Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Breach of Priviliges in Legislation
Mains level: Parliamentary control
An MP has issued a breach of privilege notice against an MP from Bengal in the Lok Sabha.
Try this PYQ:
Q.With reference to the Parliament of India, which of the following Parliamentary Committees scrutinizes and reports to the House whether the powers to make regulations, rules, sub-rules, by-laws etc. conferred by the constitution of delegated by the Parliament are being properly exercised by the Executive within the scope of such delegation?
(a) Committee on Government Assurances
(b) Committee on Subordinate Legislation
(c) Rules Committee
(d) Business Advisory Committee
What is the news?
- The accused MP has cast some aspersions with respect to the conduct of a judge.
- The question is whether the conduct of a judge can be discussed on the floor of the House or not.
- Article 121 of the Constitution does not allow allegations to be levelled against a sitting or a former judge.
Breach of Privilege
- The powers, privileges and immunities of either House of the Indian Parliament and of its Members and committees are laid down in Article 105 of the Constitution.
- Article 194 deals with the powers, privileges and immunities of the State Legislatures, their Members and their committees.
- Parliamentary privilege refers to the right and immunity enjoyed by legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made in the course of their legislative duties.
What constitutes a breach of this privilege?
- While the Constitution has accorded special privileges and powers to parliamentarians and legislators to maintain the dignity and authority of the Houses, these powers and privileges are not codified.
- Thus, there are no clear, notified rules to decide what constitutes a breach of privilege, and the punishment it attracts.
- Any act that obstructs or impedes either House of the state legislature in performing its functions, or which obstructs or impedes any Member or Officer of such House in the discharge of his duty, or has a tendency, directly or indirectly, to produce such results is treated as a breach of privilege.
- It is a breach of privilege and contempt to print or publish libel reflecting on the character or proceedings of the House or its Committees or on any member of the House for or relating to his character or conduct as a legislator.
Procedure followed in cases of an alleged breach
- The Legislative Assembly Speaker or Legislative Council Chairman constitutes a Privileges Committee consisting of 15 members in the Assembly and 11 members in the Council.
- The members to the committee which has quasi-judicial powers are nominated based on the party strength in the Houses.
- The Speaker or Chairman first decides on the motions.
- If the privilege and contempt are found prima facie, then the Speaker or Chairman will forward it to the Privileges Committee by following the due procedure.
- At present, there is no Privileges Committee in either House of the state legislature.
- The Committee will seek an explanation from all the concerned, will conduct an inquiry and will make a recommendation based on the findings to the state legislature for its consideration.
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: Crude oil prices dynamics
Mains level: India's oil import bill
The price of Brent crude crossed the $60 per barrel mark after over a year on the back of oil-producing countries maintaining production cuts due to lockdowns.
What is Crude Oil?
- Petroleum also known as crude oil and oil is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earth’s surface.
- It is commonly refined into various types of fuels.
- Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation, i.e. separation of a liquid mixture into fractions differing in boiling point by means of distillation, typically using a fractionating column.
- It consists of naturally occurring hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and may contain miscellaneous organic compounds.
- The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil.
Why has the price of crude oil risen sharply?
- Major oil-producing countries had cut oil production last year amid a sharp fall in demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- However oil-producing countries have continued to limit production despite an increase in prices with Saud Arabia cutting its own oil production by 1 million barrels per day to strengthen crude oil prices.
- Expectations of strong improvements in demand with the global rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine have also put upward pressure on crude oil prices according to experts.
How will this impact India?
- The rise in the price of Brent crude will lead to an increase in India’s import bill.
- India imports of 80 per cent of its crude oil requirements and the average price of Indian basket of crude oil has already risen to $54.8 barrel for January.
- The upward move in crude prices will also put upward pressure on petrol and diesel prices across the country which is already at all-time highs.
Signs of no remedy
- The government had hiked central taxes on petrol and diesel by Rs 13 per litre and Rs 11 per litre in 2020 to boost revenues amid lower economic activity.
- The increase in taxes had prevented consumers from getting the benefit of low fuel prices as international prices crashed during the first quarter of last fiscal.
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: Various labour laws
Mains level: 4-day work and its benefits
The Centre under its new labour codes would soon provide an option for organisations to allow their employees to work for four days in a week.
What is the news?
- The proposed new labour codes could provide companies with the flexibility of four working days in a week.
What does this mean?
- The working hour’s limit of 48 hours for a week will remain unchanged.
- This implies that there will be long working hours if the working days are reduced.
- Having a reduced number of working days does not mean a cut in paid holidays.
- Therefore, when the new rules will provide the flexibility of four working days, it would imply three paid holidays.
Roll out of the proposal
- The Ministry of Labour and Employment is likely to complete the process to finalise the rules for four labour codes soon.
- The provision of flexibility to have reduced working days of four days in the labour code rules will mean that companies will not require prior government nod to enact it.
Why such a move?
- The well-being of employees improves with less workload. Working parents can spare more time for the childcare.
- It helps the economy and the environment since power and fuel consumption is reduced.
Ahead of Labour reforms
- The ministry is in the final phase of amalgamating 44 central labour laws into four broad codes.
- The four Codes include- Code on Wages, Industrial Relations, Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) and Social Security Codes.
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: National Monsoon Mission
Mains level: Determinants of Indian Monsoon
Under the National Monsoon Mission (NMM), Ministry of Earth Sciences has developed the state-of-the-art weather and climate prediction models, which are now in operational use.
