My Notes – 17DEC2015

Pollution

  • WHO named Delhi as a city with poorest scoring on ambient air quality index. Particulate matter less than 10microns is considered as a global norm and New delhi has more than 150 micons per cubic mtr. It led to the issue of warnings to the foreigners by their respective embassies.
  • Increased air pollution is leading to worsening of respiratory disorders.

Ban on Diesel vehicles in Delhi

  • Supreme court of India imposed a ban on registration of diesel vehicles above 2000cc and SUVs to decrease the air pollution.

AQI / Associated Health Impacts
Good
(0–50) / Minimal Impact
Satisfactory
(51–100) / May cause minor breathing discomfort to sensitive people.
Moderately polluted
(101–200) / May cause breathing discomfort to people with lung disease such as asthma, and discomfort to people with heart disease, children and older adults.
Poor
(201–300) / May cause breathing discomfort to people on prolonged exposure, and discomfort to people with heart disease
Very Poor
(301–400) / May cause respiratory illness to the people on prolonged exposure. Effect may be more pronounced in people with lung and heart diseases.
Severe
(401-500) / May cause respiratory impact even on healthy people, and serious health impacts on people with lung/heart disease. The health impacts may be experienced even during light physical activity.

From <

What the Index does is colour code each pollutant’s AQI reading according to the official code, and then assign an overall AQI on the basis of top pollutant’s reading. So since Dwarka has the highest PM 2.5 readings out of all its pollutants, its overall AQI is the PM 2.5 value. If a city has higher CO readings than PM 2.5 at a given time, CO will be the chief pollutant, and its value will be that city’s AQI.

Exports

There is a sharp contraction of exports in India consequently for 12th month and is a serious concern. The reasons include

  • Global economic weakness
  • Slide in commodity prices
  • Fall in demand for Indian engineering goods and leather sector
  • Poor infrastructure and increased competition
  • Low level of value addition
  • Appreciation of rupee – Though rupee has depreciated against the dollar, it has actually appreciated in real terms against the trade weighted basket of 36 currencies.
  • Recent FDA regulations on Pharmaceutical sector

What has to be done?

  • Improving business competitionthrough reforms
  • Skill enhancement and technology upgradation
  • Special focus on MSME
  • Make in India and enhancement of quality infrastructure.

India – Bangladesh

As per the 2011 protocol and agreement made in 2015, boundary demarcation is on a past pace at adverse possessions.

What is Land ‘in Adverse Possession’?

‘An adverse possession’ is territory that is contiguous to India’s border and within Indian control, but which is legally part of Bangladesh. Residents of these adverse possessions are Indian citizens. Similarly, Bangladesh also has Indian territory in its adverse possessions.

In respect of adverse possessions, India is to receive 2,777.038 acres of land and to transfer 2267.682 acres to Bangladesh.

However, the reality is that the area to be transferred by India is already in the possession of Bangladesh and its handing over to Bangladesh is merely a procedural acceptance of the de facto situation on the ground.

Nuclear deal with Japan

  • Deal is very critical as companies such as Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Hitachi are involved in supplying the critical components of Nuclear reactors supplied by Areva(EPR), Westinghouse(AP1000),GE(ESBWR) respectively.
  • The major issues here are - cost, safety and liability
  • Cost - The initial cost of investment is very high and running costs are also progressively increasing. It makes the power prohibitively expensive.
  • Safety - Many countries are moving away from Nuclear power after Fukushima disaster. Many of the nuclear reactors proposed to be supplied to India are new designs and their safety record is based on probabilistic studies and is untested.
  • Liability - These nuclear companies are not ready to take liability on to their head and as like in japan where the country took the $200bn of cleanup cost after Fukushima disaster, India is also susceptible for the failure of manufacturers.

Public policy, private gain

  • Governance and Politics are inseparable and failure of governance has invariable connections with politics. It is clearly visible in the management of recent deluge in Chennai.
  • In TN, political parties are practicing competitive populism through distribution of freebies. This distributism is decreasing the funds available for building social safety nets through expansion of public goods and merit goods. Here, merit goods refer to Education, Health and Public goods refer to Sanitation, safety, roads and bridges.
  • The freebies build a patron client relationship and they have definite political advantage in gaining votes and they also help in giving the financial gains to the business supporting the political parties.