07 Dec 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

07 Dec 2020 CNA:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. J&K administration seeks review of order on Roshni Act
C. GS 3 Related
ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
1. Meghalaya village turns oasis in coal mine desert
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. ‘Microwave energy likely made U.S. officials ill’
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
ECONOMY
1. True fiscal responsibility
2. What Labour codes mean to the unorganized sector?
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
1. Culture and peace
F. Prelims Facts
1. Hayabusa 2
2. Major drug seizures from 4 States
G. Tidbits
1. Navy wants to join IAF in jet shopping
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

Category: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. ‘Microwave energy likely made U.S. officials ill’

Context:

A new report by a National Academy of Sciences committee has found that directed microwave radiation is the likely cause of illnesses among American diplomats in Cuba and China.

Background:

• The study is the latest attempt to find a cause for the mysterious illnesses that started to emerge in late 2016 among U.S. personnel in Havana.
• The study found that directed, pulsed radio frequency energy appeared to be the most reasonable explanation for symptoms that included intense head pressure, dizziness and cognitive difficulties.

Microwaves:

• Microwaves are the waves that radiate electromagnetic energy with a shorter wavelength.
• Microwaves are not reflected by Ionosphere.
• They travel in a straight line and are reflected by the conducting surfaces.
• Microwave technology is extensively used for point-to-point telecommunications (i.e. non-broadcast uses). Microwaves are especially suitable for this use since they are more easily focused into narrower beams than radio waves, allowing frequency reuse.

Note:-

2. What Labour codes mean to the unorganized sector?

Background: Government of India had decided to consolidate twenty-nine (29) central labour laws into four (4) labour codes, namely,

1. The Code on Wages, 2019 (the “Code on Wages“);
2. The Code on Social Security, 2020 (the “SS Code“);
3. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (the “OSH Code“); and
4. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (the “IR Code“).

Read more on the four labour codes in the linked article.

Context: The government’s claim that these labour codes would generate employment and secure the basic rights of the workers.

Details:

• Labour falls under the Concurrent List of the Constitution. Therefore, both Parliament and state legislatures can make laws regulating labour.
• The central government has stated that there are over 100 state and 40 central laws regulating various aspects of labour such as the resolution of industrial disputes, working conditions, social security and wages.
• The Second National Commission on Labour (2002) found existing legislation to be complex, with archaic provisions and inconsistent definitions.
• To improve ease of compliance and ensure uniformity in labour laws, it recommended the consolidation of central labour laws into broader groups such as (i) industrial relations, (ii) wages, (iii) social security, (iv) safety, and (v) welfare and working conditions.
• It has been said by the Union Labour Minister that these codes seek to universalize the minimum wage of workers and social security entitlements.

1. Universal social security
   1. Coverage
      1. The Codes provide Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) and Provident Fund (PF) benefits to only workers belonging to establishments having 10 or more workers.
      2. That means, it covers only the formal sector and leaves close to 80% of all workers out of the beneficiary list.
      3. A code that covers 20% of the workers cannot be called inclusive in nature, the 80% of the workers need the codes more than the formal sector employees.
      4. The informal sector workers may be allowed to tap into the largely under-utilised Employees’ State Insurance Corporation Hospitals only upon paying user charge.
   2. ESI coverage to formal sector workers
      1. The ESIC Hospitals are largely understaffed; the 2016 data shows they had 6 doctors per one lakh beneficiaries, which is a long way away from WHO guidelines of having 100 doctors serving an average of one lakh beneficiaries.
      2. The ratio of doctors to beneficiaries would be further skewed now than in comparison to the 2016 data as the coverage has been expanded to include more beneficiaries.
      3. What has further aggravated the issue is a cut in the employer and employee contribution to the ESI from 6.5% to 4% effective from 2019. This was done under the pretext of improving ‘Ease of Doing Business’.
      4. This has come at a juncture when ESI is in need of financial resources to increase the doctor and paramedical strength. The capacity of the hospitals being strained to this extent means that the unorganized sectors left out of the ambit will find it hard to utilize the hospitals.
   3. Regional imbalance
      1. ESI coverage adheres to the industrial growth in the country, for example, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have an ESI-covered population of around 20% while this coverage nosedives to 0.7% in Bihar.
      2. The low industrial base states would naturally have less ESI covered population.
   4. Phasing out of existing cess-based welfare schemes
      1. Beedi Workers Welfare Board covered close to half a million home-based women workers.
      2. There has been a number of well-documented evidence of how the welfare schemes such as the education scheme have benefitted the children of the beedi workers to learn and escape poverty.
      3. The workers also had access to free dispensation in the hospitals run by the Board.
      4. The new codes entail the beedi workers to forfeit the use of such facilities in exchange for a promise of universal social security that is yet to define its contours.
2. Minimum wage
   1. As per the Union Labour Minister, currently, about 30% of the workers are covered under the various minimum wage schedules.
   2. The Government aims to draw a floor wage covering all workers in the code.
   3. The numbers have varied but none have promised an adequate floor wage level, it has ranged from Rs.178 as claimed by the Labour Minister to Rs.202 announced by the Finance Minister. However, the numbers are a long way away from the recommendation of Rs.375 by the Labour Ministry’s Expert Committee.
   4. Astonishingly, it is lower than the Rangarajan committee’s poverty line family expenditure.

Conclusion:

• It is necessary that the industrial codes reflect the changing times as the Indian labour laws are archaic and also colonial at times. But it needs to be balanced by ensuring the benefits coverage are not limited in scale and scope.
• The COVID pandemic, automation, artificial intelligence, Industrial Revolution 4.0, etc. have already threatened job security and livelihoods, thus these codes should act as a cushion rather than a sledge-hammer.

Category: INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

1. Culture and peace

Context: India has expressed its displeasure at the United Nations General Assembly with regards to the “selective” nature of the resolutions of the UN Alliance of Civilization (UNAOC) on the ‘Culture of Peace’.

The UN body has been vocal and proactive in protecting Islam, Christianity and Judaism, the same degree of protection hasn’t been extended to other religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism to mention a few.

Details:

• UNAOC was set up in the year 2005 with an aim to reduce and prevent polarization between societies and cultures. It also aims to bring about a cosmopolitan outlook and foster tolerance to prevent the happening of “Clash of civilizations”, a term coined by Samuel P Huntington.

India’s objections

• India has criticised the UNAOC for its “selectivity”. India has pointed out that the world body has been very limited in its scope of trying to protect religions – with a selective focus on Abrahamic religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity while not making an equal effort for other religions.
• The Indian delegate mentioned the history of resolutions at the UNAOC going back as far as 2006 to till date, where the resolutions have condemned hatred and violence against Abrahamic faiths, while attacks on other religious groups like Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists fell on deaf ears.
• India’s objections are based on reasonable grounds, a world body cannot limit itself to issuing a rallying cry to protect three religions from violence while turning a blind eye to violence on other religions.

Incidences pointed out by India

1. Kartarpur Gurudwara Corridor
   1. The Kartarpur corridor serves as a bridge between two holy shrines, one, the Dera Baba Nanak Sahib in Punjab, India, and the other is the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Punjab, Pakistan.
   2. When the agreement with regards to the corridor was announced, it was welcomed by the UNGA. However, UNGA did not take notice of the Pakistan government usurping the management duties of the shrine in violation of the agreement and against Sikh beliefs.
2. Afghanistan gurudwaras
   1. The shrines of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists have been damaged in Afghanistan due to terrorism motivated against these religions. The attack at Gurdwara Guru Har Rai Sahib in Afghanistan by Islamic State gunmen killing 25 people is one such recent example.
3. Violence against Hindus in the immediate neighbourhood
   1. Bangladesh
      1. Has witnessed attacks on Hindu minorities in several waves. Radical Islamists in Bangladesh have repeatedly attacked Hindus, causing great fear and anxiety for Hindu minorities living there.
      2. The 2013 anti-Hindu protests culminated in many Hindu places of worship being attacked and vandalized.
   2. Pakistan
      1. As per the 2017 census data we have been given unofficially, the Hindu population in Pakistan has declined by 0.19 per cent since 1998.
      2. The Hindu population in Pakistan is at nearly one crore and Sikhs at 40,000 as per rough estimates.
      3. Numerous evidences of forceful conversions, attacking temples and Gurudwaras have been well documented in Pakistan.
4. Internationalising domestic issues
   1. India has been alarmed by the meddling of UN bodies in Indian domestic issues.
   2. The Citizenship Amendment Act and Article 370 abrogation have unnecessarily been dragged to tarnish India’s image on numerous occasions on various platforms.
   3. It is a surprise that these issues have gained attention whereas violence on Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs have not.

Conclusion

India has raised valid arguments about “selectivity” and has made its displeasure clear about the intrusive language that have been used in various UN bodies. UN is a world body, it represents all cultures and faiths, to restrict itself to be a custodian of a few religions at the expense of others won’t do its reputation as a world body any good.

2. Major drug seizures from 4 States

What’s in News?

• The annual report of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence said 72 seizures of substances covered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act were made across India.

Details:

• Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Tamil Nadu accounted for most of the drug seizures during 2019-20.
• In 2018-19, most seizures were reported from Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Assam.

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI):

• The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is an Indian intelligence agency. It was constituted in 1957 to function as an apex intelligence agency of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs to counter the menace of smuggling.
• It is India’s apex anti-smuggling intelligence, investigations and operations agency.
• It is tasked with detecting and curbing smuggling of contraband, including drug trafficking and illicit international trade in wildlife and environmentally sensitive items.
• It also works for combating commercial frauds related to international trade and evasion of customs duty.
• The DRI has also been designated as the lead agency for Anti-Smuggling National Coordination Centre (SCord).

Q1. Consider the following pairs:

Q2. Consider the following statements about the Bannerghatta National Park:

Q3. The Stone Chariot in Hampi is situated within which of the following?

Q4. Consider the following statements with respect to the Directorate of Revenue 
Intelligence (DRI):

Read the previous CNA here.

07 Dec 2020 CNA:- Download PDF Here