. No.	Topic Name	Prelims/Mains
1.	About the Quad Grouping	Prelims & Mains
2.	Details of the Blockchain Technology	Prelims & Mains
3.	About the Indian Olympic Association	Prelims & Mains
4.	Details of the Belt and Road Initiative	Prelims Specific Topic

1 – About the Quad Grouping:GS II

Topic à International Relations

·      
About:

·      
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) involving
India, the United States, Japan, and Australia aims to ensure and promote a
“free, open, and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region.

·      
In 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
originally presented the idea of Quad. The initiative, however, was unable to
move forward when Australia withdrew, purportedly under Chinese pressure.

·      
Shinzo Abe once more put up the notion of Asia’s
“Democratic Security Diamond,” with involvement from Australia,
India, Japan, and the US, in order to safeguard the marine commons from the
Indian Ocean to the western Pacific.

·      
In November 2017, India, the US, Australia, and
Japan created the long-awaited “Quad” Coalition to develop a new
approach to safeguard the independence of the crucial sea routes in the
Indo-Pacific (especially China).

·      
China and the Four QUAD Nations:

·      
USA: To stop China’s growing influence in East
Asia, the USA had a plan in place. Therefore, the USA sees the coalition as a
chance to recover its power in the Indo-Pacific area.

·      
The US has identified China and Russia as
strategic adversaries in its National Security Strategy, National Defense
Strategy, and the Pentagon’s report on the Indo-Pacific Strategy.

·      
Australia: Australia is concerned about China’s
growing influence over its infrastructure, politics, and educational
institutions.

·      
In light of its utter economic dependence on
China for development, Australia has maintained its commitment to a
Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with that country.

·      
Japan: For the past ten years, Japan has
expressed its disapproval of China’s territorial incursion in the region.

·      
The economy of Japan continues to be largely
dependent on trade with China; since the beginning of 2017, net exports have
precisely contributed one-third of Japan’s economic growth.

·      
In light of China’s importance, Japan is
balancing its territorial concerns with its economic aspirations.

·      
As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, Japan
has also committed to taking part in infrastructure projects in other
countries. By doing this, Japan may improve relations with China while reducing
Chinese influence in those countries.

·      
Due to China’s transgressions of international
law, particularly the construction of military facilities on reclaimed islands
in the South China Sea, as well as its growing economic and military power,
India is in a difficult strategic position.

·      
India is carefully balancing China and the US
given the strategic importance of China by remaining loyal to China’s strategic
autonomy, which has historically provided comfort to China.

·      
India has also refused to allow Australia to
participate in the Malabar Trilateral Maritime Exercises with India, the US,
and Japan because China is wary of the exercise.

·      
Positive developments have come out of the
recent summit between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping at
Mamallapuram, and both leaders consider it as crucial to giving stakeholders on
both sides of the border strategic direction.

 

·      
Challenges:

·      
China’s territorial claims: China asserts that
it has historically controlled practically the whole South China Sea region,
allowing it the right to develop islands. But in 2016, the International Court
of Arbitration rejected the lawsuit.

·      
ASEAN and China’s Relationship: China and the
ASEAN countries have a close relationship. The recently formed Regional Cooperation
Economic Partnership (RCEP), which shows China’s expanding influence over ASEAN
nations.

·      
China’s Economic Power: Given China’s economic
clout and the reliance on it by nations like Japan and Australia, the Quad
states cannot afford to have tense relations with China.

·      
Convergence of the Quad Nations: Each member
nation in the Quad grouping aspires to a particular balance of interests. As a
result, the collective vision of the Quad Nation lacks cohesion.

 

·      
How to Proceed:

·      
A more detailed self-image will be necessary for
the Quad. The Quad members must control their impulses. Moreover, it is
essential to be transparent and ensure that the term “Free and Open
Indo-Pacific” is more than just a slogan.

·      
While the US must also take a more proactive
stance to further the idea of connection, nations like Australia, Japan, and
India may set the bar for infrastructural development.

·      
The Quad should focus on building a robust
regional dialogue framework and collaborating with ASEAN nations on issues of
regional importance.

·      
By joining the Quad framework, India gains
geopolitical legitimacy and a rare opportunity to actively influence a regional
security architecture with global repercussions.

 

Source à
The Hindu 

2 – Details of the Blockchain Technology:GS III

Topic à Indian Economy related issues

·      
A chain of blocks is produced by blockchain
technology, and each one contains digital data that is stored in a public
database. The database is dispersed across numerous computers at once, growing
when new blocks or sets of recordings are added to it. Numerous advantages of
blockchain technology exist, particularly in terms of processing and security.
One of the technological advances of the twenty-first century, it has a wide
range of possible uses in many different industries.

·      
The following advantages of blockchain technology:

·      
Integrity across the board: The use of
blockchain technology ensures the integrity of the entire process. Due to the
fact that no block or even transaction that joins the chain may be altered, a
very high level of security is offered. They provide an everlasting history of
each transaction.

·      
Traceability: With a blockchain ledger, every
time a product-exchange transaction is recorded, an audit trail is accessible
to indicate where the exchanged goods originally came from. This increases the
security of exchange-related enterprises and deters fraud. It can also be used
to validate the authenticity of the transferred assets. It can be used to
establish ownership in the art industry or to trace the supply chain from maker
to distributor in industries like medicine.

·      
Security: The blockchain is regarded to be a
particularly secure system due to its digital signature and encryption. This
ensures that all transactions are being handled directly by the account owner.
The block encryption in the chain makes it more difficult for any hacker to
alter the chain’s established configuration.

·      
Faster processing: Until the blockchain’s
development, it took a normal financial institution a long time to initiate and
process a transaction. The development of blockchain technology, however,
greatly boosted transaction speed. The entire banking process used to take
three days to settle before the advent of Blockchain, but it now only takes a
few minutes or seconds.

·      
Fraud prevention Hackers cannot penetrate a
system that uses data stored in several places. Even if you manage to access
it, any information can be quickly recovered.

·      
This adds a level of responsibility to financial
systems and enterprises by holding all divisions accountable for acting
honourably in the interests of the company’s expansion, its community, and its
clients. Conveniently, both clients and banks are alerted right away when a
transaction is completed.

 

·      
Blockchain technology may be utilised for:

·      
The use of blockchain technology could encourage
good governance. It guarantees the accuracy of the public records and enables
auditing of government documents through the use of a digital form platform.
Additionally, it preserves the legitimacy of the document and noticeably
expedites processing.

·      
Banking: Blockchain can help lower the risk of
payment losses connected with banking transactions by employing a secure
distributed ledger platform. It decreases fees for corporate payments and
remittances as well as cross-border transaction fees.

·      
Food and Supply Chain: It creates a tamper-proof
record to confirm the veracity of data pertaining to the expiration date and
the path the product took from the farm to the store. The dependability and
efficiency of the supply chain system can be improved using real product
information.

·      
Insurance: Blockchain technology has the ability
to change how fraud is handled, claims are resolved, and insurance
documentation is produced. It makes it possible to create an unalterable, open,
safe, decentralised insurance network.

·      
Healthcare: It is advantageous to prioritise
patients’ health above all else while upholding the required level of care. By
creating a safe chain of networks, blockchain can help manage medical records, authorization
forms, billing, and public health monitoring.

·      
Automotive: Blockchain can help with production,
billing, and delivery problems. The creation of an ecosystem for post-purchase
support can benefit from keeping track of owners’ maintenance histories.

·      
Tourism: Blockchain can reduce the time it takes
to process passenger paperwork, provide a decentralised hotel booking system
with the lowest transaction costs, and safeguard passenger privacy.

·      
Blockchain technology has shown to be dependable
and secure. It ensures data integrity and reduces fraud occurrences. Because
blockchain technology is decentralised, many organisations can utilise it to
carry out safe business transactions. We can reduce reception time, eliminate
phoney proof, and do away with partner platforms or middlemen in peer-to-peer
networks by appropriately utilising blockchain technology.

 

Source à
The Indian Express

3 – About the Indian Olympic Association:

Prelims Specific Topic

·       About:

·      
The responsibility for managing the Indian Olympic
Movement and the Commonwealth Games falls to the Indian Olympic Association.

·      
It is a member of the Commonwealth Games
Federation (CGF), the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), the Association of
National Olympic Committees (ANOC), and the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) (ANOC).

·      
It has been acknowledged by the Ministry of
Youth Affairs and Sports.

·      
Functions:

·      
oversees several aspects of the national sports
administration and the well-being of its athletes.

·      
oversees the representation of athletes or teams
taking part in international multi-sport competitions held by the IOC, CGF,
OCA, and ANOC, such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and
others.

·       Foundation:

·      
In 1927, the year the IOA was established, Sir
Dorabji Tata served as the organization’s inaugural president, and Dr. A.G.
Noehren served as the organization’s initial secretary general. It is
recognised as a non-profit organisation under the Societies Registration Act of
1860.

 

·      
Composition:

·      
The IOA is made up of National Sports
Federations, State Olympic Associations, IOC Members, and other exclusive
multi-sport organisations.

 

·       Governance:

·      
The Indian Olympic Association is now governed
by a 32-member Executive Council. Elections for the Executive Council take
place once every four years.

 

Source à
The Hindu

4 – Details of the Belt and
Road Initiative:

Prelims Specific Topic

·       About:

·  
Over 100 countries have signed agreements with
China to collaborate on BRI projects, which include roads, ports, and other
infrastructure.

·      
The statement was made in 2013 by President Xi
Jinping’s administration in China.

 

·      
It addressed five distinct categories of activities:

·      
Coherence of policy and trade enticement

·      
Physical closeness

·      
Renminbi internationalisation

·      
Interactions between individuals.

