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The Union Ministry of Education has written to state governments to procure pulses (chana dal) for the Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN) from NAFED, the apex organisation of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce.
West Bengal and at least three NDA-ruled states including the BJP have rejected the proposal, and Punjab has sought clarification on the proposal.
In a March 28 letter to states, the Union Ministry of Education said they “may procure pulses from buffer stocks being maintained by GOI (Government of India) through NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation) to benefit from economy of scale” and assured subsidised rates in the interest of students.
Detailed guidelines issued to states and UTs on December 21, 2022, were silent on the purchase of pulses from NAFED. It just said, “Material cost covers expenditure on pulses, vegetables, cooking oils, condiments, fuel etc.
The cooking cost is Rs 5.45 per child per day for children in Bal Vatika and primary classes, and Rs 8.17 per child per day for children in Upper primary classes.”
Express Network
G7 to decarbonise power grids by 2035, fails to agree on coal phase out by 2030 (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
At the conclusion of the G7 Climate and Environment Ministers’ meeting in Sapporo, Japan on Sunday, the G7 countries committed to decarbonise their power grids no later than 2035 and accelerate the phase-out of “domestic unabated coal power”. The G7 states further stated that there is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 43 per cent by 2030 and 60 per cent by 2035, aligned to 1.5 degrees in light of the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The G7 states have further committed to substantially increase the pace and scale of deployment of renewables, cut demand for gas as a primary response to the energy crisis and massively expand solar and offshore wind. In this boost to renewables, the G7 climate and environment ministers agreed to a breakthrough acceleration in solar and wind energy, collectively increasing offshore wind capacity of 150 GW by 2030 and solar PV to more than 1TW by 2030 and the increasing deprioritization of gas, coal and fossil fuels in a bid to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.
However, the group failed to say how it will increase its efforts to assist other countries scale up their energy transition and energy efficiency.
But while the G7 committed to decarbonising their power sector by 2035, they failed to agree to a proposal made by the UK and Canada to phase out coal by 2030.
This proposal saw objections from Japan, the US and the European Union. Instead, the ministers agreed that there should be no further need for coal power stations either within the G7 or globally.
The caveat is seen as a direct result of Japan’s failure to adopt more ambitious domestic power sector decarbonisation plans.
Editorial
Terror of Narco Networks (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
The narcotics trade is assuming dangerous proportions all over the world. It is a social problem that harms youth and families and the money it generates is diverted for disruptive activities that have bearings on national security. The issue has kept security agencies and law enforcement agencies on the tenterhooks. India is no exception.
Traditionally India has been seen as sandwiched between the Death (Golden) Crescent and Death (Golden) Triangle. The country is being flooded with drugs, especially heroin and methamphetamine, from these two regions by drug lords indirectly supported by intelligence setups.
Nearly 90 per cent of the world’s demand for these drugs is being met from these two regions. India is both a big market and a transit route for other countries.
Money generated in this illicit trade is phenomenal. There are indications that parts of Pakistan adjoining Afghanistan are also used by Pakistani drug traffickers to convert Afghan opium to heroin.
The Shan and Kachin provinces of Myanmar bordering China also pose challenges. These heroin and methamphetamine-producing areas have porous borders and are, reportedly, under the control of rebel groups, indirectly supported by the Chinese. Illicit arms are manufactured here and supplied to underground groups active in India.
Issues in same-sex marriage plea before SC today (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli, and P S Narasimha, will hear a batch of petitions seeking legal recognition for same-sex marriage.
The court had referred the pleas to a Constitution Bench on March 13, saying questions of “seminal importance” were involved. A three-judge Bench headed by the CJI had said the submissions related to an interplay of constitutional rights and specific legislative enactments including the Special Marriage Act on the one hand, and the rights of transgender couples on the other.
A same-sex couple, Supriyo and Abhay, who met in Hyderabad in December 2012 and had a “wedding-cum-commitment ceremony” to celebrate their relationship, have submitted that despite having built a life together, they do not enjoy the rights of married couples — even though the SC has repeatedly said that all adults have the right to marry a person of their choice.
Rohingya and Myanmar’s election as ICJ keeps heat on junta (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Earlier this month, the International Court of Justice at The Hague rejected the Myanmar junta’s appeal for a 10-month reprieve to file a counter-memorial — or reply — to The Gambia’s case that Myanmar was in breach of the international Genocide Convention.
The case relates to the Myanmar military’s “clearing” operations in 2017 in Rakhine state, in which many Rohingya were killed or subjected to atrocities, and lakhs were forced to flee to Bangladesh.
The ICJ has given Myanmar only a month’s reprieve, and scheduled the next hearing for May 24. In July 2022, the court had rejected Myanmar’s objections to the case brought by The Gambia, and asked it to file a reply by April 24, 2023.
On March 14 this year, Myanmar asked for time until February 24, 2024 citing, among other things, the junta’s own coup, the “limited” resources at its disposal, the time needed to translate case documents and obtain statements from witnesses living in camps in Bangladesh, and the Covid-19 pandemic.