Why should Chinese presence in Nepal concern India ?

Understanding the background of Nepal

• Nepal is a buffer country between India and China. India has historically thought Nepal to be a pro-India neighbor. 
• Nepal shares land border with five Indian states. India and Nepal are not only linked due to the proximity of land, but it is the cultural affinity that binds the two nations. 
• The common linguistic and ethnic identities, Hindu religious practices, similar festivals, affinity of food, resemblance of dresses, and the overall way of thinking, all make inseparable ties between India and Nepal. 
• Added to this range of similarities and affinities, is the presence of many prominent Nepali political leaders that have their ancestors or relatives in India.

A little historical background between China - Nepal 

Flash back of history will take historians to dwell into the border conflicts that resulted in Nepal-Tibet-China war (1789-1792) over territorial dispute. Further advancement in time will give even grimmer picture of Nepal-Tibetan war of 1855 that was concluded in 1856 with the Treaty of Thapathali with the special status of China as a mediator. Thereafter, by the early 19th century, Nepal broke all relations with China. Can such hostile relations shake the foundation of two thousand year old ties between India and Nepal? Not really, unless we see the developments of Nepal-China relations in the present times and reassess the grounds on which the current relations are established.

Nepal and China resumed diplomatic relations in the mid 1950s. The basis of signing the Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1960 was Nepal’s recognition of Tibet as a part of China and a resolution to the long-standing border problem. Thereafter, China has constantly spread its sphere of influence on the Himalayan Kingdom by expanding greater economic linkages and extending substantial military assistance to Nepal. 

In the 1970s, when King Birendra of Nepal proposed Nepal as a “zone of peace” between India and China, India did not show keen interest, while China was quite supportive. These and many such issues created a rift in Nepal-India ties; while at the same time China has been pro-active to support and aid Nepal.

Current Scenario ?

Although India was the largest investor in Nepal in the year 2011-12 that is not the case now. During the past six months, China has become the largest FDI invester in the country. China alleges that it has taken this move to tackle the increasing influence of the US in the Himalayan kingdom.

However, the reality seems to be quite different. After the signing of the Nepal-China Friendship Treaty, China has significantly increased its presence in the country. It has opened Chinese language learning centres, China-Nepal friendship associations have been started and infrastructure such as mobile towers have been set up. These activities lead to an increased inter-mingling between the Chinese and the Nepalese civilians.

Why should Chinese presence in Nepal concern India ?

1 )  Securing China’s interest in Tibet-after China occupied there were a large number of Tibetans taking refuge in Nepal. By aligning Nepal with it, Chinese have succeeded in a change in Nepalese policy towards Tibetans fleeing from Tibet and convinced Nepal to take strong action against anti-Chinese activities in Nepal.

2) Possibilities are that China might be undertaking such massive investments in the Nepalese side bordering India to monitor the movements of the Indo-Tibetan refugees, intelligence collection as the border is open or aiding the Maoists in their war against the Indian establishment.

3)  Ending Nepal’s overdependence on India by providing economic ,military ,technological and education cooperation to Nepal would weaken India’s hold on Nepal. This would erode India’s long term influence and balance India’s growing power in south Asia.

4)  China has also pushed forward its strategic interests through infrastructural projects and FDI in Nepal. An enhanced Chinese presence in Nepal will meanincreased vulnerability of our northern states from Himachal to West Bengal.

5) The point to be considered here is that all these activities are being done very close to the Indian border with Nepal, precisely near the states of UP and Bihar. The internal security (Maoism) and border security will be at risk. Illegal drugs and arms smuggling might be eased via China’s presence.

Moral of the Story :-

This influence till now is at infant stage but once there is victory of Communist party of Nepal [Maoists] in the future elections this influence will mature. This rise of Nepal will be harsh for India, for example our long term investments in hydro power may be cancelled and given to China as has been seen in Maldives.

