Lac farming

Context:

• President Droupadi Murmu bats for lac farming
• Union Agriculture minister says there is need to increase the MSP on lac farming

News:

• President of India said that there is a demand for high-quality lac in the pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industries.
• If the quality, supply chain, and marketing of Indian lac are improved, our farmers will be able to supply it in the country and abroad and will get better prices.

About Lac farming:

• It is an agro-based valuable business, in which we raise Lac insects to produce Lac.
• In Lac farming, a large number of Lac insects are reared, which gives us a large amount of Lac production.
• Lac cultivation is such a cultivation, which we can rear Lac insects on them by planting host trees on the edges of infertile land or fields.
• The major producer of Lac in the world is India because 70% of the world Lac is produced by India.
• India ranks first in the production of Lac.
• Most of the Lac is produced in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh regions in the country.
• The Lac is mainly the second profitable insect after honeybee and silkworm, which benefits the entire human race, because Lac obtained from Lac insect helps in making more useful material in various aspects used in human life and increase the availability of Lac.

Why Lac farming?

• Assures source of income during drought years.
• Most suitably grown on marginal and degraded land.
• Do not harm host tree health and other flora and fauna.
• It provides maximum return on minimum investment.
• Eco-Friendly Activity.

About Lac:

• Lac is the valuable resin secreted from the resin glands present in the abdomen of Lac insects.
• The Lac insect feeds on the sap of certain plants and continuously secretes the resin a protective covering throughout its life.

Economic importance of Lac farming:

• Used in preparing Bangles.
• Used as a filling material for gold ornaments.
• Used in preparation of toys.
• Used in preparation of inks and polishes.
• Mostly used as sealing wax and adhesive for optical instruments.
• Used in wood work and for making ornamental thinkgs.
• Used in processing of silvering on the back of mirror.
• Largely used in electric industry, as it is a good insulator.
• Used in laminating paper board, photographs, and moulded articles.

Host plants of Lac:

• Palas, Ber, Kusum, Ghont, Jallari, Arher, Pipal, and Babul are main host tree for the rearing of Lac insects.

Lac cultivation in India:

• Mainly two crops of Lac are taken, which are called Kusumi and Rangeni.
• Each strain produces two crops in a year, thus there are four crops.
• Of which, 90% of the total production in the country comes from Rangeni crops and only 10% from Kusumi crops.
• The crop is produced in small quantities through Kusumi, but in terms of quality, Kusumi is the best.

United Nations Summit of the Future

Context:

• At UN summit (New York), India calls for global shift to sustainable living

News:

• India emphasises affordable solutions for climate change at the United Nations Summit of the Future, promoting sustainable lifestyles and green jobs.
• The Summit of the Future brings together world leaders, policymakers and other stakeholders to discuss global challenges and strengthen multilateral cooperation to tackle emerging threats.

About Summit of the Future:

• The Summit is a high-level event, bringing world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future.
• Effective global cooperation is increasingly critical to our survival but difficult to achieve in an atmosphere of mistrust, using outdated structures that no longer reflect today’s political and economic realities.
• This once-in-a-generation opportunity serves as a moment to mend eroded trust and demonstrate that international cooperation can effectively achieve agreed goals and tackle emerging threats and opportunities.
• In September, world leaders will convene at the United Nations to adopt the Pact for the Future, which will include a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations as annexes.
• Why the Summit matters?
• The world is not on track to meet the goals we have already set for ourselves. Nor are we effectively rising to new challenges or opportunities.
• Threats such as climate, conflict, food security, weapons of mass destruction, pandemics and health crises, and the risks associated with new technologies, are growing.
• The Summit is an opportunity to put ourselves on a better path.
• The Pact is:
• To reaffirm the UN Charter,
• To reinvigorate multilateralism,
• To boost implementation of existing commitments,
• To agree on solutions to new challenges, and
• To restore trust.
• The Summit of the Future will create the conditions in which implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can more readily be achieved.
• Every proposal offered by the Secretary-General for consideration at the Summit of the Future will have demonstrable impacts on achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
• The Summit of the Future will build upon the SDG Summit and breathe new life into the multilateral system so that it can deliver on the promises of the United Nations Charter and the 2030 Agenda.
• 2024 — “Pact for the Future”: An action-oriented Pact for the Future will be endorsed by Heads of State/Government at the Summit, showcasing global solidarity for current and future generations.

