Out of 180 countries, India's rank on 2019 World Press Freedom index slips to 140 - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Out of 180 countries, India's rank on 2019 World Press Freedom index slips to 140.

As compared to the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, India has slipped down two spots on the annual report compiled by Reporters Without Borders.

India has slipped down two spots on the 2019 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). An annual report, the index is an indicator of how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence in countries across the world. In its report, RSF has asserted that authoritarian regimes in different parts of the globe continue to tighten their grip on the media which has led to an environment of fear.

India made its debut on this index in 2013 at 140 out of 180 countries. The rankings gradually improved, reaching 136 in 2017. However, the ranking has since slipped back to 140 in the 2019 index. The report claims that violence against journalists, including police violence, attacks by Maoist fighters and retaliation by corrupt politicians and criminal outfits is the current state of press freedom in India.
Six Indian journalists were reportedly killed in the year 2018 owing to their work. Clarity has been sought over the death of a seventh journalist who died in the line of duty. RSF further clarified that the report highlights dangers faced by scribes, especially the ones working for regional media outlets in rural areas of the country. "Attacks against journalists by supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi increased in the run-up to general elections in the spring of 2019," said the report in addition to stating that foreign journalists are barred from Kashmir where internet shutdowns occur almost daily.
In addition, the report also asserts that female journalists in India are targeted on social media through the means of coordinated hate campaigns and even receive threats of rape and murder. Journalists who criticise the authorities are often threatened with criminal prosecution and even gagged with Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders said, "If the political debate slides surreptitiously or openly towards a civil war-style atmosphere, in which journalists are treated as scapegoats, then democracy is in great danger."
However, the report did not mention a landmark decision taken by Indian courts to award life imprisonment to Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan for the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. The accused is the head of a religious sect which claims to have 60 million followers worldwide. He was serving a 20-year life term for raping two of his female disciples. (Source: timesnow)


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Out of 180 countries, India's rank on 2019 World Press Freedom index slips to 140.

Countries agree rules for implementing Paris climate treaty at UN summit - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Countries agree rules for implementing Paris climate treaty at UN summit.

Delegates from nearly 200 states finalised a common rule book designed to deliver the Paris goals of limiting global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius.

Nations on Sunday struck a deal to implement the landmark 2015 Paris climate treaty after marathon UN talks that failed to match the ambition the world’s most vulnerable countries need to avert dangerous global warming.
Delegates from nearly 200 states finalised a common rule book designed to deliver the Paris goals of limiting global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit). “Putting together the Paris agreement work programme is a big responsibility,” said COP24 president Michal Kurtyka as he gavelled through the manual following the talks in Poland that ran deep into overtime.
“It has been a long road. We did our best to leave no-one behind.” But environmental groups said the package agreed in the Polish mining city of Katowice lacked the bold ambition needed to protect states already dealing with devastating floods, droughts and extreme weather made worse by climate change.
“We continue to witness an irresponsible divide between the vulnerable island states and impoverished countries pitted against those who would block climate action or who are immorally failing to act fast enough,” executive director of Greenpeace Jennifer Morgan said.
The final decision text was repeatedly delayed as negotiators sought guidelines that are effective in warding off the worst threats posed by our heating planet while protecting the economies of rich and poor nations alike.
“Without a clear rulebook, we won’t see how countries are tracking, whether they are actually doing what they say they are doing,” Canada’s Environment Minister Catherine McKenna told AFP.
At their heart, negotiations were about how each nation funds action to mitigate and adapt to climate change, as well as how those actions are reported.
Developing nations wanted more clarity from richer ones over how the future climate fight will be funded and pushed for so-called “loss and damage” measures.
This would see richer countries giving money now to help deal with the effects of climate change many vulnerable states are already experiencing.
Another contentious issue was the integrity of carbon markets, looking ahead to the day when the patchwork of distinct exchanges -- in China, the Europe Union, parts of the United States -- may be joined up in a global system.
“To tap that potential, you have to get the rules right,” said Alex Hanafi, lead counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund in the United States.
“One of those key rules -- which is the bedrock of carbon markets -- is no double counting of emissions reductions.” The Paris Agreement calls for setting up a mechanism to guard against practices that could undermine such a market, but finding a solution has proved so problematic that the debate has been kicked down the road to next year.
One veteran observer told AFP Poland’s presidency at COP24 had left many countries out of the process and presented at-risk nations with a “take it or leave it” deal.
Progress had “been held up by Brazil, when it should have been held up by the small islands. It’s tragic.” One of the largest disappointments for countries of all wealths and sizes was the lack of ambition to reduce emissions shown in the final COP24 text.
Most nations wanted the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to form a key part of future planning.
It highlighted the need for carbon pollution to be slashed to nearly half by 2030 in order to hit the 1.5C target.
But the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected, leading to watered-down wording.
The final statement from the Polish COP24 presidency welcomed “the timely conclusion” of the report and invited “parties to make use of it” -- hardly the ringing endorsement many nations had called for.
“There’s been a shocking lack of response to the 1.5 report,” Morgan told AFP. “You can’t come together and say you can’t do more!” With UN talks well into their third decade sputtering on as emissions rise remorselessly, activists have stepped up grassroots campaigns of civil disobedience to speed up action on climate.
“We are not a one-off protest, we are a rebellion,” a spokesman for the Extinction Rebellion movement, which disrupted at least one ministerial event at the COP, told AFP.
“We are organising for repeated disruption, and we are targeting our governments, calling for the system change needed to deal with the crisis that we are facing.” (Source: Livemint)


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Countries agree rules for implementing Paris climate treaty at UN summit.

India tops list of countries which faced internet shutdowns: Report - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India tops list of countries which faced internet shutdowns: Report.

Out of the 65 countries assessed, 26 are said to have experienced a deterioration.

India leads the world in the number of internet shutdowns, with over 100 reported incidents in 2018 alone according to a report titled 'Freedom on the Net' by a US think tank. Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre, a legal services organisation, puts the number at 121 as of October 10, 2018.

An earlier report by IndiaSpend claimed that nearly 16,315 hours of internet shutdowns over six years till 2017 cost India $3.04 billion (Rs 213.36 billion).
Aggregated data collated by SFLC shows that there have been 233 reported instances of suspension of internet services in India in the last seven years. However, 73 per cent of these shutdowns have happened only in the last year and a half.
The SLFC report further stated that internet shutdowns go against the human rights of citizens and should call for further questioning on their purpose in the interest of transparency.
There are largely three different laws under which such orders are given by the governments. First is Section 144, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which allows the authorities to lay down guidelines to impose “temporary measures to maintain public tranquility.”
The 'Freedom on the Net' report offers a bleak perspective on the state of internet freedom across the world.
Out of the 65 countries assessed, 26 are said to have experienced a deterioration. Almost half of all declines were related to elections.
The Indian government has been referred to as a poor custodian of privacy on the basis of several alleged breaches of the Aadhaar database.


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India tops list of countries which faced internet shutdowns: Report.

India Ranks 103rd Among 119 Countries In Global Hunger Index - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India Ranks 103rd Among 119 Countries In Global Hunger Index.

Even as the world looks forward to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, which aims to end hunger, ensure food security and improve nutrition by 2030, a newly released report suggests that this might prove to be a Herculean task. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) for 2018 indicates that even as the level of hunger and undernutrition globally has fallen from 29.2% in 2000 to 20.9%, they continue to be in the serious category.

What is Global Hunger Index
The Global Hunger Index report released on October 11 is the thirteenth edition. Welthungerlife and Concern Worldwide has been issuing reports on hunger levels in the world since 2006. The main area of focus for this year’s report has been “Forced Migration and Hunger”.
GHI prepares the ranking on the basis of four indicators; undernourishment is the first indicator., the other three indicators use data for children below the age of five, that is child wasting, child stunting and child mortality. The South Asian region has the worst GHI score for this year, which stands at 30.5. It is closely followed by Africa South of the Sahara at 29.4%.

Of the 119 countries surveyed, India ranks at a dismal 103 with GHI score being 31.1. There is a slight improvement from 2010’s score of 32.2. To give a context on how bad the situation is for India, it may be noted that the best-performing nations have a score of less than 5.

21% of children in India are under-weight
It may be noted that South Asia’s child wasting rate has been termed to be critical. Child wasting refers to children having an extremely low weight for their height, which points to acute under-nutrition. India has the highest level of child wasting at 21%. As reported by The Hindu, India performs better than only war-torn Sudan in this aspect. Reportedly, this was worse than the previous years. It was 17.1% in 2000, which has now increased to 21% in 18 years.
A silver lining may be the fact that in terms of other parameters, India’s situation seems to have improved. The percentage of undernourished has dropped from 18.2% in 2000 to 14.8% in 2018. The child stunting (low height for age) has dropped from 54.2% in 2000 to 38.4% in 2018. The child mortality has reduced from 9.2% to 4.3% for the same period.
The Logical Indian take
According to the World Bank’s 2016 data, 1 in every 5 Indians is poor, and the 7 poorest states – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – house 62% of the country’s poor. Unemployment in these regions is high, hence, the lack of funds to sustain life. While in our urban bubbles, we hardly realise the plight of more than half of our country’s population.
Food security in India is clearly alarming. Defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a “situation when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”, India’s 2018 GHI ranking points at a situation fraught with despair.
The country is one of the largest grain producers in the world, despite which, more than 20% of the 1.3 population goes to bed hungry and farmers across the nation are protesting against their growing debt and rising suicide rate.
India also struggles to protect itself from natural disasters that continue to burden its food security. Precautionary measures are inept; take the example of floods that happen across the country every year, eroding cultivable land and destroying crop.


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India Ranks 103rd Among 119 Countries In Global Hunger Index.

India 147th among 157 countries on commitment to reduce inequality: Oxfam - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India 147th among 157 countries on commitment to reduce inequality: Oxfam.

India ranks at 147 among 157 countries Oxfam analysed for their commitment to reduce inequality, saying it was a "very worrying situation" given that the country is home to 1.3 billion people, a report revealed on Tuesday.

The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2018, published to coincide with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank annual meetings being held in Bali, analysed the countries` policy behaviour on social spending, tax and labour rights, particularly for women.
"The index finds that countries such as South Korea, Namibia and Uruguay were taking strong steps to reduce inequality," the report said.
"Sadly, countries such as India and Nigeria do very badly overall, as does the US among rich countries, showing a lack of commitment to closing the inequality gap."
The Britain-based charitable organisation calculated that if India were to reduce inequality by a third, more than 170 million people would no longer be poor.
"Government spending on health, education and social protection is woefully low and often subsidizes the private sector," the report said.
According to the report, the tax structure looked reasonably progressive on paper but in practice much of the progressive taxation, like on incomes of the richest, was not collected.
India also fared poorly on labour rights and respect for women in the workplace.
Meanwhile, Denmark topped the rankings, with one of the most progressive taxation policies in the world.
The report has recommended all the countries to develop national inequality action plans to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) on reducing inequality.
It said the plans should include delivery of universal, public and free health and education and universal social protection floors.
"Countries must also respect union rights and make women`s rights at work comprehensive, and they should raise minimum wages to living wages."


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India 147th among 157 countries on commitment to reduce inequality: Oxfam.

Tsunami mock drill ‘IOWave18’ begins: India along with 23 countries participates in exercise - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Tsunami mock drill ‘IOWave18’ begins: India along with 23 countries participates in exercise.

India along with 23 other nations, would be participating in a major Indian ocean-wide tsunami mock exercise (drill) on September four and five, which would involve evacuation of thousands of people from coastal areas in over half a dozen states.

The exercise, known as IOWave18, is being organised by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, which coordinated the setting up of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) in the aftermath of December 26, 2004 tsunami, an official release said here Monday.
The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), based out of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, is an autonomous institution under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.
The state-of-the-art warning centre, operational since October 2007, has all necessary computational and communication infrastructure for the reception of real-time data from seismic and sea-level networks, tsunami modeling, as well as generation and dissemination of tsunami bulletins for the entire Indian Ocean region, it said.
“The IOWave18 exercise will simulate Indian Ocean countries being put in a tsunami warning situation and require the National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC), i.e., INCOIS in case of India, and the National and Local Disaster Management Offices (NDMO/LDMO) to implement their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs),” it said.
The release further said, besides testing the SOPs and communication links at all levels of the warning chain, a primary objective of IOWave18 exercise is to enhance tsunami preparedness at community level.
The purpose of exercise is to increase tsunami preparedness, evaluate response capabilities in each state and improve coordination throughout the region.
The exercise would involve the evacuation of more than 1,25,000 people from the coastal communities of Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarat and Goa, the release said.


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Tsunami mock drill ‘IOWave18’ begins: India along with 23 countries participates in exercise.

Quad countries discuss on ocean security - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Quad countries discuss on ocean security.

The Quad grouping is one of the many avenues for interaction among India, Australia, Japan and the US and should not be seen in an exclusive context, a senior Japanese diplomat said on Wednesday.

“We should not really regard Quad in any comparative or in an exclusive context. This four-country meeting is an important modality. There are various modalities where India, Australia, Japan and the US interact, including on a bilateral and trilateral basis…,” said Hideki Asari, Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of Japan.
He was speaking at the launch of a report on the policy recommendations on Indian Ocean security by four think tanks from the Quad countries at the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF).
The other think tanks which include Australia National University, Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Japan and Sasakawa Peace Foundation, USA, along with VIF formed the Quadripartite Commission on Indian Ocean Regional Security, which put out a series of 20 policy recommendations for stability in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
The report calls for maintaining the momentum of high-level consultations among the Quad countries with the aim of “free and open Info-Pacific region” and progressively move it to a political level.
In this regard, Mr. Asari said that Japan’s Indo-Pacific policy by definition is open and inclusive, and added, “All four countries have used the word inclusive and so all are in agreement of the inclusiveness of the Indo-Pacific.”
“Australia, Japan, India and the US should work with countries in the IOR to help maintain independent security and economic policies by supporting high-quality alternatives to unilateral Chinese investments and political alignment with Chinese regional objectives,” one of the recommendations reads.
Another recommendation is that the four countries should work to oppose “the establishment of permanent Chinese military bases” in the IOR. This should include demonstrating to China that its security needs can be met “through cooperation and consultation with other nations” and without the recourse to a “disruptive unilateral military presence.”
Calling the four countries to enhance sea land defence capabilities, the report stresses that naval fleets should evolve increasingly long range operations. “This may require consideration in Japan of new options such as nuclear propulsion for its submarines,” the report added.
In 2017, on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Manila, the Quad countries held discussions on reviving the decade-old grouping which is seen by China as an attempt to contain it. (Source: The Hindu)


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Quad countries discuss on ocean security.

India, Rwanda ink 8 MoUs - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India, Rwanda ink 8 MoUs.

India and Rwanda on Monday signed eight agreements in an effort to bolster bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

According to a release by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on agriculture signed in May 2007 was amended on the cooperation in the field of agriculture and animal resources.
The agreement will deepen cooperation in agriculture and livestock with a strong emphasis on research, technological development, capacity building and human resource development as well as investment mobilisation.
An agreement on defence was signed for capacity building, industry, science, and technology.
An MoU on the cultural exchange programme for the year 2018-22 was signed.
The areas of cooperation will be music and dance, theatre, exhibitions, seminars and conference, archaeology, archives, library, museums, literature, research, and documentation.
Another MoU on dairy cooperation was signed on cooperation in agricultural research and education between RAB (Rwanda Agriculture Board) and ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research).
The areas of cooperation in this agreement are - training and research in dairy, processing of dairy products, quality and safety of mil, biotechnological intervention in livestock.
An agreement on trade cooperation framework was signed to facilitate, diversify, and promote trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.
An MoU on collaboration in the areas of leather and allied sectors between NIRDA and CSIR-CLRI was signed by Dr. B. Chandrasekaran, Director, CSIR-CLRI and Director General, NIRDA, Kampeta Sayinzoga.
Two LOC (Line of Credit) agreements - one for USD 100 million for development of Industrial Parks and expansion of Kigali Special Economic Zones and the other for for Agriculture irrigation scheme in Rwanda worth USD 100 million were signed between Chief General Manager, EXIM Bank, Nadeem Panjetan and Rwandan Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently on a two-day visit to Rwanda.
This is Prime Minister Modi's first visit to Rwanda and the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the East African country.
After finishing his engagements in Rwanda, Prime Minister Modi will travel to Uganda, where he will hold meetings and other engagements on Tuesday and Wednesday. (Source: The Business Standard)


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India, Rwanda ink 8 MoUs.

RIMPAC from June 27; India among 26 participant countries - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

RIMPAC from June 27; India among 26 participant countries.

As many as 26 countries, including India, will participate in the biennial Rim of the Pacific, RIMPAC military exercise from June 27 to August 2, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The Pentagon announced this yesterday.

Known as the world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC this year involves 47 surface ships, five submarines, 18 national land forces, and more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel.
Ahead of the announcement, the United States had disinvited China from RIMPAC, a move Beijing described as "unfortunate".
The countries participating in the exercise include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom among others.


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RIMPAC from June 27; India among 26 participant countries.

India among four countries where water taps may run dry, says report - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

India among four countries where water taps may run dry, says report.

Last month, the Gujarat state government halted irrigation and appealed to farmers not to sow crops.

Shrinking reservoirs in India, Morocco, Iraq and Spain could result in water taps going completely dry in these four countries, a study based on a new early warning satellite system has warned.

According to the developers of the new satellite early warning system for the world's 500,000 dams, shrinking reservoirs in India, Morocco, Iraq and Spain could spark the next "day zero" water crisis, The Guardian reported.
The system has named countries where shrinking reservoirs could lead to the taps completely drying up, the study said.
Tensions have been apparent in India over the water allocations for two reservoirs connected by the Narmada river, it said.
Poor rains last year left the upstream Indira Sagar dam in Madhya Pradesh a third below its seasonal average.
When some of this shortfall was passed on to the downstream Sardar Sarovar reservoir, it caused an uproar because the latter is a drinking supply for 30 million people.
Last month, the Gujarat state government halted irrigation and appealed to farmers not to sow crops.
Cape Town recently grabbed global headlines by launching a countdown to the day when taps would be cut off to millions of residents as a result of a three-year drought.
Drastic conservation measures have forestalled that moment in South Africa, but dozens of other countries face similar risks from rising demand, mismanagement and climate change, says the World Resources Institute (WRI).
The US-based environmental organisation is working with Deltares, the Dutch government and other partners to build a water and security early warning system that aims to anticipate social instability, economic damage and cross-border migration.
A prototype is due to be rolled out later this year, but a snapshot, unveiled on Wednesday, highlighted four of the worst-affected dams and the potential knock-on risks.
The starkest decline is that of Morocco's second-largest reservoir Al Massira which has shrunk by 60 per cent in three years due to recurring drought, expanding irrigation and the increasing thirst of neighbouring cities such as Casablanca.
Spain has suffered a severe drought that has contributed to a 60 per cent shrinking of the surface area of the Buendia dam over the last five years.
In Iraq, the Mosul Dam has seen a more protracted decline but it is also now down 60 per cent from its peak in the 1990s as a result of low rainfall and competing demand from Turkish hydropower projects upstream on the Tigris and Euphrates.(Source: The Business Standard)


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India among four countries where water taps may run dry, says report.

India among 20 countries to take $100 mn pledge to help Palestine refugees - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

India among 20 countries to take $100 mn pledge to help Palestine refugees

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced gratitude for the generous pledges of approximately $100 million made at the Extraordinary Ministerial Conference in Rome on March 15.

India is among 20 nations that have pledged a total of about $100 million to the UN relief agency charged with the well-being of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced gratitude for the generous pledges of approximately $100 million made at the Extraordinary Ministerial Conference in Rome on March 15 titled 'Preserving Dignity and Sharing Responsibility Mobilizing Collective Action for UNRWA'.
Almost 20 donors pledged additional contributions, including Qatar, Norway, Turkey, Canada, India and Switzerland. Giving details of the pledges made by the nations, Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here yesterday that the Emir of Qatar pledged $50 million in new contributions, while Norway pledged $13.6 million, Turkey $10 million and a doubling of their food aid, Canada $7.7 million, India $5 million and Switzerland $4.2 million.
He said the ministerial conference was an "exceptional demonstration" of high-level support for UNRWA's mandate and a recognition for the continued necessity of its work in support of over five million Palestine refugees.
Dujarric added that the pledges made in Rome represent an important first step, yet a lot of work remains to fully close the critical shortfall.
"The Secretary-General encourages all Member States and the private sector to provide support to UNRWA in order to close the still critical funding shortfall. He reiterates that the services provided by UNRWA to Palestine refugees are essential and contribute to bring stability to the region," the spokesman said.(Source: The Business Standard)


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India among 20 countries to take $100 mn pledge to help Palestine refugees