All these factors and the recent acts of Chinese territorial aggression in J&K and Arunachal Pradesh should definitely be a cause of concern for India. It should effectively start taking steps to curb these activities before its too late.

Environment, Biodiversity Material for UPSC Civil Services Main Exam

UPSC Civil Services Mains syllabus actually has less topics on Environment. One should not study a whole book on environment for Mains . Fortunately, topics are clearly mentioned in the syllabus.

They are:

• Conservation
• Environmental Pollution and Degradation
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Disaster and Disaster Management

Materials For Above Topics:

I. Conservation

1. Biodiversity Conservation 
2. Conservation of other Natural Resources 
3. Conservation of Soil and Land 
4. Water and Energy Conservation 
5. Water Conservation at Different Levels 
6. Energy Conservation 

II. Environmental Pollution and Degradation

1. Environmental Pollution 
2. Pollution – Very Basic
3. Environment and Health
4. National Environmental Issues
5. Global Environmental Issues 
6. Environmental Pollution – Technical

III. Environmental Impact Assessment

1. Environmental Legislation 
2. Environmental Impact assessment 
3. Environmental Related Institutions and Organisations

IV. Disaster and Disaster Management

1. Disasters and their Management 
2. Yojana on Disaster Management.
3.  Disaster Management Report (read very selectively)

These materials are sufficient for preparing of static part of the environment related topics given in the syllabus.

Apart from above materials, you have to study current events related to environment from newspapers and magazines (Frontline Magazine has a section on environmental issues itself).

DBT’S(DEPARTMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY) BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRAMS IN NORTH EAST INDIA

What is  Biotechnology: Use of living systems and organisms to develop useful products. Ex. Brewing i.e. production of beer (one of the early application of biotechnology).

Some major area of application:

a)      Healthcare (eg. Pharmaceutical drug discovery)

b)      Crop production and agriculture(eg. Genetically modified crop )

c)       Industrial use of crop (eg. Vegetable oil, biofuel )

Various terms related to Biotechnology:

• Bioinformatics:- address biological problems using computational techniques and make the    process of biological analysis fast.
• Blue biotechnology:-  use to describe the marine and aquatics applications of biotechnology.
• Green biotechnology:- Describe the agricultural use of  biotechnology.
• Red biotechnology:- describe the medical use of biotechnology.
• White biotechnology:- describe the industrial use of biotechnology.

Issues related to biotechnology: There are various issues related to biotechnology.

• Cost:  Biotechnology products cost are relatively high because they require high investment for initial research. There may be high risk of failure, which further increase its cost.
• Ethics: debates over the ethics of biotechnology are raising. Ethics related concern include cloning and genetic modification of organisms.
• Laws: there are very few laws there address biotechnology  practices.
• Uncertainty: the biggest issue with biotechnology is the uncertainty in its long term effects. Their immediate advantages are clear ,but their long term effect is still hide because most of the research have been done since mid 1990s. for example biotechnology developed genetically modified crops which solved the problem of hunger, increase the plants resistance to disease but still it is not clear that the same GM crops is safe to human health.

So what we need is REGULATION , currently bioengineered plants food fall under the jurisdiction of three agencies, the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of Agriculture and the Environmental  Protection agency.

• The US Food and Drug Administration determine whether  the new plant variety will adversely affect the environment.
• The Environmental  Protection agency regulates pesticides and  determine tolerance level in human and animal.
• The US Department of Agriculture determine the safety of genetically modified plants.

But still there is a problem , the problem is that the companies are asked to voluntarily submit their test results, it is not compulsory. There is no way to check whether the companies that have developed  genetically modified products, is providing correct information or not.

So it must be compulsory to submit test results and there must be a separate agency whose task is to check whether the company are providing correct result or not. In case of any violation, appropriate action should be taken.

 North East Region (NER) of India: [Consist of Seven sister state -Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland  and Himalayan state of Sikkim]

•  8% of the total geographical area of the Indian subcontinent but  50% of the floristic wealth of the country.
•  house of exceptional natural beauty, floral and faunal biodiversity and abundant mineral, water and forests resources.
•  ideal climatic conditions for agriculture, plantations and sericulture(i.e. silk farming).

Reason for rich biodiversity:  High rainfall and plenty of sunlight coupled with unique bio-geographical positioning.

Because Of This(Rich Biodiversity) NER(North East Region) Provide Unique Opportunity For Biotechnology Based Interventions For Overall Development Of The Region.

Started In the year 2009-10:- DBT had set up a North Eastern Region-Biotechnology Programme Management Cell (NER-BPMC) throughBiotech Consortium India Limited (BCIL) for coordination and monitoring of biotechnology programme in the North Eastern States of India.

Then NER-BPMC has initiated FIVE biotechnology programme in the North Eastern States of India(since DBT has setup NER-BPMC, so ultimately this programmes are running by DBT) as follows:-

 1. INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY/PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT:-Mainly focused on programme that lead to product development In order to ensure economic development of NER. Example includes:-

• Biotechnology Led Organic Farming in the NER
• Twinning Programme(joint venture, between two or more institutes, where one of the institute is from North East India. )
• A value chain on Jackfruit and its value added products .
• Value chain development in Citrus.

2. CAPACITY BUILDING:- Some initiatives were taken towards building capacities of the institutions in NER by supporting infrastructure facilities, high speed internet bandwidth, high end IT equipment, access to high impact e-journals, etc. some of the projects implemented are:-

• North Eastern Bioinformatics Network
• Online human resource repository of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics resources of North East India (BABRONE)
• Development of Digital Database of Bioresources of NE(North East) India
• The Establishment of Biotech
• DBT’s e-Library Consortia (NER-DeLCON)

3.INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT:-Since the infrastructure is the key of growth, Following programme has been initiated to support & create infrastructure facilities.

• DBT Nodal Centre, Tezpur
• Development of Infrastructural Facilities of National Research Centre on Yak
• Creation of infrastructure facility of labs at NEIGRIHMS, Shillong

     4.HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:- In order to develop human resource, following activities has been initiated.

• Overseas Fellowship/Associateship for NER scientists
• Award of Biotechnology National Associateship to Scientists working in North Eastern States .
• Entrepreneurship Development in NER
• MD/MD Thesis Grants
• Star College Scheme
• Training program on utilization of biopesticides and biofertilizers in NE states .

5. SETTING UP OF CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE: For strengthening agro-biotechnology research in NER, DBT has been set up Center of Excellence at Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat

• The major focus of the centre will be

a). Basic research-Gene technology, molecular breeding and microbial gene prospecting

b). HRD component with strong Ph.D. programme and

c). Extending technology benefits through enhanced production of bio inputs etc

Recently The DBT has decided to spend 10% of its total budget (148.50 crores) for the year 2013-14 to promote biotechnology activities in the North Eastern Region of India.

Practice questions-

Expected question for prelims :

1)Term                                                               Related to

A) Blue biotechnology                                   1) medical  use

B) Green biotechnology                                 2) agricultural use

C) Red biotechnology                                     3) industrial use

D) White biotechnology                                  4) marine use

Which of the following is correct:

a)      A- 4   B-2  C- 1  D-3

b)      A- 4   B-1  C-3   D-2

c)       A- 3   B- 2 C-1  D-4

d)      A-2    B- 4 C-3  D-1

(CORRECT ANSWER IS a)

Expected Question for mains:

1)      What is biotechnology? Write down its major area of application.(50 words)

2)      What are various issues related to biotechnology. What steps has been taken to tackle these issues. (200 words)

3)      Explain the rich biodiversity of North East India. What are the factor behind it.(100 words)

4)      “Department of Biotechnology(DBT) has recently focused on rich biodiversity of NE Regions of India.” What was the reason behind this? Also write down some steps taken by DBT in this regard. (200 words)