Daily Current Affairs for 1st July 2021

GS PAPER I

Pew Research Survey of India on Religion

Why in News

A new Pew Research Center report, based on a face-to-face survey of 29,999 Indian adults fielded between late 2019 and early 2020, takes a closer look at religious identity, nationalism and tolerance in Indian society.

Highlights of the Report

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• According to the report, Indian value religious tolerance, though they also live religiously segregated lives. 84% of the people say that to be “truly Indian,” it is very important to respect all religions. Indians also are united in the view that respecting other religions is a very important part of what it means to be a member of their own religious community (80%).
• People in all six major religious groups overwhelmingly say they are very free to practice their faiths, and most say that people of other faiths also are very free to practice their own religion.
• Moreover, roughly two-thirds of Hindus say it is very important to stop Hindu women (67%) or Hindu men (65%) from marrying into other religious communities. Even larger shares of Muslims oppose interreligious marriage: 80% say it is very important to stop Muslim women from marrying outside their religion, and 76% say it is very important to stop Muslim men from doing so.
• For many Hindus, national identity, religion and language are closely connected. Nearly two-thirds of Hindus (64%) say it is very important to be Hindu to be truly Indian. Among Hindus who say it is very important to be Hindu to be truly Indian, 80% also say it is very important to speak Hindi to be truly Indian.
• Among Hindus, views of national identity go hand-in-hand with politics. In the 2019 national elections, 60% of Hindu voters who think it is very important to be Hindu and to speak Hindi to be truly Indian cast their vote for the party who promoted Hindu religion, compared with 33% among Hindu voters who feel less strongly about both these aspects of national identity.
• Dietary laws are central to Indians’ religious identity. Nearly three-quarters of Hindus (72%) in India say a person cannot be Hindu if they eat beef. Similarly, three-quarters of Indian Muslims (77%) say that a person cannot be Muslim if they eat pork.
• Nearly all Indians say they believe in God (97%), and roughly 80% of people in most religious groups say they are absolutely certain that God exists. The main exception is Buddhists, one-third of who say they do not believe in God.

GS PAPER III

New power reform scheme

Why in news

The Union Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave its nod to a new scheme for revival of the power distribution sector in India.

Key Points

• This is the second reform scheme for power distribution companies (discoms), a year after the ambitious UDAY scheme concluded.
• It would have an outlay of Rs 3 trillion for five years to FY26 with a gross budgetary support of Rs 97,631 crore.
• Union finance minister had announced the scheme while presenting in the Budget in February 2021. Most of the targets under UDAY earlier slated to be met by 2020 have now been extended for another five years.
• The new trajectory for bringing down AT&C loss (operational losses due to inefficient power system) to 15 per cent, cost-revenue gap to be down to zero and improvement in services of the discoms is 2024-25.

Reforms-based and Results-linked, Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme

• The ‘Reforms-based and Results-linked, Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme’ seeks to improve the operational efficiencies and financial sustainability of all discoms/power departments by providing conditional financial assistance to discoms for strengthening of supply infrastructure.
• The assistance would be based on meeting pre-qualifying criteria as well as upon achievement of benchmarks by the discoms. Implementation of the scheme would be based on the action plan worked out for each state.
• The scheme would entail the collective targets of all power sector schemes into one – solarising agriculture feeders, smart and pre-paid metering and modernisation of state-level transmission and distribution infrastructure.
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• Smart metering would be done via public-private-partnership (PPP) mode. 2.5 million smart meters would be installed during the scheme time period. Priority would be given to install prepaid smart meters in a mission mode in the first phase in all electricity divisions of 500 AMRUT cities, with AT&C losses higher than 15 per cent, all Union Territories, MSMEs and all other industrial and commercial consumers, all government offices at the block level.
• The scheme would also entail installation of 1 million prepaid smart meters by December 2023 in the first phase.

Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY)

• Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) is the financial turnaround and revival package for electricity distribution companies of India (DISCOMs) initiated by the Government of India in 2015.
• The term “DISCOM” is an acronym for Distribution Company. These companies are basically tasked with the responsibility of electricity distribution to the consumers.
• DISCOMs purchase power from power generation companies through agreements known as Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and then supply the same to consumers.

