12 Apr 2018: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS1 Related
B. GS2 Related
POLITY
1. Chargesheet reveals Kathua horror
2. It is CJI’s right to allot cases: SC
3. How will Aadhaar curb money laundering, SC asks Centre
SOCIAL SCHEMES
1. ‘99% of MGNREGA wages remain unpaid’
EDUCATION
1. To combat maths phobia among students, Modi govt takes this big step
C. GS3 Related
ECONOMY
1. ‘Petroleum, Finance Ministers can award hydrocarbon blocks’
2. This move by RBI will provide much-needed breather to ailing banks, says Crisil
3. India ranks 130 in Index of Economic Freedom; up by 13 spots
ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT
1. Pharma waste threatens world’s rivers: study
2. Delhi HC blow to Monsanto on patent for Bt cotton seed technology
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. ISRO mulling new IRNSS series to boost accuracy of ‘desi GPS’
E. Editorials
ECONOMY
1. The risks from the unending banking mess
F. Prelims Fact
G. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
H. UPSC Mains Practice Questions 

A. GS1 Related

Nothing here for today!!!

B. GS2 Related

• The eight-year-old girl allegedly raped by six men, who had held her in captivity in a small village temple in Kathua district for a week in January, was kept sedated and sexually assaulted once again before she was bludgeoned to death, reveals the chargesheet in the case.
• The abduction, rape and killing of the Bakherwal girl was part of a carefully planned strategy to remove the minority nomadic community from the area, reveals the 15-page chargesheet filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Crime Branch in the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court here on Monday.
• It lists the caretaker of the Devisthan, a small temple, in Rassana village in Kathua, about 90 km from here, as the main conspirator behind the abduction, rape and killing.
• Sanji Ram was allegedly joined by special police officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma, friend Parvesh Kumar alias Mannu, Ram’s nephew, a juvenile, and his son Vishal Jangotra alias “Shamma.”
• The chargesheet also names investigating officers, head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta, who allegedly took Rs. 4 lakh from Ram and destroyed crucial evidence. A separate chargesheet was filed on Tuesday on the role of the juvenile, who cannot be named according to law.All eight are under arrest.
• The document lays bare the larger conspiracy to instil fear in the Bakerwal community and explains in chilling detail how it was carried out. The eight-year-old had gone missing on January 10 while grazing horses in the forest. Investigators said the accused abducted the girl on the pretext of helping her find her horses.
• The day after their daughter went missing, the parents went to the Devisthan and asked Ram about her whereabouts. He said she may have gone to a relative’s house. According to the chargesheet, the accused gave the girl sedatives to make her unconscious while holding her in captivity.

• A Supreme Court Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra declared the Chief Justice of India as an institution in himself with exclusive prerogative to constitute Benches and allocate cases.
• The three-judge Bench, in a 16-page judgment, held there is no room for any “presumption of mistrust” against the high constitutional functionary, who helms the country’s most powerful court.

Second instance

• This is the second time that the Supreme Court has, within six months, reiterated the Chief Justice of India’s “exclusive duty and authority” as ‘master of roster’ to constitute Benches and allocate cases.
• In November 2017, a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice Misra had declared the Chief Justice of India as ‘master of roster.’
• Subsequent to this judgment, four judges of the SC — Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph — held their historic press conference on January 12, revealing how the CJI selectively allocates cases to “preferred Benches.”
• The fears expressed in the press conference find no mention in Wednesday’s judgment. Instead, the November 2017 Constitution Bench verdict provided the foundation for dismissing the petition filed by advocate Asok Pande, who highlighted the need for a “set procedure” to constitute Benches and allocate cases in the SC and the HCs.

• How can Aadhaar curb the menace of money laundering which poses a threat to the economy, the Supreme Court asked the Centre on Wednesday.
• A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, hearing petitions challenging the validity of Aadhaar and its enabling 2016 law for the 27th day, posed the question after it was told by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that the menace of hawala transactions and money laundering were a global concern and the 12-digit unique identifier would help in curbing them.
• The government also claimed that the authorities have been able to unearth Rs 33,000 crore, which was earlier not taxed, through the voluntary seeding of Aadhaar with PAN cards and the amount may rise exponentially if this linking is made mandatory.
• It also submitted that linking Aadhaar number with PAN would prevent income tax evasion, circulation and use of black money, besides the practice will also eliminate duplication of PAN numbers, which are used for the purpose of tax evasion.
• Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for UIDAI, said that seeding of Aadhaar with PAN card and bank accounts and other facilities would help authorities in effectively dealing with the global threat of money laundering.
• He said now the banks are mandated to verify the identity of their customers and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is no more a “toothless law” after it has been strengthened.
• The PMLA has become stringent since 2013 and the amended rules under PMLA mandates provision of Aadhaar number to open a bank account, he said.
• At the outset, the law officer referred to the apex court judgement in the Binoy Viswam case which had allowed the Centre to link Aadhaar with PAN cards.
• The challenge to section 139 AA of the Income Tax Act was examined by this court. Apart from right to privacy, all other aspects were considered.
• The privacy judgement had also affirmed that the right to privacy was not absolute. Restrictions could be imposed as was done in the case of fundamental right to life under Article 21.
• It has already been proved that Aadhaar linking with PAN will help curb money laundering and black money and prevent tax evasion adding that this question was not open to challenge any more as it has already been decided in the Binoy Viswam case.
• Only the challenge to Article 21 is open with respect to Aadhaar. All the other aspects have already been dealt with in the Binoy Viswam case.
• Referring to the judgement, the law officer said it has been held that Parliament has the power to make law on linking of Aadhaar with PAN cards.He also referred to various foreign judgements and gave an illustration of frisking of all passengers at airports and said it does not mean that security agencies suspect everyone.
• To this, the bench said the issue of security was a genuine concern, but the point is only those persons are frisked who go to the airports.
• Dealing with doctrine of proportionality, the bench said the nature of a crime determines the level of proportionality and said that in case of drug lords, the level of scrutiny would be stringent and it cannot be same in case of common citizens.
• He also said that the right to privacy in the European convention of human rights was not absolute and could be curtailed for the purpose of national security.
• Dwelling on Aadhaar-PAN linking, Mehta said the “problem of multiple PAN cards to the same individual and PAN cards in the name of fictitious individuals are common medium of money laundering, tax-evasion, creation and channeling of black money.
• PAN numbers in name of front or fictitious persons as directors or shareholders are used to create layers of shell companies through which money laundering, tax-evasions, creation and channeling of black money is done.
• The advancing of arguments on behalf of UIDAI remained inconclusive and would resume tomorrow.
• Earlier, the apex court had rebutted the Centre’s defence that collection of biometric details has not infringed the right to privacy of the citizens even if these were collected before the enactment of a law on Aadhaar in 2016.

• Ninety-nine percent of MGNREGA wages have remained unpaid in April 2018, as per the findings of the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha that tracks the implementation of the rural employment guarantee law.
• Stagnant wage rates are not the only rude shock that workers of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act received this month. Most of them also remain unpaid for the work done by them in the past few months.
• Ninety-nine percent of the Fund Transfer Orders for MGNREGA wage payments sent to the Public Finance Management in April 2018 remain unprocessed.
• It claimed that while the Centre introduced the National Electronic Fund Management System in January 2016 purportedly to streamline the process of MGNREGA payments, the system has only tightened the (Rural Development) Ministry’s leash over funds.

Revolving funds

• Now it routinely withholds the processing of FTOs. Also, in NEFMS, States are no longer able to make payments to workers from their revolving funds to tide over delays in release of funds by the Ministry.
• The release contended that in 2017, the government froze the processing of FTOs worth over Rs. 3,000 crore due to lack of MGNREGA funds.
• The situation of long and unpredictable delays in MGNREGA wage payments continues despite the ongoing public interest litigation filed by Swaraj Abhiyan in which the Supreme Court has instructed the government to ensure that workers are paid within 15 days of doing work.

• A committee has been formed to suggest measures to combat mathematics phobia among students after a national survey of state-run schools revealed “fear complex” about the subject, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar.
• He said the committee, with educationists and officers as its members, will submit its report within three months. The minister said another panel under Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari has been formed to make in-service teacher training more efficient.
• One thing has come up in the National Assessment Survey 2017 that students have fear complex about maths. A committee has been formed under Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama to see how to remove that fear complex so that the students see it as a friendly subject.
• The National Achievement Survey (NAS) was conducted for classes 3, 5 and 8 in government and government-aided schools throughout the country in November last. The survey used multiple test booklets with 45 questions for classes 3 and 5 related to language, mathematics; and 60 questions for class 8 in mathematics, language, sciences and social sciences.
• The learning levels of more than 25 lakh students from 1,10,000 schools across 700 districts in all 36 states/UTs were assessed under the survey.

C. GS3 Related

• The Union Cabinet approved a proposal to delegate the power to award hydrocarbon blocks to successful bidders under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) to Petroleum and Finance Ministers.
• In line with the government initiative of ease of doing business, the Union Cabinet has given its approval for delegating the powers to Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Finance Minister to award the blocks/contract areas to successful bidders under Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) after International Competitive Bidding (ICB) based on the recommendations of Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECS.
• Under HELP, blocks are to be awarded twice in a year. Delegating powers would expedite the decision-making process in awarding the blocks, according to the statement.
• Under the New Exploration Licensing Policy [which was in place before HELP was implemented in 2016], ECS considers the bid evaluation criteria (BEC), conducts negotiations with the bidders wherever necessary, and makes recommendations to CCEA on award of blocks.
• The CCEA approves the award of blocks. The entire process, including Inter Ministerial Consultations (IMC), is quite lengthy and time consuming.
• In a separate decision, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the issuance of a notification that would allow Coal India Limited (CIL) and its subsidiaries to extract coal bed methane (CBM) in their coal bearing areas without applying for a licence or lease under the Petroleum & Natural Gas Rules, 1959.

Exploration of CBM

• The decision will expedite the exploration and exploitation of CBM, enhance the availability of natural gas and reduce the gap in demand and supply of natural gas.
• The increased development activities for exploration and exploitation of CBM gas reserves in and around the block will generate economic activities which, in turn, has potential to create employment opportunities in CBM operations and in the industries.

• The decision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to allow banks to spread provisions for bond losses in the third and fourth quarters of the fiscal year 2017-18 over the next four quarters will provide “the much-needed breather” to banks by reducing their provisioning burden to the tune of Rs 27,000 crore, rating agency Crisil said.
• The Central Bank last week allowed the banks to spread the provisioning for each of these quarters equally over up to four quarters, commencing with the quarter in which the loss was incurred.
• The breather includes allowing an extra quarter to reach 50% provisioning on accounts referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) framework permitting spread-out of marked-to-market (MTM) losses on investments incurred in the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2018 across four quarters.
• Accounting for the MTM losses over four quarters would mean ~Rs 8,000 crore provisioning relief including write-backs for banks in the last quarter of fiscal 2018.
• Another relief worth ~Rs 19,000 crore, in the form of lower provisioning or write-back, would also ensue because the RBI has permitted banks to achieve 50% provisioning on accounts referred to NCLT by June 2018 instead of March as stipulated earlier.
• Profitability of banks has come under intense pressure as provisioning requirements have been rising with the ageing of non-performing assets (NPAs), withdrawal of various restructuring schemes prior to February 2018 causing an increase in NPAs, and a sharp rise in bond yields since September 2017 leading to significant MTM losses in their gilt investments.
• However, the silver lining in fiscal 2019 is expected to be recoveries from the resolution of few large accounts under the IBC, especially from the steel sector, which recently saw multiple bids from investors. That should provide some offset to the high provisioning requirements.

• India has jumped 13 places in the last one year to earn the 130th spot in the latest annual Index of Economic Freedom released by a top American think-tank. In 2017, India with a score of 52.6 points was ranked at 143 among 180 countries, two spots below neighbour Pakistan, according to the Index of Economic Freedom.
• China with 57.4 points was ranked 111 in the 2017 index of The Heritage Foundation, an American conservative public policy think-tank based in Washington.
• As per the latest Index of Economic Freedom, China has jumped one spot and Pakistan is now at 131 position.
• India’s economic freedom score is 54.5, making its economy the 130th freest in the 2018 Index.
• Its overall score has increased by 1.9 points, led by improvements in judicial effectiveness, business freedom, government integrity, and fiscal health.
• India is ranked 30th among 43 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is below the regional and world averages. Noting that India is developing into an open-market economy, the Index said traces of its past autarkic policies still remain.
• Economic liberalisation measures, including industrial deregulation, privatisation of state-owned enterprises and reduced controls on foreign trade and investment, that began in the early 1990s, accelerated growth, the report said.
• More recently, the government reformed one of its more opaque operational practices to make the auctioning of rights to exploit state-owned resources more transparent.
• Corruption, underdeveloped infrastructure, a restrictive and burdensome regulatory environment, and poor financial and budget management continue to undermine overall development.
• India’s diverse economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of services.
• Although land titles in some urban and nearly all rural areas remain unclear, real property rights in large metropolitan areas are generally well enforced.
• The judiciary is independent, but the Indian courts are understaffed and lack the technology necessary to clear an enormous backlog. Although officials are often caught accepting bribes, a great deal of corruption goes unnoticed and unpunished.
• Observing that, non-tariff barriers significantly impede trade, the Heritage Foundation said the government’s openness to foreign investment is below average.
• State-owned institutions dominate the financial sector, and foreign participation is limited. In public-sector banks, troubled assets account for about 10 percent of total assets.

• River systems around world are coursing with over-the-counter and prescription drug waste harmful to the environment. The amount of pharmaceutical effluence leaching into waterways could increase by two-thirds before mid-century, they told a major science conference in Vienna.
• A large part of the freshwater ecosystems is potentially endangered by the high concentration of pharmaceuticals.

Pain-relief drugs pollute

• A large number of drugs found in the environment —analgesics, antibiotics, anti-platelet agents, hormones, psychiatric drugs, anti-histamines—have been detected in nature at levels dangerous for marine life.
• Hormonal drugs, for examples, have notoriously induced unnatural changes in fish and amphibians. On the Indian subcontinent, some pain-relief drugs have driven a sub-species of vultures on the to the brink of extinction.
• Both the European Union and the US Environmental Protection Agency have identified Diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory and pain-relief drug, as an environmental threat.
• More than 10,000 kilometres of rivers around the globe have concentrations of the drug in excess of the EU “watch list” limit of 100 nanogrammes per litre, the new research found.
• Global consumption of diclofenac tops 2,400 tonnes per year. Several hundred tonnes remain in human waste, and only a small fraction — some seven percent — of that is filtered out by treatment facilities.
• Another 20 percent is absorbed by natural ecosystems, and the rest find its way to the oceans.
• Bregoli and his team developed a computer model to predict current and future levels of pharma pollution based on criteria such as population densities, sewage systems, and drugs sales.
• To test the model’s predictive power, they compared the results to data gathered from some 1,400 spot measurements of diclofenac toxicity taken from different locations around the world.
• It was a good match, though most of the data points, Bregoli noted, were in Europe and North America.
• Pollution levels are likely to be substantially higher in much of Latin America, Africa and Asia where—on average—less than a quarter of waste water is treated.

• Plant varieties and seeds cannot be patented under Indian law by companies like Monsanto Inc., and any royalties on genetically modified (GM) technology will be decided by a specialized agency of the agriculture ministry, the Delhi high court ruled.
• As a result, the patent held by Monsanto, through its Indian arm Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech Ltd (MMBL) over its Bollgard-II Bt cotton seed technology, a genetically modified variant which resists the bollworm pest, was decreed to be unenforceable in India.
• The division bench of Ravindra Bhat and Yogesh Khanna, however, permitted MMBL to approach the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority under the agriculture ministry for registering the variety, following which the authority will decide on a benefit-sharing mechanism. Currently, trait fees on Bt cotton seeds are decided by a price control committee under the agriculture ministry.
• The court’s order came in a case filed in 2015 by Monsanto, through MMBL, against Nuziveedu Seeds and its subsidiaries for selling Bt cotton seeds using its patented technology despite termination of a licence agreement in November 2015. The order and the court’s interpretation of section 3(j) of the Patents Act, 1970, may prove to be an impediment for entry of new technology in Indian agriculture as technology developers will lose pricing freedom.
• Responding to the high court order, Kalyan Goswami, director general of the National Seed Association of India, said, “It is a landmark judgement… which brings cheer to millions of Indian farmers. They can’t be exploited by technology developers any further by charging exorbitantly high trait value through claiming false patent rights.”

• To boost the accuracy of ‘desi GPS’ NavIC (navigation with Indian constellation), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is likely to extend Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) programme.
• The national space agency is contemplating on a new IRNSS series.
  At 4.04 am on Thursday, India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 41st flight (PSLV-C41) in XL configuration will launch IRNSS-1I satellite from First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The IRNSS-1I is the eighth satellite to join the NavIC navigation satellite constellation.
• ISRO Chairman K Sivan told on the eve of the launch that IRNSS-1I will be the last in the current ‘approved’ navigation satellite series. Sivan said it would be an extension of IRNSS project.
• Currently, various modalities are being working out like on number of satellites, on-board technologies etc. The idea is to improve the accuracy of services further and also have enough back-up satellites in space just in case there is a situation where one stops functioning like it happened with IRNSS-1A.

To a query, he said the new IRNSS series is not meant to extend its coverage beyond the regional boundaries. NavIC is an independent regional navigation satellite system developed by India.

• It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary.
• It will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users. This will not change much. It will be only a regional system, but the accuracy will improve.
• If IRNSS-1I is launched successfully on Thursday, it will complete ISRO’s commitment to put seven operational navigation satellites in orbit.
• Though, the space agency has put seven satellites in operation after successfully launching IRNSS-1G on April 26, 2016, the first satellite of the series IRNSS-1A put into orbit on July 1, 2013 developed trouble with three rubidium atomic clocks on board not functioning.
• One ground spare, IRNSS-1H was flown as replacement satellite aboard PSLV-C-39 on August 31, 2017, but heat shield separation failed and the satellite failed to deploy. Now, IRNSS-1I is being flown and is the last spare available.
• Meanwhile, Sivan said the first commercial roll-out of NavIC services is likely by April end. The beneficiaries would be Indian fishermen, especially those who undertake deep sea fishing.
• A private industry has been roped-in to produce NavIC enabled hi-tech communication gadgets through which fishermen can stay connected upto 1,500 km from the shore without internet or tower connectivity.
• The device, which will be fitted to the boats, will use NavIC to lock the location of the boats and periodically update the location to the ground control room. Besides, the fishermen will receive text and video messages about the ocean weather forecast. If a low pressure area has formed in Bay of Bengal and is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm, fishermen will be alerted ahead of time.

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

• Nineteen Indian banks are being exchanged everywhere rebates to their book an incentive in money markets
• This basically implies financial specialists have little trust in the distributed records of these banks
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) does not appear to have much trust in a large number of the weakest banks either
• Eleven of them have essentially been advised to quit giving new credits
• The main partners who have kept up their trust in the Indian managing an account framework till now have been contributors
• They have fortunately held their nerve notwithstanding the every day stream of negative data about the banks they put their life funds in
• One reason is the general visibility that there is a certain sovereign assurance to back banks
• There have been three previous attempts to tackle the issues related to Banking System:

1. The report of the first committee headed by M. Narasimham in 1991,
2. The report of the second Narasimham committee in 1998 and
3. The report of the committee headed by Raghuram Rajan in 2009
4. It is now time for a fourth attempt

Important issues to be addressed

1. Issue of ownership

• The continuous issues at ICICI Bank and Axis Bank demonstrate that private area banks are not resistant from the issues of awful loaning, but rather have by and large improved the situation than open division banks with regards to resource quality
• The case for a saving money framework with more private division cooperation keeps on being a solid one

2. There needs to be more clarity on the structure of Indian banking

• The time has come to take a gander at a more various banking structure,
• That approach venture examination abilities to survey expansive foundation tasks of the sort that are currently making devastation in bank asset reports

3. Role for bond markets

• Policymakers need to choose what part security markets will play in the Indian money related framework
• It merits asking whether the security markets would have been as prepared to oblige over-utilized organizations, contrasted with the excitement appeared by investors to either evergreen or rebuild advances

Way forward

• The unforgiving certainty is that no nation with a broken saving money framework can plan to develop quickly, in actuality bargaining the fight against neediness.
• This is an ideal opportunity to look forward to another strategy structure.

F. Prelims Fact

G. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam

Question 1. Consider the following statements about National Electronic Fund 
Management System (NFEMS):

Question 2. Consider the following statements about GeoMGNREGA:

Question 3. Consider the following statements about Prevention of Cruelty Act 1960:

Question 4. Consider the following statements about World Hindi Conference:

Question5. Consider the following statements about Defexpo India 2018:

H. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

Also, check previous Daily News Analysis