06 May 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS 1 Related

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C. GS 3 Related

Category: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. China launches new rocket, spacecraft

Context:

China has successfully launched a new rocket and prototype spacecraft.

Details:

• The launch of ‘The Long March 5B’ rocket is a major test of the country’s ambitions to operate a permanent space station and send astronauts to the Moon.
• Following the launch of the rocket, an unmanned prototype spaceship successfully separated and entered its planned orbit.
• It is expected that the spaceship will be instrumental in transporting astronauts to a space station that China plans to complete by 2022 — and eventually to the Moon.
• It would have capacity for a crew of six.
• China plans to send an astronaut to the Moon in about a decade and then build a base there.
• The new Long March 5B rocket has been specially designated to propel modules of the future space station into orbit.
• This is a step forward in its deep-space ambitions of building an orbiting space station, furthering its aspirations to rival the U.S., Russia and private companies in outer space exploration.

Note:

• The United States is so far the only country to have successfully sent humans to the Moon.
• But China has made huge strides in its effort to catch up, sending astronauts into space, satellites into orbit and a rover to the far side of the Moon.
• The U.S., however, has banned most space cooperation with China out of national security concerns, keeping China from participating in the International Space Station and prompting it to gradually develop its own equipment.

D. GS 4 Related

Nothing here for today!!!

E. Editorials

Category: ECONOMY

1. Pathways to a more resilient economy

Context:

• The author of the article articulates the necessary changes in the economic system in the face of the pandemic crisis.

Details:

• The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected the economies and lives, and has challenged the tenets of economics that have dominated public policy for the past 50 years. Such a situation necessitates the redesign of economies, businesses and lives.
• The author of the article discusses ideas to build a more resilient economy and a more just society.

Idea of De-growth:

• Traditionally, GDP has been considered the supreme goal of progress. The given scenario, where even the richest countries are failing to contain the damage of the pandemic, calls into question the prominence of GDP as a goal.
• Goals for human progress must be reset. There is a need for better measures to gauge human development.
  • A five-point ‘de-growth’ manifesto by 170 Dutch academics has recently gained a lot of attention.

Idea of national boundaries:

• Boundarylessness has been often promoted by hyper-globalizers based on the argument that boundaries impede flows of trade, finance and people. They have argued that removing such boundaries would be good for global growth.
• The author argues that boundaries between countries are good.
  • Since countries are at different stages of economic development, and have different compositions of resources, they will have to follow different paths to progress. The presence of boundaries allows them to do so.
  • The breakdown of the World Trade Organization serves as an example of the importance of borders. Under the WTO, all countries were expected to open their borders, which caused harm to countries at different stages of development, and their reluctance has been a drag on WTO negotiations.

Necessity of government’s role:

• The recent past has witnessed the growing importance of market economy, leading to the subsequent decrease in the government’s role. Capitalist corporations have wanted governments out of the way to make it easy for them to do business.
• However, the current crisis has brought to light the critical role of the government in critical times. Governments are having to bail out businesses. This calls for higher roles for governments in any future system.

Limitations of market economy:

• Market economy, though allows for higher efficiency, leads to unequal access to resources.
• Those who have money and power can acquire goods and services from the markets, while the poor do not have money to obtain what they need. The “marketization” of economies has contributed to the increasing inequalities in wealth over the last 50 years.
• There is a need to revaluate the emphasis on market economy.

Justice and dignity:

• There are inherent differences between a consumer and a citizen.
• Citizens have a broader set of needs than consumers. Citizens’ needs cannot be fulfilled merely by enabling them to consume more goods and services. They value justice, dignity and societal harmony too.
• Traditional economists’ evaluations of the benefits of free trade and competition policy are based on consumer welfare alone, and fail to account for negative impacts on citizens.
• Citizen welfare must be the objective of progress.

Importance of collaboration:

• The faith in “Darwinian competition” which propounds the principle of the survival of only the fittest, fails to recognize many deficiencies in modern societies and economies.
• Competition must be restrained and Collaboration must be promoted. This could involve collaboration among scientists in different disciplines, and among diverse stakeholders, and collaboration among sovereign countries.
• Improvements in abilities to share and govern common resources have become essential for human survival in the 21st century.

Public ownership of IPR:

• Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis on recognizing intellectual property rights as a means to promote innovation and development.
• The author calls for recognizing intellectual property as belonging to the public for the following reasons:
  • The current era of knowledge accords more power and wealth to those who own knowledge. Intellectual property monopolies are producing enormous wealth for their owners, though many were developed on the back of huge public investments.
  • Powerful technologies can be used for benign purposes.
• The author calls for evolving new institutions for public ownership of technologies and for the regulation of their use.

Way forward:

Structural changes:

• Unlike the financial crisis of 2008, which was basically a crisis of liquidity in the system wherein the solutions were obvious, the COVID-19 crisis has revealed structural weaknesses in the global economy, and would require structural changes in the system.
• Though currently global attention understandably is focused on relief and recovery, it is equally important to redesign the entire system for resilience.

Integrated approach:

• The economic system cannot be redesigned by domain experts devising solutions within their silos. There is a need for an integrated approach to redesigning the system where the new policies complement and supplement each other and increase the effectiveness of the changes.

Innovative approach:

• Innovations are required at many levels to create a more resilient world. Innovation is essential in the overall design of the economy.
• Innovations will be required in business models for business survival.

Basic changes:

• Changes will be necessary in human life patterns, work and consumption habits, and human priorities.

Category: HEALTH

1. The mark of zero

Context:

• Kerala’s relatively successful attempt in containing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background:

• Kerala has been relatively successful in its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Kerala appears to have flattened the curve with zero fresh cases on three days in May 2020. Over the past two weeks, the numbers of new cases reported have remained either the same or fewer than the number of recoveries.
  • The state has reported only a small number of cases (499) thus far.
  • The recovery rate has been good and there have been just three deaths. The case fatality rate of Kerala stands at 0.6% as against the national average of 3.3%.
• The ICMR has lauded Kerala for its containment and testing strategies and referred to it as the “Kerala model”.

Reasons behind the success:

Preparedness:

• Kerala state had containment strategies in place even before the first case of novel coronavirus was detected in Kerala.
• When the number of cases began increasing, even before WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic, Kerala shut down all educational institutions and entertainment centres, banned large gatherings and appealed to people to avoid visiting religious places.

Execution:

• Kerala, which had witnessed a 2018 Nipah outbreak, fully realized the merits of containing virus transmission by quickly tracing all the contacts, and ensured extensive contact tracing and testing, as a result of which, the containment efforts have yielded results.
• There has been active involvement of all the stakeholders who have complemented each other during the crisis.
• There has been strict adherence to epidemiology protocols.
• There has been a close and complete involvement of the government at all levels with the bureaucracy and local community.

Existing scenario in Kerala:

• Given the legacy of decades-old social revolution and development, Kerala has very good health-care infrastructure in place, down to the primary health-care centres.
• The health-seeking behaviour of the people and high literacy in Kerala have also played a pivotal role in the war against the pandemic.

Way forward:

• Despite the impressive performance of Kerala, under no circumstances can the State lower its guard given the possibility of a resurgence of the outbreak.

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. It’s time for a virtual judiciary

Context:

• The article evaluates the advantages of adopting a system of virtual judiciary in tax cases.

Details:

• During the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19, it has become clear that many activities can be done online.
• In these exceptional circumstances, ‘work from home’ as a concept has been employed extensively, and it seems to have gained enough traction even in the post lockdown scenario.
• The author evaluates the advantages of having a virtual judiciary for tax cases in India.

Arguments in favour of a virtual judiciary system:

Speedy disposal of cases:

• The pendency of cases in various courts in India is huge.
• The major concern with the present court system is that lawyers on both sides need to be physically present in court. Cases are often adjourned due to various reasons. Virtual judiciary can help address such avoidable adjournments.
• Important submissions and papers can be submitted via mail. The productivity of lawyers will increase substantially as visits to courts and long waiting hours will be more of an exception than the rule.

Ease of legal access:

• Thousands of Indians cannot afford to go to court as legal costs are high and legal procedures are complicated.
• Since most tax cases do not necessitate personal hearings, the system of virtual judiciary can ease legal access to many.

More efficient system:

• The Economic Survey of 2019-2020 evaluates the huge pendency of tax cases and revenue cases and argues for more court infrastructure and judges to solve the problem of pendency. However, the Survey fails to recognize the fact that the already existing infrastructure is grossly under-utilised.
  • Tribunals, such as the Income Tax Tribunal, function only for limited times. Judges are not accountable for efficiency and performance.
• In the case of virtual judiciary, judges can decide the case based on all the information available transparently. Virtual judiciary will enhance the quality of the judgment and also eliminate obvious errors.
• Virtual systems will help increase the efficiency of the judiciary.

Cost savings:

• A virtual judiciary results in substantial savings in costs for both the judiciary as well as the litigants through the speedy disposal of cases.

Uniqueness of tax cases:

• The fact that the jurisdiction of a court is defined by geography makes no sense in matters such as taxation and company law. All judges should be empowered to handle any case, wherever it originates.
• The change to remote, non-personal electronic court hearings will bring several benefits.
  • Better utilisation of manpower and infrastructure by the equitable distribution of work.
  • Malpractices will be limited as there will no longer be familiarity between lawyers and judges in a city.
• The use of the court hall to decide tax cases is superfluous. Many of these cases can be decided even without going to court. 

For more related information, refer to:

CNA dated April 28, 2020

CNA dated April 7, 2020

G. Tidbits

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Q1. Consider the following statements with respect to Qutb Minar:

Q2. Consider the following statements:

Q3. Consider the following statements:

Q4. Consider the following statements: