Daily Current Affairs: 06 SEP 2021

‘Karbi Peace Accord’

(Topic- GS Paper II–Governance, Source-Indian Express)

Why in the news?

The Centre has recently signed a tripartite “Karbi Peace Accord” among five insurgent groups of Assam, the Centre, and the state government.

Background

The Karbi have been demanding a separate state since 1946.
Later, their movement took the shape of an insurgency that intensified in the 1990s.
The Centre signed various ceasefire agreements with different groups but there were always breakaway factions that continued armed struggle.
In February 2021, just ahead of the Assam assembly polls, 1,040 militants of five Karbi outfits surrendered before then Chief Minister Sonowal.
The current accord is a result of negotiations with the five groups since then.

Key highlights of the Karbi Peace Accord

According to the Accord, the Assam government shall set up a Karbi Welfare Council for the focused development of Karbi people living outside the KAAC area.
The Consolidated Fund of the state will be augmented to supplement the resources of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC).
Overall, the present settlement proposes to give more legislative, executive, administrative and financial powers to KAA.

Significance of the accord

The accord is significant as Karbi Anglong, which is the territory of ethnic Karbi tribals, has seen years of violence, killings and abduction in the rebels' fight for a separate homeland.

About the Kabri People

The Karbi community is the principal indigenous community in the Karbi Anglong district and West Karbi Anglong district of the Indian State of Assam.
The districts are administered as per the provisions of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India, having autonomy since 17 November 1951.
Besides Karbi Anglong district, the Karbi-inhabited areas include Dima Hasao, Kamrup Metropolitan, Hojai, Morigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat, Karimganj, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur and Biswanath Chariali districts of Assam; .
However, Karbis in other Indian States, like Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, are unable to identify themselves as Schedule Tribe, as the Constitution of India only recognise 'Mikir'.

Nipah virus

(Topic- GS Paper III–Science and technology, Source-The Hindu)

Why in the news?

Recently, after a gap of over three years, a case of the zoonotic Nipah virus infection was reported in the Kozhikode district of Kerala.

About Nipah Virus

It is a zoonotic virus which transmitted from animals to humans.
The organism which causes Nipah Virus encephalitis is an RNA or Ribonucleic acid virus of the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Henipavirus, and is closely related to Hendra virus.
Hendra virus (HeV) infection is a rare emerging zoonosis that causes severe and often fatal disease in both infected horses and humans.

Background

The first outbreaks of the Nipah virus among humans were reported from Malaysia (1998) and Singapore (1999).
The virus takes its name from the village in Malaysia where the person in whom the virus was first isolated died of the disease.

Transmission

The disease spreads through fruit bats or ‘flying foxes,’ of the genus Pteropus, who are natural reservoir hosts of the Nipah and Hendra viruses.
Fruit bats are known to transmit this virus to other animals like pigs, and also dogs, cats, goats, horses and sheep.
The virus is present in bat urine and potentially, bat faeces, saliva, and birthing fluids.
Human-to-human transmission is also considered possible.

Symptoms:

The human infection presents as an encephalitic syndrome marked by fever, headache, drowsiness, disorientation, mental confusion, coma, and potentially death.

Concern

The Nipah virus is known to spread far more slowly than SARS-CoV-2.
The mortality rate of the virus is 68%.

India to be the first Asian Country to launch a plastics pact

(Topic- GS Paper III–Environment, Source-The Hindu)

Why in the news?

Recently, British High Commissioner has launched the platform called the ‘India Plastic Pact,

About India Plastic Pact

World-Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF India) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have joined hands to develop a platform called ‘India Plastic Pact’ to promote a circular system for plastics.

Aim

The pact aims to keep plastic packaging in the economy and out of the natural environment.
It also aims to bring together prominent enterprises on a national level to make pledges toward the creation of a circular plastics system.
The pact works to create a world where Plastic is respected and does not contaminate the environment.

Targets

Targets to be achieved by 2030 include defining a list of unnecessary or problematic plastic packaging and items and take measures to address them through redesign and innovation.
About 100 per cent of plastic packaging to be reusable or recyclable, 50 per cent of plastic packaging to be effectively recycled and 25 per cent of average recycled content across all plastic packaging.

Related Information

Global Scenario

Over 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since 1950, and about 60% of that has ended up in landfills or in the natural environment.
Only 9% of all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled and about 12% has been incinerated, while the remaining 79% has accumulated in landfills, dumps or the natural environment.
Plastic waste, whether in a river, an ocean, or on land can persist in the environment for centuries, hence by 2050, the amount of plastic in seas and oceans across the world will weigh more than the fish.

Plastic waste and India

India generates 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, of which 40 per cent is not collected.
About half of all plastics produced in the country are used in packaging, most of it is single-use in nature.

