Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: China BRICS strategy, Role of India
Context
- At the 14thLeaders’ Meeting of the BRICS, held virtually in June 2022, China dwelt on the issue of expanding the group beyond its five existing members to include more emerging economies. At a time when China-India relations are at a low point, the proposal has raised concerns in New Delhi. As India deliberates its stance on this contentious issue, it is important to understand China’s approach towards BRICS.
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All you need to know about BRICS
- BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
- Jim O’Neill, a British economist, coined the term ‘BRIC’ to describe the four emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. He made a case for BRIC on the basis of econometric analyses projecting that the four economies would individually and collectively occupy far greater economic space and become among the world’s largest economies.
- The importance of BRICS is self-evident: It represents 42% of the world’s population, 30% of the land area, 24% of global GDP and 16% of international trade.
- The five BRICS countries are also members of G-20.
BRICS for China
- Strategy of multiple engagements: For China, it is the grand strategy that is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that threads its many engagements: BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) where it is not directly a member, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
- Projecting the connection between BRICS and BRI: BRICS as an entity, has not signed any memorandum of cooperation with the BRI, In Chinese strategic thinking, the BRI and BRICS are deeply connected.
- Repeated assertion by Xi Jinping: President Xi Jinping himself has harped on this notion in his speeches on multiple occasions, such as the 9th BRICS Business Forum in September 2017 and the 11th BRICS Leaders’ Meeting in November 2019. In his speech he stated that China would cooperate with other multilateral development institutions such as the BRICS New Development Bank to support BRI and jointly formulate guidelines to finance development projects.
China’s Approach towards BRICS: The Link with BRI
- Policy of Five connectivities: Chinese scholars are of the opinion that the “five connectivities” in policy, infrastructure, trade, finance, and people-to-people constitute the common way forward for both the BRI and BRICS.
- Economic development strategy: China has been working towards strengthening the interconnection of economic development strategies of different states along the BRI, particularly the BRICS nations, aligning and integrating BRI and BRICS infrastructure projects, ensuring unimpeded trade, pursuing multiple forms of cooperation.
- China’s Silk Road Economic Belt and EEU: The most significant progress made so far by China in this regard has been the official docking between China’s Silk Road Economic Belt (the land part of the BRI) and the EEU (where Russia is the dominant player) in May 2015.
- Infrastructure models that China is emphasising: A high-speed railway project from Moscow to Kazan is being constructed under this strategic cooperation, funded by the BRICS New Development Bank. This is the model that China wants to replicate with other BRICS nations as well. In December 2015, South Africa and China signed a memorandum of understanding on jointly promoting the construction of the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road.”
Why China needs BRICS to promote the BRI?
- To avoid direct conflicts: Chinese policymakers believe that although China is the main proponent of the BRI, it needs to avoid both strategic overdraft and direct conflicts with the pillars of the present international order while implementing the strategy.
- To use resources effectively: To improve efficiency in the use of funds and other resources, China, it is argued, should shift from individually leading specific projects to constructing and leading various international institutions and exerting itself through institutional norms.
- Strategic alignment and ambition to lead: President Xi emphasised this as well at the ‘Belt and Road’ International Cooperation Summit Forum in May 2017, saying that the BRI “is not about starting from scratch and reinventing the wheel, but realising strategic alignment and (reaping) complementary advantages (of various existing or new mechanisms).”
- Dominating the financial mechanism through BRI partnership: Chinese scholars point out that all the BRICS countries have already been made part of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), one of China’s key financing mechanisms for the BRI. Further, given China’s clear dominance in the New Development Bank (NDB), Contingency Reserve Fund (CRA), the AIIB, as well as Silk Road Fund, it is only imperative for it to use these institutions to incentivise more BRICS countries to participate in the BRI, and to lay the foundation of a global financial system for the Chinese currency (RMB) trade settlement.
- Creating an acceptable front: China is aware that the BRI has provoked extensive discussion around the world. It has been interpreted differently by different countries and has even drawn suspicion and caution in certain quarters. China is aware that to implement the BRI smoothly, it needs an additional front that is less controversial and more acceptable to the international community at large, and in particular, to developing countries.
- Promoting priorities in contrast: China prioritises the ‘BRICS + Asia’ cooperation mechanism – ‘BRICS + ASEAN’ on the one hand, and ‘BRICS + Bay of Bengal’ on the other, thereby integrating BRICS more closely with the Southeast Asian countries as well as with the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM-EC) and Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) nations.
- Aligning with BIMSTEC to counter India’s resistance to BRI: The aligning with BIMSTEC is particularly aimed at countering India’s reticence to endorse the BRI, while seeking its cooperation through either coercion (i.e., using other member states of the said groupings as bargaining chips to pressure India to cooperate) or deception (i.e., temporarily ignoring the BRI banner).
- Using BRICS at its advantage: China wants to use the BRICS platform to establish links and influence policies of these key regional organisations, including the African Union in Africa, the Arab League in West Asia, the SCO in Central Asia, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in South Asia, and ASEAN in Southeast Asia.
- Ambition to formulate the world order in its own way: It wants BRICS, especially the BRICS New Development Bank, to strengthen cooperation with the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization. This will enable China, through BRICS, to strengthen its international leadership, play a bigger role in the formulation of international rules, and influence the overall global governance mechanism.
Conclusion
- As China-US rivalry intensifies and the BRI faces a plethora of challenges, BRICS is increasingly gaining significance for China. Within the grouping, China sees itself as the ‘core’ of BRICS, while India as its weakest link.
- India needs to accurately grasp the geopolitical shifts taking place within BRICS and deftly navigate the complex dynamics between the member states to safeguard its own interests within the grouping and avoid being drawn passively into China’s Great Game.
Mains Question
Q. China has focused on expanding the BRICS group to achieve its own ambitions. Discuss the significance of BRICS for China and India’s concerns.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Falling of Indian rupee, challenges and advantages
Context
- The Indian rupee has been quite the controversial newsmaker this year. Having fallen more than 11 percent against the US dollar so far in 2022, the rupee breached the much-feared 80-mark in July and went on to set record lows, touching 83 to a dollar late in October.
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Impact on trade
- Widening trade deficit: The first phenomenon is one of the biggest worries caused by a falling rupee, a rise in import costs, threatening higher inflation and a widening trade deficit.
- Advantage for export: However, there also exists a ray of hope, a depreciated currency implies cheaper, more competitive exports and therefore, a possible export-led boost to the domestic economy. The net effect of these opposing forces would determine the impact of a depreciating currency on an economy.
- Robust Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI): The import bill has risen not only on the back of a raging dollar and hardening crude prices but has also been spurred by strengthening domestic demand and manufacturing, as evidenced by a robust Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) of 55.3 in October.
- Subdued merchandized export: Although service exports have done fairly well in FY 2022-23, merchandise exports have remained subdued and could soon worsen due to economic downturns in Europe and the US.
Impact on foreign investment
- Weak rupee low foreign portfolio investors (FPI): The rupee has a complicated relationship with the moody foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). A weaker rupee can discourage FPIs. In turn, FPI outflows can further push the rupee to depreciate.
- Falling NRI deposits: With the rupee losing value against the dollar, and interest rates around the world rising, NRI deposit flows also fell in the five-month period from April to August 2022, down to US$1.4 billion from US$2.4 billion a year ago.
- FDI is Rising: Net FDI flows have remained positive and are set to grow, with April-June 2022 seeing an inflow of US$13.6 billion, higher than the same period last year. Even Indian stock markets have remained resilient, particularly on the back of large net-purchases by domestic institutional and retail investors, offsetting the equity sell-off by foreign investors.
- Negative foreign investment: Net foreign investment (FII) flows did turn negative for a few months in 2022, and while rebounding FPI and resilient FDI do point to a more optimistic opinion of India among foreign investors, foreign investment is absolutely crucial at this juncture in India’s growth story and must be watched closely.
Efforts taken by RBI
- Use of forex reserve: In an effort to defend the rupee, the RBI has intervened and sold off some of its foreign exchange reserves. The reserves stood at US$524.52 billion as of 21 October 2022, witnessing a fall of over US$115 billion since the beginning of the year.
- according to RBI external situation is better: RBI has stated that most external indicators such as external debt to GDP ratio, net international investment position to GDP ratio and the ratio of short-term debt to reserves reflect India’s relatively comfortable position in meeting its external financing requirements–even in contrast to other emerging economies.
- Careful intervention: Over-tightening of monetary policy and excessive intervention in the currency market can pose significant risks to the country’s growth prospects and the RBI must be careful to intervene just enough to quell volatility, without expending an inordinate amount of reserves.
- Leveraging the growth rate: India has the chance to leverage its relatively healthy growth rates and rising infrastructure and capital expenditure to attract foreign investment, spurring growth and strengthening the capital account.
- High investor confidence: Investor confidence has been steady, with the country seeing a record high of annual FDI inflows of US$84.8 billion in FY2021-22 in spite of the pandemic and volatile geopolitical scenario.
- Stability in growth: This confidence needs to be leveraged and by positioning India on the international stage as a thriving and stable haven for investments, both the country’s growth and forex needs can be met.
- Sufficient policy support is needed: Although the falling rupee has caused worry for a few economic indicators, with sufficient policy support, the domestic economy could emerge as an outlier in a global downturn.
Conclusion
- With the United States (US) on a war path to curtail inflation and the supply side stifled by the conflict in Ukraine, even historically strong currencies like the euro and the British pound have plummeted against the raging dollar, more than the rupee. Government and RBI must stay on course of steady growth of economy.
Mains Question
Q. Discuss the impact of falling rupee on Trade and foreign investment in India? How India has unique opportunity for growth amidst the crisis around the world?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Read the attached story
Mains level: Making of Indian Constitution
PM highlighted the contribution of women in the Constituent Assembly which drafted the Constitution was hardly discussed and efforts should be made to educate future generations about their work.
These are the 15 invisible architects of the Indian republic cited by the PM-
Note: This newscard has some invincible set of facts that no one can remember in one go. However, we advise you to take some notes and have it on your desk. Be it sticky notes or something. Revise them for some days.
