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In Depth - Digital India

India is amongst the top 2 countries globally, just behind China on many dimensions of digital adoption. By 2022, India’s digital economy is...

14 Feb 2019 Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha Discussions
National Productivity Council

The National Productivity Council (NPC) celebrated its 61st Foundation Day (as Productivity Day) on February 12, 2019 and also observes National...

13 Feb 2019 News Analysis
Has India Successfully Tamed the Inflation Dragon?

(This editorial is based on the article “Has India successfully tamed the inflation dragon?” which appeared in Livemint for 13th...

13 Feb 2019 News Editorials
Wetlands

13 Feb 2019 Paper 3
Important Facts for Prelims (13th February 2019)

AI Project Debater Lost to Human Recently International Business Machines Corporation's (IBM's) artificial intelligence (AI) system- Project...

13 Feb 2019 News Analysis
National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC)

What is NCBC? 102nd Constitution Amendment Act, 2018 provides constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). It...

12 Feb 2019 National Institutions
The Big Picture - Lokpal & Lokayuktas

The Supreme Court on 17th January 2019 fixed a February- end deadline for the search committee on Lokpal to recommend a panel of names for...

12 Feb 2019 Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha Discussions
40 Years of Islamic Revolution: Iran

40 years have been completed of the Iranian revolution which took place in February of 1979. Iran's revolution began with a popular democracy...

12 Feb 2019 News Analysis
Important Facts for Prelims (12th February 2019)

Buddhist Tourism Circuit Recently the Union Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned five new projects under the Buddhist Circuit. The five states where...

12 Feb 2019 News Analysis
Rajasthan to Scrap Education Criterion

Recently, the Rajasthan Assembly passed two Bills which seek to end the minimum education criterion for panchayat and civic poll...

12 Feb 2019 News Analysis
All is Still Not Well in Court

(This editorial is based on the article “All is Still Not Well in Court” which appeared in The Indian Express for 12th February 2019....

12 Feb 2019 News Editorials
India Central Asia Relations

Why in News? Recently India’s External Affairs Minister (EAM) participated in first India-Central Asia Dialogue in Samarkand, Republic of...

11 Feb 2019 Paper 2
Taking Down Cyber Violence

(This editorial is based on the article “Taking Down Cyber Violence” which appeared in EPW for 2nd January 2019. In this editorial,...

11 Feb 2019 News Editorials
150 years of the Periodic Table

The United Nations has designated 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT2019) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the...

11 Feb 2019 News Analysis
Mahamastakabhisheka Celebrations

Recently, the 10-day long Mahamastakabhisheka for the monolith 39-foot high Bahubali statue started in Dharmasthala, Karnataka. This year (2019),...

11 Feb 2019 News Analysis
Kawtchhuah Ropui Heritage Site, Mizoram

Archaeological survey of India has discovered traces of ancient civilization in Vangchhia, a village in Mizoram’s Champhai district bordering...

11 Feb 2019 News Analysis
India Central Asia Relations

11 Feb 2019 Paper 2
PRS Capsule January 2019

Key Highlights of PRS Parliament President’s address highlights key achievements in the past five years Macroeconomic Development Retail...

10 Feb 2019 PRS Capsule
India to Host CMS COP 13 in 2020

The 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) will be hosted by India during...

09 Feb 2019 News Analysis
100th Anniversary of ILO

In 2019, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN specialized agency celebrates its 100th anniversary. In the run up to the anniversary...

