04 October 2019: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A.GS1 Related
SOCIAL ISSUES
1. Another plan to repatriate Mizoram Bru refugees fails
B.GS2 Related
POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1. Cabinet approves Bill to set up ‘India’s first’ Sports University
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Indo-Chinese educational tie-ups need nod from Home, foreign Ministries
C.GS3 Related
ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
1. Drone cameras threatening Nilgiris wildlife
ECONOMY
1. IRDAI working group to revisit title insurance structure
D. GS4 Related
E. Editorials
GOVERNANCE
1. NGOs getting ‘substantial’ government grant fall within RTI: SC
ENVIRONMENT
1. World Animal Day
ECONOMY
1. Co-operative banks: Is dual regulation the problem?
F. Tidbits
1. U.K. particle accelerator could reveal secrets of ancient scrolls
2. Delhi’s tap water fails to meet BIS test; not safe to drink
3. Single-use plastic banned in Odisha
G. Prelims Facts
1. Killer fungus found in Australia
2. Vande Bharat Express
3. Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpes Viruses (EEHV)
H. UPSC Prelims Practice Questions
I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

A. GS1 Related

Category: SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Another plan to repatriate Mizoram Bru refugees fails

B. GS2 Related

Context:

The Delhi Cabinet has approved a bill to set up “India’s first” Sports University in Delhi.

Details:

• The Delhi Sports University Bill’ approved by the Cabinet, grants the university the right to establish constituent schools and colleges.
• The sports university will offer graduation, post-graduation and doctorate degrees in cricket, football, and hockey among other sports.
• The Delhi Sports University (DSU) is proposed to be set up as a State university and it will have a full-fledged Delhi Sports School, affiliated to the CBSE, for imparting education with emphasis on sports and to groom the students for a career in sports.
• To ensure that such sportspersons are also equipped in educational and literary skills, the Centre shall besides the training towards sporting excellence, have provisions and facilities for liberal academics to ensure that the trainees and sportspersons also obtain formal academic degrees from Delhi Sports University depending on their sporting talents.
• The Chancellor of the Delhi Sports University will be the Governor.
• The Vice-Chancellor would be a sportsperson of inter-national eminence with administrative experience in a national-level institution.

Concerns:

• Most of the students have to compromise their sports to keep up with their performance in their main subjects.
• Various gaps exist in the national sports environment like sports science, technology, management and high performance training.
• It is a matter of disappointment that many students who have played sports at the national-level are nowhere on the same platform as students with a graduation degree.
• The share of jobs under sports quota is also limited.

Conclusion:

The move is aimed at promoting sports in the city. With the establishment of the Sports University, there is hope that uncertainty from the minds of sportspersons can be eradicated. Apart from being a solid back-up in the careers of students interested in sports, this proposal will also ensure that sportspersons get much-needed respect and dignity to pursue their dreams.

National Sports University Bill, 2018:

• The National Sports University Bill, 2018 was introduced in Lok Sabha by Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports on July 23, 2018.
• It replaces the National Sports University Ordinance, 2018 that was promulgated on May 31, 2018.
• The bill has been passed by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
• The Bill seeks to establish a National Sports University in Manipur.
• National Sports University (NSU), Manipur established in the year 2018, by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports if the first National Sports University in India.
• The university is recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
• NSU offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs in the field of sports and physical education.

Context:

University Grants Commission has issued new guidelines to educational institutions that wish to sign agreements with the Chinese counterparts.

Details:

• The new guidelines would also apply to existing tie-ups.
• The Centre’s directive comes just ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India to hold an informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• The guidelines make it mandatory for educational institutions that plan to collaborate with Chinese counterparts to get clearance from the Ministries of Home and External Affairs before signing any agreements or undertaking student and faculty exchange programmes.
• The UGC letter added that those universities including private universities that have already entered into MoUs must seek clearance from the Home ministry for operating the MoU. Until the clearance is obtained, no further activities should be performed under the MoU, the letter warned.
• A number of Indian universities already have faculty and student exchange programmes, apart from Chinese language centres run in collaboration with universities in China.

India-China Co-operation in the field of education:

• India and China signed an umbrella agreement for educational cooperation in 2006, under which government scholarships are awarded to 25 students, by both sides, in recognised institutions of higher learning in each other’s country.
• During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Beijing in May 2015, both countries signed an expanded Education Exchange Programme agreement which provides for enhanced cooperation in the field of vocational education and higher learning.
• Chinese students were also granted scholarships to study Hindi in India.

C. GS3 Related

Category: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Drone cameras threatening Nilgiris wildlife

Context:

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India has constituted a working group that will revisit the product structure of title insurance.

