UPSC 2017: Comprehensive News Analysis - June 19

Features of the scheme:

• Scheme is set to cover all blocks of the country, involving a total of 6.40 lakh villages over the span of next 3 years
• This Mission is part of the ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’
• Ministry of Culture launched it in the year of commemoration of the birth centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, who hailed from Mathura.
• The Cultural Mapping of India portal will serve as a repository/consolidated database of information about cultural assets and resources i.e. a cultural inventory at one place for essential planning, sustainable economic development and for preserving the scattered and near extinct art forms.

Key Point:

• The mission aims at converting the vast and widespread cultural canvas of India into an objective cultural map, designing a mechanism to fulfil the aspirations of the whole artist community of the nation and preserving the rich cultural heritage of this country in the form of a cultural repository of artists and art forms.
• Mission encompasses data mapping, demography building formalising the processes and bringing all the cultural activities under one web based umbrella for better results.
• The Mission also seeks to open a direct channel of communication of artists with the Government and peer to peer communication among artists for talent honing and handholding of each other.

Main vision: no cultural talent or heritage should remain unattended and if it is talent, it should be nurtured and if it is a heritage, it should be conserved and used as an icon to learn from the past, and also to propagate our cultural talent across all boundaries.

In news:

• The norms for no-fly list to rein in unruly passengers are expected to be ready early next month, the government said.
• The civil aviation ministry has already come out with draft rules for a ‘national no-fly list’ of unruly passengers for all domestic carriers, under which the flying ban could extend from at least three months to an indefinite period.
• As per the draft norms, the national no-fly list will include names of passengers identified as unruly after an inquiry by a committee constituted by a particular airline.
• A person identified as a threat by security agencies would also be included in this list.
• While the list is characterised as ‘national’ and would have data on disruptive passengers from all airlines, the ban recommended by the committee is not mandatory for all airlines to follow.
• The government had recommended three levels of unruly behaviours, each with a corresponding duration of flying ban.
• The first level of misdemeanour includes disruptive behaviour such as physical gestures, verbal harassment and unruly behaviour because of inebriation. This level of offence would carry a flying ban of three months.
• The second level relates to physically abusive behaviour such as pushing, hitting, grabbing, inappropriate touching or sexual harassment. Such actions could attract a six—month ban.
• The third category pertains to life threatening behaviour such as damage to aircraft operating system, physical violence and attempted breach of flight crew compartment. In such instances, the ban could be for two years or an indefinite period.
• If a passenger repeats the same degree of offence, he or she would be banned for twice the period of the previous ban.

Context:

• The government has made Aadhaar mandatory for access to banking and filing I-T returns.
• But there are serious concerns about possible breach of privacy with private entities having access to Aadhaar data

Is Aadhaar mandatory?

• The Supreme Court has more than once told the government not to make Aadhaar mandatory for citizens.
• In 2015, on two occasions, the Supreme Court ruled that “it is not mandatory for a citizen to obtain an Aadhaar card” asking the government to advertise this prominently.
• The production of an Aadhaar card will not be condition for obtaining any benefits otherwise due to a citizen, the Supreme Court had said. However, the apex court has allowed the government to link various schemes including MNREGS, LPG, PDS, EPFO, Old Age Pension etc with Aadhaar.
• But, the Supreme Court ruling in 2015 clearly read, “… the Aadhaar card Scheme is purely voluntary and it cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided by this Court one way or the other.”
• The apex court has set up a constitutional bench to hear Aadhaar case. The Aadhaar Act 2016 also does not make Aadhaar mandatory for citizens.

HOW GOVERNMENT MADE IT MANDATORY?

• Budget 2017 (passed by Parliament), which mandated seeding of Aadhaar number with Permanent Account Number (PAN).
• The amended Finance Act 2017. It made enrollment in Aadhaar compulsory for obtaining a PAN and filing Income Tax returns.

Implications:

• The Finance Act effectively meant that an earning member of Indian society is a potential criminal if s/he does not have an Aadhaar as the citizen would not be able to file I-T returns, which s/he is legally bound to do.

ARE AADHAAR DATA IN SAFE HANDS?

• Recently a report by the Centre for Internet Society said that more than 13 crore Aadhaar data were leaked, stolen or compromised.
• Section 29 of the Aadhaar Act prohibits sharing, publishing, displaying or posting publicly the core biometric information collected under the project except in “the interest of national security“. However, the Act does not state what constitutes national security.
• Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016 allows private companies to use the Aadhaar data to establish “identity of an individual for any purpose”.

Access to aadhaar data:

• There are several reports confirming that the Aadhaar data of Indian citizens are with companies like Accenture, Ernst and Young, L-1 Identity Solutions – the American biometric technology provider .
• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the government allow access to Aadhaar data of people by these companies through Authentication User Agencies, which are both governmental and non-governmental entities.

RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN INDIA

• There is no specific law passed by Parliament for protection against breach of privacy of individuals in India.
• A bill, Privacy Bill, 2011 was drafted by the UPA-II government but it is hanging fire since then.
• Only th Information Technology Act, 2000 has some express provision guarding individuals against breach of privacy by corporate entities. Section 43A was inserted into the IT Act in 2008 which makes the companies compromising sensitive personal data liable to pay compensation.
• The right to privacy is dealt with under Article 21 of the Constitution which guarantees right to life and personal liberty.

COURTS ON RIGHT TO PRIVACY

• In 1954, an eight-judge bench in MP Sharma vs Satish Chandra case and in 1962 a six-judge bench of the Supreme Court in Kharak Singh vs State of Uttar Pradesh case had equated the right to privacy with right to personal liberty but rejected it as fundamental or constitutional right.

In news:

• India and Afghanistan will operationalise a dedicated air cargo link over Pakistan in the next couple of days.
• Aim: help increase bilateral trade which was hampered by their troubled ties with Pakistan.
• Pakistan disallows Indian goods along the road route.
• The road link between the two countries passes through Pakistan, which allows only Afghanistan to send a limited amount of goods to India.

Context: Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case- Jadhav, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court in April.

In news:

• Pakistan claimed that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected India’s request to delay proceedings of Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case until December.
• Pakistan through its consulate in Netherlands came to know that the ICJ had ordered India to submit a response by September 13.

What ICJ is supposed to do?

• The ICJ is supposed to conclude whether or not Jadhav can receive consular access, for which a time period of two to three months is more than enough to file a response.

Previously:

• In a hearing of the case on May 18, a 10-member bench at the The Hague-based ICJ restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav.
• India moved the ICJ against the death penalty on May 8. The next day, the global court stayed the sentence as a provisional measure.

Pakistan stance: Its security forces arrested him from its restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran.

India’s stance: India maintains that he was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy.

In news:

• Minister of state for external affairs VK Singh met foreign minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting.
• India said it looks forward to strengthen its strategic partnership and mutual dialogue with China as the two sides held talks here amid differences over a host of issues including the $50 billion CPEC and India’s NSG membership bid.
• BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting being held to finalise the agenda for this year’s BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit to be held in September in China’s Xiamen city.
• During the foreign ministers’ meet, China is expected to outline the agenda for this year’s BRICS summit which included efforts to seek common ground against terrorism.

C. GS3 Related

Category: ECONOMICS

1. Indians have ‘rather few’ deposits: Swiss banks

2. Secrecy must for automatic info exchange, Swiss banks tell India

D. GS4 Related

E. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn

F. Bills/Acts/Schemes/Orgs in News

Question 1: The first ever G20 Digital Ministerial Meeting on Digital Economy was held 
in which country?

Question 2: Which State Government is planning to launch cheap food canteens called 
“Annapurna Bhojanalayas”?

Question 3: Who composed the Bhakti song called “Abangas"?

Question 4: The coast running from Karwar to Bulsar is called

Question 5: National Environmental Engineering Research Institute falls under