Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Covid-19 mortality data
Context
Over the last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been busy, in an unprecedented effort, to calculate the global death toll from COVID-19.
Revision of Covid-19 death toll by WHO
- Globally from an estimated six million reported deaths, WHO now estimates these deaths to be closer to almost triple the number.
- The new estimates also take into account formerly uncounted deaths, but also deaths resulting from the impact of COVID-19.
- For example, millions who could not access care, i.e., diagnosis or treatment due to COVID-19 restrictions or from COVID-19 cases overwhelming health services.
- India’s stand: India is in serious disagreement with the WHO-prepared COVID-19 mortality estimates.
- The argument being made by India’s health establishment through a public clarification is that this is an overestimation, and the methodology employed is incorrect.
India’s Covid response
- India’s COVID-19 response has been replete with delays and denials.
- For instance, for the longest time that India’s COVID-19 number rose, the health establishment continued to insist that community transmission was not under way.
- It took months and several lakh cases before they agreed that COVID-19 was finally in community transmission.
- The devastation of the second wave showed how unprepared we were to combat the deadly Delta variant.
- By the time the wave subsided, India’s population was devastated, and helpless, seeing dignity neither in disease nor in death.
Conclusion
The figures ratchet up not only issues of administrative but also moral accountability for governments that they have been previously side stepped.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Palk Bay
Mains level: Paper 2- India-Sri Lanka fisheries issue
Context
After a gap of 15 months, the India-Sri Lanka Joint Working Group (JWG) on fisheries held its much-awaited deliberations (in virtual format) on March 25.
Background of the issue
- As sections of fishermen from the Palk Bay bordering districts of Tamil Nadu continue to transgress the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), cases of many of them getting arrested and their boats being impounded by the Sri Lankan authorities continue.
- Apart from poaching in the territorial waters of Sri Lanka, the use of mechanised bottom trawlers is another issue that has become a bone of contention between the fishermen of the two countries; the dispute is not just between the two states.
- Use of mechanised bottom trawlers: This method of fishing, which was once promoted by the authorities in India, is now seen as being extremely adverse to the marine ecology, and has been acknowledged so by India.
- The actions of the Tamil Nadu fishermen adversely affect their counterparts in the Northern Province.
- Reason for transgression: The fishermen of Tamil Nadu experience a genuine problem — the lack of fishing areas consequent to the demarcation of the IMBL in June 1974.
- If they confine themselves to Indian waters, they find the area available for fishing full of rocks and coral reefs besides being shallow.
- Under the Tamil Nadu Marine Fishing Regulation Act 1983, mechanised fishing boats can fish only beyond 3 NM from the coast.
- This explains the trend of the fishermen having to cross the IMBL frequently.
Way forward
- Transition to deep-sea fishing: While Indian fishermen can present a road map for their transition to deep sea fishing or alternative methods of fishing, the Sri Lankan side has to take a pragmatic view that the transition cannot happen abruptly.
- In the meantime, India will have to modify its scheme on deep-sea fishing to accommodate the concerns of its fishermen, especially those from Ramanathapuram district, so that they take to deep-sea fishing without any reservation.
- Alternative livelihood measures: There is a compelling need for the Central and State governments to implement in Tamil Nadu the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana in a proactive manner.
- The scheme, which was flagged off two years ago, covers alternative livelihood measures too including seaweed cultivation, open sea cage cultivation, and sea/ocean ranching.
- During Mr. Jaishankar’s visit, India had signed a memorandum of understanding with Sri Lanka for the development of fisheries harbours.
- This can be modified to include a scheme for deep-sea fishing to the fishermen of the North.
- Joint research on fisheries: . It is a welcome development that the JWG has agreed to have joint research on fisheries, which should be commissioned at the earliest.
- Institutional mechanism: Simultaneously, the two countries should explore the possibility of establishing a permanent multi-stakeholder institutional mechanism to regulate fishing activity in the region.
- Using common thread of culture, language and religion: The people of the two countries in general and fisherfolk in particular have common threads of language, culture and religion, all of which can be used purposefully to resolve any dispute.
Conclusion
What everyone needs to remember is that the fisheries dispute is not an insurmountable problem. A number of options are available to make the Palk Bay not only free of troubles but also a model for collaborative endeavours in fishing.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NFSA 2013
Mains level: Paper 3- PDS reforms
Context
The release of two new working papers, one from the World Bank and the other from the IMF, has led to a renewed debate on poverty in India.
A substantial decline in extreme poverty in India
- Both papers claim that extreme poverty in the country, based on the international definition of $1.90 per capita per day (in purchasing power parity (PPP), has declined substantially.
- The World Bank paper uses the Consumer Pyramid Household Surveys (CPHS) data to conclude that 10.2 per cent of the country’s population was at extreme poverty levels in 2019.
- The IMF paper calculates poverty by using the NSO Consumer Expenditure Survey as the base and adjusts it for the direct effect of the massive food grain subsidy given under the National Food Security Act (NFSA, 2013) and PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) during the pandemic period.
- It claims that extreme poverty has almost vanished – it was 0.77 per cent in 2019 and 0.86 per cent in 2020.
- Another estimate of poverty by the NITI Aayog, the multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI), has put Indian poverty at 25 per cent in 2015 based on NFHS data.
- How MPI is calculated?: This MPI is calculated using twelve key components from areas such as health and nutrition, education and standard of living.
How much should be the coverage under NFSA, 2013?
- The offtake of grains under NFSA in FY20 was 56.1 million metric tonnes (MMT).
- Following the outbreak of Covid-19, the government launched the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) in April 2020 to distribute 25 kg cereals per family per month in addition to food transfers under the NFSA.
- That catapulted the offtake to 87.5 MMT (under PMGKAY and NFSA) in FY21.
- The scheme continued in FY22, and the grain offtake touched 93.2 MMT.
Issues with the wide coverage
- A further extension of free food on top of the NFSA allocations was uncalled for.
- This will strain the fisc, reduce public investments and hamper potential job creation.
- A look at the size of food freebies will help understand the gravity of this problem.
- As of April 1, the Food Corporation of India’s wheat and rice stocks stood at 74 MMT against a buffer stock norm of 21 MMT – there is, therefore, an “excess stock” of 53 MMT.
- The cost of excess stock: The economic cost of rice, as given by FCI, is Rs 3,7267.6/tonne and that of wheat is Rs 2,6838.4/tonne (2020/21).
- The value of “excess stocks”, beyond the buffer norm, is, therefore, Rs 1.85 lakh crore — this, despite a total of 72.2 MMT grains distributed for free under the PMGKAY in FY21 and FY22.
- Ballooning food subsidy: All this results in a ballooning food subsidy for FY 23, it is provisioned at Rs 2.06 lakh crore, for FY 23, it is provisioned at Rs 2.06 lakh crore.
- But this amount is likely to go beyond Rs 2.8 lakh crore with the continuing distribution of free food under the PMGKAY.
- This would amount to more than 10 per cent of the Centre’s net tax revenue (after deducting the states’ share).
Way forward
- It is all the more important to change the current policy of free food given the massive leakages in the PDS.
- As per the High-Level Committee on restructuring FCI, leakages were more than 40 per cent based on the NSSO data of 2011.
- Ground reports suggest that these leakages hover around 30 per cent or so today.
- Make PDS more targeted: In reforming this system of free food, wisdom lies in going back to the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY).
- Under AAy, the “antyodaya” households (the most poor category) get more rations (35 kg per household) at a higher subsidy (rice, for instance, at Rs 3/kg and wheat at Rs2/kg).
- For the remaining below poverty line (BPL) families, the price charged was 50 per cent of the procurement price and for above poverty line families (APL), it was 90 per cent of the procurement price.
- This will make PDS more targeted and lead to cost savings.
- Use of technology: There could be some problems in identifying the poor. However, technology can help overcome this difficulty.
- Option of cash transfer: This measure should be combined with giving people the option of receiving cash instead of providing grains to targeted beneficiaries.
- The savings so generated from this reform can be ploughed back as investments in agri-R&D, rural infrastructure (irrigation, roads, markets) and innovations that will help create more jobs and reduce poverty on a sustainable basis.
Conclusion
The government needs to bite the bullet and emulate the Vajpayee government (which had introduced AAY) in using scarce resources more wisely.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Opportunities for India in the wake of Ukraine-Russia conflict
Context
As Mahatma Gandhi’s nation, India must be a committed and relentless apostle of peace and non-violence, both at home and in the world.
How the Russia-Ukraine conflict is reshaping the world order
- Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a paradigm of free societies, frictionless borders and open economies evolved to be the governing order in many nations.
- This catalysed freer movement of people, goods, services and capital across the world.
- India too has benefited enormously from being an active participant in this interconnected world, with a tripling of trade (as share of GDP) in the last three decades and providing vast numbers of jobs.
- Such tight inter-dependence among nations will lead to fewer conflicts and promote peace, was the established wisdom.
- The Russia-Ukraine conflict has dismantled this wisdom.
- Mutually beneficial to mutually harmful: If inter-connectedness and trade among nations were mutually beneficial, then it follows that its disruption and blockade will be mutually harmful.
- Global Village was built on the foundation of advanced transportation networks, cemented with the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency and fenced by integrated payment systems.
- Any disruption to this delicate balance runs the risk of plunging the ‘Global Village’ into disequilibrium and derailing the lives of all.
Trade opportunity for India
- Trade with other nations should and will always be an integral cornerstone of India’s economic future.
- A reversal towards isolationism and protectionism will be foolhardy and calamitous for India.
- As the western bloc of nations looks to reduce dependence on the Russia-China bloc of nations, it presents newer avenues for India to expand trade.
- It presents a tremendous opportunity for India to become a large producing nation for the world and a global economic powerhouse.
- However, to capitalise on these opportunities, India needs free access to these markets, an accepted and established global currency to trade in and seamless trade settlements.
Suggestions for India
1] Bilateral currency agreements are unsustainable
- The American dollar has emerged as the global trade currency, bestowing an ‘exorbitant privilege’ on the dollar.
- But a forced and hurried dismantling of this order and replacing it with rushed bilateral local currency arrangements can prove to be more detrimental for the global economy in the longer run.
- We had an Indian rupee-Russian rouble agreement in the late 1970s and 1980s, when we mutually agreed on exchange rates for trading purposes.
- Now, with India’s robust external sector, a flourishing trading relationship with many nations and tremendous potential to expand trade, such bilateral arrangements are unsustainable, unwieldy, and perilous.
2] Avoid discounted commodity purchases from Russia
- In the long run, India stands to gain more from unfettered access to the western bloc markets for Indian exports under the established trading order than from discounted commodities purchased under new bilateral currency arrangements that seek to create a new and parallel global trade structure.
- It entails a prolonged departure from the established order of dollar-based trade settlement or jeopardises established trading relationships with western bloc markets, it can have longer term implications for India’s export potential.
3] Non-disruptive geo-economic policy
- India needs not just a non-aligned doctrine for the looming new world order but also a non-disruptive geo-economic policy that seeks to maintain the current global economic equilibrium.
- By the dint of its sheer size and scale, India can be both a large producer and a consumer.
- To best utilise this opportunity, India needs not just cordial relationships with nations on either side of the new divide but also a stable and established global economic environment.
4] Social harmony is a must
- Just as it is in India’s best interests to balance the current geo-economic equilibrium, it is also imperative for India to maintain its domestic social equilibrium.
- Social harmony is the edifice of economic prosperity.
- Fanning mutual distrust, hate and anger among citizens, causing social disharmony is a shameful slide to perdition.
Conclusion
The reshaping and realignment of the world order will be a unique opportunity for India to reassess its foreign policy, economic policy and geo-political strategy and don the mantle of global leadership.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Encroachment of Public Spaces
A 37-year-old Constitution Bench judgment of the Supreme Court which held that pavement dwellers are different from trespassers. This may become a game-changer in the Jahangirpuri case.
What is the Olga Tellis judgment?
- The judgment, Olga Tellis vs. Bombay Municipal Corporation, was given in 1985 by a five-judge Bench led by then Chief Justice of India Y.V. Chandrachud (F/O Justice D.Y Chandrachud).
- It is agreed that pavement dwellers do occupy public spaces in an unauthorized manner.
Key takeaways of the Judgment
- Opportunity to depart: The court maintained they should be given a chance to be heard and a reasonable opportunity to depart before force is used to expel them.
- No use of force: The Supreme Court reasoned that eviction using unreasonable force, without giving them a chance to explain is unconstitutional.
- Right to life: Pavement dwellers, too, have a right to life and dignity. The right to life included the right to livelihood. They earn a meagre livelihood by living and working on the footpaths.
- No misuse of powers of eviction: A welfare state and its authorities should not use its powers of eviction as a means to deprive pavement dwellers of their livelihood.
What led to the judgment?
- Sometime in 1981, the State of Maharashtra and the Bombay Municipal Corporation decided that pavement and slum dwellers in Bombay city should be evicted and “deported to their respective places of origin or places outside the city of Bombay.”
- Some demolitions were carried out before the case was brought to the Bombay High Court by pavement dwellers, residents of slums across the city, NGOs and journalists.
- While they conceded that they did not have “any fundamental right to put up huts on pavements or public roads”, the case came up before the Supreme Court on larger questions of law.
What were the questions discussed before the Supreme Court?
- One of the main questions was whether eviction of a pavement dweller would amount to depriving him/her of their livelihood guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
- The Article mandates that “no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty EXCEPT according to procedure established by law.”
- The Constitution Bench was also asked to determine if provisions in the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, allowing the removal of encroachments without prior notice, were arbitrary and unreasonable.
- The Supreme Court also decided to examine the question whether it was constitutionally impermissible to characterise pavement dwellers as trespassers.
What was the State government’s defence?
- The State government and the corporation countered that pavement dwellers should be estopped (estoppel is a judicial device whereby a court may prevent or “estop” a person from making assertions.
- Estoppel may prevent someone from bringing a particular claim from contending that the shacks constructed by them on the pavements cannot be demolished because of their right to livelihood.
- They cannot claim any fundamental right to encroach and put up huts on pavements or public roads over which the public has a ‘right of way.’
How did the Supreme Court rule?
- The Bench threw out the government’s argument of estoppel, saying “there can be no estoppel against the Constitution.”
- The court held that the right to life of pavement dwellers were at stake here.
- The right to livelihood was an “integral component” of the right to life. They can come to court to assert their right.
- If the right to livelihood is not treated as a part of the constitutional right to live, the easiest way of depriving a person of his right to life would be to deprive him of his means of livelihood to the point of abrogation.
- Any aggrieved person can challenge the deprivation as offending the right to life.
- Removal of encroachments without prior notice was arbitrary; the court held that such powers are designed to operate as an “exception” and not the “general rule.”
- The procedure of eviction should lean in favour of procedural safeguards which follow the natural principles of justice like giving the other side an opportunity to be heard.
- Finally, the court emphatically objected to authorities treating pavement dwellers as mere trespassers.
- The encroachment committed are involuntary acts in the sense that those acts are compelled by inevitable circumstances and are not guided by choice.
Way ahead
- It is not a free choice to exercise as to whether to commit an encroachment and if so, where.
- Trespassers should not be evicted by using force greater than what is reasonable and appropriate.
- He/she should be asked and given a reasonable opportunity to depart before force is used to expel him.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Anti-defection law
Mains level: Read the attached story
Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu said that there was a need to amend the anti-defection legislation in the country to plug existing loopholes.
What did VP notice now?
- Stating that there was no clarity in the law about the time frame for the action of the House Chairperson or Speaker in anti-defection cases.
- Some cases are taking six months and some even three years.
- There are cases that are disposed of after the term is over.
What is Anti-defection Law?
- The Anti-Defection Law under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution punishes MPs/ MLAs for defecting from their party by taking away their membership of the legislature.
- It gives the Speaker of the legislature the power to decide the outcome of defection proceedings.
- It was added to the Constitution through the Fifty-Second (Amendment) Act, 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi was PM.
- The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.
Cases considered under the anti-defection law
The law covers three scenarios with respect to shifting of political parties by an MP or an MLA.
(1) Voluntary give-up
- The first is when a member elected on the ticket of a political party “voluntarily gives up” membership of such a party or votes in the House against the wishes of the party.
- Such persons lose his seat.
(2) Independent members
- When a legislator who has won his or her seat as an independent candidate joins a political party after the election.
- In both these instances, the legislator loses the seat in the legislature on changing (or joining) a party.
(3) Nominated MPs
- In their case, the law gives them six months to join a political party, after being nominated.
- If they join a party after such time, they stand to lose their seat in the House.
Powers to disqualification
- Under the anti-defection law, the power to decide the disqualification of an MP or MLA rests with the presiding officer of the legislature.
- The law does not specify a time frame in which such a decision has to be made.
