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Daily News Digest 18 March 2024

Table of content

Sangita Kalanidhi Award

Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins

Why in news?

The Madras Music Academy's hallowed halls reverberated with the rhythmic applause of connoisseurs as the prestigious Sangita Kalanidhi award for 2024 was conferred upon the illustrious vocalist and social reformer, T. M. Krishna. .

About News

  • In 2016, Krishna was awarded the coveted Ramon Magsaysay Award.
  • The Sangita Kalanidhi award is considered one of the highest honours in Carnatic music.
  • The academy’s executive committee has decided to confer Krishna with the award for his excellence in music.
  • In other awards announced by the Academy, while the Nritya Kalanidhi has been awarded to Mohiniyattam exponent Neena Prasad who runs music academies in Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.
  • The two Sangeet Acharya awards were given to mridangam guru Professor Parasalla Ravi and Carnatic vocalist Geetha Raja who learned under the aegis of T Brinda, one of the foremost representatives of the Veenai Dhanammal school of Carnatic Music.

Marathon operation by Navy, IAF led to pirates’ surrender

Time to Read :🕑 3 Mins

Why in news?

In a successful operation led by INS Kolkata and marine commandos, 35 pirates were apprehended and 17 crew members were safely evacuated.

About News

  • An Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 transport aircraft executed a precision airborne drop of two Combat Rubberised Raiding Craft (CRRC) boats flying 10 hours to an area 2,600 km away from the Indian coast.
  • In a reckless hostile act, the pirates shot down the drone and fired at the Indian Naval warship.
  • In a calibrated response in accordance with international laws, INS Kolkata disabled the ship’s steering system and navigational aids, forcing the pirate ship to stop.

Haiti

Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins

Why in news?

The head of the UN children's agency described the chaotic situation in Haiti as "extremely concerning," similar to a scene from the movie "Mad Max," which portrayed a violent and lawless world after an apocalypse.

About

  • According to the United Nations report, Haiti, already hit by drought, natural disaster and weak government, has seen the near-collapse of basic services.
  • Many, many people there are suffering from serious hunger and malnutrition and we are not able to get enough aid to them, with gangs controlling large parts of capital Port-au-Prince as well as key roads leading elsewhere.
  • The challenges facing foreign aid workers — some of whom have been attacked or kidnapped for ransom — were underlined when gangs looted a UNICEF shipment intended to provide relief for suffering mothers and children.

Scalable Instructable Multiworld Agent (SIMA)

Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins

Why in news?

Google DeepMind has released a revolutionary AI gaming agent named SIMA (Scalable Instructable Multiworld Agent).

About Order of the Druk Gyalpo

  • AI research lab Google Deepmind describes SIMA as an AI Agent, which is different from AI models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google Gemini.
    • AI models are trained on a vast data set and are limited when it comes to working on their own. On the other hand, an AI Agent can process data and take action themselves.
  • SIMA can be called a generalist AI Agent that is capable of doing different kinds of tasks.
    • It is like a virtual buddy who can understand and follow instructions in all sorts of virtual environments – from exploring mysterious dungeons to building lavish castles. It can accomplish tasks or solve challenges assigned to it.
  • It is essentially a super-smart computer programme that can be thought of as a digital explorer, having the ability to understand what you want and help create it in the virtual world.

Colouring agent - Rhodamine B

Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins

Why in news?

The Karnataka government has recently “banned” the use of harmful colouring agents in gobhi manchurian and cotton candy.

About Rhodamine B

  • It is not one of the permitted food colouring agents under the country’s food safety regulations.
  • It is a chemical colour used in dyeing clothes, paper, leather, printing, and plastics.
  • It is used to give red and pink colours.
  • The dye is not fit for consumption and may lead to acute toxicity.
  • Exposure to the chemical may also damage the eye and cause irritation in the respiratory tract.
  • While the International Agency for Research on Cancer — the World Health Organisation body that maintains a list of cancer-causing agents — says it cannot be classified as carcinogenic to humans, there are some studies on rats that have shown carcinogenic effects.

No major change in employment status or wages in 10 years

Time to Read :🕑 7 Mins

Why in news?

A new report titled "Employment, Wages and Inequality" has been released by Bahutva Karnataka, a forum for concerned citizens and organizations.

Key finding of the report

  • The report analyses the progress in various employment-related indicators in the last decade, including employment generation, formalisation of jobs, and improvement in wages.
  • In April 2019, the Prime Minister claimed that 2.5 crore jobs have been added annually. Data reveal that the share of formal employment with social security and other advantages attached to it has remained stagnant. On the other hand, the number of self-employed individuals has increased substantially. Further, while wage earnings have increased when adjusted for ination, the increase is negligible.
  • The stagnation is reected in the share of households earning less than the national floor level minimum wage (NFLMW). About 34% of households in India earned less than the proposed NFLMW of ₹375 a day. Further, wage inequality has resulted in widening the gap between the rich and the poor. In 2022, the top 1% and 10% of the population held 22% and 57% of the national income, respectively, while the bottom 50% held 12.7%, according to data from the World Inequality Database.
  • Chart 1 compares the share of employment across various employment categories in 2011-12 and 2022-23 for men and women .Data show that the share of employment in the formal sector remained below 25%. The share of those who were self-employed remained above 50% by 2022-23.
    • While the share of self-employed women was the highest, it also saw the highest growth of 8% points from 56.5% in 2011-12 to 64.3% in 2022-23. According to the report, between 2011-12 and 2022-23, women doing unpaid labour in their family business or farming rose from one in four to one in three due to lack of other remunerative employment and stagnant household earnings.
  • Chart 2 shows the year-wise average weekly wages, adjusted for ination, for male and female regular salaried workers and casual labourers. Data show there has not been any signicant growth in income in the last ve years across employment categories.
  • Further, many households still earn less than the NFLMW (Map 3). In 2019, an expert committee, set up by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, recommended that the NFLMW should be at least ₹375 per day and ₹3,050 per week. Of the 34 States and Union Territories (UTs) analysed, in about 19 of them, more than 20% earned less than ₹375 a day or less than ₹3,050 a week in 2022-23. In Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, above 50% of the households earned less than this threshold. The report adds that nearly 30 crore workers make less than the minimum wage.
  • The stagnancy in income growth among the majority of the population, when juxtaposed with India’s increased GDP per capita, hints at a widening gap between the rich and poor. In the last 10 years, GDP per capita increased by 60%, while close to 35% of the total households earned less than the NFLMW.
  • The share of national wealth held by the wealthiest 10% of the population increased from 63% in 2012 to 64.5% in 2022, while the share held by the poorest 50% reduced further from 6.1% in 2012 to 5.6% in 2022 (Chart 4).
  • The chart shows the year-wise wealth share of the top 10% and the bottom 50% of the population.

The problem of equity in IPCC reports

Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins

Why in news?

In a newly published study, researchers examined over 500 future emissions scenarios from the latest reports by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

More details about news

  • These scenarios relate to mitigation actions like reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and increasing carbon sequestration through forestry.
  • It found that across all 556 scenarios, income, energy-use, and emissions disparities between developed and developing countries are projected to continue up to 2050.

What are IPCC assessment reports?

  • Typically, IPCC reports comprise three Working Group reports:
    • Physical science.
    • Climate adaptation.
    • Mitigation action.
  • One synthesis report consolidates findings from the three Working Group reports. Then there are thematic special reports.
  • Each report assesses climate-related scientific literature to capture the state of scientific, technical, and socio-economic knowledge on climate change.
  • The IPCC is currently in its Seventh Assessment cycle (AR7).

How does it assess future scenarios?

  • The IPCC uses ‘modelled pathways’ to estimate what it will take to limit the warming of the earth’s surface.
    • These pathways are drawn using Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) that describe human and earth systems.
    • IAMs are complex models that examine possible futures of the energy and climate systems and economies.
    • Its macroeconomic models can point to future growth levels in terms of GDP
    • Its energy models can project future consumption.
    • Vegetation models can examine land-use changes.
    • Earth-system models use the laws of physics to understand how climate evolves.
    • With such integration across disciplines, IAMs are meant to provide policy-relevant guidelines on climate action. However, these models also have shortcomings.
  • They prioritise least-cost assessments — for example, the absolute cost of setting up a solar plant or undertaking afforestation in India is lower than in the U.S. However, experts have said they could exercise the option of enabling countries to equitably share the burden of action, where the richest undertake more drastic mitigation action more immediately.

What did the new study find?

  • The study was conducted by the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, and M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai.
    • They assessed 556 out of 700 scenarios in IPCC’s AR6 report and found they project that per-capita GDP across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (except China), which together constitute 60% of the world’s population, will be below the global average even in 2050.
    • They spotted similar inequities between the Global North and the Global South vis-à-vis the consumption of goods and services and both energy and fossil fuel consumption.
  • The scenarios were also found to project higher carbon sequestration from land-based carbon sinks (like forests) and higher deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in developing countries compared to developed ones. Thus, poorer countries, they concluded, would bear the burden of both mitigation action and carbon dioxide removal and CCS.
  • Analysis of the regional trends underlying the global modelled scenarios in the IPCC’s [AR6] indicates that the scenarios disregard the notion of the historical responsibility of the Global North, adding the scenarios also “disregard” the future energy needs of the Global South to meet development goals.

Why does equity matter?

  • The principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities are enshrined in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
  • Article 3 of the Convention states countries “should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind, on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
  • Accordingly, the developed country Parties should take the lead in combating climate change and the adverse effects thereof.
    • These principles recognise that while tackling climate change requires global action, richer countries are better placed to shoulder bigger climate action responsibilities than poorer ones.
    • By viewing climate action solely through the lens of global-level technical and economic feasibility, mitigation pathways modelled using IAMs often run counter to equity principles, researchers say.
  • Equity in this sense would imply that developed regions need to accelerate towards net negative emissions and make the remaining carbon budget available to other less developed regions. However, the scenarios project precisely the opposite.

Conclusion

The construction of IPCC scenarios will need to be both equitable and environmentally sound. This is currently a major gap in the emissions modelling domain. We need to move towards model and scenario-building techniques where questions of equity and climate justice come to the foreground.