The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 21 Dec, 2022

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The issues before the Court are straightforward, but with far-reaching ramifications for Indian democracy: is complete executive control over appointments to the ECI constitutional? And if not, what manner of appointment is sufficient to preserve the independence of the ECI, and the fairness of elections?
According to the classical understanding of modern democracy, there are three “wings” of state: the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. The task of the Constitution is to allocate powers between these three wings, and to ensure that there is an adequate degree of checks and balances between them. Traditionally, bodies that are involved with administrative and implementational issues — elections being among them — are believed to fall within the executive domain.
It is now commonly accepted that healthy constitutional democracies need what are known as “fourth branch institutions” (or, alternatively, “integrity institutions”).
Now, it logically follows from the above that “fourth branch institutions” need to be functionally independent from the political executive.
Thus, for example, the South African and Kenyan Constitutions have dedicated constitutional provisions for “fourth branch institutions” such as Human Rights Commissions, Election Commissions, and so on, calling these “integrity institutions”, and requiring them to be “independent.” The appointments process for such bodies normally involves multiple stakeholders from different wings of the state.
In the landmark Vineet Narain case, the Supreme Court likewise held that for the rule of law to prevail, the appointment of the CBI Director would have to be ratified by a three-member body that included the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition, and the Chief Justice of India.
The Indian Ocean and South Asian regions are at the heart of this contestation, considering their geo-political and geo-economic prominence and India’s emergence as a major power.
s tensions between an aggressive China and an emerging India intensify, New Delhi’s Quad partners are also making inroads in its backyard, ushering significant changes in the region.
The contestation for South Asia and the Indian Ocean is not new. China has long tried to mark its influence in these regions and enhance its strategic ambitions, namely, to limit Indian influence, military power, and status and to sustain its energy supply and economic growth.
It is only with the Galwan clashes in 2020 that the Indian strategic thinking is deeming Beijing as a bigger threat than that of Islamabad.
Earlier this month, the Chinese surveillance vessel Yuan Wang-5 (it had docked in Sri Lanka in August), re-entered the Indian Ocean.
Beijing will continue to leverage its financial and economic might and political influence in South Asia. But, most importantly, South Asian countries would also hesitate to completely move away from China as they hope to exercise their agency by balancing with China and India — essentially making this competition a ‘new normal’. And this trend will only increase with new players entering the region.
New Delhi and its partners which have only started to make recent gains against China, should be ready to embrace these challenges.
The Karnataka-Maharashtra Border Dispute has its origins in the reorganisation of states along linguistic lines via the State Reorganisation Act, 1956. Since its creation on May 1, 1960, Maharashtra has claimed that 865 villages, including Belagavi (then Belgaum), Carvar and Nipani, should be merged into Maharashtra.
The erstwhile Bombay Presidency, a multilingual province, included the present-day Karnataka districts of Vijayapura, Belagavi, Dharwad and Uttara-Kannada.
It filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2004, staking a claim over Belagavi.
Mahajan Committee: The Union Government constituted the Mahajan Committee in 1966 to assess the situation. Representatives from both Maharashtra and Karnataka (then Mysore) state were part of the committee. The panel submitted its report in 1967.

What are the Constitutional Provisions to resolve Inter-State Border Disputes?

Article 3: The Parliament has the power to alter the border of any State.
Article 131: It creates a judicial mechanism for dealing with Inter-State Disputes. The Supreme Court has original Jurisdiction to adjudicate any dispute between two and more States. The Jurisdiction is extremely wide and includes Inter-State Border Disputes.
Article 263: In Article 263, there is provision for the formation of an Inter-State Council. The President can create an Inter-State Council for inquiring into and advising upon disputes between States.
However, there is no explicit provision for boundary disputes similar to Article 262 for settlement of water disputes.
A major concern is the provision in the Bill which seeks to deny providing any personal information on administration officials under Section 8(1)(j) of the Right to Information Act, citing the protection of “individual privacy”. This poses a serious problem with the right of privacy-vis-à-vis the right to freedom of speech.
This fourth iteration of the law on data protection misses out on the recommendation of the Justice Srikrishna Committee, which was set up in 2017, after the Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgment.
Under the draft law, all the major actors – data principal, data fiduciaries, and the Data Protection Authority of India (DPAI) – will exercise excessive control. The DPAI will have great independent authority in a regulative area. The selection committee consisting of the Chief Justice of India or her nominee, the Cabinet Secretary, and one person with expertise and repute in the data technology field will have tremendous power.

