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  • Living Planet Report 2022: Wildlife populations decline by 69% in 50 years

    There has been a 69 per cent decline in the wildlife populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, across the globe in the last 50 years, according to the latest Living Planet Report by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

    What is Living Planet Report?

    • The Living Planet Report is published every 2 years by the World Wide Fund for Nature since 1998.
    • It is based on the Living Planet Index and ecological footprint calculations.
    • The report is the world’s leading, science-based analysis, on the health of our planet and the impact of human activity.

    Issues raised by various versions of the report

    • The 2018 report found a “decline of 60% in population sizes” of vertebrate species overall from 1970 to 2014.
    • The tropics of South and Central America had an 89% loss compared to 1970.
    • The 2018 report calls for new goals post-2020 alongside those of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
    • The 2020 report says systemic changes are necessary to stop the destruction of global wildlife populations, including a complete overhaul of food production and consumption industries.
    • The 2022 report found that vertebrate wildlife populations have declined by an average of almost 70% since 1970, and attributes the loss primarily to agriculture and fishing.

    What is the Living Planet Index (LPI)?

    • The Living Planet Index (LPI) is a measure of the state of the world’s biological diversity based on population trends of vertebrate species from terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats.
    • The LPI was adopted by the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) as an indicator of progress towards its 2011-2020 targets.
    • It can play an important role in monitoring progress towards the post-2020 goals and targets negotiated at COP15 this December.
    Features of the LPI Common misconceptions
    The LPI is shows the average rate of change in animal population sizes The LPI doesn’t show numbers of species lost or extinctions, although some populations do decline to local extinction
    Species and populations in the LPI show increasing, declining and stable trends Not all species and populations in the LPI are in decline
    About half of the species we have in the LPI show an average decline in population trend The LPI statistic does not mean that 69 per cent of species or populations are declining
    The average change in population size in the LPI is a decline of 69 per cent The LPI statistic does not mean that 69% populations or individual animals have been lost
    The LPI represents the monitored populations included in the index The LPI doesn’t necessarily represent trends in other populations, species or biodiversity as a whole
    The LPI includes data for threatened and non-threatened species – if it’s monitored consistently over time, it goes in! The species in the LPI are not selected based on whether they are under threat, but as to whether there is robust population trend data available

     

     

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  • Eco-Sensitive Zones: SC may take up Kerala’s review

    The Supreme Court has indicated that it may consider taking up Kerala’s review of the Supreme Court’s judgment to have a 1km eco-sensitive zone ringing protected forests, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries across the country.

    What are the Eco-sensitive Zones (ESZs)?

    • Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs) are areas notified by the MoEFCC around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
    • The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to the protected areas by regulating and managing the activities around such areas.
    • They also act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.

    How are they demarcated?

    • The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 does NOT mention the word “Eco-Sensitive Zones”.
    • However, Section 3(2)(v) of the Act, says that Central Government can restrict areas in which any industries, operations or processes or class of industries, operations or processes shall be carried out or shall not, subject to certain safeguards.
    • Besides Rule 5(1) of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 states that central government can prohibit or restrict the location of industries and carrying on certain operations or processes on the basis of certain considerations.
    • The same criteria have been used by the government to declare No Development Zones (NDZs).

    Defining its boundaries

    • An ESZ could go up to 10 kilometres around a protected area as provided in the Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2002.
    • Moreover, in the case where sensitive corridors, connectivity and ecologically important patches, crucial for landscape linkage, are beyond 10 km width, these should be included in the ESZs.
    • Further, even in the context of a particular Protected Area, the distribution of an area of ESZ and the extent of regulation may not be uniform all around and it could be of variable width and extent.

    Activities Permitted and Prohibited

    • Permitted: Ongoing agricultural or horticultural practices, rainwater harvesting, organic farming, use of renewable energy sources, and adoption of green technology for all activities.
    • Prohibited: Commercial mining, saw mills, industries causing pollution (air, water, soil, noise etc), the establishment of major hydroelectric projects (HEP), commercial use of wood, Tourism activities like hot-air balloons over the National Park, discharge of effluents or any solid waste or production of hazardous substances.
    • Under regulation: Felling of trees, the establishment of hotels and resorts, commercial use of natural water, erection of electrical cables, drastic change of agriculture system, e.g. adoption of heavy technology, pesticides etc, widening of roads.

    What is the recent SC judgment that has caused an uproar in Kerala?

    • On June 3, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court heard a PIL that sought to protect forest lands in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, but was later expanded to cover the entire country.
    • In its judgment, the court while referring to the 2011 guidelines as “reasonable”, directed all states to have a mandatory 1-km ESZ from the demarcated boundaries of every protected area.
    • It also stated that no new permanent structure or mining will be permitted within the ESZ.
    • If the existing ESZ goes beyond 1-km buffer zone or if any statutory instrument prescribes a higher limit, then such extended boundary shall prevail, the court, as per the Live Law report, said.

    Why are people protesting against it?

    • There is a high density of human population near the notified protected areas.
    • Farmer’s groups and political parties have been demanding that all human settlements be exempt from the ESZ ruling.
    • The total extent of the wildlife sanctuaries in Kerala is eight lakh acres.
    • If one-km of ESZ is demarcated from their boundaries, around 4 lakh acres of human settlements, including farmlands, would come within that purview.

     

     

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  • Global Hunger Index is out, India in ‘serious’ category at rank 107

    hunger

    India ranks 107 out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index in which it fares worse than all countries in South Asia barring war-torn Afghanistan.

    Global Hunger Index (GHI)

    • The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
    • It determines hunger on a 100-point scale, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.
    • It is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
    • The aim of the GHI is to trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.

    For each country in the list, the GHI looks at four indicators:

    1. Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
    2. Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, those who have low weight for their height)
    3. Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, those who have low height for their age)
    4. Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five

    India’s performance

    • India’s child wasting rate (low weight for height), at 19.3%, is worse than the levels recorded in 2014 (15.1%) and even 2000 (17.15),
    • It is the highest for any country in the world and drives up the region’s average owing to India’s large population.
    • Prevalence of undernourishment has also risen in the country from 14.6% in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021.
    • This translates into 224.3 million people in India considered undernourished.

    How India performs among its neighbours?

    • India’s score of 29.1 places it in the ‘serious’ category. India also ranks below Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84), and Pakistan (99).
    • Afghanistan (109) is the only country in South Asia that performs worse than India on the index.
    • China is among the countries collectively ranked between 1 and 17 having a score of less than five.

    Has India improved somewhere?

    • India has shown improvement in child stunting, which has declined from 38.7% to 35.5% between 2014 and 2022, as well as child mortality which has also dropped from 4.6% to 3.3% in the same comparative period.
    • On the whole, India has shown a slight worsening with its GHI score increasing from 28.2 in 2014 to 29.1 in 2022.

    Reasons for such poor performance

    • Poor maternal health: Mothers are too young, too short, too thin and too undernourished themselves, before they get pregnant, during pregnancy, and then after giving birth, during breast-feeding.
    • Poor sanitation: Poor sanitation, leading to diarrhoea, is another major cause of child wasting and stunting.
    • Food insecurity: Low dietary diversity in India is also a key factor in child malnutrition.
    • Poverty: Almost 50 million households in India are dependent on these small and marginal holdings.
    • Livelihood loss: The rural livelihoods loss after COVID and lack of income opportunities other than the farm sector have contributed heavily to the growing joblessness in rural areas.

    Issues over credibility of GHI

    • India has ranked among many African countries while it is among the top 10 food-producing countries in the world.
    • The GHI is largely children-oriented with a higher emphasis on under-nutrition than on hunger and its hidden forms, including micronutrient deficiencies.
    • The first component — calorie insufficiency — is problematic for many reasons.
    • The lower calorie intake, which does not necessarily mean deficiency, may also stem from reduced physical activity, better social infrastructure and access to energy-saving appliances at home, among others.
    • For a vast and diverse country like India, using a uniform calorie norm to arrive at deficiency prevalence means failing to recognise the huge regional imbalances in factors that may lead to differentiated calorie requirements at the State level.

    Conclusion

    • The low ranking does not mean that India fares uniformly poor in every aspect.
    • This ranking should prompt us to look at our policy focus and interventions and ensure that they can effectively address the concerns raised by the GHI, especially against pandemic-induced nutrition insecurity

     

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  • What is Carbon Dating?

    carbon dating

    A Varanasi district court has rejected the plea to conduct carbon-dating of the disputed structure known to have been found inside the premises of the Gyanvapi mosque.

    What is Carbon Dating?

    • Carbon dating, also called radiocarbon dating is method of age determination that depends upon the decay to nitrogen of radiocarbon (Carbon-14).
    • This method was developed by the American physicist Willard F. Libby about 1946.
    • Carbon-14 is continually formed in nature by the interaction of neutrons with nitrogen-14 in the Earth’s atmosphere.
    • The neutrons required for this reaction are produced by cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere.

    How it works?

    • Radiocarbon present in molecules of atmospheric carbon dioxide enters the biological carbon cycle: it is absorbed from the air by green plants and then passed on to animals through the food chain.
    • Radiocarbon decays slowly in a living organism, and the amount lost is continually replenished as long as the organism takes in air or food.
    • Once the organism dies, however, it ceases to absorb carbon-14, so that the amount of the radiocarbon in its tissues steadily decreases.

    The half-life concept

    • Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 ± 40 years—i.e., half the amount of the radioisotope present at any given time will undergo spontaneous disintegration during the succeeding 5,730 years.
    • Because carbon-14 decays at this constant rate, an estimate of the date at which an organism died can be made by measuring the amount of its residual radiocarbon.

    Its uses

    • It has proved to be a versatile technique of dating fossils and archaeological specimens from 500 to 50,000 years old.
    • The method is widely used by geologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and investigators in related fields.

     

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  • 14th October 2022| Daily Answer Writing Enhancement(AWE)

    Topics for Today’s questions:

    GS-1        History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.— their forms and effect on the society.

    GS-2        Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting  India’s interests.

    GS-3        Economics of animal-rearing.

    GS-4        Case Studies

    Question 1)

     

    Q.1 Structural shortcomings as well as the lack of will of countries at its core to act on its principles were the reasons behind the failure of the League of Nations. Discuss. (15 Marks)

     

    Question 2)

    Q.2 In light of the prominence that the Indo-Pacific has gained in the recent years, examine how India can enhance its presence in the region. (10 Marks)

    Question 3)

    Q.3 Examine the challenges related to livestock sector in India in light of the recent lumpy skin disease outbreak. What should be the way forward? (15 Marks)

    Question 4)  

    Q.4 The Indian education system suffers from many ills. One of the major issues is the focus on ‘‘rote learning’, which has been the staple of the Indian education system for many years. While many Indians have attained success despite this system, simply being able to recall information is not enough in today’s world when that information is instantly available to anyone on a mobile phone. A survey of 200 Indian and foreign companies found that only 14% of Indian graduates were prepared for the workforce, largely because most graduates were unable to apply their knowledge to solve real-world problems. In this context, answer the following questions: (a) What are the consequences of ‘rote learning’ on the educational development of young students in the country? (b) Suggest measures that can be taken to address this issue. (20 Marks)

     

    HOW TO ATTEMPT ANSWERS IN DAILY ANSWER WRITING ENHANCEMENT(AWE)?

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    2. A Mentor’s Comment will be available for all answers. This can be used as a guidance tool but we encourage you to write original answers.

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    7. If you are writing answers late, for example, 11th February is uploaded on 13th February , then these answers will be evaluated as per the mentor’s schedule.

    8. We encourage you to write answers on the same day. However, if you are uploading an answer late then tag the mentor like @Staff so that the mentor is notified about your answer.

    *In case your answer is not reviewed, reply to your answer saying *NOT CHECKED*. 

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  • Social Empowerment, The Mandal Way

    mandal

    Context

    • The social justice discourse in modern India can be traced to the initiatives of social revolutionaries such as Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule, Shahu Maharaj and Periyar, B.R. Ambedkar during colonial rule. But the Mandal politics completely changed the social empowerment of depressed classes.

    What is the Mandal way?

    • The Mandal Commission: The Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC), was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to “identify the socially or educationally backward classes” of India.
    • To address Caste based discrimination: It was headed by B.P. Mandal, an Indian parliamentarian, to consider the question of reservations for people to redress caste discrimination, and used eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine backwardness.
    • Recommendation of Other backward classes: In 1980, based on its rationale that OBCs (“Other backward classes”) identified on the basis of caste, social, economic indicators made up 52% of India’s population, the commission’s report recommended that members of Other Backward Classes (OBC) be granted reservations to 27% of jobs under the Central government and public sector undertakings, thus making the total number of reservations for SC, ST and OBC to 49%.
    • What Constitution of India says: As per the Constitution of India, Article 15 (4) states, “Nothing in this Article or in clause (2) of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any provision for the advancement of any socially or educationally backward classes of citizens or for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes”. Hence the Mandal Commission created a report using the data of 1931 census which was last caste wise census and extrapolating same with some sample studies.
    • Affirmative action taken: VP Singh was accused of using the Mandal Report which was ignored by the Janta government. It was a social revolution and affirmative action. Earlier 25% population of India which is SC ST was covered and now more than 50% of Other Backward Class came under reservation.
    • Witnessed violent protest: The youth went for massive protest in large numbers in the nation’s campuses, resulting in many self-immolations by students.
    • What is Mandal 2.0: In 2006, reservations were extended to OBC candidates in institutionsof higher learning popularly known as MandalII.

    mandal

    How mandal politics empowering the social groups?

    • Helped to ensure the brotherhood: “Fraternity” as enshrined in the ‘Preamble’ of the Constitution, entails instilling confidence and camaraderie in the all communities. Reservations raised the hope of OBC communities to actively become the part of Government functionaries.
    • Increased spending on socially backward group: Public spending is considered a reliable way to measure development. Governments can choose to distribute their limited resources in either economic or social sectors. Economic sectors, like industry, ports, highways, etc., generally support economic growth by attracting private investment. Social sectors like education, healthcare, and social security promote the welfare of the masses. Influential theories in social science argue that working-class coalitions support social welfare (Acemoglu and Robinson 2006, Rueschemeyer et al. 1992). In the Indian context, OBC and SC politicians should be expected to support social spending.
    • Increased sensitivity towards backward classes: It is found that places with higher OBC political representation in combination with higher OBC reservation in the bureaucracy are more likely to spend more in social sectors.
    • Removing the elite culture: Appointment of lower caste officials at the local level can help in breaking down long-established upper-caste patronage networks and hence potentially reduce ‘elite capture’ of government programmes.
    • Built confidence and empowerment: According to IAS officer from Bihar cadre Lower castes would not have dared to enter the office of the DM (district magistrate) or BDO (block development officer). They thought that if they said something, they would be punished. That changed. Now they have the confidence to raise their voice against the DM. They don’t know if their job will get done, but they can enter his office without fear.”

    mandal

    What are the issues with reservation?

    • Statistics: The central list of OBC has 2,633 entries. According to the commission, many of the 2,633 entries comprise several classes, communities and sub-communities, etc, which means the total number of individually named classes/castes in the central list is between 5,000 and 6,000.
    • Skewed benefits: 25 per cent of the reservation benefits were availed of by communities listed in 10 entries of the central list. Another 25 per cent were availed of by communities listed in another 38 entries.
    • Few communities never got the benefit: The commission also found that 20 per cent of the communities, listed in 983 entries, could not avail of any benefits. Those in another 994 had a share of just 2.68 per cent.
    • 1% but 50% reservation: Just about 40 of 5,000-6,000 castes/communities among the OBCs (other backward classes) — which constitute less than 1 per cent — have cornered 50 per cent of the reservation benefits in admissions to central educational institutions and recruitment to central services, a panel constituted by the government has found.

    mandal

    Conclusion

    • Reservation is definitely an affirmative action to end the social discrimination. But it cannot continue forever. It’s high time that we should strictly enforce the creamy layer categorisation both in OBC and SC, ST reservations.

    Mains Question

    Q.How reservation helps in social empowerment of backward class? Describe the powers and functions of National Commission for backward class in India.

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  • Reality check on India’s Population policy

    population

    Context

    • Earlier this year, the United Nations published data to show that India would surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2023.According to the 2018-19Economic Survey, India’s demographic dividend will peak around2041, when the share of the working age population is expected to hit 59%.

    What is the Present status of India’s population?

    • Declining Total fertility rate (TFR): The Total fertility rate (TFR) has declined from 2.2 (reported in 2015-16) to 2.0 at the all- India level, according to the latest National Family Health Survey of India OR NFHS- 5 (phase 2) released by Union Health Ministry.1.6 in urban areas2.1 in Rural area and 2.0 all India.
    • Sex ratio: There are 1,020 women per 1,000 men in India according to the recently released Fifth Edition (NFHS-5). Such a sex ratio has not been recorded in any of the previous four editions of the NFHS.

    population

    Need for population control measures

    • At present, India hosts 16% of the world’s population with only 2.45% of the global surface area and 4% of water resources.
    • The ecosystem assessments also pointed out the human population’s role in driving other species into extinction and precipitating a resource crunch.
    • So, the population explosion would irreversibly impact India’s environment and natural resource base and limit the next generation’s entitlement and progress. Therefore, the government should take measures to control the population.

    What will be the Impact of declining fertility?

    • Implications on Political economy: It’s not just the economic implications that we need to think about but also the implications of the political economy.
    • Spatial difference: India’s fertility fell below 2.1 births for certain States 10 years ago. In four other States, it’s just declining. So, not only is the fertility falling, the proportion of the population that will be living in various States is also changing.
    • North-south imbalance: The future of India lies in the youth living in U.P., Bihar, M.P. If we don’t support these States in ensuring that their young people are well educated, poised to enter the labour market and have sufficient skills, they will become an economic liability.

    population

    How India can take advantage of its demographic dividend?

    • Investing In literacy: If China hadn’t invested in literacy and good health systems, it would not have been able to lower its fertility rates. In any case, we have much to learn from China about what not to do.
    • Planning for elderly: Especially in the case of the elderly, where the estimates show that12% of India’s total population by 2025 is going to be the elderly. Every fifth Indian by 2050 will be over the age of 65. So, planning for this segment merits equal consideration.
    • Focusing on gendered dimension: India certainly has the capacity to invest in its youth population. But we don’t recognise the gender dimension of some of these challenges. Fertility decline has tremendous gender implications.
    • Lowering the Burdon on women: What it means is that women have lower burden on them. But it also has a flip side. Ageing is also a gender issue as two thirds of the elderly are women, because women tend to live longer than men do. Unless we recognise the gender dimension, it will be very difficult for us to tap into these changes.
    • Educating the young girls: So, what do we need to do? India has done a good job of ensuring educational opportunities to girls. Next, we need to improve employment opportunities for young women and increase the female employment rate. Elderly women need economic and social support networks.

    Do we really need the population policy?

    • Existing policy is right: India has a very good population policy, which was designed in 2000. And States also have their population policies. We just need to tweak these and add ageing to our population policy focus. But otherwise, the national population policy is the right policy.
    • Reproductive health is important: What we need is a policy that supports reproductive health for individuals. We also need to start focusing on other challenges that go along with enhancing reproductive health, which is not just the provision of family planning services.
    • Avoiding the stigma: We need to change our discourse around the population policy. Although we use the term population policy, population control still remains a part of our dialogue. We need to maybe call it a policy that enhances the population as resource for India’s development, and change the mindset to focus on ensuring that the population is happy, healthy, productive
    • Thinking beyond two child policy: Our arguments and discussions have not gone beyond the two-child norm. The two-child norm indicates a coercive approach to primarily one community. And there are too many myths and misconceptions around population issues, which lead to this discourse, which takes away attentions of from real issues.

    population

    Way forward

    • Family welfare approach: We need to move from a family planning approach to a family welfare approach. We should be focusing on empowering men and women in being able to make informed choices about their fertility, health and wellbeing.
    • Thinking about automation: As fertility drops and life spans rise globally, the world is ageing at a significant pace. Can increasing automation counteract the negative effects of an ageing population or will an ageing population inevitably end up causing a slowdown in economic growth? We need to look at all of that.
    • Changing the mindset: We are where we are, so let’s plan for the wellbeing of our population instead of hiding behind the excuse that we don’t have good schooling or health because there are too many people. That mindset is counterproductive.
    • Skill development and making population productive: It is not about whether the population is large or small; it is about whether it is healthy, skilled and productive. Thomas Malthus had said as the population grows, productivity will not be able to keep pace with this growth, and we will see famines, higher mortality, wars, etc. Luckily, he proved to be wrong.
    • Adhering to the Cairo consensus: Cairo International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 stressed population. The Cairo Consensus called for the promotion of reproductive rights, empowering women, universal education, maternal and infant health to untangle the knotty issue of poverty and high fertility. The consensus also demands an increase in the rate of modern contraceptive prevalence, male contraception. States instead of releasing population control measures can start to adhere to implementing the Cairo consensus.
    • Adopting Women-Centric Approach: Population stabilisation is not only about controlling population growth, but also entails gender parity. So, states need to incentivize later marriages and childbirth, promoting women’s labor force participation, etc.
    • Seeing Population as a Resource rather than Burden:
      • As the Economic Survey, 2018-19, points out that India is set to witness a sharp slowdown in population growth in the next two decades.
      • Further, population estimates also predict a generational divide between India’s north and south, Fifteen years from now.
      • So instead of population control policies at the state level, India needs a universal policy to utilize population in a better way.

    Conclusion

    • We have the capacity to tap into the potential of our youth population. There is a brief window of opportunity, which is only there for the next few decades. We need to invest in adolescent wellbeing right away, if we want to reap the benefits. Otherwise, our demographic dividend could turn easily into a demographic disaster.

    Mains Question

    Q.Why India’s fertility rate is declining? How India can convert its demography into opportunity by investing in gendered based population policy?

     

  • Regulating online speech

    Online Speech

    Context

    • The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has mooted two proposals for governance of online speech government appointed grievance appellate committees (GAC) and the industry self-regulatory body (SRB) seek to preclude this contest in favour of a unilateral government and industry agenda.

    What is an online speech?

    • A recorded online speech is delivered, recorded, and then uploaded to the Internet for later viewing. Examples are TED Talks and presentations in online or blended speech classes.
    • Such speech are recorded or sometimes made in real time using various social media platforms.

    Online Speech

    How unregulated online speech is becoming dangerous day by day?

    • Gendered disinformation and harassment campaigns: Impacting the mental health, job performance, and if and how they engage with online spaces.
    • GLAAD’s 2021 Social Media Safety Index says: 64% of LGBTQ social media users reported experiencing harassment and hate speech, including on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
    • Contributing to communal violence: In countries like India and Sri Lanka, failure to remove and prevent the amplification of harmful content can contribute to profound offline consequences, including violence and death.

    What are the proposals for the regulation of online speech?

    • Setting up Grievance appellate committees (GAC): The GACs, as per the draft issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), will be constituted by the central government and will serve as an appellate body against decisions of various social media platforms.
    • Appointing Self-regulatory body by social Media platforms(SRB)?: As the name suggests, industries such as twitter, meta etc will appoint their own personnel and constitute the self-regulatory body to hear the grievances against the social media posts.

    Online Speech

    What are the Criticism over GAC and SRB?

    • Lack of substantive framework: Not only has the government not laid down a substantive policy with objectively defined contours of forbidden speech, the government wants the right to apply this highly subjective criteria on individual pieces of content and/or users.
    • Unreasonable removal of content: It is notable that the government has already arrogated this right and routinely issues take down orders (without providing rationale) to social media platforms to take down or block content with minimal pushback from platforms.
    • Serving the Governments agenda: However, the national security, public order logic of takedowns does not apply to reinstatement of content/users proactively blocked by the platforms and it is likely that an additional purpose of the GACs is to provide an institutional avenue for the ruling government machinery to get a set of aligned accounts/content reinstated instead of just takedowns.
    • Such regulations are said to be Non-democratic: It is evident that the GAC doesn’t meet even minimal standards of democratic legitimacy and should be scrapped. The industry SRB proposal too lack democratic legitimacy.
    • Profit before public interest: Platforms have repeatedly shown themselves to be driven by profit motives, which are often at odds with public interest. It is thus likely that such a platform-led body will try and maximise the interests of the industry and individual platforms as opposed to the interests of the Indian people.
    • It will increase Government’s unrestrained powers: Notwithstanding Twitter’s plea in Karnataka High Court against Centre’s “disproportionate use of power” to issue “overbroad and arbitrary” content-blocking orders, the track record of platforms in India of resisting government pressure has been very poor.
    • For example recent Twitter episode: For instance, a former safety head with Twitter reportedly told US regulators that Twitter put a government agent on its payroll under duress.
    • High Chances of Government’s pressure: The SRB may act as a rubber stamp providing false legitimacy for covert government pressure while the binding nature of SRB orders will make it easier for the government to exercise pressure on a single lever to ensure compliance across all platforms.
    • Lack of consensus in SRB: The other real possibility is that such a body will be a non-starter, wracked by internal dissensions or non-compliance and thus pave the way for the government GAC. This possibility is indicated by the divergent views of the constituent platforms.

    Online Speech

    What are the Suggestions?

    • Relooking the proposals: It is evident that neither of the two proposals meet the minimum standards of democratic legitimacy and need to be rethought.
    • Follow the democratic way: Given the centrality of free speech in a democracy, no government or private body can have unmitigated right to make decisions regarding the contours of acceptable speech. The argument that an elected government has earned the executive right to determine standards of speech like other policy decisions is fallacious because speech is the only democratic way to contest the government itself.
    • Least government interference: The governance of speech, including setting standards and implementation, must thus sit squarely outside the ambit of government.
    • Independent body answerable to parliament: This can be achieved through a statutory regulator answerable to Parliament.
    • Standard operating procedure to remove content: In the meantime, there has to be transparency in the manner content moderation decisions are taken, including the takedown orders issued by the government.

    Conclusion

    • The current proposals are preoccupied with policing individual pieces of content whereas the impact of social media platforms on our information ecosystems is fundamental. Social media platforms now play an increasingly interventionist role in amplifying certain voices and our public debate must move forward to review structural issues affecting information ecosystems.

    Mains Question

    Q.What are the perils of unrestrained online speech? Critically analyse the recent proposals by government to regulate the free speech.

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  • Split Verdict on Hijab Row

    hijab

    The Supreme Court has delivered a split verdict in the Karnataka hijab ban case with one of the two judges on the Bench upholding the March 15 order of the Karnataka HC validating the government’s ban, and the other set aside the HC ruling.

    What lies next?

    • With the divided bench, the matter has now been directed to be placed before Chief Justice of India (CJI).

    What is a Split Verdict?

    • A split verdict is passed when the Bench cannot decide one way or the other in a case, either by a unanimous decision or by a majority verdict.
    • Split verdicts can only happen when the Bench has an even number of judges.
    • This is why judges usually sit in Benches of odd numbers (three, five, seven, etc.) for important cases, even though two-judge Benches — known as Division Benches — are not uncommon.

    After the verdict

    • In case of a split verdict, the case is heard by a larger Bench.
    • The larger Bench to which a split verdict goes can be a three-judge Bench of the High Court, or an appeal can be preferred before the Supreme Court.
    • In the case of the hijab verdict, the CJI, who is the ‘master of the roster’, will constitute a new, larger Bench to hear the matter.

    Earlier cases with a split verdict

    • In May, a two-judge Bench of the Delhi HC delivered a split verdict in a batch of petitions challenging the exception provided to marital rape in the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
    • Justice Rajiv Shakdher held that the exception under Section 375 (which deals with rape) of the IPC is unconstitutional, while Justice C Hari Shankar held that the provision is valid.

    About the ‘split’ ruling

    • While Justice Hemant Gupta dismissed the appeals challenging the Karnataka High Court order, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed them.
    • In his judgment, Justice Dhulia referred to the Bijoe Emmanuel case, saying it “squarely covers the issue”.

    What is the Bijoe Emmanuel verdict?

    • The Bijoe Emmanuel case came before up a Bench comprising Justices O. Chinnappa Reddy and M M Dutt in 1986.
    • The court granted protection to three children of the Jehovah’s Witness sect who did not join in singing the national anthem at their school.
    • The court held that forcing the children to sing the national anthem violated their fundamental right to religion.
    • V J Emmanuel, the father of the children pleaded with the court that for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, only Jehovah should be worshipped.
    • Since the anthem is a prayer, the children would stand up in respect when it was playing. However, their faith did not allow them to sing it.
    • The Supreme Court had said that while the Kerala HC had examined whether or not the national anthem contained any word or thought, which could offend anyone’s religious susceptibilities, it had misdirected itself as that was not the question at all.

    Why the hijab case should be heard by a larger Bench?

    First and foremost, the matter should be heard by a larger Bench preferably 5 judges as-

    • It has to be decided whether the right to practice religion can intertwine with the right and autonomy of educational institutions to decide their uniform.
    • While private institutions have the autonomy to decide on the uniform, the court needs to study and decide whether such issues should be looked at in a uniform manner.
    • Considering the complexities of the matter which also involves several issues such as female dignity, freedom of expression, and the school’s right to decide on the uniform.
    • A Constitution Bench would also have the right to re-examine the Emmanuel verdict which was delivered by a two-judge Bench.

     

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  • ISRO proposes Bharat Krishi Satellite Programme

    isro

    The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proposed dedicated satellites for supporting the country’s agriculture sector.

    Bharat Krishi Satellite Programme

    • Minimum of two satellites are stipulated to guarantee adequate coverage of the entire agricultural area of the country.
    • They will aid a gamut of farm-related activities related to crop forecasting, pesticide application, irrigation, soil data, and generation of critical data related to drought.
    • The satellites will be owned by the Department of Agriculture and not by ISRO. The ISRO will provide the technical support.
    • An ‘Earth Observation Council’ be created for addressing the current deficiencies in earth observation capabilities and data utilisation.
    • Such a council can tackle shortcomings in this area in a centralised manner.

    Why need such program?

    Current deficiencies include:

    1. Discontinuity in earth observation missions
    2. Low utilisation of available remote sensing data
    3. Technology gaps and
    4. Absence of a streamlined mechanism for data processing and dissemination as required by the industry

    Applications of space for agriculture

    isro

    Satellites in use

    Satellite Type Satellite Objectives
    Multispectral imaging satellite Resourcesat-2 & Resourcesat-2A Multispectral imaging for crop production forecast, land, water and natural resource inventory and management, and disaster management support
    Cartography satellite Cartosat-1 High resolution cartographic mapping, digital elevation mapping – drainage and irrigation networks, topographic mapping and contouring
    Radar imaging RISAT-1 All weather imaging capability targeted for kharif crop (June to November) during south-west and north-east monsoon seasons. Flood and natural disaster management
    Meteorological forecasting Kalpana-1 Comprehensive weather status reporting and forecasting
    Meteorological observation INSAT-3D & INSAT-3DR Improved meteorological observations including vertical – temperature and humidity–atmosphere weather forecasting and disaster warning

     

    Issues in harmonizing space technology

    • India’s satellite data is sequestered within the government.
    • The private sector has limited access to it, even though it plays an increasing role in the country’s agriculture value chain.

    Various govt programs

    • Following are some of the programs that are functioning in full spirit-
    • In 2017, these insular projects were integrated into a single entity, the National Programme on use of Space Technology for Agriculture (NPSTA).
    NPSTA Constituent Programmes Goals of the constituent Programme
    National Programme on use of Space Technology for Agriculture (NPSTA) Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based observations (FASAL) Crop Forecasting
    National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring Systems (NADAMS) Drought Assessment
    Coordinated programme on Horticulture Assessment and Management using Geoinformatics (CHAMAN) Horticulture assessment and development
    C(K)rop Insurance using Space technology and Geoinformatics (KISAN) now incorporated into Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna Crop Insurance

     

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