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The Trade Ministers of India, Japan and Australia have formally launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI). The SCRI aims to create a virtuous cycle of enhancing supply chain resilience with a view to eventually attaining strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth in the Indo-Pacific region.  The SCRI was first proposed by Japan.  It aims to reduce dependence on China amid a likelihood of rechurning of supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, SCRI will focus on sharing of best practices on supply chain resilience and holding investment promotion events and buyer-seller matching events to provide opportunities for stakeholders to explore the possibility of diversification of their supply chains.

Recently, the US President officially recognised the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915-16 as an act of genocide. The Armenian diaspora marks 24th April as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.  India has not given formal recognition to the Armenian Genocide. MEANING OF GENOCIDE According to Article II of the United Nations (UN) Convention on Genocide of December 1948, genocide has been described as carrying out acts intended “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. Raphael Lemkin, the Polish lawyer, coined the term “genocide” in 1943. ARMENIAN GENOCIDE The Armenian Genocide is called the first genocide of the 20th century. It refers to the systematic annihilation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1917. After the First World War broke out in November 1914, the Ottoman Turks participated in the war, siding with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian empire. The Ottoman Turks believed the Armenians would side with Russia ...

The 19th edition of the Indian and French Navy bilateral exercise ‘VARUNA-2021’ is being conducted in the Arabian Sea. Earlier this year, the Indian Navy took part for the first time in the France-led naval exercise “La Pérouse" with the navies of the US, Australia and Japan. The Indian and French Navies have been conducting bilateral maritime exercises since 1993.  Since 2001, these exercises have been called ‘VARUNA’. 2021 EXERCISE This is the first time that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is participating in the Varuna maritime exercise. The ‘Varuna’ joint exercise is part of the French carrier strike group’s ‘CLEMENCEAU 21’ deployment, which the French Navy is conducting in the eastern Mediterranean, the Gulf and the Indian Ocean (Arabian Sea). Its goal is to contribute to the stabilization of these strategic zones and strengthening cooperation with the navies of partner countries, in particular India for the Indian Ocean component. OTHER EXERCISES Desert Knight-21 and Garuda ...

SAUDI ARABIA Saudi Arabia shipped 80 metric tons of liquid oxygen to India.  The urgent supply shipment is being undertaken in coordination with India’s Adani group and Linde company. The group is also securing 5,000 medical-grade oxygen cylinders from Linde Saudi Arabia. OTHER COUNTRIES The United Kingdom has announced that it will ship over “600 pieces of vital medical equipment” to help India fight COVID-19. Singapore has donated four cryogenic oxygen tanks to India. Australia has announced that it will send oxygen, ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) kits to India. The Germany Army will ship a large oxygen production plant and other authorities are working to provide respirators, ventilators and huge quantities of Remdesivir and other medicines from German emergency stocks. France is sending to India oxygen generators, liquid oxygen containers, ventilators and other medical supplies by air and sea to support the country in its fight against surging coro...

There have been announcements made to set up oxygen plants to deal with the shortage of oxygen across the country.  551 PSA PLANTS The Centre announced 551 dedicated Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants. These will be set up in identified government hospitals in district headquarters across the country using PM-CARES funds. The procurement will be done through Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 500 PLANTS BY DRDO The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will set up 500 medical oxygen generating plants across the country within three months.  This will be done under the PM-CARES fund to ramp up oxygen production to fight the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crisis ripping through the country. The technology transferred to the industry is based on the onboard oxygen generation technology developed for Tejas light combat aircraft.  The oxygen generation plants can produce 1,000 litres of oxygen per minute.

 There are three methods which being currently used to get oxygen or nitrogen from air mixture. CRYOGENIC DISTILLATION Cryogenic air separation units are commonly used method to get oxygen and nitrogen often argon also.  In this method the air is compressed, feed it into distillation columns and liquid oxygen is obtained.  The oxygen is is then filled into special cryogenic transport tankers that maintain -180 degree centigrade temperature to travel to smaller plants.  There, the liquid oxygen is converted into gaseous form, fed into cylinders and transported to hospitals. VACUUM SWING ADSORPTION Vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) is a non-cryogenic gas separation technology.  Using special solids, or adsorbents, VSA segregates certain gases from a gaseous mixture under minimal pressure according to the species molecular characteristics and affinity for the adsorbents.  These adsorbents (e.g., zeolites) form a molecular sieve and preferentially adsorb the t...

According to the latest data published by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the military spending across the world rose by 2.6%.  This came in a year when the global GDP shrank by 4.4% largely due to the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.  GLOBAL Military spending as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reached a global average of 2.4% in 2020, up from 2.2% in 2019. The five biggest spenders in 2020, which together accounted for 62% of global military expenditure were: the United States>China>India>Russia>the United Kingdom. The countries with the biggest increases in military burden among the top 15 spenders in 2020 were Saudi Arabia, Russia, Israel and US. INDIA India was the third largest military spender in the world in 2020, behind only the US and China. India’s military expenditure was USD 72.9 billion.  It accounted for 3.7% of the global military expenditure share. India’s spending since 2019 grew by 2.1%. SIPRI Foun...

US has assured immediate supplies of specific raw materials that are needed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to ramp up the production of Covid vaccines. The U.S.’s assistance will include making raw materials for COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covishield’ immediately accessible and pursuing options to generate oxygen “on an urgent basis. The U.S. will also expand financing for BioE, a Hyderabad-based firm, to ramp up production to meet requirements of a vaccine supply programme that is being rolled out by the Quad (India, the U.S. , Australia and Japan). TRIPS AGREEMENT   India discussed its initiative at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for a relaxation in the norms of the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) to ensure quick and affordable access to vaccines and medicines for developing countries. The 1995 agreement on TRIPS is a key legal instrument that harmonises Intellectual Property (IP) protection by imposing binding obligations on member countrie...

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its annual State of the Global Climate for 2020. The pandemic-related economic slowdown failed to put a brake on climate change drivers and accelerating impacts. GLOBAL STATS 2020 was one of the three warmest years on record, despite a cooling La Niña event. The global average temperature was about 1.2° Celsius above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) level. The other two warmest years are 2016 and 2019. The six years since 2015 have been the warmest on record. 2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record. Emission of major greenhouse gases increased in 2019 and 2020 and will be higher in 2021. In 2020, the Arctic sea-ice extent came down to second lowest on record. The 2020 minimum extent was 3.74 million square kilometre, marking only the second time (after 2012) on record that it shrank to less than 4 million sq km. INDIA India experienced one of its wettest monsoons since 1994, with a seasonal surplus of 9% that led to severe floods an...

Russia announced that it would be withdrawing from the International Space Station in 2025.  It will build and manage its own floating laboratory that will be launched into orbit by 2030.  The decision to leave also comes at a time when relations between Russia and the US have been steadily deteriorating on multiple fronts, with the two powers also accusing each other of militarizing space.  SPACE STATION A space station is a large spacecraft that remains in low-earth orbit for extended periods of time.  It is like a large laboratory in space, and allows astronauts to come aboard and stay for weeks or months to carry out experiments in microgravity.  The Mir space station of the former Soviet Union, and later operated by Russia, was functional from 1986 to 2001 ISS The ISS has been in space since 1998. It is known for the exemplary cooperation between the five participating space agencies that have been running it: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia)...

During the 11th round of discussions between the senior military commanders of India and China to resolve the standoff in eastern Ladakh, China refused to vacate two of the four original friction points. At two friction points, Patrolling Point 15 (PP15) in Hot Springs, and PP17A near Gogra Post, China still has a platoon-level strength each, along with vehicles. Other two are the Galwan valley and the Depsang plains.  PATROLLING POINTS Along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China, Indian Army has been given certain locations that its troops have access to patrol the area under its control. These points are known as patrolling points, or PPs, and are decided by the China Study Group (CSG). CSG was set-up in 1976, when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister, and is the apex decision-making body on China. PP15 and PP17A are two of the 65 patrolling points in Ladakh along the LAC. PP15 is located in an area known as the Hot Springs, while PP17A is near an area called t...

Scientists are claiming that the recent surge in COVID-19 infections across India is because of the new Indian variant.  Findings of the double mutant B.1.617 strain was first announced by the Health Ministry in March 2021.  Scientists have found a third mutation in the variant now, making it a triple mutant strain.  Variants of Concern (VOC) are mutated types of coronavirus, which can cause one among: increased transmission, a reduction in neutralising antibodies or Severe disease. THE MUTANTS The new “mutations” detected in December 2020 were: E484Q and L452R, 2 mutations occurred together in a single strain – hence “double mutant. E484Q is similar to the British and South African variants. L452R is similar to the Californian variant. Now, a third mutation (P614R) in the B.1.617 has been identified. The new triple mutant could make the virus even more capable of evading human immune response. ROLE OF GENOME SEQUENCING Because both the mutations, E484Q and L425R...

India has ranked 142nd yet again out of 180 nations in the recently unveiled World Press Freedom Index. The index is published each year by the international journalism not-for-profit body, Reporters Without Borders (RSF).  It has been published every year since 2002 by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) or Reporters Without Borders. GLOBAL Journalism, the main vaccine against disinformation, is completely or partly blocked in 73% of the 180 countries. Only 12 of the Index’s 180 countries (7%) can claim to offer a favourable environment for journalism. Norway has topped yet again for the fifth year in the row, followed by Finland and Denmark. Eritrea is at the bottom meanwhile China is ranked 177, and is only above North Korea at 179 and Turkmenistan at 178. INDIA India is among the countries classified “bad” for journalism and is termed as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their jobs properly. The report has blamed an environment of intimidation created...

NASA's miniature robot helicopter Ingenuity performed a successful takeoff and landing on Mars.  It was the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. The first powered flight on Earth was achieved by the Wright brothers in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  INGENUITY Ingenuity is the first helicopter to fly on Mars. It was carried by NASA’s rover called Perseverance that was launched in July 2020. It is solar-powered, able to charge on its own. The helicopter’s mission is experimental in nature and completely independent of the rover’s science mission. It will help collect samples from the surface from locations where the rover cannot reach.

The President appointed Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra as the 24th Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). He replaced Sunil Arora. ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA The Election Commission of India (ECI) is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering Union and State election processes in India. It was established in accordance with the Constitution on 25th January 1950 (celebrated as national voters' day). The secretariat of the commission is located in New Delhi. The body administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, and State Legislative Assemblies in India, and the offices of the President and Vice President in the country. It is not concerned with the elections to panchayats and municipalities in the states. For this, the Constitution of India provides for a separate State Election Commission. Part XV (Article 324-329) of the Indian Constitution: It deals with elections, and establishes a commission for these matters. STRUCTURE AND MEMBERS Originall...

The expert panel of country's drug regulator on Monday approved the use of Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine.  The decision comes after Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI)'s Subject Expert Committee (SEC) met to take up Sputnik V application for Emergency Use Authorization in India.  This is the third Covid vaccine to be available in India.  The first two are Serum Institute of India's locally-made Oxford Covid-19 vaccine 'Covishield' and Bharat Biotech's indigenously manufactured Covaxin. SPUTNIK V This is a vaccine that uses two different human common cold viruses (adenovirus) that have been modified so that the gene causing the cold infection is removed and instead replaced with a code to make SARS-CoV-2’s ‘spike protein’. The human adenoviruses then act as a vehicle to transport this code to the cells when a person is vaccinated, so that the body can develop an immune response in the form of antibodies to protect it in the event the real...

Young people have hurled bricks, fireworks and gasoline bombs at police and set hijacked cars and a bus on fire during a week of violence on the streets of Northern Ireland.  The chaotic scenes have stirred memories of decades of Catholic-Protestant conflict, known as “The Troubles”.  A 1998 peace deal had ended large-scale violence but have not resolve Northern Ireland’s deep-rooted tensions.  UNDERSTANDING IRELAND AND ITS HISTORY  The island of Ireland is divided between two political entities -  1. The Republic of Ireland - officially named Ireland(Catholic dominated).   2. Northern Ireland - part of the United Kingdom(protestant dominated).  In 16th–17th century Tudor conquest led to colonization by settlers from Britain.  Northern Ireland’s Catholic minority used to experienced discrimination in the Protestant-run state. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority an...

A three-millennia-old “lost golden city” from the era of 18th dynasty king Amenhotep III was found in the southern province of Luxor, near some of the country’s best-known monuments.  The king ruled ancient Egypt from 1391 to 1353 B.C. It is being touted as the most important find since the unearthing of King Tutankhamun’s tomb almost 100 years ago.  The newly discovered city is located on the west bank of the Nile river.  Archaeologists had been excavating in this area since last September to look for a mortuary temple of King Tutankhamun, who is among the best-known figures from ancient Egypt. The legend of Tutankhamun, whose tomb was discovered almost intact in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.  It is famous on account of the vast treasure discovered at the location.

The park is Kutch solar project or the Gujarat Hybrid Renewable Energy Park, in Kutch, Gujarat.   This site has been chosen because it is a complete wasteland.  The park is expected to produce 30 gigawatts (GW), or 30,000 megawatts (MW) of power.  However, the plan is to generate 15 GW of energy by 2024.  SOLAR ENERGY IN GUJARAT Last year, Gujarat reported to be the top state in domestic solar panel installations, accounting for 68 per cent of the country’s 79,950 fittings.  It currently ranks 5th in the country in terms of solar power capacity.

The US Navy recently conducted a freedom of navigation patrol in Indian waters without India’s prior consent.  It declared that it was intended as a challenge to India’s “excessive maritime claims”. USS John Paul Jones (the ship) asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands.  There has been no official reaction from the Indian government and it is not known if Indian forces had challenged the US warship. UNCLOS UNCLOS is also sometimes referred to as the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty.  It came into operation and became effective from 16th November 1982.  However, the first time such a proposal was announced before the United Nations was in the year 1973. India ratified the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1995. It said, “the provisions of the Convention do not authorize other States to carry out in the exclusive economic zone and on the continental shel...

