'The Cities and Biodiversity Outlook' report 2012

The "Cities and Biodiversity Outlook" (CBO) consists of a global assessment of the links between urbanization, biodiversity and ecosystem services. Combining science and policy, scientists from around the world analyze how urbanization and urban growth impacts biodiversity and ecosystems; deliver key messages on the conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources to decision-makers. With the world’s urban area set to triple during 2000 and 2030, growing urbanization will have significant implications on biodiversity if the current trend continues. According to a new assessment made by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, over 60 per cent of the land projected to become urban by 2030 is yet to be built. The assessment has been drawn by the contributions from more than 123 scientists’ worldwide. This presents a major opportunity to greatly improve global sustainability by promoting low-carbon, resource-efficient urban development that can reduce adverse effects on biodiversity and improve quality of life. The report states that urban expansion is occurring fast in areas close to biodiversity ‘hotspots’ and coastal zones. In rapidly urbanizing regions, such as large and mid-size settlements in sub-Saharan Africa, India and China, resources to implement sustainable urban planning are often lacking. The report made a strong argument for greater attention to be paid by urban planners and managers to the nature-based assets within city boundaries. Sustainable urban development that supports valuable ecosystems presents a major opportunity for improving lives and livelihoods, and accelerating the transition to an inclusive green economy. Cities are also increasingly recognized for their role in supporting plant and animal species and diverse ecosystems. For example, over 50 percent of Belgium’s floral species can be found in Brussels, while 65 percent of Poland’s bird species occur in Warsaw. Urban green spaces perform important ecosystem services, such as filtering dust, absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and improving air quality. Data from the United Kingdom shows that a 10 percent increase in tree canopy cover in cities may result in a 3-4°C decrease in ambient temperature, thus reducing energy used in air conditioning. Urban biodiversity also delivers important health benefits. Studies have shown that proximity to trees can reduce the prevalence of childhood asthma and allergies. Sustainable urban planning, which addresses biodiversity issues along with other priorities such as poverty alleviation, employment, and housing, can bring positive effects for health and the environment. Cities need to learn how to better protect and enhance biodiversity, because rich biodiversity can exist in cities and is extremely critical to people’s health and well-being.

UN State of the World's Cities Report-2012

UN-Habitat has launched the State of World's Cities Report 2012/2013. Titled 'The Prosperity of Cities', the report recommends that those engaged in development work need to explore a more inclusive notion of prosperity and development. According to the report there was an urgent need for a shift in attention around the world in favour of a more robust notion of development. – one that looks beyond the narrow domain of economic growth that has dominated ill-balanced policy agendas over the last decades, and includes other vital dimensions such as quality of life, adequate infrastructures, equity and environmental sustainability. “In this Report, UN-Habitat advocates for a new type of city – the city of the 21st century – that is a good people centred city. CHARACTERISTICS OF CITY OF THE 21ST CENTURY: a) Reduces disaster risks and vulnerabilities for the poor and build resilience to adverse forces of nature. b) Creates harmony between the five dimensions of prosperity and enhances the prospects for a better future. c) Stimulates local job creation, promotes social diversity, maintains a sustainable environment and recognizes the importance of public spaces. d) Comes with a change of pace, profile and urban functions and provides the social, political and economic conditions of prosperity. In order to measure present and future progress of cities towards the prosperity path, UN-Habitat introduces a new tool - the CITY PROSPERITY INDEX- together with a conceptual matrix, the WHEEL OF PROSPERITY, both of which are meant to assist decision makers to design clear policy interventions. THE CITY PROSPERITY INDEX (CPI): a) Includes 5 dimensions of prosperity: productivity, infrastructure, quality of life, equity and environmental sustainability. b) Enables decision-makers to identify opportunities and potential areas along the path of prosperity. THE WHEEL OF PROSPERITY: a) Ensures the prevalence of public over any other kind of interest. b) Controls the direction and pace of city growth towards prosperity. INDIAN SITUATION Mumbai and Delhi figure among 95 world cities identified by the United Nations as those moving towards prosperity, but the two Indian metropolis are just "half-way" to achieving it with the reasons being poor infrastructure and environment conditions among others. The report places Mumbai at the 52nd position and New Delhi at 58th among the world cities, though two Chinese cities - Shanghai and Beijing - figure much above. Two Indian cities come under the Group 4 and they are in the medium level (of prosperity). Prosperity is not just the economic prosperity, but the kind of infrastructure and the quality of life in the city. Both the cities have been penalised for poor environment conditions, especially New Delhi. The report also praises the IT revolution that Bangalore has been able to achieve and calls Hyderabad as the pharmaceutical capital of India. On ICTs criteria in Asian cities Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai feature mobile telephone connection rates of 138 per cent, 112 per cent, 102 per cent and 143 per cent respectively. The report also noted that cities in India are fast expanding at the cost of rural areas and pitched for a policy for use of land in cities.

INDIA - NEW ZEALAND EDUCATION COUNCIL MEET

India and New Zealand signed five Memoranda of Understanding in the different fields of education. The MoUs were signed in the presence of Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal and New Zealand's Minister for Tertiary, Education, Skills and Employment Steven Joyce during the first meeting of the India-New Zealand Education Council. The Council has been constituted to draw up a framework and devise mechanisms of co-operation and set the agenda for improving educational relations between the two countries. India and New Zealand expressed their commitment to earmark US $ 1 million annually to enhance the cooperative activities through specific programmes designed by the India-New Zealand Education Council. The programmes will include joint research, student mobility, faculty development, qualifications framework as well as vocational education and training, among others. Six MoUs of cooperation between different institutions were signed during the meet: a) MoU between the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of the Republic of India and Sport New Zealand of the Government of New Zealand on Cooperation in the field of Sports. The objectives of this MoU are to encourage and promote an exchange of programmes, experiences, skills, techniques, information and knowledge. b) Educational Partnership Agreement between University of Delhi, India and Massy University New Zealand. The MoU covers: Joint teaching (Including online, blended and distance education); Joint Quality Enhancement (Including benchmarking and academic development); Exchange of publications, academic material and students. c) Memorandum of collaboration between Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), India and the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. Objectives of the partnership are: I. To establish a network of partnership for vocational education through distance education II. Sharing of experiences through communication of faculty III. Develop strategies for design development and implementation of Under Graduate and Post graduate programmes with entry and exit point. IV. Develop joint R&D project collaborations V. Create avenues for ICT enabled education VI. Establish interface learner space d) MoU between Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand and Jawahar Lal Nehru University of India to  Exchange of faculty members, students and conduct Joint Research activities and Joint Cultural Programmes. e) MoU between Waiariki Institute of Technology of New Zealand and Punjab Technical University, India for developing opportunities for fee paying  students to pathway onto Waiariki qualifications and/or obtain credit for courses towards a qualification at the Punjab Technical University The members of the Council recognized skill development, especially catering to the needs of the industry and keeping  pace with the exponential growth in global mobility of workforce, as one of the major challenges facing the two countries and pledged further collaboration. The mobility of students and workforce also necessitates parity in qualifications between various countries and therefore, the Council suggested early recognition of each other’s educational qualifications by India and New Zealand. The Council also noted the need to set up more institutions of excellence, for which enhancement of the quality of faculty is a key challenge. It was also agreed to collaborate in the Tribal Studies and preservation of languages, culture and traditional crafts.

APPSC POLYTECHNIC LECTURERS G.S. PAPER 2007

UPSC CIVILS 2012 ESSAY (COMPULSORY) QUESTION PAPER

Write an Essay  on any one of the following topics?    200 Marks



1.     In the Context of Gandhiji’s views on the matter,  explore on an evalutionary scale, the terms Swadhinata, Swaraj, and Dharmarajya. Critically  Comment on their contemporary relevance to Indian Democracy.


2.     Is the Criticism  that the ‘Public-Private-Partnership’ (PPP) model for development is more of  a bane that a boon in the Indian context, Justified?


3.     Science and Mysticism : Are they Compatible?


4.     Managing work and home - is the Indian working woman getting a fair deal?

CURRENT NEWS & EVENTS OCTOBER 2012

CURRENT NEWS & EVENTS SEPTEMBER 2012

British Writer Hilary Mantel won Booker Prize for Second Time

British Writer Hilary Mantel on 16 October 2012 won the prestigious literary prize, the Booker Prize for her novel Bring up the Bodies, the second in a historical trilogy set during the reign of King Henry VIII.

Hilary Mantel had earlier won the Booker prize in 2009 for "Wolf Hall," the first novel in the trilogy.

Hilary Mantel is the third author to win the prize twice, alongside South-African-born J.M. Coetzee and Australian Peter Carey. With this she also became the first British author, and the first woman, to achieve a double Booker Prize.

Bring Up the Bodies” is also the first sequel to win the prize. Bring up the Bodies and Wolf Hall are parts of a planned trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, the powerful and ambiguous chief minister to King Henry VIII.

Hilary Mantel beat five other shortlisted books to take the prize.  She was the Bookies favourite, although Britain's Will Self was also considered a strong contender for the century-spanning stream of consciousness "Umbrella."

Indian poet Jeet Thayil was also nominated for his first novel, "Narcopolis," set among heroin addicts in 1970s and 80s Mumbai, and Britain's Alison Moore for "The Lighthouse," about a middle-aged man's life-changing ferry trip to Germany.

Man Booker Prize:

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success.

The selection process for the winner of the prize commences with the formation of an advisory committee which includes an author, two publishers, a literary agent, a bookseller, a librarian, and a chairperson appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation.

Sachin Tendulkar to be awarded Order of Australia membership

Sachin Tendulkar is set to another feather to his already crowded cap as Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on October 16 announced that the iconic Indian cricketer will be conferred the membership of the Order of Australia, an honour “rarely” awarded to non-Australians.

Sachin Tendulkar will become only the second Indian after former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee to get the honour. Mr. Sorabjee was made an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia (AM) “for service to Australia-India bilateral legal relations” in 2006.

Tendulkar is not the first cricketer to be made an Order of Australia AM as in 2009, West Indies legend Brian Lara was also made an honorary member.

Another West Indies legend, Clive Lloyd, is an Honorary Officer in the Order of Australia, having been conferred the award way back in 1985.

The right-handed Tendulkar, considered the finest batsman in contemporary cricket, has 15,533 runs in 190 Tests besides a mammoth 18,426 runs in 463 ODIs.

US duo Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley win Nobel Prize in economics

Americans Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley were awarded the Nobel economics prize  for research that helps explain the market processes at work when doctors are assigned to hospitals, students to schools and human organs for transplant to recipients.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two economists for "the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design".

Roth, 60, is a professor at Harvard University in Boston. Shapley, 89, is a professor emeritus at University of California Los Angeles.

"This year's prize concerns a central economic problem: how to match different agents as well as possible," the academy said.

Shapley made early theoretical contributions to the field of study, and Roth took it further by applying it to the market for US doctors. 

The economics prize was created by the Swedish central bank in Nobel's memory in 1968, and has been handed out with the other prizes ever since. Each award is worth 8 million Swedish kronor, or about $1.2 million.  

Recent winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, and their research: 

2012- Americans Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.

2011- Americans Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims for their research on cause and effect in the macro economy.

2010- Americans Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides, of Britain and Cyprus, for their analysis of markets with search frictions.

2009- Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson for their analysis of economic governance.

2008- American Paul Krugman for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.

2007- Americans Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory.

2006- American Edmund S. Phelps for furthering the understanding of the trade-offs between inflation and its effects on unemployment.