Initiative to tackle Plastic waste

Global Initiatives

European Union issued a directive calling for consumer brands to use at least 30% recycled content in plastic bottles by 2025.

Zero Plastic Waste Cities Initiative

It is also implementing the Zero Plastic Waste Cities initiative in India and Vietnam.
It aims to tackle the plastic issue by improving and supplementing municipal waste management, repurposing collected waste and preventing it from flowing into the ocean.
It will also develop sustainable social businesses that improve the livelihoods of many while preventing plastic waste from escaping into the environment.
The two initial cities involved in this project are Puducherry in India and Tan an ( capital city of Long An Province in Mekong Delta region of Vietnam).

Indian Initiatives:

'Plastic Hackathon 2021' campaign

It is a campaign launched to fulfill the India commitment to take all steps which ensure that the country becomes free of single-use plastic by 2022.

Alliance to End Plastic Waste

Recently, a Singapore-based NGO namely 'Alliance to End Plastic Waste' plans to invest between USD 70 million to 100 million in India over the next five years to reduce plastic waste.
Currently, 'Alliance to End Plastic Waste' is working on Project Aviral which aims to reduce plastic waste in the Ganga River.

In 2019, the Union government in a bid to free India of single-use plastics by 2022 had laid out a multi-ministerial plan to discourage the use of single-use plastics across the country.
Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 which extended the responsibility to collect waste generated from the products to their producers and brand owners.

SIMBEX exercise

(Topic- GS Paper III–Defence, Source-The Hindu)

Why in the news?

Recently, the 28th edition of the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX) has been conducted near the South China Sea.

About SIMBEX' exercise

The SIMBEX series of exercises between the Indian Navy and the Republic of Singapore Navy being conducted annually since 1994.
It aimed at enhancing mutual inter-operability and imbibing best practices from each other.

Significance

SIMBEX series of exercises exemplify the high level of coordination and convergence of views between India and Singapore, particularly in the maritime domain, towards enhancing the overall maritime security in the region and highlight their commitment to rules based international order.

Spectral Enhancement SP

(Topic- GS Paper III–Economics, Source-AIR)

Why in the news?

Coal India Limited under the Ministry of Coal has launched new software named Spectral Enhancement SPE.

About Spectral Enhancement SPE

It is a Made in India software.
It will help in identifying thin coal seams under the earth crust and improve the assessment of coal resources using seismic surveys during coal exploration process.

Developed by

Coal India Limited’s research and development arm Central Mine Planning and Design Institute has developed this software in association with Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute.

Significance

The launch of SPE software assumes significance as the present seismic survey techniques for coal resource exploration have limitations in identifying the thin coal seams under the earth, which will now be possible as this new software helps in enhancing the resolution of seismic signals leading to the delineation of thinnest coal seams.
It will also help to save time and cost of coal exploration and thus boost the mission of Atmanirbhar Bharat in coal production

Other Government Initiatives

UTTAM app

In April 2018, The Ministry of Coal has launched UTTAM (Unlocking Transparency by Third Party Assessment of Mined Coal) Application for coal quality monitoring.
The app aims to ensure transparency and efficiency in coal quality monitoring process and bring coal governance closer to people.

Coal Allocation Monitoring System (CAMS)

It has been developed to monitor the allocation of coal by CIL to States, States to SNA and SNA to such consumers in a transparent manner.

Note:

Coal India Limited accounts for 80 per cent of India’s coal output.

Blue straggler

(Topic- GS Paper III–Science and technology, Source-PIB)

Recently, Scientists have found the origin of Blue stragglers.

About Blue straggler

It is a class of stars on open or globular clusters that stand out as they are bigger and bluer than the rest of the stars.
This first-ever comprehensive analysis of blue stragglers has been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
It showed that these stars are primarily present in the older and massive star clusters and due to their large mass, they are segregated towards the centre of the clusters.
The researchers compared the mass of the blue stragglers to the mass of the turnoff stars (which are the most massive ‘normal’ stars in the cluster) and predicted the formation mechanisms.

Formation of Blue Straggler

Indian researchers found that

half of the blue stragglers in their sample are formed through mass transfer from a close binary companion star,
one third are likely formed through collisions of 2 stars,
the remaining are formed through interactions of more than 2 stars.

A bunch of stars born at the same time from the same cloud form a star cluster.

Significance

The study will help improve understanding of these stellar systems to uncover exciting results in studies of large stellar populations, including galaxies.
Following these findings, the researchers are conducting detailed analyses of individual blue stragglers in the catalogue to obtain their stellar properties.
Furthermore, interesting clusters and blue stragglers identified in this study will be followed up with ultraviolet imaging with Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope on AstroSat.