DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS - 11 AUGUST 2019- 10 MOST IMPORTANT TOPICS FROM THE HINDU

        IMPORTANT TOPICS FOR TODAY 

                      http://dailycurrentaffairs-sumit.blogspot.com
                                                
BY SUMIT BHARDWAJ                        11th August 2019

1.Certification of seeds to be made mandatory to step up farm output(GS-3)

• CONTEXT:
• Barcoding and tracking could hike productivity by 25%, say officials.
• More than half of all seeds sold in India are not certified by any proper testing agency, and are often of poor quality.
• The Centre now hopes to mandate uniform certification by pushing through a replacement to the Seeds Act, 1966, in the winter session of Parliament, and also by barcoding all seeds to ensure their traceability.
• This could increase overall agricultural productivity by up to 25%, Agriculture Ministry officials say.
• The main aim of the new legislation, which is ready for submission to the Cabinet for approval, is to bring uniformity to the process of quality regulation. The 1966 Act starts with these words: “An Act to provide for regulating the quality of certain seeds for sale...” The new Bill removes the word “certain”, and aims to regulate the quality of all seeds sold in the country, as well as exported and imported seeds.
• The Centre also hopes to roll out a software to barcode seeds in order to ensure transparency and traceability. “The National Informatics Centre has been collaborating with the Agriculture Ministry for this RS 5 crore project and the first prototype will be ready by the end of the month
• Seeds Act, 1966:
• The parliament had passed to Seeds Act 1966 to provide legal framework around seed certification and make good quality seeds available to the cultivators. Under this act Seed rules were framed and notified in1968 and systematic Seed Certification started in India in 1969. This act provided for establishment of a Central Seed Committee to advise the states in seed related matters. It also provided for establishment of Seed Certification Agencies in the states; Seed certification Boards and State Seed Testing Laboratories. To meet with the current requirements, the bill needed to be amended. A new bill was introduced in 2004 (Seed Bill 2004) but so far that bill has not seen the light of the day. The NDA Government is now proposing to introduce a fresh seed act amendment bill
• Indian Council of Agricultural Research:
• The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous body responsible for co-ordinating agricultural education and research in India. It reports to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture.The Union Minister of Agriculture serves as its president.It is the largest network of agricultural research and education institutes in the world.
• The Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education (Yashpal Committee, 2009) has recommended setting up of a constitutional body — the National Commission for Higher Education and Research — which would be a unified supreme body to regulate all branches of higher education including agricultural education. Presently, regulation of agricultural education is the mandate of ICAR, Veterinary Council of India (Veterinary sub-discipline) and Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (Forestry sub-discipline). The UPA government has included Yashpal Committee recommendations in its '100 days agenda'.premier institute of agriculture in India
• The National Informatics Centre:
• The National Informatics Centre (NIC; Rashtriya Suchna Vigyan Kendra) is the premier science and technology organisation of the Government of India in informatics services and information and communication technology (ICT) applications. It is part of the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's Department of Electronics & Information Technology. The NIC was established in 1976.
• It plays a pivotal role in steering e-governance applications in the governmental departments at national, state and district levels, enabling the improvement in, and a wider transparency of, government services. Almost all Indian-government websites are developed and managed by NIC.

2.State-run oil marketing companies to buy biodiesel made from used cooking oil
(GS-3)

• CONTEXT:In a bid to encourage the biofuel sector, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday announced that the state-run oil marketing companies would procure the entire supply of biodiesel produced from used cooking oil for a three-year period.
• The move, announced on World Biofuel Day, means that biodiesel plants using used cooking oil as their raw material will be assured that their entire production will be procured by the oil marketing companies to be blended with normal diesel. The scheme is being launched in 100 cities across the country.
• Biodiesel:
• Biodiesel is an alternative clean-burning renewable fuel similar to conventional ‘fossil’ diesel. It is made using natural vegetable oils, animal oil/fats or bio-lipids, tallow and waste cooking oil. As it is biodegradable in nature, it is intended to be used as a replacement for fossil diesel fuel. It can also be mixed with petroleum diesel fuel in any proportion.
• What is Transesterification?
• It is the chemical process, which converts natural fats and oils into Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) or Biodiesel. Some of the major sources of suitable oil (to make biodiesel) come from crops like palm, soybean or rapeseed. High-quality biodiesel is made from rapeseed but nowadays most of the biodiesel is produced from waste vegetable oils obtained from chips shops, restaurants, and industrial food producers.
• Some Important Features of Biodiesel
• Below are certain features of the fuel like:
• 1) Biodegradable and Renewable Fuel.
• 2) Safer to use and has low toxicity compared to fossil diesel fuel.
• 3) Lower exhaust emission rate than normal diesel fuel.
• 4) As per ASTM D 6751 quality parameters, the quality of diesel is analyzed.
• 5) Using biodiesel doesn’t require any diesel engine modification.
• Benefits of Biodiesel
• 1) Biodiesel and Biodiesel blends are used in almost all diesel engines and vehicles.
• 2) It is a carbon neutral liquid, which means that combustion of biodiesel never produces the net output of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide like other mineral diesel.
• 3) In 2007, British Royal Train ran its train with 100% biodiesel fuel.
• 4) Used as a heating oil – In many commercial & domestic boilers, biodiesel is also used as heating fuel.
• Biodiesel Production
• As discussed above, biodiesel is produced from tallow, vegetable oil or animal fat, and waste oils. There are three stages of this transformation of oil and fats to biodiesel.
• a) Transesterification of the oil in which is base catalyzed.
• b) The direct acid catalyzed transesterification
• c) Finally conversion of oil to fatty acid and then the formation of biodiesel.
• 10th of August
• World Biofuel Day is observed every year on 10th of August to create awareness about the importance of non-fossil fuels as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels and highlight the various efforts made by Government in the biofuel sector.

3.Farmers’ income grew seven times in 13 years in Odisha    (GS-3)

• CONTEXT: Odisha farmers’ incomes grew more than seven times over a span of 13 years, the Naveen Patnaik government has claimed.
• The government, in its recently released draft Agriculture Policy 2019, says an average Odisha farmer earned around RS7,731 per month, or around RS 92,772 per year.
• Odisha is largely a rural-agrarian economy. Close to 83% of its people live in rural areas and about 61.8% of its 17.5 million work-force is employed in agriculture.
• In the 16 years since the beginning of this century (2000-01 to 2016-17), Odisha’s agricultural GDP nearly doubled in real terms, clocking an average annual growth rate of about 4.5%, higher than the India average of 3.1%.
• The State accounts for 3% of India’s agricultural GDP.
• According to the draft policy, between 2002-03 and 2015-16, Odisha’s agricultural GDP grew at a CAGR of 3.7% and its farmer incomes grew at more than double that rate at 8.4%.

• UNDERSTANDING CAGR:
• The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is a useful measure of growth over multiple time periods. It can be thought of as the growth rate that gets one from the initial investment value to the ending investment value if one assume that the investment has been compounding over the time period.   The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is the mean annual growth rate of an investment over a specified period of time longer than one year.
• To calculate compound annual growth rate, divide the value of an investment at the end of the period in question by its value at the beginning of that period, raise the result to the power of one divided by the period length, and subtract one from the subsequent result.
• The compound annual growth rate isn't a true return rate, but rather a representational figure. It is essentially an imaginary number that describes the rate at which an investment would have grown if it had grown at a steady rate, which virtually never happens in reality. You can think of CAGR as a way to smooth out an investment’s returns so that they may be more easily understood.
• The formula for CAGR is:
• CAGR   =   ( EV / BV)1 / n - 1
• where:
• EV = Investment's ending value
• BV = Investment's beginning value
• n   = Number of periods (months, years, etc.)

• ODHISA’S AGRICULTURAL SCHEME THAT WE NEED TO KNOW:
• KALIA Scheme :
• What does the scheme contain?
• KALIA stands for Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation.
• The scheme involves payments to encourage cultivation and associated activities.
• The scheme will benefit 92% of the cultivators in the state and include every category from big farmers to landless cultivators.
• Under the scheme, all farmers in the state will be provided Rs 10,000 per family as assistance for cultivation.
• Each family will get Rs 5,000 separately in the kharif and rabi seasons, for five cropping seasons between 2018-19 and 2021-22.
• Since the scheme is not linked to the amount of land owned, it will greatly benefit sharecroppers and cultivators, most of whom own little or no land.
• Additionally, the scheme will assist the elderly, sick and differently-abled population who are unable to take up cultivation, by providing Rs 10,000 per household per year.
• This is meant to be used for sustenance.
• However, this component will not be implemented immediately, as Odisha already offers free healthcare and disburses old-age pensions.
• It also includes a life insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh and additional personal accident coverage of the same amount for 57 lakh households.
• It further provides that crop loans up to Rs 50,000 are interest-free.
• How does the scheme benefits landless labourers?
• The scheme targets 10 lakh landless households, and specifically SC and ST families.
• They will be supported with a unit cost of Rs 12,500 for activities like goat rearing, mushroom cultivation, beekeeping, poultry farming and fishery.
• The beneficiary is encouraged to choose an activity with which he is familiar because these trades require some skill and network.
• The idea behind this is to identify an existing capacity of a beneficiary and build on it.
• The government is also working on a skilling component to be added to this form of assistance.
• How does the scheme makes targeted interventions?
• The scheme is going to be an area-specific scheme wherein an input support for a particular trade, say mushroom cultivation, will be provided if it is prevalent throughout that locality so that there is aggregation of produce.
• A critical trade like dairy production has deliberately been kept out of the scheme.
• This is because keeping a cow is more expensive, while milk production needs to have a collection route or agency that processes and refines this low shelf-life product.
• On the other hand, poultry farming and fishery do not need a strong ecosystem to survive and has a ready market of consumption or cheap method of preservation.
• Similarly, beekeeping is done by many self-help groups, so they are already familiar with the networks of that trade.
• Hence, activities like mushroom cultivation, poultry farming and beekeeping are covered under the scheme.
• How does the scheme differ from loan waiver?
• Unlike a loan waiver, through which banks appease a few farmers, KALIA’s main targets are rural activities as a whole.
• The scheme will support farming on a small scale like sharecropping, fishing, animal herding, which are not covered under bank loans, but are caught in debt traps set up by local moneylenders.
• Also, a farm loan waiver will reduce credit available to farmers in the long term.
• On the other hand, income support can be used to make a repayment or at least activate a bank account which can then receive a loan

4.U.P., Delhi, Rajasthan among worst performers in breastfeeding   (GS-2)

• CONTEXT:Breastfeeding is one of the most cost-effective intervention, says official
• Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Punjab fare the worst when it comes to the practice of breastfeeding, according to a report-card released recently by the Union Health Ministry. The World Health Organisation says that if breastfeeding was scaled up to near-universal levels, lives of about 8,20,000 children could be saved every year.
• The ministry report notes that these states have the lowest rate for breastfeeding within one hour of birth, exclusive breast feeding for six months and complementary breastfeeding from six to nine months.
• States that top the report card include Mizoram, Sikkim, Odisha and Manipur
• Globally, only 40% infants are exclusively breastfed for the first six months
• WHO:
• The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group.

5.Pak. formally suspends trade ties
(GS-2)

• CONTEXT:Pakistan has formally suspended trade relations with India after New Delhi revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Trade relations had already been strained by the Pulwama terror attack, with India having imposed a 200% customs duty on all goods from Pakistan. Imports from Pakistan declined by 92% to $2.84 million in March this year, as against $34.61 million in March 2018, according to data from the Commerce Ministry.
• According to data from the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, the total exports from India to Pakistan during the 2018-19 fiscal were around $2 billion. The major items exported include chemical products and textiles. The imported items include mineral products.
• Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations:
• Established in August 1981, ICRIER is an autonomous, policy-oriented, not-for-profit, economic policy think tank. ICRIER’s main focus is to enhance the knowledge content of policy making by undertaking analytical research that is targeted at informing India’s policy makers and also at improving the interface with the global economy.
• ICRIER’s office is located in the institutional complex of India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
• ICRIER’s Board of Governors include leading academicians, policymakers, and representatives from the private sector. Dr. Isher Ahluwalia is ICRIER’s chairperson. Dr. Rajat Kathuria is Director and Chief Executive.
• ICRIER conducts thematic research in the following eight thrust areas:
• Macroeconomic Management Financial Liberalisation and Regulation
• Global Competitiveness of the Indian Economy – Agriculture, Manufacturing and Services
• Multilateral Trade Negotiations and FTAs
• Challenges and Opportunities of Urbanization
• Climate Change and Sustainable Development
• Physical and Social Infrastructure including Telecom, Transport, Energy and Health
• Asian Economic Integration with Focus on South Asia
• Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Jobs

