16 Mar 2021: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

CNA 16 March 2021:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. GS 1 Related
B. GS 2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. Bill to define Delhi L-G’s powers moved in LS
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Adani Ports confirms role in Colombo terminal project
2. Biden seeks to boost Asia alliances
C. GS 3 Related
DEFENCE
1. ‘India’s arms imports down by 33%’
D. GS 4 Related
E. Editorials
POLITY
1. Poll position
SOCIAL ISSUES
1. The limits of POCSO
F. Prelims Facts
1. National Vaccination Day
2. SC bats for Great Indian Bustard
G. Tidbits
1. Over 60% OBC, SC posts vacant in IIMs
2. WPI inflation quickens to 27-month high
3. Haryana, T.N. institutes get national importance tag
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

2. Biden seeks to boost Asia alliances

Context:

• U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Adviser are set to meet their Chinese counterparts in Alaska, in the first face-to-face interaction between the Biden administration and China.
• The meeting is happening after a volley of diplomatic efforts by the Biden administration to strengthen America’s relations with its allies and partners in Asia.

Biden’s foreign policy approach towards China:

• There is a consensus within the Biden administration that China, not Russia, is America’s primary rival.
  • The Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, released by the administration, calls China the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system.
  • According to the Secretary of State, the U.S.’s relationship with China will be the biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century.
• The Alaska meet suggests that the Biden administration would seek to engage with China on matters of mutual interest even if overall relations remain tense.
  • Climate change and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic are such areas.
• There are geopolitical areas as well where both sides can continue cooperation.
  • The U.S. has already proposed a multilateral UN-led conference involving the representatives of China, Russia, India, Iran, Pakistan and the U.S. to find a lasting solution to the Afghan conflict.
  • The Biden administration has made its intention clear to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
  • China, along with other permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany and the EU, is a signatory to the deal.
  • The U.S. would need China’s diplomatic support in its effort to bring the nuclear accord back on track.
• The main theatre of the U.S.-China rivalry is set to be the Indo-Pacific region.
  • That a Quad summit was held within the first 50 days of the Biden administration points to the high priority Mr. Biden gives to the grouping in its Indo-Pacific strategy.

America’s Indo-Pacific Alliance:

• Among the Quad countries, India is the only country that shares a land border with China.
• For Japan, South Korea and Australia, China is their top trade partner and uninterrupted trade with China is important for their continued prosperity.
• However, all these countries share security concerns with a fast-rising China.
• The same is the case with countries in the region such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and even communist Vietnam.
• The U.S. is trying to tap these concerns while seeking to stitch together an Indo-Pacific alliance system.

Conclusion:

While the U.S. has been a strong proponent of a stronger Quad, it is to be seen whether Mr. Biden would be able to regroup the Quad and other American allies in the region such as South Korea against China in an emerging bipolar contest.

Category: SOCIAL ISSUES

1. The limits of POCSO

Context

• A single bench of the Madras High Court recently allowed a petition seeking to quash a case of kidnap, aggravated penetrative sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault of a minor.

Minor’s consent is ‘no consent in eyes of law’

• Under POCSO, the consent of a person under the age of 18 is irrelevant, regardless of the nature and circumstance of the sexual interaction, or the particulars of the person with whom it takes place.
• This means that any sex with a minor is rape.

Sexual tendencies of adolescents

• The act has provisions that criminalize consensual sexual intercourse between two people below the age of 18.
• The court while analyzing the case has taken a view that adolescence and young adulthood form a continuum because of the physical, biological, neurological, and social changes that occur during adolescence.
• So the court came to a conclusion that the relationship of the minor ‘victim’ with the accused respondent is a loving, rather than an abusive, one.

What did the Court say?

• The judgment echoes the arguments that child rights activists have been making for years: by ignoring the natural sexual tendencies of adolescents, POCSO can and does become a tool for the persecution of young people in consenting sexual relations.
• The judgment concluded that the case could be quashed because it was purely individual in nature and doing so would not affect any overriding public interest.
• It held “Punishing an adolescent boy who enters into a relationship with a minor girl by treating him as an offender, was never the objective of the POCSO Act”.

Violation of established precedents

• In following the above-mentioned reasoning the court has ignored the established precedent against quashing cases of rape, a heinous and serious offence, held by the Supreme Court to be a public concern, and not a private matter.

Views of the Parliamentary Committee (Rajya Sabha)

• The committee had considered the POCSO Bill, 2011 and it criticized the clause providing for the possibility of consent in cases of sexual intercourse with minors between the ages of 16 and 18.
• It believed that a uniform age of 18 would ensure that trials of child rape would focus on the conduct of the accused and the circumstances of the offence, instead of putting victims on trial as is often the case when the consent of the victim is in question.
• This would indicate that adolescent sexuality was not meant to be an exception to POCSO’s bright-line approach.

Law and Justice

• It has thus forced courts to choose between applying the law and doing justice, especially in cases where the minor victim has willingly eloped with or married the accused or is carrying his child, for imprisoning him would only do her harm.

Way forward

• POCSO should be amended to take such cases into consideration.
• The legislature should take into consideration cases of this nature involving adolescents involved in relationships and swiftly bring in necessary amendments under the Act.

Conclusion

• Therefore, the judgment was intuitively just, even though it was not in line with precedent.
• It highlighted the urgent need for a reconsideration of the absolutist approach of POCSO when it comes to the sexual interactions of adolescents with other young people.

2. SC bats for Great Indian Bustard

What’s in News?

The Supreme Court has intervened on the issue of the Great Indian Bustards falling dead after colliding with power lines running through their diminishing natural habitats in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Great Indian Bustard:

• The Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) is a bustard native to the Indian subcontinent.
• Bustards are large terrestrial birds found in dry grasslands and steppe regions.
• It is among the heaviest of flying birds in existence.
• It is listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List.

Read more on the Great Indian Bustard.

2. WPI inflation quickens to 27-month high

What’s in News?

The wholesale price-based inflation rose for the second consecutive month to a 27-month high of 4.17% in February 2021 as food, fuel and power prices spiked.

• The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is the price of a representative basket of wholesale goods.
• WPI reflects changes in the average prices of goods at the wholesale level — that is, commodities sold in bulk and traded between businesses or entities rather than goods bought by consumers.
• WPI is released by the Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Wholesale price-based inflation:

• While retail inflation looks at the price at which the consumer buys products, WPI is measured based on prices at the wholesale level.
• WPI does not include services.
• The extent of the rise in WPI is used to measure the level of wholesale inflation in the economy.
• WPI provides estimates of inflation at the wholesale transaction level for the economy overall.
• It also helps in timely intervention by the government to monitor inflation before the price hike spills over to retail prices.

3. Haryana, T.N. institutes get national importance tag

What’s in News?

The Rajya Sabha passed the National Institutes of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2019.

• It confers the status of national importance on two food technology institutes at Kundli in Haryana and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu.

Q1. Consider the following statements:

Q2. Consider the following statements with respect to the Great Indian Bustard:

Q3. Consider the following statements with respect to Deep Ocean Mission:

Q4. Consider the following statements with respect to Bara-lacha La:

CNA 16 March 2021:- Download PDF Here