• April 23, 2023

Global Buddhist Summit

GS1 Art and Culture

In News

• The Prime Minister inaugurated the First Global Buddhist Summit, which was co-hosted by the Ministry of Culture and the International Buddhist Confederation.

About the Summit

• Theme: “Applications of Philosophy to Contemporary Problems.”
• Aim: The Summit is an effort to engage the global Buddhist Dhamma leadership and scholars on Buddhist and universal concerns, and to develop policy inputs to collectively address them.
• Highlights: 

• Prominent academicians, Sangha leaders, and Dharma practitioners from all over the world participated in the Summit.PM also presented monk garments (Chivar Dana) to 19 distinguished monks.The discussions were divided into four categories:
• Buddha Dhamma and Peace;
• Buddha Dhamma: Environmental Crisis, Health and Sustainability;
• Preservation of Nalanda Buddhist Tradition;
• Buddha Dhamma Pilgrimage, Living Heritage and Buddha Relics: a resilient foundation to India’s centuries-old cultural links to countries in South, South-East and East Asia.On this occasion, the Panch Pradarshanwas exhibition was held, showcasing the rich cultural legacy of Buddha as reflected in the heritage of Vadnagar city, Gujarat, the travelogues of Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang, the work of Buddhist religious leader and master Atisa Dipankara Srijana, and the Digital Restoration of Ajanta Paintings.

Buddhism

• Siddhartha, also known as Gautama, was the founder of Buddhism.
• He was born in Lumbini (present-day Nepal) in 563 BCE.
• He was a member of the Sakya gana, a minor gana, and a kshatriya.
• He abandoned his temporal possessions and princedom to pursue knowledge. He wandered for many years, meeting and conversing with other philosophers.
• He attained enlightenment beneath a peepal tree in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, and delivered his first sermon at Sarnath, near Varanasi, which is known as Dharma-Chakra-Pravartana (the turning of the wheel of law).Until his death in Kusinara, he spent the remainder of his life traveling on foot, moving from place to place and instructing people.

Coverage 

• Buddhism also spread to western and southern India, where dozens of caves were hollowed out of hills for monks to live in
• Buddhism also spread south eastwards, to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, and other parts of Southeast Asia including Indonesia.

Teachings 

• The Buddha taught that life is replete with suffering and unhappiness;
• This is due to our cravings and desires (which are frequently unsatisfiable).
• Additionally, he taught people to be compassionate and to respect the lives of others, including animals.
• He believed that the consequences of our actions (known as karma), whether positive or negative, affect us in both this and the next existence.
• Buddha taught in Prakrit, the language of the common people, so that everyone could comprehend his message.

Its Relevance  for Peace in World

• Peace is the fundamental concept of Buddhism. The Buddha is therefore known as the “Santiraja” or “king of peace.”The Buddhist way of life consists of “samacariya”, which literally means a harmonious life or a peaceful method of living with one’s fellow beings.
• The Buddha required his disciples to cultivate the four boundless states (appamanna) of loving kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha) out of great compassion for the world.
• This practice of’metta’ or universal love begins by permeating one’s own consciousness with universal love (metta), followed by one’s family, neighbors, village, country, and the four corners of the universe.

India’s soft power diplomacy through Buddhism

• The prospective foreign policy utility of Buddhism is substantially influenced by the manner in which the religion was revitalized after World War II.
• Due to its emphasis on peaceful coexistence and its widespread pan-Asian presence, Buddhism is well-suited for soft-power diplomacy.
• During official international visits to Sri Lanka and China, among others, India’s prime minister has made a concerted effort to highlight the two countries’ shared Buddhist heritage.

Source: PIB

Assam and Arunachal Pradesh boundary dispute

GS 2 Governance

In News: 

Chief Ministers of the Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in the presence of Union Home Minister signed a Memorandum of Understanding over disputed areas along the roughly 800-km shared boundary.

Major Highlights of MoU

• The frontier between the two states is approximately 800 kilometers long, and the disputed areas covered by the MOU include 123 border villages spanning 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh and 8 districts of Assam.
• Both administrations “agree to effectively prevent any new encroachment in the border areas”
• The MoU is “complete and conclusive” with regard to the 123 villages.

Genesis and Evolution of the dispute

• The boundary between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh is the longest interstate boundary in the Northeast.
• The dispute began with a 1951 report that transferred 3,648 square kilometers of the “plain” area of Balipara and Sadiya foothills to the Darrang and Lakhimpur districts of Assam.The disputes began in the 1970s and intensified with frequent border flare-ups in the 1990s.
• In 1972, Arunachal Pradesh was carved out of Assam to become a Union territory.
• It claimed that several forested tracts in the plains that had traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities were transferred unilaterally to Assam.
• Following Arunachal Pradesh’s statehood in 1987, a tripartite committee recommended that certain Assam territories be transferred to Arunachal Pradesh.
• This was challenged by Assam, and the case reached the Supreme Court.

Efforts to resolve this issue

• In April 1979, a powerful tripartite committee was formed to determine the boundary based on Survey of India maps and consultations with both parties.
• Around 489 kilometers of the 800 kilometers were demarcated by 1983–1984; further demarcation was not possible because Arunachal Pradesh did not accept the recommendations and claimed several kilometers of the 3,648 square kilometers transferred to Assam in accordance with the 1951 report. • In 1989, Assam filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court, citing a “encroachment” by Arunachal Pradesh.
• In 2006, the supreme court appointed a local boundary commission, led by a retired Supreme Court justice, to resolve the dispute between the states.
• The local commission submitted its report in September 2014.
• Several recommendations were made (some of which recommended that Arunachal Pradesh regain some of the territory transferred in 1951), and it was suggested that the two states reach a consensus through dialogue. Nevertheless, nothing came of it.
• Namsai Declaration: In July 2022, the chief ministers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh signed the Namsai Declaration, which seeks to reduce the inter-State border dispute affecting 123 villages.
• The capital of the Namsai district in southern Arunachal Pradesh is Namsai.

Importance of Recent MoU

• A memorandum of understanding was signed on the basis of a ‘give and take’ policy in which Assam ceded disputed territory to Arunachal Pradesh and vice versa.
• Today is a momentous occasion for Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. It will terminate the more than 50-year-old border dispute between the two states.
• The boundary settlement will usher in regional development and peace in the Northeast.
• It will strengthen our federal structure by introducing a new paradigm for resolving state differences.

Source:IE

Hakki Pikkis community

GS1 Population & Associated Issues

In News

Members of the Hakki Pikki tribal community from Karnataka are stuck in violence-hit Sudan and the government is making efforts to bring them back.

About Hakki Pikki Tribe

• Hakki means ‘bird’ in Kannada, and Pikki means ‘catchers’; they are a semi-nomadic tribe consisting traditionally of avian catchers and hunters.
• They reside in several western and southern Indian states, particularly in proximity to forest areas.
• According to the 2011 census, there are 11,892 Hakki Pikkis in Karnataka.
• It is believed that they originated from the Gujarat and Rajasthan bordering districts.They are known by various names in various regions, including Mel-Shikari in northern Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Traditions

• They are divided into four clans known as Gujaratia, Panwar, Kaliwala, and Mewaras; • these clans correspond to castes in traditional Hindu society.
• In the past, the Gujaratia were at the pinnacle of the clan hierarchy, while the Mewaras were at the bottom.
• In Karnataka, Hakki Pikkis adhere to Hindu traditions and commemorate all Hindu holidays. They do not adhere to a vegetarian diet. The eldest son of a family should not cut his hair so that he can be readily identified.
• Cross-cousin marriages are preferred by the tribe, and the average age of marriage is 18 for women and 22 for males. The culture is matriarchal, and the bridegroom pays dowry to the bride’s family.

Reasons for Migration 

• Historically, Hakki Pikkis resided in forest regions, leading a nomadic existence for nine months of the year and returning to their permanent settlements for the remaining three.
• As wildlife protection laws became more stringent, however, the Hakki Pikkis of Karnataka began selling spices, herbal oils, and artificial flowers at local temple festivals.
• Hakki Pikkis of Tamil Nadu traveled to Singapore, Thailand, and other countries twenty to twenty-five years ago to sell some marbles. While there, they discovered that there was a significant demand for Ayurvedic products in Africa.

• They began selling their products in Africa, followed by Karnataka Hakki Pikkis.

Source: IE

Abhilekh patal

GS 2 Governance

In News 

• The Prime Minister of India has praised “Abhilekh patal,” a National Archives portal containing over 1 billion pages of historical records.

About Abhilekh Patal

• Abhilekh is a Sanskrit term used in ancient India for documents, and Patal is a Sanskrit term for a board, platform, or surface.
• The acronym for Portal for Access to Archives and Learning is a combination of both of these terms.
• It is a comprehensive web portal that provides Internet access to the National Archives of India’s reference materials and digitized collections.
• It comprises the reference media for over 2.7 million National Archives of India-held files.

The National Archives of India

• It is the repository of the non-current records of the Government of India and holds them in trust for record creators and general consumers.
• It is an Attached Office of the Government of India’s Ministry of Culture.Established in Calcutta (Kolkata) on 11 March 1891 as the Imperial Record Department, it was moved to The New Capital in New Delhi in 1911.

Source:PIB

SpaceX Starship

GS 3 Space

In News: 

The largest rocket in the world, SpaceX’s Starship, exploded during its first space test voyage.

About Starship

• SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket are referred to collectively as Starship.
• Super Heavy rocket: The first stage or projectile of the Starship launch system.
• Powered by 33 Raptor engines fueled by sub-cooled liquid methane (CH4) and liquid oxygen (LOX).
• The Raptor engine, which powers the Starship system, is a reusable methane-oxygen staged-combustion engine.
• Super Heavy is completely reusable and will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere to return to the launch site.
• It is a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
• It is the most powerful launch vehicle ever created, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tons fully reusable and 250 metric tons expendable.