6.Newly-discovered lake in Nepal likely to become world’s highest    (GS-3)

Kajin Sara lake

• CONTEXT:The Kajin Sara lake in Manang district was discovered about a few months ago by a team of mountaineers, the Himalayan Times reported. It is located at Singarkharka area of Chame rural municipality.
• A newly-discovered lake in Nepal is likely to set a new record of being the world’s highest lake replacing Tilicho, which is situated at an altitude of 4,919 metres in the Himalayan nation and currently holding the title. The Kajin Sara lake in Manang district was discovered about a few months ago by a team of mountaineers, the Himalayan Times reported. It is located at Singarkharka area of Chame rural municipality.
• “As per the measurement of the lake taken by the team, it is located at an altitude of 5,200 metres, which is yet to be officially verified. It is estimated to be 1,500-metre-long and 600-metre-wide,” Chame rural municipality Chair Lokendra Ghale was quoted as saying by the report.
• “The lake would be the world’s highest lake if its altitude of 5000-plus metres is officially verified,” he said.
• The Tilicho lake, situated at an altitude of 4,919 metres, is 4 km long, 1.2 km wide and around 200 metres deep.

7.Cost is key: Chinese space firm revs up for reusable rocket race  (GS-3)

• CONTEXT:
• The global boom in satellite deployment calls for frequent launches
• Chinese startup LinkSpace on Saturday completed its third test of a reusable rocket in five months, stepping up the pace in the race to develop a technology key to cheap space launches in an expected global boom in satellite deployment.
• LinkSpace’s RLV-T5 rocket blasted off in a desert in western Qinghai province. It flew as high as 300 metres before returning to the launchpad on its own after 50 seconds, said CEO Hu Zhenyu.
• The Beijing-based company aims to launch its next-generation RLV-T16 next year that will be capable of reaching an altitude of up to 150 kilometres, Mr. Hu said.
• The RLV-T5 previously hovered 20 metres and 40 metres above the ground in two tests in March and April respectively.
• China envisions constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed Internet for aircraft and rural areas to tracking coal shipments and commuter traffic.
• Reliable, low-cost and frequent launches will be key, with recoverable or partially recoverable rockets like the Falcon 9 from Elon Musk’s SpaceX one way to eventually affordable satellite deployment missions.
• SpaceX has already used recoverable rockets on a number of orbital missions since a historic launch early in 2017, spurring Europe, Russia, Japan and China to speed up their own research into the technology or at least consider studying it.
• LinkSpace’s test flight on Saturday came on the heels of a historic delivery of a satellite into orbit last month by privately owned Chinese firm iSpace.
• Beijing-based iSpace said last week that it was also planning to launch a recoverable rocket, in 2021.
• The reusable design of its next-generation rocket could lead to a predicted cost reduction of 70%, iSpace estimated.
• LinkSpace said it hoped to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.25 million) per reusable launch.
• That’s a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-altitude aircraft and is not reusable.

• 8.Tackling poachers across borders (GS-3)

• CONTEXT:But the more pressing issue of illegal trade remains unsolved
• In July 2018, officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized six pieces of ivory weighing nine kg at Siliguri in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district. Two persons were arrested for smuggling the ivory, which was suspected to have been sourced from an elephant killed in the Budhbare area of Nepal’s Jhapa district a few weeks earlier.
• To ascertain the facts, the DRI officials sent the ivory to scientists at the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in Kolkata in August last.
• After intelligence from India about the smuggling was shared with the law enforcement agencies in Nepal and following the Ministry of External Affairs’ intervention, samples from the carcass — a small piece of ivory (about 12 gm) and its flesh — were obtained and handed over to the ZSI.
• After studying the samples using DNA forensics, Mukesh Thakur and his team at the ZSI deduced that the samples did not match.
• Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) :
• The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is an Indian intelligence agency. It is India's chief anti-smuggling intelligence, investigations and operations agency.
• The Directorate is run by officers from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) who are posted in its various Zonal Units as well as in Indian embassies abroad as part of the Customs Overseas Intelligence Network. It is headed by a Director General of the rank of Special Secretary to the Government of India.
• DRI works to secure India's national and economic security by preventing the outright smuggling of contraband such as firearms, gold, narcotics, Fake Indian Currency notes, antiques, wildlife and environmental products. Moreover, it also works to prevent the proliferation of black money, commercial frauds and trade based money laundering.
• DRI enforces provisions of the Customs Act in addition to over 50 other statutes including the NDPS Act, Arms Act, WMD Act etc. DRI is also a part of the Cabinet Secretariat's National Authority Chemical Weapons Convention, the Special Investigation Team on Black Money, the Task Force on Shell Companies, the Multi Agency Center (MAC) on National Security, the Ministry of Home Affairs/NIA's special wings on Left Wing Extremism Financing, as well as various inter-ministerial committees on Terror Financing, Coastal Security, Fake Indian Currency Notes, etc.

• Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) :
• The Zoological Survey of India, founded on 1 July 1916 by Government of India Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, as premier Indian organisation in zoological research and studies to promote the survey, exploration and research of the fauna in the country. 
• Founded: 1 July 1916
• Headquarters: Kolkata
• Location: West Bengal, India
• Director: Dr. Kailash Chandra
• Parent organisation: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (moef.nic.in)
• Purposes: Animal, Taxonomy, Conservation

9.India will soon find its place in the G8, says Pranab (GS-2,3)

