19 July 2019: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

A. GS1 Related

Context:

Kerala’s State Literacy Mission (SLM) is all set to earn the 100% literate badge for Waynad.

Details:

• Wayanad has the highest tribal population among all districts.
• Literacy rate in Kerala is 94.00 percent as per 2011 population census. Of that, male literacy stands at 96.11 percent while female literacy is at 92.07 percent.
• Tribal pockets are among a handful of areas where full literacy has so far remained a dream in Kerala.

Progress:

• As part of its efforts, the SLM drew up the Wayanad Literacy Equivalency and Attappadi Literacy Equivalency programmes.
• Samagra, a framework to develop effective schooling strategies was also adopted.
• They addressed gaps in literacy programmes for marginalised people.
• The initiatives were a huge success and we were inspired to pursue 100% literacy among tribal people in Wayanad by end-2020.
• So far, the literacy campaign has touched the lives of people in 483 remote tribal hamlets among 2,000 such habitations in the district.
• The project is now focussed on the remaining 1,517 hamlets in the third phase.
• Instructors play a key role in spreading literacy, and they are to be recruited from among the residents themselves.
• The quest is to identify those who speak various indigenous languages as they get a good response from the learners.
• The programme has helped many tribal people and many school dropouts continue their studies.

Kerala State Literacy Mission:

• The Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority is an autonomous institution under the General Education Department, Government of Kerala.
• It was set up in 1998 for the purpose of co-ordinating and activating the ‘Literacy and continuing education.
• Kerala launched the continuing education endeavour on 26th October, 1998 propagating the slogan “Education for all and Education for ever” six years after it bagged the envious title of total literacy.
• Presently the KSLMA is fully funded by the Government of Kerala in order to implement literacy, continuing education and lifelong learning programme designed and developed by the state.

Issue:

It has been observed by the Union Labour and Employment Ministry that the CALPR Act, 1986, and the rules framed thereunder are not being strictly adhered to in the audio-visual industry.

Details:

• The Union Labour and Employment Ministry, expressing concern over violations of child labour rules in film and television has urged the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to ensure strict compliance by the industry with the norms on working conditions for children, as well as the inclusion of mandatory disclaimers when they appear on screen.
• The ministry flagged violations of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, as amended in 2016, as well as the rules framed under it for the audio-visual industry.
• The I&B Ministry is likely to issue advisories on the issue to film producers and broadcasters soon.

Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act:

• Under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2017, child artistes are supposed to work for a maximum of five hours a day and not more than three hours without rest.
• The rules also require permission from the District Magistrate and an undertaking by the producer, as well as the deployment of one person each for ensuring the safety and security of a maximum of five children.
• Children should not be away from schooling for more than 27 days.
• 20% of their income should be deposited in a fixed deposit in their name, as per the rules.
• If a child was involved in filming, the film should include a disclaimer saying that all measures were taken to ensure that no abuse, neglect or exploitation of the child took place during shooting.

Context:

The Lancet Series on Oral Health has noted that the Oral diseases present a major global public health burden, affecting 3.5 billion people worldwide, yet oral health has been largely ignored by the global health community

Concerns:

• Oral diseases, including tooth decay, gum disease and oral cancers, affect almost half of the global population.
• Untreated dental decay the most common health condition worldwide.
• In India, oral disorders are the most prevalent disease condition, and have remained so for the past 30 years.
• Prevalence of oral cancer is highest in South Asian countries.
• In addition to lower quality of life, oral diseases have a major economic impact on both individuals and the wider health care system.
• In high-income countries, dentistry is increasingly technology-focused and trapped in a treatment-over-prevention cycle.
• In middle-income countries the burden of oral diseases is considerable, but oral care systems are often underdeveloped and unaffordable to the majority.
• In low-income countries the current situation is most bleak, with even basic dental care unavailable and most disease remaining untreated.

Details:

• Stating that oral health has been isolated from traditional healthcare and health policy for too long despite the major global public health burden of oral diseases, the paper throws light upon failure of the global health community to prioritise the global burden of oral health.
• The report highlights that, with a treat-over-prevent model, modern dentistry has failed to combat the global challenge of oral diseases.
• The burden of oral diseases is on course to rise as more people are exposed to the underlying risk factors of oral diseases.
• Sugar, tobacco and alcohol and emerging evidence of the food, beverage, and sugar industry’s influence on dental research and professional bodies raises fresh concern.

Steps taken by India:

• The government of India has announced the Ayushman Bharat Yojana.
• Ayushman Bharat Yojana aims at strengthening the primary health care and providing financial protection to the most vulnerable sections of the society.
• It is aimed at creating awareness, screening and symptomatic care for oral diseases, counselling for tobacco cessation and referral to tobacco cessation centres.

Way forward:

• Tightening of regulations of the sugar industry is required.
• Greater transparency around conflict of interests in dental research is necessary.
• The situation calls for the radical reform of dental care.

Context:

India is helping Sri Lanka upgrade the train tracks from Maho to Omanthai on the Northern Line, a project costing US$ 91.26 million.

Details:

• Sri Lanka has signed an agreement with India to upgrade tracks in a key railway segment.
• This is the first time in 100 years that the 130-km tracks from Maho town in the Northwestern Province to Omanthai in the Northern Province are being upgraded.
• The project comes under Indian Concessional financing.
• The initiative seeks to:
  • Double the speed potential of the tracks from the current 60 kmph to 120 kmph
  • Reduce maintenance costs
  • Potentially improve travel comfort of passengers.
  • Contribute to the modernization Sri Lanka Railways.

C. GS3 Related

Category: DISASTER MANAGEMENT

1. Kaziranga’s man-made highlands help rhinos survive floods

Context:

According to a White Paper released by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), one of the key requirements for a $5-trillion economy is an investment of about Rs.5 lakh crore in the power transmission sector

Details:

• As per estimates, India will be consuming 1.8 trillion units by 2025 as India’s growth trajectory accelerates, and this calls for large investments in the transmission sector, particularly at the State level.
• The transmission sector, had seen a reduction in investments in the last five years.
• The White Paper goes on to enumerate eight action points that the government must work on to enhance the transmission sector in line with the growth of the economy that is envisaged.

Recommendations in the White Paper:

• Traditional coal-fired power plants take 5-6 years to build compared to three to four years for construction of transmission lines required for power evacuation the White Paper said.
• In comparison, wind or solar plants take 12-18 months to build, implying the need for advance planning of transmission projects.
• Separation of the Central Transmission Utility from the Power Grid Corporation of India since the set up is currently creating a conflict of interest between the two.
• The paper calls for improved reliability of the transmission network through the development of contingencies in the system.
• More efficient modalities of the bidding process and forest clearance procedures are needed.
• The industry body also highlighted the fact that current guidelines for the construction of transmission lines, as laid out by the Central Electricity Authority, did not leave enough scope for adopting new technologies. This increases the capital expenditure and the per unit tariff. RFPs (Requests for Proposals) must specify the technical performance matrix instead of specifying materials and designs.
• Increasing urbanisation, evolving demographics, expanding renewables and changing market dynamics have placed extraordinary pressure on utilities to solve energy-delivery challenges in an economical manner in the shortest possible time with minimum disruption, the paper said, adding that it is important for system owners, operators and planners to consider increasing capacity of existing infrastructure.

Context:

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has strongly opposed the government’s proposal to transfer surplus money with it to the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI).

Background:

• The government has proposed an amendment to the SEBI Act, which states that the SEBI would constitute a reserve fund and 25% of the annual surplus of the general fund would be put in the reserve fund.
• Further, the size of such reserve fund cannot exceed the total of annual expenditure of the preceding two financial years.
• More importantly, the surplus of the general fund, after factoring in all the SEBI expenses and the transfer to the reserve fund, needs to be transferred to the CFI as per amendments proposed in the Finance Bill, 2019.

Issue:

• SEBI opines that the proposal would result in compromising its autonomy and its ability to function effectively towards the progress and development of the Indian securities market.
• The employees’ association of the SEBI said that the proposal was regressive especially since the SEBI did not have any mandate to raise revenue for the government.
• SEBI opines that the involvement of the government in capital expenditure approval, in addition to the process of board approval, will not add any benefit to institutional efficiency, but rather slow down decision-making and would be contrary to the principle of minimum government and maximum governance.

Details:

• All the penalties levied by the SEBI already go to the CFI. Similarly, settlement amounts are also credited to the CFI.
• The general fund of the SEBI, which currently has a balance of over Rs.3,000 crore, is used to meet the expenses of the regulatory body, including salaries and allowances.
• The fund gets money via charges that the SEBI levies on market participants in the form of registration or processing fees.

Context:

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has added more than 7,000 animals, fish and plants to its endangered “Red List”.

Details:

• Mankind’s destruction of nature is driving species to the brink of extinction at an “unprecedented” rate, IUCN has warned.
• This Red List update doesn’t hold a lot of good news. It takes the total number of threatened species to 28,338 (or 27% of those assessed) and logs the extinction of 873 species since the year 1500.
• The group has now assessed more than 1,05,000 species worldwide, around 28,000 of which risk extinction.
• While each group of organisms face specific threats, human behaviour, including overfishing and deforestation, was the biggest driver of plummeting populations.
• It found that more than 90 percent of marine fish stocks are now either overfished or fished to the limit of sustainability.
• Prime culprits are humans hunting the animals for bushmeat and “severe habitat loss” as forest is converted to land to grow food.

Facts:

• Wedgefishes and giant guitarfishes, known collectively as Rhino Rays due to their elongated snouts, are now the most imperilled marine families on Earth.
• The False Shark Ray is on the brink of extinction after overfishing in the waters off of Mauritania saw its population collapse by 80% in the last 45 years.
• More than 500 deep-sea bony fish and molluscs have been added to the list for the first time posing something of a conservation conundrum as the space they inhabit 1,000 metres beneath the surface — is often beyond national boundaries.

D. GS4 Related

E. Editorials

Background:

• In 2016, Pakistan claimed that it had arrested an Indian agent by the name Kulbushan Jadhav who was reportedly working for India’s external intelligence agency – Research & Analysis Wing (RAW).
• Pakistan alleged that he was involved in sponsoring terror and subversive activities in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Accordingly, he was put on trial at a military court and was sentenced to death.
• India countered these claims and said that Jadhav was only a former officer of the Indian Navy who was currently working in his private capacity at the Chabahar port in Iran and had no connections to the Indian government prior to his arrest.
• Indian intelligence agencies believe that Jadhav was illegally kidnapped in Iran by a terror group known as Jaish al-Adl which is known to be proxy of the ISI involved in terror activities against the Iranian government from across the border.
• After the kidnapping he might have been handed over to the ISI which has projected him to be a RAW agent and has procured a coerced confession as well.
• Since India acknowledged that he was a Indian national, it demanded consular access to be given as per the norms of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963).
• But Pakistan denied consular access and hence India decided to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by arguing that Pakistan had violated the Vienna convention and ‘due process’ was not followed as the trial was carried out in an opaque manner by the military court.
• In 2017, India managed to secure an interim stay against his execution and on 17^th July, 2019 the ICJ delivered a historic verdict which went in favour of India’s arguments.

Editorial Analysis: 

• The final verdict of the ICJ has come as a major relief for India, providing an opportunity for Pakistan to reconsider the ill­formed process it pursued in convicting and sentencing Jadhav to death.
• The ICJ ruled in India’s favour on six counts, and concluded that Pakistan had violated its commitments to the Vienna convention and also rejected its contention that the convention doesn’t apply to the charges of espionage and terrorism.
• The judgement holds Pakistan to be responsible for its initial failure to inform India of the arrest, besides the failure to inform Jadhav of his right to consular access, to provide him legal representation, and to provide him a fair and open trial.
• Pakistan should order a comprehensive review of the trial process as mandated by the ICJ instead of rejoicing over the fact that the ICJ didn’t annul the verdict of the military court or order Jadhav’s release.
• The ICJ has used similar cases involving Germany and the United States (LaGrand) and Mexico and the United States (Avena) as a precedent while delivering the final verdict.
• In both cases the ICJ had ruled that the U.S. was in violation of the Vienna convention, and ordered a “review and reconsideration” of its process.
• Pakistan must know that it cannot emulate the example of the U.S., which defied the ICJ’s ruling, and instead work in good faith to implement the ICJ’s recommendations for ensuring justice to Mr. Jadhav.
• But we need to remember that these steps can only ensure a fair trial process for Mr. Jadhav in Pakistan, and not his release from custody or his eventual return to India.
• So India needs to recognise that the verdict is only a small window of opportunity for resuming talks with Pakistan in parallel to the trial review and it should try and work a way out to secure Jadhav’s future.
• Pakistan on its part shouldn’t resort to any rash move in order to try and put his death sentence into effect. Because such a misstep will cause deep and long term damage to its own attempts to restart bilateral talks with India.

2. OIC’s curious record on Xinjiang

Q1. Consider the following pairs:

Q2. Consider the following statements:

Q3. Ghagra and Gomti are the tributaries of: