Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Contrasting India and China's engagement with West Asia
The article draws parallels in the past in India and China’s engagement with West Asia and contrasts it with the present approach adopted by China in dealing with the region.
Strategic autonomy
- According to a former Foreign Secretary of India, Vijay Gokhale, the ideation of ‘strategic autonomy’ is much different from the Nehruvian era thinking of ‘non-alignment’.
- Speaking in January 2019, Mr. Gokhale said: “The alignment is issue based, and not ideological.”
India’s engagement with West Asia
- Pre-dating 2020, India’s outreach to West Asia sharpened since 2014.
- Oil-rich Gulf states looked at India as investment alternative away from the West to deepen their own strategic depth.
- India also doubled down on its relations with the likes of Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, giving open economic and political preference to the larger Gulf region.
- While engagements with Israel moved steadily forward, Iran lagged behind, constrained by U.S. sanctions, which in turn significantly slowed the pace of India-Iran engagements.
China’s engagement with West Asia
- China’s overtures have been steadily more adventurous as it realises two major shifts that have taken place in West Asia.
- First, the thinking in the Gulf that the American security safety net is not absolute.
- Second, the Gulf economies such as Saudi Arabia, even though trying to shift away from petro dollar, will still need growing markets to sell oil to in the coming decade as they reform their economic systems.
- The obvious two markets here are China and India.
Similarity in India and China’s approach to West Asia
- Both India and China employed similar versions of ‘non-alignment’ thinking is in West Asia based on equitable engagement with the three poles of power in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Israel.
- Both countries did it without getting involved into the region’s multi-layered conflicts and political fissures.
- However, deteriorating U.S.-China ties, the COVID-19 pandemic that started in China, followed by the Ladakh crisis, is forcing a drastic change in the geopolitical playbooks of the two Asian giants, and, by association, global security architectures as well.
Changing approach of China
- A report in September shone a light on a $400 billion, 25-year understanding between Iran and China, with Beijing taking advantage of abandonment of the Iran nuclear deal.
- China is no longer happy with a passive role in West Asia, and through concepts such as “negative peace” and “peace through development”.
- In concert with tools such as the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing is now ready to offer an alternative model for “investment and influence”.
- It remains to be seen, however, how China balances itself between the poles of power while backing one so aggressively.
Stability of the region and opportunity for India
- From India’s perspective, the overt outreach to the Gulf and the ensuing announcements of multi-billion-dollar investments on Indian shores by entities from Saudi Arabia and the UAE is only New Delhi recognising the economic realities of the region.
- Despite entanglements in the Yemen war and general tensions between the Gulf states and Iran, the likes of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and so on have maintained relatively strong and stable economic progression.
- Israel’s recent peace accords with the UAE and Bahrain add much further weight towards a more stable Gulf region — the caveats withstanding that the operationalisation of the accords is smooth and long-lasting.
Consider the question “Despite turbulence in the region, India’s engagement with West Asia has always been characterised by non-alignment and ethos of equitable engagement. In light of this, elaborate on India’s approach to the region and region’s importance for India.”
Conclusion
While in the recent past, the Indo-Pacific, with the development of the Quad, has taken centre stage, other geographies such as West Asia have also started to showcase bolder examples of New Delhi and Beijing’s metamorphosing approaches towards the international arena.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-US relations
Changing geopolitical factors have accelerated further the deepening of India-US ties. The article analyses the current circumstances and evolution of the bilateral relations.
Background against which 2+2 dialogue taking place
- The 2+2 dialogue between India and the United States in Delhi this week marks an important moment in bilateral relations.
- The 2+2 dialogue comes just three weeks after the foreign ministers of the Quad — or the Quadrilateral Security Framework — met in Tokyo.
- It also takes place amidst a profound structural shift in great power politics as well as turbulence in the international economic order intensified by the coronavirus pandemic.
- The dialogue follows India’s first-ever participation in a meeting of the exclusive Five Eyes grouping that facilitates intelligence-sharing among the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand.
- A few days ago, Delhi announced the much-awaited expansion of the annual Malabar exercises to include Australia.
Background of the past engagements
- Signing the historic civil nuclear initiative ended India’s prolonged atomic isolation in the world laid the outline of a broader framework for security cooperation.
- Due to the deep divisions within the national security establishment, the leadership and some political constraints faced by the government, the coalition broke up.
- The focus was on keeping visible distance from the US in the name of non-alignment, strategic autonomy, and the quest for a multipolar world.
- The relationship survived those years, thanks to the US’s perseverance.
3 Factors responsible for rapid progress in the US-India ties
1) Chines aggression on northern border
- The huge military crisis on the northern borders with China that is well into the sixth month is the first factor.
- In the past, India avoided closer security ties with the US in deference to Beijing’s sensitivities.
- In contrast, the government now has refused to pay heed to Chinese sensitivities over its policy on security cooperation with the US.
2) Disruption caused by the corona pandemic
- The coronavirus has sharpened the US debate on the dangers of excessive economic interdependence on China.
- Meanwhile, India has begun to reduce its commercial ties to Beijing in response to the PLA’s Ladakh aggression.
- This has created the conditions for a new conversation between India and the US on rearranging global supply chains away from China.
- So, the Quad Plus conversations have drawn in Brazil, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam with a view to rearrange the global supply chain.
3) Focus on critical technologies
- Third factor is critical technologies like artificial intelligence that promise to transform most aspects of modern life — including security, political economy and social order.
- Delhi and Washington are now focused on finding ways to collaborate on the critical technologies of the 21st century and work with their partners in setting new global rules for managing them.
Conclusion
As the regional and global order faces multiple transitions, the incentives for Delhi and Washington to sustain and advance India-US partnership are stronger than ever before and will continue into the next administration.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Transparent and accessible judicial proceedings
Attorney General of India has pushed for live-streaming court proceedings to make hearings accessible to all. But CJI sounded a cautionary note, saying it was susceptible to “abuses.”
Why such demands?
- In a first in India, the Gujarat High Court has begun live streaming of Court Proceedings on YouTube.
- The issue of live-streaming came up as a Special Bench led by the CJI was taking stock of the virtual court system initiated soon after the pandemic lockdown.
Live-streaming of Court
- Justice Chandrachud was one of the three judges on the Bench that gave the verdict on live-streaming in September 2018.
- In fact, he had noted in his separate opinion that live-streaming of proceedings would be the true realization of the “open court system.”
- His suggestions were later adopted as guidelines in the September 2018 judgment.
Why there should be live-streaming?
- Improved accountability: Live-streaming of court proceedings would serve as an instrument for greater accountability and formed part of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
- Living up the expectation of Constitution: Live Streaming of Court proceedings is manifested in public interest. Public interest has always been preserved through the Constitution article 19 and 21
- Empowering the masses: It will enable the legal system to deliver on its promise of empowering the masses.
- More transparency: It will encourage the principle of open court and reduce dependence on second-hand views. It will effectuate the public’s right to know.
- This would inspire confidence in the functioning of the judiciary as an institution and help maintain the respect that it deserved as a co-equal organ of the state.
- Academic help: Live streaming may also be a help for academic purposes.
Issues with live-courts
The Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) of the Department of Personnel, Public Grievances and Law and Justice have tabled its report on the functioning of Virtual Courts and Digitization of Justice Delivery in Parliament.
Following are the four key considerations and recommendations of the committee as far as mainstreaming of virtual courts is concerned:
(1) The question of access:
- A large number of litigants and advocates lack internet connectivity and requisite infrastructure and means to participate in virtual hearings and the process. This has serious implications.
- The obvious one being that a large chunk of our citizenry is vulnerable to being excluded from the process of justice delivery owing to factors beyond their control.
- The committee also opined that the judiciary considers solutions such as mobile video conferencing facilities to allow for meaningful participation from those living in remote geographies.
(2) The degree of comfort:
- A highly underrated but equally consequential factor is whether everyone, even if access to reliable internet connectivity is universal, is comfortable and well versed with the new tools and mediums of justice delivery.
- Big, well-to-do law firms and advocates in urban areas would face no issues as compared to those participants in rural areas given the digital divide.
(3) The idea of open courts itself:
- Virtual courts allegedly threaten the constitutionality of Court proceedings and undermine the importance of Rule of law which forms a part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
- Expressing concern over the opaqueness of such hearings, critics state that virtual courts are antithetical to the open court system given the limited access that they allow for.
(4) The question of Privacy and Data Security:
- This is where the report makes some interesting and innovative suggestions vital to the performance of any digital justice delivery mechanism.
- It also took note of the fact that most virtual court proceedings in India currently take place using third-party software or platforms and a few of them have already been rejected earlier on grounds of being unsafe to use.
- The committee noted how courts across the world have had instances of intrusion and data privacy or security concerns while adapting to an entirely virtual mode of conducting hearings.
Still, digital records are necessary
- Litigants depend on the information provided by lawyers about what has transpired during the course of hearings.
- When the description of cases is accurate and comprehensive; it serves the course of open justice.
- Again, if a report on a judicial hearing is inaccurate, it impedes the public’s right to know.
Best examples
- Internationally, constitutional court proceedings are recorded in some form or the other.
- In Australia, proceedings are recorded and posted on the high court’s website.
- Proceedings of the Supreme Courts of Brazil, Canada, England and Germany are broadcast live.
- The Supreme Court of the US does not permit video recording, but oral arguments are recorded, transcribed, and available publicly.
- And democracies aside, in China, court proceedings are live-streamed from trial courts up to the Supreme People’s Court of China.
Significance of open-courts
- India stands alone amongst leading constitutional democracies in not maintaining audio or video recordings or even a transcript of court proceedings.
- Court hearings can be turning points in the life of a nation: ADM Jabalpur comes readily to mind. More recently, there is any number of cases where the Supreme Court’s judgments have changed citizens’ lives.
- Ayodhya, Aadhaar, Section 377, Sabarimala, NRC and the triple talaq judgments are among them.
Various moves for accessibility
- Over the last few years, the Supreme Court has taken steps to make justice more accessible. The Court started providing vernacular translations of its judgments.
- Non-accredited journalists were permitted to live-tweet court proceedings. During the lockdown, journalists have been permitted to view virtual court proceedings in real-time.
Way forward
- There should be live-streaming cases of constitutional and national importance as a pilot project, including Constitution Bench cases.
- Matrimonial cases and those involving national security could be excluded.
- There must be a reasonable time-delay (say 10 minutes) between the live court proceedings and the broadcast to ensure any information which ought not to be shown, as directed by the court, can be edited from being broadcast.
- The judiciary must also employ a press officer to liaise with the media, and issue simultaneously one or two page summaries of its judgments to facilitate greater public understanding.
- There has to be a greater reliance on written briefs and the significance accorded to them, time limits for oral arguments, and a greater emphasis on preparation in advance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Plasma therapy
Mains level: Efficacy of the plasma therapy
Recently published findings on convalescent plasma therapy on Covid-19 patients have triggered a debate over its efficacy.
Plasma Therapy
- Plasma is the liquid part of the blood. Convalescent plasma, extracted from the blood of patients recovering from an infection, is a source of antibodies against the infection.
- The therapy involves using their plasma to help others recover. For Covid-19, this has been one of the treatment options.
- The donor would have to be a documented case of Covid-19 and healthy for 28 days since the last symptoms.
How is it done?
- The process to infuse plasma in a patient can be completed quickly.
- It only requires standard blood collection practices, and extraction of plasma.
- If whole blood is donated (350-450 ml), a blood fractionation process is used to separate the plasma.
- Otherwise, a special machine called aphaeresis machine can be used to extract the plasma directly from the donor.
- While blood is indeed extracted from the donor, the aphaeresis machine separates and extracts the plasma using a plasma kit, and the remaining blood components are returned into the donor’s body.
WHO’s guidelines
- WHO guidelines in 2014 mandate a donor’s permission before extracting plasma.
- Plasma from only recovered patients must be taken, and donation must be done from people not infected with HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, or any infectious disease.
- If whole blood is collected, the plasma is separated by sedimentation or centrifugation, then injected in the patient.
- If plasma needs to be collected again from the same person, it must be done after 12 weeks of the first donation for males and 16 weeks for females, the WHO guidelines state.
What has happened to spark the debate?
- An ICMR study has found convalescent plasma was not associated with a reduction in progression to severe Covid-19 or all-cause mortality.
- While the use of this therapy seemed to improve the resolution of shortness of breath and fatigue in patients with moderate Covid-19, this did not translate into a reduction in 28-day mortality or progression to severe disease.
- Progression to severe disease or death at 28 days after enrolment occurred in 44 (19%) of the participants in the intervention arm as compared to 41 (18%) in the control arm.
What happens if ICMR does remove the therapy from its guidelines?
- The authorisation of convalescent plasma as a treatment for Covid-19 in India has led to questionable practices such as calls for donors on social media, and the sale of convalescent plasma on the black market.
- The ICMR has been cautious because of the trial findings.
- However, those guidelines are not necessarily binding and it is too early to dismiss convalescent plasma therapy. But there are other issues.
- The therapy involves resource-intensive processes such as plasmapheresis, plasma storage, and measurement of neutralizing antibodies.
Way ahead
- This is a new virus, and around the world, the evidence is still emerging on the best therapeutic options.
- Covid care is individualized care. Use of the right medication on the right patient does work.
- Some of the therapies can be continued on compassionate grounds.
- However, the potential harms of the non-immune components of convalescent plasma should be rigorously investigated.
- Only donor plasma with detectable titers of neutralizing antibodies should be given to trial participants, to ensure that the potential for benefit exists for all intervention arm patients.
Try this question:
Q.What is convalescent plasma therapy? Discuss its efficacy and limitations for COVID-19 treatment.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bundi architecture
Mains level: Not Much
A recent episode of the Ministry of Tourism’s Dekho Apna Desh Webinar series has focused on the architectural heritage of Bundi, Rajasthan.
Try this PYQ:
Q.With reference to Dhrupad, one of the major traditions of India that has been kept alive for centuries, which of the following statements are correct?
- Dhrupad originated and developed in the Rajput kingdoms during the Mughal period.
- Dhrupad is primarily a piece of devotional and spiritual music.
- Dhrupad Alap uses Sanskrit syllables from Mantras.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1, 2 and 3
(d) None of the above
About Bundi
- Bundi erstwhile capital of Hada Rajput province known as Hadauti located in south-eastern Rajasthan is one such place.
- Bundi is also known as City of step walls, blue city and also as Chotti Kashi.
- In ancient times, the area around Bundi was apparently inhabited by various local tribes, of which the Parihar Tribes, Meena was prominent.
- Later the region was governed by Rao Deva, who took over Bundi from Jaita Meena in 1242, renaming the surrounding area as Haravati or Haroti.
- For the next two centuries, the Hadas of Bundi were the vassals of the Sisodias of Mewar and ruled by the title of Rao until 1569, after Emperor Akbar.
Important architecture
- The City of Bundi grew outwards Taragarh hill. A small habitat developed at the foothills of the fort itself.
- The location of the royal palace was on a steep slope overlooking the valley below, providing a view of the vast surrounding hinterland.
- Garh Mahal became the focus and an imposing landmark on the skyline of Bundi was visible from the valley below. In the next 200 years, the entire cluster was built.
- The best example of medieval Indian city exhibiting water harvesting methods adopted at settlement level as well as the finest examples of water architecture.
- Location of Baoris and Kunds outside the walled city was also influenced by social considerations as access to baoris and kunds were located within the walled city was controlled.
Architectural heritage of Bundi can be classified as:
1) Garh (Fort): Taragarh
2) Garh Mahal (Royal Palace)
- Bhoj Mahal
- Chattar Mahal
- Ummed Mahal
3) Baori (Step well)
- Khoj Darwaja ki Baori
- Bhawaldi Baori
4) Kund (Stepped tank)
- Dhabhai ji ka Kund
- Nagar Kund & Sagar Kund
- Rani Kund
5) Sagar mahal (Lake Palace)
- Moti Mahal
- Sukh Mahal
- Shikar Burj
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Echinops Sahyadricus
Mains level: Not Much
Researchers have discovered a new species of Echinops Sahyadricus (Sahyadri Globe Thistle) from the Rajgad Fort in the Sahyadri Mountains.
Echinops Sahyadricus
- Echinops is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plants found in tropical and North Africa, the Mediterranean basin and West Asia, extending eastwards to China and Japan.
- The highest number of taxa (76) is concentrated in the Iranian plateau. Five species are found in India including two in Maharashtra.
- The new species is unique because of the size of its composite inflorescence which measures up to 9 cm in diameter that is relatively large compared to other Echinops species found around the world.
- It grows vegetative on open grassy slopes of mountains in four months of monsoon and blooms in November. Fruiting can be seen in December.
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