In News:

ILO has recently released a report on the status and trends in youth employment

About the News:

• The Report highlights the global trends for youths.
• The report shows large regional differences in young people's prospects in the labour market while the recovery in youth employment is still lagging.
• The report also confirms that the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt young people more than any other age group.

Major findings of the report:

• Effect of COVID: The pandemic has exacerbated the numerous labour market challenges facing those aged between 15 and 24 years, who have experienced a much higher percentage loss in employment than adults since early 2020.

• Trend in unemployment: The total global number of unemployed youths is estimated to reach 73 million in 2022, a slight improvement from 2021 (75 million) but still six million above the pre-pandemic level of 2019.
• Dwindling share: The share of youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) in 2020 rose to 23.3 per cent, an increase of 1.5 percentage points from the previous year and a level not seen in at least 15 years.
• Gender mismatch: Young women are worse off than young men, exhibiting a much lower employment-to-population ratio (EPR). In 2022, 27.4 per cent of young women globally are projected to be in employment, compared to 40.3 per cent of young men.
• Trend in gender gap: The gender mismatch has shown little sign of closing over the past two decades, is largest in lower-middle-income countries, at 17.3 percentage points, and smallest in high-income countries, at 2.3 percentage points.
• Regional differences: The recovery in youth unemployment in high income countries are expected to achieve rates close to those of 2019 by the end of 2022, while in the other country income groups, the rates are projected to remain more than 1 percentage point above their pre-crisis values.
• Green, digital and care economies: Young women and men are well placed to benefit from the expansion of green and blue (ocean resources and their sustainable use) According to the report, an additional 8.4 million jobs for young people could be created by 2030 through the implementation of green and blue policy measures.
• Digital technology: The report estimates that achieving universal broadband coverage by 2030 could lead to a net increase in employment of 24 million new jobs worldwide, of which 6.4 million would be taken by young people.
• Global impact: The report finds that undertaking the green, digital and care measures together as part of a big investment push would raise global gross domestic product (GDP) by 4.2 per cent and create an additional 139 million jobs for workers of all ages worldwide, of which 32 million would be accounted by young people.

Findings on India:

• Glim situation: India has experienced severe working-hour and employment losses in 2020 and 2021, and Indian youth employment deteriorated in 2021 compared to 2020.
• Rise in joblessness: Youth employment participation rate has declined by 0.9 percentage points over the first nine months of 2021 relative to its value in 2020.
• Skewed access: School closures lasted 18 months and among the 24-crore school-going children, only 8% of such children in rural areas and 23% in urban areas had adequate access to online education.
• Poor worse affected: Given the deeply unequal access to online resources, children from socio-economically disadvantaged families had almost no access to education.
• Impact on literacy: In India, 92% of children on average lost at least one foundational ability in language and 82% lost at least one foundational ability in mathematics.
• Impact of MGNREGA: The report has appreciated the MGNREGA for playing an important role in providing paid employment, particularly for women, but also in carbon sequestration because of the Act’s focus on natural resources, such as land, water and trees, which provide adaptation benefits.
• Low payment to teachers: The teachers in non-state schools are often paid significantly less than those in state schools.
• Rise in exploitation: There have been rise in abuses suffered by young domestic workers are common, including verbal and physical abuse, and sexual exploitation during COVID period.

Source: 

• https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/youth-employment-deteriorated-in-india-ilo-report/article65758652.ece/amp/

Image source:

• https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_853321.pdf

In News:

Experts have expressed the need to assess marine biodiversity before permitting deep-sea mining.

About the News:

• The 27th session of the Assembly of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has recently seen nations deliberating over the fate of deep-sea mining.
• Deep-sea mining involves extracting of critical ores needed to build batteries which are needed for electric vehicles and renewable energy capacity, smartphones and laptops.
• Several nations, including India, have their eyes set on deep-sea mining which have raised an alarm over the potentially harmful impacts on ocean biodiversity.
• ISA has awarded India with a 15-year contract to explore an area of 75,000 square kilometres for mining polymetallic nodules from the Central Indian Ocean Basin at depths of 5,000-6,000 metres.
• While India is perfecting its technology to mine the deep sea it also backs International Seabed Authority mandates on deep-sea mining.

