forests.
  • They are fundamental and indispensable components of our biodiversity.
  • This discoveries gives an understanding of how underestimated reptile species diversity.

About Sink

• Skinks are nonvenomous.
• They resemble snakes because of the often inconspicuous limbs and the way they  move on land. .
• Such resemblance has led to confusion often resulting in humans killing this harmless creature.
• Skinks are known to feed on insects such as termites, crickets and small spiders

Common Crane in Ireland

Source : Indian Express
GS III : Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Why in News ?

Common crane returns to Ireland after more than 3 centuries. 

Key Facts

• Three centuries after it disappeared from Ireland the common crane has returned to the island nation.
• A bird that is part of its folklore and was a popular pet during medieval times.
• In Common Culture : A bird that is part of its folklore and was a popular pet during medieval times.
• A pair of cranes was spotted last year on a restored Peat Bog a type of wetland that is mostly found in northern latitude countries.
• The birds are in Ireland’s Midlands region but their exact location has been kept secret to protect them.
• The common crane is typically seen in Ireland during the winter but is not sighted during the breeding season.
• Last year was the first time in over 300 years that they were spotted nesting in Ireland during this period.
• These Cranes stand at 4 feet tall with a wingspan of over 7 feet, and used to be the largest birds in Ireland.
• It is also being suggested that the common crane is reestablishing its presence in Ireland.

About Cranes

• The common crane is typically seen in Ireland during the winter, but is not sighted during the breeding season.
• Last year was the first time in over 300 years that they were spotted nesting in Ireland during this period.
• They were once common, the destruction of their habitat saw them disappear around the 16th and 17th century.

Bog Restoration

• Bogs also called quagmires.
• They are soft spongy wetlands that accumulate peat– a fossil fuel that is used for heating homes and businesses in northern Europe.
• They are formed in northern climates, and take thousands of years to develop.
• Bogs also act as carbon sinks, sequestering around 200 million tons of carbon from the environment in Siberia and Scandinavia.
• Efforts are now underway around the world to restore these Bogs wetlands by reintroducing bog plants.
• If bogs in Ireland recover, experts say, there is a chance that cranes too would re-colonise them.

Indian Manufacturing Jobs Declining

Source : Indian Express
GS III : Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth

Why in News ?

Indian Manufacturing Jobs Declining based on the reports : State of Working India (SWI) 2021, a report brought out jointly by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and Centre for Economic Data and Analysis or CEDA

State of Working India (SWI) 2021

State of Working India (SWI) 2021 showed that the pandemic had forced people out of their formal jobs into casual work, and led to a severe decline in incomes.

• State of Working India (SWI) 2021 which was brought out by the researchers at Azim Premji University.
• The report, which is an annual feature documented the impact of one year of Covid-19 in India on jobs, incomes, inequality, and poverty.
• SWI 2021 provides the impact on livelihoods before the second Covid wave unfolded and, in that sense.

CMIE-CEDA report

• looked at the employment in India and its distribution across different sectors such as agriculture, industry and services.
• CMIE’s monthly time-series of employment by industry going back to the year 2016.
• It shows employment data across seven sectors, viz. agriculture, mines, manufacturing, real estate and construction, financial services, non-financial services, and public administrative services.
• Between them these sectors account for 99% of total employment in India.

Key Facts

• Women and younger workers have been disproportionately affected.
• Households have coped by reducing food intake, borrowing, and selling assets.
• Government relief has helped avoid the most severe forms of distress.
  • The reach of support measures is incomplete, leaving out some of the most vulnerable workers and households.
• Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi contributed disproportionately to job losses.
• The number of people employed in the manufacturing sector of the economy has come down.
  • It has come down from 51 million to 27 million.
• India has seen a hike in the number of people “employed” in agriculture over the past year due to disguised unemployment.
• The fact is that manufacturing hasn’t been able to increase its share in overall employment even since the economic reforms of 1991.

P C Mahalanobis strategy : To gain self-reliance by investing in capital intensive industries so that India does not have to import machines etc. from other countries.

Why declining of Manufacturing Job trend is a concern ?

• Manufacturing sector is our best hope to accommodate the surplus labour otherwise employed in agriculture.
• It can make use of the millions of poorly educated Indian youth, unlike the services sector, which often requires better education and skill levels.
• Most of the manufacturing jobs lost are in labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, construction material.

Reason for the Indian Manufacturing Jobs Declining

• Governments have been corrupt, with officials and politicians extracting bribes.
  • The combination of these factors makes starting a manufacturing firm that much riskier and that explains the slow growth.
• Indians have always consumed relatively less of manufacturing goods and relatively more of food and services.
  1. Most Indians are quite poor and hence most of the income is spent on food.
  2. Repairs and maintenance are a very high part of our consumption choice.
• India did not push for integrating its labour-intensive manufacturing in the global supply chains by aggressively following exports.
• India aimed more at capital intensive manufacturing, not labour intensive ones.
  • Labour-intensive ones such as leather, handicrafts, textiles etc. were reserved for the small-scale industry framework.
• The two Covid waves have further hit the same informal manufacturing sector in 2020 and 2021.

Lessons from Other countries

• Other Asian economies have exploited their comparative advantage.
• Between 2000 and 2018, Bangladesh and Vietnam have increased in their share of global clothing exports from 2.6% to 6.4% and from 0.9% to 6.2%
  • India’s share has largely remained stagnant at 3% to 3.5%.

Government Efforts

• Indian government unveiling its ambitious Make in India (MII) initiative and the latest Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

School Education During Pandemic

Source : PIB
GS II : Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

Why in News ?

Union Education Minister chaired a meeting with School Education Secretaries of all States & UTs

• Discuss the various measures adopted for management of education system during COVID.
• The different strategies adopted for online and offline learning in Schools so far and the way forward.

Key Facts

• During the COVID Government is committed to turn the situation into opportunity by doing new experiments to ensure safety and academic welfare of students.
• Initiatives in 2020-21
  • Provide hybrid education comprising of both offline and online teaching methods.
  • Expansion of DIKSHA under PM eVIDYA.
  • DTH TV channels under the bouquet of SWAYAM PRABHA TV channels.
  • Launch of online NISHTHA training for teachers at DIKSHA.
  • Launch of Manodarpan to cater to the socio-emotional and psychological needs of the students.
  • Initiatives taken to reach out to children without access to digital education.
  • He also underlined the importance of involving various stakeholders for effective implementation of the National Education Policy 2020.
  • Samagra Shiksha an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12
• Major Areas of Intervention are
  • Identifying and mainstreaming of Out of School Children and ensuring sustained Enrolment, Retention and Transition
  • Academic learning & cognitive development of students
  • Capacity building- with specific focus on blended and home-based learning including student assessments and data use
  • Nutritional, socio-emotional support
  • Digital education and monitoring, tracking and remediation.

About Samagra Shiksha

• The goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes.
• It subsumes the three schemes of
  • Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
  • Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)
  • Teacher Education (TE)
• Major interventions are
  • Focus on Quality of Education
  • Digital Education
  • Girl Education
  • Inclusion and Skill Development
  • Sports and Physical Education

Grant Under Jal Jeevan Mission

Source : PIB
GS II : Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Why in News ?

Government of India has released Rs. 5,968 Crore, Grant Under Jal Jeevan Mission to 15 States for the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in the financial year 2021-22.

Key Facts

• Grant Under Jal Jeevan Mission is the first tranche of the four to be released in this financial year.
• Other 17 States/ UTs have been asked to send their proposals to National Jal Jeevan Mission for release of funds.
• Out of the Central fund allocated under Jal Jeevan Mission
  • 93% of the fund is to be utilized on developing water supply infrastructure.
  • 5% on support activities
  • 2% on water quality monitoring & surveillance activities.
• The Central funds are released by Government of India based on the output in terms of tap water connections provided in the States/ UTs and the utilization of available Central and matching State share.
• Budgetary Allocation
  • The budgetary allocation of Jal Jeevan Mission has increased significantly to Rs. 50,011 Crore in 2021-22.
  • Impact on rural economy in terms of employment generation both skilled and unskilled required for creation as well as operation and maintenance of drinking water supply infrastructure.
• JJM dashboard wherein the online progress of implementation and status of tap water supply is available in public domain increase transparency. 

Farzad B Gas Field

Source : The Hindu
GS II : Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora

Why in News ?

Iran gave the Farzad B gas field to Petropars a domestic gas producer. This is a setback for India’s energy ties with Iran as ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) had discovered the gas field in 2000 and has been part of the ongoing cooperation on that front.

Key Facts

• The Farzad B gas field in the Farsi region, which is located between the Iranian and Saudi territories.
• Iran comes despite India’s longstanding cooperation regarding the gas field.
• It is indicative of the impact of the U.S. sanctions on India Iran energy cooperation, which had been drastically reduced during the Donald Trump administration in the U.S.
• The Indian consortium has so far invested around $400 million in the block.

Farzad-B

• Farzad-B is an off-shore natural gas field 20 kilometres off Farsi Island in Iran.
• The gas field was discovered in 2008 by a consortium of three Indian companies, led by the state-owned
  • ONGC Videsh with a 40% stake
  • The other companies were Indian Oil Corporation (40%)
  • Oil India (20%)

Prelims Facts

Language Learning App

• Launched to take forward the vision of celebrating India’s cultural diversity through greater interaction among its constituent parts.
• Government of India in partnership with Department of Higher Education has launched an Innovation Challenge.
• It will enable individuals to learn simple sentences of any Indian language and acquire working knowledge of a language.
• Objective of this challenge is to create an app that will promote regional language literacy, thereby creating greater cultural understanding within the country.

New Big 5 project

• An international initiative of more than 250 of the world’s wildlife photographers, conservationists and wildlife charities.
• Two of Kaziranga National Park’s ‘Big Five’ animals have made it to the planet’s ‘New Big 5’ for shooting with the camera.
• The others on the hunters’ list were the elephant, leopard, Cape buffalo, Polar bear and lion are keystone species.

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