11 Apr 2022: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

CNA 11 Apr 2022:-Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. ‘India’s learning poverty has shot up’
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Ukraine crisis to headline India-U.S. ‘2+2’ meet
C. GS 3 Related
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. India’s role in a disordered world
SOCIAL JUSTICE
1. Getting serious about supporting the care economy
F. Prelims Facts
1. Bengal coast faces most erosion
G. Tidbits
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions
FIP Magazine

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Ukraine crisis to headline India-U.S. ‘2+2’ meet

Syllabus: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Prelims: 2+2 Dialogue

Context: India and the U.S. will hold their fourth annual “2+2” Defense and Foreign Ministry dialogue with the Russian invasion of Ukraine looming over the discussions.

Details:

  • The agenda for discussion will include defense, science and technology , climate and cooperation on managing the COVID-19 pandemic, fortifying and building supply chains, as well as people-to-people ties.
  • Besides, India has raised the issue of the war’s impact on commodity prices, including at the United Nations.
  • The United States has stated that it is willing to assist in the development of alternatives to India’s reliance on Russian oil, which accounts for 1–2% of its total energy imports.
  • Know more about 2+2 Dialogue

Nut Graf
2+2 Dialogue is significant for India-US relations as it will ensure cooperation in strengthening the global economy, and upholding a free, open, rules-based international order to bolster security, democracy, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.

E. Editorials

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. India’s role in a disordered world

Syllabus: Important International Institutions, agencies and fora – their Structure, Mandate.

Mains: Global disorder and failure of global governance structure; Arguments against the economic sanctions against Russia

Context:

  • Western nations want to remove Russia out of the G-20 as part of the larger efforts to economically sanction Russia for its military action against Ukraine.
    • G20 was formed in 1999 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. The main goal of the G20 was to discuss policies in order to achieve international financial stability.

Background:

Global disorder and the failure of global governance structure:

  • The world has had to face great disorder in the recent past and the institutions of global governance have failed to address this challenge or have failed to unite the world amid this challenge.
  • Climate Change, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have challenged global governance structure and global governance structures have failed to handle these challenges effectively. The UNFCCC, WHO, UN have all failed in upholding their mandates during such challenging times.
    • The members of UNFCCC have failed to build consensus on global climate action leading to unhindered global warming. The WHO failed to limit the spread of the novel coronas virus or even ensure equitable access to medicines and vaccines. The WTO is yet to agree on the proposal to have a waiver on IPR related to vaccines and medicines with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arguments against Russia’s exclusion:

  • The article argues against unilateral sanctions against any country based on the following aspects.

Undemocratic architecture of global governance structure:

  • New institutions for global governance took shape in the aftermath of World War-II.
  • The United Nations, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) took shape during this period. These institutions were established with the aim to avoid another event like the World War by establishing a global governance structure which would provide for global cooperation and also a mechanism for conflict resolution.
  • However, in contrast to the sought ideal of a democratic global governance structure, the victors of World War-II got veto power within the United Nations Security Council. This has allowed them to wield greater power in the United Nations. These powers also control international institutions like the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO.
  • This veto power could also be used by the permanent members of the Security Council to deny the democratic will of the United Nations General Assembly when it does not suit them. Hence the current global governance is not democratic.
  • The powers of the UNSC to allow for armed interventions and imposition of economic sanctions also goes against the ideal of having a global democracy.

Overlooking of the root cause:

  • The rapid spread of global finance and trade has not only created instabilities but has also failed to lift people out of poverty as originally envisaged during the globalization efforts.
  • Inequalities have increased within countries and amongst them too. This inequality has led to calls for more “socialism” and less unbounded capitalism. The increased inequalities have increased social tensions and sectarian conflicts.
  • Also free market capitalism which argues for principles like property rights and unfettered market forces is not ideologically compatible with the idea of democracy which if founded on the principle of equal human rights and human development.
  • The simmering social tensions lead to the emergence of populist socialists who often take a strong stand against power hegemony of the world. This leads to conflicts.
  • The economic sanctions against Russia does not address the root cause but only aggravates the conflict.

Recommendations:

  • Inequality is a major cause of global conflicts. Also power accumulates in societies by the principle of “cumulative causation” i.e., those who already have more power, from greater wealth or more education, will use their power to ensure they remain in power.
  • Hence, redistribution of de facto power within a society becomes a necessity. In fact this should take precedence over the current focus on the redistribution of assets of wealth and education that are the sources of power.
  • In this direction, the article argues that the global governance become genuinely democratic. This would necessitate more representative global institutions with equal powers to all, avoiding armed interventions and respect for sovereignty of countries, avoidance of unilateral sanctions.
  • India being the world’s largest democracy must play an important role in shaping a new, more democratic, world order

Nut Graf
The undemocratic architecture of global governance structure would remain ineffective in addressing the global disorder being witnessed during the recent past. What the world needs is a new, more democratic, world order

Category: SOCIAL JUSTICE

1. Getting serious about supporting the care economy

Syllabus: Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections of the population; Mechanisms constituted for the Protection and Betterment of these Vulnerable Sections.

Mains: Significance of care work/economy; Challenges and recommendations

Context:

  • The International Labour Organization’s 2022 report titled, ‘Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender-equal world of work’ released to commemorate International Women’s Day.

Details:

  • The report highlights the importance of maternity, paternity, and special care leave, which help balance women’s and men’s work and family responsibilities throughout their lives.
  • The report notes that workplaces that provide time, income security and space for undertaking care services such as breastfeeding, enable positive nutrition and health outcomes.

Care work:

  • Care work is a sub-category of work that includes all tasks that directly involve care processes done in service of others.
  • Care work encompasses direct activities such as feeding a baby or nursing an ill partner, and indirect care activities such as cooking and cleaning.
  • Care work can be paid or unpaid. Unpaid care work mainly takes place in the home and is predominantly done by women. Care work doesn’t necessarily have to be unpaid – in most countries there are market and government run caring economies, with paid workers, private companies and customers

Significance of care work/economy:

  • The importance of care work/economy is widely acknowledged. Whether paid or unpaid, direct or indirect, care work is vital for human well-being and economies.

Human well-being:

  • Childcare and elderly care services will deliver the benefits of child development, aging in dignity and independent living as the population grows older.
  • This will enable positive nutrition and health outcomes.

Economic aspect:

  • Greater investment in care services can create an additional 300 million jobs globally and this can provide an impetus to the global economic prospects in the long term.

Women emancipation:

  • Most of the jobs created in the care economy will benefit the women job seekers. This will in turn help increase female labour force participation and advance Sustainable Development Goal- 8.
    • Sustainable Development Goal 8 aims to ‘promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’.

Concerns with respect to care work/economy:

Neglect of care economy:

  • Despite the significance and potential of the care economy, the investment in the care economy has not been proportionate.

Non recognition of unpaid care work:

  • The care work by women is often overlooked, unfairly valued, and hardly rewarded. This is particularly evident in unpaid care work. Unpaid care work is yet to receive adequate attention in policy formulation.

Disproportionate burden of unpaid care work on women:

  • Around the world, women spend two to ten times more time on unpaid care work than men, which has a big effect on gender inequality in the economy. In countries where women do more unpaid care work, they are much less likely to be earning money. The higher the unpaid labor that women do, the greater the gender pay gap, which is the difference between how much more men are paid than women on average.

Bad state of paid care workers:

  • Paid care workers, such as domestic workers and anganwadis in India, also struggle to access rights and entitlements as workers.
  • Domestic workers face challenges in accessing decent work and face job insecurity. They lack adequate social or health protection measures. Despite existing laws like the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act and the minimum wage schedule in many States, domestic workers continue to remain exposed to sexual violence and low wages.

Insufficient Maternity/paternity benefits:

  • Maternity leave, though being a universal human and labour right, remains unfulfilled across countries, leaving millions of workers with family responsibilities without adequate protection and support.
  • Though India fares better than its peers in offering 26 weeks of maternity leave, against the ILO’s standard mandate of 14 weeks that exists in 120 countries, notably this coverage extends to only a tiny proportion of women workers in formal employment in India, whereas 89% of employed women are in informal employment.
  • Paternity leave is not provided in many countries, including India. Globally, the average paternity leave is nine days, which further exacerbates inequity.