(1) Ammu Swaminathan
- She was born into an upper-caste Nair family in the Palghat district of Kerala.
- She was a social worker and politician who along with Annie Besant, Margaret Cousins, Malathi Patwardhan, Mrs. Dadabhoy, and Mrs. Ambujammal, formed the Women’s India Association in 1917 in Madras.
- One of the first associations to demand adult franchise and constitutional rights for women.
- She strongly opposed discriminatory caste practices although, she belonged to an upper-caste and strongly advocated equal status, adult franchise, and the removal of untouchability.
- Ammu became a part of the Constituent Assembly in 1946 from the Madras constituency.
- She felt that the Constitution was too long and that it had gone into unnecessary detail and wanted a constitution that could fit easily into a pocket or purse.
(2) Annie Mascarene
- Annie Mascarene was born into a Latin Catholic family belonging to Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
- She was one of the first women to join the Travancore State Congress and became the first woman to be part of the Travancore State Congress Working Committee.
- She was one of the leaders of the movements for independence and integration with the Indian nation in the Travancore State.
- She was elected to the First Lok Sabha in the Indian general election, 1951.
- She was the first woman MP from Kerala and one of only ten elected to Parliament in the elections.
- Before her election to Parliament, she had served briefly as Minister in Charge of Health and Power during 1949-1950.
(3) Begum Aizaz Rasul
- She was born into the princely family of Malerkotla, Punjab.
- She was the only Muslim woman in the Constituent Assembly.
- She, together with her husband joined the Muslim League after the enactment of the GOI Act 1935.
- In 1950, after the dissolution of the Muslim League in India, she joined Congress.
- She was elected to the Constituent Assembly as a member of the Muslim League representing the United Provinces.
- Although she was not a part of any committee in the Assembly, she advocated for National language, reservation and property rights, and minority rights.
- She was against making ‘Sanskritised Hindi’ the National language, as only very few understood it and instead advocated for Hindustani.
(4) Dakshayani Velayudhan
- She was born into an agrestic slave caste, Pulayas, on a small island of Bolgatty on the coast of Cochin.
- She was the only Dalit women member of the Constituent Assembly and also the youngest at 34 years.
- She was the first Dalit woman to graduate in India, and was the only female student pursuing a course in the sciences.
- She was inspired into politics through her family’s fight against discriminatory caste practices.
- She was the first generation Kerala woman to be able to cover their upper-body.
- She was nominated to the Assembly in 1945 from Madras.
- In the Assembly, she advocated on issues of untouchability, forced labour, reservations, and against separate electorates for Dalits.
- She believed that the best way to address untouchability was through sustained state propaganda and not through punishment.
- In 1977 she set up a women’s rights organization Mahila Jagriti Parishad in Delhi.
(5) Durgabai Deshmukh
- Durgabai, from the ripe age of twelve, was a part of the Indian freedom movement.
- She quit school to protest the imposition of English as a medium of education, part of the Non-Cooperation Movement.
- She volunteered at a conference held by the Indian National Congress in Kakinada at the age of 14.
- She participated in the Salt Satyagraha from Madras in May of 1930.
- While she was in prison, she studied English and completed her master’s degree from Andhra University.
- She then studied law at Madras University and practiced at the bar for a few years.
- She established Andhra Mahila Sabha to coach young Telugu girls in Madras for their Matriculation examination conducted by the Banaras Hindu University in 1936.
- She was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Madras and was part of the Committee on Rules and Procedure and the Steering Committee.
- She also advocated for judicial-independence and human trafficking.
- She also felt that Hindustani should be adopted as a national language instead of Sanskritised Hindi but, she later argued against adopting Hindi as the national language.
(6) Hansa Jivraj Mehta
- She was a writer, social reformer, social activist, and educator.
- In 1937, she contested in the Bombay Legislative Council elections from the general category; she not only won but remained on the council till 1949.
- She became President of the All India Women’s Conference in 1946.
- During the presidency, she drafted the Indian Women’s Charter of Rights and Duties, which called for gender equality and civil rights for women.
- She is 1946 also served as a member of the UN sub-committee on the status of women.
- She along with Eleanor Roosevelt, vice-chaired the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Committee.
- She was part of the Advisory Committee, Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights, Provincial Constitution Committee.
- She strongly advocated for a uniform civil code and believed that purdah was an evil practice. She also rejected quotas, reserved seats, and separate electorates for women.
(7) Kamla Chaudhary
- She was a feminist, fictional writer, and political activist.
- Her political career began in 1930 when she joined the Indian National Congress and was an active participant in the Civil Disobedience Movement.
- At the 54th session of the All India Congress Committee, she was the vice-president.
- She was elected to the Constituent Assembly.
(8) Leela Roy
- She was a great social reformer, a staunch feminist and a social and political activist, and a close associate of Subash Chandra Bose.
- In 1923 she received her M.A from Dhaka University and was the first woman to obtain it from the University.
- She was an advocate for women’s education and established Dipali Sangh, an association for women, in 1923.
- She founded a school named Dipali School and twelve other free primary schools with the help of the Dipali Sangha.
- Subsequently, in 1928, she established two other schools known as Nari Shiksa Mandir (Temple of Women’s Education) and Shiksa Bhaban (House of Education).
- Another important contribution was made b her to Muslim women’s education by setting up one of her schools as Qamrunnessa Girl’s School in Dhaka.
- She was the only woman to be elected from Bengal to the Constituent Assembly on 9th December 1946.
- However, she resigned from her post a few months later to protest against the partition of India.
(9) Malati Choudhury
- She hailed from East Bengal (now Bangladesh).
- At the age of 16, in 1929, she was sent to Santiniketan where she got admitted to Viswa-Bharati.
- Along with her husband, during the Salt Satyagrah joined the Indian National Congress.
- In 1933, she formed Utkal Congress Samajvadi Karmi Sangh along with, her husband and later came to be known as the Orissa Provincial Branch of the All India Congress Socialist Party.
- She joined Gandhiji in his famous padayatra in Orissa in 1934.
- For the upliftment of vulnerable communities in Odisha, she set-up several organizations such as the Bajiraut Chhatravas.
(10) Purnima Banerjee
- She was a part of the individual Satyagraha and Quit India movement.
- She was a member of the Congress Socialist Party and the Indian National Congress.
- She held the post as the Secretary of the Allahabad City Congress Committee, working towards creating rural engagement.
- She was appointed to the Constituent Assembly from United Provinces.
- She argued that the preventative detention clause in Draft Article 15A (Article 22 of the Constitution of India) must prescribe time limits beyond which a person cannot be detained.
- During the discussion of the Preamble, she expressly stated that ‘sovereignty’ is derived from the people of India.
- During the discussion around the qualifications of Rajya Sabha members, Banerjee believed that the age limit should be reduced from 35 to 30 years.
(11) Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
- Inspired by Gandhi’s fight for Independence, she gave up her Sherborne and Oxford education to be his Secretary for 16 years.
- In 1927 she along with Margaret cousins co-founded the All-India Women’s Conference.
- She held the position of Secretary in 1930 and President in 1933.
- She played a vital part in India’s establishment of constitutional equality of genders guaranteed under Articles 14, 15, and 16.
- She was also played a pivotal part in the inclusion of the Uniform Civil Code as part of the Directive Principles of State Policy.
- She was the first Health Minister of independent India and held office for ten years.
- She was the first female and first Asian President of the world health Assembly.
(12) Renuka Ray
- Renuka Rai is a celebrated women’s rights and inheritance rights in parent a property activist.
- She, like Kaur, was inspired by Gandhi’s call for the independence struggle, joined Gandhi’s Ashram accompanying him in protests.
- In 1934 while working as a secretary of the AIWC, she authored ‘legal disability is Women in India; A Plea for A Commission of Inquiry’.
- She worked for the prevention of women trafficking and the improvement of conditions of female labourers.
- Ray contributed to numerous women’s rights issues, minority rights, and bicameral legislature provisions. She fought for Uniform Personal Law Code.
- In 1949 represented India in the UN General assembly.
(13) Sarojini Naidu
- The first woman president of the Indian National Congress was popularly known as the Nightingale of India.
- When in England, she had gained some experience in suffragist campaigns and was drawn to India’s Congress movement and Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-cooperation Movement.
- Besides being a suffragette, she was also a women rights activist, and she advocated for reforms to improve the conditions of widows in the Indian National Social Conference in Madras, 1908.
- In 1917 she headed the All-India Women’s Deputation and championed women’s suffrage before E. S. Montagu (Secretary of State for India).
- In the same year, she together with Annie Besant, set up the Women’s India Association.
- In 1931 she accompanied Gandhi to London for the inconclusive second session of the Round Table Conference.
- She was appointed to the Constituent Assembly from Bihar as part of the ad-hoc committee on the national flag.
(14) Sucheta Kriplani
- The first elected female chief minister of an Indian state was born in Ambala.
- A graduate from Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University, taught Constitutional History at Banaras Hindu University until 1939.
- She became a member of the Congress Party in 1938, served as the Secretary to the Foreign Department and Women’s Section for a year and a half.
- Under her leadership, the women’s wing of the Congress Party was established in 1940.
- She held an active role in India’s struggle for independence during the 1940s and was remembered especially for her role in the 1942 Quit India Movement for which she was arrested in 1944 and detained for a year.
- She was elected to the Constituent Assembly from the United Provinces in 1946 as a member of the Flag Presentation Committee.
- This committee presented the first Indian flag before the Constituent Assembly.
- Kriplani served as a Secretary to the Relief and Rehabilitation Committee established by the Congress Party, playing a pivotal role in rehabilitating the Bengali refugees during the partition.
- She had a colourful political career. She was also a part of various delegations to international organizations and countries.
(15) Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
- Born, Swarup Kumari Nehru was a diplomat and politician. She changed her name after her marriage in 1921.
- As an enthusiastic participant of the independence struggle, she was imprisoned on three different occasions.
- After the Indian Independence, she became an eminent diplomat representing India in the United Nations between 1946- 48 and 1952-53.
- She was an Ambassador to Moscow, Mexico, and Washington and later to England and Ireland concurrently.
- She is the first woman to become President of the UN General Assembly.
- She was appointed as the governor of Maharashtra after her return to India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Juvenile Justice
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Context
- The Supreme Court (SC) made an observation in its judgment of November 16 in the infamous Kathua rape-murder case that the rising rate of juvenile delinquency in India is a matter of concern and requires immediate attention.
Present approach and implications towards Juvenile delinquency
- The goal of reformation: There is a school of thought, that firmly believes that howsoever heinous the crime may be, be it single rape, gangrape, drug peddling or murder but if the accused is a juvenile, he should be dealt with keeping in mind only one thing i.e., the goal of reformation.
- Continuance of crime: The school of thought, we are talking about, believes that the goal of reformation is ideal. The manner in which brutal and heinous crimes have been committed over a period of time by the juveniles and still continue to be committed, makes us wonder whether the [Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children)] Act, 2015 has subserved its object.
- No reformation but more crime: We have started gathering an impression that the leniency with which the juveniles are dealt with in the name of goal of reformation is making them more and more emboldened in indulging in such heinous crimes.
- Criminal trials are not allowed: The law, contained in successive Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Acts (JJ Acts), places a blanket ban on the power of the criminal court to try and punish a person below the specified age for committing any offence.
- Lack of clarity on maturity of person: Should a person, who has sufficient maturity of understanding to judge the nature and consequences of his/her action, get blanket immunity from the criminal process without the fear of being prosecuted, tried and punished, merely because that person is below the specified age?
- Child friendly inquiry: Under the existing law, such a person, at best, could be subjected to a child-friendly enquiry by a Juvenile Justice Board (JJ Board) and reformation for a maximum period of three years in a correctional home.
The issue of maturity of Juvenile offender
- Help of experts to assess maturity: It is well settled that the assessment of whether or not an offender has attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge the nature and consequences of his/her conduct is to be done by the court with the help of experts, and is a judicial function as exemplified by Section 83 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
- Judicial discretion was not allowed in JJ Act 2000: The JJ Act 2000 to the extent it deprived the criminal court of the power to try and to punish a person below the age of 18 years for committing an offence, when such a person could be assessed to have attained sufficient maturity to judge the nature and consequences of his/her conduct ,encroached upon the judicial domain and was, therefore, unconstitutional.
- No changes on maturity in JJ act 2015: The current JJ Act, 2015, suffers from the same defect, except that the age of criminal responsibility for heinous offences has been reduced to 16 years.
- Immature send to correctional homes: It has been overlooked that the fundamental premise of juvenile justice law is that a juvenile offender who lacks such maturity should not be sent to a criminal court to be tried for the commission of an offence, and instead, should be sent to a correctional home for reform and rehabilitation.
- Mature juvenile must be punished: Conversely, therefore, should the offender have such maturity, he/she must be prosecuted before the criminal court, tried and, if found guilty, punished. The age of the juvenile offender alone cannot, therefore, justify a blanket immunity from the criminal process rather, the question of such immunity must be assessed on a case-by-case basis depending on the maturity of such offender.
Trying the mature juvenile as adult
- Mature juvenile and adults are not same: Indeed, Section 23 of the JJ Act, 2015 mandates that notwithstanding anything contained in Section 223 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1973 or in any other law for the time being in force, “there shall be no joint proceedings of a child alleged to be in conflict with the law, with a person who is not a child”.
- Separate provision for mature juveniles: Provisions already exist in the JJ Act, 2015, as to how a child who has attained the age of 16 years could be tried and punished for a heinous offence.
- Assessing the maturity of all juvenile irrespective of age: The same provisions could be extended to all juvenile offenders, regardless of age or nature of the crime, once it is found by the competent court that any such offender had sufficient maturity of understanding to judge the nature and consequences of his/her actions.
Conclusion
- Government should amend JJ Act 2015. Such an amendment would go a long way in providing the requisite balance between the rationales underlying the juvenile justice system and the criminal justice system and realizing the objectives professed by both.
Mains Question
Q. What are the flaws with existing Juvenile Justice Act 2015 vis-e-vis maturity of juveniles? How to address the issue mature juvenile and punishment to them?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Population and population decline trend
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Context
- Recently, when the world population touched eight billion, several headlines focused on how India was the largest contributor to the last billion and is set to surpass China as the world’s most populous nation by 2023. But missing in this conversation is the real threat of depopulation that parts of India too face, and the country’s complete lack of preparedness to deal with it.
Note: “The population and Population decline are continuously in the headlines which makes the population and associated topics important for the upcoming Mains Examinations.”
India’s Population trend
- The total population of India currently stands at 1.37 billion which is 17.5% of the world population.
- Between 1992 and 2015, India’s Total fertility rate (TFR) had fallen by 35% from 3.4 to 2.2.
- Young people (15-29 age years) form 27.2% of the population in 2021. This made India enter the Demographic dividend stage.
- The percentage of the elderly population has been increasing from 6.8% in 1991 to 9.2% in 2016.
What is depopulation?
- The depopulation decline (also sometimes called population decline, underpopulation, or population collapse) in humans is a reduction in a human population size.
- Over the long term, stretching from prehistory to the present, Earth’s total human population has continued to grow; however, current projections suggest that this long-term trend of steady population growth may be coming to an end.
The depopulation discussion and the missing links
- Falling fertility rate and discussing reversal: Demographers, policy experts and politicians in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Europe, which are experiencing falling fertility and nearing the inflection point of population declines, are beginning to talk about what the future holds and whether reversal is possible.
- The missing key elements in the conversation: Talking about equitable sharing of housework; access to subsidized childcare that allows women to have families as well as a career; and lowered barriers to immigration to enable entry to working-age people from countries which aren’t yet in population decline is missing.
Fertility in India
- Falling fertility rate: It is now well-established that fertility in India is falling along expected lines as a direct result of rising incomes and greater female access to health and education. India’s total fertility rate is now below the replacement rate of fertility.
- Many states are on the verge of population decline: Parts of India have not only achieved replacement fertility, but have been below the replacement rate for so long that they are at the cusp of real declines in population. Kerala, which achieved replacement fertility in 1998, and Tamil Nadu, which achieved this in 2000, are examples.
- Decline in working age population: In the next four years, both Tamil Nadu and Kerala will see the first absolute declines in their working-age populations in their histories. With falling mortality (barring the pandemic), the total population of these States will continue to grow for the next few decades, which means that fewer working-age people must support more elderly people than ever before.
- Replacement level fertility is the level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next.
- In simpler terms, it denotes the fertility number required to maintain the same population number of a country over a given period of time.
- In developed countries, replacement level fertility can be taken as requiring an average of 2.1 children per woman.
- In countries with high infant and child mortality rates, however, the average number of births may need to be much higher.
- RLF will lead to zero population growth only if mortality rates remain constant and migration has no effect.
A depopulating future and the challenges
- Invisible trend because infuse of migrants: Access to working-age persons notably different from the situation in other States with low fertility. For instance, Delhi and Karnataka which are both net recipients of migrants, and will not confront population decline in the near future.
- A skewed sex ratio remains a danger: As the latest round of the NFHS showed, families with at least one son are less likely to want more children than families with just one daughter.
- Difference in education: The stark differences between northern and southern States in terms of basic literacy as well as enrolment in higher education, including in technical fields, will mean that workers from the southern States are not automatically replaceable.
Conclusion
- With decades of focus on lowering fertility, the conversation in India is stuck in a rut. It is for the southern States to break away from this outmoded, data-free rhetoric and join the global conversation on depopulation. India’s cannot ignore the depopulation in the name of migration to meet its current labour needs.
Mains question
Q. What is depopulation, which has been a hot topic in recent times? Where do you see India in global population trends? Discuss.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NPR, NRC
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Central government proposes to make birth certificates a mandatory document for almost every sphere of life — admission in educational institutions, inclusion in the voter list, appointment in Central and State government jobs, issue of driving licence and passport.
Why in news?
- These changes are proposed in the draft Bill to amend the Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969.
Registration of Births and Deaths Act (RBD), 1969
- The registration of births, deaths and stillbirths are compulsory under the provisions of RBD Act in all parts of the Country.
- The normal period of 21 days (from the date of occurrence) has been prescribed for reporting the birth, death and stillbirth events.
- Registration of birth and death is already compulsory under the RBD Act, 1969 and violating it is a punishable offence.
Why need amendment?
- The database may be used to update the Population Register and the electoral register, and Aadhaar, ration card, passport and driving licence databases after the amendment.
- Presently, the registration of births and deaths is done by the local registrar appointed by States.
What are the proposed amendments?
Ans. Unified Database of Birth and Death
- It is proposed that the Chief Registrar (appointed by the States) would maintain a unified database at the State level.
- It would then integrate it with the data at the “national level,” maintained by the Registrar General of India (RGI).
- The amendments will imply that the Centre will be a parallel repository of data.
- It shall be mandatory for hospitals and medical institutions to provide a copy of all death certificates, stating the cause of death, to the local registrar apart from the relative of the deceased.
Significance of the database
- Population Register prepared under the Citizenship Act, 1955;
- Electoral registers or electoral rolls prepared under the Representation of the People Act, 1951
- Aadhaar database prepared under the Aadhaar Act, 2016;
- Ration card database prepared under the National Food Security Act, 2013;
- Passport database prepared under the Passport Act; and
- Driving licence database under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, and
- Other databases at the national level are subject to provisons of Section 17 (1) of the RBD Act, 1969
What are the newly proposed changes?
- The centrally-stored birth/death data will be updated in real-time without any human interface required.
- This would lead to addition and deletion from the electoral roll when an individual turns 18, and after death, respectively.
Why such move?
- The government intends to improve compliance by making the registration mandatory to avail basic services such as admission in schools and registration of marriages.
- Provisions exist for compulsory registration of births and deaths but after the law is amended, it will be
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sacred Grooves
Mains level: Not Much
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in the Sunday edition of TH.
What are Sacred Grooves?
- Sacred groves of India are forest fragments of varying sizes, which are communally protected, and which usually have a significant religious connotation for the protecting community.
- It usually consists of a dense cover of vegetation including climbers, herbs, shrubs and trees, with the presence of a village deity and is mostly situated near a perennial water source.
- Sacred groves are considered to be symbols of the primitive practice of nature worship and support nature conservation to a great extent.
- The introduction of the protected area category community reserves under the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002 has introduced legislation for providing government protection to community-held lands, which could include sacred groves.
Historical references
- Indian sacred groves are often associated with temples, monasteries, shrines, pilgrimage sites, or with burial grounds.
- Historically, sacred groves find their mentions in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, from sacred tree groves in Hinduism to sacred deer parks in Buddhism for example.
- Sacred groves may be loosely used to refer to natural habitat protected on religious grounds.
- Other historical references to sacred groves can be obtained in Vrukshayurveda an ancient treatise, ancient classics such as Kalidasa’s Vikramuurvashiiya.
- There has been a growing interest in creating green patches such as Nakshatravana
Regulation of activities in Sacred Grooves
- Hunting and logging are usually strictly prohibited within these patches.
- Other forms of forest usage like honey collection and deadwood collection are sometimes allowed on a sustainable basis.
- NGOs work with local villagers to protect such groves.
- Traditionally, and in some cases even today, members of the community take turns to protect the grove.
Threats to such grooves
- Threats to the groves include urbanization, and over-exploitation of resources.
- While many of the groves are looked upon as abode of Hindu deities, in the recent past a number of them have been partially cleared for construction of shrines and temples.
Total grooves in India
- Around 14,000 sacred groves have been reported from all over India, which act as reservoirs of rare fauna, and more often rare flora, amid rural and even urban settings.
- Experts believe that the total number of sacred groves could be as high as 100,000.
- They are called by different names in different states:
- Sarna in Bihar
- Dev Van in Himachal Pradesh
- Devarakadu in Karnataka
- Kavu in Kerala
- Dev in Madhya Pradesh
- Devarahati or Devarai in Maharashtra
- Lai Umang in Maharashtra
- Law Kyntang or Asong Khosi in Meghalaya
- Oran in Rajasthan
- Kovil Kadu or Sarpa Kavu in Tamil Nadu
What lies ahead?
- The groves have great research value in in situ conservation of rare, endangered and threatened plant species.
- It is high time that public awareness is created about the importance of these sacred groves, developmental activities are banned and the felling of trees or removal of any other vegetation is completely stopped.
- This is possible only by way of enacting a special law for the protection and management of sacred groves.
- As the management practices and other rituals vary from state to state, the concerned state governments may promulgate such an act as suitable for the state.
- The idea should be to protect certain rare, endangered and threatened plant species in the era of global warming and climate change.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Rare earth elements
Mains level: Not Much
To counter India’s reliance on China for imports of critical rare earth minerals, industry has urged the government to establish ‘India Rare Earths Mission’.
What are Rare Earth Metals?
- The rare earth elements (REE) are a set of seventeen metallic elements. These include the fifteen lanthanides on the periodic table plus scandium and yttrium.
- Rare earth elements are an essential part of many high-tech devices.
- They have a wide range of applications, especially high-tech consumer products, such as cellular telephones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles, and flat-screen monitors and televisions.
- Significant defense applications include electronic displays, guidance systems, lasers, and radar and sonar systems.
- Rare earth minerals, with names like neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium, are crucial to the manufacture of magnets used in industries of the future, such as wind turbines and electric cars.
Applications of REMs in various fields:
- Electronics: Television screens, computers, cell phones, silicon chips, monitor displays, long-life rechargeable batteries, camera lenses, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), baggage scanners, marine propulsion systems.
- Defense Sector: Rare earth elements play an essential role in our national defense. The military uses night-vision goggles, precision-guided weapons, communications equipment, GPS equipment, batteries, and other defense electronics. These give the United States military an enormous advantage. Rare earth metals are key ingredients for making the very hard alloys used in armored vehicles and projectiles that shatter upon impact.
- Renewable Energy: Solar panels, Hybrid automobiles, wind turbines, next-generation rechargeable batteries, bio-fuel catalysts.
- Manufacturing: High strength magnets, metal alloys, stress gauges, ceramic pigments, colorants in glassware, chemical oxidizing agent, polishing powders, plastics creation, as additives for strengthening other metals, automotive catalytic converters
- Medical Science: Portable x-ray machines, x-ray tubes, magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) contrast agents, nuclear medicine imaging, cancer treatment applications, and for genetic screening tests, medical and dental lasers.
- Technology: Lasers, optical glass, fiber optics, masers, radar detection devices, nuclear fuel rods, mercury-vapor lamps, highly reflective glass, computer memory, nuclear batteries, high-temperature superconductors.
DO YOU KNOW?
Metals such as cadmium, lead are often used in manufacturing plastic and over time can enter coastal waters. These are acutely harmful for coastal wildlife and humans.Different kinds of plastic releases different kinds of metals that may release when exposed to water and UV lights.
What are the challenges in accessing Critical minerals?
- Deposits in geopolitically sensitive regions: Reserves are often concentrated in regions that are geopolitically sensitive or fare poorly from an ease of doing business perspective.
- Controlled production: A portion of existing production is controlled by geostrategic competitors. For example, China wields considerable influence in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo through direct equity investments and its Belt and Road Initiative.
- Agreements in advance from outside: Future mine production is often tied up in off take agreements, in advance, by buyers from other countries to cater to upcoming demand.
A step taken by Indian government for sourcing strategic minerals
- For sourcing of strategic minerals, the Indian government established Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) in 2019 with the mandate to secure mineral supply for the domestic market.
India Rare Earths Mission
- Industries in India have urged to set up a Mission, manned by professionals, like the India Semiconductor Mission and make their exploration a critical component of the Deep Ocean Mission plan of the government.
- It would seek to encourage private sector mining in the sector and diversify sources of supply for these strategic raw materials.
- The industry group has mooted making rare earth minerals a part of the ‘Make In India’ campaign, citing China’s ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative that focuses on new materials, including permanent magnets that are made using rare earth minerals.
Why such move?
- Though India has 6% of the world’s rare earth reserves, it only produces 1% of global output, and meets most of its requirements of such minerals from China.
- In 2018-19, for instance, 92% of rare earth metal imports by value and 97% by quantity were sourced from China.
What lies ahead?
- There is a need to harness the potential of the country’s own rare earth reserves.
- This would help build domestic capability and broad-base supply sources for such an important and strategic raw material.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Darjeeling Tea
Mains level: Not Much
Tea Board officials admitted that Indian tea had not been able to establish itself globally, and that one of its key brands, Darjeeling Tea, was under acute stress.
About Darjeeling Tea
- Darjeeling Tea, called the ‘Champagne of Teas’, was the first Indian product to get the GI (Geographical Identification) tag in 2004 for its distinctive aroma and flavour.
- About 87 gardens in Darjeeling which employ about 55,000 workers produce approximately 7 million kg of tea, most of which is exported.
Why is it under distress?
- Garden owners are reeling under higher costs of production and other issues.
- Inferior quality tea from Nepal is being imported, and then sold and re-exported as premium Darjeeling Tea.
- Nepal shares similar climatic conditions and terrain, produces tea at a lower price because of less input costs, particularly labour, and fewer quality checks.
- In 2017, the production of Darjeeling Tea hit a low of 3.21 million kg. Since a substantial market of Darjeeling Tea switched to cheaper varieties of tea, including the imported variety from Nepal.
- Tea planters and industry experts admit that the tea industry in Darjeeling has not recovered from the damage it incurred in 2017.
Is climate change impacting production?
- The decline in production is due to multiple factors, which include climate change, declining yields, and high absenteeism among workers.
- Because of the hilly terrain of Darjeeling, there is no land left for expansion of tea gardens.
- The tea bushes are older than other parts of the country.
- Uprooting and planting them is both time and cost-intensive.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Shiveluch Volcano
Mains level: Not Much
The Shiveluch volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East has increased its activity and is now in danger of erupting violently.
About Shiveluch
- Shiveluch is one of the largest and most active volcanoes in Kamchatka, having erupted at least 60 times in the past 10,000 years.
- Kamchatka is home to 29 active volcanoes, part of a vast belt of Earth known as the “Ring of Fire” which circles the Pacific Ocean and is prone to eruptions and frequent earthquakes.
- It has two main parts: Old Shiveluch, which tops 3,283 metres (10,771 ft), and Young Shiveluch – a smaller, 2,800-metre peak protruding from its side.
- Young Shiveluch lies within an ancient caldera – a large crater-like basin that likely formed when the older part underwent a catastrophic eruption at least 10,000 years ago.
- It is this part that has become extremely active; the lava dome continues to grow and that stronger “fumarole activity” has been observed.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sankaradeva
Mains level: Bhakti Movement
‘Gurujana’ a musical tribute to 15th–16th century Assamese polymath Srimanta Sankardeva was recently released by the PIB.
Srimanta Sankardeva (1449–1568)
- Sankardeva was a 15th–16th century Assamese polymath; a saint-scholar, poet, playwright, dancer, actor, musician, artist social-religious reformer and a figure of importance.
- He is widely credited with building on past cultural relics and devising-
- New forms of music (Borgeet)
- Theatrical performance (Ankia Naat, Bhaona),
- Dance (Sattriya)
- Literary language (Brajavali)
Literary works
- He has left extensive literary trans-created scriptures (Bhagavat of Sankardev), poetry and theological works written in Sanskrit, Assamese and Brajavali.
Political influence
- The Bhagavatic religious movement he started, Ekasarana Dharma and also called the Neo-Vaishnavite movement, influenced two medieval kingdoms – Koch and the Ahom kingdom.
- His influence spread even to some kingdoms as the Matak Kingdom founded by Bharat Singha, and consolidated by Sarbananda Singha in the latter 18th century endorsed his teachings.
- The assembly of devotees he initiated evolved over time into monastic centers called Sattras, which continue to be important socio-religious institutions in Assam and to a lesser extent in North Bengal even today.
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