Nimoo-Bazgo dam

•  Pakistan has objected to India’s move to fill the Nimoo-Bazgo dam in Jammu and Kashmir

 ABOUT DAM:

• The Nimoo-Bazgo dam is being built by India on the Indus River at Alchi village, 70 km from Leh in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The project involves construction of a 57-metre-high concrete dam with five spillway blocks & is being developed by M/s National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Ltd

 PAKISTAN OBJECTION:

•  Pak claims filling the dam could cut off Islamabad’s share of Indus water
• It has asked India not to fill the dam as it is a disputed and controversial project

Legal battles between Pakistan and India over water rights have emerged as a key irritant in bilateral relations. India built the Baglihar Dam with a capacity of 450MW on the Chenab after a neutral expert ruled in its favor. A court of arbitration, however, stopped India from constructing a permanent structure for the Kishanganga dam in a short-term order.

BILL FOR SEPARATE STATUS TO SIKHISM

• After the amendment of the Anand Marriage Act for separate registration of Sikh marriages, the community is now setting its eyes on amendment of the Constitution to recognize Sikhism as a full-fledged religion.
• The Bill titled ‘Constitution Amendment Bill 2012’ has been introduced by Shiromani Akali Dal’s Khadoor Sahib member Rattan Singh Ajnala as a private member Bill. 

 AMENDING ARTICLE 25:

• Article 25 of the Constitution of India describes Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism as parts of the Hindu religion
• This has resulted in avoidable confusion across the world about the independent identity of these three religions, says the community
• This Bill proposes to amend Article 25 with a view to distinctively refer to Sikh, Jain and Buddhist religions along with Hinduism
• The Bill at hand is a constitutional amendment Bill and the second major bill moved as a private bill by Sikh MPs. The Anand Karaj Amendment Act was earlier moved as a private member’s Bill in Rajya Sabha by former MP Tarlochan Singh.

GOVT CITES SACHAR REPORT TO JUSTIFY SUB-QUOTA

• The government submitted about half-a-dozen documents to the Supreme Court seeking to justify its December 22, 2011 order offering 4.5 per cent sub-quota for the minorities from the 27 per cent reservation for the other backward classes (OBCs) in educational institutions.
• Standing by its decision, the government has cited Justice Rajinder Sachar committee's report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslims across the country and the recommendations of Justice Ranganath Mishra on Muslim and Christian Dalits.

 SACHAR PANEL FINDINGS:

• The Sachar committee had recommended that a group of Muslims with traditional occupations akin to that of the Scheduled Castes be designated as the most backward classes and provided 'multifarious measures,' including reservation.
• The panel had said Muslims in the country could be divided into three categories - ashrafs, ajlafs and arzals. "The three groups require different types of affirmative action," the report had said.
• Arzals, whose occupation was similar to that of SCs, should be designated as MBCs and provided reservation.

 JUSTICE MISHRA RECOMMENDATION:

•  As head of the National Commission for Linguistic and Religious Minorities, Justice Mishra had recommended that Muslim and Christian Dalits be given the Scheduled Caste status.

EHTNIC CONFLICT IN WESTERN ASSAM

•  Assam has seen riots between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims a number of times. Altogether 113 people died when they fought in Kokrajhar in 1994, while 64 were killed in Udalguri in 2008. The latest round of violence has so far cost 79 lives.

 WHO ARE THE BODOS? 

•  Bodos are the earliest settlers of Assam belonging to the Bodo-Kachari family. They are found in areas stretching from eastern Nepal to Assam and the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh.
• In Assam, they live mostly in Kokrajhar, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Baksa, Barpeta, Kamrup, Darrang, Udalguri and Sonitpur.
• Their estimated number in Assam is more than 15 lakh; over 90% of them are Hindus. 

 CHIEF REASONS BEHIND RIVALRY B/W BODOS & MUSLIMS:

• The tussle over control of land is attributed as the main cause of enmity.

• Bodos say most Muslim settlers are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. On the other hand, Muslims claim that Bodos are not in a majority in the region which is enough ground for the dissolution of the BTC. They complain that BTC provisions make it difficult for non-tribals to buy land there.

 BODOLAND TERRITORIAL COUNCIL (BTC):

• In 1988, Bodos started a violent campaign for a separate state with the slogan "Divide Assam 50-50". Some of them took up arms and founded outfits like the Bodoland Liberation Tigers (BLT) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland with their bases in Bhutan and Bangladesh.
• After a series of talks with the Centre and the Assam government, BLT fighters headed by Hagrama Mohilary agreed to accept autonomy under the concept of a-state-within-a-state on February 10, 2003. This paved the way for the formation of the Bodoland Territorial Council comprising Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri districts. 

 STATUS OF ASSAM ACCORD VIS-À-VIS INFILTRATION PROBLEM:

• Signed between the Centre and Assam leaders in 1985.
• Main clauses of the agreement were:

1. Detection and deportation of illegal migrants
2. Update of the National Register of Citizens
3. Erection of a border fence between India and Bangladesh.

• The government has found it difficult to detect and deport infiltrators because of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983, and Bangladesh's persistent refusal to acknowledge the presence of its citizens in India. 
• NRC up gradation faces strong resistance from the minorities. Most of the NE's borders with Bangladesh are yet to be fenced. The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court in 2005, put the onus to prove whether one is a non-national on the police or complainants.

UN MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT REPORT

• The UN Secretary General’s Millennium Development Report 2012 reveals that while the world has achieved targets of poverty reduction, improved drinking water supply and decreased number of urban residents in slums, it hasn’t done well on maternal health and child nutrition goals.

 STATUS OF INDIA:

• India is set to miss the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)-5 (on halving numbers of maternal deaths between 1990 and 2015) if it doesn’t accelerate the pace of progress.
• India has Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) of 212 per one lakh live births. India’s MDG target is to get the figure down to 109.
• India now has an IMR of 47, down from 125 per 1,000 live births in 1992.

 NUTRITION STATISTICS:

• India has the largest proportion of underweight children.
• Hunger is another huge challenge though India has reduced its poverty rates from 51 to 37 per cent between 1990 and 2012. 
• It fares poorly on all three standard indices used to measure child nutrition — stunting (height for age), wasting (weight for height) and underweight (weight for age), with 59 per cent children stunted, 42 per cent underweight and 11.4 per cent wasted

POWER GRID

• The power grid system is the electrical utility distribution system. A grid is basically a carrier of power. Whenever power is generated, it goes through a grid.
• India has 5 power grids — northern, eastern, northeastern, southern & western.
• The Northern Region Grid, which provides Power Supply to 9 States of Northern India including Delhi, experienced a widespread outage due to a grid disturbance that occurred on 30th July, 2012.

 IT’S FUNCTION:

• When power is evacuated to the grid from the power station, a frequency gets attached to it. It varies from 49.5 to 50.5 and this is the range in which power is distributed.
• The normal grid discipline is to maintain that frequency 

WHY THE GRID TRIPS:

• The trouble begins when more power is evacuated to the grid or more power is drawn from it. In the first case, the frequency goes up; while it goes down in the second case

 PROBLEM:

• The grid is threatened when frequency of power drops below 49.5 hertz, but the states did not stop overdrawing even when the frequency dropped below critical levels
• When the frequency drops to 48.8 hertz, the under frequency relays (UFRs) installed on the high tension lines start working
• These are programmed to start shutting down the grid to prevent a blow out

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BORDER PACT WITH BANGLADESH

•  A constitutional amendment to ratify the India-Bangladesh boundary agreement has got the nod from the Cabinet committee on security (CCS) and is likely to be placed before Parliament in the monsoon session. 

 BORDER WITH BANGLADESH:

•  India and Bangladesh share a 4,096km land boundary covering West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram.

 ABOUT LBA:

•  Manmohan Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina had signed the land boundary agreement (LBA) in Dhaka last year. 
•  An updated version of the Indira-Mujib agreement of 1974, the accord's ratification will require a constitutional amendment of Article 368.

 SIGNIFICANCE:

• The LBA will not only change contours of India's map, but will be the first resolved boundary with any neighbor.
• The agreement will formalize status quo on enclaves and areas under adverse possession, entailing neither transfer of territory nor people.
• Around 53,000 people residing in the enclaves, who have just been counted in the first ever census in these areas, will get the citizenship of the country they are living in.

 The strategic significance of this is incalculable. Even more than the Teesta river water treaty, the LBA is a big-ticket initiative that can galvanize bilateral ties. However, reservations on the part of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP have impeded its implementation. It's imperative to note that apart from Bhutan, Bangladesh is the only regional neighbor that currently has a positive relationship with India. India's inability to settle relations with neighbors comes in the way of its development and rise as a world power.

GS MAINS CRASH COURSE ( 45 days) STARTING 3rd August, 2012 - Friday at 12 noon.