DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Recently, the U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency closed meeting at the request of Guyana following Venezuela’s weekend referendum claiming Essequibo region.

Geography – It a 61,600-square-mile area located in the heart of the Guiana Shield, a geographical region in the northeast of South America.

• It accounts for two-thirds of Guyana.
• The area is one of the 4 last pristine tropical forests in the world.

Economical value – It has vast oil and mineral resources.With these resources, Guyana is set to surpass the oil production of Venezuela, and by 2025, it would become the world’s largest per-capita crude producer.

Currently, Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

History of contention – It is a disputed territory between Guyana and Venezuela.

• 1899 arbitration demarcated their boundaries which was formally accepted in 1905 agreement.
• While Venezuela challenged the 1899 arbitration in 1962, the 1966 Geneva Agreement aimed at maintaining the status quo.

Recent contention – Through referendum, Venezuelans approved the claim of sovereignty over Essequibo and were about to immediately begin exploration in the disputed region.

International response – Guyana approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which refused to ban the referendum but urged Venezuela not to alter the status quo.

Under Article 94 of the U.N. Charter, if any party to a case fails to perform its required obligations, the other party (in this case Guyana) may take the issue to the Security Council.

Recently, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) achieved a breakthrough in a vital tunnel along the 250-km long and strategically important National Highway (NH) 144A in Jammu and Kashmir.

Border Roads Organisation (BRO) was formed on 7 May 1960 to secure India’s borders and develop infrastructure in remote areas of the north and north-east states of the country.

National Highway, NH-144A is a 2-lane road which starts from Jammu and goes up to Poonch districts. It also provides road connectivity to Akhnoor sub division.

• The tunnel forms part of NH upgradation project under Prime Minister’s Development Package announced in November 2015 as Reconstruction Plan for Jammu and Kashmir.

Breakthrough is a point, where the tunnel from both the ends meet.

• Upgradation – The NH 144A is being upgraded from the existing 2 lanes to 4 lanes.
• Implementation
  • NHIDCL executes the 4-laning of the highway from Jammu to Akhnoor.
  • BRO executes the remaining work from Akhnoor to Poonch under the Project Sampark.

National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) is a fully owned company of the Government of India, set up in 2014 for managing a network of over 10,000 km of National Highways out of 1,15,000 km in India.

Civilian significance – It provides speedy and all-weather road connectivity to people living in the border districts.

• It helps to manage and control the increase in vehicular traffic and frequent road accidents.
• It results in socio-economic growth.

Defence significance – The road touches the border areas, and thereby essential for national security.

• It allows speedy movement of defence vehicles to areas along the Line of Control (LOC).

The Indian delegation is going to participate in the 2nd World Local Production Forum (WLPF) at the World Forum, The Hague in Netherlands in November 2023.

• WLPF is a platform to generate actionable recommendations to support local production of medicines and healthcare technologies.

Created by – World Health Organisation (WHO).

• The 1^st edition of WLPF was organized virtually in 2021.

Aims

• • To emphasize the importance of health product production as a vital long-term infrastructure.
  • To promote strengthening local production of medicines and other health technologies.
  • To improve timely and equitable access to quality assured health products.
  • To strengthen global, regional, and national health security.

Secretariat – The Local Production and Assistance (LPA) Unit at the WLPF.

Local Production & Assistance (LPA) Unit supports Member States in strengthening sustainable local production by forging political commitment through strategies, policies and partnerships.

Objectives of 2nd WLPF

• • To discuss key challenges in promoting local production and technology transfer.
  • To explore opportunities and mechanisms to tackle the bottlenecks.

Technology transfer is a logical procedure that controls the transfer of products, processes and knowledge together with its documentation and professional expertise, allowing the diffusion of innovation to new horizons/markets.

Significance for India – To boost India’s resilience in global supply chains of pharmaceuticals and to showcase important contributions of India’s Pharma industr

Recently, 2 passenger trains in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district collided which costed lives of many people.

• It is a cab signalling train control system with anti-collision features and is called as Kavach (armour).
• Developed by – Indian Railways Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) which costs Rs. 50 lakh per kilometre.
• Objective – To enhance safety of running trains by aiding loco pilots to avoid signal passing at danger, over-speeding and during inclement weather such as dense fog.
• It deploys 3 components along the railway route.
• RFID technology in tracks – It uses radio waves to automatically identify and read information from a distant wireless device without physical contact or a line of sight.
• Locomotive components – The driver’s cabin is provided with RFID readers, computer, and brake interface equipment.
• Radio infrastructure – These are the towers and modems which are installed at railway stations.

• A deep bay of the Southern Ocean, the Ross Sea exists between Marie Byrd Land and Victoria Land of Antarctica.
• The majority of the Ross Sea Region MPA is fully protected under a General Protection Zone (GPZ).
• Around 72% of the MPA is a no-take zone, excluding areas under ice shelves.
• A no-take zone is an area set aside by the government where no extractive activity is allowed.

Extractive activities include fishing, hunting, logging, mining, and drilling. Shell collecting and archaeological digging are also extractive.

• Pied avocet - A migratory bird species that breeds in Europe and Central Asia, arriving in Africa and southern Asia during winters.
• Greater painted snipe and Slaty breasted rail, Brown crake - spotted at Visakhapatnam.
• Great crested grebe - A winter migrant to India (found in all wetlands of Srikakulam and some places in Visakhapatnam).

Other species spotted in Andhra Pradesh - Lesser florican, Terek sandpiper, Jerdon’s courser and green munia, spot-billed pelicans.

• Digital India- In 2015, it was launched to improve online infrastructure and increase internet accessibility among citizens.
• Unified Payment Interface-It is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application, merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood.
• Bhasini- It is an AI powered language translation platform which will support digital inclusion in India's diverse languages.
• Udyam portal- It provides registration of MSMEs at zero cost, the process is fully paperless, online and based on self-declaration.
• PM-WANI- PM-Wi-Fi Access Network Interface was launched by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) in 2020 to provide ubiquitous and affordable internet connectivity.
• GeM- Government-e-Marketplace is a paperless, contactless, cashless and 100% government owned online marketplace.
• Internet Saathi Program –It was launched in 2015 by Google India and Tata Trusts to facilitate digital literacy among rural Indian women.

PM Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan- It was launched in 2017 to usher in digital literacy in rural India by covering 60 million households.

• NTPC Renewable Energy Limited (NTPC REL), a wholly owned subsidiary of NTPC, has declared the commercial operation of its first project, the 50 MW wind project at Dayapar in Kachch, Gujarat.

Dayapar Wind is the first capacity in India to be declared commercial under new Indian Electricity Grid Code and General Network Access Regime.