The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 28 March 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 27 March 2023

Who are Banjaras?

• The Banjara are a historically nomadic trading tribe who may have origins in Rajasthan.
• They have settled across the country with different names and have permanently abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and settled in their settlements called Tandas.
• They are now mainly distributed in Maharastra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal States and living in all the other States except the North-Eastern States and Union Territories.
• They speak Gor Boli also called Lambadi which belongs to the Indo-Aryan Group of Languages.
• Fire dance and Chari are the traditional dance forms of the banjara people.

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Earliest historical references:

• They are found in classical Greek records of India, from Strabo, about 200 years before the Common Era.
• In the Mughal Period, cheetahs were used very extensively for hunting. Emperor Akbar had 1,000 cheetahs in his menagerie.
• Central India, particularly the Gwalior region, had cheetahs for a very long time. Various states including Gwalior and Jaipur used to hunt cheetahs.
• The country’s last spotted cheetah died in Sal forests of Chhattisgarh’s Koriya district in 1948 and the wild animal was declared extinct in the country in 1952.
• Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh, the ruler of a small princely state in today’s Chhattisgarh shot India’s last 3 surviving cheetahs.

• Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-level meeting earlier this month to review heatwave preparedness, a new report by the Centre for Policy Research on “How is India adapting to heatwaves?” indicates that the country is ill-prepared to face the heat.
• The think tank analysed all the 37 heat action plans (HAPs) across 18 States, to evaluate how policy action is keeping up with the warming weather in India, and found that most plans are not built for local contexts. It found that nearly all of them fail to identify and target vulnerable groups, and are underfunded with weak legal foundations and are insufficiently transparent.
• Extreme heat poses an unprecedented challenge to health and productivity, cautioned the centre adding that heatwaves (prolonged periods of extreme heat) have increased in frequency in recent decades due to climate change.

• The chequered history of India’s indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH-Dhruv) touched a low when a Dhruv (IN-709) in the Indian Navy’s newly-acquired fleet of ALH Mk-III MRs was in the news on March 8, 2023.
• This is the first accident involving the Indian Navy’s ALH fleet since the Intensive Flying and Trials Unit (IFTU) was set up at the Indian Navy air station, INS Garuda, in Kochi, Kerala, in 2003.
• What caused a brand-new helicopter with less than 600 hours of flight to force land into the sea off Mumbai is now under investigation by a naval board of inquiry. According to reports, members from the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force are also a part of the team.
• If not fixed in time, possible flaws in design, production, quality control or certification will also impact the civil and export potential of the ALH. It makes eminent sense for all stakeholders to work on a war footing to address design and production failures. There is much more at stake than reputation such as the safety and longevity of all subsequent derivatives (the Light Utility Helicopter, the Light Combat Helicopter, and the Indian Multirole Helicopter) for instance.

• By formally establishing diplomatic relations with China on March 26, 2023, Honduras has joined a growing list of countries that have recently switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
• Taiwan now has only 12 countries, besides the Vatican, with which it has diplomatic ties, including four small Pacific island nations, Eswatini in southern Africa, Paraguay, and six central American and Caribbean nations.
• Beijing continues to refuse to rule out the use of force for what it calls reunification, should Washington or Taipei cross what it sees as a red line. The tussle between the world’s two biggest powers has left the 23 million people of a vibrant and prosperous island caught in the middle.
• Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. It is located at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south.

• The oceans hold untrammelled opportunities for the prosperity of our planet. It is therefore not surprising that the most prosperous cities and countries are endowed with a coast.
• The term ‘blue economy’ includes not only ocean-dependent economic development, but also inclusive social development and environmental and ecological security.
• The Sagarmala initiative promotes port-led development. The Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Policy encourages domestic ship-building. The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana is actively engendering a ‘blue revolution’ through sustainable and responsible development of the fisheries sector.
• The Sagar Manthan dashboard tracks vessels in real-time. The Deep Ocean Mission explores deep-sea resources in the EEZ and continental shelf as well as development of technology for harnessing them.
• In this context, India’s G20 presidency would play an important role in promoting individual and collective actions to facilitate the transition towards a sustainable blue economy. The G20 comprises a diverse group of countries with varying national circumstances.
• Several G20 members have released their strategies for developing and/or expanding their blue economy.
• This forum presents an excellent opportunity to build an effective communication with all stakeholders to share best practices, foster collaborations for advancements in science and technology, promote public-private partnerships, and create novel blue finance mechanisms.

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