• CONTEXT:India has been invited as an observer for the G8 summit, but the day is not far when India will be a member of the G8, for which we have to focus on research and innovation, former President Pranab Mukherjee has observed.
• Mr. Mukherjee was here on Saturday to receive the GITAM Foundation Award on the occasion of the 39th Foundation Day of GITAM deemed to be University.
• Quoting UNESCO data, Mr. Mukherjee observed that India spent a meagre 0.8% of its GDP on research and innovation, and there were only 156 researches per million inhabitants in the country.
• “Since 1930, when C.V. Raman was the last Indian to receive a Nobel Prize in pure science, there has been a dearth. There are Nobel Laureates such as Har Gobind Khorana, Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar, Amartya Sen and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, but they all got prizes for their research work in foreign universities. We have the talent, but we are unable to harness it due to lack of funding and infrastructure. And that is why industry-academia partnership is the order of the day,” Mr. Mukherjee pointed out.
• G8.…..GROUP OF 8:
• The Group brings together eight major industrial economies of the world for consultation and policy coordination at the highest level. The G-8 Constitutes of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the USA.
• Origin and Development
• The origins of the Group can be traced back to November 1975 when the then President of France, Velary Giscard d’ Estaing, and the German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, invited the US, Britain, Italy and Japan for a meeting at the Chateau of Rambouillet, France, to discuss the economic crisis resulting from the rise of oil prices. Another member, Canada, attended the meeting of the group in June 1976 in San Juan, Puetro Rico, and the Group of Seven (G-7) was formally created. The G-7 became an international forum for discussing various issues like economic growth, inflation, unemployment, trade ailments and other problems confronted by the developed nations. It later began to discuss political issues also.
• The third summit in May 1977 at London saw the participation of the President of the Commission of the Election Commission also. At the 20th G-7 summit, held in Naples, Italy, in July 1997, at the summit in Denver, the US, Russia became a full-fledged member, and the G-7 was renamed as the Group of Eight (G-8) or the Group of Seven plus One (G-7 + 1). Russia, however, participates only in political deliberations; it does not have a say in economic matters.
• Objectives
• The Group aims at deliberating on and evolving strategies to deal with the major economic and political international issues.
• Structure
• There is no formal institutional structure. Summits of Heads of State and Government of member-countries and representatives of the EU are held annually to discuss issues within the competence of G-7 + 1. The 1986 Summit decided that Finance Minister of the G-7 work regularly in periods between the annual summit meetings and report to the summits. Senior officials from foreign and economic affairs ministries are responsible for preparing the agenda for the Group.
• THE RISE OF THE G8
• Since 1990, the G8 has become the de facto centre of ‘global governance’, unseating the UN as the steering organ in the management of the world’s problems. While not everyone agrees with this assessment, it is undeniable that the group’s relative importance has increased sharply since the Cold War.
• The rise in the relevance of the G7/G8 was not instantaneous. Indeed, the G7 did not perform particularly well in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War. Declarations of good intentions were not always followed by concrete action, and, when they were, as in the case of the provision of aid to Russia, the results were not exactly what were hoped for. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher captured the mood when she quipped that the 1989 ‘Summit of the Arch’ in Paris had served the best meal she had ever had, not otherwise ‘little of note was achieved’. Meals and photo opportunities, though, were not the full story. Behind the inflated rhetoric, serious attention was given to ways of reforming the workings of the group.
• To the surprise of many observers, the G7/G8 actually managed to reinvent itself in the 1990s. In addition to changing the focus of is agenda (economic to global issues) and inviting Russia to be a new member, the group developed contacts with UN agencies, governments and NGOs. As such, it became a leading example of what is sometimes referred to as a ‘public-policy network’.
• The idea behind a public-policy network is that no international institution is capable of tackling global problems on its own. What is needed as an association of governments, international organisations, corporations, non-governmental institutions and experts. In order to end the war in Kosovo, for example, the G8 worked with the EU, NATO, the OSCE and the UN, as well as with the foreign ministers of member states and a few key individuals. It is possible and even likely that the G8 will continue to mobilise these networks and to use the assets of its resourceful members in situations where traditional approaches are not yielding results
• The second reason for the G8’s high profile was the perceived weakness of the UN, especially in the area of international peace and security. The highly publicised failings of UN peacekeeping operations in Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Somalia, and the Security Council’s inability to reach a common position on Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, opened the door for the Contact Group and the G8. Both of these actors engage in the traditional art of concert diplomacy. In other words, they practice policy coordination outside of formal international organisations. In the previous chapter, a basic distinction was made between them: the G8 represents a form of institutionalised concert diplomacy with a global remit, while the Contact Group, is a forum for ad hoc problem-solving. The distinction seems obvious, but it has a crucial impact on our understanding of the crisis-management roles that they can play.
• The third reason that explains the G8’s increased political status is simply that it is the biggest show around. It is the only forum where leaders of the most powerful nations meet on a regular basis. Even with the absences of China and lack of representation from Africa, South America and South Asia, the group has become the most intensive concentration of political power on earth. In an era of instant communication and unsaturated demand for news, the G8 has been able repeatedly to capture the attention of the world’s media. This means that, whether the leaders want it or not, they are able to influence the global agenda.
• The rise of the G8 has meant more criticism, however. One of the key problems facing the group is its perceived lack of legitimacy. Several non-members along with the anti-globalisation movement, see the G8 as a directorate of the developed world and doubt whether it has any interest in the plight of the developing world. It is noteworthy that the G8’s security role has not been singled out for protest. This maybe due to lack of knowledge concerning its involvement in international peace and security or perhaps, it is a sign of acceptance of such a role. The only related area where there have been expressions of concern is in regard to the relationship between the G8 and the UN Security Council. Plenty of warnings have been issued that the G8 should be careful not to weaken the Security Council’s authority by assuming too strong a role in international peace and security.

10.SUNDAY SPECIAL….FLOODS…DISASTER MANANGEMENT, INDIAN GEOGRAPHY ….(GS-1,3)
CONTEXT:CURRENTLY SOME  INDIAN STATES ARE SUFFERING FROM FLOODS WHICH HAS CAUSED HUGE DEVASTATION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY SO I HAVE COMPILED SOME INFORMATION ON THIS NATURAL DISASTER WHICH RAISES A QUESTION ON THE DISASTER MANGEMENT.

