10 Jan 2019: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS1 Related

B. GS2 Related

Context

• Parliament on Wednesday cleared the Constitutional Amendment Bill guaranteeing 10% quota in education and employment to economically weaker sections in the general category, following an approval by the Rajya Sabha.
• The Upper House nod came following an over nine-hour-long heated debate, during which the Opposition accused the government of bringing the Bill in haste with an eye on the coming Lok Sabha election.

Background

• The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a Bill allowing 10% quota in employment and education for the general category candidates who belong to the economically weaker sections.
• The Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill, 2019, introduced by Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, was cleared with a majority of the members (319) voting for it, and four against. The Rajya Sabha will take it up on Wednesday.
• The 10% reservation will be over and above the 50% stipulated by the Supreme Court and is expected to benefit a huge section of upper castes, including Brahmins, Rajputs (Thakurs), Jats, Marathas and Bhumihars and trading castes such as Kapus and Kammas.
• The economically deprived among the poor in the other religions will also benefit.

Who will the new 10% quota apply to?

• To all those who are not covered in existing quotas and have a family income below ₹8 lakh a year or agricultural land below 5 acres
• Those who have a house above 1,000 square feet or a 100-yard plot or above in a notified municipal area or a 200-yard plot or above in a non-notified municipal area are not eligible.

What steps are necessary for its implementation?

• The 124th Constitution Amendment Bill, 2019, which the Lok Sabha passed on Tuesday, will have to be passed by the Rajya Sabha by a special majority of two-thirds of the members present and voting, which should not be less than one-half of the total strength of the House.
• If it is not passed by both the Houses within the term of this Lok Sabha, it will lapse. The Bill will also have to be ratified by at least half the State Assemblies.
• Once the Constitution is amended to add economic backwardness as a ground for reservations, it will most likely have to stand the test of judicial scrutiny, as the Supreme Court had in the Indra Sawhney case capped quotas at 50% of the available seats.

What are the future implications, should the Bill stand judicial scrutiny?

• If the Supreme Court indeed agrees to lift the 50% cap, all States of India can extend the quantum of reservation and “upper castes” will stand to lose in State services.
• If the Supreme Court rejects the idea of breaching the 50% cap, Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quotas can be provided only by eating into the SC, ST and OBC quota pie, which will have social and political implications.

Context

• The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed senior advocate and former Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar as amicus curiae to assist it in a matter related to the administration of Jagannath Temple in Puri.
• During the hearing on Wednesday, the issue of appointing a new amicus in the case arose before a Bench headed by Justice A.K. Sikri. The Bench asked Mr. Kumar, who was present in the court, whether he would assist it, to which he agreed.
• An advocate, who had filed an application in the court seeking intervention in the case, told the Bench that a person having knowledge about the temple should be appointed as an amicus.

Amicus Curiae

• In simple language, “amicus curiae” means “friend of the court”.
• In many high-profile PILs, the courts appoint amicus curiae, to assist them in formulating a viewpoint and to make inquiries and reports.
• In several major PIL judgments on prison reform, terrorism, environment, mentally deficient litigants, freedom of the media, unauthorised occupation of government premises and unauthorised constructions, decisions have been based on the assistance provided by the amicus.
• There is another kind of amicus curiae, appointed in cases that are not PILs, where important questions of law are involved and both parties are represented but the court still wants a senior lawyer to assist it. (e.g. Supreme Court appointed Raju Ramachandran as amicus to investigate allegations of Narendra Modi’s complicity in the Gujarat riots.)
• The “traditional” amicus curiae is the one who is asked to represent the accused in a criminal appeal – when the Accused is too poor and/or requests the court to provide him a lawyer or when the criminal does not engage his own lawyer to defend him against the State.
• Supreme Court and the high courts maintain panels of lawyers who are assigned amicus work in criminal appeals.
• The Supreme Court has mandated that legal aid, that is, a lawyer representing a poor accused, is a must in criminal cases.

Context

• Terrorism, threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and climate change are the critical challenges that confront us today, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said here on Wednesday.
• “Today, no country, big or small, is immune from this existential threat, particularly, terrorism actively supported and sponsored by states. In this digital age, the challenge is even greater, with a greater vulnerability to radicalisation,” Ms. Swaraj said at the Raisina Dialogue jointly organised by the Observer Research Foundation and the External Affairs Ministry.

Raisina Dialogue

• This is an annual geo-political event, organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
• It is designed to explore prospects and opportunities for Asian integration as well as Asia’s integration with the larger world. It is predicated on India’s vital role in the Indian Ocean Region and how India along with its partners can build a stable regional and world order.
• The conference is a multistakeholder, cross-sectoral meeting involving policy and decision-makers, including but not limited to Foreign, Defence and Finance Ministers of different countries, high-level government officials and policy practitioners, leading personalities from business and industry, and members of the strategic community, media and academia.
• The Raisina Dialogue was born three years ago, in 2016, in the belief that the Asian century that the world was talking about was not about any exclusive geographical region. It was rather about the engagement of global actors with Asia and of Asia with the world.
• So this dialogue took birth as a platform, where the old and the new could work together, to discover their connections, their inter-dependence. It has today become a crucible for conversations and ideas that while located in India can be owned by the world.

Context

• President Donald Trump used a prime-time address to the nation on Tuesday to insist on $5.7 billion for a steel wall along the Mexican border that he said would stop the shedding of “American blood” by illegal immigrants.

Analysis of the issue

• Since his swearing-in as President, Trump is wasting no time in enforcing his numerous campaign promises. One such order is the use of federal resources to construct a Mexican border wall.
• The border with Mexico is roughly 1,900 miles long and spans fours state: California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
• Trump’s thinking is that a giant wall dividing Mexico and the United States will restrict illegal immigrants’ entry into the country, as he feels the border patrol as it currently stands is weak and letting too many, as he puts it, “rapists” onto American soil.
• Currently 652 miles of the 1,954-mile U.S. Mexico border has some amalgamation of walls, fences and other barriers. In areas closest to cities the wall has multiple layers. The wall is the weakest in more desolate areas and in some areas there is no wall at all. This is frequently because the terrain already provides a natural barrier, such as the widest parts of the Rio Grande River or steep mountain ranges.
• Analysts believe the majority (possibly vast majority) of illegal immigrants enter America by air. There are two kinds of illegal immigration. President Trump’s rhetoric focuses on “entries without inspection.” But most illegal immigrants actually arrive in America with a visa – and then simply don’t leave. These are called “overstays.”
• Also, the states where illegal immigration is growing are not on the Mexican border. The states with rising illegal immigration are Washington, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts and Louisiana. Texas, New Mexico and Arizona have seen no significant, measurable increase in illegal immigrants. And California, Nevada, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina have seen their illegal immigrant population decline.
• A border wall does not address the growth of illegal immigrants, as to the extent illegal immigrants are working in the U.S. they are clearly not in the border states.
• Besides, the number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. is actually declining. There are more Mexicans returning to live in Mexico than are illegally entering the U.S. Between 2009 and 2014 over 1 million illegal Mexican immigrants willingly returned to Mexico where working conditions had improved and they could be with family.
• Americans also seem divided by the wall. According to a poll 47% of voters support building a wall, with 45% against. Critics say the wall proposal is pointless because, among other things, most drugs smuggled into the United States pass through legal entry points and are not transported through the desert.
• The US-Mexico border region is a delicate ecosystem with regular animal and bird migrations moving between the north and south of the American continent. A number of species need to cross the border to mate with their genetically different cousins, including the endangered North American jaguar and black bears, which would be threatened without being able to mate with Mexican bears.
• If the main intention is to stop illegal border immigrants into the U.S., the best (and least costly) policy would be to cooperate with Mexico to capture these immigrants as they flee Central America and find a solution for either housing them in Mexico or returning them to their country of origin. It is ridiculous to expect Mexico to pay for a wall when it is not Mexico’s citizens creating the purported illegal immigration problem on the border.
• If the administration would like to stop illegal immigration the best way is to help Mexico create more high-paying jobs (say with a trade deal like NAFTA) so they don’t come to America, and those in America simply choose to go to Mexico.

Context

• British officials are set to test India’s reaction to proposals for a new post-Brexit immigration system unveiled in December.
• Home Office officials are set to meet with counterparts in India next week, as well as others, for discussions on the ‘Immigration White Paper’ unveiled by Home Secretary Sajid Javid last year, a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) official has said.

Salient features of the UK immigration proposals

• End to free movement -Everyone will be required to obtain a permission if they want to come to the UK to work or study.
• Immigration targets – There will be no cap on the numbers of skilled workers but there will be targets. The Tory party has a longstanding commitment, flowing from Theresa May’s time as home secretary of reducing net migration to below 100,000 a year.
• No access to British welfare system – Those who enter under the new system will have no “right to access to public funds, or to settle.
• New system will favour skilled workers. The government says the policy “will ensure the UK remains a hub for international talent from the EU and the rest of the world”.
• Low-skilled workers – To address concerns of employers particularly in construction and social care, it is proposed that low-skilled workers will be able to enter the UK for a maximum of 12 months with a cooling-off period of a further 12 months to prevent people effectively working in the UK permanently. Low-skilled workers in this category will be able to move between employers without sponsorship. No access to public funds, a switch to another visa, or family reunion.
• £30,000 salary threshold – There will be a salary threshold but this has been put out to a 12-month consultation period, so this could change if government succumbs to pressure from the business community, which says the minimum income is set too high for most sectors.

C. GS3 Related

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

Background

• The Trump administration has decided to withdraw roughly 7,000 troops from Afghanistan.
• This decision will have major consequences for peace in Afghanistan and the neighborhood, which may result into chaos, a gradual descent into a civil war is likely as various regional stakeholders try to reshape the battlefield in accordance with their own strategic priorities counting on American forces to eventually leave

Concerns for India

The Taliban now controls, or actively contests, the government’s control, in around

45 percent of Afghanistan’s territory. The Afghan security forces are taking heavy casualties, losing on an average, 30-40 members every day. Important urban centres like Ghazni have been taken over by the Taliban, for days

• A swift military takeover by the Taliban would raise security concerns in India, given the past Taliban role in colluding with the hijackers of IC 814.
• The Taliban has also provided training facilities and bases for terrorist groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was responsible for the attack on India’s Parliament.

China’s Role

• Sharing part of a border with Afghanistan, China has a great interest in its stability.
  • China would be adversely affected by war and chaos, which could spill over into north-western China, Pakistan, and Central Asia.
  • As all these areas are vital in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), peace in Afghanistan is critical.
• China has gained considerable economic and diplomatic influence in Afghanistan.
  • Unsurprisingly, Afghanistan’s President, Ashraf Ghani, made China the destination of his first official trip abroad in October 2014.
  • China then announced its intention to build regional consensus on Afghanistan’s security.
• It has joined the U.S. and Russia in several peace talks with the Taliban and is part of the four-nation Quadrilateral Coordination Group (with Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S.).
  • It is giving military aid to Afghanistan, with the express intent of fighting terrorism and increasing security cooperation.
  • If the U.S. withdrawal exacerbates conflict, southern Russia will also face the threat of an extremist spillover. Therefore, Russia and its Central Asian ‘near abroad’ would be willing to expand their cooperation with China to curb insecurity.
• Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, which share a border with northern Afghanistan, are concerned about the Taliban and other terrorist groups becoming powerful in Afghanistan, and posing a threat.
  • The SCO’s programme for 2019-21 also calls for combating terrorism, and generally enhancing security cooperation.
• China never had any intention of contributing troops to NATO’s anti-Taliban campaign.
  • But as Asia’s strongest power and challenger to the U.S., China will shed no tears if the U.S. reduces its military strength or calls it a day after 18 years of a protracted and indecisive war in Afghanistan.

Economic Role in Afghanistan

• Despite the prevailing instability in Afghanistan, China has used diplomacy and finance to appear influential and generous.
• It has invested in projects such as mining, roads and railways, and health.
  • A rail link, completed in 2016, and running from far eastern China via Uzbekistan to the river port of Hairatan in northern Afghanistan, could reduce the time taken to make shipments, from six months by road, to just two weeks.
  • Infrastructure problems have halted work on the railway for a while, and the three countries are in talks to resume operations.

China Pakistan Angle

• Pakistan is known to train and export extremists across the Durand Line. The reason for Taliban’s resilience is the support and succor it receives from Rawalpindi. Pakistan’s leverage in Afghanistan is set to grow.
  • Pakistan continues to provide the Taliban military and intelligence support, together with safe havens and bases on its soil. The Taliban’s Vice-President Sirajuddin Haqqani resides in and operates from Pakistan.
• It is also blamed for exporting extremists to Uighur in Xinjiang, and for extremist attacks on Chinese workers in the CPEC area.
• With China investing billions in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Pakistan being the largest recipient of Chinese arms imports (2013-17), Could China have some leverage over Pakistan? Would China’s strategic and economic interests prompt it to press Pakistan to stop exporting terrorists across the Durand Line? These are the big questions.
• On the other side USA can still play a role by asserting its rights from IMF as the Pakistan’s economy would collapse without assistance
  • The US in the past has also linked such assistance to Pakistan, to the ISI ending support for terrorism.

India’s Current Approach has been of Soft Power in Afghanistan

• India has certainly contributed much ranging from telecommunications to education, Bollywood movies and pop music.
• The building for the National Assembly was built with Indian assistance to support Afghanistan’s democracy.
• Indian reconstruction largesse, amounting to some $3 billion, has earned it goodwill and popularity.

India China Coalition to reduce the growth of Taliban

• The Afghan government would like to see India-China economic cooperation in Afghanistan that could boost progress and enhance human security
• In a first, India and China started a joint training project for Afghan diplomats. They could expand cooperation by facilitating Afghanistan’s full membership of the SCO
• China’s leadership role of the SCO and contacts with all parties (the U.S., the Taliban, the Afghan government, Pakistan, Russia and the five Central Asian states) could give it a vantage in crafting a regional solution on Afghanistan.

2. Korean consensus? (North Korean Leader Visiting China)

Question 1. The Election Commission of India conducts the election for the vacant post of the

Question 2. Which of the following elections are conducted by indirect system of election?

Question 3. Which of the following statements about Jovian planets is incorrect?