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GS Paper: GS2

  • Why draft data accessibility policy is dangerous

    Context

    The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) released the“Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy 2022”.

    Objectives of the policy

    •  If passed, it would govern, “all data and information created/generated/collected/archived by the Government of India” as much as, “State Governments [who] will also be free to adopt the provisions of the policy”.
    • The twin purpose to which this data will be put to will be government-to-government sharing and high value datasets for valuation and licensing.

    Issues with the draft policy

    1] Original objective will get dilutes in favour of commercial interests

    • The immediate risk arises when a government starts licensing citizen data.
    • Over the past three years, there has been a rapid expansion in the nature and scope of our most intimate details.
    • While the middle classes faced the mendacity of voluntarily linking their Aadhaar to their bank accounts and mobile connections, today, the digital sweep is all pervasive.
    • For agriculture, there is an Agristack; for unorganised labourers, we have the e-SHRAM portal; in health we have Aarogya Setu and ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission); and for school children and teachers there is NDEAR (National Digital Education Architecture).
    • For every area of our lives, the government now has a database filled with our personal data.
    • Purpose of data collection: The stated purpose for collection has been improving service delivery, planning and checking leakages.
    • Public data is now being viewed as a prized asset of the Union government that should be freely shared, enriched, valued and licensed to the private sector. 
    • Given that more data means more money, commercial interests will prompt the government to collect granular personal details through greater capture and increased retention periods.
    • Tying government policy determinations with a fiscal potential may also lead to distortion of the aims of data collection — the welfare of farmers, healthcare, unorganised labourers or even schoolchildren.
    • There is no indication that consent will be sought in a meaningful form.
    • Over time, the original objectives for which databases are built will get diluted in favour of commercial interests.

    2] Absence of values and objectives related to transparency

    • The second issue emerges from the disingenuous phrasing of “making data open by default”.
    • Importance of open data: The World Bank notes that one of the first benefits of open data is that it supports “public oversight of governments and helps reduce corruption by enabling greater transparency”.
    • These principles were recognised in past policy pronouncements of the government.
    • Specifically, the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy, 2012 and the implementation guidelines formulated in 2017 refer to the Right to Information Act, 2005.
    • However, within the present draft data accessibility policy, while the phrase “open data” has been used, its values and objectives are absent.
    • The primary, overpowering objectives in the draft data accessibility policy and the background note are commercial.

    3] Absence of legal basis

    • The final area for reconsideration is a larger trend of policy-based administration detached from our constitutional framework.
    • Compounding this problem, the present policy, as many others, is untethered to any legislative basis and contains no proposals for the creation of a legal framework.
    • As per the Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgment on the fundamental right to privacy, the first ingredient to satisfy constitutionality is the existence of a legal, more often a legislative, basis.
    • Without a law, there is absence of defined limits to data sharing that are enforceable and contain remedies.
    • Inadequate provisions for privacy preservation: In this case, the promise of privacy preservation through anonymisation tools holds little promise when it cannot be independently assessed by a body for data protection.
    •  Even heavily sampled anonymised datasets are unlikely to satisfy the modern standards for anonymisation set forth by GDPR and seriously challenge the technical and legal adequacy of the de-identification release-and-forget model.
    • This becomes vital as it is the principal measure suggested in the draft data accessibility policy.

    Suggestions

    • Parliamentary enactments also help bring accountability through deliberation that furthers foresight and contains financial memorandums – given that public money would be spent to enrich datasets of public data.
    • Since the policy contemplates sharing data between databases of the central and state governments as well as through central funded schemes, it may also be prudent to deliberate further in the Rajya Sabha. 
    •  Federalism becomes a relevant issue given that such data, when it is generated, processed and enriched by state governments to comply with interoperability standards, will lead to revenue generation for itself.

    Consider the question “What are the benefits of open data? Why privacy and welfare activists have raised concerns with the Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy 2022?”

    Conclusion

    These are the glaring issues in this short,  draft data accessibility policy, which appears to transform the Union government into a data broker.

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  • What is ‘General Consent’ for CBI?

    Meghalaya has withdrawn consent to the CBI to investigate cases in the state, becoming the ninth state in the country to have taken this step.

    General Consent

    • Unlike the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is governed by its own NIA Act and has jurisdiction across the country, the CBI is governed by the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act.
    • This makes consent of a state government mandatory for conducting an investigation in that state.
    • There are two types of consent: case-specific and general.
    • Given that the CBI has jurisdiction only over central government departments and employees, it can investigate a case involving state government employees or a violent crime in a given state only after that state government gives its consent.

    When is Consent needed?

    • General consent is normally given to help the CBI seamlessly conduct its investigation into cases of corruption against central government employees in the concerned state.
    • Almost all states have given such consent.
    • Otherwise, the CBI would require consent in every case.

    What does the withdrawal of consent mean?

    • It means the CBI will not be able to register any fresh case involving a central government official or a private person stationed in these two states without getting case-specific consent.
    • Withdrawal of consent simply means that CBI officers will lose all powers of a police officer as soon as they enter the state unless the state government has allowed them.

    Under what provision has general consent been withdrawn?

    • In exercise of the power conferred by Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, the government can withdraw the general consent to exercise the powers and jurisdiction.
    • Section 6 of the Act says nothing contained in Section 5 shall be deemed to enable any member of the Delhi Special Police Establishment to exercise powers and jurisdiction in any area in a State, not being a Union Territory or Railway, area, without the consent of the Government of that State.

    Does that mean that the CBI can no longer probe any case in the two states?

    • The CBI would still have the power to investigate old cases registered when general consent existed.
    • Also, cases registered anywhere else in the country, but involving people stationed in that particular state would allow CBI’s jurisdiction to extend to these states.
    • There is ambiguity on whether the agency can carry out a search in either of the two states in connection with an old case without the consent of the state government.

    Why such a move by the States?

    • If a state government believes that the ruling party’s ministers or members could be targeted by CBI on orders of the Centre, and that withdrawal of general consent would protect them.
    • This is a debatable political assumption.
    • CBI could still register cases in Delhi which would require some part of the offence being connected with Delhi and still arrest and prosecute ministers or MPs.
    • The only people it will protect are small central government employees.

    Legal Remedies for CBI

    • The CBI can always get a search warrant from a local court in the state and conduct searches.
    • In case the search requires a surprise element, there is CrPC Section 166, which allows a police officer of one jurisdiction to ask an officer of another to carry out searches on his behalf.
    • And if the first officer feels that the searches by the latter may lead to loss of evidence, the section allows the first officer to conduct searches himself after giving notice to the latter.

    Back2Basics: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

    • The Bureau of Investigation traces its origins to the Delhi Special Police Establishment, a Central Government Police force, which was set up in 1941 by the Government of India.
    • It then aimed to investigate bribery and corruption in transactions with the War and Supply Department of India.
    • It then had its headquarters in Lahore.
    • After the end of the war, there was a continued need for a central governmental agency to investigate bribery and corruption by central-government employees.
    • The DSPE acquired its popular current name, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through a Home Ministry resolution dated in 1963.

    Mandate of the CBI

    • The CBI is the main investigating agency of the GoI.
    • It is not a statutory body; it derives its powers from the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.
    • Its important role is to prevent corruption and maintain integrity in administration.
    • It works under the supervision of the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) in matters pertaining to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
    • The CBI is also India’s official representative with the INTERPOL.

    Cases to investigate

    • Cases connected to infringement of economic and fiscal laws
    • Crimes of a serious nature that have national and international ramifications
    • Coordination with the activities of the various state police forces and anti-corruption agencies.
    • It can also take up any case of public importance and investigate it
    • Maintaining crime statistics and disseminating criminal information.

    Issues with CBI

    • Caged parrot: The Supreme Court has criticized the CBI by calling it a “caged parrot speaking in its master’s voice”.
    • Political interference: It has often been used by the government of the day to cover up wrongdoing, keep coalition allies in line and political opponents at bay.
    • Investigation delay: It has been accused of enormous delays in concluding investigations due to political inertia.
    • Loss of Credibility: CBI has been criticised for its mismanagement of several cases involving prominent politicians and mishandling of several sensitive cases like Bofors scandal, Bhopal gas tragedy.
    • Lack of Accountability: CBI is exempted from the provisions of the Right to Information Act, thus, lacking public accountability.
    • Acute shortage of personnel: A major cause of the shortfall is the government’s sheer mismanagement of CBI’s workforce.
    • Limited Powers: The powers and jurisdiction of members of the CBI for investigation are subject to the consent of the State Govt., thus limiting the extent of investigation by CBI.
    • Restricted Access: Prior approval of Central Government to conduct inquiry or investigation on the employees of the Central Government is a big obstacle in combating corruption at higher levels of bureaucracy.

    Reforming CBI

    • Need for autonomy:   As long as the government of the day has the power to transfer and post officials of its choice in the CBI, the investigating agency will not enjoy autonomy and will be unable to investigate cases freely.
    • Selection of director/ Officers: To ensure that the CBI is a robust, independent and credible investigation agency, there is an urgent need to work out a much more transparent mechanism for selection and induction of officers on deputation.
    • Lokpal scrutiny: The Lokpal Act already calls for a three-member committee made up of the PM, the leader of the opposition and the CJI to select the director.
    • Bifurcation of Cadre: CBI should be bifurcated into an Anti-Corruption Body and a National Crime Bureau.
    • Develop own cadre: One of the demands that have been before Supreme Court, and in line with international best practices, is for the CBI to develop its own dedicated cadre of officers.
    • Annual social audit should be carried out by ten reputed, knowledgeable persons with background of law, justice, public affairs and administration and the audit report should be placed before the parliament.

     

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  • What is ‘Front-of-Pack Labelling’ (FoPL)?

    The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will soon start labelling the front of packaged food products with Health Star Rating (HSR).

    What is FoPL?

    • In India, packaged food has had back-of-package (BOP) nutrient information in detail but no FoPL.
    • Counter to this, FoPL can nudge people towards healthy consumption of packaged food.
    • It can also influence purchasing habits.
    • The study endorsed the HSR format, which speaks about the proportions of salt, sugar, and fat in food that is most suited for consumers.
    • Countries such as the UK, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Hungary, and Australia have implemented FoPL systems.

    What warranted such rating in India?

    • Visual bluff: A lot of Indian consumers do not read the information available at the back of the packaged food item.
    • Burden of NCDs: Also, India has a huge burden of non-communicable diseases that contributes to around 5.87 million (60%) of all deaths in a year.
    • Healthy dietary choices: HSR will encourage people to make healthy choices and could bring a transformational change in the society.
    • Supreme court order: A PIL seeking direction to the government to frame guidelines on HSR and impact assessment for food items and beverages was filed in the Supreme Court in June 2021.

    Which category of food item will have HSR?

    • All packaged food items or processed food will have the HSR label.
    • These will include chips, biscuits, namkeen, sweets and chocolates, meat nuggets, and cookies.
    • However, milk and its products such as chenna and ghee are EXEMPTED as per the FSSAI draft notified in 2019.

    Will there be pushback from food industry?

    • Negative warning: Some experts opposed the use of the HSR model in India, suggesting that consumers might tend to take this as an affirmation of the health benefits rather than as a negative warning of ill effects.
    • Lack of awareness: This is significant because there is lack of awareness on star ratings related to consumer products in India.
    • Impact on Sale: Certain organisations fear it might affect the sale of certain food products.

    When will the rating come into force?

    • FSSAI’s scientific panel recommends voluntary implementation of HSR format from 2023 and a transition period of four years for making it mandatory.
    • FSSAI noted that the proposed thresholds are in alignment with the models implemented in other countries and ‘WHO population nutrient intake goals recommendations’.
    • FSSAI will analyse the nutritional information in 100 mg of packaged food.
    • The food safety compliance system licensing application portal will have a module for generating certificates wherein a licensee can enter details of a product.

     

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    Back2Basics: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

    • The FSSAI is an autonomous body established under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.
    • It has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 which is a consolidating statute related to food safety and regulation in India.
    • It is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety.
    • It is headed by a non-executive Chairperson, appointed by the Central Government, either holding or has held the position of not below the rank of Secretary to the Government of India.

