UPSC 2017: Comprehensive News Analysis - Aug 30

A. GS1 Related

In news:

• To educate Muslims about the practice of talaq after the recent Supreme Court ruling on the matter, a leading dargah of the Sunni sect has decided to include it in the curriculum of the madrasas.
• The dargah has also issued a helpline number for such cases.

B. GS2 Related

In news:

• Gujarat High Court: directed the State to pay compensation to shrines destroyed in the 2002 communal riots.
• The Supreme Court set aside this particular order of Gujarat High Court.
• State governments view accepted by the court: taxpayers’ money cannot be spent to promote a particular religion.
• Gujarat government scheme: pay up to ₹50,000 as ex-gratia assistance to authorised religious places damaged, destroyed or desecrated during the riots.

Other cases:

Prafull Goradia judgment:

• Supreme Court observation: using “substantial part” of the tax-payers’ money for paying damages to destroyed religious structures would violate Article 27 of the Constitution.
• Article 27. Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion: No person shall be compelled to pay any taxes, the proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination

Context:

• NGO, RTI Foundation filed a plea before Delhi High Court:
• Strike down the exception under Section 375 (rape) of the IPC, which does not penalize sexual intercourse between a man and his wife if she is over 15 years of age.
• Such an exception would be against the interest of married women as it is violative of Article 14 (equality under law) and 21 (right to life) of the Constitution. 

In news:

Center’s response:

• If marital rape is recognized as a crime then it would-
• Destabilize the institution of marriage, apart from being an easy tool for harassing husbands.
• The courts too would find it difficult to rely upon evidence in such circumstances as there could be “no lasting evidence in case of sexual acts between a man and his own wife”.

Context:

• Narendra Modi is all set to visit China for the BRICS summit.

9^th BRICS summit:

• Location: Xiamen, China’s Fujian province.
• Date: September 3-5, 2017.

Possible amendment to the Human Organs and Tissues Transplantation Act, 1994 (as amended in 2011)

• The government plans to include step-parents, step-siblings and extended family members in the definition of ‘near relatives’ allowed to donate critical organs
• This move is likely to benefit patients awaiting transplants.

Present scenario:

Near relatives include: spouses, children, parents, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren.

C. GS3 Related

Context

• The government has come out with the latest edition of its consolidated FDI policy document – a compilation of the changes made in the past one year in a single document.

Importance:

• It is an initiative aimed at ensuring greater ease of doing business in India and an investor-friendly climate to foreign investors so that the country attracts more FDI.

Consolidated FDI policy:

• For the first time, the document has included start-ups.
• As per the norms, start-ups can raise up to 100 per cent of funds from Foreign Venture Capital Investor (FVCI).
• The document said the start-ups can issue equity or equity linked instruments or debt instruments to FVCI against receipt of foreign remittance.
• Person residing outside India (other than citizens/entities of Pakistan and Bangladesh) will be permitted to purchase convertible notes issued by an Indian start-up company for an amount of Rs 25 lakh or more in a single tranche.
• Non Resident Indians can also acquire convertible notes on non- repatriation basis.
• The start-up issuing convertible notes would be required to furnish reports as prescribed by the RBI

Context:

• Niti Aayog survey shows starting a business remains a difficult task.

Keypoints:

• World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (2016) Ranking positioned India at a abysmal 130 out of 150 countries.
• A survey by the Niti Aayog and the Mumbai-based think tank, IDFC Institute, post a year disclose that the determinations of the Centre and state governments to ease the system of permits and clearances could not satisfy the interests of most entrepreneurs who are discomforted with the country’s regulatory environment.
• The survey across the country demonstrates that most firms do not use the single-window systems for business and regulatory clearances.
• Survey claims Tamil Nadu,the best performing states where the process takes more than 60 days and on average four months to set up a business in India.
• Persistent drawbacks with governance in India are seen as the reason behind the gap between the claims and realities.
• The difficulty of cutting the red tape of the lower bureaucracy is one of the major hurdles in the process.
• The World Bank’s report (2016), highlighted that delays in issuing construction permits affected the ease of doing business in India.
• A key worry to the administrators come in as entrepreneurs from employment-intensive sectors are more likely to face problems and securing construction and other permits, compared to the capital-intensive ones.
• The survey should serve as a wake-up call to government and a reminder that over two decades after economic reforms the Indian state is still flailing when it comes to easing the path for entrepreneurs.

In news:

• The government is all set to announce the new ‘future-ready’ Industrial Policy in October
• Policy aim:
  • To facilitate the use of smart technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics for advanced manufacturing.
  • To make India a manufacturing hub by promoting ‘Make in India’
  • To subsume the National Manufacturing Policy.
• Six thematic focus groups: manufacturing and MSME; technology and innovation; ease of doing business; infrastructure, investment, trade and fiscal policy; and skills and employability for the future, would facilitate inputs.
• Constraints to Industrial growth:
  • Inadequate infrastructure
  • Restrictive labour laws
  • Complicated business environment
  • Slow technology adoption
  • Low productivity
  • Challenges for trade including the Indian MSME sector facing tough competition from cheap imports from China and FTA countries,
  • Inadequate expenditure on R&D and Innovation.

Context:

• The Code on Wages Bill proposed by the Union government.

In news:

• Proposed bill will not fix a single national level minimum wage for the whole country, but will vary across states and geographies.
• Code on Wages Bill 2017: “It provides for national minimum wage for different geographical areas so as to ensure that no State Government fixes the minimum wage below the national minimum wage, notified for that area by the Central Government,”
• The Centre will fix different wages through a notification after consulting the Central Advisory Board.
• As per the new provisions of the bill- if the minimum wages fixed by the states are already higher than the ‘national minimum wage’, the states will not be allowed to lower their wage levels.
• The Code on Wages Bill combines four labour laws — Payment of Wages Act, 1936, Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.

Context:

• Prevention of data theft

In news:

• The Centre is considering the creation of a secure communications ecosystem for its officials, especially those working in the defence sector.
• Proposals:
• Mandating the use of mobile phones manufactured by Indian companies for official communication.
• Secure email service to its officials. The email will offer enhanced security authentication mechanisms such as geo-fencing and device mapping.

Context:

• Calls for Gorkhaland and Bodoland are churning the region afresh.
• An exceptionally sizeable attendance of women blocked the national highway to Assam demanding Bodoland.

Keypoints:

• The blockade impact can be on the disruption of trade and transport links between the Northeast and the rest of India.
• This region is already facing the burnt of the seasonal floods in the Brahmaputra basin.
• Both these instances together can result in severe economic costs to this region.
• Tea and tourism, which are lifelines of the local economy, have almost crumpled.
• Well-timed state involvement handled with patience and wisdom may prevent these agitations from spreading, and becoming violent.

Reason behind the demand:

• At the roots of these protests lies in the communal identity and their representation. The Gorkhas in the Darjeeling hills and the Bodos in upper Assam believe that a separate state is necessary to protect their collective social, cultural and political identities including language and ethnicity.
• The seeds of separatist politics now churning the region are the result of the constitution of states like Bengal and Assam.
• The majority or dominant groups established their linguistic and ethnic identity without giving much attention towards the minorities, who were then in the margins of the region’s politics.

Way forward:

• The run of identity politics needs to be destroyed, where the autonomous bodies can play a prominent role.
• Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and Bodo Autonomous Council are valuable tools in delivering the public goods and build physical and social infrastructure. However, the unfinished and unsatisfying work of politics in these states may not fully satisfy the aspirations of these groups.

Context: 

• Ceaseless shower in the financial capital of India over the last two days has 
• paralyzed the city.

Keypoints:

• Mumbai recorded 315.8 mm of rainfall between 8:30 am and 8:30 pm Tuesday.
• Had so much rainfall occurred in May or June, the condition in Mumbai might have been less severe, says meteorological office.
• Despite these rains being forecast well in advance, no mitigative/preventive steps were taken.
• Mumbai has recieved about 2,000 mm of rainfall this monsoon season (since June), which is more than normal.
• Larger impact of the rains on city life could be due to the moisture saturated soil whose ability to absorb water is diminished.

Reason behind Intense rainfall

• The strong low-pressure area that had developed over southern Madhya Pradesh, is one of the several reasons behind the intense monsoon this year.
• The regional distribution of monsoon rainfall has been quite even.
• Only Kerala, south-interior Karnataka, Vidarbha, eastern Madhya Pradesh, western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi, and Punjab have had deficient rainfall this season.
• Bengaluru had received massive rains previous week, about 180 mm in a single day, and was faced with similar flooding and resultant chaos.
• Earlier, huge parts of Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha have also faced floods this season.

Context:

• Lakes froth spilling in Bengaluru is a symptom of a pervasive urban problem.

Keypoints:

• Bellandur lake in Bengaluru has been much in the news for the outpouring foam and froth and the rise of smoke and flames from the area surrounding it.
• City’s heaviest rains in a century, rose the froth and foam as high as 10 to 12 feet from Bellandur and spread onto the streets, endangering traffic and entering shops and homes across the road, causing huge inconvenience to those living in the area.
• In May 2015, the Bellandur lake itself was on fire, creating enormous fear and anxiety in the minds of the people living in the area.
• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) submitted a report to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, which resulted in setting up an expert committee by the state government.
• The report highlights the sustained inflow of untreated sewage and industrial effluents as the principal forces behind the phenomena of froth and fire.
• The Silicon Valley of India, which has been known for its hundreds of lakes originally built in the 16th century by damming the natural valley systems is threatened with pollution today.
• The National Green Tribunal has issued a number of directions emphasising the need for removal of silt from the lake, treatment of municipal sewage which is going into the water body, closure of polluting industries, ban on dumping of municipal solid waste around the lake, penalty on apartment buildings in the area which are sending untreated sewage to the lake and an environmental fine of Rs 5 lakh on anyone found dumping waste in and around the lake.
• The untreated wastewater or sewage of local waterbodies feeds the growth of water-weeds, which blankets surface water.
• Apparently, the huge roots of water hyacinth absorb impurities and can lock up pollutants in the water.
• The microbes feeding on the rotting organic matter consume all the oxygen in the water, disturbing the ecology for the survival of fish life.
• When such organic matter naturally breaks down, it releases fatty acids that float to the surface. This is how foam is formed and turns into froth.
• The phosphorus content in the detergents in India is much higher than 2.2 per cent, which contributes to the formation of these weeds.
• Urban planning in India must ensure that wetlands which are natural recharge zones are typically not disturbed

Facts:

• Out of 480 million litres per day (MLD) of wastewater discharged to the lake, only 308 MLD is treated.
• According to the CPCB, 75 per cent of the measured pollution in our rivers from point sources is from municipal sewage and 25 per cent is from industrial effluents.

D. GS4 Related

E. PRELIMS FACT

F. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam

G. UPSC Mains Practice Questions