Tap to read about the mechanism of Indian Monsoon System at:
The Southwest Monsoon Season (Jun – Sep) | Part 1
National Monsoon Mission (NMM)
- Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) had launched NMM in 2012 with a vision to develop a state-of-the-art dynamical prediction system for monsoon rainfall on different time scales.
- The responsibility of execution and coordination of this mission is vested to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.
- Climate Forecast System (CFS) of USA has been identified as the basic modelling system for the above purpose, as it is one of the best among the currently available coupled models.
Targets of NMM
- Development of a seamless prediction system using monsoon mission model, on different time scales, like Seasonal (for whole Monsoon season), extended-range (upto 4 weeks), short-range prediction (up-to 5days).
- Initiate and coordinate the working partnership between Indian and foreign institutes to develop a system for prediction of extremes and climate applications
- Develop and implement the system for climate applications having social impacts (such as agriculture, flood forecast, extreme events forecast, wind energy, etc.
- Advanced data assimilation system for preparing high-quality data for model predictions.
Achievements of NMM during the last 3 years
- Setting up of an advanced prediction system for Seasonal prediction; Extended range prediction and Very high-resolution Short-range prediction.
- Commissioning of a Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS) for short and medium-range prediction at 12km.
- The Cyclone track and intensity prediction has also shown a steady improvement over the last three years.
- The operationalization of Monsoon Mission dynamical model (MMCFS) to prepare operational seasonal forecast of monsoon rainfall and temperatures during the hot and cold weather seasons over India.
- Development of an algorithm to monitor and predict the Monsoon Intra-seasonal Oscillations (MISO) and Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) on the extended range.
- Development of an index to predict the genesis and evolution of tropical cyclones and other cyclonic disturbances over the north Indian Ocean.
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: Shahtoot Dam
Mains level: India-Afghan relations
India and Afghanistan have signed an agreement to build the Shahtoot Dam in Kabul to provide drinking water facility in the Afghan capital.
Try this question from prelims 2020:
Consider the following pairs
| Sr. |
River |
|
Flows into |
| 1. |
Mekong |
— |
Andaman Sea |
| 2. |
Thames |
— |
Irish Sea |
| 3. |
Volga |
— |
Caspian Sea |
| 4. |
Zambezi |
— |
Indian Ocean |
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2 and 4 only
Shahtoot Dam
- It is a proposed dam in the Kabul river basin, one of the five river basins in Afghanistan.
- This project will provide drinking, irrigation and Environmental water for Kabul province.
- The dam will provide potable water to more than 2 million residents of Kabul, in addition to the irrigation of 4000 hectares of land in the district of Charasiab and Khairabad.
- The dam will also provide water for irrigation to nearby areas, rehabilitate the existing irrigation and drainage network and help in flood protection and management efforts.
- The project is expected to produce electricity for the region.
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: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with the Bombay High Courts Judgement in POCSO Act
The recent Bombay High Court judgement has raised controversy for its interpretation of certain Section of the POCSO Act. The article deals with this issue.
Object of the POCSO Act
- The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was enacted in 2012 especially to protect children (aged less than 18) from sexual assault.
- The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Act admitted that a number of sexual offences against children were neither specifically provided for in extant laws nor adequately penalised.
- The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by India in 1992, also requires sexual exploitation and sexual abuse to be addressed as heinous crimes.
Issues with Bombay High Court’s Judgement
- The Bench acquitted a man under the POCSO Act found guilty of assault on the grounds that he groped his victim over her clothes and there was no skin-to-skin contact between them.
- As this judgment was likely to set a dangerous precedent, the apex court stayed the acquittal.
- Section 7 of the POCSO Act, along with other things, says that whoever with sexual intent touches the breast of the child is said to commit sexual assault.
- Whereas Section 8 of the Act provides minimum imprisonment of three years for sexual assault.
- Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) lays down a minimum of one year imprisonment for outraging the modesty of a woman.
Difference between IPC and POCSO
- The difference between POCSO and IPC, as far as the offence of sexual assault is concerned, is two-fold.
- One, the definition of ‘assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty’ given in the IPC is generic.
- Whereas in POCSO, the acts of sexual assault are explicitly mentioned such as touching various private parts.
- ‘Sexual assault’ in POCSO specifically excludes rape which requires penetration; otherwise the scope of ‘sexual assault’ under POCSO and ‘outraging modesty of a woman’ under the IPC is the same.
- Two, whereas the IPC provides punishment for the offence irrespective of any age of the victim, POCSO is specific for the protection of children.
- Higher punishment is provided under POCSO not because more serious allegations of sexual assault are required but because the legislature wanted punishment to be more deterrent if the victims are children.
Conclusion
In the absence of any specific provision in the POCSO Act which requires skin-to-skin touch as a mandatory element of an offence, any interpretation which dilutes protection to children must be declared ultra vires.
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: Judicial scrutiny of the laws
Mains level: Paper 2- Need for strict scrutiny of the laws by the Parliament
Farmers’ protests against the farm laws and staying of implementation of these laws by the judiciary have once again brought into focus the process followed in the passage of laws by the parliament. This article highlights the importance of parliamentary committees.
Need for introspection on the role of parliament
- The Supreme Court’s order on the farm laws staying their implementation crossed the line of separation between the legislature and judiciary.
- The order should trigger introspection in Parliament.
- Since 2019, the constitutionality of statutes passed by it, like the abrogation of Article 370, the Citizenship Amendment Act and recently the farm laws, has been challenged before the SC.
- The highest lawmaking body should be asking itself whether it rigorously scrutinises the constitutionality of bills.
Three mechanisms to examine the constitutionality
- Parliament has three mechanisms for examining whether a government bill adheres to constitutional principles.
- First, any member of the Parliament can oppose the introduction of a bill by stating that it initiates legislation outside the legislative competence of the Parliament.
- Second, MPs also get an opportunity to discuss a bill’s constitutionality while debating it in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
- But on both these occasions, the strength of the argument does not determine the legislative outcome.
- The Parliament’s decision depends on the numbers that the treasury and opposition benches command on the house floor.
- Third, the opportunity for probing a bill’s constitutionality arises when a parliamentary committee is examining it.
Advantages of scrutiny of the bill by parliamentary committee
- The most important opportunity of the above mentioned three opportunities is scrutiny by the parliamentary committee.
- In the past too, the parliamentary committees have subjected the bills to strict scrutiny on the issue of constitutionality.
- For example, the committee examining the land acquisition bill 2011 was concerned about the bill infringing upon the state governments’ power.
- Similarly, during the deliberations on the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, the joint committee explicitly asked the government whether the bill would violate the spirit of Articles 14 and 25 of the Constitution.
- The committee process also has the advantage of drawing on constitutional expertise outside of the law ministry.
- The government has also fielded the attorney general to appear before parliamentary committees.
Weakness of parliamentary committee process
- Our parliamentary committee process has a fatal flaw.
- Government bills do not automatically go to committees for examination.
- Ministers get an option to refer their bill to a select committee, they often don’t exercise this option.
- While countries like Sweden and Finland pass their bills through two parliamentary committees.
- One committee looks at the technical aspects of a proposed law, and a specialised committee focuses on a bill’s constitutional validity.
Consider the question “Several laws passed by the government have been challenged before the judiciary on the ground of unconstitutionality. This highlights the importance of strict scrutiny of the bills by the Parliament. In light of this, examine the role played by the parliamentary committees in the scrutiny of the bills.”
Conclusion
Lack of robust scrutiny processes weakens Parliament’s image as the highest legislative institution and encourages judicial encroachment on its powers. After all, lawmaking should not be a mechanical stamping of the government’s legislative proposals but their careful examination by the Parliament.
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: How dams exacerbate disasters
Mains level: Paper 3- Role of dams in exacerbating disasters
The article explains the link between the disasters in the Uttarakhand and the construction of dams.
How dams exacerbate disasters
- The use of explosives has repeatedly been questioned for dam construction, and the construction of other infrastructure projects, such as roads, in the fragile Himalayan State.
- Other than this, deforestation takes place when dams are constructed.
- The construction material that is supposed to be dumped on separate land is often dumped into the rivers.
The Chopra Committee report after Kedarnath flood
- The Chopra Committee report of 2014 brings more clarity on how dams exacerbate a disaster such as floods.
- Its report mentions how dams exacerbated the 2013 deluge, mainly as riverbeds were already raised from the disposed muck at the dam construction sites.
- The report presents evidence to prove that dams are not only damaged in floods, they also cause immense damage in downstream areas.
- This is because as floodwaters damage a barrage, they increase the destructive capacity of the water that flows downstream of the barrage.
- In an affidavit submitted on December 5, 2014 in the Supreme Court, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change acknowledged the adverse impact of dams in the 2013 floods.
Impact of climate change and threat of earthquakes
- Himalayan glaciers are receding and disintegrating as a result of climate change, and the snow cover in the Himalayas is also thinning.
- Research shows an increase in number and volume of glacial lakes as a result of of increased temperatures.
- For dams, this means rapid increase or decrease in the reservoir water level.
- It also means that the projections on the life of a dam reservoir may not stand due to erratic events, such as floods, that could rapidly fill a reservoir with muck and boulders brought along with the floods.
- In terms of earthquake risk, Uttarakhand lies in Seismic Zone-IV (severe intensity) and Seismic Zone-V (very severe intensity).
- Ignoring this, many dams have been constructed in zones that are under high risk of witnessing severe earthquakes.
Consider the question “Examine the role played by the dams in exacerbating the disasters in the Himalayan states”
Conclusion
It is clear that dams worsen disasters, and for this to be ignored by the State authorities is unfortunate.
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: Flash floods
Mains level: Flood management
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in the Indian Express.
What are Flash floods?
- A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions.
- It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, tropical storm, or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields.
Take a glimpse of the series of disasters in Uttarakhand
Chamoli example
- Flash flood incident in Uttarakhand is another warning of the dangers that a Himalayan state like Uttarakhand faces from natural processes like landslides, snow avalanches cloudbursts or lake bursts.
- As we saw in 2013 in the same state, such processes can trigger much bigger disasters and cause massive destruction.
- But it is possible to work towards minimising the threat of such incidents and reduce their impact.
Role of glacial lakes
- There are over 1,000 glaciers in Uttarakhand. Almost all of them are receding. Most of the glaciers also have debris cover.
- When glaciers retreat due to rising temperatures, the snow melts but the debris remains. This debris aids in the formation of lakes.
Cause: Retreat of glaciers
- Glaciers have reduced considerably in mass and surface area since the little ice age period.
- This has led to the formation of a large number of glacial lakes all across the Himalayas.
- Many of these high-altitude lakes are potentially dangerous, because of their potential to cause flash floods in the event of a breach.
How big is the threat?
- Over the years, the frequency of formation of these lakes has increased.
- But despite that, there are not many GLOF (glacial lake outburst flood) events happening in Uttarakhand.
- Not as many as in Sikkim, for example. This is because Uttarakhand has very steep slopes, and the water manages to find a way out.
What should be done?
(a) Coherent research
- There are a lot more glaciologists and others who are working in the area and generating data.
- Multiple scientific groups and institutions are involved. But there is no coherent output. Lots of data are being generated but not being put to good use.
- There has to be one agency dedicated to the job.
(b) Monitoring
- The first step in tackling the threat from these glacial lakes is to start monitoring them and the glaciers more actively and regularly.
- There is a need to monitor every glacier. Glaciers in one basin do not have remarkably different properties.
- Relying only on satellites and remote sensing is not going to be enough.
- What is required is a consolidated state of glaciers in India, with the ability to zoom in on any of them and track the changes happening year by year.
(c) Planning
- Construction-related activities in the state might not have a direct link to Chamoli incident, but these are not entirely benign.
- The Himalayas are very young mountain systems, and extremely fragile and a minor change in orientation of the rocks can be enough to trigger landslides.
- It is important to include glaciers in any environment impact assessment for major projects such as the construction of dams.
- The entire catchment areas should be made part of the impact assessment.
(d) Mitigation
- If we monitor the glaciers regularly, it would enable us to identify the lakes that need mitigation solutions.
- Several structural and geotechnical measures can be applied, and there are successful examples where the threat from these lakes has been reduced.
- It is possible to construct channels for the gradual and regulated discharge of water from these lakes, which will reduce the pressure on them, and minimise the chances of a breach.
- At the same time, it also reduces the volume of water that goes into the flash flood. Also, alarm systems can be set up at the lakes that will warn the community downstream whenever an overflow happens.
Way forward
- It is not possible to completely prevent these kinds of incidents. But their potential to cause destruction can certainly be minimized.
- Scientists can find a way to let the lake waters slowly drain at the nearby river at a regulated rate so that there is no flooding, and the pressure on the lake does not become unbearable.
- Such solutions can be applied in Uttarakhand, and some work is being done.
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: Dams in Uttarakhand
Mains level: Risks posed by Hydel projects
The flash flood that claimed several lives in Chamoli has caused Uttarakhand’s hydroelectric projects (HEPs) to be scrutinized closely.
Q.How do hydropower projects pose geological and topographical threats to the ecosystem? (150W)
Why Hydropower in Uttarakhand?
- Uttarakhand has a tricky relationship with electricity.
- With a landscape that’s inhospitable to thermal power grid lines and with people too poor to pay for electricity, micro and mini hydro-electric power projects were seen as the answer.
- Between the government’s long-standing ‘power for all’ objective, and environmentalists pushing for a cleaner, renewable energy, setting up dozens of hydel power plants seemed ideal.
Impacts of HEPs
Limitless quarrying, deforestation, stopping the flow of rivers, and mushrooming of hydropower projects have made the Himalayas unstable.
- Existing and under-construction hydro-power projects in Uttarakhand have led to several deleterious environmental impacts (Char Dham Committee).
- Among the significant impacts are on the river ecosystem, forest and terrestrial biodiversity, geological environment and social infrastructure.
- More than seven years later, some experts believe that over-exploitation of rivers and rampant damming for hydroelectric projects (HEPs) could be one of the big factors responsible for the Chamoli disaster.
- The ‘river-bed profile’ across the major HEPs of Uttarakhand has changed significantly, suggesting the possibility of disasters in future.
The Kedarnath floods
- Between June 13 and 17, 2013, Uttarakhand had received an unusual amount of rainfall.
- This led to the melting of the Chorabari glacier and the eruption of the Mandakini river.
- The floods affected large parts of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Western Nepal.
- The heavy rainfall caused massive flash floods and landslides resulting in the death of residents and tourists as well as extensive damage to property.
- Over 5,000 people were killed in the floods
Construction still persists
- Neglecting all warnings of the experts, rampant construction was carried out in the sensitive zones even after the 2013 Kedarnath deluge.
- Notably, two dozen hydropower plants of Uttarakhand were rejected by the Supreme Court after the expert panel report.
HEPs in Uttarakhand
The rivers and basins in the state are dotted with 43 micro hydel projects. Some of them are:
Alarms have been raised earlier
- The Kedarnath expert committee had warned about the excessive exploitation of vulnerable regions and the need to re-study and re-evaluate the HEPs of Uttarakhand.
- The report also objected to HEPs at an altitude of over 2000 metres.
- The report pointed out that the potential threat of landslide, cloudburst, subsidence, flash floods has increased tremendously in the past few years and many critical zones need immediate attention.
- The study also mentioned that a lot of anthropogenic pressure due to different activities related to HEPs was alarming and needed checks.
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: Immunity Passport
Mains level: Issues with Immunity Passport
In a bid to ease travel restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, countries like Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Chile, UK have announced a new ‘immunity passport.’
Try this question form mains:
Q.Discuss various ethical issues evolved during the outbreaks of pandemics (of the scale of COVID-19).
Immunity Passport
- They are the recovery or release certificate or a document attesting that its bearer is immune to a contagious disease.
- The concept has drawn much attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential way to contain the pandemic and permit faster economic recovery.
- The can be used as a legal document granted by a testing authority following a serology test demonstrating that the bearer has antibodies making them immune to a disease.
Ethical issues involved
- Issuing ‘immunity certificates’ to people who have recovered can be an ethical minefield.
- Doctors do not generally prefer immunity to be induced by natural infection compared with vaccines. It seems logical, but there are multiple challenges.
- There might be long-term health complications in those who had COVID-19, whereas the vaccine will have minimal or no adverse health consequences.
- There is a danger that similar arguments will be made for other vaccine-preventable diseases for which we have a universal immunisation programme.
Public health risk
- People whose livelihood has have been affected would be encouraged to adopt risky behaviour so as to get infected rather than taking precautions to stay protected from the virus.
- This would lead to a sharp increase in cases across the country with huge numbers requiring hospitalization.
- Such a situation would lead to testing capabilities getting overwhelmed, crumbling of the health-care systems and increased deaths.
Threats over malpractices
- Immunity certification will include a system for identification and monitoring, thus compromising privacy.
- Other contentious issues would be profiteering by private labs performing tests, and the menace of fake certificates which we have already seen in some Indian states.
- In the end, an immunity passport will further divide the society with different ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.
Way forward
- We need to look at COVID-19 with a sense of balance and not hysteria.
- Terms such as immunity passports may not have relevance as we do not know anything about specific kinds of immune responses and the duration of protection in people.
- There is currently not enough evidence about the effectiveness of antibody-mediated immunity to guarantee the accuracy of an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’.
- The permission to travel or work should be decided on a case by case basis, according to the principles of ethics while dealing with a pandemic.
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: Dickensonia, Bhimbetka
Mains level: Stone age paintings in India
Researchers have found the first-ever fossil in India of a Dickinsonia —the Earth’s ‘oldest animal’, dating back 570 million years — on the roof of what’s called the ‘Auditorium Cave’ at Bhimbetka.
Dickinsonia
- Dickinsonia is an extinct genus of basal animal that lived during the late Ediacaran period in what is now Australia, Russia and Ukraine.
- The individual Dickinsonia typically resembles a bilaterally symmetrical ribbed oval.
- Its affinities are presently unknown; its mode of growth is consistent with a stem-group bilaterian affinity, though some have suggested that it belongs to the fungi or even an “extinct kingdom”.
- The discovery of cholesterol molecules in fossils of Dickinsonia lends support to the idea that Dickinsonia was an animal.
What are the new findings?
Like the awe-inspiring rock shelters themselves, this fossil was discovered by chance.
- Dickinsonia fossils have shown that they could exceed four feet in length but the one found in Bhimbetka is 17 inches long.
- Eleven feet above the ground, almost blending with the rock and easily mistaken by laymen for prehistoric rock art, they found imprints of the Dickinsonia.
- It is believed to be one of the key links between the early, simple organisms and the explosion of life in the Cambrian Period, about 541 million years ago.
Cambrian Explosion and Dickinsonia
- The ‘Cambrian Explosion’ is the term given to the period of time in history when complex animals and other macroscopic organisms such as molluscs, worms, arthropods and sponges began to dominate the fossil record.
- Researchers from Australian found the Dickinsonia fossil since its tissue contained molecules of cholesterol a type of fat that is the hallmark of animal life.
Do you know?
Cosmogenic nuclide dating is deployed to determine time of earliest human culture. India’s oldest stone-age tools, up to 1.5 million years old, are at a prehistoric site near Chennai.
About Bhimbetka
- The Bhimbetka rock shelters are an archaeological site in central India that spans the prehistoric Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, as well as the historic period.
- It exhibits the earliest traces of human life in India and evidence of Stone Age starting at the site in Acheulian times.
- It is located in the Raisen District in Madhya Pradesh about 45 kilometres (28 mi) south-east of Bhopal.
- It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that consists of seven hills and over 750 rock shelters distributed over 10 km (6.2 mi).
- At least some of the shelters were inhabited more than 100,000 years ago.
- Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric cave paintings and the earliest are about 10,000 years old (c. 8,000 BCE), corresponding to the Indian Mesolithic.
- These cave paintings show themes such as animals, early evidence of dance and hunting.
- The Bhimbetka rock shelters were found by V S Wakankar 64 years ago. Since then, thousands of researchers have visited the site, but this rare fossil went undetected.
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: PM-JAY
Mains level: Paper 2- Achieving universal health coverage
The article highlights the issues with India’s approach in achieving universal health care and issues with it.
Learning from the experience of Thailand
- About 20 years ago, Thailand rolled out universal health coverage at a per capita GDP similar to today’s India.
- What made this possible was a three decade-long tradition of investing gradually but steadily in public health infrastructure and manpower.
- This meant that alongside the availability of funds, there also existed robust institutional capacity to assimilate those funds.
- This is important because enough evidence exists on weak fund-absorbing capacities particularly in the backward States in India.
Budgetary allocations for health
- The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare budget for 2021-22, viz. ₹73,932 crore, saw a 10.2% increase over the Budget estimate (BE) of 2020-21.
- Also, a corpus of ₹64,180 crore over six years has been set aside under the PM Atma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana, (PMANSBY).
- ₹13,192 crore has been allocated as a Finance Commission grant.
- These allocations could make the first steps towards sustainable universal health coverage through incremental strengthening of grass-root-level institutions and processes.
Two important and prominent arms of universal health coverage in India merit discussion here
1) Insurance route for achieving universal health coverage and issues with it
- The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) has stagnated at ₹6,400 crores for the current and a preceding couple of years.
- Large expenditure projections and time constraints involved in the input-based strengthening of public health care have inspired the shift to the insurance route.
- However, insurance does not provide a magic formula for expanding health care with low levels of public spending.
- Beyond low allocations, poor budget reliability merits attention.
- Another related issue is the persistent and large discrepancies between official coverage figures and survey figures (for e.g. the National Sample Surveys, or NSS, and National Family Health Survey) across Indian States.
- Such discrepancies indicate that official public health insurance coverage fails to translate into actual coverage on the ground.
- Robust research into the implementational issues responsible for such discrepancies and addressing them is warranted.
- Without the same, the PM-JAY’s quest for universal health coverage is likely to be precarious.
- Finally, even high actual coverage should not be equated with effective financial protection.
- For example, Andhra Pradesh has among the highest public health insurance coverage scores (71.36%, NSS 75), but still has an out-of-pocket spending share much above the national average.
2) Comprehensive primary care
- Health and Wellness Centres — 1,50,202 of them — offering a comprehensive range of primary health-care services are to be operationalised until December 2022.
- Of these, 1,19,628 would be upgraded sub health centres and the remaining would be primary health centres and urban primary health centres.
- Initially, most States prioritised primary health centres/urban primary health centres for upgradation over sub health centres, since the former required fewer additional investments.
- Till February 2, 58,155 health and wellness centres were operational, of which 34,733 were sub health centres and 23,422 were primary health centres/urban primary health centres.
- This means that of the remaining 92,047 health and wellness centres to be operationalised by December 2022, 84,895 will be sub health centres.
- This offers huge cost projections.
- The current allocation of ₹1,900 crore, an increase of ₹300 crore from previous year, is a paltry sum in comparison.
- Since 2018-19, when the health and wellness centre initiative began, allocations have not kept pace with the rising targets each year.
- Additional funding under the PMANSBY and Finance Commission grants is reassuring, but a greater focus on rural health and wellness centres would be warranted.
- Two untoward implications could result from under-investing and spreading funds too thinly.
- Continuing the expansion of health and wellness centres without enough funding would mean that the full range of promised services will not be available, thus rendering the mission to be more of a re-branding exercise.
- Second, under-funding would waste an opportunity for the health and wellness centre initiative to at least partially redress the traditional rural-urban dichotomy by bolstering curative primary care in rural areas.
Consider the question “What are the challenges in adopting the insurance model in achieving the universal health coverage in India?”
Conclusion
COVID-19 has prodded us to make a somewhat stout beginning in terms of investing in health. The key, and the most difficult part, would be to keep the momentum going unswervingly.
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- International scrutiny of India's domestic policies and dealing with them
Tweets by international celebrities in support of farmers’ protests and the government’s response to it have brought focus the issue of international scrutiny of India’s policies. The article analyses this issue.
Issue of external criticism of India
- Recently, India has been at the receiving end of international criticism over its dealing with the farmers’ protests against recently passed farm laws.
- But neither the negative international scrutiny nor the Indian nationalist rejection of it are new.
- Mobilising nationalist sentiment and evoking territorial sovereignty in fending off external criticism have been consistent themes in the conduct of independent India’s foreign policy.
- The intensity of international scrutiny has varied over time and space, but they are unlikely to ever disappear.
- As India becomes more connected to the world, there will be more global interest in its internal dynamics.
- At the same time, like all rising powers, India will push back against demands that it must always measure up to external expectations.
Why the Western criticism matters
- Western power to turn sensible sentiments on democracy and human rights into consistent policies is rather limited.
- Also, the issue of human rights has never been the sole factor shaping US foreign policy towards other nations.
- But there is no denying that the Western power to create problems is real.
- There are also implications of needless political arguments with the US over your domestic politics.
- Asian realists also know that it is not difficult to neutralise Western liberal critics by emphasising engagement with others that might have commercial and security interests.
Dealing with the criticism in the U.S. Congress
- In the early 1990s, passing resolutions against India on Punjab and Kashmir in the US Congress was routine.
- But once Delhi began to engage with US Congress and explained the complexity of the issues involved, the tide began to turn.
- The Indian diaspora helped by reaching out to their representatives and pressing them to reconsider their positions.
- Within a decade, supporters of separatism in Punjab and Kashmir could not even move the resolutions in the US Congress.
Domestic polarisation and role of diaspora in international criticism
- India’s problem is not with external criticism, India’s real challenge is the deepening domestic political divide.
- India’s internal conflicts have inevitably enveloped the diaspora.
- Sections of the diaspora that are opposed to Indian policies are actively mobilising the political class in their adopted countries to raise the voice against India.
- They are also building wider coalitions to put the Indian government on the mat.
- If the diaspora in the past helped India overcome some difficult problems with the US, it is the counter mobilisation of the diaspora that is shaping the western criticism of India.
Way forward
- The government’s ability to overcome external criticism depends on rebuilding the national consensus on key policies and healing the multiple social rifts.
- Without a visible and sincere political effort to promote unity at home, internal divisions will get worse and make India more vulnerable to external meddling.
Consider the question “Recently, India has been at the receiving end of the international criticism for its internal issues. What are the reasons for such criticism? Suggest the strategy to deal with such criticisms.”
Conclusion
India’s own experience with Sri Lanka and Nepal underlines how hard it is to persuade other societies to accept Delhi’s preferences on the rights of minorities and federalism. In the end, democracy and pluralism can never be foreigner’s gifts. The struggle to construct and preserve democracies remains an internal one.