09 Feb 2019 News Analysis

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			'title' => 'In Depth - Digital India',
			'catname' => 'Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha Discussions',
			'desc' => '<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gyTS84yRgHM" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">India is amongst the top 2 countries globally, just behind China on many dimensions of digital adoption. By 2022, India&rsquo;s digital economy is likely to cross $1 trillion. This was the focus at the India Digital Summit 2019, held in New Delhi. The summit deliberated on what India needs to become a trillion dollar digital economy, the challenges on the way forward as well as the threats to cybersecurity.</p>
<div class="'border-bg">
<p>DRISHTI INPUT</p>
<p><strong>Digital India programme</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Vision Areas
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Digital infrastructure as Utility to Every Citizen</li>
<li>Governance and services on demand</li>
<li>Digital empowerment of citizens</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Objectives
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>To prepare India for a knowledge future.</li>
<li>For being transformative that is to realize IT (Indian Talent) + IT (Information Technology) = IT (India Tomorrow).</li>
<li>Making technology central to enabling change.</li>
<li>On being an Umbrella Programme &ndash; covering many departments.</li>
<li>The programme weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single, comprehensive vision so that each of them is seen as part of a larger goal.</li>
<li>The Digital India Programme will pull together many existing schemes which would be restructured and re-focused and implemented in a synchronized manner.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Nine pillars of Digital India<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Broadband Highways</li>
<li>Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity</li>
<li>Public Internet Access Programme</li>
<li>e-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology</li>
<li>e-Kranti - Electronic Delivery of Services</li>
<li>Information for All</li>
<li>Electronics Manufacturing</li>
<li>IT for Jobs</li>
<li>Early Harvest Programmes</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Progress and Impact of Digital India Programme</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Overall 12000 rural post office branches have been linked electronically.</li>
<li>Increased in electronic transactions related to e-governance as it is estimated that there are more than 100 cr mobile phones in India.</li>
<li>2, 74,246 km of optical fiber network has connected over 1.15lakh Gram Panchayats under the Bharat Net programme.</li>
</ul>
<p>*Common Service Center</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>A Common Service Center (CSC) is an information and communication technology (ICT) access point created under the National e-Governance Project of the Indian government.</li>
<li>A CSC is essentially a kiosk with a personal computer, a wireless connection, and other equipment. Through computer and Internet access, the CSCs provide multimedia content related to e-governance, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment, and other government and private services.</li>
<li>There is a rapid expansion in the network of Common Service Centers.</li>
<li>DigiGaon or Digital Village conceptualized as the connected village where the citizen can avail various e-services. These DigiGaons are projected to be change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship, building rural capacities and livelihoods through community participation.</li>
<li>Digital villages have been equipped with solar lighting facility, LED assembly unit, sanitary napkin production unit, Wi-Fi <g class="gr_ gr_119 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling" id="119" data-gr-id="119">choupal</g>.</li>
<li>The aim of the programme is to turn each village into a self-sustaining unit.</li>
<li>It has been estimated that the internet service sector is expected to reach $74 billion in 2022. Internet data has become the major tool for the delivery of the services.</li>
<li>India till Dec 2017 had made tremendous progress in urban internet penetration with 64%. However, four fifth of rural India is yet to get access to the internet.</li>
<li>Presently, there are 300 million daily active users which have risen from 10-15 million daily users in 2011. And, it is estimated that by 2020 the number would double.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Initiatives launched by the Government of India</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Digilockers&mdash;it is a "digital locker" service operated by the Government of India that enables Indian citizens to store certain official documents on the cloud. The service is aimed towards reducing the need to carry physical documents.</li>
<li>BHIM app&mdash;It is an app to enable digital payments. BHIM app was used to facilitate 913 million transactions in 2017-18.</li>
<li>Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan to make citizen digitally literate. The project is expected to be one of the largest initiatives of the country with an overall target of training 6 crore students until the financial year, 2019. The government has accepted 250,000 Gram Panchayats to register at least 200-300 candidates each.</li>
</ul>
<h3>India&rsquo;s Digital Economy</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India&rsquo;s digital economy will touch $1 trillion by the year 2022. India would be $10 trillion <g class="gr_ gr_356 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="356" data-gr-id="356">economy</g> by 2030 and half of it would be the digital economy.</li>
<li>Fintech sector&mdash;the Fintech sector in a recent couple of years has seen a huge jump in growth. Digital currency and online payments platforms have played a major role in financial inclusion.</li>
<li>Public Services Sector&mdash;steady and efficient digital transformation across areas like e-governance and this has also considerably brought down leakages and corruption. In recent years India performed well in transparency index.</li>
<li>Health care sector&mdash;it is catching up to meet the demands of its tech-savvy population. Demand is shifting now to quality and affordable healthcare, much of it being fulfilled by a public-private partnership.</li>
<li>Digital healthcare startups are playing a major role in addressing areas like preventive healthcare, analytics, emergency services and engage with super-aggregation platforms like Facebook and Google.</li>
<li>Enterprise and Deep Technology sector&mdash;startups in this sector have made their presence felt globally with their success. The IT services in the country are set to reach USD 13.2 billion by the end of this year.</li>
<li>E-commerce and Consumer internet sector&mdash;India&rsquo;s e-commerce market is set to grow three times to surpass USD 100 billion by 2022.</li>
<li>Travel and Hospitality sector&mdash;this sector has enjoyed rapid online growth since the beginning of this century. The growth is also attributed to the increase in disposable income, especially, among the millennials, who are changing decades of traditional travel trends.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Challenges</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Slow roll-out of Wi-Fi hotspots and the slow speed, in comparison to other developed nation.</li>
<li>Most small and medium scale industry is struggling to adapt to modern technology.</li>
<li>Entry level smartphones have limited capabilities for smooth internet access, and the outreach of the &lsquo;smartphones&rsquo; is limited.</li>
<li>There is an absence of enough skilled manpower in digital technology.</li>
<li>Lack of user education and there are limited facilities to train personnel. India needs over one million cybersecurity experts to check and monitor the growing menace of digital crime.</li>
</ul>',
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		],
		(int) 1 => [
			'title' => 'National Productivity Council',
			'catname' => 'News Analysis',
			'desc' => '<p>The <strong>National Productivity Council (NPC)</strong> celebrated its <strong>61<sup>st</sup> Foundation Day (as Productivity Day)</strong> on <strong>February 12, 2019</strong> and also observes <strong>National Productivity Week from February 12-18, every year.</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The <strong>theme</strong> for 2019 is <strong>"Circular Economy for Productivity &amp; Sustainability"</strong> to mark the transition from a linear to a circular economy that embraces economic growth and environmental sustainability and represents a unique opportunity for circular business models for <strong>Make - Use - Return.</strong></li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>National Productivity Council</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>NPC is<strong> national level organization</strong> to promote productivity culture in India.</li>
<li>Established by the<strong> Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India in 1958,</strong> it is an <strong>autonomous, multipartite, non-profit organization.</strong></li>
<li>NPC is a constituent of the <strong>Tokyo-based Asian Productivity Organisation (APO)</strong>, an Intergovernmental Body, of which the Government of India is a founder member.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Circular Economy<a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577425276_image18.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577425276_image18.jpg" width="520" caption="false" style="float: right;" /></a></h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>A circular economy is an industrial system that is <strong>restorative or regenerative</strong> by intention and design.</li>
<li>It replaces the <strong>end-of-life concept with restoration</strong>, shifts towards the use of renewable energy, eliminates the use of toxic chemicals which impair reuse and return to the biosphere.</li>
<li>It aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products, systems and business models.</li>
<li>Circular economy is based on<strong> four principles</strong>. They are:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Circular economy aims to <strong>design out waste.</strong> The products are designed and optimized for a cycle of disassembly and reuse. This sets it apart from disposal and even recycling, where large amounts of embedded energy and labour are lost.</li>
<li>It introduces a strict <strong>differentiation between consumable and durable components</strong> of a product.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>Consumables in the circular economy are largely made of <strong>biological ingredients</strong> that are non-toxic and possibly even beneficial, and <strong>can safely be returned to the biosphere</strong>, either directly or in a cascade of consecutive uses.</li>
<li><strong>Durables</strong> such as engines or computers, on the other hand, are made of technical nutrients unsuitable for the biosphere, such as metals and most plastics. These are designed from the start for reuse, and products subject to rapid technological advance are designed for upgrade.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The energy required to fuel this cycle should be <strong>renewable by nature,</strong> again to decrease resource dependence and increase systems resilience.</li>
<li>It replaces the concept of a consumer with that of a user which calls for a <strong>new contract between businesses and their customers</strong> based on product performance. The durable products are leased, rented or shared wherever possible. If they are sold, there are incentives or agreements in place to ensure the return and thereafter the reuse of the product.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Circular economy has the potential to<strong> increase productivity and create jobs,</strong> whilst reducing carbon emissions and preserving valuable raw materials. It provides for a way of creating value.</li>
<li>However, the challenge lies in <strong>building circular economy knowledge and capacity.</strong></li>
</ul>',
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		],
		(int) 2 => [
			'title' => 'Has India Successfully Tamed the Inflation Dragon?',
			'catname' => 'News Editorials',
			'desc' => '<div class="border">
<p>(This editorial is based on the article &ldquo;Has India successfully tamed the inflation dragon?&rdquo; which appeared in Livemint for 13th February 2019.)</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Has India finally succeeded in taming the inflation dragon?</strong></p>
<p>The answer has profound consequences for Indian macroeconomics. It is well known that headline inflation in India has nearly halved over the past five years. The most recent readings have been well below the central point of the target range given to the Reserve Bank of India by the government.</p>
<h3>What is Inflation?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Inflation is a quantitative measure of the rate at which the average price level of a basket of selected goods and services in an economy increases over a period of time.</li>
<li>Often expressed as a percentage, inflation indicates a decrease in the purchasing power of a nation&rsquo;s currency.</li>
<li>As prices rise, they start to impact the general cost of living for the common public and the appropriate monetary authority of the country, like the central bank, then takes the necessary measures to keep inflation within permissible limits and keep the economy running smoothly.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Types of Inflation</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>Demand-Pull Inflation:</strong> This represents a situation where the basic factor at work is the increase in aggregate demand for output either from households or entrepreneurs or the government. The result is that the pressure of demand is such that it cannot be met by the currently available supply of output.</li>
<li><strong>Cost-Push Inflation:</strong> We can visualize situations where even though there is no increase in aggregate demand, prices may still rise. This may happen if there is an initial increase in costs independent of any increase in aggregate demand.</li>
<li>According to<strong> structural theory of inflation,</strong> market power is one of the factors that cause inflation, but it is not the only factor. The supporters of structural theories believed that inflation arises due to structural maladjustments in the county or due to some of the institutional features of its business environment.</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/984image%20(13-2-19).png" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/984image (13-2-19).png" width="679" height="753" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>
<h3>Current Trends</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India was a global inflation outlier (in statistics - an extreme deviation from the mean) and struggled with double-digit inflation even after the 2008 financial crisis when the rest of the world was battling deflation.</li>
<li>Inflation in India has now moved closer to the average of developing peers in Asia. The narrowing inflation differential is welcome.</li>
<li>The trend in the three-month moving average of consumer price inflation for industrial workers shows the rise and fall in Indian inflation.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>There are three possible explanations for the decline in price pressures in recent years:</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>First, global oil prices have collapsed. They have remained at moderate levels despite the synchronized recovery in the global economy since early 2017. Energy analysts believe that the entry of US shale into the global energy market has effectively capped crude oil prices.</li>
<li>Second, food price inflation has tumbled. Some economists argued during the episode of high inflation at the beginning of this decade, that India was facing the problem of protein inflation&mdash;as demand ran ahead of supply. There is an argument that India has now moved into an era of persistent food surpluses.</li>
<li>Third, the macro policy has been tighter in recent years. The Indian central bank is now legally committed to anchoring inflation to around 4%. Inflation expectations have also drifted down. The initial record of the new inflation targeting regime (from the strategy by Monetary Policy Committee) has been a good one, though it has not yet been tested by a serious inflation shock.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Monetary Policy Committee</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is a body of the RBI, responsible for making important monetary policy decisions.</li>
<li>MPC has six members. Three of the members are from the RBI while the other three members are appointed by the government.</li>
<li>Members from the RBI are the Governor who is the chairman of the MPC, a Deputy Governor and one officer of the RBI. The government members are appointed by the Centre on the recommendations of a search-cum-selection committee which is to be headed by the Cabinet Secretary.</li>
<li>The new balance of power in the global energy market, the shift from food scarcity to food surpluses in India and the shift to a formal inflation target will act as a check on headline inflation.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Concerns</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The most immediate one is the persistence of higher core inflation.</li>
<li>The gap between headline inflation and core inflation leaves scope for two competing possibilities as far as the inevitable convergence goes. First, core inflation will fall towards headline inflation. Second, headline inflation will rise towards core inflation.</li>
<li>The persistence in higher core inflation is a stumbling block in the larger narrative that India has moved into a structurally lower inflation range.</li>
<li>There are two specific things here. One, the monetary policy committee has said in its February statement, that a modest output gap has opened up despite the fact that core inflation has been sticky. Two, analysts have been struggling to figure out why rural medical and education costs&mdash;a component of core inflation&mdash;have spiked in recent months.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>For a developing country like India, inflation plays a very important role in the growth of its economy. For example, during normal circumstances, an increase in the purchasing power (which shows that the economy is running strong i.e growing) often and also translates into inflation.</li>
<li>However, the structural changes in the food market, the energy market, and the monetary policy framework offer the reason for hope. The inflation dragon may not have been killed as yet, but it seems to have been tamed.</li>
<li>It is therefore risky to say that India has decisively won the battle against high inflation.</li>
</ul>',
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		],
		(int) 3 => [
			'title' => 'Wetlands',
			'catname' => 'Paper 3',
			'desc' => '<p><a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/596Drishti_ias_wetlands.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/596Drishti_ias_wetlands.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/mind-map/gs-paper3/wetlands-2'
		],
		(int) 4 => [
			'title' => 'Important Facts for Prelims (13th February 2019)',
			'catname' => 'News Analysis',
			'desc' => '<h3>AI Project Debater Lost to Human</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Recently <strong>International Business Machines Corporation's (IBM's)</strong> artificial intelligence (AI) system- <strong>Project Debater</strong> <strong>lost the public debate with a human champion</strong>, Harish Natarajan, at Think 2019 in San Francisco, U.S.</li>
<li>The winner of the event was determined by <strong>Project Debater's ability to convince the audience of the persuasiveness</strong> of the arguments.</li>
<li>Project Debater is taught to debate unfamiliar topics, as long as these are well covered in the massive corpus that the system mines including hundreds of millions of articles from numerous well-known newspapers and magazines.</li>
<li>Project Debater is endowed with three capabilities:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>data-driven speech writing and delivery,</li>
<li>listening comprehension that can identify key claims hidden within long continuous spoken language and</li>
<li>modelling human dilemmas in a unique knowledge graph to enable principled arguments.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Note:</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>A decade ago, <strong>IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue</strong> <strong>defeated then world chess champion, Gary Kasparov</strong>.</li>
<li>In March 2016, Alphabet-owned AI firm DeepMind&rsquo;s computer programme, <strong>AlphaGo</strong>, beat <strong>Go (ancient Chinese game) champion</strong>&nbsp;<strong>Lee Sedol</strong>.</li>
<li>On 7 December 2017, <strong>AlphaZero</strong> (modelled on AlphaGo) took just four hours to learn all chess rules and master the game enough to defeat the <strong>world&rsquo;s strongest open-source chess engine, Stockfish</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>POSHAN Abhiyaan</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Recently<strong> Ministry of Women and Child Development</strong> organized the 4<sup>th</sup> meeting of <strong>National Council on India&rsquo;s Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyaan</strong>.</li>
<li>POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) was <strong>launched</strong> by the government on March 8, <strong>2018</strong>.</li>
<li>The Abhiyaan targets to <strong>reduce stunting</strong>,<strong> undernutrition</strong>, <strong>anemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls)</strong> and <strong>reduce low birth weight</strong>.</li>
<li>The target of the mission is to <strong>bring down stunting among children</strong> in the age group <strong>0-6 years</strong> <strong>from 38.4% to 25% by 2022</strong>.</li>
<li>POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to ensure service delivery and interventions by use of technology, behavioural change through convergence and lays-down specific targets to be achieved across different monitoring parameters.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>The National Council on India&rsquo;s Nutrition Challenges</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>Set up under the Poshan Abhiyaan</strong>, the Council is also known as National Council on Nutrition (NCN).</li>
<li>The NCN is <strong>headed by the Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog</strong>.</li>
<li>It provides policy <strong>directions to address nutritional challenges in the country and review programmes</strong>.</li>
<li>It is <strong>national level coordination and convergence body on nutrition</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>1st Aqua Mega Food Park</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Union Minister for Food Processing Industries has commissioned<strong> Godavari Mega Aqua Food Park at West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh.</strong></li>
<li><strong>This is India&rsquo;s first Mega Aqua Food Park</strong> operationalized <strong>exclusively for fish and marine products</strong> processing in the state of Andhra Pradesh.</li>
<li>The facilities at aqua food park include the <strong>pre-processing, freezing line for Fish and shrimp, ice plant and food testing laboratory.</strong></li>
<li>The modern infrastructure for food processing created at Park will <strong>benefit the farmers, growers, processors, and consumers of Andhra Pradesh</strong> and adjoining areas immensely and prove to be a big boost to the growth of the food processing sector in the State of Andhra Pradesh.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Mega Food Park</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>To give a <strong>major boost to the food processing sector by adding value and reducing food wastage</strong> at each stage of the supply chain with a particular focus on perishables, <strong>Ministry of Food Processing Industries</strong> is implementing Mega Food Park Scheme in the country.</li>
<li>It aims to link agricultural production to the market by bringing together farmers, processors, and retailers.</li>
<li><strong>Mega Food Parks create modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward linkages (market and transport etc) and backward linkages (raw material, packaging etc) through a cluster-based approach.</strong></li>
<li>Common facilities and enabling infrastructure is created at<strong> Central Processing Centre (CPC)</strong> and facilities for primary processing and storage is created near the farm in the form of <strong>Primary Processing Centers (PPCs) and Collection Centers (CCs).</strong></li>
<li>The financial assistance under the scheme is provided in the form of a grant-in-aid, i.e. 50% of eligible project cost in general areas and 75% of eligible project cost in North East Region and difficult areas (Hilly States and ITDP areas) subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 crore per project.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) Scheme</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Government of India is formulating a Scheme <strong>&lsquo;Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM)&rsquo;</strong> which aims to <strong>promote use of solar energy among the farmers.</strong></li>
<li>The proposed scheme provides for:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Setting up of <strong>grid-connected renewable power plants</strong> each of 500 KW to 2 MW in the rural area,</li>
<li>Installation of<strong> standalone off-grid solar water pumps</strong> to fulfil irrigation needs of farmers not connected to grid, and</li>
<li><strong>Solarization of existing grid-connected agriculture pumps</strong> to make farmers independent of grid supply and also sell surplus solar power generated to Discom and get extra income.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The farmers will have to <strong>tolerate only 10% of the total expenditure</strong> to acquire an install a solar pumps. The <strong>Central Govt. will provide 60%</strong> cost while the <strong>remaining 30% will be taken care</strong> of by bank as credit.</li>
</ul>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/important-facts-for-prelims-13th-february-2019'
		],
		(int) 5 => [
			'title' => 'National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC)',
			'catname' => 'National Institutions',
			'desc' => '<h3>What is NCBC?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>102<sup>nd</sup> Constitution Amendment Act, 2018 provides constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).</li>
<li>It has the authority to examine complaints and welfare measures regarding socially and educationally backward classes.</li>
<li>Previously NCBC was a statutory body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Background</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Two Backward Class Commissions were appointed in 1950s and 1970s under Kaka Kalelkar and B.P. Mandal respectively.</li>
<li>In Indra Sawhney case of 1992, Supreme Court had directed the government to create a permanent body to entertain, examine and recommend the inclusion and exclusion of various Backward Classes for the purpose of benefits and protection.</li>
<li>In pursuant to these directions parliament passed National Commission for Backward Classes Act in 1993 and constituted the NCBC.</li>
<li>123<sup>rd</sup> Constitution Amendment bill of 2017 was introduced in Parliament to safeguard the interests of backward classes more effectively.</li>
<li>Parliament has also passed a separate bill to repeal the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993, thus 1993 act became irrelevant after passing the bill.</li>
<li>The bill got the President assent in August 2018 and provided the constitutional status to NCBC.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Structure of NCBC</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Commission consists of five members including a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and three other Members appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal.</li>
<li>The conditions of service and tenure of office of the Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and other Members is determined by President.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Constitutional Provisions</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Article 340 deals with the need to, inter alia, identify those "socially and educationally backward classes", understand the conditions of their backwardness, and make recommendations to remove the difficulties they face.</li>
<li>102<sup>nd</sup> Constitution Amendment Act inserted new Articles 338 B and 342 A.</li>
<li>The amendment also brings about changes in Article 366.</li>
<li>Article 338B provides authority to NCBC to examine complaints and welfare measures regarding socially and educationally backward classes.</li>
<li>Article 342 A empowers President to specify socially and educationally backward classes in various states and union territories. He can do this in consultation with Governor of concerned State. However, law enacted by Parliament will be required if list of backward classes is to be amended.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Powers and Functions</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The commission investigates and monitors all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the socially and educationally backward classes under the Constitution or under any other law to evaluate the working of such safeguards.</li>
<li>It participates and advises on the socio-economic development of the socially and educationally backward classes and to evaluate the progress of their development under the Union and any State.</li>
<li>It presents to the President, annually and at such other times as the Commission may deem fit, reports upon the working of those safeguards. The President laid such reports before each House of Parliament.</li>
<li>Where any such report or any part thereof, relates to any matter with which any State Government is concerned, a copy of such report shall be forwarded to the State Government.</li>
<li>NCBC has to discharge such other functions in relation to the protection, welfare and development and advancement of the socially and educationally backward classes as the President may, subject to the provisions of any law made by Parliament, by rule specify.</li>
<li>It has all the powers of a civil court while trying a suit.</li>
</ul>
<h3>How Does The New Commission Be Different From Its Earlier Version?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The new act has recognized that BCs also need development in addition to reservations. There are provision in the act for development of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEdBCs) and the new NCBC&rsquo;s role in the development process.</li>
<li>The new NCBC is entrusted with the additional function of grievance redress of backward classes.</li>
<li>Article 342(A) introduces greater transparency as its made mandatory to take the concurrence of Parliament for adding or deleting any community in the backward list.</li>
<li>Apart from list-inclusion and reservation, it requires comprehensive and holistic development and advancement of each community towards equality in all parameters of development and welfare.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Issues</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>It is apprehended that the new version of the National Commission for Backward Classes is unlikely to provide credible and effective social justice architecture.</li>
<li>The recommendation of new NCBC is not binding on the government.</li>
<li>Since it has no responsibility to define backwardness, it cannot address the current challenge of demands of various castes to be included as BCs.</li>
<li>By retaining the old generic name of NCBC and delinking the body from its soul (Article 340), the government set the stage for the whole scheme of special protections under the Constitution in danger.</li>
<li>Features of expert body, as directed by the Supreme Court, are not provided in the composition of the new NCBC.</li>
<li>Mere constitutional status and more acts will not solve the problem at grass root level as recent data revealed skewed representation of SC/ST and OBC categories.</li>
<li>Article 338B (5) is silent on the SC mandate on periodic revision of the backward class list in consultation with the NCBC.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Suggestions</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The composition should reflect the feature of an expert body as mandated by the SC.</li>
<li>The government must put information in public domain regarding the findings of the caste census and recommendations of commission.</li>
<li>Composition of commission should reflect the gender sensitivity and representation of stakeholders.</li>
<li>Vote bank politics should give way to value based politics so that only truly backward sections of society will get the benefit of reservation.</li>
</ul>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/important-institutions/drishti-specials-important-institutions-national-institutions/national-commission-for-backward-classes-ncbc'
		],
		(int) 6 => [
			'title' => 'The Big Picture - Lokpal & Lokayuktas',
			'catname' => 'Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha Discussions',
			'desc' => '<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KN3FeHmY6hc" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The Supreme Court on 17th January 2019 fixed a February- end deadline for the search committee on Lokpal to recommend a panel of names for appointment of the country's first anti-graft ombudsman. The Lokpal and Lokayukta Act came into effect in 2013, but India still doesn&rsquo;t have any Lokpal at Centre and Lokayukta in states as well.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Why is there no Lokpal yet?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>The idea of Lokpal and Lokayukta has become a political issue, that&rsquo;s why it has been unsolved for such a long time.</strong></li>
<li>Presence of so many other agencies: There has been apprehension in the minds of people at large, particularly the political class, regarding the final shape of this institution as there are already so many institutions like CAG, CVC, CBI, and Enforcement Directorate to scrutinize government corruption.</li>
<li><strong>Continuous Debates</strong>: Since the inception of the idea, setting up of Lokpal has always remained fraught with so many debates like whether Prime Minister should be part of it or not, whether Lokpal should be a single member forum or multi-member forum, public hearing of the special courts etc.</li>
<li><strong>Vacancies:</strong> Despite SC&rsquo;s ruling in 2017 that a vacancy in the selection panel will not vitiate the selection, the selection process has got delayed due to the vacancies.</li>
<li><strong>Experience of states with Lokayuktas:</strong> In states, it has been seen that most of the complaints were related to misgovernance, <g class="gr_ gr_39 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling" id="39" data-gr-id="39">non</g>- governance rather than to the corruption charges. Scrutiny becomes difficult in that case.</li>
<li>Widespread Apprehension in the Political Crowd that Lokpal and Lokayuktas could be misused by successive governments when they come into power, followed by media trials.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Way Forward</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>CBI is too burdened; Lokpal should have its own investigation agency.</strong> Also, first, present investigation agencies should be strengthened.</li>
<li>People based on merit should comprise the non- judicial members of Lokpal.</li>
<li><strong>There cannot be two power centers in the country.</strong> Prime Minister should be kept out of its purview.</li>
<li>People need to be made aware of the objectives of Lokpal to avoid frivolous complaints.</li>
<li>Cases ultimately have to go to judiciary through special courts, so Judiciary needs to be strengthened by filling the vacancies.</li>
<li><strong>There should be such a provision that powers of members of Lokpal can be diluted, when required, to avoid the situation that CBI recently faced (quarrel between the no.1 and no.2).</strong></li>
<li>India scored 40 out of 100 in Global Corruption Perception Index 2017. An institution like Lokpal can be tried to solve the problem of Corruption. Also, The Lokpal and Lokayukta Act can be changed with the time i.e. as per different situations.</li>
</ul>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/loksabha-rajyasabha-discussions/the-big-picture-lokpal-lokayuktas'
		],
		(int) 7 => [
			'title' => '40 Years of Islamic Revolution: Iran',
			'catname' => 'News Analysis',
			'desc' => '<p>40 years have been completed of the <strong>Iranian revolution</strong> which took place in <strong>February of 1979</strong>.</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Iran's revolution began with a <strong>popular democracy movement</strong> and ended with the <strong>establishment of the world's first Islamic state</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Background<a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424663_image26.png" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424663_image26.png" width="300" caption="false" style="float: right;" /></a></h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>By the end of the second world war, the<strong> United States</strong>, <strong>provided Iran with economic and political support</strong> in return for their <strong>membership in the democratic Western block</strong>.</li>
<li>As a result <strong>Mohammad Mosaddeq&rsquo;s National Front</strong> became the <strong>first democratically-elected Iranian government in 1951</strong>.</li>
<li>Mosaddeq was a modern, secular leaning, progressive leader who was able to gain the broad support of both the secular elite and the Iranian ulama (religious scholar).</li>
<li>After coming to power <strong>Mosaddeq</strong> made a bold move to address the <strong>issue of exploitation of Persian oil by Western powers</strong> through <strong>nationalising the previously British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC)</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>This did not work out in his favour, as it attracted <strong>British and US economic sanctions</strong>. This in turn <strong>crippled the Iranian economy</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>In <strong>1953</strong>, Mosaddeq was <strong>replaced in a military coup organised by the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) and British Intelligence</strong>. As a result <strong>Shah (king) Reza Pahlavi</strong> (reigning monarch of Iran) was returned to power and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company became BP, British Petroleum, with a 50-50 divide of profits.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Not only did this intervention leave Iranians with a <strong>sense of bitter humiliation and betrayal</strong>, its impact also reverberated within the wider Muslim world.</li>
<li>It sent the message that a <strong>democratically-elected government would be toppled if it did not fit with Western interests</strong>. This narrative continues to be the dominant discourse of Islamist activists to this day, used in explaining world events that affect the Muslim masses.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Between 1953 and 1977, the <strong>Shah relied heavily on the US</strong> in his efforts to modernise the army, Iranian society and build the economy.</li>
<li>Though his economic program brought prosperity and industrialisation to Iran and educational initiatives increased literacy levels, this all came at a hefty cost. <br />
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Wealth was unequally distributed, there was a development of an underclass of peasants migrating to urban centres and large scale political suppression of dissent.</li>
<li>Disillusioned religious scholars were alarmed at the top-down imposition of a Western lifestyle, believing Islam was being completely removed from society.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Revolution</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Distrust of the Shah's economic policy and resentment of his autocratic style fuelled dissent against his regime.</li>
<li>Under these circumstances among many protests, sustained and indirect opposition came from the religious circles led by <strong>Ayatollah Khomeini</strong>, a shia cleric living in exile in Paris.</li>
<li>The persistent protests instigated by Khomeini&rsquo;s followers swelled to include all major cities which culminated in the revolution on February 1, 1979, when Khomeini triumphantly returned to Iran.</li>
</ul>
<h3>The Impact of the Revolution</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Iranian revolution was a <strong>watershed event</strong> that not only transformed Iran completely, but also had<strong> far-reaching consequences for the world</strong>.</li>
<li>It caused a <strong>deep shift in Cold War and global geopolitics</strong> as US not only lost a key strategic ally against the communist threat, but it also gained a new enemy.</li>
<li>The Iranian revolution <strong>dramatically altered Middle Eastern politics</strong>. It flamed a <strong>regional sectarian cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia</strong>. The revolution challenged Saudi Arabia&rsquo;s monarchy and its claim for leadership of the Muslim world.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Was the Revolution a Success?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>From the perspective of longevity, <strong>the revolution still stands</strong>. It has managed to survive four decades, including the eight-year Iran-Iraq war as well as decades of economic sanctions. Comparatively, the <strong>Taliban&rsquo;s attempt at establishing an Islamic state only lasted five years</strong>.</li>
<li>Khomeini and his supporters had promised to end the gap between the rich and the poor, and deliver economic and social progress.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>However, the <strong>Iranian economy is in poor shape</strong>, despite the oil revenues that holds back the economy from the brink of collapse.</li>
<li>People are dissatisfied with <strong>high unemployment rates and hyper-inflation</strong>. They have little hope for the economic fortunes to turn.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The most important premise of Islamism of <strong>making society more religious through political power has also failed to produce the desired results</strong>. Even though 63% of Iranians were born after the revolution, they are no more religious than before the revolution.</li>
<li>Although there is <strong>still significant support for the current regime</strong>, a significant proportion of <strong>Iranians want more freedoms</strong>, and disregard religion being forced from above. There are growing protests demanding economic, social and political reforms as well as an end to the Islamic republic.</li>
<li>Most Iranians blame the failures of the revolution on the never-ending US sanctions. Even though Iran trades with European powers, China, Russia and India, they believe the West does not want Iran to succeed at all costs.</li>
</ul>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/40-years-of-islamic-revolution-iran'
		],
		(int) 8 => [
			'title' => 'Important Facts for Prelims (12th February 2019)',
			'catname' => 'News Analysis',
			'desc' => '<h3>Buddhist Tourism Circuit</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Recently the Union Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned<strong> five new projects</strong> under the <strong>Buddhist Circuit.</strong></li>
<li>The five states where the project under Buddhist Circuit has been sanctioned are <strong>Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.</strong></li>
<li>The Buddhist Circuit is one among the <strong>fifteen thematic circuits</strong> identified for development under <strong>Swadesh Darshan Scheme.</strong></li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Swadesh Darshan Scheme</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Swadesh Darshan, a <strong>Central Sector Scheme,</strong> was launched in 2014 -15 for integrated development of theme based tourist circuits in the country.</li>
<li>Under the scheme, the Ministry of Tourism provides <strong>Central Financial Assistance (CFA)</strong> to State Governments/Union Territory Administrations for infrastructure development of circuits.</li>
<li>This scheme is envisioned to <strong>synergise with other</strong>&nbsp;<strong>schemes</strong> like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Skill India, Make in India etc. with the idea of positioning the tourism sector as a major engine for job creation, driving force for economic growth, building synergy with various sectors to enable tourism to realise its potential.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>World Sustainable Development Summit 2019</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Recently, the three-day <strong>World Sustainable Development Summit 2019</strong> was <strong>inaugurated in New Delhi.</strong></li>
<li>The theme of summit was <strong>'Attaining the 2030 Agenda: Delivering on our Promise'.</strong></li>
<li>The World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) is the annual flagship event of <strong>The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).</strong></li>
<li>It has been conceptualized as a single platform to accelerate action towards sustainable development and climate change.</li>
<li>The goal of the World Sustainable Development Summit is to bring together global leaders and thinkers in the fields of sustainable development, energy and environment sectors on a common platform.</li>
<li>It was earlier known as<strong> Delhi Sustainable Development Summit.</strong></li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>TERI is a <strong>non-profit research institute.</strong></li>
<li>It conducts research work in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development for India and the Global South.</li>
<li>It was <strong>established in 1974 as Tata Energy Research Institute</strong> and renamed to The Energy Resources Institute in 2003.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Light House Projects Challenge</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Ministry of Housing &amp; Urban Affairs has instituted a challenge for States/ UTs to select six sites across the country for constructing the Lighthouse projects under <strong>Global Housing Technology Challenge (GHTC)-India.</strong></li>
<li>The winning six States/ UTs that score the highest marks across the prescribed criteria will be awarded lighthouse projects. The States/ UTs will receive<strong> Central Assistance</strong> to construct these projects as per <strong>Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban (PMAY-U) guidelines.</strong></li>
<li>The selected sites for lighthouse projects will be used as an<strong> &lsquo;open laboratory&rsquo; for live demonstration</strong> and will receive due attention from academia, practitioners, policy makers (Central/ State) and media apart from felicitation/ recognition in Grand Expo-cum-Conference.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Global Housing Technology Challenge</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Global Housing Technology Challenge &ndash; India is an initiative by <strong>Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India</strong>, with an aim to identify, evaluate and shortlist a basket of proven &amp; potential innovative technologies from across the globe and subsequently mainstream them in Indian construction sector that are sustainable, green, disaster resilient.</li>
<li>GHTC-India has following <strong>three components:</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Component 1</strong> - Conduct of EXPO-Cum-Conference</li>
<li><strong>Component 2</strong> - Identifying Proven Demonstrable Technologies :Inducting suitable established technologies from across the globe to the Indian market through shortlisting and actual construction of Light House Projects.</li>
<li><strong>Component 3</strong> - Establishment of Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators India (ASHA-India) for Indian technologies which have potential but not market ready yet.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/important-facts-for-prelims-12th-february-2019'
		],
		(int) 9 => [
			'title' => 'Rajasthan to Scrap Education Criterion',
			'catname' => 'News Analysis',
			'desc' => '<p>Recently, the Rajasthan Assembly<strong> passed two Bills</strong> which seek to end the minimum education criterion for<strong> panchayat and civic poll candidates.</strong></p>
<h3>Background</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>This<strong> reverses the amendments</strong> introduced by the <strong>previous government in 2015</strong> which required candidates contesting the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti <strong>elections to have passed Class 10</strong> and those contesting <strong>Sarpanch elections to have passed Class 8.</strong></li>
<li>Further, it <strong>disallowed those without functional toilets</strong> in their home to contest. Following this,<strong> Haryana</strong> also introduced similar restrictions for contesting local body elections.</li>
<li><strong>In December 2015,</strong> a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court<strong> in Rajbala v. the State of Haryana</strong> upheld the validity of the amendments to the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act.</li>
<li>The latest decision of the Rajasthan government has once again <strong>revived the debate</strong> on the fairness of having such restrictions.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Arguments Against the Criteria of Minimum Education Qualification</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Fundamentally, it unduly <strong>restricts a citizen&rsquo;s right</strong> to contest elections and thereby challenges the basic premise of republican democracy.</li>
<li>Denying the right to contest effectively restricts the right of a citizen to vote for a candidate of her choice since more than half the population is restricted from contesting.</li>
<li>Further, it disproportionately <strong>disenfranchises the more marginal sections of society:</strong> women, Dalits and poor.</li>
<li>In a country like India with unequal access to education, it is cruel to blame citizens for the failure of the state to fulfill its constitutional obligations.</li>
<li>Prescribing educational qualifications for contesting elections is based on an ill-informed assumption that those with formal education will be better in running panchayats. On the other hand, it reveals that State governments and courts place a premium on the administration over representation in case of local governments.</li>
<li>This approach goes against the very objective of the 73rd and 74th Amendments that sought to make panchayats and municipalities representative institutions with adequate representation from <strong>Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and women.</strong></li>
<li>The disqualification of candidates who don&rsquo;t have toilets in their home or defecate in open is clearly an example where the implementation of a Central programme like the Swachh Bharat Mission gets precedence over the need for representative government.</li>
<li>Moreover, <strong>such restrictions do not exist</strong> for those contesting parliamentary or Assembly elections. In fact, in the present Lok Sabha, 13% of MPs are under-matriculates, a share higher than those of women MPs.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Arguments in Favour of the Criteria of Minimum Education Qualification</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>In <strong>Rajbala case, the Apex court</strong> held that prescription of educational qualification is relevant for <strong>&ldquo;better administration of the panchayats&rdquo;.</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Bench consisting of <strong>Justice Chelameswar and A.M.Sapre</strong> held that both the rights namely <strong>"Right to Vote"</strong> and <strong>"Right to Contest"</strong> are <strong>not fundamental Rights</strong> but only constitutional rights of the citizen. So, the minimum qualification for contesting election can be imposed.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>WIth minimum education qualification, there is a reduction in the chances of getting misled by other people.</li>
<li>Setting educational criteria would motivate society to be literate.</li>
<li>A well-educated individual is considered as the resource for the development of the country. And if the leaders of the human resource are ill literate then there would be no proper guidelines for human resource.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Way Forward</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India prides itself as a robust democracy, at least in the procedural sense, with regular elections and smooth transfer of power.<br />However, the absence of elected councils in some local governments punches holes in this claim.</li>
<li>The lack of alarm caused by the denial of local democracy (via the imposition of minimum educational norms) reveals our collective bias regarding the place of local governments.</li>
<li>In a liberal democracy, governments must desist from putting bars on who may contest, except in exceptional circumstances, such as when a candidate is in breach of particular rules and laws.</li>
<li>To mandate, what makes a person a &lsquo;good&rsquo; candidate goes against the spirit of the attempt to deepen democracy by taking self-government to the grassroots.</li>
<li>Thus, local bodies should be elected for its representative character and not for its administrative functions. Giving a voice to the people is more important than following bureaucratic procedures at the grassroots level.</li>
</ul>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/rajasthan-to-scrap-education-criterion'
		],
		(int) 10 => [
			'title' => 'All is Still Not Well in Court',
			'catname' => 'News Editorials',
			'desc' => '<div class="border">
<p>(This editorial is based on the article &ldquo;All is Still Not Well in Court&rdquo; which appeared in The Indian Express for 12th February 2019. In this editorial, we&rsquo;ll discuss concerns related to the Judiciary of India.)</p>
</div>
<p><strong>A little over a year ago, four judges of the Supreme Court of India called an unprecedented press conference to tell the world that everything was not right with the judicial system. Their announcement posed troubling questions relating to the independence of the judiciary, transparency, and accountability in the institution and so on.<img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/569drishti_ias_LEGAL_gavel-scale-book_10-5-2018.jpg" style="float: right;" width="267" height="178" /></strong></p>
<p>A lot has happened in the year gone by for the Indian judiciary. Certain developments are of particular concern.</p>
<h3>Five Major Concerns</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>The first major issue is the idea of the CJI as the &ldquo;master of the roster&rdquo;.</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>This privilege was emphasized in November 2018, when a Constitution Bench, led by the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, declared that &ldquo;the Chief Justice is the master of the roster and he alone has the prerogative to constitute the Benches of the Court and allocate cases to the Benches so constituted.&rdquo;</li>
<li>There have been instances where cases having far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justice of this Court selectively to the Benches &ldquo;of their preferences&rdquo; without any rational basis for such assignment.&rdquo;</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>The second issue is of how appointments to and transfers within the higher judiciary continue to be made.</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Every time a new group of judges is announced for selection, a new set of problems emerges. It is almost as though the Supreme Court Collegium is showing the many paths to opacity that can exist in the appointments process. Two incidents over the past month have been particularly distressing.</li>
<li>One relates to a recent proposal to transfer a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court, whose decisions have been attacked by those within or close to the present Union government. While the transfer was not finally approved, it bodes ill for a judiciary that prides itself in being independent of influence and the other arms of the state.</li>
<li>Another case is the inexplicable reversal of a decision of the collegium to elevate two high court chief justices, both well-regarded as fine judges, to the Supreme Court. A &ldquo;leak&rdquo;, purportedly from an &ldquo;official source&rdquo;, in a leading news publication suggested that this reversal was apparently because certain &ldquo;adverse material&rdquo; against these judges had emerged. Ideally, any such material should have been put to these judges in a formal setting, and they ought to have been allowed to defend themselves.</li>
<li>Two judges, along with two others &mdash; all high up in the seniority list of high court judges &mdash; were bypassed, and relatively junior judges have pushed up the ladder. Unfortunately, such leaks and last-minute reversals can damage the morale of members of the judiciary. Equally problematic is the overwhelming silence of the government. On an earlier occasion, the government had defended the seniority convention in judicial appointments.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>The third issue is the recent fascination of the Supreme Court for the &ldquo;sealed cover&rdquo; as a means of receiving information about cases, having used it in three highly-documented litigations in the past few months.</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>This is completely against the idea of open, transparent justice. Unfortunately, our judiciary is not only opaque in its own workings but is also becoming partial to opacity in its public function, as an arbiter of public disputes.</li>
<li>Jurisprudence clearly shows that such secretive information should be resorted to only in exceptional cases. But here, it is being asked for in an ad hoc manner without any clear or rational reason. In the National Register of Citizens case, for example, the lives of lakhs of people hinge on sealed covers. Surely, we cannot allow our lives to be adjudicated upon in secrecy.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>The fourth issue is about post-retirement appointments.</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Any pre-retirement judgments can be influenced by post-retirement assignments.</li>
<li>Therefore it is clear that such appointments really compromise the independence of the judiciary.</li>
<li>They raise potential conflicts of interest, if not in reality, certainly in matters of perception.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>The fifth issue is that of the appeal made to the Supreme Court by itself against the order of the Delhi High Court on the</strong> applicability of the Right to Information Act, 2005, to the judiciary.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Delhi High Court judgment has stayed, and the case has been languishing in the court for a decade now.</li>
<li>Closure on this account is more urgently needed than ever, especially in the context of issues of transparency in the judiciary.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Way Forward</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>In democratic countries around the world, notably in the UK, Canada, and Australia, <strong>the allocation of work and the selection of benches is a consultative process, and necessarily involves a culture of trust.</strong></li>
<li>Alternatively, there are clear and defined rules in this regard, as, for example, in the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice, it is not acceptable for the Chief Justice to have unbridled power.</li>
<li>Even in High Courts in India, where a Chief Justice may have official roles such as presiding over administrative meetings, at no point is the Chief Justice considered or made to believe that he/she is superior to other judges in the court. <strong>The sanctity of this principle cannot be overstated:</strong> A former chief justice of the South Korean Supreme Court was recently arrested for having allegedly used his influence when he was in the office on behalf of conservative governments to delay trials in war-related compensation cases.</li>
<li><strong>Not enough attention is being paid to the judiciary as an institution. I</strong>deally, in any democratic set-up, there is a need for the best individuals running the judiciary. Thus, one important criterion for selecting judges should be merit. But at present, many brilliant judges are overlooked. The appointments of judges on grounds other than merit can be self-perpetuating. Many such appointees will become members of the group that is the collegium and may make the same kinds of choices their seniors made. Short-term decisions to appoint certain individuals affect the long-term condition of the judiciary.</li>
<li><strong>Ideally, there should be a policy decision to introduce a cooling-off period after retirement before taking up new appointments.</strong> Or such appointments should be made by a neutral body which is free from executive influence. In any case, at the least, such offers of appointments should neither be made nor considered when a judge is still in office.</li>
</ul>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-editorials/all-is-still-not-well-in-court'
		],
		(int) 11 => [
			'title' => 'India Central Asia Relations',
			'catname' => 'Paper 2',
			'desc' => '<h3>Why in News?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Recently India&rsquo;s External Affairs Minister (EAM) participated in first <strong>India-Central Asia Dialogue</strong> in Samarkand, Republic of Uzbekistan.</li>
<li>Five countries from Central Asia participated in the dialogue- Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.</li>
<li>All the countries participating in the dialogue are also members of the <a href="/important-institutions/drishti-specials-important-institutions-international-institution/important-international-institutions-shanghai-cooperation-organisation-sco" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Shanghai Cooperation Organization</strong></a>.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>India-Central Asia Dialogue</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>It was the first ministerial level India-Central Asia dialogue.</li>
<li>Dialogue focused on a number of issues <strong>including ways to improve connectivity and stabilize war-ravaged Afghanistan</strong>.</li>
<li>India has proposed setting up of <strong>&lsquo;India-Central Asia Development Group&rsquo;</strong> to take forward development partnership between India &amp; Central Asian countries.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The group may enable New Delhi to expand its footprints in the resource-rich region amid China&rsquo;s massive inroads and to fight terror effectively, including in Afghanistan.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>India will host the next India-Central Asia Dialogue in 2020.</strong></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Historical ties with Central Asia</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India has had relations with Central Asia since the 3rd century B.C as the nations fell on route to the <strong>Legendary Silk Route</strong>.</li>
<li>The Silk Route not only served as the medium for transportation of goods, silk, textiles, spices etc but also facilitated dispersion of thoughts, ideas, religion and philosophy.</li>
<li>Buddhism found inroads in several of Central Asian cities such as Merv, Khalachayan, Tirmiz and Bokhara etc in form of Stupas and Monasteries.</li>
<li>Babur in 1526 came from the fertile valley of Fergana (food bowl of Central Asia) to the dusty town of Panipat and established the mighty rule of Mughals in India.</li>
<li>Men of prominence such as Amir Khusrau, Dehlawi, Al-Biruni, Abdur Rahim Khan i Khanan etc having Central Asian routes came and made their name in India.</li>
<li>During the Soviet period- culture, music, dance, movies and literature bound the Soviet Republics closely with India. Popularity of iconic stars like Raj Kapoor, Nargis, and others brought India into the homes and hearts of common people of this region.</li>
<li>Bilateral relations however suffered considerable neglect in the 25 years after emergence of these countries as independent States in 1991.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Present Time</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India has registered significant progress recently through renovation of <strong>Chabahar port,</strong> development of the <strong>International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)</strong> and becoming a member of <a href="/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/india-central-asia-dialogue" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Ashgabat Agreement</strong></a>.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), is multi-modal transportation established in 12 Sep 2000 in St. Petersburg, by Iran, Russia and India for the purpose of promoting transportation cooperation among the Member States.</li>
<li>This corridor connects India Ocean and the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea via the Islamic Republic of Iran and then is connected to St. Petersburg and North Europe via the Russian Federation.</li>
<li>The INSTC was expanded to include eleven new members, namely: the Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Armenia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Ukraine, Republic of Belarus, Oman, Syria, Bulgaria (Observer).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India uses the instrumentality of soft power and its ready acceptability in Central Asia to strengthen bilateral ties.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>India through cultural events- classical dance, music, Bollywood films, yoga, literature and educational programs reinforces the historical ties with the region.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The <strong>Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC)</strong> Program provides technical assistance and training in areas such as banking, remote sensing and information technology etc in the premier institutions in India.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Importance of Central Asia for India</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India has a very wide array of interests in Central Asia covering security, energy, economic opportunities etc.</li>
<li>Central Asia serves as a land bridge between Asia and Europe, making it geopolitically axial for India.</li>
<li>Security, stability and prosperity of Central Asia is imperative for peace and economic development of India.</li>
<li>The region is rich in natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, antimony, aluminum, gold, silver, coal and uranium which can be best utilized by Indian energy requirement.</li>
<li>Central Asia has huge cultivable areas lying barren and without being put to any productive use, offering enormous opportunity for cultivation of pulses. Indian agribusiness companies can setup commercial agro-industrial complexes in Central Asia.</li>
<li>Owing to higher economic growth, several areas have become attractive for construction business, providing huge scopes to Indian companies engaging in financial services, contractors, engineers, and management specialists.</li>
<li>Both India and <strong>Central Asian Republics (CARs)</strong> share many commonalities and perceptions on various regional and world issues and can play crucial role in providing regional stability.</li>
<li>For India to use Chabahar as a vital gateway to access Eurasian markets and optimally operationalize its use, requires a Central Asian state joining the project as a direct stakeholder.</li>
<li>Central Asian Regions are fast getting linked to the global market for production, supplies of raw materials and services. They are also increasingly getting integrated into the <strong>East-West Trans-Eurasian transit economic corridors</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Indian Synergy in Central Asian Region</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Central Asia is facing many challenges in food security; Indian expertise in the field can be a game changer in the region.</li>
<li>Commercial farming is another important area where India and CARs can cooperate.</li>
<li>India&rsquo;s experience in boosting food and milk production and modernizing agro-techniques under the green and white revolution can prove panacea for Central Asia.</li>
<li>Good relations with India will provide an assured market to these countries for their energy, raw materials, oil and gas, uranium, minerals, hydro electric power etc.</li>
<li>India can significantly bring in lots of foreign investment along with technical expertise in field of infrastructure, hospitality, medical etc.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Challenges</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>There are obstructions of physical connectivity due to Pakistan&rsquo;s hostility and Afghan instability for its desultory attitude towards Central Asia.</li>
<li>India&rsquo;s current trade volume with Central Asia is minimal, and cannot be increased without substantially improving transport connectivity.</li>
<li>Politically, the Central Asian republics are highly fragile and also face threats like terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism etc making the region a volatile and unstable market.</li>
<li>There are several administrative laggards in the region such as non-availability of hard currency, banking services, and prevailing corruption creating roadblocks in smooth bilateral relations.</li>
<li>India&rsquo;s <strong>"Look East"</strong> policy has resulted in concentrating its economic and diplomatic resources in Southeast and East Asia.</li>
<li>Involvement of China in Central Asia in form of Belt and Road Initiative while posing opportunity by giving easy access to India in the region, it can significantly undermine India&rsquo;s influence in the region.</li>
<li>Porous border and unbridled corruption along with the proximity with regions of soaring opium production (Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle) makes the region a powerhouse for drug and money trafficking.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Suggestions</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>It is fairly understood that both the CAR and India both have not optimally utilized each other&rsquo;s resources present in diverse sectors.</li>
<li>India is rapidly moving towards its goal of becoming a regional power which continuously requires uninterrupted supply of fuel and energy which can easily be provided by the CAR.</li>
<li>There is a need to realize a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the <strong>Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)</strong> which has a potential of spurring the trade to 170 billion dollars from paltry 10 Billion Dollars.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Eurasian Economic Union</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Eurasian Economic Union was started in 2015 based on the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.</li>
<li>The bloc was launched to ensure the free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce within its borders.</li>
<li>Members: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Way Forward</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India should be fully mindful of its historic Silk Route ties with Central Asia, and try to make an entry into the largely untapped energy potential of the region.</li>
<li>India needs to use its instrument of <strong>economic leverages more efficiently</strong> to build closer ties with Central Asia.</li>
<li><strong>'Connect Central Asia'</strong> Policy is a very comprehensive policy which includes political, security, economic and cultural cooperation.</li>
<li>India should make <strong>efforts to step up multilateral engagement</strong> with Central Asian partners using the synergy of existing forums like the SCO, Eurasian Economic Community (EEC) etc.</li>
<li>Measures such as <strong>relaxing of visa regimes, establishing schools and universities; strengthening tourism; Investment in agriculture sector</strong> can significantly improve India&rsquo;s position in the region.</li>
<li>Growing synergies between the India and CAR will promote security, stability, economic growth and development of all countries.</li>
</ul>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/Paper2/india-central-asia-relations'
		],
		(int) 12 => [
			'title' => 'Taking Down Cyber Violence',
			'catname' => 'News Editorials',
			'desc' => '<div class="border">
<p>(This editorial is based on the article &ldquo;Taking Down Cyber Violence&rdquo; which appeared in EPW for 2nd January 2019. In this editorial, we&rsquo;ll see how the existing laws governing the internet are inadequate in preventing or stopping gendered violence in online spaces.)</p>
</div>
<p><strong>In India, as elsewhere in the world, online harassment of women and marginalized genders and sexualities is rampant, in sharp contrast to the Internet&rsquo;s initial promise of equal opportunity and neutrality.</strong></p>
<p>Through the proliferation of rape videos, morphed images, etc, the<strong> internet is witnessing increasing instances of violence against women.</strong></p>
<p><strong>As websites sometimes claim to be intermediaries which cannot be always held responsible for the nature of content uploaded online</strong>, <strong>the issue of intermediary liability needs to be addressed urgently.</strong></p>
<p>Internet intermediaries can be described as entities that facilitate access to the internet or services on the internet (Association Progressive Communications 2014).</p>
<p>Common types of intermediaries are internet service providers, search engines, social media networks, etc. Unlike book publishers, internet intermediaries adopt a passive relationship with the content they host. Since they do not exercise editorial control, countries have been encouraged to legislate safe-harbor* protections of internet intermediaries from strict or criminal liability.</p>
<div class="border-bg">
<p>*<strong>Safe harbor</strong> refers to a legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability in certain situations as long as certain conditions are met.</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Safe-harbour Protection can provide protection against liability, it is like an immunity clause.</li>
<li>Safe-harbor laws can be understood in the Indian context by comparing with laws like the AFSPA that grant special powers to the Indian Armed Forces in which each act terms "disturbed areas".</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Concerns</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>Vitriolic sexism online has become commonplace</strong> in the Indian internet landscape.</li>
<li><strong>The United Nations Broadband Commission</strong> reports that one in three women have faced some kind of cyber violence (Working Group on Broadband and Gender 2015).</li>
<li>Trolling, rape and death threats, morphing of images and the non-consensual circulation of intimate images (also known as &lsquo;Revenge Porn&rsquo;) are some of the many ways in which violence against women is carried out online.</li>
<li><strong>There has been a discernible pattern of sexual violence, where the assault is videotaped and consequently used to blackmail the victim by threatening to upload it to social media or pornographic websites or send it to her family, friends or employer.</strong></li>
<li>The United Nations Special Rapporteur On Violence Against Women notes that the qualities of online global searchability, persistence and scalability have not only resulted in the replication of offline violence but amplified, redefined and created new forms of gender-based discrimination online.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Regulations</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>In 2008, India introduced significant amendments to the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act),</strong> by adopting a notice-and-take-down regime, along with the lines of the European Union (EU) E-Commerce Directive.</li>
<li><strong>In 2015, via the landmark Shreya Singhal v Union of India (2015) judgment,</strong> the Supreme Court tweaked the intermediary liability regime, by reading down &ldquo;actual knowledge&rdquo; to mean a court or executive order.</li>
<li>In the same year, two other cases before the Supreme Court were gathering steam. One dealt with search engine liability for allowing advertisements related to prenatal sex determination to display in search results and another that related to the liability of social media networks for the circulation of rape videos online. By the end of 2017, the court decided in both the cases that a combination of measures would be required&mdash;pre-filtering of content by the intermediary as well as notice-and-takedown&mdash;as a result of which the government set up special nodal agencies to receive complaints and initiate takedowns. The response to the court&rsquo;s stance has been critical, accusing the Court of ignoring the safeguards to free speech online, established under the Shreya Singhal judgment.</li>
<li><strong>Online circulation of rape videos and advertisements for prenatal sex determination tests are patently illegal in the Indian context and warrants an immediate takedown, whereas other kinds of illegal content can afford to stay online, pending a court order.</strong></li>
