25 Jan 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS 1 Related
SOCIAL ISSUES
1. Centre seeks to revamp child care scheme in urban areas
B. GS 2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. Can’t pass ‘blanket order’ against invoking NSA: SC
2. Aspirants with criminal past should not get ticket, EC tells SC
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. ‘President Bolsonaro, PM Modi share views on idea of a nation’
C. GS 3 Related
ECONOMY
1. Direct tax collections set to drop for first time in two decades
2. Monetary policy has its limits, reforms must continue: Das
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Justice for Rohingya
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. The long and the short of Uttar Pradesh
F. Tidbits
1. CJI wants speedy resolution of cases
2. Plea for judicial probe in custodial death cases
3. 41 mn people in 13 cities locked down as virus spreads in China
4. Travel advisory extended to 12 more airports
5. India growth slowdown temporary: IMF
6. Schools in Odisha’s Jajpur remain closed as elephant runs amok
7. ‘Work awarded for Delhi-Mumbai Expressway’
8. Forex reserves at life-time high of $462.16 bn
G. Prelims Facts
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

E. Editorials

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Justice for Rohingya

Context:

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in the Rohingya case.

Background:

Reports by UN and human rights groups:

• There have been reports by the UN and human rights groups on the prevalence of hate speech, mass atrocities of rape and extra-judicial killings, and torching of villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine province, leading to the forced migration of thousands to Bangladesh.

Plea in ICJ:

• Gambia had filed a suit in ICJ on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
• The suit alleged that the brutalities by the defence services amounted to crimes of genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention. It called for action against Myanmar for its failure to prevent the alleged acts of genocide against the Rohingya Muslims.

Independent Commission of Enquiry in Myanmar:

• An Independent Commission of Enquiry was established by the Myanmarese government.
• The Commission acknowledged that war crimes had been committed during the military campaign when about 900 people were killed. But it found no evidence to back the claims of an intended genocide.

Details:

Holding the government responsible:

• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a unanimous ruling, has pinned legal responsibility on Myanmar’s government for the military’s large-scale excesses of 2017.
• The ruling also stipulates the civilian government to submit an update of the steps it has taken to preserve the evidence of the systemic brutalities, which would be used in the subsequent adjudication process.
• Myanmar has also been asked to furnish periodic reports until the conclusion of the case, which relates to genocide accusations.

Still vulnerable:

• The court has noted with concern that an estimated 600,000 Rohingya residents in Myanmar are still highly vulnerable to attacks from the security forces.

Myanmar’s defence:

• Myanmar has expectedly, rejected the ICJ’s ruling and has accused rights groups of presenting the Court with a wrong picture of the situation in Myanmar.
• Myanmar has defended the army’s action as a legitimate response to violations of the law by the insurgent Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

Significance:

Ray of hope for the refugees:

• Although it could take years before the ICJ pronounces the final verdict in the genocide case, the ICJ’s injunction in the case holds hope for Rohingya refugees languishing in the Bangladesh refugee camps.

Scope for international pressure:

• The ruling empowers the UN Security Council to prevail upon Myanmar to take appropriate measures for the rehabilitation and repatriation of displaced communities.

India’s interest:

• India has its own interests in an amicable resolution of Myanmar’s internal dispute. This would reduce the pressure on India to accept the incoming refugees.

Return of normalcy in Myanmar:

• Finding an appropriate closure to the current dispute would aid Myanmar’s return to normalcy.

For more information on this topic refer:

18th Dec 2019 CNA & 24th Jan 2020 CNA

 

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. The long and the short of Uttar Pradesh

Context:

The article argues for the division of Uttar Pradesh into smaller states to ensure development.

Details:

Low rankings in most surveys:

• There has been a view that over the last two decades, U.P. has witnessed some form of progress and decreased inequality. However, some official reports and surveys have noted otherwise:
• In the UN Human Development Index Report for 2017, U.P. along with Bihar has scored the lowest among all the States of India.
• A State Bank of India Research report of March 2019 noted that U.P. had not bettered its human development index over the last 27 years.

Social issues:

• U.P. is plagued by the social issues of communalism, gender-based brutality, etc.
• Communalism, casteism have been often used to seize political power in the state. Localized, regular, “small” communal conflagrations are often manufactured for political benefits.
• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s “Household Social Consumption” survey of 2019 and NITI Aayog’s “School Education Quality Index” of 2019, measuring the participation of girl children in education, have U.P. taking the last spot.

Crime rate:

• The “Crime in India Report” for the year 2017, released by the National Crime Records Bureau, notes that U.P. has topped the list with 10% of India’s total crime and three lakh registered First Information Reports (FIRs).
• It has the highest number of crimes against women.
• U.P. leads in arms possession and gun licenses. The number of cases filed against illegal possession of arms, in the state is also the highest in India.

Economic issues:

• Given the large population of the state and the low development level in U.P., the state is facing economic problems of unemployment and underemployment.
• A large number of the poor from U.P. are forced to migrate to other states in search of better livelihood opportunities. They are subjected to sub-human treatment as migrant labour in other parts of India leading to their exploitation. They are often subject to onslaughts from nativists.
• In spite of this, illiteracy and poverty are still concerns for these migrant workers.

Reasons:

Too big to administer:

• The state of Uttar Pradesh being the most populous and being a geographically large state is too big for administrative convenience.
• Countries in Africa, Europe, and South America have fewer people than in U.P.
• In the ‘Report of the States Reorganisation Commission’, first published in 1955, the historian K.M. Panikkar, had also noted the disproportionate size of U.P.
• There have been demands from Purvanchal (east U.P.), Bundelkhand, Awadh (central U.P.) and Paschim Pradesh (west U.P.), for higher resource allocations and greater power devolution.

Modernization in traditional societies:

• When any change such as “modernity” or “democracy”, is attempted, it usually activates nativist identity politics which can lead to a spurt in ethnic conflict in societies.
• Scholars have often attributed Hindu-Muslim and caste conflicts to the pressures of so-called modernization.
• The unevenness in modernization has worsened the condition in an already uneven society, pushing U.P.’s citizenry into collective religious and caste conflicts.

Way forward:

• There have been strong arguments for the breaking up of U.P. into smaller administrative units.
• Uttarakhand split from U.P. has made notable progress since its separation from U.P.

In the 2020s, for the sake of U.P.’s citizens and Indian democracy, it is imperative to consider and deliberate on the issue of division of U.P.

F. Tidbits

1. CJI wants speedy resolution of cases

• Speaking at the 79th foundation day of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, the Chief Justice of India (CJI), expressing his views on the tax administration in India has stated that while tax evasion was injustice to fellow Indian citizens, arbitrary or excessive taxation resulted in social injustice by a government.
• The just and speedy resolution of tax disputes would act as an incentive to taxpayers, inspiring public faith in the judiciary and also would help free the funds locked in litigation, for the tax collectors.
• The use of technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data, in judicial work, can help in ensuring speedy justice.

2. Plea for judicial probe in custodial death cases

• Section 176(1A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, provides for mandatory judicial inquiry in cases of death, disappearance or rape in police and judicial custody.
• Since the enactment of Section 176(1A) in 2005, the National Human Rights Commission has recorded 24,043 custodial deaths/rapes between 2005-2006 and 2018-2019.
• The National Crimes Records Bureau’s annual reports from 2005 to 2017 state that judicial enquiry was not conducted in about 80% of the cases recorded by it.

The reports also note that the case registration and charge-sheet rate are very low and the conviction rate stands at zero.

3. 41 mn people in 13 cities locked down as virus spreads in China

• Chinese authorities have expanded the quarantine effort aimed at containing a deadly contagion to prevent the disease from spreading further. It has been expanded to 13 cities and 41 million people.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has not declared it a global emergency despite confirmed cases in half a dozen other countries.
• The WHO has stated that China faced a national emergency but stopped short of making a declaration that would have prompted greater global cooperation.
• The virus referred to as the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-03.
• The government has halted all travel out of Wuhan, shut down its public transport and told residents to stay home. Deepening the isolation, there were only a few flights available to the city.

