26 Dec 2018: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS1 Related

B. GS2 Related

Context

• The draft rules proposed by the government to curb “unlawful content” on social media that make it mandatory for intermediaries to trace the “originator” of such content have drawn strong criticism from the Opposition. The latter contend that the state is expanding the scope for surveillance of citizens.

Background

The analysis of draft IT (Intermediaries Guidelines) Amendment Rules, 2018

• India has the second highest number of internet users in the world after China, an estimated 462.12 million. Among them, 258.27 million were likely to be social network users in the country in 2019.
• The proposed amendments in the draft of the Information Technology [Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018, Rule 3(9) is bound to force social media platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter to remain vigil and keep users on their toes before posting or sharing anything that is deemed as “unlawful information or content”.
• The changes proposed by the central government is aimed at curbing fake news or rumours being spread on social media and check mob violence ahead.
• The changes will require online platforms to break end-to-end encryption in order to ascertain the origin of messages. The social media platforms to “deploy technology based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms, with appropriate controls, for proactively identifying or removing or disabling access to unlawful information or content”.
• As per the amendment, the social media platforms will need to comply with the central government “within 72 hours” of a query.
• There should be a ‘Nodal person of Contact for 24X7 coordination with law enforcement agencies and officers to ensure compliance. The social media platforms will be keeping a vigil on “unlawful activity” for a period of “180 days”.
• With concerns over “rising incidents of violence and lynching in the country due to misuse of social media platforms”, there is now need for online platforms to shoulder the “responsibility, accountability and larger commitment to ensure that its platform is not misused on a large scale to spread incorrect facts projected as news and designed to instigate people to commit crime”.
• The proposed changes have once again given rise to a debate on whether the government is intruding into the privacy of individuals, evoking sharp response from opposition parties. Similar apprehensions were raised with the Section 66A of the IT Act that enabled authorities to arrest users for posting content which was termed as offensive. However, the Supreme Court on March 24, 2015, struck down the law.

Context

• While the recent brazen murders of businessmen and a bank official in Bihar has caught media attention, the State is equally dangerous for Right to Information (RTI) activists, with five of them been killed in 2018 alone.

Profiles of RTI Activists killed in Bihar in 2018

RTI and India

• The RTI Act was enacted in 2005. Over four million RTI applications are filed every year.
• Despite under-staffed information commissions, and delays, the RTI Act has empowered citizens to hold officials and politicians accountable.
• It has exposed many scams such as the Adarsh Housing scam in Mumbai.
• The information has often exposed the nexus among politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen.
• The murders and assaults make it evident that people seeking information under the RTI Act are not adequately protected by the government even though several remedies have been suggested.
• These range from keeping the names and personal details of applicants confidential to putting the requested information directly in the public domain, assuming, of course, that the request is considered fair.
• As things stand, the RTI format requires the applicant to provide his complete name and postal address. There is legal ambiguity about the need to keep personal details confidential.
• In practice, the RTI request is often passed around among relevant government departments with all the applicants’ details becoming public.
• The Calcutta High Court has suggested that RTI applicants need not disclose any personal details, other than, say, a post office box number, or an anonymous email id, as a point of contact. The court said: “It would be the solemn duty of the authorities to hide such information so that people at large would not know of the applicant’s personal details.” However, this suggestion is not binding in law.

C. GS3 Related

Context

• At least 260 leopards were poached in the country between 2015 and 2018, with Uttarakhand accounting for 60 cases and Himachal Pradesh reporting another 49, according to information given to Parliament by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
• Of this, 64 cases of leopard poaching were recorded in 2015, 83 in 2016, 47 in 2017 and 66 till October 2018, the data tabled in the Lok Sabha earlier this month show.
• Experts point out that since leopards live in close proximity to human habitations and are found all across the country, the cases of poaching too are spread countrywide, with a significant number of such incidents not showing up in government records. There are also several incidents of leopard deaths on account of road kills, particularly in States such as Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Human-Wildlife Conflicts in India

• In India, man-animal conflict is seen across the country in a variety of forms, including monkey menace in the urban areas, crop raiding by ungulates and wild pigs, depredation by elephants, and cattle and human killing by tigers and leopards.
• Animals like elephant, tiger, leopard, wild dog, monkey, wild boar; Nilgai, bear, sambar deer etc. are major animals involved in human-animal conflict in India.
• The increase in man-animal conflict is likely due to the greater resilience and adaptability of wild animals in face of their shrinking habitats, which allow them to live successfully close to human habitation.
• Degradation of habitats, depletion of the natural prey base, changing crop patterns, suitability of man modified habitats to wild animals, presence of stray dogs and cattle in forest fringe areas etc., are other reasons.
• Damage to agricultural crops and property, killing of livestock and human beings are some of the worst forms of man-animal conflict.
• The Government is giving highest priority to mitigate the problem.
• It supplements the financial resources available with the States/ Union Territory Governments for the purpose by providing limited funds under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of ‘Project Tiger’, ‘Project Elephant’ and ‘Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats’.
• Payment of ex-gratia to the victims of wild animals is the responsibility of the concerned State/ Union Territory Governments.

Context

• The zoo in patna was closed on Tuesday “until further orders” after strains of avian influenza virus were found in six dead peacocks, forest officials said. Dead peacocks were sent to Kolkata and Bhopal for tests which confirmed the presence of H5N1 virus.

Avian Influenza (H5N1)

• H5N1 is a type of influenza virus that causes a highly infectious, severe respiratory disease in birds called avian influenza (or “bird flu”).
• Human cases of H5N1 avian influenza occur occasionally, but it is difficult to transmit the infection from person to person.
• When people do become infected, the mortality rate is about 60%
• Almost all cases of H5N1 infection in people have been associated with close contact with infected live or dead birds, or H5N1-contaminated environments
• The virus does not infect humans easily, and spread from person to person appears to be unusual

• An estimated 30 million newborns require specialised care in hospital every year without which many either die or develop preventable health conditions and disabilities that affect them for life, according to a recent study by a global coalition that includes UNICEF and WHO.
• The report urges countries to invest in healthcare to prevent neonatal deaths among the most vulnerable newborns — the small and the sick.
• It points out that nearly 2.5 million newborns died during the first 28 days of life in 2017, of which approximately 80% had low birth weight and more than 65% were born prematurely. An additional 1.5 million small and sick newborns survive each year, with a long-term disability, including cerebral palsy and cognitive delays.
• According to an earlier study by UNICEF, India witnesses 25.4 newborn deaths per 1,000 births and .64 million annually. The Sustainable Development Goal for neonatal deaths requires all countries to bring down the figure to 12 deaths or less per 1,000 births by 2030.
• The study, ‘Survive and thrive: Transforming care for every small and sick newborn,’ was released earlier this month. It underlines that universal access to quality care could prevent 1.7 million neonatal deaths, or 68% of the deaths that will otherwise occur in 2030. Low and middle income countries will be able to avert two out of three neonatal deaths by 2030 if they increase investment by $0.20 per capita.

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

Note to Students:

Elections in Bangladesh are an important issue to cover from a Civil Services point of view. This is because, the electoral outcome of Bangladesh would potentially have an impact on  Indo-Bangladesh bilateral relations. Here, for the purpose of lending greater diversity to this issue, we have condensed the important excerpts from two articles that have featured in the Hindu, namely, ‘Elections in an embattled democracy’ which was featured on the 26th of December, 2018 along with another article, named, ‘Bangladesh elections are important’ which was featured on the 23rd of December, 2018.  

Larger Background:

• When Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2008, the Bangladesh Prime Minister promised to uproot every anti-India terror module in Bangladesh and help reduce insurgency in India’s northeastern region.
• As a matter of fact, top ranking intelligence officials agree that without the Hasina-led Awami League in Dhaka, it would have been impossible to check flare-ups in the east. “She dismantled all known Pakistani assets in Bangladesh,” an intelligence official said.
• However, a decade later, agencies in both sides are engaged in real-time intelligence sharing with more efficiency to combat terror, hugely benefiting India.

Would elections change things?

• Experts point out that with the general elections slated for December 30, 2018, India wants a fair exercise in the neighbouring country.
• Some experts have pointed out that “It is more necessary, however, for Ms. Hasina to return to power,” for the Awami League steadfastly remains India’s best friend in the subcontinent.

What did the Awami League do?

• The return of the Awami League in 2008 dramatically changed the nature of India-Bangladesh engagement on every front.
• As a matter of fact, a plethora of connectivity projects, unthinkable earlier, are either in place or in advanced stages of negotiation. While trans-shipment of goods using river ports and roads is on, many bus and train routes have been operationalised.
• Further, a bus service from Kolkata to the northeastern region through Bangladesh has started, thus shortening time and distance to the region.
• The land boundary issue in north Bengal has been sorted out alongside amicable settlement of a long-standing maritime boundary dispute and neither of the sides is too keen to hype their differences from Teesta water-sharing to illegal border trade. It is important to note that Power and energy sector cooperation is another of many bilateral achievements.
• In fact, the flow of tourists has increased to such an extent that Bangladesh has proposed to set up a diplomatic mission in Chennai.

How has India reciprocated?

• • India has contributed towards security cooperation from training to interception of exchanges between groups hostile to the region’s stability, averting attacks on the country’s top establishments.
  • Maintaining stability is India’s first contribution to Bangladesh.

• There are about a dozen agreements amounting to $10 billion of Indian private investment in Bangladesh. A $7.5 billion Line of Credit has been approved for infrastructure and other projects in Bangladesh.

Certain Looming Concerns?

• Experts point out that currently India is in a fix.
• India is keen to see “a fair election” in Bangladesh, unlike last time, when the Awami League returned to power without a contest.
• India was relieved when Kamal Hossain, a former Awami Leaguer, with secular credentials formed a multi-party coalition, Jatiya Oikya Front, with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) as the biggest constituent. An election process was set in place as Ms. Hasina met Mr. Hossain.
• But closer to the election, the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JeI-B), with its cadre depth in the countryside, catapulted to centre stage as a partner of the Jatiya Oikya Front.
• The JeI-B is not contesting the election as the party was de-registered in 2013 but it has fielded candidates who are contesting on the BNP symbol in 25 of the 300 seats.
• The JeI-B’s participation is a cause for worry for both the Awami League and India as it has put down roots in Pakistan, an allegation that the JeI-B has repeatedly denied.
• However, the JeI-B candidates, who are contesting in constituencies bordering Bengal, are keeping the political and security establishments on tenterhooks in India. India’s ruling elite had tried to deal with the other main party, the BNP, when it last came to power in 2001 but burnt its fingers.

• Finally, it is important to note that experts are watching this election to see how the India-Bangladesh relationship will unfold if a BNP-Jamaat coalition comes to power, a possibility the international press is ruling out.

• Certain questions arise: will it jeopardise connectivity projects, unsettle India’s northeastern region or meddle with billions of dollars of investments made over the last years in Bangladesh?

Editorial Analysis:

• • With polls in Bangladesh slated for December 30, 2018, the first two weeks of canvassing have already seen eight deaths and dozens injured.

• With a first-past-the-post system, Bangladesh’s elections come down to a choice between coalitions led by the two major political parties: the secular-centrist Awami League and the quasi-Islamist Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Contribution of the Awami League:

• The Awami League has governed Bangladesh since 2009, delivering economic growth and rolling back extremist militancy.
• As a matter of fact, the country hit 7.86% GDP growth in 2017-18. Under the Awami League government, the country’s power output has quadrupled in the last decade, and Bangladesh has topped regional rankings on many social indicators such as gender parity in primary education and maternal mortality.

The threat posed by the BNP:

• It is important to note that the much beleaguered BNP still poses a threat to the Awami League.
• In addition to traditional anti-incumbency, a swathe of the public — especially sections of the intelligentsia and urban youth — has grown weary of the Awami League’s heavy-handed rule.
• This heavy-handed rule by the Awami League was sorely on display during two rounds of student protests earlier in the year 2018.
• As a matter of fact, the Awami League also passed a needlessly harsh Digital Security Bill earlier in the year 2018.
• This has not gone down well with an increasingly digitised populace.
• Experts point out that ironically enough, it is the ruling party’s own massive programme of “Digital Bangladesh” that has led to the mass adoption of tech and Internet services.
• Despite some just criticism of the Awami League’s record on rights, critics who pretend that authoritarianism is a problem unique to the Awami League are being disingenuous. It is important to note that not only did Bangladesh suffer military dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, the country has struggled to establish a culture of political tolerance even since the advent of democracy in 1991.

A Quick Look at History:

• • A quick recap of pivotal moments of the past is unavoidable.
  • The BNP won the first democratic polls in 1991, but refused to step down when their tenure ended in 1996.
  • The Awami League led a mass movement to topple the BNP government and won the ensuing polls.
  • However, in a contrast to the BNP, the Awami League voluntarily stepped down from power in 2001, and handed over the reins to an interim government as the Constitution required back then.
  • The BNP went on to win the 2001 polls, raising hopes of more trust-building measures. Instead, the BNP celebrated its victory in October 2001 with an organized massacre of Hindu minorities that left hundreds killed, raped or injured across many districts.
  • The BNP also pivoted sharply to the right and gave political patronage to extremist outfits which carried out a series of fatal attacks.
  • One attack, in August 2004, targeted Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina, killing 19 people and injuring hundreds. Among the dead was Ivy Rahman, head of the women’s wing of the Awami League. A separate attack the following year killed the Awami League’s former Finance Minister Shah A.M.S. Kibria.

• As a matter of fact, when the BNP’s tenure came to an end in 2006, once again the party refused to hand over power to a credible caretaker government.

• The following Awami League protests led to a stalemate that was broken finally with the installation of a military-backed regime in January 2007.
• Dhaka’s self-styled “civil society”, dominated by Anglophone members of non-governmental organisations, and media, who enjoy disproportionate access to and credence with foreign diplomats and media, supported that non-democratic regime.
• Today, it is a leader of that civil pack, Kamal Hossain, who has joined hands with the BNP — and by extension their ally Jamaat-e-Islami — to promise a restoration of democracy.

An unusual coalition:

A Note on Mr. Kamal Hossain:

• Mr. Hossain is a renowned lawyer who was tasked by the nation’s founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to author the country’s secular constitution.

• • He also served as a minister in Sheikh Mujib’s cabinet in the early 1970s.
  • But he split from the Awami League in the 1990s and formed his own minor political party, the Gono Forum, which has never won a parliamentary seat.

• Crucially, Mr. Hossain had promised that he would not form any alliance with the BNP if it didn’t sever its relationship with the Jamaat.

• • In reality however, the BNP nominated 25 Jamaat leaders to contest polls on its ticket.
  • Experts opine that it was perhaps always fanciful to think that any outsider could simply save the BNP, a party that has ceased to function like a mainstream participant in a democracy since 2001.
  • Even in opposition, the BNP has resorted to grotesque forms of new violence. Ahead of the last polls, in 2014, the BNP and Jamaat sponsored petrol-bombing of commuter buses that left more than 100 dead. That violent campaign was resumed in 2015.

• Apologists for the BNP, including members of civil society, try to argue that all parties engage in violence. However, while violence has been sadly endemic to Bangladeshi politics, it has been confined mainly to clashes between party cadres and police. Ordinary citizens were never the target, until the petrol-bombing campaigns of 2013 and 2015.

Awami League’s record:

• • The Awami League has no doubt resorted to hardline tactics.
  • Experts point out that if anything, the Awami League may be at fault for not holding the BNP and Jamaat organisationally accountable for all the violence explicitly targeting civilians.

• It is not at all clear as to why groups that engage in violence akin to insurgent or terror groups should enjoy the respect or rights of a mainstream political party.

• However, voters in Bangladesh face an imperfect choice today.
• It may feel unpalatable to many of them to vote for an incumbent which has been excessively heavy-handed at times, while delivering much economic and social progress. But if the alternative is a party with a record of stoking extremism and targeting civilians for violence, then one must ask if it is at all wise to seek change for the sake of mere change

What’s in the news?  

• Recently, the the first office of Indian Ports Global Limited at Iran’s Chabahar was opened. Also, India has taken over operations of the Shahid Beheshti port.
• Experts believe that this is a milestone in India’s regional connectivity and trade game plan.

Larger Background and Strategic Importance of Chabahar:

• • The development of the Chabahar port was first proposed in 1973 by the last Shah of Iran, though development was delayed by the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
  • As a matter of fact, the first phase of the port was opened in 1983 during the Iran–Iraq War as Iran began shifting seaborne trade east towards the Pakistani border in order to decrease its dependency on ports in the Persian Gulf which were vulnerable to attack by the Iraqi Air Force.

• India and Iran first agreed to further develop the Shahid Beheshti port, one of the two ports in Chabahar, in 2003, but did not make much progress on account of sanctions against Iran.

• India’s access to Chabahar is predominantly seen as a counter-balance to the port of Gwadar, on the south-western coast of Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, run almost entirely by China as a part of its expansive China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
• The Chabahar port opens up a permanent alternative route for trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia, given the hurdles in the direct route through Pakistan.

Editorial Analysis:

• The opening of the first office of Indian Ports Global Limited at Iran’s Chabahar and the takeover of operations of the Shahid Beheshti port is a milestone in India’s regional connectivity and trade game plan.
• It is important to note that the Chabahar port opens up a permanent alternative route for trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia, given the hurdles in the direct route through Pakistan.
• The port also facilitates India’s role in Afghanistan’s development through infrastructure and education projects.
• The port also gives India’s bilateral ties with Iran, a major oil supplier and potential trade market for India, a big fillip.
• It is important to note that India has helped develop the Shahid Beheshti port with these outcomes in mind, and has been given the contract to manage it for 18 months.

Next Suggested Course of Action:

• Experts point out that it will be important to operationalise the port quickly and smoothen the route to Afghanistan.
• The decision by India, Afghanistan and Iran to hold an international event in February 2019 to promote Chabahar and to study ways to make the route more attractive and decrease logistic costs is timely.
• Further, about 500 companies have registered with the Free Trade Zone authority there. While keeping timelines and delivery of New Delhi’s commitments will be key to the port becoming a regional hub for transit trade, steel and petrochemicals, it will be necessary to encourage Afghan companies to use the route more, in line with President Ashraf Ghani’s desire to have a commercial fleet under the Afghan flag setting sail from Chabahar.

Concluding Remarks:

• • Visions of Chabahar’s immense potential as a game-changer for prosperity and stability in the region must, however, necessarily be tempered by the reality of geopolitical challenges.
  • The Chabahar port has received a waiver from the U.S. sanctions on Iran for the moment, but these concessions could be withdrawn any time, given the constant upheaval in the administration.
  • Further, the possibility of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, after the pullout from Syria, will add to security concerns for Afghanistan and impact on the Chabahar route as well.
  • Meanwhile, the reconciliation process with the Afghan Taliban is likely to see the regional powers, the U.S. and Russia engaging Pakistan more. As a matter of fact, this could give Islamabad space to play spoiler in Chabahar, which is seen as a rival warm water port to Pakistan’s Gwadar.

• Finally, given the fact that the Afghanistan government is hedging its bets on trade via Chabahar too is clear: in recent months, special cargo corridors have been opened with China, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Europe, Russia, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, with more trade diverted through them than with traditional partners Pakistan and India.

• With Chabahar, India has done well to keep a place in the intricate connectivity network of the region.

• Finally, given all the competing interests that criss-cross over Chabahar, it will require sustained and nuanced diplomacy to stay ahead in this game.

Category: POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. On a shaky foundation (Right to Privacy Vs. Surveillance)

Question 1. Consider the following statements regarding state legislative council: 

Question 2. Consider the following statements regarding High Court: 

Question 3. Consider the following statements regarding state legislative assemblies: