1. Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar-2022

Why in News?

• The Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM) and Professor Vinod Sharma, the founder co-ordinator of the National Centre of Disaster Management, have recently been selected for the Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar for 2022 for their Excellent Work in Disaster Management.

Highlights:

• It was established in 2012 and since then it has been working to enhance the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) capacity of Gujarat.
• Professor Vinod Sharma has worked tirelessly towards bringing DRR to the forefront of the national agenda.
• The central government has instituted the annual award —Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar—to recognise and honour the invaluable contribution and selfless service rendered by individuals and organisations in India in the field of disaster management.
• The award is announced every year on 23rd January, the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
• It carries a cash prize of Rs. 51 lakh and a certificate in the case of an institution and Rs. 5 lakh and a certificate in the case of an individual.
• Disaster Risk Management implies the systematic process of using administrative decisions, organisation, operational skills, and capacities to implement policies, strategies and coping capacities of the society and communities to lessen the impact of natural hazards and related environmental and technological disasters.
• These comprise all forms of activities including structural and non- structural measures to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) adverse effects of hazards.
• The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 was adopted at the Third UN World Conference in Sendai, Japan, in 2015.
• The Sendai Framework is the successor instrument to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters.
• The different phases of disaster management are represented in the Disaster Cycle Diagram.

2. Environment Management Plan (EMP)

Why in News?

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has recently directed Delhi and Haryana to enforce the Environment Management Plan (EMP) that the two governments have prepared for the rejuvenation and protection of the Najafgarh Jheel, a transboundary wetland.

Highlights:

• The implementation of these action plans is to be monitored by the National Wetland Authority through the respective State Wetland Authorities.
• Earlier, the Union Environment Ministry had set up a three-member committee to prepare an integrated EMP.
• The top priority would be to notify the Najafgarh jheel and its area of influence under The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017.
• The rules prohibit and regulate certain activities within wetlands and their ‘zone of influence’.
• It lists immediate measures to be taken including demarcating the boundary of the wetland using geo-tagged pillars, and commissioning a hydrological assessment and species inventory.
• Medium-term measures to be implemented in two to three years include in-situ treatment of major drains meeting the Najafgarh jheel, regular monitoring of the waterbird population, and relocating flow obstructions such as power sub-stations.
• The jheel is known to be a habitat for migratory and resident waterbirds.
• It also proposes a detailed estimation of sewage generation in the area considering 15 years of projected population, and identification of all drains contributing to pollution in the jheel.
• Najafgarh Jheel is located in a natural depression in southwest Delhi, close to the Gurugram-Rajokri border on National Highway-48.
• The lake is largely filled with sewage from Gurugram and surrounding villages of Delhi. A portion of the lake falls in Haryana.
• The presence of 281 bird species, including several threatened ones such as Egyptian vulture, Sarus Crane, Steppe Eagle, Greater Spotted Eagle, Imperial Eagle and those migrating along the Central Asian Flyway has been reported at the lake.

3. Burkina Faso

Why in News?

• Burkina Faso’s army has recently announced that it had ousted President Roch Kabore, suspended the constitution, dissolved the Government and the national assembly, and closed the Country’s Borders.

Highlights:

• Army has toppled governments over the past 18 months in Mali and Guinea.
• The Military also took over in Chad last year (2021) after President Idriss Deby died Fighting rebels on the battlefield in the Country’s North.
• A former French colony, Burkina Faso has suffered chronic instability since gaining independence in 1960, including several coups.
• The country’s name, meaning “land of the honest men”, was picked by revolutionary military officer Thomas Sankara who took power in 1983. He was toppled and killed in 1987.
• The country has been fighting an Islamist insurgency that spilled over from neighbouring Mali. This has Fuelled anger in the military and damaged the once important tourist industry.
• Landlocked Burkina Faso, one of West Africa’s poorest countries despite being a gold producer, has experienced numerous coups since independence from France in 1960.
• Islamist militants control swathes of Burkina Faso’s territory and have forced residents in some areas to abide by their harsh version of Islamic law, while the military’s struggle to quell the insurgency has drained scarce national resources.
• Kabore had faced waves of protests in recent months amid frustration over killings of civilians and soldiers by militants, some of whom have links to Islamic State and al Qaeda.
• The discontent escalated in November 2021, when 53 people, mainly members of the security forces, were killed by suspected jihadists.
• The announcement cited the deterioration of the security situation and what the army described as Kabore’s inability to unite the West African nation and effectively respond to challenges, which include an Islamist Insurgency.
• The statement was made in the name of a previously unheard-of entity, the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration, or MPSR, its French-language acronym. MPSR, which includes all sections of the army.
• The MPSR said it would propose a calendar for a return to constitutional order “within a reasonable time frame, after consultations with various sections of the nation.”
• The military also announced the closure of Burkina Faso’s borders.

4. Towards low emissions growth

Why in News?

• While many developing Countries made net-zero pledges at COP26 in Glasgow, they face Enormous Developmental Challenges in their Attempts to grow in a climate-constrained World.

Developmental Challenges for India:

• For India, the national context is shaped by high youth unemployment, millions more entering the workforce each year, and a country hungry for substantial investments in hard infrastructure to industrialise and urbanise.
• Growth with low emission footprint: India’s economic growth in the last three decades, led by growth in the services sector, has come at a significantly lower emissions footprint.
• But in the coming decades, India will have to move to an investment-led and manufacturing-intensive growth model to create job opportunities and create entirely new cities and infrastructure to accommodate and connect an increasingly urban population.
• All of this requires a lot of energy. Can India do all of this with a low emissions footprint?
• What could India do to pursue an industrialization pathway that is climate-compatible?
• A coherent national transition strategy is important in a global context where industrialised countries are discussing the imposition of carbon border taxes while failing to provide developing countries the necessary carbon space to grow or the finance and technological assistance necessary to decarbonise.
• What India needs is an overarching green industrialisation strategy that combines laws, policy instruments, and new or reformed implementing institutions to steer its decentralised economic activities to become climate-friendly and resilient.
• Issues with India’s domestic manufacturing of renewable technology components India’s industrial policy efforts to increase the domestic manufacturing of renewable energy technology components have been affected by policy incoherence, poor management of economic rents, and contradictory policy objectives.
• India managed to create just a third of jobs per megawatt that China has managed to in its efforts to promote solar PV and wind technologies.
• China has created more jobs in manufacturing solar and wind components for exports than domestic deployment.
• India could have retained some of those jobs if it were strategic in promoting these technologies.
• Opportunities in decarbonising transport and industry sector
• Technologies needed to decarbonise the transport and industry sectors provide a significant opportunity for India.
• However, India’s R&D investments in these emerging green technologies are non-existent.
• PLI is a step in right direction: The production-linked incentives (PLIs) under ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ are a step in the right direction for localising clean energy manufacturing activities.
• Focus on R&D: Aligning existing RD&D investments with the technologies needed for Green Industrialisation is crucial for realising quantum jumps in economic activities.
• Encourage private entrepreneurship: India also needs to nurture private entrepreneurship and experimentation in clean energy technologies.
• Besides China, Korea’s green growth strategy provide examples of how India could gain economic and employment rents from green industrialisation without implementing restrictive policies.

Way Forward:

• India should set its pace based on its ability to capitalise on the opportunities to create wealth through green industrialisation.
• India should follow a path where it can negotiate carbon space to grow, buying time for the hard-to-abate sectors; push against counterproductive WTO trade litigations on decarbonisation technologies; all while making R&D investments in those technologies to ensure that it can gain economic value in the transition.

5. Why India must engage with Myanmar

Why in News?

• Notwithstanding the unfortunate developments since the Tatmadaw took over, a Recalibration exercise for developing a robust relationship with Naypyidaw is the need of the hour.

Need for Proactive Neighbourhood Policy with Myanmar:

• Security and economic interests: India should implement an unbiased and proactive “Neighbourhood First” strategy that facilitates the Act East policy crucial for India’s long-term security and economic interests.
• Myanmar — regardless of who governs its polity — is not only the decisive lynchpin for India’s Act East policy but critical for the economic development and security of India’s Northeast.
• China factor: Such a policy should take into account the measures that China has taken to arm the Tatmadaw.

How to Support Myanmar?

• Critical requirements: India should find ways to support Naypyidaw for its critical requirements of systems and platforms like UAVs, surveillance systems and Communication Equipment.
• Economic engagement: There is a need for dynamic economic engagement with Myanmar, to expedite the completion of the earlier agreement on the operationalisation of the Sittwe port, the establishment of an oil refinery and joint vaccine production facilities at a cost of $6 billion.
• People-to-people goodwill: India also needs to proactively employ the existing “people-to-people” goodwill and proximate ties between the two armies.
• Engage with military leadership to stop highhandedness: India has the singular advantage of acceptability from both factions in Myanmar and it is, therefore, imperative that it takes the lead in engaging with the ruling military leadership, to stop the highhandedness.
• The visit by India’s Foreign Secretary to Myanmar in the last week of December 2021 was significant.
• It conveyed the message that India, notwithstanding its commitment to democracy, is amenable to conduct business with the country, regardless of who is in the seat of power.
• It is of the utmost importance for India to positively engage Naypyidaw and stave off attempts to exploit Myanmar by countries inimical to India’s growth. Any ambiguity or delay in India’s constructive engagement with Myanmar would only serve the interests of anti-India forces.