Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for January 15, 2024. If you missed the January 12, 2024 UPSC CSE exam key from the Indian Express, read it here

FRONT PAGE

Maldives Govt pushes for withdrawal of Indian troops, sets March 15 deadline

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies II: India and its neighbourhood- relations.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-A day after Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu took an indirect jibe at India for “bullying”, his government on Sunday set a March 15 deadline for India to withdraw its military personnel from the country.

• Indian military personnel in Maldives-Why?

• How many Indian troops are in the Maldives?

• Why are India’s troops in Maldives?

• What are the five major factors behind the fear and suspicion?

• For Your Information-Contrary to what the ‘India Out’ rhetoric in Maldives may suggest, no large contingent of Indian soldiers is present on the archipelago. According to the latest government figures, there are 77 Indian military personnel in the Maldives.

Indian soldiers have been sent to the Maldives at various points for training Maldivian troops, in both combat and reconnaissance and rescue-aid operations. Yet, there have been some Maldivian nationals, including politicians who have protested their presence in any capacity in the country. Analysts in the Maldives and India say that the ‘India Out’ campaign has exaggerated the role that these soldiers play in the Maldives and have portrayed their presence as a threat to the country’s national security.

According to Dr. Gulbin Sultana, a research analyst at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, whose area of research includes the Maldives, there were approximately 88 Indian military personnel in the Maldives till at least 2022. Local news organisations in the Maldives like Sun Online and The Maldives Journal have also reported on the presence of 88 military personnel from India.

During its tenure however, the Solih government had refused to officially respond to requests for confirmation by local press in the Maldives about the exact number of Indian military personnel. Then, in 2023, weeks after President Muizzu took office, the Maldives government had said that as of November last year, “77 Indian military personnel stationed within Maldivian territory”. That means that it is likely that between 2022 to 2023, at least 10 Indian military personnel who had been engaged in various roles had left the Maldives. In the press conference in November, the Maldives president’s office outlined the specific roles of the Indian military personnel in the Maldives, saying that “24 individuals are involved in helicopter operations, 25 are engaged in the operations of a Dornier aircraft, 26 are assigned to a second helicopter’s operations, and an additional two individuals are responsible for the maintenance and engineering works of these aircraft.”

There have been multiple factors at play and these anti-India sentiments were further inflamed during the recent presidential elections in the Maldives, where disinformation and misinformation, particularly against India, was rampant. This is due to multiple reasons, including the pushing of a narrative that the Ibrahim Mohamed Solih-led Maldivian Democratic Party was a political party influenced by India. The coalition of the People’s National Congress & the Progressive Party of Maldives party, whose representative President Muizzu won the 2023 presidential election, is considered to be pro-China.

• Why the Maldives Govt set a March 15 deadline for India to withdraw its military personnel from the country?

• What is the context behind the request and how does it figure in the larger India-Maldives ties?

• India and Maldives Bilateral Relations-Know the Historical Background

• How are things between India and the Maldives now?

• What is the India Out campaign?

• Why Maldives is Geo-Strategically Important to India?

• For Your Information-Location and maritime security: Maldives’ proximity to the west coast of India (barely 70 nautical miles from Minicoy and 300 nautical miles from India’s West coast), and its location at the hub of commercial sea-lanes running through the Indian Ocean (particularly the 8° N and 1 ½° N channels) imbues it with significant strategic importance to India. Maldives is one of the key elements in India’s maritime security calculus. The security scenario in India’s periphery in the Indian Ocean is very much linked to the maritime strength of Maldives.

Defence: This is the reason why India invests on Maldives’ security by training its defence forces. Estimates suggest that almost 70 per cent of Maldives’ defence training is done by India — either on the islands or in India’s elite military academies. India has trained over 1,500 Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF) personnel in the past 10 years. The Indian Navy has given aircraft and choppers to the Maldivian defence forces for aerial surveillance, and have trained their personnel on how to land vertically in the islands. India also wants to set up a coastal radar system in Maldives, with a view to keep an eye on the activities in the Indian Ocean.

China: The Chinese have also worked their way in, in the past 15 years. Maldives opened its embassy in that country in 2009, and China opened its embassy as recently as 2011. But with investments into projects, especially since President Xi Jinping came to power and pushed the Belt and Road Initiative, Male has been actively wooed by the Chinese.

India is obviously concerned at the expanding Chinese footprint there. While Mohamed Nasheed first started the engagement with China, Abdulla Yameen took it up several notches during his term from 2013-2018. Muizzu, who was a minister in Yameen’s government, is seen as carrying forward his mentor’s policies. So, from a purely strategic perspective, India needs Maldives on its side to secure its maritime periphery, keep an eye on the Indian Ocean, and check the influence of China in its neighbourhood.

• India and Maldives-What are the Major issues in Bilateral Relations?

• Political developments in the Maldives in the last few years-Know in detail

• ‘The String of Pearls’, Maldives and India-Connect the dots

• What Steps India has taken in the recent years to ensure friendly relations with Maldives?

• Why the two countries need each other?

• What is at stake?

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Delhi AQI severe, restrictions back on cars and construction

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The air quality in Delhi turned ‘severe’ Sunday, prompting officials to bring back a ban on construction and on the running of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel four-wheelers.

• What contributed to the recent severe AQI in Delhi?

• What are the other reasons for Air pollution in Delhi?

• Why Delhi pollution is always in News?

• Know the Geographical location of Delhi

• Being landlocked makes Delhi’s air pollution worse-How far you agree with this?

• Know the Supreme Courts Judgments on Delhi Air Pollutions

• Know the National Green Tribunal and Various Decisions given by NGT like modification in National Clean Air Programme

• Air Quality Management in NCR Region-Role and Steps Taken so Far

• What is Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)?

• What are the Steps taken By Central and Delhi Government to Curb Pollution like Car Rationing (Odd-Even Policy)

• Know the best International Practices to Curb Air Pollution in Urban Areas

• What is the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)?

• What is stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan?

• Bharat Stage III and Bharat Stage IV-what you know about this?

• What are Bharat Stage Emission Standards (BSES)?

• The standards and the timeline for implementation for Bharat stage emission standards (BSES) are set by whom?

• Bharat stage emission standards (BSES) and The European emission standards-Compare and Contrast

• What it means for vehicles

• What area unit BSI, BSII, BSIII, BSIV, and BSVI emission norms?

• The Supreme Court of India’s Verdict on Bharat Stage Emission Standards (BSES)-Know in Detail

• Do You Know-The BS — Bharat Stage — emission standards are norms instituted by the government to regulate the output of air pollutants from internal combustion engine equipment, including motor vehicles.

India has been following European (Euro) emission norms, although with a time lag of five years. India introduced emission norms first in 1991, and tightened them in 1996, when most vehicle manufacturers had to incorporate technology upgrades like catalytic converters to cut exhaust emissions.

Fuel specifications based on environmental considerations were notified first in April 1996 — to be implemented by 2000, and incorporated in BIS 2000 standards. Following the landmark Supreme Court order of April 1999, the Centre notified Bharat Stage-I (BIS 2000) and Bharat Stage-II norms, broadly equivalent to Euro I and Euro II respectively. BS-II was for the National Capital Region and other metros; BS-I for the rest of India.

From April 2005, in line with the Auto Fuel Policy of 2003, BS-III and BS-II fuel quality norms came into existence for 13 major cities, and for the rest of the country respectively. From April 2010, BS-IV and BS-III norms were put in place in 13 major cities and the rest of India respectively.

As per the Policy roadmap, BS-V and BS-VI norms were to be implemented from April 1, 2022, and April 1, 2024, respectively. But in November 2015, the Road Transport Ministry issued a draft notification advancing the implementation of BS-V norms for new four-wheel vehicle models to April 1, 2019, and for existing models to April 1, 2020. The corresponding dates for BS-VI norms were brought forward to April 1, 2021, and April 1, 2022, respectively. Soon afterward, however, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that the government had decided to leapfrog to BS-VI from April 1, 2020, skipping BS-V all together.