Yemen

Context:

• Already the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has been devastated by war since 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition launched a failed campaign to dislodge the Houthis

News:

• The Houthis, a radical political-military group from Yemen’s northern mountains, have imposed strict rule over the large swathe of Yemen under their control, covering two-thirds of the population.
• Since the Iran-backed rebels took power in Sanaa in 2014, after long-running protests against the government, the country has gone “back 50 years”.
• Hundreds of thousands of people have died through fighting or indirect causes like hunger and disease, with much of the infrastructure in ruins.
• Yemen, mired in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, remains divided between the Houthis and the government, now based in the port city of Aden.
• The Houthis, who adhere to the Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam and claim divine right to rule, have tightened their control over many aspects of daily life.

About Yemen:

• It is a country situated at the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.
• The history, culture, economy, and population of Yemen have all been influenced by the country’s strategic location at the southern entrance of the Red Sea-a crossroads of both ancient and modern trade and communications routes.
• Yemen was the place where coffee was first cultivated commercially, and, before the introduction of coffee plants to other parts of the world, it was long the sole source of that precious bean.
• The present Republic of Yemen came into being in 1990, when the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) merged with the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen).
• By stipulation of the unification agreement, Sanaa, formerly the capital of North Yemen, functions as the political capital of the country, while Aden, formerly the capital of South Yemen, functions as the economic centre.
• The two components of Yemen underwent strikingly different histories: whereas North Yemen never experienced any period of colonial administration at the hands of a European power, South Yemen was a part of the British Empire from 1839 to 1967.
• The contemporary borders are largely a product of the foreign policy goals and actions of Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Saudi Arabia.
• Postunification Yemen has been burdened by chronic corruption and economic hardship.
• Divisions based on religion, tribalism, and geography continue to play an important role in Yemeni politics, sometimes leading to violence.
• Yemen is bounded to the south by the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea and to the west by the Red Sea.

Yemeni Civil War:

• Yemeni Civil War, devastating conflict in Yemen that began in 2014 when the capital, Sanaa, already destabilized by the Arab Spring uprising that began in 2011, was overtaken by Houthi rebel forces.
• At the war’s height, exacerbated by the intervention of forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, it brought most of the country to the brink of starvation and resulted in the worst outbreak of cholera in history.
• By 2020, the Houthi rebels appeared to have the upper hand in the conflict, especially as foreign forces sought to withdraw.
• But, as the war at home died down, Houthi forces opened a new dimension to the conflict in 2023 as it made attempts to strike Israel and attacked commercial ships passing through the Red Sea following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War.

South America’s annus horribilis (year of disaster or misfortune)

Introduction:

• Wildfires rage and smoke rises in several countries in the northern part of the region as a severe drought has taken hold and the likely setting in of a La Nina.

More on the issue:

• A severe drought has taken hold of the northern part of South America with countries such as Paraguay, Brazil and Ecuador grappling with falling water levels in their rivers.
• Compounding the troubles are the wildfires raging through Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, and the rising smoke has clouded the skies as far as Uruguay and Colombia.
• Brazil’s drought that began last year and has persisted until now has been the worst on record.
• Leading to a ripple effect downstream, the Paraguay river and Argentina’s Parana river have also witnessed a dip in their water levels.
• Since these are key transport routes for soy, grains and other trade, the shallow waters should have spawned more woes but fortunately, the peak trading season had already passed.
• Still, vessels could carry only less than their average cargo volumes, leading to hold-ups and delays.
• At the receiving end are Indigenous communities which run the risk of being isolated.
• The irony offered by climate change was on display in May when Brazil’s southern city of Porto Alegre was beset by floods killing 95 people, while its Amazonian basin was experiencing the worst drought.
• In politically and economically fraught countries such as Venezuela, these natural disasters stemming from climate change have led to a further crunch in food and other commodities.
• In Bolivia, this manifested into a mass uprising earlier this month when its people took to the streets of La Paz demanding action against the fires.
• The rainfall predicted for October-November is expected to alleviate the situation. However, experts say there is a likelihood of a La Nina leading to less than-normal rainfall.
• A warming climate comes with concomitant diseases such as dengue and chikungunya, South America is looking at difficult times ahead.