Mangrove Alliance, Centre restricted use of herbicide, Garuda-VII, Mother Tongue Survey of India

India joined the Mangrove Alliance for Climate

India joined the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC) at the 27th Summit of the Conference of Parties (COP27) at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. UAE, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, Spain and Sri Lanka are the other MAC supporters. The mangroves can absorb four to five times more carbon emissions than the tropical forests and can help create new carbon sinks.

What are mangrove forests?

1.         A mangrove is a shrub or a small tree that grows along the coastlines and has roots in salty sediments, often underwater.

2.         They also grow in swamps. Mangrove forests can survive extreme weather conditions and require low oxygen levels to survive.

3.         The mangroves cannot survive freezing temperatures and thus are found mainly in tropical and subtropical latitudes. Sundarbans in West Bengal in India is the largest mangrove forest in the world.

4.         UNESCO celebrates 26 July as the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem to raise awareness about mangrove ecosystems and to promote their conservation.

What is the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC)?

1.         Spearheaded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in partnership with Indonesia, MAC was launched at the COP27 Summit in Egypt to scale up and accelerate the conservation and restoration of the mangrove forests.

2.         The alliance will raise awareness about the role of mangroves as a “nature-based solution to climate change”.

3.         The MAC seeks to scale up, accelerate conservation, restoration and growing plantation efforts of mangrove ecosystems for the benefit of communities globally, and recognize the importance of these ecosystems for climate change mitigation and adaptation,” MAC’s official website said about its aim.

What is the relationship between India and mangroves?

1.         India contributes to nearly half of the total mangrove cover in South Asia.

2.         According to the Forest Survey report 2021 released in January, mangroves cover in the country is 4,992 square km, which is 0.15 per cent of the country’s total geographical area. Since 2019, the cover has risen by only 17 sq km.

3.         West Bengal has the highest percentage of mangrove cover in India, mainly because it has Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world.

4.         It is followed by Gujarat and Andaman, and Nicobar islands. Other states that have mangrove cover are Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Kerala.

Centre restricted use of herbicide

The Union Agriculture Ministry has restricted the use of glyphosate, a widely used herbicide. This comes even as the Supreme Court on 10 November 2022 is about to take up a plea seeking a ban on all herbicide-tolerant crops, including transgenic hybrid mustard and cotton.

What is glyphosate?

1.         It is an herbicide used to kill weeds — undesirable plants that compete with crops for nutrients, water and sunlight. Since weeds basically grow at the expense of crops, farmers remove them manually or spray herbicides.

2.         Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide that can control a wide range of weeds, whether broadleaf or grassy.

3.         It is also non-selective, killing most plants. When applied to their leaves, it inhibits the production of a protein ‘5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS)’.

4.         This enzyme, produced only by plants and microorganisms, synthesises aromatic amino acids that are necessary for their growth.

Use in India

1.         There are nine glyphosate-based formulations containing different concentrations of the chemical registered for use under the Insecticides Act, 1968.

2.         These are approved largely for weed control in tea gardens and non-crop areas such as railway tracks or playgrounds.

3.         Farmers also apply glyphosate on irrigation channels and bunds to clear these of weeds, making it easier for water to flow and to walk through them.

Six Indian clearing bodies derecognised

The European Union’s financial markets regulator European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said it will withdraw recognition of six Indian clearing bodies or central counterparties (CCPs). These six CCPs are Clearing Corporation of India (CCIL), Indian Clearing Corporation Ltd (ICCL), NSE Clearing Ltd (NSCCL), Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing (MCXCCL), India International Clearing Corporation (IFSC) Ltd (IICC) and NSE IFSC Clearing Corporation Ltd (NICCL). As per the European Market Infrastructure Regulations (EMIR), a CCP in a third country can provide clearing services to European banks only if it is recognized by the ESMA.

What’s the reason for derecognition?

1.         The ESMA said it reviewed the recognition of all third country CCPs (TC-CCPs) that had been recognised prior to 21 September 2020, as per the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) regime.

2.         The decision to derecognise Indian CCPs came due to ‘no cooperation arrangements’ between the ESMA and Indian regulators — the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).

3.         The ESMA wants to supervise these CCPs, which the Indian regulators are not in favour of as they feel that these entities have robust risk management and there is no need for a foreign regulator to inspect them.

What’s the role of CCP?

1.         CCPs perform two main functions as the intermediary in a market transaction — clearing and settlement — and guarantee the terms of a trade. CCP is a system provider, who by way of notation interposes between system participants in the transactions admitted for settlement, thereby becoming the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer, for the purpose of effecting settlement of their transactions.

2.         A CCP is authorised by the RBI to operate in India under Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.

Chiefs Of Indian, French Air Forces Join Ongoing Garuda-VII Air Exercise

Recently, Air Force Chiefs of India and France joined the ongoing Air Exercise Garuda VII at Jodhpur. The Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Chief Marshal (ACM) V. R. Chaudhari flew a sortie in an IAF Rafale fighter, whereas the French Air and Space Force (FASF) Chief General Stéphane Mille flew in an IAF Su-30MKI fighter.

Highlights

• For the first time, the recently added Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Prachand and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas are both taking part in Ex Garuda VII to participate in any international exercise.
• The IAF and FASF’s participation in this exercise will foster professional engagement, and exchange of experiences, and improve operational knowledge in addition to boosting bilateral ties between the two nations.
• The Air Exercise Garuda offers a unique chance for both Air Forces to absorb and learn from each other’s finest operational methods.
• Since 2003, there has been a bilateral air exercise.
• Four Rafale fighters and one A-330 multirole tanker transport aircraft from the French side are participating in the exercise, which is scheduled to conclude on November 12.
• The IAF contingent also includes Mi-17 helicopters, Su-30 MKI, Rafale, and Jaguar fighter aircraft in addition to the LCA and LCH.
• The IAF contingent also consists of combat-enabling assets like flight refuelling aircraft, early warning aircraft, and Garud Special Forces.

India-France bilateral relations

Political relations

• Relations between India and France were strengthened with the creation of the Strategic Partnership in 1998.
• Several areas of cooperation are the emphasis of this partnership, including civil nuclear energy, defence, counterterrorism, space cooperation, cyber security, and digital technology.

Economic relations

• France ranks 24th among countries supplying India, with a 1% market share, and is its 17th-largest customer.
• A sizeable amount of French exports are made up of communications equipment, chemicals, and the pharmaceutical and chemical sectors.
• France is one of the top foreign investors in India, with a stock of €9.8 billion by the year 2020. (6th-largest G20 investor).
• In India, there are more than 540 French subsidiaries operating in a variety of industries and employing close to 300,000 people.
• India and France are working together as a part of France’s “Smart Cities” programme.
• More than 20 cities already have sustainable urban development projects being carried out by French enterprises (metro, water supply, etc.).

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

• 10,000 Indian students were enrolled at French universities in 2019 (20,000 are expected by 2025), owing to scholarship programmes and collaborations between Indian and French academic institutions.
• The number of Indian students studying in France has increased as a result of the conclusion of two agreements in March 2018: one on migration and mobility and the other on diploma recognition.
• Building blocks for scientific and technical cooperation include institutions like the Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (IFCPAR), which has brought together French and Indian researchers and scientists since 1987, and collaborative research labs in exciting fields like neuroscience and chemistry.
• Regular festivals are held between India and France to promote each other’s cultures. In France, the Namasté France festival, while in India,the Bonjour India festival.

Cooperation in the area of the environment

• Regarding the environment, both nations co-founded the International Solar Alliance during COP21.
• In addition, France joined the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), an initiative started by India, in July 2020.
• This framework aids in the implementation of investment principles in top-notch G20 infrastructures and aids in climate change adaption.
• France welcomed the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI), which Prime Minister Modi inaugurated in November 2019, and offered to take on the position of lead partner of the Marine Resources pillar in April 2021.
• India is one of the nations that has ratified the Brest Commitments for the Oceans, which were the result of the Indo-French Year of the Environment that was held in 2021 and included the Roadmap on the Blue Economy and Ocean Governance, both of which were adopted on February 20, 2022.

Garuda Exercise The first, third, and fifth editions were held in India in 2003, 2006, and 2014 at Air Force Stations Gwalior, Kalaikunda, and Jodhpur, respectively. The second, fourth and sixth editions took place in France in 2005, 2010 and 2019.

Mother Tongue Survey of India

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has completed the Mother Tongue Survey of India (MTSI) with field videography of the country’s 576 languages. In order to preserve and analyse the original flavour of each indigenous Mother Tongue, it has been planned to set up a web-archive at the National Informatics Centre (NIC), says the Home Ministry’s annual report for 2021-22.

What is the MTSI?

1. The Mother Tongue Survey of India is a project that “surveys the mother tongues, which are returned consistently across two and more Census decades”. It also documents the linguistic features of the selected languages.

• The NIC and the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) will be documenting and preserving the linguistic data of the surveyed mother tongues in audio-video files

3.         Video-graphed speech data of Mother Tongues will also be uploaded on the NIC survey for archiving purposes.

How many “mother tongues” does India have?

1. As per an analysis of 2011 linguistic census data in 2018, more than 19,500 languages or dialects are spoken in India as mother tongues.

• The category “mother tongue” is a designation provided by the respondent, but it need not be identical with the actual linguistic medium.

• After subjecting the 19,569 returns to linguistic scrutiny, edit and rationalisation, they were grouped into 121 mother tongues, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, had earlier said.

• According to the 2011 linguistic census, Hindi is the most widely spoken mother tongue, with 52.8 crore people or 43.6 per cent of the population declaring it as the mother tongue.

5.         The next highest is Bengali, mother tongue for 9.7 crore individuals, and accounting for 8 per cent of the population.