Daily Current Affairs   Date : 6^thMarch,2022

 (30+ Questions hit in Prelims 2021 from this series)

Covers 4 Most relevant Sources

• The Hindu
• Indian Express
• PIB
• Mint

Index

• Northern River Terrapin and the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) (TH, pg 1)
• Boltzmann Medal (TH, pg 10)
• Financial Action Task Force (FATF) (TH, pg 1)
• Why are Commodity Prices Shooting Up? (TH, pg 11)
• India-Bangladesh Relations (PIB)

 

1. Northern River Terrapin and the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) (TH, pg 1)

• Context:GPS transmitters installed the critically endangered northern river terrapin (Batagur baska) in the Indian Sundarbans have reached Bangladesh after their release.
• Turtle Survival Alliance India (TSA) had played an important role in the conservation and release of the turtles.

Analysis

• The northern river terrapin is one of India’s most-threatened turtles.
• The terrapin is one of five freshwater turtles among the world’s 50 most-threatened turtles.
• Their fragile state is documented in Turtles in Trouble,published for 2018 by the Turtle Conservation Coalition, a consortium of conservation organisations.
• India’s “top five” at risk include Batagur baska,the northern river terrapin found in the Sundarbans, and the red-crowned roof turtle, Batagur kachuga, from the National Chambal Sanctuary, spread across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
• Others are Chitra indica,the South Asian narrow-headed softshell turtle in the gangetic river system, Nilssonia nigricans, or black softshell turtle, encountered in temple ponds in north Bengal and Assam, and Pelochelys cantorii, the Asian giant softshell turtle in the east.
• The northern river terrapin, the red-crowned roof turtle and giant softshell turtle are critically endangered, says the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, while the black softshell is extinct in the wild, and the narrow-headed softshell is endangered.
• For Chitra indicaa conservation colony has come up at Kukrial in Lucknow.
• There is worry about Pelochelys cantorii, as a survey along the Andhra coast has found only a few specimens.

Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA)

• The Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) was formed in 2001 as “an IUCN partnership for sustainable captive management of freshwater turtles and tortoises.”
• The TSA arose in response to the rampant and unsustainable harvest of Asian turtle populations to supply Chinese markets, a situation known as the Asian Turtle Crisis.
• Although the TSA was organized in response to the Asian Turtle Crisis, the group is well positioned to respond to other endangered turtle species, particularly where a managed breeding component is included in their overall survival strategy.

KURMA App

• On May 23, 2020, World Turtle Day, a number of conservation agencies launched a citizen science initiative, a mobile-based application called KURMA, aimed at turtle conservation.
• It has a built-in digital field guide covering 29 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises of India.
• It was developed by the Indian Turtle Conservation Action Network (ITCAN) in collaboration with the Turtle Survival Alliance-India and Wildlife Conservation Society-India.

 

2. Boltzmann Medal (TH, pg 10)

• Context: Deepak Dhar, physicist, from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, has been selected for the Boltzmann medal, awarded by the Commission on Statistical Physics (C3) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.

Analysis

• He becomes the first Indian to win this award, which was initiated in 1975, with Nobel laureate (1982) K.G. Wilson being the first recipient.
• He shares the platform with American scientist John J. Hopfield who is known for his invention of an associative neural network, now named after him.
• The medal, which honours outstanding achievements in the field of statistical physics, has been given to one or two persons, once in three years, in the last 47 years.
• It is given only once to a person and on the condition that that person has not won the Nobel prize so far.

 

3. Financial Action Task Force (FATF) (TH, pg 1)

• Context:The global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog FATF has retained Pakistan on its terrorism financing “grey list” and asked Islamabad to address at the earliest the remaining deficiencies in its financial system.
• Pakistan has been on the grey list of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) since June 2018 for failing to check money laundering, leading to terror financing, and was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019.
• Since then, the country continues to be on that list due to its failure to comply with the FATF mandates.
• The recent plenary, FATF’s highest decision-making body, decided against exiting Pakistan from the category despite the country meeting 32 out of 34 action points.

Analysis

• FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by a Group of Seven (G-7) Summit in Paris.

• G-7 Countries: Canada, U.S., U.K., Italy, France, Germany and Japan – the seven largest advanced economies.
• Earlier it was G-8 when Russia was suspended from it because of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a part of Ukraine.

• It helps in combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
• The FATF’s decision making body, the FATF Plenary, meets three times per year.
• The FATF monitors:

• the progress of its members in implementing necessary measures,
• reviews money laundering and terrorist financing techniques and counter-measures, and
• promotes the adoption and implementation of appropriate measures globally.

• In collaboration with other international stakeholders, the FATF works to identify national-level vulnerabilities with the aim of protecting the international financial system from misuse.
• The FATF is an international policy-making body. It does not take a role in law enforcement matters, investigations or prosecutions.
• The FATF does not address at all issues related to low tax jurisdiction or tax competition.

• The FATF mandate focuses only on the fight against laundering of proceeds of crimes and the financing of terrorism.

FATF Members and Observers

• The FATF currently comprises 39 members (37 countries including China and India and 2 regional organisations – European Commission, Gulf Co-operation Council), representing most major financial centres in all parts of the globe.

• Pakistan is not a member of FATF.

• From the Indian sub-continent, India is the only member of FATF.
• FATF Observers: Indonesia.

Greylist Vs Blacklist

• The greylist refers to countries that are “monitored jurisdictions” that are being reviewed for actions to stop terror financing and money laundering, while the blacklist refers to countries facing a “call to action” or severe banking strictures, sanctions and difficulties in accessing loans.
• When the FATF places a jurisdiction under increased monitoring ‘grey list’, it means the country has committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes and is subject to increased monitoring.
• The current FATF grey list, by October 2020, includes the following countries: Albania, the Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Jamaica, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

 

4. Why are Commodity Prices Shooting Up? (TH, pg 11)

• Context: Commodity prices have recorded their biggest jump in the recent years after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
• As the global economy struggles to grow while prices rise fast, analysts have warned about the risk ofstagflation, which is marked by high price inflation and low growth.

Analysis

• The military conflict between Russia and Ukraine has led to disruptions in the global commodity supply chain.

• Russian banks have been cut off from the SWIFT payment messaging system and freezing Russia’s foreign reserves.
• There are also logistical difficulties in transporting commodities from war zones.

• Exports from the region have already been affected and are likely to be further hit going forward, and this risk has been priced in by traders.

• It should be noted that in 2020 Russia produced about 12% of the world’s oil and about 16% of the world’s natural gas.
• It also produced nearly half of the world’s palladium (the shiny white metal which is a critical component in catalytic converters — a part of a car’s exhaust system that controls emissions, for example).
• Ukraine, on the other hand, supplies about 12% of global wheat exports and 13% of global corn exports.

• At the same time, suppliers in other parts of the world have failed to increase their production to make up for the loss of output in Russia and Ukraine.

• The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), for instance, has made no effort to increase its output despite repeated calls by various world leaders to ensure energy security.

Is commodity inflation just about the Russia-Ukraine war?

• Commodity prices have risen significantly since at least 2021 when lockdowns were slowly lifted by governments and economies were allowed to open up.

• Owing to various frictions in the global economy, it took a while for supply chains disrupted by lockdowns to return to normalcy.
• The supply of goods was limited and this scarcity was reflected in the form of higher prices.

• Some analysts have also blamed policies in several countries to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy as a possible reason behind the increase in commodity prices.

• The emphasis on renewable energy, they argue, has discouraged investors from investing in the production of traditional fossil fuels.

• Meanwhile, the pandemic also witnessed major global central banks such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank injecting massive amounts of fresh money into their economies.

• This led to an increase in the demand for all goods and services and caused their prices to rise.

 

5. India-Bangladesh Relations (PIB)

• The Commerce Secretary level meeting between India and Bangladesh was held in New Delhi.
• Both sides held extensive discussions on a variety of issues of mutual interest, including a joint study on Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
• Bangladesh is the 6^thlargest trade partner of India.