The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 18 January 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 17 January 2023

• Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for “serious and sincere talks” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on “burning points like Kashmir”.
• In an interview with the Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV that was aired on Monday, Mr. Sharif said Pakistan had learnt its lesson after three wars with India and stressed that now it wanted peace with its neighbour.
• “My message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Modi is that let’s sit at the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning points like Kashmir. It is up to us to live peacefully and make progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources,” Mr. Sharif said.

The Hindu Editorial Today

• The ISIL and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council (UNSC) has placed Abdul Rehman Makki, a fundraiser and key planner of the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), on its sanctions list.
• The move was made possible after China withdrew the “technical hold” that it had imposed last June, when the U.S. and India — then a non-permanent member at the UNSC — tried unsuccessfully to get Makki on the global terror blacklist. Beijing has now argued that the blacklisting is in fact a “recognition” of Pakistan’s record of fighting terrorism.

About:

• The Security Council was established by the UN Charter in 1945. It is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations.
• The other 5 organs of the United Nations are—the General Assembly (UNGA), the Trusteeship Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Secretariat.
• Its primary responsibility is to work to maintain international peace and security.
• The council is headquartered at NewYork.

Members:

• The council has 15 members: the five permanent members and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms.
• The five permanent members are the United States, the Russian Federation, France, China and the United Kingdom.
• India, for the eighth time, has entered the UNSC as a non-permanent member last year (2021) and will stay on the council for two years i.e 2021-22.
• Each year, the General Assembly elects five non-permanent members (out of ten in total) for a two-year term. The ten non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis.
• The council’s presidency is a capacity that rotates every month among its 15 members.

• A recent World Bank study on air pollution concludes that about two million people die prematurely in South Asia each year as particulate measure concentrations put nine South Asian cities among the world’s top 10 worst affected by air pollution.
• The ill effects of this pollution, regardless of where it originates from, are clouding even the region’s once-pristine tourist destinations.
• The report ends by asking India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and all other South Asian countries to begin talks between scientists, officials and eventually ministers and leaders to create a mechanism for the cooperative management of the six air sheds the region is made up of.
• The climate crisis is only one of the immediate challenges of the times where South Asia has failed to build a platform. In fact, while India and Pakistan, the chief opponents of an integrated South Asia, continue to point to past disputes as the reason to hold up South Asian summits such as SAARC, block trade, connectivity and other avenues for cooperation, the undeniable truth is that every immediate geopolitical challenge is pushing the region to work more closely together.
• A quid pro quo could even see Pakistan send a replacement for its Prime Minister to the SCO Heads of State summit due to be held in India in June. In any case, it is necessary for the future to delink South Asian cooperation from the summit itself, and allow other parts of the agenda ( health, energy, women’s rights, security and terrorism) to be held even if a leadership event is not. To reject this idea would mean a missed opportunity, with repercussions more dire than those that come from the poisoned air the region breathes today.

• The Union government is endowed with more tax powers than the States, while the States are assigned more expenditure responsibilities than the Union government.
• This gives rise to a vertical fiscal imbalance (VFI) between the Union and State governments. The main responsibility of the Finance Commission is to correct this, but this task remains unaccomplished. We look at this issue in the context of the Goods and Services Tax.
• The simplest of the many empirical measures of VFI is ‘VFI equals one minus the ratio of the State’s own revenue to own expenditure’. If this VFI ratio is zero, the States have enough own revenue to meet their own expenditure and there is no need for financial transfers.
• We can calculate the VFI ratio for each State and for all the States put together. If we look at the data for all the States over the periods of the last three Finance Commissions (2005-06 to 2020-21), the VFI ratio shows an increasing trend. For the latest period of 2015-16 to 2020-21, the ratio was 0.530, which means that only 47% of the States’ own expenditure was financed by their own revenue in that period.
• In India, GST Bill was first introduced in 2014 as The Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill.
• This got an approval in 2016 and was renumbered in the statute by Rajya Sabha as The Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016. Its provisions:
• Central GST to cover Excise duty, Service tax etc, State GST to cover VAT, luxury tax etc.
• Integrated GST to cover inter-state trade. IGST per se is not a tax but a system to coordinate state and union taxes.
• Article 246A – States have power to tax goods and services.

GST Council

• Article 279A – GST Council to be formed by the President to administer & govern GST. It’s Chairman is Union Finance Minister of India with ministers nominated by the state governments as its members.
• The council is devised in such a way that the centre will have 1/3rd voting power and the states have 2/3rd.
• The decisions are taken by 3/4th majority.

• A Constitution Bench on Tuesday questioned the utility of executing an advance medical directive, or living will, in India when a person is free to refuse invasive treatment and accept death.
• ADVANCE DIRECTIVES. A written document stating how you want medical decisions to be made if you lose the ability to make them for yourself. It may include a Living Will and a Durable Power of Attorney for health care.
• A five-judge Bench, led by Justice K.M. Joseph, is considering a plea to modify a March 2018 judgment which upheld passive euthanasia and advance directives, but made the process of implementing it cumbersome.
• Justice Hrishikesh Roy asked who would decide whether an illness was “critical” or “terminal”. The financial background of people in many cases had decided whether a person’s illness was “critical” or “terminal”.
• Justice Ajay Rastogi said advance directives placed a heavy burden on doctors. It is they who had to ultimately say when a patient has gone beyond the point of return.
• Justice Joseph said directives operated in a “very narrow realm”, when a person was in a “vegetative state” and unable to tell the doctors to stop the treatment. “Otherwise, a person has the right to say ‘I don’t want treatment’. In rural areas, many people don’t even go to hospitals,” Justice Joseph said.
• Additional Solicitor-General K.M. Nataraj said a directive could be given for a “specific illness in a specific situation”. The court said it focussed on three aspects of an advance directive — its contents, the method in which such a directive should be recorded without the danger of tampering, and its implementation. The court said whatever it may do would only be stop-gap until the legislature came up with a law.

Two types: Euthanasia can be also divided into two types according to means of death.

• Active Euthanasia: It is also known as ‘Positive Euthanasia’ or ‘Aggressive Euthanasia’. It refers to causing intentional death of a human being by direct intervention. It is a direct action performed to end useless life and a meaningless existence.
• For example, by giving lethal doses of a drug or by giving a lethal injection. Active euthanasia is usually a quicker means of causing death and all forms of active euthanasia are illegal.
• Passive Euthanasia: It is also known as ‘Negative Euthanasia’ or ‘Non-Aggressive Euthanasia’. It is intentionally causing death by not providing essential, necessary and ordinary care or food and water.
• It implies discontinuing, withdrawing or removing artificial life support systems.
• Passive euthanasia is usually slower and more uncomfortable than active. Most forms of voluntary, passive and some instances of non-voluntary, passive euthanasia are legal.

• The joint venture between India and Russia, Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL), has started producing AK-203 Kalashnikov assault rifles at Korwa in Uttar Pradesh, according to Alexander Mikheev, Director-General of Rosoboronexport of Russia. Last week, Army chief Gen. Manoj Pande said that the first batch of 5,000 rifles would be delivered to the Army by March.
• “Korwa Ordnance Factory in Amethi has produced the first batch of 7.62 mm Kalashnikov AK-203 assault rifles. The beginning of deliveries to the Indian Army is expected soon,” Mr. Mikheev said in a statement on Tuesday.
• At the same time, the factory’s capacity makes it possible to fully equip the personnel of other law enforcement agencies in India with AK-203 assault rifles, which, due to their high adaptability, are suitable for various operators, he stated, adding that in addition, the joint venture will be able to export to third countries.

• China’s population declined by 850,000 in 2022, the first such fall since a nationwide famine in 1961, marking a landmark demographic shift for the world’s second-largest economy.
• The National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing on Tuesday said the national population stood at 1.411 billion at the end of 2022. India will overtake China as the world’s most populous nation in 2023, according to a UN report released last year.
• The number of births in China was 9.56 million, a more than 10% drop from 2021. The number of deaths was 10.41 million.
• Government campaigns over the past decade to boost birth rates — a U-turn from years of a harsh “one-child policy” — have failed to reverse the trend. In 2021, Beijing’s family planning authority for the first time allowed couples to have a third child.
• The move came five years after a “two-child policy” had been introduced to boost birth rates. A government survey carried out at the time of the introduction of the two-child policy found 70% of respondents cited financial reasons, including costs of education, healthcare and housing, to not have many children.

Q) Consider the following statement :

1. Governor to make a special address at every State Legislative Assembly session.
2. India has adopted presidential form of government.

Which of the above statements is/are Not correct?

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

निम्नलिखित कथन पर विचार करें:

1. राज्यपाल प्रत्येक राज्य विधान सभा सत्र में एक विशेष अभिभाषण देंगे।
2. भारत ने राष्ट्रपति शासन प्रणाली को अपनाया है।

उपरोक्त कथनों में से कौन-सा/से सही नहीं है/हैं?

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

• India has adopted the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy, the Constituent Assembly decided(May 18, 1949)
• Article 87: It requires the President to make a special address to both Houses of Parliament assembled on the commencement of the first session of each year.
  • The President has to inform Parliament of the causes of its summons.
• Article 176: It requires the Governor to make a special address at the first session of each year of every State Legislative Assembly and to both Houses wherever the State also has a Legislative Council.
  • The language of these provisions were borrowed from the rules of the House of Commons.

Q) Consider the following actions which the Government can take: (2011)

1. Devaluing the domestic currency.
2. Reduction in the export subsidy.
3. Adopting suitable policies which attract greater FDI and more funds from FIIs.

Which of the above action/actions can help in reducing the current account deficit?

1. 1 and 2
2. 2 and 3
3. 3 only
4. 1 and 3

निम्नलिखित कार्रवाइयों पर विचार करें जो सरकार ले सकती है: (2011)

1. घरेलू मुद्रा का अवमूल्यन।
2. निर्यात सब्सिडी में कमी।
3. उपयुक्त नीतियों को अपनाना जो अधिक एफडीआई और एफआईआई से अधिक धन आकर्षित करती हैं।

उपरोक्त में से कौन सी कार्रवाई/कार्रवाई चालू खाता घाटे को कम करने में मदद कर सकती है?

1. 1 और 2
2. 2 और 3
3. केवल 3
4. 1 और 3

What is the Current Account Deficit?

• A current account deficit occurs when the total value of goods and services a country imports exceeds the total value of goods and services it exports.
  • The balance of exports and imports of goods is referred to as the trade balance. Trade Balance is a part of ‘Current Account Balance’.
• According to an earlier report of 2021, High Oil Imports, High Gold Imports are the major driving force, widening the CAD.

Q) Judicial review of legislation can be made on which of the following grounds?

1. Whether the legislature possesses the competence to enact the law.
2. Whether the law violates one or the other of the fundamental rights delineated in Part III of the Constitution.

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 में से किस आधार पर कानून की न्यायिक समीक्षा की जा सकती है?

1. क्या विधायिका के पास कानून बनाने की क्षमता है।
2. क्या कानून संविधान के भाग III में वर्णित मौलिक अधिकारों में से एक या दूसरे का उल्लंघन करता है।

उपरोक्त कथनों में से कौन-सा/से सही है/हैं?

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

• Judicial review of legislation can broadly be made on two grounds. One, on whether the legislature possesses the competence to enact the law; and two, on whether the law violates one or the other of the fundamental rights delineated in Part III of the Constitution.

Q) The world’s first Wildlife Conservation Bond – also known as ‘the Rhino Bond’ – has been issued by

1. United Nations Environment Programme
2. World Trade Organization
3. International Monetary Fund
4. World Bank

दुनिया का पहला वन्यजीव संरक्षण बॉन्ड – जिसे ‘द राइनो बॉन्ड’ के नाम से भी जाना जाता है – द्वारा जारी किया गया है

1. संयुक्त राष्ट्र पर्यावरण कार्यक्रम
2. विश्व व्यापार संगठन
3. अंतर्राष्ट्रीय मुद्रा कोष
4. विश्व बैंक

Explanation:

• Wildlife Conservation Bond (also called Rhino bond) is a five-year bond to protect and increase black rhino populations in protected areas in South Africa. It has been launched by the World Bank with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to channelise private capital.

Q) Consider the following statements Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE):

1. It is a statutory body that works under the aegis of the Ministry of Power.
2. The Star Labeling Programme has been formulated by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001.

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 ऊर्जा दक्षता ब्यूरो (बीईई):

1. यह एक वैधानिक निकाय है जो विद्युत मंत्रालय के तत्वावधान में काम करता है।
2. ऊर्जा संरक्षण अधिनियम, 2001 के तहत ऊर्जा दक्षता ब्यूरो द्वारा स्टार लेबलिंग कार्यक्रम तैयार किया गया है।

उपरोक्त कथनों में से कौन-सा/से सही है/हैं?

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

Explanation:

• The Star Labeling Programme has been formulated by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001.
• Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body under the Ministry of Power, is responsible for spearheading the improvement of energy efficiency in the economy through various regulatory and promotional instruments.

Mains Practice Question:

Q) Discuss the desirability of greater representation to women in the higher judiciary to ensure diversity, equity and inclusiveness. (2021) (250 words)

विविधता, समानता और समावेश सुनिश्चित करने के लिए उच्च न्यायपालिका में महिलाओं के अधिक प्रतिनिधित्व की वांछनीयता पर चर्चा करें। (2021) (250 शब्द)

Introduction:

• According to the latest data on the gender gap in judiciary, it is highlighted that the Supreme Court only has 2 women judges and there has never been a female Chief Justice of India. There are only around 80 women judges out of the total sanctioned strength of around 1100 judges in the higher judiciary.

Body:

• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5 and SDG 16, in particular), address the global responsibility of having gender equality and women’s representation in public institutions such as the judiciary. Achieving equality for women judges, in terms of representation at all levels of the judiciary, should be the ultimate goal.
• Being a woman does not limit her critical thinking and capability to render justice. Judicial benches having representation of women give either a new dimension or broader acceptance to legal principle/interpretation.
• By their mere presence, women judges enhance the legitimacy of courts, sending a powerful signal that they are open and accessible to those who seek recourse to justice.
• The legal profession, as a gatekeeper of equality and as an institution committed to the preservation of rights, should be emblematic of gender equality.

Conclusion:

• Improving the representation of women in the judiciary is of crucial importance and has to go a long way towards a more balanced and empathetic approach in cases involving sexual violence. Changing the long-established demographics of a court can make the institution more amenable to consider itself in a new light, and potentially lead to further modernization and reform.

Mains Practice Question:

Q) For India to be heard as the ‘Voice of the Global South at the G20’, it must reflect on the aspirations of the other nations and amplify them. Explain (150 words)

भारत को ‘जी20 में वैश्विक दक्षिण की आवाज’ के रूप में सुने जाने के लिए, इसे अन्य देशों की आकांक्षाओं को प्रतिबिंबित करना चाहिए और उन्हें बढ़ाना चाहिए। समझाना (150 शब्द)

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