A. GS1 Related

B. GS2 Related

• The Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to examine sexual harassment at the workplace may consider amending the law to ensure workplace safety, according to government sources.
• The WCD ministry has shared with the Home ministry a meeting agenda, which includes changes to the Sexual Harassment of Women and Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, sources in the WCD ministry said.
• “The agenda mentions lacunae in the law as well as suggests ways to improve it,” said a senior WCD ministry official, who did not wish to be identified. He added that the guiding principles for making the amendments would be the Vishaka guidelines.

Vishaka guidelines

• The Vishaka Guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in 1997 lays the onus on the employer to prevent or deter acts of sexual harassment, apart from “providing resolution, settlement or prosecution of acts of sexual harassment.”
• The Act lays down the duties of an employer: ensuring a safe working place, displaying penal consequences of sexual harassment, creating awareness, as well as facilitating an internal probe.

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013

• This act was enacted in April 2013 as India’s first law dealing with the protection of women against sexual harassment at workplace.

Some important features of this act are as follows

• This Act aimed to provide every woman, irrespective of her age or employment status, a safe and secure working environment free from all forms of harassment.
• This Act covered both the organized and unorganized sectors in India. The statute applied to all government bodies, private and public sector organizations, non-governmental organizations, organizations carrying out commercial, vocational, educational, entertainment, industrial, financial activities, hospitals etc.
• This Act defined ‘sexual harassment’ in line with the Supreme Court’s definition in the Vishaka Judgment.
• The Act extended the meaning of the word sexual harassment to include “presence or occurrence of circumstances of implied or explicit promise of preferential treatment in employment, threat of detrimental treatment in employment, threat about present or future employment, interference with work or creating an intimidating or offensive or hostile work environment, or humiliating treatment likely to affect the lady employee’s health or safety could also amount to sexual harassment”.
• The Act also introduced the concept of ‘extended workplace’ since sexual harassment is not always confined to the primary place of employment. Therefore, the Act defined ‘workplace’ to include any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the course of employment, including transportation provided by the employer for the purpose of commuting to and from the place of employment.
• The Act provided for the establishment of Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at each and every office or branches of the organization employing 10 or more employees, in order to provide a forum for filing complaints to facilitate fast redressal of the grievances pertaining to sexual harassment.
• It also provided for the establishment of local complaints committee (LCC) at the district level by the Government to investigate and redress complaints of sexual harassment of the unorganized sector or from those establishments where the ICC has not been constituted for the reason being, it having less than 10 employees.

Context

• The Maharashtra Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a Bill proposing 16% reservation for Marathas in government jobs and education. With this, 85% of the State’s population will be entitled to constitutional benefits under Article 15(4), 16 (4) of the Constitution.
• The approval of the Bill will also see the reservation limit go up from the current 52%to 68%, thus crossing the 50% ceiling set by Supreme Court. “This is a compelling extraordinary situation demanding extraordinary solutions within the constitutional framework,” the draft Bill says while suggesting it “expedient” to provide for 16% reservation to the Marathas.

Some facts about Reservation policy in India

• When the Indian Constitution was ratified in 1950, it included a provision to reserve up to 22.5% of enrolment of marginalized group – 15% for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for Scheduled tribes. This was based on Census 1950.
• Articles 340, 341 and 342 of the constitution of India detail the classification and reservation to be made in favour of members of Scheduled castes or scheduled tribes.
• In 1992 in the Indira Sawhney vs Union of India and others, the Supreme Court of India in its judgement laid down that the total reservation cannot exceed 50% under the state.
• The reservation policy was intended to redress caste-based inequalities. It was thought to be reviewed every ten years and removed when social justice for all was achieved. However, the reservation system has been expanded to include the OBCs.
• In 1979, The Backwards classes Commission (popularly known as the Mandal commission formed by the Janata Party in power) identified 3,743 communities which comprised 52% of the Indian population as belonging to ‘socially and educationally backward classes”. It recommended that 27% of seats be reserved for OBCS in addition to existing 22.5% of seats reserved for SCs and STs. The recommendations were rejected by Indira Gandhi led Government in 1980.
• 1990-Mandal commission recommendations were implemented in Government Jobs by Vishwanath Pratap Singh in the Janata Party led Government.
• The list of OBCs maintained by the Indian Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is dynamic, with castes and communities being added or removed depending on social, educational and economic factors. Further, every state has its own reservation norms based on demographics, and maintains its own list of Other Backward Class (OBC).
• Reservation in Tamil Nadu has been included in the 9th schedule of the constitution of India, which cannot be challenged in a court of law, for violation of fundamental rights against Article 14 and 15.