GS PAPER III

Google India report on new Information Technology Rule

Why in News

Google India has published its first transparency report under the new IT rules which includes details of complaints received from users in the country and the action taken across Google’s platforms that are classified as “significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs)” under the rules.

Key Points

• Google India has recently published its first transparency report under the new IT rules which includes details of complaints received from users in the country and the action taken across Google’s platforms that are classified as “significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs)” under the rules.
• The report currently covers complaints received and actioned between April 1 and April 30, 2021.
• Google said there will be a two-month lag on reporting in a bid to allow sufficient time for data processing and validation.
• The report is significant because Google is the first technology company, which qualifies as an SSMI, to have published the report under the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
• Other countries for which Google provides granular information on action taken on specific kinds of content are Turkey and South Korea.

Highlights of the report

• The number of complaints received by Google in the period under consideration was 27,762, out of which 96.2 per cent related to copyright issues, 1.3 per cent was related to trademark, 1 per cent to defamation, 0.4 per cent to counterfeit issues, and 0.4 per cent concerned with circumvention.
• The number of removal action taken by Google based on these complaints was 59,350.
• According to Google, each unique URL in a specific complaint is considered an individual “item”. A single complaint may specify multiple items that potentially relate to the same or different pieces of content.
• When google receive complaints from individual users regarding allegedly unlawful or harmful content, they review the complaint to determine if the content violates their community guidelines or content policies, or meets local legal requirements for removal
• Under the new rules, Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Indian players like ShareChat, Koo, and Chingari will have to publish a compliance report on a monthly basis.
• Copyright issues include requests related to alleged copyright infringement, received under notice and takedown laws, such as the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Trademark requests relate to claims of infringement and misuse of trademarks.
• Defamation requests are related to harm to reputation, while counterfeit requests are related to the sale or promotion for the sale of counterfeit goods.
• Complaints under circumvention concern content with tools to bypass copyright technological protection measures.
• In future reports, the data on removals as a result of automated detection, as well as the data relating to impersonation and graphic sexual content complaints received after May 25, 2021, will be included.

New Information and Technology Rules

• New Guidelines for social media/Intermediaries:
• Categories of Social Media Intermediaries: Based on the number of users, on the social media platform intermediaries have been divided in two groups:
• Social media intermediaries.
• Significant social media intermediaries.
• Due Diligence to be Followed by Intermediaries: In case, due diligence is not followed by the intermediary, safe harbour provisions will not apply to them. The safe harbour provisions have been defined under Section 79 of the IT Act, and protect social media intermediaries by giving them immunity from legal prosecution for any content posted on their platforms.
• Grievance Redressal Mechanism is Mandatory: Intermediaries shall appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with complaints and share the name and contact details of such officers. Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within twenty-four hours and resolve it within fifteen days from its receipt.
• Ensuring Online Safety and Dignity of Users: Intermediaries shall remove or disable access within 24 hours of receipt of complaints of contents that exposes the private areas of individuals, show such individuals in full or partial nudity or in sexual act or is in the nature of impersonation including morphed images etc. Such a complaint can be filed either by the individual or by any other person on his/her behalf.
• Additional Due Diligence for the Significant Social Media Intermediaries:
• Appointments: Need to appoint Chief Compliance Officer, a Nodal Contact Person and a Resident Grievance Officer, all of whom should be resident in India.
• Compliance Report: Need to publish a monthly compliance report mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken on the complaints as well as details of contents removed proactively.
• Enabling Identity of the Originator: Significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable identification of the first originator of the information. Required only for the purposes of prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of an offence related to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order,
• Removal of Unlawful Information: An intermediary upon receiving actual knowledge in the form of an order by a court or being notified by the Appropriate Govt. or its agencies through authorized officer should not host or publish any information which is prohibited under any law in relation to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, friendly relations with foreign countries etc.

GS PAPER III

Index of Eight Core Industries

Why in News

Recently, the Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) for the Month of May, 2021 has been released by the Economic Adviser of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.

Key Points

• The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stood at 125.8 in May 2021, which increased by 16.8 per cent (provisional) as compared to the Index of May 2020.
• The production of Coal, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Steel, Cement and Electricity industries increased in May 2021 over the corresponding period of last year.
• Final growth rate of Index of Eight Core Industries for February 2021 is revised to (-) 3.3% from its provisional level (-) 4.6%.
• The growth rate of ICI during April-May 2021-22 was 35.8% (P) as compared to the corresponding period of last FY.

Highlights of Index of Eight Core Industries of May 2021

Eight Core Industries

• Eight Core Industries of India comprises 40.27% of the weight of items included Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity.
• They are called Core industries because they impact an Economy of nation in massive way.

Index of Eight Core Industries

• It is the index of the production of ‘Core industries of Economy’.
• It is published monthly by the Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
• The base-year of ICI has been revised from 2004-05 to 2011-12.
• This index is calculated by the Laspeyre’s Formula of weighted Arithmetic Mean of quantity relatives.

GS PAPER III

Black carbon

Why in News

According to the new study, the black carbon has a significant adverse effect on human health and leads to premature mortality.

Key Points

• The study could help in the estimation of future burden of mortality associated with air pollutants more accurately.
• The Indo-Gangetic plain is exposed to black carbon (BC) with serious implications on regional climate and human health.
• However, most of the pollutions-based epidemiological studies essentially relate exposure to PM 10 and/-or PM 2.5 that invariably generalize all particulates with equal toxicity without distinguishing individuals by its source and composition, which genuinely have different health consequences.
• Importantly, the health effects in terms of mortality due to BC aerosol exposure have never been evaluated in India.
• A typical urban pollution hotspot in central Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) experiences very high aerosol loading and trace gas concentrations throughout the year due to prevalence of a subsidence zone and observed decadal increasing trends both in Aerosol Optical Depth and Black Carbon aerosols.
• The Scientists from the Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research supported by the Climate Change programme of Department of Science and Technology (DST) utilized daily all-cause mortality and ambient air quality from 2009 to 2016 to clearly establish a significant impact of BC aerosols, NO2 and, PM2.5 exposure on mortality.
• The inclusion of co-pollutants (NO2 and PM 2.5) in the multi-pollutant model increased the individual mortality risks for BC aerosols.
• The effect of pollutants was more prominent for males, age group 5-44 and, in winter. They found that the adverse effect of air pollutants was not limited to current day of exposure but can extend as high as up to 5 days (Lag effect).
• Mortality rises linearly with an increase in air pollutants level and shows adverse impact at higher levels.
• The study could also help estimate the future burden of mortality associated with air pollutants considering the present association and incorporating a growing population rate.
• This will help government and policy-makers for better planning to mitigate the adversity associated with changing climate-air pollution-health nexus.

Black Carbon

• Black Carbon is a short-lived pollutant that is the second largest contributor to warming the planet behind Carbon Dioxide (CO2).
• Unlike other greenhouse gas emissions, BC is quickly washed out and can be eliminated from the atmosphere if emissions stop.
• Unlike historical carbon emissions, it is also a localised source with greater local impact.
• Some of the ongoing policy measures to cut BC emissions are enhancing fuel efficiency standards for vehicles, phasing out diesel vehicles and promoting electric vehicles, accelerating the use of liquefied petroleum gas for cooking and through clean cookstove programmes, as well as upgrading brick kiln technologies.
• However, with all existing measures, water from glacier melt is still projected to increase in absolute volume by 2040, with impacts on downstream activities and communities.

Role of Black Carbon in Climate Change

• Black Carbon (BC) has recently emerged as a major contributor to global climate change, possibly second only to CO2 as the main driver of change.
• It strongly absorbs sunlight and gives soot its black colour.
• BC is produced both naturally and by human activities such as incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuels, and biomass.
• Primary sources of the Black Carbon is the emissions from diesel engines, cook stoves, wood burning and forest fires.
• Reducing CO2 emissions is essential to avert the worst impacts of future climate change, but CO2 has such a long atmospheric lifetime that it will take several decades for CO2 concentrations to begin to stabilize after emissions reductions begin.
• BC remains in the atmosphere for only a few weeks, so cutting its emissions would immediately reduce the rate of warming, particularly in the rapidly changing Arctic.
• Moreover, reduced exposure to BC provides public health co-benefits, especially in developing countries.