- As a result, Speakers of legislatures have sometimes acted very quickly or have delayed the decision for years — and have been accused of political bias in both situations.
Significant role of the Speaker/Presiding Officer
- Pandit Nehru had referred to the Speaker as “the symbol of the nation’s freedom and liberty” and emphasized that Speakers should be men of “outstanding ability and impartiality”.
- Several judgments on the anti-defection law have been rendered by the Supreme Court.
- A common factor that shows up in these rulings is the blatant, partisan conduct of speakers in state assemblies.
Reasons for Speakers’ ambiguous action
- The Speaker continues to belong to a particular political party.
- The electoral system and conventions in India have ‘not been developed to ensure protection to the office, there are cogent reasons for Speakers to retain party membership.
- It would be unrealistic to expect a speaker to completely abjure all party considerations while functioning.
- There are structural issues regarding the manner of appointment of the Speaker and her tenure in office.
Way forward
- Parliament may seriously consider a Constitutional amendment to bring in a permanent Tribunal for dealing with defection cases.
- It is suggested that a scheme should be brought wherein Speakers should renounce all political affiliations, membership, and activity once they have been elected.
- We can learn from the UK model. In practice, once elected, the Speaker gives up all-partisan affiliation, as in other Parliaments of British tradition.
- He/she remains in office until retirement, even though the majority may change and does not express any political views during debates.
Conclusion
- Impartiality, fairness, and autonomy in decision-making are the hallmarks of a robust institution.
- It is the freedom from interference and pressures which provide the necessary atmosphere where one can work with an absolute commitment to the cause of neutrality as a constitutional value.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Communal violence in India
Context
Communal violence, a complex phenomenon, has been over-simplified to suit a convenient political narrative.
India’s syncretic traditions and impact of invasions
- For aeons, India has had syncretic traditions inspired by the Vedic aphorism, “Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti” (there is only one truth and learned persons call it by many names).
- Because of this underpinning, Indian society has never insisted on uniformity in any facet of life.
- This equanimity of Indian society was, however, disrupted by invading creeds.
- The first such incursion came in 712, when Muhammad bin Qasim vanquished Sindh, and as Chach Nama, a contemporary Arab chronicle states, introduced the practice of treating local Hindus as zimmis, forcing them to pay jizya (a poll tax), as a penalty to live by their beliefs.
- In the 11th century, Mahmud of Ghazni, while receiving the caliphate honours on his accession to the throne, took a vow to wage jihad every year against Indian idolaters.
- The fact is, ties between the two communities were seldom cordial.
- There were intermittent skirmishes, wars and occasional short-lived opportunistic alliances.
- When Pakistan declared itself an Islamic Republic in 1947, it would have been natural for India to identify itself as a Hindu state.
- It didn’t, and couldn’t have — because of its Hindu ethos of pluralism.
- India, is, and will always be, catholic, plural, myriad and a vibrant democracy.
Conclusion
It’s relevant to recall what Lester Pearson (14th PM of Canada) said: “Misunderstanding arising from ignorance breeds fear, and fear remains the greatest enemy of peace.”
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Efficay of laws for womens safety
Retired Supreme Court judge Justice BN Srikrishna has said that there is a blatant misuse of rape laws in the country.
What did Justice BN Srikrishna say?
- Lesser convictions: Statistics show that even after the amendment of rape laws, there have been less number of convictions.
- Need for objective analysis: It is time that rape cases be looked at in a very objective manner.
- Authencity of women’s claims needs to be checked: We need to question — is the woman really subjected to cruelty and atrocities? Otherwise, in the general course of things, the accused is presumed to be innocent unless proven guilty should apply.
- Tilt of such laws is always against the men: However, in rape cases, whatever the woman says is treated as the gospel truth. But that is not the intention of the law. It is not the way to empower women.
Various laws for the protection of women
- Various special laws relating to women include:
- Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
- Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961
- Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986
- Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013
- Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
Alleged rape cases these days
- False accusations: Justice BN Srikrishna said that, sometimes some innocent men are being falsely accused of rape and later getting acquitted.
- Consensual sex is later cried as rape: There are many cases either in a consensual relationship or in co-habitation for a long time, there is a disagreement and the woman cries rape.
- Tool to preserve honour: There are instances where a secret affair is going on, people get to know of it and in order to come out of the ignominy of it, she cries rape, Justice Srikrishna said.
Issues with such alleged rape cases
- Whenever the man is accused of rape, he gets arrested, newspapers carry it on the front page.
- But when there is an acquittal, it is not carried in the same way. This is terrible.
- The balance is always tilted in favour of women in such cases.
Various sexual crimes in India
- Sexual Abuse/ Molestation/ Rape: Rape is one of the most common crimes in India. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, one woman is raped every 20 minutes in India.
- Marital Crimes: In India, marital rape is not a criminal offense. India is one of fifty countries that have not yet outlawed marital rape.
- Forced Marriage: Girls are vulnerable to being forced into marriage at young ages, suffering from a double vulnerability: both for being a child and for being female.
- Trafficking and forced prostitution: Human trafficking, especially of girls and women, often leads to forced prostitution and sexual slavery.
- Online abuse: Women are regularly subject to online rape threats, online harassment, cyber-stalking, blackmail, trolling, slut-shaming and more.
- Harassment at the workplace: Sexual harassment at workplace, mostly comprising of indecent remarks, unwanted touches, demands for sex, and the dissemination of pornography.
Various initiative to protect women
The Government has taken a number of initiatives for the safety of women and girls, which are given below:
- Nirbhaya Fund for projects for the safety and security of women
- One-Stop Centre Scheme to provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces under one roof
- Online analytic tool for police called “Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences” to monitor and track time-bound investigation in sexual assault cases in accordance with Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2018.
- National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) to facilitate investigation and tracking of sexual offenders across the country by law enforcement agencies.
Way ahead
- Breaking the cycle of abuse will require concerted collaboration and action between governmental and non-governmental actors including educators, health-care authorities, legislators, the judiciary and the mass media.
- Gender-based violence, an especially violent crime like rape, is a multifaceted problem.
- Although the incorporation of stringent laws and stricter punishments are important to deter people from committing such crimes, the solution to this is much more than just promulgation.
- Education of both men and women will lead to change in attitudes and perceptions.
- It is a mammoth task. We are just doing bits and pieces. A way ahead is obscure but in our sphere with concrete and pronounced steps.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Five Eyes (FYEY) Alliance, Munich Security Dilogue, Raisina Dilogue
Mains level: India's global prowess
The annual Raisina Dialogue in Delhi held this year by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will host intelligence agency chiefs of several countries.
What is the conference about?
- The conference is modelled on the lines of the annual Munich Security Conference and Singapore’s Shangri-La dialogue.
- It is expected to bring together heads and deputy heads of the top intelligence and security organisations from more than 20 — mostly Western countries and their allies.
- Intelligence chiefs and deputies from Australia, Germany, Israel, Singapore, Japan and New Zealand are among those expected to attend the conference.
- The meet is held on the sidelines of the “Five eyes alliance” of the U.S., U.K., Canada, New Zealand and Australia, who coordinate on terrorism and security issues.
What is the Five Eyes Alliance?
- The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- These countries are parties to the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.
- The origins of the FVEY can be traced to informal secret meetings during World War II between British and American code-breakers.
- It was started before the US formally entered the war, followed by the Allies’ 1941 Atlantic Charter that established their vision of the post-war world.
Back2Basics: Munich Security Conference
- The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany since 1963.
- It brings together heads of state, diplomats and business leaders from the world’s leading democracies for three days of meetings and presentations.
- It is the world’s largest gathering of its kind.
- Over the past four decades the MSC has become the most important independent forum for the exchange of views by international security policy decision-makers.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES)
Mains level: Need for CES for GDP estimation
The All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, usually conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) every five years, is set to resume this year after a prolonged break.
What is the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES)?
- The CES is traditionally a quinquennial (recurring every five years) survey conducted by the government’s National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).
- It is designed to collect information on the consumer spending patterns of households across the country, both urban and rural.
- Typically, the Survey is conducted between July and June and this year’s exercise is expected to be completed by June 2023.
Utility of the survey
- The data gathered in this exercise reveals the average expenditure on goods (food and non-food) and services.
- It helps generate estimates of household Monthly Per Capita Consumer Expenditure (MPCE) as well as the distribution of households and persons over the MPCE classes.
- It is used to arrive at estimates of poverty levels in different parts of the country and to review economic indicators such as the GDP, since 2011-12.
Why need this survey?
- India has not had any official estimates on per capita household spending.
- It provides separate data sets for rural and urban parts, and also splice spending patterns for each State and Union Territory, as well as different socio-economic groups.
What about the previous survey?
- The survey was last held in 2017-2018.
- The government announced that it had data quality issues.
- Hence the results were not released.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Strontium
Mains level: Cyber espionage
Recently, Microsoft said that it had disrupted cyberattacks from a Russian nation-state hacking group called ‘Strontium’.
What is Strontium?
- Strontium, also known as Fancy Bear, Tsar Team, Pawn Storm, Sofacy, Sednit or Advanced Persistent Threat 28 (APT28) group, is a highly active and prolific cyber-espionage group.
- It is one of the most active APT groups and has been operating since at least the mid-2000s, making it one of the world’s oldest cyber-spy groups.
- It has access to highly sophisticated tools to conduct spy operations, and has been attacking targets in the US, Europe, Central Asia and West Asia.
- The group is said to be connected to the GRU, the Russian Armed Forces’ main military intelligence wing.
- The GRU’s cyber units are believed to have been responsible for several cyberattacks over the years and its unit 26165 is identified as Fancy Bear.
How does it attack networks?
- The group deploys diverse malware and malicious tools to breach networks.
- In the past, it has used X-Tunnel, SPLM (or CHOPSTICK and X-Agent), GAMEFISH and Zebrocy to attack targets.
- These tools can be used as hooks in system drivers to access local passwords, and can track keystroke, mouse movements, and control webcam and USB drives.
- APT28 uses spear-phishing (targeted campaigns to gain access to an individual’s account) and zero-day exploits (taking advantage of unknown computer-software vulnerabilities) to target specific individuals and organizations.
- It has used spear-phishing and sometimes water-holing to steal information, such as account credentials, sensitive communications and documents.
- A watering hole attack compromises a site that a targeted victim visits to gain access to the victim’s computer and network.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Blue Straggler Stars
Mains level: Not Much
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru have studied the eccentricities of blue straggler stars.
What are Blue Straggler Stars?
- A blue straggler is a main-sequence star in an open or globular cluster that is more luminous and bluer than stars at the main sequence turnoff point for the cluster.
- Blue stragglers were first discovered by Allan Sandage in 1953 while performing photometry of the stars in the globular cluster M3.
What did the Indian researchers study?
- Eccentricity is the deviation of a planets’ or stars’ orbit from circularity — the higher the eccentricity, the greater the elliptical orbit.
- For this, the researchers also made use of the observations by the UVIT instrument (Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope) of ASTROSAT, India’s first science observatory in space.
(a) Stellar ageing of stars
- To know what blue stragglers are, it is necessary to understand how stars are classified and their evolution, studied.
- Our Sun, for example, is what is called a main sequence star, and, given its mass and age, it is expected that once it has converted all its hydrogen into helium, its core will get denser, while outer layers expand.
- So, it will bloat into a red giant.
- After this phase, its fuel spent, it will shrink, becoming a smaller, cooling star called a white dwarf star at the end of its life.
(b) Sequencing of stars
- To study the behaviour of the star, you could plot a graph of the colour of a star, which is an indication of its surface temperature, against its magnitude, which is related to the total energy given off by it.
- If you do this for all the stars in a globular cluster, a large number of stars are seen to find a place within a band known as the main sequence.
- Our Sun is a main sequence star, too, and the expectation is that all main sequence stars follow a pattern of evolution pretty much like our Sun’s fate, which was described earlier.
- There are a few stars that, just at the stage of their lives, when they are expected to start expanding in size and cooling down, do just the opposite.
- They grow brighter and hotter and blue in colour, thus standing out from the cooler red stars in their vicinity in the colour-magnitude diagram.
- Since they lag behind their peers in the evolution, they are called stragglers, more specifically, blue stragglers, because of their hot, blue colour.
Outcome of the research: Reasons for Blue Stragglers behaviour
- The puzzle of why a blue straggler is more massive, and energetic than expected may be resolved in several ways.
- One that these do not belong to the family of stars in the cluster, and hence are not expected to have the group properties.
- Second, the straggler draws matter from the giant companion and grows more massive, hot and blue, and the red giant ends up as a normal or smaller white dwarf.
- The third possibility is that the straggler draws matter from a companion star, but that there is a third star that facilitates this process.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Carbon neutrality
Mains level: Not Much
Palli village in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir has become the first panchayat in the country to become carbon-neutral, fully powered by solar energy.
Various feats achieved
- All its records have been digitised and the benefits of all the Central schemes are available in this village around 17 km from Jammu.
- Palli village, with its enthusiastic and dedicated elected representatives full of dreams, has shown how to implement the Glasgow pledge (Panchamrita) made by PM Modi.
- It has set an example of the slogan Sabka Prayas (everyone’s efforts).
What is Carbon Neutrality?
- Carbon neutrality refers to achieving net-zero carbon dioxide emissions or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference.
- This can be done by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society.
- It is used in the context of carbon dioxide-releasing processes associated with transportation, energy production, agriculture, and industry.
- The term carbon neutral also includes other greenhouse gases, usually carbon-based, measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence.
- The term “net-zero” is increasingly used to describe a broader and more comprehensive commitment to decarbonization and climate action.
- Net-zero emissions are achieved when your organization’s emissions of all greenhouse gases (CO2-e) are balanced by greenhouse gas removals
Methodology
Carbon-neutral status can be achieved in two ways:
- Carbon offsetting: Balancing carbon dioxide emissions with carbon offsets — the process of reducing or avoiding greenhouse gas emissions or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make up for emissions elsewhere. If the total greenhouse gasses emitted is equal to the total amount avoided or removed, then the two effects cancel each other out and the net emissions are ‘neutral’.
- Reducing emissions: Reducing carbon emissions can be done by moving towards energy sources and industrial processes that produce fewer greenhouse gases, thereby transitioning to a low-carbon economy. Shifting towards the use of renewable energy such as hydro, wind, geothermal, and solar power, as well as nuclear power, reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Agreement and Target
- The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016.
- Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.
- Article 4.1 of the Paris Agreement asks countries to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible.
- It also requires countries to undertake rapid reductions in carbon emissions to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases.
Back2Basics: Panchamrita
- ‘Panchamrita’ is a traditional method of mixing five natural foods — milk, ghee, curd, honey, and jaggery.
- These are used in Hindu and Jain worship rituals. It is also used as a technique in Ayurveda.
- The PM euphemistically termed his scheme as ‘Panchamrita’ meaning the ‘five ambrosia’.
- Under Panchamrita’, India will:
- Get its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030
- Meet 50 percent of its energy requirements till 2030 with renewable energy
- Reduce its projected carbon emission by one billion tonnes by 2030
- Reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45 percent by 2030
- Achieve net-zero by 2070
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Communal violence and its implications for society
Context
India has a long history of communal violence. Just how similar or different are the recent episodes? And what kind of dangers do they pose to the polity and society?
What is different this time?
- Religious processions: It should first be noted that such processions have historically been some of the largest triggers for communal riots.
- Such processions can be, and have been, intensely political, often morphing from the religious to the communal.
- Communalism Vs. Religiosity: Communalism in South Asia has always been distinguished from religiosity.
- Religiosity may be about deeper meanings of life, but communalism is about a coercive assertion of power or a bloody search for retribution, often historically construed and presented.
- Thus, it is not the coexistence of religious processions and riots that is surprising today.
- What is different this time? Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti are not the principal religious processions touching off riots.
- Eroding neutrality of state: The second difference that in the past, processions might have caused riots, but the state rarely gave up the principle of neutrality in dealing with them.
- When a state either explicitly favours a community or looks away when a particular community is hounded, intimidated and attacked, it is no longer a riot, but a pogrom.
- The rapidly eroding religious neutrality of the government in several states is one of the most alarming political developments.
- In recent months, there have been spectacles of calls to murder in Dharam Sansads (religious assemblies).
- Such speech is criminally liable. India’s Constitution prohibits speech that endangers “public order”.
- In the past, it was invariably hard to find clear evidence of who led the riots.
- The riot leaders now openly proclaim call for violence.
- Such leaders are either not punished, or are merely given a slap on the wrist and some of them are even celebrated as heroes and rewarded with high office.
- New research on vigilantism makes it clear that vigilantism, especially lynchings, cannot flourish unless the state provides impunity to vigilante groups.
Conclusion
Even though India has a long history of communal violence the recent episodes of violence are different and pose grave dangers to the polity and society.
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