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Plastic is ubiquitous everywhere, from the top of the highest mountain to the deepest of trenches in the ocean. It is found even inside the human lungs and placenta.
Microplastics are formed by the degradation and the fragmentation of large plastic pieces that are improperly disposed of Microplastic deposition and accumulation has been found in the Himalayan mountains, rivers, lakes and streams.
These microplastics can be trapped in glaciers for a long time and released into rivers during snow melting. The Indian Himalayan Region is a critical source of water in the subcontinent, feeding a number of major rivers of India that include the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems.
Unscientific plastic disposal is causing soil and water pollution in the Indian Himalayan Region and impacting its biodiversity, which is having an adverse impact on the fresh water sources that communities downstream depend on.
Opinion
A women’s urban employment guarantee act (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
Reducing gender gaps and increasing women’s empowerment are part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Notwithstanding ethical and constitutional imperatives, there is also evidence suggesting that increasing women’s employment rates can be an engine for economic growth.
Despite functioning at a fraction of its intended capacity, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been pivotal in providing financial autonomy to women in rural areas.
More than half the MGNREGA workforce are women. However, urban realities are different. Social norms, lack of safety, and hostile transportation options are some of the factors inhibiting urban women to enter the workforce.
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) pegs women’s employment rate in urban areas at 22.9% in the last quarter of 2023. There are clear signs of high unmet demand for employment among urban women.
Text & Context
On the relevance of university rankings (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
Since the first appearance of global university ranking systems around two decades ago, rankings have come to dominate the attention in higher education ecosystems around the world.
Today, many countries including China, Japan, and Russia have committed substantial resources to elevate the statuses of their universities to “world class” as defined by these rankings, allowing them not-inconsiderable political heft as well.
Of late, however, some universities worldwide have pulled out of being ranked, over concerns about the incentives the systems set up and their compatibility with the universities’ own aspirations.
But the din of these controversies have also drowned out two crucial aspects pertaining to the conduct of the companies behind some of the ranking systems. They are conflicts of interest and data rights.
News
Plans for non-lapsable defence modernisation fund put on hold (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The idea of setting up a non-lapsable defence modernisation fund is off the table for now, top government officials, stressing that all defence funding needs are being met as and when they arise, and creating a non-lapsable pool has drawbacks as it affects parliamentary scrutiny and accountability.
Among Central Ministries, defence spending accounts for the largest outlays and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had informed Parliament as recently as December 2023 that a “separate mechanism is being worked out” to explore a special dispensation to operationalise a “Non-lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund”.
As of now, no such decision has been taken on such a Fund and it is not under any active contemplation because there are drawbacks such as reducing parliamentary accountability.
The only funds that are non-lapsable traditionally are those funded through cesses levied for a specific purpose,” a top Finance Ministry official said on the issue.
Except for things financed through a cess, taking away today’s appropriations and saying I will use it tomorrow goes against the basic norms or parliamentary financial accountability.
Parliament would like to know whether you spent the money they voted for, or not, and it needs to be told, Yes or No.
Odisha’s famed Rupa Tarakasi, Banglar Muslin earn GI tag (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
The famous Cuttack Rupa Tarakasi (silver filigree) has been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indications Registry in Chennai.
The application for this was filed by the Odisha State Cooperative Handicrafts Corporation Limited and was facilitated by the Department of Textile and Handicrafts, Government of Odisha.
Filigree has been traditionally associated with fine craftsmanship and luxurious design in classical jewellery.
The historical records attached along with the GI filing mention: “Archaeological evidence suggests that filigree was incorporated into jewellery as early as 3,500 BCE in Mesopotamia where it is practised even today as Telkari work.
According to historians, there is every possibility that the Tarakasi work reached Cuttack from Persia through Indonesia some 500 years ago by sea trade. The argument is based on similar workmanship seen in both Cuttack and Indonesia.”
World
Shehbaz Sharif becomes Pakistan PM for second time (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Pledging to revive Pakistan’s debt-trapped economy and eradicate terrorism, newly-elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said his government would not allow the country to become part of some “great game” and would maintain cordial relations with neighbours based on the principles of equality.
In his victory speech in the National Assembly soon after he was elected as the 24th Prime Minister and for a second time since 2022, the 72-year-old Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader profusely thanked his elder brother and three-time former premier Nawaz Sharif and allies for putting their trust in him and allowing him to head a coalition government after last month’s election resulted in a hung parliament.
Many OPEC+ nations extend oil cuts to boost prices (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Moscow, Riyadh and several other OPEC+ members on Sunday announced extensions to oil production cuts first announced in 2023 as part of an agreement among oil producers to boost prices following economic uncertainty.
The plan to extend cuts to mid-2024 comes on top of previous cuts to both oil output and exports as some of the world’s largest energy producers drive to push up market rates.
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said it would cut its production by one million barrels per day (bpd) from April to June (Q2), while Russia announced 471,000 bpd of cuts in Q2.
UAE, Kuwait, Iraq and Kazakhstan followed suit, saying they would extend existing voluntarily cuts till the end of June.