Global Slavery Index 2023

Syllabus: GS1/ Society GS2/ Government Policies & Interventions

In News

• The Walk Free Foundation released the Global Slavery Index 2023, an assessment of modern slavery conditions in 160 countries. 

What is Modern Slavery?

• Modern slavery refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, or abuses of power. 
• Modern slavery is an umbrella term and includes a whole variety of abuses such as forced labour, forced marriage, debt bondage, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, slavery-like practices, forced or servile marriage, and the sale and exploitation of children.

 Global Slavery Index:

• The index is released by Walk Free, a human rights organisation and uses data provided by the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, which, in turn, is produced by International Labour Organization (ILO), Walk Free, and International Organization for Migration (IOM).
• This is the fifth edition of the Global Slavery Index and is based on the 2022 estimates.

Key Findings of the report

• According to the report,on any given day in 2021, as many as 50 million people were living in “modern slavery”. 
• Among these 50 million, 28 million suffer from forced labour and 22 million from forced marriages. Of these 50 million, 12 million are children.
• Prevalence of modern slavery: The prevalence refers to the incidence of modern slavery per 1000 population.The Country-wise findings are,

• countries with the Highest prevalence:North Korea, Eritrea, Mauritania,Saudi Arabia,Turkey.
• countries with the lowest prevalence:Switzerland ,Norway, Germany,Netherlands ,Sweden.
• Countries hosting the maximum number of people living in modern slavery: India,China,North Korea,Pakistan, Russia.

• The countries hosting the maximum number of people living in modern slavery account for six members from G20 nations: India, China, Russia, Indonesia, Türkiye, and the US.

Steps Taken against slavery:World

• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations: Target 8.7 of the SDGs states: “Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.
• In 2018 Australia passed the Modern Slavery Act which requires companies that have a consolidated revenue of over AU$100 mn per annum to report on the actions they are taking to respond to modern slavery.
• Around 137 countries have criminalised human trafficking in line with the UN Trafficking Protocol.

Steps Taken against slavery:India

• Article 23 of Indian Constitution:Traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.
• Article 24 of Indian Constitution: No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed in work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.

• India has ratified the two fundamental ILO Conventions concerning the elimination of child labour, the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)  and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182).

• Bonded Labour Abolition Act of 1976: It prohibits the practice of bonded and forced labour, and identifies responsibilities of State Governments to form vigilance committees.The Act was amended in 1985 to include contract and migrant workers.
• Central scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour: It provides financial assistance to the rescued individual.

Concerns:

• Lack of clear definition:‘Modern slavery’ is a made-up concept with no international legal definition.
• Ranking methodology:The statistics present in the index ignores qualitative analysis.
• Ranking countries in this way is stigmatising poorer countries and absolving richer countries of their responsibility for issues like trafficking in persons.

Recommendation:

• Implementation of  stronger measures and legislations that prevent governments and business from sourcing goods and services linked to modern slavery. 
• Other suggestions include embedding anti-slavery measures in climate change sustainability plans, providing primary and secondary education to children and tightening regulations around forced and child marriage.

Source: IE

Svalbard Mission of 1997

Syllabus: GS2/ India & Foreign Relations; GS3/ Space

In News

• The Norwegian Ambassador’s recent visit to the ISRO headquarters offers an occasion to recall the challenging Svalbard mission of 1997.

About the Svalbard mission 

• About:
  • On November 20, 1997, a Rohini RH-300 Mk-II sounding rocket rose to the skies from Svalbard, Norway, operationalising a new rocket launching range there. 
  • The solid propellant-powered rocket was shipped from India for the launch.
  • ’The RH-300 Mk-II was given a new name by the NSC (Norwegian Space Centre): Isbjorn-1, which translates literally as ‘Polar Bear-I.’ 
• Rohini Family:
  • The RH-300 Mk-II was part of the Rohini family of sounding rockets developed by ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram.
    • The Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Programme was established in 1975 to encompass all sounding rocket operations.
    • Rohini is a series of sounding rockets developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for meteorological and atmospheric study.
• Challenge:
  • On the technical side, the Norway mission presented unique challenges for ISRO. The Rohini rockets had till then flown only in the tropical hot and humid conditions in India.
    • ISRO shipped the RH-300 Mk-II to Norway only after qualifying it for arctic weather conditions. 

Norway-India relations

• History:
  • Ties between Norway and India have deep historical roots. 
  • As early as the 1600s, a Danish-Norwegian trading station was established in Tranquebar (Tharangambadi), which today lies in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
  • Norway’s first Consulates in India opened in Kolkata and Mumbai in 1845 and 1857, respectively.
  • In 1952, the “India fund” was established with the aim to provide development assistance with a focus on fisheries.
• Consulate General:
  • The Consulate General in Mumbai re-opened its doors in 2015. 
  • It had been closed since the 1970s.
• India Strategy:
  • In 2018 the Norwegian government launched a new ‘India Strategy’.
  • The India Strategy outlines five thematic priorities:
    • Democracy and a rules-based world order
    • The oceans
    • Energy
    • Climate and Environment
    • Research, higher education and global health.
• Ocean nations:
  • Norway and India are both ocean nations seeking to develop the vast economic, scientific and ecological potential of the oceans. 
  • In 2019, Norway and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing a structured and strategic cooperation on the oceans. 
    • This cooperation is based on our shared interest in the blue economy and the sustainable use of marine resources, as well as a desire to advance scientific knowledge about our oceans.
  • Indo-Norway joint effort for GREEN MARITIME Sector:
    • During the 8th Meeting Discussion was held on use of alternative fuels like green ammonia and hydrogen for futuristic shipping. 
    • The Norwegian Green Shipping Programme has been successful and the experience and expertise was shared in the meeting.
• Climate change:
  • Norway considers India a critical partner in addressing global climate, environment and resource challenges, and continuously seeks to increase cooperation in support of the Paris agreement and the SDG-agenda.
• Bilateral Trade:
  • Total bilateral trade increased from US$ 974.22 million in 2013-2014 to US$ 1,202.06 million in 2017-2018.

Upcoming Areas of Cooperation in India Norway Relations

• Climate investments:
  • Norway is planning to invest in climate investments, clean energy and ocean technology worldwide.
  • Norway would invest $1 billion from its climate investment fund in five years worldwide. 
    • Substantial part of the investments will take place in India. India is one of the countries with a large potential for solar energy.
• Wind Energy:
  • Norway is working with the National Institute of Wind Energy to expand Wind energy infrastructure in India.
    • The problem in India, when it came to wind energy, was that only Tamil Nadu and Gujarat had stable wind to make it viable. 
• Ship-breaking industry in India:
  • Norway has the fifth largest commercial fleet in the world, and ship recycling was crucial to keep up a modern fleet, both for environmental as also for competitive reasons. 
  • Norway is cooperating closely with India over this.
• Hong Kong Convention:
  • The Hong Kong Convention is aimed at ensuring that ships, when being recycled after reaching the end of their operational lives; do not pose any unnecessary risk to human health and safety or to the environment. 
  • India has joined the Hong Kong Convention. 
  • It will be a binding international legal instrument.
• Academic relations:
  • There is an academic relation between the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and the Institute of Wind Energy in Chennai with institutions in Norway. 
  • Digitising historical monuments:
  • The Norwegian company, Piql, was involved in creating a digital archive for Indian monuments such as the Taj Mahal.
  • The company was also involved in digitising historical monuments such as Dholavira in Gujarat and the Bhimbetka Caves in Madhya Pradesh.

Source: TH

Cow Slaughter Ban

Syllabus: GS2/ Government policies & intervention

In News

• The Karnataka government is making a move to withdraw the Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act, 2020, which was brought into force by the previous government.

Why to withdraw ?

• The present government intends to withdraw the cow slaughter ban on account of difficulties faced by farmers due to restrictions imposed on the trade of sick and unproductive cattle by the 2020 law.

What is the Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act, 2020?

• The law came into force in 2021 after being passed in the state legislative assembly and council by the then government. It is a stringent law to restrict the slaughter of all forms of cattle in the state.
• The 2020 law repealed and replaced the less stringent Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act, 1964 which has been in the state since then. 
• While the 1964 law banned the killing of “any cow or calf of she-buffalo” it allowed the slaughter of bullocks, and male or female buffalos if certified by a competent authority to be above the age of 12 years, incapacitated for breeding, or if deemed sick.
• Under the 2020 Act, cattle have been designated as “cow, calf of a cow and bull, bullock and he or she buffalo” and their slaughter is banned. 
• The only exemptions are buffaloes above the age of 13 years and certified by a competent authority, cattle used in medical research, cattle certified for slaughter by a veterinarian to prevent spread of a disease, and very sick cattle.
• The new law has also increased punishment for breaking the law, to the range of three to seven years of jail, or fines ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh or both. As per the 1964 law, the maximum punishment was for a period up to six months of imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 1000.
• The new law also prescribes punishments for illegal transport of cattle, sale of meat and purchase or disposal of cattle for slaughter – namely, a prison term of three to five years, and a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh.

Why did the earlier government introduce such a stringent law?

• The ban on cattle slaughter has been a prominent demand of right-wing Hindutva groups like the RSS, the VHP and others, which form the core support base of the earlier BJP government. 
• Also, the cow is considered a holy animal in Hindu religion. 
• In line with the Constitution and freedom struggle values: “The purity of cow’s milk was likened to the purity and strength of the nation, and cow killing connected to the British consumption of beef was used to portray the British Raj as a regime indifferent to Hindu values,” writes historian Ian Copland.

What have been the repercussions of the 2020 law?

• The agrarian economy has been majorly impacted by the 2020 law, especially in southern Karnataka, where cattle is an integral part of livelihood in terms of dairy farming and agriculture.
• Farmers have been up in arms over the ban on cattle slaughter, and there has been widespread complaints in the farming communities that the ban on cattle slaughter has deprived farmers of alternatives when cattle fall sick or turn unmaintainable.
• Traditional cattle markets have been slowly shutting down and there were few merchants to buy cattle. Farmers would sell cattle earlier if they were unproductive but that cannot be done now. The cattle cannot be sold in the markets because a case will be filed against the farmer,” current Congress CM Siddaramaiah said in February 2023.
• Moreover, there have also been incidents of right-wing cow vigilantes – who are granted immunity under the new law – taking law into their own hands to prevent the transportation of cattle for slaughter to states such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu. 

What lies Ahead

• The Karnataka government is likely to seek a return to the 1964 law, which imposed a ban on the slaughter of cows but allowed the restricted slaughter of cattle of other forms on the condition of old age, sickness and lack of productivity. 
• The party is expected to project the move as being critical to the livelihood and economic survival of farmers, rather than a religious issue.

Source: IE

CoWIN Portal Data Breach

Syllabus: GS3/ Security, GS2/ Health, Data Protection

In News

• The CoWIN portal, which is used by most Indians to register for COVID-19 vaccination, has been in the news recently after reports of a data breach by a Telegram bot.

About

• The Telegram bot allegedly shared the personal information of vaccinated people, such as their name, Aadhaar and passport numbers, when their phone number was entered.
  • Telegram supports third-party bots that offer additional functionality. These bots can be used to perform various tasks like converting files, checking emails and even letting users play games with others.

• The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) had been asked to investigate the issue and submit a report. 
  • CERT-In, in its initial report, has pointed out that the back-end database for the Telegram bot was not directly accessing the APIs (application programming interfaces) of the CoWIN database.

CoWIN Portal 

• CoWIN Portal is the digital platform to capture covid-19 vaccination program details. 
• CoWIN connects to various stakeholders, including vaccine manufacturers, administrators, and verifiers, public and private vaccination facilities, and vaccine recipients etc.
• The CoWIN platform was developed at a record speed with ample consideration to its scalability, modularity and interoperability.  CoWIN has been integrated with other government mobile applications such as Aarogya Setu and UMANG. 
  • UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) is developed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and National e-Governance Division (NeGD) to drive mobile governance in India. UMANG provides a single platform for all Indian citizens to access pan India e-Gov services ranging from Central to local government bodies.
• CoWIN provides access to third-party applications that have been authorised by the government to use its APIs (application programming interfaces). 
  • APIs are a set of rules that allow two applications to communicate and share data.

Data access on the CoWIN portal 

• At present individual level vaccinated beneficiary data access on the CoWIN portal is available at three levels.
• Beneficiary dashboard: The person who has been vaccinated can have an access to the Co-WIN data through use of registered Mobile number with OTP authentication.
• CoWIN authorized user: The vaccinator with use of authentic login credential provided can access personal level data of vaccinated beneficiaries. But the CoWIN system tracks and keeps record of each time an authorized user accesses the CoWIN system.
• API based access: The third party applications who have been provided authorised access of Co-WIN APIs can access personal level data of vaccinated beneficiaries only through beneficiary OTP authentication.

Consequences of the Data Leak

• A leak of personal information from the CoWin platform would mean weakness in this digital public infrastructure, which has been a pillar for both government’s delivery of public goods and for the private sector to innovate and offer services like payment facilities. 
• The data can be used for fraud, phishing, spamming, or harassment. It can also expose users to targeted attacks based on their vaccination status or location.
• The data breach will undermine the public trust in government portals like CoWIN and which led people to lose confidence in giving data to the government platforms.
• The data breach claim has come as a major jolt to the government, which has been taking steps to digitize the economy and has built digital public infrastructure (DPI) based on the biometric identification number Aadhaar, individuals’ mobile numbers, and bank accounts as the backbone for the transfer of benefits and innovation in the private sector.

Data Privacy & Protection

• The exponential growth of digital transactions in the past decade, especially in the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, has resulted in the huge generation of data. 
• Concerns and issues with respect to the inappropriate management of data, particularly personal or sensitive data have also emerged, including data breaches and privacy violations.
• India’s journey towards having strong data protection legislation has been chaotic with multiple rounds of deliberations.  These include the Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act (DISHA), 2018, the draft Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB), 2019, and the revised draft Data Protection Bill (DPB), 2021. 
• Thus, in the absence of comprehensive data protection legislation, it is only the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, drafted in accordance with Section 43A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 that governs the sensitive personal information of the citizens in India currently. 
• However, the existing mechanisms under the IT Act and its 2011 rules are inadequate to safeguard the fundamental rights of the citizens.

Need for Data Protection Law

• The existing mechanisms under the IT Act and its 2011 rules are inadequate to safeguard the fundamental rights of the citizens.  
• Major concerns are: Lack of defined data storage policy, data retention measures, non-adherence to data minimisation and purpose limitation, no penalties for data breaches, and a lack of proactive measures to ensure the security of personal data.

 

Way Ahead

• Increase awareness among the software community on producing safer software and push organisations to invest in better practices.
• There is need to invest in cutting-edge defence mechanisms, enact stringent legislation, and foster cross-sector collaboration to counter evolving threats
  • Digital Personal Data Protection Law needs to be passed soon.

Source: TH

 

 

SIPRI Annual Report 2023

Syllabus: GS3/Defence

In News

• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has released its annual assessment of the state of armaments, disarmament and international security of 2023.

Major Findings of the Report

Nuclear Arsenals 

• The nine nuclear-armed states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel—continue to modernize their nuclear arsenals. Russia and the USA together possess almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons.
• China: China’s nuclear arsenal increased from 350 warheads in January 2022 to 410 in January 2023, and it is expected to keep growing. China could potentially have at least as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as either the USA or Russia by the turn of the decade.
• India and Pakistan: India and Pakistan appear to be expanding their nuclear arsenals, and both countries introduced and continued to develop new types of nuclear delivery system in 2022. While Pakistan remains the main focus of India’s nuclear deterrent, India appears to be placing growing emphasis on longer-range weapons, including those capable of reaching targets across China.
• North Korea: North Korea conducted no nuclear test explosions in 2022, it conducted more than 90 tests of missiles. Some of these missiles, which include new ICBMs, may be capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Impact of Russia- Ukraine war on Nuclear diplomacy

• In the wake of the invasion, the USA suspended its bilateral strategic stability dialogue with Russia. In February 2023 Russia suspended its participation in the 2010 Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START)—the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty limiting Russian and US strategic nuclear forces.  Talks about a follow-on treaty to New START, which expires in 2026, were also suspended.
• Iran’s military support to Russian forces in Ukraine and the political situation in Iran also overshadowed talks on reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement meant to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The JCPOA’s revival now seems increasingly unlikely.

Peace agreements

• Opportunities for peace-making were limited in 2022. The UN succeeded in arranging a truce in Yemen that lasted from April until October—apparently leading to a decline in fatality rates and improved access to aid, despite ongoing violence—while a combination of mediators from African states, Saudi Arabia, the UN and the United States fitfully nudged the military authorities in Sudan to agree a new framework for civilian government following military– civilian turmoil throughout 2021. 
• A successful military drive by the Ethiopian military and its allies forced the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front to sue for a truce in November 2022, which was hurriedly worked out in Pretoria, South Africa, and held reasonably well into 2023. 
• In Colombia, a new left-wing government worked on a peace initiative with a number of armed groups in late 2022, which had made uncertain progress by December. 

Private military and security companies (PMSCs)

• The past 20 years have witnessed the rapid growth of PMSCs. There is no universally accepted, legally binding, standard definition of a PMSC and the sector often operates in a legal lacuna: the employees of PMSCs are not soldiers or civilians, nor can they usually be defined as mercenaries. 
• The wars in Iraq (2003–11) and Afghanistan (2001–21) reshaped perceptions of the private military and security industry, with the massive deployment of contractors by the United States leading to new market opportunities across the globe. 
• Factors contributing to the growth of PMSCs vary by region and state, but they mostly fit with cost-efficiency calculations, where the sector provides skills and services that states do not possess or that would be too costly for states to develop or perform themselves. 
• The USA, the United Kingdom, China and South Africa together are estimated to host about 70 percent of the entire sector. 

Military Expenditure and Arms Production

• Global military expenditure rose for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to reach an estimated $2240 billion, the highest level ever recorded by SIPRI. 
• Despite the 3.7 per cent year-on-year increase in spending, world military expenditure as a share of world gross domestic product (GDP)—the military burden—remained at 2.2 percent because the global economy also grew in 2022. 
• Governments around the world spent an average of 6.2 percent of their budgets on the military, or $282 per person. 

International Transfers of Major Arms

• The volume of international transfers of major arms in the five-year period 2018–22 was 5.1 percent lower than in 2013–17 and 3.9 percent higher than in 2008–12. 
• The volume of transfers in 2018–22 was among the highest since the end of the cold war, but was still around 35 percent lower than the totals for 1978–82 and 1983–87, when arms transfers peaked. 
• The 25 largest suppliers accounted for 98 percent of the total volume of exports, and the 5 largest suppliers in the period—the United States, Russia, France, China and Germany— accounted for 76 percent of the total volume of exports. 

Importers of major arms

• The five largest arms importers were India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia and China, which together accounted for 36 percent of total arms imports. 
• The region that received the largest volume of imports of major arms in 2018–22 was Asia and Oceania, accounting for 41 percent of the global total, followed by the Middle East (31 percent), Europe (16 percent), the Americas (5.8 percent) and Africa (5.0 percent). 

Source: TH

Betelgeuse Star

Syllabus: GS3/Science and Tech

In News

• Researchers from Japan and Switzerland recently reported that the Betelgeuse star is in its late carbon-burning stage. 

About Betelgeuse Star

• Betelgeuse is classified as a red supergiant, the largest type of star. It is more than 10 times the mass of  sun. If it resided at the center of solar system, its surface would extend to the planet Jupiter.
• At roughly 10 million years old, Betelgeuse is much younger than nearly 5-billion-year-old Sun. But while it is much younger, it is also much more massive and will burn through its materials faster and will therefore have a shorter lifespan than a star like the Sun.
• Betelgeuse is about 640 light-years away. This means that it takes the light from this star 641 years to reach Earth, so if you see Betelgeuse in the night sky, you’re seeing the star from 640 years ago.
• Betelgeuse is particularly easy to spot because of its brightness; it is often the tenth-brightest star in the sky.
• It is called ‘Thiruvathirai’ or ‘Ardra’ in Indian astronomy, and is easily spotted in the constellation Orion.

Burning Stages of Star

• Betelgeuse’s observed pulsation matches theoretical estimates from a late carbon-burning stage, suggesting the red supergiant is in its death throes.
• In massive stars like Betelgeuse, the carbon-burning stage lasts only up to a few hundreds of years, after which the star ‘dies’ and collapses into a supernova within a few months.
• Most stars, including the Sun, fuse hydrogen, to produce helium and some energy as a byproduct. This energy’s outward push balances gravity’s inward pull, and keeps the star from collapsing.
• Massive stars like Betelgeuse run out of hydrogen fuel in only a few crore years, when they switch to using helium to make carbon. The energy released in the fusion of helium is less than that of hydrogen, so the star burns more helium to stay stable. The helium runs out in about ten lakh years.
• At this time, red giants like Betelgeuse burn carbon, then silicon, and briskly consume one by one the elements of the periodic table, until finally their core brims with iron – whose fusion requires more energy than it releases – and some cobalt and nickel.
• Each of these stages is shorter than the predecessor. In a star like Betelgeuse, carbon burns in a few hundred years whereas silicon lasts about a day. So the late-carbon stage is the terminal phase of Betelgeuse

Reason for the Changing Brightness of the Star

• Red giant stars expand and contract due to the periodic heating and cooling of the hydrogen in their outermost layers.
• As this process repeats itself, the star appears to a distant observer to dim and brighten at regular intervals.

Source:TH