Ties with NATO have reached a ‘moment of truth’: Russia
Zelensky calls for international summit to end Ukraine crisis
GS-3
Solar power all set to brighten lives of farmers
Extending GST compensation as a reform catalyst
Treating the planet well can aid progress
BrahMos advanced variant test fired
India, South Korea discuss trade barriers
More curbs for Ganga Sagar mela
Pig’s heart beating inside human
India appeals against WTO order on sugar
Petta Thullal held at Erumely
Petta Thullal, the ritualistic sacred dance marking the last leg of the annual Sabarimala pilgrimage season, was held at Erumely on 11 January 2022.
Teams of Ayyappa devotees from Ambalappuzha and Alangad performed the ceremonial mass dance as hundreds thronged the streets of the temple town here to witness the unique celebration of communal harmony.
Background
Pettathulal, also known as Petta Kettu, is a historic ritualistic dance held annually on the 27th of Dhanu at Erumely in the district of Kottayam in the Indian state of Kerala.
It is performed during the Mandalam - Makaravilakku period (November, December and January) among thousands of devotees. It depicts the joyfulness of people over the slaying of Mahishi by Lord Ayyappa.
Two groups actively participate in the thullal, one from Ambalappuzha and other from Aalangadu. The Ambalappuzha group starts their journey to Erumely on the 22nd of Dhanu and a couple of days before the thullal. They visit the Manimala Bhagavathy temple on 25th Dhanu and perform an Aazhi pooja.
Before the Ambalappuzha thullal, a Krishna parunth (sacred eagle) flies around in the sky. It is believed that lord Vishnu himself arrives from Ambalappuzha Sree Krishna temple on his mount Garuda to witness the thullal.
Pettathullal is a symbolic representation of a community against the uprisings of Adharma or injustice. By slaying the demoness Mahishi, Ayyappa empowered the people by saying that Unity is the key to social transformation.
Haryana govt. invokes ESMA against strike
The Haryana government on Tuesday invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act after the Outdoor Patient Department services across the State were crippled due to a day-long strike by the doctors in support of their demands.
Three major demands
The Association is seeking three major demands: stop direct recruitment for Senior Medical Officers (SMOs), fix 40% quota for in-service doctors for admission to post-graduation courses and create a specialist cadre of doctors.
The emergency services, such as post-mortem and COVID-19 duties, were not affected as already announced by the Association.
Announcing the decision to invoke ESMA, Health Minister Anil Vij, in a tweet, said: “ESMA has been invoked in Haryana. Now health workers cannot proceed on strike for six months. The step was taken after a group of doctors decided to go on strike and create hurdles in the prevention of COVID-19.”
Mr. Vij told media persons that the government had “in-principle” agreed to the demands of the doctors and it was conveyed to them on Monday, but they still decided to go ahead with their plan to hold the strike.
ESMA1968
The Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) is an act of Parliament of India which was established to ensure the delivery of certain services, which if obstructed would affect the normal life of the people.
This include services like public transport (bus services), health services (doctors and hospitals). The ESMA is a law made by the Parliament of India under List No. 33 in Concurrent List of 7th Schedule of Constitution of India. Hence it maintains national uniformity by providing minimum conditions of essential services across the nation.
For any violations in specific regions, State governments alone or together with other state government can enforce their respective act. Each state has a separate state Essential Services Maintenance Act with slight variations from the central law in its provisions.
Hence, in case the nature of strike disrupts only a state or states, then the states can invoke it. In case of disruption on a national scale, especially railways, the ESMA 1968 can be invoked by central government.
Although it is a very powerful law, which has potential to suppress genuine demands of employees, its execution rests entirely on the discretion of the State government in normal circumstances.
The law has seen little use in India, with many strikes by public transport providers or staff, doctors or Government employees, being continued for weeks without ESMA being invoked by the Union Government or the State Government. There have been instances of citizens approaching courts for implementation of ESMA, and the executive being forced by court orders to declare ESMA over a strike and the strikes being called off overnight.
HC orders notice to Centre on Dam Safety Act
The Madras High Court ordered notice to the Centre on a case filed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Lok Sabha member S. Ramalingam challenging the constitutional validity of the Dam Safety Act, 2021, on the grounds that it goes against federalism and is beyond the legislative competence of the Centre.
In an affidavit filed in support of his petition, the Member of Parliament had said: “The impugned (under challenge) Act is a legislation passed by the Union through brute majority to blatantly usurp the States’ power in broad day light when legislators like myself were helpless to prevent the violence done to the Constitution.”
Dam Safety Act
The Bill proposes to help all states and Union Territories adopt uniform dam safety procedures. It aims to “provide for surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of the specified dam for prevention of dam failure-related disasters, and to provide for institutional mechanism to ensure their safe functioning and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.”
A National Committee on Dam Safety with a three-year tenure, comprising the chairman of the Central Water Commission, a maximum of 10 representatives of the central government in the ranks of joint secretary, a maximum of seven representatives of the state governments, and three experts, will be formed as part of the Act.
A state dam safety organisation will be formed as well, which will be responsible for the dam safety. This organisation is empowered to investigate and gather data for proper review and study of the various features of the design, construction, repair and enlargement of dams, reservoirs and appurtenant structures.
The state dam safety organisation must also report events such as dam failures to the National Dam Safety Authority and also maintain records of major dam incidents of each specified dam.
The National Dam Safety Authority, to be headquartered in Delhi, will be formed under the Act. It will be headed by an officer not below the rank of Additional Secretary to the Government of India to deal with problems relating to dam engineering and dam safety management.
Ties with NATO have reached a ‘moment of truth’: Russia
Moscow said on Tuesday that ties between Russia and NATO had reached a “moment of truth” ahead of high-stakes talks over Ukraine and security demands from the Kremlin.
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko was speaking following Monday’s U.S.-Russia negotiations in Geneva that launched a week of diplomacy between Russia and the West amid fears of a Russian invasion of its pro-Western neighbour Ukraine.
Moscow has demanded wide-ranging concessions from Washington and its NATO allies, which in turn have threatened severe sanctions for any attack.
A meeting of the NATO-Russia Council will take place in Brussels on Wednesday.
Moscow has demanded wide-ranging security guarantees from Washington and its NATO allies and insists it has been promised that NATO would not expand eastward.
In December, Russia unveiled proposals to contain the United States and NATO in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, saying that the U.S.-led alliance should not admit Ukraine or Georgia as new members.
Solar power all set to brighten lives of farmers
Solar power generation is set to make rapid strides in Rajasthan with public sector banks acceding to the State government’s request to grant loans without collateral security to farmers for installing solar plants at their infertile or semi-barren land. The work was earlier affected as the farmers faced difficulty in getting bank loans.
The Centre’s PM-KUSUM (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) Scheme envisages income generation for farmers from their infertile land with the establishment of solar power plants. While the farmers can sell the power generated from the solar plants to the power distribution companies, the solar pumps can also be installed for irrigation of agricultural land.
Rajasthan became the first State to complete the selection of farmers for installation of solar plants on their land in July 2021 with the capacity exceeding the targets set by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation allotted 722 MW plants to 623 farmers under the KUSUM scheme.
PM KUSUM YOJNA
PM-KUSUM consists of three components and aims to add a solar capacity of 30.8 GW by 2022:
Component-A: 10,000 MW of decentralised ground-mounted grid-connected renewable power plants.
Component-B: Installation of two million standalone solar-powered agriculture pumps.
Component-C: Solarisation of 1.5 million grid-connected solar-powered agriculture pumps.
Intended Benefits of the Scheme
Helping Discoms: Electricity for agriculture is highly subsidised and is often termed as the main cause for rapid groundwater depletion and poor financial position of Discoms.
This scheme will support the financial health of Discoms by reducing the burden of subsidy to the agriculture sector.
Helping States: The scheme will promote decentralised solar power production, and reduce transmission losses.
For state governments, this is a potential way to reduce their subsidy outlay towards irrigation.
Apart from it, the scheme will help States meet the RPOs (renewable purchase obligation) targets.
Helping Farmers: If farmers are able to sell surplus powers, they will be incentivised to save power and, in turn, it will mean the reasonable and efficient use of groundwater.
This may also provide water security to farmers through the provision of assured water sources through solar water pumps — both off-grid and grid-connected.
Helping Environment: Another intended benefit of this scheme will result in the expansion of the irrigation cover by providing decentralized solar-based irrigation and moving away from polluting diesel.
This should also fill the void in solar power production in the intermediate range between rooftops and large parks.
BrahMos advanced variant test fired
An extended range sea-to-sea variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was test fired on Tuesday from the recently commissioned stealth guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam.
“Advanced sea-to-sea variant of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was tested from INS Visakhapatnam today. Missile hit the designated target ship precisely,” the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said.
The successful test-firing certifies the accuracy of the ship’s combat system and armament complex and also validates a new capability the missile provides the Navy and the nation, the Navy said. “Augurs very well for Aatma Nirbhar Bharat and provides the Navy yet another shot in the arm,” it added.
Mission readiness
Congratulating scientists on the successful test firing, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on social media, “The robustness of Indian Navy mission readiness is reconfirmed today after successful launch of the advanced version of BrahMos Missile from INS Vishakhapatnam today.”
BrahMos is joint collaboration between India and Russia and is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and sea-based targets, with a range capped at 290 km initially.
The range of the missile was originally capped at 290 km as per obligations of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Following India’s entry into the club in June 2016, officials said the range would be extended to 450 km and to 600km at a later stage. An extended range missile had been tested earlier.
INS Visakhapatnam, with a displacement of 7,400 tonnes, is the first of four ingenuously designed and built Project-15B class stealth guided missile destroyers and was commissioned in November 2021.
Mission readiness
The BrahMos (designated PJ-10) is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft or land. It is notably one of the fastest supersonic cruise missiles in the world.
It is a joint venture between the Russian Federations NPO Mashinostroyeniya and Indias Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), who together have formed BrahMos Aerospace.
It is based on the Russian P-800 Oniks cruise missile and other similar sea-skimming Russian cruise missile technology. The name BrahMos is a portmanteau formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.
It is the worlds fastest anti-ship cruise missile currently in operation. The land-launched and ship-launched versions are already in service. An air-launched variant of BrahMos appeared in 2012 and entered service in 2019. A hypersonic version of the missile, BrahMos-II, is also presently under development with a speed of Mach 7–8 to boost aerial fast strike capability. It was expected to be ready for testing by 2024.
India wanted the BrahMos to be based on a mid-range cruise missile like the P-700 Granit. Its propulsion is based on the Russian missile, and missile guidance has been developed by BrahMos Aerospace. The missile is expected to reach a total order of US$13 billion.
In 2016, as India became a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), India and Russia are now planning to jointly develop a new generation of Brahmos missiles with 800 km-plus range and an ability to hit protected targets with pinpoint accuracy. In 2019, India upgraded the missile with a new range of 650 km with plans to eventually upgrade all missiles to a range of 1500 km.
India, South Korea discuss trade barriers
India and South Korea on Tuesday held discussions on bilateral trade and agreed to fast track negotiations to upgrade the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
During the meeting between Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his South Korean counterpart Yeo Han-koo, the Indian side highlighted the difficulties the bovine meat exports are facing in South Korea. Sources said Seoul was urged to expedite the process to help in export of agricultural products.
“The two Ministers agreed with the spirit of openness to address difficulties expressed by industry from both sides and instructed their respective negotiating teams to meet on a regular basis to conclude the CEPA upgradation process negotiations as soon as possible in a time-bound manner,” said the joint statement issued after the dialogue.
Sources said New Delhi had put in a request to Seoul to provide market access for bovine meat in 2019 which was renewed in 2021. But it appears that South Korea has been insisting that India should get a clearance from the World Organisation for Animal Health. However, the Indian has said the meat is being exported to several countries like Mauritius, Brunei, the Maldives, Seychelles and the Philippines and there are no complaints regarding the foot-and-mouth disease from them.
It was learnt that India had also raised the need to expedite the process to facilitate export of grapes, pomegranate arils and eggplants. The request has been pending for more than a decade with the Korean side. The discussion also focused on the employment possibilities for English teachers and IT professionals in Korea.
More curbs for Ganga Sagar mela
The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday modified its order regarding the Ganga Sagar Mela and said only those having COVID negative report in the past 72 hours would be allowed on the Sagar Island.
Gangasagar Mela
Gangasagar is a village and a gram panchayat within the jurisdiction of the Sagar police station in the Sagar CD block in the Kakdwip subdivision of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Pig’s heart beating inside human
In a medical first, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life and a Maryland hospital said Monday that hes doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery.
While it’s too soon to know if the operation really will work, it marks a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection.
There’s a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplant, driving scientists to try to figure out how to use animal organs instead. Last year, there were just over 3,800 heart transplants in the U.S., a record number, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system.
If this works, there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the Maryland universitys animal-to-human transplant program.
But prior attempts at such transplants — or xenotransplantation — have failed, largely because patients’ bodies rapidly rejected the animal organ. Notably, in 1984, Baby Fae, a dying infant, lived 21 days with a baboon heart.
The difference this time: The Maryland surgeons used a heart from a pig that had undergone gene-editing to remove a sugar in its cells that’s responsible for that hyper-fast organ rejection. Several biotech companies are developing pig organs for human transplant; the one used for Fridays operation came from Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics.
It will be crucial to share the data gathered from this transplant before extending it to more patients, said Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, who is helping develop ethics and policy recommendations for the first clinical trials under a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
“Rushing into animal-to-human transplants without this information would not be advisable,” Ms. Maschke said.
Over the years, scientists have turned from primates to pigs, tinkering with their genes.
Just last September, researchers in New York performed an experiment suggesting these kinds of pigs might offer promise for animal-to-human transplants. Doctors temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a deceased human body and watched it begin to work.
Pig heart valves also have been used successfully for decades in humans, and Mr. Bennett’s son said his father had received one about a decade ago.
As for the heart transplant, “He realizes the magnitude of what was done and he really realizes the importance of it,” David Bennett Jr. said. “He could not live, or he could last a day, or he could last a couple of days. I mean, we’re in the unknown at this point.”
India appeals against WTO order on sugar
The Indian government has filed an appeal in World Trade Organizations Appellate Body against a ruling on sugar export subsidies stating that New Delhis domestic support measures for sugar and sugarcane are inconsistent with global trade norms, an official said.
In its appeal, the Indian government has said that the ruling by the trade dispute settlement panel has made certain erroneous findings about the domestic schemes to support the sugarcane farmers, exports and the findings of the panel are completely ‘not acceptable to the country, news agency PTI reported.
Ruling in the favour of Brazil, Australia and Guatemala, the WTO panel on Dec 14, 2021 said Indias sugar subsidies are inconsistent with WTO trade rules and recommended New Delhi to withdraw the subsidies within 120 days from the adoption of the report.
Background
In 2019, Brazil (the Words largest producer and exporter of sugar), Australia and Guatemala dragged India into the WTOs dispute settlement mechanism alleging that New Delhis domestic support measures to the sugarcane producers and sugar export subsidies are inconsistent with global trade rules including various provisions of the WTOs Agreement on Agriculture, Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT).
The three countries had said that Indias support measures to sugarcane producers exceed the de minimis level of 10% of the total value of sugarcane production, which according to them was inconsistent with the Agreement on Agriculture.
They had also flagged Indias alleged export subsidies, subsidies under the production assistance and buffer stock schemes, and the marketing and transportation scheme.
According to trade experts, if the appellate body also passes a ruling against the support measures, India will have to be abiding by the ruling and make appropriate changes in the way it provides the subsidies.