Context

• The government on Thursday argued that the mid-tenure divestment of Alok Kumar Verma from the functions and duties of CBI Director on October 23 does not amount to a “transfer.”
• Appearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal countered arguments raised by Mr. Verma that the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, required the government to get prior approval of the selection committee led by the Prime Minister before “transferring” or withdrawing work from the CBI Director.
• Venugopal said there is nothing to back Mr. Verma’s claim that he has been “transferred.” “There is no change in his status, he continues to get the perquisites of his office, the same official residence, same staff and car. All is intact. Can he claim he has been transferred?”
• Senior advocate Fali Nariman, for Mr. Verma, said his divestment was “far worse” than a transfer. He contended that the “deprivation of all his powers” as CBI Director and the appointment of M. Nageshwar Rao as acting CBI chief could not have been done by the CVC and the government without first obtaining the recommendation of the committee.

Related News – ‘Can’t bar media from reporting pleas’

• Senior advocate Fali Nariman told the Supreme Court on Thursday that it could not prohibit media from reporting petitions and pleas filed which contain scandalous allegations, but could consider issuing a direction to the media to postpone their publication in the public interest.
• But Mr. Nariman said the court should first “mould either a circular or a rule” under which the court can seek a postponement of publication by media about allegations levelled in a case filed in court but which is yet to be heard on the judicial side.
• Nariman’s submissions came after a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had sought his assistance, disturbed by reports widely published in the media about an application filed by a senior CBI officer, Manish Kumar Sinha, in the case of divestment of powers of CBI Director Alok Verma.
• Sinha’s application contained serious allegations against National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Union Minister of State for Coal and Mines Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary, Union Law Secretary Suresh Chandra, among others.
• The Supreme Court had accused parties of freely parting with sensitive allegations against top government functionaries to the media and using the court as a “platform to say anything they want”

Background

• The tussle between CBI Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana started in 2017. It all started with Asthana’s appointment to CBI.
• Verma handed over a confidential letter to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) over Asthana’s promotion to the post of CBI special director, claiming the latter was under investigation in the 2017 Sterling Biotech bribery case. However, Asthana’s promotion was cleared.
• In June 2018, Alok Verma wrote another letter to the CVC that Asthana could not represent him in his absence since the latter faces allegations of corruption.
• Later, Asthana shot back and filed a complaint against Verma accusing him of interfering in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) corruption case involving the family members of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav.
• This bureaucratic infight between Verma and Asthana came to a head when the CBI named Asthana in a First Information Report (FIR) in a bribery case and the allegations escalated.
• On October 21, the CBI charged Rakesh Asthana, a 1984-batch Indian Police Service officer of Gujarat cadre, of accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a Hyderabad-based businessman Sathish Babu Sana, who was under probe in the Moin Qureshi case in order to “wreck” the investigation.
• The CBI has alleged that bribes were given at least five times between December 2017 and October 2018.
• The charges against Asthana came to light after Dubai-based middleman Manoj Kumar gave a confessional statement before a magistrate stating that he paid Rs 2 crore to Asthana on behalf of Moin Qureshi, who is being probed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges of money laundering. Qureshi was arrested by the ED in August 2017 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
• On October 22, the CBI arrested its own DSP Devender Kumar in connection with the bribery allegations against Asthana. Kumar has been accused of fabricating the statements given by Sathish Babu Sana, a witness in the Qureshi case, showing that he had recorded a statement on September 26, 2016, in New Delhi. However, after investigation, it was found that Sana was never in New Delhi but in Hyderabad and joined the probe only on October 1, 2018.
• Rakesh Asthana has been sent on leave, while CBI Director Alok Verma was relieved of his post and Deputy SP Devender Kumar has been suspended and sent to a seven-day CBI custody, M Nageshwar Rao appointed as the Interim CBI Director.

Context

• The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Centre to hold a public hearing with the people affected by the Polavaram dam project in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, saying in a democracy the citizens had “a right to know what is happening”.
• A Bench led by Justice Madan B. Lokur categorically said the dam project could not be taken forward without first holding the public hearing.
• The hearing would have the affected people voice their grievances about the submergence of their land, compensation, and rehabilitation among other issues. It is a ground-level enquiry.
• Appearing for the petitioner NGO, RELA, senior advocate Jayant Bhushan and advocate Sravan Kumar submitted that the dam design had been changed and new components had been added, thus requiring a new environmental clearance.
• Primary among the questions being considered by the Bench is whether the dam project and its design, as approved by the Central Water Commission, is in consonance with the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) award of 1980.

Polavaram Project

• Polavaram irrigation project is a multipurpose irrigation project across Godavari River in West Godavari district with its reservoirs spreading across states of Chhattisgarh and Orissa as well.
• It is a national project which implies that its implementation is monitored by the Central Water Commission. The project is slated to be complete by 2019.
• The project endeavours to develop irrigation, drinking water facilities and hydropower to regions of East Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, Krishna and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Rationale behind this project

• Andhra Pradesh has some of the most fertile districts in the country like East & West Godavari and also some severe drought -affected districts like Anantapur in Rayalaseema region.
• The project seeks to transfer surplus waters from Godavari basin to Krishna river basin that is a water deficit. Thus, it seeks to address the challenges of flooding and droughts witnessed in the respective basins.
• This would also prevent the unutilized waters to the tune of 3000 TMCs from the Godavari basin from draining into the Bay of Bengal.
• It would facilitate irrigation in the water-scarce regions of Andhra Pradesh such as Rayalseema. This, in turn would reduce rain dependence of agriculture and help in addressing agrarian distress. The project is aligned with the ambitious target of ‘doubling farm incomes’.
• Irrigation projects help in overcoming the challenges posed to farmers by the spatio-temporal variability of Indian monsoons. It also plays an instrumental role in improving farm yields.
• The potential of the Godavari and its tributaries remain underutilized. As a result, Godavari basin witnesses frequent flooding (Andhra Pradesh has suffered 26% of flood damage in India during 1953-2011). The project will help reduce the economic, social and humanitarian costs incurred due to floods.

C. GS3 Related

Context

• Nearly three minutes after lift-off on Thursday, India’s workhorse launch vehicle, the PSLV, carrying 31 satellites on board soared in a trajectory crossing the path of the Sun and sped to inject India’s Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS), being dubbed ‘Sharp Eye’, towards the launcher’s intended first orbit.
• Over the course of the next one hour, the team at Mission Control waited for the PSLV C-43 to come up on the other side of the Equator to insert 30 small satellites from various countries into another orbit as requested by the customers. The 30 satellites were part of a commercial launch.

Details of the launch

• In its 13th flight of the Core-Alone version and 45th launch of the PSLV, ISRO carried one satellite each from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Malaysia, Netherlands and Spain, and 23 satellites from the U.S. on board as co-passengers of the HysIS.
• To a question whether HysIS could be used for anti-terror operations, ISRO Chairman K. Sivan said ISRO’s job was only to build the satellite, but did not rule out such a possibility. “Our duty is to mainly build the satellite which can precisely identify an object. The usage…we are not bothering. That depends on the users. Right now it is meant for Earth Observation missions. But after seeing the results, may be…but it’s not in our hands,” he said.

HysIS

• The HysIS is an Earth Observation satellite primarily to assist in a wide range of applications in agriculture, forestry, geological environments, coastal zones, among others.
• A hyperspectral imaging camera in space can provide well-defined images that can help identify objects on earth far more clearly than regular optical or remote sensing cameras.
• The technology will be an added advantage in watching over India from space across sectors including defence, agriculture, land use and mineral exploration.
• The new ‘eye in the sky’ can be used to even mark out a suspect object or person on the ground and separate it from the background with applications in transborder infiltration etc.
• The primary goal of HysIS is to study the Earth’s surface in visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• HysIS will be ISRO’s first full-scale working satellite with this capability. While the technology has been around, not many space agencies have working satellites with hyperspectral imaging cameras as yet.

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

Editorial Analysis:

The Issue:

• Earlier in the year 2018, it was revealed that India is facing legal claims from international investors in as many as 23 arbitration cases, before various tribunals.
• It is important to note that these claims, which are worth billions of dollars, arise out of bilateral investment treaties between India and other states.
• Further, one striking feature of such treaties is that they allow international investors (primarily MNCs) to initiate a dispute directly in an international tribunal, bypassing the state’s own constitutional system and its courts.
• Also, often, the disputes revolve around measures that were triggered by public health emergencies, economic crises or other matters directly involving public welfare — which would therefore be permissible under the Constitution, but which a corporation believes have negatively impacted its financial interests.

A Closer Look: The Transnational Character

• It is important to note that this reveals an important truth about the contemporary, globalised world: issues that were earlier resolved within a sovereign state in accordance with its constitutional system have now acquired a transnational character.
• Further, there are other contemporary examples:

For example, because of its attempts to make essential medicines affordable through amendments to its Patent Act, India has come under pressure from the U.S. and the European Union (at the behest of prominent pharmaceutical companies), while finding support and emulation in countries like South Africa and Thailand.

Also, in the year 2011, the EU seized shipments of life-saving Indian drugs that were being transported to Africa and Latin America, on the basis that it could apply its more restrictive patent and customs laws to goods in transit through its territory.

• Experts point out that while global problems cannot be solved without nation-states, nation-states cannot solve their problems on their own.
• Further, India’s battle to preserve affordable access to medicines is part of a larger struggle, where participation in the global intellectual property regime has severely constrained the ability of countries to respond to public health crises.
• Experts point out an important perspective that whatever a country’s Constitution may say about the right to life and the right to health for its citizens, it will still be dragged before an international tribunal if it attempts to forestall or mitigate a public health crisis by lifting patent restrictions upon, for example, a life-saving drug.
• The point is not only about who finally succeeds in litigation — rather, it is that the final decision is taken by a set of individuals who are beyond the structures of accountability that are established in democratic and constitutional states.
• As pointed out in the preceding paragraphs, the transnational character of these issues suggest that the response cannot succeed if it is unilateral.
• Further, in the latest version of the model bilateral investment treaty drafted by India, for example, the scope of investor-state dispute settlement by international tribunals has been curtailed.
• Experts point out that until the perils of bypassing national constitutional systems are accepted more broadly, individual attempts will fall short.
• The issues are not limited to conflicts before international forums. Recent months have seen clashes between national regulatory authorities and the corporations that drive the new “gig economy”, such as Uber.
• It is important to note that in October 2018, Uber and Ola drivers in Mumbai called for an indefinite strike over low pay, after a similar strike in Delhi earlier.
• In the U.K., the EU and various States in the U.S., there has been protracted and bitter litigation over the legal obligations that Uber owes to its drivers.
• Experts point out that the conflict may take different forms in different countries, but each time there are striking similarities, stemming from Uber’s business model, which is transnational in character.
• And, like in the case of investment treaties, it is often difficult for one country to tackle the problem alone – especially when the corporation is global in character, and can issue a credible threat of withdrawing substantial levels of investment. Nor is worker power, as long as it is confined within borders, and not trans-nationalised, sufficient to combat the power of MNCs.

The example of DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 25)

• It is always helpful to look elsewhere, to see how people in other parts of the world have attempted to engage with such issues.
• A recent example is that of the Democracy in Europe Movement 25.
• DiEM25 arose after the debt crisis in Greece had resulted in a wide-ranging “structural adjustment programme” imposed upon that country by the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (or “the troika”).

What did this “structural adjustment programme” entail?

• This included severe austerity measures (including cuts to public funding, resulting in mass unemployment) and widespread privatisation, in direct contravention of the publicly expressed will of the people, through both elections and a public referendum.

• It is important to note that today a progressive movement oriented towards social justice and fundamental rights cannot succeed if it is constrained within national borders.

• Further, many of the fundamental decisions that shape national policy (with wide-ranging consequences) are simply beyond the comprehension of nation-states themselves.
• For this reason, DiEM25 identifies as “pan-European”, and isolates a range of issues “currently left in the hands of national governments powerless to act upon them” — including public debt, banking, inadequate investment, migration, and rising poverty.
• In its manifesto, DiEM25 returns these issues to democratic control, but also acknowledges that the solutions needed to achieve this can only come from transnational action.

• Another important insight of the DiEM25 manifesto is that the world today is based on “the reduction of all political relations into relations of power masquerading as merely technical decisions.”

• For example, what steps a country like India must take to ensure the availability of life-saving drugs (and not only during a public health crisis) is a decision that must be taken democratically and politically, within the constitutional framework.

• However, at present, it always remains ultimately subject to a “technical decision” (potentially taken by an international tribunal) about whether India has breached its obligations under an international intellectual property rights treaty regime.
• What needs to be done is to reshape that regime to make it more democratic, an effort that, by its very nature, cannot be undertaken by a single country.

Concluding Remarks:

• • The focus on democracy is particularly important with respect to a third issue: the increasing role of technology in our daily lives.
  • This debate has come to the fore recently, with the long-running conflict over Aadhaar, and the draft DNA Profiling Bill. The relationship between technology and human freedoms will be vital in the future.

• In light of this, it is therefore particularly interesting that, through the evolving concept of “technological sovereignty”, DiEM25 has drawn a specific link between technology and democracy, which can help us think through contemporary issues such as platform monopolies, the ubiquity of AI in public decision-making (including on public welfare), etc.

• • In September 2018, writing for The Guardian, U.S. politician Bernie Sanders called for a “progressive international”: “an international progressive movement that mobilizes behind a vision of shared prosperity, security and dignity for all people, and that addresses the massive global inequality that exists, not only in wealth but in political power.”
  • Mr. Varoufakis responded to this by calling for an “international new deal”. Movements such as DiEM25, which have sprung up in various parts of the world, serve as potential blueprints and models for what a “progressive international” may look like.

• Experts believe that it is a conversation that progressive movements in India must take heed of, and engage with, if we are to adequately address the transnational problems that face us today.

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Walking the tightrope (India-US-Iran Relations)

Question 1. Consider the following statements about Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme of 
government:

Question 2. Consider the following statements regarding Bad Banks:

Question 3. Consider the following statements: