Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Equality in democracy
Context
The sharp turns away from democracy seen recently in the country must jolt citizens into stopping the descent.
Equality in democracy
- The central edifice of a democracy, or what makes it a revolutionary idea, is equality, or that it accords an equal status to all its people.
- The promise of the far-sighted Indian Constitution was of equal rights to all.
- If any benefit was accorded to smaller groups, religious or linguistic minorities or Dalits, it was in order to achieve substantive equality.
Faith as a differentiator
- The basis of citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, allowing for non-Muslims from three countries to fast-track their citizenship, was the most serious push to introduce religion into citizenship.
- Impact on marital choice: In terms of marital choices, laws in the country in States where the national ruling party holds sway have drawn harsh attention on inter-faith couples.
- The Gujarat law criminalising inter-faith marriages has been called out by the Gujarat High Court.
- But the ordinance introduced in Uttar Pradesh (Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020) is now a law.
- Food has been criminalised: Stringent laws on cattle end up penalising those who have a certain diet, namely beef. The mood in the country created and abetted by people close to the powers that be, has led to lynchings.
- State governments and the Union government have mostly ignored the Supreme Court’s directions in 2018 to set up fast track courts, advice to take steps to stop hate messages on social media, or compensation to victims, or bringing in an anti-mob lynching law.
- Circumscribe where on can reside: The Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act, popularly known as the Disturbed Areas Act, circumscribes where one can reside.
- The act was brought in an atmosphere where there was communal rioting and forced displacement, to ostensibly protect communities from distress sales, the twist accorded to it over the years firmly makes the forced separation of communities. evident.
Hostile environment
- Scholars like Thomas Blom Hansen and Paul Brass have unhesitatingly pointed to the role of violence that has historically been acceptable in Indian society and politics.
- Scholars like Christophe Jaffrelot have pointed out that there will not be a seamless transition to an “ethnic democracy”.
- The Indian nation is one formed on the promise of shared and participatory kinship, which recognised Indian nationalism as being distinct from the faith you practised at home.
- Prioritising any one identity will have disastrous consequences and history provides enough evidence of this.
Conclusion
The mobs read together with actions of the Union government and that of State governments mark a sharp turn away from the democracy India claims it is. That must jolt us into recognising the distance we have already travelled down the wrong path. That may be the first step to try to wrest the descent into the darkness of an apartheid state.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
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 3- Designing technology with public in mind
Context
Despite the push for the adoption of digital technologies, large segments of Indians still can’t access or haven’t learned to trust digital artefacts.
Issue of exclusion
- Recognising the power of technology to drive inclusion at a massive scale, the state is doubling down on technology to reach more citizens and serve them better.
- However, often the paradigm of technology for such services is built around the “elite” citizen, who is comfortable with technology.
- Often, this imagined citizen is male, urban, upper class.
- Large segments of Indians still can’t access or haven’t learned to trust digital artefacts.
- Many among marginalised groups struggle to access digital civic platforms, and instead rely on trusted human intermediaries.
Suggestions to make digital space truly public
1) Design with the citizen
- Encouraging human-centric design, and mandating user-assessments prior to roll out of GovTech platforms should be a key priority.
- This is a shift from the default “build first and then disseminate” approach.
- For example, formative research and human-centric design was informative in the creation of the first UPI payments app, BHIM.
- BHIM’s simple interface and onboarding, use of relatable iconography and multi-language capabilities played an important role in early adoption of UPI among non “digital natives”.
- Similarly, as the “Human Account” project demonstrated, it is possible to start with users in designing pro-poor fintech products, like the “Postman Savings” product which India Post Payments Bank designed for the rural poor.
2) Harness trusted human interface to serve those who are not comfortable with technology
- Local intermediaries, such as formal and informal community leaders and civil society organisations, can play a key role in bridging the digital divide.
- Working with existing networks (for example ASHAs) or carefully setting them up (such as the Andhra Pradesh Ward Secretariat programme), where pre-existing trust, community knowledge, and embeddedness can play a significant role, should be prioritised.
3) Institutionalise an anchor entity that brings together innovators, policy makers and researchers
- Such an entity will help to push the frontier on citizen-centricity in GovTech.
- Such a platform — like the Citizen Lab in Denmark — can play a role in generating formative research.
- Embedding this research in practice by partnering with the government as well as market innovators, and working with civil society organisations to enhance access to GovTech.
Conclusion
As India makes rapid strides in its digitalisation journey, it is timely to invoke Gandhiji’s talisman and ensure that GovTech can serve its highest and greatest purpose, that is, serving those who are last in line.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
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: ONDC Project
Mains level: Read the attached story
The department for the promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) in the ministry of commerce and industry is building an open network for digital commerce (ONDC), designed to curb digital monopolies and standardize the onboarding of retailers on e-commerce sites.
What does the ONDC aim to achieve?
- The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has disrupted the digital payments domain. ONDC seeks to achieve something similar for e-commerce.
- It aims to “democratize” digital commerce, moving it away from platform-centric models like Amazon and Flipkart to an open network.
- ONDC may enable more sellers to be digitally visible. The transactions will be executed through an open network.
- The system may empower merchants and consumers.
- It will eventually touch every business, from retail goods and food to mobility.
How would ONDC work?
- The ONDC is still work in progress and the details are not public.
- But what we know so far is the network may make it easier for a small retailer to be discovered.
A boon for retailers
- Once a retailer lists its products or services using the ONDC’s open protocol, the business can be discovered by consumers on e-commerce platforms that follow the same protocol.
- A consumer searching for the product can see the location of the seller and opt to buy from the neighbourhood shop that can deliver faster compared to an e-commerce company.
- This may promote hyperlocal delivery of goods such as groceries, directly from sellers to consumers.
What are the next steps?
- A private sector-led non-profit unit will be set up to fast-track its roll-out.
- It is expected to provide a startup mindset enabled by a management with a futuristic vision, deep understanding of commerce and comfort with cutting edge technology.
- A non-profit company structure removes any incentive for profit maxi-mization,
- It would keep focus on ethical and responsible behaviour while providing for trust, rigorous norms of governance, accountability and transparency.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
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: Gambling and betting: Legal issues
Last month, the Karnataka legislature passed a legislation to amend the Karnataka Police Act, 1963, making all forms of gambling, including online, a cognisable and non-bailable offence.
Gambling Law
- The Karnataka Police (Amendment) Act, 2021 was notified and came into force.
- It is aimed for broadening the scope of gambling beyond what has been defined by law.
- It was passed despite similar laws introduced in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Telangana having faced legal challenges.
What forms of gambling does the new law cover?
- The amended law covers all forms of wagering or betting “in connection with any game of chance” with the exception of horse racing and lotteries.
- It also puts betting on the skills of others in the category of gambling.
- It provides an exception only to any pure game of skill and not to “wagering by persons taking part in such game of skill”.
Penalties prescribed
- It enhances maximum punishment for owners of gambling centres from one year to three years of imprisonment and fines from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
- The minimum punishment proposed is six months instead of the current one month and the fine is Rs 10,000 instead of Rs 500.
Implications of the law
- Since the new law came into effect, several online gaming firms have geo-locked their apps and sites in Karnataka to prevent attracting police action if customers access the sites.
Legal issues raised by the amended laws
One of the primary grounds on which the new gaming laws in these states has been challenged is:
- Games of skill: This been clubbed along with games of chance in the definition of gaming, if the games of skill are played for prizes or bets.
- Violation of FR: Gaming companies have argued — successfully that competitive games of skill are business activities protected under Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution.
- Other examples: Rummy and horse racing have been classified by the courts as games of skill that do not come under the purview of gaming laws.
- Competence of the state: It has been argued that states do not have “legislative competence” to prohibit games of skill and that only games of chance can be regulated for gambling and betting.
Why has Karnataka amended the law?
- Ban on online gambling: The statement of objects and reasons justify that the new law is needed to make gambling a cognisable and non-bailable offence (gambling in public streets remains cognisable and bailable).
- More power to Police: Other reasons cited is that police cannot raid gambling dens without a formal written order from a magistrate, since gambling is a non-cognisable and bailable offence.
- Public demands for ban: Recent public interest litigations seeking a ban on online gaming and betting, too, have been a trigger for the amendments.
- Illicit use of cyber-space: The new law has also been introduced to include the use of cyberspace as defined in the IT Act 2000 to curb the menace of gaming through internet.
Will these amendments stand the test of law?
- As mentioned, a similar law in Tamil Nadu was struck down by the Madras High Court as being ultra vires after it was challenged by online gaming firms.
- The court ruled that- Games and sporting activities in the physical form cannot be equated with games conducted in virtual mode or in cyberspace.
- However, when it comes to card games or board games such as chess or Scrabble, there is no distinction between the skill involved in the physical form of the activity or in the virtual form.
- The HC said both rummy and poker are games of skill.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
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: NCRB
Mains level: Farmers suicides in India
The number of agricultural labourers who died by suicide in 2020 was 18% higher than the previous year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report.
Farmers suicide in 2020
- In 2020, 5,098 of these agricultural labourers died by suicide, an 18% rise from the 4,324 who died last year.
- Overall, 10,677 people engaged in the farm sector died by suicide in 2020, slightly higher than the 10,281 who died in 2019.
- They made up 7% of all suicides in the country.
- Most of these deaths were among those whose primary work and main source of income comes from labour activities in agriculture or horticulture.
- However, among farmers who cultivate their own land, with or without the help of other workers, the number of suicides dropped 3.7% from 5,129 to 4,940.
- Among tenant farmers who cultivate leased land, there was a 23% drop in suicides from 828 to 639.
State-wise data
- The worst among States continues to be Maharashtra, with 4,006 suicides in the farm sector, including a 15% increase in farm worker suicides.
- Other States with a poor record include Karnataka (2016), Andhra Pradesh (889) and Madhya Pradesh (735).
- Tamil Nadu also bucked the national trend; although the total number of farm suicides in the State was slightly higher.
Why more suicides despite a boom?
- The farm sector was one of the few bright spots in the Indian economy since a year.
- It recorded growth on the back of a healthy monsoon and the continuation of agricultural activities during a lockdown that crippled other sectors.
- Hence, suicides among landowning farmers dropped slightly during the pandemic year.
- Landless agricultural labourers who did not benefit from income support schemes such as PM Kisan may have faced higher levels of distress during the pandemic.
General causes of farmers suicides in India
Suicide victims are motivated by more than one cause however the primer reason is the inability to repay loans.
- Debt trap: Major causes reportedly are bankruptcy/indebtedness, problems in the families, crop failure, illness and alcohol/substance abuse.
- Lack of credit: Low access to credit, irrigation and technology worsens their ability to make a comfortable living.
- Responsibility burden: In other words, debt to stress and family responsibilities as reasons were significantly higher than fertilizers and crop failure.
- Disguised unemployment: This remains high. Fragmentation of land holdings has left far too many farmers with farms that are too small to be remunerative.
- Mental health: One of the major causes behind suicidal intent is depression. Farmers are often subjected to fear of boycott due to societal pressures.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Back2Basics: National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)
- The NCRB is an Indian government agency responsible for collecting and analysing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL).
- It is headquartered in New Delhi and is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
- It was set-up in 1986 to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators.
- It was set up based on the recommendation of the Task force, 1985 and National Police Commission, 197.
- It merged the Directorate of Coordination and Police Computer (DCPC), Inter State Criminals Data Branch of CBI and Central Finger Print Bureau of CBI.
Also read:
[Burning Issue] Farmers’ suicide in India
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: PCV
Mains level: Not Much
Union Health Minister has launched a nationwide expansion of Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) under the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).
Why such drive?
- Pneumonia was a leading cause of death among children under five, globally and in India.
- Pneumonia caused by pneumococcus is the most common cause of severe pneumonia in children.
- Around 16% of deaths in children occur due to pneumonia in India.
- The nationwide roll-out of PCV will reduce child mortality by around 60%.
Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV)
- The PCV is a mix of several bacteria of the pneumococci family, which are known to cause pneumonia—hence ‘conjugate’ is included in the name of the vaccine.
- PCV prevents pneumococcal disease. It can protect both children and adults from pneumococcal disease.
- Such conjugate vaccines are made using a combination of two different components.
Pneumonia vs Pneumococcal pneumonia
- Pneumonia is a lung disease.
- Pneumococcal pneumonia, a kind of pneumonia, can infect the upper respiratory tract and can spread to the blood, lungs, middle ear, or nervous system.
- Pneumococcal disease is a name for any infection caused by bacteria called Streptococcus pneumonia or pneumococcus.
- Most people carry pneumococcus in their nose and throat, where the bacteria do not cause any symptoms.
Take this yorker from CSP 2020:
Q.What is the importance of using Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines in India?
- These vaccines are effective against pneumonia as well as meningitis and sepsis.
- Dependence on antibiotics that are not effective against drug-resistant bacteria can be reduced.
- These vaccines have no side effects and cause no allergic reactions.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
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: Mission Samudrayan
Mains level: Deep Ocean Mission
Union Minister of Earth Sciences has launched India’s First Manned Ocean Mission Samudrayan at Chennai.
Mission Samudrayan
- The Samudrayan project has been undertaken by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).
- It will be a part of the Rs 6,000 crore Deep Ocean Mission.
- It is designed to carry 3 persons in 2.1meter diameter Titanium Alloy Personnel Sphere with an operational endurance of 12hrs and systems to support emergency endurance up to 96hrs.
- It could work at a depth between 1000 and 5500 meters.
Objectives
- Samudrayan shall facilitate carrying out deep ocean exploration of the non-living resources such as polymetallic manganese nodules, gas hydrates, hydro-thermal sulphides and cobalt crusts.
- The mission would carry out subsea activities such as high-resolution bathymetry, biodiversity assessment, geo-scientific observation, search activities, salvage operation and engineering support.
Focus areas of the Project
- Ocean climate change advisory services
- Underwater vehicles
- Underwater robotics-related technologies
- Deep-sea mining: Exploitation of polymetallic nodules
Components of the mission
Some of the critical subsystems of the manned submersibles are:
- Development of Titanium Alloy Personnel Sphere, Human support and safety system in enclosed space, low density buoyancy modules, Ballast and Trim System
- Pressure compensated batteries and propulsion system, control and communication systems and Launching and Recovery System.
Progress till date
- The preliminary design of the manned submersible MATSYA 6000 is completed.
- Sea trials of 500 metre rated shallow water version of the manned submersible are expected to take place in the last quarter of 2022 and the MATSYA 6000.
- The deep-water manned submersible will be ready for trials by the second quarter of 2024.
Why need such mission?
- This manned submersible mission provides a feel of direct physical presence for researchers and has better intervention capability.
- With the advancing subsea technologies, the recent Fendouzhe manned submersible developed by China in 2020 has touched ~11000m water depths.
- With Samudrayan, India joins the elite club of nations such as USA, Russia, Japan, France and China to have such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities.
Back2Basics: India and International Seabed Authority (ISA)
- The ISA, an autonomous international organization established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, allots the ‘area’ for deep-sea mining.
- India was the first country to receive the status of a ‘Pioneer Investor’ in 1987 and was given an area of about 1.5 lakh sqkm in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) for nodule exploration.
- In 2002, India signed a contract with the ISA, and after a complete resource analysis of the seabed, India surrendered 50%, and the country retained an area of 75,000 sqkm.
- Further studies have helped narrow the mining area to 18,000 sqkm, the ‘First Generation Mine-site’.
UPSC 2022 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now