  • Decay in the international rules-based order

    Context

    The unexpected Russian military intervention in Ukraine is merely the latest symptom of an underlying cause of decay in the international ‘rules-based’ order.

    Background of the idea of international rules-based order and sovereignty

    • It was the Diet of Westphalia (in the then Holy Roman Empire) in 1648 that first set out what our post-World War II global institutional framework established as the principle of ‘sovereignty’.
    • Sovereignty was for a long time the singular bedrock, the very founding principle that the UN Charter sought to firmly establish, in order to make wars of aggression (as opposed to self-defense) illegal under international law, and liable to be punished by the international community via the UN Security Council and its right to use coercive force.

    What is a state?

    • State is a community that feels as one, accepts a set of common guiding principles and is constituted by member states who are willing to operate according to rules / norms of behaviour.
    • There has always been a theoretical debate in the discipline, drawing on elements of philosophy, psychology and even economics, on whether or not we actually live in an international society of states or whether it is still merely a system of states.
    • System of states: A system of states is a very complex landscape consisting of individual actors who possess coercive power to varying degrees, have zero-sum ambitions to varying degrees, adhere to global ‘rules’ to the extent that they are convenient or exigent at a moment, while being willing to covertly and overtly bend and even break those rules, when core national interests are involved.
    • In the second interpretation, states are engaged in game-theoretic, rational-utilitarian cooperation, competition and even conflict, depending on the specificities of each situation.
    • In a nutshell, it is a highly complicated theoretical and practical situation wherein simplistic, moralising explanations and narratives about events are typically wrong and often misleading or counterproductive.

    UN and the issue of enforcement

    • Forces like the internet and social media, combined with the cultural dominance of the West, portended a gradual spread of democratic values.
    • The biggest challenge to this kind of perspective usually came from the ‘realist’ camp of International Relations researchers who argue that argue that in the absence of effective enforcement of rules, the notion of such rules was an empty idea.
    • Enforcement was theoretically meant to happen by way of the Security Council.
    • However, this plan was stillborn due to the fundamental unwillingness of the five permanent members to countenance a possibility of global action against themselves and the consequent injection of the notion of a ‘veto’ in the world’s highest security-focused body.
    • This has meant that for the entirety of the UN’s existence, true Security Council intervention in an international crisis has only been possible in the rarest of rare exceptions when all five permanent members happened to agree.

    Threat to rule-based order

    • The foregoing analysis allows us to conclude that far from being an isolated incident that for the first time since the UN Charter was drafted has violated our rules-based order, the Russian intervention in Ukraine is a significant further erosion in the believability of anyone’s claims that such a thing actually exists.
    • All states have shown their willingness to conduct foreign policy at the cost of others.
    • Most states in the last few decades have provided international rules with a lot of ‘lip-service’ while using clandestine methods to achieve their aims.

    Nuclear weapons as a source of stability

    • The notion of ‘mutually assured destruction’ created a tension that seemed to preclude even conventional warfare between two nuclear-armed rivals.
    •  Most interestingly, with the separation of seven decades between Hiroshima / Nagasaki and the present, a gradual shift in the calculus of defence planners seems to have occurred.
    •  From the sense that a mere conventional conflict would be sufficient trigger for a power to exercise a nuclear option, planners seem to have gained a new comfort with nuclear weapons in existence.
    • They no longer seem to believe they will be used short of an existential threat.
    • Russia equally feels confident that merely asserting its core security interests in Ukraine will not draw a nuclear response from NATO.
    • Waning American dominance combined with a retreat of global norms and a lessening nuclear deterrent to armed conflict and the rise of new power centres in Asia are a potent mix of new dynamics in our world.

    Conclusion

    Never since the establishment of our post-war global system has it been under such significant threat. India must take stock and with extreme vigilance approach its entire gamut of cooperative, competitive and adversarial options while navigating this wholly new world out there.

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  • Why NATO isn’t sending troops to Ukraine?

    Amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has been rapidly deploying troops to member countries but has clarified that it has no plans of sending them to Ukraine.

    What is NATO?

    • NATO is a military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) of April 4, 1949.
    • It sought to create a counterweight to Soviet armies stationed in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.
    • Its original members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
    • NATO has spread a web of partners, namely Egypt, Israel, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Finland.

    Why was it founded?

    Ans. Communist sweep in Europe post-WWII and rise of Soviet dominance

    • After World War II in 1945, Western Europe was economically exhausted and militarily weak, and newly powerful communist parties had arisen in France and Italy.
    • By contrast, the Soviet Union had emerged from the war with its armies dominating all the states of central and Eastern Europe.
    • By 1948 communists under Moscow’s sponsorship had consolidated their control of the governments of those countries and suppressed all non-communist political activity.
    • What became known as the Iron Curtain, a term popularized by Winston Churchill, had descended over central and Eastern Europe.

    Ideology of NATO

    • NATO ensures that the security of its European member countries is inseparably linked to that of its North American member countries.
    • It commits the Allies to democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law, as well as to the peaceful resolution of disputes.
    • It also provides a unique forum for dialogue and cooperation across the Atlantic.

    What is Article 5 and why is it needed?

    • Article 5 was a key part of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, or Washington Treaty, and was meant to offer a collective defence against a potential invasion of Western Europe.
    • It states: (NATO members) will assist the party or parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
    • However, since then, it has only been invoked once, soon after the 9/11 attack in the United States.

    Why has Article 5 not been invoked this time?

    • The reason is simple: Ukraine is a partner of the Western defence alliance but not a NATO member.
    • As a result, Article 5, or the Collective Defense Pledge, does not apply.
    • While NATO has said it will not be sending troops to Ukraine, it did invoke Article 4, which calls for a consultation of the alliance’s principal decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council.
    • In its history, it has only been activated half a dozen times.
    • But the fact that this time around eight member nations chose to invoke it was enough to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation at a global level.

    What may prompt NATO to invoke Article 5?

    • NATO will invoke Article 5 only if Russia launches a full-blown attack on one of its allies.
    • Some top US officials have warned of the impact of some of Russia’s cyberattacks being felt in NATO countries.
    • When you launch cyberattacks, they don’t recognize geographic boundaries.
    • Some of that cyberattack could actually start shutting down systems in eastern Poland.

    But what is NATO’s problem with Russia?

    • Russia has long been opposed to Ukraine’s growing closeness with European institutions, particularly NATO.
    • The former Soviet republic shares borders with Russia on one side, and the European Union on the other.
    • After Moscow launched its attack, the US and its allies were quick to respond, imposing sanctions on Russia’s central bank and sovereign wealth funds.

     

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  • Switzerland’s Neutral Foreign Policy

    Switzerland broke its 200-year long neutrality policy to sanction Moscow and its leaders.

    What is the news?

    • Switzerland announced that it would join the European Union (EU) in closing the Swiss airspace to Russian aeroplanes.
    • It also wished for imposing financial sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders.

    Switzerland’s Policy of Permanent Neutrality

    • The tiny Alpine nation the size of Haryana has had a neutrality policy in place since 1815.
    • Its official website attests to this, noting that “permanent neutrality is a principle of Swiss foreign policy.”
    • Though it serves as the headquarters of several diplomatic missions and as the venue for historic treaties like the Geneva Convention, Switzerland is not a part of the European Union or NATO.
    • Historically, the Swiss had been famed warriors with expansionist ambitions until the 1500s when they lost the Battle of Marignano to the French.
    • The years that followed saw the Swiss shift its foreign policy to that of being an armed impartial state during wartime, a stance which was sorely tested in the decades that followed.

    The World Wars and Switzerland

    • Switzerland shares borders with Germany, France and Italy.
    • During WW II, Switzerland found itself surrounded by Axis forces, with Hitler describing the land-locked territory as “a pimple on the face of Europe”.
    • It used a combination of military deterrence, strategic planning and economic neutrality to hold its own in 1940s Europe.
    • Besides this, the Swiss pursued a policy of armed neutrality, putting into place compulsory military service (which continues till date) to maintain military readiness in event of an invasion.

    Recent deviations

    • Switzerland joined the United Nations as recently as 2002, putting an end to years to debate after 54 per cent of its population voting in favour of the move.
    • The Swiss federal government had said that it had weighed its neutrality and peace policy considerations into account to reach its decision.
    • The Swiss government has initially adopted a traditional and very narrow interpretation of neutrality, which translated to a decision to not issue any sanctions.
    • However, the Swiss parliament and citizens strongly pushed back, arguing that Russia’s massive military aggression cannot be tolerated.
    • This prompted the government to reconsider its position.

     

     

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  • What constitutes a War Crime?

    The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague announced that it would open an investigation into possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

    What are War Crime?

    • War crimes are defined as serious violations of humanitarian laws during a conflict.
    • There are specific international standards for war crimes, which are not to be confused with crimes against humanity.
    • The definition is established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
    • It is derived from the 1949 Geneva Conventions and is based on the idea that individuals can be held liable for the actions of a state or its military.
    • There is a long list of acts that can be considered war crimes.
    • The taking of hostages, willful killings, torture or inhuman treatment of prisoners of war, and forcing children to fight are some of the more obvious examples.

    How to identify war crimes?

    To decide whether an individual or a military has committed a war crime, international humanitarian law lays down three principles:

    1. Distinction: This principle says that you have to be constantly trying to distinguish between civilian and belligerent populations and objects.
    2. Proportionality: It prohibits armies from responding to an attack with excessive violence. If a soldier is killed, for example, you cannot bomb an entire city in retaliation.
    3. Precaution: It requires parties to a conflict to avoid or minimize the harm done to the civilian population. For example, attacking a barrack where there are people who have said they no longer participate in the conflict can be a war crime.

    Do war crimes constitute to genocides?

    • The UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect separates war crimes from genocide and crimes against humanity.
    • War crimes are defined as occurring in a domestic conflict or a war between two states.
    • However, genocide and crimes against humanity can happen in peacetime or during the unilateral aggression of a military towards a group of unarmed people.

    Discrepancy in defining war crimes

    • In practice, there is a lot of gray area within that list.
    • The laws of war do not always protect civilians from death. Not every civilian death is necessarily illegal.
    • Raids on a cities or villages, bombing residential buildings or schools, and even the killing of groups of civilians do not necessarily amount to war crimes — not if their military necessity is justified.
    • The same act can become a war crime if it results in unnecessary destruction, suffering and casualties that exceed the military gain from the attack.
    • Also civilian and military populations have become increasingly hard to distinguish

     

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  • Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

    The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) said it was putting on hold and reviewing all projects in Russia and Belarus.

    About AIIB

    • The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia, began operations in January 2016.
    • It aims to stimulate growth and improve access to basic services by furthering interconnectivity and economic development in the region through advancements in infrastructure.
    • AIIB has now grown to 102 approved members worldwide. US & Japan are not its members.
    • It is a brainchild of China. It has invested in 13 member regions.

    Capital and shareholding of AIIB

    • It has authorized capital of US 100 billion dollars and subscribed capital of USD 50 billion.
    • It offers sovereign and non-sovereign finance for projects in various sectors with an interest rate of London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) plus 1.15 % and a repayment period of 25 years with 5 years in grace period.
    • China is the largest shareholder in AIIB with a 26.06% voting power, followed by India with 7.62% and Russia with 5.92% voting power.

     

    Try this question from CSP 2019

    Q.With reference to Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), consider the following statements

    1. AIIB has more than 80 member nations.
    2. India is the largest shareholder in AIIB.
    3. AIIB does not have any members from outside Asia.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”si6cvunasz” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • Issue of handing down the death sentence in a cursory manner

    Context

    Last week, a little over 13 years after the blasts in 2008 (in July) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the designated court to conduct a speedy trial decided the fate of 78 of the accused people. Within a week, the court sentenced 38 of 49 people to death.

    The debate on the death sentence

    • The death sentence grants the state the monopoly of violence.
    • This monopoly is justified by claiming that such a step prevents crime or that it is a measure of long-due justice.
    • Use in ‘rarest of rare’ case: Fundamentally, ‘rarest of rare’ is a standard that allows a court of law to use public sentiment as a judicially reliable standard in handing out the death sentence.
    • Proportionality test: India’s carceral criminal jurisprudence requires a court to calculate proportionality between crime and punishment.
    • But a death sentence is a sentence that goes beyond the confines of these calculations to deprive a person of their life — committing an act whose central value itself is immeasurable.
    • The impossibility of reform, the heinous nature of the crime, the shock to the public conscience, none of these things sufficiently justify the right of a fallible institution to take someone’s life.

    Mitigating arguments

    • After the verdict is delivered in any criminal trial, lawyers make what are called ‘mitigating arguments’ — essentially to contextualise the convict as an individual and not as the accused.
    • Unlike other trial stages where a court adjudicates between competing legal identities of an accused, the complainant, etc., in mitigation, the court hears evidence of a person’s humanity. 
    • Hearing mitigating circumstances requires — however temporarily — for the trappings of distance and formality to be stripped away so that a court may see a person instead of a convict.

    The issue in the above case

    • In this case, first, the court orally convicted ‘en masse’ several of the accused instead of declaring the charges proved against them separately.
    • The prosecution argued that the defendants should argue for mitigation before it would even disclose which convicts it intended to seek the death sentence.
    • The role attributed to each of the accused was different.
    • By equating them for mitigation purposes (individual circumstances were unaccounted for and context and circumstances were considered to be the same) and handing down a mass death sentence, the court has only opened the door for greater misuse of a questionable power to end a life without any oversight.

    Conclusion

    A permanent sentence requires us to assume that our institutions are infallible and user-proof. To cast this as a simple ‘penalty’ ignores what it truly does — and did in this case; it negates the individual for the final time.

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  • Anti-microbial resistance needs urgent attention

    Context

    Ever since the pandemic struck, concerns have been raised about the improper use of antimicrobials amongst Covid-19 patients.

    Concern over anti-microbial resistance

    • The “Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 204 countries and territories in 2019 (GRAM)” report, released last month, 4.95 million people died from drug-resistant bacterial infections in 2019, with 3,89,000 deaths in South Asia alone.
    • AMR directly caused at least 1.27 million of those deaths.
    • Lower respiratory infections accounted for more than 1.5 million deaths associated with resistance in 2019, making it the most burdensome infectious syndrome.
    • Amongst pathogens, E coli was responsible for the most deaths in 2019, followed by K pneumoniae, S aureus, A baumannii, S pneumoniae, and M tuberculosis.

    Concern for India

    • As per the yearly trends reported by the Indian Council of Medical Research since 2015, India reports a high level of resistance in all these pathogens, especially E coli and K pneumoniae.
    • Only a fraction of the Indian data, available through the WHO-GLASS portal, has been included in the GRAM report.
    • India has been reporting high levels of resistance to fluoroquinolones, cephalosporins and carbapenems across the Gram-negative pathogens that cause almost 70 per cent of infections in communities and hospitals.
    • Therefore, the Indian data on the AMR burden may not look very different from the estimates published in the report.
    • Now that we know that AMR’s burden surpasses that of TB and HIV, a sense of urgency in containing such resistance is called for.
    • With no new drugs in the pipeline for drug-resistant infections, time is running out for patients.

    Addressing AMR through a multipronged and multisectoral approach

    • Use existing antimicrobials judiciously: The urgency to develop new drugs should not discourage us from instituting measures to use the existing antimicrobials judiciously.
    • Improved infection control in communities and hospitals, availability and utilisation of quality diagnostics and laboratories and educating people about antimicrobials have proved effective in reducing antimicrobial pressure — a precursor to resistance.
    • The National Action Plan for AMR, approved in 2017, completes its official duration this year. The progress under the plan has been far from satisfactory.
    • There is enough evidence that interventions like infection control, improved diagnosis and antimicrobial stewardship are effective in the containment of AMR.

    Conclusion

    The GRAM report has underlined that postponing action could prove costly.

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