 Welcome to Civil Speedia, the current affairs digital library powered by Shankara AS Academy. As part of today's discussion, we look at International Court of Justice, Indian History Congress, the 660 kilometer boundary and also the impact of withdrawal of this most favored nation status to Pakistan. And first, let us discuss this International Court of Justice. We know that there are 6 principal organs of United Nations Organization, all right. They are the United Nations General Assembly, UN General Assembly and United Nations Security Council, United Nations Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council and the Secretariat and International Court of Justice. This is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, all right. And we should know it is established by the UN Charter in the year 1945 and began its work in the year 1946. And we should know the official language of this ICJ because usually when we talk about United Nations Organization as a whole, the official language of UNO is of 6 languages. They are English, you know, French, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, all right and Spanish. And however, when we talk about International Court of Justice, which is a principal judicial organ of UN, all right, the official languages are just English and French, okay. And except ICJ, all the other five main organs of UN are located in United States of America. The only organ, only principal organ of UN, which is not located in USA is International Court of Justice, which is having its seat in the Peace Palace located in the Hague, Netherlands, all right. Next, we'll look into the functions. It plays two important functions. First, it settles disputes among the member countries, all right. And the disputes will be brought before the International Court of Justice through the nations, member nations. And it is not possible or any petition cannot be submitted or filed before ICJ, International Court of Justice by an individual or a private entity or corporation, you know, or any other other than a member state known can file an application for settling disputes with the International Court of Justice. And in advisory role it plays, it can provide advice to authorized United Nations agencies and specialized agencies, authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies to which this International Court of Justice can provide or render advisory opinion, advice, advice, all right. And coming to the composition of judges, International Court of Justice has 15 judges and the term of office of each judge is nine years, all right. And coming to the jurisdiction, we have already noted that the disputes can be can be accepted by this, in order to resolve the disputes, all right. I say they can do that only on the petition given by a member state, not by an individual, not by an NGO, not by a private entity or a corporation, right. That therefore the jurisdiction is limited with respect to the application can be made only by one or more member states on a matter, all right. And it is not a criminal court and therefore it cannot try an individual who is accused of war crimes or crime against humanity, right. And United Nations has criminal for not to try an individual or try some persons for their criminal liabilities, even has other ad hoc organs, but it is not the job of International Court of Justice. And coming to the importance of the verdicts of judgments given by this International Court of Justice, that whatever judgments given by the ICJ are binding on the member states and there is no higher court of appeal for whatever given a judgment by the International Court of Justice. And ICJ, ICJ cannot take a case based on Suomoto on its own initiative. It cannot have, do not has that power. And one important thing, we saw that yes, an individual cannot approach ICJ, but a nation on behalf of its national, of its citizen can, you know, can file a complaint or file an application at the International Court of Justice for the allegedly, you know, undergoing of persecution or difficulties by its own citizen at the hands of a foreign country. For example, India filed an application at ICJ for Sri Kulbushan Jadav, all right, and therefore he is an individual, but it is the state, it is India which filed the petition for its national, right, that is possible. But an individual on his own cannot approach ICJ. With this, we come to the end of this topic. Next, we will discuss Indian History Congress. It has been in news because the 79th Indian History Congress was, which was supposedly to be held in the month of December 2018 was cancelled at the last moment and it is now going to be held in the month of February 2019 on the dates of 26 to 28 in Madhya Pradesh, all right. And therefore it is in news, we should know when it was established or it was established in the year 1935. Unlike Indian Science Congress, which comes under the ages of Ministry of Science and Technology, it is not an organ which comes under any government organ. Rather, it is an association or a society of academicians belonging to, academicians or professionals belonging to the body of knowledge of history, all right. And their primary objective is promotion or encouragement of improving, of thus of promoting the scientific study of history. And they also take necessary steps related to protection of historical monuments and also they have the, they have the mandate to defend the secular nature of Indian history. And also coming to the sections within which various publications are classified as of by the Indian History Congress are important. They are this ancient India, ancient India, medieval India, modern India, contemporary India and countries other than India and archaeology, all right. These are the six sections of this Inter-Indian History Congress. And this medieval India starts from 1200 AD for Northern India. And for Southern India it starts from 1300 AD in this classification given by Indian History Congress. And with this we come to the end of this topic. Next we will discuss the 660 kilometer boundary, all right. Recently scientists have discovered a mountain topography at a distance of about 660 kilometer beneath the Earth's surface based on data from the Bolivian earthquake in the year 1994, all right. And we know that, right, this is continental crust and this is oceanic crust and the continental crust, you know, I don't know for a distance of 32 kilometer from the Earth's surface. And in ocean, the oceanic crust will be for 8 kilometer. And from the top of the Earth's surface, still the 100 kilometer down the line, this region is called as lithosphere. And here we could see crust and mantle. From here mantle begins, all right. And this part of mantle is called as lithospheric mantle. And below this 100 kilometer we could find a region called as asthenosphere. And from this region and till 410 kilometer from the Earth's surface, we could see upper mantle, all right. This region is called as upper mantle. And below this upper mantle from 410 kilometer from the Earth's surface till 660 kilometer from the Earth's surface, there is zone of transition within the mantle, all right. And then comes lower mantle and then comes outer and inner core and then center of the Earth, all right. Now, scientists have discovered this new mountain topography at 660 kilometer down the Earth's surface. They say that it was not it discovered previously. So, it's the first time the scientists discover such a new mountain, such a mountain topography exists at 660 kilometer down the Earth's surface, which could throw new light on how the Earth itself was formed at the first place. And they have also checked whether it is available at the top boundary of the zone of transition. They could not bring any, could not get any conclusive evidence for that. However, here at the 660 kilometer down the Earth's surface, they have found this mountain topography based on earthquake waves, all right. These earthquake waves, they travel straight in homogeneous rock. But whenever there is a change of boundary or roughness of the rock material, therefore the earthquake wave will either reflect or refract, all right. And when there is refraction or reflection, then it is obviously understood there is a change in boundary or roughness of the material involved there, all right. These reflected waves or refracted waves will have the property of the material that refracted them, all right. This is how it was conclusively stated in a scientific journal that at 660 kilometer down the Earth's surface, there is a mountain topography which could be stronger even than the Rocky Mountains and the oldest mountain ranges, the Appalachian Mountains in the United States in the North America, all right. This is about this 660 kilometer boundary. As of now, it was not named and therefore it is now being called as the 660 kilometer boundary. Now, it could be asked in Prillim's question like the term refers to what? They could ask, they could give options like two layers of atmosphere and then say mountain topography, discovery of mountain topography in the interior of the Earth's interior like that. So, this is how questions could be asked here. And this is about this 660 kilometer boundary topic. And next, we will discuss the impact of withdrawal of the most favored nation status to Pakistan by India after the terrorist attack on the Indian soil which was claimed responsibility by the terrorist organization Jais-e-Mohammed, all right. And first, we will know what is most favored nation. Article 1, it was talked about in Article 1 of General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade by the World Trade Organization. It states that any advantage or favor or privilege or immunity we are granted by one country, one member country of World Trade Organization to any product which is originating in or distraint far from to another country. Shall be accorded immediately and unconditional to any product, any similar product which is originating in or distraint for the territories of all other contracting parties, which means all other members of World Trade Organization. That means if a country is extending some favor bilateral trade in bilateral trade to another country, the country should extend similar support, similar favor, similar privilege and favor and immunity to all the member countries of World Trade Organization. That is the meaning of most favored nation, all right. And that means a World Trade Organization member country is obliged to treat the other trading nation in a non-discriminatory manner, all right. Now in terms of India and Pakistan, now India has accorded this status of most favored nation to Pakistan way back in 1996. But Pakistan has not reciprocated such a privilege to India even until now. And very recently after the attack India has withdrawn this status to Pakistan, all right. And the meaning for example when we talk about most favored nation, consider there is a country A and there is a country B. The privilege or the favor, it could be less import duties or no import duties or less custom duties. And all those related to import and export or in very less the tariffs and trade when they are very less, it is considered as a favor. When the trade or trade and trade barriers or non-tariff barriers are high, then it is not a favor, right. If the country A accords MFN status to B, then the burden on the country B related to import and exports to and from the country of A is very less. The burden on country B is less. The country B has not accorded the status, most favored nation status to A, then the country B at its own whims and fancies can raise the import duties related to the country A, can have a ban on various products to be imported from country A and the policy could be changed. So most favored nation status is a relief for various countries in terms of trading, right, because less import duties or no import duties, which is a favor. But when a country does not accord this status to another country, it means the imports from country A, all right, will have trade barriers, right. And now coming to when we withdraw the status to Pakistan, what happens? And also the when we withdraw this most favored nation status, now we have our own liberty to increase the import duties for products coming from Pakistan. And we know that very recently India has increased or this import duties to 200% for all products coming from Pakistan, which means India is not a import destination, favorable import destination, because of, you know, non extending of this privilege as a result of withdrawal of MFN status to Pakistan. Now, if they want to trade with India, they have to pay more because of the higher import duties. So the exports of Pakistan will be having a trouble, all right, but the value of exports of Pakistan to India currently stands at around 0.5, 0.5 billion US dollars, all right, that is one problem. And coming to exports of India, in terms of bilateral trade, India is having almost four times, almost four times the exports of Pakistan, which means our exports to Pakistan stands at a value of around 1.8 billion US dollars. Now, we should know that already we do not have any MFN status from Pakistan, but now we have hiked the import duties, we have withdrawn this MFN status, Pakistan will also retaliate, that means Pakistan will raise the import duties for all products that come from India. So that means Indian exports will also be hit, that means 1.8 billion US dollars value of exports will be hit because of this, this change in policies by both the governments, all right, and this is one thing. And coming to India has also restricted the export of chemicals and cottons to Pakistan that are crucial raw materials for Pakistani industries to thrive, all right, in that case, according to, if that is the case, the chemicals and cottons cannot go from India to Pakistan, then it means that their raw material price will increase in Pakistan and they have to get new buyers and that will impact us burden in terms of cost of production that will lead to inflation and related problems. But it also have a consequence that the Pakistani buyers will have an antithetic attitude to the Indian exporters, Indian businessmen and overall against our nation as well, talking only about those businessmen who will be affected. And the change of policies, see India, it has been told that the potential for trade between India and Pakistan stands at around more than 25 billion US dollars to around 37 billion US dollars. Due to geo-political tensions like border scrimmages, terrorist attacks, state-sponsored terrorism and ceasefire violations, lot of these things, there is only significance for geo-political tensions, not thinking about geo-economic significance, particularly in South Asia, special reference to India and Pakistan. In that case, the customer base is very important for the exporters from both countries. Now those who are dependent on India from the side of Pakistan and those Indian exporters who are dependent on Pakistan for the purpose of trade, for the purpose of Indian exports will have to diversify their options but because in future anything can happen related to the matter of trade and they cannot be at the verge of a loss, all right. And that is also one another form of difficulty or an impact that will be felt. If that is happening, that means India and Pakistan will not realize the available potential in matters of trade and India will lose the market in Pakistan, all right. And one positive factor related to India is that when we don't accord MFN status to another country, then we are at our own liberty to fix import duties for various products coming from the other country. Now India has raised this import duty from Pakistan for all products. Therefore, earlier there was an allegation from various local industries, local cement industries from India is that because Pakistan, much of cement were imported from Pakistan and that was favorable for Pakistan to export to India because of MFN status, which is now not possible. Earlier it was almost equivalent to dumping, cement from Pakistan were cheaper in India, which affected local industries in India. Now it cannot happen and therefore the local cement industries in India are having, you know, are now a bit happy and confident because of the change in policy related to this MFN. And there are experts who will tell that because of this withdrawal of MFN, there is possibility that Pakistan could root its export goods to India by way of illegal trade, by way of gaps in borders, by way of third countries, all right. That is also a possibility. Overall, at the end of the day, India and Pakistan whenever they were, you know, held with the problems of geopolitical tensions, they cannot realize the profits and the peace and security what has been or realized by the European Union, which is given, which has given the primacy to geoeconomic significance. And countries need this to happen between India and Pakistan so that India will never, India will focus, both the countries will focus only on security and will not move away from that to peace and economic, geoeconomic significance. And whenever two countries are in, you know, problematic state, in terms of matters of trade, our third country will be benefited, right. There could be another, there could be one another country who's curious to get the export products from India, but already India had the market at Pakistan. Now it cannot happen then the third country will be benefited. For example, when Venezuela and the United States were having, you know, harsh trade terms with each other, India benefited from Venezuela by being a purchaser of oil from Venezuela. But this can happen. It can be a jackpot for other countries as well. And anyway, it is going to be a loss of market for India because it is, Pakistan is a favorable destination, Pakistan is a potential destination for Indian exports to the tune of 1.8 million US dollars, although it has a potential of around 25 billion US dollars. It is no loss. And Pakistan, for Pakistan, we are not that much important, you know, destination for exports. And therefore, these are the various impacts related to this withdrawal of MFN status to Pakistan. And with this, we come to the end of today's discussion on civil speedy current affairs and we request you to like our video, comment our video and also to subscribe to our Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates and content on civil services preparation.