Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Section 124-A issue
Is the government entitled to the love and affection of the citizens? Answer to this question lies in the Kedar Nath judgment recently invoked by the Supreme Court in a case against a journalist. The article deals with this issue.
About the Kedar Nath judgement
- A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court observed that every journalist is entitled to the protection under the Kedar Nath judgment (1962) on the petition filed by journalist Vinod Dua.
- The court entertained Dua’s writ petition under Article 32.
- In the Kedar Nath judgement, the apex court had held that a citizen has the right to say or write whatever he likes about the government or its measures by way of criticism so long as he does not incite people to violence against the government or with the intention of creating public disorder.
- Section 124A read along with explanations is not attracted without such an allusion to violence.
Increasing use of the sedition law
- NCRB data shows that between 2016 to 2019, there has been a whopping 160 per cent increase in the filing of sedition charges with a conviction rate of just 3.3 per cent.
- Of the 96 people charged in 2019, only two could be convicted.
- A number of CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protesters are facing sedition charges.
Background of Section 124-A
- Section 124-A was not a part of the original Indian Penal Code drafted by Lord Macaulay and treason was confined just to levying war.
- It was inserted in 1870 in response to the Wahabi movement that had asked Muslims to initiate jihad against the colonial regime.
- It was argued that Wahabis are going from village to village and preaching that it was the sacred religious duty of Muslims to wage a war against British rule.
Way forward
- In 2018, the Law Commission had recommended that the sedition law should not be used to curb free speech.
- Let the criminal law revision committee working under the Ministry of Home Affairs make the bold recommendation of dropping the draconian law.
- A political consensus needs to be forged on this issue.
Conclusion
No government, as Mahatma Gandhi told Judge R S Broomfield, has a right to love and affection and people in a free country committed to the liberty of thought and freedom of expression should not be criminally punished for expressing their opinion about the government.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: COVAX
Mains level: Paper 2- Dealing with the vaccine inequality
Why vaccination gap is cause of worry
- By the end of May 2021, only 2.1% of Africans had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
- A widely vaccinated world population is the only way to end the pandemic; otherwise, the multiplication of variants is likely to undermine the effectiveness of existing vaccines.
- Vaccination is also a prerequisite for lifting the restrictions that are holding back our economies and freedoms.
- If the vaccination gap persists, it risks reversing the trend in recent decades of declining poverty and global inequalities.
- Such a negative dynamic would hold back economic activity and increase geopolitical tensions.
- The cost of inaction would for sure be much higher for advanced economies than what we collectively would have to spend to help vaccinate the whole world.
- The International Monetary Fund has proposed $50 billion plan in order to be able to vaccinate 40% of the world population in 2021 and 60% by mid-2022.
Need to resist the vaccine nationalism
- To achieve the goal set by IMF, we need closely coordinated multilateral action.
- We must resist the threat posed by linking the provision of vaccines to political goals and vaccine nationalism.
- The EU has been vaccinating its own population, while exporting large volumes of vaccines and contributing substantially to the vaccines roll-out in low-income countries.
- The EU has also exported 240 million doses to 90 countries, which is about as much as used within the EU.
- One-third of all COVAX doses delivered so far have been financed by the EU.
- India’s Vaccine Maitri is another example of global solidarity.
- However, this effort is still far from sufficient to prevent the vaccination gap from widening.
Way forward
- To fill widening vaccination gap, countries with the required knowledge and means should increase their production capacities, so that they can both vaccinate their own populations and export more vaccines.
- All countries must avoid restrictive measures that affect vaccine supply chains.
- We also need to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology, so that more countries can produce vaccines.
- Voluntary licensing is the privileged way to ensure such transfer of technology and know-how.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that health is a global public good. Our common global COVID-19 vaccine action to close the vaccination gap must be the first step toward genuine global health cooperation, as foreseen by the Rome Declaration recently adopted at the Global Health Summit.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-Bangladesh relations
The article highlights the need for Indian leaders to respect the sentiments of Bangladesh by avoiding adverse comments during elections and recognition of Bangladesh’s importance for India.
Diplomacy with Bangladesh
- Long-standing bilateral problems: As a neighbour nearly surrounded on all territorial sides by India, there are the inevitable bilateral problems of long duration.
- Such problems include a perennially favourable balance of trade for India, drought and flood in the 54 transboundary rivers flowing from India to Bangladesh, and the smuggling of goods and vulnerable human beings across the approximately 4,100 kilometre land border.
- Cultural ties with India: There are several sections who regard their Bengali roots and traditions as being of equal validity as their religious affiliation, and treasure the linguistic and cultural ties with adjacent India.
- India’s expectations: For India’s attentions and support, India’s expectations are that a neighbour will keep India’s concerns in mind when devising and pursuing its policies.
Steps taken to consolidate the bilateral ties
- Bangladesh has successfully dealt with Muslim fundamentalist terrorists.
- Bangladesh has also controlled the Northeast militant movements sheltering in Bangladesh.
- This has facilitated the pacification of India’s Northeast.
- Bangladesh facilitated a considerable degree of connectivity between India and its Northeast by land, river and the use of Bangladeshi ports.
- Indian investments in Bangladesh have been encouraged.
- There are at least 100,000 Indian nationals now living and working in that country.
- For economic integration along with free movement of commerce and capital, the movement of persons on the lines of Nepal and Bhutan will have to be considered.
Consider the question “To a certain degree both India and Bangladesh depend on each other for security and stability. In light of this, take an overview of the consolidation of the bilateral ties between the two countries and discuss the issues that need to be addressed between the two countries.”
Conclusion
Responsible individuals on both sides of the border, whether in government or the Opposition, must be actively discouraged from words and actions detrimental to the consolidation of the existing cordiality.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Freedom of Speech
Mains level: Kedarnath Singh Guidelines
The Supreme Court has quashed the case of sedition filed against a journalist in Himachal Pradesh for allegedly making remarks against PM and the government’s handling of the migrant crisis during the Covid-19 lockdown last year.
What is the story?
- In a video, the journalist had criticized PM Modi and the Centre for the handling of the migrant crisis last year.
- A sedition case was filed against him under Section 124A of the IPC which penalizes sedition as punishable with either imprisonment ranging from three years to a lifetime, a fine, or both.
- He was charged for spreading misinformation or incorrect information and cause panic in the perception of the general public.
What has the court ruled?
- The case was quashed by SC. It held that his remarks constituted genuine criticism of the government and could not be labeled seditious.
- In doing so, the court also reiterated the principles in the landmark case on sedition — Kedar Nath Singh v Union of India (1962).
What are the Kedar Nath Singh guidelines?
- In the landmark 1962 Kedar Nath Singh case, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the sedition law, it attempted to restrict its scope for misuse.
- The court held that unless accompanied by incitement or call for violence, criticism of the government cannot be labeled sedition.
Seven principles in the Kedar Nath Singh ruling specify situations in which the charge of sedition cannot be applied:
- The expression “ ‘the Government established by law’ has to be distinguished from the persons for the time being engaged in carrying on the administration. ‘Government established by law’ is the visible symbol of the State. The very existence of the State will be in jeopardy if the Government established by law is subverted.”
- The effect of subverting the Government by bringing that Government into contempt or hatred, or creating disaffection against it, would be within the penal statute because the feeling of disloyalty to the Government established by law or enmity to it imports the idea of a tendency to public disorder by the use of actual violence or incitement to violence.
- Comments, however strongly worded, expressing disapprobation of actions of the Government, without exciting those feelings which generate the inclination to cause public disorder by acts of violence, would not be penal.
- A citizen has a right to say or write whatever he likes about the Government, or its measures, by way of criticism or comment, so long as he does not incite people to violence against the Government established by law or with the intention of creating public disorder.
- The provisions of the Sections read as a whole, along with the explanations, make it reasonably clear that the sections aim at rendering penal only such activities as would be intended, or have a tendency, to create disorder or disturbance of public peace by resort to violence.
- It is only when the words, written or spoken, etc. which have the pernicious tendency or intention of creating public disorder or disturbance of law and order that the law steps in to prevent such activities in the interest of public order.
- The court proposed to limit its operation only to such activities as come within the ambit of the observations of the Federal Court, that is to say, activities involving incitement to violence or intention or tendency to create public disorder or cause disturbance of public peace.
What has been the impact of that verdict?
- The significance of the verdict lies in the Supreme Court’s subsequent reiteration of the Kedar Nath Singh principles.
- A fresh constitutional challenge by two journalists against the sedition law pending before the Supreme Court, and the ruling in Dua’s case, make a strong case against keeping the colonial law in the books.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cooperative Banks
Mains level: Regulations of cooperative banks
Maharashtra government has approved a plan to set up a task force to prepare an action plan against a recent change in the law that has brought cooperative banks under the supervision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
What are Cooperative Banks?
- Co-operative banks are financial entities established on a cooperative basis and belonging to their members.
- This means that the customers of a cooperative bank are also its owners.
- These banks provide a wide range of regular banking and financial services. However, there are some points where they differ from other banks.
- They came into being with the aim to promote saving and investment habits among people, especially in rural parts of the country.
Structure of co-operative banks in India
- Broadly, cooperative banks in India are divided into two categories – urban and rural.
- Rural cooperative credit institutions could either be short-term or long-term in nature.
- Further, short-term cooperative credit institutions are further sub-divided into State Co-operative Banks, District Central Co-operative Banks, Primary Agricultural Credit Societies.
- Meanwhile, the long-term institutions are either State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (SCARDBs) or Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (PCARDBs).
- On the other hand, Urban Co-operative Banks (UBBs) are either scheduled or non-scheduled.
Who oversees these banks?
- In India, cooperative banks are registered under the States Cooperative Societies Act.
- They also come under the regulatory ambit of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under two laws, namely, the Banking Regulations Act, 1949, and the Banking Laws (Co-operative Societies) Act, 1955.
- They were brought under the RBI’s watch in 1966, a move that brought the problem of dual regulation along with it.
Now answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- In terms of short-term credit delivery to the agriculture sector, District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCB) delivers more credit in comparison to Scheduled Commercial Banks and Regional Rural Banks.
- One of the most important functions of DCCBs is to provide funds to the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies.
Which of the statements given above is / are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
How has The Banking Regulation Act been amended?
- Cooperative banks have long been under dual regulation by the state Registrar of Societies and the RBI.
- As a result, these banks have escaped scrutiny despite failures and frauds.
- The changes to The Banking Regulation Act approved by Parliament in September 2020, brought cooperative banks under the direct supervision of the RBI.
Changes brought
- The amended law has given RBI the power to supersede the board of directors of cooperative banks after consultations with the concerned state government.
- Earlier, it could issue such directions only to multi-state cooperative banks.
- Also, urban cooperative banks will now be treated on a par with commercial banks.
- And a cooperative bank can, with prior approval of the RBI, issue equity shares, preference shares, or special shares to its members or to any other person residing within its area of operation, by way of public issue or private placements.
- It can also issue unsecured debentures or bonds with a maturity of not less than 10 years.
- This essentially means non-members can become shareholders of the bank, and this will allow the RBI to merge failing banks quickly.
What triggered the need for the changes in the law?
- India has some 1,540 urban cooperative banks, with a depositor base of 8.6 crore and deposits of at least Rs 5 lakh crore.
- Finance Minister told Lok Sabha last year that the financial status of at least 277 urban cooperative banks was weak, and around 105 cooperative banks were unable to meet the minimum regulatory capital requirement.
- According to RBI’s latest financial stability report, the gross non-performing asset ratio of urban cooperative banks deteriorated from 9.89 percent in March 2020 to 10.36 percent in September 2020.
- Not only do these banks have high levels of bad loans, they also have a small capital base — something that the changes in the law have tried to address by allowing these banks to issue shares with RBI’s approval.
- Political interference in staff appointments is also a problem with these banks, which has added to inefficiencies.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MGNREGA
Mains level: MGNREGA
The Centre has asked the States to split wage payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme into separate categories for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and others from this financial year.
What is MGNREGA?
- The MGNREGA stands for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005.
- This is a labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘Right to Work’.
- The act was first proposed in 1991 by P.V. Narasimha Rao.
The objectives of the MGNREGA are:
- To enhance the livelihood security of the rural poor by generating wage employment opportunities.
- To create a rural asset base that would enhance productive ways of employment, augment and sustain a rural household income.
What is so unique about it?
- MGNREGA is unique in not only ensuring at least 100 days of employment to the willing unskilled workers, but also in ensuring an enforceable commitment on the implementing machinery i.e., the State Governments, and providing a bargaining power to the labourers.
- The failure of provision for employment within 15 days of the receipt of job application from a prospective household will result in the payment of unemployment allowance to the job seekers.
- Any Indian citizen above the age of 18 years who resides in rural India can apply for the NREGA scheme. The applicant should have volunteered to do unskilled work.
- Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant’s residence, and minimum wages are to be paid.
- Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.Among the following who are eligible to benefit from the “Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee act”?
(a) Adult members of only the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe households.
(b) Adult members of below poverty line (BPL) households.
(c) Adult members of households of all backward communities.
(d) Adult members of any household.
What is the move?
- States were asked to verify if job cards for SC and ST beneficiaries were being properly allocated at the field level.
- They were told they would be given fund allocations according to this criterion, indicating that labour budgets would also be segregated on a caste basis.
- It was aimed at timely wage payments.
Reasons behind
- There is some inbuilt positive discrimination in the scheme, reflected in the fact that more than 50% of workers are women and almost 40% are SC/ST.
- However, it felt that the proposed reform would not help SC/ST workers, but would expose all workers to further uncertainties as the system struggles with changes.
Issues with the announcement
- Workers’ advocates feared this move would cause unnecessary delays and complications in the payment system, and worried that it could lead to a reduction in scheme funding.
- The rationale was very simple. It is not as if the payments made to SC and ST are not reported on the NREGA website, but overall, in terms of the budgetary outlay.
- When people take an assessment merely on the Budget head under which the programme is budgeted, then they miss out on this intricate nuance.
- So the Finance Ministry advised that both the Centre and States should make Budget provisions under SC and ST components as well.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SCO
Mains level: India-SCO cooperation
The Union Cabinet has accorded an ex post facto approval for signing and ratifying an agreement on cooperation in the field of mass media between all member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Highlights of the Agreement
- The agreement, which was signed in June 2019, would provide an opportunity for the member states to share best practices and new innovations in the field of mass media.
- It aims to promote equal and mutually beneficial cooperation among associations in the field of mass media.
- The main areas of cooperation in the agreement are the creation of favorable conditions for the wide and mutual distribution of information through mass media in order to further deepen the knowledge about the lives of the peoples of their states.
- It will assist in broadcasting television and radio programmer and those, distributed legally within the territory of the state of the other side.
What is SCO?
- After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the then security and economic architecture in the Eurasian region dissolved and new structures had to come up.
- The original Shanghai Five were China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
- The SCO was formed in 2001, with Uzbekistan included. It expanded in 2017 to include India and Pakistan.
- Since its formation, the SCO has focused on regional non-traditional security, with counter-terrorism as a priority.
- The fight against the “three evils” of terrorism, separatism and extremism has become its mantra. Today, areas of cooperation include themes such as economics and culture.
Try this PYQ now:
Q. In the context of the affairs of which of the following is the phrase “Special Safeguard Mechanisms” mentioned in the news frequently?
(a) United Nations Environment Programme
(b) World Trade Organization
(c) ASEAN- India Free Trade Agreement
(d) G-20 Summits
India’s entry to the SCO
- India and Pakistan both were observer countries.
- While Central Asian countries and China were not in favor of expansion initially, the main supporter — of India’s entry in particular — was Russia.
- A widely held view is that Russia’s growing unease about an increasingly powerful China prompted it to push for its expansion.
- From 2009 onwards, Russia officially supported India’s ambition to join the SCO. China then asked for its all-weather friend Pakistan’s entry.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EAGLE Act
Mains level: US Visa policies and its impact for Indians
Legislation to remove the per-country cap on permanent residency visas, or green cards, for the US has been introduced in the House of Representatives.
What is the EAGLE Act?
- Eagle stands for Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act, 2021.
- The act seeks to phase out the seven percent per-country limit on employment-based immigrant visas and raises the per-country limit on family-sponsored visas from seven percent to 15 percent.
- It provides for a nine-year period for the elimination of this limit.
- The seven percent limit was introduced in the mid-20th century, which has led countries with relatively small populations to be allocated the same number of visas as a relatively large-population country.
Benefits of the act
- It will benefit the US economy by allowing American employers to focus on hiring immigrants based on their merit, not their birthplace.
- The bill will be advantageous for Indian job-seekers who currently rely on temporary visas or await green cards to work in the US.
How does it help Indians?
- 75 percent of the backlog for employment‐based visas was made up of Indians.
- Backlogged Indian workers face an impossible wait of nine decades if they all could remain in the line.
- More than 200,000 petitions filed for Indians could expire as a result of the workers dying of old age before they receive green cards.
- With the EAGLE Act, the per-country cap would be removed, which may expedite the petitions for those applying for employment-based green cards.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pandav leni complex
Mains level: Ancient buddhist cave architecture
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has found three more caves in the Trirashmi Buddhist cave complex, also known as Pandav Leni, near Nashik, Maharashtra.
Answer this PYQ first, in the comment box:
Q.There are only two known examples of cave paintings of the Gupta period in ancient India. One of these is paintings of Ajanta caves. Where is the other surviving example of Gupta paintings?
(a) Bagh caves
(b) Ellora caves
(c) Lomas Rishi cave
(d) Nasik caves
Pandav Leni Complex
- The Pandav Leni Complex or Nasik Caves are a group of 23 caves carved between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd century CE.
- Also called Trirashmi Buddhist caves, this complex was first documented in 1823 by Captain James Delamaine and is now an ASI- protected site.
- Though additional sculptures were added up to about the 6th century, it is a major landmark of changes in Buddhist devotional practices.
- Most of the caves are viharas except for Cave 18 which is a chaitya of the 1st century BCE.
- The style of some of the elaborate pillars or columns, for example in caves 3 and 10, is an important example of the development of the form.
- The “Pandavleni” name sometimes given to the Nasik Caves has nothing to do with the characters Pandavas, characters in the Mahabharata epic.
- Other caves in the area are Karla Caves, Bhaja Caves, Patan Cave, and Bedse Caves.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2021
Mains level: Unemployment since the pandemic
The report titled World Employment and Social Outlook was recently released by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
About the report
- The report analyses the impact of the crisis on the labour market across the world.
- It offers projections for recovery and gives details of the unequal impact of the crisis on different groups of workers and enterprises and calls for a broad-based human-centred recovery.
Findings of the report
- There has been an unprecedented disruption to labour markets worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected the lives of the younger generation and brought about disruption to their education.
- Also made it more difficult for them to enter the labour market and hold on to their jobs.
- The pandemic worsened long-standing inequalities with many women workers dropping out of the labour force.
- For informal and low-skilled workers, working from home was not an option.
- Many had to face huge health risks to keep their jobs, often with no access to social security benefits.
Major highlights of the report
- Global unemployment is expected to be at 205 million in 2022, surpassing the 2019 level of 187 million.
- The jobs shortfall induced by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic was 75 million in 2021 and is expected to be 23 million in 2022.
- An estimated additional 108 million workers and their family members now live in poverty.
The long road to recovery
- The recovery would remain fragile in many countries due to the uneven rollout of vaccination campaigns and higher levels of public debt and deficits that would make it difficult to tackle the effects of the pandemic.
- There is an urgent need to build back better — create productive employment opportunities and foster long-term labour market prospects for the most vulnerable.
- There is a need to strengthen social protection schemes like the MGNREGS in India and make sure nobody is left behind.
- This would require strong institutions and social dialogue and strong international cooperation to fight global disparities.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now