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GS Paper: GS2

  • What are ‘Chapter Proceedings’ by Police?

    The Mumbai police last week began “chapter proceedings” against the Editor-in-Chief of a news channel.

    Can you relate the philosophy behind chapter proceedings and preventive detention?

    What exactly are “chapter proceedings”?

    • Chapter proceedings are preventive actions taken by the police if they fear that a particular person is likely to create trouble and disrupt the peace in society.
    • These proceedings are unlike punitive action taken in case of an FIR with an intention to punish.
    • Here, the police can issue notices under sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure to ensure that the person is aware that creating nuisance could result in action against him.

    What are the sections using which these notices are served?

    • Generally, a notice is issued to a person under section 111 of the CrPC whereby he is asked to present himself before the Executive Magistrate – an ACP-rank officer in a Commissionerate of a Dy. the collector in rural areas – who has issued the notice.
    • The person has to explain why he should not be made to sign a bond of good behaviour.
    • If the Executive Magistrate is not satisfied with the answer, the person is asked to sign a bond of good behaviour and produce sureties vouching for his/her good behaviour.
    • A fine amount is also decided – in accordance with the crime and the person’s financial capability – which the person would have to pay if he violates the conditions set in the bond.

    Legal immunities against such proceedings

    • On receiving the notice under section 111, a person can appeal the notice before the courts.
    • In fact, in the past, courts have come down strongly against chapter proceedings in some cases.

  • Growing salience of multilateralism

    Multilateralism faces several challenges at the time when it is needed the most. The article highlights the need for more of it in the face of global challenges.

    Lack of international collaboration to deal with Covid

    • As COVID-19 recognises no boundaries, one would have expected that countries with technological and financial capabilities, would agree to pool their resources together to work on an effective and affordable anti-virus vaccine.
    • Instead, there are several parallel national efforts underway even as the World Health Organization (WHO) has put together a Covax alliance for the same purpose.
    •  Active collaboration would have enhanced our collective ability to overcome what has become a public health-cum-economic crisis.
    • But we live in an era when nationalist urges, fuelled by a political opportunism, diminish the appeal of international cooperation.
    • The post-pandemic world will have the awful dilemma of global integration without solidarity.

    Trends in the global order that suggests the need for multilateralims

    1) Global food crisis

    • The World Food Program has been awarded this year’s Noble Peace Prize.
    • The award is sending a message to the world — that we need multilateralism as an expression of international solidarity.
    • According to the WFP, 132 million more people could become malnourished as a consequence of the pandemic.
    • To the 690 million people who go to bed each night on an empty stomach, perhaps another 100 million or more will be added.
    • The Nobel Prize to the WFP will hopefully nudge our collective conscience to come together and relieve this looming humanitarian crisis.

    2) Despite issues, U.N. is still important

    • The United Nations is at the centre of multilateral institutions and processes and kept alive the notion of international solidarity and cooperation.
    • But it suffers from several disabilities due to the fault of its most powerful member countries.
    • They have deprived the UN of resources.
    • They have resisted efforts to institute long-overdue reforms.
    • Its structure no longer reflects the changes in power equations that have taken place and country such as India continues to be denied permanent membership of the Security Council.
    • And yet, the UN is now an essential part of the fabric of international relations for two reasons:
    • 1) The salience of global issues has expanded.
    • 2) The need for multilateral approaches in finding solutions has greatly increased.

    3) Multilateral institutions have become platform for contestation

    • In the network of multilateral institutions, several belong to the UN system, others are inter-governmental, still others may be non-governmental of a hybrid character.
    • This network performs two important tasks:
    • 1) Enable governance in areas which require coordination among nation-states.
    • 2) Set norms to regulate the behaviour of states so as to avoid conflict and to ensure both equitable burden-sharing and, equally, a fair distribution of benefits.
    • While there are multilateral institutions they have become platforms for contestations among their member states.
    • There is recognition of the need to cooperate but this is seen as a compulsion rather than desirable.

    4) Globalisation driven by technology will remain here

    • Globalisation may have stalled, but as we become increasingly digitised, there will be more, not less, globalisation.
    • The pandemic has triggered galloping globalisation in the digital economy.
    • Globalisation is driven by technology and as long as the technology remains the key driver of economic growth, there is no escape from globalisation.
    • In the contemporary world, the line separating the domestic from the external has become increasingly blurred.
    • In tackling domestic challenges deeper external engagement is often indispensable. This is certainly true of climate change.
    • The pandemic originated in a third country but soon raged across national borders.
    • If there had been a robust and truly global early warning system, perhaps it could have been contained.

    5) Interconnectedness of challenges

    • We must also take into account the inter-connectedness among various challenges, for example, food, energy and water security are inter-linked with strong feedback loops.
    • Enhancing food security may lead to diminished water and energy security.
    • It may also have collateral impact on health security.
    •  It is in recognition of these inter-connections that the international community agreed on a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
    • The SDGs are cross-domain but also cross-national in character, and hence demand greater multilateral cooperation in order to succeed.

    6) Need for more democratic world

    • The lack of cooperation from even a single state may frustrate success in tackling a global challenge.
    • A fresh pandemic may erupt in any remote corner of the world and spread throughout the globe.
    • Prevention cannot be achieved through coercion, only through cooperation. It is only multilateralism that makes this possible.

    Conclusion

    It is a paradox that precisely at a time when the salience of cross-national and global challenges has significantly increased, nation-states are less willing to cooperate and collaborate in tackling them. So, there is a need for more of multilateralism to deal with the issues of global level.

  • Places in news: Taiwan Strait

    A U.S. warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait in what the American military described as a “routine” passage on but enraging China, which claims sovereignty over the island and surrounding seas.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Which one of the following can one come across if one travels through the Strait of Malacca?

    (a) Bali

    (b) Brunei

    (c) Java

    (d) Singapore

    Taiwan Strait

    • The Taiwan Strait, also known as the Formosa Strait, is a 180 km wide strait separating Taiwan and mainland China.
    • The strait is currently part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is 130 km wide.
    • The entire strait is on Asia’s continental shelf.
    • Historically both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan espoused a One-China Policy that considered the strait part of the exclusive economic zone of a single “China”.

    Tap to read more about One China Policy at:

  • [pib] STARS Project

    The Union Cabinet has approved the sum of Rs. 5718 crore for the World Bank aided project STARS.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q. The STARS Project recently seen in news is an initiative of:

    World Bank/ Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation / UNECOSOC/ UNICEF

    STARS Project

    • ‘STARS’ is an acronym for Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS).
    • The STARS project will be implemented through the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the flagship central scheme.
    • The six states include- Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
    • It will help improve learning assessment systems, strengthen classroom instruction and remediation, facilitate school-to-work transition, and strengthen governance and decentralized management,
    • Some 250 million students (between the age of 6 and 17) in 1.5 million schools and over 10 million teachers will benefit from the STARS program.
    • STARS will support India’s renewed focus on addressing the ‘learning outcome’ challenge and help students better prepare for the jobs of the future – through a series of reform initiatives.

    Major components of the STARS

    1)      At the national level, the project envisages the following interventions which will benefit all states and UTs:

    • To strengthen MOE’s national data systems to capture robust and authentic data on retention, transition and completion rates of students.
    • To support MOE in improving states PGI scores by incentivizing states governance reform agenda through SIG (State Incentive Grants).
    • To support the strengthening of learning assessment systems.
    • To support MOE’s efforts to establish a National Assessment Center (PARAKH).

    2)       At the State level, the project envisages: 

    • Strengthening Early Childhood Education and Foundational Learning
    • Improving Learning Assessment Systems
    • Strengthening classroom instruction and remediation through teacher development and school leadership
    • Governance and Decentralized Management for Improved Service Delivery.
    • Strengthening Vocational education in schools through mainstreaming, career guidance and counselling, internships and coverage of out of school children

  • [pib] Thalassemia Bal Sewa Yojna

    Union Health Ministry has launched the second phase of “Thalassemia Bal Sewa Yojna” for underprivileged Thalassemic patients.

    Thalassemia Bal Sewa Yojna

    • This scheme was launched in 2017 under the Coal India CSR funded Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) program.
    • It aims to provide a one-time cure opportunity for Haemoglobinopathies like Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell Disease for patients who have a matched family donor.
    • The initiative was targeted to provide financial assistance to a total of 200 patients by providing a package cost not exceeding Rs. 10 lakhs per HSCT.

    What is Thalassemia?

    • Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder characterized by less oxygen-carrying protein (haemoglobin) and fewer red blood cells in the body than normal.
    • When there isn’t enough haemoglobin, the body’s red blood cells don’t function properly and they last shorter periods of time, so there are fewer healthy red blood cells travelling in the bloodstream.
    • Symptoms include fatigue, weakness, paleness and slow growth.
    • Mild forms may not need treatment. Severe forms may require blood transfusions or a donor stem-cell transplant.

  • Four lessons for the Quad from Asia’s history and geopolitics

    The article highlights the 4 issues related to the history and geopolitics of Asian that the Quad members should pay attention to while formulating the future course of action. 

    The 4 factors

    If the Quad is to prosper as a geopolitical construct, it would do well to heed four lessons drawn from the long arc of Asia’s history and geopolitics.

    1) Lack of existence of Indo-Pacific system

    • There has never been Indo-Pacific system ever since the rise of the port-based kingdoms of Indochina in the first half of the second millennium.
    •  There were two Asian systems — an Indian Ocean system and an East Asian system — with intricate sub-regional balances.
    • The effort by a U.S. to artificially manufacture to combine the Indo and the Pacific into a unitary system is unlikely to succeed.

    2) Lack of peaceful existence dominated by any power

    • The Indo-Pacific region possesses no prior experience of long period of peace, prosperity and stability engineered from its maritime fringes.
    • Rather, dynamic long cycles of Chinese influence radiating outwards have alternated with sharp periods of turmoil.
    • The of ASEAN-centred multilateralism is more in tune with regional tradition and historical circumstance.
    • For their part, the Indo-Pacific’s ‘flanking powers’, India and Japan, have never balanced Chinese power throughout their illustrious histories.

    3) India must use its leverage judiciously

    •  The sea lines of communication constitute the important links connecting Indian Ocean to the Western Pacific.
    • It is also a valuable arena of leverage vis-à-vis Chinese shipping and resource flows.
    • This leverage must be wielded judiciously on India’s terms, not on the Quad’s terms.
    • The Quad, after all, has little to offer materially with regard to New Delhi’s continental two-front dilemma.
    • However, ceding this chokepoint leverage will invite overwhelming Chinese pressure against the full range of India’s South Asian interests — to which the other Quad members possess neither will nor desire to answer.

    4) Check on China’s India Ocean Ambitions

    •  The Quad has a valuable role to play as a check on China’s Indian Ocean ambitions.
    • India must develop ingrained habits of interoperable cooperation with its Quad partners.
    • This interoperable cooperation could pre-emptively dissuade China from mounting a naval challenge in its backyard.

    Conclusion

    The Quad must consider these factors while formulating the future course of action.

  • Pakistan likely to remain on FATF Greylist

    Pakistan is unlikely to exit the Financial Action Task Force (FATF’s) greylist with this plenary session as well.

    Practice question for mains:

    Q.What is FATF? Discuss its role in combating global financial crimes and terror financing.

    What is the FATF?

    • FATF is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering.
    • The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.
    • It holds three Plenary meetings in the course of each of its 12-month rotating presidencies.

    Why is Pakistan under its scanner?

    • Pakistan has been under the FATF’s scanner since June 2018, when it was put on the Grey List for terror financing and money laundering risks.
    • FATF and its partners such as the Asia Pacific Group (APG) are reviewing Pakistan’s processes, systems, and weaknesses on the basis of a standard matrix for anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime.
    • In June 2018, Pakistan gave a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to strengthen its AML/CFT regime, and to address its strategic counter-terrorism financing-related deficiencies.
    • Pakistan and the FATF then agreed on the monitoring of 27 indicators under a 10-point action plan, with specific deadlines.
    • The understanding was that the successful implementation of the action plan, and its physical verification by the APG, would lead the FATF to move Pakistan out of the Grey List.
    • However, Islamabad managed to satisfy the global watchdog over just five of them.

    B2BASICS

    What are the Black List and Grey List of the FATF?

    FATF has 2 types of lists;

    1.  Black List

    2. Grey List

    1. Meaning of Black List: Only those countries are included in this list that FATF considers as uncooperative tax havens for terror funding. These countries are known as Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories (NCCTs). In other words; countries that are supporting terror funding and money laundering activities are placed in the Blacklist.

    The FATF blacklist or OECD blacklist has been issued by the Financial Action Task Force since 2000 and lists countries which it judges to be non-cooperative in the global fight against money laundering and terror funding.

    The FATF updates the blacklist regularly, adding or deleting entries.

    grey list 2018

    (This map shows the countries included in the Greylist)

    2. Meaning of Grey List: Those countries which are not considered as the safe heaven for supporting terror funding and money laundering; included in this list. The inclusion in this list is not as severe as blacklisted.

    Now Grey list is a warning given to the country that it might come in Black list (Just like a yellow card in a football match). If a country is unable to curb mushrooming of terror funding and money laundering; it is shifted from grey list to black list by the FATF.

     

  • Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA)

    The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked all NGOs seeking foreign donations to open a designated FCRA account at the State Bank of India’s New Delhi branch.

    What is the FCRA?

    • The FCRA regulates foreign donations and ensures that such contributions do not adversely affect internal security.
    • First enacted in 1976, it was amended in 2010 when a slew of new measures was adopted to regulate foreign donations.
    • The FCRA is applicable to all associations, groups and NGOs which intend to receive foreign donations. It is mandatory for all such NGOs to register themselves under the FCRA.
    • The registration is initially valid for five years and it can be renewed subsequently if they comply with all norms.

    What happens once registered?

    • Registered associations can receive a foreign contribution for social, educational, religious, economic and cultural purposes.
    • Filing of annual returns, on the lines of Income Tax, is compulsory.
    • In 2015, the MHA notified new rules, which required NGOs to give an undertaking that the acceptance of foreign funds.
    • It ruled that it is not likely to prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India or impact friendly relations with any foreign state and does not disrupt communal harmony.
    • It also said all such NGOs would have to operate accounts in either nationalized or private banks which have core banking facilities to allow security agencies access on a real-time basis.

    Who cannot receive foreign donations?

    • Members of the legislature and political parties, government officials, judges and media persons are prohibited from receiving any foreign contribution.
    • However, in 2017 the MHA amended the 1976-repealed FCRA law paving the way for political parties to receive funds from the Indian subsidiary of a foreign company or a foreign company in which an Indian holds 50% or more shares.

    How else can receive foreign funding?

    • The other way to receive foreign contributions is by applying for prior permission.
    • It is granted for receipt of a specific amount from a specific donor for carrying out specific activities or projects.
    • But the association should be registered under statutes such as the Societies Registration Act, 1860, the Indian Trusts Act, 1882, or Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956.
    • A letter of commitment from the foreign donor specifying the amount and purpose is also required.

    When is a registration suspended or cancelled?

    • The MHA on inspection of accounts and on receiving any adverse input against the functioning of an association can suspend the FCRA registration initially for 180 days.
    • Until a decision is taken, the association cannot receive any fresh donation and cannot utilise more than 25% of the amount available in the designated bank account without the permission of the MHA.
    • The MHA can cancel the registration of an organisation which will not be eligible for registration or grant of ‘prior permission’ for three years from the date of cancellation.

  • E-VIN network to handle COVID-19 vaccine supply

    The eVIN network, which can track the latest vaccine stock position; the temperature at storage facility; geo-tag health centres; and maintain facility-level dashboard, is being repurposed for the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine.

    Try this question from CSP 2016:

    Q.‘Mission Indradhanush’ launched by the Government of India pertains to:

    (a) Immunization of children and pregnant women

    (b) Construction of smart cities across the country

    (c) India’s own search for the Earth-like planets in outer space

    (d) New Educational Policy

    What is eVIN network?

    • The eVIN is an innovative technological solution aimed at strengthening immunization supply chain systems across the country.
    • This is being implemented under the National Health Mission (NHM) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
    • It aims to provide real-time information on vaccine stocks and flows, and storage temperatures across all cold chain points in the country.
    • This system has been used during the COVID pandemic for ensuring the continuation of the essential immunization services and protecting our children and pregnant mothers against vaccine-preventable diseases.

    Components of eVIN

    • eVIN combines state-of-the-art technology, a strong IT infrastructure and trained human resource to enable real-time monitoring of stock and storage temperature of the vaccines kept in multiple locations across the country.
    • At present, 23,507 cold chain points across 585 districts of 22 States and 2 UTs routinely use the eVIN technology for efficient vaccine logistics management.

    Benefits of eVIN

    • It has helped create a big data architecture that generates actionable analytics encouraging data-driven decision-making and consumption-based planning.
    • It helps in maintaining optimum stocks of vaccines leading to cost savings. Vaccine availability at all times has increased to 99% in most health centres in India.
    • While instances of stock-outs have reduced by 80%, the time taken to replenish stocks has also decreased by more than half, on an average.
    • This has ensured that every child who reaches the immunization session site is immunized, and not turned back due to unavailability of vaccines.

  • Federalism, now a partisan internal dialogue

    Against the backdrop of the ongoing tussle between the states and the Centre over the issue of GST compensation, the article analyses the evolution of federalism and power-sharing in India.

    GST and federalism

    • At the first sign of stress, the nation unified in a singular system of taxation (GST) turned into a policy of every-state-for-itself.
    • Evidence of seriously miscued revenue estimates without pragmatic tax rate, was accumulating at an alarming pace.
    • The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) recently revealed how a cess meant to remedy shortfalls in GST yields, was retained in central government revenues, in violation of all applicable norms.
    • This revelation does little to build trust between the Centre and the States at a time when the States’ facing lack of resource and the central government is advising them to borrow.
    • Some states believe that the onus of borrowing should rest with the central government.

    Higher borrowing limit for states with conditions

    • The central government sanctioned a higher borrowing limit for States through the current year.
    • In the bargain, it imposed conditionalities:
    • 1) Enforcing a singular standard for the implementation of policies across a vast and diverse country.
    • 2) Improving India’s ranking as a place for “doing business”.
    • States will have unconditional access to borrowings equivalent to half a percentage point of their gross output.
    • But, subsequently, every tranche of a quarter point will be premised on progress in implementing the “one nation, one ration card” scheme, and improvements in the “ease of doing business”.

    Federalism in India

    • Aside from the contents and definitions sections, the word “federal” occurs in only one operational article of the Indian Constitution, in reference to the apex judicial body created in colonial times.
    • When this body was transformed into the Supreme Court at the moment the Constitution came into force, the word seemingly lost all operative value.
    • The distribution of powers and responsibilities between various tiers of the governmental system, was achieved without explicit recognition of federalism as a governing principle.
    • In actual operational terms, the relationship of Centre and States followed different paradigms through various phases of politics.
    •  At the time of Independence, the distribution of powers between Centre and States was transformed into an internal discussion of the Congress.

    Evolution of power-sharing and politics

    • The “Congress system”, as the political scientist Rajni Kothari called it, was seen at one time to have sufficient internal flexibility and resilience to absorb all factional pressures.
    • The first challenge came from the cultural terrain, compelling a reluctant national leadership to accept linguistic reorganisation of States.
    • And then, as ambitions of nation-building through rapid industrialisation resulted in the possibility of a non-Congress politics.
    • The Congress lost power in a number of key States in 1967.
    • The polity moved into a new phase when politics was about “waves” at the national or state level either in favour of, or against the Congress.
    • From 1989 onwards, politics settled into another distinct phase, when outcomes at the national level were the resultant of very separate State-level results.

    Conclusion

    Though federal structure could not be free from Centre-State power struggle, that struggle should not come into the development of the nation. In this context, it is the responsibility of the Centre to address the issues facing the state amid pandemic.