4 November 2024

• Urbanisation: India's urban population at 40 per cent (500 million) faces a housing shortfall of 18.78 million units. Nine of the world's ten most polluted cities are Indian.
• Biodiversity: COP-16's 30-by-30 target and India's 81,664 crore rupee commitment for 2025-30.
• Economy: India cut fossil fuel subsidies 85 per cent over a decade, from 25 billion to 3.5 billion dollars.
• Facts: Vaccine-derived poliovirus in Meghalaya. Dal Lake's ecology under pressure. LignoSat wooden satellite launched.

GS area: Environment and Ecology, International Relations

The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity produced significant outcomes in Cali, Colombia.

• 30-by-30 target: Parties committed to conserving 30 per cent of land and ocean and restoring 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems by 2030. This is the headline goal of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
• India's commitment: 81,664 crore rupees to biodiversity for 2025-2030.
• Ramsar progress: India's count rose from 26 in 2014 to 85 by 2024.
• Digital Sequence Information: The key unresolved issue. Developing countries want companies that profit from using genetic data to share revenues with the source country. No binding mechanism was agreed.
• Funding gap: Developing nations need roughly 200 billion dollars annually to meet biodiversity targets. Pledges fell far short.
• Indigenous peoples: COP-16 formally created a subsidiary body to give indigenous peoples a direct voice in biodiversity negotiations, the first time this has been structured into the CBD process.

Static linkage: Biodiversity conventions, India's environmental commitments, international environmental law.

GS area: Society, Geography, Governance

India's urban growth has outpaced planning capacity. The data point to a structural challenge.

• Urban share: 40 per cent of India's population, roughly 500 million people, now lives in urban areas. This grew from 27.7 per cent in 2001.
• Housing shortfall: 18.78 million units, concentrated in lower-income groups.
• Air quality: Nine of the ten most polluted cities globally are Indian.
• Key urban schemes:
  • Smart Cities Mission: ICT-enabled infrastructure for 100 selected cities.
  • AMRUT: Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation. Covers basic services.
  • PM Awas Yojana-Urban: Subsidised housing for lower income groups.
  • DAY-NULM: National Urban Livelihoods Mission for the urban poor.
• SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities goal. India's urban challenge is the test case.

Static linkage: Urbanisation, social justice, government schemes.

GS area: International Relations

India articulated its foreign policy position as "Vishwamitra", a friend to all, in a multipolar world. The phrase encodes the idea that India no longer treats its friendships as exclusive, choosing to engage with competing power blocs simultaneously.

• Non-alignment legacy: India's historical posture of staying outside military alliances.
• Current doctrine: Strategic autonomy. India maintains defence ties with the US, Russia and France while building economic relationships with the Gulf and Southeast Asia.
• Quad: India, US, Australia and Japan. A security grouping in the Indo-Pacific.
• BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, with new members admitted in 2024. India uses this forum for Global South messaging.
• Practical tension: Buying Russian oil under sanctions pressure from the West while participating in Quad defence exercises with the US.

Static linkage: India's foreign policy, strategic autonomy, international institutions.

GS area: Geography, Environment

Dal Lake in Srinagar came under discussion as its ecological health deteriorated.

• Location: Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.
• Size: 18 square kilometres. Including floating gardens, about 21.1 square kilometres.
• Four basins: Gagribal, Lokut Dal, Bod Dal and Nagin.
• Floating gardens: Called "Raad" locally. Farmers cultivate vegetables on beds of weeds anchored at the lake bottom.
• Lotus blooms: July and August.
• Winter temperature: Can reach minus 11°C, freezing parts of the lake.
• Threats: Encroachment, sewage inflow, siltation and invasive aquatic weeds.
• Eco-sensitive status: Designated as an eco-sensitive zone requiring environmental clearance for construction activity.

Static linkage: Important water bodies of India, Jammu and Kashmir, environment.

GS area: Health, Science and Technology

The Indian Council of Medical Research launched the "First in the World Challenge" to fund high-risk, high-reward health innovations.

• ICMR: Indian Council of Medical Research. India's apex biomedical research body. Operates under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• Focus: Novel vaccines, drugs, diagnostics and medical interventions that have no existing global equivalent.
• Selection: An expert committee that includes innovators and policymakers evaluates proposals.
• Why it matters: India's pharmaceutical and biomedical research capacity has historically been strong in generics. Frontier innovation has lagged behind China and the US.

Static linkage: Health policy, scientific institutions, India's research ecosystem.

• Kodo millet and elephant deaths at Bandhavgarh: A 1934 RC Morris report documented 14 elephant deaths in Tamil Nadu from kodo millet poisoning. The toxin is cyclopiazonic acid from fungal contamination. Tamarind water and buttermilk were the proposed antidotes. Recent elephant deaths at Bandhavgarh revived interest in this historical record.
• LignoSat wooden satellite: World's first wooden satellite, from Kyoto University. Material: Japanese honoki (magnolia). Mission: six months on the ISS to test wood durability in space. Burns harmlessly on re-entry, reducing orbital debris from vaporised aluminium that disrupts upper-atmosphere chemistry.