In News

The Quad countries of India, Australia, Japan and the U.S.A have recently outlined joint principles on technology for the first time.

What are the Joint Principles?

• Secure supply chains: To foster an open, accessible, and secure technology ecosystem, based on mutual trust and confidence for a resilient, diverse, and secure technology supply chains - for hardware, software, and services.
  • A semiconductor supply chain initiative to map and bolster supply-chain security for semiconductors and their vital components.
  • An enabling environment for 5G diversification, including efforts related to testing and test facilities.

• Support Universal Values: The design, development, governance, and use of technology should be an equitable and inclusive process shaped by shared democratic values and respect for universal human rights.
  • It should not be misused or abused for malicious activities such as authoritarian surveillance and oppression, for terrorist purposes, or to disseminate disinformation.
• Multi stakeholder approach: Technology should be developed through a multi-stakeholder approach that is adaptive, dynamic and aligns with universal values, including respect for freedom of expression and privacy.
• Common standards: To work more closely together in developing common standards in particularly critical technologies of the future.

Significance of the Quad Joint Principles

• Geopolitical Significance: Securing supply chains in critical areas such as semiconductors and 5G telecom technologies helps in containing the rising influence of China in these strategic sectors. The agreement comes at a time when there is a global shortage of semiconductors.
• Boost Domestic Capacity: It is an opportunity to boost domestic capacity among the QUAD. For Example, India is attempting to build local semiconductor manufacturing capabilities by offering incentives to global firms to set up fabrication units to supply silicon chips both to the local market as well as become a base for global supplies.
• Governance in technologies: An international technology standard helps gain an economic and technological advantage over any competitors as it serves as a means for governance in the realm of a wide range of technologies. Increased international collaboration in terms of standardization activities provides a platform for the creation of technical standard alliances.
• Investment into India: It is an opportunity for India to invite investments in areas such as silicon chips and 5G telecom networks.

Sources:

• With Quad tech plan, India further closes door to China firms
• As Quad focuses on tech, the debate on standard setting
• Quad alliance joins hands to secure semiconductor, 5G tech supply chains
• Quad Principles on Technology Design, Development, Governance, and Use
• A Quad 2.0 Agenda for Critical and Emerging Technologies

In News

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently issued Master Circulars on ‘Transfer of Loan Exposure’ and ‘Securitization of Standard Assets’.

About the News

• Aim of the Circulars: The circulars have been issued with an aim to bring in transparency and to improve liquidity in the system and corporate governance. The circulars have come into effect immediately.
• Loan transfers: They are resorted to by lending institutions for a multitude of reasons ranging from liquidity management, rebalancing their exposures or strategic sales.
• Securitisation: It involves transactions where credit risk in assets are redistributed by repackaging them into tradable securities with different risk profiles which may give investors of various classes access to exposures which they otherwise might be unable to access directly.

About the Master Circular on ‘Transfer of Loan Exposure

• Holding Period: It has prescribed a minimum holding period for different categories of loans after which they shall become eligible for transfer. Three months for debt with tenure up to two years and six months for other longer tenure exposures.
• Shift of Responsibility: The regulator has also offered relief to lenders by allowing them to shift the responsibility of reporting, monitoring, filing of complaints with law enforcement agencies and proceedings related to fraudulent loans to the ARCs.
• Policy Approval: It made it mandatory for lenders to put in place a comprehensive board-approved policy for transfer and acquisition of loan exposures.
• Re-acquisition: A transferor cannot re-acquire a loan exposure except as a part of a resolution plan.
• Profit or Loss accounting: Any loss or profit arising because of transfer of loans, which is realised, should be accounted for accordingly and reflected in the Profit & Loss account of the transferor for the accounting period during which the transfer is completed.

About the Master Circular on Securitization of Standard Assets

• Applicable to: It will apply to all scheduled commercial banks, excluding regional rural banks, all-India term financial institutions, small finance banks, and NBFCs.
• Supporting facilities: RBI has allowed lenders to provide supporting facilities such as credit enhancement facilities, liquidity facilities, underwriting facilities and servicing facilities.
• Non-Lenders: Entities which are non-lenders may also provide these facilities if they are regulated by at least one financial sector regulator.
• MRR: RBI specified the Minimum Retention Requirement (MRR) for different asset classes. The minimum ticket size for issuance of securitisation notes is ₹1 crore.

Sources:

• RBI issues master circular on transfer of NPAs, securitisation of standard assets
• RBI issues new rules for securitisation of standard assets, loan transfer
• RBI revamps loan transfer and securitisation rules

In News

Quad fellowship has been announced for students from the QUAD member nations to pursue STEM courses in the United States. 

The Quad Fellowship Program

• First of its kind scholarship program: It will be operated and administered in consultation with a non-governmental task force comprising of leaders from each Quad country (United States, India, Japan and Australia). 
• Opening Avenue for International Students: This program will bring together 100 exceptional students per year- 25 from each Quad country to pursue masters and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at leading STEM graduate universities in the USA.
• Advancing Innovation: It will develop a network of science and technology experts who will work towards advancing innovation and collaboration in the private, public, and academic sectors, in their own nations and among Quad countries. 
• Build Robust Programming: The program will enable the Quad Scholars to understand one another’s societies and cultures through trips to each Quad country and robust programming with each country’s top scientists, technologists, and politicians.

The Quad Grouping

• Known as the 'Quadrilateral Security Dialogue' (QSD), the Quad is an informal strategic forum comprising four nations, namely-United States of America (USA), India, Australia and Japan.
• One of the primary objectives of the Quad is to work for a free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.
• It aims to keep the strategic sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any military or political influence and reduce Chinese domination thereby establishing a rules-based global order, freedom of navigation and a liberal trading system.
• The Quad leaders exchange views on contemporary global issues such as critical and emerging technologies, connectivity and infrastructure, cyber security, maritime security, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, climate change, pandemic and education.

Source:

• Quad fellowship program: All you need to know
• Joe Biden Announces Quad Fellowship for STEM Courses, 25 Indian Students to be Selected
• What is QUAD?

Image source:

• QUAD 2.0 or Tianxia: Options before the world
• Is The Quad Still Relevant?

In News

The UN Food Systems Summit, 2021 was held recently, setting the stage for global food systems transformation to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

About the News

• The Summit brought together world leaders, experts, farmers and producers, indigenous peoples, the private sector and civil society, uniting participants in one of the most comprehensive attempts yet to align agri-food production and consumption with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• At a global level, UN agencies as the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP) will jointly lead a UN system-wide coordination hub to continue the work of the Summit.

What is Food Systems?

• According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), food systems encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal of food products.
• Food systems comprise all food products that originate from crop and livestock production, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as the broader economic, societal and natural environments in which these diverse production systems are embedded.

• Food systems are the public policy decisions; the national and global systems and supply chains; and the individuals and groups – public and private – that influence what we eat.
• Significance of Food Systems: Food systems touch every aspect of human existence. The health of our food systems profoundly affects the health of our bodies, as well as the health of our environment, our economies and our cultures. When they function well, food systems have the power to bring us together as families, communities and nations.

Why do food systems need reform?

• Fragile System: Many of the world’s food systems are fragile, unexamined and vulnerable to collapse, as millions of people around the globe have experienced first-hand during the COVID-19 crisis. When our food systems fail, the resulting disorder threatens our education, health and economy, as well as human rights, peace and security.
• Nutrition Issues: One in ten people is undernourished. One in four is overweight. More than one-third of the world’s population cannot afford a healthy diet. Food supplies are disrupted by heatwaves, floods, droughts and wars.
• Environmental Impact: The food sector emits about 30% of the world’s greenhouse gases. Expanding cropland, pastures and tree plantations drive two-thirds of the loss in forests (5.5 million hectares per year), mostly in the tropics. Poor farming practices degrade soils, pollute and deplete water supplies and lower biodiversity.
• Food Wastage: The world already produces enough food to feed everyone on the planet. But, as a recent UNEP report found, over 17 per cent of food is wasted. Food waste accounts for up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas
• It can occur at the consumer end, where food is thrown away, or as post-harvest loss – in storage, transport, packaging, or other stages before food reaches the table.

What are the Steps planned by the UN to develop a Sustainable Food System?

Conclusion: A sustainable food system lies at the heart of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To realize the SDGs, the global food system needs to be reshaped to be more productive, more inclusive of poor and marginalized populations, environmentally sustainable and resilient, and able to deliver healthy and nutritious diets to all. These are complex and systemic challenges that require the combination of interconnected actions at the local, national, regional and global levels.

Question: Discuss the need to reform the Global Food System. What are the Actionables planned by UN in this endeavour?

Sources:

• UN Food Systems Summit: Leaders Commit To Tackling Global Hunger
• United Nations Food Systems Summit: Need to transform food systems, say experts
• Food Systems
• Food systems hold key to ending world hunger
• Game Changing Propositions
• Food Systems: What they are, why they matter
• Making systems work for nutrition
• Game Changing Propositions
• Sustainable food systems

On 27 September, 1970, Statutes of the Organization was adopted, paving the way for the establishment of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). UNWTO was established on this day in 1980 to create awareness on how tourism affects social-cultural, political and economic values globally and the role of tourism within the international community. This year the theme of World Tourism Day is 'Tourism for Inclusive Growth'. It aims to help people associated with the tourism sector in every possible way.

Sources:

• World Tourism Day 2021: Know its history, significance and theme
• WORLD TOURISM DAY 2021 - TOURISM FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH

This is image of a winged electronic microchip with the capability of flight. About the size of a grain of sand, the new flying microchip (or “microflier”) does not have a motor or engine. It is being claimed as the smallest-ever human-made flying structures. The engineers optimised the microflier’s aerodynamics to ensure that it — when dropped at a high elevation — falls at a slow velocity in a controlled manner. This behaviour stabilizes its flight, ensures dispersal over a broad area and increases the amount of time it interacts with the air, making it ideal for monitoring air pollution and airborne disease.

Source:

• Explained: Winged microchip is ‘smallest human-made flying structure’

• Context: Government expected to mandate flex-fuel engines in vehicles soon.
• Flex fuel, or flexible fuel, is an alternative fuel made of a combination of gasoline and methanol or ethanol.
• The ethanol flexible-fuel vehicle is the most common form of commercially available flex engine in the global market.
• Flex engines generally power flexible-fuel vehicles or flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) which are equipped with an internal combustion engine that is designed to run on more than one fuel.
• Most of these FFVs in Western countries run on E85, a blend of 85 per cent anhydrous ethanol and 15 per cent gasoline.
• A switch to the alternative is essential for India because of the surplus production of crops like rice, maize, corn, and sugar, from which bioethanol is made.
• Government can also save money on the minimum support price (MSP), which is offered on many of these crops is higher than the commercial price and international prices. Diverting the harvest will result in the overall betterment of the country.

Source:

• Vehicles in India may soon be powered by flex-engines. All you need to know
• Govt will mandate flex-fuel engines in vehicles in next 3-4 months: Gadkari
• Flex-fuel engine may soon be made mandatory in India, will debut with BMW

• Context: WHO panel has recommended the monoclonal antibody therapy on two covid categories.
• Monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy, also called monoclonal antibody infusion treatment, is a way of treating COVID-19 that aims to prevent hospitalizations, reduce viral loads and lessen symptom severity.
• Casirivimab and imdevimab are monoclonal antibodies that when used together bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, neutralizing the virus’s ability to infect cells.
• They are designed to recognize a specific component of virus- the spike protein on its outer shell. By targeting the spike protein, these specific antibodies interfere with the virus' ability to attach and gain entry into human cells. 
• They support the immune system until it can mount its own response.

Source:

• WHO panel gives go-ahead for monoclonal antibody therapy on two covid categories
• Monoclonal Antibodies and Their Side Effects
• What Is Monoclonal Antibody Therapy & Who Is Eligible to Receive It?

Image source:

• Clinical trials of monoclonal antibodies to prevent COVID-19 now enrolling

• Context: The defence ministry has come out with a policy for enhanced utilization of simulators by armed forces.
• Simulators play a critical role in providing training to military personnel, analyzing their prowess and keep honing their skills in realistic scenarios without exposing them to complex operational equipment.
• Its biggest advantage is its all-weather training and the use of simulation is expected to reduce defence expenditure when military budgets are under pressure due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy.
• The policy aims to switch to simulation-based training across all domains for combatants, leaders, maintainers, administrators, life science experts and, procurement and financial agencies through indigenous design and development.

