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TOPIC : GS 2 India and its Neighborhood- Relations.

Evaluate the Ladakh crisis, keep China at bay

What is the news?

After over a year, the stand­off between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh shows no signs of resolution. Disengagement has stalled, China continues to reinforce its troops, and talks have been fruitless.

Strained Relationship

  • Political relations are marked by hostility and distrust.
  • Reversing a long­held policy New Delhi will no longer overlook the problematic border dispute for the sake of a potentially wider relationship
  • Disengagement continues, the relationship will remain vulnerable to destabilizing disruptions.
  • On the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and beyond, India’s military and political leaders will need to learn the right lessons from Ladakh, to ensure they are better postured to meet the challenge of Chinese coercion.

Revamping strategies

  • Military strategies based on denial are more useful than strategies based on punishment.
  • The Indian military’s standing doctrine calls for deterring adversaries with the threat of massive punitive retaliation for any aggression, capturing enemy territory as bargaining leverage in post­war talks.
  • The Indian military’s high­water mark in the crisis was an act of denial — its occupation of the heights on the Kailash Range on its side of the LAC
  • By bolstering India’s defensive position, rather than launching an escalatory response, such a strategy is also more likely than punishment to preserve crisis stability.
  • India to reduce the resource drain of the increased militarization of the LAC.

Indian Ocean Region is key

  • Perspective of long term strategic competition, the future of the Indian Ocean Region is more consequential and more uncertain than the Himalayan frontier.
  • At the land border, the difficult terrain and more even balance of military force means that each side could only out minor, strategically modest gains at best.
  • India has traditionally been the dominant power in the Indian Ocean Region and stands to cede significant political influence
  • The security if it fails to answer the dizzyingly rapid expansion of Chinese military

Way forward

  • Rebalancing India’s strategic priorities will require the central government, through the Chief of Defence Staff , to issue firm strategic guidance to the military services.
  • Government’s strategic sense and far­sightedness, but also of the ability of the national security apparatus to overcome entrenched bureaucratic and organizational cultural biases.
  • India has suffered unequal strategic costs from the Ladakh crisis
  • Chinese troops continue to camp on previously Indian controlled land, and worse
  • India may jeopardise its long term leverage in the more consequential Indian Ocean Region.
  • India’s leaders honestly and critically evaluate the crisis, it may yet help to actually brace India’s long term position against China.

Mains question

A critical assessment of the stand­off offers New Delhi key lessons in managing the strategic competition with China . Discuss

Sources : https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/evaluate-the-ladakh-crisis-keep-china-at-bay/article34537705.ece

PRELIMS  PUNCHERS

  1. Escape Clause

‘Escape clause’ generally refers to a contract provision that specifies the conditions under which a party can be freed from an obligation. The escape clause under the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Act details a set of events in which the Central government can deviate from fiscal deficit targets. The fiscal deficit is the total amount by which the government’s expenses for a year exceed its revenues.

Escape clauses provide flexibility to governments to overshoot fiscal deficit targets in times of need, enabling them to respond to economic shocks. To ensure escape clauses are not misused, they are generally allowed only in exceptional circumstances, and with a check on the quantum of deviation.

Sources: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/slate/all-you-wanted-to-know-about-escape-clause/article30784478.ece

  1. Save our Mangroves Now

Save Our Mangroves Now! is a joint commitment of Ministry of economic cooperation and development ( Germany) , IUCN and WWF to intensify efforts in mangrove conservation. It aims to upscale and focus global efforts to stop and reverse the decrease and degradation of mangrove habitats, and supports the target of the Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA) to increase the global area of mangrove habitat by 20% over the current extent by 2030.

Building on IUCNs and WWFs wide engagement and sound experience in mangrove conservation, this initiative has the ambition to create a variety of partnerships and cooperation with other mangrove organizations, initiatives and countries. Save Our Mangroves Now,  together with the GMA, provides a platform for knowledge sharing and the exchange of experience in order to encourage collaborations and to foster synergies. It focuses on supporting the Western Indian Ocean region in becoming a mangrove conservation champion by aiming at achieving the ambitious goal of no-net loss of mangroves by 2030.

Sources : https://www.iucn.org/regions/eastern-and-southern-africa/our-work/coastal-and-ocean-resilience/save-our-mangroves-now

  1. Drug Controller General of India

Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) is the head of department of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization of the Government of India responsible for approval of licences of specified categories of drugs such as blood and blood products, IV fluids, vaccines, and sera in India. Drugs Controller General of India, comes under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. DCGI also sets standards for manufacturing, sales, import, and distribution of drugs in India.

DCGI will also act as Central Licensing Authority (CLA) for the medical devices which fall under the purview of these rules. Out of four Classes of medical devices from Class A to Class D, DCGI will be the direct licensing authority for Class C and Class D devices, whereas it will coordinate licensing for Class A and B devices through State drug controllers, who will act as State Licensing Authority or SLA.

Sources : https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/pharmaceuticals/dcgi-approves-anti-covid-drug-developed-by-drdo-for-emergency-use-new-drug-helps-sustain-oxygen-level-in-body-says-drdo-scientist/videoshow/82523920.cms

  1. Drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG)

The drug has been developed by Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad.

The drug comes in powder form in a sachet which is taken orally by dissolving it in water. It accumulates in the virus infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production. Its selective accumulation in virally infected cells makes this drug unique. Being a generic molecule and analogue of glucose, it can be easily produced and made available in plenty in the country

PRELIMS QUESTIONS

Qn 1.Escape clause sometimes appears in news , related to

  1. Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act
  2. E-bills
  3. Anti –defection Law
  4. GST Act

Answer : A

Escape clause’ generally refers to a contract provision that specifies the conditions under which a party can be freed from an obligation. The escape clause under the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Act details a set of events in which the Central government can deviate from fiscal deficit targets. The fiscal deficit is the total amount by which the government’s expenses for a year exceed its revenues.

Escape clauses provide flexibility to governments to overshoot fiscal deficit targets in times of need, enabling them to respond to economic shocks. To ensure escape clauses are not misused, they are generally allowed only in exceptional circumstances, and with a check on the quantum of deviation.

Qn 2.Consider the following statement with reference to Drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG)

  1. Developed by lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Ministry of health and family welfare
  2. The drug comes in powder form in a sachet which is taken orally by dissolving it in water

Select the correct statement using code given below.

(a). 1only                                 (b) 2 only

(c). Both of them                 (d). None of the above

Answer: B

The drug has been developed by Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad.

The drug comes in powder form in a sachet which is taken orally by dissolving it in water. It accumulates in the virus infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production. Its selective accumulation in virally infected cells makes this drug unique. Being a generic molecule and analogue of glucose, it can be easily produced and made available in plenty in the country