18 Feb 2019: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS1 Related

Context: Scientists have discovered massive mountains in the Earth’s mantle.

Highlights:

• According to a study published in the journal Science, scientists found another layer apart from crust, core and mantle.
• They used data from an enormous earthquake in Bolivia to find mountains and other topography on a layer located 660 km straight down, which separates the upper and lower mantle.
• It is found to be 660 km wide so they named it as 660 km boundary.
• For this study, the key data came from waves picked up after a magnitude 8.2 earthquake the second-largest deep earthquake ever recorded that shook Bolivia in 1994.
• The researchers also examined a layer 410 km down, at the top of the mid-mantle “transition zone,” and they did not find similar roughness.
• The presence of roughness on the 660-km boundary has significant implications for understanding how our planet formed and evolved.

B. GS2 Related

C. GS3 Related

Context: To help the public during natural calamities such as cyclonic storms members of the Amateur Radio Society of Odisha got together at an uninhabited island within the Chilika Lake to test their operational skill and technology.

Highlights:

• The use of this technology for communicating to the outside world can be useful for cyclone and flood-prone states like Odisha.
• The uninhabited island was chosen as it is inaccessible by conventional telecommunication network.
• Radio signals were used for the transmission of messages by the private HAM radio operators of Odisha.
• Solar power was used to operate the HAM radios.
• It was an attempt to simulate real-life situation during any natural calamity when all conventional modes of communication cease to exist as it happened during the Titli cyclone.

What is HAM radio?

• HAM radio or Amateur Radio is a popular hobby and service that brings people, electronics and communication together.
• People use ham radio to talk across town, around the world, or even into space, all without the Internet or cell phones.

Background:

• The recent incidents of death of Blackbucks have raised concern among the civil society and Punjab government.
• Blackbuck is the state animal of Punjab.
• It faces a severe threat from stray cattle, attacks by stray dogs, and habitat fragmentation due to change in land use fencing agricultural fields and cropping patterns over the past few years.
• Other unnatural reasons for blackbuck deaths include road accidents and falling into water storage tanks and concrete drains.

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

Important bills were passed; but going forward there must be a debate on the anti-defection law.

Context:

The 16th Lok Sabha had its final sitting last Wednesday, marking an end to the five-year period.

Analysis of the performance of 16^th Lok Sabha:

• The 16th Lok Sabha was surpassed only by the preceding one in terms of the low number of hours it worked. It met for 1,615 hours, 40% lower than all full-term Parliaments.
• This Lok Sabha sat for 331 days (against a 468-day average for all previous full-term Lok Sabhas), and lost 16% of its time to disruptions.
• It shows a decline in the number of sitting days over the decades as well as a significant part of the scheduled time lost to disruptions.
• There were no extreme incidents — an MP used pepper spray in the 15th Lok Sabha — MPs often broke the rules.
• The House was often disrupted by MPs carrying placards, entering the well, and even on occasion, blocking their colleagues from speaking. A big casualty was Question Hour — the Lok Sabha lost a third of this time and the Rajya Sabha 60%; consequently, just 18% of the starred questions in each House got an oral reply.
  • Starred Question:  A Starred Question is the one to which a member desires an oral answer in the house, having a distinguishing mark of an asterisk. When a question is answered orally, Members of Parliament have the option to raise the Supplementary Questions based on the replies to the starred questions.
• Another notable event was the Speaker blaming unruly behaviour for her inability to count the required number of MPs demanding a no-confidence motion but allowing the Union Budget to be passed in the interim. There was a similar episode at the end of the 15th Lok Sabha when the Speaker was unable to conduct a no-confidence motion but let the House pass the Act to bifurcate the State of Andhra Pradesh.
  • No Confidence Motion: In India, a motion of no confidence can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament of India). The motion is admitted for discussion when a minimum of 50 members of the house support the motion.

Key legislation:

However, Parliament made some important laws.

