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Festivals, Dances, Theatre, Literature, Art in News

Handloom in news: Patan Patola

Prelims Only | History | Mains Paper 1: Arts & Culture
At the G20 summit, Prime Minister gifted traditional artworks from Gujarat- the ‘Patan Patola’ scarf to his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni.

What is Patan Patola?
- The ancient art of double ikat or Patola woven in pure silk dates back to the 11th century.
- The Patola fabrics bear an equal intensity of colours and design on both sides.
- This peculiar quality has its origins in an intricate and difficult technique of dyeing or knot dyeing, known as ‘bandhani’, on the warp and weft separately before weaving.
How is it woven?
- Patola is woven on primitive hand-operated harness looms made out of rosewood and bamboo strips. The loom lies on a slant.
- The other commonly worn Patola is the Rajkot Patola, woven on a flat loom.
- The process involves warp and weft silk threads that are tied with cotton thread on portions marked with the proposed design.
- This tied portion then remains unexposed to colours while dyeing, which is followed by tying, untying, redyeing and dyeing in different shades.
- Single and primary colours are applied one after another as mixed shades develop by overlapping. This makes the design stand out.
Who weaves it?
- The last surviving family into Patola weaving is the Salvi family in Patan.
- From the oldest 70-year-old Rohit to the youngest 37-year-old Savan, the entire nine member-family of five men and four women is engaged with this art form.
- The Salvi family shared that before World War II, Indonesia was the major buyer of Patolas.
- Legend has it that King Kumarpal of the Solanki dynasty invited some 700 families of Patola weavers from Jalna (Maharashtra) to settle in Patan in North Gujarat, and the Salvis are among them.
- The family has also been honoured with several national awards.
How costly it is?
- While possessing and wearing a Patola is considered a matter of pride, the fabric has largely remained inaccessible to common people because of its high price.
- The base price of a Patola saree in the Patan weave starts from Rs 1.5 lakh up and can go up to Rs 6 lakh.
- A typical 46-inch dupatta or scarf sells in the range of Rs 80,000, depending on the intricacy of the design.
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Terrorism and Challenges Related To It

