Austra Hind, MPOX, Egypt’s President Guest at Republic Day parade in 2023, MGNREGA scheme

Australia, Maldives Officials Did Not Attend China’s Indian Ocean Meet

• Recently, the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), an organization connected with the Chinese Foreign Ministry held a meeting of the China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation on November 21, in which 19 countries took part. However, India was conspicuously absent.
• The meeting was held in a hybrid manner under the theme of “Shared Development: Theory and Practice from the Perspective of the Blue Economy” in Kunming, Yunnan Province.

Highlights

• Participants: High-level delegations from 19 nations, including Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Oman, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Djibouti, Australia, and representatives from three international organizations, were in attendance at the hybrid forum, according to a press release from CIDCA.
• A report claims that India was not invited.
• India was absent from China’s COVID-19 vaccine cooperation meeting with some South Asian nations last year.
• Australia and the Maldives announced on 27th November that they had not attended the recent Chinese-organized Indian Ocean Region Forum, which the organizers claimed.
• Both countries clarified there was no official representation at the China-backed forum.
• The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined to provide the identities of the foreign participants. In multilateral engagements, participants’ information is typically disclosed.
• According to a news statement from the CIDCA, China offered to create a marine disaster prevention and mitigation cooperation mechanism between China and nations in the Indian Ocean region at the China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on November 21. China is prepared to offer the necessary material, technical, and financial support.

What are the issues?

• Challenge India’s Influence in The Region: The fact that India was not invited to this forum is known, and experts interpret this as an attempt to undermine India’s longstanding influence in the area amid concerns about the militarization of the Indian Ocean region.
• Even though it is geographically far from the Indian Ocean, China has steadfastly attempted to increase its political, economic, and security incursions.
• Challenge existing Forums: The creation of a new forum by China for IOR nations despite the existence of existing successful forums raises serious concerns and appears to be a response to India’s considerable influence in the area.
• China: China has made major infrastructure and port investments in a number of nations, including Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• In addition to developing the port at Pakistan’s Gwadar in the Arabian Sea against India’s western border and making infrastructure investments in the Maldives, Beijing has acquired Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port on a 99-year lease.
• Debt diplomacy: China has frequently been accused of using its Belt and Road Initiative to engage in “debt diplomacy” in these nations, purportedly in the name of infrastructure development.
• China has frequently stationed navy warships in the Gulf of Aden since 2008, and in 2017, it opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti.
• The Indian Ocean littoral has taken center stage in China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative due to China’s significant involvement in global supply chains, the vast resource base of the Indian Ocean, and the passage of important sea lines of communication across the IOR.

India

• India has traditionally been a partner and supporter of the countries in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), as well as a first response to major crises in the littoral countries.
• Under the slogan “Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR)” as proclaimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to Mauritius in 2015, it has been regularly engaging with the nations along the Indian Ocean’s littoral through organizations like the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the Indian Ocean Navies Symposium (IONS).
• China is an IORA dialogue partner along with the US, Russia, and numerous other European nations.
• China, which is not an Indian Ocean nation, is one of several observers in the IONS conference, which brings together 24 nations from the region.

Indian Ocean Region Association:

• The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) is a dynamic intergovernmental organization that works with its 23 Member States and 10 Dialogue Partners to promote sustainable development in the Indian Ocean region.
• Members: Commonwealth of Australia, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Union of Comoros, French Republic, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Madagascar, Malaysia, Republic of Maldives, Republic of Mauritius, Republic of Mozambique, Sultanate of Oman, Republic of Seychelles, Republic of Singapore, Federal Republic of Somalia , Republic of South Africa, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, United Republic of Tanzania, Kingdom of Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Republic of Yemen.
• All sovereign States of the Indian Ocean Rim are eligible for membership of the Association.
• To become members, States must adhere to the principles and objectives enshrined in the Charter of the Association.

India’s SARAS radio telescope gives clues to Universe’s 1st stars & galaxies

Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru on 28 November 2022 said that in a first-of-its-kind work, using data from an Indian telescope, scientists have determined properties of radio luminous galaxies formed just 200 million years after the Big Bang, a period known as the Cosmic Dawn.

What

1. Pointing out that a number of telescopes, both ground and space-based, peering into the sky are aiming to capture the faint signals arising from the depths of the cosmos to better the understanding of our Universe, RRI said they used the Shaped Antenna measurement of the background RAdio Spectrum-3 (SARAS-3) telescope.
2. For the study, SARAS-3, indigenously designed and built at RRI, was deployed over Dandiganahalli Lake and Sharavathi backwaters, located in Karnataka, in early 2020.
3. Researchers Saurabh Singh (RRI), Ravi Subrahmanyan from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, along with collaborators at the University of Cambridge and the University of Tel-Aviv, used data from SARAS-3 to throw light on the energy output, luminosity, and masses of the first generation of galaxies that are bright in radio wavelengths.
4. Scientists study properties of very early galaxies by observing radiation from hydrogen atoms in and around galaxies, emitted at a frequency of approximately 1420 MHz.
5. The radiation is stretched by the expansion of the universe, as it travels to us across space and time, and arrives at Earth in lower frequency radio bands 50-200 MHz, also used by FM and TV transmissions.
6. The cosmic signal is extremely faint, buried in orders of magnitude brighter radiation from our own Galaxy and man-made terrestrial interference.
7. Therefore, it added, detecting the signal, even using the most powerful existing radio telescopes, has remained a challenge for astronomers.
8. The results from the SARAS-3 telescope are the first time that radio observations of the averaged 21-cm line have been able to provide an insight to the properties of the earliest radio loud galaxies that are usually powered by supermassive black holes.

Austra Hind begins in Rajasthan

The inaugural edition of the bilateral military exercise Austra Hind between the Indian Army and the Australian Army began at the Mahajan Field Firing Ranges in Rajasthan on 28 November 2022. The exercise will comprise joint training operations in semi-deserts terrains under the United Nations (UN) peace enforcement mandate and will conclude on 11 December 2022.

More about Austra Hind

1. This is the first exercise in the series of Austra Hind with the participation of all arms and services contingents from both armies.
2. The Australian Army contingent comprising soldiers from the 13th Brigade of the 2nd Division has arrived at the exercise location. The Indian Army is represented by troops from the Dogra Regiment.
3. Exercise Austra Hind will be a yearly event that will be conducted alternatively in India and Australia.
4. This joint exercise will enable the two armies to share best practices in tactics, techniques and procedures for conducting tactical operations at company and platoon levels for neutralising hostile threats.
5. The joint exercise includes the use of new-generation equipment and specialised weapons including snipers and deployment of surveillance and communication equipment to achieve a high degree of situational awareness apart from casualty management and evacuation and planning logistics at the battalion and company levels.
6. During the exercise, participating contingents will engage in a variety of tasks ranging from joint planning, joint tactical drills, sharing basics of special arms skills and raiding a hostile target.

WHO confirms renaming monkeypox to ‘MPOX’

The World Health Organization announced on 28 November 2022 that monkeypox will be renamed MPOX in English to avoid the stigma associated with the current name. The virus that causes monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 in Danish research monkeys, hence the name “monkeypox,” but the illness can affect a variety of animals, with rodents being the most commonly affected.

What

1. Following a series of consultations with global experts, WHO will begin using a new preferred term ‘MPOX’ as a synonym for monkeypox.
2. Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while ‘monkeypox’ is phased out, the UN health agency said.
3. WHO will adopt the term MPOX in its communications, and encourage others to follow these recommendations, to minimise any ongoing negative impact of the current name and from adoption of the new name.
4. The disease was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and since then, human transmission has mainly been confined to a small number of endemic West and Central African nations.
5. However, in May, cases of the illness, which causes fever, aches in the muscles, and large skin lesions that resemble boils, started to spread quickly throughout the world, mostly among men who have sex with other men.
6. This year, 110 countries have reported 81,107 cases and 55 fatalities to the WHO.

Egypt’s President Guest at Republic Day Parade in 2023

To strengthen the India-Egypt bilateral relations, after a gap of two years, there will be a chief guest for Republic Day celebrations in 2023. At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is coming as the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations on 26 January 2023. No foreign dignitary was invited as the Chief Guest in 2021 and 2022 due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. This is the first time that the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt will be the Chief Guest.

India & Egypt

1. This year the two countries are celebrating 75th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations, and the Arab nation has also been invited as a `guest Country’ during India’s presidency of G20 from 2022-23.

Significance of this visit

1. Indo-Egyptian relations are growing in multiple domains. Regular political and diplomatic engagements in recent times are based on a shared understanding on various important regional and international issues.
2. Security and defence have emerged as one of the most important areas of bilateral relations with focus on counter-terrorism and defence trade.
3. Egypt is a major buyers of weapons and is in the process of rapid military modernization, and India has in recent years put an effort on strengthening its defence manufacturing both for `atmnirbharta’ in meeting its needs and for enhancing defence exports.
4. Egypt has also expressed interest in indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) `Tejas’ as well as the Light Combat Helicopter both from the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (LCA).
5. The two countries are keen on deepening maritime cooperation and Egypt is also looking at India for spare parts for its Russian platforms.
6. In 2022 there have been several level military exchanges, including month-long joint exercises between the Air Forces of the two countries.

Bilateral Trade

1. It has also been reported last month that Egyptian President el-Sisi had urged India to increase the turnover of trade between the two sides and had also stated that the present revenue was not enough.
2. During the meeting between Minister Jaishankar and the Egyptian leader referring to the current bilateral trade turnover of around US$ 7.2 billion, said that new ways to increase the trade should be identified.

Wheat agreement

1. Due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Egypt faced acute shortage of wheat as it was importing almost 80 percent from these countries.
2. And it was earlier this year in April, ending a long standing non-tariff barrier that India was added to the list of accredited countries to supply wheat to Egypt.
3. After a long gap or the first year ever Egypt reached out to India to buy wheat. Though no contract had been signed between the two sides, Egypt had agreed to buy around 500,000 tonnes of wheat from India.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme

The Central government has constituted a committee to review the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, especially to assess the programme’s efficacy as a poverty alleviation tool. The committee, headed by former Rural Development secretary Amarjeet Sinha.

About MGNREGA:

• It is a poverty alleviation programme of the Government of India, which provides the legal Right to Work in exchange for money to the citizens of the country.
• On average, every day approximately 1.5 crore people work under it at almost 14 lakh sites.
• It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
• Funding: It is shared between the Centre and the States.
  • The Central Government bears 100 per cent of the cost of unskilled labour, 75 percent of the cost of semi-skilled and skilled labour, 75 percent of the cost of materials and 6 percent of the administrative costs.
• Current employment: There are currently 15.51 crore active workers enrolled under the scheme.

Features of MGNREGA scheme:

• Legal Right to Work:
  • The Act provides a legal right to employment for adult members of rural households.
• Women labour force:
  • At least one-third of beneficiaries have to be women. Wages must be paid according to the wages specified for agricultural labourers in the state under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.
• Time-Bound Guarantee of Work:
  • Employment must be provided within 15 days of being demanded to fail which an ‘unemployment allowance’ must be given.
• Decentralised Planning:
  • Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) are primarily responsible for planning, implementation and monitoring of the works that are undertaken.
  • Gram Sabha’s must recommend the works that are to be undertaken and at least 50 per cent of the works must be executed by them.
• Transparency and Accountability:
  • There are provisions for proactive disclosure through wall writings, Citizen Information Boards, Management Information Systems and social audits (conducted by Gram Sabha’s).

Significance of the scheme:

• It is a social security scheme to generate employment for the rural poor and ensure livelihood for people in rural areas.
• The scheme sees large-scale participation of women, Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and other traditionally marginalised sections of society.
• It increases the wage rate in rural areas and strengthens the rural economy through the creation of infrastructure assets.
• It facilitates sustainable development which is very clear by its contribution in the direction of water conservation.
• The program provided a sigh of relief to millions of migrants and other people who lost their livelihood in the pandemic times. The scheme ensured that the vulnerable get access to basic income thereby decreasing suicide rates in the country.
• The scheme has led to the creation of common community assets. These assets are built by communities on common lands thereby creating a sense of responsibility towards the structure which results in better care.
  • For instance, many Johads (percolation ponds) and check dams had remained abandoned for several years in many villages of Karnataka. However, villagers revived them under the MGNREGA.

Performance of MGNREGA during Covid-19 Pandemic:

• According to the government data, over 11 crore people worked under MGNREGS during the financial year 2020-21 alone. Few other achievements of the Scheme last year are,
• This is the first time since the launch of the scheme in 2006-07 that the MGNREGS numbers crossed the 11-crore mark in a year.
• Further, the 11 crore mark is also higher by about 41.75% if we compare 2019-20 data (about 7.88 crores worked).
• In 2020-21, the total expenditure was 62.31% higher than in 2019-20.
• As part of the economic package during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government announced additional funding of Rs 40,000 crore for the MGNREGS over and above the budgetary allocation of 2020-21.

Issues with MGNREGA:

• Poor maintenance: Many structures created under MGNREGA become defunct due to poor maintenance. This simply implies the wastage of time, energy, and resources.
• Data on the impact of productive assets: The government does not monitor whether a structure has actually helped water conservation. Further, there is no government data on the impact on groundwater levels, improvements in livelihoods etc. post the creation of assets.
• Inadequate Funds: A huge surge in demand for MGNREGA works has been witnessed in pandemic times. But the government hasn’t duly allocated funding in a similar proportion.

• Insufficient support: With the unemployment rate reaching a 45-year high at 6%, giving merely 100 days of employment is not sufficient.
• Payment Delays: Despite Supreme Court orders, various other initiatives and various government orders, no provisions have yet been worked out for calculation of full wage delays and payment of compensation for the same.
• Corruption and Irregularities: Funds that reach the beneficiaries are very little compared to the actual funds allocated for the welfare schemes.
• Discrimination: Frequent cases of discrimination against women and people from the backwards groups are reported from several regions of the country and a vast number goes unreported.
• Non-payment of Unemployment Allowance: There is a huge pendency in the number of unemployment allowances being shown in the Management Information System (MIS).

Suggestion measures:

• There is a need to carry out social audits as per rules and effective implementation of the delay compensation system.
• The participation of women and backwards classes must be increased by raising awareness and making it more inclusive.
  • The people should be sensitised to do away with the discrimination against them.
• Reasons for poor utilisation of funds should be analysed and steps must be taken to improve them.
• In addition, actions should be initiated against officers found guilty of misappropriating funds.
• Villages must also be allowed to take control of their own water security, noting that catchment areas for many villages are on land controlled and owned by the Forest Department.
• The government should provide greater funds for the proper implementation of the scheme. It currently provides 0.47% of GDP while the World Bank recommends 1.7 % for the optimal functioning of the program.
• The frequency of monitoring by National Level Monitors (NLMs) should be increased and appropriate measures should be taken by States based on their recommendations.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) 2005 is a milestone in India’s history of post-independence social security laws. Made after a successful legal struggle to secure employment, it is a partial victory for the full right of employment in any developing country. An important aspect of this law that distinguishes it from any other public service delivery system is its defeat by the Indian parliament.

Thus, the MNREGA programme has definitely brought about development in rural households, allowing them to access many facilities and improve the quality of their lives.