2005- Robert J. Aumann, of Israel and the United States, and American Thomas C. Schelling, for their work in game-theory analysis.

2004- Finn E. Kydland, Norway, and Edward C. Prescott, United States, for their contribution to dynamic macroeconomics.

2003- Robert F. Engle, United States, and Clive W.J. Granger, Britain, for their use of statistical methods for economic time series.

2002- Daniel Kahneman, United States and Israel, and Vernon L. Smith, United States, for pioneering the use of psychological and experimental economics in decision—making.

2001- George A. Akerlof, A. Michael Spence and Joseph E. Stiglitz, United States, for research into how the control of information affects markets.

2000- James J. Heckman and Daniel L. McFadden, United States, for their work in developing theories to help analyze labor data and how people make work and travel decisions.

1999- Robert A. Mundell, Canada, for innovative analysis of exchange rates that helped lay the intellectual groundwork for Europe’s common currency.

1998- Amartya Sen, India, for contributions to welfare economics, which help explain the economic mechanisms underlying famines and poverty.

1997- Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes, United States, for developing a formula for the valuation of stock options.

Global Hunger Report 2012 released- India ranked at 65th position

The report on Global Hunger Index for seventh year was released on 11 October 2012 by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide. The basic theme of the report for the 2012 Global Hunger Index -- The Challenge of Hunger: Ensuring Sustainable Food Security under Land, Water, and Energy Stresses.

IFPRI that calculated the global hunger Index analysed the measures based upon multidimensional angles. The published report have shown a proportional growth in hunger reduction of people worldwide but recorded the progress speed was tragically slow and alarming.

The report in its findings recorded twenty countries across the world mainly from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa to be highly alarming and have highest level of hunger, and showcased the sufferings of millions of poor.

As per the report, the nations that had showcased an absolute progress between 1990 Global Hunger Index to 2012 Global Hunger Index were Bangladesh, Angola, Malawi, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Niger, and Vietnam. Whereas there are 15 countries that have managed to reduce it by 50 percent or more. As per the report, India instead of its fast paced economic growth in past two decades has lagged behind in improving its record in Global Hunger Index chart. In the list of 79 countries in the global Hunger Index, India was ranked 65th behind China that was placed at 2nd place position, Pakistan at 57th and Sri Lanka at 37th position.

The report also points out the three countries Bangladesh, India and Timor-Leste constitutes to the highest occurrence of underweight children under the age group of five years, which records to more than 40 percent in each country. India was ranked second with 43.5 percent of the children less than five underweight in the list of the 129 countries compared for underweight child, after Timor-Leste. Countries like Ethiopia, Niger, Nepal and Bangladesh followed the chart.

The report also complained about the lack and absence of an up-to-date data and information in case of India for the ineffectiveness of Indian Government’s nutrition relevant social programmes. India’s expenditure on Nutrition-related schemes for 2012-13 states that there is not a problem of resources in this case.

India’s investments in the schemes are:

•    Mid Day Meal - 11,937 crore rupees
•    Food Subsidy - 60, 573 crore rupees
•    ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) - 15,850 crore rupees
•    MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) - 33,000 crore rupees

Whereas the surveys done during 2005-06 proved the health indicators of India to be poor with 36 percent of Indian women during their child bearing age were underweight and 43.5 percent of the children under age of 5 were underweight.

European Union wins Nobel Peace Prize

The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe despite being in the midst of its biggest crisis since the bloc was created in the 1950s.

The Norwegian prize committee said the EU received the award for six decades of contributions “to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe. 

The EU rose from the ashes of World War II, born of the conviction that ever-closer economic ties would make sure that century-old enemies never turned on each other again. It’s now made up of 500 million people in 27 nations, with other nations lined up, waiting to join.

The idea of a united Europe began to take on a more defined shape when, on May 9, 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed that France and the Federal Republic of Germany pool their coal and steel resources in a new organization that other European countries could join.

“Today war between Germany and France is unthinkable. This shows how, through well-aimed efforts and by building up mutual confidence, historical enemies can become close partners,” the committee said.

The citation also noted the democratic conditions the EU has demanded of all those nations waiting to join, referred to Greece and Spain when they joined the 1980, and to the countries in Eastern Europe who sought EU membership after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

The prize focused on the EU’s historical role as a builder of peace at a time when the union’s existence is under challenge from the financial crisis that has stirred deep tensions between north and south and when there are questions about the form in which the EU will survive.

“The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest,” Jagland said. “The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU’s most important result- the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights.

Chinese author Mo Yan wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature. The Swedish Academy praised his work which "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".Mo Yan is the first Chinese resident to win the prize. Chinese-born Gao Xingjian was honoured in 2000, but is a French citizen. Mo is the 109th recipient of the prestigious prize, won last year by Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer. Presented by the Nobel Foundation, the award - only given to living writers - is worth 8 million kronor (£741,000).

Born Guan Moye, the author writes under the pen name Mo Yan, which means "don't speak" in Chinese. He began writing while a soldier in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and received international fame in 1987 for Red Sorghum: A Novel of China. Made into a film which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1988, the novella was a tale of the brutal violence in the eastern China countryside where he grew up during the 1920s and 1930s. Favouring to write about China's past rather than contemporary issues, the settings for Mo's works range from the 1911 revolution, Japan's wartime invasion and Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. Mo's other acclaimed works include Republic of Wine, Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out and Big Breasts and Wide Hips. The latter book caused controversy when it was published in 1995 for its sexual content and depicting a class struggle contrary to the Chinese Communist Party line. The author was forced by the PLA to withdraw it from publication although it was pirated many times. After it was translated into English a decade later, the book won him a nomination for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Despite his social criticism Mo is seen in his homeland as one of the foremost contemporary authors, however critics have accused him of being too close to the Communist Party.

Americans Lefkowitz, Kobilka win Nobel chemistry prize for work on protein receptors

Americans Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka won the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry on October 10 for studies of protein receptors that let body cells sense and respond to outside signals. Such studies are key for developing better drugs.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the two researchers had made groundbreaking discoveries on an important family of receptors, known as G-protein-coupled receptors.

About half of all medications act on these receptors, so learning about them will help scientists to come up with better drugs.

The human body has about 1,000 kinds of such receptors, which let it respond to a wide variety of chemical signals, like adrenaline. Some receptors are in the nose, tongue and eyes, and let us sense smells, tastes and vision.

Dr. Lefkowitz, 69, is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Kobilka, 57, is a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. 

The academy said it was long a mystery how cells interact with their environment and adapt to new situations, such as when adrenaline increases blood pressure and makes the heart beat faster. Scientists suspected that cell surfaces had some type of receptor for hormones.

Using radioactivity, Dr. Lefkowitz managed to unveil receptors including the receptor for adrenaline, and started to understand how it works. Dr. Kobilka’s work helped researchers realize that there is a whole family of receptors that look alike a family that is now called G-protein-coupled receptors. 

The Nobel Prizes were established in the will of 19th century Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Each award is worth 8 million kronor, or about $1.2 million. The awards are always handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. 

Haroche, Wineland win Nobel prize for physics

Frenchman Serge Haroche and American David Wineland have won the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics for inventing and developing methods for observing tiny quantum particles without destroying them.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two scientists on Tuesday “for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.”

“Their ground-breaking methods have enabled this field of research to take the very first steps towards building a new type of super fast computer based on quantum physics,” the academy said. “The research has also led to the construction of extremely precise clocks that could become the future basis for a new standard of time.”

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements got under way on Monday with the medicine prize going to stem cell pioneers John Gurdon of Britain and Japan’s Shinya Yamanaka. Each award is worth 8 million kronor, or about $1.2 million.