• The Goods and Services Tax was implemented.
• The Insolvency and Bankruptcy code was enacted.
• The IIM Act gave premier management educational institutions a level of autonomy not available to other public educational institutions.
• The Juvenile Justice Act allowed children (between 16 and 18 years) accused of committing heinous crimes to be prosecuted as adults.
• Mental Healthcare Act, The Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017 were passed: for treatment of mental health patients, and those with HIV/AIDS.
• The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, the disability legislation was passed by the Indian Parliament to fulfill its obligation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which India ratified in 2007.
• There were some efforts to address the issues of corruption, black money and leakages.
  • The Prevention of Corruption Act was amended to make bribe-giving an offence.
  • Laws were made requiring a declaration of assets held outside India.
  • Fugitive economic offenders act was passed to declare as fugitives those economic offenders who had fled the country.
• The Aadhaar Act was passed to create a biometric-based identity system.

Bill passing:

• The Aadhaar Act was passed as a Money Bill — and was upheld by the Supreme Court. There were debates questioning the legitimacy of Aadhaar bill being passed as money bill.
  • The issue here is that the Constitution defines a Bill as a Money Bill if it contains provisions that exclusively relate to taxes or government spending.
  • Importantly, such Bills need majority support only in the Lok Sabha, with the Rajya Sabha having just a recommendatory role.
  • Arguing that Aadhaar was primarily a subsidy delivery mechanism, and not an identity system seems like a stretch, but that was the majority decision of the Supreme Court.
• There has not been much conversation on the various Finance Bills that have been passed as Money Bills. It is difficult to see how these Bills would fall within the narrow definition of Money Bill, as defined in Article 110 of the Constitution.
• The Finance Bill is traditionally introduced with the Budget, and contains all the legislative changes to tax laws. Therefore, it is usually a Money Bill. However, Finance Bills, in the last few years, have included items which have no relation to taxes or to expenditure of the government.
  • The Finance Bill, 2015 included provisions to merge the regulator of commodity exchanges with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
  • The Finance Bill, 2016 included amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act which relate to donations to non-profits.
  • The Finance Bill, 2017 went further and changed the compositions of 19 quasi-judicial bodies such as the Securities Appellate Tribunal, the National Green Tribunal and the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), and repealed seven other bodies including the Competition Appellate Tribunal.
  • About half the clauses of the 2018 Bill were on issues unrelated to taxes.
  • Even the Finance Bill, 2019 presented with the interim Budget amended the provisions related to attaching property under the money laundering law.

Bills that would lapse:

• A few other Bills, such as the Triple Talaq Bill and the Citizenship Bill, were passed by the Lok Sabha but will lapse as they were not passed by the Rajya Sabha.
• It is evident that the government was able to have its way on every issue in the Lok Sabha and was held in check only due to a lack of majority in the Rajya Sabha; even this check was bypassed occasionally using the Money Bill route.
• The government could do this as a result of the anti-defection provision which gives complete control of all party votes to the party leadership.
  • The Tenth Schedule (anti-defection provision ) was inserted in the Constitution in 1985. It lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection by the Presiding Officer of a legislature based on a petition by any other member of the House.
  • A legislator is deemed to have defected if he either voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or disobeys the directives of the party leadership on a vote.This implies that a legislator defying (abstaining or voting against) the party whip on any issue can lose his membership of the House.
  • The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.
  • This law has converted MPs from being representatives of the people to delegates of the party.
  • If the party in government has a majority of its own, it can have any provision passed; even coalition governments have to convince just a handful of leaders of their alliance partners.

Way forward:

Parliament plays the central role in our democracy by holding the government to account and scrutinising proposed laws and financial priorities. With the end of the 16th Lok Sabha, it is an undeniable fact that many important bills were passed. But it is time to ponder on how to make this institution more effective. An important step will be by reviewing the anti-defection law that has hollowed out the institution.

Issue:

The Supreme Court’s split decision on the question of whether the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCTD) has executive control over those in its service – points to the inherent complexity of the relations between the Delhi government and the Centre. It flags the need to address complexities in Centre-UT ties. There has been considerable debate over statehood issue of Delhi. 

Background:

When did the demand for Delhi’s statehood first come up? 

• The demand for statehood came up as a result of the report of the Committee on Reorganisation of Delhi Set-Up or the Balakrishnan committee in 1987. The committee recommended setting up a legislative system and examined overlapping of authorities in matters of municipal governance. It agreed to give the national capital a special status and the union territory to have a legislative assembly that would be given powers to form laws on matters under the state list with exception to matters related to land, police, and public order. 
• Not long after the AAP government registered a victory of 67 on 70 seats in Delhi Assembly election of 2015, the Ministry of Home Affairs pulled back the services of Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) from the Delhi government. With this move, the centre snatched away the right of Delhi government to take any kind of action (disciplinary or removal) against officers who engage in corrupt practices. The government also has no say in the issues pertaining to recruitment and conditions of service of officials of IAS, clerks etc. Also, AAP led Delhi government has accused the centre to be meddling in its work and putting barricade through LG.

Why is there a demand for complete statehood?

• Statehood would bring control of administration completely under the state government. This set up would avoid multiplicity of authorities and the confusion caused thereby.
• Delhi government claims that its lack of control over public order, police and land hinders its ability to efficiently plan Delhi’s development.

Details:

• The disadvantages of not having full statehood status has been felt by many elected regimes in Delhi. But at present, the extent of bitterness has been severe.
• Battles have been fought in the political and judicial spheres over whether some subject or the other falls under the Delhi government or is the exclusive preserve of the Centre.
• A Constitution Bench ruling last year provided a framework to resolve such issues.
  • It held that the Lt. Governor has to act either on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, or abide by the decision of the President on a reference made by him.
  • The power to refer “any matter” to the President did not mean “every matter” should go that way.
  • Specific issues were left to a Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, which has resolved most issues. It has upheld the Delhi government’s power to appoint prosecutors, levy and revise stamp duty on property transactions and issue notifications under the Delhi Electricity Reform Act.
  • Both judges agree that there is no ‘service’ in the Delhi government, as all its employees come under the ‘Central services’.
  • Its civil servants are drawn from the DANICS cadre, a service common to various Union Territories.
• Status of public service and office of lieutenant governor in Delhi:
• The split verdict by a two-judge bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan has, in essence, affirmed the power of the Union government (through the office of the lieutenant governor) over the elected state government on crucial matters.
• The Centre remains the cadre-controlling authority in Delhi and the Delhi Anti Corruption Branch cannot investigate central government officers.
• The two judges, however, differed on whether the state government can manage cadre below the rank of joint secretary.
  • Justice Sikri believes that going by a Constitution Bench decision last year, the NCTD would indeed have the power to deploy officials within its own departments.
  • However, the absence of a public service in Delhi means Entry 41 in the State List (services; service commissions) would imply that it is a matter inapplicable to ‘Union Territories’, and therefore, the LG need not act on the Delhi government’s aid and advice.
  • Therefore, he favours a solution under which transfers and postings of officers in the rank of Joint Secretary and above could be directly submitted to the LG, and those of others be processed by the Council of Ministers and sent to the LG.
  • In case of any dispute, the LG’s view will prevail.
  • Justice Bhushan, on the other hand, has ruled that once it is accepted that there is no ‘service’ under the NCTD, there is no scope for its government to exercise any executive power in this regard.

Conclusion:

A larger Bench will now decide on the question relating to control over the services. The more significant challenge is to find a way out of the complexities and problems thrown up by the multiple forms of federalism and power-sharing arrangements through which relations between the Centre and its constituent units are regulated.

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Strange emergency –National Emergency in the United States

Question 1. Consider the following statements about Blackbucks:

Question 2. Consider the following statements for ICJ:

Question 3. Consider the following statements about the Finance Commission:

Question 4. Which of the following passes is not in the state of Jammu and Kashmir?

Question 5. Consider the following statements for CBI: