The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 12 October 2022

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 11 October 2022

• The world, including India, will experience an overall slowdown in the next year owing to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, tightening monetary conditions globally, the highest inflation in decades, and lingering effects of the pandemic, according to the International Monetary Fund.
• India is projected to grow at 6.8% in the current fiscal year, following 8.7% growth in fiscal year that ended March 31 as per figures released in the IMF’s October 2022 World Economic Outlook: Countering the Cost-of-Living Crisis at the start of the World Bank IMF Annual Meetings here.

The Hindu Editorial Today

• A good 17 years after India got the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the transparency regime in the country remains a mirage with nearly 3.15 lakh complaints and appeals pending with 26 information commissions across India.
• According to a separate report by the Transparency International, one-fourth information commissioner posts are vacant and there are only 5% (only 8) women information commissioners in the country. Out of total 165 posts of information commissioners, 42 are vacant, including two chief State information commissioners.

Central Information Commission:

• Established by the Central Government in 2005, under the provisions of the Right to Information Act (2005).
• Members: The Commission consists of a Chief Information Commissioner and not more than ten Information Commissioners.
• Appointment: They are appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Prime Minister as Chairperson, the leader of the single largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister.
• Tenure: The Chief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner shall hold office for such term as prescribed by the Central Government or until they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.
• They are not eligible for reappointment.

• Far-sighted systems thinkers in the Club of Rome gave a wake-up call in 1972. They showed that pursuit of GDP growth was destroying the earth’s capacity to renew itself and provide resources for unbridled economic growth.
• The “3P” slogan — People, Planet, and Profit — demands a paradigm shift in economics.
• The five tracks for their solutions are: ending poverty; addressing gross inequality; empowering women; making food systems healthy for people and ecosystems; and transitioning to clean energy.

• Every year, when the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) releases statistics on deaths by suicide in India, the demand to address the issue grows louder. The most recent data for 2021, released on August 30, 2022, shows that suicide claimed 1,64,033 lives during that year.
• One of the causes of suicide, which has been prevalent in contemporary discussions, is the expanding role of digital technologies.
• It is clear that the more technology gains influence over the human condition, the starker will be its role in the best and worst of human experience.
• The conclusion is that the medium of bullying is not the sole culprit; it is the act of bullying itself that needs to be addressed. Awareness campaigns, sensitisation programmes, community support and counselling services are usually considered good solutions against bullying — cyber or otherwise.

Quote:

Sociologist Emile Durkheim had famously hypothesised that ‘suicides are a result of not just psychological or emotional factors but social factors as well’.

• Constitutional Provision: SC has held healthcare to be a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.
• National Mental Health Program (NMHP): To address the huge burden of mental disorders and shortage of qualified professionals in the field of mental health, the government has been implementing the National Mental Health Program (NMHP) since 1982.
• Mental HealthCare Act 2017: It guarantees every affected person access to mental healthcare and treatment from services run or funded by the government.
  • It has significantly reduced the scope for the use of Section 309 IPC and made the attempt to commit suicide punishable only as an exception.
  • Kiran Helpline: In 2020, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launched a 24/7 toll-free helpline ‘Kiran’ to provide support to people facing anxiety, stress, depression, suicidal thoughts and other mental health concerns.
• Manodarpan: The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) launched it under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. It is aimed to provide psychosocial support to students, family members and teachers for their mental health and well-being during the times of Covid-19.
• Manufacturing, service and infrastructure sectors are on the recovery path, but consumer confidence about the economy is yet to reach pre-COVID levels

• Expanding the mandate of the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme, the Central government on Tuesday announced the inclusion of skilling of girls in non-traditional livelihood (NTL) options in its flagship programme.
• The scheme will now also focus on increasing the enrolment of girls in secondary education, particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects.

What is BBBP?

• It was launched in January 2015 with the aim to address sex selective abortion and the declining child sex ratio which was at 918 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2011.
• This is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource Development.
• The programme is being implemented across 405 districts in the country.
• Main Objectives:
• • Prevention of gender-biased sex-selective elimination.
  • Ensuring survival & protection of the girl child.
  • Ensuring education and participation of the girl child.
  • Protecting rights of Girl children.

• Chief Justice Lalit’s recommendation to the government would start the process for appointment of Justice Chandrachud as the 50th Chief Justice of India.
• If the government approval comes through, Justice Chandrachud would be the first second-generation CJI. His father, Justice Y.V. Chandrachud, was the 16th CJI and one of the longest serving.
• Chief Justice Lalit is scheduled to retire on November 8 at the end of a 74-day tenure as top judge. Justice Chandrachud is expected to be sworn in and assume charge as Chief Justice of India from November 9. He has a tenure of two years as Chief Justice until his retirement on November 11, 2024.

The programme, which is part of the “Lifestyle for Environment” (LiFE) initiative announced by Mr. Modi in June, will be organised by the NITI Aayog.

• The idea of LiFE was introduced by India during the 26^thUnited Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in 2021.
  • The idea promotes an environmentally conscious lifestyle that focuses on ‘mindful and deliberate utilisation’ instead of ‘mindless and wasteful consumption.
• With the launch of the Mission, the prevalent “use-and-dispose” economy governed by mindless and destructive consumption will be replaced by a circular economy, defined by conscious and deliberate consumption.

• In India, technology is a tool for inclusion and not exclusion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the inaugural function of the second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
• Take our SWAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) scheme.
• SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) scheme is a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, State Panchayati Raj Departments, State Revenue Departments and Survey of India.
• Aim: To provide an integrated property validation solution for rural India.
  • It is a scheme for mapping the land parcels in rural inhabited areas using drone technology and Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS).
  • The mapping will be done across the country in a phase-wise manner over a period of four years – from 2020 to 2024.

• As Sri Lankans continue braving their worst economic crisis since Independence, urban poverty on the island has tripled in the last year, from 5% to 15%, according to a recent World Bank report.
• Sri Lanka is experiencing “its highest poverty rate since 2009 [when the civil war ended], and an erosion of the steady gains in welfare made between 2006 and 2019,” the Bank noted in its recent Sri Lanka Development Update titled ‘Protecting the poor and vulnerable in a time of crisis’, released earlier this month.
• As part of its recommendations, the World Bank has urged the government to increase financing for social assistance; come up with a social protection strategy, that includes an operational Welfare Benefits Board and a Social Registry, to enable effective targeting of social security programmes, given the addition of “newly poor” families. It has also called for an increase in cash transfers, to account for the double-digit inflation

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to leaders of the Group of Seven nations on Tuesday for more air defence capabilities and the G7 vowed to support Kyiv for “as long as it takes” while warning Russia against any use of nuclear weapons.
• The G7 — which groups the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Britain, Italy and Canada — pledged continued “financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support… for as long as it takes” to Ukraine, it said in a statement.

Q) With reference to the North Eastern Council, consider the following statements:

1. It is a constitutional body established by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976.
2. It is chaired by the Prime Minister of India.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

उत्तर पूर्वी परिषद के संदर्भ में निम्नलिखित कथनों पर विचार कीजिएः

1. यह 42वें संविधान संशोधन अधिनियम, 1976 द्वारा स्थापित एक संवैधानिक निकाय है।
2. इसकी अध्यक्षता भारत के प्रधानमंत्री करते हैं।

उपरोक्त में से कौन सा/से कथन सही है/हैं?

1. केवल 1
2. केवल 2
3. दोनों 1 और 2
4. न तो 1 और न ही 2

Explanation :

The Plenary meeting of North Eastern Council (NEC) concluded recently.

• NEC is not a constitutional body, but a statutory organization established in 1971 under the North Eastern Council Act, 1971.
• Its functions are to function as Apex Regional Planning Body for the North Eastern Region and implementing various projects through the State and Central agencies.
• It comprises Governors and Chief Ministers of all the 8 North-Eastern States and three members nominated by the President.
• In June 2018, Union cabinet approved the nomination of the Home Minister as the ex-officio chairman and Minister for DoNER (Development of North-East Region) as the council’s vice chairman.

Q) Recently seen in the news, ‘Manesar Anti-terror 2022’ exercise is conducted among the member countries of:

1. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
2. Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation
3. Association of Southeast Asian Nations
4. Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

हाल ही में समाचारों में देखा गया, ‘मानेसर आतंकवाद विरोधी 2022’ अभ्यास किसके सदस्य देशों के बीच आयोजित किया जाता है:

1. ए. क्षेत्रीय सहयोग के लिए दक्षिण एशियाई संघ
2. बंगाल की खाड़ी बहु-क्षेत्रीय तकनीकी और आर्थिक सहयोग के लिए पहल
3. दक्षिण पूर्व एशियाई राष्ट्रों का संघ
4. शंघाई सहयोग संगठन

Explanation :

• India is currently hosting the multilateral anti-terror exercise ‘Manesar Anti-terror 2022’ scheduled from October 8 to 13.
• It is under the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS).

Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS):

• Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) one of the permanent organ of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and has its headquarters in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
• The objective of SCO RATS is to facilitate cooperation and coordination against Terrorism, Extremism and Separatism.
• India assumed the chairmanship of the Council of SCO RATS in Oct 2021.
• Joint Anti-Terror Exercise (JATE) is an annual Counter Terrorist Exercise held within the framework of the SCO RATS.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO):

• The SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc that India and Pakistan joined as full-time members back in 2017.
• The founding members of this group include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Q) Consider the following statements.

1. Malabar naval exercise consisting of India, Australia, Japan and the U.S.
2. ‘Yudh Abhyas’ is the India-Japan bilateral Army exercise.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

निम्नलिखित कथनों पर विचार करें।

1. मालाबार नौसैनिक अभ्यास जिसमें भारत, ऑस्ट्रेलिया, जापान और यू.एस.
2. ‘युद्ध अभ्यास’ भारत-जापान द्विपक्षीय सैन्य अभ्यास है।

उपरोक्त में से कौन सा/से कथन सही है/हैं?

1. केवल 1
2. केवल 2
3. दोनों 1 और 2
4. न तो 1 और न ही 2

• Japan will host the 2022 edition of the Malabar naval exercise consisting of India, Australia, Japan and the U.S. in the second week of November.
• End of October, the India-U.S. bilateral Army exercise ‘Yudh Abhyas’ is scheduled to take place in the high-altitude areas of Uttarakhand, around 100 km (aerial distance) from the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Q) Debtor Reporting System (DRS), sometimes seen in news was established by

1. International Monetary Fund (IMF)
2. World Bank
3. New Development Bank (NDB)
4. Asian Development Bank (ADB)

कभी-कभी समाचारों में देखे जाने वाले देनदार रिपोर्टिंग सिस्टम (डीआरएस) की स्थापना किसके द्वारा की गई थी?

1. अंतर्राष्ट्रीय मुद्रा कोष (IMF)
2. विश्व बैंक
3. न्यू डेवलपमेंट बैंक (NDB)
4. एशियाई विकास बैंक (ADB)

• Debtor Reporting System (DRS) is a statistical reporting system maintained by the World Bank to monitor the debt of developing countries. It was established in 1951. Information is supplied through reports from debtor countries.

Mains Practice Question:

Q) “The role of media as a watchdog in a democracy”. Explain. (150 words)

“लोकतंत्र में एक प्रहरी के रूप में मीडिया की भूमिका”। समझाना। (150 शब्द)

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 13 October 2022

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