4. Travel advisory extended to 12 more airports

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has noted that 834 cases of coronavirus infection had been reported from China, along with 26 deaths.
• The Union Health Ministry has extended its travel advisory to 12 more airports in addition to the current seven.
• The Health Ministry is in touch with the WHO for a coordinated effort to tackle the novel virus and dynamic situation.
• The WHO has maintained that the novel coronavirus (nCoV) spread was not a global health emergency, but is an emergency in China.
• No nCoV case has been detected in India so far.

5. India growth slowdown temporary: IMF

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief has stated that the present growth slowdown in India appeared to be temporary and that momentum of growth would improve going ahead.
• Addressing the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2020, the IMF chief has stated that there has been a marked improvement in the economic situation and prospects since the IMF announced its World Economic Outlook  (WEO) in 2019.
• The positive momentum included receding trade tensions after the U.S.-China first phase trade deal and synchronized tax cuts, among others.
• There have been concerns that a growth rate of 3.3% is not ideal for the world economy. There is a need for fiscal policies to be more aggressive and the need for structural reforms and dynamism in policy-making.

6. Schools in Odisha’s Jajpur remain closed as elephant runs amok

• According to the Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO), which keeps a tab on the human-elephant conflict, 102 persons have died. The loss of human lives in elephant attacks in Odisha has crossed the 100-mark in a year, for the first time.
• The high number of human deaths has only led to retaliation from the villagers, which is contributing to the alarming number of unnatural deaths of elephants.

7. ‘Work awarded for Delhi-Mumbai Expressway’

• The 1290-km-long access-controlled Delhi-Mumbai Expressway passes through Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.
• The expressway could prove to be a growth engine for the region with logistics, educational and health hubs coming up alongside it and also creating job opportunities for the youth.
• There is also the possibility of converting the expressway into an “electric highway” like those in the European countries with buses and trucks running with electric cables.
• 22 Greenfield Corridors of 7,500 km length are being developed by the government.
• A National Highways Authority of India portal has been launched to expedite and bring greater transparency into the decision-making process of granting contracts in the projects.

8. Forex reserves at life-time high of $462.16 bn

• The latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) noted that the country’s foreign exchange reserves have increased to touch a life-time high of $462.16 billion.
• The rise in reserves was mainly on account of an increase in foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves.

G. Prelims Facts

Nothing here for today!!!

H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions

 

Q1. 1. Which of the following statement/s is/are correct with respect to the 
National Security Act?

1. 1. It is applicable to the citizens of India only.
   2. The maximum period for which any person may be detained shall be six months from the date of detention.

Options:

1. 1. 1. 1 only
      2. 2 only
      3. Both 1 and 2
      4. Neither 1 nor 2

See

Q2. Which of the following is not covered under the Integrated Child Development Scheme?

1. 1. 1. Immunization
      2. Formal pre-school education
      3. Supplementary nutrition
      4. Health check-up

See

 

 Q3. Which of the following countries is the largest sugar producer in the world?

1. 1. 1. Brazil
      2. India
      3. United States of America
      4. China

See

Q4. Arrange the following in increasing order of their contribution to the tax revenues of 
the government.

1. 1. 1. Corporation tax
      2. Income tax
      3. Goods and Services Tax
      4. Custom duties

Options:

1. 1. 1. 4,2,3,1
      2. 4,3,2,1
      3. 3,4,1,2
      4. 4,2,1,3

See

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. Given the current inflation trends, the monetary policy has its own limitations in helping boost India’s slowing growth. The need of the hour is more structural reforms and fiscal measures. Comment. (10 marks, 150 words)
2. The NITI Aayog’s draft policy to revamp the government’s Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in the urban areas is a welcome relief, considering the distinctive characteristics of urban areas and the corresponding health needs. Comment. (10 marks, 150 words)