23 August 2023 : Indian Express
Indian Express
23-August–2023
The Indian Express, CSE candidates can stay informed about current events and developments in India and around the world.
1. RESISTING LANDSLIDES
Context:
- The deaths and destruction by landslides in Himachal Pradesh last week have led to much-needed attention on the Himalayan ecosystem–the world’s youngest and roughest mountain chain.
Why is the Himalayan ecosystem so fragile?
- Tectonic or neo-tectonic activities associated with numerous subsurface processes like rock deformation, exhumation and reworking of rocks and surface processes such as erosion, weathering and rain/snow precipitation makes the ecosystem inherently fragile.
- Climate-induced excessive events like freezing/thawing and heavy rain/snow precipitation lead to avalanches, landslides, debris flow, glacial lakes outburst floods, landslide lakes outburst floods and flash floods. They add to the precariousness of the mountain system.
- The Himalaya is further stressed by anthropogenic activities.
- The convergence of the Indian plate with the Eurasian plate in the Himalayan region has created subterranean stresses that get released in the form of earthquakes which, in turn, cause fractures and loosen the litho-structures near the mountain surface.
- This increases the possibilities of rock movement along the slope.
What are the major problems?
- It’s well-known that climate change has adverse impacts on glaciers, riverine systems, geomorphology and biodiversity, which, in turn, have increased the vulnerability of people in the mountainous states.
- Land degradation aggravates the problem.
- The confluence of the Westerly Disturbance—a low-pressure system, originating from the Mediterranean Sea, moving eastward across central Asia and northern India and the South West Indian Summer Monsoon have caused excessive and concentrated rainfall in parts of J&K, HP and Uttarakhand leading to landslides and flash floods.
Why are hilly regions prone to landslides?
- Generally, hilly regions are associated with slope instability and are prone to landslides.
- These are influenced by factors such as slope gradient, hill elevation, rock strength, forest cover, built-up area and unconsolidated and semi-consolidated sediments.
- Riverine flow, the cutting down of the toes of slopes and deforestation are some other factors that make a region vulnerable to landslides.
- Debris flow and underground water make a slope weak and land mass can slip down it.
How to deal with these adversities?
- To live with these adversities, we need to build resilience against geo-hazards caused by natural processes, environmental degradation and anthropogenic activities.
- A network of relevant sensors, real-time monitoring, analysis and integration of data and the development of an integrated Early Warning System (EWS)based on AI/ML algorithms (artificial intelligence/machine learning) are measures that need to be adopted urgently.
- The parameters responsible for landslides can be used to prepare vulnerability maps and the region can be categorised according to risk zones—most vulnerable, moderately vulnerable and least vulnerable.
- Landslide warning systems should draw on an understanding of the rainfall threshold of a slope.
- Monitoring through web-based sensors—raingauge, piezometer, inclinometer, extensometer, InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar), total stations can help.
- As a priority, we should monitor the most vulnerable zones with a dense population and a large built-up area.
- A Council of Himalayan States must be forged to gauge the impact of surface and subsurface stresses.
- It should try to simulate the hazard scenario caused by natural processes, environmental degradation or climate-induced phenomena, and anthropogenic activities in hill stations or towns.
- The disaster management authorities of the states should come together under the centralised council.
- Though the Himalaya is heterogeneous over its long stretch, the knowledge from different sets of assessments needs to be disseminated and shared by all Himalayan states.
How to have an environmentally sustainable socioeconomic development of the region?
- The glaciers, snow fields, springs, riverine systems, deposits of precious minerals, geothermal, hydrocarbon and hydro-power energy resources and medicinal plants in the Himalaya and the region’s tourism potential could be tapped into for this purpose.
- A balance must, however, be ensured between the exploitation of these resources and ecological sustainability.
- Town planning must account for the idiosyncrasies of the mountain — heavy constructions should be barred, care should be taken to have a proper drainage system, slope cutting, if necessary, should be done scientifically, and emphasis should be on having retaining walls and adherence to building codes.
High-resolution mapping of all towns and an assessment of their load-bearing capacity should be essential to the framing of building codes
2. A DISSONANT NOTE
Context:
- An Indian Express analysis of employment data sourced from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has shown that India’s work force has rapidly aged over the past seven years.
Statistics:
- Data shows that the share of India’s youth– defined as those between ages 15 and 29 has fallen from 25 percent in 2016-17 to just 17 percent at the end of 2022-23.
- Further, even the share of those falling in the next 15-year age bracket (30 to 44 years) has fallen from 38 percent to 33 percent over the same period.
- While the share of these two categories has shrunk, that of the oldest cohort — 45 years and above has grown from 37 percent to 49 per cent.
Analysis:
- In other words, just in the past seven years, India’s workforce has aged so much that the share of people 45 years and older has gone from one-third to almost one-half.
- Another way to look at this result is that the Indian youth is increasingly getting driven out of the job market.
- Infact, the one cohort that seems to be doing the best, both in terms of proportion as well as absolute numbers, is the age bracket of 55 to 59 years.
Reasons:
- India has witnessed rising levels of youth unemployment in the recent past. This means a high percentage of the youth that joins the labour force, or effectively asks for work, fails to get employed.
- Moreover, India has a low labour force participation rate, especially for women. India’s female labour force participation rate is one of the lowest in the world. This means a very small percentage of young women enter the labour force asking for work, to begin with.
- The combined effect of a low labour force participation rate and high unemployment rate is that India’s youth has a worsening employment rate— that is the ratio of employed people in an age bracket and the total population of that cohort.
Way Forward:
- India’s ageing work force should be a matter of concern for India’s policymakers because it has one of the world’s youngest populations.
- Policymakers need to examine why this is happening but prima facie this trend suggests a skills deficit.
- Raising the employability of India’s youth should be treated at par with the broader concern of creating more jobs in the economy.
- Unless these trends are reversed, India may continue to experience the seemingly counterintuitive phenomenon of being a youthful country with an aging workforce.
For Enquiry
23 August 2023 : Indian Express
24 August 2023 : PIB
23 August 2023 : PIB
24 August 2023 : The Hindu Editorial Notes PDF
23 August 2023 : The Hindu Editorial Notes PDF
24 August 2023 : Daily Current Affairs
23 August 2023 : Daily Current Affairs
22 August 2023 : Daily Answer Writing
22 August 2023 : Daily Quiz
22 August 2023 : Indian Express
August 2023 Indian Express 23 August 2023 : Indian Express Indian Express
22-August–2023
The Indian Express, CSE candidates can stay informed about current…
August PIB 2023 24 August 2023 : PIB PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU
24-August -2023
Daily Current Affairs For UPSC ,The PIB ( Press Information…
August PIB 2023 23 August 2023 : PIB PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU
23-August -2023
Daily Current Affairs For UPSC ,The PIB ( Press Information…
August- The Hindu Editorial 24 August 2023 : The Hindu Editorial Notes PDF The Hindu Editorial
24-August-2023
Daily Current Affairs For UPSC ,The Hindu Editorial Summary
Facebook-f
Twitter
Youtube
1. Needed,…
August- The Hindu Editorial 23 August 2023 : The Hindu Editorial Notes PDF The Hindu Editorial
23-August-2023
Daily Current Affairs For UPSC ,The Hindu Editorial Summary
Facebook-f
Twitter
Youtube
1. A…
August Daily Current Affairs 24 August 2023 : Daily Current Affairs Daily Current Affairs
24-August-2023
Daily Current Affairs For UPSC ,Daily Current affairs of The hIndu…
August Daily Current Affairs 23 August 2023 : Daily Current Affairs Daily Current Affairs
23-August-2023
Daily Current Affairs For UPSC ,Daily Current affairs of The hIndu…
mains answer writing 22 August 2023 : Daily Answer Writing Mains Answer Writing
One of the key components of these exams is the written test, which consists of…
Daily Quiz 22 August 2023 : Daily Quiz 22 August 2023 : Daily Quiz…
August 2023 Indian Express 22 August 2023 : Indian Express Indian Express
22-August–2023
The Indian Express, CSE candidates can stay informed about current…