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Can a nylon shuttle match one made of feathers? IIT researchers may have answer

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General Science

Main Examination: General Studies III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Every time Sanjay Mittal, 55, held a badminton shuttlecock made of feathers, all he thought of was the cruelty inflicted upon birds.

• What is the science behind badminton shuttlecock?

• What is aerodynamically stable?

• What types of aerodynamic stability are there?

• What are the key differences between nylon or synthetic shuttles?

• For Your Information-Last week, Physics of Fluids, a journal by the American Institute of Physics, published a research paper by Mittal and two other Indian scientists, Darshankumar Zala and Harish Dechiraju, that explored the aerodynamic performance of nylon shuttles at different flight speeds. Their article — ‘Computational analysis of the fluid–structure interactions of a synthetic badminton shuttlecock’ — studied how air flow and speed can deform the flared skirt of the shuttle. This opens up the possibility for improved designs that can make the nylon shuttle stiffer, helping it accurately mimic a feather shuttle’s aerodynamic performance. “This could be a game-changer,” Mittal says.

Mittal, who has a keen interest in aerodynamic studies in sport, started playing badminton at clubs on the IIT Kanpur campus. Co-researcher Zala is a BTech student from Ahmedabad while Dechiraju is Mittal’s former student at IIT and currently a product application engineer with a semiconductor company in Chennai.

Mittal explains the key differences between nylon or synthetic shuttles and the ones made of goose or duck feathers. “Traditionally, a feather shuttle is brittle and becomes useless after a few shots. But it holds its shape longer than nylon. And there is the issue of cruelty to animals as well. There is a move to get in nylon shuttles from a sustainability point of view. But the aerodynamics are hugely different as the nylon one deforms in shape faster and turns too wobbly to continue playing. So our study has taken on the challenge to find out how to redistribute the nylon in a shuttle design so that it stays stiff at the right place and behaves exactly like the duck one,” he says.

A shuttle typically weighs 5 grams — the cork makes up 1.5 grams and the skirt 3.5 grams. The pressure on a nylon shuttle at a speed above 40 metres per second (mps), or 89 miles per hour (mph), forces it to lose shape, altering its flight behavior as the vortex structure weakens. For context, shuttle speeds easily reach 300 mph. “In a nylon shuttle, as it deforms, the air resistance is much less, and it starts becoming unstable. The speed increases so much that opponents have very little reaction time. Elite players don’t like such inconsistency. Duck shuttles stay stiff no matter what speed they are subjected to, because the coefficient of drag doesn’t vary,” Mittal says.

Studying the relative trajectory and drag on the two types of shuttles, by examining aerodynamic forces on the shuttlecock as well as its deformations at each flight speed, Mittal and his fellow researchers noticed patterns in nylon that are different from natural feathers. The outermost skirt of nylon shuttles tends to be flimsy and deforms inwards, upto 9 mm, asymmetrically. With reduced air resistance, the speed gets wild and uncontrollable.

Synthetic shuttles have high drag due to a pressure difference. Seventy-five per cent of the drag comes from the outer skirt. The centre of pressure in nylon shuttles is distributed more towards the cork, compared to a duck shuttle, where it’s towards the feathers.

The study also showed a process of buckling, where the shuttle sways vertically after 40 mps and the skirting starts getting rumpled. “Nylon shuttles buckle at 40 mps, then become an unstable square shape. Then they start vibrating radially and finally travel in a wave form. That’s wobbly and not very good to play,” Mittal says.

He compares this to batters tackling an uneven cricket pitch. “Players are used to a certain kind of shuttle where they can show their skills and want uniformity, not a struggle for survival. Duck is the gold standard right now. So, our studies are trying to find how to redistribute 3.5 grams of nylon into a shuttle skirt so that it behaves like a duck shuttle.”

Mittal says leading manufacturer Yonex brings out two nylon shuttles yearly, with thicker walls and more holes in the skirt. Though not his area of expertise, he reckons other composite materials beyond nylon, which is light and elastic, but not expensive and unamendable like carbon fibres, can be tested. “The goal is to redistribute nylon structure to mimic duck shuttle trajectories. The next step is to get designers to work on it,” he says.

While he says his research work can help designers tweak the structure, Mittal believes Indian coaches are astute about shuttle flights even if they may not possess scientific details. A fan of Chinese legend Lin Dan, he feels there’s a larger goal. “India has a big community of badminton players. But we import all gear — racquets, shuttles. Imagine if we can deploy science to develop our own designs, and then export equipment.”

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THE IDEAS PAGE

Towards a pragmatic future

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Somit Dasgupta Writes: Reduction in the use of fossil fuels can be easily done in the case of power generation where one needs to substitute coal and gas with solar, wind, hydro and also nuclear.

• Who published the Global Carbon Project report?

• What Global Carbon Project report released during COP28 said?

• What Global Carbon Project report said about India?

• ‘India’s per capita and cumulative emissions notwithstanding, we need to strategise our decarbonisation process’-Discuss

• What is the emissions in India in 2023?

• “The annual study of Global Carbon Project has revealed that the India is likely to register the largest growth in carbon dioxide emissions among the major economies”-Analyse

• India’s carbon dioxide emissions-Know in detail

• Do You Know-Carbon dioxide is the most important and extensive but only one of the six greenhouse gases whose rising concentrations in the atmosphere is leading to global warming. The 8.2 per cent rise in India’s annual CO2 emissions for 2023 would be more than double the expected increase in China, which is set to see a 4 per cent growth this year. Last year, India’s emissions had grown by 6 per cent while China had seen a decline of one per cent.

However, China’s CO2 emissions, which accounts for 31 per cent of the global CO2 emissions, are about 4 times that of India. In absolute amounts, therefore, China’s increase in emissions in 2023 would be much higher than that of India.

“In India, the growth is largely driven by the high growth in demand for power, with new renewable capacity far from sufficient to meet the demand. Consolidated data now confirms that India’s CO2 emissions are now above those of the European Union since 2022,” the study said.

China’s growth, it said, was partly caused by a delayed rebound from the significant Covid-19 lockdowns. India’s CO2 emissions are expected to be 233 million tonnes higher than previous year, 176 million tonnes of which is expected to be contributed by the coal-fired power plants.

Global CO2 emissions are expected to touch 36.8 billion tonnes — a new record — and 1.1 per cent over last year, the study said. Emissions from all kinds of fossil fuels — oil, gas and coal — are expected to rise, with oil likely to register a growth of 1.5 per cent, the highest. Emissions were expected to decline in 26 countries this year, accounting for about 28 per cent of global emissions. Last year, it had declined in 22 countries.

“If current CO2 emission levels persist, the remaining carbon budget for a 50 per cent chance to limit warming to 1.5 degree Celsius could be exceeded in seven years, and in 15 years for 1.7 degree Celsius would also be breached. Returning global temperatures below these thresholds after they have been crossed would require a massive scale-up of carbon dioxide removal after global net zero emission has been reached,” the study said.

• ‘Reduction in the use of fossil fuels can be easily done in the case of power generation’-How?

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THE WORLD

Day after elections, Taipei and Beijing trade barbs amid visit by US team

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s Interest

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– On January 13, Taiwan will vote to elect its next President and legislature. Given the island’s fraught relationship with China and the escalating global tensions, the outcome of this election might be historic for Taiwan.

• History between Taiwan and China-Know in detail

• For Your Information- After Mao Zedong’s Communist Party seized power on the mainland in 1949, exiled Chinese nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek established an enclave on the island of Taiwan, and proclaimed it to be the ‘Republic of China’. At first, the United States and a large section of the West backed this ‘government’. In the Cold War, the Taiwanese government in Taipei emerged as a crucial ally of the United States and took over China’s seat on the UN Security Council.

However, all that changed in 1979 when the US, as part of its efforts to normalise ties with mainland China, moved its recognition from Taipei to Beijing. Washington adopted a strategy of strategic ambiguity towards Taiwan with this adjustment, which continues till this day. Officially, the US recognises Beijing’s belief that Taiwan is a part of China under the ‘one China’ theory. However, it maintains close connections with Taiwan.

From 1949 to 1996, Kai-shek’s KMT ruled Taiwan under a de facto dictatorship but in 1996, the country held its first direct presidential election. Since then, it has undergone three peaceful transfers of power in 2000, 2008, and 2016.

Taiwan’s current President, Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP, made history in 2016 by becoming the first woman to be elected to the top office. She is constitutionally barred from running again. Tsai was known for her hard line on the island’s foreign policy, refusing to acknowledge the 1992 consensus which maintains that Taiwan is part of ‘one China.’

Tsai started a reorganisation of Taiwan’s reserve force, which is meant to support the armed forces in times of conflict, and almost quadrupled the country’s defence budget. She also increased the necessary military service period to one year. Additionally, Tsai made massive investments in Taiwan’s defence sector, building an in-house submarine and giving drone and missile development top priority.

• China-Taiwan tensions-Know in detail

• China and Taiwan tussle-How did it start?

• Map Work-Taiwan Strait

• Why China claims Taiwan as its own territory?

• What is the ‘One China’ policy?

• What is Taiwan’s international status?

• What’s the US’ relationship with Taiwan?

• Could China go to war over Taiwan?

• What’s the current state of cross-strait relations?

• How does the world view Taiwan?

• How does the India view Taiwan?

• Does India Recognise Taiwan as a country?

• For Your Information- India recognised the PRC in 1950 and for years stood by a “one China” policy, without reciprocity from the Chinese about J&K and Arunachal. Though India-Taiwan relations have remained low-key because of apprehensions about China’s adverse reaction, the two countries established trade and cultural ties in 1995 — diplomatic representatives were posted in New Delhi and Taipei.

India-China relations plummeted after the 2020 Galwan incident, which compelled India to counter-mobilise in Ladakh. While the Sino-Pakistan military nexus will ensure that India has its hands full on land and at sea, the compact but robust Indian Navy remains fully committed to safeguarding India’s interests across the Indo-Pacific.

Consequently, there is as much chance of India involving itself militarily in a Taiwan Strait crisis as there is of US paratroopers landing in Ladakh. Given a shared and ever-increasing threat from the PRC, there is a significant mutuality of interests between India and the RoC. Apart from the obvious benefits to be gained from the regular exchange of military intelligence, Taiwan’s unique position as the world leader in semiconductors makes it a desirable friend and partner.

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ECONOMY

Govt likely to unveil new PMAY-G version with 85% higher financial assistance

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Main Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– THE GOVERNMENT may unveil a new version of the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G) for the next five years, with financial assistance 85 per cent higher than under the current scheme for each beneficiary, to build pucca houses in rural areas.

• What is Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna Gramin?

• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G)-Features of the Scheme and Nodal Ministry

• PMAY (Rural or Gramin) and PMAY (Urban)-Difference

• Other Infrastructure and Rural development related schemes-Know them

• Apart from focusing on providing houses to the eligible beneficiaries, PMAY-G also addresses the basic needs of households through convergence with other Government Schemes-Elaborate

• How exercise for identification of households, who though eligible for assistance under PMAY-G as per the parameters are specified?

• The Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G)-Connect the dots

• How PMAY-G expenditure is shared?

• For Your Information-Under PMAY-G, the Centre and states share the expenditure in the ratio 60:10. In the case of Himalayan states, Union Territories and states in the North-East, the ratio is 90:10.

Currently, under the PMAYG, the beneficiaries are provided financial assistance of Rs1.2lakh in plains and Rs 1.3 lakh in hilly states – North-eastern states and union territories (UTs)of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh – as well as difficult areas and Integrated Action Plan (IAP)districts.

Under the revamped scheme, the cash support will likely be enhanced to an average of Rs 2.39 lakh/housing unit, according to official sources. The current version of PMAYG will run only till the end of the current fiscal.

On November 29, 2023, the Union Cabinet approved Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM JANMAN), under which Rs 2.39 lakh/unit is given for the provision of pucca houses to improve socio-economic conditions of the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs).

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