The latest edition of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook has raised its Financial Year (FY) 2021 for India's growth forecast to 12.5% from 11.5% estimated earlier in January 2021.  Indian economy is expected to grow by 12.5% in 2021 and 6.9% in 2022. In 2020, India’s economy witnessed an estimated contraction of 8%. GLOBAL ECONOMY China was the only major economy to have a positive growth rate of 2.3% in 2020. The IMF predicted stronger recovery in 2021 and 2022 with growth projected to be 6% in 2021 and 4.4% in 2022. In 2020, the global economy contracted by 3.3%. IMF The IMF was set up in 1945, along with the World Bank after the Second World War to assist in the reconstruction of war-ravaged countries. Managing Director: Kristalina Georgieva. Headquarters: Washington, D.C., U.S. Chief Economist: Gita Gopinath.

La Pérouse is a France-led exercise that is currently taking place in the Bay of Bengal.   All QUAD member countries — India, the US, Japan and Australia — will be a part of France initiated joint naval exercise. The exercises have been named after La Pérouse, a French naval officer and explorer of18th century. France had initiated the joint naval exercise in 2019 and at that time had included US, Japanese, and Australian forces.  India deployed its frontline warships and P-8I maritime patrol aircraft from the Eastern Naval Command at Vizag for this Quad-plus-France exercise. RISING FRENCH INTEREST IN INDO-PACIFIC France has the world's largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and includes territories in the Pacific Ocean and the Southern Indian Ocean.  France also has 8,000 military personnel based in the region. In 2019, the country published its Indo-Pacific strategy. Its main objective was to promote a rules-based, multilateral regional order, free of any hege...

A team of security forces was attacked by a People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) unit in the Tarrem area near the Sukma-Bijapur district border, Chhattisgarh.  The district is covered with the semi-tropical forest and is a mainland of tribal community Gond. The dead include personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), its elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) and the District Reserve Guard (DRG). PLGA PLGA was founded in 2000.  It has been declared as a terrorist organisation and banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act-1967 (UAPA).  The Maoist PLGA Battalion in the recent attack was led by its commander Madvi Hidma. The top Naxal leader is also linked with 2013 Jhiram Ghati killings, in which over 30 people, including senior leaders of Chhattisgarh Congress, were killed. LEFT WING EXTREMISM Left-wing extremists are popularly known as Maoists worldwide and as Naxalites in India. The term Naxalism derives its name fro...

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has surpassed the target for highway construction for fiscal 2021 .  MoRTH constructed about 13,298 km of national highways during the financial year. Gadkari’s ministry awarded 10,467 km of highway projects in 2020-21 as against 8,948 km in the FY20. “It’s a world record. Nowhere in the world has such quantum of work happened. I am now confident that we will be able to construct over 40 km road per day in 2021-22.” Gadkari said at an event.  For 2021-22, the ministry has set its construction target at 14,600 km of national highways.

Pakistan did a U-turn on a move for limited resumption of trade with India.  A Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan rejected a decision made by a government panel to allow imports of sugar and cotton from India to control prices and overcome a shortage. Pakistan’s interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters in Islamabad after the cabinet meeting that the move to permit imports from India was “deferred till Article 370 is not restored” and speaking in Urdu, he added, “till then, [imports of] cotton and sugar will not happen.” Earlier on March 31, Pakistan's new finance minister Hammad Azhar had announced that the ban on imports from India has been lifted. THE BAN Pakistan’s decision to suspend bilateral trade with India in August 2019 was primarily a fallout of India’s decision to scrap Article 370.  Pakistan called the move “illegal”, and took this trade measure as a way of showing its dissatisfaction.  However, an underlying reason for suspendi...

NASA and ISRO are collaborating on developing a satellite called NISAR. DETAILS The partnership agreement was signed between NASA and ISRO in September 2014.  According to the agreement, NASA will provide One of the radars for the satellite, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers and a payload data subsystem. The name NISAR is short for NASA-ISRO-SAR.  SAR here refers to the synthetic aperture radar that NASA will use to measure changes in the surface of the Earth.  Essentially, SAR refers to a technique for producing high resolution images.  The satellite will detect movements of the planet’s surface as small as 0.4 inches over areas about half the size of a tennis court.  The satellite will be launched in 2022 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, into a near-polar orbit. It will scan the globe every 12 days.  Over the course of its three-year mission of imaging the Earth’s land, ice sheets and sea ice...

India has fallen 28 places in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2021. GENDER GAP REPORT It was first published in 2006 by the WEF. It benchmarks 156 countries on their progress towards gender parity in four dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival and Political Empowerment. INDIA India has ranked 140th among 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021.  This makes India the third-worst performer in South Asia.  In South Asia, only Pakistan and Afghanistan ranked below India. According to the report, India has closed 62.5% of its gender gap till date.  Most of the decline occurred on the political empowerment sub-index – India regressed 13.5 percentage points. The estimated earned income of women in India is only one-fifth of men’s.  This puts India among the bottom 10 globally on this indicator.  GLOBAL  For the 12th time, Iceland is the most...