15 June 2023

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – Captagon Pills: GS III – Biotechnology related issues: 

Context:

• The Arab League has reinstated Syria as a member, ending the international isolation of President Bashar al-Assad. As a result, concerns over the trade in Captagon pills have once again taken centre stage.

About the captagon:

• Captagon is an extremely addictive medication of the amphetamine class.
• It is mostly manufactured in Syria and is heavily trafficked throughout West Asia.
• They were created to assist in the treatment of narcolepsy, attention deficit disorders, and other illnesses.

What effects do drugs made of amphetamine have?

• It can increase someone’s energy, improve their focus, allow them to stay awake for longer periods of time, and give them a euphoric experience by stimulating the central nervous system.
• Drugs of the amphetamine class, such as captagon, often remain in the blood for about 36 hours.
• When consumed orally, their effects reach their peak one to three hours after consumption and extend for up to seven to twelve hours.

Negative effects:

Amphetamine usage can result in:

• loss of weight and appetite.
• Fast heartbeats, irregular heartbeats, high blood pressure, and heart attacks are all heart issues that can be fatal.
• elevated core temperature.
• skin rashes.
• loss of memory.
• difficulty thinking clearly.

Source The Hindu

2 – Ram Prasad Bismil: GS I – Modern Indian History:

Context:

• Recently, Ram Prasad Bismil’s 126th birthday was observed.

Important facts of his life:

Early years:

• He was raised in a Tomar Rajput family.
• Ram Prasad Bismil learned Urdu from a local maulvi and Hindi from his father.
• He also attended a school with an English medium.
• He became a member of the Arya Samaj and a prolific writer and poet who wrote nationalistic verses in Hindi and Urdu under the pen names “Agyat,” “Ram,” and the most well-known one, “Bismil” (meaning “wounded” or “restless”).
• When he was only 18 years old, he wrote the poem Mera Janm (My Birth) as a way to express his rage over the death penalty imposed on Arya Samaj missionary Bhai Parmanand.

The conspiracy at Mainpuri:

• Bismil was not prepared to “negotiate” or “beg” for the liberation of his nation.
• He was prepared to use force to seize it from the British, as Ghulami Mita Do, one of his most well-known poems, shows, if they did not accede.
• He teamed up with fellow revolutionary Genda Lal Dixit to create Matrivedi (The Altar of the Motherland), a group dedicated to revolution.
• Mainpuri ki Pratigya, possibly Bismil’s most well-known poem, was published in 1918 and circulated in pamphlets throughout the United Provinces.
• Her committed at least three cases of office robberies in the Mainpuri district that year in order to raise money for his budding outfit.

The establishment of the Hindustan Republican Association:

• He published the poetry collection Man ki Lahar and also translated Bengali pieces like Bolshevikon ki Kartoot.
• After Gandhi called off the Non-Cooperation Movement following the tragedy at Chauri Chaura in 1922, Bismil chose to found his own party. At first, he attempted to rally support for the Congress-led Non-Cooperation Movement.
• As a result, the founding members of the Hindustan Republican Association were Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Sachindra Nath Bakshi, and Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee.
• Later, individuals like Bhagat Singh and Chandra Shekhar Azad would also join the HRA.
• On January 1, 1925, their manifesto, which was mostly written by Bismil, was formally published under the title Krantikari (Revolutionary).
• It stated that creating a federated Republic of United States of India by a planned and armed uprising is the revolutionary party’s immediate political goal.

Action in The Kakori Train:

• The HRA’s first significant action was the train heist at Kakori in August 1925.
• The British treasury was located in Lucknow, thus revolutionaries intended to rob the train travelling between Shahjahanpur and Lucknow, which frequently carried treasury bags.
• On August 9, 1925, Rajendranath Lahiri, a member of the HRA who was already sitting onboard, pulled the chain to halt the train as it was passing the Kakori station, which was about 15 km from Lucknow.
• Approximately ten revolutionaries, including Ashfaqullah Khan and Ram Prasad Bismil, then entered the train and overwhelmed the guard.
• They stole the treasury bags, which contained about 4,600 rupees, and fled to Lucknow.
• One passenger, a lawyer by the name of Ahmad Ali, was killed in the robbery as a result of a malfunctioning Mauser rifle.
• Legacy and death
• Bismil, Ashfaqullah, and Rajendranath Lahiri received death sentences following an 18-month trial.
• The punishment was executed on December 19, 1927.

Source The Hindu

3 – Nutri Garden Project in Lakshadweep: GS II – Government Policies and Interventions:

Context:

• The Nutri Garden Project in Lakshadweep has had positive results, according to the Indian Prime Minister.

Key information:

• Under the ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ initiative, the project was introduced throughout the island chain in 2022.
• In this operation, vegetable seeds were made available to 1,000 farmers.
• This strategy has been successful in increasing the availability of veggies in the area.
• The seeds of okra, tomato, brinjal, chilli, amaranthus, and other vegetables, along with grow bags and organic fertilisers, were given to 1,000 farmers chosen from the several islands in an effort to make the island archipelago self-sufficient in the production and supply of vegetables.
• They also received more than 8,000 fruit saplings of various sorts and spice saplings.

Significance:

• In Lakshadweep, the availability of fresh vegetables has risen to ensure the indigenous population’s nutritional security.
• The scheme has been a big success, increasing the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables to the islanders and providing income security to the farmers.

Source The Hindu

4 – Indo US Cooperation in Agriculture: GS II – International Relations:

Context:

• In light of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s imminent visit to the US and the “global strategic partnership” between the two nations, it is helpful to provide a brief history of the US contribution to the growth of independent India’s agricultural sector.
• Major H.S. Sandhu, who oversaw the Tarai region’s reclamation in Uttar Pradesh, and the state’s chief secretary, A.N. Jha, travelled to the US in 1950 and toured the country’s land-grant universities.
• These public-owned institutes carried out agricultural research and extension work in addition to providing agricultural education.
• This was in contrast to the agricultural and veterinary colleges in India, which did nothing more than teach and turn out graduates.
• The Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant was advised by the two officials to create a US land-grant model agricultural university in the heavily forested Tarai region near the foothills of the Himalayas.
• The UP Agricultural University Act was passed in December 1958 and 14,255 acres of land were made available by the state government.
• The UP Agricultural University was opened by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on November 17, 1960. It was afterwards renamed as G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology.
• Eight years later, up to eight agricultural universities were founded, the most of them at the chief ministers’ own initiative.
• The US Agency for International Development provided support to all eight universities for faculty training, equipment provision, and book provision.
• Each was also connected to a US land-grant university.

The seeds of the Green Revolution:

• Scientist M.S. Swaminathan made contact with Norman Borlaug somewhere between 1957 and 1958. Borlaug didn’t visit India until March 1963 as a result of a request made to the Rockefeller Foundation (US).
• In the experimental grounds of IARI and the new agricultural universities in Pantnagar and Ludhiana, he first sowed the seeds of four of his domesticated wheat types from Mexico. He then sent those seeds.
• By 1966–1967, farmers had begun to cultivate these on a considerable basis, and India had stopped being a net importer of wheat.

Significance:

• It led to competition for good deeds, including sharing of information and plant genetic resources that were regarded as global public goods as well as “fighting world hunger”
• Contrary to popular belief, India didn’t support either bloc until at least the 1960s.
• The non-alignment method then proved successful.

Source The Hindu

5 – Sengol: GS I – Indian Culture:

Context:

• In order to show appreciation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for putting Sengol, a relic of the Chola dynasty, in the new Parliament House, the Union Home Minister made a plea to the people of Tamil Nadu to elect more than 25 MPs in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Key information:

What exactly is sengol?

• This five-foot-long, gold-coated silver sceptre has a finely carved “nandi” at the top that is designed to symbolise the idea of justice.

Who made it, when, and how?

• It was created in 1947, just as India gained its independence from the British.

Why did it get made?

• The last British viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, intended to commemorate the historic occasion when the British ceremonially handed over authority to the Indians.

To whom was the sengol given?

• The late Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru acknowledged this sengol as a symbol of gaining freedom when he got it from Tamil Nadu.
• It represents a transfer of power from the British to the local populace.
• The Sengol was given to Nehru in 1947 by the leader of the old Shaivite math Thiruvavaduthurai Aadeenam math.

What do sengols represent today?

• Since then, the sengol has gained significance as the sceptre of righteousness.
• It serves as a reminder of the diversity of India and the founding of a great nation.
• It is expected that the person receiving Sengol to have a reasonable and fair rule.

What is Sengol’s significance?

• The Sengol played a significant role in the Chola era’s coronation celebrations and served as a symbol of the transition of power from one king to the next.

Source The Hindu

6 – Matuas: GS I – Indian Culture:

Context:

• A representative of the Trinamool Congress charged a political party with desecrating the Matuas’ sacred site in West Bengal by harassing its female devotees.

Harichand Thakur:

• Harichand Thakur was born in 1812 to a Thakur community (SC group) peasant farming family in Orakandi, Bangladesh.
• The Matua Vaishnavite sect was created by Thakur, a member of a Vaishnavite Hindu family.
• Members of the Namasudra community, who at the time were also referred to as Chandalas and viewed as untouchable, adopted this.
• Later, the group, which opposed caste discrimination, drew members from other oppressed populations by the upper castes, such as Malis and Telis.
• The name “Takur” comes from his devotees’ belief that he is both God and an incarnation of Vishnu or Krishna.
• As a result, he earned the name Sri Sri Harichand Thakur.

What are the Matuas?

• The Matuas, who were originally from East Pakistan, fled to India during Partition and after Bangladesh was established.
• Many people have not yet received Indian citizenship, though.
• In the middle of the nineteenth century, Harichand Thakur founded the religious reform organisation known as the Matua Mahasangha in East Bengal.
• Political significance: According to data from the 2001 Census, the Namasudras make up one of the largest groups of SCs in Bengal, making up 17.4% of the total population.
• They support the Citizenship Amendment Act, which would grant the matuas’ long-standing request for Indian citizenship.

Typical Chola behaviour:

• Samayacharyas (spiritual leaders) traditionally presided over kings’ coronations and sanctified the transfer of authority, which is also seen as a form of acknowledgment for the ruler.
• This sengol, or sceptre in Tamil, was a symbol of justice and sound government used by Tamil monarchs.
• The importance of a sengol is documented in the two legendary books Silapathikaram and Manimekalai.

Source The Hindu