Topic 1: Metro under the River
Context: Trial runs are underway on India’s first underwater transport tunnel.
About the Project: East-West corridor
- The 16.55-km East-West corridor is the second line of the Kolkata Metro network.
- The East-West Corridor of the metro was approved in 2009.
- The line, called the Green Line, will link Howrah station to Sealdah station, which is the hub of Kolkata’s suburban railway network.
- When completed it will connect the IT hub of Salt Lake Sector V on Kolkata’s eastern flank to the western suburb of Howrah.
- Of the total 16.55 km-long East-West stretch, 520 meters is under the Hooghly riverbed.
- The western portion of the East-West Corridor is underground. There are 12 stations on the entire route, including the country’s deepest Howrah station at the depth of 33 metres.
- The train will run 100 meters beneath the river waters and it will take 45 seconds to cross the tunnel.
Technology involved in the Project and challenges:
- The tunnels under the Hooghly river have an internal diameter of 5.55 metres and an external diameter of 6.1 metres.
- The centre-to-centre distance between the east- and west-bound tunnels is 16.1 metres.
- The inner walls are of high-quality M50-grade reinforced concrete segments with a thickness of 275 mm each.
- Six of these segments will complete a circular lining of the tunnel’s diameter. The segments are being pre-cast in specialised moulds imported from Korea.
- There is a layer of sandy silt under the organic clay of the riverbed.
- Apart from the underwater tunneling, tunneling in areas with historic buildings like Dalhousie posed a challenge for the project.
Conclusion:
- It was Kolkata where India’s first Metro railway i.e., North-South line was opened in 1984. And the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) is gearing up to make India’s first underwater metro train operational in the city by the year-end.
- The East West Metro will pass through the highly congested parts of Kolkata that have narrow streets and historic buildings. The tunnel, and the corridor will significantly improve commuting on one of the city’s most congested stretches.
Topic 2: Assam-Arunachal Border Dispute
Context: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart Pema Khandu signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) over the long-standing border dispute between the two states.
The Border Dispute:
Before North East Frontier Agency NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh) was carved out of Assam in 1954, a sub-committee headed by then Assam Chief Minister Gopinath Bordoloi had made a set of recommendations in relation to the administration of NEFA and submitted a report in 1951.
According to the recommendation, around 3,648 kilometres of the “plain” area of Balipara and Sadiya foothills were transferred from NEFA to Assam.
When Arunachal was made a Union Territory in 1972, it contended that several forested tracts in the plains that had traditionally belonged to tribal communities were unilaterally transferred to Assam.
Chronology of Dispute resolution:
- A high-powered tripartite committee was constituted in 1979 to delineate the boundary on the basis of Survey of India maps.
- However, Arunachal did not accept the recommendation and further demarcation could not take place.
- In retaliation Assam filed a case in the Supreme Court in 1989, highlighting an “encroachment” made by Arunachal Pradesh.
- The supreme court appointed a local boundary commission in 2006, headed by a retired SC judge.
- In its recommendation, the commission suggested that both states should arrive at a consensus through discussions.
- In 2022, it was agreed by both states that border issues between both the states would be confined to a list of 123 villages which Arunachal Pradesh had claimed before the Local Commission in 2007.
- Secondly that the boundary line delineated by the high-powered tripartite committee in 1980 would be taken as the notified boundary.
- The dispute over 37 of these 123 villages had been resolved on July 15, 2022, itself with the signing of the Namsai Declaration between the both CMs.
- According to the MoU, both the state governments agree that no new claim area or village will be added in the future beyond these 123 villages.
- It also states that both the state governments “agree to effectively prevent any new encroachment in the border areas” and that they agree that the MoU is “full and final” in respect to the 123 villages.
- Assam and Arunachal share a roughly 800-kilometre-long border and the disputed areas the MoU deals with are 123 border villages, which span 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh and 8 districts of Assam.
Topic 3: First-Ever Trilateral Talks between India, Armenia, Iran
Context: Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India, Armenia and Iran held the first trilateral political consultations in Yerevan.
Key Details
- The three countries had a wide range of discussions on:
- Economic issues
- Regional communication
- Trilateral cooperation in various fields
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Armenia and India
- In 2022, both the countries celebrated 30 years of bilateral diplomatic relations.
- Armenia and India maintain active political ties.
- Effective cooperation exists between the two nations within international bodies.
- After Armenia’s independence in 1991, Armenian-Indian relations were re-established.
- In 1992, Diplomatic relations were established between the Republic of Armenia and India.
- In 1999, the Indian Embassy in Yerevan began operations.
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India-Iran
- The relations of India and Iran span millennia marked by meaningful interactions.
- Since the diplomatic relationship has been established in 1950 with the friendship treaty, the visits on the ministerial level have increased.
- Both have in place several bilateral consultative mechanisms at various levels which meet regularly.
- Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) chaired at the Ministerial level
- Foreign Office Consultations chaired at the Foreign Secretary level
- Joint Consular Committee Meeting at the level of Joint Secretary/DG
- Commercial ties: India-Iran commercial ties were traditionally dominated by the Indian import of Iranian crude oil.
- Recently, Irani Ambassador to India described India as “most important to Iran”.
- Iran considers, the Chabahar port as the “Golden Gateway”, with which India is highly involved.
Topic 4: India ranks second globally in gold investment
India’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNIs) allocated 6% of their total investable wealth in the gold last year.
In 2022, the average UHNI wealth allocation in gold was 3% globally and 4% in the Asia-Pacific region.
Indian UHNIs have stepped up gold allocation from 4% in 2018. This is because gold has delivered returns of over 69 percent in the past 5 years. The
Pandemic resulted in a low interest rate and an easy liquidity strategy adopted by central banks gave a massive push to prices.
In the wake of uncertainties in the global economic landscape, consumers resorted to allocating incremental capital to assets that offer stability and serve as a hedge against inflation.
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What Is a High-Net-Worth Individual (HNWI)?
- A high-net-worth individual is somebody with at least $1 million in liquid financial assets.
- HNWIs are in high demand by private wealth managers because it takes more work to maintain and preserve those assets.
- The United States had the most HNWIs in the world in 2021, with more than 7.4 million people
- A very-high-net-worth individual has a net worth of at least $5 million while an ultra-high-net-worth individual is defined as having at least $30 million in assets.
Topic 5: India’s cheetah reintroduction plan ignored spatial ecology
Context: Namibian experts warns that Cheetah project overestimated carrying capacity of Kuno Park.
Project Cheetah:
- India declared Cheetah extinct in 1952. Project Cheeta aims to introduce Cheeta back to India and to establish a free-ranging population of cheetahs in India.
- The first batch of 8 Cheeta from Namibia were introduced to Kuno national park in Sept, 2022, and a second batch of twelve African cheetahs from South Africa were introduced in Jan, 2023.
- India’s Cheetah Action Plan 2021 claimed that the 748 sq km Kuno National Park could hold 21 cheetahs. However African cheetahs in unfenced reserves, usually occur at less than 1 animal per 100 sq km.
What is the concern now?
- According to a group of Namibian researchers Project Cheetah overestimated the carrying capacity of Kuno National Park and did not factor in the unique spatial requirement of the species before flying in 20 spotted cats from Africa.
- The cheetah project overestimated Kuno’s carrying capacity based on the assumption that augmenting the prey base by shifting and stocking herbivores will support more cheetahs but cheetah density does not depend on availability of food alone.
- In Namibia, cheetah territories are larger and prey density lower, in East Africa territories are smaller and prey density higher, but the distance between territories is constant and no new territories are established in between. However, these distances were ignored at Kuno.
What could be the likely fallout?
- Multiple cheetahs could fan out of the national park in search of territories in the larger Kuno landscape dotted by 169 villages.
- Researchers fear that three males flown in from Namibia would occupy the entire area, forcing the South African male cats to venture out of the national park and invite conflict.
- What is the Possible solution?
- To capture and pack away the ‘straying’ cheetahs to alternative sites or hold them in enclosures. Anyway, this will defeat the stated goal of Project Cheetah i.e., “to establish a free-ranging population of cheetahs.
- The prey base of Kuno can be strengthened by translocating nilgai and blackbuck from sites where they are seriously damaging agriculture.
Topic 6: Increase in Wheat Procurement
Context: Recently, the wheat procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and State government agencies has surpassed last year’s procurement.
About Foodgrain Procurement in India
- It is done either by FCI directly or by State Government Agencies (SGA).
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FCI was established under theFood Corporation Actof 1964, in order to fulfill the following objectives:
- Effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers through MSP on food grains (Rice, Wheat, and coarse grains).
- Distribution of food grains throughout the country for the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other schemes.
- Maintaining a satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of foodgrains to maintain the Central pool to ensure National Food Security.
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FCI was established under theFood Corporation Actof 1964, in order to fulfill the following objectives:
- Punjab has traditionally been the number 1 contributor to the Central Pool.
- In Punjab and Haryana under the centralized system, wheat is procured through Arhtiyas (commission agents) as per the state APMC Act. In other states, wheat (or paddy) is procured directly from the farmers by FCI or SGAs.
- Wheat is being procured under the DCP from eight states Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, and Maharashtra.
- Procurement period differs from state to state. This mainly happens during the current marketing season.
About Minimum Support Price (MSP)
- It is a decentralized (DCP)/centralized (non-DCP) process of market intervention by the Government of India to secure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices.
- Announced by the Government of India at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops.
- Government announces MSPs for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane.
- There is no law backing for MSPs.
Challenges faced by the farmers:
- Imposition of value loss by the Ministry of Food.
- Delay in payment of MSP against wheat procurement.
- Less production last year due to a spike in March temperatures and an increase in private purchases.
How Government decides the MSP
- The amount of MSP is declared by the government before the sowing of the crop every year.
- Declared on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP).
Procurement Cost to the Government
- FCI defines it as “the total cost” of procurement which includes:
- Acquisition and distribution costs
- MSP
- Incidental costs of procurement
- State taxes
- Commission to Arhtiyas or societies
- Cost of bagging materials
- Mandi labour
- Transportation to the depot, etc.
The Annual requirement of wheat for government schemes:
- The annual offtake from theCentral Pool has been for
- Distribution under the National Food Security Act, 2013
- Other welfare schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana and Atma Nirbhar Bharat program for migrant workers amid the pandemic.