GS PAPER: II

Houthi attacks: a threat to global shipping

Why in the news?

• The crisis in the Red Sea reached Indian waters as Liberian-flagged merchant vessel Chem Pluto heading to Mangalore port was hit by a projectile about 217 nautical miles from Porbandar in Gujarat, just outside the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
• This comes in the backdrop of a sharp rise in missile and drone attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels in Yemen in the last couple of weeks following Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

About m.v. Chem Pluto & m. v. Sai Baba

• The vessel with 21 Indians and one Vietnamese crew managed to sail on its power after the attack and reached Mumbai, escorted by the Indian Coast Guard Ship (INGS) Vikram upon arrival.
• A preliminary assessment of Chem Pluto and analysis of the area of attack and debris found on the ship points towards a drone attack.
• In another instance, Gabon-flagged, Indian crewed vessel m. v. Sai Baba reported a drone attack in the Southern Red Sea and is now on its way to India.

Impact on India and the world

• Threats to shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the region are not new as seen with episodes of Somalian pirates and the global anti-piracy efforts by several countries.
• However, the recent events represent a serious escalation that can potentially disrupt supply chains and impact economics. The Red Sea is a key shipping artery for global commerce and the Bab el-Mandeb is a critical choke point.
• About 12% of global trade passes through the Red Sea, which accounts for billions of dollars of goods and about 30% of the world’s container shipping. Access to the Red Sea requires passage through the Bab el-Mandeb — a narrow strait about 20 miles wide with Djibouti to the west and Yemen to the east.
• Following the attacks, several global shipping majors have announced their decision to avoid the route and take a longer route through the Southern Indian Ocean adding to both fuel and operating costs in addition to the time. 
• Recent data indicates a notable shift in transit passage in the Suez and Red Sea as Israel-flagged and owned ships increasingly avoid transiting the Red Sea due to heightened security concerns.
• The avoidance of the Red Sea route has substantial implications, potentially adding one to two weeks to voyages, disrupting shipping schedules, and subsequently elevating fuel and insurance costs.
• This strategic shift has implications for the revenue generated by the Suez Canal, as well as the operational dynamics of ports in Djibouti and the Gulf of Aden.

What is being done to address this?

• To counter the attacks and protect the free flow of commerce in the Red Sea, U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd J. Austin announced the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPS), an “important new multinational security initiative under the umbrella of the Combined Maritime Forces and the leadership of its Task Force 153, which focuses on security in the Red Sea.” Since the announcement of OPS, several companies in the last few days announced their decisions to review the re-routing.
• From the Indian side, both the Navy and Coast Guard have increased their presence and surveillance in the region.
• the Navy presently has four destroyers of Project 15B and 15A class deployed to counter piracy and drone attacks on merchant shipping.
• Further, P8I long range patrol aircraft, Dorniers, Sea Guardian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, helicopters and Coast Guard ships are all deployed jointly to counter these threats.
• Since October 2008, the Indian Navy has continuously deployed at least one ship on anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden and since 2017 under Mission Based Deployments has deployed one capital warship each at all the critical maritime choke points into the IOR.
• Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) located in Gurugram is actively monitoring the region and coordination in the back end to facilitate communication where required, like between the Navy and the company when m. v. Ruen was hijacked recently in the Gulf of Aden.

Several questions still remain to be answered

• Indians constitute close to 15% of commercial sailors while Indian owned vessels are very few and a lot of Indian crude and cargo is carried by foreign ships. So how would India and other countries react to a major attack resulting in loss of life or precious cargo? “Where do we draw the line?,”
• The fact remains that a shock to global economies in terms of delays and price rises due to the regional crisis is looming on the horizon.

GS PAPER – III

Ayushman cards

Why in the news?

• According to Health Ministry women account for approximately 49% of the total Ayushman cards created and approximately 48% of total authorised hospital admissions.

About Ayushman cards 

• Ayushman cards are made under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri — Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), which according to the Ministry is the largest publicly funded health assurance scheme in the world and provides health cover of Rs.5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. 
• Currently as per government figures 55 crore individuals corresponding to 12 crore families are covered under the scheme and many states and union territories implementing AB PM-JAY have further expanded the beneficiary base, at their own cost.
• Government data further revealed that approximately 28.45 Crore Ayushman Cards have been created since the inception of the scheme, out of which, approximately 9.38 crore Ayushman Cards have been created during the year 2023. 
• Under the scheme a total of 6.11 crore hospital admissions amounting to Rs.78,188 crores were authorised of which 1.7 crore hospitals admissions worth over Rs.25,000 crores were authorised during the year 2023 (Jan-Dec 2023). 
• The scheme also has a total of 26,901 hospitals including 11,813 private hospitals that have been empanelled under AB PM-JAY to provide healthcare services to scheme beneficiaries.
• Meanwhile, as per the data update done by the States and Union Territories in Ayushman Arogya Mandir Portal, till date, 55.66 crore screenings have been done for hypertension and 48.44 crore screenings done for diabetes.
• Similarly, Ayushman Arogya Mandir has done 32.80 crore screenings for oral cancer, 14.90 crore screenings for cervical cancer in women and more than 10.04 screenings for breast cancer in women.
• Further, as of now a total of 2.80 crore Yoga/wellness Sessions have been conducted in operational Ayushman Arogya Mandir.

GS PAPER – II

Qatar commutes India ex-navy officers’ death penalty

Why in news?

• On 26th 0ctober, eight former Indian Navy personnel were given death sentence by Qatar court.
• According to recent update Qatar court reduces the death sentence for 8 ex Indian Navy personnel to 3 – 25 years in jail.

Why they were provided death sentence?

• The Qatari Authorities didn’t reveal the charges against the Indian citizens.
• But the sources alleged the former Navy officials were spying for Israel.
• In 2022, the authorities in Qatar detained eight Indian Navy soldiers working for defence service Provider Company.
• Since then, they have been held in solitary confinement.
• The authorities filed a charge sheet against the accused in March 2023 and court sentenced them to death on 26 October 2023.

What followed in?

• An appeal was filed by Indian government against the death sentence by Qatar courts.
• Ministry of external affairs have noted the verdict today of the court of appeal of Qatar in the Dhara global case, in which the sentence have been reduced.

What is the new challenge?

• The court has struck down the death sentence is the first positive development.
• But there is disappointment that the charge of espionage had been upheld. Their innocence is not proved.

GS PAPER – III

Pegasus spyware

Why in news?

• The founder editor of “The wire” news website Siddhartha Varadarajan and another Journalist in India were targeted with the Pegasus spyware this year.
• The security lab of amnesty International announced after testing their devices.

Why the report is released?

• The journalist had received an alert from Apple that they are being targeted by state sponsored hacking, following which they provided their phones to the Non profit for testing.

What is Pegasus and how it is bought?

• It is a type of malicious software or malware classified as spyware.
• It is designed to gain access to devices, without the knowledge of users and gather personal information and relay it back to whomever it is using the software to spy.
• Pegasus has been developed by the Israeli firm NSO group that set up in 2010.
• India’s intelligence bureau imported hardware from NSO group in 2017.

Other concern about spyware:

• On October 30, opposition MP and journalists got alerts from Apple saying their phones were being targeted by state sponsored attackers.
• In 2021, many of these individuals were reportedly targeted by the Pegasus spyware.