Tackling the menace of Terror Financing

op-ed snap | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Border Area Security Challenges,Organized Crime & Terrorism
Context
- The spectre of terrorist violence looms large over the world. With the technological advancement terrorists, criminals, weapons and funds are also able to move across national boundaries easily. India is increasingly playing a leading role in curbing the terror financing.
What is Terror Financing?
- Terrorist financing encompasses the means and methods used by terrorist organizations to finance their activities.
- This money can come from legitimate sources, for example from profits from businesses and charitable organizations.
- However, terrorist groups can also get their funds from illegal activities such as trafficking in weapons, drugs or people, or kidnapping for ransom.
- Nations like Pakistan has stated policy of supporting cross-border terrorism in India through global funding.
What are the channels of free flow of funds?
- The global flow of funds has three traditional channels:
1. Direct smuggling of cash: First, direct smuggling of cash through international borders.
2. Use of Hawala: Second, the use of hawala networks.
3. Banking Networks: Third, banking networks including SWIFT and other international channels.
- Use of new technologies: But now swift technological developments in areas of blockchain or cryptocurrencies which transcend national boundaries and international currency systems have emerged as a new channel for financing terrorist and other illegal activities.
What are the identified sources of funds used by Terrorist organizations?
- Legal financial activities: Terrorist organizations raise money through several sources like travel agencies, money changers, real estate, retail outlets, NGOs, charitable trusts and even from state sponsors.
- Sourced form Criminal activities: Terrorists also derive funding from a variety of criminal activities ranging in scale and sophistication from low-level crime to organized fraud or narcotics smuggling or illegal activities in failed states and other safe havens.
- For instance: Declassified files seized during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad hideout also revealed terror financing related documents.
What steps could be taken to uproot terror financing methods?
- Identifying the funding requirements: The first step in identifying and forestalling the flow of funds to terrorists is to understand the funding requirements of modern terrorist groups.
- Understanding the ideology: The costs associated not only with conducting terrorist attacks, but also with developing and maintaining a terrorist organisation and its ideology are significant. Funds are required to promote a militant ideology, pay operatives and their families, arrange for their travel, train new members, forge documents, pay bribes, acquire weapons and stage attacks.
- Tracing the methods of fund flow: Terrorists use a wide variety of methods to move money within and between organisations, including the financial sector, physical movement of cash by couriers, and movement of goods through the trade system. Charities and alternative remittance systems have also been used to disguise terrorist movement of funds.
- Monitoring the ambiguous financial intelligence: Only accurate and well linked financial intelligence can reveal the structure of terrorist groups and also the activities of individual terrorists. Of late, such financial intelligence from the private sector has also given significant clues to foil terrorist acts.
How India is leading the battle against terror financing?
- India’s continues efforts: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in all his international speeches spoken at length on this. India’s efforts in taking this momentum forward need to be appreciated.
- India actively providing platform for various assemblies: Recently, the 90th Interpol General Assembly held in New Delhi, followed by a special session of UN Security Council’s Counter Terrorism in late October. In the third week of November, India will host another global conference focussed only on Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT).
- CTC adopted Delhi Declaration: The Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) unanimously adopted the Delhi Declaration on countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes. The declaration aims to cover the main concerns surrounding the abuse of drones, social media platforms, and crowdfunding, and create guidelines that will help to tackle the growing issue.
- India will host ‘No Money for Terror’ Conference: The Ministry of Home Affairs will organise the Third Ministerial ‘No Money for Terror’ Conference. where participants from 75 countries expected to attend the conference. The conference that was first held In Paris in 2018, followed by Melbourne in 2019.
What are the international efforts to tackle the menace of terror financing?
- Foundation of FATF: Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was formed in 1989 as a means of bringing order and implementing standards to the monetary system in the world with regard to terror finance and money laundering.
- Adopting the resolutions with time: It was the 2001 terrorist attacks that changed the way security agencies looked at terror financing. The UNSCR resolution 1267 in 1999 and UNSCR resolution 1373 in 2001 formed the bedrock of the financial sanctions’ regime for terrorist organisations and individuals.
- FATF’s Grey listing: One of the key reasons for Pakistan being placed on the FATF Grey List from 2018 to 2022 was its open defiance of those designations. Only after the FATF’s grey listing open terrorist activities stop and the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan declined to some extent.
- UNSC sanctions and designations: It is pertinent to understand that the FATF has developed its entire paradigm around the word risk. It used the United Nations Security Council sanctions against terrorists and terrorist organizations to begin to evolve a complex body of documentation in order to assess technical compliance and effectiveness of countries in implementing those UN designations. Eight of the nine UN designated terrorists were arrested and convicted in a major testimony to the success of the UN sanctions regime.
Conclusion
- The UN Security Council has sought to increase efforts against terror financing. It is only through inclusive efforts that this complex issue can be addressed. India’s hosting of the “No money for terror” conference later this month should go a long way in focusing on the issue of state sponsored terror financing.
Mains Question

Q. With the technological advancement terrorists, criminals, weapons and funds are also able to move across national boundaries easily. Discuss what steps can be taken at national and international level to curb the menace of terror financing?

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Labour, Jobs and Employment – Harmonization of labour laws, gender gap, unemployment, etc.

Delhi HC fumes over Compensation delay to kin of sewer death victims

| Governance | Mains Paper 2: Laws, Institutions & Bodies Constituted For The Vulnerable Sections
“My head hangs in shame,” said the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court while condemning the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for not paying ₹10 lakh each as compensation to the family of person who died after inhaling toxic gases inside a sewer.

Why such criticism by the Delhi HC?
- Cleaning of sewers and septic tanks has led to at least 351 deaths since 2017.
Manual sanitary works in India
- Manual scavenging is the practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewers or septic tanks.
- India banned the practice under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (PEMSR).
- The Act bans the use of any individual for manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of or otherwise handling in any manner, human excreta till its disposal.
- In 2013, the definition of manual scavengers was also broadened to include people employed to clean septic tanks, ditches, or railway tracks.
- The Act recognizes manual scavenging as a “dehumanizing practice,” and cites a need to “correct the historical injustice and indignity suffered by the manual scavengers.”
Why is it still prevalent in India?
- Low awareness: Manual scavenging is mostly done by the marginalized section of the society and they are generally not aware about their rights.
- Enforcement issues: The lack of enforcement of the Act and exploitation of unskilled labourers are the reasons why the practice is still prevalent in India.
- High cost of automated: The Mumbai civic body charges anywhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000 to clean septic tanks.
- Cheaper availability: The unskilled labourers, meanwhile, are much cheaper to hire and contractors illegally employ them at a daily wage of Rs 300-500.
- Caste dynamics: Caste hierarchy still exists and it reinforces the caste’s relation with occupation. Almost all the manual scavengers belong to lower castes.
Various policy initiatives
- Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (Amendment) Bill, 2020: It proposes to completely mechanise sewer cleaning, introduce ways for ‘on-site’ protection and provide compensation to manual scavengers in case of sewer deaths.
- Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013: Superseding the 1993 Act, the 2013 Act goes beyond prohibitions on dry latrines, and outlaws all manual excrement cleaning of insanitary latrines, open drains, or pits.
- Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan: It started national wide march “Maila Mukti Yatra” for total eradication of manual scavenging from 30th November 2012 from Bhopal.
- Prevention of Atrocities Act: In 1989, the Prevention of Atrocities Act became an integrated guard for sanitation workers since majority of the manual scavengers belonged to the Scheduled Caste.
- Compensation: As per the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (PEMSR) Act, 2013 and the Supreme Court’s decision in the Safai Karamchari Andolan vs Union of India case, a compensation of Rs 10 lakh is awarded to the victims family.
- National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK): It is currently a temporary non-statutory body that investigates the conditions of Safai Karamcharis (waste collectors) in India and makes recommendations to the Government.
Other initiatives for sanitation workers
- The ministry now has proper distinction between sanitation work and manual scavenging.
- The practice of manual scavenging no longer takes place in the country as all manual scavengers had been accounted for and enrolled into the rehabilitation scheme, said the ministry.
- The enumeration of sanitization workers is soon to be conducted across 500 AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) cities, as a part of National Action Plan for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE).
- The NAMASTE scheme aims to eradicate unsafe sewer and septic tank cleaning practices.
Way forward
- Regular surveys and social audits must be conducted against the involvement of manual scavengers by public and local authorities.
- There must be proper identification and capacity building of manual scavengers for alternate sources of livelihood.
- Creating awareness about the legal protection of manual scavengers is necessary.
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Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

Is climate change affecting global health?

| Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Arts & Culture
A recent report by Lancet, has traced in detail the intimate link between changing weather events and their impact on the health of people.

What is the news?
- The 2022 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: Health at the Mercy of Fossil Fuels points out that the world’s reliance on fossil fuels increases the risk of disease, food insecurity and other illnesses related to heat.
Impact of climate change on health

(1) Extreme Events
- Heatwaves: The Lancet report indicates that rapidly increasing temperatures exposed vulnerable populations (adults above 65 years old and children younger than 1) to 3.7 billion more heatwave days in 2021 than annually in 1986–2005.
- Shift in patterns: There is no doubt that events such as floods, droughts and recurrent cyclones are direct outcome of climate change.
(2) Impact on health
- Infectious diseases: The changing climate is affecting the spread of infectious disease, raising the risk of emerging diseases and co-epidemics. For instance, coastal waters are becoming more suited for the transmission of Vibrio pathogens.
- More vector borne diseases: The number of months suitable for malaria transmission has increased in the highland areas of the Americas and Africa.
- More lives loss: The WHO has predicted that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 2,50,000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.
- Others: Low air quality, Rise in zoonotic diseases.
(3) Food security
- Crop loss: Higher temperatures threaten crop yields directly, with the growth season shortening for many cereal crops.
- Supply chain disruptions: Extreme weather events disrupt supply chains, thereby undermining food availability, access, stability, and utilisation.
- Malnutrition: The prevalence of undernourishment increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and up to 161 million more people faced hunger in 2020 than in 2019.
Way forward
- Health-centred response: A health-centred response to the coexisting climate, energy, and cost-of-living crises provides an opportunity to deliver a healthy, low-carbon future.
- Realization of the problem: The governments’ commitment to assess and address the threats from climate change, are positive signs, the report stresses.
- Holistic approach: This is the way a health-centred response would work – it would reduce the likelihood of the most catastrophic climate change impacts, while improving energy security and creating an opportunity for economic recovery.
- Shift in dietary patterns: The report also calls for an accelerated transition to balanced and more plant-based diets, as that would help reduce emissions from red meat and milk production, and prevent diet-related deaths.
- Easing the healthcare: The report emphasizes reducing the strain on health-care providers, and leading to more robust health systems.
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Trade Sector Updates – Falling Exports, TIES, MEIS, Foreign Trade Policy, etc.

In news: Vostro Accounts

Prelims Only | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Effects Of Liberalization On The Economy, Changes In Industrial Policy and their effects on Industrial Growth
Russian banks have been permitted by the RBI to open special Vostro accounts to pave the way for rupee-based export-import transactions.

Why such move?
- Logged out of SWIFT -the messaging service to facilitate and confirm cross-border payments – most Russian banks are looking for alternative ways.
- India and several other countries too want a way out so that trade can continue.
- India and Russia are now exploring to directly trade in rupee-ruble.
And this is where Nostro and Vostro may come into play.

What is a Vostro Account?
- A Vostro account is defined as an account that a correspondent bank holds on behalf of another bank.
- Vostro is a Latin word that means “your”, therefore, a vostro account implies that it is “your account”.
- An example of such an account would be HSBC vostro account is held by SBI in India.
Understanding a Vostro Account
- The banks are acting in a fiduciary relationship and they share a principal-agent relationship.
- The correspondent foreign bank is a financial intermediary in the transactions that they are involved in.
- The foreign bank acts as an agent that provides services such as executing wire transfers, performing foreign exchange, enabling deposits, enabling withdrawals, expediting international trade on behalf of the domestic bank.
- It is most used in settlement of foreign exchanges or foreign trade.
- No interest will be paid on the vostro account maintained, as per the directives that have been issued by the RBI in India.
- An overdraft facility can only be availed if it is specifically sanctioned.
Other related terms: Nostro and Loro Accounts
- Vostro and Nostro accounts are often confused to be the same.
- While in essence, it is the same account that is being spoken about, the perspective from which it is being seen matters.
- In a vostro account, it is the correspondent foreign bank point of view, whereas in a nostro account, it is the point of view of the domestic bank.
- Vostro accounts are maintained in the domestic currency whereas, nostro accounts in foreign currency.
- A Loro account is a current account that is maintained by one domestic bank for another domestic bank in the form of a third party account, unlike nostro and vostro which is bilateral correspondence.
Why is it used?
- This account serves as an economic way for small domestic banks to access the financial resources and services of a larger foreign bank.
- Enables one to offer international banking solutions to a customer without opening a bank branch in a foreign nation.
- It minimizes the time for transfer of funds.
- Closely monitored nostro accounts can be used for better reconciliation of statements.
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Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

Birth anniversary of Birsa Munda: The leader, his contributions

Prelims Only | | Mains Paper 1: Modern Indian History
On the occasion of the birth anniversary of tribal leader Birsa Munda, the Centre marked the second Janjatiya Gaurav Divas on November 15 to celebrate the contributions of tribal communities to Indian culture.

Who was Birsa Munda (1875-1900)?
- Birsa Munda was a tribal freedom fighter, religious leader, and folk hero who belonged to the Munda tribe.
- He spearheaded a tribal religious millenarian movement that arose in the Bengal Presidency (now Jharkhand) in the late 19th century, during the British Raj.
His legacy

(A) Birth and early childhood
- Born on November 15, 1875, Birsa spent much of his childhood moving from one village to another with his parents.
- He belonged to the Munda tribe in the Chhotanagpur Plateau area.
- He received his early education at Salga under the guidance of his teacher Jaipal Nag.
- On the recommendation of Jaipal Nag, Birsa converted to Christianity in order to join the German Mission school.
- He, however, opted out of the school after a few years.
(B) New faith ‘Birsait’ against religious conversion
- The impact of Christianity was felt in the way he came to relate to religion later.
- Having gained awareness of the British colonial ruler and the efforts of the missionaries to convert tribals to Christianity, Birsa started the faith of ‘Birsait’.
- Soon members of the Munda and Oraon community started joining the Birsait sect and it turned into a challenge to British conversion activities.
- The Mundas called him Dharati Aaba, the father of earth.
(C) The Ulgulan
- The Great Tumult or Ulgulan was a movement started by Birsa Munda against the exploitation and discrimination against tribals by the local authorities.
- Although the movement failed, it did result in the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act which forbade tribal lands passing to non-tribals, protecting their land rights for the foreseeable future.
(D) Death
- On March 3, 1900, Birsa Munda was arrested by the British police while he was sleeping with his tribal guerilla army at Jamkopai forest in Chakradharpur.
- He died in Ranchi jail on June 9, 1900, at the young age of 25.
(E) Creation of Jharkhand
- Birsa Munda’s achievements are known to be even more remarkable by virtue of the fact that he came to acquire them before he was 25.
- In recognition of his impact on the national movement, the state of Jharkhand was created on his birth anniversary in 2000.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2020

With reference to the history of India, “Ulgulan” or the Great Tumult is the description of which of the following event?

(a) The Revolt of 1857

(b) The Mappila Rebellion of 1921

(c) The Indigo Revolt of 1859-60

(d) Birsa Munda’s Revolt of 1899-1900

Post your answers here.

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Electoral Reforms In India

Regulating the election funding system

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Governance, Transparency & Accountability, Citizens Charters,Representation Of People’s Act
Context
- Elections are to democracy what financial markets are to the economy. The absence of an omnibus law to regulate elections and political parties in India is a legislative gap waiting to be filled.
Significance of political parties in democracy
- A political party is an organized group of citizens who hold common views on governance and act as a political unit that seeks to obtain control of government with a view to further the agenda and policy they profess.
- Political parties maintain a continuous connection between the people and those who represent them either in government or in the opposition.
- Political parties in India are extra-constitutional, but they are the breathing air of the political system.
Current procedure of recognizing and regulating the political parties In India
- Registration of political parties: The Representation of the People Act 1951 was amended in 1988 to add a new section IVA on “Registration of political parties” by which the Election Commission of India (ECI) exercises its mandate for superintendence, direction, and control of elections under Article 324 of the Constitution of India.
- Recognition as national or state political party: Association of citizens can apply to the ECI to be registered by submitting its Memorandum of Association and swearing allegiance to the Constitution. It requires fulfilment of performance criteria, including a minimum share of the electoral votes cast in the last election and the number of seats won to become a recognized national or a state party.
- A regulatory gap in Municipal political parties: Municipalities became the third level of government, three decades ago in 1992, through the 74^thconstitutional amendment. But a parallel recognition for political parties operating only at the municipal level is yet to be conceptualized.
Mechanism of Election funding
- Encouraging private corporates and individual investment: Indian government does not directly fund election campaigns of parties or independents. However, it has made political parties exempt from income tax, to encourage private corporate and individual investment in building political parties.
- Limit on election campaign expenditure: The ECI set upper-end limits (January 2022) for election campaign expenditure in parliamentary seats at INR9.5 million and INR4 million in state legislature seats.
Electoral bonds to end large cash payments in election finance.
- Scheme of electoral bonds:
- A publicly owned commercial bank, with the largest network of branches is the only designated vendor.
- Bonds remain valid for 15 days within which they can be encased through the bank account of the selected political party.
- The purchaser-donor enjoys tax credits on the purchased bonds as in any other donation to charities.
- Association of democratic records: The idea was to facilitate large donors, preferring anonymity whilst donating funds for elections, with an alternative to cash payments.
What is the cause of concerns over the electoral bonds?
- Anonymity of the electoral bonds: The anonymity afforded by the bonds is primarily versus citizens.
- Bond vendor is a government owned bank: SBI is a government-owned bank, which can be persuaded by the government into sharing data informally regarding the bond purchases and encashments by political parties
What can be done to ensure the security of the donor?
- Bond Digitization: Bonds should be digitized and the privacy of the transfer should be protected through encryption.
- Authorized access: Redemption is through banking the audit trail of the donor and the recipient would exist for authorized access.
- Enhancing transparency with ECI: Transparency should be enhanced whilst protecting anonymity by authorizing ECI to collect and publish de-personalized information.
- Personal data should be accessed with the specific orders only: Access for security and criminal investigation agencies to the personal data should come via a specific order of the ECI allowing such privileged access.
What are the suggestions for better governance of the political parties?
- Strict Supervision of political parties: Poor Intra-party governance is concentrated in the Registered Unrecognize Political Parties (RUPP). Most are in breach of their undertaking to fight an election within five years and remain active thereafter.
- Strengthen the Regulatory compliance: The benefit of income tax exemption should only be available after registered parties demonstrate a five-year record of compliance with the regulations.
- Enforce inner-party democracy and avoiding conflict of interest: Making party members occupying party positions, ineligible for holding executive positions in government. This is necessary to create a complete segregation of functions within the ruling party and the government
- Empower ECI to regulate political parties: The misuse of the fiscal privileges afforded to political parties can be minimized through targeted regulatory tweaks, within the existing construct of private financing and the inner functioning of parties improved through targeted regulation.
Conclusion
- “Secrecy is a darkness where corruption gets nurtured”. Funding to the political parties need to be transparent. Transparent funding will pave the way for level playing field for all the political parties.
Mains Question

Q. What are the pitfalls of anonymous political funding through electoral bonds. Suggest solutions to ensure the transparent political funding.

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Cyber Security – CERTs, Policy, etc

Online Women safety

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 3: Cyber Security
Context
- India has one of the youngest youth demographics in the world and among the most active online. As online interactions increase, more content is created and shared among people, helping them form new and wonderful connections. Sometimes, however, these interactions also make them vulnerable to harm.
What constitute as online harassment of women?
- Sharing embarrassing and cruel content about a person to impersonation
- Stalking and electronic surveillance
- Non-consensual use of photography
- Violent threats and hate speech
- Defamation
- Flaming- use of vitriolic and hostile messages including threats, insults
- Trolling
- The online harassment of women, sometimes called Cyber-sexism or cyber-misogyny, is specifically gendered abuse targeted at women and girls online.
- It incorporates sexism, racism and religious prejudice.
How women disproportionately get affected?
- Often women are blamed: Often, crimes that disproportionately impact women devolve into mass panic and lead to an all too predictable top-down discourse around the need to protect our sisters and daughters.
- Curbing the freedom of Women: The reaction, however well intentioned, will end up denying women their freedom and agency by their so-called protectors, many of whom are simply telling women to go offline, to be ashamed of expressing themselves, to stay in their lane.
What is role of intermediaries in preventing such abuses?
- Making intermediary liable: As of now, the intermediaries are not liable for any third-party data or communication link hosted or stored by them.
- Mandatory Data retention by intermediaries: They are required to retain the requisite data for duration as prescribed by the Government and supply the same to the authorities concerned, as and when sought.
- Punishment for Non-compliance is: Highlighting any contravention attracts punishment as prescribed under the IT Act.
What are the Steps taken by the Government?
- IT rules 2021: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
- Defined Categories of abuse: They include contents that are defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, invasive of another’s privacy, insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, libellous, racially or ethnically objectionable, etc.
- Prohibition on derogatory publications: The intermediaries, on the direction of the court or appropriate government agency, are prohibited from hosting, storing or publishing any information declared unlawful.
- Removal of content within 24 hours: Within 24 hours from the receipt of a complaint from, or on behalf of, an individual about any offensive content, they are required to take all reasonable and practicable measures to remove or disable access to it.
- Meetings of parliamentary committees: Various parliament committees in India have held meetings to discuss the issue of online safety of women over the years, and part of the government’s motivation in notifying the new IT rules had been rooted in the growing concern regarding the safety and security of users, particularly women and children. These are very good tangible steps.
- Amendment in IT act should include the concerns of women: With the IT Act coming up for a rehaul, there is an opportunity to discuss in detail the nature of technology-facilitated abuse, capturing what this means, understanding how cases impact individuals as well as communities, the language needed to capture such offences and the punishment penalties, jail or even rehabilitation programmes for perpetrators. This could be the start of an era of evidence-based discussion.
Conclusion
- Despite these efforts, it is clear that women in India won’t feel safe online anytime soon unless society lets them. What could be helpful here is to elevate the public discourse around technology-facilitated abuse.
Mains Question

Q. How women are vulnerable against online abuse? What is the role of Intermediaries in online abuse case? What are governments efforts to make women friendly cyberspace?

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

MARS A new alert system to detect Methane emissions

op-ed snap | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Important Geophysical Phenomena
Context
- A new satellite-based system will now help governments detect methane emissions and tackle them. The Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) was launched at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
What is Methane Alert and Response System (MARS)?
- MARS is a part of global efforts to slow climate change by tracking the global warming gas.
- The system will be the first publicly available global system to connect methane detection to notification processes transparently.
- The data-to-action platform was set up as part of the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) strategy to get policy-relevant data into the right hands for emissions mitigation.
How the “MARS” will work?
- The Methane Alert and Response System, or MARS, will integrate data from a large number of existing and future satellites to identify significant methane emission events anywhere in the world.
- It will send out notifications to the relevant stakeholders and support and track mitigation progress.
- According to the UN statement MARS will track the large point emission sources, mainly in the fossil fuel industry, but with time, would be able to detect emissions from coal, waste, livestock and rice fields as well.
- UNEP will continue to monitor the event location and make the data and analysis available to the public between 45 and 75 days after detection.
Methane a dangerous greenhouse gas
- A major greenhouse gas: Methane is the second-most common of the six major greenhouse gases, but is far more dangerous than carbon dioxide in its potential to cause global warming.
- One of major contributor of GHG emissions: Contribution Accounting for about 17 per cent of the current global greenhouse gas emissions.
- One of the key reasons behind Temperature rise: Methane is blamed for having caused at least 25 to 30 per cent of temperature rise since the pre-industrial times.
- Methane largely a Sectoral gas: Unlike carbon dioxide, methane is largely a sectoral gas, and there are only a few sources of emission.
- Few sources large emissions of methane: The global warming potential of methane is about 80 times that of carbon dioxide. It accounts for a small portion of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions compared to carbon dioxide.
Why such alert system is necessary?
- To achieve the target set by Global methane pledge: At the Glasgow climate conference last year, nearly 100 countries had come together in a voluntary pledge the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions by at least 30 per cent by 2030 from the 2020 levels. More countries have joined in this initiative since then, bringing the total to nearly 130.
- To keep the temperature, rise below 5-degree Celsius: A 30 per cent reduction in methane emissions by 2030 is expected to result in avoiding 0.2 degree rise in temperature by the year 2050, and is considered absolutely essential in the global efforts to keep the temperature increase below the 1.5-degree Celsius target. This is a global, not a national reduction target.
- Reducing methane emissions from the atmosphere provides multiple benefits: Methane being a sectoral gas with few sources of emission, it is possible to cut down on methane emissions without having widespread impact on the economy, a reduction in methane emissions brings big benefits in a short time.
- MARS Provides technical and advisory to the partners: If requested, MARS partners will also provide technical or advisory services, such as help in assessing mitigation opportunities.
All you need to know about Conference of Parties (COP).
- Unless the parties decide otherwise, every year The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convenes what is called a Conference of Parties (COP), a meeting that brings together leaders and delegates from around the world to strengthen their commitments and actions against specific climate change goals.
- The parties are the 198 countries that ratified the UNFCCC.
- The UNFCCC is an international treaty focused on preventing dangerous human interference with the climate system, primarily by stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Conclusion
- Cutting methane is the fastest opportunity to reduce warming and keep 1.5°C within reach, and this MARS a new alert and response system is going to be a critical tool for helping all of us deliver on the Global Methane Pledge.
Mains Question

Q. Methane is thought to be 80 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping atmospheric heat in the 20 years following its release. Discuss how MARS a new alert system would be helpful to keep the temperature rise below 1.5 degree Celsius?

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Judicial Reforms

Indian Judiciary: A Call for Reforms

op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary,Governance, Transparency & Accountability, Citizens Charters
Context
- The reach of India’s highest court is all-pervasive. The Supreme Court sits in final judgment over decisions not only of the high courts in the states, but also over a hundred tribunals, central and state, functioning throughout India. Hence the accountability of apex court crucial for judicial system in India.
Brief in other words: Significance of judiciary
- Decisions of Courts are binding on all: The law declared by the Supreme Court, its pronouncements on the constitutional validity of enacted law, including constitutional amendments, is binding on all other courts and authorities in the country (Article 141).
- Executive and legislature are under the scrutiny of Courts: There is virtually no area of legislative or executive activity which is beyond the court’s scrutiny.
Why accountability of higher judiciary is necessary?
- High courts are not ready to reform themselves: In the Salem Advocate Bar Association case, the justices had requested the high courts to implement the detailed blueprint on case management most of them have not.
- Limitations of supreme court to govern the High courts: Supreme court could not direct the high courts to do so because under our constitutional scheme the latter are autonomous constitutional bodies not subject to administrative directions of the Supreme Court.
- Self-accountability in administrations of courts: It is in the high courts that there are now left the largest number of roadblocks and delays; in their administrative functioning the high courts are answerable to no one but themselves. This often enables the Supreme Court to plead helplessness, hardly a good augury for integrated court-management.
How judiciary can maintain its credibility and accountability?
- Judiciary need to Preserve the independence: the judiciary as an institution needs to preserve its independence, and to do this it must strive to maintain the confidence of the public in the established courts.
- Judges should safeguard the judges: The independence of judges is best safeguarded by the judges themselves through institutions and organisations that the law empowers them to set up, to preserve the image of an incorruptible higher judiciary that would command the respect of all right-thinking people.
- Reform on case management: A bench of three justices of the Supreme Court, in a judgment delivered in August 2005, had drawn up a fine blueprint on case-management, on how to make recent amendments in our procedural laws work on the ground, and how to get more cases moving along: For instance, on three different tracks, fast track, normal track and slow track.
- Supreme court should directly administer High courts: It is time that the Supreme Court be entrusted with direct responsibility for the functioning of the high courts: Only then can the highest court be an effective apex court, only then can the Supreme Court be made answerable, as it should be, for judicial governance for the entire country.
- Public disclosure of income by judges: Judges must make annual financial disclosure statements, not privately to their respective chief justices, but publicly. It is done by justices of the Supreme Court.
How judiciary in USA maintain its credibility and accountability?
- Judicial council act: In the United States, under the Judicial Councils Act, 1980, task of judicial independence has been gladly undertaken by the judges. But regrettably, so far, there is no law in India to guide our judges only “guidelines”. There is a felt need for a law.
- Judges investigate the judges: The 1980 US Act confers powers on bodies comprised of judges to take such action against a federal judge “as is appropriate, short of removal.”
- A case study of America: Under this law, some time ago, a committee of fellow judges had investigated complaints against a federal district judge, John McBryde; the Judicial Council reprimanded him and suspended him from hearing new cases for a year.
- Corruption Investigation Not violating the judicial independence: McBryde challenged the decision. He argued that the 1980 law violated the judicial independence which the US Constitution had guaranteed to life-tenured federal judges; But a US Court of Appeals rejected all these pleas.
- Oversight of judges is not interference: It accepted the argument of the US Solicitor-General that judicial independence, protected by Article III of the US Constitution, was meant to insulate judges from interference from other branches of government and not from oversight by other judges.
Conclusion
- In India, in the past and in recent times, some things have gone wrong. And citizens need the reassurance of a system of judicial accountability a remedial mechanism which will protect the higher judiciary from some of its own members who have gone astray. Such reassurance can only be provided by enacting a law on the lines of the American model.
Mains Question

Q. What are the reasons for very less accountability in higher judiciary in India? How corruption in higher judiciary is addressed in USA?

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