• FLOODS
• Floods as part of geography and disaster management could be asked in mains. Large parts of India being affected by floods year after year, it could be and important area of preparation for upcoming EXAMS
• In news:
• Different parts of India are affected by heavy rains and floods
• Placing it in syllabus:
• Disaster and disaster management 
• Static dimensions:
• What is a flood
• Causes of floods in India 
• Current dimensions:
• Regions affected by floods in India
• Measures to tackle floods
• Content:
• Flooding is an overflowing of water onto land that is normally dry. Floods can happen during heavy rains, when ocean waves come on shore, when snow melts too fast, or when dams or levees break. Floods are the most common and widespread of all weather-related natural disasters
• Flash floods are the most dangerous kind of floods, because they combine the destructive power of a flood with incredible speed and unpredictability. Flash floods occur when excessive water fills normally dry creeks or river beds along with currently flowing creeks and rivers, causing rapid rises of water in a short amount of time. They can happen with little or no warning.
• Densely populated areas are at a high risk for flash floods. The construction of buildings, highways and parking lots increases runoff by reducing the amount of rain absorbed by the ground. This runoff increases the flash flood potential.
• Sometimes, streams through cities and towns are routed underground into storm drains. During heavy rain, the storm drains can become overwhelmed and flood roads and buildings. Low spots, such as underpasses, underground parking garages, and basements can become death traps.
• Areas near rivers are at risk from flash floods. Dam failures can send a sudden destructive wall of water downstream. Mountains and steep hills produce rapid runoff , which causes streams to rise quickly. Rocks and clay soils do not allow much water to infiltrate the ground. Saturated soil also can lead rapidly to flash flooding. 
• A deep snowpack increases runoff produced by melting snow. Heavy rains falling on melting snowpack can produce disastrous flash flooding. Thick layers of ice often form on streams and rivers during the winter. Melting snow and/or warm rain running into the streams may lift and break this ice, allowing large chunks of ice to jam against bridges or other structures. This causes the water to rapidly rise behind the ice jam. If the water is suddenly released, serious flash flooding could occur downstream. 
• Causes of floods in India:
• The most common cause of flooding is the incapability of watercourses to drain away water during an unusually heavy rainfall. Floods however, are not always caused by heavy rainfall. They can result from other natural or man-made phenomena. For instance, inundation in coastal areas can be caused by a storm surge associated with a tropical cyclone, a tsunami or a high tide, Inundation of normally dry areas can be caused by dam failure, triggered for example by an earthquake.
• The peculiar nature of India’s climate, dominated by monsoons, causes situations where drought and floods may affect different pockets at the same time of year. The main reasons for floods in India are
• Heavy concentrated rainfall
• Cyclone and strong winds, and
• Inadequate drainage
• Overgrazing, especially in the foothills, leaves the soil without cover and therefore vulnerable to erosion. Unscientific farming practices like shifting cultivation result in loss of vegetation cover and consequent soil erosion. 
• Indiscriminate deforestation in catchment areas and upper reaches leads to soil erosion. This in turn causes silting of river courses downstream. A thinned soil cover also results in reduction of infiltration and consequent increase in runoff of large volumes of water.
• Regions affected by floods:
• The Brahmaputra River Region:
• This region consists of the rivers Brahmaputra and Barak and their tributaries, and covers the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, Sikkim and the northern parts of West Bengal. The catchments of these rivers receive very heavy rainfall and hence floods in this region are severe and quite frequent. 
• Further the hills, where these rivers originate, are fragile and susceptible to erosion and thereby cause exceptionally high silt discharge in the rivers. In addition, the region is subject to severe and frequent earthquakes, which cause numerous landslides in the hills and upset the regime of the rivers. 

• The Ganga River Region:
• The river Ganga and it’s tributaries cover the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkand, Bihar, south and central parts of West Bengal, Punjab, parts of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. Most of the damage by floods is caused by the northern tributaries of the Ganga. They spill over their banks and change their courses frequently.
• In general, the flood problem increases from the west to the east and from south to north. In recent years, the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have also experienced some incidents of heavy floods. The problem of flooding and drainage congestion is getting accentuated due to large-scale encroachment of flood plains of the rivers for habitation and various developmental activities.
• The North-west River Region:
• The Indus and its tributaries carry quite substantial discharges during the monsoon and also large volumes of sediment. They change their courses frequently and leave behind vast tracts of sandy waste. This region covers the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and parts of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Indiscriminate use of water for irrigation and development of low-lying areas and depressions has created problem of drainage congestion and water logging over vast areas.
• The Central India and Deccan Region:
• Important rivers in this region are the Narmada, Tapi, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery. These rivers have mostly well defined and stable courses. This region covers the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and parts of Madhya Pradesh. The region does not have serious flood problem except that some of the rivers in Orissa State namely Mahanadi, Brahmini, Baitarni, and Subarnarekha are prone to floods every year. 
• The delta and coastal areas of the states on the east coast periodically face flood and drainage problems in the wake of monsoon depression and cyclonic storms. The problem is accentuated when the floods synchronize with high tide. The rivers Tapi and Narmada, are occasionally in high floods affecting areas in the lower reaches in Gujarat.
• Floods in India -2019:
• On 10 June 2019, Tropical Cyclone VAYU formed over the eastern Arabian Sea (Indian Ocean) started moving north towards Maharashtra. In anticipation for the tropical cyclone, NDRF evacuated over 270,000 people from coastal areas in Gujarat. On 17 June, the Depression was weakened into a well marked low pressure area.
• Since then, heavy rains and floods have affected most part of Assam. The Assam government has issued a red alert as the flood situation turned extremely critical, displacing tens of thousands and cutting off entire portions of the state. Thousands of people have been moved to relief camps in Assam after flooding caused by the overflowing Brahmaputra, Barak and Jia Bhoreli rivers. Relief distribution centres are in operation. 
• Forest officials have said that 95 per cent of the Kaziranga National Park — home to the endangered one-horned rhino, has been flooded and cases of death of wild animals have been recorded. Animals are seen emerging out of the park to escape drowning.
• As of now, around 150,000 people are seeking temporary shelters at camps in different states set up by the Government of India. Thousands of fatalities and injuries have been recorded across Assam, Bihar, UP, Tripura, Kerala, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Maharashtra states.
• Approximately 33,800 houses have been reportedly destroyed in Assam, Kerala and Rajasthan. 
• As of 2 August, fatalities have been reported in in Vadodara City (Gujarat State), and over 5,700 evacuated. Most parts of Vadodara remain inundated and many houses have been damaged, as Vishwamitri river breached its banks and flooded the area. Several crocodiles from Vishwamitri river have ventured in waterlogged residential areas of Vadodara City. Heavy to very heavy rainfall and strong winds will continue to affect Gujarat State.
• However the flood level is receding in Assam and Bihar and health authorities are concerned that there is the risk of a vector-borne disease outbreak, like dengue and Encephalitis.   
• Flood management:
• The flood management mechanisms in India at the moment is operational at two levels – central level and state level.
• The state level mechanism is made up of the water resource department, the Flood Control Board, State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), State Technical Advisory Committee. The central level mechanism is made up of bodies such as the Central Water Commission (CWC), the Farakka Barrage Project Authority, the Ganga Flood Control Commission, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Brahmaputra Board
• Other initiatives in order to deal with floods include:
• Policy Statement 1954
• Policy Statement of 1958
• High Level Committee on Floods, 1957
• National Flood Commission, 1980
• Expert Committee to Review the Implementation of the Recommendations of National Flood Commission – 2003 (R Rangachari Committee)
• National Water Policy (1987/2002/2012)
• NDMA Act, 2005
• The flood management measures that are being used in India can be broadly classified into engineering or structural measures and administrative or non-structural measures. The engineering measures comprise the following:

• Reservoirs
• Drainage improvement
• Embankments
• Diversion of flood waters
• Channelization of rivers
• Watershed management
• Channel improvement
• Some methods of flood control have been practiced since ancient times. These methods include planting vegetation to retain extra water, terracing hillsides to slow flow downhill, and the construction of floodways. Other techniques include the construction of levees, lakes, dams, retention ponds to hold extra water during times of flooding.
• The administrative measures include flood plain zoning and flood proofing



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