What is deep-sea mining?

• About: Deep-sea mining is the process of exploring for and retrieving minerals from the deep seabed.
• Types: Three types of deposits hold most of these minerals:
  • Polymetallic nodules, also called manganese nodules, which are lying on the seabed
  • Sulphide deposits around hydrothermal vents

• • Ferromanganese crusts, which are rich in cobalt and manganese and line the sides of ridges and seamounts.
• Importance: These sources hold a wide variety of critical minerals, including cobalt, manganese, titanium, and rare earth elements, as well as gold, copper, and nickel.

What are the pros and cons of deep-sea mining?

Opportunities:

• Technology applications: Minerals found in the seabed are important components of smartphones, steel, and green technologies including solar cells, electric vehicles, and wind turbines.
• Access to critical minerals: India needs to mitigate the risk of being heavily dependent on critical mineral sources which are presently under foreign government control including China, Russia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• Less reliance on land-based mining: Land-based mining can adversely affect the terrestrial environment. Deep-sea mining may decrease those effects by reducing the demand for land-based mining.

Challenges:

• Disturbance of the seafloor: The digging and gauging of the ocean floor by machines can alter or destroy deep-sea habitats.
• Sediment plumes: Deep-sea mining will stir up fine sediments on the seafloor, creating plumes of suspended particles.
• Pollution: Species such as whales, tuna and sharks could be affected by noise, vibrations and light pollution caused by mining equipment and surface vessels, as well as potential leaks and spills of fuel and toxic products.
• Limitation of ISA: It lacks a scientific committee, for instance, to guide decisions and monitoring and compliance body.

Source: 

• https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-biodiversity/assess-marine-biodiversity-before-permitting-deep-sea-mining-experts-84239
• https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-105507

Image source:

• https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-brief/deep-sea-mining

In news

The pre-summit meeting of the Tiger Range Countries, as a prelude to the Tiger Range Countries Summit is scheduled to be held at Vladivostok, Russia.

About the meeting

• India is hosting the pre-summit meeting of 14 tiger range countries (TRCs) in New Delhi.
• The Tiger Range Countries (TRC) are those where tigers still roam free.
• The meeting aims to finalise the declaration on tiger conservation.
• The previous summit was held in St. Petersberg in 2010, where the 13 tiger range countries committed to doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022.

Importance of Tiger Conservation

• Tigers are crucial for the health of their habitats, as they help keep the Ecosystem Balanced.
• As top predators, tigers keep populations of prey species in check which, in turn, maintains the balance between herbivores and the vegetation upon which they feed.
• So, investing in securing the tiger’s future will also protect thousands of other species that share their habitat in some of the most biodiverse areas on earth.
• These balanced ecosystems are not only important for wildlife, but for people, too.

Tiger Conservation: India

• India is home to 52 Tiger Reserves covering approximately 75,000 Sq Km area in 18 States with approximately 75% population of the wild tiger at global level.
• India achieved the goal of doubling the tiger numbers in 2018 itself, four years in advance from the targeted year 2022.
• The facts associated with Tiger Conservation in India, are mentioned in the table:

• Also, so far 17 Tiger Reserves in the country have got 'CA|TS international accreditation' and two Tiger Reserves have got International 'Tx2 Award'.

• • CA|TS or Conservation Assured|Tiger Standards is a globally accepted conservation tool that sets best practices and standards to manage tigers and encourages assessments to benchmark progress.
  • 'Tx2 Award' award acknowledges the efforts by the State governments and the local communities which have played one of the most important roles to turn a relatively new tiger reserve into one of the source populations of tigers in India.

Source:

• WWF
• Pre-Summit Meeting of The Tiger Range Countries (TRCs) Organized at New Delhi
• Tiger Census 2018 Report – Tiger Population in India 2019\

Image source:

• https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYzfNyPagAAPA3x?format=jpg&name=medium

• Context: The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has recently launched the indigenous vaccine Lumpi-ProVacInd (homologous live-attenuated) to protect livestock from Lumpy Skin disease (LSD).
• Vaccine has been developed by two institutes of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in collaboration with Indian Veterinary Research Institute.

• Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a viral pox disease of cattle the spreads due to vectors namely flies and mosquitoes.
• It is caused by a virus called the Capri poxvirus and is genetically related to the goat pox and sheep pox virus family.
• The symptoms primarily consists of fever, fluid excretion from eyes and nose, dribbling of saliva from the mouth and blisters on the body.
• The animal stops eating and faces problems while chewing or eating, resulting in reduced milk production.
• Lumpy skin disease was first seen as an epidemic in Zambia in 1929. Initially, it was thought to be the result of either poisoning or hypersensitivity to insect bites.
• Vaccinationagainst these diseases is covered under the Livestock Health and Disease Control Programme of India.

Source:

• Lumpy skin disease epidemic in Saurashtra; 39 animals dead: Govt

Image source:

• Farmers across Andhra Pradesh alerted over lumpy skin disease among cattle.

• Context: According to the recent UNCTAD report, India has ranked seventh in list of top 20 economies for digital currency ownership as a share of population with about 7.3% of Indian population owning digital currency.
• The Indians owned digital currency in the form of cryptocurrencies.

• Digital money is money in purely digital form. It is not a physically tangible asset like cash or other commodities like gold or oil.
• Digital money can streamline the current financial infrastructure, making it cheaper and faster to conduct monetary transactions. It can also ease monetary policy implementation by central banks.
• The issues with digital currencies include unstable financial asset that also carries social risks and costs. Also, the monetary sovereignty of nations may be at risk if cryptocurrencies displace national currencies (Cryptoisation).
• In a list of top 20 economies India ranked one notch below the United States (8.3%). 
• Ukraine topped the list with 12.7%, followed by Russia and Venezuela, with 11.9% and 10.3%, respectively. 

Source:

• 7.3 per cent of Indian population owned digital currency in 2021, revealed an UNCTAD report.

Image source:

• 7.3 per cent of Indian population owned digital currency in 2021, revealed an UNCTAD report.

• Context: Fortified rice under public distribution has recently completed one year.
• Fortification is theaddition of key vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine, zinc, Vitamin A & D to staple foods such as rice, milk and salt to improve their nutritional content.
• These nutrients may or may not have been originally present in the food before processing.
• According to the Food Ministry,fortification of rice is a cost-effective and complementary strategy to increase vitamin and mineral content in diets.

• According to FSSAI norms, 1 kg fortified rice will contain iron (28 mg-42.5 mg), folic acid (75-125 microgram) and Vitamin B-12 (0.75-1.25 microgram).
• In addition, rice may also be fortified with micronutrients, singly or in combination, with zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3 and Vitamin B6.
• Food Fortification is essential as India has very high levels of malnutritionamong women and children.
• India has slipped to 101^stposition in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 of 116 countries, from its 2020 position of 94^th.
• Also, Rice is one of India’s staple foods, consumed by about two-thirds of the population (per capita rice consumption in India is 6.8 kg per month). Therefore, fortifying rice with micronutrients is an option to supplement the diet of the poor.

Source:

• Fortified rice under public distribution completes one year, check how it has fared so far

Image source:

• Phase-2 of fortified rice distribution starts; 90 high burden districts covered in April-May

• Context: 15th August 2022 marked the 150th birth anniversary of Aurobindo Ghosh.
• Aurobindo Ghose was born in Calcutta on 15^thAugust 1872.
• He was a yogi, seer, philosopher, poet, and Indian nationalist who propounded a philosophy of divine life on earththrough spiritual evolution.
• From 1902 to 1910 he partook in thestruggle to free India from the British. 
• He was involved in nationalist politics and the revolutionary movement in Bengal with the Anushilan Samiti.
• As a result of his political activities,he was imprisoned in 1908 (Alipore Bomb case).
• Two years later he fled British India and found refuge in the French colony of Puducherry, where he devoted himself for the rest of his life to the development of his “integral” yoga with an aimof a fulfilled and spiritually transformed life on earth which he has explained in his books The Synthesis of Yoga and The Life Divine.
• He became the first principal of the National College in Calcutta (1906) and started to impart national education to Indian youth.
• In Puducherry he founded a community of spiritual seekers, which took shape as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926.
• His Literary works include: An English newspaper called Bande Mataram (in 1905), Bases of Yoga, Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Rebirth and Karma etc.
• He died on 5^thDecember 1950 in Pondicherry.

Source:

• Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary: A spiritual icon who first conceived of India as Vishwa Guru

Essence – The editorial discusses the journey of integration of Northeast region from pre-colonial era till present. It presents the history of the region from its annexation to British Indian territory during Indo-Burmese War to the formation of 7 states in NE region. It also discusses the differentiated administrative system deployed by the British in this region. It highlights that British considered this as an excluded region because according to them people there did not have any racial, historical, cultural, nor linguistic affinity to rest of the India. In the present context it discusses about the effectiveness of 6th schedule, Inner line permit, AFSPA, NEC and a separate ministry for North-east region in integrating it mainstream India.

Towards the end, it highlights the disconnect between Politics and the grassroot demand. It also recommends that to avoid any future uprising against the ongoing integration, the government should be mindful in administrating this culturally sensitive region.

Why to read this editorial

• To know about the history of NE region
• To know about 6th schedule, Inner line permit, AFSPA and NEC

Source:

• https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/india-at-75-the-fragility-of-the-northeasts-integration/article65772603.ece

Essence – The editorial discusses the diplomatic pathway for India to achieve its vision of becoming a developed country (Viksit Bharat) by 2047. It mentions that for long India’s diplomacy was caged by weaknesses and vulnerability of the developing country and suggests that diplomacy of developed country can’t be guided by same principles as that of developing country. In the light of growing Indian economy it suggests some major foreign policy tasks including overcoming the residual legacies of Partition, coping with the growing power gap with China and stronger partnerships with other major powers that will help India in its journey of becoming developed country.

At the end it suggests that India needs to pursue multilateralism at various global organisations and collaborate with like-minded nations, as there is no scope now for innocent internationalism and passive acceptance of global order.

Why to read this editorial

To know about the weaknesses of Indian diplomacy

To know about what could be done to make diplomacy suitable for achieving the goal of VIKSIT BHARAT.

Source:

• https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/diplomacy-for-viksit-bharat-8091948/

Background

The Aarey Milk Colony of Mumbai is home to nearly 8,000 tribal communities of Maharashtra, where people from the Warli, Kokna, Mallar Koli, Katkari and several other indigenous tribes reside and strive to keep their traditions, cuisine and culture alive, amid the encroaching urbanisation.

About the Hamlet

• The tribes traditionally procure all their dietary ingredients from the forest.
• The walls, floors and ceilings of their household are adorned by intricate Warli paintings - which is one of India’s primitive art forms.
• Art, craft, music, and cuisine in the Aarey Colony, stem from their traditional roots of wisdom that flows from generation to generation.

The Tribal Warli Art

• The people here are nature-worshippers, and Vagh Baras (which celebrates the power of tiger), and Gaon Devi puja (the Goddess of villages) are some of their main festivities.

About Warli Painting

• The Warli folk painting is a form of tribal art mainly created by tribal people in the northern region of the Sahyadri Range.
• The painting art form first originated in Maharashtra, and is believed to be one of the oldest kinds of art forms in history.
• It basically consists of a set of basic geometric shapes: a circle, a triangle, and a square; which are drawn in whites on rich dark walls, with clay huts as the backdrop, much like how ancient people utilised their cave walls as canvases.
• This type of painting was mainly centred around the concept of mother nature and its elements, and hence the painting patterns depicts flowers, hunting scenes, wedding rituals, and other daily activities.
• Warli paintings are traditionally practised on mud walls with white paste, which is rice, water, and gum that acts as a critical catalyst, while bamboo sticks chewed at the end, act as a paintbrush.
• Presently, the art form has expanded to home decor industry as its seen on pots, vases, bedsheets and curtain prints.

Quote: ''Nature doesn’t need knowledge, because nature is knowledge, knowledge manifest.” ― Martin Pretchel

Source:

• Peek Inside a Unique Tribal Hamlet in Mumbai’s Aarey
• Warli Painting - The History of a Tribal Art Form

Image sources:

• https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/nov/26/leopards-mumbai-life-death-living-ghosts-sgnp