Objectives 

• the objective is to make Starship reusable and reduce the cost per flight to a few million dollars; • the ultimate goal is to establish bases on the Moon and Mars and place humans on the “path to becoming a multi-planet civilization;

Upcoming Mission 

• For the first time since the Apollo program concluded in 1972, NASA has selected the Starship spacecraft to transport astronauts to the Moon in late 2025, a mission known as Artemis III.
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Dead naming

Miscellaneous

In News: 

Twitter has abolished a policy prohibiting the misgendering or de-identification of transgender individuals on its social media platform.

More about news

• Twitter has also announced that it will only place warning markings on a select number of tweets that may violate its rules against hateful conduct. The tweets were previously withdrawn from the platform.

Deadnaming

• A deadname is the name a trans, non-binary, and/or gender-expansive individual was known by before adopting a more self-affirming moniker.
• Deadnaming is the act of intentionally or unintentionally addressing a trans, non-binary, and/or gender-expansive person by their deadname, which can have negative consequences.
• Transgender activists popularized the term deadname in the 2010s.

Why is it harmful?

• Deadnaming is detrimental because refusing to use a person’s preferred name or pronouns is a manifestation of transphobia or cissexism.
• Depression and suicidal ideation can be exacerbated by cissexism.
• It may disclose information about a person’s assigned sex at birth that the individual may not want others to know; this may result in harassment, discrimination, or physical or verbal abuse.

Source:IE

India’s fighter jet conundrum

GS 3 Defence

In News 

A representative of the Indian Air Force (IAF) recently reported that India has 31 fighter squadrons as opposed to the authorized complement of 42 squadrons.

Status of India’s Fighter Jets 

• India has an ambitious plan to acquire over 500 fighter aircraft, the majority of which will be indigenously designed and manufactured, with the majority destined for the IAF.
• These fighter jets are in various stages of development.
• The IAF is optimistic that increasing the low availability rates of Su-30 and other in-service fighters will compensate for some of the shortfalls in the interim.
• The LCA, which is the centerpiece of the indigenous aircraft development program and was originally intended to replace the Mig-21, has experienced a number of delays but is now back on track.
• In February 2019, the LCA received Final Operational Clearance (FOC).
• In February 2020, the Defense Ministry signed a?48 billion contract with HAL to purchase 83 LCA-MK1A aircraft. The project is scheduled to commence delivering products in February 2024.

Latest Developments

• In March 2023, HAL inaugurated the third LCA assembly line; now, the production rate must be increased. • In addition to the LCA-MK1A, a more capable and larger LCA-MK2 is anticipated to be available for production by 2027.
• The LCA-MK2’s capabilities will be comparable to those of the Mirage-2000, and it will provide a significant boost as several jets presently in service begin to retire.

• A TwinEngine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF) is also in the works for the aircraft carriers of the Navy.

The TEDBF is anticipated to make its maiden voyage in 2026 and be available for mass production by 2031.

• The IAF has ordered a total of 273 SU-30s.
• The agreement to acquire 12 additional SU-30MKIs to replace those lost in incidents as well as 21 additional MIG-29s from Russia has stalled, despite IAF and Russian officials’ assertions that it has merely been delayed and is proceeding as planned.

Importance  and Need 

• When it came to combating opponents with bigger numbers and operating in vast geographical areas the number of fighter squadrons was absolutely necessary.
• Therefore, The authorised strength of fighter squadrons is needed to tackle a twin threat from China and Pakistan.

Emerging Challenges 

• The IAF presently has 31 fighter squadrons, compared to the authorized strength of 42 squadrons; this number is expected to decrease further by 2025, when the last three MIG-21 squadrons will be phased out.
• Also, by the end of the decade, Jaguars, Mirage-2000s, and Mig-29s will be phased out. Additionally, some of the earlier shipments of SU-30s will begin to depart.

This encapsulates the dilemma encountered by one of the world’s largest Air Forces in modernizing its fleet, which has been plagued by interminable procurement delays.

• Current and future transactions may be affected by the Ukraine conflict, which has already impacted payments to Russia for ongoing transactions and caused delays and ambiguity in the timely supply of spare parts for equipment in service.

Suggestions and Future Prospects 

• Rapid economic growth has enabled nations to invest significantly in military technology and associated research and development.
• India’s economic progress must be accompanied by a parallel progression of homegrown military capabilities.
• The Indian Air Force (IAF) is accelerating the long-delayed modernization of its frontline fighters.
• Given the current political climate, the Indian Air Force must strengthen its capabilities in the conventional, sub-conventional, and non-conventional domains.
• • To combat these threats, we must build and sustain a technological advantage over our opponents and prepare for hybrid warfare.
• For future capability development, this makes indigenous research and development and production of platforms, sensors, missiles, and networks essential.

Source:TH