About:

The Right to Information Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information.
The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in a real sense.
Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019:
It provided that the Chief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner (of Centre as well as States) shall hold office for such term as prescribed by the Central Government. Before this amendment, their term was fixed for 5 years.
It provided that the salary, allowances and other service conditions of the Chief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner (of Centre as well as States) shall be such as prescribed by the Central Government.

What is the Central Information Commission?

Established: The Central Information Commission was established by the Central Government in 2005, under the provisions of the Right to Information Act (2005). It is not a constitutional body.
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 Opposition 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.
Gujarat’s Vadnagar town, the iconic Sun Temple at Modhera, and the rock cut sculptures of Unakoti in Tripura have been added to the tentative list of UNCESO World Heritage Sites.
The UNESCO tentative list is an “inventory of those properties which each State Party intends to consider for nomination”.
“With this, India now has 52 sites on UNESCO Tentative List. The list indicates rich cultural and natural wealth of India and shows huge diversity of our heritage,” Union Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy tweeted.

Modhera Sun Temple

Modhera Sun Temple is located in Mehsana, neighbouring Ahmedabad district.
Built in the 11th century during the Chalukya dynasty in honour of the Sun God, it is one of the major tourist destinations in North Gujarat.
Situated on the banks of Pushpavati River.
It is surrounded by a terra-formed garden of flowering trees and songs of birds.
The remains of the Sun Temples at Modhera are relics of times gone by when reverence of the natural elements fire, air, earth, water and sky were at their peak sharing space with myriad manifestations of Vedic gods.

What is Unakoti?

Unakoti is located in Tripura. It is a ‘Shaiba’ (Saivite) pilgrimage site with gigantic rock cut sculptures.
The site displays almost the same mystical charm as the Angkor Wat temple of Cambodia. Hence, it is called the Angkor Wat of North-East.
Meaning: Literally, Unakoti means ‘one less one crore’ in Hindi and Bengali and it is believed that these many rock carvings (ninety-nine lakh ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine) are present here.
– In the local Kokborok language, Unakoti is called Subrai Khung

World Heritage Site:

Any of various areas or objects inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List.
The sites are designated as having “outstanding universal value” under the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage 1972.
The World Heritage Centre is the Secretariat to the 1972 Convention.
It provides a framework for international cooperation in preserving and protecting cultural treasures and natural areas throughout the world.

There are three types of sites: Cultural, Natural, and Mixed.

Cultural heritage sites include hundreds of historic buildings and town sites, important archaeological sites, and works of monumental sculpture or painting.
Natural heritage sites are restricted to those natural areas that have excellent ecological and evolutionary processes, unique natural phenomena, habitats of rare or endangered species etc.
Mixed heritage sites contain elements of both natural and cultural significance.
The fifth Scorpène-class conventional submarine, Vagir, was delivered to the Navy by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. in Mumbai on Tuesday. The ship is scheduled to be commissioned into service in January, a Navy official said.
Six Scorpene submarines are being built under Project-75 by MDL under technology transfer from the Naval Group of France under a $3.75-billion deal signed in October 2005. The project is about four years behind the original schedule.
The first submarine, INS Kalvari, was commissioned in December 2017, the second INS Khanderi in September 2019, the third INS Karanj in March 2021 and the fourth INS Vela in November 2021.
The sixth and last submarine, Vagsheer
The Navy currently has 15 conventional and one nuclear submarine in service. It includes seven Russian Kilo class submarines, four German HDW submarines, four Scorpene class submarines and the indigenous nuclear ballistic missile submarine INS Arihant.
188 of 196 member governments during the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) that sets out four goals for 2050, and 23 targets for 2030, to save existing biodiversity.
The GBF goals and targets do not prohibit the use of biodiversity, but call for sustainable use, and a sharing of benefits from genetic resources. It also emphasises respect for the rights of indigenous communities that traditionally protect forests and biodiversity.
By 2030, the GBF hopes to see at least $200 billion raised per year from all sources towards implementation of national action plans. In terms of international funding, developing countries should get at least $20 billion a year by 2025 and at least $30 billion by 2030 through contributions from developed countries.
Earlier, the CBD had launched the Aichi biodiversity targets for 2020, which included safeguarding of all ecosystems that provide services for humanity’s survival, and the Nagoya Protocol which went into effect in 2014 to ensure sharing of biodiversity access and benefits.

Q) ‘Prashasan Gaon ki Ore’ Campaign, recently seen in news, is an initiative of:

NITI Aayog
Union Ministry of Home Affairs
Union Ministry of Finance
None of the above

हाल ही में समाचारों में रहा ‘प्रशासन गांव की ओर’ अभियान किसकी एक पहल है?

नीति आयोग
केंद्रीय गृह मंत्रालय
केंद्रीय वित्त मंत्रालय
इनमे से कोई भी नहीं

Explanation :

Union Minister for Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions will inaugurate the Prashasan Gaon ki Ore (governance towards village) on December 19, 2022.

It is a nationwide campaign under the Good Governance Week 2022.
The Nationwide campaign for Redressal of Public Grievances and Improving Service Delivery will be held in all Districts, States and Union Territories of the country.
Over 700 District Collectors will participate in the Campaign and officials will be visiting Tehsils and Panchayat Samiti Headquarters.
Over 3,100 new government services will be added for online delivery during the five-day good governance week.
The good governance week, or Sushasan Saptah, will witness the nation’s grievance redressal platforms functioning in unison — grievances received on Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) will be redressed along with grievances received on State portals.

Q) The Chairman of ‘G.S.T. Council’ in India is

Revenue Secretary
Finance Secretary
Home Minister
Finance Minister

जीएसटी के अध्यक्ष परिषद’ भारत में है

राजस्व सचिव
वित्त सचिव
गृह मंत्री
वित्त मंत्री

Explanation:

About GST Council:
It is an apex committee to modify, reconcile or makes recommendations to the Union and the States on GST, like the goods and services that may be subjected to or exempted from GST, model GST laws, etc.
Article 279A of the Indian Constitution empowers the President of India to constitute a joint forum of the Centre and States called the GST Council.
The GST Council is chaired by the Union Finance Minister and other members are the Union State Minister of Revenue or Finance and Ministers in charge of Finance or Taxation of all the States.

Q) ‘Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA)’ is sometimes seen in the news in the context of negotiations held between India and

European Union
Gulf Cooperation Council
United States of America
Shanghai Cooperation Organization

बेसिक एक्सचेंज एंड कोऑपरेशन एग्रीमेंट (BECA) ‘को कभी-कभी समाचारों में भारत और के बीच हुई बातचीत के संदर्भ में देखा जाता है

यूरोपीय संघ
खाड़ी सहयोग परिषद
संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका
शंघाई सहयोग संगठन

Explanation:

India-US has cordial defence relations. India accorded US ‘Strategic Trade Authorization Tier 1 status’ in 2018 while the US accorded India ‘Major Defence Partner’ status in 2016. It allows high-technology product sales between the two militaries.
Other Agreements between the two nations: GSOMIA (2002), LEMOA (2016), COMCASA (2018), BECA (2020)

Q) The term ‘Base Erosion and Profit Shifting’ is sometimes seen in the news in the context of

mining operation by multinational companies in resource-rich but backward areas
curbing of the tax evasion by multinational companies
exploitation of genetic resources of a country by multinational companies
lack of consideration of environmental costs in the planning and implementation of developmental projects

‘बेस इरोजन एंड प्रॉफिट शिफ्टिंग’ शब्द को कभी-कभी समाचारों में किस संदर्भ में देखा जाता है?

बहुराष्ट्रीय कंपनियों द्वारा संसाधन संपन्न लेकिन पिछड़े क्षेत्रों में खनन संचालन
बहुराष्ट्रीय कंपनियों द्वारा कर अपवंचन पर अंकुश लगाना
बहुराष्ट्रीय कंपनियों द्वारा किसी देश के अनुवांशिक संसाधनों का शोषण
विकास परियोजनाओं की योजना और कार्यान्वयन में पर्यावरणीय लागत के विचार की कमी

Explanation:

Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) refers to tax planning strategies used by multinational enterprises that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to avoid paying tax.
Developing countries’ higher reliance on corporate income tax means they suffer from BEPS disproportionately.
BEPS practices cost countries USD 100-240 billion in lost revenue annually.

Q) In the Constitution of India, ‘water’ is a matter included in