The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 2 August 2023

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The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 31 July 2023

• Seven products from across India including four from Rajasthan were given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indications Registry in Chennai.
• The Jalesar Dhatu Shilp (metal craft), Goa Mankurad mango, Goan Bebinca, Udaipur Koftgari metal craft, Bikaner Kashidakari craft, Jodhpur Bandhej craft and Bikaner Usta Kala craft were the ones which got the tag.
• The application for the Goa Mankurad mango was filed by All Goa Mango Growers Association, Panaji, Goa. The Portuguese named the mango as Malcorada meaning poor coloured and with time this word transformed to ‘Mankurad’ aamo. Aamo means mango in Konkani language.

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• For the Goan Bebinca, the application was filed by All Goa Bakers and Confectioners Association. Bebinca is a type of pudding and a traditional Indo-Portuguese dessert. It is also known as the Queen of Goan desserts.
• At Jalesar in Etah district in Uttar Pradesh, which was the capital of Magadha King Jarasandha, over 1,200 small units are engaged in making Jalesar Dhatu Shilp. This place is known for making decorative metal craft as well as brassware.
• Four different crafts from Rajasthan were given the GI tags. The Udaipur Koftgari metal craft was one among them. According to details provided in the documents submitted to the GI office, the Udaipur Koftgari metal craftsmen practices the ancient art of Koftgari used in making ornamental weaponry. The weapons are exquisitely ornamented by a complicated process of etching of design, heating and then cooling intertwined with the process of embedding gold and silver wire into the metal, pressing and flattening it to a smooth surface using moonstone and finally polishing.
• The second product from Rajasthan was the Bikaner Kashidakari craft. Kashidakari work is done majorly on objects associated with marriage, especially gift items, and makes use of mirror work.
• The Jodhpur bandhej craft is the Rajasthani art of tying and dyeing. It is the art of printing varied patterns on fabrics using the tie and dye method.
• The Bikaner Usta Kala craft is also known as gold nakashi work or gold manauti work, due to the prominence of golden colour in an actual manner developed by gold in the previous period. Due to this, the craft has longevity.
• Geographical Indication (GI) is an indication used to identify goods having special characteristics originating from a definite geographical territory.
• The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 seeks to provide for the registration and better protection of geographical indications relating to goods in India.
• It is governed and directed by the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
• It was decided and also stated under Articles 1 (2) and 10 of the Paris Convention that the protection of industrial Property and Geographical Indication are elements of Intellectual Property.
• It is primarily an agricultural, natural or a manufactured product (handicrafts and industrial goods).
• Validity:
• This tag is valid for a period of 10 years following which it can be renewed.

• The government is set to introduce the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill in Parliament.
• The Data Protection Bill of 2022 includes a provision to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which has empowered millions of Indian citizens since its enactment in 2005.
• The RTI A A primary objective of any data protection law is to curtail the misuse of personal data, including for financial fraud. Given that the government is the biggest data repository, an effective data protection law must not give wide discretionary powers to the government.
• The creation of a totally government-controlled Data Protection Board, empowered to impose fines upto ₹500 crore, is bound to raise serious apprehensions of it becoming another caged parrot — open to misuse by the executive to target the political opposition and those critical of its policies.
• Act includes a provision to harmonise peoples’ right to information with their right to privacy through an exemption clause under Section 8(1)(j). Personal information is exempt from disclosure if it has no relationship to any public activity; or has no relationship to any public interest; or if information sought is such that it would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy and the information officer is satisfied that there is no larger public interest that justifies disclosure.

• Under this scheme, where women can travel for free on State buses, the aim is to make transport more accessible and safer for women.
• In 2019, the Government of Delhi initiated a policy of enabling free travel for women passengers in government buses. In 2021, the Governments of Punjab and Tamil Nadu introduced a similar policy. The initial response from Karnataka indicates that it is working. In the initial three days, around 98,58,518 women availed the scheme.

• Other critics have focused on the idea that it is discriminatory to have tickets for men and not for women. Article 15 of the Constitution prohibits discrimination on specified grounds, including sex. It is true that prices are set at different rates for men than for women. However, not every case of differential treatment is wrongful discrimination.
• Article 15(3) which allows the state to make special provisions for women and children.

• Output at India’s eight core sectors strengthened hearteningly in June, with the overall year-on-year growth in production estimated to have quickened to a five-month high of 8.2%. Seven of the sectors, including steel and cement and electricity, logged appreciable advances.
• Eight core sectors are: Coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity.
• These comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
• The eight core sector industries in decreasing order of their weightage: Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas> Cement> Fertilizers.
• Index of Industrial Production:
• IIP is an indicator that measures the changes in the volume of production of industrial products during a given period.
• It is compiled and published monthly by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
• It is a composite indicator that measures the growth rate of industry groups classified under:
• Broad sectors, namely, Mining, Manufacturing, and Electricity.
• Use-based sectors, namely Basic Goods, Capital Goods, and Intermediate Goods.
• Base Year for IIP is 2011-2012.

• In the last few years, climate justice activists have been campaigning for the world’s economically developed countries to raise their investments in climate adaptation and mitigation, including paying for other countries’ abilities to deal with the effects of climate change.
• Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia have historically contributed the least to global warming; yet, they are bearing the bigger brunt of climate disasters – both in the form of extreme natural phenomena and debt distress.
• On the other hand, countries in North America and Europe have contributed and continue to contribute the most, and are also the creditors of the debt crisis.

• The Justice G. Rohini Commission for the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBC) caste groups on Monday submitted its report to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, nearly six years after the Union government first assigned the task to it — a task that was initially meant to be finished in 12 weeks.
• The commission’s report was submitted on the last day of its functioning on Monday, after it had received up to 14 extensions from the government in the past six years.
• The government had formed the commission in 2017, to be headed by former Delhi High Court Chief Justice, Justice G. Rohini. The commission also had as a member J.K. Bajaj from the Centre for Policy Studies, along with others.
• The commission was asked to examine the extent to which reservation and other benefits for OBCs are concentrated among some dominant caste groups. Based on this, the commission was then tasked with suggesting a breakdown of the over 2,600 caste groups on the Central OBC list so that these benefits could be equitably redistributed.
• According to sources, the commission has suggested breaking the caste groups into broad categories, with the dominant castes [with most access to benefits] getting the smallest share of the 27% reservation, and the historically crowded-out caste groups getting the largest share of the reservation pie.

• The Union Rural Development Ministry informed Parliament on Tuesday that it owed ₹6,366 crore under the wage component of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to States.
• There are a total of 14.42 crore active MGNREGS workers, most of them women, dependent on the wages to supplement their family’s income. Of the total sum, ₹2,770 crore is owed to West Bengal alone.
• Invoking Section 27 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Centre has blocked payment of over ₹7,500 crore to West Bengal for “non-compliance of directives of the Central government” since December 2021.

• Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act – Passed in 1967, the law aims at effective prevention of unlawful activities associations in India.
• The Act assigns absolute power to the central government, by way of which if the Centre deems an activity as unlawful then it may, by way of an Official Gazette, declare it so.
• Under UAPA, both Indian and foreign nationals can be charged.
• Under the UAPA, the investigating agency can file a charge sheet in maximum 180 days after the arrests and the duration can be extended further after intimating the court.
• It also included the provision of designating an individual as a terrorist.

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