What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• What is United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)?
• What is Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)?
• News Summary: UNHRC condemns Sweden Quran burnings
• Key highlights: UNHRC condemns Sweden Quran burnings

 

Why in news?

• The UN Human Rights Council voted to condemn recent Koran burning incidents, but many countries declined to back the resolution, fearing it encroached on free speech.
• The resolution was introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). 
• India was among the 28 countries who voted in favour, 12 voted against and seven countries abstained.

 

What is United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)?

• About
  • The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system. 
  • Based in Geneva, the council was created in 2006 by the UNGA.
  • The High Commissioner for Human Rights is the principal human rights official of the UN.
  • The council meets three times a year to examine human rights violations worldwide. 

• Members
  • It is made up of 47 States responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe.
  • 47 Member States are elected directly and individually by secret ballot by the majority of the members of the General Assembly.
  • Human Rights Council candidates are elected in geographical groups to ensure even representation.
• Tenure
  • The members of the Council serve for a period of three years and they are not be eligible for immediate re-election after two consecutive terms.
• Primary functions of the UNHRC
  • Promoting human rights
  • Monitoring and reporting – It monitors human rights situations worldwide and conducts investigations or commissions inquiries into alleged human rights abuses.
  • Universal Periodic Review (UPR): The UPR is a unique mechanism where each UN member state's human rights record is reviewed by other member states.
  • Special procedures: The UNHRC appoints special rapporteurs, independent experts, and working groups to examine and report on specific human rights issues or themes. 
    • These experts conduct fact-finding missions, raise awareness, and make recommendations to address human rights violations.

 

What is Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)?

• About
  • OIC (formerly known as Organization of the Islamic Conference) is the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations.
  • OIC is the collective voice of the Muslim world to ensure and safeguard their interest on economic socio and political areas.
  • It has membership of 57 states spread over four continents.
  • It has a permanent secretariat in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

  • 

Image caption: OIC

• Origin
  • The Organization was established upon a decision of the historical summit which took place in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco on 25 September 1969.
    • This summit was a result of criminal arson of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.
• Criticism
  • This organization has been termed a toothless tiger by many analysts when it comes to dealing with squabbles among member states.
  • Every member has a veto. As a result, the organization fails to take a critical stand on serious disputes that are shaping in the middle east. 
• India’s Relationship with OIC
  • At the 45th session of the summit in 2018, Bangladesh suggested that India should be given observer status. It was vetoed by Pakistan.
    • This suggestion was on the basis that more than 10% of the world’s Muslim population live in India.
  • It was Qatar that first proposed 'Observer' status for India at the OIC Foreign Ministers' meet in 2002.
  • India was invited to attend the OIC meeting in 1969 but Pakistan prevailed upon and got the invite withdrawn.
  • However, India, in 2019, made its maiden appearance at the OIC summit, as a guest of honour. 
    • The then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj addressed the inaugural plenary in Abu Dhabi.
  • Despite this, the organisation is known for its anti-India rhetoric under the influence of Pakistan.

 

News Summary: UNHRC condemns Sweden Quran burnings

• The United Nations Human Rights Council approved a disputed resolution on religious hatred in the wake of the burning of a Quran in Sweden.
  • An Iraqi immigrant to Sweden burned the Quran outside a Stockholm Mosque last month.
  • This sparked outrage across the Muslim world and demands by Muslim states for action.
  • Sweden has condemned the Quran burning but maintains the country has a constitutionally-protected right to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration.

 

Key highlights: UNHRC condemns Sweden Quran burnings

• What does the resolution seek?
  • The resolution calls: 
    • for the U.N. rights chief to publish a report on religious hatred and 
    • for states to review their laws and plug gaps that may impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred.
• Resolution opposed by USA
  • The resolution was strongly opposed by the United States and the European Union, who say it conflicts with their view on human rights and freedom of expression.

 

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Q1) What is the geographical location of Sweden?

Sweden is a country located in Northern Europe. It is situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula, which extends from northern Europe into the North Atlantic Ocean. To the west of Sweden is Norway, while to the northeast it shares a border with Finland. The country is also connected to Denmark via the Öresund Bridge, which spans the Øresund Strait between Sweden and the Danish island of Zealand. Sweden has a long coastline along the Baltic Sea to the east and southeast. Overall, the geographical coordinates of Sweden range from approximately 55.34°N to 69.06°N latitude and 11.11°E to 24.17°E longitude.

 

Q2) What is Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of UNHRC?

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to assess the human rights situations in all UN Member States. It is a mechanism established in 2006 with the goal of improving the human rights situation in every country through dialogue, cooperation, and recommendations. The UPR involves a review of each member state's human rights records approximately every four and a half years. During the review, the state under review presents a self-assessment of its human rights situation, highlighting achievements, challenges, and developments. This self-assessment is supplemented by information from various stakeholders, including national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, and UN entities.

 

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Source: Quran burning in Sweden | India backs Pakistan’s motion at U.N. rights body against religious hatred | United Nations Human Rights Council | Organisation of Islamic Cooperation | Hindustan Times

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• Semiconductor manufacturing in India
• Need for domestic manufacturing of semiconductors
• Steps taken by the Govt to promote indigenous semiconductor industry 
• News Summary: Foxconn pulls out of $19.5-billion chip plan with Vedanta
• Background:
• What is the status of other proposals?

 

Why in news?

• The 2023 NATO summit took place from 11–12 July 2023, in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
  • The 2022 summit was held in Madrid, Spain.
• The participating leaders discussed the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as Ukraine and Sweden's prospective memberships into NATO.

 

What is NATO?

• About
  • Formed in 1949 with the signing of the Washington Treaty, NATO is a security alliance of 31 countries from North America and Europe.
  • In April 2023, Finland joined the alliance as its 31^st member.
  • NATO’s fundamental goal is to safeguard the Allies’ freedom and security by political and military means.
  • It is a system of collective defence where independent member states agree for mutual defence in case of any attack by external party.
    • Article 5 of the Washington Treaty states that an attack against one Ally is an attack against all.
    • This article forms the core of the Alliance, a promise of collective defense.
• Headquarter - Brussels, Belgium.
• Functions
  • Political  
    • NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.
  • Military
    • NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. 
    • If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations.

 

News Summary: NATO Summit in Vilnius

Key outcomes of the NATO summit 2023 

• New forum for deepening ties with Ukraine
  • NATO leaders launched a new forum for deepening ties with Ukraine, known as the NATO-Ukraine Council. 
  • This council is intended to serve as a permanent body where the alliance’s 31 members and Ukraine can hold consultations and call for meetings in emergency situations.
  • The setting is part of NATO’s effort to bring Ukraine as close as possible to the military alliance without actually joining it.
• Ukraine won new security assurances from the U.S. and its allies
  • A joint declaration issued by the G-7, issued during the summit, lays the groundwork for each nation to negotiate agreements to help Ukraine bolster its military over the long term.
• No clear path for Ukraine’s membership in NATO
  • The summit did not provide a firm timeline for when the Ukrainians will become official members.
  • In their communique summarising the summit’s conclusions, the leaders said that Ukraine can join when allies agree and conditions are met.
    • Experts say that quick admittance of Ukraine to NATO could potentially increase Russian aggression and drag out the war even farther.
    • Hence, the membership of Ukraine is being delayed.
• Membership of Sweden
  • Recently, Turkey withdrew its objections to Sweden joining the alliance. 
  • This paves ways for Sweden to join the alliance as the new entries must be approved by all existing members.
  • NATO had formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance at Madrid summit held in 2022.
  • However, Turkey had raised objection regarding the membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO. 
    • Turkey, which has been a member of NATO since 1952, had repeatedly opposed Finland and Sweden’s entry.
    • It accused the two Nordic countries of supporting Kurdish militant groups. which it deems to be terrorist organizations.
  • In March 2023, Tukey withdrew its objection to Finland and later, in April 2023, Finland became the 31^st member of grouping.

 

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Q1) What is Article 5 of Washington Treaty?

Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, also known as the North Atlantic Treaty, is a key provision that forms the foundation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Washington Treaty was signed on April 4, 1949, and established NATO as an intergovernmental military alliance.

 

Q2) What is the geographical location of Lithuania?

Lithuania is a country located in Northern Europe, specifically in the Baltic region. Geographically, Lithuania is situated on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) to the southwest.