Source:

• New simulator policy seeks to cut defence training costs, preserve military gear
• MoD announces system for better use of simulators by Services
• India unveils framework for increased utilization of simulators by armed forces

• Context: Every year since the 10th UNGA in 1995, Brazil has been the first to address the delegation, followed by the United States. 
• The tradition of Brazil being the first speaker at the UNGA dates back to the early years of the UN, following its formation soon after the end of World War II.
• The order is however not determined alphabetically, but on the basis of the fact that while most countries were reluctant to be the first to address the chamber, Brazil was the only country that volunteered to speak first.
• It is also traced back to the 1947 tradition when Brazil’s top diplomat Oswaldo Aranha presided over the Assembly’s First Special Session and was also elected president of the second session of the General Assembly.
• After Brazil and the US, the order of speakers depends on a number of factors such as geographic balance, the rank of the representative- heads of state, heads of government, crown princes, and foreign ministers followed by deputies, ambassadors etc.

Source:

• Explained: Why Brazil always speaks first at the UN General Assembly
• Explained: How is the order of speakers decided at UN General Assembly? Why is Brazil always first?

Image source:

• https://in.glbnews.com/09-2021/52781898406322/

Essence: The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) designated this year’s World Tourism Day on 27^th September to promote sustainable, responsible, and inclusive growth in this sector. India has 41 UNESCO World Heritage inscriptions, many iconic destinations, 10 eco-friendly blue flag beaches, immense natural beauty, many wildlife sanctuaries, and intangible cultural heritage through festivals and performing arts. These iconic destinations/arts offer opportunity to build tourism clusters around such destinations. This will help in empowering the marginalised communities by skilling and integrating them into the tourism supply chain. Though COVID 19 has still restricted international tourism, but we have a tremendous opportunity to promote domestic tourism once large section of population get vaccinated by the end of this year.

Why should you read this article?

• To get an overview of India’s tourism sector and ideas to harness the benefit from this sector.
• To understand why India needs a targeted outreach programmes in tourism sector.

Source:

• Harnessing the potential of India’s tourism model of inclusive growth

Essence: The government has announced the setting up of the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) or Bad Bank to take over bad debts of nearly ₹2-lakh crore from banks. The author argues that Bad Bank will only shift bad debts (NPAs) from one financial institution (Banks) to another (NARCL), while NPAs in the financial system do not change at all. The article questions relative expertise of bad banks to recover NPAs, saying that lending banks could be in a better position to recover it because of their familiarity with the customer. Transferring such non-performing assets to another institution will only spur a lackadaisical approach towards recovering payments through banking system.

Why should you read this article?

• To know concerns regarding efficacy of bad banks.
• To know the repercussions of having additional institutions in the asset recovery system.

Source:

• Bad bank will merely camouflage NPAs

Essence: This article highlights the crucial matter of water sharing between India and Nepal. Since some of the Nepal’s biggest river systems originate in the Himalayan glaciers which then flow into India through Bihar, it inevitably causes flooding of the area. Thus, Nepal’s assistance in flood management project gets critical. This issue has been raised quite a few times by India but failed to receive prompt reciprocation from Nepal. As per the existing arrangement on this issue, the Bihar state government succeeded in addressing the issue around Kosi basin but many areas still need to be addressed.

Water cooperation should drive the next big India-Nepal dialogue. It will be a win-win situation for both the sides of the border as it will safeguard the interests of all those who have been affected.

Why you should read this article?

• To understand the issue of flooding in the State of Bihar.
• How and why the water cooperation should drive the next big India-Nepal dialogue.

Source:

Flood management that cannot be watered down

Background

• Lack of Education: insignificant provision of schooling for children in tribal community in Purulia, West Bengal.
• Marginalized: orphan children, destitute women devoid of aim and purpose in life.
• Ignorance of nature: deterioration in forests, less participation in agriculture amongst indigenous communities.

Sido Kanhu Mission Foundation (SKMF)

• Folk Artist: Naren Handsa, a Santhali folk singer has become a sign of hope and initiative (SKMF) in the regional tribal community in Purulia.
• Guardian: caretaker of about 30 orphans and several destitute women of the community.
• Education for all: offers free education to children of marginalized communities.
• Environment protection: Works against deforestation along with the kids, turning barren land into a forested land.

Result

• Habitat-building: efforts attracted wildlife such as snakes, wild rabbits, and many species of birds in the region.
• Students: 400 + students as a part of the initiative.
• Against witch-hunting: Supporting distressed women who had been ostracized by their respective communities.

Lessons to learn

Empathy, Compassion, Positive attitude, Environmentalism, Hard-work

Quote

“There is no small act of kindness.” - Mary Anne Radmacher

Source

• Meet ‘Dada’ & His Team Of Kids, Who Are Turning 40 Acres Of Barren Land Into A Mini Forest