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Judicial Appointments Conundrum Post-NJAC Verdict

Working of the Supreme Court Collegium

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Collegium system, NJAC

Mains level: Collegium system, NJAC

Why in news?

  • The Ramana Collegium has been particularly successful.
  • Meeting frequently and working quickly, they took the perennial problem of judicial vacancies by its horns and turned it around.

Success of Ramana Collegium

  • The collegium was able to recommend numerous judicial appointments and scripted history by getting nine Supreme Court judges appointed in one go.
  • Of the nine, Justice B.V. Nagarathna, is in line to be the first woman CJI in 2027.

What exactly is the Collegium System?

  • The collegium system was born out of years of friction between the judiciary and the executive.
  • The hostility was further accentuated by instances of court-packing (the practice of changing the composition of judges in a court), mass transfer of HC judges and two supersessions to the office of the CJI in the 1970s.
  • The Three Judges cases saw the evolution of the collegium system.

Evolution: The Judges Cases

  • First Judges Case (1981) ruled that the “consultation” with the CJI in the matter of appointments must be full and effective.
  • However, it rejected the idea that the CJI’s opinion, albeit carrying great weight, should have primacy.
  • Second Judges Case (1993) introduced the Collegium system, holding that “consultation” really meant “concurrence”.
  • It added that it was not the CJI’s individual opinion, but an institutional opinion formed in consultation with the two senior-most judges in the Supreme Court.
  • Third Judges Case (1998): On a Presidential Reference for its opinion, the Supreme Court, in the Third Judges Case (1998) expanded the Collegium to a five-member body, comprising the CJI and four of his senior-most colleagues.

How does the collegium system work?

  • The collegium of the CJI and four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court make recommendations for appointments to the apex court and High Courts.
  • The collegium can veto the government if the names are sent back by the latter for reconsideration.
  • The basic tenet behind the collegium system is that the judiciary should have primacy over the government in matters of appointments and transfers in order to remain independent.

The procedure followed by the Collegium

Appointment of CJI

  • The President of India appoints the CJI and the other SC judges.
  • As far as the CJI is concerned, the outgoing CJI recommends his successor.
  • In practice, it has been strictly by seniority ever since the supersession controversy of the 1970s.
  • The Union Law Minister forwards the recommendation to the PM who, in turn, advises the President.

Other SC Judges

  • For other judges of the top court, the proposal is initiated by the CJI.
  • The CJI consults the rest of the Collegium members, as well as the senior-most judge of the court hailing from the High Court to which the recommended person belongs.
  • The consultees must record their opinions in writing and it should form part of the file.
  • The Collegium sends the recommendation to the Law Minister, who forwards it to the Prime Minister to advise the President.

For High Courts

  • The CJs of High Courts are appointed as per the policy of having Chief Justices from outside the respective States. The Collegium takes the call on the elevation.
  • High Court judges are recommended by a Collegium comprising the CJI and two senior-most judges.
  • The proposal, however, is initiated by the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned in consultation with two senior-most colleagues.
  • The recommendation is sent to the Chief Minister, who advises the Governor to send the proposal to the Union Law Minister.

Does the Collegium recommend transfers too?

  • Yes, the Collegium also recommends the transfer of Chief Justices and other judges.
  • Article 222 of the Constitution provides for the transfer of a judge from one High Court to another.
  • When a CJ is transferred, a replacement must also be simultaneously found for the High Court concerned. There can be an acting CJ in a High Court for not more than a month.
  • In matters of transfers, the opinion of the CJI “is determinative”, and the consent of the judge concerned is not required.
  • However, the CJI should take into account the views of the CJ of the High Court concerned and the views of one or more SC judges who are in a position to do so.
  • All transfers must be made in the public interest, that is, “for the betterment of the administration of justice”.

Loopholes in the Collegium system

  • Lack of Transparency: Opaqueness and a lack of transparency, and the scope for nepotism are cited often.
  • Judges appointing Judge: The attempt made to replace it with a ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission’ was struck down by the court in 2015 on the ground that it posed a threat to the independence of the judiciary.
  • Criteria: Some do not believe in full disclosure of reasons for transfers, as it may make lawyers in the destination court chary of the transferred judge. It has even been accused of nepotism.

Way ahead

  • In respect of appointments, there has been an acknowledgment that the “zone of consideration” must be expanded to avoid criticism that many appointees hail from families of retired judges.
  • The status of a proposed new memorandum of procedure, to infuse greater accountability, is also unclear.
  • Even the majority opinions admitted the need for transparency, now Collegiums’ resolutions are now posted online, but reasons are not given.

Back2Basics:

 

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Global Geological And Climatic Events

In news: Continental Drift Theory

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Lemurs, Continental Drift Theory

Mains level: Continental Drift Theory

This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in TH which talks about the specie Lemurs who are supposed to jump into seas to find India which got drifted away from the Madagascar.

Study on Lemurs

  • Many life forms in Madagascar have affinities to lineages found in India (3,800 km away) rather than Africa (413 km). This posed a ‘difficult enigma’ to naturalists.
  • One such species is the Lemurs.
  • We most likely see lemurs in a Hollywood animation movie; singing, dancing and playing pranks.
  • Zoologists was perplexed by the presence of lemurs, their relatives, and their fossils in Madagascar and India, but not in nearby Africa or the Middle East.
  • In the 1860s, he proposed that a large island or continent must have once existed between India and Madagascar, serving as a land bridge.
  • Over time, this island had sunk. He called this proposed island Lemuria.

Existence of such Island in Indian legends

  • Tamil revivalists such as Devaneya Pavanar also took up the idea, in the form of a Tamil civilisation, lost to the sea as described in literature and in Pandyan legends.
  • They called this submerged continent Kumari Kandam.

Basis of this legend: Continental Drift Theory

  • In the early 20th century, German geologist Alfred Wegener published a paper on his theory called continental drift.
  • It is a hypothesis that Earth’s continents were moving across Earth, and sometimes, even colliding into one another.
  • According to Wegener’s theory, Earth’s continents were once joined as a single, giant landmass, which he called Pangaea.
  • But over time, Pangaea broke apart and formed the continents as we know them today.
  • Wegener couldn’t explain why this phenomenon was happening, so at the time, his theory was heavily criticized by his colleagues.
  • But over the years, technological advances allowed scientists to study the Earth more closely, and geologists started to build on Wegener’s theory.

Rise over to Plate Tectonics

  • Discoveries like seafloor spreading helped explain the “why” behind continental movement, and eventually, Wegener’s initial continental drift theory morphed into plate tectonic theory.
  • And now, the idea that Earth’s crust is slowly moving beneath our feet is widely accepted.

The Seven Major Tectonic Plates

There are seven major plates, and dozens of minor plates, that make up the outer crust of the Earth. The big seven are:

  1. North American plate
  2. Eurasian plate
  3. Pacific plate
  4. South American plate
  5. African plate
  6. Indo-Australian plate
  7. Antarctic plate

 

The areas between these plates are known as plate boundaries, and their interactions cause some crazy things to happen on Earth’s surface.

There are three types of plate boundaries:

  1. Divergent boundary
  • A divergent boundary is when two plates move away from each other, which creates a fracture in the lithosphere.
  • A well-known divergent boundary is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which runs approximately 10,000 miles from the Arctic Ocean all the way down to the south of Africa.
  1. Convergent boundary
  • A convergent boundary is when two plates collide with one another.
  • If the collision is between oceanic crust and continental crust, the denser oceanic crust slides underneath the other plate, which is a process known as subduction.
  • When two continental crusts collide, the rock folds and lifts at the boundary, creating mountains like the Himalayas (where the Indian plate meets the Eurasian plate).
  1. Transform Boundary
  • When two plates move parallel to one another, their meeting point is called a transform boundary. The friction causes tension.
  • Eventually, that tension needs to be released, which can cause earthquakes.
  • The San Andreas Fault is a well-known major transform boundary between the North American and Pacific plates—it caused the infamous San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

How do we apply this theory here?

  • A landmass called Gondwana, split into two 165 million years ago — one containing what is now Africa and South America, the other comprising India, Madagascar, Australia and Antarctica.
  • Around 115 million years ago, Madagascar and India together broke free.
  • Around 88 million years ago, India moved northward, dropping a few parcels of land along the way to form Seychelles.
  • It joined the Eurasian mass 50 million years ago giving rise to the Himalayas and South Asia that we are familiar with.
  • Around 115 million years ago, it was the dinosaurs that ruled. Many life forms had not even evolved.

Substantiation to this study

(1) Fossil study

  • Supporting the Gondwana breakup, dinosaur fossils found in India and Madagascar are closely related and do not resemble species found in Africa and Asia.
  • Fragments of Laplatosaurus madagascarensis have been found in both India and Madagascar.

(2) Molecular clocks

  • A powerful technique, the molecular clock, is used to estimate the time when two forms of life diverged from each other.
  • It is based on the observation that evolutionary changes in the sequence of an RNA or a protein molecule occur at a fairly constant rate.
  • The difference in the amino acids of, say the haemoglobin of two animals can tell you how long ago their lineages diverged.
  • Molecular clocks corroborate well with other evidence, such as the fossil record.
  • South India and Sri Lanka have only two genuses of the cichlid family of freshwater and brackish-water fishes — the Etroplus (a food fish in Kerala, where it is called pallathi) and Pseudetroplus.
  • Molecular comparisons show that the nearest relatives of Etroplus are found in Madagascar, and their common ancestor diverged from African cichlids 160 million years ago.

India’s pivotal position

  • India occupies a pivotal position in the distribution of life forms in Asia, Madagascar and Africa. Gondwana creatures moved out of India.
  • Others crossed over to stay. For example, Asian freshwater crabs (Gecarcinucidae) are now found all over Southeast Asia but their most recent common ancestor evolved in India.
  • Fossil finds in the Vastan lignite mine in Gujarat by researchers have identified the earliest Indian mammal, a species of bat, and the earliest euprimate, a primitive lemur.
  • These were dated 53 million years ago, around the time (or just before) the India-Eurasian plates collided.

What about the lemurs?

  • Madagascar is a large island, with a variety of climatic conditions. Evidence favours an ancestor primate crossing over from Africa.
  • No monkey, ape or large predator managed the crossing, so dozens of lemur species proliferated.
  • In India, we have the lorises, which are the closest extant relatives of the lemurs.
  • These are shy, nocturnal forest dwellers, with large, appealing eyes.
  • They are also believed to have survived oceanic rides from Africa.
  • They are mostly found in the Northeastern States (slow loris), and where Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu meet (slender loris).

 

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Promoting Science and Technology – Missions,Policies & Schemes

Indian Virtual Herbarium, biggest database of country’s flora, is a global hit

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Herbaria

Mains level: Not Much

With details of about one lakh plant specimens, the Indian Virtual Herbarium, the biggest virtual database of flora in the country, is generating a lot of interest and turning out to be an eye-catching endeavour.

Indian Virtual Herbarium

  • A herbarium specimen is consists of dried plant parts with labelled information on Scientific name and collection data.
  • It has immense use in plant identification, systematics studies and ecological studies.
  • The Botanical Survey of India has more than 30,00,000 herbarium specimens persevered in different herbaria located in different parts of the country.
  • Developed by scientists of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), the herbarium was inaugurated by Union Minister of Environment Forest and Climate Change in Kolkata last month.

Why in news?

  • Since launch, the portal ivh.bsi.gov.in has had nearly two lakh hits from 55 countries.
  • The portal includes about one lakh images of herbarium specimens.
  • Each record in the digital herbarium includes an image of the preserved plant specimen, scientific name, collection locality, and collection date, collector name, and barcode number.
  • The digital herbarium includes features to extract the data State-wise, and users can search plants of their own States, which will help them identify regional plants and in building regional checklists.

Significance of the herbaria

  • Scientists say that there are approximately three million plant specimens in the country which are with different herbaria located at zonal centres of the BSI.
  • About 52% of our type specimens are from foreign nations and collected from 82 countries of the world during the British-era.
  • The herbarium is also deeply linked with the botanical history of the country.
  • The portal provides most valuable historical collections of botanists like William Roxburgh, Nathaniel Wallich and Joseph Dalton Hooker, considered the founding fathers of botany in India.
  • The digital herbarium has some of the oldest botanical specimens dating as early as 1696.

 

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Citizenship and Related Issues

Manipur House gives nod to National Register of Citizens (NRC)

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NRC, NPR

Mains level: Read the attached story

 

Bowing to demands from tribal groups, the Manipur Assembly has resolved to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and establish a State Population Commission (SPC).

To date, Assam is the only northeastern State to have implemented the NRC.

What is National Register of Citizens (NRC)?

  • The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register of all Indian citizens whose creation is mandated by the 2003 amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
  • The register was first prepared after the 1951 Census of India.
  • Its purpose is to document all the legal citizens of India so that the illegal immigrants can be identified and deported.
  • It has been implemented for the state of Assam starting in 2013–2014.
  • The GoI announced plans to implement it for the rest of the country in 2021, but it has not yet been implemented.

NRC and Assam

  • Assam, being a border state with unique problems of illegal immigration, had a register of citizens created for it in 1951 based on the 1951 census data.
  • However, it was not maintained afterwards.
  • For decades, the presence of migrants, often called “bahiragat” or outsiders, has been a loaded issue here.
  • The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983 was then passed by the Parliament, creating a separate tribunal process for identifying illegal migrants in Assam.
  • The Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional in 2005, after which the Centre agreed to update the Assam NRC.

Who is a Foreigner in Assam?

  • The National Register of Citizens now takes its definition of illegal immigrants from the Assam Accord – anyone who cannot prove that they or their ancestors entered the country before the midnight of March 24, 1971, would be declared a foreigner and face deportation.
  • Those who entered on or after March 25, 1971, the eve of the Bangladesh War, would be declared foreigners and deported.
  • This means you could be born in India in 1971 to parents who crossed the border in that year, and still be termed an illegal immigrant at the age of 48.

CAA and NRC protests

  • These were a series of protests in India against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 which was enacted into law on December 12, 2019, and against the nationwide implementation of the NRC.
  • Protesters in all regions are concerned that the upcoming compilation of the National Register of Citizens might be used to deprive a community of its Indian citizenship.

Back2Basics: National Population Register (NPR)

  • The NPR is a database containing a list of all usual residents of the country.
  • Its objective is to have a comprehensive identity database of people residing in the country.
  • It is generated through house-to-house enumeration during the “house-listing” phase of the census, which is held once in 10 years.
  • A usual resident for the purposes of NPR is a person who has resided in a place for six months or more, and intends to reside there for another six months or more.
  • Once the basic details of the head of the family are taken by the enumerator, an acknowledgement slip will be issued. This slip may be required for enrolment in NPR, whenever that process begins.
  • And, once the details are recorded in every local (village or ward), sub-district (tehsil or taluk), district and State level, there will be a population register at each of these levels.
  • Together, they constitute the National Population Register.

 

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Parliament – Sessions, Procedures, Motions, Committees etc

Jagdeep Dhankhar is new Vice-President

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Vice President of India

Mains level: Not Much

National Democratic Alliance candidate and former West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar will be the 14th Vice-President of the country.

About Vice President of India

  • The VP is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, the President of India.
  • His/her office is the second-highest constitutional office after the president and ranks second in the order of precedence and first in the line of succession to the presidency.

Qualifications

  • As in the case of the president, to be qualified to be elected as vice president, a person must:
  1. Be a citizen of India
  2. Be at least 35 years of age
  3. Not hold any office of profit
  • Unlike in the case of the president, where a person must be qualified for election as a member of the Lok Sabha, the vice president must be qualified for election as a member of the Rajya Sabha.
  • This difference is because the vice president is to act as the ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Roles and responsibilities

  • When a bill is introduced in the Rajya Sabha, the vice president decides whether it is a money bill or not.
  • If he is of the opinion that a bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha is a money bill, he shall refer it to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
  • The vice president also acts as the chancellor of the central universities of India.

Election procedure

  • Article 66 of the Constitution of India states the manner of election of the vice president.
  • The vice president is elected indirectly by members of an electoral college consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament and NOT the members of state legislative assembly.
  • The election is held as per the system of proportional representation using single transferable votes.
  • The voting is conducted by Election Commission of India via secret ballot.
  • The Electoral College for the poll will comprise 233 Rajya Sabha members, 12 nominated Rajya Sabha members and 543 Lok Sabha members.
  • The Lok Sabha Secretary-General would be appointed the Returning Officer.
  • Political parties CANNOT issue any whip to their MPs in the matter of voting in the Vice-Presidential election.

Removal

  • The Constitution states that the vice president can be removed by a resolution of the Rajya Sabha passed by an Effective majority (majority of all the then members) and agreed by the Lok Sabha with a simple majority( Article 67(b)).
  • But no such resolution may be moved unless at least 14 days’ notice in advance has been given.
  • Notably, the Constitution does not list grounds for removal.
  • No Vice President has ever faced removal or the deputy chairman in the Rajya Sabha cannot be challenged in any court of law per Article 122.

 

 

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Innovations in Biotechnology and Medical Sciences

What is Genome Sequencing?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Genome sequencing, APOBEC3 protein

Mains level: NA

Researchers from across the world have made available over 650 complete genome sequences of monkeypox isolates to date in public domain databases including GISAID and GenBank.

What is Genome Sequencing?

  • Genome sequence is the unique code of genetic material of any organism, and determines the characteristic of any organism.
  • Whole genome sequencing is the process of determining the complete DNA sequence of an organism’s genome at a single time.
  • The gene composition of novel coronavirus, for instance, is different from that of the influenza virus. Every organism has a unique genome sequence.
  • Laboratories in various countries have been isolating and sharing the genome sequences of the virus on an international platform.

Why are so many genome sequences being isolated?

  • When viruses multiply, or reproduce, there is a copying mechanism that transfers the gene information to the next generation.
  • However, no copying mechanism is perfect. When the virus multiplies, there will be small changes, which are called mutations.
  • These mutations accumulate over time, and after prolonged periods, are responsible for evolution into new organisms.
  • Within a single reproduction, the changes are extremely minor. More than 95 per cent of the gene structure remains the same.

How does it help scientists?

  • However, the small changes that occur are crucial to understanding the nature and behaviour of the organism.
  • In this case, for example, the small changes could provide scientists with information about the origin, transmission, and impact of the virus on the patient.
  • It could also hold clues to the differing effects the virus could have on patients with different health parameters.

Accelerated evolution of Monkeypox

  • The monkeypox virus has a DNA genome of around 2,00,000 base pairs, roughly six times larger than that of SARS-CoV-2.
  • Like other viruses, the monkeypox virus evolves by the accumulation of genetic errors, or mutations, in its genome when it replicates inside a host.
  • Being a DNA virus, the monkeypox virus like other poxviruses was believed to have a small rate of accumulating genetic changes compared to viruses with an RNA genome like SARS-CoV-2, which have a much larger rate of mutations.
  • For poxviruses, this rate is estimated to be as low as a couple of genetic changes every year.
  • A recent study, however, revealed that the observed rate of genetic changes in the virus was higher than expected — average of around 50 genetic changes.

Key findings

Ans. APOBEC3 protein

  • The study also suggests that several mutations that have been identified in the new sequences of the monkeypox virus.
  • This may have emerged due to interaction between the virus genome and an important family of proteins coded by the human genome known as the Apolipoprotein B Editing Complex (or APOBEC3).
  • These proteins offer protection against certain viral infections by editing the genome sequence of the virus while it replicates in the cell.
  • Some researchers suggest that many of the genetic mutations in the monkeypox genomes from the current outbreak are relics of the effect of APOBEC3.

Conclusion

  • Genomic surveillance of pathogens provides interesting insights by following a molecular approach for contact tracing and understanding the transmission of the virus across the world.
  • As cases of monkeypox continue to rise, it is therefore important to strengthen the genomic surveillance for the monkeypox virus.
  • Since data from the present outbreak suggest a sustained human-to-human transmission, continuous genomic surveillance is important to understand the evolution and adaptation of the virus, apart from providing useful data to epidemiologists.
  • With COVID-19 continuing unabated and monkeypox around the corner, the time has never been better, and the need never more acute, to build a sustainable system for genomic surveillance in India.

 

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Economic Indicators and Various Reports On It- GDP, FD, EODB, WIR etc

States holding up results of Economic Census: Centre

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Economic Censis

Mains level: Not Much

The Centre has blamed the States for a prolonged delay in releasing the findings of the Seventh Economic Census, a critical compendium of formal and informal non-farm enterprises operating across the country, in a submission to the Parliament.

What is National Economic Census?

  • In 1976, GoI launched a planning scheme called Economic Census and Surveys.
  • It is the census of the Indian economy through counting all entrepreneurial units in the country which involved in any economic activities of either agricultural or non-agricultural sector which are engaged in production and/or distribution of goods and/or services not for the sole purpose of own consumption.
  • It provides detailed information on operational and other characteristics such as number of establishments, number of persons employed, source of finance, type of ownership etc.
  • This information used for micro level/ decentralized planning and to assess contribution of various sectors of the economy in the GDP.

Censuses till date

  • Total Six Economic Censuses (EC) has been conducted till date.
  • In 1977 CSO conducted First economic census in collaboration with the Directorate of Economics & Statistics (DES) in the States/UTs.
  • The Second EC was carried out in 1980 followed by the Third EC in 1990. The fourth edition took place in 1998 while the fifth EC was held in 2005.
  • The Sixth edition of the Economic Census was conducted in 2013.

 

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J&K – The issues around the state

MEA lashes OIC for remark on Kashmir

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: OIC

Mains level: Not Much

Context: India has said the statement by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation on Jammu and Kashmir “reeked of bigotry”.

What did the MEA say?

  • The Ministry of External Affairs said the Saudi Arabia -based OIC continued to issue statements on J&K at the behest of a serial violator of human rights and notorious promoter of terrorism, indicating Pakistan.

What is OIC?

  • The OIC — formerly Organisation of the Islamic Conference — is the world’s second-largest inter-governmental organization after the UN, with a membership of 57 states.
  • The OIC’s stated objective is “to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world”.
  • OIC has reserved membership for Muslim-majority countries. Russia, Thailand, and a couple of other small countries have Observer status.

India and OIC

  • At the 45th session of the Foreign Ministers’ Summit in 2018, Bangladesh suggested that India, where more than 10% of the world’s Muslims live, should be given Observer status.
  • In 1969, India was dis-invited from the Conference of Islamic Countries in Rabat, Morocco at Pakistan’s behest.
  • Then Agriculture Minister Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was dis-invited upon arrival in Morocco after Pakistan President Yahya Khan lobbied against Indian participation.

Recent developments

  • In 2019, India made its maiden appearance at the OIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Abu Dhabi, as a “guest of honor”.
  • This first-time invitation was seen as a diplomatic victory for New Delhi, especially at a time of heightened tensions with Pakistan following the Pulwama attack.
  • Pakistan had opposed the invitation to Swaraj and it boycotted the plenary after the UAE turned down its demand to rescind the invitation.

What is the OIC’s stand on Kashmir?

  • It has been generally supportive of Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir and has issued statements criticizing India.
  • Last year, after India revoked Article 370 in Kashmir, Pakistan lobbied with the OIC for their condemnation of the move.
  • To Pakistan’s surprise, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — both top leaders among the Muslim countries — issued nuanced statements, and were not as harshly critical of New Delhi as Islamabad had hoped.
  • Since then, Islamabad has tried to rouse sentiments among the Islamic countries, but only a handful of them — Turkey and Malaysia — publicly criticized India.

How has India been responding?

  • India has consistently underlined that J&K is an integral part of India and is a matter strictly internal to India.
  • The strength with which India has made this assertion has varied slightly at times, but never the core message.
  • It has maintained its “consistent and well-known” stand that the OIC had no locus standi.
  • This time, India went a step ahead and said the grouping continues to allow itself to be used by a certain country “which has a record on religious tolerance, radicalism, and persecution of minorities”.

OIC members and India

  • Individually, India has good relations with almost all member nations. Ties with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, especially, have looked up significantly in recent years.
  • The OIC includes two of India’s close neighbors, Bangladesh and Maldives.
  • Indian diplomats say both countries privately admit they do not want to complicate their bilateral ties with India on Kashmir but play along with OIC.

Way ahead

  • India now sees the duality of the OIC as untenable, since many of these countries have good bilateral ties and convey to India to ignore OIC statements.
  • But these countries sign off on the joint statements which are largely drafted by Pakistan.
  • India feels it important to challenge the double-speak since Pakistan’s campaign and currency on the Kashmir issue has hardly any takers in the international community.

 

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Contention over South China Sea

What is Taiwan’s ‘Porcupine Strategy’ to protect itself if China attacks?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Cold start, Porcupine doctrine

Mains level: Read the attached story

As the long-range, live-fire drills began with China’s Eastern Theatre Command firing several ballistic missiles, Taiwan said that it was “preparing for war without seeking war”. What is Taiwan’s strategy to fight back in case China attempts to occupy it by force?

What is a Military Doctrine?

  • Military doctrine is the expression of how military forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements.
  • It is a guide to action, rather than being hard and fast rules. Doctrine provides a common frame of reference across the military.

Why do need such a doctrine?

  • It helps standardize operations, facilitating readiness by establishing common ways of accomplishing military tasks.
  • It decides what you buy, produce, or prioritize, all of which flows from deciding your best fighting foot.

What is the ‘Porcupine Doctrine’?

  • This doctrine was proposed in 2008 by US Naval War College research professor William S Murray.
  • It is a strategy of asymmetric warfare focused on fortifying a weak state’s defences to exploit the enemy’s weaknesses rather than taking on its strengths.
  • It is about building defences that would ensure that Taiwan could be attacked and damaged but not defeated, at least without unacceptably high costs and risks.

How does this work?

It identifies three defensive layers in the porcupine approach.

  1. The outer layer is about intelligence and reconnaissance to ensure defence forces are fully prepared. Behind this come plans for guerrilla warfare at sea with aerial support from sophisticated aircraft provided by the US.
  2. The innermost layer relies on the geography and demography of the island.
  3. While the outer surveillance layer would work to prevent a surprise attack, the second one would make it difficult for China to land its troops on the island in the face of a guerrilla campaign at sea using “agile, missile-armed small ships, supported by helicopters and missile launchers”.

Another tactic: Asymmetric systems of defence

  • Asymmetric systems are ones that are small, numerous, smart, stealthy, mobile and hard to be detected and countered and associated with innovative tactics and employments.
  • These asymmetric capabilities will be aimed at striking the operational centre of gravity and key nodes of the enemy.
  • The geographic advantages of the Taiwan Strait shall be tapped to shape favourable conditions to disrupt the operational tempo of the enemy, frustrate its attempts and moves of invasion.
  • Taiwan underlined its shift to an asymmetric approach by adopting the Overall Defence Concept (ODC) in 2018.

Do you know?

Indian armed forces follow the Cold Start Doctrine that involves joint operations between India’s three services and integrated battle groups for offensive operations. A key component is the preparation of India’s forces to be able to quickly mobilize and take offensive actions without crossing the enemy’s nuclear-use threshold.

Need for such a strategy

  • China enjoys overwhelming military superiority over Taiwan.
  • Over the past decade, Beijing has developed far more accurate and precise weapon systems to target Taiwan.
  • China has been more vocal about its intention to “reunite” the island with the mainland, by force or coercion if needed.
  • The PLA has already achieved the capabilities needed to conduct an air and naval blockade, cyberattacks, and missile strikes against Taiwan.
  • PLA leaders now likely assess they have, or will soon have, the initial capability needed to conduct a high-risk invasion of Taiwan (following Russia’s path).

How easy will it be for China?

  • Missile strikes, cyberattacks, air and naval blockade aside, undertaking a full-scale invasion across the Taiwan Strait, with attendant risks of anti-ship and anti-air attacks, could present challenges for China.
  • The PLA is estimated to have air and naval resources to carry out an initial landing of 25,000 or more troops, which could increase if it deploys civilian ships to meet its military objectives.
  • However, it will have to first select and secure a suitable beachhead from among the handful that is available.
  • Also, with small and agile weapons systems, Taiwan can turn its coastline into a kill zone that would deny China a walkover.
  • Beijing would have to rely on cyberattacks, missile strikes on Taiwan’s air bases and runways, and a blockade to choke it into surrendering.

 

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Women Safety Issues – Marital Rape, Domestic Violence, Swadhar, Nirbhaya Fund, etc.

SC moots verdict for ‘Bodily Autonomy’

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: MRTP Act

Mains level: Global abortion debate

The Supreme Court has said it may loosen the restrictive grip of a 51-year-old abortion law that bars unmarried women from terminating pregnancies up to 24 weeks old.

What is the news?

  • The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971 and its Rules of 2003 prohibit unmarried women who are between 20 weeks and 24 weeks pregnant to abort with the help of registered medical practitioners.

What did the Court say now?

  • In a very significant move, the court said that the prohibition was manifestly arbitrary and violative of women’s right to bodily autonomy and dignity.
  • The danger to life is as much in the case of an unmarried woman as in the case of a married woman said Justice Chandrachud.
  • The danger of suffering a mental breakdown is much more prominent for unmarried women, said the court.

Earlier observations

  • A woman’s right to reproductive choice is an inseparable part of her personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.
  • She has a sacrosanct right to bodily integrity, the court quoted from precedents.
  • The court said forcing a woman to continue with her pregnancy would not only be a violation of her bodily integrity but also aggravate her mental trauma.

Indispensable clause of safety

  • The court ordered a medical board to be formed by the AIIMS to check whether it was safe to conduct an abortion on the woman and submit a report in a week.

What is the case?

  • A Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud was hearing the appeal of a woman who wanted to abort her 24-week pregnancy after her relationship failed and her partner left her.
  • The lower court had taken an “unduly restrictive view” that her plea for a safe abortion was not covered under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.
  • This was since the pregnancy arose from a consensual relationship outside wedlock.

What was the last amendment?

  • The court noted that an amendment to the Act in 2021 had substituted the term ‘husband’ with ‘partner’, a clear signal that the law covered unmarried women within its ambit.

Reiterating the live-in recognition

  • Chastising the lower court, the Bench said live-in relationships had already been recognized by the Supreme Court.
  • There were a significant number of people in the social mainstream who see no wrong in engaging in pre-marital sex.
  • The law could not be used to quench “notions of social morality” and unduly interfere in their personal autonomy and bodily integrity.

Back2Basics: Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act

  • Abortion in India has been a legal right under various circumstances for the last 50 years since the introduction of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act in 1971.
  • The Act was amended in 2003 to enable women’s access to safe and legal abortion services.
  • Abortion is covered 100% by the government’s public national health insurance funds, Ayushman Bharat and Employees’ State Insurance with the package rate for surgical abortion.

The idea of terminating your pregnancy cannot originate by choice and is purely circumstantial. There are four situations under which a legal abortion is performed:

  1. If continuation of the pregnancy poses any risks to the life of the mother or mental health
  2. If the foetus has any severe abnormalities
  3. If pregnancy occurred as a result of failure of contraception (but this is only applicable to married women)
  4. If pregnancy is a result of sexual assault or rape

These are the key changes that the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021, has brought in:

  1. The gestation limit for abortions has been raised from the earlier ceiling of 20 weeks to 24 weeks, but only for special categories of pregnant women such as rape or incest survivors. But this termination would need the approval of two registered doctors.
  2. All pregnancies up to 20 weeks require one doctor’s approval. The earlier law, the MTP Act 1971, required one doctor’s approval for pregnancies upto 12 weeks and two doctors’ for pregnancies between 12 and 20 weeks.
  3. Women can now terminate unwanted pregnancies caused by contraceptive failure, regardless of their marital status. Earlier the law specified that only a “married woman and her husband” could do this.
  4. There is also no upper gestation limit for abortion in case of foetal disability if so decided by a medical board of specialist doctors, which state governments and union territories’ administrations would set up.

 

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Food Procurement and Distribution – PDS & NFSA, Shanta Kumar Committee, FCI restructuring, Buffer stock, etc.

Centre launches ‘Ration Mitra’ Portal to register for Rations

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NFSA

Mains level: Schemes related to food security

The Centre has launched a common facility to register names in ration cards on a pilot basis for 11 States and Union Territories.

Ration Mitra

  • Ration Mitra’ Portal aims to enable these States to identify and verify the eligible beneficiaries for coverage under the National Food Security Act.
  • Named as Ration Mitr, this software developed by the National Informatics Centre can be used to enrol people of any State.
  • The portal is an enabler for States/UTs to complete their inclusion exercise under NFSA.
  • The NFSA provides food security coverage for 81.35 crore persons in the country. The present NFSA coverage is about 79.74 crore.

About National Food Security (NFS) Act

  • The NFS Act, 2013 aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two-thirds of India’s 1.2 billion people.
  • It converts into legal entitlements for existing food security programs of the GoI.
  • It includes the Midday Meal Scheme, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme and the Public Distribution System (PDS).
  • Further, the NFSA 2013 recognizes maternity entitlements.
  • The Midday Meal Scheme and the ICDS are universal in nature whereas the PDS will reach about two-thirds of the population (75% in rural areas and 50% in urban areas).
  • Pregnant women, lactating mothers, and certain categories of children are eligible for daily free cereals.

Key provisions of NFSA

  • The NFSA provides a legal right to persons belonging to “eligible households” to receive foodgrains at a subsidised price.
  • It includes rice at Rs 3/kg, wheat at Rs 2/kg and coarse grain at Rs 1/kg — under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). These are called central issue prices (CIPs).

 

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Pharma Sector – Drug Pricing, NPPA, FDC, Generics, etc.

When pharma companies cross red lines

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NA

Mains level: Pharma sector malpractices in India

pharma companiesMarketing practices of pharma companies are under scrutiny after tax officials searched the premises of a drugmaker, and an association of medical representatives moved the Supreme Court alleging unethical marketing practices by drugmakers.

paharma companiesThe Dolo controversy

  • Bengaluru-based pharmaceuticals company Micro Labs Ltd came under the spotlight recently over the promotion of its anti-fever drug Dolo 650, which was widely used during the covid-19 pandemic.
  • Surprisingly, this drug which contained paracetamol was widely endorsed by doctors all across the India.
  • The Supreme Court last week ordered the central government to respond to a petition filed on the issue of unethical marketing practices by drug makers.
  • The Income Tax department too has accused it of claiming unallowable expenses made on freebies meant to boost sales.

How do drugmakers incentivize doctors?

  • While many medical professionals claim that financial incentives do not influence their practice, some say that private sector doctors are enticed by pharmaceutical companies’ marketing agents to promote their drugs.
  • Pharma companies’ sales executives visit doctors to brief them about new drugs or a new drug component.
  • They try to impress upon them to prescribe their brands and in return, doctors are offered some gifts name reminders such as pens, writing pads, books and sometimes expensive gifts and holidays.
  • Such benefits extended to doctors depend upon the kind of drug, the disease burden etc.

pharma companiesIs this a widespread industry practice?

  • A government doctor said no pharma firm can sustain without marketing its drug.
  • It mostly happens when there is an outbreak, or if there is great demand for a particular drug or when a drug is being launched.
  • Unlike in the case of other products, the decision to buy a drug is not made by the consumer, but by the doctor.
  • This makes pharma a marketing-driven industry.

Are hospitals incentivized too?

  • Yes; doctors at a top private hospital which treated a large number of covid-19 patients said drug giants do try to incentivize hospitals.
  • The possibilities increase when a large corporate hospital chain operating across the country buys a drug in bulk.
  • A doctor at a corporate hospital does not have any control over the drugs sold in the in-house pharmacy of the hospital.
  • Doctors running small clinics see limited patients, and they do not have pharmacies; so, the issue of incentivization does not arise.

What does the I-T dept find wrong in this?

  • While pharma companies treat freebies as a marketing expense which is deducted while computing their taxable income, getting the beneficiary of this spending to report it as his income has been a challenge.
  • In some cases, tax officials have denied promotional expenses as a deduction.
  • Hence, the government introduced a 10% tax to be deducted at source (TDS) effective 1 July, so that doctors and social media influencers report such benefits in their tax returns and pay tax on what it is worth.

 

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Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

Who was Vannuramma?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Vannuramma

Mains level: Not Much

The fort of legendry Vannuramma in Nallamala forest in the present day Mydukur mandal of Kadapa district is trending due to its rundown condition.

Who was Vannuramma?

  • Vannuramma ruled five ‘Durgams’ (under fiefdom) between 1781 and 1796 with Sakarlapadu as the administrative headquarters.
  • According to historical accounts, she was born in Pathimadugu Rekulakunta, now in Kadapa district, and got married to Veerneni Chinna Narasimha Naidu in 1764.
  • The family had the practice of praying at Vannuru Swamy temple in Kalyanadurgam of Anantapur district.
  • Vannuramma thus got her name as she was born, as believed, as the god’s gift.
  • Though there are not many historical accounts, Kadapa-based writer Bommisetty Ramesh brought out the first book last year on her.
  • Based on information culled out from the Mackenzie Kaifiyat of Kadapa, he extensively toured the region ruled by her, collected folklore and verified the same with historians.

Her legend

  • The very mention of the name ‘Vannuramma’ brought chill to the spine of the Matli kings and Kadapa Nawabs.
  • Of all the Polegars (local chieftains) who had ruled the regional territories of Rayalaseema before the advent of the British, the lone woman ruler remains forgotten from the pages of history.
  • Under attack from fellow Polegars, Vannuramma’s family fled Thippireddypalle and took shelter in Chagalamarri fort, where they lived for eight years before her husband breathed his last in 1780.
  • Vannuramma wielded the sword when the Matli king Appayya Raju and Mysore Sultan Hyder Ali’s follower Meeru Saheb waged a war, invaded Sakerlapadu Durgam and robbed the property of locals.
  • Mobilising her army, she declared a war and brought the territory back into her fold in 1781.

Her death

  • Even the Golconda Nawabs, through their Kadapa henchman Khadarvali Khan, tried in vain to control her.
  • It was then they hatched a plan to woo her adopted son and arrested her on some flimsy charges.
  • When the unsuspecting Vannuramma attended the Matli king’s court to prove her innocence, she was slapped with charges of treason.
  • The Nawabs captured her and sentenced her with ‘Korthi’, an inhuman form of punishment where a person is made to sit on a sharpened tree stump and left to die.
  • Vannuramma died in full public view in the year 1718 of Salivahana Saka, which translates to August 16, 1796, i.e., 226 years back.

 

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NPA Crisis

India’s banking sector shows progress

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Credit growth in India

Mains level: Paper 3- India's banking sector

Context

The RBI’s latest Financial Stability Report (FSR) has given the banking system a reasonably clean bill of health. It’s a significant achievement, considering the stress of the previous decade, the shock of the pandemic and the associated slowdown of the economy.

Two indicators of banking system’s progress

  • 1] Reduced NPAs: Successive waves of recapitalisation have given banks enough resources to write off most of their bad loans.
  • As a result, they have been able to bring down their gross NPAs (non-performing loans) from 11 per cent of total advances in 2017-18 to 5.9 per cent in 2021-22.
  • Even after these large write-offs, most banks retain comfortable levels of capital.
  • 2] Credit growth doubled: During the decade when banks were under stress, non-food bank credit growth had been declining, reaching just 6 per cent in 2020, its lowest point in six decades.
  • Since then, credit growth has nearly doubled.

Concerns

  • Role of credit in supporting GDP growth: The problem is that very little of this credit is going to large-scale industry or for financing investment.
  • Reluctance of banks to provide credit to industry: Over the last decade, banks have increasingly shifted away from providing credit to industry, favouring instead lending to consumers.
  • This trend is continuing — in the year ending March 2022, consumer loans grew at 13 per cent, whereas loans to industry grew at just 8 per cent.
  • Banks favoring MSMEs in industry loans: Bulk of the industry loans has been extended to the smaller firms (MSMEs), which benefitted from the credit guarantee scheme offered by the government in the wake of the pandemic.
  • Reduced lending to private sector investment: A related problem is that there has been little lending for private sector investment.
  • Over the last one year, bank lending to infrastructure has grown by 9 per cent, up from 3 per cent in 2020, but this was fuelled mainly by public sector capital expenditure.

Why is there so little lending for investment by large firms?

  • Demand side reason: On the demand side, private sector investment has been sluggish for nearly a decade.
  • The boom-and-bust of the mid-2000s had saddled firms with excess capacity, giving them little reason to expand their production facilities.
  • In addition, the global financial crisis had shown the dangers of ambitious expansion supported by excessive borrowing, leading firms to conclude that it would be prudent to scale back their plans and instead focus on reducing their debts.
  • Supply side reason: On the supply side, banks have learned similar lessons.
  • During the period 2004-2009, rapid GDP growth in the Indian economy was fuelled by an unprecedented lending boom.
  •  Subsequently, many of those loans turned bad, leading to high levels of NPAs on bank balance sheets.
  •  As a result of these financial problems, banks for a decade were unable to extend much in the way of credit.

Challenges

  • On the positive side, firms seem to have finally used up much of their spare capacity.
  • Fundamental problems not resolved: But on the negative side, the fundamental problems that led to the difficulties of the past decade still have not been resolved.
  • No framework for risk reduction: There is still no framework that will reduce the risk of private sector investment in infrastructure, certainly not in the critical and highly troubled power sector.
  • Nor is there any reassurance for the banks that if problems do develop, they can be resolved expeditiously, since the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has been plagued by delays and other problems.

Way forward

  • We need deep structural reforms — to the infrastructure framework, the resolution process, and indeed, in the risk management processes at the banks themselves.
  • In the event that these reforms do not materialise, there may continue to be shortfalls in credit, investment, and ultimately in economic recovery and growth.

Conclusion

A healthy balance sheet of the banking sector is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for economic growth. The important question is whether banks and firms will once again be willing to take on the risk of investment in industry and infrastructure.

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Right To Privacy

Issue of withdrawal of Personal Data Protection Bill

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: MEITY

Mains level: Paper 2- Need for data protection law

Context

The Minister for the Ministry of Electronics and IT withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019. The reasons for the withdrawal were circulated in a note to MPs, which stated that,“considering the report of the JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee), a comprehensive legal framework is being worked upon…”.

Background of Personal Data Protection Bill

  •  An expert committee headed by Justice (retd) A P Shah recommended in October, 2012,“a detailed framework that serves as the conceptual foundation for the Privacy Act”.
  • This did not come to fruition, with proposals buried by 2014 due to objections from the intelligence establishment on surveillance reforms.
  • While petitions on the constitutionality of Aadhaar and the right to privacy were pending before the Supreme Court, the Union government constituted an expert group headed by Justice (retd) B N Srikrishna in July, 2017.
  •  In August, a nine-judge bench unanimously pronounced the Puttaswamy judgment that reaffirmed the fundamental right to privacy for the autonomy, dignity and liberty for every Indian.
  • Justice D Y Chandrachud, who authored the majority opinion, noted the formation of the Srikrishna Committee as a positive obligation on the government to enact a law for informational privacy.
  • In December 2019, government introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 in Parliament.
  • The draft law was referred to a JPC of 30 MPs that submitted a report after two years.
  • With the withdrawal in Parliament on August 3, it almost seems institutional processes, in which all three branches of government worked for years, are being jettisoned in favour of “a comprehensive legal framework”.

Issues with reasons given for withdrawal of the Bill

  • The JPC has nowhere suggested a withdrawal in favour of a “comprehensive legal framework”.
  • The proper course was to consider the JPC’s recommendations including the dissent notes and expert analysis, redraft and introduce a new Data Protection Bill.
  • Compliance burden concern of government: With the government setting the goal of a one trillion dollar digital economy, fears of a compliance burden can impede innovation and growth.
  • Date protection is needed for innovation: Here, detailed reasoning is available in the Srikrishna Committee’s report as well as a growing international consensus suggesting that next-generation innovation in technology needs data protection.
  • Regulatory intervention will improve business practices requiring engineering decisions that focus on user trust.
  • Imperfections in law argument: With the imperfections within the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 and even the JPC report, there exists a reasonable argument that if passed into law, it may institutionalise bad privacy practices.
  •  Such a line of reasoning fails to recognise that institutional memory develops through reasonable due diligence and experience.
  • Legislative foresight is limited and no law is perfect, which is why there exist parliamentary amendments and judicial review.

Conclusion

Today, there is a relentless pace of digitisation that relies on gathering personal data in all spheres of our lives. All of this is done in a legal vacuum without any oversight or remedy. This underscores the urgent need for data protection law.

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Iran’s Nuclear Program & Western Sanctions

US-Iran Nuclear talks restart with EU mediation

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: JCPOA

Mains level: US sanctions on Iran, Nuclear deal

Negotiators kicked off a fresh round of talks over Iran’s nuclear program in Vienna, seeking to salvage the agreement on Tehran’s atomic ambitions.

Do you know how the enmity between Iran and the US came into reality?  We hope you have watched the Argo (2012) movie for sure!

Context

  • After a gap of five months, Iran, Russia, China and the European countries resumed negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
  • The 2015 JCPOA agreement sought to cut Iran off a possible path to a nuclear bomb in return for lifting of economic sanctions.

What is JCPOA?

  • The Iran nuclear agreement, formally known as the JCPOA is a landmark accord reached between Iran and several world powers, including the United States, in July 2015.
  • Under its terms, Iran agreed to dismantle much of its nuclear program and open its facilities to more extensive international inspections in exchange for billions of dollars’ worth of sanctions relief.

Expected outcomes of the deal

  • Curb on the nuclear program: Proponents of the deal said that it would help prevent a revival of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
  • Increasing regional engagement: It would thereby reduce the prospects for conflict between Iran and its regional rivals, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Background of the JCPOA

  • Iran had previously agreed to forgo the development of nuclear weapons as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which has been in force since 1970.
  • However, after the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979, Iranian leaders secretly pursued this technology.
  • In 2007, U.S. intelligence analysts concluded that Iran halted its work on nuclear weapons in 2003 but continued to acquire nuclear technology and expertise.
  • Prior to the JCPOA, the P5+1 had been negotiating with Iran for years, offering its government various incentives to halt uranium enrichment.

Issues with the deal

(1) US withdrawal

  • The deal has been in jeopardy since President Donald Trump withdrew the US from it in 2018.
  • In retaliation for the US, Iran resumed some of its nuclear activities.

(2) Iran’s insistence over sanctions removal

  • In 2021, President Joe Biden said the US will return to the deal if Iran comes back into compliance, though Iran’s leaders have insisted that Washington lift sanctions first.
  • Iran now has indicated that he will take a harder line than his predecessor in nuclear negotiations.

Who are the participants?

  • The JCPOA, which went into effect in January 2016, imposes restrictions on Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program.
  • At the heart of negotiations with Iran were the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and Germany—collectively known as the P5+1.
  • The European Union also took part. Israel explicitly opposed the agreement, calling it too lenient.
  • Some Middle Eastern powers, such as Saudi Arabia, said they should have been consulted or included in the talks because they would be most affected by a nuclear-armed Iran.

What did Iran agree to?

  • Nuclear restrictions: Iran agreed not to produce either the highly enriched uranium or the plutonium that could be used in a nuclear weapon.
  • Monitoring and verification:  Iran agreed to eventually implement a protocol that would allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.

What did the other signatories agree to?

  • Sanctions relief: The EU, United Nations, and United States all committed to lifting their nuclear-related sanctions on Iran. However, many other U.S. sanctions on Iran, some dating back to the 1979 hostage crisis, remained in effect.
  • Weapons embargo: The parties agreed to lift an existing UN ban on Iran’s transfer of conventional weapons and ballistic missiles after five years if the IAEA certifies that Iran is only engaged in civilian nuclear activity.

How has the deal affected Iran’s economy?

  • Prior to the JCPOA, Iran’s economy suffered years of recession, currency depreciation, and inflation, largely because of sanctions on its energy sector.
  • With the sanctions lifted, inflation slowed, exchange rates stabilized, and exports—especially of oil, agricultural goods, and luxury items­—skyrocketed as Iran regained trading partners, particularly in the EU.
  • After the JCPOA took effect, Iran began exporting more than 2.1 million barrels per day (approaching pre-2012 levels, when the oil sanctions were originally put in place).

 

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Anti Defection Law

Election Symbols Issue in Maharashtra

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Election symbols

Mains level: Political split vs Defection

 

The Supreme Court has said it would decide the question of referring the battle between a political party leader and Maharashtra Chief Minister over the “real” heir of a political party to a Constitution Bench.

What is the news?

Why the split leader (the CM) is making such claims?

  • One of the cardinal issues, as pointed out by the CJI, would be whether the dissent of split faction, without subsequently forming a new party or merging with another, amounted to a “split” from the original political party.
  • The anti-defection law cannot be an “anti-dissent” law.

Issues raised by the apex Court

  • The Bench warned that if the split is completely ignoring the political party after being elected then it is a danger to democracy.

Note: For aspirants, one thing is very clear. The Supreme Court will definitely give another landmark judgment in this regard. Arriving at a conclusion is a tight rope walk for the judiciary too. But our judiciary never disappoints!

EC’s powers in Election Symbol Dispute

  • The question of a split in a political party outside the legislature is dealt by Para 15 of the Symbols Order, 1968.
  • It states that the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) may take into account all the available facts and circumstances and undertake a test of majority.
  • The decision of the ECI shall be binding on all such rival sections or groups emerged after the split.
  • This applies to disputes in recognized national and state parties.
  • For splits in registered but unrecognized parties, the EC usually advises the warring factions to resolve their differences internally or to approach the court.

How did the EC deal with such matters before the Symbols Order came into effect?

  • Before 1968, the EC issued notifications and executive orders under the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.
  • The most high-profile split of a party before 1968 was that of the CPI in 1964.
  • A breakaway group approached the ECI in December 1964 urging it to recognize them as CPI(Marxist). They provided a list of MPs and MLAs of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal who supported them.
  • The ECI recognized the faction as CPI(M) after it found that the votes secured by the MPs and MLAs supporting the breakaway group added up to more than 4% in the 3 states.

Options for ECI

  • The ECI in all likelihood can freeze the symbol so that neither of the two sides is able to use it until a final decision is made.
  • EC hearings are long and detailed and may take at least six months.

What was the first case decided under Para 15 of the 1968 Order?

  • It was the first split in the Indian National Congress in 1969.
  • Indira Gandhi’s tensions with a rival group within the party came to a head with the death of President Dr Zakir Hussain on May 3, 1969.

Is there a way other than the test of the majority to resolve a dispute over election symbols?

  • In almost all disputes decided by the EC so far, a clear majority of party delegates/office bearers, MPs and MLAs have supported one of the factions.
  • Whenever the EC could not test the strength of rival groups based on support within the party organization (because of disputes regarding the list of office bearers), it fell back on testing the majority only among elected MPs and MLAs.

What happens to the group that doesn’t get the parent party’s symbol?

  • The EC in 1997 did not recognize the new parties as either state or national parties.
  • It felt that merely having MPs and MLAs is not enough, as the elected representatives had fought and won polls on tickets of their parent (undivided) parties.
  • The EC introduced a new rule under which the splinter group of the party — other than the group that got the party symbol — had to register itself as a separate party.
  • It could lay claim to national or state party status only on the basis of its performance in the state or central elections after registration.

 

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Climate Change Negotiations – UNFCCC, COP, Other Conventions and Protocols

What is a Carbon Market, and why does India want to create one?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Carbon Credits

Mains level: Carbon trading

The Bill to amend the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 seeks to establish a domestic carbon market and facilitate trade in carbon credits.

What are Carbon Credits?

  • Carbon credits are measurable, verifiable emission reductions from certified climate action projects.
  • These projects reduce, remove or avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
  • But they also bring a whole host of other positive benefits, for example, they empower communities, protect ecosystems, restore forests or reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
  • Projects must adhere to a rigorous set of criteria to pass verification by third-party agencies and a review by a panel of experts at a leading carbon offset standard.
  • After an organization or an individual buys a carbon credit, the credit is permanently retired so it can’t be reused.

What are Carbon Markets?

  • Carbon markets are regulatory structures that allow, in particular, oil and gas-intensive companies or heavy industry (or, in the case of COP25, countries) to reduce their economic footprint through a series of incentives.
  • The idea behind this system is that the most polluting countries can purchase the right to pollute more from countries that have not reached their emissions limits.
  • The 1997 Kyoto Protocol turned polluting emissions into a commodity.
  • For example, the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is the largest in the world and has been in operation since 2015.

How is the concept evolved?

  • When the world evolved the ‘clean development mechanism’ (CDM) after the Kyoto Protocol agreement of 1997 as companies in the developing world could put up projects.
  • These include renewable energy or afforestation — that helped reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and earn ‘credits’ that could be sold in the market.
  • It was expected that these credits would be bought by the developed countries that had committed to emissions cuts under the Protocol.
  • Thus emerged the CDM market, aka ‘compliance market’. Alongside, environmentally conscious entities also started buying these carbon credits (or offsets) — the ‘voluntary market’.

What is the status now?

  • This system functioned well for a few years.
  • But the market collapsed because of the lack of demand for carbon credits.
  • As the world negotiated a new climate treaty in place of the Kyoto Protocol, the developed countries no longer felt the need to adhere to their targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
  • A carbon market was envisaged to work under the successor Paris Agreement, but its details are still being worked out.

Global successes

  • Domestic or regional carbon markets are already functioning in several places, most notably in Europe, where an emission trading scheme (ETS) works on similar principles.
  • Industrial units in Europe have prescribed emission standards to adhere to, and they buy and sell credits based on their performance.
  • China, too, has a domestic carbon market.

Mechanism in India

  • A similar scheme for incentivizing energy efficiency has been running in India for over a decade now.
  • This BEE scheme, called- Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) Scheme allows units to earn efficiency certificates if they outperform the prescribed efficiency standards.
  • The laggards can buy these certificates to continue operating.

What does new Amendment seeks to bring?

  • The new carbon market that is proposed to be created through this amendment to the Energy Conservation Act, would be much wider in scope.
  • Although the details of this carbon market are not yet known, it is likely to be on the lines of the European ETS, facilitating the buying and selling of carbon credits.

 

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Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

Earth has recorded its shortest day since the 1960s- why?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Earth's spin

Mains level: Read the attached story

On June 29, the Earth completed one full spin — a day — in 1.59 milliseconds less than its routine 24 hours. It was the shortest day recorded since the 1960s.

Note: A millisecond is one-thousandth of a second.

Earth spinning faster

  • While the Earth has been completing its rotations faster in recent years, when looked at over a much longer period of time, our planet is actually spinning slower.
  • Every century, the Earth takes a few milliseconds longer to complete one rotation — and on average, days are actually getting longer.
  • So, 1.4 billion years ago, a day would have ended in less than 19 hours,

How did scientists find that?

  • Scientists got to know by using precise atomic clocks to measure the Earth’s rotational speed.

Why are days getting shorter these days?

  • Scientists aren’t entirely sure.
  • Something has changed and changed in a way we haven’t seen since the beginning of precise radio astronomy in the 1970s.

Factors attributing Earth’s Spin

(1) Tidal Braking

  • The research attributed the larger trend of the Earth’s slower spin mostly to the gravitational pull of the Moon, which causes tidal friction and slows down the Earth’s rotations.

(2) Climate change-induced surface variations

  • Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica
  • Changes in ocean circulation

(3) Geomorphic factors

  • Movements in the planet’s inner molten core
  • Seismic activity
  • Wind speed, and shifting atmospheric gases

(4) Chandler wobble phenomenon

  • This refers to the small deviation in the movement of Earth’s geographical poles.
  • The normal amplitude of the Chandler wobble is about three to four metres at Earth’s surface, but from 2017 to 2020 it disappeared.

(5) Other propositions

  • Activities that push mass towards the centre of the Earth will hasten the planet’s rotation.
  • Anything that pushes mass outwards will slow down the spin, a report noted.

What can happen if the Earth continues to spin faster on a sustained basis?

  • To ensure that the time on clocks matches the speed of the Earth’s rotation, a system of leap seconds has been used since the 1970s.
  • They involve one-second adjustments to Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), the time standard used to synchronize clocks around the world.
  • Due to the long-term slowing in the planet’s spin, 27 leap seconds have been added to UTC.
  • However, if the Earth continues to spin faster and days subsequently become shorter, scientists may have to introduce the first ever ‘negative leap second,’ which involves subtraction of a second from clocks.

 

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Foreign Policy Watch: India-United States

India and Minerals Security Partnership (MSP)

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: MSP

Mains level: India's import dependece for semiconductors

India is aspiring to join the 11-member US-led partnership for critical mineral supply chains called ‘Minerals Security Partnership (MSP)’.

Why in news?

  • A group of western nations are cooperating to develop alternatives to China to ensure key industrial supplies.
  • This is a part of a global ‘China-plus-one’ strategy adopted post pandemic that caused massive supply-chain disruptions.
  • India is not part of this arrangement but New Delhi is working through diplomatic channels to fetch an entry.

What is the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP)?

  • The US and 10 partners — Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the European Commission — have come together to form the MSP.
  • The new grouping is aimed at catalysing investment from governments and the private sector to develop strategic opportunities.
  • Demand for critical minerals, which are essential for clean energy and other technologies, is projected to expand significantly in the coming decades.
  • The MSP will help catalyse investment from governments and the private sector for strategic opportunities — across the full value chain — that adhere to the highest environmental, social, and governance standards.

Focus of MSP

  • The new grouping could focus on the supply chains of minerals such as Cobalt, Nickel, Lithium, and also the 17 ‘rare earth’ minerals.
  • The alliance is seen as primarily focused on evolving an alternative to China, which has created processing infrastructure in rare earth minerals and has acquired mines in Africa for elements such as Cobalt.

What are Rare Earth Elements?

  • The 17 rare earth elements (REE) include the 15 Lanthanides (atomic numbers 57 — which is Lanthanum — to 71 in the periodic table) plus Scandium (atomic number 21) and Yttrium (39).
  • REEs are classified as light RE elements (LREE) and heavy RE elements (HREE).
  • Some REEs are available in India — such as Lanthanum, Cerium, Neodymium, Praseodymium and Samarium, etc.
  • Others such as Dysprosium, Terbium, and Europium, which are classified as HREEs, are not available in Indian deposits in extractable quantities.

Why are these minerals important?

  • Minerals like Cobalt, Nickel, and Lithium are required for batteries used in electric vehicles.
  • REEs are an essential — although often tiny — component of more than 200 consumer products, including mobile phones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles, semiconductors etc.

Where does India stand?

  • There is a dependence on countries such as China for HREEs, which is one of the leading producers of REEs, with an estimated 70 per cent share of the global production.
  • India is seen as a late mover in attempts to enter the lithium value chain, coming at a time when EVs are predicted to be a sector ripe for disruption.
  • The year 2022 is likely to be an inflection point for battery technology — with several potential improvements to the Li-ion technology.
  • India has an ambitious plan to convert a large percentage of its transport to electric, and would require these minerals.
  • According to the plan, 80 per cent of the country’s two- and three-wheeler fleet, 40 per cent of buses, and 30 to 70 per cent of cars will be EVs by 2030.

What is India’s major concern at this moment?

  • If India is not able to explore and produce these minerals, it will have to depend on a handful of countries, including China, to power its energy transition plans to electric vehicles.
  • That will be similar to our dependence on a few countries for oil.

Why was India excluded?

  • Industry watchers say that the reason India would not have found a place in the MSP grouping is that the country does not bring any expertise to the table.
  • In the group, countries like Australia and Canada have reserves and also the technology to extract them, and countries like Japan have the technology to process REEs.

 

 

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