ISIS- Reign of Terror

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is an offshoot of Al-Qaeda that aims to establish an

"Islamic caliphate" in Syria and Iraq and impose its harsh interpretation of the Sharia

law.

Factors responsible for the rise 

• Belligerence shown by the West following the 9/11 attacks. 
• Marginalisation of the Sunnis in Iraq.
• Hijacking of the Syrian uprising by jihadists.
• Wahhabi Islam provided the ideological fuel. 

Implications of the Crisis

• Sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni would increase leading to political instability in this region.
• Capture and control over oil resources of this region may lead to energy crisis in the world. They had taken control over Iraq's key infrastructure including the Mosul dam.
• Spurt in terrorist activities across the world.
• IS has massacred Shaitat tribe, a case of gross human rights violation.
• IS considers preservation of arts,artefacts,museum etc as a form of idolatry and has destroyed temples and heritage sites. The group has profited from looting such treasures.

Why should India give a damn?

• Energy security of india is under theat as near about 80% oil comes from this region.
• India's 7 million diaspora who contribute $50 billion is spread in the Middle East. 
• Spread of radical ideology in India. Few students from South India have already shown their inclination towards the radical ideology. India came under the radar of ISIS as per a recent statement of the Ministry of Home.
• Organisations like SIMI joining hands with ISIS may lead to spurt in terrorist activities across India.

Way out

• Ramp up Strategic Petroleum Reserve from current capacity of 90 days to 180 days.
• Gather intelligence with cooperation of Gulf allies like Riyadh and Doha with whom India has strategic ties.
• ISIS draws its funding from the Iraqi oil fields that it controls now. This control must be cut-off.
• A peace keeping force by all member nations of UN should be sent to Iraq.

In the words of our honorable Prime Minister, "If anyone thinks that Indian Muslims will dance to their tunes ,they are delusional." He has nevertheless acknowledged the fact that our intelligence agencies need to be vigilant to nip any such activities in bud.

  

Net Neutrality

The principle of Net Neutrality means that telecom service providers and governments should not discriminate between data packets based on source, ownership or content. The principle is essential to maintain a level playing field on the Internet by ensuring all content is equally accessible to the public. 

The concept was in debate right since the inception of Telegram in the late 19th Century where preference was given to certain elite customers. In the 1990s, USA witnessed a exponential rise in the support base for Net neutrality. Coming forward, in 2003- Law Professor Tim Wu coins phrase Net Neutrality.

The two sides of the debate:

The net neutrality debate boils down to telecom/Internet service providers, on the one end, and OTT providers such as Skype, YouTube and Internet advocates, on the other.

Recent Developments:

• Airtel announced an initiative, Airtel Zero, a platform that allows customers to access a variety of mobile applications for free, with the data charges being paid by start-ups and large companies. Further, Bharti Airtel Ltd announced that it would charge customers for calls made using OTT services like Skype, Viber, Whatsapp which uses VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Airtel’s proposal had customers and advocates of net neutrality up in arms. 
• Facebook got together with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications to launch in India Internet.org, a zero-rating service that offers subscribers free access to a pre-selected bouquet of Websites. The move was widely criticised for violating net neutrality.

Being devil's advocate:

The telecom/ISPs  have made huge investments in broadband capacity. Therefore, they should be allowed to charge for the OTT services, which consume a lot of bandwidth. Telcos feel that since they “supply” the basic infrastructure, they deserve to “partake” of the goodies.  Some drop has taken place in international calling. The growth of OTT apps providing voice services has started to impact revenues of TSPs from voice services.

Why defend Net Neutrality?

• Net neutrality regulation, provides an incentive to expand the network to relieve congestion, rather than constrain the bandwidth for earning monopoly profits.  That is the beauty of Internet, an open platform, which allows innovation to thrive. 
• Lack of net neutrality supports a monopolistic market which will adversely affect the growing start-up ecosystem.
• If not defended, Freedom of accessing websites at choice would be curtailed. "Network" is a public resource and its "Democratic character" must not be tempered with.

In India, the regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority’s stance on this is awaited. 

The Himalayan Tragedy

A 7.9 magnitude earthquake rocked the Himalayan nation in April. Nepal lies on a geological fault line. This was caused by the movement of the Indian Plate towards the Eurasian plate. The disaster took a tall on nearly 7000 lives and about 3 million locals have been displaced.

The Nepal earthquake was devastating due to following factors:

• The source of the quake was shallow and the fault plane extended right up to densely populated Kathmandu. 
• Kathmandu is on a primitive lake basin that amplifies seismic wave energy. 
• The issues that have held up the successful completion of the Constitution-writing process that begun in 2008 are closely related to the present inability of the Nepal government to respond effectively to the natural disaster. If Nepal had been a federal republic with greater decentralisation of power and had increased community participation, would there not have been better roads and more responsive administrative systems?

Rescue and Relief Operations:

Rescuers from 22 countries are involved as per the UN. Operation Maitri is the symbol of our warm relations and not political opportunism.

• The power grid corporation of India helped in restoring the electricity grid.
• India has sent doctors, medical aid and other relief supplies in 13 military aircraft. 
• 13 NDRF teams of about 500 people were involved in rescue operations.

#GoHomeIndianMedia was recently trending on twitter with the people of Nepal accusing the Indian media of insensitive reporting. An apology by the media houses collectively would have sufficed to calm sentiments down.

A wake-up call for India:

The capital of the country, Delhi lies in Seismic Zone 4. For Delhi, most of the settlements are based on Yamuna's flood plains and hence the fear of being near the fault line is looming large and thus even  a modest earthquake can bring the capital to its knees.

P.K.Mishra taskforce concluded in its report that NDMA is like a think tank and that there is lack of functional integration between NDMA and MHA. The NDMA and ASI have not collaborated on the front to save the Heritage Buildings as of now.

As per a report published in Hindu, over 4500 large dams lack emergency action plan.

Taking a leaf out of Japan's book

• Japan has stringent building laws for 'Earthquakes don't kill people, collapsed buildings do.'
• Each high rise has marked exit routes and is fitted with escape equipments. 
• Use of Earthquake dampers and other technologies in buildings.
• Regular evacuation drills to sensitize people and especially the young ones.

Earthquakes are the most difficult to predict. India’s close proximity to an active plate boundary makes better building practices,quake- resistant buildings, sensitising the public, retrofitting, complaince with seismic codes and seismological research necessary.

Yemen Crisis

Yet another Arab nation faces a humanitarian crisis as the localised war in Yemen has snowballed into a regional crisis. After the deposed Yemeni president, Mansour Hadi  requested help, a coalition led by Sunni majority, Saudi Arabia , launched attack against Shia Houthi rebel positions in Yemen. The coalition comprises five Gulf Arab states and Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Sudan. They allege that the Houthis are being funded by Iran. Iran, a Shia majority nation has condemned the Saudi-led intervention.

Historical Background:

Political crisis began in 2001. President Saleh tried to eliminate the term limit on the Presidential Post and was grooming his son to become his successor which did not go well with the people. Very similar to the events in the Arab spring. After he stepped down, powers were transferred to Mansour Hadi in an one-man election. But soon the Houthis rose and took over Sana'a and forced the Hadi to flee.

Who is fighting whom?

The main fight is between forces loyal to the beleaguered President, Mansour Hadi, and those allied to Shia Houthi rebels , who forced Mr Hadi to flee in February.

Yemen's security forces have split loyalties, with some units backing Mr Hadi, and others the Houthis and Mr Hadi's predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has remained politically influential.

Why is it a major concern?

• The conflict between the Houthis and the elected government is also seen as part of a regional power struggle between Shia-ruled Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, which shares a long border with Yemen.
• Yemen is strategically important because it sits on the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a narrow waterway linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, through which much of the world's oil shipments pass. 
• Expansion of ISIS is a possibility.
• India has done well to airlift its nationals and in helping other nations in evacuation under the Operation Raahat. But normalcy needs to be restored for the peace and security of the region, which seems unlikely at the moment.

   

Beef Ban

Arguments in Favour:

• Article 48 of the Constitution of India states that "The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter, of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle". The recent legislation brought by the Maharashtra government which seeks to ban beef is in line with the provisions of the constitution.
• Cow slaughter was already banned considering the religious sentiments attached with it. People involved in meat industry didn't have problem with it then. Then why are they crying afoul now over the proposal of banning trade of meat of bulls and bullocks? It is worth mentioning here that pork is banned in Muslim nations.
• Beef is essentially red meat and not a desirable ingredient in a high-protein diet as well. 

Against the move:

• Beef offers cheap protein to the poor suffering from malnutrition.
• Livelihood of lakhs of people depend on meat industry.
• The move would aggravate the distress of farmers as their alternative source of income has been done away with. Earlier farmers could sell off their aged cattle when crops failed.
• There are old animals who have given up their milk production and roam about roads causing problems to commuters. Now that the beef has been banned, they would become a liability.
• Strangely,when leather industry doesn't have any restrictions on using cow-derived products, then why ban beef?
• Restaurants would lose a lot of International tourists. Prices of other meat products would also rise up.

Conclusion: 

Apparently, the ban is religiously motivated aimed at scoring political points. It does not augur well for a democracy where minority choices ought to be respected.