 Welcome to Civil Speedia, the current affairs digital library powered by Shankar IAS Academy. As part of today's discussion, we will look at Electoral Bond Scheme, ZRL Non, Jan Swastia Abhyan, Kowal Tiger Reserve and also these topics in terms of preliminary aspect and as the crisis in Venezuela as part of our main discussion. According to Electoral Bond Scheme, this scheme comes under the Ministry of Finance, particularly the Department of Economic Affairs. What we have to keep in mind is, it is a bearer banking instrument to be used for funding eligible political parties. This is the main objective of the scheme and these are the political parties that are registered under section 29 capital A of the Representation of the People Act of 1951. And what we have to keep in mind is, any individual or a firm or a company can get this Electoral Bond from the authorized branch of State Bank of India and this bond has a validity period of 15 days and various denominations are available. And once the person, once individual or a company purchases this Electoral Bond from the authorized branch, within 15 days he or she has to give the bond to the political party. The political party will go to the authorized SBA branch wherein the amount could be redeemed to the only one bank account of this eligible political party. And this validity is 15 days and if the validity period expires, if the amount is, if the validity period expires, then the amount related to this Electoral Bond will go to the Prime Minister Relief Fund. And coming to the authorized bank is just only the State Bank of India is authorized by the government for selling this Electoral Bonds. And one other, we should know the other features, a political party cannot open more than one current account for the redemption of this Electoral Bond. And these bonds shall not be eligible for trading or in other words, these bonds are non-tradable and one cannot list these bonds in stock exchange and one cannot raise loans against the security of these bonds and no interest is payable on this Electoral Bonds. These are all various features of these Electoral Bonds. Some of the objectives is that to remove the black money that are being funded to political parties, this scheme came into picture. This scheme was bought in the year 2018, announced by the budget of 2017-18. There are several experts who say that this fund, though it was stated that it initiates transparency, but actually this bond will not have any name on it. Therefore, one cannot say who actually funded the political party and this bond is supposed to be eliminating this black money funding into the political party. However, the recent news states that more than 95% of the funds which are initiated through this Electoral Bond went to only one political party in our country and there were several criticisms related to this Electoral Bond scheme of 2018. These things we have to keep in mind and next we will look into this fungal toxin ZRL non and first it is a food contaminant and it is also called as mycotoxin because this toxin is from fungi and therefore it is called as mycotoxin and it is a non-steroidal estrogenic mycotoxin produced by several species of fusarium fungi. This one has to keep in mind and the primary producer of this ZRL non mycotoxin is fusarium graminarium or it is also called as, popularly called as gibralase and what we have to keep in mind is in cold climates, this fungal toxin is easy to develop, it favors cold climates and during storage it can invest cereals such as wheat, maize, barley, rice during the phase of growth of these cereal crops and also during the storage of these grains. Whenever the grains are stored without proper drying then this fungal toxin has a sufficient condition to develop and the food safety and standards authority of India do not have any limits on how much a person can daily consume or how much it can be available in the samples of cereals. There is no such limits that is what recently there was in news and according to European Union they have and some of the countries have prescribed certain limits in samples and that limit by given by this European Union is 100 to 200 microgram per kilogram of cereals is the limit that can be in the samples and some other mycotoxins or fungal toxins are aphelotoxin, deoxynevalanol, ergot and patulin. What we have to keep in mind is these three mycotoxins are associated with cereals and this mycotoxin patulin is associated with apples and what what was stated by this international agency for cancer research a specialized cancer agency coming under world health organization created in the year 1965 it states that this Zeral non comes under group 3 carcinogen and therefore which means that we do not have sufficient evidence for an evaluation. And so there are several researchers which state that this mycotoxin or this fungal toxin when we intake more than a particular limit in our daily consumption or in other samples it can lead to it has it has every propensity to lead to either breast cancer in women or endocrine disturbances. This will be dealing with hormone secreting harmonic function of various organs in our body and therefore it has every possibility to link to breast cancer and also to endocrine disorders or disturbances however there are some researchers which also say that you do not have much association with the endocrine disturbances as well and what we have to keep in mind is this aflatoxin was serious because in the year 1974 in states of Rajasthan and Gujarat there was a hepatitis outbreak when when the scientist studied about this outbreak it was linked to this aflatoxin fungal toxin in the cereals and you know more than 400 people were infected by this hepatitis and around more than 100 people passed away more than 100 people passed away during this outbreak and the daily consumption limit is 0.25 microgram per kilogram it is not given by our food safety and standards authority of India and what the news was stating that is that in wheat and in rice the intake of Indians is more than this limit of 0.25 microgram per kilogram therefore it was serious and it is highly time that the Indian food safety and standard authority of India or any other relevant agency should prescribe certain limit in samples or an hour and also in daily consumption this is what was related to this zero known and next we shall discuss about this jan swastya abhyan in the year 2000 in Dhaka first global people's health assembly was held and there were several networks in India that hoped to organize this people's health assembly in Dhaka and these networks some around 18 networks they came together in the year 2001 and they formed this jan swastya abhyan there 2001 and it was recently in news because this jan swastya abhyan was asking the government to implement this charter of patients rights prepared by national human rights commission it was stating that in the in august 2018 the ministry of health and family welfare actually announced that it will implement this charter of patient rights but it was it invited comments from the public and it gave time till 30th september 2018 however since 30th september 2018 there was no announcement whatsoever from the ministry of health and family welfare related to and when the implementation will actually start for this charter of patient rights as of now it was it was not in implementation it is in it is with the ministry of health and family welfare and according to this jan swastya abhyan comprehensive health care includes not just the term health but also food security sustainable livelihood options by securing employment opportunities and access to housing drinking water sanitation and appropriate medical care for all all these all these components include comprehensive health care according to jan swastya abhyan and coming to the network partners of this this national network or this national platform it does not include not it does include not just the NGOs or the networks that are working in the area of health but also it includes NGOs from feminist organizations and those working in people science organizations service delivery networks and other trade unions as well all right therefore all the the the agencies that are associated or that are part of their member in this jan swastya abhyan or this national platform or not just from the area of health but also from trade unions but also from the science organizations service delivery platforms etc coming to the objectives of the jan swastya abhyan which it aims to work for is to draw enough public attention to the adverse impact in on the health particularly for the marginalized population because of the policies related to this unfair globalization on the health of Indian people and then to establish this right to health and health care as a basic human right and it also works to works to confront the commercialization of health care actually it was stating that because of non-implementation of the charter of patient rights the various the the private's health sector was not regulated properly and therefore here the objective is to confront this commercialization of health care while establishing basic minimum standards of and rational treatment guidelines for health care and it also works to promote decentralization of health care and finally to network all those who are interested in promoting health particularly for all for all not just including people who are oppressed people who are marginalized people who are excluded like that and with this we come to the end of this discussion on jan swastya abhyan next we will discuss about kawal tiger reserve this this place was notified as tiger reserve in the year 2012 at that point of time this place was located in andhra pradesh however after june 2014 this place came under telangana all right and its place was notified as tiger reserve under section 38 capital v of wildlife protection act of 1972 it talks about tiger conservation plan and every state government on the recommendation of national tiger conservation authority shall notify a place as tiger reserve and the project tiger coming under ministry of forest environment forest and climate change is based on core buffer strategy this core area or the critical hybrid tiger habitat is having exclusive tiger agenda is having exclusive tiger agenda there is no people agenda there however this buffer area has inclusive people agenda along with conserving tiger it includes for both forest and non forest area this buffer area includes both forest and non forest area and the area in coming under buffer area is for multiple use rather this critical hybrid tiger habitat or this core area is is having exclusive tiger agenda or it will be part of national park or wildlife sanctuary if you look into this area this 892 kilo square kilometer square kilometer is part of this kawal wildlife sanctuary all right and this is about this kawal tiger reserve we look into the notification where it says the objective of creating this declaring this kawal tiger reserve is to protect restore manage and maintain representative biodiversity of decan plateau of sahadri mountain ranges along with ecological processes and conservation of wild gene pool with a focus on tiger and to accommodate the viable spillover population this is important by restoring the corridor with tadova anderi tiger reserve this tadova anderi tiger reserve is in the state of maharastra all right then to protect and manage the catchment of godavari river this this is the objective of this declaration of kawal tiger reserve according to the notification published by the government of andhra pradesh when it declared or notified in the year 2012 this is about this kawal tiger reserve next we look into the main topic the crisis in venizula we recently particularly on january 23rd in venizula a leader by name huan joado right huan guaido has declared that he is the acting president of the nation and in relation to this we look into the crisis the venizula crisis at present is not just economic crisis it is also a political crisis although for the past three years it has been undergoing severe economical problems related to inflation hyper hyper inflation etc at present it faces hyper inflation to the tune of around 1.3 million percentage is the inflation as of now and every 19 days with every 19 days the prices of various products particularly essential products double and this is the situation reality now particularly since november 2018 till now and there have been serious there have been widespread power cuts and also shortages of food and medicine and basic essential items for survival and these are the main things coming under this economic crisis in the political crisis particularly after the death of president hugo chavez all right in the year 2013 the election the new election conducted nicolas mr. nicolas maduro has become the president of the country of venizula but what happened is in the by the end of 2015 and an election election was conducted for the members of unicameral unicameral legislate legislature which is called as national assembly which is called as national assembly in this national assembly the coalition opposition coalition which is against this nicolas maduro has won more than almost at least two-third of the seats of national assembly and which means the leader of the national assembly will be one among the person from the opposition and it was not to the and it was allegedly stated that nicolas maduro has also created in the year 2017 and another institution by the name of national constituent assembly to replace or to exercise the powers of national assembly and the election was held and the supporters of it was alleged that the supporters of nicolas maduro or the government has won the elections and take took the seats in this national constituent assembly so as to write the constitution and which also had power to remove certain authorities who are not cooperating to the government this is the allegation and the supreme court also work in favor at that point of time allegedly worked in favor of the president of the country which stated that which ripped off ripped the powers of national assembly instead gave the powers to national constituent assembly created by the president in the year 2017 and by January 2019 thus the term of president nicolas maduro has ended and based on the election held in may 2018 and the nicolas maduro has taken the term as second presidential term since the month of January 2019 which was not to the to the likes of mr. joan goido and his supporters are the opposition in general because they allegedly allegedly stated that the may 2018 elections was not conducted in a fair manner because most of the opposition members were kept in jail and they were not allowed to participate and the water turnout was less than 50 percent and and they most of the people who are made to vote during this election for national constituent assembly and also for this presidential election it was allegedly state that the government has passed an order that if someone has to get the benefits of essential items or subsidies such as that they have to come and vote and therefore people have come and vote but many do not participate or many opposition parties boycotted the election all right at present one goido has stated that he is the acting president and whereas nicolas maduro claims that he has the support of military and the supreme court and the support of various international countries such as china and russia and he states he is the president of venezuela whereas one goido says according to certain provisions of the constitution of venezuela the president of a national assembly president of national assembly can be an acting president of the country and we will now discuss about the india and venezuela relations we recently in the year 2009 celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between both countries the year of establishment was 1959 and venezuela was one of the largest oil supplier for india for for some years it was the third largest crude oil supplier and recently it was the fourth largest crude oil supply after all right after saudi arabia iraq and ua right and india and venezuela have this joint commission called us indovenezuela joint commission this joint commission was established after the visit of then president of venezuela mr hugo chavez who came to india in the year 2005 and signed a memorandum of understanding to establish this joint commission so that it will act as a bilateral commission so far they have been two meetings of this joint commission first meeting was held in venezuela whereas the second meeting was held in delhi india and india and venezuela are members of this non-aligned movement and also in the recently created international solar alliance launched by india and extremely supported by france this was the 44th country that have joined to this international alliance venezuela venezuela and venezuela is interested in india's expertise in the area such as health and pharmaceuticals agriculture and agro industry it and software education culture particularly the white and green revolution so that it can attain self-sufficiency in milk and agricultural products and one one most important thing of india's interest is that indian companies such as oan gc videsh limited and iocl indian oil corporation and oil india these three companies are part of a joint venture related to this karabobo one oil project which is the fourth biggest onshore oil field in the world all right and it has potential it had potentials it has potentials of this 31 billion barrels barrels of recoverable oil reserve 31 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserve owned and operated by this petro karabobo this is the joint venture in which PDVSA this is nothing but a state owned oil company of venezuela and we also our company is also having this part of this joint venture this one of the advanced actually the venezuela country has three projects in the name of karabobo one karabobo one and karabobo two and karabobo three all right of which this one is relevant relevant to our country and india's if you look into india's exports to venezuela primarily it will be consisting of pharmaceuticals chemicals and calcined petroleum coke and textile and engineering products such as scooters equipment and machinery however if we look into the india's imports from venezuela more importantly crude oil and then come iron pellets and electrical cables all right and we have to keep in mind this sand crystal ball field in venezuela where on gc videsh limited has a 40 stake along with the 60 stake of the state owned oil company of venezuela and this is the name of the joint venture company between this PDVSA and OVL owned gc videsh limited and this is also an important project where in india has invested more than 350 million u s dollars all right and we also can see according to ministry of external affairs by the year 2015 there were around 50 indian families who were living in venezuela what we have to keep in mind is that the recent the recent crisis particularly the political crisis wherein the united states of america european many countries in european european europe and organization of american states have have recognized guan guaido guan guaido as the president of venezuela whereas countries such as china russia and cuba has not recognized guan guaido as the president of venezuela and they have been various various opinions about how this development will affect the or have some implications over india particularly mostly other than we have to keep in mind that because of this inflation and because of the economical problems the the export from india particularly in parmosetical and health and parmosetical area we have not received payments back from the country and if you look national level most of our dependency on venezuela is only for crude oil for which there is not much problem because u s has placed various sanctions and u s has restrained from purchasing crude oil from venezuela and therefore we actually got the ground of this crude oil from venezuela. There are experts who also state that if if in future the the european countries have also issued an an advice or an ultimatum to the present president nicolas maduro of venezuela to conduct fresh elections within eight days whereas the president has stated that it cannot no countries can interfere into the affairs of the venezuela and india has stated that india will always never interfere with internal affairs of a country and it is for the people of venezuela to choose their political future through constructive dialogue through and through non-violence this has been the statement of india and as of now since we depend mostly on crude oil we do not have any problem and because venezuela is the selling country we are the buying country and however experts also state if in future guan guaido becomes the president that means united states of america and all its allied countries in europe and latin america will have a friendly terms with venezuela which may which may renovate their purchasing of crude oil which may shrink our buying capacity from venezuela this is what we have to keep in mind otherwise we do not have much problem we are part of non-aligned movement both venezuela and india and india is supporting that the people of venezuela should decide rather than the other countries through interference with this we come to the end of the discussion related to the crisis in venezuela we request you to like our video comment our video and also to subscribe to our shankarae's academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil services preparation