12 August 2023

• Governance: A CAG report on Indian Railways found the Operating Ratio reached 107.39 in 2021-22, meaning railways spent 107 rupees to earn every 100 rupees of revenue.
• Environment: World Elephant Day is observed on 12 August. India holds over 60 per cent of the world's Asian elephant population.
• Environment: India's mangrove cover is 0.15 per cent of land area. Government schemes MISHTI and Amrit Dharohar target restoration and livelihood integration.
• Finance: The RBI announced new UPI features including conversational payments, NFC-based offline transactions, and an increased limit of 500 rupees for small-value offline payments.

GS area: Economy, Governance

The Comptroller and Auditor General presented a performance audit report on Indian Railways' finances covering 2021-22.

• Operating Ratio (OR): The ratio of operating expenses to revenue earned. An OR above 100 means the railways spend more than they earn from operations. In 2021-22 the OR was 107.39.
• No surplus: The Railways generated no net surplus in 2021-22. The gap was covered by budget support from the General Fund and market borrowings.
• Staff costs: About 75 per cent of working expenses went to staff costs and pensions.
• Vivek Debroy Committee: Recommended restructuring railways into distinct operational verticals, creating an independent regulatory body (Rail Development Authority), enhancing commercial autonomy, and exploring PPP models. Most recommendations remain unimplemented.
• Reform context: Indian Railways is the world's fourth-largest rail network. It carries about 1.2 billion passengers a year. Financial sustainability is a long-standing concern.

Static linkage: Infrastructure, public sector management, audit and accountability (GS Paper 3).

GS area: Environment, Biodiversity

World Elephant Day is observed on 12 August. India is home to the largest population of Asian elephants in the world.

• India's population: Approximately 30,000 Asian elephants, which is over 60 per cent of the world's total Asian elephant population.
• Top three elephant states: Karnataka (6,049), Assam (5,719), and Kerala (3,054).
• Legal protection: Asian elephants are listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. They are also designated India's National Heritage Animal.
• Project Elephant: Launched in 1991-92 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. India has 33 designated Elephant Reserves across 14 states.
• Human-elephant conflict: Elephants kill approximately 100 to 500 people a year in India, and crop raiding causes significant losses. Conflict is most acute in Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and in the north-east.
• MIKE programme: Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants, run by CITES, tracks poaching trends.

Static linkage: Biodiversity conservation, wildlife law (GS Paper 3).

GS area: Environment, Coastal ecology

India's mangrove cover is approximately 4,992 sq km, constituting 0.15 per cent of land area. India has a coastline of 7,516 km.

• Sundarbans: The largest mangrove forest in the world, shared between India and Bangladesh. India's Sundarbans is in West Bengal and hosts the Bengal tiger.
• Ecological services: Mangroves protect coasts from storm surges, sequester carbon at high rates, serve as nurseries for fish, and support fisher livelihoods.
• MISHTI: Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes. Launched in Union Budget 2023-24 to restore mangroves while integrating livelihoods for coastal communities.
• Amrit Dharohar: A new scheme for holistic management of wetlands, conservation of biodiversity, and development of eco-tourism.
• Ramsar sites: India has the highest number of Ramsar wetland sites in Asia. Mangrove areas such as Sundarbans (Ramsar site), Bhitarkanika (Odisha), and Pichavaram (Tamil Nadu) are important.

Static linkage: Coastal ecology, biodiversity conservation, schemes (GS Paper 3).

GS area: Economy, Technology

The Reserve Bank of India announced a set of new features for the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system.

• Conversational payments: UPI will allow payments via AI-powered voice conversations in multiple Indian languages. Users can initiate and complete payment through a spoken dialogue.
• Offline NFC payments: Users can make UPI payments via Near Field Communication (NFC) technology without internet connectivity.
• Offline limit raised: The per-transaction limit for small offline UPI payments was increased from 200 rupees to 500 rupees. The overall limit on the offline wallet remains 2,000 rupees.
• UPI Lite: A wallet within UPI for small-value payments that processes over 10 million transactions monthly.
• UPI scale: UPI processed over 10 billion transactions per month by mid-2023. It is the world's largest real-time payment system.

Static linkage: Payment systems, digital economy (GS Paper 3).

GS area: International Relations, Polity

Katchatheevu island, located in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka, remained in the news as Tamil Nadu fishermen faced arrests by the Sri Lankan Navy.

• Background: Katchatheevu is an uninhabited island ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974 by the Indo-Sri Lanka Maritime Agreement. Indian fishermen traditionally fished in those waters.
• Current status: After cession, Indian fishermen require Sri Lankan permission to fish near Katchatheevu. The Sri Lankan Navy periodically arrests Tamil Nadu fishermen who fish beyond the maritime boundary.
• Constitutional dimension: Tamil Nadu has passed resolutions requesting retrieval of Katchatheevu. The question of whether a bilateral treaty can override the interests of fishermen in a state raises federalism and treaty-making questions.
• Palk Strait: A shallow strait separating the Indian state of Tamil Nadu from the Mannar district of Sri Lanka.

Static linkage: India-Sri Lanka relations, maritime boundaries, federalism (GS Paper 2).

• CBI joins Interpol Global Academy Network: The Central Bureau of Investigation Academy became the 10th member of the Interpol Global Academy Network (launched 2019). The CBI was established in 1963 and operates under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.
• Ganga Afforestation Project: The first phase (2016-2021) of the Ganga Afforestation Project achieved only 22 per cent of its target area. It is overseen by the National Mission for Clean Ganga.
• China's deflation: China entered a deflationary phase in July 2023. Its Consumer Price Index turned negative. Deflation, a sustained fall in the general price level, is problematic because it depresses investment and spending in anticipation of further price falls.