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: Countries bordering Myanmar
Mains level: Paper 2- Coup in Myanmar and India's dilemma in dealing with the situation
The coup in Myanmar poses several challenges for India. For one, it poses a dilemma in India’s dealing with Myanmar’s military. Also, it has implications for the Rohingya issue and containing the insurgency in north-east India.
Implications of the coup in Myanmar
1) Political realignment and role of Aung San Suu Kyi
- Threat of sanctions from the United States and the West in the wake of the recent coup could lead to unique political realignments in Myanmar.
- As a result, the international community may not have any alternatives than Aung San Suu Kyi when it comes to pursuing the restoration of democracy in the country.
- The democratic credentials of Aung San Suu Kyi, remain deeply diminished today due to her justification of the ill-treatment meted out to the Rohingya,
- Yet the recent events have brought her right back into the centre of the international community’s political calculations in Myanmar.
2) Implications for Rohingya issus
- International community will have to condone the government’s past actions against the Rohingya in order to highlight Suu Kyi as an anchor of democracy in Myanmar.
- The case against Myanmar’s conduct during her government’s tenure at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will most likely be put on the backburner.
- Increasing global support for Ms. Suu Kyi could potentially negative consequences for the persecuted Rohingya.
3) China factor
- In the short run, the coup stands to hurt the interests of China, India and even the rest of the international community, all of whom were able to do business with Myanmar in their own unique ways.
- For China, the coup has complicated its larger regional economic plans in Myanmar.
- However, the international community’s sharp reactions will likely force the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military) to turn to China.
- International sanctions are unlikely to have a major impact on the country’s largely inward-looking junta and its Generals.
- However, it Generals would still expect Beijing to give them
- For China, the coup has complicated its larger regional economic plans in Myanmar.
- On the positive side for Beijing, decisive western sanctions will force the military to get closer to China.
- To that extent, China will be its biggest beneficiary of the February coup by default.
India’s dilemma
- India faces the most challenging dilemma on how to respond to the military coup in Myanmar.
- The dual power centres of the military and the civilian government that existed in Naypyitaw until recently, suited India.
- While India’s national interests clearly lie in dealing with whoever is in power in Myanmar, India would find it difficult to openly support the junta given the strong western and American stance.
- On the other hand, it can ill-afford to offend the junta by actively seeking a restoration of democracy there.
- While Ms. Suu Kyi was getting cozy with Beijing, it was the Myanmar military that had been more circumspect.
India’s concerns
- While a friendless Myanmar junta getting closer to China is a real worry for New Delhi, there are other concerns too.
- For one, Myanmar’s military played a helpful role in helping India contain the north-eastern insurgencies.
- Equally important is the issue of providing succour to the Rohingya in the wake of the military coup in Myanmar.
Consider the question “Developments in Myanmar have several implications for the regional geopolitics. In light of this, examine the challenges India faces from the development in Myanmar.”
Conclusion
India is left with very few clear policy options. And yet, it must continue to maintain relations with the government in power in Myanmar while discreetly pushing for political reconciliation in the country. In the meantime, the focus must be on improving trade, connectivity, and security links between the two sides.
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: UN HRC
Mains level: US policies revision after regime change
The Biden administration is set to reengage with the much-maligned UN Human Rights Council that former Donald Trump withdrew from almost three years ago.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following:
- Right to education.
- Right to equal access to public service.
- Right to food.
Which of the above is/are Human Right/Human Rights under “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) Only 1
(c) 1, 2 and 3
(d) Only 3
Why did the US pulled-out earlier?
- Trump pulled out of the world body’s main human rights agency in 2018 due to its disproportionate focus on Israel.
- Israel had received by far the largest number of critical council resolutions against any country.
- The Trump administration took issue with the body’s membership, which currently includes China, Cuba, Eritrea, Russia and Venezuela, all of which have been accused of human rights abuses.
About UN Human Rights Council
- The UNHRC describes itself as “an inter-governmental body within the UN system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe.
- It addresses situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them.
- The first session took place from June 19-30, 2006, three months after the Council was created by UN General Assembly Resolution 60/251 on March 15 that year.
- The UNHRC has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year.
- The HRC replaced the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).
HRC Meetings
- The Human Rights Council holds no fewer than three regular sessions a year, for a total of at least 10 weeks.
- The meetings take place for four weeks in March, for three weeks in June, and for another three weeks in September.
- The sessions are held at the UN Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
- If one-third of the Member States so request, the HRC can decide at any time to hold a special session to address human rights violations and emergencies.
Membership
- The Council is made up of 47 UN Member States, which are elected by the UNGA through a direct and secret ballot.
- The General Assembly takes into account the contribution of the candidate states to the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and commitments in this regard.
- Members of the Council serve for a period of three years and are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms.
- As of January 1, 2019, 114 UN Member States have served on the HRC. Both India and Pakistan are on this list.
- The HRC has a Bureau of one President and four Vice-Presidents, representing the five regional groups. They serve for a year, in accordance with the Council’s annual cycle.
Seat distribution
- African States: 13 seats
- Asia-Pacific States: 13 seats
- Latin American and Caribbean States: 8 seats
- Western European and other States: 7 seats
- Eastern European States: 6 seats
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: Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act
Police have booked several under The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, for the alleged insult of the National Flag in farmers protest on Republic Day.
Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act
- The law, enacted on December 23, 1971, penalizes the desecration of or insult to Indian national symbols, such as the National Flag, the Constitution, the National Anthem, and the Indian map, as well as contempt of the Constitution of India.
- Section 2 of the Act deals with insults to Indian National Flag and Constitution of India.
Do you know?
Article 51 ‘A’ contained in Part IV A i.e. Fundamental Duties asks:
To abide by the constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem in clause (a).
Other provisions
- Section 3.22 of The Flag Code of India, 2002 deals with laws, practices and conventions that apply to the display of the national flag.
- Section 3.58 says: On occasions of State/Military/Central Paramilitary Forces funerals, the flag shall be draped over the bier or coffin with the saffron towards the head of the bier or coffin.
- The Flag shall not be lowered into the grave or burnt in the pyre.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The national motto of India, ‘Satyameva Jayate’ inscribed below the Emblem of India is taken from:
(a) Katha Upanishad
(b) Chandogya Upanishad
(c) Aitareya Upanishad
(d) Mundaka Upanishad
Use of flag in funerals
- The flag can only be used during a funeral if it is accorded the status of a state funeral.
- Apart from police and armed forces, state funerals are held when people who are holding or have held the office of President, Vice-President, PM, Cabinet Minister, or state CM pass away.
- The status of a state funeral can be accorded in case of death of people not belonging to the armed forces, police or the above-mentioned categories by the state government.
- Then too, the national flag can be used.
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: Einsteinium
Mains level: Not Much
The University of California has reported some of the properties of element 99 in the periodic table called “Einsteinium”, named after Albert Einstein.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The known forces of nature can be divided into four classes, viz, gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force.
With reference to them, which one of the following statements is not correct? (CSP 2012)
(a) Gravity is the strongest of the four
(b) Electromagnetism act only on particles with an electric charge
(c) Weak nuclear force causes radioactivity
(d) Strong nuclear force holds protons and neutrons inside the nuclear of an atom.
Einsteinium
- It was discovered in 1952 in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb (the detonation of a thermonuclear device called “Ivy Mike” in the Pacific Ocean).
- Since its discovery, scientists have not been able to perform a lot of experiments with it because it is difficult to create and is highly radioactive.
- Therefore, very little is known about this element.
- With this new study published in the journal Nature last week, for the first time researchers have been able to characterize some of the properties of the element.
The discovery of the element
- Ivy Mike was detonated on November 1, 1952, as part of a test at a remote island location called Elugelab on the Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific.
- The blast produced an explosion that was about 500 times more destructive than the explosion that occurred at Nagasaki.
- Subsequently, the fallout material from this explosion was sent to Berkeley in California for analysis which identified over 200 atoms of the new element.
Properties of the element
- Einsteinium has a half-life of 20 days.
- Because of its high radioactivity and short half-life of all einsteinium isotopes, even if the element was present on Earth during its formation, it has most certainly decayed.
- This is the reason that it cannot be found in nature and needs to be manufactured using very precise and intense processes.
- Therefore, so far, the element has been produced in very small quantities and its usage is limited except for the purposes of scientific research.
- The element is also not visible to the naked eye and after it was discovered, it took over nine years to manufacture enough of it so that it could be seen with the naked eye.
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: Air pollution
Mains level: Alternatives solutions for stubble burning
The Scheme on ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi’ has been extended for the year 2021-22.
We can cite the example of this scheme for crop residue management as an effective solution against stubble burning.
Management of Crop Residues
- In pursuance this, a central sector scheme (100% funded by centre) was launched in 2018 Budget to support the efforts of the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi to address air pollution.
- It aimed to subsidize the machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue.
Various objectives of the scheme:
- Protecting the environment from air pollution and preventing loss of nutrients and soil micro-organisms caused by burning of crop residue;
- Promoting in-situ management of crop residue by retention and incorporation into the soil through the use of appropriate mechanization inputs and
- Creating awareness among stakeholders for effective utilization and management of crop residue
Outcomes of the scheme
- The residue burning events in 2020 in Punjab, Haryana and UP together have reduced by -30% as compared to 2016.
- In Punjab the reduction is -22.7%, Haryana – 63.8% and UP – 52.01%.
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: Malabar Exercises
Mains level: Not Much
The 24th edition of Malabar maritime exercise, hosted by Indian Navy in 2020, witnessed the participation by Indian Navy, United States Navy, Japan Maritime Self Defence Force and Royal Australian Navy.
Such news is nothing but the repetitive chunk that occurs every year with few or no new developments. Still, they are significant for the sake of information as Australia has joined it after several apprehensions.
Question can be expected in CAPF, CDS or AFCAT exams.
About Ex. Malabar
- Exercise Malabar is a trilateral naval exercise involving the US, Japan and India as permanent partners.
- This year Australia has joined as a permanent partner.
- Originally begun in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between India and the United States, Japan became a permanent partner in 2015.
- Past non-permanent participants are Australia and Singapore.
- The annual Malabar series began in 1992 and includes diverse activities, ranging from fighter combat operations from aircraft carriers through Maritime Interdiction Operations Exercises.
Significance of Australia’s inclusion
- Earlier, India had concerns that it would give the appearance of a “quadrilateral military alliance” aimed at China.
- Now both look forward to the cooperation in the ‘Indo-Pacific’ and the strengthening of defence ties.
- This has led to a convergence of mutual interest in many areas for a better understanding of regional and global issues.
- Both are expected to conclude the long-pending Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) as part of measures to elevate the strategic partnership.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now