UPSC 2017: Comprehensive News Analysis - Sept 09

A. GS1 Related

B. GS2 Related

In news:

• Union Government announcement: Air passengers can now be banned for a lifetime for unruly behaviour on flights by both domestic and foreign airlines.
• The unruly passenger will be put on a no-fly list, which will be made public and maintained by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
• Other airlines will not be bound by the no-fly list of an airline
• Categories and range of punishment: The ban will range between three months and a lifetime depending upon the gravity of the offence.
• For physical gestures, verbal harassment and being unruly while inebriated, there will be a ban on passengers for up to three months.

1. For physically abusive behavior including pushing, kicking, hitting or sexual harassment, up to six months;
2. For life-threatening behavior the ban may range from two years to a lifetime.
3. Repeated offender: the duration of the flying ban will be twice that of his previous ban

• Complaint to be enquired by a committee:

1. Airlines, on receiving complaint of unruly behaviour by the pilot-in-command, will refer the matter to an internal committee chaired by a retired district and sessions judge.
2. The committee will include a representative each from different airline and passenger associations or consumer forums
3. The internal committee will decide the quantum of ban based on evidence produced by both airline and passenger, including eye-witnesses, within a period of 30 days, failing which the passenger will be free to fly.
4. The passenger will not be allowed to fly till the decision of the internal committee. However, there will be no compensation in case the allegations by the airlines are proven wrong.
5. Aggrieved passengers can appeal within 60 days to an Appellate Committee, constituted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and chaired by a High Court judge.

In news:

• On August 29, 2016, West Bengal Assembly passed a resolution to change the name of West Bengal to Bengal in English, Bangla in Bengali and Bangal in Hindi.
• Now the State is compelled to have one name after the Centre rejected the earlier proposal of having three names in three different languages.

Context:

• PMJDY (Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana) and the JAM revolution can link all Indians into one common financial, economic, and digital space.
• The suggestion of equality as a criterion of governance that is conveyed by this is to be welcomed

JAM:

• JAM, deriving from Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile, combines bank accounts for the poor, direct transfer of benefits into these accounts and the facility of making financial payments through mobile phones.
• Aadhaar ensure that benefits reach the poor and enabling them to make payments through ordinary mobile phones.
• It eliminates the leakage in the transfer of welfare payments and enabling the poor to have bank accounts
• For furthering the latter the government has devised the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app.

Beyond bank accounts- What is required?

• Nationalised banking sector had done very little to extend banking services to the poor
• Having a bank account and access to reliable electronic payments system, is not the same as economic inclusion.
• Inclusion would entail equal access to opportunities for earning a livelihood. This in turn implies employment opportunities.
• Demand for labour exists only when there is demand for goods and services
• Even when the demand for labour exists, potential workers must be endowed with the capabilities to take advantage of the opportunity offered
• The potential of the JAM trinity for bringing about either of these conditions for economic inclusion is limited.

Lack of producer services

• Economic reforms of 1991 largely focused on liberalisation of the policy regime
• It meant to make it easier for firms to produce, exposing them to international competition with a view to increasing efficiency in the economy.
• Ecosystem of production requires access that firms have to producer services ranging from water supply to waste management.
• Producer services require large capital outlay, often deterring private firms.
• Even when producer units employ workers they are poorly capitalised, making it impossible for them to generate producer services themselves.
• Thus the public provision of producer services should be an essential part of public policy.

Focus on capabilities

• We have equipped all individuals with the essential capabilities.
• For this, society must have a minimum, universal health and education infrastructure accessible to all.
• Recent weeks witnessed governance failure on a major scale in many parts of the country.
• In U.P.’s Gorakhpur district children have died because the hospital is not able to maintain a steady supply of oxygen.
• Delhi’s suburb of Ghazipur a garbage mountain came crashing down, again causing death and disruption.
• Building capabilities require committing resources to building the requisite social and physical infrastructure and investing time to govern its functioning

Private investment

• Private investment in India has declined steadily over the past few years.
• Overall growth had however been maintained, partly through the demand generating impact of public investment. But now even growth appears to be stalling
• Data actually point to a steadily slowing economy with growth having been successively lower in the past five quarters.
• There appears to be a mismatch between the government’s own assessment of its policies and the private sector’s valuation of their worth

Context:

• 9^th BRICS summit: China agreed to list Pakistan-based outfits Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as international terror groups.
• China has now reassured Pakistan that there was no shift in its policy of recognising Islamabad’s role in countering global extremism.

