[Mission 2023] INSIGHTS DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB SUMMARY 14 September 2022

Maxine JohnsonNovember 28, 2023

0 0 18 minutes read

InstaLinks : help you think beyond the issue but relevant to the issue from UPSC prelims and Mains exam point of view. These linkages provided in this ‘hint’ format help you frame possible questions in your mind that might arise(or an examiner might imagine) from each current event. InstaLinks also connect every issue to their static or theoretical background. This helps you study a topic holistically and add new dimensions to every current event to help you think analytically

Table of Contents:

GS Paper 1:

1. ‘Modern slavery’

GS Paper2:

1. An improved Bill, but still contentious

GS Paper 3:

1. CRISPR

Content for Mains Enrichment (Essay/Ethics)

1. Community Virtual Class Learning (CVCL)

Facts for Prelims:

1. Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker

2. NCRB releases Prison Statistics in India Report, 2021

3. Election Commission delists parties

4. Rural employment scheme social audits

5. GST is a fledgling institution but a vibrant forum

6. States to have Niti Aayog-like bodies soon

7. Windfall tax

8. FINTECH incentive Scheme (FIS) 2022

9. Iran may urge India to restart oil import

10. Rubber: Protest in Kerela

11. Extended Reality (XR)

12. Military Exercises

13. Mapping

Note: You can download the compilation of Content for Mains Enrichment (CME) from June till September 10^th here. This is a short 20 pages compilation and can be highly used for those giving Mains this time.

‘Modern slavery’

GS Paper 1

Syllabus: Indian Society

Source: D2E, Indian Express

Direction: Although the report has a very detailed description, stick to the basics. No need to note down everything.

Context: ‘The Global Estimates of Modern Slavery’, a report published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and international human rights group Walk Free, said 50 million people were living in modern slavery in 2021.

About Modern Slavery:

Modern slavery, is comprised of two principal components – forced labour and forced marriage. Both refer to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or cannot leave because of threats, violence, deception, abuse of power or other forms of coercion.

Forced labour:

- - All work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.
  - Forced labour has grown in recent years. The increase in the number of people in forced labour was driven entirely by forced labour in the private economy, both in forced commercial sexual exploitation and in forced labour in other sectors.
  - No region of the world is spared from forced labour. Asia and the Pacific are hosts to more than half of the global total (15.1 million).
  - Forced labour is a concern regardless of a country’s wealth. More than half of all forced labour occurs in either upper-middle income or high-income countries.
  - When the population is taken into account, forced labour is highest in low-income countries.
  - Most forced labour occurs in the private economy.

Forced marriage

- - Forced marriage is a complex and highly gendered practice. Although men and boys are also forced to marry, it predominantly affects women and girls. Forced marriages occur in every region of the world and cut across ethnic, cultural, and religious lines.
  - Family members were responsible for the vast majority of forced marriages. Most persons who reported on the circumstances of forced marriage were forced to marry by their parents.

Recommendations: Ending modern slavery:

Forced labour

- - Extend social protection, including floors, to all workers and their families, to mitigate the socio-economic vulnerability that underpins much of forced labour, and to provide workers with the basic income security
  - Promote fair and ethical recruitment, to protect workers from abusive and fraudulent practices during the recruitment and placement process,
  - Address migrants’ vulnerability to forced labour and trafficking for forced labour.
  - Address children trapped in forced labour.
  - End state-imposed forced labour, which accounts for one in seven of all forced labour cases
  - Partnership and international cooperation.

Forced marriage

- - Legislative and policy responses should have a gendered lens, including gender-sensitive laws, policies, programmes, and budgets, including gender-responsive social protection mechanisms.
  - Ensure adequate civil and criminal protections in national legislation.
  - Address underlying socio-cultural norms and structures that contribute to forced marriage.
  - Ensuring that women and girls have the opportunity and ability to complete school, earn a livelihood, and inherit assets plays a significant role in reducing vulnerability to forced marriage.
  - Address the vulnerability of migrants, particularly children.
  - Access to legal identity registration procedures is particularly important for migrants at risk of forced marriage.