<li>An intermediary liability regime must adapt to the ideas of rights that are organic to their location. This does not mean doing away with safeguards to free speech. On the contrary, it means legislatively and juridically balancing the rights of the complainant, internet users at large, and the intermediary, based on the situation at hand.</li>
<li><strong>In June 2018, the Human Rights Council</strong> adopted the resolution on &ldquo;accelerating efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls: preventing and responding to violence against women and girls in digital contexts.&rdquo; The resolution, in particular, condemns &ldquo;the dissemination of content that promotes and reinforces violence against women and girls, which can result in the perpetual revictimization and retraumatization of women and girls, given that a permanent digital record is created by content shared in digital contexts&rdquo; (Human Rights Council 2018).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Way Forward</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Despite the general conviviality after the Shreya Singhal judgment, <strong>there were also those who felt the delays of an adversarial system and court orders could lead to flagged illegal content staying online for extended periods before it is pulled down.</strong></li>
<li><strong>The Andhra Pradesh High Court, in Google India Private Limited v M/S Visaka Industries Limited (2009),</strong> observed that if sexually explicit images or morphed images can only be taken down on court orders, they could end up remaining online for a long time. Receiving an order for takedown years after the content is posted is a futile exercise. Unfortunately, at present, neither the IT Act nor its rules have provisions for immediate relief.</li>
<li><strong>In India, intermediaries are allowed to terminate access to those users who violate the Intermediary Guidelines.</strong> This punishment is reminiscent of the much-criticized three-strikes rule, a graduated response to copyright infringement online that can ultimately lead to cutting-off of internet services to the accused (that France had once followed).</li>
<li><strong>Further, in India, neither are intermediaries obligated by law to notify the authors of disputed content, when access to the content is sought to be disabled nor is there any provision for the author to challenge allegations of illegality through a counter-notice. In other words, due process procedures are found to be lacking and need to be infused into the framework of intermediary liability in the country.</strong><strong></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="/interaction/viewtopic.php?f=38&amp;t=936" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Read More...</strong></a></p>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-editorials/taking-down-cyber-violence'
		],
		(int) 13 => [
			'title' => '150 years of the Periodic Table',
			'catname' => 'News Analysis',
			'desc' => '<p>The <strong>United Nations</strong> has designated <strong>2019</strong> as the <strong>International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT2019)</strong> to commemorate the <strong>150th anniversary</strong> of the establishment of the <strong>Periodic Table of Chemical Elements</strong> by<strong> Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev</strong> on <strong>17th February 1869</strong>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424004_image29.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424004_image29.jpg" width="600" caption="false" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The International Year<strong> aims to recognize the importance of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements as one of the most important and influential achievements in modern science</strong> reflecting the essence not only of chemistry but also of physics, biology and other basic sciences disciplines.</li>
<li>The initiative for IYPT2019 is supported by the <strong>International Union of Pure Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)</strong> in partnership with other science-related organization.</li>
<li><strong>Mendeleev</strong> was <strong>not the first one to create a table of elements</strong>. Earliest of such efforts was due to the father of modern chemistry, <strong>Antoine Lavoisier in 1789</strong> who classified them in terms of their properties.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>John Newlands</strong> introduced the <strong>concept of octaves in chemistry</strong>, wherein properties repeat for every eighth element.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>In comparison to the modern periodic table, <strong>Mendeleev's periodic table was designed in the order of increasing atomic weight</strong> while the <strong>modern periodic table is designed according to increasing atomic number</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Important Facts about Periodic Table</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>There are <strong>118 confirmed elements in the periodic table</strong>. Among those,<strong> 90 elements can be found in nature</strong>, others are strictly man-made. <strong>Technetium</strong> was the <strong>first man-made element.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Hydrogen</strong> is the <strong>lightest element</strong> with its <strong>atomic weight 1</strong>. <strong>Uranium</strong> is the <strong>heaviest element</strong> with an atomic <strong>weight of 238</strong>.</li>
<li>Helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon are known as the Noble Gases as they were believed to be unreactive. But recent studies have shown reactive compounds of xenon, krypton, and radon.</li>
<li>The <strong>IUPAC</strong> is <strong>responsible for maintaining the periodic table</strong>.</li>
<li>Most of the elements on the periodic table are metals (almost 75 percent).</li>
<li>Different forms of pure elements are called <strong>allotropes</strong>. For example, diamond, graphite, buckminsterfullerene, and amorphous carbon are allotropes of Carbon.</li>
<li>The only <strong>two elements</strong> that are<strong> liquid in room temperature</strong> are <strong>mercury</strong> and <strong>bromine</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>IUPAC is the<strong> world authority on chemical nomenclature and terminology</strong>, including the naming of new elements in the periodic table; on standardized methods for measurement; and on atomic weights etc.</li>
<li>A neutral and objective scientific organization, IUPAC was <strong>established in 1919 by academic and industrial chemists who shared a common goal</strong> &ndash; to unite a fragmented, global chemistry community for the advancement of the chemical sciences via collaboration and the free exchange of scientific information.</li>
<li><strong>Four new elements discovered in 2015</strong> have been named by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>These are <strong>Nihonium (113Nh)</strong>, <strong>Moscovium (115Mo)</strong>, <strong>Tennessine (117Te</strong>) and<strong> Oganesson (118Og)</strong>.</li>
<li>Of these elements, <strong>Nh-278</strong> is <strong>highly radioactive</strong> with a very short half-life of 0.24 milliseconds.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/150-years-of-the-periodic-table'
		],
		(int) 14 => [
			'title' => 'Mahamastakabhisheka Celebrations',
			'catname' => 'News Analysis',
			'desc' => '<p>Recently, the <strong>10-day long Mahamastakabhisheka</strong> for the <strong>monolith 39-foot high Bahubali</strong> statue started in <strong>Dharmasthala, Karnataka.</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>This year (2019), Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsava will be observed from February 9 to February 18.</li>
<li>This is the <strong>fourth mahamastakabhisheka</strong> of Lord Bahubali since its<strong> installation in 1982.</strong> Earlier were performed in 1982, 1995, and in 2007 in Dharmasthala.</li>
<li>It was sculpted by <strong>Renjala Gopalakrishna Shenoy</strong> under the aegis of Ratnavarma Heggade in <strong>1973</strong>. It was then positioned atop <strong>Ratnagiri Hill</strong> in the temple town of <strong>Dharmasthala in 1982.</strong></li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Note:</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>In 2018, the anointing ceremony of the<strong> Gomateshwara Bahubali statue at Shravanabelagola</strong> took place from February 17 to February 25.</li>
<li>The statue at Shravanabelagola is believed to be <strong>one of the largest free-standing statues</strong> in the world (at 57 feet), which was built in<strong> 983 AD by the minister of the Ganga dynasty, Chamunda-Raya.</strong></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Mahamastakabhisheka&nbsp;</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The word Mahamastakabhisheka is a combination of <strong>three words viz: Maha (great), Masthaka (head) and Abhisheka (anointing) which literally means &lsquo;the head anointing ceremony&rsquo;.</strong></li>
<li>The ceremony is called Mahamastakabhisheka (also referred as Grand Consecration) and not Mastakabhisheka because the ceremony is performed<strong> only once in 12 years.</strong></li>
<li>The Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsava is an anointing ceremony of the statue of Lord Bahubali.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Lord Bahubali</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Lord Bahubali was the <strong>son of lord Rishabhanatha</strong> who was the first of the <strong>24 Jain Tirthankaras.</strong></li>
<li>Jain mythology holds up Bahubali as the one who succeeded in <strong>attaining liberty from worldly desires</strong> through a long period of <strong>sustained meditation.</strong></li>
<li>The sculpture of Lord Bahubali is in upright posture of <strong>meditation known as Kayotsarga</strong> which stands for renunciation, self-control and subjugation of the ego as a reflection of his life.</li>
<li>This is the <strong>digambara form of Bahubali</strong> which represents complete victory over earthly desires and needs, which forms the edifice for spiritual ascent towards divinity.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Jainism</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The most famous thinker of the Jainas, <strong>Vardhamana Mahavira was born in 540 B.C.</strong> in Kundagram village near Vaishali. He was a <strong>Kshatriya prince</strong> belonging to the<strong> Lichchhavi clan.</strong></li>
<li>According to the beliefs of the Jain tradition, Mahavir was the <strong>24<sup>th</sup> Tirthankara, who succeeded the 23rd Tirthankara, Parshvanatha.</strong></li>
<li>Tirthankara is a Sanskrit word meaning <strong>'Fordmaker',</strong> i.e., one who is able to ford the river, to cross beyond the perpetual flow of earthly life.</li>
<li>Mahavir attained <strong>&lsquo;kaivalya&rsquo; or omniscience at the age of 42.</strong></li>
<li>He passed away at the age of 72 at a place called Pavapuri, near modern day Rajgir (in Bihar) after preaching for thirty years.</li>
<li>Jainism attaches utmost importance to ahimsa or non-violence. It preaches<strong> 5 mahavratas (the 5 great vows):</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Ahimsa (Non-violence)</li>
<li>Satya (Truth)</li>
<li>Asteya or Achaurya (Non-stealing)</li>
<li>Brahmacharya (Celibacy/Chastity)</li>
<li>Aparigraha (Non-attachment/Non-possession)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The<strong> three jewels or triratna of Jainism</strong> include<strong> Samyak Darshana (right faith), Samyak Gyana (right knowledge) and Samyak Charitra (right conduct).</strong></li>
<li>Jainism is a religion of self-help. There are no gods or spiritual beings that will help human beings. It does not condemn the varna system.</li>
<li>The texts containing the teachings of Mahavira are <strong>called the Agamas.</strong></li>
<li>In later times, it got divided into<strong> two sects:</strong> <strong>Shvetambaras (white-clad) under Sthalabahu</strong> and <strong>Digambaras (sky-clad) under the leadership of Bhadrabahu.</strong></li>
</ul>
</div>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/mahamastakabhisheka-celebrations'
		],
		(int) 15 => [
			'title' => 'Kawtchhuah Ropui Heritage Site, Mizoram',
			'catname' => 'News Analysis',
			'desc' => '<p>Archaeological survey of India has discovered traces of ancient civilization in Vangchhia, a village in Mizoram&rsquo;s Champhai district bordering Myanmar.<a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424292_image41.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424292_image41.jpg" width="300" caption="false" style="float: right;" /></a></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The site has been named as the <strong>Kawtchhuah Ropui heritage site</strong>. Kawtchhuah Ropui means the Great Entranceway.</li>
<li>Kawtchhuah Ropuithe heritage site is<strong> Mizoram&rsquo;s first site which is under the protected monuments of Archaeological Survey of India&rsquo;s (ASI).</strong></li>
<li>The area is part of the Lower Himalayas and has rows of steep hills largely made up of various kinds of sandstone shading from light grey to blackish.</li>
<li>The site, measuring about 45 sq km has yielded pictographs etched on<strong> large stone slabs, menhirs (large standing stones), a necropolis (a large cemetery), a water pavilion among other artifacts.</strong></li>
<li>The ancient people of Vangchhia also carved terraces on rocks for their settlement &mdash; the main excavated site consists of 15 such terraces.</li>
<li>There are over 100 menhirs, rising almost 15 feet tall, stand at the excavation site depicting floral, animal and humans.</li>
<li>Water pavilion has strategically drilled holes &mdash; between one foot and one meter across &mdash; spread over several sandstone slopes and used for storing&nbsp;water.</li>
<li>ASI has not been able to accurately date the Vangchhia settlement. Initially, ASI estimated <g class="gr_ gr_26 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="26" data-gr-id="26">site</g> to be from the 15th century.&nbsp;</li>
<li>However, recently, the ASI team has also discovered neolithic caves near Vangchhia, indicating that the lost civilization could be much older.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</li>
</ul>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/kawtchhuah-ropuithe-heritage-site-mizoram'
		],
		(int) 16 => [
			'title' => 'India Central Asia Relations',
			'catname' => 'Paper 2',
			'desc' => '<p><a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/301Drishti_ias_India_central_asia.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/301Drishti_ias_India_central_asia.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>',
			'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
			'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/mind-map/gs-paper2/india-central-asia-relations-mindmap'
		],
		(int) 17 => [
			'title' => 'PRS Capsule January 2019',
			'catname' => 'PRS Capsule',
			'desc' => '<p><em><strong>Key Highlights of PRS</strong></em></p>
<div class="border">
<ul class="ticklist" style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><a href="#1"><em></em>Parliament</a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>President&rsquo;s address highlights key achievements in the past five years</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#2">Macroeconomic Development<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Retail inflation and Wholesale inflation at 2.19%, 3.8% respectively in the third quarter (Oct to Dec) of 2018-19</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#3">Finance<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Standing Committee submits report on the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018</li>
<li>High Level Committee constituted on deepening of digital payments by the RBI</li>
<li>Expert Committee constituted on MSMEs by the RBI</li>
<li>CAG submits report on compliance of the FRBM Act, 2003</li>
<li>GST Council approves levy of cess in Kerala to generate funds for calamities</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#4">Social Justice and Empowerment<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>124th Constitutional Amendment Bill passed</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#5">Education<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The RTE (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed by Parliament</li>
<li>Reservation of 10% for economically weaker sections for admission in central educational institutions</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#6">Environment<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>National Clean Air Programme launched</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#7">Law and Justice<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill passed by Lok Sabha</li>
<li>Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill passed by Lok Sabha</li>
<li>The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Bill, 2018 passed by Lok Sabha</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#8">Science and Technology<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018 passed by Lok Sabha</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#9">Labour and Employment<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Trade Unions Amendment Bill, 2019 introduced in Lok Sabha</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#10">Tribal Affairs<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Bills introduced to amend list of Scheduled Tribes in Assam and Karnataka</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#11">Power<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Standing Committee submits report on stressed assets in gas based power plants</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#12">Information and Broadcasting<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Draft amendments to the Cinematograph Act, 1952 released</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3 id="1">Parliament</h3>
<p>President&rsquo;s address highlights key achievements in the past five years</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The President of India, Mr. Ram Nath Kovind, addressed <strong>a joint sitting of both Houses</strong> of Parliament on January 31, 2019.</li>
<li>He outlined the major policy achievements of the government in his address. Highlights of the address include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Economy:</strong> During the last four and a half years, the economy of the country has been growing at a rate of <strong>7.3% on average</strong>. India has emerged as the 6th largest economy in the world.</li>
<li><strong>Finance and Banking:</strong> As a result of the expansion in <strong>Direct Benefit Transfer</strong> in the last four and a half years, more than <strong>Rs 6.05 lakh crore</strong> have been directly transferred to the bank accounts of beneficiaries.</li>
<li><strong>Law and Governance:</strong> The government has created a provision for <strong>death penalty</strong> in case of heinous crimes like <strong>rape of minors</strong> and is also working on passing the <strong>Triple Talaq Bill</strong> in the Parliament.</li>
<li><strong>Corruption and Black Money: Through demonetization,</strong> the registration of <strong>3.3 lakh shell companies</strong> responsible for flow of black money has been annulled.</li>
<li><strong>Skill Development and Job Creation:</strong> The creation of jobs with tax incentives under <strong>Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana</strong> has been undertaken.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>Under this scheme, the EPS (Employees' Pension Scheme) and EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) contribution of 12% payable by the employer is being paid by the Government for the first three years.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Health:</strong> The <strong>Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana,</strong> which provides <strong>five lakh rupees per year per family</strong> in case of a <strong>serious illness,</strong> has been launched.
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>More than <strong>10 lakh people</strong> have availed free treatment from hospitals under the scheme.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Sanitation:</strong> Under the <strong>Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,</strong> more than <strong>9 crore toilets</strong> have been constructed.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>The coverage of rural sanitation, which was less than 40% in 2014, has increased to <strong>98%</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Women and Child Development:</strong> Under the <strong>Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana,</strong> maximum benefit has been availed by women. Out of the <strong>15 crore Mudra loans, 73%</strong> of these have been disbursed to <strong>women entrepreneurs</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>The government has also enhanced <strong>maternity leave</strong> from 12 weeks to <strong>26 weeks</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>With President&rsquo;s address, the Budget Session of Parliament has commenced on 31st January and ended on 13th February.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>It has a total of 10 sittings.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="2">Macroeconomic Development</h3>
<p>Retail inflation and Wholesale inflation at 2.19% and 3.8% respectively in the <strong>third quarter (Oct to Dec)</strong> of 2018-19</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Consumer Price Index <strong>(CPI)</strong> inflation (<strong>base year: 2011-12,</strong> year-on-year) marginally decreased from 3.38% in October 2018 to <strong>2.19%</strong> in <strong>December 2018</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Food prices</strong> fell throughout the quarter, <strong>decreasing</strong> by 0.86% in October 2018, and even more sharply by <strong>2.51%</strong> in December 2018.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The Wholesale Price Index <strong>(WPI)</strong> inflation (base year: 2011-12, year-on-year) decreased from <strong>5.54%</strong> in October 2018 to <strong>3.8%</strong> in December 2018.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="3">Finance</h3>
<p>Standing Committee submits report on the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Bill provides for a mechanism to ban <strong>unregulated deposit schemes</strong> and protect the interests of depositors.</li>
<li>It also seeks to amend three laws:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934,</li>
<li>Multi-State Co-Operative Societies Act, 2002,</li>
<li>Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Key observations and recommendations of the Committee include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Definition of an unregulated deposit scheme:</strong> Under the Bill, <strong>'regulated deposits&rsquo;</strong> are listed as all deposit-taking schemes which are overseen and regulated by nine <strong>specified regulators,</strong> including:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>the Reserve Bank of India,</li>
<li>the Securities and Exchange Board of India,</li>
<li>the Ministry of Corporate Affairs,</li>
<li>and state and union territory governments.</li>
<li><strong>A deposit-taking scheme</strong> is defined as <strong>&lsquo;unregulated&rsquo;</strong> if it is <strong>not registered with the regulators listed in the Bill</strong>.</li>
<li><strong>The Committee observed</strong> that the definition of &lsquo;unregulated deposits&rsquo; is left for <strong>residual interpretation under the Bill</strong>.</li>
<li>This could allow <strong>open-ended and subjective decisions</strong> by authorities while <strong>adjudicating offences</strong> related to such deposits.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Priority of depositors&rsquo; claims:</strong> The Bill states that:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li><strong>Unless otherwise provided</strong> by the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (<strong>SARFAESI</strong> Act), and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (<strong>IBC</strong>), <strong>the amounts due to depositors</strong> will be paid in <strong>priority over all other</strong> debts payable by the deposit taker.</li>
<li>The committee recommended that <strong>a time-frame be specified for repayment</strong> of depositors&rsquo; dues.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Tracking and complaints:</strong> The Committee suggested that <strong>a public website</strong> should <strong>be developed</strong>:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>for people <strong>to check</strong> whether an <strong>entity</strong> soliciting deposits is <strong>registered</strong> with a regulator,</li>
<li>and to <strong>file and track complaints</strong> against unregulated deposit takers.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>High Level Committee constituted on deepening of digital payments by the RBI</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>RBI has constituted a High Level Committee on Deepening of Digital Payments. The Committee will be chaired by Mr. Nandan Nilekani (former Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India) and have representatives from the government and banking industry.</li>
<li>The terms of reference of the High Level Committee include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>assessing current levels of digital payments in facilitating financial inclusion,</li>
<li>reviewing the existing status of digitisation of payments and suggesting a strategy to increase digital payments,</li>
<li>suggesting measures to strengthen the safety and security of digital payments, and</li>
<li>studying global best practices that can be adopted to accelerate digitisation and financial inclusion through the use of digital payments.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Expert Committee constituted on MSMEs by the RBI</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Reserve Bank of India constituted an Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The Committee will be chaired by Mr. U. K. Sinha (former Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India).</li>
<li>The terms or reference of the Expert Committee include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>reviewing the current institutional framework supporting the MSME sector,</li>
<li>examining factors affecting timely and adequate financing to the sector,</li>
<li>examining the impact of recent economic reforms on the sector, and</li>
<li>proposing measures for leveraging technology in accelerating growth of the sector.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>CAG submits report on compliance of the FRBM Act, 2003 by the central government during the year 2016-17</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India submitted its report on compliance of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003 for the year 2016-17.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The FRBM Act requires <strong>the central government to ensure responsible fiscal management</strong> and <strong>long-term stability</strong>.</li>
<li>The Act also requires it to ensure <strong>prudential debt management</strong> through limits on borrowings, debt and deficits.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Key observations and recommendations of the CAG include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Off-budget financing:</strong> The CAG observed that the central government has <strong>increasingly resorted to off-budget methods</strong> of financing to meet its expenditure requirements.
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Off-budget financing refers to the government&rsquo;s finances which are not accounted for in the budget documents.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Revenue expenditure:</strong> Due to <strong>insufficient budgetary allocations, dues of some subsidies</strong> are <strong>carried over</strong> to the subsequent financial years.
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>For instance, the carryover liability due to deferment of payment of dues of fertilizer and food subsidies at the end of 2016-17 amounted to Rs 1.2 lakh crore.</li>
<li>The <strong>carryover liability</strong> due to dues of food subsidy <strong>has increased by 350%</strong> during the <strong>period 2011-17</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Disclosure on off-budget financing:</strong> The CAG noted the <strong>current policy framework lacks transparent disclosures</strong> and management strategy for off-budget financing.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>It recommended that the government should formulate a policy framework, which should include disclosure to Parliament, among other things.</li>
<li>This disclosure should provide <strong>details of off-budget financing</strong> undertaken in the year by all organisations substantially owned by the government.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>GST Council approves levy of cess in Kerala to generate funds for calamities</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The GST Council allowed Kerala to levy a cess on <strong>intra-state supply</strong> of goods and services.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Revenue generated from levying the cess will be used as funds for relief measures required to be taken due to natural calamities.</li>
<li><strong>Article 279A (4)</strong> of the Constitution provides for the GST Council to make <strong>recommendations to the centre and states</strong> on any special rate (for a specified period) to <strong>raise additional resources</strong> during any <strong>natural calamity or disaster</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Cabinet approves creation of the national bench of the GST Appellate Tribunal</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Union Cabinet approved the creation of the national bench of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT).</li>
<li><strong>The Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017</strong> requires the central government to constitute a GST appellate tribunal at the national level and its benches at the state level.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The GSTAT will hear <strong>appeals against</strong> orders passed by the <strong>appellate authorities</strong> constituted under the <strong>central and state GST laws</strong>.</li>
<li>The GSTAT will be headed by its <strong>President</strong> (a judicial member) and consist of two <strong>technical members</strong> with experience in tax administration.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="4">Social Justice and Empowerment</h3>
<p>124<sup>th</sup> Constitutional Amendment Bill passed to enable reservation for economically weaker sections</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced and passed by Parliament.</li>
<li>The Bill seeks to provide for the advancement of &ldquo;economically weaker sections&rdquo; of citizens.</li>
<li>Following are amendments made in constitution:
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>Article 15:</strong> The Bill seeks to amend Article 15 to additionally permit (Already permitted-socially and educationally backward classes, or for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) the government to provide for the <strong>advancement</strong> of <strong>"economically weaker sections"</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Up to 10% of seats</strong> may be reserved for such sections for admission in <strong>educational institutions</strong>. <strong>Such reservation</strong> will <strong>not apply</strong> to <strong>minority educational institutions</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Article 16:</strong> The Bill seeks to amend Article 16 to permit the government to reserve <strong>up to 10% of all posts</strong> for the &ldquo;economically weaker sections&rdquo; of citizens.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The reservation of up to 10% for &ldquo;economically weaker sections&rdquo; in educational institutions and public employment will be <strong>in addition to the existing reservation</strong>.</li>
<li>The central government will notify the &ldquo;economically weaker sections&rdquo; of citizens on the basis of family income and other indicators of economic disadvantage.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="5">Education</h3>
<p>The RTE (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed by Parliament</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 was passed by Parliament.</li>
<li>The RTE Act, 2009, <strong>prohibits detention</strong> of children till they complete elementary education i.e., <strong>class 8</strong>.</li>
<li>The Bill seeks to amend this provision to <strong>empower</strong> the <strong>central</strong> or <strong>state</strong> government to <strong>allow</strong> schools to <strong>hold back a child in class 5, class 8, or in both the classes</strong>.</li>
<li>The Bill seeks to amend this provision to state that <strong>a regular examination</strong> will be held in <strong>class 5 and class 8</strong> at the end of <strong>every academic year</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>If a child fails</strong> in the examinations, he will be given additional instruction, and will take <strong>a re-examination</strong>. If he <strong>fails</strong> in the re-examination, the relevant central or state <strong>government may decide</strong> to allow schools to detain the child.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Reservation of 10% for economically weaker sections for admission in central educational institutions</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>The Department of Higher Education notified reservation of up to 10%</strong> for <strong>economically</strong> weaker sections in admission in all central educational institutions, with effect from academic year 2019-20.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The reservation will be provided in <strong>all central educational institutions</strong> which include universities set up by Acts of Parliament, institutions of national importance, and institutions deemed to be a university.</li>
<li><strong>With prior approval</strong> of the appropriate authority (such as the <strong>University Grants Commission,</strong> or the Bar Council of India), <strong>every central educational institution,</strong> should <strong>increase its seats</strong> above its annual permitted strength so that the number of seats available, excluding those reserved for persons belonging to the economically weaker sections, <strong>is not less</strong> that the number of seats for the <strong>previous academic session</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="6">Environment</h3>
<p>National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) launched</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched <strong>a five year action plan</strong> called the <strong>National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)</strong>.</li>
<li>The NCAP aims <strong>to meet the prescribed annual average ambient air quality standards</strong> at all locations in the country. Key features of the NCAP include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Objectives</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>to create a <strong>management plan</strong> for prevention, control, and abatement of air pollution,</li>
<li>to develop an effective <strong>ambient air quality monitoring network</strong> across the country,</li>
<li>and to augment <strong>public awareness</strong> and capacity-building measures through data dissemination and public outreach programmes.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Enforcement:</strong> Trained manpower and regular inspection drives will be undertaken to ensure implementation of the NCAP.</li>
<li><strong>Mitigation:</strong> With reference to augmenting the air quality monitoring network, it proposes to <strong>increase the number of monitoring stations</strong> from existing 703 to 1,500.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>It also plans to bring in <strong>rural areas under</strong> the existing <strong>National Air Quality Monitoring Programme</strong>. Towards this, it <strong>will set up 75 monitoring stations</strong> in rural areas.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Certification:</strong> To address concerns of <strong>poor data quality,</strong> the NCAP plans to set up a <strong>Certification Scheme</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>This Scheme will aim to provide a comprehensive and cost-effective solution for testing, calibration, and <strong>certification of equipment</strong> used in environmental monitoring.</li>
<li>It also envisages setting up an <strong>Air Quality Forecasting System</strong> which will accurately forecast air pollution on a <strong>daily basis</strong> and forecast expected air pollution exigencies.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="7">Law and Justice</h3>
<p>The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill passed by Lok Sabha</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Bill amends:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016,</li>
<li>Indian Telegraph Act, 1885</li>
<li>Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Following are amendments made in aforesaid acts:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Offline verification:</strong> The Bill includes a new provision in the Aadhaar Act to allow &lsquo;offline verification&rsquo; <strong>(Aadhaar &lsquo;authentication&rsquo;)</strong> of an individual&rsquo;s identity through <strong>modes specified</strong> by the Unique Identification Authority of India <strong>(UIDAI)</strong> by regulations.</li>
<li>The Bill amends the <strong>Telegraph Act, 1885</strong> and the <strong>Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002</strong> to state that:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>the <strong>telecom companies, banks</strong> and <strong>financial institutions</strong> may <strong>verify the identity of their clients</strong> by
<ol>
<li>authentication or offline verification of Aadhaar, or</li>
<li>passport, or</li>
<li>any other documents notified by the central government.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>UIDAI Fund: Under the Act,</strong> all <strong>fees and revenue</strong> collected by the <strong>UIDAI</strong> shall be credited to the <strong>Consolidated Fund of India</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li><strong>The Bill removes this provision,</strong> and creates the Unique Identification Authority of India Fund.</li>
<li>All fees, grants and charges received by the UIDAI shall be credited to this fund.</li>
<li><strong>The fund</strong> shall be used for <strong>expenses of the UIDAI,</strong> including <strong>salaries</strong> and <strong>allowances</strong> of its employees.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill passed by Lok Sabha</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018, passed by Lok Sabha, seeks to amend the following five Acts:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Divorce Act, 1869</li>
<li>Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939</li>
<li>Special Marriage Act, 1954</li>
<li>Hindu Marriage Act, 1955</li>
<li>Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Each of these Acts prescribes <strong>Leprosy</strong> as a <strong>ground</strong> for seeking <strong>divorce or separation</strong> from the spouse.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Bill seeks to <strong>remove Leprosy as a ground for divorce or separation</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Bill, 2018 passed by Lok Sabha</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>It seeks to establish an <strong>autonomous and independent institution</strong> for better management of arbitration in India.</li>
<li>Key features of the Bill include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Bill seeks to provide for the establishment of the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre <strong>(NDIAC)</strong> to conduct arbitration, mediation, and conciliation proceedings.</li>
<li>The Bill declares the NDIAC as an institution of <strong>national importance</strong>.</li>
<li><strong>International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ICADR):</strong> The ICADR is a <strong>registered society</strong> to promote the resolution of disputes through alternative dispute resolution methods (such as arbitration and mediation).
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>It was established by the Government of India for <strong>resolving international and domestic commercial disputes quickly</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The Bill seeks to transfer the existing ICADR to the central government.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li><strong>Upon notification</strong> by the central government, all the rights, title, and interest in the <strong>ICADR will be transferred to the NDIAC</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="8">Science and Technology</h3>
<p>DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018 passed by Lok Sabha</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Bill provides for regulation of <strong>use of DNA technology</strong> for establishing the <strong>identity</strong> of certain <strong>persons</strong>.</li>
<li>Key features of the Bill include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Use of DNA Data:</strong> Under the Bill, DNA testing is allowed <strong>only for matters</strong> listed in the schedule to the Bill (such as for <strong>offences</strong> under the Indian Penal Code, 1860, for <strong>paternity suits,</strong> or in order to <strong>identify abandoned children</strong>).</li>
<li><strong>Collection of DNA: Investigation authorities</strong> can <strong>collect</strong> DNA samples of victims and suspects of crimes, <strong>with their written consent</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>In case someone is arrested for a <strong>crime</strong> that carries <strong>punishment</strong> higher than <strong>7 years, consent is not required</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>DNA Data Bank:</strong> The Bill provides for the establishment of a <strong>National DNA Data Bank</strong> and <strong>regional DNA Data Banks</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>These Data Banks will store DNA profiles.</li>
<li>The DNA profiles in the Data Banks will be organized into five indices:
<ol>
<li><strong>crime</strong> scene index</li>
<li><strong>suspects&rsquo;</strong> or under-trials&rsquo; index</li>
<li><strong>offenders&rsquo;</strong> index</li>
<li><strong>missing persons&rsquo;</strong> index</li>
<li>unknown deceased persons&rsquo; index.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>DNA Regulatory Board:</strong> The Bill provides for the establishment of a DNA Regulatory Board, which will <strong>supervise the DNA Data Banks and DNA laboratories</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li><strong>Protection of information:</strong> Under the Bill, the <strong>Board</strong> is required to <strong>ensure</strong> that all information relating to DNA profiles with the Data Banks, laboratories and other persons are <strong>kept confidential</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>DNA data may <strong>only be used for identification</strong> of the person.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="9">Labour and Employment</h3>
<p>Trade Unions Amendment Bill, 2019 introduced in Lok Sabha</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Trade Unions (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha.</li>
<li>The Bill amends <strong>the Trade Unions Act, 1926,</strong> which provides for the <strong>registration and regulation</strong> of trade unions.</li>
<li>Key features of the Bill include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Bill seeks to provide for <strong>recognition of trade unions or a federation of trade</strong> unions at the central and state level by the central and state government respectively.</li>
<li>The central or state government may make <strong>rules</strong> for:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>the <strong>recognition</strong> of such Central or State Trade Unions,</li>
<li>and the <strong>authority to decide disputes</strong> arising out of such <strong>recognition,</strong> and the manner of deciding such disputes.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The amendments will facilitate recognition of trade unions at central and state level to:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>ensure <strong>true representation</strong> of workers in these bodies;</li>
<li>check on the <strong>arbitrary nomination</strong> of workers' representatives by the government;</li>
<li>reduce litigations and industrial unrest.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="10">Tribal Affairs</h3>
<p>Bills introduced to amend list of Scheduled Tribes in Assam and Karnataka</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Two Bills were introduced in Rajya Sabha to amend the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, in respect of <strong>Assam</strong> and <strong>Karnataka</strong>.</li>
<li><strong>The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019</strong> amends Part II of the Order which specifies the Scheduled Tribes in <strong>Assam</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Bill inserts 41 entries for granting Scheduled Tribe status to these communities.</li>
<li>These include:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>Matak</li>
<li>Kock Rajbongshi</li>
<li>Tai Ahom</li>
<li>Bhil</li>
<li>Bhumij</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019</strong> amends Part VI of the Order which specifies the Scheduled Tribes in <strong>Karnataka</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>It substitutes:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>&ldquo;Naikda, Nayaka&rdquo; with &ldquo;Naikda, Nayaka (including Parivara and Talawara)&rdquo;,</li>
<li>&ldquo;Siddi (in Uttar Kannada district)&rdquo; with &ldquo;Siddi (in Belagavi, Dharwad and Uttar Kannada districts)&rdquo;.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="11">Power</h3>
<p>Standing Committee submits report on stressed assets in gas based power plants</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Standing Committee on Energy submitted its report on <strong>&lsquo;Stressed/Non-Performing Assets in Gas based Power Plants&rsquo;</strong>.</li>
<li>Key observations and recommendations of the Committee include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Currently, out of the total installed capacity of about 345 GW, <strong>24.9 MW (7%)</strong> comes from <strong>gas based power plants</strong>.</li>
<li>However, <strong>14.30 GW (57%)</strong> of this <strong>gas based capacity</strong> (24.9 MW) is <strong>stranded</strong> due to <strong>shortage of domestic gas supply</strong> and <strong>competitive tariff scenario</strong>.</li>
<li>There are <strong>31 stranded gas based power plants</strong>. All these power plants <strong>were planned</strong> based on the expectation of increase in domestic <strong>gas</strong> production, particularly from the <strong>Krishna Godavari Dhirubhai 6 (KG-D6) field</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>However, the <strong>production</strong> from KG D6 field has reduced drastically to <strong>zero</strong> since March 2013.</li>
<li>The Committee recommended that the <strong>Ministry</strong> of Petroleum and Natural Gas should <strong>be cautious in making future projections</strong> regarding <strong>availability of natural gas</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Allocation of natural gas:</strong> The Committee noted that several <strong>policy flip-flops</strong> have resulted in gas based power plants becoming stranded. These gas based plants are now <strong>unable to service their debt obligations</strong> and are <strong>on the verge of</strong> becoming non-performing assets <strong>(NPAs)</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>It recommended that the government should <strong>avoid erratic policy shifts</strong> in the future.</li>
<li>Further, any <strong>policy or guidelines</strong> regarding the change in allocation of gas <strong>should be prospective</strong> and it should <strong>not impact the existing users</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="12">Information and Broadcasting</h3>
<p>Draft amendments to the Cinematograph Act, 1952 released</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has released draft amendments to the <strong>Cinematograph Act, 1952</strong> for <strong>feedback</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Act provides for certification of films for exhibition.</li>
<li>It imposes penalties for various offences such as:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>exhibition of a film that has not been certified for public exhibition,</li>
<li>or tampering with a film after it has been certified.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The draft amendments propose <strong>additional penalties for film piracy</strong>. The penalties proposed include imprisonment up to <strong>three years or fine up to ten lakh rupees,</strong> or both.</li>
</ul>',
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		(int) 18 => [
			'title' => 'India to Host CMS COP 13 in 2020',
			'catname' => 'News Analysis',
			'desc' => '<p>The <strong>13<sup>th</sup> Conference of Parties (COP)</strong> of the <strong>Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS)</strong> will be <strong>hosted by India</strong> during 15th to 22nd <g class="gr_ gr_42 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="42" data-gr-id="42">February,</g> 2020 at <strong>Gandhinagar</strong> in Gujarat.</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>Great Indian Bustard (GIB)</strong> will be its <strong>mascot for the 13th Conference of Parties (COP)</strong> of the UN Convention on the conservation of migratory species (CMS).</li>
<li>Representatives from 129 Parties and eminent conservationists and international NGOs working in the field of wildlife conservation will attend the COP.</li>
<li>Hosting of COP would give India an opportunity to showcase its conservation initiatives for wildlife species.</li>
<li>It will provide a global platform for deliberations on the conservation and sustainable use of migratory wild animals and their habitat.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Migratory Species in India</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Migratory species are those animals that move from one habitat to another during different times of the year, due to various factors such as food, sunlight, temperature, climate, etc.</li>
<li>The movement between habitats can sometimes exceed thousands of miles/kilometers for some migratory birds and mammals.</li>
<li>A migratory route can involve nesting and also requires the availability of habitats before and after each migration.</li>
<li><strong>India is a temporary home to several migratory animals and birds</strong>. The important among these include <strong>Amur Falcons</strong>, <strong>Bar-headed Geese</strong>, <strong>Black-necked cranes</strong>, <strong>Marine turtles</strong>, <strong>Dugongs</strong>, <strong>Humpbacked Whales</strong>, etc.</li>
<li>The <strong>Indian sub-continent is also part of</strong> the major bird flyway network, i.e, <strong>the Central Asian Flyway (CAF)</strong> that covers areas between the Arctic and Indian Oceans, and covers at least 279 populations of 182 migratory waterbird species, including 29 globally threatened species.</li>
<li>India has also launched the National Action Plan for the conservation of migratory species under the Central Asian Flyway.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals (CMS)</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>It is an environmental treaty<strong> under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme</strong>, CMS (<strong>also referred to as the Bonn Convention</strong>) provides a global platform for the<strong> conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats</strong>.</li>
<li>CMS brings together the States through which migratory animals pass, the Range States, and lays the legal <strong>foundation for internationally coordinated conservation measures</strong> throughout a migratory range.</li>
<li>It is the only global convention specializing in the conservation of migratory species, their habitats and migration routes.</li>
<li><strong>India</strong> has been a <strong>Party to the CMS since 1983</strong>. The Conference of Parties (COP) is the decision-making organ of this convention.</li>
<li><strong>India</strong> has also signed <strong><g class="gr_ gr_37 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling" id="37" data-gr-id="37">non</g> legally binding MOU with CMS on the conservation and management of Siberian Cranes (1998), Marine Turtles (2007), Dugongs (2008) and Raptors (2016</strong>).</li>
</ul>',
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		(int) 19 => [
			'title' => '100th Anniversary of ILO',
			'catname' => 'News Analysis',
			'desc' => '<p>In 2019, the <strong>International Labour Organization (ILO)</strong>, the UN specialized agency celebrates its 100th anniversary.</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>In the run up to the anniversary <strong>seven Centenary Initiatives</strong> are being implemented as part of a package of activities aimed at equipping the Organization to take up successfully the challenges of its social justice mandate in the future.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Seven Centenary Initiatives</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>The future of work initiative</strong> : Initiating and cultivating a global dialogue on the future of work, to build the ILO&rsquo;s ability to prepare and guide governments, workers and employers to better meet the world of work challenges of the next century.</li>
<li><strong>The end to poverty initiative</strong>: Promoting a multidimensional response through the world of work, labor markets, and social and employment protection to eradicate global poverty.</li>
<li><strong>The women at work initiative</strong>: Reviewing the place and conditions of women in the world of work and engaging workers, employers and governments in concrete action to realize equality of opportunity and treatment.</li>
<li><strong>The green initiative</strong>: Scaling up the ILO&rsquo;s office-wide knowledge, policy advice and tools for managing a just transition to a low carbon, sustainable future.</li>
<li><strong>The standards initiative</strong>: Enhancing the relevance of international labour standards through a standards review mechanism and consolidating tripartite consensus on an authoritative supervisory system.</li>
<li><strong>The enterprises initiative</strong>: Establishing a platform for ILO engagement with enterprises which would contribute to their sustainability and to ILO goals.</li>
<li><strong>The governance initiative</strong>: Reforming the ILO&rsquo;s governance structures, assessing the impact of the 2008 Declaration as set out in its final provisions, and act on its finding.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Eight Core International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>India</strong> has <strong>ratified six out of the eight core/fundamental</strong>&nbsp;<strong>ILO Conventions</strong>. These are
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29),</li>
<li>Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105),</li>
<li>Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100),</li>
<li>Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111),</li>
<li>Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) and</li>
<li>Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182).</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>India has <strong>not ratified</strong> the core/fundamental Conventions, namely <strong>Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87)</strong> and <strong>Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)</strong>.</li>
<li>The main reason for non-ratification of ILO Conventions No.87 &amp; 98 is <strong>due to certain restrictions imposed on the Government servants</strong>.</li>
<li>The ratification of these conventions would involve granting of certain rights that are prohibited under the statutory rules, for the Government employees, namely, to strike work, to openly criticize Government policies, to freely accept financial contribution, to freely join foreign organizations etc.</li>
<li>In India <strong>Convention is ratified only when the national laws are brought fully into conformity with the provisions of the Convention</strong>.</li>
<li>Ratification of ILO Convention is a voluntary process and no time frame has been agreed for the same.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>About International Labour Organization (ILO)</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency dealing with labour issues, particularly international labour standards, social protection, and work opportunities for all.</li>
<li>ILO was created in <strong>1919</strong>, as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, to reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social justice. It <strong>became specialized agency of the United Nations in 1946</strong>.</li>
<li>It is a tripartite organization, the<strong> only one of its kind bringing together representatives of governments, employers and workers in its executive bodies</strong>.</li>
<li>Since 1919, the International Labour Organization has maintained and developed a system of international labour standards aimed at promoting opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and dignity.</li>
<li>In <strong>1969</strong>, <strong>ILO received the Nobel Peace Prize for improving fraternity and peace among nations</strong>, pursuing decent work and justice for workers, and providing technical assistance to other developing nations.</li>
<li><strong>India is a founder member of the International Labour Organization</strong>.</li>
<li>The <strong>Headquarter</strong> of ILO is in <strong>Geneva, Switzerland</strong>.</li>
</ul>',
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		'title' => 'In Depth - Digital India',
		'catname' => 'Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha Discussions',
		'desc' => '<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gyTS84yRgHM" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">India is amongst the top 2 countries globally, just behind China on many dimensions of digital adoption. By 2022, India&rsquo;s digital economy is likely to cross $1 trillion. This was the focus at the India Digital Summit 2019, held in New Delhi. The summit deliberated on what India needs to become a trillion dollar digital economy, the challenges on the way forward as well as the threats to cybersecurity.</p>
<div class="'border-bg">
<p>DRISHTI INPUT</p>
<p><strong>Digital India programme</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Vision Areas
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Digital infrastructure as Utility to Every Citizen</li>
<li>Governance and services on demand</li>
<li>Digital empowerment of citizens</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Objectives
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>To prepare India for a knowledge future.</li>
<li>For being transformative that is to realize IT (Indian Talent) + IT (Information Technology) = IT (India Tomorrow).</li>
<li>Making technology central to enabling change.</li>
<li>On being an Umbrella Programme &ndash; covering many departments.</li>
<li>The programme weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single, comprehensive vision so that each of them is seen as part of a larger goal.</li>
<li>The Digital India Programme will pull together many existing schemes which would be restructured and re-focused and implemented in a synchronized manner.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Nine pillars of Digital India<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Broadband Highways</li>
<li>Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity</li>
<li>Public Internet Access Programme</li>
<li>e-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology</li>
<li>e-Kranti - Electronic Delivery of Services</li>
<li>Information for All</li>
<li>Electronics Manufacturing</li>
<li>IT for Jobs</li>
<li>Early Harvest Programmes</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Progress and Impact of Digital India Programme</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Overall 12000 rural post office branches have been linked electronically.</li>
<li>Increased in electronic transactions related to e-governance as it is estimated that there are more than 100 cr mobile phones in India.</li>
<li>2, 74,246 km of optical fiber network has connected over 1.15lakh Gram Panchayats under the Bharat Net programme.</li>
</ul>
<p>*Common Service Center</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>A Common Service Center (CSC) is an information and communication technology (ICT) access point created under the National e-Governance Project of the Indian government.</li>
<li>A CSC is essentially a kiosk with a personal computer, a wireless connection, and other equipment. Through computer and Internet access, the CSCs provide multimedia content related to e-governance, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment, and other government and private services.</li>
<li>There is a rapid expansion in the network of Common Service Centers.</li>
<li>DigiGaon or Digital Village conceptualized as the connected village where the citizen can avail various e-services. These DigiGaons are projected to be change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship, building rural capacities and livelihoods through community participation.</li>
<li>Digital villages have been equipped with solar lighting facility, LED assembly unit, sanitary napkin production unit, Wi-Fi <g class="gr_ gr_119 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling" id="119" data-gr-id="119">choupal</g>.</li>
<li>The aim of the programme is to turn each village into a self-sustaining unit.</li>
<li>It has been estimated that the internet service sector is expected to reach $74 billion in 2022. Internet data has become the major tool for the delivery of the services.</li>
<li>India till Dec 2017 had made tremendous progress in urban internet penetration with 64%. However, four fifth of rural India is yet to get access to the internet.</li>
<li>Presently, there are 300 million daily active users which have risen from 10-15 million daily users in 2011. And, it is estimated that by 2020 the number would double.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Initiatives launched by the Government of India</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Digilockers&mdash;it is a "digital locker" service operated by the Government of India that enables Indian citizens to store certain official documents on the cloud. The service is aimed towards reducing the need to carry physical documents.</li>
<li>BHIM app&mdash;It is an app to enable digital payments. BHIM app was used to facilitate 913 million transactions in 2017-18.</li>
<li>Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan to make citizen digitally literate. The project is expected to be one of the largest initiatives of the country with an overall target of training 6 crore students until the financial year, 2019. The government has accepted 250,000 Gram Panchayats to register at least 200-300 candidates each.</li>
</ul>
<h3>India&rsquo;s Digital Economy</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India&rsquo;s digital economy will touch $1 trillion by the year 2022. India would be $10 trillion <g class="gr_ gr_356 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="356" data-gr-id="356">economy</g> by 2030 and half of it would be the digital economy.</li>
<li>Fintech sector&mdash;the Fintech sector in a recent couple of years has seen a huge jump in growth. Digital currency and online payments platforms have played a major role in financial inclusion.</li>
<li>Public Services Sector&mdash;steady and efficient digital transformation across areas like e-governance and this has also considerably brought down leakages and corruption. In recent years India performed well in transparency index.</li>
<li>Health care sector&mdash;it is catching up to meet the demands of its tech-savvy population. Demand is shifting now to quality and affordable healthcare, much of it being fulfilled by a public-private partnership.</li>
<li>Digital healthcare startups are playing a major role in addressing areas like preventive healthcare, analytics, emergency services and engage with super-aggregation platforms like Facebook and Google.</li>
<li>Enterprise and Deep Technology sector&mdash;startups in this sector have made their presence felt globally with their success. The IT services in the country are set to reach USD 13.2 billion by the end of this year.</li>
<li>E-commerce and Consumer internet sector&mdash;India&rsquo;s e-commerce market is set to grow three times to surpass USD 100 billion by 2022.</li>
<li>Travel and Hospitality sector&mdash;this sector has enjoyed rapid online growth since the beginning of this century. The growth is also attributed to the increase in disposable income, especially, among the millennials, who are changing decades of traditional travel trends.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Challenges</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Slow roll-out of Wi-Fi hotspots and the slow speed, in comparison to other developed nation.</li>
<li>Most small and medium scale industry is struggling to adapt to modern technology.</li>
<li>Entry level smartphones have limited capabilities for smooth internet access, and the outreach of the &lsquo;smartphones&rsquo; is limited.</li>
<li>There is an absence of enough skilled manpower in digital technology.</li>
<li>Lack of user education and there are limited facilities to train personnel. India needs over one million cybersecurity experts to check and monitor the growing menace of digital crime.</li>
</ul>',
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	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'title' => 'National Productivity Council',
		'catname' => 'News Analysis',
		'desc' => '<p>The <strong>National Productivity Council (NPC)</strong> celebrated its <strong>61<sup>st</sup> Foundation Day (as Productivity Day)</strong> on <strong>February 12, 2019</strong> and also observes <strong>National Productivity Week from February 12-18, every year.</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The <strong>theme</strong> for 2019 is <strong>"Circular Economy for Productivity &amp; Sustainability"</strong> to mark the transition from a linear to a circular economy that embraces economic growth and environmental sustainability and represents a unique opportunity for circular business models for <strong>Make - Use - Return.</strong></li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>National Productivity Council</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>NPC is<strong> national level organization</strong> to promote productivity culture in India.</li>
<li>Established by the<strong> Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India in 1958,</strong> it is an <strong>autonomous, multipartite, non-profit organization.</strong></li>
<li>NPC is a constituent of the <strong>Tokyo-based Asian Productivity Organisation (APO)</strong>, an Intergovernmental Body, of which the Government of India is a founder member.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Circular Economy<a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577425276_image18.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577425276_image18.jpg" width="520" caption="false" style="float: right;" /></a></h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>A circular economy is an industrial system that is <strong>restorative or regenerative</strong> by intention and design.</li>
<li>It replaces the <strong>end-of-life concept with restoration</strong>, shifts towards the use of renewable energy, eliminates the use of toxic chemicals which impair reuse and return to the biosphere.</li>
<li>It aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products, systems and business models.</li>
<li>Circular economy is based on<strong> four principles</strong>. They are:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Circular economy aims to <strong>design out waste.</strong> The products are designed and optimized for a cycle of disassembly and reuse. This sets it apart from disposal and even recycling, where large amounts of embedded energy and labour are lost.</li>
<li>It introduces a strict <strong>differentiation between consumable and durable components</strong> of a product.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>Consumables in the circular economy are largely made of <strong>biological ingredients</strong> that are non-toxic and possibly even beneficial, and <strong>can safely be returned to the biosphere</strong>, either directly or in a cascade of consecutive uses.</li>
<li><strong>Durables</strong> such as engines or computers, on the other hand, are made of technical nutrients unsuitable for the biosphere, such as metals and most plastics. These are designed from the start for reuse, and products subject to rapid technological advance are designed for upgrade.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The energy required to fuel this cycle should be <strong>renewable by nature,</strong> again to decrease resource dependence and increase systems resilience.</li>
<li>It replaces the concept of a consumer with that of a user which calls for a <strong>new contract between businesses and their customers</strong> based on product performance. The durable products are leased, rented or shared wherever possible. If they are sold, there are incentives or agreements in place to ensure the return and thereafter the reuse of the product.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Circular economy has the potential to<strong> increase productivity and create jobs,</strong> whilst reducing carbon emissions and preserving valuable raw materials. It provides for a way of creating value.</li>
<li>However, the challenge lies in <strong>building circular economy knowledge and capacity.</strong></li>
</ul>',
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		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/national-productivity-council'
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'title' => 'Has India Successfully Tamed the Inflation Dragon?',
		'catname' => 'News Editorials',
		'desc' => '<div class="border">
<p>(This editorial is based on the article &ldquo;Has India successfully tamed the inflation dragon?&rdquo; which appeared in Livemint for 13th February 2019.)</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Has India finally succeeded in taming the inflation dragon?</strong></p>
<p>The answer has profound consequences for Indian macroeconomics. It is well known that headline inflation in India has nearly halved over the past five years. The most recent readings have been well below the central point of the target range given to the Reserve Bank of India by the government.</p>
<h3>What is Inflation?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Inflation is a quantitative measure of the rate at which the average price level of a basket of selected goods and services in an economy increases over a period of time.</li>
<li>Often expressed as a percentage, inflation indicates a decrease in the purchasing power of a nation&rsquo;s currency.</li>
<li>As prices rise, they start to impact the general cost of living for the common public and the appropriate monetary authority of the country, like the central bank, then takes the necessary measures to keep inflation within permissible limits and keep the economy running smoothly.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Types of Inflation</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>Demand-Pull Inflation:</strong> This represents a situation where the basic factor at work is the increase in aggregate demand for output either from households or entrepreneurs or the government. The result is that the pressure of demand is such that it cannot be met by the currently available supply of output.</li>
<li><strong>Cost-Push Inflation:</strong> We can visualize situations where even though there is no increase in aggregate demand, prices may still rise. This may happen if there is an initial increase in costs independent of any increase in aggregate demand.</li>
<li>According to<strong> structural theory of inflation,</strong> market power is one of the factors that cause inflation, but it is not the only factor. The supporters of structural theories believed that inflation arises due to structural maladjustments in the county or due to some of the institutional features of its business environment.</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/984image%20(13-2-19).png" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/984image (13-2-19).png" width="679" height="753" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>
<h3>Current Trends</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India was a global inflation outlier (in statistics - an extreme deviation from the mean) and struggled with double-digit inflation even after the 2008 financial crisis when the rest of the world was battling deflation.</li>
<li>Inflation in India has now moved closer to the average of developing peers in Asia. The narrowing inflation differential is welcome.</li>
<li>The trend in the three-month moving average of consumer price inflation for industrial workers shows the rise and fall in Indian inflation.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>There are three possible explanations for the decline in price pressures in recent years:</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>First, global oil prices have collapsed. They have remained at moderate levels despite the synchronized recovery in the global economy since early 2017. Energy analysts believe that the entry of US shale into the global energy market has effectively capped crude oil prices.</li>
<li>Second, food price inflation has tumbled. Some economists argued during the episode of high inflation at the beginning of this decade, that India was facing the problem of protein inflation&mdash;as demand ran ahead of supply. There is an argument that India has now moved into an era of persistent food surpluses.</li>
<li>Third, the macro policy has been tighter in recent years. The Indian central bank is now legally committed to anchoring inflation to around 4%. Inflation expectations have also drifted down. The initial record of the new inflation targeting regime (from the strategy by Monetary Policy Committee) has been a good one, though it has not yet been tested by a serious inflation shock.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Monetary Policy Committee</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is a body of the RBI, responsible for making important monetary policy decisions.</li>
<li>MPC has six members. Three of the members are from the RBI while the other three members are appointed by the government.</li>
<li>Members from the RBI are the Governor who is the chairman of the MPC, a Deputy Governor and one officer of the RBI. The government members are appointed by the Centre on the recommendations of a search-cum-selection committee which is to be headed by the Cabinet Secretary.</li>
<li>The new balance of power in the global energy market, the shift from food scarcity to food surpluses in India and the shift to a formal inflation target will act as a check on headline inflation.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Concerns</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The most immediate one is the persistence of higher core inflation.</li>
<li>The gap between headline inflation and core inflation leaves scope for two competing possibilities as far as the inevitable convergence goes. First, core inflation will fall towards headline inflation. Second, headline inflation will rise towards core inflation.</li>
<li>The persistence in higher core inflation is a stumbling block in the larger narrative that India has moved into a structurally lower inflation range.</li>
<li>There are two specific things here. One, the monetary policy committee has said in its February statement, that a modest output gap has opened up despite the fact that core inflation has been sticky. Two, analysts have been struggling to figure out why rural medical and education costs&mdash;a component of core inflation&mdash;have spiked in recent months.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>For a developing country like India, inflation plays a very important role in the growth of its economy. For example, during normal circumstances, an increase in the purchasing power (which shows that the economy is running strong i.e growing) often and also translates into inflation.</li>
<li>However, the structural changes in the food market, the energy market, and the monetary policy framework offer the reason for hope. The inflation dragon may not have been killed as yet, but it seems to have been tamed.</li>
<li>It is therefore risky to say that India has decisively won the battle against high inflation.</li>
</ul>',
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	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'title' => 'Wetlands',
		'catname' => 'Paper 3',
		'desc' => '<p><a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/596Drishti_ias_wetlands.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/596Drishti_ias_wetlands.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/mind-map/gs-paper3/wetlands-2'
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'title' => 'Important Facts for Prelims (13th February 2019)',
		'catname' => 'News Analysis',
		'desc' => '<h3>AI Project Debater Lost to Human</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Recently <strong>International Business Machines Corporation's (IBM's)</strong> artificial intelligence (AI) system- <strong>Project Debater</strong> <strong>lost the public debate with a human champion</strong>, Harish Natarajan, at Think 2019 in San Francisco, U.S.</li>
<li>The winner of the event was determined by <strong>Project Debater's ability to convince the audience of the persuasiveness</strong> of the arguments.</li>
<li>Project Debater is taught to debate unfamiliar topics, as long as these are well covered in the massive corpus that the system mines including hundreds of millions of articles from numerous well-known newspapers and magazines.</li>
<li>Project Debater is endowed with three capabilities:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>data-driven speech writing and delivery,</li>
<li>listening comprehension that can identify key claims hidden within long continuous spoken language and</li>
<li>modelling human dilemmas in a unique knowledge graph to enable principled arguments.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Note:</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>A decade ago, <strong>IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue</strong> <strong>defeated then world chess champion, Gary Kasparov</strong>.</li>
<li>In March 2016, Alphabet-owned AI firm DeepMind&rsquo;s computer programme, <strong>AlphaGo</strong>, beat <strong>Go (ancient Chinese game) champion</strong>&nbsp;<strong>Lee Sedol</strong>.</li>
<li>On 7 December 2017, <strong>AlphaZero</strong> (modelled on AlphaGo) took just four hours to learn all chess rules and master the game enough to defeat the <strong>world&rsquo;s strongest open-source chess engine, Stockfish</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>POSHAN Abhiyaan</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Recently<strong> Ministry of Women and Child Development</strong> organized the 4<sup>th</sup> meeting of <strong>National Council on India&rsquo;s Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyaan</strong>.</li>
<li>POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) was <strong>launched</strong> by the government on March 8, <strong>2018</strong>.</li>
<li>The Abhiyaan targets to <strong>reduce stunting</strong>,<strong> undernutrition</strong>, <strong>anemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls)</strong> and <strong>reduce low birth weight</strong>.</li>
<li>The target of the mission is to <strong>bring down stunting among children</strong> in the age group <strong>0-6 years</strong> <strong>from 38.4% to 25% by 2022</strong>.</li>
<li>POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to ensure service delivery and interventions by use of technology, behavioural change through convergence and lays-down specific targets to be achieved across different monitoring parameters.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>The National Council on India&rsquo;s Nutrition Challenges</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>Set up under the Poshan Abhiyaan</strong>, the Council is also known as National Council on Nutrition (NCN).</li>
<li>The NCN is <strong>headed by the Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog</strong>.</li>
<li>It provides policy <strong>directions to address nutritional challenges in the country and review programmes</strong>.</li>
<li>It is <strong>national level coordination and convergence body on nutrition</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>1st Aqua Mega Food Park</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Union Minister for Food Processing Industries has commissioned<strong> Godavari Mega Aqua Food Park at West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh.</strong></li>
<li><strong>This is India&rsquo;s first Mega Aqua Food Park</strong> operationalized <strong>exclusively for fish and marine products</strong> processing in the state of Andhra Pradesh.</li>
<li>The facilities at aqua food park include the <strong>pre-processing, freezing line for Fish and shrimp, ice plant and food testing laboratory.</strong></li>
<li>The modern infrastructure for food processing created at Park will <strong>benefit the farmers, growers, processors, and consumers of Andhra Pradesh</strong> and adjoining areas immensely and prove to be a big boost to the growth of the food processing sector in the State of Andhra Pradesh.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Mega Food Park</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>To give a <strong>major boost to the food processing sector by adding value and reducing food wastage</strong> at each stage of the supply chain with a particular focus on perishables, <strong>Ministry of Food Processing Industries</strong> is implementing Mega Food Park Scheme in the country.</li>
<li>It aims to link agricultural production to the market by bringing together farmers, processors, and retailers.</li>
<li><strong>Mega Food Parks create modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward linkages (market and transport etc) and backward linkages (raw material, packaging etc) through a cluster-based approach.</strong></li>
<li>Common facilities and enabling infrastructure is created at<strong> Central Processing Centre (CPC)</strong> and facilities for primary processing and storage is created near the farm in the form of <strong>Primary Processing Centers (PPCs) and Collection Centers (CCs).</strong></li>
<li>The financial assistance under the scheme is provided in the form of a grant-in-aid, i.e. 50% of eligible project cost in general areas and 75% of eligible project cost in North East Region and difficult areas (Hilly States and ITDP areas) subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 crore per project.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) Scheme</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Government of India is formulating a Scheme <strong>&lsquo;Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM)&rsquo;</strong> which aims to <strong>promote use of solar energy among the farmers.</strong></li>
<li>The proposed scheme provides for:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Setting up of <strong>grid-connected renewable power plants</strong> each of 500 KW to 2 MW in the rural area,</li>
<li>Installation of<strong> standalone off-grid solar water pumps</strong> to fulfil irrigation needs of farmers not connected to grid, and</li>
<li><strong>Solarization of existing grid-connected agriculture pumps</strong> to make farmers independent of grid supply and also sell surplus solar power generated to Discom and get extra income.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The farmers will have to <strong>tolerate only 10% of the total expenditure</strong> to acquire an install a solar pumps. The <strong>Central Govt. will provide 60%</strong> cost while the <strong>remaining 30% will be taken care</strong> of by bank as credit.</li>
</ul>',
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	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'title' => 'National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC)',
		'catname' => 'National Institutions',
		'desc' => '<h3>What is NCBC?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>102<sup>nd</sup> Constitution Amendment Act, 2018 provides constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).</li>
<li>It has the authority to examine complaints and welfare measures regarding socially and educationally backward classes.</li>
<li>Previously NCBC was a statutory body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Background</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Two Backward Class Commissions were appointed in 1950s and 1970s under Kaka Kalelkar and B.P. Mandal respectively.</li>
<li>In Indra Sawhney case of 1992, Supreme Court had directed the government to create a permanent body to entertain, examine and recommend the inclusion and exclusion of various Backward Classes for the purpose of benefits and protection.</li>
<li>In pursuant to these directions parliament passed National Commission for Backward Classes Act in 1993 and constituted the NCBC.</li>
<li>123<sup>rd</sup> Constitution Amendment bill of 2017 was introduced in Parliament to safeguard the interests of backward classes more effectively.</li>
<li>Parliament has also passed a separate bill to repeal the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993, thus 1993 act became irrelevant after passing the bill.</li>
<li>The bill got the President assent in August 2018 and provided the constitutional status to NCBC.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Structure of NCBC</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Commission consists of five members including a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and three other Members appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal.</li>
<li>The conditions of service and tenure of office of the Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and other Members is determined by President.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Constitutional Provisions</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Article 340 deals with the need to, inter alia, identify those "socially and educationally backward classes", understand the conditions of their backwardness, and make recommendations to remove the difficulties they face.</li>
<li>102<sup>nd</sup> Constitution Amendment Act inserted new Articles 338 B and 342 A.</li>
<li>The amendment also brings about changes in Article 366.</li>
<li>Article 338B provides authority to NCBC to examine complaints and welfare measures regarding socially and educationally backward classes.</li>
<li>Article 342 A empowers President to specify socially and educationally backward classes in various states and union territories. He can do this in consultation with Governor of concerned State. However, law enacted by Parliament will be required if list of backward classes is to be amended.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Powers and Functions</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The commission investigates and monitors all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the socially and educationally backward classes under the Constitution or under any other law to evaluate the working of such safeguards.</li>
<li>It participates and advises on the socio-economic development of the socially and educationally backward classes and to evaluate the progress of their development under the Union and any State.</li>
<li>It presents to the President, annually and at such other times as the Commission may deem fit, reports upon the working of those safeguards. The President laid such reports before each House of Parliament.</li>
<li>Where any such report or any part thereof, relates to any matter with which any State Government is concerned, a copy of such report shall be forwarded to the State Government.</li>
<li>NCBC has to discharge such other functions in relation to the protection, welfare and development and advancement of the socially and educationally backward classes as the President may, subject to the provisions of any law made by Parliament, by rule specify.</li>
<li>It has all the powers of a civil court while trying a suit.</li>
</ul>
<h3>How Does The New Commission Be Different From Its Earlier Version?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The new act has recognized that BCs also need development in addition to reservations. There are provision in the act for development of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEdBCs) and the new NCBC&rsquo;s role in the development process.</li>
<li>The new NCBC is entrusted with the additional function of grievance redress of backward classes.</li>
<li>Article 342(A) introduces greater transparency as its made mandatory to take the concurrence of Parliament for adding or deleting any community in the backward list.</li>
<li>Apart from list-inclusion and reservation, it requires comprehensive and holistic development and advancement of each community towards equality in all parameters of development and welfare.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Issues</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>It is apprehended that the new version of the National Commission for Backward Classes is unlikely to provide credible and effective social justice architecture.</li>
<li>The recommendation of new NCBC is not binding on the government.</li>
<li>Since it has no responsibility to define backwardness, it cannot address the current challenge of demands of various castes to be included as BCs.</li>
<li>By retaining the old generic name of NCBC and delinking the body from its soul (Article 340), the government set the stage for the whole scheme of special protections under the Constitution in danger.</li>
<li>Features of expert body, as directed by the Supreme Court, are not provided in the composition of the new NCBC.</li>
<li>Mere constitutional status and more acts will not solve the problem at grass root level as recent data revealed skewed representation of SC/ST and OBC categories.</li>
<li>Article 338B (5) is silent on the SC mandate on periodic revision of the backward class list in consultation with the NCBC.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Suggestions</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The composition should reflect the feature of an expert body as mandated by the SC.</li>
<li>The government must put information in public domain regarding the findings of the caste census and recommendations of commission.</li>
<li>Composition of commission should reflect the gender sensitivity and representation of stakeholders.</li>
<li>Vote bank politics should give way to value based politics so that only truly backward sections of society will get the benefit of reservation.</li>
</ul>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/important-institutions/drishti-specials-important-institutions-national-institutions/national-commission-for-backward-classes-ncbc'
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'title' => 'The Big Picture - Lokpal & Lokayuktas',
		'catname' => 'Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha Discussions',
		'desc' => '<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KN3FeHmY6hc" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The Supreme Court on 17th January 2019 fixed a February- end deadline for the search committee on Lokpal to recommend a panel of names for appointment of the country's first anti-graft ombudsman. The Lokpal and Lokayukta Act came into effect in 2013, but India still doesn&rsquo;t have any Lokpal at Centre and Lokayukta in states as well.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Why is there no Lokpal yet?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>The idea of Lokpal and Lokayukta has become a political issue, that&rsquo;s why it has been unsolved for such a long time.</strong></li>
<li>Presence of so many other agencies: There has been apprehension in the minds of people at large, particularly the political class, regarding the final shape of this institution as there are already so many institutions like CAG, CVC, CBI, and Enforcement Directorate to scrutinize government corruption.</li>
<li><strong>Continuous Debates</strong>: Since the inception of the idea, setting up of Lokpal has always remained fraught with so many debates like whether Prime Minister should be part of it or not, whether Lokpal should be a single member forum or multi-member forum, public hearing of the special courts etc.</li>
<li><strong>Vacancies:</strong> Despite SC&rsquo;s ruling in 2017 that a vacancy in the selection panel will not vitiate the selection, the selection process has got delayed due to the vacancies.</li>
<li><strong>Experience of states with Lokayuktas:</strong> In states, it has been seen that most of the complaints were related to misgovernance, <g class="gr_ gr_39 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling" id="39" data-gr-id="39">non</g>- governance rather than to the corruption charges. Scrutiny becomes difficult in that case.</li>
<li>Widespread Apprehension in the Political Crowd that Lokpal and Lokayuktas could be misused by successive governments when they come into power, followed by media trials.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Way Forward</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>CBI is too burdened; Lokpal should have its own investigation agency.</strong> Also, first, present investigation agencies should be strengthened.</li>
<li>People based on merit should comprise the non- judicial members of Lokpal.</li>
<li><strong>There cannot be two power centers in the country.</strong> Prime Minister should be kept out of its purview.</li>
<li>People need to be made aware of the objectives of Lokpal to avoid frivolous complaints.</li>
<li>Cases ultimately have to go to judiciary through special courts, so Judiciary needs to be strengthened by filling the vacancies.</li>
<li><strong>There should be such a provision that powers of members of Lokpal can be diluted, when required, to avoid the situation that CBI recently faced (quarrel between the no.1 and no.2).</strong></li>
<li>India scored 40 out of 100 in Global Corruption Perception Index 2017. An institution like Lokpal can be tried to solve the problem of Corruption. Also, The Lokpal and Lokayukta Act can be changed with the time i.e. as per different situations.</li>
</ul>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/loksabha-rajyasabha-discussions/the-big-picture-lokpal-lokayuktas'
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'title' => '40 Years of Islamic Revolution: Iran',
		'catname' => 'News Analysis',
		'desc' => '<p>40 years have been completed of the <strong>Iranian revolution</strong> which took place in <strong>February of 1979</strong>.</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Iran's revolution began with a <strong>popular democracy movement</strong> and ended with the <strong>establishment of the world's first Islamic state</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Background<a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424663_image26.png" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424663_image26.png" width="300" caption="false" style="float: right;" /></a></h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>By the end of the second world war, the<strong> United States</strong>, <strong>provided Iran with economic and political support</strong> in return for their <strong>membership in the democratic Western block</strong>.</li>
<li>As a result <strong>Mohammad Mosaddeq&rsquo;s National Front</strong> became the <strong>first democratically-elected Iranian government in 1951</strong>.</li>
<li>Mosaddeq was a modern, secular leaning, progressive leader who was able to gain the broad support of both the secular elite and the Iranian ulama (religious scholar).</li>
<li>After coming to power <strong>Mosaddeq</strong> made a bold move to address the <strong>issue of exploitation of Persian oil by Western powers</strong> through <strong>nationalising the previously British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC)</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>This did not work out in his favour, as it attracted <strong>British and US economic sanctions</strong>. This in turn <strong>crippled the Iranian economy</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>In <strong>1953</strong>, Mosaddeq was <strong>replaced in a military coup organised by the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) and British Intelligence</strong>. As a result <strong>Shah (king) Reza Pahlavi</strong> (reigning monarch of Iran) was returned to power and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company became BP, British Petroleum, with a 50-50 divide of profits.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Not only did this intervention leave Iranians with a <strong>sense of bitter humiliation and betrayal</strong>, its impact also reverberated within the wider Muslim world.</li>
<li>It sent the message that a <strong>democratically-elected government would be toppled if it did not fit with Western interests</strong>. This narrative continues to be the dominant discourse of Islamist activists to this day, used in explaining world events that affect the Muslim masses.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Between 1953 and 1977, the <strong>Shah relied heavily on the US</strong> in his efforts to modernise the army, Iranian society and build the economy.</li>
<li>Though his economic program brought prosperity and industrialisation to Iran and educational initiatives increased literacy levels, this all came at a hefty cost. <br />
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Wealth was unequally distributed, there was a development of an underclass of peasants migrating to urban centres and large scale political suppression of dissent.</li>
<li>Disillusioned religious scholars were alarmed at the top-down imposition of a Western lifestyle, believing Islam was being completely removed from society.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Revolution</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Distrust of the Shah's economic policy and resentment of his autocratic style fuelled dissent against his regime.</li>
<li>Under these circumstances among many protests, sustained and indirect opposition came from the religious circles led by <strong>Ayatollah Khomeini</strong>, a shia cleric living in exile in Paris.</li>
<li>The persistent protests instigated by Khomeini&rsquo;s followers swelled to include all major cities which culminated in the revolution on February 1, 1979, when Khomeini triumphantly returned to Iran.</li>
</ul>
<h3>The Impact of the Revolution</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Iranian revolution was a <strong>watershed event</strong> that not only transformed Iran completely, but also had<strong> far-reaching consequences for the world</strong>.</li>
<li>It caused a <strong>deep shift in Cold War and global geopolitics</strong> as US not only lost a key strategic ally against the communist threat, but it also gained a new enemy.</li>
<li>The Iranian revolution <strong>dramatically altered Middle Eastern politics</strong>. It flamed a <strong>regional sectarian cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia</strong>. The revolution challenged Saudi Arabia&rsquo;s monarchy and its claim for leadership of the Muslim world.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Was the Revolution a Success?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>From the perspective of longevity, <strong>the revolution still stands</strong>. It has managed to survive four decades, including the eight-year Iran-Iraq war as well as decades of economic sanctions. Comparatively, the <strong>Taliban&rsquo;s attempt at establishing an Islamic state only lasted five years</strong>.</li>
<li>Khomeini and his supporters had promised to end the gap between the rich and the poor, and deliver economic and social progress.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>However, the <strong>Iranian economy is in poor shape</strong>, despite the oil revenues that holds back the economy from the brink of collapse.</li>
<li>People are dissatisfied with <strong>high unemployment rates and hyper-inflation</strong>. They have little hope for the economic fortunes to turn.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The most important premise of Islamism of <strong>making society more religious through political power has also failed to produce the desired results</strong>. Even though 63% of Iranians were born after the revolution, they are no more religious than before the revolution.</li>
<li>Although there is <strong>still significant support for the current regime</strong>, a significant proportion of <strong>Iranians want more freedoms</strong>, and disregard religion being forced from above. There are growing protests demanding economic, social and political reforms as well as an end to the Islamic republic.</li>
<li>Most Iranians blame the failures of the revolution on the never-ending US sanctions. Even though Iran trades with European powers, China, Russia and India, they believe the West does not want Iran to succeed at all costs.</li>
</ul>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/40-years-of-islamic-revolution-iran'
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'title' => 'Important Facts for Prelims (12th February 2019)',
		'catname' => 'News Analysis',
		'desc' => '<h3>Buddhist Tourism Circuit</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Recently the Union Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned<strong> five new projects</strong> under the <strong>Buddhist Circuit.</strong></li>
<li>The five states where the project under Buddhist Circuit has been sanctioned are <strong>Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.</strong></li>
<li>The Buddhist Circuit is one among the <strong>fifteen thematic circuits</strong> identified for development under <strong>Swadesh Darshan Scheme.</strong></li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Swadesh Darshan Scheme</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Swadesh Darshan, a <strong>Central Sector Scheme,</strong> was launched in 2014 -15 for integrated development of theme based tourist circuits in the country.</li>
<li>Under the scheme, the Ministry of Tourism provides <strong>Central Financial Assistance (CFA)</strong> to State Governments/Union Territory Administrations for infrastructure development of circuits.</li>
<li>This scheme is envisioned to <strong>synergise with other</strong>&nbsp;<strong>schemes</strong> like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Skill India, Make in India etc. with the idea of positioning the tourism sector as a major engine for job creation, driving force for economic growth, building synergy with various sectors to enable tourism to realise its potential.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>World Sustainable Development Summit 2019</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Recently, the three-day <strong>World Sustainable Development Summit 2019</strong> was <strong>inaugurated in New Delhi.</strong></li>
<li>The theme of summit was <strong>'Attaining the 2030 Agenda: Delivering on our Promise'.</strong></li>
<li>The World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) is the annual flagship event of <strong>The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).</strong></li>
<li>It has been conceptualized as a single platform to accelerate action towards sustainable development and climate change.</li>
<li>The goal of the World Sustainable Development Summit is to bring together global leaders and thinkers in the fields of sustainable development, energy and environment sectors on a common platform.</li>
<li>It was earlier known as<strong> Delhi Sustainable Development Summit.</strong></li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>TERI is a <strong>non-profit research institute.</strong></li>
<li>It conducts research work in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development for India and the Global South.</li>
<li>It was <strong>established in 1974 as Tata Energy Research Institute</strong> and renamed to The Energy Resources Institute in 2003.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Light House Projects Challenge</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Ministry of Housing &amp; Urban Affairs has instituted a challenge for States/ UTs to select six sites across the country for constructing the Lighthouse projects under <strong>Global Housing Technology Challenge (GHTC)-India.</strong></li>
<li>The winning six States/ UTs that score the highest marks across the prescribed criteria will be awarded lighthouse projects. The States/ UTs will receive<strong> Central Assistance</strong> to construct these projects as per <strong>Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban (PMAY-U) guidelines.</strong></li>
<li>The selected sites for lighthouse projects will be used as an<strong> &lsquo;open laboratory&rsquo; for live demonstration</strong> and will receive due attention from academia, practitioners, policy makers (Central/ State) and media apart from felicitation/ recognition in Grand Expo-cum-Conference.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Global Housing Technology Challenge</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Global Housing Technology Challenge &ndash; India is an initiative by <strong>Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India</strong>, with an aim to identify, evaluate and shortlist a basket of proven &amp; potential innovative technologies from across the globe and subsequently mainstream them in Indian construction sector that are sustainable, green, disaster resilient.</li>
<li>GHTC-India has following <strong>three components:</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Component 1</strong> - Conduct of EXPO-Cum-Conference</li>
<li><strong>Component 2</strong> - Identifying Proven Demonstrable Technologies :Inducting suitable established technologies from across the globe to the Indian market through shortlisting and actual construction of Light House Projects.</li>
<li><strong>Component 3</strong> - Establishment of Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators India (ASHA-India) for Indian technologies which have potential but not market ready yet.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/important-facts-for-prelims-12th-february-2019'
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'title' => 'Rajasthan to Scrap Education Criterion',
		'catname' => 'News Analysis',
		'desc' => '<p>Recently, the Rajasthan Assembly<strong> passed two Bills</strong> which seek to end the minimum education criterion for<strong> panchayat and civic poll candidates.</strong></p>
<h3>Background</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>This<strong> reverses the amendments</strong> introduced by the <strong>previous government in 2015</strong> which required candidates contesting the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti <strong>elections to have passed Class 10</strong> and those contesting <strong>Sarpanch elections to have passed Class 8.</strong></li>
<li>Further, it <strong>disallowed those without functional toilets</strong> in their home to contest. Following this,<strong> Haryana</strong> also introduced similar restrictions for contesting local body elections.</li>
<li><strong>In December 2015,</strong> a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court<strong> in Rajbala v. the State of Haryana</strong> upheld the validity of the amendments to the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act.</li>
<li>The latest decision of the Rajasthan government has once again <strong>revived the debate</strong> on the fairness of having such restrictions.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Arguments Against the Criteria of Minimum Education Qualification</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Fundamentally, it unduly <strong>restricts a citizen&rsquo;s right</strong> to contest elections and thereby challenges the basic premise of republican democracy.</li>
<li>Denying the right to contest effectively restricts the right of a citizen to vote for a candidate of her choice since more than half the population is restricted from contesting.</li>
<li>Further, it disproportionately <strong>disenfranchises the more marginal sections of society:</strong> women, Dalits and poor.</li>
<li>In a country like India with unequal access to education, it is cruel to blame citizens for the failure of the state to fulfill its constitutional obligations.</li>
<li>Prescribing educational qualifications for contesting elections is based on an ill-informed assumption that those with formal education will be better in running panchayats. On the other hand, it reveals that State governments and courts place a premium on the administration over representation in case of local governments.</li>
<li>This approach goes against the very objective of the 73rd and 74th Amendments that sought to make panchayats and municipalities representative institutions with adequate representation from <strong>Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and women.</strong></li>
<li>The disqualification of candidates who don&rsquo;t have toilets in their home or defecate in open is clearly an example where the implementation of a Central programme like the Swachh Bharat Mission gets precedence over the need for representative government.</li>
<li>Moreover, <strong>such restrictions do not exist</strong> for those contesting parliamentary or Assembly elections. In fact, in the present Lok Sabha, 13% of MPs are under-matriculates, a share higher than those of women MPs.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Arguments in Favour of the Criteria of Minimum Education Qualification</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>In <strong>Rajbala case, the Apex court</strong> held that prescription of educational qualification is relevant for <strong>&ldquo;better administration of the panchayats&rdquo;.</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Bench consisting of <strong>Justice Chelameswar and A.M.Sapre</strong> held that both the rights namely <strong>"Right to Vote"</strong> and <strong>"Right to Contest"</strong> are <strong>not fundamental Rights</strong> but only constitutional rights of the citizen. So, the minimum qualification for contesting election can be imposed.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>WIth minimum education qualification, there is a reduction in the chances of getting misled by other people.</li>
<li>Setting educational criteria would motivate society to be literate.</li>
<li>A well-educated individual is considered as the resource for the development of the country. And if the leaders of the human resource are ill literate then there would be no proper guidelines for human resource.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Way Forward</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India prides itself as a robust democracy, at least in the procedural sense, with regular elections and smooth transfer of power.<br />However, the absence of elected councils in some local governments punches holes in this claim.</li>
<li>The lack of alarm caused by the denial of local democracy (via the imposition of minimum educational norms) reveals our collective bias regarding the place of local governments.</li>
<li>In a liberal democracy, governments must desist from putting bars on who may contest, except in exceptional circumstances, such as when a candidate is in breach of particular rules and laws.</li>
<li>To mandate, what makes a person a &lsquo;good&rsquo; candidate goes against the spirit of the attempt to deepen democracy by taking self-government to the grassroots.</li>
<li>Thus, local bodies should be elected for its representative character and not for its administrative functions. Giving a voice to the people is more important than following bureaucratic procedures at the grassroots level.</li>
</ul>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/rajasthan-to-scrap-education-criterion'
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'title' => 'All is Still Not Well in Court',
		'catname' => 'News Editorials',
		'desc' => '<div class="border">
<p>(This editorial is based on the article &ldquo;All is Still Not Well in Court&rdquo; which appeared in The Indian Express for 12th February 2019. In this editorial, we&rsquo;ll discuss concerns related to the Judiciary of India.)</p>
</div>
<p><strong>A little over a year ago, four judges of the Supreme Court of India called an unprecedented press conference to tell the world that everything was not right with the judicial system. Their announcement posed troubling questions relating to the independence of the judiciary, transparency, and accountability in the institution and so on.<img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/569drishti_ias_LEGAL_gavel-scale-book_10-5-2018.jpg" style="float: right;" width="267" height="178" /></strong></p>
<p>A lot has happened in the year gone by for the Indian judiciary. Certain developments are of particular concern.</p>
<h3>Five Major Concerns</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>The first major issue is the idea of the CJI as the &ldquo;master of the roster&rdquo;.</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>This privilege was emphasized in November 2018, when a Constitution Bench, led by the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, declared that &ldquo;the Chief Justice is the master of the roster and he alone has the prerogative to constitute the Benches of the Court and allocate cases to the Benches so constituted.&rdquo;</li>
<li>There have been instances where cases having far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justice of this Court selectively to the Benches &ldquo;of their preferences&rdquo; without any rational basis for such assignment.&rdquo;</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>The second issue is of how appointments to and transfers within the higher judiciary continue to be made.</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Every time a new group of judges is announced for selection, a new set of problems emerges. It is almost as though the Supreme Court Collegium is showing the many paths to opacity that can exist in the appointments process. Two incidents over the past month have been particularly distressing.</li>
<li>One relates to a recent proposal to transfer a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court, whose decisions have been attacked by those within or close to the present Union government. While the transfer was not finally approved, it bodes ill for a judiciary that prides itself in being independent of influence and the other arms of the state.</li>
<li>Another case is the inexplicable reversal of a decision of the collegium to elevate two high court chief justices, both well-regarded as fine judges, to the Supreme Court. A &ldquo;leak&rdquo;, purportedly from an &ldquo;official source&rdquo;, in a leading news publication suggested that this reversal was apparently because certain &ldquo;adverse material&rdquo; against these judges had emerged. Ideally, any such material should have been put to these judges in a formal setting, and they ought to have been allowed to defend themselves.</li>
<li>Two judges, along with two others &mdash; all high up in the seniority list of high court judges &mdash; were bypassed, and relatively junior judges have pushed up the ladder. Unfortunately, such leaks and last-minute reversals can damage the morale of members of the judiciary. Equally problematic is the overwhelming silence of the government. On an earlier occasion, the government had defended the seniority convention in judicial appointments.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>The third issue is the recent fascination of the Supreme Court for the &ldquo;sealed cover&rdquo; as a means of receiving information about cases, having used it in three highly-documented litigations in the past few months.</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>This is completely against the idea of open, transparent justice. Unfortunately, our judiciary is not only opaque in its own workings but is also becoming partial to opacity in its public function, as an arbiter of public disputes.</li>
<li>Jurisprudence clearly shows that such secretive information should be resorted to only in exceptional cases. But here, it is being asked for in an ad hoc manner without any clear or rational reason. In the National Register of Citizens case, for example, the lives of lakhs of people hinge on sealed covers. Surely, we cannot allow our lives to be adjudicated upon in secrecy.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>The fourth issue is about post-retirement appointments.</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Any pre-retirement judgments can be influenced by post-retirement assignments.</li>
<li>Therefore it is clear that such appointments really compromise the independence of the judiciary.</li>
<li>They raise potential conflicts of interest, if not in reality, certainly in matters of perception.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>The fifth issue is that of the appeal made to the Supreme Court by itself against the order of the Delhi High Court on the</strong> applicability of the Right to Information Act, 2005, to the judiciary.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Delhi High Court judgment has stayed, and the case has been languishing in the court for a decade now.</li>
<li>Closure on this account is more urgently needed than ever, especially in the context of issues of transparency in the judiciary.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Way Forward</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>In democratic countries around the world, notably in the UK, Canada, and Australia, <strong>the allocation of work and the selection of benches is a consultative process, and necessarily involves a culture of trust.</strong></li>
<li>Alternatively, there are clear and defined rules in this regard, as, for example, in the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice, it is not acceptable for the Chief Justice to have unbridled power.</li>
<li>Even in High Courts in India, where a Chief Justice may have official roles such as presiding over administrative meetings, at no point is the Chief Justice considered or made to believe that he/she is superior to other judges in the court. <strong>The sanctity of this principle cannot be overstated:</strong> A former chief justice of the South Korean Supreme Court was recently arrested for having allegedly used his influence when he was in the office on behalf of conservative governments to delay trials in war-related compensation cases.</li>
<li><strong>Not enough attention is being paid to the judiciary as an institution. I</strong>deally, in any democratic set-up, there is a need for the best individuals running the judiciary. Thus, one important criterion for selecting judges should be merit. But at present, many brilliant judges are overlooked. The appointments of judges on grounds other than merit can be self-perpetuating. Many such appointees will become members of the group that is the collegium and may make the same kinds of choices their seniors made. Short-term decisions to appoint certain individuals affect the long-term condition of the judiciary.</li>
<li><strong>Ideally, there should be a policy decision to introduce a cooling-off period after retirement before taking up new appointments.</strong> Or such appointments should be made by a neutral body which is free from executive influence. In any case, at the least, such offers of appointments should neither be made nor considered when a judge is still in office.</li>
</ul>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-editorials/all-is-still-not-well-in-court'
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'title' => 'India Central Asia Relations',
		'catname' => 'Paper 2',
		'desc' => '<h3>Why in News?</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Recently India&rsquo;s External Affairs Minister (EAM) participated in first <strong>India-Central Asia Dialogue</strong> in Samarkand, Republic of Uzbekistan.</li>
<li>Five countries from Central Asia participated in the dialogue- Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.</li>
<li>All the countries participating in the dialogue are also members of the <a href="/important-institutions/drishti-specials-important-institutions-international-institution/important-international-institutions-shanghai-cooperation-organisation-sco" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Shanghai Cooperation Organization</strong></a>.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>India-Central Asia Dialogue</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>It was the first ministerial level India-Central Asia dialogue.</li>
<li>Dialogue focused on a number of issues <strong>including ways to improve connectivity and stabilize war-ravaged Afghanistan</strong>.</li>
<li>India has proposed setting up of <strong>&lsquo;India-Central Asia Development Group&rsquo;</strong> to take forward development partnership between India &amp; Central Asian countries.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The group may enable New Delhi to expand its footprints in the resource-rich region amid China&rsquo;s massive inroads and to fight terror effectively, including in Afghanistan.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>India will host the next India-Central Asia Dialogue in 2020.</strong></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Historical ties with Central Asia</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India has had relations with Central Asia since the 3rd century B.C as the nations fell on route to the <strong>Legendary Silk Route</strong>.</li>
<li>The Silk Route not only served as the medium for transportation of goods, silk, textiles, spices etc but also facilitated dispersion of thoughts, ideas, religion and philosophy.</li>
<li>Buddhism found inroads in several of Central Asian cities such as Merv, Khalachayan, Tirmiz and Bokhara etc in form of Stupas and Monasteries.</li>
<li>Babur in 1526 came from the fertile valley of Fergana (food bowl of Central Asia) to the dusty town of Panipat and established the mighty rule of Mughals in India.</li>
<li>Men of prominence such as Amir Khusrau, Dehlawi, Al-Biruni, Abdur Rahim Khan i Khanan etc having Central Asian routes came and made their name in India.</li>
<li>During the Soviet period- culture, music, dance, movies and literature bound the Soviet Republics closely with India. Popularity of iconic stars like Raj Kapoor, Nargis, and others brought India into the homes and hearts of common people of this region.</li>
<li>Bilateral relations however suffered considerable neglect in the 25 years after emergence of these countries as independent States in 1991.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Present Time</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India has registered significant progress recently through renovation of <strong>Chabahar port,</strong> development of the <strong>International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)</strong> and becoming a member of <a href="/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/india-central-asia-dialogue" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Ashgabat Agreement</strong></a>.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), is multi-modal transportation established in 12 Sep 2000 in St. Petersburg, by Iran, Russia and India for the purpose of promoting transportation cooperation among the Member States.</li>
<li>This corridor connects India Ocean and the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea via the Islamic Republic of Iran and then is connected to St. Petersburg and North Europe via the Russian Federation.</li>
<li>The INSTC was expanded to include eleven new members, namely: the Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Armenia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Ukraine, Republic of Belarus, Oman, Syria, Bulgaria (Observer).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India uses the instrumentality of soft power and its ready acceptability in Central Asia to strengthen bilateral ties.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>India through cultural events- classical dance, music, Bollywood films, yoga, literature and educational programs reinforces the historical ties with the region.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The <strong>Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC)</strong> Program provides technical assistance and training in areas such as banking, remote sensing and information technology etc in the premier institutions in India.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Importance of Central Asia for India</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India has a very wide array of interests in Central Asia covering security, energy, economic opportunities etc.</li>
<li>Central Asia serves as a land bridge between Asia and Europe, making it geopolitically axial for India.</li>
<li>Security, stability and prosperity of Central Asia is imperative for peace and economic development of India.</li>
<li>The region is rich in natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, antimony, aluminum, gold, silver, coal and uranium which can be best utilized by Indian energy requirement.</li>
<li>Central Asia has huge cultivable areas lying barren and without being put to any productive use, offering enormous opportunity for cultivation of pulses. Indian agribusiness companies can setup commercial agro-industrial complexes in Central Asia.</li>
<li>Owing to higher economic growth, several areas have become attractive for construction business, providing huge scopes to Indian companies engaging in financial services, contractors, engineers, and management specialists.</li>
<li>Both India and <strong>Central Asian Republics (CARs)</strong> share many commonalities and perceptions on various regional and world issues and can play crucial role in providing regional stability.</li>
<li>For India to use Chabahar as a vital gateway to access Eurasian markets and optimally operationalize its use, requires a Central Asian state joining the project as a direct stakeholder.</li>
<li>Central Asian Regions are fast getting linked to the global market for production, supplies of raw materials and services. They are also increasingly getting integrated into the <strong>East-West Trans-Eurasian transit economic corridors</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Indian Synergy in Central Asian Region</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Central Asia is facing many challenges in food security; Indian expertise in the field can be a game changer in the region.</li>
<li>Commercial farming is another important area where India and CARs can cooperate.</li>
<li>India&rsquo;s experience in boosting food and milk production and modernizing agro-techniques under the green and white revolution can prove panacea for Central Asia.</li>
<li>Good relations with India will provide an assured market to these countries for their energy, raw materials, oil and gas, uranium, minerals, hydro electric power etc.</li>
<li>India can significantly bring in lots of foreign investment along with technical expertise in field of infrastructure, hospitality, medical etc.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Challenges</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>There are obstructions of physical connectivity due to Pakistan&rsquo;s hostility and Afghan instability for its desultory attitude towards Central Asia.</li>
<li>India&rsquo;s current trade volume with Central Asia is minimal, and cannot be increased without substantially improving transport connectivity.</li>
<li>Politically, the Central Asian republics are highly fragile and also face threats like terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism etc making the region a volatile and unstable market.</li>
<li>There are several administrative laggards in the region such as non-availability of hard currency, banking services, and prevailing corruption creating roadblocks in smooth bilateral relations.</li>
<li>India&rsquo;s <strong>"Look East"</strong> policy has resulted in concentrating its economic and diplomatic resources in Southeast and East Asia.</li>
<li>Involvement of China in Central Asia in form of Belt and Road Initiative while posing opportunity by giving easy access to India in the region, it can significantly undermine India&rsquo;s influence in the region.</li>
<li>Porous border and unbridled corruption along with the proximity with regions of soaring opium production (Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle) makes the region a powerhouse for drug and money trafficking.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Suggestions</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>It is fairly understood that both the CAR and India both have not optimally utilized each other&rsquo;s resources present in diverse sectors.</li>
<li>India is rapidly moving towards its goal of becoming a regional power which continuously requires uninterrupted supply of fuel and energy which can easily be provided by the CAR.</li>
<li>There is a need to realize a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the <strong>Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)</strong> which has a potential of spurring the trade to 170 billion dollars from paltry 10 Billion Dollars.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Eurasian Economic Union</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Eurasian Economic Union was started in 2015 based on the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.</li>
<li>The bloc was launched to ensure the free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce within its borders.</li>
<li>Members: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Way Forward</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>India should be fully mindful of its historic Silk Route ties with Central Asia, and try to make an entry into the largely untapped energy potential of the region.</li>
<li>India needs to use its instrument of <strong>economic leverages more efficiently</strong> to build closer ties with Central Asia.</li>
<li><strong>'Connect Central Asia'</strong> Policy is a very comprehensive policy which includes political, security, economic and cultural cooperation.</li>
<li>India should make <strong>efforts to step up multilateral engagement</strong> with Central Asian partners using the synergy of existing forums like the SCO, Eurasian Economic Community (EEC) etc.</li>
<li>Measures such as <strong>relaxing of visa regimes, establishing schools and universities; strengthening tourism; Investment in agriculture sector</strong> can significantly improve India&rsquo;s position in the region.</li>
<li>Growing synergies between the India and CAR will promote security, stability, economic growth and development of all countries.</li>
</ul>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/Paper2/india-central-asia-relations'
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'title' => 'Taking Down Cyber Violence',
		'catname' => 'News Editorials',
		'desc' => '<div class="border">
<p>(This editorial is based on the article &ldquo;Taking Down Cyber Violence&rdquo; which appeared in EPW for 2nd January 2019. In this editorial, we&rsquo;ll see how the existing laws governing the internet are inadequate in preventing or stopping gendered violence in online spaces.)</p>
</div>
<p><strong>In India, as elsewhere in the world, online harassment of women and marginalized genders and sexualities is rampant, in sharp contrast to the Internet&rsquo;s initial promise of equal opportunity and neutrality.</strong></p>
<p>Through the proliferation of rape videos, morphed images, etc, the<strong> internet is witnessing increasing instances of violence against women.</strong></p>
<p><strong>As websites sometimes claim to be intermediaries which cannot be always held responsible for the nature of content uploaded online</strong>, <strong>the issue of intermediary liability needs to be addressed urgently.</strong></p>
<p>Internet intermediaries can be described as entities that facilitate access to the internet or services on the internet (Association Progressive Communications 2014).</p>
<p>Common types of intermediaries are internet service providers, search engines, social media networks, etc. Unlike book publishers, internet intermediaries adopt a passive relationship with the content they host. Since they do not exercise editorial control, countries have been encouraged to legislate safe-harbor* protections of internet intermediaries from strict or criminal liability.</p>
<div class="border-bg">
<p>*<strong>Safe harbor</strong> refers to a legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability in certain situations as long as certain conditions are met.</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Safe-harbour Protection can provide protection against liability, it is like an immunity clause.</li>
<li>Safe-harbor laws can be understood in the Indian context by comparing with laws like the AFSPA that grant special powers to the Indian Armed Forces in which each act terms "disturbed areas".</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Concerns</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>Vitriolic sexism online has become commonplace</strong> in the Indian internet landscape.</li>
<li><strong>The United Nations Broadband Commission</strong> reports that one in three women have faced some kind of cyber violence (Working Group on Broadband and Gender 2015).</li>
<li>Trolling, rape and death threats, morphing of images and the non-consensual circulation of intimate images (also known as &lsquo;Revenge Porn&rsquo;) are some of the many ways in which violence against women is carried out online.</li>
<li><strong>There has been a discernible pattern of sexual violence, where the assault is videotaped and consequently used to blackmail the victim by threatening to upload it to social media or pornographic websites or send it to her family, friends or employer.</strong></li>
<li>The United Nations Special Rapporteur On Violence Against Women notes that the qualities of online global searchability, persistence and scalability have not only resulted in the replication of offline violence but amplified, redefined and created new forms of gender-based discrimination online.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Regulations</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>In 2008, India introduced significant amendments to the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act),</strong> by adopting a notice-and-take-down regime, along with the lines of the European Union (EU) E-Commerce Directive.</li>
<li><strong>In 2015, via the landmark Shreya Singhal v Union of India (2015) judgment,</strong> the Supreme Court tweaked the intermediary liability regime, by reading down &ldquo;actual knowledge&rdquo; to mean a court or executive order.</li>
<li>In the same year, two other cases before the Supreme Court were gathering steam. One dealt with search engine liability for allowing advertisements related to prenatal sex determination to display in search results and another that related to the liability of social media networks for the circulation of rape videos online. By the end of 2017, the court decided in both the cases that a combination of measures would be required&mdash;pre-filtering of content by the intermediary as well as notice-and-takedown&mdash;as a result of which the government set up special nodal agencies to receive complaints and initiate takedowns. The response to the court&rsquo;s stance has been critical, accusing the Court of ignoring the safeguards to free speech online, established under the Shreya Singhal judgment.</li>
<li><strong>Online circulation of rape videos and advertisements for prenatal sex determination tests are patently illegal in the Indian context and warrants an immediate takedown, whereas other kinds of illegal content can afford to stay online, pending a court order.</strong></li>
<li>An intermediary liability regime must adapt to the ideas of rights that are organic to their location. This does not mean doing away with safeguards to free speech. On the contrary, it means legislatively and juridically balancing the rights of the complainant, internet users at large, and the intermediary, based on the situation at hand.</li>
<li><strong>In June 2018, the Human Rights Council</strong> adopted the resolution on &ldquo;accelerating efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls: preventing and responding to violence against women and girls in digital contexts.&rdquo; The resolution, in particular, condemns &ldquo;the dissemination of content that promotes and reinforces violence against women and girls, which can result in the perpetual revictimization and retraumatization of women and girls, given that a permanent digital record is created by content shared in digital contexts&rdquo; (Human Rights Council 2018).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Way Forward</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Despite the general conviviality after the Shreya Singhal judgment, <strong>there were also those who felt the delays of an adversarial system and court orders could lead to flagged illegal content staying online for extended periods before it is pulled down.</strong></li>
<li><strong>The Andhra Pradesh High Court, in Google India Private Limited v M/S Visaka Industries Limited (2009),</strong> observed that if sexually explicit images or morphed images can only be taken down on court orders, they could end up remaining online for a long time. Receiving an order for takedown years after the content is posted is a futile exercise. Unfortunately, at present, neither the IT Act nor its rules have provisions for immediate relief.</li>
<li><strong>In India, intermediaries are allowed to terminate access to those users who violate the Intermediary Guidelines.</strong> This punishment is reminiscent of the much-criticized three-strikes rule, a graduated response to copyright infringement online that can ultimately lead to cutting-off of internet services to the accused (that France had once followed).</li>
<li><strong>Further, in India, neither are intermediaries obligated by law to notify the authors of disputed content, when access to the content is sought to be disabled nor is there any provision for the author to challenge allegations of illegality through a counter-notice. In other words, due process procedures are found to be lacking and need to be infused into the framework of intermediary liability in the country.</strong><strong></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="/interaction/viewtopic.php?f=38&amp;t=936" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Read More...</strong></a></p>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-editorials/taking-down-cyber-violence'
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'title' => '150 years of the Periodic Table',
		'catname' => 'News Analysis',
		'desc' => '<p>The <strong>United Nations</strong> has designated <strong>2019</strong> as the <strong>International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT2019)</strong> to commemorate the <strong>150th anniversary</strong> of the establishment of the <strong>Periodic Table of Chemical Elements</strong> by<strong> Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev</strong> on <strong>17th February 1869</strong>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424004_image29.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424004_image29.jpg" width="600" caption="false" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The International Year<strong> aims to recognize the importance of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements as one of the most important and influential achievements in modern science</strong> reflecting the essence not only of chemistry but also of physics, biology and other basic sciences disciplines.</li>
<li>The initiative for IYPT2019 is supported by the <strong>International Union of Pure Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)</strong> in partnership with other science-related organization.</li>
<li><strong>Mendeleev</strong> was <strong>not the first one to create a table of elements</strong>. Earliest of such efforts was due to the father of modern chemistry, <strong>Antoine Lavoisier in 1789</strong> who classified them in terms of their properties.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>John Newlands</strong> introduced the <strong>concept of octaves in chemistry</strong>, wherein properties repeat for every eighth element.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>In comparison to the modern periodic table, <strong>Mendeleev's periodic table was designed in the order of increasing atomic weight</strong> while the <strong>modern periodic table is designed according to increasing atomic number</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Important Facts about Periodic Table</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>There are <strong>118 confirmed elements in the periodic table</strong>. Among those,<strong> 90 elements can be found in nature</strong>, others are strictly man-made. <strong>Technetium</strong> was the <strong>first man-made element.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Hydrogen</strong> is the <strong>lightest element</strong> with its <strong>atomic weight 1</strong>. <strong>Uranium</strong> is the <strong>heaviest element</strong> with an atomic <strong>weight of 238</strong>.</li>
<li>Helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon are known as the Noble Gases as they were believed to be unreactive. But recent studies have shown reactive compounds of xenon, krypton, and radon.</li>
<li>The <strong>IUPAC</strong> is <strong>responsible for maintaining the periodic table</strong>.</li>
<li>Most of the elements on the periodic table are metals (almost 75 percent).</li>
<li>Different forms of pure elements are called <strong>allotropes</strong>. For example, diamond, graphite, buckminsterfullerene, and amorphous carbon are allotropes of Carbon.</li>
<li>The only <strong>two elements</strong> that are<strong> liquid in room temperature</strong> are <strong>mercury</strong> and <strong>bromine</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>IUPAC is the<strong> world authority on chemical nomenclature and terminology</strong>, including the naming of new elements in the periodic table; on standardized methods for measurement; and on atomic weights etc.</li>
<li>A neutral and objective scientific organization, IUPAC was <strong>established in 1919 by academic and industrial chemists who shared a common goal</strong> &ndash; to unite a fragmented, global chemistry community for the advancement of the chemical sciences via collaboration and the free exchange of scientific information.</li>
<li><strong>Four new elements discovered in 2015</strong> have been named by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>These are <strong>Nihonium (113Nh)</strong>, <strong>Moscovium (115Mo)</strong>, <strong>Tennessine (117Te</strong>) and<strong> Oganesson (118Og)</strong>.</li>
<li>Of these elements, <strong>Nh-278</strong> is <strong>highly radioactive</strong> with a very short half-life of 0.24 milliseconds.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/150-years-of-the-periodic-table'
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'title' => 'Mahamastakabhisheka Celebrations',
		'catname' => 'News Analysis',
		'desc' => '<p>Recently, the <strong>10-day long Mahamastakabhisheka</strong> for the <strong>monolith 39-foot high Bahubali</strong> statue started in <strong>Dharmasthala, Karnataka.</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>This year (2019), Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsava will be observed from February 9 to February 18.</li>
<li>This is the <strong>fourth mahamastakabhisheka</strong> of Lord Bahubali since its<strong> installation in 1982.</strong> Earlier were performed in 1982, 1995, and in 2007 in Dharmasthala.</li>
<li>It was sculpted by <strong>Renjala Gopalakrishna Shenoy</strong> under the aegis of Ratnavarma Heggade in <strong>1973</strong>. It was then positioned atop <strong>Ratnagiri Hill</strong> in the temple town of <strong>Dharmasthala in 1982.</strong></li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Note:</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>In 2018, the anointing ceremony of the<strong> Gomateshwara Bahubali statue at Shravanabelagola</strong> took place from February 17 to February 25.</li>
<li>The statue at Shravanabelagola is believed to be <strong>one of the largest free-standing statues</strong> in the world (at 57 feet), which was built in<strong> 983 AD by the minister of the Ganga dynasty, Chamunda-Raya.</strong></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Mahamastakabhisheka&nbsp;</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The word Mahamastakabhisheka is a combination of <strong>three words viz: Maha (great), Masthaka (head) and Abhisheka (anointing) which literally means &lsquo;the head anointing ceremony&rsquo;.</strong></li>
<li>The ceremony is called Mahamastakabhisheka (also referred as Grand Consecration) and not Mastakabhisheka because the ceremony is performed<strong> only once in 12 years.</strong></li>
<li>The Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsava is an anointing ceremony of the statue of Lord Bahubali.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Lord Bahubali</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Lord Bahubali was the <strong>son of lord Rishabhanatha</strong> who was the first of the <strong>24 Jain Tirthankaras.</strong></li>
<li>Jain mythology holds up Bahubali as the one who succeeded in <strong>attaining liberty from worldly desires</strong> through a long period of <strong>sustained meditation.</strong></li>
<li>The sculpture of Lord Bahubali is in upright posture of <strong>meditation known as Kayotsarga</strong> which stands for renunciation, self-control and subjugation of the ego as a reflection of his life.</li>
<li>This is the <strong>digambara form of Bahubali</strong> which represents complete victory over earthly desires and needs, which forms the edifice for spiritual ascent towards divinity.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Jainism</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The most famous thinker of the Jainas, <strong>Vardhamana Mahavira was born in 540 B.C.</strong> in Kundagram village near Vaishali. He was a <strong>Kshatriya prince</strong> belonging to the<strong> Lichchhavi clan.</strong></li>
<li>According to the beliefs of the Jain tradition, Mahavir was the <strong>24<sup>th</sup> Tirthankara, who succeeded the 23rd Tirthankara, Parshvanatha.</strong></li>
<li>Tirthankara is a Sanskrit word meaning <strong>'Fordmaker',</strong> i.e., one who is able to ford the river, to cross beyond the perpetual flow of earthly life.</li>
<li>Mahavir attained <strong>&lsquo;kaivalya&rsquo; or omniscience at the age of 42.</strong></li>
<li>He passed away at the age of 72 at a place called Pavapuri, near modern day Rajgir (in Bihar) after preaching for thirty years.</li>
<li>Jainism attaches utmost importance to ahimsa or non-violence. It preaches<strong> 5 mahavratas (the 5 great vows):</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Ahimsa (Non-violence)</li>
<li>Satya (Truth)</li>
<li>Asteya or Achaurya (Non-stealing)</li>
<li>Brahmacharya (Celibacy/Chastity)</li>
<li>Aparigraha (Non-attachment/Non-possession)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The<strong> three jewels or triratna of Jainism</strong> include<strong> Samyak Darshana (right faith), Samyak Gyana (right knowledge) and Samyak Charitra (right conduct).</strong></li>
<li>Jainism is a religion of self-help. There are no gods or spiritual beings that will help human beings. It does not condemn the varna system.</li>
<li>The texts containing the teachings of Mahavira are <strong>called the Agamas.</strong></li>
<li>In later times, it got divided into<strong> two sects:</strong> <strong>Shvetambaras (white-clad) under Sthalabahu</strong> and <strong>Digambaras (sky-clad) under the leadership of Bhadrabahu.</strong></li>
</ul>
</div>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/mahamastakabhisheka-celebrations'
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'title' => 'Kawtchhuah Ropui Heritage Site, Mizoram',
		'catname' => 'News Analysis',
		'desc' => '<p>Archaeological survey of India has discovered traces of ancient civilization in Vangchhia, a village in Mizoram&rsquo;s Champhai district bordering Myanmar.<a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424292_image41.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/1577424292_image41.jpg" width="300" caption="false" style="float: right;" /></a></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The site has been named as the <strong>Kawtchhuah Ropui heritage site</strong>. Kawtchhuah Ropui means the Great Entranceway.</li>
<li>Kawtchhuah Ropuithe heritage site is<strong> Mizoram&rsquo;s first site which is under the protected monuments of Archaeological Survey of India&rsquo;s (ASI).</strong></li>
<li>The area is part of the Lower Himalayas and has rows of steep hills largely made up of various kinds of sandstone shading from light grey to blackish.</li>
<li>The site, measuring about 45 sq km has yielded pictographs etched on<strong> large stone slabs, menhirs (large standing stones), a necropolis (a large cemetery), a water pavilion among other artifacts.</strong></li>
<li>The ancient people of Vangchhia also carved terraces on rocks for their settlement &mdash; the main excavated site consists of 15 such terraces.</li>
<li>There are over 100 menhirs, rising almost 15 feet tall, stand at the excavation site depicting floral, animal and humans.</li>
<li>Water pavilion has strategically drilled holes &mdash; between one foot and one meter across &mdash; spread over several sandstone slopes and used for storing&nbsp;water.</li>
<li>ASI has not been able to accurately date the Vangchhia settlement. Initially, ASI estimated <g class="gr_ gr_26 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="26" data-gr-id="26">site</g> to be from the 15th century.&nbsp;</li>
<li>However, recently, the ASI team has also discovered neolithic caves near Vangchhia, indicating that the lost civilization could be much older.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</li>
</ul>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/kawtchhuah-ropuithe-heritage-site-mizoram'
	],
	(int) 16 => [
		'title' => 'India Central Asia Relations',
		'catname' => 'Paper 2',
		'desc' => '<p><a href="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/301Drishti_ias_India_central_asia.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="content-img" src="http://www.drishtiias.com/images/uploads/301Drishti_ias_India_central_asia.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></p>',
		'postdate' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'url' => 'https://www.drishtiias.com/mind-map/gs-paper2/india-central-asia-relations-mindmap'
	],
	(int) 17 => [
		'title' => 'PRS Capsule January 2019',
		'catname' => 'PRS Capsule',
		'desc' => '<p><em><strong>Key Highlights of PRS</strong></em></p>
<div class="border">
<ul class="ticklist" style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><a href="#1"><em></em>Parliament</a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>President&rsquo;s address highlights key achievements in the past five years</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#2">Macroeconomic Development<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Retail inflation and Wholesale inflation at 2.19%, 3.8% respectively in the third quarter (Oct to Dec) of 2018-19</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#3">Finance<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Standing Committee submits report on the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018</li>
<li>High Level Committee constituted on deepening of digital payments by the RBI</li>
<li>Expert Committee constituted on MSMEs by the RBI</li>
<li>CAG submits report on compliance of the FRBM Act, 2003</li>
<li>GST Council approves levy of cess in Kerala to generate funds for calamities</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#4">Social Justice and Empowerment<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>124th Constitutional Amendment Bill passed</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#5">Education<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The RTE (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed by Parliament</li>
<li>Reservation of 10% for economically weaker sections for admission in central educational institutions</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#6">Environment<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>National Clean Air Programme launched</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#7">Law and Justice<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill passed by Lok Sabha</li>
<li>Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill passed by Lok Sabha</li>
<li>The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Bill, 2018 passed by Lok Sabha</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#8">Science and Technology<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018 passed by Lok Sabha</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#9">Labour and Employment<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Trade Unions Amendment Bill, 2019 introduced in Lok Sabha</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#10">Tribal Affairs<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Bills introduced to amend list of Scheduled Tribes in Assam and Karnataka</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#11">Power<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Standing Committee submits report on stressed assets in gas based power plants</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#12">Information and Broadcasting<br /></a>
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Draft amendments to the Cinematograph Act, 1952 released</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3 id="1">Parliament</h3>
<p>President&rsquo;s address highlights key achievements in the past five years</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The President of India, Mr. Ram Nath Kovind, addressed <strong>a joint sitting of both Houses</strong> of Parliament on January 31, 2019.</li>
<li>He outlined the major policy achievements of the government in his address. Highlights of the address include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Economy:</strong> During the last four and a half years, the economy of the country has been growing at a rate of <strong>7.3% on average</strong>. India has emerged as the 6th largest economy in the world.</li>
<li><strong>Finance and Banking:</strong> As a result of the expansion in <strong>Direct Benefit Transfer</strong> in the last four and a half years, more than <strong>Rs 6.05 lakh crore</strong> have been directly transferred to the bank accounts of beneficiaries.</li>
<li><strong>Law and Governance:</strong> The government has created a provision for <strong>death penalty</strong> in case of heinous crimes like <strong>rape of minors</strong> and is also working on passing the <strong>Triple Talaq Bill</strong> in the Parliament.</li>
<li><strong>Corruption and Black Money: Through demonetization,</strong> the registration of <strong>3.3 lakh shell companies</strong> responsible for flow of black money has been annulled.</li>
<li><strong>Skill Development and Job Creation:</strong> The creation of jobs with tax incentives under <strong>Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana</strong> has been undertaken.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>Under this scheme, the EPS (Employees' Pension Scheme) and EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) contribution of 12% payable by the employer is being paid by the Government for the first three years.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Health:</strong> The <strong>Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana,</strong> which provides <strong>five lakh rupees per year per family</strong> in case of a <strong>serious illness,</strong> has been launched.
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>More than <strong>10 lakh people</strong> have availed free treatment from hospitals under the scheme.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Sanitation:</strong> Under the <strong>Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,</strong> more than <strong>9 crore toilets</strong> have been constructed.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>The coverage of rural sanitation, which was less than 40% in 2014, has increased to <strong>98%</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Women and Child Development:</strong> Under the <strong>Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana,</strong> maximum benefit has been availed by women. Out of the <strong>15 crore Mudra loans, 73%</strong> of these have been disbursed to <strong>women entrepreneurs</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>The government has also enhanced <strong>maternity leave</strong> from 12 weeks to <strong>26 weeks</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>With President&rsquo;s address, the Budget Session of Parliament has commenced on 31st January and ended on 13th February.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>It has a total of 10 sittings.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="2">Macroeconomic Development</h3>
<p>Retail inflation and Wholesale inflation at 2.19% and 3.8% respectively in the <strong>third quarter (Oct to Dec)</strong> of 2018-19</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Consumer Price Index <strong>(CPI)</strong> inflation (<strong>base year: 2011-12,</strong> year-on-year) marginally decreased from 3.38% in October 2018 to <strong>2.19%</strong> in <strong>December 2018</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Food prices</strong> fell throughout the quarter, <strong>decreasing</strong> by 0.86% in October 2018, and even more sharply by <strong>2.51%</strong> in December 2018.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The Wholesale Price Index <strong>(WPI)</strong> inflation (base year: 2011-12, year-on-year) decreased from <strong>5.54%</strong> in October 2018 to <strong>3.8%</strong> in December 2018.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="3">Finance</h3>
<p>Standing Committee submits report on the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Bill provides for a mechanism to ban <strong>unregulated deposit schemes</strong> and protect the interests of depositors.</li>
<li>It also seeks to amend three laws:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934,</li>
<li>Multi-State Co-Operative Societies Act, 2002,</li>
<li>Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Key observations and recommendations of the Committee include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Definition of an unregulated deposit scheme:</strong> Under the Bill, <strong>'regulated deposits&rsquo;</strong> are listed as all deposit-taking schemes which are overseen and regulated by nine <strong>specified regulators,</strong> including:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>the Reserve Bank of India,</li>
<li>the Securities and Exchange Board of India,</li>
<li>the Ministry of Corporate Affairs,</li>
<li>and state and union territory governments.</li>
<li><strong>A deposit-taking scheme</strong> is defined as <strong>&lsquo;unregulated&rsquo;</strong> if it is <strong>not registered with the regulators listed in the Bill</strong>.</li>
<li><strong>The Committee observed</strong> that the definition of &lsquo;unregulated deposits&rsquo; is left for <strong>residual interpretation under the Bill</strong>.</li>
<li>This could allow <strong>open-ended and subjective decisions</strong> by authorities while <strong>adjudicating offences</strong> related to such deposits.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Priority of depositors&rsquo; claims:</strong> The Bill states that:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li><strong>Unless otherwise provided</strong> by the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (<strong>SARFAESI</strong> Act), and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (<strong>IBC</strong>), <strong>the amounts due to depositors</strong> will be paid in <strong>priority over all other</strong> debts payable by the deposit taker.</li>
<li>The committee recommended that <strong>a time-frame be specified for repayment</strong> of depositors&rsquo; dues.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Tracking and complaints:</strong> The Committee suggested that <strong>a public website</strong> should <strong>be developed</strong>:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>for people <strong>to check</strong> whether an <strong>entity</strong> soliciting deposits is <strong>registered</strong> with a regulator,</li>
<li>and to <strong>file and track complaints</strong> against unregulated deposit takers.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>High Level Committee constituted on deepening of digital payments by the RBI</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>RBI has constituted a High Level Committee on Deepening of Digital Payments. The Committee will be chaired by Mr. Nandan Nilekani (former Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India) and have representatives from the government and banking industry.</li>
<li>The terms of reference of the High Level Committee include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>assessing current levels of digital payments in facilitating financial inclusion,</li>
<li>reviewing the existing status of digitisation of payments and suggesting a strategy to increase digital payments,</li>
<li>suggesting measures to strengthen the safety and security of digital payments, and</li>
<li>studying global best practices that can be adopted to accelerate digitisation and financial inclusion through the use of digital payments.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Expert Committee constituted on MSMEs by the RBI</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Reserve Bank of India constituted an Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The Committee will be chaired by Mr. U. K. Sinha (former Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India).</li>
<li>The terms or reference of the Expert Committee include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>reviewing the current institutional framework supporting the MSME sector,</li>
<li>examining factors affecting timely and adequate financing to the sector,</li>
<li>examining the impact of recent economic reforms on the sector, and</li>
<li>proposing measures for leveraging technology in accelerating growth of the sector.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>CAG submits report on compliance of the FRBM Act, 2003 by the central government during the year 2016-17</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India submitted its report on compliance of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003 for the year 2016-17.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The FRBM Act requires <strong>the central government to ensure responsible fiscal management</strong> and <strong>long-term stability</strong>.</li>
<li>The Act also requires it to ensure <strong>prudential debt management</strong> through limits on borrowings, debt and deficits.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Key observations and recommendations of the CAG include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Off-budget financing:</strong> The CAG observed that the central government has <strong>increasingly resorted to off-budget methods</strong> of financing to meet its expenditure requirements.
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Off-budget financing refers to the government&rsquo;s finances which are not accounted for in the budget documents.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Revenue expenditure:</strong> Due to <strong>insufficient budgetary allocations, dues of some subsidies</strong> are <strong>carried over</strong> to the subsequent financial years.
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>For instance, the carryover liability due to deferment of payment of dues of fertilizer and food subsidies at the end of 2016-17 amounted to Rs 1.2 lakh crore.</li>
<li>The <strong>carryover liability</strong> due to dues of food subsidy <strong>has increased by 350%</strong> during the <strong>period 2011-17</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Disclosure on off-budget financing:</strong> The CAG noted the <strong>current policy framework lacks transparent disclosures</strong> and management strategy for off-budget financing.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>It recommended that the government should formulate a policy framework, which should include disclosure to Parliament, among other things.</li>
<li>This disclosure should provide <strong>details of off-budget financing</strong> undertaken in the year by all organisations substantially owned by the government.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>GST Council approves levy of cess in Kerala to generate funds for calamities</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The GST Council allowed Kerala to levy a cess on <strong>intra-state supply</strong> of goods and services.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Revenue generated from levying the cess will be used as funds for relief measures required to be taken due to natural calamities.</li>
<li><strong>Article 279A (4)</strong> of the Constitution provides for the GST Council to make <strong>recommendations to the centre and states</strong> on any special rate (for a specified period) to <strong>raise additional resources</strong> during any <strong>natural calamity or disaster</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Cabinet approves creation of the national bench of the GST Appellate Tribunal</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Union Cabinet approved the creation of the national bench of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT).</li>
<li><strong>The Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017</strong> requires the central government to constitute a GST appellate tribunal at the national level and its benches at the state level.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The GSTAT will hear <strong>appeals against</strong> orders passed by the <strong>appellate authorities</strong> constituted under the <strong>central and state GST laws</strong>.</li>
<li>The GSTAT will be headed by its <strong>President</strong> (a judicial member) and consist of two <strong>technical members</strong> with experience in tax administration.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="4">Social Justice and Empowerment</h3>
<p>124<sup>th</sup> Constitutional Amendment Bill passed to enable reservation for economically weaker sections</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced and passed by Parliament.</li>
<li>The Bill seeks to provide for the advancement of &ldquo;economically weaker sections&rdquo; of citizens.</li>
<li>Following are amendments made in constitution:
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>Article 15:</strong> The Bill seeks to amend Article 15 to additionally permit (Already permitted-socially and educationally backward classes, or for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) the government to provide for the <strong>advancement</strong> of <strong>"economically weaker sections"</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Up to 10% of seats</strong> may be reserved for such sections for admission in <strong>educational institutions</strong>. <strong>Such reservation</strong> will <strong>not apply</strong> to <strong>minority educational institutions</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Article 16:</strong> The Bill seeks to amend Article 16 to permit the government to reserve <strong>up to 10% of all posts</strong> for the &ldquo;economically weaker sections&rdquo; of citizens.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The reservation of up to 10% for &ldquo;economically weaker sections&rdquo; in educational institutions and public employment will be <strong>in addition to the existing reservation</strong>.</li>
<li>The central government will notify the &ldquo;economically weaker sections&rdquo; of citizens on the basis of family income and other indicators of economic disadvantage.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="5">Education</h3>
<p>The RTE (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed by Parliament</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 was passed by Parliament.</li>
<li>The RTE Act, 2009, <strong>prohibits detention</strong> of children till they complete elementary education i.e., <strong>class 8</strong>.</li>
<li>The Bill seeks to amend this provision to <strong>empower</strong> the <strong>central</strong> or <strong>state</strong> government to <strong>allow</strong> schools to <strong>hold back a child in class 5, class 8, or in both the classes</strong>.</li>
<li>The Bill seeks to amend this provision to state that <strong>a regular examination</strong> will be held in <strong>class 5 and class 8</strong> at the end of <strong>every academic year</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>If a child fails</strong> in the examinations, he will be given additional instruction, and will take <strong>a re-examination</strong>. If he <strong>fails</strong> in the re-examination, the relevant central or state <strong>government may decide</strong> to allow schools to detain the child.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Reservation of 10% for economically weaker sections for admission in central educational institutions</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>The Department of Higher Education notified reservation of up to 10%</strong> for <strong>economically</strong> weaker sections in admission in all central educational institutions, with effect from academic year 2019-20.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The reservation will be provided in <strong>all central educational institutions</strong> which include universities set up by Acts of Parliament, institutions of national importance, and institutions deemed to be a university.</li>
<li><strong>With prior approval</strong> of the appropriate authority (such as the <strong>University Grants Commission,</strong> or the Bar Council of India), <strong>every central educational institution,</strong> should <strong>increase its seats</strong> above its annual permitted strength so that the number of seats available, excluding those reserved for persons belonging to the economically weaker sections, <strong>is not less</strong> that the number of seats for the <strong>previous academic session</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="6">Environment</h3>
<p>National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) launched</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched <strong>a five year action plan</strong> called the <strong>National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)</strong>.</li>
<li>The NCAP aims <strong>to meet the prescribed annual average ambient air quality standards</strong> at all locations in the country. Key features of the NCAP include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Objectives</strong>
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>to create a <strong>management plan</strong> for prevention, control, and abatement of air pollution,</li>
<li>to develop an effective <strong>ambient air quality monitoring network</strong> across the country,</li>
<li>and to augment <strong>public awareness</strong> and capacity-building measures through data dissemination and public outreach programmes.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Enforcement:</strong> Trained manpower and regular inspection drives will be undertaken to ensure implementation of the NCAP.</li>
<li><strong>Mitigation:</strong> With reference to augmenting the air quality monitoring network, it proposes to <strong>increase the number of monitoring stations</strong> from existing 703 to 1,500.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>It also plans to bring in <strong>rural areas under</strong> the existing <strong>National Air Quality Monitoring Programme</strong>. Towards this, it <strong>will set up 75 monitoring stations</strong> in rural areas.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Certification:</strong> To address concerns of <strong>poor data quality,</strong> the NCAP plans to set up a <strong>Certification Scheme</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>This Scheme will aim to provide a comprehensive and cost-effective solution for testing, calibration, and <strong>certification of equipment</strong> used in environmental monitoring.</li>
<li>It also envisages setting up an <strong>Air Quality Forecasting System</strong> which will accurately forecast air pollution on a <strong>daily basis</strong> and forecast expected air pollution exigencies.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="7">Law and Justice</h3>
<p>The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill passed by Lok Sabha</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Bill amends:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016,</li>
<li>Indian Telegraph Act, 1885</li>
<li>Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Following are amendments made in aforesaid acts:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Offline verification:</strong> The Bill includes a new provision in the Aadhaar Act to allow &lsquo;offline verification&rsquo; <strong>(Aadhaar &lsquo;authentication&rsquo;)</strong> of an individual&rsquo;s identity through <strong>modes specified</strong> by the Unique Identification Authority of India <strong>(UIDAI)</strong> by regulations.</li>
<li>The Bill amends the <strong>Telegraph Act, 1885</strong> and the <strong>Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002</strong> to state that:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>the <strong>telecom companies, banks</strong> and <strong>financial institutions</strong> may <strong>verify the identity of their clients</strong> by
<ol>
<li>authentication or offline verification of Aadhaar, or</li>
<li>passport, or</li>
<li>any other documents notified by the central government.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>UIDAI Fund: Under the Act,</strong> all <strong>fees and revenue</strong> collected by the <strong>UIDAI</strong> shall be credited to the <strong>Consolidated Fund of India</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li><strong>The Bill removes this provision,</strong> and creates the Unique Identification Authority of India Fund.</li>
<li>All fees, grants and charges received by the UIDAI shall be credited to this fund.</li>
<li><strong>The fund</strong> shall be used for <strong>expenses of the UIDAI,</strong> including <strong>salaries</strong> and <strong>allowances</strong> of its employees.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill passed by Lok Sabha</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018, passed by Lok Sabha, seeks to amend the following five Acts:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Divorce Act, 1869</li>
<li>Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939</li>
<li>Special Marriage Act, 1954</li>
<li>Hindu Marriage Act, 1955</li>
<li>Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Each of these Acts prescribes <strong>Leprosy</strong> as a <strong>ground</strong> for seeking <strong>divorce or separation</strong> from the spouse.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Bill seeks to <strong>remove Leprosy as a ground for divorce or separation</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Bill, 2018 passed by Lok Sabha</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>It seeks to establish an <strong>autonomous and independent institution</strong> for better management of arbitration in India.</li>
<li>Key features of the Bill include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Bill seeks to provide for the establishment of the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre <strong>(NDIAC)</strong> to conduct arbitration, mediation, and conciliation proceedings.</li>
<li>The Bill declares the NDIAC as an institution of <strong>national importance</strong>.</li>
<li><strong>International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ICADR):</strong> The ICADR is a <strong>registered society</strong> to promote the resolution of disputes through alternative dispute resolution methods (such as arbitration and mediation).
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>It was established by the Government of India for <strong>resolving international and domestic commercial disputes quickly</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The Bill seeks to transfer the existing ICADR to the central government.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li><strong>Upon notification</strong> by the central government, all the rights, title, and interest in the <strong>ICADR will be transferred to the NDIAC</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="8">Science and Technology</h3>
<p>DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018 passed by Lok Sabha</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Bill provides for regulation of <strong>use of DNA technology</strong> for establishing the <strong>identity</strong> of certain <strong>persons</strong>.</li>
<li>Key features of the Bill include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li><strong>Use of DNA Data:</strong> Under the Bill, DNA testing is allowed <strong>only for matters</strong> listed in the schedule to the Bill (such as for <strong>offences</strong> under the Indian Penal Code, 1860, for <strong>paternity suits,</strong> or in order to <strong>identify abandoned children</strong>).</li>
<li><strong>Collection of DNA: Investigation authorities</strong> can <strong>collect</strong> DNA samples of victims and suspects of crimes, <strong>with their written consent</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>In case someone is arrested for a <strong>crime</strong> that carries <strong>punishment</strong> higher than <strong>7 years, consent is not required</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>DNA Data Bank:</strong> The Bill provides for the establishment of a <strong>National DNA Data Bank</strong> and <strong>regional DNA Data Banks</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>These Data Banks will store DNA profiles.</li>
<li>The DNA profiles in the Data Banks will be organized into five indices:
<ol>
<li><strong>crime</strong> scene index</li>
<li><strong>suspects&rsquo;</strong> or under-trials&rsquo; index</li>
<li><strong>offenders&rsquo;</strong> index</li>
<li><strong>missing persons&rsquo;</strong> index</li>
<li>unknown deceased persons&rsquo; index.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>DNA Regulatory Board:</strong> The Bill provides for the establishment of a DNA Regulatory Board, which will <strong>supervise the DNA Data Banks and DNA laboratories</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li><strong>Protection of information:</strong> Under the Bill, the <strong>Board</strong> is required to <strong>ensure</strong> that all information relating to DNA profiles with the Data Banks, laboratories and other persons are <strong>kept confidential</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>DNA data may <strong>only be used for identification</strong> of the person.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="9">Labour and Employment</h3>
<p>Trade Unions Amendment Bill, 2019 introduced in Lok Sabha</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Trade Unions (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha.</li>
<li>The Bill amends <strong>the Trade Unions Act, 1926,</strong> which provides for the <strong>registration and regulation</strong> of trade unions.</li>
<li>Key features of the Bill include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Bill seeks to provide for <strong>recognition of trade unions or a federation of trade</strong> unions at the central and state level by the central and state government respectively.</li>
<li>The central or state government may make <strong>rules</strong> for:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>the <strong>recognition</strong> of such Central or State Trade Unions,</li>
<li>and the <strong>authority to decide disputes</strong> arising out of such <strong>recognition,</strong> and the manner of deciding such disputes.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The amendments will facilitate recognition of trade unions at central and state level to:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>ensure <strong>true representation</strong> of workers in these bodies;</li>
<li>check on the <strong>arbitrary nomination</strong> of workers' representatives by the government;</li>
<li>reduce litigations and industrial unrest.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="10">Tribal Affairs</h3>
<p>Bills introduced to amend list of Scheduled Tribes in Assam and Karnataka</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Two Bills were introduced in Rajya Sabha to amend the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, in respect of <strong>Assam</strong> and <strong>Karnataka</strong>.</li>
<li><strong>The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019</strong> amends Part II of the Order which specifies the Scheduled Tribes in <strong>Assam</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Bill inserts 41 entries for granting Scheduled Tribe status to these communities.</li>
<li>These include:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>Matak</li>
<li>Kock Rajbongshi</li>
<li>Tai Ahom</li>
<li>Bhil</li>
<li>Bhumij</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019</strong> amends Part VI of the Order which specifies the Scheduled Tribes in <strong>Karnataka</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>It substitutes:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>&ldquo;Naikda, Nayaka&rdquo; with &ldquo;Naikda, Nayaka (including Parivara and Talawara)&rdquo;,</li>
<li>&ldquo;Siddi (in Uttar Kannada district)&rdquo; with &ldquo;Siddi (in Belagavi, Dharwad and Uttar Kannada districts)&rdquo;.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="11">Power</h3>
<p>Standing Committee submits report on stressed assets in gas based power plants</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Standing Committee on Energy submitted its report on <strong>&lsquo;Stressed/Non-Performing Assets in Gas based Power Plants&rsquo;</strong>.</li>
<li>Key observations and recommendations of the Committee include:
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Currently, out of the total installed capacity of about 345 GW, <strong>24.9 MW (7%)</strong> comes from <strong>gas based power plants</strong>.</li>
<li>However, <strong>14.30 GW (57%)</strong> of this <strong>gas based capacity</strong> (24.9 MW) is <strong>stranded</strong> due to <strong>shortage of domestic gas supply</strong> and <strong>competitive tariff scenario</strong>.</li>
<li>There are <strong>31 stranded gas based power plants</strong>. All these power plants <strong>were planned</strong> based on the expectation of increase in domestic <strong>gas</strong> production, particularly from the <strong>Krishna Godavari Dhirubhai 6 (KG-D6) field</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>However, the <strong>production</strong> from KG D6 field has reduced drastically to <strong>zero</strong> since March 2013.</li>
<li>The Committee recommended that the <strong>Ministry</strong> of Petroleum and Natural Gas should <strong>be cautious in making future projections</strong> regarding <strong>availability of natural gas</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Allocation of natural gas:</strong> The Committee noted that several <strong>policy flip-flops</strong> have resulted in gas based power plants becoming stranded. These gas based plants are now <strong>unable to service their debt obligations</strong> and are <strong>on the verge of</strong> becoming non-performing assets <strong>(NPAs)</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>It recommended that the government should <strong>avoid erratic policy shifts</strong> in the future.</li>
<li>Further, any <strong>policy or guidelines</strong> regarding the change in allocation of gas <strong>should be prospective</strong> and it should <strong>not impact the existing users</strong>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="12">Information and Broadcasting</h3>
<p>Draft amendments to the Cinematograph Act, 1952 released</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has released draft amendments to the <strong>Cinematograph Act, 1952</strong> for <strong>feedback</strong>.
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>The Act provides for certification of films for exhibition.</li>
<li>It imposes penalties for various offences such as:
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>exhibition of a film that has not been certified for public exhibition,</li>
<li>or tampering with a film after it has been certified.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The draft amendments propose <strong>additional penalties for film piracy</strong>. The penalties proposed include imprisonment up to <strong>three years or fine up to ten lakh rupees,</strong> or both.</li>
</ul>',
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	],
	(int) 18 => [
		'title' => 'India to Host CMS COP 13 in 2020',
		'catname' => 'News Analysis',
		'desc' => '<p>The <strong>13<sup>th</sup> Conference of Parties (COP)</strong> of the <strong>Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS)</strong> will be <strong>hosted by India</strong> during 15th to 22nd <g class="gr_ gr_42 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="42" data-gr-id="42">February,</g> 2020 at <strong>Gandhinagar</strong> in Gujarat.</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>Great Indian Bustard (GIB)</strong> will be its <strong>mascot for the 13th Conference of Parties (COP)</strong> of the UN Convention on the conservation of migratory species (CMS).</li>
<li>Representatives from 129 Parties and eminent conservationists and international NGOs working in the field of wildlife conservation will attend the COP.</li>
<li>Hosting of COP would give India an opportunity to showcase its conservation initiatives for wildlife species.</li>
<li>It will provide a global platform for deliberations on the conservation and sustainable use of migratory wild animals and their habitat.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Migratory Species in India</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Migratory species are those animals that move from one habitat to another during different times of the year, due to various factors such as food, sunlight, temperature, climate, etc.</li>
<li>The movement between habitats can sometimes exceed thousands of miles/kilometers for some migratory birds and mammals.</li>
<li>A migratory route can involve nesting and also requires the availability of habitats before and after each migration.</li>
<li><strong>India is a temporary home to several migratory animals and birds</strong>. The important among these include <strong>Amur Falcons</strong>, <strong>Bar-headed Geese</strong>, <strong>Black-necked cranes</strong>, <strong>Marine turtles</strong>, <strong>Dugongs</strong>, <strong>Humpbacked Whales</strong>, etc.</li>
<li>The <strong>Indian sub-continent is also part of</strong> the major bird flyway network, i.e, <strong>the Central Asian Flyway (CAF)</strong> that covers areas between the Arctic and Indian Oceans, and covers at least 279 populations of 182 migratory waterbird species, including 29 globally threatened species.</li>
<li>India has also launched the National Action Plan for the conservation of migratory species under the Central Asian Flyway.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals (CMS)</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>It is an environmental treaty<strong> under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme</strong>, CMS (<strong>also referred to as the Bonn Convention</strong>) provides a global platform for the<strong> conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats</strong>.</li>
<li>CMS brings together the States through which migratory animals pass, the Range States, and lays the legal <strong>foundation for internationally coordinated conservation measures</strong> throughout a migratory range.</li>
<li>It is the only global convention specializing in the conservation of migratory species, their habitats and migration routes.</li>
<li><strong>India</strong> has been a <strong>Party to the CMS since 1983</strong>. The Conference of Parties (COP) is the decision-making organ of this convention.</li>
<li><strong>India</strong> has also signed <strong><g class="gr_ gr_37 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling" id="37" data-gr-id="37">non</g> legally binding MOU with CMS on the conservation and management of Siberian Cranes (1998), Marine Turtles (2007), Dugongs (2008) and Raptors (2016</strong>).</li>
</ul>',
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	(int) 19 => [
		'title' => '100th Anniversary of ILO',
		'catname' => 'News Analysis',
		'desc' => '<p>In 2019, the <strong>International Labour Organization (ILO)</strong>, the UN specialized agency celebrates its 100th anniversary.</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>In the run up to the anniversary <strong>seven Centenary Initiatives</strong> are being implemented as part of a package of activities aimed at equipping the Organization to take up successfully the challenges of its social justice mandate in the future.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Seven Centenary Initiatives</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>The future of work initiative</strong> : Initiating and cultivating a global dialogue on the future of work, to build the ILO&rsquo;s ability to prepare and guide governments, workers and employers to better meet the world of work challenges of the next century.</li>
<li><strong>The end to poverty initiative</strong>: Promoting a multidimensional response through the world of work, labor markets, and social and employment protection to eradicate global poverty.</li>
<li><strong>The women at work initiative</strong>: Reviewing the place and conditions of women in the world of work and engaging workers, employers and governments in concrete action to realize equality of opportunity and treatment.</li>
<li><strong>The green initiative</strong>: Scaling up the ILO&rsquo;s office-wide knowledge, policy advice and tools for managing a just transition to a low carbon, sustainable future.</li>
<li><strong>The standards initiative</strong>: Enhancing the relevance of international labour standards through a standards review mechanism and consolidating tripartite consensus on an authoritative supervisory system.</li>
<li><strong>The enterprises initiative</strong>: Establishing a platform for ILO engagement with enterprises which would contribute to their sustainability and to ILO goals.</li>
<li><strong>The governance initiative</strong>: Reforming the ILO&rsquo;s governance structures, assessing the impact of the 2008 Declaration as set out in its final provisions, and act on its finding.</li>
</ul>
<div class="border-bg">
<p><strong>Eight Core International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><strong>India</strong> has <strong>ratified six out of the eight core/fundamental</strong>&nbsp;<strong>ILO Conventions</strong>. These are
<ul style="list-style-type: circle;">
<li>Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29),</li>
<li>Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105),</li>
<li>Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100),</li>
<li>Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111),</li>
<li>Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) and</li>
<li>Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182).</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>India has <strong>not ratified</strong> the core/fundamental Conventions, namely <strong>Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87)</strong> and <strong>Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)</strong>.</li>
<li>The main reason for non-ratification of ILO Conventions No.87 &amp; 98 is <strong>due to certain restrictions imposed on the Government servants</strong>.</li>
<li>The ratification of these conventions would involve granting of certain rights that are prohibited under the statutory rules, for the Government employees, namely, to strike work, to openly criticize Government policies, to freely accept financial contribution, to freely join foreign organizations etc.</li>
<li>In India <strong>Convention is ratified only when the national laws are brought fully into conformity with the provisions of the Convention</strong>.</li>
<li>Ratification of ILO Convention is a voluntary process and no time frame has been agreed for the same.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>About International Labour Organization (ILO)</h3>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency dealing with labour issues, particularly international labour standards, social protection, and work opportunities for all.</li>
<li>ILO was created in <strong>1919</strong>, as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, to reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social justice. It <strong>became specialized agency of the United Nations in 1946</strong>.</li>
<li>It is a tripartite organization, the<strong> only one of its kind bringing together representatives of governments, employers and workers in its executive bodies</strong>.</li>
<li>Since 1919, the International Labour Organization has maintained and developed a system of international labour standards aimed at promoting opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and dignity.</li>
<li>In <strong>1969</strong>, <strong>ILO received the Nobel Peace Prize for improving fraternity and peace among nations</strong>, pursuing decent work and justice for workers, and providing technical assistance to other developing nations.</li>
<li><strong>India is a founder member of the International Labour Organization</strong>.</li>
<li>The <strong>Headquarter</strong> of ILO is in <strong>Geneva, Switzerland</strong>.</li>
</ul>',
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