UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis Nov26

A. GS1 Related

B. GS2 Related

• The Ministry of Law and Justice website shows that 106 judicial appointments to the High Courts and the Supreme Court were issued by the government from October to November 2018.
• The government also approved 16 transfers of judges to the various High Courts.

Related Concept – Appointment of Judges

• The Constituent Assembly adopted a consultative process of appointing judges to ensure that judges remain insulated from political influence.
• It avoided legislative interference and also the undemocratic provision of a veto to the Chief Justice.
• Instead, it vested in the President the power to both make appointments and transfer judges between high courts.
• The President (to act on the advice of the council of ministers) was however required to consult certain authorities such as the CJI or chief justice of the high court appropriately.
• ‘Consultation’ – The Supreme Court earlier ruled that the word “consultation” could not be interpreted to mean “concurrence”.
• Accordingly, the CJI’s opinion was not binding on the executive.
• Nevertheless, the executive could depart from the opinion only in exceptional circumstances and any such decision could be subject to judicial review.
• The system was thus fairly balanced and in the First Judges Case, 1981 the court once again endorsed this interpretation.
• Second Judges Case – In the famous Second Judges Case, 1993 the court, however, overruled its earlier decisions.
• It now held that “consultation” meant “concurrence”, and that the CJI’s view enjoys primacy.
• This is with the rationale that CJI could be best equipped to know and assess the “worth” of candidates.
• But, the CJI was to formulate the opinion only through a body of senior judges that the court described as the ‘collegium’.
• In the Third Judges Case, 1998 the court clarified that the collegium would comprise CJI and four senior-most colleagues, in appointments to the Supreme Court.
• And, the CJI and two senior-most colleagues in the case of appointments to the high courts.
• Additionally, for HCs, the collegium would consult other senior judges in the SC who had previously served in the HC concerned.
• On whether these views of the consultee-judges are binding on the collegium or not, the judgments are silent.
• NJAC – The government, through 99th constitutional amendment, sought to replace the collegium with the National Judicial Appointments Commission. The Supreme Court, however, struck NJAC down.
• The court’s rationale was that the NJAC law gave politicians an equal say in judicial appointments to constitutional courts.
• In what might now be called the Fourth Judges Case (2015), the court upheld the primacy of the collegium.
• More importantly, it declared collegium as part of the Constitution’s basic structure.
• And so its power could not be removed even through a constitutional amendment.
• But given the criticisms against the system, the judgment promised to consider appropriate measures to improve the collegium system.

C. GS3 Related

News: The Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) for Africa and Asia, a 45-nation international organisation on disaster warning, has termed ‘Titli’, the severe cyclonic storm that devastated Odisha in October, as ‘rarest cyclone’.

Details:

The Titli cyclone is the rarest of rare in more than 200 years of cyclone track history in the Odisha coast terms of its characteristics such as recurvature after landfall and retaining its destructive potential after landfall and recurvature away from the coastal areas for more than two days. Please go through the following link for more the cyclone.

BYJU’S CNA Oct 12, 2018

Challenges:

The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority faced challenges in anticipating and managing Titli’s impact due to lack of impact-based actionable early warning information and prior experience not only in India but also elsewhere.

 Way Forward:

The RIMES has recommended that a detailed risk assessment has to be carried out for Odisha to understand the risks in the light of the Titli devastation.

News: According to a study in the online journal NeuroImage Clinical, HIV-infected children have lower neuropsychological test scores thus reflecting reduced memory span, attention deficit and decreased visual-motor coordination among other conditions.

Details:

• The study concluded that all HIV infected children had lower neuropsychological test scores as compared to the control group.
• The HIV infected children in the study were also found to have significantly decreased Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuations (ALFF) and Functional connectivity (FC) in multiple brain regions that are related to cognition.

About HIV virus:

Way Forward:

According to the doctors, such studies highlight the need for a holistic approach to HIV programmes. The emphasis should not only be on medication, but also nutritional, psychological and neurodevelopmental support.

News: A recent publication by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) titled Faunal Diversity of Biogeographic Zones: Islands of India has for the first time come up with a database of all faunal species found on the island, putting the number at 11,009. The documentation proves that the islands, comprising only 0.25% of India’s geographical area, are home to more than 10% of the country’s fauna species.

Issue:

• Tourism, illegal construction and mining are posing a threat to the islands’ biodiversity, which is already vulnerable to volatile climatic factors.
• The number of tourists visiting the islands has crossed the number of people residing in them, with latest data showing 4.87 lakh tourists visiting the islands annually.
• In a recent development, the Government of India relaxed the Restricted Area Permit (RAP) norms for some foreign nationalities notified under the Foreigners (Restricted Areas) Order, 1963, to visit 29 of its inhabited islands, till December 31, 2022. This has triggered further concerns of increased anthropogenic pressures over the islands’ ecosystem.

Facts:

• The Narcondam hornbill, its habitat restricted to a lone island; the Nicobar megapode, a bird that builds nests on the ground; the Nicobar treeshrew, a small mole-like mammal; the Long-tailed Nicobar macaque, and the Andaman day gecko, are among the 1,067 endemic faunal species found only on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and nowhere else.
• The total area of the A&N Islands, which comprises of 572 islands, islets and rocky outcrops, is about 8,249 sq. km. The population of the islands, which includes six particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) — Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa, Sentinelese, Nicobarese and Shompens — is not more than 4 lakh. The number of tourists visiting the islands has crossed the number of people residing in them, with latest data showing 4.87 lakh tourists visiting the islands annually.
• Of the ten species of marine fauna found on the islands, the dugong/sea cow, and the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, are both classified as Vulnerable under the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.
• Among the 46 terrestrial mammalian species found, three species have been categorised as Critically Endangered — Andaman shrew (Crocidura andamanensis), Jenkin’s shrew (C. jenkinsi) and Nicobar shrew (C. nicobarica). Five species are listed as Endangered, nine species as Vulnerable, and one species as Near Threatened, according to the IUCN.
• Among birds, endemism is quite high, with 36 among 344 species of birds found only on the islands. Many of these bird species are placed in the IUCN Red List of threatened species under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA).
• Another unique feature of the islands’ ecosystem is its marine faunal diversity, which includes coral reefs and its associated fauna. In all, 555 species of scleractinian corals (hard or stony corals) are found in the island ecosystem, all which are placed under Schedule I of the WPA.

News: The textile sector is one of the oldest and largest in the country and a major contributor to the development of the economy. The industry employs both skilled and unskilled manpower and contributes over 10% of the total annual exports of the country, which is likely to increase under the GST regime.

Benefits of GST:

• A year after implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the system is getting streamlined for the intended purpose of achieving the objective of ‘One nation one tax’.
• In the excise regime, multiple tax systems had increased administrative costs for manufacturers and distributors. With GST in place, the compliance burden has eased.
• GST brought in developments and changed the way businesses conducted themselves.
• It is commendable on the part of the GST Council to arrive at decisions on a consistent basis, despite differences of opinion among various sectors and political parties.

Tax burden declines

• Many from the textile industry have stated that the overall tax burden has come down for the sector to 18% from 20% and that the new system has also increased transparency in the sector, which provides employment to 45 million people.
• A majority of the Indian industry functions in the unorganised sector or the composition scheme, creating a gap in the flow of input tax credit (ITC). If a registered taxpayer procures the input from taxpayers under the composition scheme or the unorganised sector, ITC will not be allowed for him.
• With the implementation of GST, the input credit system has smoothly shifted the balance towards the organised sector. By subsuming different taxes such as entry tax, luxury tax and octroi, the costs for manufacturers will be reduced in the textile industry.
• For textile mills, the import cost of the latest technology to manufacture textile goods is expensive because the excise duty paid for the same was not allowed in ITC. Under GST, ITC is available for all the tax paid on capital goods.
• The process of claiming ITC is simplified in GST, which allows the textile sector to be competitive in the export market.

Opportunity for textile industry

• First, yarn now attracts 5% GST and the machinery to manufacture yarn attracts 18%. This is uneven. Yarn manufacturers will be left with a huge input credit which they won’t be able to utilise.
• There is no provision under GST to get such accumulated credit as refund for capital goods. This will contribute to dead investment for the textile industry over several years.
• Second, a foreign manufacturing company is now permitted to set up a unit without any investment from the domestic market, bring in 100% of their share, and repatriate profit to their countries. This has made the domestic textile machinery manufacturing companies to compete in an unfavourable environment.
• It also keeps domestic industries healthy and facilitates a healthy employment environment. Also, more incentives must be given to the textile sector to help explore the export market at competitive prices.

Way Forward:

• A simplified procedure is needed in the e-way bill legislation to ease transportation of goods by minimising documentation, physical verification and the like.
• To safeguard the domestic industry’s interest, the government should create a level-playing field which will pave the way for ‘Make in India’ to prosper.

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

Editorial Analysis:

• At the recently conducted Paris Peace Forum commemorating the end of World War I, the heads of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank made the case for a more inclusive multilateralism.
• While drawing comparisons between 1914 and today’s situations in terms of inequalities, they had warned against the temptation of a divisive globalisation which could only benefit the wealthiest.

Perspective on China:

• It is important to note that China’s discourse on a new “connected” multilateralism, through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is building upon the same inclusive project now led by a non-Western and non-democratic superpower.
• Experts suggest that there is indeed an ambition to influence the world — if not directly control it — by making the rules on which it functions. This normative determination to achieve a far greater objective has hardly been addressed when analysing China’s BRI and its impact.
• Experts point out that there is more to the BRI than the six economic corridors spanning Asia, Europe and Africa, of which the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is perhaps the most controversial.
• The BRI is included in the Constitution of an officially socialist China.
• The BRI is a political project and a Chinese one no matter the number of other partners joining the effort and participating to its funding.

A Look at the Framework:

• Experts point out that the normative framework put in place by China plays an interesting role.
• These norms manifest themselves in the form of:

1. guiding principles,
2. declarations,
3. general agreements and
4. other communication tools including the “Digital Silk Road”.  

• They constitute a normative discourse, a form of behaviour, a standard to abide by, but are not legally binding yet.

A Look at Specifics:

• It is important to note that the BRI indeed develops without any dedicated law, nor is it a comprehensive trade or economic partnership.
• It is different from conventional trade agreements that seek to eliminate market access barriers, harmonise regulations and impose preconditions for entry.
• The only legal texts one could refer to are to be found in the network of foreign trade agreements, bilateral investment treaties and other international investment agreements China is a party to.
• However, these networks of agreements have no special link with the BRI, although they could be brought in to resolve issues emanating from the BRI.
• Further, China is a party to numerous state-sponsored business contracts between Chinese firms, including state-owned companies, and foreign business partners, public or private.
• This non-legal yet rather domineering proposal is not a surprise.
• Experts point out that the fluid, if not vague, nature of the BRI is nothing but a manifestation of a pragmatism with Chinese characteristics that has the capacity to constantly adjust to a fast-changing environment.
• Further, the absence of law is actually partial and temporary.

Resolution of BRI Disputes:

• • China is preparing for the domestic resolution of BRI disputes with the creation by the Supreme People’s Court of two dedicated branches of the China International Commercial Court.

• One branch would be in Shenzhen to tackle the Maritime Road disputes, and one in Xi’an to settle overland Belt issues.

• • In addition, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre has specific BRI arbitration clauses and administered arbitration rules.

• Experts point out that investor-state disputes could also be settled on the basis of China’s investment agreements, nationally or internationally, in a given arbitration forum — for example, the World Bank-sponsored International Centre for Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID).

What is the “Digital Silk Road”?

• The Digital Silk Road envisages “innovation action plans for e-commerce, digital economy, smart cities and science and technology parks”.
• The Digital Silk Road was announced in 2015, and its name traces its origins to China’s Silk Road, which is an ancient network of trade routes that connected East and West.
  It is a part of China’s technology and trade strategies.
• It is important to note that China’s multi-faceted technology strategy has helped new tech giants like Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent to grow. The country has created policy frameworks – such as its cybersecurity framework and new data protection framework – to help drive its technology strategy.
• One strand of this strategy focuses on artificial intelligence (AI), which relies heavily on data.

Certain Institutional strategies:

• The institutional setting of the BRI is also rather light.
• Joint committees are put in place and the existing institutions mobilised from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which is contributing to the BRI despite the rather distant position of some of its members and India in particular, which is the largest recipient of AIIB funding.
• Experts point out that it is in this context that China is not challenging the existing institutional set-up or proposing something different than what exists in the Bretton Woods Institutions.
• From the functioning of the banks to their advisory committees, the same structure and often the same people are found.

Concluding Remarks:

• In conclusion, it is important to note that the BRI as it stands is not conceived as a tool for economic integration.
• The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and six countries is better equipped to deal with market access and integration goals within the Asia-Pacific region.
• Further, the BRI’s dispute resolution will be predominantly on commercial disputes, involving either projects or contractual obligations.
• However, keeping in mind that the world trading system is passing through a turmoil, the possibility of regional trade agreements or amorphous legal devices such as the BRI embracing greater trade liberalisation goals cannot be entirely ruled out.
• Finally, a failure to resolve the WTO Appellate Body crisis or any consequent weakening of the multilateral dispute resolution process could present an opportunity for purely nationalistic initiatives to transmute and assume larger objectives.

Larger Background:

• As per the World Malaria Report 2017 of World Health Organization (WHO), the estimated malaria cases from India are 87% in South East Asia region.  
• The estimation of the malaria cases is based on mathematical modelling and projected cases of malaria are not the actual cases reported in the country.
• Major contribution is by India because of its population. Malaria is mainly concentrated in the states of Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura because of the inaccessible terrain – many areas get cut off post monsoon, presence of efficient vectors – mosquito that transmit malaria and difficult terrain because of which malaria continues to be high in many pockets.  
• However, in the year 2017, reported malaria cases have declined by 23% as compared to 2016 and the incidence of malaria in India is 0.66 cases per one thousand population (2017).
• Global technical strategy (2016-30) announced by WHO and adopted by World Health Assembly in May 2015 call for malaria elimination by 2030.
• The Government has unveiled a plan to eliminate Malaria by 2030. The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030 document launched on 11th February, 2016, lays out the vision, mission, broad principles and practices to achieve the target of malaria elimination by 2030 synchronising with the Global Technical Strategy (GTS) for Malaria 2016-2030 of World Health Organisation (WHO).  
• The Government has drafted National Strategic Plan for malaria elimination (2017-2020) wherein the country has been stratified based on the malaria burden into four categories – category 0 to category 3 and based on this the intervention of malaria control and prevention are being strengthened.
• Interventions that are being strengthened are as follows:

• Early diagnosis and complete treatment
• Case based surveillance and rapid response
• Integrated Vector Management

• Indoor Residual Spray (IRS)
• Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs)/ Insecticide-treated Nets (ITNs)
• Larval Source Management (LSM)

• Epidemic Preparedness and Early Response
• Monitoring & Evaluation
• Advocacy, coordination and Partnerships
• Behavior Change Communication (BCC) and Community Mobilization
• Programme Planning and management.

Editorial Analysis:

• India has suffered from a major burden of malaria for decades, with high levels of morbidity and death. But the declining trend of the scourge shows that sustained public health action can achieve good results.
• The World Malaria Report 2018 of the World Health Organisation notes that India’s record offers great promise in the quest to cut the number of new cases and deaths globally by at least 40% by 2020, and to end the epidemic by 2030.
• A lot of that optimism has to do with the progress made by Odisha, one of the most endemic States.

The State of Odisha- A bright Spot:

• Investments made in the State of Odisha in recruiting accredited social health workers and large-scale distribution of insecticide-treated bednets, together with strategies to encourage health-seeking behaviour, appear to have paid off.
• The WHO report highlights a sharp drop in the number of cases in the State of Odisha.
• Further, the reduction in cases by half in 2017 compared to the same study period in 2016 appears to reinforce research findings: malaria cases in Odisha have been coming down steadily since 2003, with a marked reduction since 2008, attributed to greater political and administrative commitment.
• Experts suggest that this positive trend should encourage authorities not just in Odisha, but in the northeastern States and elsewhere too to cut the transmission of the disease further.
• Importantly, the reduction in the number of cases should not produce complacency and lead to a reduction in deployment of health workers and funding cuts to programme components.
• Where allocations have been reduced, they should be reversed. It should be pointed out that even in 2017, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry put the number of malaria cases in Odisha at 3,52,140.

Concluding Remarks:

• • Experts point out that one issue which requires monitoring in India is resistance to combination therapy using artemisinin.
  • Recent reports indicate that some patients in West Bengal became resistant to the treatment protocol used for the falciparum parasite, which causes debilitating cerebral malaria and leads to a high number of deaths.
  • The phenomenon requires close monitoring. Although the WHO said in a recent assessment that the treatment policy was changed to another efficacious set of combination drugs in some northeastern States, after statistically significant treatment failure rates were found in 2012.
  • In conclusion, it is important to note that eliminating malaria requires an integrated approach, and this should involve Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal, which have a higher burden of the disease.

• Finally, Odisha’s experience with using public health education as a tool and reaching out to remote populations with advice needs to be replicated.

• Given that emerging resistance to treatment has been reported in Myanmar, among other countries in this belt, there is a need for a coordinated approach to rid southern Asia of malaria.

Larger Background:

• The Sentinelese are the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island.

• • The area is about 60 Sq. Kilometers.

• They are probably the world’s only Paleolithic people surviving today without contact with any other group or community.

• They are considered as an off-shoot to the Onge Jarawa tribes which have acquired a different identity due to their habitation in an isolated and have lost contact with the main tribes.
• The Sentinelese are very hostile and never leave their Island. Very little is known about these hostile tribes.

Editorial Analysis:

• The recent death of a young American, John Chau at the hands of the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has led to dangerous lines of debate.
• Some have called for the Sentinelese to be convicted and punished and others have urged that they be integrated into modern society.
• Experts suggest that both these demands are misguided, and can only result in the extinction of a people.
• It is important to note that John Chau’s killing was a tragedy but his attempt to make contact with the Sentinelese, who he seemed to know something about, was dangerous, not only to himself but to them.
• There is a reason why no one — whether missionary, scholar, adventurer, U.S. citizen or Indian — is allowed to venture near North Sentinel Island without permission, which is given only in the rarest of circumstances and with meticulous precautions in place to ensure that the Sentinelese are not disturbed.
• The Sentinelese have lived in isolation in an island in the Bay of Bengal for thousands of years. The Sentinelese have no immunity or resistance to even the commonest of infections.
• Various degrees of protection are in place for the indigenous people of A&N Islands, but it is complete in the case of the Sentinelese. The administration enforces “an ‘eyes-on and hands-off’ policy to ensure that no poachers enter the island”.
• A protocol of circumnavigation of the island is in place, and the buffer maintained around the island is enforced under various laws.
• The Sentinelese are perhaps the most reclusive community in the world today.
• Their language is so far understood by no other group and they have traditionally guarded their island fiercely, attacking most intruders with spears and arrows. Arrows were fired even at a government aircraft that flew over the island after the 2004 Tsunami.
• Chau knowingly broke the law, as did those who took him to the waters off North Sentinel Island.
• As a matter of fact, seven persons, including five fishermen, have been arrested for facilitating this misadventure.

Concluding Remarks:

• Further, to call for an investigation on the island, however, is to fail to see its historical and administrative uniqueness.
• At the heart of the issue is the survival of the Sentinelese.
• According to the 2011 Census, their population was just 15 — though anthropologists like T.N. Pandit, who made contact with them in the 1960s, put the figure at 80-90.
• Finally, Chau’s death is a cautionary incident — for the danger of adventurism, and for the administration to step up oversight. But it is also an occasion for the country to embrace its human heritage in all its diversity, and to empathetically try to see the world from the eyes of its most vulnerable inhabitants.

F. Tidbits

• Vetiver, ‘the wonder grass’ of Tamil Nadu, has a wide range of applications in the pharma and cosmetic industries, besides anti-soil erosion properties.
• The grass, which grows up to five feet and whose fragrant root reaches up to 10 feet, has huge global demand in the aromatic industry.
• The grass is popular for its quality to combat soil erosion and absorb carbon dioxide, thus erasing carbon footprints. In the last few years, niche products have been created with vetiver by value addition.
• Vetiver is ideal for the long coastline, as it is suited for sandy soil.
• It is easy to harvest this crop, which fetches very high returns. The vast coastline can be utilised to raise vetiver in a big way,
• The grass can be used to purify polluted water bodies, especially temple tanks, and to arrest soil erosion in ghat sections, especially in Kerala and Kodaikanal.
• The grass is now a favourite among inland farmers as well. The yield is low, compared to coastal areas, but the quality of grass is high.
• Against a yield of two to 2.5 tonnes per acre in coastal areas, inland farmers get 1.5 lakh tonnes. Essential oil recovery is 0.8% in coastal grass and 1.49% in inland grass. One kg of essential oil fetches between ₹30,000 and ₹58,000.
• One kg of vetiver yields 300 grams of oil and it is possible to realise over ₹1.5 lakh per acre, excluding all expenses, over a period of 10 months
• Its moisture retention property makes vetiver a natural choice for soil conservation and replenishment of groundwater. It is ideal for dryland cultivation using organic farming practices.
• It is also used in ethanol extraction, as cattle feed and for making handicrafts. Another quality of vetiver is that it is an anti-depressant.

• To resign is a right of an employee and he cannot be forced to continue, the Supreme Court has said in a recent order.
• An employee cannot be compelled to serve in case he is not willing “until and unless there is some stipulation in the rules or in the terms of appointment or disciplinary proceedings is pending or contemplated which is sought to be avoided by resigning from the services.”

G. Prelims Fact

• Dudhwa Tiger Reserve and Sashastra Seema Bal have joined hands to provide security to Dudhwa forests and its rich wildlife.

H. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam