5 June 2023

• Environment: World Environment Day 2023 focused on plastic pollution. India's solar e-waste management gap entered the policy debate.
• Infrastructure: India's strategic petroleum reserves were examined for expansion using salt cavern technology in Rajasthan.
• Heritage: Bhaderwah in Jammu, designated the lavender capital of India under CSIR's Aroma Mission, hosted its lavender festival.
• Conservation: The Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia was flagged as the world's largest methamphetamine production zone.
• Diplomacy: President Droupadi Murmu visited Suriname, the first Indian presidential visit to the country.

GS area: Economy (energy), Geography

Engineers India Limited is studying the feasibility of developing strategic petroleum reserves in natural salt caverns in Rajasthan. Salt caverns are a global best practice for cheap and secure oil storage.

• India's current SPR: India stores strategic crude at three underground caverns: Visakhapatnam (1.33 MMT), Mangaluru (1.5 MMT), and Padur (2.5 MMT). Total capacity: 5.33 million metric tonnes, equal to about 9.5 days of crude import cover.
• With commercial storage included: The combined strategic and commercial reserve gives approximately 74 days of cover.
• Why salt caverns: Solution mining creates cavities in salt formations cheaply. Salt is impermeable, so oil does not seep out. The caverns are operational from the surface, require minimal maintenance, and can also store hydrogen for future use.
• Manager: Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), a subsidiary of Oil Industry Development Board under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
• Import dependence: India imports over 85 per cent of its crude oil requirement. Strategic reserves are the buffer against supply disruptions.

Static linkage: Energy security; Indian geography.

GS area: Environment, Economy (energy)

India's rapid solar expansion is creating a waste problem that policy has not yet addressed comprehensively.

• The timeline: Solar panels have a 20 to 25 year lifespan. India's large-scale solar installations from the early 2010s will begin reaching end-of-life in the 2030s.
• Projected waste: 2 lakh tonnes of solar panel waste by 2030.
• Recycling gap: Global solar panel recycling is commercially non-viable. Recycling costs 20 to 30 dollars per panel; landfill disposal costs 1 to 2 dollars. The economics currently favour disposal.
• India's response: The E-Waste Rules 2022 added solar panels to the extended producer responsibility framework for the first time. The Green Credit Programme launched a market signal for sustainable disposal.
• Recovery technologies: Mechanical shredding, thermal pyrolysis, chemical leaching, and electrochemical processes can recover glass, silicon, silver, and rare metals.

Static linkage: Environment and ecology; science and technology (energy).

GS area: Government schemes, Economy (agriculture)

The CSIR Aroma Mission's Purple Revolution entered its second phase in June 2023.

• Launch: 2016 by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research through its CSIR-CIMAP laboratory in Lucknow (Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants).
• Lavender capital: Bhaderwah in the Doda district of Jammu was designated India's lavender capital under the mission.
• Phase I: Covered 46 districts; trained over 44,000 farmers in aromatic crop cultivation.
• Phase II target: Building 45,000 skilled resources for the aromatic crop sector.
• Objective: Create a domestic supply chain for aromatic crops, reducing India's dependence on imported essential oils and creating rural entrepreneurship in the Himalayan belt.

Static linkage: Government schemes; agriculture; Jammu and Kashmir.

GS area: Polity (property rights), Economy

A Supreme Court case brought adverse possession back into the news.

• Adverse possession: A doctrine under which a person who has continuously, openly, and hostilely occupied land for a statutory period can acquire legal title to it, extinguishing the original owner's claim.
• Periods: 12 years for private land; 30 years for government land, under the Limitation Act, 1963.
• Supreme Court test (2004): The claimant must prove the exact date the possession began, its nature (hostile, not with the owner's permission), that the owner knew about it, the duration, and that it was continuous and undisturbed.
• Debate: The Law Commission found no need to change the law. Two members dissented, arguing the doctrine rewards encroachment and facilitates false claims.

Static linkage: Polity; property rights.

GS area: Economy (financial sector), Governance

The Reserve Bank of India issued enhanced cybersecurity norms for Payment System Operators.

• PSOs: Non-bank entities authorised to operate payment systems: PayPal, RuPay, Visa, Mastercard, Paytm. They facilitate electronic movement of funds but do not take deposits.
• Key requirements: Maintain an inventory of cyber assets; implement multi-layer cybersecurity measures; develop crisis management plans; comply with Basel Committee on Banking Supervision standards where applicable.
• Reporting timeline: Cyber attacks and fraud incidents must be reported to the RBI within 6 hours of detection.
• Scope: All authorised non-bank PSOs operating in India.

Static linkage: Indian economy (banking and finance); governance.

• Sal seeds: The Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation of Odisha procured sal seeds (Shorea robusta) after a three-year gap. Sal is the dominant tree of India's dry deciduous forests and is fire-resistant. Its seeds yield oil used in confectionery and soap. The TDCCOL procurement prevents distress sales by forest-dwelling communities.
• Suriname visit: President Murmu's visit to Suriname (Paramaribo) was the first Indian presidential visit. Suriname has a significant Indian-origin population, descendants of indentured labourers brought during British colonial rule.
• WHO food marketing guidelines: The WHO recommended comprehensive mandatory policies restricting marketing of high fat, salt, and sugar foods to children through schools, sports clubs, children's television, and digital platforms. India has no standalone such policy.