Arctic Report Card 2022

• Recently, the Arctic Report Card had been released on 13th December by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
• The report had found that the Arctic ecosystem is changing, with wide-ranging effects on humans, animals, vegetation, and industry in the region.

What is the Arctic Report Card?

• The Arctic Report Card is an annually updated peer-reviewed publication about observations on the recent changes in the Arctic ecosystem as compared with historical records.
• It has been presented annually every year since 2006 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
• The 2022 report saw the participation of 11 countries and 150 experts.

What has the 2022 report mentioned?

Rise in precipitation

• The report had found that there had been a shift in seasonal patterns in the Arctic with precipitation rising throughout the year. The majority of the precipitation had fallen as rain, even in the frozen winter.
• As a result, roads had become icier and the risk of flooding had increased. Traditional reindeer herds have struggled to find vegetation to feed on under the increased ice.
• In December 2021. The Arctic had received 1.4 inches of freezing rain, creating a thick layer of ice which caused the uprooting of trees, displacement of communities, and starvation and death among animal herds.

• The increased melting of Arctic ice had led to rising sea levels, exposing more moisture for evaporation. Arctic sea ice has reduced by more than 40% over the 44-year average.
• The Arctic air is warming two times faster than the rest of the world, which increases its capacity to hold moisture. This process is called Arctic Amplification.
• Underground, the wetter ice has increased the rate at which the permafrost has melted.

• This has impacted the infrastructure of the region like buildings, roads, and coastlines. Sinkholes have increased in frequency as well.
• Wetter ice also reduces the formation of snowpacks and river ice, which affects the indigenous communities’ harvesting and food collection.
• Typhoon Merbok which had caused infrastructural and humanitarian damage across the Bering Sea coast in September 2022, was caused by rising temperatures in the Pacific.

Arctic Melting

• Snow which is critical to the Arctic way of life is shrinking.
• The snow helps cool the Arctic by reflecting a majority of the sunlight back to the atmosphere rather than it being absorbed by the darker ground. This effect is called albedo.
• Melting of snow reduces albedo and contributes to further warming of the region and instability of the region through permafrost shrinking.
• The presence of the snow helps the ground and lakes retain moisture through the Spring season, which reduces the risk of wildfires.
• The snow is also a means of transportation for Arctic communities as well as a means of protection for animals.
• Despite there being no sun during the 6-month winter, temperature rises had been recorded.
• This has resulted in thinning of the ice, leading to fatal accidents.

Global effects

• In 2022, the Arctic ice sheet had lost ice for the 25th consecutive year increasing the threat of flooding and storms faced by coastal Arctic communities.
• Warming ocean waters have led to out-of-season ice melts with September 2022 having witnessed melting across 36% of the ice surface. NASA’s Ocean Melting Greenland Report had confirmed the loss of ice due to ocean warming.

Human influence on the Arctic ice

• The present geological age has been termed the Anthropocene era due to the influence of human activities on nature, the climate and life.
• Increased ship traffic in the region has contributed to temperature rises.
• Geopolitical uncertainties in Russia and Ukraine have added to the stress on Arctic communities, ecosystems, and the climate.
• Partnerships between scientists and indigenous knowledge holders are necessary to ensure the continuity of the Arctic way of life.
• Cooperation and resilience building can help reduce risks, but global action on the governmental level is required to handle global warming.

Arctic Region At the northernmost point on Earth, there is a polar zone called the Arctic.The amount of snow and ice on the ground varies periodically in the Arctic.It includes sections of Alaska (United States), Canada, Finland, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. It also includes the Arctic Ocean and other waters. India’s Arctic Policy The Svalbard Treaty, which India signed in Paris in 1920, marked the beginning of its involvement in the Arctic.India started its Arctic research programme in 2007, concentrating on local climate change.The goals included determining how the Arctic climate and the Indian monsoon are connected, identifying the Arctic sea ice using satellite data, and calculating the impact on global warming.Additionally, India focuses on studying the dynamics and mass of Arctic glaciers and sea-level fluctuations, as well as evaluating the Arctic’s flora and wildlife.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: It is a scientific and regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditions, surveys the seas, performs deep sea exploration, supervises fishing, and protects marine animals and endangered species in the United States exclusive economic zone.

 

Draft National Retail Trade Policy, 2022

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has sought the views of 16 departments and ministries on its draft national retail trade policy.

What is Retail Trade?

• Retail trade is the selling of products and services to customers and includes all the aspects of the sale, such as installation, delivery and customer service.
• In the context of commerce, retail must be a transaction between a business and a consumer.
• If a local hardware store buys nails from a manufacturer, it is not a retail transaction.
• An important term that is associated with retail trade is end-user. An end-user is the person or group who actually uses the product.

Components of retail trade

• Wholesalers: Wholesalers are companies that buy large quantities of a product from the manufacturer and then sell them to retail stores. They are often called middlemen because they operate between the companies that manufacture goods and the companies that sell them to consumers.
• Shipping: When a product is purchased from a manufacturer, it needs to get to the wholesaler and eventually to the retailer. Shipping is a big part of retail trade. Whether the shipping is bulk transport of goods from wholesaler to retailer or small shipments from retailer to consumers, shipping plays a vital role.
• Service: When consumers purchase certain products for their home that require installation, the install process is part of retail trade. The same goes for the customer service that a consumer might need after they purchase the product or the repair service that might be required on a product that breaks.
• Sales: One of the most important parts of retail is the front-end sales of the products. Successful retail involves people with knowledge of the products who can communicate with the consumers.

Features of Retail Trade

The main characteristics of retail trade are:-

• Retailer is the last link in the distribution chain.
• Goods or services are sold directly to consumers by the retailer.
• Retailer deals with a wide range of goods.
• Retailer buys and sells a little number of products.
• Retailer maintains personal relations with the customers.
• Retailer is generally located in residential areas.
• Retailer may contact the customers on telephone, Internet, TV or through his retail showroom.
• Retailer acts as a middleman between wholesalers and customers.

Why discuss this?

• Make targeted efforts: This policy would focus on formulating strategies to provide a globally competitive and sustainable environment for the overall development of retail trade through targeted efforts.
• Huge domestic market: India is the world’s fifth-largest global destination in the retail space.
• Growth potential: According to a US-based report, the retail industry in India is likely to see 10 per cent annual growth to reach about USD 2 trillion by 2032.
• Employment generation potential: Another report by CII-Kearney released in 2020 a cohesive national retail policy can help generate 30 lakh more jobs by 2024.

Major challenges to retail sector

• Unorganized market: India’s market for retail trade is largely unorganized. It lacks proper formal chains except few giants such as D-Mart.
• High complexities:  A number of laws, compounded by state-level variations in implementation, create immense complexity for retailers, especially those with a pan-Indian footprint. 
• Regulatory bottlenecks: If one has to set up a store in organized retail, we probably need approvals from 40 different authorities. Single window clearance could be largely beneficial.
• Ignores e-commerce: While recognizing that retail trade in India is gaining strength because of e-commerce, this new draft is not applicable for e-commerce, multi-level marketing, direct selling or street vendors.

About National Retail Trade Policy

• The policy has been envisioned by DPIIT to formulate the national retail policy to promote the growth of domestic trade.
• It focuses on formulating strategies to provide a globally competitive and sustainable environment for overall development of retail trade through targeted efforts.
• The broad objectives of the policy are:
• Ensuring easy and quick access to affordable credit.
• Facilitating modernization and digitization of retail trade by promoting modern technology and superior infrastructural support.
• Development of physical infrastructure across the distribution chain.
• Promotion of skill development and to improve labour productivity.
• Providing an effective consultative and grievance redressal mechanism for the sector.

Significance of the policy

• Promote EODB: This policy will streamline the retail trade and promote ease of doing business in the retail trade sector.
• Skill enhancement: It will encourage skill development and create more employment opportunities for all sections of society involved in retail trade.
• Infrastructure boost: It will identify and address existing infrastructure gaps affecting the retail trade industry.
• Employment boost: It will leverage retail trade as a tool for socioeconomic development of the country. A cohesive national retail policy can help generate 30 lakh more jobs by 2024.
• Investment inflows: It will accelerate investment flow to underdeveloped regions across the country. The retail industry is likely to see 10 percent annual growth to reach about USD 2 trillion by 2032.
• Promoting small retailer: It will create a level-playing field for small sellers by providing them access to credit as well as help large, organized retailers with quicker approvals.

Conclusion

• A cohesive retail policy built on the pillars of simplification, standardization, and digitalization will pave the way for significant growth and accelerate a short-term economic recovery.
• The policy is expected to lay down broad contours of a “prescriptive” framework and States will also have a key role in implementation.

National Geospatial Policy unveiled

The National Geospatial Policy unveiled by the government asks ministries and departments to “increasingly engage” the private sector for creation and development of geospatial data required by them under the liberalised regime rather than use Survey of India as an intermediary.

More about the Policy

1. The National Geospatial Policy, notified by the Department of Science and Technology, also spelt out 13 milestones for the country to achieve to have a thriving geospatial industry involving private enterprises that include creating a high accuracy digital elevation model for the entire country by 2030 and digital twins of major cities and towns by 2035.
2. The policy was approved by the Union Cabinet at a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on 16 December 2022.
3. The policy describes Digital Twin as a virtual replica of a physical asset, process or service that lies at the core of the new digital revolution.
4. National Digital Twin would be an ecosystem of smart, dynamic, connected Digital Twins, enabled by secure and interoperable data sharing, to facilitate better decision-making.
5. It spells out the vision, goals for the geospatial sector and outlines the strategies for achieving them. It seeks to develop geospatial infrastructures, geospatial skill and knowledge, standards, geospatial businesses, promote innovation and strengthen the national and sub-national arrangements for generation and management of geospatial information.
6. India’s geospatial market, including domestic and exports, is estimated to be worth approximately Rs 27,650 crore in 2025, rising from Rs 22,940 crore in 2019, the Geospatial-Artha Report said. The sector is expected to grow to Rs 63,000 crore by 2030.
7. The policy aims to create an enabling ecosystem, thereby providing a conducive environment to Indian Companies that will enable them to make India self-reliant in producing and using their own geospatial data /information as also compete with foreign companies in the global space.

About GDPDC

1. It states that the government shall constitute a new Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee (GDPDC) as the apex body for formulating and implementing appropriate guidelines, strategies and programmes for promotion of activities related to the geospatial sector.
2. The GDPDC would replace and subsume the functions and powers of National Spatial Data Committee (NSDC) and the Geospatial Data Promotion and Development Committee constituted in March last year.
3. The policy also stated that a Unified Geospatial Interface (UGI), an electronic data querying and processing service, will be operationalised for provision of consumer-oriented products, applications, services and solutions using the geospatial data and metadata contained in the National Geospatial Data Registry.
4. The UGI will include access to all open geospatial data directly or indirectly collected by the central and state-level partnering agencies on terms to be determined by the GDPDC.
5. The government will look to establish an Integrated Data and Information Framework, under which a Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure (GKI) will be developed by 2030.
6. By 2035, the policy sets the goals of usage of geospatial data include mapping of sub-surface infrastructure in major cities and towns across India, and development of high-resolution, accurate bathymetric geospatial data (resources and economy of inland waters, and sea surface topography of shallow and deep seas).

India, Pakistan exchange list of nuclear installations

In continuing a 32-year practice, India and Pakistan on 1 January 2023 exchanged a list of their nuclear installations under a bilateral pact which prohibits the two sides from attacking each other’s atomic facilities. The exchange of the list took place under the provisions of the agreement on the prohibition of attack against nuclear installations and facilities.

What

1. It was done simultaneously through diplomatic channels in New Delhi and Islamabad.
2. The agreement was signed on 31 December 1988 and came into force on 27 January 1991.
3. The pact mandates India and Pakistan to inform each other of the nuclear installations and facilities covered under the agreement on the first of January of every calendar year.
4. This is the 32nd consecutive exchange of such lists between the two countries, the first one having taken place on 1 January 1992.
5. The exchange of the list came amid continuing strain in ties between the two countries over the Kashmir issue as well as cross-border terrorism.
6. Pakistan first officially tested nuclear weapons in 1998 and has since developed a significant stockpile of nuclear capable missiles, as has India.
7. With the help of China, Pakistan has recently increased its use of nuclear energy to meet the rising demand for electricity.

Railways rolls out energy efficiency plan

The railways ministry has rolled out a five-pronged energy efficiency plan to become carbon-neutral by 2030. The ministry is looking to reduce overall energy use with efficient operations and increase renewable energy usage. India, in its commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, has set a target to become net zero by 2070. For the railways, the target year is 2030.

More about plan

1. The policy is broadly centred around five action points — sustainable buildings, cloud-based data monitoring and management portal, energy efficiency in equipment and appliances, power quality and restoration, and capacity building and awareness, the ministry said in its policy directive issued.
2. Non-traction operations are those which are not directly connected to the running of trains on the railway network.
3. The railway is aiming to increase its quantum of renewable energy in non-traction by installing rooftop solar panels on all railway establishments.
4. Non-traction end-uses account for over 2,100 GWh of electricity use per year, projected to increase by 30 per cent by 2030 as Indian Railways network and infrastructure expands.
5. Achieving the Net Zero Emissions target requires an integrated approach to reducing energy use intensity of existing and future infrastructure along with a shift to renewable energy sources.
6. The ministry is looking to induct new technology such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) to keep a close watch on its greenhouse gas emissions.
7. The railway board has sought the inputs of the Research Development and Standards Organisation to come up with innovative ways to reduce its carbon output.
8. The railway board plans to ensure that buildings are compliant with the Shunya standards of net-zero emissions set by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
9. The railway is undertaking electrification on its tracks along with a simultaneous shift to electric locomotives.
10. In FY23, the railways achieved 1973 route km of electrification, which is 41 per cent higher than the previous year.

2022 Was the Year of Drought

Lakes and rivers in several countries shrank to extreme lows, and dry conditions threatened crops and fueled destructive wildfires across the globe. It was a year characterized by extreme drought. From North America to Africa to Europe to Asia, huge swaths of the planet was parched in 2022. Global warming worsens drought by enhancing evaporation, depleting reservoirs and drying out soils and other vegetation.

Asia

• The world’s largest continent provided a dire blueprint in 2022 of the consequences of drought and extreme heat in a warming world.
• An early heat wave gripped India and Pakistan, causing at least 90 deaths as temperatures in some spots soared as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The scorching conditions ignited forest fires in India and fueled the rapid melting of glaciers in northern Pakistan, which led to catastrophic flooding and even wiped out a bridge in the country’s Hunza Valley.
• The waterway is also a major source of hydropower for the country and plays a key role in shipping and global supply chain management.

Africa

• The Horn of Africa, which encompasses the easternmost part of the continent, experienced its longest drought in 40 years in 2022, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
• The region experienced drier than average conditions as it suffered through its fifth consecutive failed rainy season. The prolonged drought is exacerbating food insecurity issues for more than 50 million people in the region.
• Parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia were among the hardest hit by drought this year.
• The United Nations said severe drought and food shortages are likely to persist, which could lead to famine in parts of the Horn of Africa.