Lambani Art

Syllabus: GS1/ Art & Culture

In News

• In the 3rd G20 culture working group (CWG) meeting in Hampi (Karnataka), a Guinness world record was created for the ‘largest display of Lambani Art items’.

About the Record

• Lambani women artisans associated with Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra Kendra (SKKK) came together to create these items using GI-tagged Sandur Lambani embroidery having 1755 patchworks.
• This Guinness World Record endeavour is aligned with the PM’s campaign of Mission ‘LiFe’ (Lifestyle for environment) and the CWG’s initiative for ‘Culture for LiFe’, an environmentally conscious lifestyle and a concerted action towards sustainability. 

What is Lambani Art?

• It is a traditional form of art and craft practised by the Lambani community, also known as the Banjara community in Karnataka.
• Lambani embroidery is a vibrant and intricate form of textile embellishment characterized by colourful threads, mirror work, and a rich array of stitch patterns. 
• Lambani art includes a wide range of products, such as clothing, textiles, accessories, home decor items, and jewellery. It received the status of Geographic Indication (GI) tag in 2010 from Karnataka.
• Lambani craft tradition involves skillfully stitching together small pieces of discarded fabric to create a beautiful fabric. 
• It is practised in several villages of Karnataka such as Sandur, Keri Tanda, Mariyammanahalli, Kadirampur, Sitaram Tanda, Bijapur, and Kamalapur. 
• This rich embroidery tradition, predominantly upheld by the skilled women of the Lambani community, serves as a vital source of livelihood and sustenance, intertwining living practices with economic empowerment.

Interconnected Culture

• The embroidery traditions of the Lambanis are shared in terms of technique and aesthetics with textile traditions across Eastern Europe, West, and Central Asia. It formed a shared artistic culture.
• This interconnectedness of cultures through the craft makes it an ideal symbol for the campaign ‘Culture Unites All’. Through this art form, we celebrate our shared heritage and promote dialogue and understanding among diverse communities.

About Lambani community

• Lambanis, also called Lambadis or Banjaras, were nomadic tribes who came from Afghanistan to Rajasthan and have now spread themselves across Karnataka and other parts of India.
• In the 17th century, they are believed to have assisted the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb to carry goods to the southern part of India. 
• In the 18th century the British authorities framed the Criminal Tribe Act of 1871 and stopped their free movement.
• The language of Banjara is known as “Gorboli” “Gor mati Boli” or “Brinjari” an independent dialect ( under the category of Indo-Aryan language).
• They are known by different names like: 
  • Lambada or Lambadi, Sukali in Andhra Pradesh
  • Lambani in Karnataka
  • Gwar or Gwaraiya in Rajasthan

Source: IE

Human Trafficking

Syllabus: GS2/ Governance

In News

• Over half of child trafficking victims across the world are trafficked within their own country, according to a report, titled “From Evidence to Action: Twenty Years of IOM Child Trafficking Data to Inform Policy and Programming”. 

What is Human Trafficking?

• Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons of the United Nations defines Trafficking.
• It is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or the use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of receiving benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

Classifications Of Human Trafficking

• Sex Trafficking
• Labour Trafficking
• Organ Trade Trafficking
• Forced Marriage Trafficking

Findings of the Report

• Child trafficking victims come from all backgrounds and genders, according to the report. Some 57.4 percent of child victims were female and 42.6 percent were male according to the dataset.

• Children aged 13-17 formed the largest group of child victims (46.6 percent), based on the age reported at the time of IOM registration.
• The report noted that victims trafficked for sexual exploitation were commonly trafficked internationally, while those trafficked for forced labour were more likely to be trafficked domestically.
• Family and friends play an important role in the recruitment of children in countries where either widespread or localised extreme poverty is common.

Trafficking in India

• In 2022, 6,622 trafficking victims were reported to have been identified; in addition, 694 were identified as potential victims.
• In 2021 Police filed charge sheets in 84.7 percent of the 2,189 cases registered under the Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) across the country in 2021. 

Issues And Challenges Of Human Trafficking In India

Even though the nation has several anti-human trafficking laws, human trafficking still exists. In areas where there are a lot of men or where the gender ratio is heavily skewed in favour of men, women and girls are trafficked while boys and men are specifically trafficked for bonded labour or labour trafficking. 

1. Commercial Demand for Sex: The nature of sex trafficking is seen as an economic supply by the traffickers. Males request female prostitutes under this demand model, which creates a market for sex workers and ultimately encourages sex trafficking, illegal trade, and the coercion of people into the sex industry.  
2. Poverty and Unemployment: Women may migrate voluntarily due to a lack of economic, educational, and social opportunities before becoming involuntarily trafficked for sex work. 
3. Globalization: As globalization has opened the national borders for smooth exchange of goods and services, its economic impact has also pushed peoples especially women and children to migrate and be vulnerable to trafficking.   
4. Gender Based Discrimination: Sons are traditionally regarded as more valuable, superior, and useful in a family than daughters in our patriarchal society. As a result, girls in this society have little to no access to education, which causes a gender gap in both literacy rates and potential income for boys and girls.

Constitutional & Legislative provisions related to Trafficking in India

• Trafficking in Human Beings or Persons is prohibited under the Constitution of India under Article 23 (1).
• The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA) is the premier legislation for prevention of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
• Criminal Law (amendment) Act 2013 has come into force wherein Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code has been substituted with Section 370 and 370A IPC which provide for comprehensive measures to counter the menace of human trafficking.
• State Governments have also enacted specific legislations to deal with the issue. (e.g. The Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act, 2012).
• Anti Trafficking Cell (ATC): Anti-Trafficking Nodal Cell was set up in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) (CS Division in 2006 to act as a focal point for communicating various decisions and follow up on action taken by the State Governments to combat the crime of Human Trafficking. MHA conducts coordination meetings with the Nodal Officers of Anti Human Trafficking Units nominated in all States/UTs periodically.
• UJJAWALA : A Comprehensive Scheme for Prevention of trafficking and Rescue, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Victims of Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation
• India has ratified the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime (UNCTOC) which has as one of its Protocols Prevention, Suppression and Punishment of Trafficking in Persons, particularly Women and Children.
• India has also ratified the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution. A Regional Task Force was constituted to implement the SAARC Convention. 

Suggestions of the report:

• The report recommended engagement in special cooperative measures on counter-trafficking and climate change, as well as on crisis preparedness and response.
• Integrating counter-trafficking into climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes, including during preparedness and response to disasters, with tailored programmes to address the vulnerability of children to trafficking.  
• Empowering communities affected by climate change, environmental degradation and disasters to develop community-based mitigation strategies aimed at reducing human trafficking.

Conclusion

• Trafficking in human beings, especially children, is a form of modern day slavery and requires a holistic, multi-sectoral approach to address the complex dimension of the problem. 
• It is a problem that violates the rights and dignity of the victims and therefore requires essentially a child rights perspective, while working on its eradication. 
• In the fight against trafficking, governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, civil society, pressure groups and international bodies, all have to play an important role and work in concert. Law cannot be the only instrument to address complex social problems. 

Source: DTE

The Global South: origins and significance

Syllabus: GS2/ Agreements Involving India &/or Affecting India’s Interests

In News

• The Global South is flexing political and economic muscles that the ‘developing countries’ and the ‘Third World’ never had. 

What is the Global South?

• The Global South refers to various countries around the world that are sometimes described as ‘developing’, ‘less developed’ or ‘underdeveloped’.
• Global South includes countries in Asia, Africa and South America.  
  • Global North refers loosely to countries like the US, Canada, Europe, Russia, Australia and New Zealand.
• Many of these countries — although by no means all — are in the Southern Hemisphere, largely in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 
  • In general, they are poorer, have higher levels of income inequality and suffer lower life expectancy and harsher living conditions than countries in the “Global North” — that is, richer nations that are located mostly in North America and Europe, with some additions in Oceania and elsewhere.

Origin of the term

• War in Vietnam:
  • The term Global South appears to have been first used in 1969 by political activist Carl Ogles when he argued that the war in Vietnam was the culmination of a history of northern “dominance over the global south.”
• Breakup of the Soviet Union:
  • It was only after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union — which marked the end of the so-called “Second World” — that the term gained momentum. 
    • Until then, the more common term for developing nations — countries that had yet to industrialise fully — was ‘Third World’. 
• End of  ‘Third World’:
  • The fall of the Soviet Union — and with it the end of the so-called Second World — gave a convenient pretext for the term ‘Third World’ to disappear, too. 
  • Meanwhile ‘developed’, ‘developing’ and ‘underdeveloped’ also faced criticism for holding up Western countries as the ideal, while portraying those outside that club as backwards. 
  • Increasingly the term that was being used to replace them was the more neutral-sounding “Global South.”

Significance of categorization

• Not a geographical concept:
  • The term ‘Global South’ is not geographical. In fact, the Global South’s two largest countries — China and India — lie entirely in the Northern Hemisphere.
  • Rather, its usage denotes a mix of political, geopolitical and economic commonalities between nations.
• Shared similarities:
  • What sets the terms Global North and South apart is that first, they are arguably more accurate in grouping countries together, measuring similarly in terms of wealth, indicators of education and healthcare, etc. 
  • Another commonality between the South countries is that most have a history of colonisation, largely at the hands of European powers.
• Challenging the ideal:
  • The progress achieved by many Asian countries is also seen as challenging the idea that the North is the ideal.
  • Many consider the world to now be multipolar rather than one where the US alone dominates international affairs.
• Shared future potential:
  • By 2030 it is projected that three of the four largest economies will be from the Global South — with the order being China, India, the U.S. and Indonesia. 
  • Already the GDP in terms of purchasing power of the Global South-dominated BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — surpasses that of the Global North’s G-7 club. And there are now more billionaires in Beijing than in New York City.
• Political visibility:
  • This economic shift has gone hand in hand with enhanced political visibility. Countries in the Global South are increasingly asserting themselves on the global scene — be it China’s brokering of Iran and Saudi Arabia’s rapprochement or Brazil’s attempt to push a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.

Way ahead

• In this multipolar world, the whole North and South needs to come together to fight the issues of developed and developing countries and promote the East like the West.
• Some economists have argued that international free trade and unhindered capital flows across countries could lead to a contraction in the North–South divide. 
  • In this case more equal trade and flow of capital would allow the possibility for developing countries to further develop economically.

Source: TH

India to become world’s 2nd-largest economy by 2075

Syllabus: GS3/ Economy

In News

• Goldman Sachs in its latest report predicted that India is poised to become the world’s second-largest economy by 2075.

Findings

• Currently, India is the world’s fifth-largest economy, behind Germany, Japan, China and the US. However by 2075 it will leave them behind along with the USA.
• India’s GDP is estimated to expand reaching 52.5 trillion dollars surpassing the US GDP projection.
• Improved business and political stability, favorable demographics, regulatory initiatives, and a friendly environment for sovereign investors, India has now overtaken China as the most attractive Emerging Market for investing in Emerging Market debt.
• India is among a number of countries, including Mexico and Brazil, that are benefiting from increased foreign corporate investment aimed at both domestic and international demand.
• According to 85 sovereign wealth funds and 57 central banks representing 21 Trillion dollars in assets, India is now the number one emerging market to invest in.

Reasons for growth

• Lowest dependency ratios: India will have one of the lowest dependency ratios among large economies for the next 20 years.The dependency ratio is measured by the number of dependents against the total working-age population.
• Demographic Dividend: Labour force participation, a vast pool of talent and a working-age population ratio are a few of the factors set to make India the second-largest economy in the world by 2075.
• Higher capital investment: India’s savings rate is likely to increase with falling dependency ratios, rising incomes, and deeper financial sector development. This will make available a large pool of capital to drive further investment.
• Progress in innovation and technology.

Challenges

• Decline in labor force participation:In India it has declined over the last 15 years.Also women’s participation rate in the labor force is significantly lower than men’s.Only 20% of all working-age women in India are in employment. 
• Fiscal Deficit: Net exports have also been a drag on India’s growth, because India runs a current account deficit.

Way Ahead

• Currently India is going through the phase of demographic dividend whereas the other countries are witnessing the aging of their population.
• Hence this is an appropriate time for the private sector to scale up on creating capacity in manufacturing and services in order to generate more jobs and absorb the large labor force.

Source:AIR

Majorana Zero Mode

Syllabus: GS3/ Science & Technology, Awareness in the fields of IT

News

• Microsoft has found a way to create an elusive kind of particle Majorana zero mode that could potentially revolutionize quantum computing.

What does ‘Majorana’ mean?

• All subatomic particles that make up matter are called fermions. 
• In 1928, the British physicist Paul Dirac derived the Dirac equation, which predicted the existence of an antiparticle for each particle, such that if the two meet, they annihilate each other. The first antiparticle found was the positron (or the anti-electron).
• Later,it was found that the Dirac equation also allowed particles that satisfied certain conditions to be their own antiparticles. In his honour, fermions that are their own antiparticles are called Majorana fermions.
• One subatomic particle that physicists think could be Majorana fermions are neutrinos. 

What is a Majorana zero mode?

• All particles have four quantum numbers associated with them which are unique.The numbers are together like each particle’s ID.
• The characteristic feature of fermions is that one of these numbers, called the quantum spin, has only half-integer values, like 1/2, 3/2, 5/2, etc. This is why any particle can be a fermion: its total quantum spin needs to have a half-integer value.
• When two particles that are bound to each other in some way can be a fermion: if their total quantum spin is a half-integer value.
• When these bound states are their own antiparticles – i.e. if they meet, they annihilate each other – they are Majorana fermions. such bound states are called Majorana zero modes.

Quantum Computers and its challenges

• A quantum computer uses individual electrons as qubits – its fundamental units of information. Information can be encoded in some property of each electron, like its spin. Then, the computer manipulates that information by having the electrons interact with each other according to the quirky rules of quantum mechanics.
• A qubit can have the values 0 and 1 at the same time due to a property called quantum superposition. 
• Quantum computers are very fragile and they could easily lose their quantummy abilities, that is, it could decohere.

How can Majorana zero modes help computing?

• Majorana zero modes can be used to realize the more powerful topological quantum-computing. 
• Here the information is protected due to topological degeneracy.
• Degeneracy in quantum mechanics means that the system has multiple states at the same energy. In topological systems, the system has multiple states at the lowest or ground state energy.
• Topology is the study of those properties of matter that don’t change when it undergoes continuous deformation – i.e. when it’s stretched, folded, twisted, etc., but not ruptured or glued to itself.
• The Majorana  zero mode is composed of two entities (electron and hole), so say we pull the entities apart and keep them at a distance from each other. In this configuration, physicists have found that even if one of the entities is disturbed, the overall qubit doesn’t decohere,and continues to protect the encoded information.

Source:TH

Exploring Moon’s South Pole

Syllabus: GS3/ Space 

In News 

• Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, will be launched from Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14. 

Landing site

• Its landing site is near the south pole of the moon at 70 degrees latitude. 
• If successful, Chandrayaan-3 will become the world’s first mission to soft-land near the lunar south pole.

Landing by Previous Spacecrafts

• All the previous spacecraft to have landed on the Moon have landed in the equatorial region, a few degrees latitude north or south of the lunar equator.
• Even China’s Chang’e 4, which became the first spacecraft to land on the far side of the moon — the side that does not face the earth — landed near the 45-degree latitude.

Benefits of Landing in the Equatorial Region 

• Terrain: The surface is even and smooth. Very steep slopes, hills or craters are almost absent.
• Temperature: Sunlight is present in abundance, at least on the side facing the earth, thus offering a regular supply of energy to solar-powered instruments.

Challenges in Landing in the Polar Regions

• Terrain: There are large craters all over the place.
• Temperature: Many parts lie in a completely dark region where sunlight never reaches, and temperatures can go below 230 degrees Celsius. 

Why explore the Lunar South Pole?

• Several Orbiter missions — including India’s 2008 Chandrayaan-1 mission — have provided evidence of the presence of ice molecules in substantial amounts in the deep craters in this region. This indicates the presence of water on the lunar surface.
• The extremely cold temperatures here mean that anything trapped in the region would remain the same, without undergoing much change. Thus, the rocks and soil in this region could provide clues to the early Solar System.

Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs)

• Unlike the Earth, whose spin axis is tilted with respect to the plane of the Earth’s solar orbit by 23.5 degrees, the Moon’s axis tilts only 1.5 degrees. 
• Because of this, sunlight never shines on the floors of a number of craters near the lunar north and south poles. These areas are known as Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs).

Source: IE

Indian Space Policy, 2023

Syllabus: GS3/ Space

In News

• In line with the Indian Space Policy, 2023, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will soon transfer its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) to the private sector amid growing demand for small satellites. 

Indian Space Policy, 2023

• Background: In April 2023, the Union Cabinet approved the Indian Space Policy 2023.
• Objectives: The Policy seeks to institutionalise the private sector participation in the space sector and give a larger participation to research, academia, startups, and industry. It also delineated the roles and responsibilities of ISRO, space sector PSU NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) and Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe).
• Department of Space (DOS) shall be the nodal department for implementation of this Policy through detailed policy directives.
• Applicability: This policy is applicable to any space activity to or from Indian Territory or within the jurisdiction of India including the area to the limit of its exclusive economic zone. 

Key features of the policy are mentioned below

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)

• ISRO will not do any operational and production work for the space sector. The operational part of ISRO’s missions will be moved to the NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).
• ISRO will focus primarily on the research and development of new space technologies and applications and on expanding the human understanding of outer space.

IN-SPACe

• The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) shall function as an autonomous government organisation. 
• IN-SPACe shall act as the single window agency for the authorisation of space activities by government entities as well as NGEs.
• The INSPACe will be the interface between ISRO and Non-Governmental Entities (NGEs).

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL)

• NSIL, the public sector undertaking under the Department of Space, shall be responsible for commercialising space technologies and platforms created through public expenditure.
• NSIL shall manufacture, lease, or procure space components, technologies, platforms and other assets from the private or public sector, on sound commercial principles.

Non-Governmental Entities (NGEs)

• NGEs shall be allowed to undertake end-to-end activities in the space sector through establishment and operation of space objects, ground-based assets and related services, such as communication, remote sensing, navigation, etc.
• NGEs are permitted to offer national and international space-based communication services, through self-owned, procured or leased geostationary orbit (GSO) and non-geostationary satellite orbit (NGSO) satellite systems. NGSO is a reference to low earth orbit or medium earth orbits that are home to satellites providing broadband internet services from space.
• NGEs are encouraged to establish and operate ground facilities for space objects operations, such as telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) Earth Stations and Satellite Control Centres (SCCs).

Data to users

• Indian consumers of space technology or services — such as communication, remote sensing, data services and launch services — whether from the public or the private sector, shall be free to directly procure them from any source.
• Remote sensing data of Ground Sample Distance (GSD) of 5 meters and higher shall be made accessible by ISRO on ‘free and open’ basis to all. Remote sensing data of GSD of less than 5 meter, shall be made available free of any charges to Government entities but at fair pricing to NGEs.

Comment: Need For Space Reforms

• The policy provides the much needed clarity on all space activities especially regarding space communication and other Applications. The policy will augment private industry participation to drive the space economy opportunity for the country.
• The global space economy is currently valued at about USD 360 billion. Despite being one among a few spacefaring nations in the world, India accounts for only about 2% of the space economy.
• Over the last 2 decades, in other space faring countries, the private sector companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and Arianespace have revolutionized the space sector by reducing costs and turnaround time.
• In India however, players within the private space industry have been limited to being vendors or suppliers to the government’s space program. Thus, there was a need to provide scope for Non-Governmental Entities (NGEs) for enhanced participation in the Indian space programme and boosting India’s market share in the Global Space Economy.
• Although, by 2020, the Government of India opened the doors for enhanced participation of NGEs in the space domain, there was a need to provide regulatory certainty to space activities by various stakeholders, in order to create a thriving space ecosystem.

Source: AIR