31 Oct 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

B. GS 2 Related

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. New wage code bars bonus for those facing sex abuse charges

Context:

Owing to a provision in the Code on Wages, those indulging in sexual harassment of any form could run the risk of losing out on bonus dues from their employers.

Details:

• The Code on Wages lays down norms for annual bonus dues that accrue to employees, replacing the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.
• As per the extant law, bonus dues are barred only in case of employees dismissed for fraud, violent conduct and theft or sabotage.
• The new Code includes ‘conviction for sexual harassment’ as a ground for denying bonus payouts to employees.

Significance:

• This a step forward towards creating seriousness towards instances of sexual harassment. The prospect of losing one’s benefits may make employees more careful of their conduct.
• This is believed to be a great nudge to get people to be on their best behaviour in the workplace.
• This would serve as an additional deterrent apart from the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) law of 2013.

Way forward:

• The rules should clarify whether the conviction would cover cases of outcomes of the investigation by the ICC arriving at a conclusion to pay compensation to the victim or not.
• It is not clear if sexual harassment incidents or related crimes against women outside the workplace could lead to dismissal of employees with loss of bonus payments. Harassing a co-worker irrespective of where it is done, should come under this provision’s purview.

E. Editorials

Category: URBANISATION

1. Time for a ‘sponge cities’ mission in India

The article talks about recent instances of urban floods while suggesting the need and methods for effective management of urban floods.

Context:

• Torrential rains in Hyderabad caused devastation in the city killing over 50 people washing away hundreds of riverbed hutments. Thousands of homes remain submerged weeks after the flood.
• This experience is not unique to the city of Hyderabad but something that cities across India have been experiencing in recent years.

What caused devastation in Hyderabad?

• Hyderabad witnessed an unprecedented rainfall – breaking a 16-year record it received 16 cm of rain in a single day.
• The rainfall received in 2020 has been the highest for the month of October in a century.

Issues:

• The constant, unwavering attention to the rainfall levels drew the attention away from the inability to manage the city’s drainage systems.
• The floods occurred because the water was not discharged in time. And when the water was discharged, it was done in a sudden, uncontrolled manner.
• Hyderabad’s century-old drainage system (developed in the 1920s) covered only a small part of the core city. In the last 20 years, the city has grown at least four times its original built-up area.
• Issues of incremental land use change, particularly of those commons which provide necessary ecological support (wetlands) are neglected.

Way forward:

Involving local communities:

• The risk is going to increase year after year with changing rainfall patterns and a problem of urban terrain which is incapable of absorbing, holding and discharging water.
• There is a need to start paying attention to the management of our wetlands by involving local communities — people with traditional rights for fishing and farming.

Participation of civil society organisations:

• Urban floods of this scale cannot be contained by the municipal authorities alone. Nor can they be dealt with by the State government.
• They cannot be managed without concerted and focused investments of energy and resources. Such investments can only be done in a mission mode organisation with the active participation of civil society organisations at the metropolitan scale.

Sponge cities mission:

• There is a need for a mission that mitigates flood risk and provides a pathway to water security.
• The most promising idea across the world at this time appears to be the idea of “sponge cities”.
• The idea of a sponge city is to make cities more permeable so as to hold and use the water which falls upon it.
• Sponge cities absorb the rainwater, which is then naturally filtered by the soil and allowed to reach urban aquifers.
• This allows for the extraction of water from the ground through urban or peri-urban wells. This water can be treated easily and used for city water supply.
• In built form, this implies contiguous open green spaces, interconnected waterways, and channels and ponds across neighbourhoods that can naturally detain and filter water.
• It implies support for urban ecosystems, bio-diversity and newer cultural and recreational opportunities.
• These can all be delivered effectively through an urban mission along the lines of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) and Smart Cities Mission.
• On a top priority, such a mission should address the following:
  • The first subject is the wetland policy. Regardless of ownership, land use on even this small scale needs to be regulated by development control.
• Cities must be rebuilt such that they have the sponginess to absorb and release water without causing so much misery and so much damage to the most vulnerable of our citizens.

Watersheds, terrain alteration:

• Urban watersheds are micro ecological drainage systems, shaped by contours of the terrain.
• Watershed management and emergency drainage plan should be clearly stated in policy and law.
• Detailed documentation of these must be held by agencies that are not bound by municipal jurisdictions.
  • There is a need to consider natural boundaries such as watersheds instead of governance boundaries like electoral wards for shaping a drainage plan.
• The Metropolitan Development Authorities, National Disaster Management Authority, State revenue and irrigation departments along with municipal corporations should be involved in such work together.

Ban against terrain alteration:

• Lasting irreversible damage has been done to the city by builders, property owners, and public agencies by flattening terrain and altering drainage routes.
• Terrain alteration needs to be strictly regulated and a ban on any further alteration of terrain needs to be introduced.

Encouraging new materials and technologies:

• Because of increasing built up and with the usage of hard, non-porous construction material that makes the soil impervious, water abortion is becoming increasingly difficult.
• To improve the city’s capacity to absorb water, new porous materials and technologies must be encouraged or mandated across scales.
• Examples of these technologies are bioswales and retention systems, permeable material for roads and pavement, drainage systems that allow stormwater to trickle into the ground, green roofs and harvesting systems in buildings.
• These reduce run-offs and also help keep water in the city for later use.

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS/SECURITY

1. Terror in Nice

Context:

The article talks about the knife attack in the southern French city of Nice that killed three people and injured many more.

Read:  “What is behind the spat between Turkey and France?” covered in 30^th October 2020 CNA.

Details:

• France is home to Europe’s largest Muslim community.
• It has particularly been hit by Islamist terrorism in recent years.
  • The recent incident is the latest in a series of terror attacks in the country in the last eight years that have killed more than 200.
• Though the leaders of France have repeatedly said they would not give in to threats from terrorists, the tragic reality is that terrorist attacks continue to strike, taking innocent lives.
• Each time, it serves as a reminder that neither the government’s preventive measures, that include credible intelligence gathering and deradicalisation efforts, nor its combative postures work in ending this terror run.
• These attacks are driving a wedge between France’s already polarised communities.

Way forward:

• An unforgiving security response is vital for any counter-terrorism strategy. But it is important to understand the enemy.
  • Terrorists who are inspired by the ideology of organisations such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, see the world as an arena of a clash of civilisations.
  • Driven by a perverted interpretation of religion, they unleash violence against anybody who does not subscribe to their worldview.
• In the fight against such terrorists, France should be mindful of not allowing them to sow discord on the basis of religious identities.
• The fight must be for civilisational values, democracy, secularism, freedom, and equality against a medieval ideology that has equipped itself with modern weapons. It is important for the world that France wins this fight.
• This is the biggest challenge before the French President, Emmanuel Macron.
• France should lead a united response to terrorism that does not put forward its values against any belief system.

Category: DISASTER MANAGEMENT

1. Science of monsoons

Context:

The southwest monsoon 2020 has officially drawn to an end with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) declaring a withdrawal of the associated winds and rainfall pattern from India.

Details:

• The over 8% surplus in 2020 has surpassed the IMD’s estimates.
• For the first time since 2010, India got more than 100% of its long period average (LPA) of 88 cm in consecutive years.
• In 2019, India saw a record rainfall of 110% of the LPA – the highest in a quarter-century.
• Since 2000, India was in a low patch with several drought years and had barely a handful of above normal or excess rainfall.
• In that light, the two years of a generous monsoon could signal a return to a rainy epoch.

Concerns:

• More rain also implies floods, overflowing dams, landslides and loss of lives.
• Moreover, surplus rains are not evenly distributed in time and space.

Way forward:

• Much like there are attempts to improve flood forecast warnings (especially the short-term ones) there must be commensurate efforts by authorities and infrastructure agencies to prepare for the environmental and ecological impact of excess rain.
• In 2020, the withdrawal of the south-west monsoon has been extremely delayed. Factoring in changes must become a key part of a State and city’s disaster management preparedness.
  • In 2020, IMD undertook a long-due revision of the onset and withdrawal dates of the monsoon in India.
• There have been significant investments in super computing infrastructure to simulate weather as well as to tune forecasts to go beyond just giving rainfall estimates and factor in the potential damage of floods and cyclones.
• The southwest monsoon’s withdrawal also heralds the advent of north-easterly winds that bring in the northeast monsoon to parts of peninsular Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
  • Not much attention is paid to northeast monsoon owing to its limited geographic spread.
  • Studies show that northeast monsoon rainfall displays significant variation and climate models are fairly inaccurate in their forecasts of its unfolding over the subcontinent.
  • Northeast monsoon is significant to agriculture in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
  • It contributes 10%-12% of India’s annual rainfall, against the southwest monsoon’s 75%-80%.
• Scientists must also put in more effort and design research programmes that better analyse the vagaries of the northeast monsoon.
• An understanding of how climate is changing locally is needed.
• India also needs better science to prepare more effective disaster management plans and improve resilience in the backdrop of climate change.

Q1. Which of the following is/are known for its/their unique mass nesting called Arribada?

Q2. Consider the following statements with respect to star campaigners:

Q3. Consider the following statements:

Q4. Arrange the following from West to East:

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. With monsoons causing flooding and enormous damages in cities across India, it is time to focus on smart urbanisation. Discuss. (15 Marks, 250 Words) (GS 1 Urbanisation).
2. In light of two consecutive years of generous monsoons, India needs better science to prepare more effective disaster management plans. Comment. (10 Marks, 150 Words) (GS 3 Disaster Management).

Read the previous CNA here.