27th July, 2021

Daily Handouts
 Handout No.641 |1|

INDEX
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS_27th July 2021
1. TNA NOTES
(1) Thane sanctuary proposed as MMR’s Ramsar site .......................................................................... 1
(i) What are Wetlands? .............................................................................................................. 1
(ii) Benefits................................................................................................................................. 1
(iii) Purpose of Ramsar Site? ........................................................................................................ 1
(iv) How does this international recognition as Ramsar Site matters? ........................................... 1
(2) Land use change disrupted Kinnaur’s ecology, says study ........................................................................ 2
(i) According to the study .................................................................................................................... 2
(3) Reading unemployment data [Indian Express] ............................................................................... 2
(i) What is Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)? ......................................................................... 2
(ii) Methods to calculate unemployment ..................................................................................... 2
(iii) What does low LFPR and high UER imply? ....................................................................................... 3
(4) Puri becomes India’s first city to provide quality drinking tap water ............................................... 3
(i) How is it significant? .............................................................................................................. 3
(ii) About WASH Programme....................................................................................................... 3
(iii) What is the key to improve hygiene practices? ............................................................................... 4
(iv) Why is this aspect significant to India? ............................................................................................ 4

2. DEEP NOTES (EDITORIAL)

(1) Evaluating India’s options in Afghanistan ....................................................................................... 4
(i) What are the challenges for India in Afghanistan? .................................................................. 4
(ii) What are the options available for India? ............................................................................... 4
(iii) What else India can do to safeguard its interests in Afghanistan? ........................................... 4
(2) An emigration Bill that does not go far enough .............................................................................. 4
(i) What is Emigration? .............................................................................................................. 4
(ii) What is Emigration Act, 1983? ............................................................................................... 4
(iii) Why the government wants to amend this act? ...................................................................... 5
(iv) What’s special about the Emigration Bill, 2021? ..................................................................... 5
(v) Gaps in the bill ...................................................................................................................... 5
(3) Wounded mountains ..................................................................................................................... 5
(i) What are those concerns?...................................................................................................... 5
(ii) What are landslips? ............................................................................................................... 5

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 Handout No.641
TNA NOTES
1. Thane sanctuary proposed as MMR’s Ramsar site
 Syllabus: GS3–Subject: Environment, Topic:
Biodiversity Conservation
 Article relevance for UPSC:
 Prelims: Learn about Wetlands & Ramsar
Convention
 Mains: Efforts to curtail man-animal conflict
 Context: Maharashtra government made a
proposal to declare Thane creek Flamingo
Sanctuary as a Ramsar site
 Synopsis:
o Approval of State Wetland Authority facilitates
Thane creek Flamingo Sanctuary as a
declaration of Ramsar site
o It is second marine sanctuary in Maharashtra
(other one is Malvan sanctuary)
o Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has
recognized it as an “Important Bird Area”
 What are Wetlands?
o These are areas of land where water covers the
soil – all year or just at certain times of the
year. They include:
 swamps, marshes
 billabongs, lakes, lagoons
 saltmarshes, mudflats
 mangroves, coral reefs
 bogs, fens, and peatlands.
o They can be of natural or artificial and the
water within a wetland can be static or flowing,
fresh, brackish or saline.
o There are even underground wetlands.
o In India, Gujarat has highest number of
wetlands followed by A.P., U.P, West Bengal
and Maharashtra.
o Benefits:
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 They provide a lot of important resources and
ecosystem services like food, water, fibre,
groundwater recharge, water purification,
flood moderation, erosion control and climate
regulation.
 They are a major source of water and our main
supply of freshwater comes from an array of
wetlands which help soak rainfall and recharge
groundwater.
 Based on their ecological, botanical, zoological,
limnological or hydrological importance, they
will be included in the List of Wetlands of
International Importance i.e., as a Ramsar Site
 Purpose of Ramsar Site?
o To develop and maintain an international
network of wetlands which are important for
the conservation of global biological diversity
and for sustaining human life through the
maintenance of their ecosystem components,
processes and benefits.
o How does this international recognition as
Ramsar Site matters?
 This designation as a Ramsar Site will give
special attention to the site
 A framework will be made by the government
about how to conserve this wetland and how
to use it efficiently/Wisely.
 Wise use means maintaining the ecological
character of a wetland.
 Student’s task: List out all the Ramsar Sites in
India.
 UPSC Previous Year Prelims Question
India is a party to the Ramsar Convention and
has declared many areas as Ramsar Sites.
Which of the following statements best
describes as to how we should maintain these
sites in the context of this Convention? [UPSC
2019]
(a) Keep all the sites completely inaccessible
to man so that they will not be exploited
(b) Conserve all the sites through ecosystem
approach and permit tourism and
recreation only
(c) Conserve all the sites through ecosystem
approach for a period without any
exploitation, with specific criteria and
specific period for each site, and then
allow sustainable use of them by future
generations
(d) Conserve all the sites through ecosystem
approach and allow their simultaneous
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sustainable use. o What is Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)?

Answer: D  Annual survey conducted by the National
 Issue: Ramsar Designation Statistical Office (NSO) to map the state of
2. Land use change disrupted Kinnaur’s ecology, says employment in India
study  Parameters of Survey: level of unemployment,
 Syllabus: GS2–Subject: Environment, Topic: the types of employment and their respective
Climate Change & GS3 – Subject: Disaster shares, the wages earned from different types
Management of jobs, etc…
 Article relevance for UPSC:  Methods to calculate unemployment:
 Prelims: Learn about landslips  Usual Status (US): Assesses the employment
 Mains: Implications of development on
details of person in past 365 days of the survey
environment
 Current Weekly Status (CWS): Checks if a
 Context: Heavy rains triggered landslips in
person is adequately employed in past 7 days
Himachal Pradesh resulting in life and property
of the survey
loss
 Global agencies like International Labour
 Synopsis:
o In the backdrop of recent landslip in Himachal Organisation (ILO) and Private agencies use
Pradesh, a study that was conducted in 2016 on CWS but not US method
“Impacts of Hydropower Development and  NSO uses CWS method to understand
Compensatory Afforestation on forest quarterly changes in unemployment
ecosystems in the high Himalayas” is being o According to the survey report, India’s
reminisced  Unemployment rate (UER) had declined over
o According to the study, this period
 hydropower projects impacted existing land-use,  UER is the percentage of people in the labour
disturbed forest biodiversity and fragmented the force who do not get employment
forest landscape
 Since past few years, UER is around 6% (i.e.,
 role of state-led institutions and global green
out of 100 people, atleast 6 people didn’t get
growth policies legalising these developments
any job)
are causing more harm to fragile local
ecosystems and communities dependent on  Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) had
these increased
 tunnelling and building powerhouses in mountain  LFPR is the proportion of Indians who seek to
areas will increase the risk of more landslips as participate in the economy
large amounts of water percolates into surfaces.  Till 2019, India’s LFPR is less than 40% (i.e., out
 Construction activities that include blasting must of 100 people, only 40 come forward to seek
be done in a scientific manner work in India).
 Issue: Landslip in Himachal Pradesh –
implications of development on environment
3. Reading unemployment data [Indian Express]
 Syllabus: GS3–Subject: Economy, Topic:
Development and employment
 Article relevance for UPSC:
 For Prelims: Focus on trends and patterns of
unemployment in India
 For Mains: Unemployment rate in India
 Context: Indian government released the latest
annual report of the Periodic Labour Force
Survey (PLFS)
 Synopsis of the article:
o This PLFS is the data of unemployment rate
between July 2019 and June 2020
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 Handout No.641
o What does low LFPR and high UER imply?
 India is using smaller population for productive
purposes.
 India is not able to provide jobs to this smaller
proportion of the labour force
o This is surprising because, in 2020 economy
didn’t perform well due to Covid-19 and India’s
GDP declined
 Issue: PLFS (2019-2020) - Unemployment trends
in India
4. Puri becomes India’s first city to provide quality
drinking tap water
 Syllabus: GS3–Subject: Economy, Topic:
Infrastructure
 Article relevance for UPSC:
 For Prelims: Focus on the fact (i.e., first city to
get quality drinking tap water)
 For Mains: Efforts to improve quality drinking
water
 Context: Puri (a city in Odisha) has become the
first city in India to provide drink from tap
facility
 Synopsis of the article:
o Odisha government has launched ‘Drink from
Tap project’
o This project has become successful in providing
high quality drinking water directly from the
tap whole day
o With this, Puri became the first Indian city
along with cities like London, Los Angeles, and
Singapore to provide 24-hour clean drinking
water
o How is it significant?
 Reduces the burden of people to store and
filter drinking water
 Facilitates women empowerment (as women
need not go and fetch water or filter or boil
them. So, women can use this time for other
purposes)
 Prevents the problems of water borne diseases
 Facilitates India to achieve Sustainable
Development Goal 6 (SDG 6: "clean water and
sanitation for all")
 Ensures water security and effective water
management
 Enables India to become self-reliant (Atma-
Nirbhar)
 Enables India to provide WASH services
proposed by UNICEF
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 About WASH Programme:
o WASH = Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
o In the global front, it is launched by UNICEF
o Why they are grouped together?
o They are interdependent on each other
o For example, without toilets, water sources
become contaminated; without clean water,
basic hygiene practices are not possible.
o Let us understand issues of each aspect:
1. Water:
o Intensity of water problem:
 663 million people are still without access
to clean drinking water
 8 out of 10 people without access to clean
water live in rural areas.
 159 million people use untreated water
from lakes and rivers, the most unsafe
water source there is.
 Since 1990, 2.6 billion people have gained
access to improved drinking water and
today, 91% of the world’s population drink
clean water
2. Sanitation:
o What is sanitation? It is a facility that
safely separates human waste from
human contact.
o Intensity of sanitation problem:
 1 in 3 people don’t use improved
sanitation.
 1 in 7 people practice open defecation.
 Since 1990, 2.6 billion people have gained
access to improved sanitation.
 5 countries, India, Indonesia, Nigeria,
Ethiopia, Pakistan, account for 75% of
open defecation.
3. Hygiene:
o Good hygiene practices reduce the
incidence of diseases such as pneumonia,
trachoma, scabies, skin and eye infections
and diarrhoea-related diseases like
cholera and dysentery.
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 Handout No.641
o What is the key to improve hygiene practices?
 Promoting behavioural change within schools
and communities.
 Individual Countries including India adopted
various strategies to address all these 3 core
issues. Like Swachh Bharat mission which intends
to eradicate open defecation in India.
 Why is this aspect significant to India?
o The Sustainable Development Goals, a set of
goals to guide global development to 2030,
include a specific goal to “ensure the availability
and sustainable management of water and
sanitation for all”.
o India has agreed to achieve these goals by 2030
 Issue: Drink from Tap - Efforts to achieve SDG-6.
DEEP NOTES (EDITORIAL)
1. Evaluating India’s options in Afghanistan
 Syllabus: GS2–Subject: International Relations,
Topic: Effect of policies and politics of
developed and developing countries on India’s
interests
 Article relevance for UPSC:
 Prelims: -------------------------------------
 Mains: Afghan – Taliban issue
 Context: U.S. troops withdrew from
Afghanistan
 Synopsis:
o This article deals with the challenges of India in
safeguarding its strategic interests in
Afghanistan
o What are the challenges for India in
Afghanistan?
 U.S. withdrawal created vacuum which is being
filled by China
 U.S. clearly conveyed its interests in
Afghanistan is limited to killing Osama Bin
Laden (person behind 2001 Twin towers
attack) and disrupting Al Qaeda (terrorist
group) networks but not to defeat Taliban and
build a nation. So, it withdrew its troops from
the region further exaggerating challenges for
India
 China is taking advantage of this to gain
supremacy in the region
 Taliban might support anti-India terrorist
groups
 Taliban rule might allow Pakistan to strengthen
its influence
o What are the options available for India?
 India must approach Taliban
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 India can increase its support (in the form of
financial grants) to Afghanistan’s elected
government and Afghan National Defence and
Security Forces
 India can engage with regional groupings like
SAARC and China, Russia, Iran who are having
similar interests
o What else India can do to safeguard its
interests in Afghanistan? India can adopt,
 Layered approach like
 Immediate goal to engage with Taliban for
security of its investments in Afghanistan
 Long term goal to find a political solution to the
crisis
 Broad based approach like
 Maintaining ties with Taliban, Afghan
government and regional powers like China,
Russia and Iran to protect its interests
 Supporting its friends within Afghanistan to
retain its influence in the region
 Strategies that emphasise on strengthening
ties with regional powers
 Refer to 22nd July, 2021 LaEx Daily Handout
“India must directly engage with Taliban 2.0”
article. It covered why India must reach out to
Taliban, what are the hindrances in reaching
and how to do it.
 Issue: Afghan – Taliban issue: implications of
Taliban rule on India
2. An emigration Bill that does not go far enough
 Syllabus: GS2 – Subject: Polity & Governance,
Topic: Government policies and interventions
aimed at development in various sectors and
issues arising out of their design and
implementation
 Article relevance for UPSC:
 Prelims: Learn about Emigration Act
 Mains: Measures to protect emigrant workers
 Context: Indian government is planning to
introduce Emigration Bill, 2021 in the Parliament
 Synopsis:
o This article analyses the provisions of the
upcoming Emigration Bill, 2021
o The Emigration Bill, 2021 if passed by the
Parliament will amend (make changes) to the
existing Emigration Act, 1983
o What is Emigration? Leaving one’s native nation
to a foreign country to get settled there
permanently. Ex: Non-resident Indians (NRIs) in
America
o What is Emigration Act, 1983?
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 Handout No.641
 A law to regulate labour migration from India
 It details a method to recruit India for work in
foreign companies
 Recruiting agents must be government certified
and follow the rules related to service fee etc….
o Why the government wants to amend this
act?
 In the recent times, there are reports over
rising exploitation like high recruitment
charges, retention of passports by employers in
foreign countries (especially in gulf countries),
underpayment of wages, ill treatment of Indian
migrant workers
 To address this, Indian government made an
attempt to bring changes in the act
o What’s special about the Emigration Bill, 2021?
 It launches a new emigration policy division to
establish help desks and welfare committees for
migrant workers
 It enhances the accountability of brokers and
intermediaries (like consultancies) involved in
labour hiring
o But there is criticism that the bill failed to address
many important aspects
o Gaps in the bill:
 lack of human rights framework (to secure rights
of migrants and their families in foreign
countries)
 permits recruiting agencies to charge workers’
service fees, and even allows agents to set their
own limits
 this is against international labour standards
 makes workers vulnerable to indebtedness and
exploitation
 it permits government authorities to punish
workers by cancelling or suspending their
passports and imposing fines up to Rs. 50,000 for
violating any of the Bill’s provisions
 majority of migrant workers are less educated.
They might not be aware of law
 recruiters might use this law as a tool to exploit
workers
 lack of gender specific provisions
 among migrant workers, women are employed in
informal sectors (like household works, child care
etc…)
 this makes them more vulnerable to physical,
labour, psychological and sexual abuse
 limited space for worker representation or civil
society engagement in the policy and welfare
bodies
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o to make the reforms better, the bill must
recognize contributions of migrant Indian
workers to India and their challenges
 Issue: Emigration Bill, 2021
3. Wounded mountains
 Syllabus: GS2–Subject: Environment, Topic:
Climate Change & GS3–Subject: Disaster
Management
 Article relevance for UPSC:
 Prelims: Learn about landslips
 Mains: Implications of development on
environment
 Context: Heavy rains triggered landslips in
Himachal Pradesh resulting in life and property
loss
 Synopsis:
o In the backdrop of recent landslip in Himachal
Pradesh, environmental experts raised
concerns over the ecological impacts of
landslips
o What are those concerns?
 Unregulated and unsustainable development
(hydroelectric projects, roads construction,
deforestation) in the hilly regions is causing
irreversible changes in the region
 Landslides and other disasters like flash floods,
earth quakes etc… might become more
frequent and intense
 What are landslips?
o Landslip is sliding of a mass of land down the
slope or a mountain
o Causes: Earthquakes, rainfall, poor land
management practices (like deforestation,
slash-and-burn cultivation, haphazard mining
and heavy tilling in agriculture) and increased
development and poor settlement location
o Intensity: About 12.6% of the Indian landmass
is prone to landslips, with the Himalayas and
Western Ghats regions particularly prone due
to climate, geomorphology and geology.
 Issue: Landslip in Himachal Pradesh –
implications of development on environment.
PLACES IN NEWS
Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary Maharashtra-
Proposal to declare it as a Ramsar site.
RIVERS IN NEWS
Yamuna- Microbes from the human and animal
excreta found above desirable limits.
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