In news:

• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that Beijing saw Islamabad as a close ally that is a key part of the battle against international terrorism.

Post-BRICS balancing act

• Chinese foreign minister praised Pakistan as Beijing’s “good brother and iron friend”.

Bhutan concerns on Indian projects

• Bhutan wants more focus of India on issues like hydropower project constructions.
• According to Bhutanese experts, Hydropower projects are critical for the Bhutanese economy and are at the core of Bhutan’s plans for self-reliance ever since the first five-year plans in 1961

Rising Debt of Bhutan:

• As of July 2017, Bhutan’s debt to India for the three major ongoing projects: Mangdechhu, Punatsangchhu 1 and 2
• It is approximately 12,300 crore which accounts for 77% of the country’s total debt, and is 87% of its GDP
• The cost of the 720 MW Mangdechhu project has nearly doubled in the past two years
• Both Punatsangchhu 1 and 2, each of 1200 MW capacity have trebled in cost and been delayed more than five years over the original completion schedule

Indian Government stance:

• The Indian government is looking at the proposals of the hydropower committee of Bhutan
• But accepted that it would be difficult to meet many of them, given India’s own power sector needs to compete in the same area

B. GS3 Related

In news:

• Report by US- based HfS Research: With rising adoption of automation and artificial intelligence, number of low-skilled workers in India’s IT & BPO sector are expected to witness a 35 per cent decrease by 2022.
• From 2.4 million low-skilled workers in these sectors in 2016, the growing adoption of automation could cause the number of jobs to fall to 1.7 million in 2022.
• Nasscom, had earlier said that its members and their employees need to “re-skill or perish” considering the challenges on account of automation.
• New skills such as big data analytics, cloud and cyber-security services, internet-of-things, among others as areas that would create job roles going ahead.
• HfS Research noted that the number of medium skilled jobs and high-skilled jobs are expected to grow, albeit marginally.
• According to the report, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is merely accelerating the elimination of rote jobs.

In news:

• The country’s current account deficit is likely to widen to 3 per cent in the second quarter of 2017 due to sharp deterioration in trade deficit
• In first quarter of 2017, current account deficit widened to USD 3.4 billion, or 0.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
• It is estimated that the current account deficit widened to a four-year high of 3 per cent of GDP in the second quarter from a low of 0.6 per cent in first quarter of 2017
• Net capital inflows stood at 4-4.5 per cent of GDP in the period, led by portfolio equity and FDI inflows, resulting in a positive balance of payments surplus.
• The report said over the last two fiscal years, low commodity prices has driven the current account deficit to narrow to around 1 per cent of GDP.

Context:

• Women empowerment.

In news:

• The Army has decided to admit nearly 800 women into the Corps of Military Police in non-officer ranks over the next few years.
• Key fact: Army, at present, has women only in the officer ranks, and that too just a few thousand of them.

Context:

• Ongoing international conference on Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS).
• Venue: Alabama, U.S.
• Organized by: The International Energy Agency’s Green House Gas Research and Development

India and CO2 capture:

• Coal secretary remarks at the conference: India will explore the possibility of introducing technologies for capturing carbon dioxide emitted while burning coal and other fossil fuels.

Uses of Co2 captured:

• CO2 has commercial and industrial uses, particularly for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) in depleting oil fields.
• Carbon dioxide has the ability to change the properties of oil and make it easier to extract.

In news:

• Scientists have found a way to produce methanol — an important chemical often used as fuel in vehicles — using oxygen in the air.
• This new method is an advance that may lead to cleaner, greener industrial processes worldwide.
• Current practice: Methanol is currently produced by breaking down natural gas at high temperatures into hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide before reassembling them — expensive and energy-intensive processes known as ‘steam reforming’ and ‘methanol synthesis.’
• Advantages: At present global natural gas production is about 2.4 billion tonnes per annum and 4% of this is flared into the atmosphere — roughly 100 million tones. This new approach of using natural gas could use this “waste” gas saving, saving carbon dioxide emissions

D. GS4 Related

E. PRELIMS FACT

F. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam

G. UPSC Mains Practice Questions