What is Title Insurance?

• Title insurance is a form of indemnity insurance that protects the holder from financial loss sustained from defects in a title to a property.
• It basically provides indemnity to developers and the subsequent homeowners of the property against losses and risks related to defects in the title of the property.
• It even covers issues which are not discovered prior to the commencement date of the policy.
• A few general insurers offer title insurance.
• Their product features vary in policy terms and conditions and scope of coverage depending on the support received from their reinsurers.

Issues:

• The number of title insurance policies sold is minimal, despite availability for the last one and half years and the obligation cast under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 upon promoter/developers to obtain the said policy.
• The decision comes in the backdrop of a less-than-desired response to title insurance products.
• Feedback received from the Government of India revealed that stakeholders, especially developers associations, had flagged the need for standardisation in title insurance products.

Details:

• The group will study the structure of title insurance products available in the current Indian Market and analyse the reasons for its sluggish demand.
• The 12 member working group is tasked with:
  • Developing a standard product.
  • Coming out with recommendations to spur demand.
  • Examining the legal and regulatory framework in place and its impact on the marketability of title insurance.
  • Studying the structure of such products available and analyse reasons for sluggish demand.
  • Suggesting augmentation of reinsurance capacity.
• The group has been asked to submit its recommendations within 12 weeks.

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

Context

• The Supreme Court in D.A.V. College Trust and Management Society Vs. Director of Public Instructions held that non-governmental organisations which were substantially financed by the appropriate government fall within the ambit of ‘public authority’ under Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005.

Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005

(h) “Public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted,—

1. by or under the Constitution;
2. by any other law made by Parliament;
3. by any other law made by State Legislature;
4. by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any—
5. body owned, controlled or substantially financed;
6. non‑Government Organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government.

What did the Supreme Court say?

• In D.A.V., the top court held that ‘substantial’ means a large portion which can be both, direct or indirect.
• It need not be a major portion or more than 50% as no straitjacket formula can be resorted to in this regard.
  • For instance, if land in a city is given free of cost or at a heavily subsidised rate to hospitals, educational institutions or other bodies, it can qualify as substantial financing.
  • However, it said whether an NGO or body is substantially financed by the government is a question of fact which has to be determined on the facts of each case as there may be cases where the finance is more than 50% but still may not be called substantially financed.
• The court resorted to ‘Purposive’ Interpretation of the provisions by underscoring the need to focus on the larger objective of percolation of benefits of the statute to the masses.
  • The purposive approach to statutory interpretation seeks to look for the purpose of the legislation before interpreting the words.
  • To understand the meaning of words in a statute, Courts have to understand the statute’s intent. The purpose of an Act, i.e. why it was enacted and how it came to be

Political Parties and RTI

• In 2010, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) filed an application under the RTI to all national parties, seeking information about the “10 maximum voluntary contributions” received by them in the past five years.
  • None of the national political parties volunteered to disclose the information. Consequently, ADR and RTI activist Subhash Agarwal filed a petition with the Central Information Commission (CIC).
• In 2013, a full bench of the CIC delivered a historic judgment by declaring that all national parties came under ‘public authorities’ and were within the purview of the RTI Act.
  • Accordingly, they were directed to designate Central Public Information Officers (CPIOs) and the appellate authorities at their headquarters within six weeks.
• In 2013, The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill was introduced in Parliament to keep political parties explicitly outside the purview of RTI that lapsed after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
  • Notwithstanding the binding value of the CIC’s order under Section 19(7) of the Act, none of the six political parties complied with it.
  • Quite interestingly, all the parties were absent from the hearing when the commission issued show-cause notices for non-compliance at the hearing.
• Finally, in 2019, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court seeking a declaration of political parties as ‘public authority’ and the matter is sub judice.

Irrespective of the ideological differences among these political parties on almost all the issues under the sun, non-compliance of the RTI mandate has been a great unifier.

Drawing an analogy between the Supreme Court’s judgment on D.A.V. and the political parties’ issue

• It can be argued that national parties are ‘substantially’ financed by the Central government.
• The various concessions, such as allocation of land, accommodation, bungalows in the national and State capitals, tax exemption against income under Section 13A of the Income Tax Act, free air time on television and radio, etc. can easily satisfy the prerequisite of Section 2(h) of the RTI.
• If an entity gets substantial finance from the government, there is no reason why any citizen cannot ask for information to find out whether his/her money which has been given to the entity is being used for the requisite purpose or not.

On Accountability

• Applying the purposive rule of interpretation which is discernible from the preamble of the RTI Act, the ultimate aim is the creation of an ‘informed’ citizenry, containment of corruption and holding of government and its instrumentalities accountable to the governed.
• The Law Commission opines that political parties are the lifeblood of our entire constitutional system.
  • Political parties act as a conduit through which interests and issues of the people get represented in Parliament.
  • Since elections are predominantly contested on party lines in our parliamentary democratic polity, the agenda of the potential government is set by them.
• As noted by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in his famous Constituent Assembly speech, “The working of a Constitution does not depend wholly upon the nature of the Constitution. The Constitution can provide only the organs of State…The factors on which the working of those organs of the State depend are the people and the political parties they will set up as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics.”

Conclusion

• Let’s hope the top court will further the positive advances made in this direction and our political parties who tirelessly claim themselves to be apostles of honesty and integrity walk the talk.

• It is a social movement charged with the Mission of raising the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards around the globe
• It was started in 1931 at a convention of ecologists in Florence, Italy, as a way of highlighting the plight of endangered species.
• It takes place annually on 4 October, chosen as it is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi.

Importance of species diversity

• The Bee, whose population is declining at an alarming rate today because of climate change, pesticides and habitat loss.
  • Bees pollinate 70 of nearly 100 crop species that feed 90% of the world.
• Insects help in the decomposition of organic materials, including bodies of the dead, and enrich the soil.
  • Half of the world’s species are insects, so if insects go extinct, the consequence would be complete degradation of our soil consequently leading to the disappearance of all remaining life.
• Dung beetles evolved 65 million years ago and, as their name suggests, eat dung, recycle nutrients and improve the quality of the soil.

Concern for animal rights in the farming sector

• We keep billions of animals intensively confined in factory farms for meat, eggs and dairy. There are serious repercussions of these practices, both for animals and humans.
• Hens kept in battery cage farms see the sun twice in their lives — once on the way to the farm and the second on the way to the slaughterhouse. These factory farms are responsible for the formation of dead pools around them, have a massive odour, and attract pests.
• The people who live in the vicinity of these farms suffer from several health issues including breathing problems.
• Hence, while it may make financial sense to cram animals into factory farms, the consequences can be considerable.

Deleterious impact of animal agriculture

• Research shows that the Amazon fires were caused by ranchers who wanted to use the land for cattle grazing and farming.
• Indian forests are also being degraded by the excessive pressure of animal agriculture.
• The United Nations has found that “livestock production is one of the major causes of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity”.

Steps that can be taken

• To mitigate this, the system of intensive farm animal production needs to become more humane and less exploitative, for both animals and people.
• Governments can take the first step by prohibiting the cruelty of battery cages.
• Animal lives can be saved by commercialising the innovations of plant-based and cultured or clean meat.
  • Clean meat is grown in a lab from a small sample of cells taken from an animal.
  • Both plant-based meat and clean meat are free of the negative externalities that animal meat production is responsible for, such as climate change, and are healthier as they are also free of antibiotics.

Please read it here under the editorial section

CNA dated Sep 27th, 2019

F. Tidbits

• A leading science facility is helping to decipher Roman-era scrolls carbonised in the deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago.
• The scrolls cannot be unrolled because the carbonisation makes them completely brittle and that brittle nature would damage it completely.
• Diamond Light Source (DLS), at the UK’s national synchrotron particle accelerator science facility, has developed the technique and has scanned a collection of two completely intact Herculaneum scrolls and four more fragments.
• It is believed that Synchrotron — which harnesses the power of electrons to produce powerful scans can help read the historic artefacts.
  • A synchrotronis a large machine that accelerates electrons to almost the speed of light.
• The Diamond facility acts like a giant microscope, producing light 10 billion times brighter than the sun that allows scientists to study anything from fossils and jet engines to viruses and vaccines.

• A new investigation of Delhi tap water has showed that it is not safe to drink.
• A BIS investigation of 11 tap water samples collected from various parts of the city shows that the capital’s water does not comply with quality standards.
• The Centre has hence, announced plans to test the quality of piped drinking water in the States and release Swachh Pani rankings next month.
• It is also trying to build a consensus to make quality standards for tap water a mandatory requirement.
• A team from the Bureau of Indian Standards has been sent to State capitals to collect samples of tap water to see if they meet quality standards.

BIS Standards:

• The latest BIS standard was made in 2012, but it is not on par with international standards.
• Currently, it is mandatory for bottled water manufacturers to meet the BIS quality standard.
• However, the BIS standard for tap water is voluntary for the public agencies which supply and distribute piped water.

• The Odisha government has banned single-use plastic in all urban areas of the State from 2^nd October 2019.
• The ban will be imposed on polythene carry bags of any shape, thickness and size (excluding compostable), Polyethylene Terephthalate (Pet/Pete) bottles of less than 200 ml capacity.
• It also banned single-use disposable cutleries.
• However, there is an exception for packing and selling of milk and other ancillary milk products and thermocol decorative materials.
• The vendors will not be allowed to use polythene sheets of less than 50-micron thickness for storing, transporting, dispensing or packaging of any article or commodity or food items, consumables, packaging of milk and milk products and edible oil in a sealed manner.
• The State Pollution Control Board has been assigned the job of closing down industries producing plastic products which are not confirming to the stipulations of this order within the municipal corporations/municipalities to which this order applies.
• The notification said that any person including the vendor possessing any materials, which are prohibited under this order, shall dispose of those articles within one month from the date of publication of the order.
• Earlier on Gandhi Jayanti in 2018, the state had imposed a ban on plastic usage in six major cities -Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Rourkela, Sambalpur and Puri.

G. Prelims Facts

• Poison Fire Coral fungus – One of the world’s deadliest fungi has been discovered in Australia’s far north for the first time.
• Poison Fire Coral is the only known mushroom with toxins that can be absorbed through the skin.
• It causes an array of symptoms if eaten, including vomiting, diarrhoea, fever and numbness.
• If left untreated, it can cause multiple organ failure or cause a person’s brain to shrink leading to death.
• Its native habitat is in the mountains of Japan and Korea.

• Vande Bharat Express, also known as Train 18, is an Indian semi-high speed intercity electric multiple unit.
• It was designed and built under the Indian government’s Make in India initiative over a span of 18 months.
• The first Indian Trainset for long-distance run was indigenously manufactured at Chennai’s Integral Coach Factory (ICF).
• It was launched in February 2019.

Context

• Four calves between the ages of six and ten have died in Nandan Kanan Zoo in Bhubaneswar, followed by the fifth elephant that died in Chandaka forest.

Details

• EEHVs as a type of herpesvirus that can cause a highly fatal haemorrhagic disease in young Asian elephants.
• Most elephants carry just as most humans carry a cold virus. When EEHV is triggered, the elephant dies of massive internal bleeding and
  • EEHV causes rupturing of capillaries that leads to Edema, a medical condition wherein capillaries leak fluid into surrounding tissues.
  • Organs stop functioning due to lack of blood and the animal dies within 24 hours.
• Symptoms are hardly visible
  • Though adult elephants have been found carrying the virus, they do not show any sign of it.
  • The virus spreads from one elephant to another but not to other animals or human beings.

Concern

• EEHV is lethal for young elephants between the ages of one and 12. If a young elephant dies before reproducing, it affects the population of the species as a whole in the concerned geography.

Treatment

• It is a combination of anti-viral therapy, aggressive fluid therapy (to counter haemorrhaging), immuno-stimulant drugs (selenium and Vitamins C, E), antipyretics and analgesics (to bring down fever).

H. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam

Q1. Consider the following statements with respect to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs):

1. ETFs are traded in Stock Markets.
2. They are index funds.
3. They are less liquid than Mutual Funds.

Which of the given statement/s is/are correct?

a. 1 and 2 only
b. 2 and 3 only
c. 1 and 3 only
d. 1, 2 and 3

See

Q2. Consider the following statements with respect to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan:

1. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Urban) operates under the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
2. The programme has received funds and technical support from the World Bank, and by state governments under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan schemes.

Which of the given statement/s is/are correct?

a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. Both 1 and 2
d. Neither 1 nor 2

See

Q3. Consider the following statements with respect to Minimum Alternate Tax:

1. Minimum Alternate Tax is an indirect tax.
2. It is imposed on book profit of companies.
3. MAT is applicable to “Zero tax companies”.

Which of the given statement/s is/are INCORRECT?

a. 1 only
b. 1 and 2 only
c. 2 and 3 only
d. 3 only

See

Q4. Which of the following schemes are included under the National Food Security Act, 2013:

1. Midday Meal Scheme
2. Public Distribution Scheme
3. Integrated Child Development Services scheme

Choose the correct option:

a. 1 only
b. 1 and 2 only
c. 2 and 3 only
d. 1, 2 and 3

See

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. The constraints imposed by RBI aimed at safeguarding depositors’ interest can end up denting trust in cooperative banks and increasing the risk of a contagion. In the backdrop of the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank crisis, critically analyse the statement. (15 Marks, 250 Words).
2. In order to fight black money and ensure complete transparency in political funding, there is an urgent need to bring political parties under the ambit of the Right to Information Act. Analyse. (15 Marks, 250 Words).

Read previous CNA.

October 4th, 2019 CNA: –Download PDF Here