Class Notes 4 You

Intro: SS Menon in his book Choices describes Sri Lanka an aircraft carrier sitting right in the middle of Indian ocean. This makes Sri Lanka an important country in India's neighborhood first policy.  In Sri Lanka, worst economic crisis since independence. India has extended about 3.5+ billion dollar assistance since January. India and Japan Working to help Sri Lanka for the essential items such as medicines, food supplies, fuel etc. Cooperation: Buddhism connect Sri Lanka is the first SAARC country to join India's National knowledge network. India’s developmental assistance projects for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and disadvantaged sections of the population Sri Lanka has helped further cement the bonds of friendship between the two countries The Economic and Technology Co-operation Agreement (ETCA) is a proposed diplomatic arrangement that seeks to add to the existing free trade agreement between the Republic of India and the Republic of Sri Lanka, primarily in relat...

Current Affairs  Important Newspaper Highlights for UPSC Civil Services Examination. 22 July 2022 The HINDU   🟠 FRONT PAGE : NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu elected 15th President of India (Page 1) 🟢 FRONT PAGE : Clarify actions taken against hate speech: SC (Page 1) 🟠 SPOTLIGHT: Indigenous tag splits ‘Assamese Muslims’ wide open (Page 4) 🟢 STATES : Stolen 19th century painting traced to U.S. museum (Page 7) 🟠 EDITORIAL: In Pegasus battle, the fight for surveillance reform (Page 8) 🟢 EDITORIAL: ‘Advantage New Delhi’ in Sri Lanka’s India lifeline (Page 8) 🟠 OPED : What can the world do to help Sri Lanka? (Page 9) 🟢 NEWS :Karnataka tops NITI Aayog innovation index list (Page 12) 🟠 NEWS :Women have right to safe abortion: SC (Page 14) 🟢 BUSINESS: ADB pares India FY23 growth forecast to 7.2% citing price rise (Page 16)  The Indian EXPRESS 🟠 FRONT PAGE : First tribal woman to be elected to highest post in country (Page 3) 🟢FRONT PAGE : SC allows abortion at 24 weeks: Ca...

Intro: India and France are middle powers trying to reorient their foreign policies with respect to current flux in world order Context: The only western country to not criticize India post Pokhran tests and first western country to establish strategic partnership with India cooperation: Vigorously backed India's decision wrt J&K at UNSC, France became the first country to have a Liaison Officer at the Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre (IFC-IOR). France also joined Indo pacific oceans initiative India France Australia trilateral naval exercises and ministerial dialogue affirm commitment for free open and inclusive Indo pacific and a rules based order in the region with ASEAN centrality It is also the first European country to launch an Indo pacific strategy  More than 1000 french establishments already present in India with a total turnover of $US 20 B and employing around 300000 persons India’s second largest arms supplier with one fifth of supply from 2016-20(SIPRI) Fra...

Intro: Fareed Zakaria says we are witnessing post Pax Americana. There is decline of west and the rise of rest. UN reforms: https://youtu.be/ZaP3mWPPp2A Intro-according to prof Jeffrey Sachs UN is the most important political innovation of 20th century and the best bargain on this planet. though the UN does have some accomplishments to its credit, on the whole, it has left much to be desired in dealing with the important issues and problems plaguing the global community today. This is primarily because the structure of UN still begets of 20th century reality. India was one of the few members of UN that signed UN declaration in 1942 in Washington and took part in historic UN conf in San Francisco in 1945. UNSC has emerged as the key arena and barometer for evaluating The promise and progress of accommodating new rising powers in the international system India is eminently suited for permanent membership of the UNSC by any objective criteria such as population, territorial size, GDP, ec...

Ocean Streams are water currents flowing linearly along a fixed path. E.g.: Canary, Kurosiwo, North Atlantic Drift etc. Water Masses, on the other hand, are large volumes of water comparable to seas or oceans characterised by a gradual change in temperature and salinity.  Impacts of ocean Currents on marine life and Coastal Environment: 1. Distribution of nutrients, oxygen and plankton. 2. Aquatic animals often follow ocean currents in their migratory cycle. 3. Mixing of cold and warm currents lead to nutrient rich waters, thus provisioning fish rich water regions. 4. Maintain heat balance by transporting heat away from lower latitudes to higher ones. 5. Produce an oceanic effect on coastal areas preventing extreme temperatures. E.g.: land and sea breeze. 6. Ocean Currents control moisture distribution and precipitation. E.g.: Cold canary current has contributed to the dry Sahara Desert in Africa.  Impacts of water masses on marine life and Coastal Environment: 1. It is a zone...

Interlinking of river projects as under National River Linking project aspires to transfer water from water surplus regions to water deficient regions by linking rivers through a network of canals, barrages and reservoirs. First proposed in 1980, it is touted as a solution to problems of floods, droughts and internal navigation. Benefits of river interlinking: 1. Power generation: Total 34 GW, will reduce dependence on coal. 2. Seamless network of internal navigation connecting the hinterlands to mainland. 3. Flood and drought Control via basin transfer of water from surplus to deficient regions. 4. Solution to water crisis- a problem plaguing over 58% of India 5. Irrigation benefits: to 35 million hectares of water deficit peninsular and western regions. 6. Diversify income via fisheries. 7. Ecological benefits like groundwater recharge, filtration. Concerns associated with the project: 1. Very high project costs: approximately 5 lakh crores. 2. Social impact: displacement of people, ...

The circum-pacific zone, also known as the pacific ring of fire, is a horseshoe shaped region surrounding the Pacific Ocean. It includes the western coast of the Americas, off coast of east Asia and Pacific Ocean islands including Australia. Geophysical Characteristics of circum-pacific zone: 1. The region is tectonically active and has interfaces of many major and minor plates like Eurasian, North-American, Cocos, Philippines, Nazca etc. 2. About 3/5th of global volcanic activity lies in the belt. Mt Krakatoa, Mt. Mauna Kea etc. 3. Coastal as well as deep sea earthquakes are very common here. 4. Presence of volcanic islands. E.g.: Hawaii 5. The region is highly disaster prone due to volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. 6. Deep ocean features like trenches, sea mounts etc are also prominent. 7. Climate change has led to creation of hypoxic zones in the region. Circum-Pacific zone presents diverse challenges in disaster management given the high-risk zone as well as high population dens...