05 Mar 2021: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

CNA March 5th 2021:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. OTT platforms will not have to register: Centre
2. GoM suggests steps to stem ‘negative narrative’
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. ‘As Iran’s rupee reserves drop, traders almost halt exports’
2. ‘Include Chabahar on key corridor’
C. GS 3 Related
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. Not so stellar in protecting personal liberty
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Ending the war in Yemen
F. Prelims Facts
1. Dandi Path: Follow the Footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi
G. Tidbits
1. 20 from Myanmar seek refuge in India
2. Nepal govt. signs peace pact with rebel group
3. Yemen’s Houthis claim missile strike on oil plant
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

2. GoM suggests steps to stem ‘negative narrative’

Context:

A Group of Ministers (GoM) was formed to fine-tune government communication in an effort to neutralise what it calls a negative narrative.

Details:

• GoM has come out with suggestions to track 50 negative and 50 positive influencers on social media, neutralise the people who are writing against the government without facts and setting false narratives/spreading fake news and take other steps.
• Decisions of the government based on GoM’s deliberations include:
  • Capping FDI (foreign direct investment) for digital news media at 26%.
  • A separate section dealing with the code of ethics for Over the Top (OTT) platforms, in the new IT rules.
• Other suggestions:
  • Enlarging the Prasar Bharati News Service into a mainline news agency.
  • Coordination with schools of journalism to tap future journalists.

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. ‘As Iran’s rupee reserves drop, traders almost halt exports’

Context:

Indian merchants have almost entirely stopped signing new export contracts with Iranian buyers for commodities such as rice, sugar and tea, due to caution about Tehran’s dwindling rupee reserves with Indian banks.

Details:

• Exporters are avoiding dealing with Iran since payments are getting delayed for months.
• Iran’s rupee reserves in India’s UCO and IDBI Bank, the two lenders authorised to facilitate rupee trade, have depleted significantly and exporters are not sure whether they would be paid on time for new shipments.

Issue:

• Under U.S. sanctions, Iran is unable to use U.S. dollars to transact oil sales.
• Iran previously had a deal to sell oil to India in exchange for rupees, which it used to import critical goods, including agricultural commodities, but India stopped buying Tehran’s oil in May 2019 after a U.S. sanctions waiver expired.
• Tehran continued using its rupees to buy goods from India, but after 22 months of no crude sales, Iran’s rupee reserves have fallen.

2. ‘Include Chabahar on key corridor’

Context:

India wants Chabahar port to be included in the 13-nation International North South Transport Corridor that extends from India to Russia.

Details:

• India has expressed that it also wants the INSTC membership to be expanded by including Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
• INSTC goes via Iran’s biggest port Bandar Abbas. India has pitched in for Chabahar port also to be included in the INSTC.
• India’s External Affairs Minister proposed that the land route via Kabul and Tashkent would form the INSTC’s Eastern corridor.
• It is opined that establishing an eastern corridor through Afghanistan would maximise its potential.
• The Chabahar Port has already handled 123 vessels and 18 lakh tons of cargo.

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Ending the war in Yemen

Context:

Ending the crisis in Yemen, which amidst a multipolar civil war and Saudi bombing, has descended into chaos and is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Details:

• One of the first key foreign policy decisions that President Joe Biden took after assuming office was to end the U.S.’s support for Saudi Arabia’s six-year-long war on Yemen.
• He took several measures such as:
  • Halted weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.
  • Appointed a Special Envoy for Yemen.
  • Removed the Shia Houthi rebels, who control the northwestern parts of the Arab country, from the list of foreign terrorist organisations.

The war in Yemen:

• The crisis in Yemen is not only about the Saudi-Houthi conflict. It has many more dimensions: humanitarian, civil, geopolitical and sectarian.
• When Saudi Arabia, the UAE and their allies went to Yemen in March 2015, they had a clearly defined objective: drive the Houthis, who are backed by Iran, out of the capital Sana’a and stabilise the country under the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi that they support.
• The Saudi-led coalition imposed a blockade on Yemen, which they hoped would eventually weaken the Houthis, and started a bombing campaign aimed at wrecking the rebels militarily.
• This campaign was a failure as the Houthis entrenched themselves in the north-west despite the military and economic challenges.
• But the Saudi-backed government failed to consolidate its position even in the south.
• A separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), has established its rule in southern Yemen.
  • The UAE, which backs the STC, has pulled out of the Saudi-led coalition.

Issue:

• The humanitarian situation in Yemen is worsening by the day.
• The war has killed over 10,000 people and pushed the country to the brink of famine.
• According to the UN, 50,000 Yemenis are starving to death and 16 million will go hungry this year. They are depending on food assistance to survive, but the war is making it difficult for aid groups to operate in the country.
• Many more are dying due to preventable diseases as Yemen lacks proper health infrastructure and essential medicines.
• Continued Houthi rocket and drone attacks have left a hole in Saudi Arabia’s national security umbrella.

Way Forward:

• The last six years of war prove that the Saudi strategy of blockade and bombing was a failure.
• The Houthis continued to amass weapons, even technologically advanced drones which they use to attack Saudi targets across the border, despite the blockade, while the Yemeni people continue to suffer.
• Finding a solution to such a vexed, multipolar conflict will not be easy.
• Their immediate focus should be on tackling the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
• Even the limited humanitarian work cannot be sustained if there is no reprieve in the fighting.

Role of the U.S:

• The Houthis, if they want international legitimacy, should start talks with other stakeholders.
• A ceasefire is in everybody’s interest but the question is who initiates it.
• The Biden administration should use its leverage to pressure Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade, a key Houthi demand, as a confidence-building measure and push for talks for a lasting ceasefire.
• Once a ceasefire between the two main rival blocs is achieved, the U.S. and its regional allies could call for a multilateral conference involving all stakeholders to discuss Yemen’s future.
• Yemen can find a way out of the current crisis provided the war is brought to an immediate end and the country is given diplomatic assistance.

2. Nepal govt. signs peace pact with rebel group

What’s in News?

The Nepal government signed a peace agreement with a small communist rebel group.

• The rebels also call themselves the Nepal Communist Party.
  • The group had split from the Maoist Communist Party, which fought government troops between 1996 and 2006, when it gave up its armed revolt, agreed to United Nations-monitored peace talks and joined mainstream politics.
• The communist group is widely feared because they were known for violent attacks, extortion and bombings.
• While the government agreed to lift a ban on the group, release all their party members and supporters in jail and drop all legal cases against them, the rebel group agreed to give up all violence and resolve any issues through peaceful dialogue.

3. Yemen’s Houthis claim missile strike on oil plant

What’s in News?

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed a missile strike on a plant of energy giant Saudi Aramco in the western Saudi Arabian city of Jiddah.

• The missile strike comes amid an escalation in cross-border attacks on the country.
• The rebels’ latest claim comes after the U.S. imposed sanctions on two Houthi commanders, blaming them for civilian deaths and denouncing their ties with Iran.

Note:

• Since 2014, Yemen has been facing a multi-sided conflict involving local, regional, and international actors.
• The Houthis are a group of Zaidi Shia Muslims who ruled a kingdom in Yemen for nearly 1,000 years.
• The Shia Houthis, who the Saudis claim are backed by Iran, are controlling much of the country’s north.
• Yemen Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia-backed forces loyal to the President of Yemen agreed to a United Nations-mediated ceasefire agreement in 2018.
• In 2019, Yemen’s Shia Houthi rebels, violating the ceasefire, attacked Aramco crude oil production in Saudi Arabia.

Q1. Who was the viceroy of India when Mahatma Gandhi’s famous Salt march took place?

Q2. Consider the following statements with respect to International North South Transport 
Corridor (INSTC):

Q3. Consider the following statements with respect to Chabahar Port: 

Q4. Consider the following statements with respect to “Bao-dhaan”:

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. Several laws that are vestiges of colonialism have a chilling effect on matters of legitimate speech and dislodge the foundation of free expression. It is time for India, like many other nations, to do away with such laws. Comment. (15 Marks, 250 Words) [GS-2, Polity and Governance]
2. Evaluate the humanitarian, civil, geopolitical and sectarian dimensions of the Crisis in Yemen. Discuss the way forward. (15 Marks, 250 Words) [GS-2, International Relations]

Read the previous CNA here.

CNA March 5th 2021:- Download PDF Here