North Korea: Emerging as a threat to the world

North Korea has been drawing flak from international community due to its aggressive nuclear weapon proliferation program for last many months.

On 4th of July, North Korea successfully tested Hwasong-14,which is its 1st ICBM (Inter Continental Ballistic Missile) which flew over the Japan, creating the tension in East Asia.

Yet in another incident, on 29th of November, North Korea successfully tested Hwasong-15, which is deadliest of all. This was launched from pyongyang, its capital, and flew for 50 minutes before landing into sea of Japan.

In last one year, North Korea under its supreme leader  Kim Jong Un has successfully tested more than 80 short range and long range ballistic missiles including some with very high range such as Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15.

Despite sanctions by UN and its historical rivals (USA, South Korea and Japan) and criticism by the world, Kim kept its Nuclear Missile development program ignited.

Throughout the world speculations are high that any time there may be a nuclear war.

Let's have a close look at its geographical location and understand why North Korea wants to be a nuclear power and why it threatens USA and South Korea.

North Korea shares its border with South Korea,China and Russia as shown in map above.

Why North Korea hates USA and South Korea?

After the world war 2, The whole world was divided into two worlds, one was Western world(NATO countries) and other was Eastern world( USSR).
So there were two super powers:
1) USA along with its allies and
2) USSR(Russia and others)

As shown in above map First world means
USA and its allies, Second world means USSR and its allies.
Third world means parties not involved in this cold war.

These super powers wanted to control the complete world, that's why they started fighting with each other. Though they did not wage a war directly with each other but they fought many proxy wars means they, through their allies, fought with each other.

Many countries were in direct control of these super powers.  Korea was one of them. Northern part of Korea was controlled by USSR and Southern part was under the Control of USA and its allies.
So that's how Korea got divided into two parts.

In 1950, There was a proxy war between Northern​ Korea(USSR ally) and Southern​ Korea( USA ally) which lasted till 1953. After the war, as no one could conquer over other. With the intervention of UN, a boundary was drawn  between them which is called as 38th parallel creating two countries North Korea and South Korea.
Only boundary was drawn but no peace treaty happened at that time.
Means technically they two are still at war.

South Korea is still an ally of USA, That's why USA remains in hostility with North Korea.

Why North Korea keeps developing nukes?

They think that nuclear weapon is a golden sword. They must have it otherwise they will not be in the map of world. As Kim feels insecure that Seoul and Washington may overpower Pyongyang which will result in unification of North and South Korea. And their would be complete control of South Korea.
So, in order to keep its enemies at bay North Korea keeps developing nukes.

As Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un keep hurling abuses at each other. At any time there may be a nuclear war which not only will affect these countries but will also affected the entire world.

Possible solutions to the problem:

1) USA and other nations may keep forcing North Korea for disarmament by applying sanctions on it.
But this solution has failed as already USA has put many sanctions on it. They did nothing but provoked Kim to make more nukes.

2) USA should recognize North Korea as a nuclear power and then start negotiating with it. And should assure that South Korea will not be at war with it.
But here too is a problem. If USA gave recognition to it, then relations of USA with its ally South Korea will be in turmoil.
And then their will be instability in South Korea.

3) There in North Korea, people should raise their voice against atrocities of Kim.
Their should be rebalion through out the country to mark an end to his era.

So if any how internally people are going against Kim government, then only this all may come to an end.

Some basic definitions:

ICBM: These are those ballistic missiles which can travel more than 5500 kms that's why are called inter continental missiles.
Ballistic missiles have the ability to carry nuclear warhead over long distances.

NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty): If a country signs this treaty means it agrees to not to proliferate nukes.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): This is a group of 29 countries most of them are European.
NATO was established in 1949 during cold war.


Some basic facts:

North Korea capital : Pyongyang
South Korea' s capital : Seoul
Collapse of USSR: 1991.

Phrases of the day:

1) To draw Flakes: To attract criticism.

2) To keep someone/something at bay see: To prevent someone from causing you problems.

Word of the day:

1) Proliferate : to increase something in number/ to start accumulating something at faster rate.

Delhi - The Gas Chamber

Schools are closed in Delhi, elders are told to remain in house, Construction activities are suspended,Delhi government has declared health emergency in the state, Kejriwal is planning to meet his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar.
All these recent string of events is pointing towards the deteriorating condition of air in NCR(National Capital Region).

Delhi is witnessing a thick blanket of smog which reduced visiblity. Due to low visibility many accidents were reported from across the Delhi.

Moreover, On 11th of November, oil ministry has taken a key decision to roll out plan for BS-VI compliant vehicles.
Earlier the date to roll out BS-VI norms was April-2020 but due to excessive air pollution in our National Capital Region(NCR), Center has advanced it to April 2018.

Central Pollution Control Board  (CPCB) of India has reveled the AQI(Air Quality Index) for PM2.5.
The AQI for Delhi air keeps crossing 500 while the safety limit is only 50.

The reason for the pollution is increasing concentration of PM 2.5 in air.

Let's break the issue in simpler terms.

What is PM 2.5?

PM(Particulate Matter) 2.5 is the major air pollutant which you can't see from naked eye. These are very fine particles, 100 times thinner than your hair means are only 3% of human hair in diameter.Due to its small size, it easily enters in our eyes, lungs with the air that we inhale which may result in serious health problems.
It may cause heart attacks,lung cancer and serious eye aliments.

Due to their small size, these particles are called PM 2.5, where 2.5 represents their size in microns.

1 micron is equal to 1 millionth of a meter.

Where PM 2.5 comes from?

The major sources of these particles are vehicles, construction activities, wood and stubble burning.

What is AQI?

Air Quality Index is a parameter to measure the quality of air, the more the AQI the worse is the air.
Different countries have different standards for measuring AQI.

Why Delhi AQI gets worse?

There are several reasons for Delhi air to get polluted.

1) Stubble Burning : The burning of crop residues in neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana.
To counter this Arvind Kejriwal was scheduled to meet Haryana CM Khattar.
Every year 30 to 40% of air pollution is due to stubble burning.

2) Industrialization:Growing number of industries.

3) Growing number of vehicles.

Last year also Delhi was covered by the blanket of smog due to stubble burning in its surrounding states but this year a study by air-quality monitoring agency claims that 40% of the pollution was due to the recent dust strom in West Asia.

Solutions to the problem :

1) To counter stubble burning: Happy seeder machine must be used to plant next crop.

Actually, when rice crop gets ready, farmers do harvesting after which rice straws are left in the soil. As these rice straws are not good for animal feeding or any other purpose, farmers simply burn it to make the ground ready for next crop, that is wheat.
If this stubble(rice straws) is not burnt before seeding next crop, then seeds of next crop gets clogged by them.

Note: After harvesting crop left overs remain there which need to be removed before next crop seeding.

So a simple solution to this problem is to use the Happy Seeder machine which seeds the next crop while cutting the rice straws.

It is bit costly, but to counter the major problem of breathing quality air in NCR, Delhi government must provide Happy Seeders to those who can't afford it.

2) Promoting use of public transports: Use of public transport should be encouraged, as vehicles create a lot of pollution.

3) Very old vehicles should not be allowed they must be replaced by BS-VI.

4) Entry of heavy vehicles shouldn't​ be allowed near Delhi. There must be roundabout ways to do the same.

5) Rules like
a) Even-Odd scheme
b) Dump old car to get new one
must be implemented to curb the pollution.

6) Car pooling must be encouraged.

Some basic terminologies:

1) National Capital Region (NCR): The region around Delhi is called NCR.
Delhi being the National Capital, it attracts lot of people for employment and other purposes, which in turn over populates it.
So in order to mitigate this problem from Delhi and to attract the people to its neighbours Rajasthan, Haryana etc were given status of NCR.

2) BS-VI: Few months back government announced roll out of BS-IV compliant vehicles, after that all the new vehicles which were getting registered were compliant with BS-IV parameters.

Vehicles got upgraded from BS-II to BS-III then BS-IV , and now we are planning to move to BS-VI.

As we upgrade vehicle from one norm to another, they got more efficient in terms of saving our environment.
Means higher the norm lesser is the pollution.
BS stands for Bharat Stage.

Bharatmala Project- Roads to draw roadmap to growth

Government has given its nod to invest a huge sum of 9.11 lakh crore in infrastructure sector to bring economic boom in the country.

On 24th of October, Finance Ministry announced an investment of Rs. 2.11 lakh crore in public banks to recapitalize them as banks are in appalling condition due to their increasing NPA (Non performing Assest) and bad loans.

On 25th of October, Union Cabinet has given its nod to invest Rs. 7 lakh crore in infrastructure sector to make highways and roads across the country. Out of this Rs. 7 lakh crore, a big chunk of money will go to Bharatmala Project which is being considered as the second largest highways constructing project since NHDP(National Highways Development Programme).
Bharatmala Project, if successful, will create Rs 2.2 crore of permanent jobs and in long term will increase our GDP. Even the growth rate of the next two decades will depend upon the successful completion of Bharatmala Project.

Let's understand, why this project is that much important to us and what actually it is all about?

What is Bharatmala Projects ?

It will start constructing highways from Gujrat and Rajasthan then it will cover Punjab, Himalayan states (J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand) ,UP, Bihar, West Bengal then northeastern states Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.
That is this project is making a garland (mala) like structure around the territory of India (Bharat), that's why it is named as Bharatmala Project.

How investment in infrastructure projects will increase our GDP?

1) This ambitious project is going to create millions of jobs. So, these jobs will give money to people and whenever more money comes into​ the hands of people, they would want to buy something.
And if many people are buying something it will increase its demand and to meet the demand manufacturing activities will increase, which in turn will increase our GDP.

2)It will provide better connectivity between cities.
Better connectivity means less time to travel which means more business.
For example
If Kerala exports coconuts to Arunachal Pradesh​,then due to poor connectivity it will take more time, Moreover more diesel will be required.
So we can cut the cost if proper connectivity is there by developing economic corridors.

3)It will bring development in all those areas where infrastructure will be set up.
So rural connectivity will increase.

4)Under this project,roads will be built to​ connect to Bangladesh,Bhutan and Nepal in more better and economically feasible way. So, it will boost our trade with our neighbours.

Bharatmala Project objectives

A) About 10000 kms of roads are still to be construed under NHDP. This work of NHDP will be done under Bharatmala Project.

What is NHDP ?

National Highways​ Development Project (NHDP), initiated by our former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998,aimed at connecting major cities and to make NS(North South) and EW(East West) corridors.

Under NHDP

1) Golden Quadrilateral was made which connects Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

SW

2)North South corridor was built which connects Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

3) East West corridor connects Porbandar in Western Gujarat to Silchar in Eastern Assam.

4) Under Bharatmala, this quadrilateral,NS and EW corridors will be revamped.

B) 90% of India's total trade is done through ports.
These ports are moderately developed but from the ports to the cities connectivity lacks.So, this issue will also be handled under Bharatmala.

C) This ambitious project will cover complete India.

Some facts

1) Total road to be construed 34800 kms.

2) Only 300 districts have National highway linkages.Bharatmala will provide NH linakge to 550 districts.

3) Average speed in China is 100 kmph on highways whereas in India it is only 60 kmph due to poor infrastructure.

Words of the day

NPA- A loan is called as NPA(Non Performing Asset) when lender is not getting it back.
For example
If SBI circulated Rs 500 crore on loan and out of this, say for Rs 50 crore, No interest is coming and moreover there are very bleak chances of even getting principle amount, then this Rs 50 crore will be categorized as NPA.

NPA is bad loan in plain words.

Kashmir Issue

Kashmir has been an apple of discord between India and Pakistan for the very long time.Every now and then, we hear news of firing at LoC (Line of Control). Due to Kashmir, which is also called Switzerland of India, many wars have been fought between the two Asian giants. Although we have won all the three major wars yet we need to know that these wins didn't solve the Kashmir Issue. Moreover
1) We lost many of our soldiers in the war
2) Wars brought Economic instability
3) Purpose of wars, that is Kashmir issue,    was not solved.

Let's see geography of J&K to better understand territory issues of India with its neighbours.

Geography of J&K

Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) is a disputed area between India and Pakistan.
Pakistan calls it Azad Kashmir (green part in the map above).
This Azad Kashmir is very important for us for the following reasons

1) Connectivity to Afghanistan by land is blocked as only Azad Kashmir shares its border with it. As already mentioned, this part is in control of Pakistan. So we can't trade with Afghanistan via POK,which further means it blocks our reach to the Middle East and Europe.

To overcome this problem, we are developing a port, named Chabahar, in Iran, by which we can trade with Afghanistan via sea route.

Have a look at this sea route in the map below to understand the whole picture clearly.

So from this Chabahar port we can connect to Afghanistan and from there to other Middle East countries.

This alternative is good but if Azad Kashmir were our part, we could have achieved the same in easy way. Moreover developing a port in another country is very costly.

2)Security- China is making a economic corridor in Pakistan named CPEC(China Pakistan Economic Corridor) to boost the trade with Pakistan and to get connectivity to Middle East under its ambitious project OBOR(One Road One Belt) initiative.
This corridor will connect Xinjiang city of China to Gwadar port (developed by China) in Pakistan.

But as you can see, this Gwadar-Xinjiang corridor is passing through Azad Kashmir. If it were part of India, we could never have allowed China to build it, because we already know China's aggression towards our north-eastern states. So if Chinese troops start making their presence in Azad Kashmir​ region also it will be a major security threat for us.

3) Tourism  is being affected very badly in J&K. Every now and then, it remains in news for terror activities.
If Kashmir issue were solved peacefully, we could boost our tourism sector.

4) Normal life  of common masses is also affected there. Due to terrorist activities, no development is coming in J&K.
There you will not find good schools, universities and good medical facilities.

Aksai Chin is a disputed area with our eastern neighbour China.
Due to this region, we had a war with China in 1965 in which they won and from then, Aksai Chin is in control of China.

These issues must be resolved as soon as possible to address all the issues described above.


Why Kashmir issue is in news again?

Modi led Government has just taken a step to bring a dialogue amongst all the parties involved in the issue.
India has appointed former IB chief Dineshwar Sharma as an interlocutor to resolve the issue peacefully. Dineshwar Sharma has openly stated that he is ready to have talks with any one who is interested in dialogue.

Most probably three parties will be involved in this

1)Tehreek e hurriyat (separatist group) who wants Kashmir to be independent of both India and Pakistan.
2) Pakistan, and
3)India.

So let's see, whether this issue will remain a bone of contention between two neighbours or be solved in near future.

Some facts 

LoC is Line of Control between India and Pakistan. At LoC Border Security Forces (BSF) keeps patrolling.
LaC is Line of Actual Control between India and China, where ITBP(Indo-Tibetan Border Police) keeps patrolling.
J&K is given special status under article 370 of Indian constitution.

Words of the day

Interlocutor a person who takes part in important discussions.
Dialogue discussion.

Commonly used phrases

Apple of discord cause of quarrel.
Bone of Contention cause of quarrel.

Brexit Referendum Issue

Britain newly elected prime minister Theresa May has asked EU(European Union) to foster trade between EU and Britain till they are the part of Union.They will be the part of European Union(EU) for the next two years(till 2019) then it will get separated from the EU due to Brexit Referendum which was held on 23rd of june 2016.
Let's have a look at what is Brexit?Why was it interested in leaving the EU.
Before we move on to answers to these questions​,let's first understand geographical location of Britain and understand what is EU and where is its location?

Britain ,also called as UK(United Kingdoms), is an island in North Western Europe.
UK is made up of Scotland,England, Wales and Northern part of​ Ireland that's why it is called United Kingdom.

European Union

There are 28 countries of Europe in EU.

European Union was made in order to

1) Increase trade among its member countries and to make free movement of people and goods without any restriction

2)To avoid wars in Europe.

This was successful Union as can be understood by the fact that in 2004 they launched Euro as new currency.

Moreover,over the time the economy of these countries have flourished.

But if a country is a member of EU then

1)It will not be a sovereign state. Because if EU and any of its member country has got conflicting rules​ for the same thing  say trading,then EU rules will be enforced.

2)Each member country will have to pay a membership fees to EU.

What is Brexit?

Britain wanted to exit from EU from the very long time. Therefore, In Britain a party named as UKIP(United Kingdom Independent Party) started campaigning for getting a exit from Britain.Media named this as Brexit(in which Br means Britain and Exit means to leave).

Why UK decided to leave EU?

1)Their membership fees was around 13 billion euro and they were getting only 6 billion euro.

All member countries have different membership​ fees depending upon their economies.

So due to this small economies were getting profited​ where as large economies were suffering.

2) Their trade especially fishing was being affected as fisherman from other areas of Europe were coming to do fishing.

3)UK wanted to cut the number of immigrants from its country from 3,30,000 to 1,00,000 but EU rules did not permit UK to do that.

So immigration was one of the biggest issue for UK to go for Brexit.

Basics of Brexit referendum

The referendum was held to take vote from the citizens of UK to know whether they want to stay in or want to leave EU.

So there were two campaigns launched Stay Campaign and Leave Campaign.The referendum was held on 23rd June 2016 and its results were declared on the next day of voting.

In which 52% people supported Exit campaigning and wanted to exit from EU and 48% wanted to be part of EU.

Is UK still a part of EU?

Yet Majority that is 52% people supported for exit yet it is still part of the EU, because in order to get separated from EU,member country need to tell EU two years before it leaves according to Lisbon treaty of 2009 of European Union.

UK informed EU on 29 March 2017 about its exit. So legally it is bound to get separated after two years(that is on 29 March 2019).

Aftereffects of Brexit Referendum

1)As you can see in the map above that northern Ireland and Scotland(in blue color) voted to stay in EU.But majority that is 52% voted to exit which is against Scotland wish that's why Scotland has threatened UK to get separated from it. 

2) After Brexit value of UK pound came down.

All over the world referendums are going,

Some of these referendums which currently happened are:

1) Catalonia Referendum

2) Scotland Referendum 

3) Kurdistan Referendum

Some facts about UK

1)Capital - London which is called economic hub of the world.

2)Current PM-Theresa May

3) Previous PM- David Cameron

Who is voting?Is it You or EVM?

The festival of election is round the corner in Nanded-Waghala Municipal Corporation (NWMC) of Gujarat. Elections are scheduled on 11th of October and results will be declared on 12th of October.

The Election Commission of India(ECI) has decided to use VVPAT(Voter Varifiable Paper Audit Trail) instead of EVMs.The use of VVPAT has made headlines and a topic of debate amongst all.Let's have a look at various aspects of VVPAT.

What is VVPAT?

Voter Varifiable Paper Audit Trail will assure the voters that their vote is casted to the correct candidate by generating a slip which shows the name of the party and it's symbol.

For example if a voter chooses to cast his vote for Congress then VVPAT will generate a slip which will mention the name of the party as Congress and it's symbol.

The slip generated is only for assurance of voter and will not be given to voter for security reasons.It will be displayed for some seconds and then will go to a storage box connected to the VVPAT.

VVPAT is nothing but enhanced EVM as you can see in the image above.VVPAT is connected to EVM for its working.

 Why not EVMs?
 EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) was questioned by some political parties over its reliablity.Mamta Banerjee,Arvind Kejriwal were among the some prominent leaders who questioned reliability after state assembly elections of West Bengal. General Election of 2014 were also questioned over its results by Congress and others.
Election Commission of India(ECI) denied these allegations levelled by political parties.ECI organized a hackathon to challenge all the political parties who were saying that during recent elections EVMs were tampered​ .Though no party went for hackathon challenge but still to improve the voting process Election Commission has decided to go for VVPAT.

What is Hackathon?
Hackathon was organized by Election Commission.It challenged all the political parties for proving that EVMs can be tampered.
But EC put some restrictions on the event which was held on 3rd of june.
1)From each party only upto three people can come to hack EVM.
2)Time given was only 4 hours to each party.
3)Foreign Experts are barred from election
4)Motherboard circuit can not be altered.

Is VVPAT completely safe and efficient ?
Election Commission argued that EVMs can't be tampered.To support this statement they said that it is not connected to outer world that is internet or any other device.
But any machine closed or open to a network can be tempered with.

What is the guarantee that once VVPAT machine installed it will work correctly?

What do other developed countries do?

USA ,which is far advanced in technology when compared to India and other countries, still uses the age old paper ballot system. As can be observed by the recent presidential elections between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Germany also prefers ballot system to EVMs.
Japan make EVMs for us but they don't use for their own voting.They still use paper ballot system.
The reason that these developed countries use this voting system is its reliability.

Ballot system vs EVMs.

1)A lot of paper is used for voting due to which many trees are cut down.
But paper can be recycled​ unlike e-waste of EVMs and VVPATs.
2)It takes a lot of time to count votes thus delay in voting results.
But unlike EVMs and VVPATs,here trained workers are not needed to count the votes.
In order to operate those machines, first training is given.
3) VVPATs and EVMs are costly to install, VVPAT is more costly than EVM.On the other hand paper ballot system are cost effective.

What should be done​?

EVMs has two parts - one is Ballot Unit(BU) and other is Control Unit(CU).In BU votes are polled where as in CU votes are stored.
So before upgrading to more costly VVPAT system of voting,first we should match the results of CU and VVPAT if it matches than we should avoid use of VVPATs else we should go for VVPATs after further testing it under all possible scenarios.
Although ECI is thinking to use VVPATs in upcoming general election of 2019 but only
after the use of VVPAT in NWMC of Gujarat its pros and cons can be further understood.

Rohingyas Issue

                             

United Nations addresses the Rohingyas as the most persecuted minority of the world.

They are the people who from their birth are rejected by their country and are not given citizenship.These unfortunate people from their birth are denied basic rights that we all enjoy today such as freedom of movement,freedom of speech,power to vote and equal treatment.They, in their own country,are called outsiders and are discriminated by the Buddhist majority.Moreover, when these people started to leave their country and fled to the neighbouring countries,they were not welcomed there also.Let's have a look at their geographical location to understand 

Who they are?

Rohingyas are the people of southwestern Rakhine state of Myanmar where about 1 million of them are living.This year on 25th of August a group named ARSA(Arakan Rohingyas Salavation Army)  attacked military camp and police posts demanding a separate state for Rohingyas.This group is targeting military camps since 2016.In retaliation, Myanmar government declared this group as a terror outfit.Myanmar's army carried a massive attack in Rakhine state to kill rohingyas which was termed as ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas by the world.After this brutality and mass genocide they started finding shelters in other countries such as Bangladesh,Thailand and India.

Why are the Rohingyas denied citizenship?

The reason is that their government considers them as the people of Bangladesh who fled to Myanmar during colonial rule when conflicts were going on there​ in Bangladesh.

Where are the Rohingyas now?

They have made a mass exodus(87k in Bangladesh alone)​ from Rakhine state to Cox's Bazar of Bangladesh and have come to India's northeastern states.

Why is India thinking to deport them?

Till now, 40k Rohingyas have come to India.They were given shelter and food under the operation Insaniyat. 

Even though​, we are not legally bound to provide them shelter​,yet we gave them for dignifying  humanity.

But they may be a grave security concerns for us.As these people can join any terror groups​ in order to earn easy money.Besides, we have unemployment problem,food problem and currently our economy is also suffering.

What is the solution?

All the major countries and international organizations(such as UN) should come together and must build pressure on Myanmar to accept these people as their own.

They should be granted basic rights there and should not be discriminated on the basis of their ethnicity.

You can also tell all the possible measures which must be taken to tackle the situation by giving your suggestions in comment box.

Some facts about Myanmar

1)Capital- Naipyidow

2) Leader- Aung San Suu Kyi

3) Language-Burmese

Words of the day

Exodus-when many people depart together.

Ethnic cleansing-when people of same ethnicity are killed in very large number.