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Newspaper Terms Simplified for IAS Prelims

Part 8

1.  What is Polar Vortex?

A Polar Vortex is a low pressure area—a wide expanse of swirling cold air—that is parked in polar regions. During winter, the Polar Vortex at the North Pole expands, sending cold air southward. 

How is it formed?

•  The Polar Vortex forms every winter because of the temperature difference between the equator and the poles. In the polar stratosphere, sunlight basically gets cut off during the late fall and early winter—and that makes it really cold, while the equator remains quite warm.

•  A jet forms to balance this temperature difference. This jet is what we call the Polar Vortex or the polar night jet. It flows in a complete circle around the pole, 10 kilometers or a little over six miles above the Earth’s surface.

How do Human Activities affect the Polar Vortex?

•  Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere cools the polar stratosphere, which could increase the temperature difference between the pole and the equator and strengthen the polar vortex. There’s also some model evidence that the waves that are propagating upwards in the troposphere are getting more energetic as the planet warms, leading to a more perturbed polar stratosphere.

2.  Elephant Corridor

Larger mammals like elephants that require extensive habitats for survival are one of the most affected ones due to the land use change. This has been enhancing human-elephant conflict in many parts of the country. Thus, the harmonious relationship between elephants and people is gradually getting strained resulting in causalities on both the ends in extreme conditions. 

Why care for elephants?

Elephants are the key-stone species

•  Landscape Architect: While they move about, naturally clear the patches, preventing cover growth of certain plants allowing space for others to grow, this provides food for other herbivorous.

•  Seed dispersal: Eating fruits, plants at one place and defecating at othe places.

•  Nutrition: Animal dung; nutrition to plants and animals, breeding ground for insects.

•  Water providers: In drought they access water by digging holes which benefits other wildlife. Their footprints act as vessel to collect water in rains, helping water for small creatures.

Thus maintenance of wildlife corridors is an essential element of managing landscape and an important tool to overcome the adverse effects of habitat fragmentation and loss for ensuring larger habitat availability, genetic exchange within and between the populations and minimizing human-elephant conflict.

What is Elephant Corridor?

•  Elephant Corridor are narrow strips of land that connects two large habitats. These narrow strips may lie, within the central of government agency, private estates, fellow or cultivated agricultural lands.

Function of corridors

•  Enhanced immigration, which will support genetic flow, increase genetic diversity and enhance overall meta-population survival in connected patches.

•  Provide opportunity to avoid predation.

•  Accommodation of range shifts due to climate change.

•  Provision of a fire escape function.

•  Maintenance of ecological process connectivity.

3.  Extradition Treaty in India 

What is extradition?

•  Extradition refers to the surrender of a criminal to one country by another. The process of extradition is regulated by treaties between the two countries. 

•  Extradition is important because it helps to maintain the sanctity of the penal code of one country or territory. The penal code says that it shouldn’t apply its criminal law to a person who committed an offence outside its territories except when the crime is related to the country’s national interest.

What are the internationally accepted conditions for extradition?

•  The crime done by the accused should fall in the category of dual criminality. This means that it should be a punishable offence according to the laws of both countries - the one where the accused has taken refuge, and the one that seeks extradition. For example, homosexuality is an offence in India under section 377 of the IPC, but in many countries of the West, it is legal. Therefore, India can’t request any western country to extradite a person who is charged with a homosexuality-related offence. 

•  Persons charged for political reasons are generally not extradited.

•  There are countries where capital punishment is banned. If a fugitive has taken refuge in such a country, and if the establishment of that country thinks that, if extradited, the accused might get capital punishment, the country most likely refuses to extradite. For instance Australia, Canada, Macao, Mexico, and most European nations refuse to extradite a criminal if the person in question might get capital punishment after his extradition.

Indian law on extradition

Extradition is governed by the Indian Extradition Act 1962. India has Extradition Treaties currently in force with the 43 Countries.

Government can deny, on the following conditions:

•  If the government found that the extradition is not made on good faith and the case is trivial, it can deny.

•  If the proceeding are based on the politically motivated reasons.

•  If the government feels that the person will be charged with an offence, not been mentioned in the extradition treaty, it can stop extradition.

Significance of Extradition

•  Establish a smooth relation between the countries in dealing with criminal activities.

•  To deal with future absconding of the perpetrators.

•  National safety and security.

•  Protecting individuals and property

•  Resolving the dispute

4.  PM Gati Shakti Scheme

About the scheme

•  PM Gati Shakti is a digital platform that connects 16 ministries — including Roads and Highways, Railways, Shipping, Petroleum and Gas, Power, Telecom, Shipping, and Aviation — with a view to ensuring holistic planning and execution of infrastructure projects.

•  It is driven by seven engines, namely, Roads, Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass Transport, Waterways, and Logistics Infrastructure.

•  It will incorporate the infrastructure schemes of various Ministries and State Governments like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, inland waterways, dry/land ports, UDAN etc. Economic Zones like textile clusters, pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronic parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters, agri zones will be covered to improve connectivity & make Indian businesses more competitive. 

•  It will also leverage technology extensively including spatial planning tools with ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) imagery developed by BiSAG-N (Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics). 

Why launched?

•  Infrastructure spending has a multiplier effect on the economy. Apart from the direct benefits such as employment generation, demand for raw materials for construction, etc., there would also be indirect benefits to the economy.

•  Studies by the RBI and the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy have shown that for every rupee spent by the government in creating infrastructure, GDP gains worth Rs. 2.5- 3.5 accrue.

•  For balanced regional development, it is important that multiple urban clusters sprout up across the country and are not concentrated in certain areas only. This is possible by a coordinated approach in infrastructure development.

However, there was lack of coordination between different Departments, for example, once a road was constructed, other agencies dug up the constructed road again for activities like laying of underground cables, gas pipelines etc. This not only caused great inconvenience but was also a wasteful expenditure. 

Apart from this there was time-taking approval process, multiplicity of regulatory clearances, etc.

Hence to address this, efforts were made to increase coordination through PM Gati Shakti Scheme.

PM Gati Shakti will provide following benefits:

•  Comprehensiveness: 

  It will include all the existing and planned initiatives of various Ministries and Departments with one centralized portal. 

  Each and every Department will now have visibility of each other's activities providing critical data while planning & execution of projects in a comprehensive manner.

•  Prioritization: 

  Through this, different Departments will be able to prioritize their projects through cross-sectoral interactions.

•  Optimization: 

  The National Master Plan will assist different ministries in planning for projects after identification of critical gaps. 

  For the transportation of the goods from one place to another, the plan will help in selecting the most optimum route in terms of time and cost.

•  Synchronization: 

  Individual Ministries and Departments often work in silos. There is lack of coordination in planning and implementation of the project resulting in delays. 

  PM Gati Shakti will help in synchronizing the activities of each department, as well as of different layers of governance, in a holistic manner by ensuring coordination of work between them.

•  Analytical: 

  The plan will provide the entire data at one place with GIS based spatial planning and analytical tools having 200+ layers, enabling better visibility to the executing agency.

•  Dynamic: 

  All Ministries and Departments will now be able to visualize, review and monitor the progress of cross-sectoral projects, through the GIS platform, as the satellite imagery will give on-ground progress periodically and progress of the projects will be updated on a regular basis on the portal.

  It will help in identifying the vital interventions for enhancing and updating the master plan.

•  Improve Ease of Living: 

  The multi-modal connectivity will provide integrated and seamless connectivity for movement of people, goods and services from one mode of transport to another. 

  It will facilitate the last mile connectivity of infrastructure and also reduce travel time for people.

•  Improve coordination with corporates:

  PM GatiShakti will provide the public and business community information regarding the upcoming connectivity projects, other business hubs, industrial areas and surrounding environment. 

  This will enable the investors to plan their businesses at suitable locations leading to enhanced synergies. 

  It will create multiple employment opportunities and give a boost to the economy. 

  It will improve the global competitiveness of local products by cutting down the logistics costs and improving the supply chains, and also ensure proper linkages for local industry & consumers.