 

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Source: G7 pledges security deals with Ukraine as its NATO membership remains elusive | NATO | Aljazeera | BBC | Reuters

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• India-France Bilateral Relationship
• Economic Cooperation
• Defence Cooperation
• Indian Diaspora in France
• News Summary

 

Why in News?

• Expansion of bilateral defence ties is expected to be a key focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to France, beginning July 13.

 

India-France Bilateral Relationship

• India and France have traditionally close and friendly relations.
• The current golden period in India-France ties can be traced to the 1998 nuclear tests, when France was the first major power to open talks with India, which evolved into a strategic dialogue.
  • France had also opposed imposing sanctions on India.
• In 1998, the two countries entered into Strategic Partnership.
  • The areas of defence cooperation, space cooperation and civil nuclear cooperation constitute the three principal pillars of our Strategic Partnership
• Apart from these traditional fields of cooperation, India and France are increasingly engaged in new areas of cooperation like climate change, sustainable growth and development, the International Solar Alliance etc.
• France supports India's bid for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council as well as its entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

 

Economic Cooperation

• From January to December 2021, the India-France bilateral trade in goods (excluding military equipment) stood at USD 14 billion.
  • India’s exports to France were valued at USD 7.47 billion and India’s imports from France were valued at USD 6.55 billion.
  • Hence, India has a trade surplus relationship with France.
• France is the 11^th largest foreign investor in India with a total FDI stock of USD 10.3 billion from April 2000 to September 2022.

 

Defence Cooperation

• During President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India, the two countries decided to create an annual defence dialogue at the Ministerial level.
• The three services have regular defence exercises –
  • Exercise Varuna (Navy),
  • Exercise Garuda (Air Force),
  • Exercise Shakti (Army)
• As per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), between 2018 and 2022, France was India’s second largest arms supplier, accounting for 29% of the country’s imports.
  • Russia accounted for nearly half (45%) of India’s arms imports during the same period.
• The SIPRI report also observed that French defence exports to India, which have included 62 aircraft and four submarines, have increased by 489% between 2013-17 and 2018-22.
• In 2016, both the governments signed an agreement for purchase of 36 Rafale jets by India.
• A contract for six Scorpene submarines from France was signed in October 2006.
  • All six vessels are to be built under technology transfer at the Mazagaon Docks Ltd. Project implementation is underway.
  • The first submarine INS Kalvari was commissioned in October 2017.

 

Indian Diaspora in France

• France hosts the 4^th largest Indian community in Europe after the UK, Italy and Germany.
• Major communities constituting the Indian origin population originate from Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Punjab.
• A bilateral agreement on migration and mobility cooperation is already in place between two nations which aims to facilitate circular migration on the basis of mobility and return of skills to the home country.

 

News Summary

• PM Narendra Modi has departed India for an official visit to France and UAE.
• The Prime Minister will visit France on July 13-14 at the official invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.
• The Prime Minister will attend the French National Day, or Bastille Day celebrations, in Paris as the Guest of Honour.
• An Indian tri-services contingent will be part of the Bastille Day Parade, while Indian Air Force aircraft will perform a fly-past on the occasion.
• PM Modi is also expected to sign a deal for the acquisition of 26 Rafale-Marine fighters for the INS Vikrant aircraft carrier.
• Additionally, a repeat order for the construction of three more Scorpene (Kalveri) class submarines at Mazagon Dockyards Limited through the "Make in India" initiative is also anticipated.
• From France, PM Modi will travel to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on July 15.
• He will hold talks with the UAE President and ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

 

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Q1) How is a Free Trade Agreement?

A free-trade agreement or treaty is an agreement according to international law to form a free-trade area between the cooperating states. There are two types of trade agreements: bilateral and multilateral.

 

Q2) What is the climate type of France?

Overall, mainland France enjoys a temperate climate. However, regions experience climates that vary according to their latitude, altitude and their proximity to the sea and to the three major mountain ranges (Pyrenees, Massif Central, Alps).

 

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Source: Big-ticket defence deals likely during PM Modi’s Paris visit | Indian Express  

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• The Chandrayaan-3 Mission
• Comparing Chandrayaan 2 and 3 Missions
• Changes in the Mission, Design
• Chandrayaan-3 Payloads
• How will the Mission be Implemented?
• Different Kinds of Moon Missions that have been Launched so far

 

Why in News?

• India’s third mission to the moon - Chandrayaan-3 - will take off on 14th July, 2023.
• The mission aims to achieve what its predecessor - Chandrayaan-2 could not - land softly on the lunar surface and explore it with a rover.
  • A last-minute glitch led to the failure of the lander's (Vikram) soft landing attempt after a successful orbital insertion.

 

The Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

• Chandrayaan-3 ("mooncraft") is a planned 3rd lunar exploration mission by the ISRO to demonstrate end-to-end capability in -
  • Safe landing (through the lander Vikram - after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme) and
  • Roving (through the rover Pragyan) on the lunar surface.
• Unlike Chandrayaan-2, it will not have an orbiter and its propulsion module will behave like a communications relay satellite.
• Chandrayaan-3 interplanetary mission has three major modules: the Propulsion module, Lander module, and Rover.
• ISRO plans to launch the third moon mission in mid-July aboard the LVM3 (formerly GSLV Mk-III) rocket from Sriharikota.

 

Comparing Chandrayaan 2 and 3 Missions:

 

 

Changes in the Mission, Design:

• Instead of a success-based design in Chandrayaan-2, ISRO scientists are doing a failure-based design in Chandrayaan-3.
• One, the landing area has been expanded. Instead of trying to reach a specific 500mx500m patch for landing as targeted by Chandrayaan-2, the current mission has been given instructions to land safely anywhere in a 4kmx2.4km area.
• Second, the lander has been provided more fuel so it can travel longer distances to the landing site or an alternate landing site, if need be.
• Third, the lander will no longer depend only on the pictures it clicks during the descent to determine a landing site.
  • High resolution images from the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter have been fed into the lander and it will click images just to confirm that it has reached the correct location.
• Then, changes have also been made to the physical structure of the lander.
  • The central thruster on the lander has been removed, reducing the number from five to four.
  • The legs have been made sturdier to ensure it can land even at a higher velocity.
  • More solar panels have been added to the body of the lander.

 

Chandrayaan-3 Payloads:

• The propulsion module: It has Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to look for smaller planets that might be habitable in the reflected light.
• Lander payloads: It will have 4 payloads -
  • Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) - a passive experiment (from NASA) to help accurately measure the distance between Earth and moon.
  • Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature;
  • Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site;
  • Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations
• Rover payloads: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site.

 

How will the Mission be Implemented?

• A propulsion module will carry the lander-rover configuration to a 100-km lunar orbit.
• Once the ‘Vikram’ lander module makes it safely to the moon, it will deploy ‘Pragyan’.

A successful soft landing will make India the 4th country, after the US, Russia, and China, to achieve the feat.

The position remains vacant after the missions from Israel and India in 2019 crash-landed and the spacecraft carrying a lander-rover from Japan and a rover from UAE failed in 2022.

• Pragyan will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.

 

Different Kinds of Moon Missions that have been Launched so far:

• Flybys: These are the missions in which the spacecraft passed near the Moon but did not get into an orbit around it. Examples: Pioneer 3 and 4 by the US and Luna 3 of the then USSR.
• Orbiters: These are spacecraft designed to get into a lunar orbit. Example: India’s Chandrayaan-1 was an Orbiter.
• Impact Mission: One or more instruments on board make an uncontrolled landing (share useful information on their way) on the lunar surface and get destroyed after the impact. Example: Moon Impact Probe (MIP) instrument on Chandrayaan-1.
• Landers (stationary): These missions involve the soft landing of the spacecraft on the Moon. Example: Luna 9 spacecraft of the then USSR - first landing on the moon (1966).
• Rovers (mobile): Rovers are special wheeled payloads on the lander that can detach themselves from the spacecraft and move around on the moon’s surface. Example: Pragyan in the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
• Human missions: These involve the landing of astronauts on the moon’s surface. So far only NASA has been able to land human beings on the moon (between 1969-72). Example: NASA’s Artemis III, currently planned for 2025.

 

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Q1) What is Artemis 3?

Artemis 3 is NASA's planned first crewed Moon landing mission of the Artemis program and the first crewed flight of the Starship HLS lander. It is the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

 

Q2) When was Chandrayaan-1 launched?

Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to the Moon, was launched successfully on October 22, 2008 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.

 

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Source: Chandrayaan-3 launch tomorrow: The two moon missions, compared | IE