 

·      
The routes of BRI:

·      
Through Myanmar, the New Silk Road Economic Belt
connects economic and investment regions in northern China with Eurasia and
India.

·      
The Maritime Silk Road (MSR) connects South-East
Asia, Indo-China, and Africa and Europe by way of South-East Asia and
South-East Asia, respectively.

 

·      
BRI-Related Concerns:

·      
Chinese monopoly on the Projects: State-owned
Chinese organisations and businesses account for the majority of BRI
investments.

·      
Additionally, state-owned Chinese companies
received 93% of the contracts.

·      
The host countries or other companies hardly
have any obligations.

·      
Chinese monopoly on infrastructure building and
funding has increased corruption and reduced competition.

·      
The lack of participation by the business sector
leaves the programme without a competitive element.

·      
Lack of Openness and Environmental Issues: The
debt trap diplomacy, the lack of transparency, and the onerous loan criteria
make this programme highly contentious.

·      
At least 236 BRI projects have been impacted by
the debt-related problem.

·      
Because of the dumping of steel and cement,
environmental concerns have been raised.

·      
BRI—A Formula For Complete Failure: Even though
it was not economically possible for the countries, China sold the majority of
its connectivity projects to other countries who looked to China for the
success of its economic model in infrastructure projects and tried to follow in
its footsteps.

·      
Furthermore, due to overcommitting, China is no
longer able to finance the aid programme.

·      
The future of projects that were started but
never finished is still unknown.

·      
More than 35% of the projects in the portfolio
are still in the implementation stage.

·      
Recipient-Country Response: African, Asian,
Latin American, Central and Eastern European, and other countries are now
rejecting China’s BRI in greater numbers.

·      
Policymakers in a number of nations have decided
to halt high-profile BRI projects, while many others have opted to reconsider
whether the benefits of BRI membership outweigh the risks.

 

·      
Global responses to BRI:

·      
The G7 nations presented the “Build Back
Better World (B3W) project” at the 47th G7 summit in response to China’s
BRI.

·      
It makes an effort to close the investment gap
in infrastructure that exists in emerging and low-income countries, a market
that China has been intruding on more and more.

·      
The Blue Dot Network (BDN), a multi-stakeholder
project, was established by the US, Japan, and Australia to bring together
governments, business, and civil society to support trustworthy, high-quality
standards for global infrastructure development.

·      
BDN was publicly unveiled at the 2019
Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Bangkok, Thailand.

·      
Global Gateway: In an effort to compete with
BRI, the European Union has revealed the Global Gateway, a new infrastructure
development plan.

 

·      
India’s concerns:

·      
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),
which passes through Baluchistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), two areas
with protracted insurgencies and significant security risks, puts India’s
strategic interests in jeopardy.

·      
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),
which might possibly boost Pakistan’s legitimacy in the Kashmir conflict, would
affect India’s strategic objectives in the South Asian area.

·      
India’s position as Afghanistan’s economic,
security, and strategic partner may also be harmed by efforts to extend CPEC
into Afghanistan.

·      
The Subcontinent’s Strategic Rise of China China
is also constructing the CNEC, which will connect Tibet and Nepal, in addition
to the CPEC and the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC).

·      
The project’s endpoints will touch the
boundaries of the Gangetic plain.

·      
Thus, three pathways symbolise China’s strategic
and economic rise on the Indian subcontinent.

 

·      
How to Proceed:

·      
Alternative participatory projects must be
launched by more developed nations while taking into account the interests of
the host/recipient countries.

·      
If there is no relationship with the host
country, the project’s success is not certain.

·      
Alternative Funding Sources: For these
connectivity projects, it’s crucial to take into account alternative funding
sources. The larger nations will need to do more.

·      
More renowned financial institutions will also
be asked to provide assistance in these issues.

·      
India’s Position India will need to work with
its regional friends to provide its neighbours with additional connectivity
alternatives.

·      
More and more people are realising that
connectivity can be used to influence foreign policy.

·      
China will have a new area in which to compete
geopolitically in South Asia and the Indian Ocean as a result of India taking
the initiative to expand connectivity.

·      
Thanks to connectivity, India has a potential to
retake the top rank in the region.

·      
Collaboration with Like-Minded Nations: India’s
ability to operate alone is limited in South Asia and the larger Indian Ocean.

·      
It periodically needs help from countries like
Japan to construct and modernise its infrastructure and create alternatives to
connectivity corridors and infrastructure projects spearheaded by China.

·      
Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom,
and the United States are among the technologically advanced countries with
some presence in the region.

·      
India must acknowledge and utilise the
advantages that each of these nations has to offer if it is to collaborate in
areas of mutual interest and realise its objectives for strategic
connectedness.

 

·      
Conclusion:

·      
In order to promote and protect its own
interests, China has established a network of investments, and as a result,
many low- and middle-income countries are now severely indebted.

·      
There are ways to deal with it, but no one
country can proactively provide a BRI replacement. The larger and more powerful
economies, however, can work together to find a solution.

 

Source à
The Indian Express