17 November 2022

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – Young Professional Exchange: GS II – Topic International Relations

Context:

• At the G20 conference in Bali on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will declare a new “relationship” with India, according to Downing Street. Under the U.K.-India Young Professionals Scheme, the United Kingdom will annually offer 3,000 degree-holding Indians between the ages of 18 and 30 positions in the country for up to two years. Beginning in the first quarter of 2023, the programme will operate on a reciprocal basis.

India and the UK Young Professionals Programme:

• According to a news statement from Downing Street, the UK has more ties to India than almost any other country in the Indo-Pacific region, with Indians making up around a quarter of all foreign students there and Indian investment supporting 95,000 employment in the country. The U.K. The government praised the initiative’s inauguration as an “important milestone” for the U.K.’s relationships with India and the Indo-Pacific region.
• Every year, 3,000 visas are granted by Rishi Sunak, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, to young Indian professionals so they can live and work there.
• The UK-India Migration and Mobility Partnership were established last year, according to the British government, and India is the first country with a visa-free policy to make use of it.

Details:

• The UK will provide 3,000 visas annually as part of the recently launched UK-India Young Professionals Scheme.
• These visas will be issued to young professionals between the ages of 18 and 30.
• Under the programme, degree-holding Indian citizens are allowed to reside and work in the UK for a maximum of two years.

The system will be reciprocal:

• More than almost any other nation in the Indo-Pacific region, the UK has relations to India. India accounts for about 25% of all foreign students in the UK, and their spending there helps to sustain 95,000 jobs nationwide.

Are Indians qualified for a youth mobility visa?

• After the implementation of the invitation to apply arrangements for the allocation of spaces available for use by Indian citizens, as described in Appendix Youth Mobility Scheme: Eligible Nationals, applicants from India will be allowed to apply using the Youth Mobility Scheme method.
• A diploma or degree that is equivalent to at least three years of higher education is required for Indians who want to visit the UK on a youth mobility visa. They also need to be able to communicate in the language of the country they are visiting.
• Every year, 3,000 visas for young professionals from India to work in the UK are approved by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The UK-India Migration and Mobility Partnership was established last year, according to the British government, and India is the first country with a visa-free policy to take use of it.

Source The Hindu

 2 – GST Council: GS III – Topic Indian Economy

Context:

• Amit Mitra, a former finance minister for West Bengal, wrote to Nirmala Sitharaman, the federal finance minister, on Wednesday requesting that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council convene immediately as it hasn’t done so in four and a half months.

Background:

• After the Constitutional (122nd Amendment) Bill was approved by both Houses of Parliament in 2016, the Goods and Services Tax system was put into place.
• The President then gave his assent after it had been approved by the state assemblies of more than 15 Indian states.

About:

• The Centre and the States collaborate in the GST Council.
• In accordance with Article 279A (1) of the revised Constitution, the President established it.

Members:

• The Union Finance Minister and the Union Minister of State for Finance from the Center are members of the Council (chairperson).
• A minister in charge of finances, taxes, or any other minister may be proposed for membership by any state.

Functions:

• The Council is tasked with “offering recommendations to the Union and the States on key GST-related matters, such as the commodities and services that may be subject to or exempt from GST, model GST Laws,” as stated in Article 279 of the Constitution.
• It also creates different GST rate slabs.
• For instance, a panel of ministers’ interim report recommended levying a 28% GST on horse racing, internet casinos, and other forms of gambling.

Source The Hindu

3 – Amazon Rainforest: GS III – Topic Environmental Conservation

Context:

• Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was warmly welcomed to the COP27 conference on Wednesday in Egypt, where he reaffirmed his nation’s dedication to averting the climate catastrophe and offered to host future U.N. conferences. meetings. discusses the environment.

Amazon Rainforests:

• These enormous tropical rainforests are situated within the 6,000,000 square kilometre drainage basin of the Amazon River and its tributaries in northern South America.
• Tropical woods, also known as closed-canopy forests, can be found 28 degrees north or south of the equator.
• There receive more year-round or during specific seasons more than 200 cm of precipitation.
• The ambient temperature is between 20 and 35 degrees Celsius.
• Asia, Australia, Africa, South and Central America, Mexico, and a number of the Pacific Islands all have these kinds of forests.
• Its northern border is formed by the Guiana Highlands, while its western, southern, and eastern borders are formed by the Brazilian Central Plateau and the Andes Mountains. Nearly 40% of Brazil’s total land area is represented by it.

Concerns:

• About 20% of the oxygen in the atmosphere comes from the Amazon rainforest, which is a veritable gold mine of rare species.
• For their survival, many indigenous populations rely on forests.
• Extra Carbon Emissions: The Amazon basin emits the same amount of carbon dioxide that it absorbs. As a result, burning forests means producing more carbon emissions.
• If increased deforestation led to the transformation of the Amazon basin from the largest rainforest in the world to a savanna, the ecology of the region would be drastically altered.
• Savannas, a type of vegetation that thrives in hot, dry climates, are characterised by an unbroken understory of tall grass and an open tree canopy.
• Africa, South America, Australia, India, the area of Asia between Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand, Madagascar, and Australia are the continents with the largest savanna ecosystems.
• Impact on Water Cycle: The Amazon rainforest may be the source of at least half of the rain that falls there. Even the rain that the Amazon creates as it moves across the region reaches the Andes mountain range.
• The international community and the United Nations must act quickly to save the forests.

Source The Hindu

 4 – Pangong Tso: GS II – Topic International Relations:

Context:

• In order to police the lake, which is around 14,000 feet in elevation, the Army has deployed additional landing docks and speed boats to match Chinese deployments.

Regarding Pangong Tso:

• Pangong Tso is referred to as “conclave lake” in English. The Ladakhi word for the conclave is Pangong, and the Tibetan word for lake is Tso.
• The Lake spans around 135 kilometres and is located at an altitude of 14,000 feet above sea level.
• The Tethys Geosyncline created it.
• The northern bank of the Pangong Tso marks the end of the Karakoram Mountain range, which spans Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and India and features K2, the second-highest peak in the world.
• Along its southern side, there are also imposing, broken mountains that descend in the direction of Spangur Lake.
• Despite being completely pure, the lake’s water is brackish and should not be drank.

Why is the situation in conflict?

• With the exception of Pangong Tso’s width, the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which has separated Indian and Chinese soldiers since 1962, mostly follows the ground. It moves through water here.
• The boundaries of each side’s region have been marked to indicate which side is from which nation.
• Both China and India are in control of a 45-kilometer stretch of the Pangong Tso.

Why is China attempting to acquire more land close to Pangong Tso?

• Due to its proximity to Chusul Valley, one of the frontlines of the 1962 conflict between India and China, Pangong Tso is strategically vital.
• By strategically utilising its advantage of being able to see over the Chusul Valley, which it can accomplish if it moves along Pangong Tso, China appears to keep India constrained in the area.
• China also objects to India developing its infrastructure so near to the LAC. China worries that this may jeopardise its control over the Aksai Chin and the Lhasa-Kashgar route.
• Any threat to this route exposes China’s blatant imperialist ambitions for Pakistan’s seized Ladakh, Jammu, and Kashmir, as well as other parts of the nation.

Source The Hindu