Recommendations:

  • Government expenditure in the care economy should be increased.
  • The 5R framework proposed by ILO should guide India’s efforts in this domain. This framework urges the Recognition, Reduction, and Redistribution of unpaid care work, promotes Rewarding care workers with more and decent work, and enables their Representation in social dialogue and collective bargaining.
  • The crèche facility in factories and establishments should be extended with emphasis on increased accessibility, affordability and quality.
  • Working conditions of domestic and childcare workers needs to be improved by ensuring decent work for all. This would involve access to fair wages, workplace free from violence and harassment, have good working conditions, and access to social protection, among other benefits.

Nut Graf
Given the significance of care work/economy, India needs to have a strategy and action plan for improved policies and interventions in the care economy. This would involve Recognition, Reduction, and Redistribution of unpaid care work, while also ensuring access to fair wages, workplace free from violence and harassment, and access to social protection to paid care workers

F. Prelims Facts

1. Bengal coast faces most erosion

Syllabus: GS-3: Environment and Ecology: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation,  

Prelims: Erosion rate in India

Context: The Ministry of Earth Sciences informed the Lok Sabha that 34% of the Indian mainland is under varying degrees of erosion.

Recent observations:

  • Between 1990 and 2018, West Bengal’s coast was eroded along 60.5 percent of its length.
  • Kerala, on the west coast, comes in second, with a 46.4 percent erosion rate.
  • Tamil Nadu saw a 42.7 percent erosion rate.
  • Gujarat saw erosion on 27.06 percent of it.
  • 2 percent of the coast in the Union Territory of Puducherry was eroded.
Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) : The Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has prepared and published an atlas of Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) maps for the entire coastline of India at a 1:100000 scale.

15th Finance Commission Recommendations:

  • For the award period 2021-22 to 2022-26, the 15th Finance Commission recommended the creation of a National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) and State Disaster Risk Management Fund (SDRMF), which would include a mitigation fund at the national and state levels (NDMF/SDMF) and a response fund at the national and state levels.
  • Under the NDMF and the NDRF, the Commission has made specific recommendations for ‘Mitigation Measures to Prevent Erosion’ and ‘Resettlement of Displaced People Affected by Erosion.’

G. Tidbits

Nothing here for today!!!

H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions

Q1. Recently inaugurated ‘Nadabet Indo-Pak border darshan’ project is a pilot project of 
which of the following states/UTs?
  1. Jammu & Kashmir
  2. Rajasthan
  3. Gujarat
  4. Punjab
CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: c

Explanation:

Recently, the Home Minister of India inaugurated the Indo-Pak border viewing point in Banaskantha District of Gujarat. He also inaugurated ‘Seema Darshan Project’ at Nadabet located on the Indo-Pak border in Banaskantha District of Gujarat.

Hence Option C is correct.

Q2. Consider the following statements:
  1. India is a member of World Intellectual Property Organization, a body responsible for the promotion of the protection of intellectual property rights throughout the world.
  2. The National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy 2016 was adopted in May 2016 as a vision document to guide future development of IPRs in the country.
  3. Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, has been appointed as the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee the implementation and future development of IPRs in India.

Choose the correct code:

  1. 1 & 2 only
  2. 2 & 3 only
  3. 1 & 3 only
  4. All of the above
CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: d

Explanation:

  • India is a member of World Intellectual Property Organization, a specialized agency of the UN in the area of Intellectual Property. The nodal activities related to WIPO were transferred to this Department from the Department of Higher Education in 2005.
  • In May 2016, the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy 2016 was adopted as a vision document to guide the country’s future development of IPRs. “Creative India; Innovative India” is its rallying cry.
  • The action by different Ministries/Departments is to be monitored by DPIIT, which is the nodal Department to coordinate, guide and oversee implementation and future development of IPRs in India.
  • Hence all the statements are correct.
Q3. Arrange the following states in the decreasing order of the length of their coastlines:
  1. West Bengal
  2. Gujarat
  3. Kerala
  4. Tamil Nadu

Choose the correct code:

  1. 2-4-1-3
  2. 2-3-4-1
  3. 2-4-3-1
  4. 2-1-3-4
CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: c

Explanation:

  • The coastline is distributed among nine states and four union territories (UTs). 
  • Among the states, Gujarat has the longest coastline and among the UTs, Andaman and Nicobar Islands has the longest coastline. 
  • Coastal Length of States & UTs (in decreasing order of coastline)
  1. Gujarat – 1214.7 Km
  2. Andhra Pradesh – 973.7 Km
  3. Tamil Nadu – 906.9 Km
  4. Maharashtra – 652.6 Km
  5. Kerala – 569.7 Km
  6. Odisha – 476.4 Km
  7. Karnataka – 280 Km
  8. Goa (with Daman & Diu) – 160.5 Km
  9. West Bengal – 157.5 Km
  10. Puducherry – 30.6 Km (UT)
  11. Andaman & Nicobar Islands – 1962 Km (UT)
  12. Lakshadweep Islands – 132 Km (UT)
  • Hence Option C is correct.
Q4. Consider the following statements with regards to the Border Security Force:
  1. The BSF works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
  2. Earlier, the BSF’s limit was fixed up to 80 km from the International Boundary in Gujarat and 15 km in Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal and Assam.
  3. In October 2021, the MHA enhanced the “arrest, search and seize” powers of the BSF up to 50 km from the International Boundary in Punjab, West Bengal and Assam.
  4. In Gujarat, the limit was reduced from the existing 80 km to 50 km and in Rajasthan, the 50–km limit has remained unchanged.

Choose the correct code:

  1. 1 & 2 only
  2. 1, 2 & 3 only
  3. 3 & 4 only
  4. All of the above
CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: d

Explanation:

  • The BSF is India’s primary border guarding force. This paramilitary force is one of the five Central Armed Police Forces in India. The BSF is under the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. 
  • Previously, the BSF’s limit in Gujarat was set at 80 kilometers from the International Boundary, and 15 kilometers in Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, and Assam. 
  • In Punjab, West Bengal, and Assam, the MHA recently increased the BSF’s “arrest, search, and seize” powers up to 50 kilometers from the International Boundary through a notification in the Indian Gazette. 
  • The limit in Gujarat was reduced from 80 km to 50 km, while the limit in Rajasthan remained unchanged at 50 km.
  • Hence all the statements are correct.
Q5. Consider the following statements:
  1. According to the Constitution of India, a person who is eligible to vote can be made a minister in a State for six months even if he/she is not a member of the Legislature of that State.
  2. According to the Representation of People Act, 1951, a person convicted of a criminal offense and sentenced to imprisonment for five years is permanently disqualified from contesting an election even after his release from prison.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. 1 only
  2. 2 only
  3. Both 1 and 2
  4. Neither 1 nor 2
CHECK ANSWERS:-

Answer: d

Explanation:

The Constitution lays down only the following four qualifications for a person to be chosen a member of the state legislature. He must be a citizen of India, he must make and subscribe to an oath or affirmation before the person authorized by the Election Commission for this purpose. In his oath or affirmation, he swear, to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India, to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India, he must be not less than 30 years of age in the case of the legislative council and not less than 25 years of age in the case of the legislative assembly. He must possess other qualifications prescribed by Parliament. Therefore statement 1 is not correct According to the RPA, 1951 a person convicted of any offense and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

  1. Multiple crises across the world present an opportunity for India to take a seat at the high table and establish itself as a trusted mediator and peacemaker. Discuss. (250 words; 15 marks)[GS-2, International Relations]
  2. An essential part of being a welfare economy is ensuring proper maternal and elderly care. Discuss some of the provisions in place to ensure proper care to the concerned population. (250 words; 15 marks)[GS-2, Social Justice]

Read the previous CNA here.

CNA 11 Apr 2022:-Download PDF Here

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