An improved Bill, but still contentious

GS paper 2

Syllabus: Parliament structure, functioning and conduct of business, the importance of Indian ports etc

Source: The Hindu

Context: The Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways is holding four rounds of consultations on the draft Indian Ports Bill 2022 that will replace the 1908 Act.

Background:

- - Major ports: Figure in the Union List and come under the jurisdiction of the Central government.
  - Non-major ports: They are in the Concurrent List and come under the respective State governments, but the Center has overriding legislative and executive powers.

2021 draft bill:

- - Empower MSDC: It sought to empower the Maritime State Development Council (MSDC) to formulate a national plan, for the development of major and non-major ports.
  - Inquiry: To order an appropriate inquiry if any port contravenes the national plan.
  - Empowered the Centre: To make a port non-operational if it was not in consonance with the national plan.
  - Penalties: It prescribed penalties including imprisonment for non-compliance with the MSDC’s directions by port authorities, port officials and other persons.
  - Monitoring

Problems of the 2021 draft Bill:

- - Maritime State Development Council (MSDC): The MSDC serves as an apex advisory body for the coordinated development of major ports and non-major ports.
    - It has met only 18 times in the last 25 years
  - Chapters II and III-giving statutory status to the MSDC: A body like the MSDC is necessary, but the nature and quantum of its work do not call for either statutory status or a permanent body.
  - Maritime States: There is a fear that the real aim of a statutory-cum-permanent MSDC is to curtail States’ powers to develop and manage non-major ports
  - Central planning and Inspector Raj: The 2021 draft contained several provisions that were a replay of the Socialist-era follies of Central planning and Inspector Raj.

Issues with 2022 draft Bill:

- - Statutory body: It has retained the MSDC as a statutory-cum-permanent body.
  - Section 10(c): It authorizes the Central government to entrust any administrative and financial functions to the MSDC.
  - In Center’s favour: In order to ensure that the composition of the MSDC is in favour of the Center, the draft Bill makes:
    - Five Secretaries and one Joint Secretary to the Government of India.
    - Administrators of the coastal UTs, as members.

What should be done:

- - Chapters II and III: It is recommended that Chapters II and III of the draft Bill relating to the MSDC be scrapped and that the MSDC remain an apex advisory body.
  - Port reform strategies: In keeping with port reform strategies worldwide, the Center should work towards greater decentralization, deregulation, corporatisation and private sector participation.
  - Equity stake to maritime states: It should give the concerned maritime States and city municipal corporations a substantial equity stake in corporatised major ports.
  - Higher functions: It should limit itself to overseeing only the ‘higher functions’ of border control, competition policy, port security, environment protection and hinterland connectivity

Status of Indian ports:

- - Indian ports have already reached their saturation and India needs more new ports.
  - Between 1993-94 and 2021-22: The share of the total cargo of non-major ports went up from 8% to 45%.
  - Public-private partnership (PPP): Maritime States developed non-major ports almost entirely on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis. Example: Gujarat (India’s first private port at Pipavav)
  - World Bank Report (2011): ‘Regulation of the Indian Port Sector’, observed that non-major ports are perceived as “more business-oriented, customer friendly, cheaper and in general more efficient.
    - Unnecessary regulatory and financial burdens are imposed upon Port Trusts, private terminal operators and investors” by the Central government.

Insta Links:

Draft Indian Port Bill 2022

Sagarmala Project

Mains Links:

Q. Explain how Private Public Partnership arrangements, in long gestation infrastructure projects, can transfer unsustainable liabilities to the future. What arrangements need to be put in place to ensure that successive generations’ capacities are not compromised? (UPSC 2014)

CRISPR

GS Paper 3

Syllabus: Biotechnology

Source: Indian Express

Direction: Biotechnology is one of the favourites for UPSC mains as well as prelims. CRISPR has reached a decade of development this year. Those giving mains this time, plz don’t ignore this topic.

Context: Over the last 3 years, gene-editing technology with nearly unlimited potential has produced flawless results in clinical trials. India has approved a 5-year project to develop CRISPR to cure sickle cell anaemia.

Genome editing (also called gene editing) technologies allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the genome. Several approaches to genome editing have been developed.

Working on CRISPR?

Its mechanism is often compared to the ‘cut-copy-paste’, or ‘find-replace’ functionalities in common computer programmes. A bad stretch in the DNA sequence, which is the cause of disease or disorder, is located, cut, and removed — and then replaced with a ‘correct’ sequence.

Potential applications of genome editing technologies; –

- - Better understanding of diseases; – Most uses of genome editing have been in scientific research –for example, to investigate models of human disease.
    - Several therapeutic interventions using CRISPR for diseases like thalassaemia or sickle cell anaemia have gone into clinical trials
    - This will avoid most of the avoidable deaths in (e.g., due to cancer) in poor countries.
  - Identifying threats: genome editing has been used to develop a suite of tools that scientists can use to better understand new and existing pathogens.
    - This can help to develop and poor countries are prepared for incoming threats of diseases.
  - Developing new treatments: the potential of genome editing to impact the development and use of new treatments is tremendous.
    - Genome-editing technologies have a major advantage over traditional drugs in that they can target the genetic basis of disease. This can drastically lower the cost of life-threatening diseases.
  - Treating genetic diseases: it has huge potential in the field of genetic diseases.
    - Poor countries like Nigeria, Sudan and tribals in India have witnessed the rise in cases of diseases like Sickle cell anaemia, thalassemia etc.
  - Other potential uses: Genome-editing technologies also have a number of relevant applications to global health security outside of the human body.
    - Gene drives have the potential to control vectors and minimize the possibility of certain outbreaks whose impact is felt by poor countries more. It can help either by eliminating the vector entirely or by editing the vector’s genome to remove its ability to carry a particular agent.

Government steps:

In 2021: India approved a five-year project to develop this technology to cure sickle cell anaemia which mainly afflicts the tribal populations of the country.

The ethical dilemma

- - Designer Baby: In 2018, a Chinese researcher disclosed that he had altered the genes of a human embryo to prevent the infection of HIV. This was the first documented case of creating a ‘designer baby’, and it caused widespread concern in the scientific community.
  - Changes in the embryo pass on to the generations: It may thus create a community of superhumans. In the case of therapeutic interventions, the changes in genetic sequences remain with the individual and are not passed on to the offspring.

Insta Links

What is CRISPR-Cas9?

Practice Questions:

Q. Discuss the CRISPR gene-editing technology and the concerns raised by it. (250 words)

What is the Cas9 protein that is often mentioned in news? (UPSC 2019)

(a) A molecular scissors used in targeted gene editing

(b) A biosensor used in the accurate detection of pathogens in patients

(d) A herbicidal substance synthesized in genetically modified crops

Answer: A

With reference to agriculture in India, how can the technique of ‘genome sequencing’, often seen in the news, be used in the immediate future? (UPSC 2017)

1. Genome sequencing can be used to identify genetic markers for disease resistance and drought tolerance in various crop plants.
2. This technique helps in reducing the time required to develop new varieties of crop plants.
3. It can be used to decipher the host-pathogen relationships in crops

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: D

Genome sequencing is a laboratory method that is used to determine the entire genetic makeup of a specific organism or cell type. This method can be used to find changes in areas of the genome. These changes may help scientists understand how specific diseases (such as cancer) form as well as modify the genetic makeup of crops as per our needs.

Content for Mains Enrichment (Ethics/Essay)

Case study: Community Virtual Class Learning (CVCL)

World Vision India (India’s largest child-focused humanitarian organisation) collaborated with Global Indian International School (GIIS), Singapore and piloted Community Virtual Class Learning (CVCL) for 20 students of Classes 4 and 5 aged 8-13 years from two schools in Agra and Chennai.

Through ZOOM video conferencing platform and following proper social distancing and government-enforced COVID-19 protocols, classes were initiated with the support of the school management using laptops and projectors.

GIIS students from Classes 11 and 12 facilitated CVCL and tutored the students in English and Mathematics.

The result and impact after three months were quite progressive. The outcome demonstrated a 70 per cent increase in students who could read and comprehend the English language. Around 35 per cent of them were able to read the newspaper and 70 per cent improved their competencies in simple arithmetic.

This case study can be used in Essay/Governance to show how technology can be customized to students’ needs.

Facts for Prelims

Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker

Context: The recently-released Malayalam film Pathonpatham Noottandu (‘Nineteenth Century’), is based on the life of Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker, a social reformer from the Ezhava community in Kerala who lived in the 19th century.

About Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker:

Panicker was one of the most influential figures in the reformation movement in the state. He challenged the domination of upper castes or ‘Savarnas’ and brought about changes in the lives of both men and women.

His Contributions:

- - Achippudava Samaram strike – to earn women belonging to oppressed groups the right to wear a lower garment that extended beyond the knees.
  - Ethappu Samaram – the struggle for the right to wear an upper body cloth by women belonging to backward castes.
  - Mukkuthi Samaram – for the rights of lower-caste women to wear ‘mukkuthi’ or nose-ring, and other gold ornaments.

These struggles played an important role in challenging the social order and in raising the dignity of women belonging to the lower strata of society in public life.

Other contributions:

- - He also established the first Kathakali Yogam (area-based schools for the classical dance form Kathakali) for the Ezhava community in 1861, which led to a Kathakali performance by Ezhavas and other backward communities, another first for them.
  - He was given the title of ‘Panicker’ by the then-king of Travancore in 1869.
  - In 2005, the Kerala government inaugurated the Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker Research Foundation and Cultural Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

Who are the other social reformers in the film?

- - Nangeli was an Ezhava woman who is said to have lived in the 19th century in Alappuzha. She supposedly cut off her breasts to protest the ‘breast tax’ imposed by the Kingdom of Travancore on women belonging to lower castes.

NCRB releases Prison Statistics in India Report, 2021

Source: NCRB

Direction: NCRB data are important to quote, but note down only important ones.

Context: This is in continuation of other reports by NCRB released recently.

Key findings of the report:

- - Overcrowded Prisons: over 130% occupancy
  - Undertrials: 77%
  - SC/ST/OBC: over 67% of inmates belong to these communities.
  - Highest number of undertrials: Uttar Pradesh> Bihar> MH
  - Transgender: Most prisons don’t have separate facilities including in Delhi

National Account Estimate by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW)

Source: PIB

Direction: Too much data. Be very selective.

Context: Based on the System of Health Accounts 2011 (by WHO), the ministry has released the 6^th National Account Estimate for 2018-19

Few important findings:

- - Total Health expenditure (govt +private)/ GDP: 3.16% of GDP
  - Government expenditure: 40.6% of the Total health expenditure
  - Out of Pocket Expenditure: 48. 2%

Election Commission delists parties

Source: The Hindu

Context:

The Election Commission ordered the delisting of 86 registered unrecognized political parties (RUPP) it found to be “non-existent” and declared 253 others “inactive.

Key Highlights:

- - Non-existence: The parties that were deleted from the list of registered parties were found to be non-existent after a physical check by the respective CEOs or based on a report of undelivered letters or notices, the EC said.
  - Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968: The parties that have been declared inactive would not be eligible to avail of benefits under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, which allows parties to apply for a common symbol for its candidates.

Registered Unrecognized Political Parties are those who are:

- - Either newly registered parties or those which have not secured enough percentage of votes in the assembly or general elections to become a state party.

- - Those which have never contested elections since being registered are considered unrecognized parties.
  - RUPP do not enjoy all the benefits extended to the recognised parties.

Rural employment scheme social audits

Source: The Hindu

Context: The Union Rural Development Ministry (MoRD) has told States that failure to carry out a social audit of the MGNREGA will invite action, including withholding of funds.

Status:

- - As per MoRD, only 14.29(fourteen point two nine)% of the planned audits have been completed in this financial year.
  - MGNREG Act Social audit: Every Social Audit Unit is entitled to funds equivalent to 0.5(zero point five)% of the MGNREGA expenditure incurred by the State in the previous year.
  - The audit involves quality checks of infrastructure, financial misappropriation in wages, and checking for any procedural deviations.

Issues:

- - Unable to pay auditor: The amount is credited after desperate calls from the Audit Department, which is unable to pay its auditor for over a year. Example: Himachal Pradesh
  - Not full amount paid: Even when the funds arrive, the Centre rarely pays the entire amount.
    - Bihar: The Bihar Social Audit Unit has not received any funds since April 2020 – for more than two years.
  - Loans from respective governments: The Social Audit Units in Jharkhand, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Karnataka were forced to take loans from their respective State governments in order to sustain their operations.

MGNREGA:

The scheme was introduced as a social measure that guarantees “the right to work”. The local government will have to legally provide at least 100 days of wage employment in rural India to enhance their quality of life.

Eligibility:

- - Must be a Citizen of India to seek NREGA benefits.
  - The job seeker has completed 18 years of age at the time of application.
  - The applicant must be part of a local household (i.e. application must be made with the local Gram Panchayat).

GST is a fledgling institution but a vibrant forum

Source: The Hindu

Context:

- - The Goods and Services Tax Council is still a fledgling institution (an organization that is immature, inexperienced, or underdeveloped), but acts as a vibrant forum for intense interactions between the Center and the States, Finance Minister.

Functions:

- - Article 279: To make recommendations to the Union and the states on important issues related to GST, like the goods and services that may be subjected or exempted from GST, model GST Laws”.
  - It also decides on various rate slabs of GST.

States to have Niti Aayog-like bodies soon

Source: Financial Express

Context:

- - Niti Aayog-like institutions will be made in states with the national vision of becoming a developed nation by 2047.
  - Aim:
    - Improving ease of doing business
    - Land reforms
    - Infrastructure development
    - Credit flows and urbanization.
  - Few states: Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam have already begun work in this regard while states like Maharashtra, Gujarat etc will likely commence work soon, sources said.
  - Conceptualisation of State Institution for Transformation (SIT): Lateral entry of professionals will be encouraged in SITs to undertake high-quality analytical work and policy recommendations.

NITI Aayog:

The Planning Commission was replaced by NITI Aayog in 2015 with an emphasis on ‘Bottom –Up’ approach. Envisage the vision of Maximum Governance, Minimum Government, echoing the spirit of ‘Cooperative Federalism’.

Composition:

- - Chairperson: Prime Minister
  - Vice-Chairperson: To be appointed by the Prime-Minister
  - Governing Council: Chief Ministers of all states and Lt. Governors of Union Territories.
  - Regional Council: To address specific regional issues, Comprising Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors Chaired by the Prime Minister or his nominee.
  - Adhoc Membership: 2 members in ex-officio capacity from leading Research institutions on a rotational basis.
  - Ex-Officio membership: Maximum of four from the Union council of ministers to be nominated by the Prime minister.
  - Chief Executive Officer: Appointed by Prime-minister for a fixed tenure, in the rank of Secretary to Government of India.
  - Special Invitees: Experts, Specialists with domain knowledge nominated by the Prime-minister.

Functions of NITI Ayog:

Windfall tax

Source: The Hindu

Context: Government has defended the windfall tax (applicable from July 1), as a way to rein in the “phenomenal profits” made by some oil refiners who chose to export fuel to reap the benefits of skyrocketing global prices while affecting domestic supplies.

What is windfall tax?

The United States Congressional Research Service (CRS) defines a windfall as an “unearned, unanticipated gain in income through no additional effort or expense”.

- - Domestic producers sell crude oil to domestic refineries at international parity prices, thus making windfall gains.
  - E. g. ONGC reported bumper profits in the March quarter (when international prices soared to a near 14-year high of $139 per barrel).

- - The U.N. chief urged all governments to tax these excessive profits “and use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through these difficult times.”

Other countries: Besides India, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany have either already imposed a windfall profit tax or are contemplating doing so.

Why are countries levying windfall taxes now?

Prices of oil, gas, and coal have seen sharp increases. The rising prices meant huge and record profits for energy companies while resulting in hefty gas and electricity bills for household bills in major and smaller economies.

FINTECH incentive Scheme (FIS) 2022

Source: PIB

Direction: Fintech is important for this year’s mains. About this scheme, just go through it once.

Context: International Financial Services centres Authority (IFSCA) has launched a scheme to provide financial support to FinTech activities.

About the Scheme:

Aim: To promote the establishment of world-class fintech centres at GIFT city (Gujarat)

Incentive: grants for start-ups, proof of concept, sandbox, green FinTech, Accelerator etc.

FinTech, or financial technology, is a term used to describe any new technology that aims to improve and automate the use and delivery of financial services.

What is an IFSC?

An IFSC caters to customers outside the jurisdiction of the domestic economy.

- - Such centres deal with flows of finance, financial products and services across borders.

Currently, GIFT-IFSC is the maiden international financial services centre in India.

Iran may urge India to restart oil import

Source: The Hindu

Context:

- - Iran will nudge India towards reviving its procurement of discounted Iranian sweet crude during a meeting between the Prime Minister and Iranian President on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Samarkand.

Key issues to be discussed:

- - Restoration of Indian oil imports from Iran.
  - Next steps in developing Chabahar port’s Shahid Beheshti terminal run by India
  - Possibility of linking it to the International North-South Transport Corridor
  - Long-term agreement on the management of the Chabahar terminal.

Chabahar Port:

- - The port of Chabahar is located in southeastern Iran in the Gulf of Oman.
  - It is the only Iranian port with direct access to the ocean.
  - It’s located in the Sistan-Baluchistan province on the energy-rich Iran’s southern coast.
  - The Chabahar port is considered a gateway to golden opportunities for trade by India, Iran and Afghanistan with central Asian countries.

Rubber: Protest in Kerala

Direction: Understand the issues, a few geographic characteristics of rubber and India’s status in it.

Context: The price of natural rubber (NR) has crashed to a 16-month low in the Indian market. This has led to widespread protests among rubber growers of Kerela.

What has caused the sharp fall in prices?

- - Weak Chinese demand due to zero COVID strategy (China consumes 42% of world Rubber production)
  - European energy crisis due to Russia-Ukraine War
  - High inflation
  - Higher domestic production
  - High imports: block rubber from the Ivory Coast and compounded rubber from the Far East.

Status:

- - India is currently the world’s fifth largest producer of natural rubber while it also remains the second biggest consumer of the material globally.
  - About 40% of India’s total natural rubber consumption is currently met through imports.
  - Kerala accounts for nearly 75% of the total of India’s production.

What do the farmers demand?

- - Raising the import duties
  - Raise the replanting subsidy in Kerala

Extended Reality (XR)

Source: PIB

Direction: Know the basic difference between XR, AR, MR and VR

Context: MeitY has collaborated with Meta (facebook’s parent company) to accelerate XR technology start-ups in India

What is XR?

Extended reality (XR) is an umbrella term referring to all real-and-virtual combined environments and human-machine interactions generated by computer technology and wearables.

Applications:

- - Training: e.g., for soldiers, driving, surgeons
  - Testing: for corporates
  - Tourism: virtual tours

Issues:

- - No concrete data privacy law is in place yet.
  - The cost of equipment is high for common men to afford
  - Lack of digital literacy

Quantum Network

Source: Indian Express

Context: IIT, Madras has become 1^st institute in India to join IBM Quantum Network.

- - IBM’s Quantum Network aims to advance quantum computing skills and research in India.

Quantum computing is a rapidly-emerging technology that harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems too complex for classical computers.

Military Exercises

Source: PIB

Context: Several exercises have been in news today e.g.

- - Exercise Pitch Black 2022 Concludes (Australia)
    - It is a biennial three-week multilateral (including India) air combat training exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
  - Indian navy participates in the Multinational Naval Ex Kakadu, Australia
    - Exercise KAKADU (started in 1993), is a multilateral regional maritime engagement exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
  - Japan-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise – Jimex 2022
    - JIMEX series of exercises commenced in January 2012 with a special focus on maritime security cooperation.
    - It is conducted biennially between the Indian Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF).