The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 30 September 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis of 30 September, 2023 by StudyIQ. The Hindu Newspaper Analysis Today PDF covering all major news of The Hindu. The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 29 September 2023

The government should not tinker with the age of consent — currently 18 years — under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the Law Commission said in a report made public on Friday. Instead, it advised the introduction of “guided judicial discretion” while sentencing in cases that involve the tacit approval of children in the 16 to 18 years age bracket.
The 22nd Law Commission, headed by Justice (Retired) Ritu Raj Awasthi, submitted its report (no. 283) to the Law Ministry on September 27. It was posted on the Ministry website on Friday.
In the report, the Law panel noted that certain amendments would be required in the POCSO Act, 2012 to remedy the situation in cases involving tacit approval, though not consent under law, on the part of children aged between 16 and 18 years.

The Hindu Editorial Today

POCSO Act came into effect on 14th November 2012 which was enacted in consequence to India’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992.
The aim of this special law is to address offences of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children, which were either not specifically defined or in adequately penalised.
The Act defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years. The Act provides punishment as per the gravity of offence.

Most States have a policy to fill up 30% or 33% of the vacant posts (of direct recruitment) with women in their police forces
The reservation for women in the State armed police forces is restricted to 10% in some States. Women are generally recruited against notified vacancies after permission is granted by the government to fill up vacancies.
According to National Crime Records Bureau data, about 10% of the total crime defined under the Indian Penal Code was committed against women and about 5.3% of total arrested persons in 2021 were women. Therefore, the available women force is insufficient even in dealing with cases that are related to women.
Women are also needed for law-and-order and day-to-day duties. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act has further enlarged the scope of women recruitment in the police force.
‘Police’ being a ‘State’ subject in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, the implementation of ‘police reforms’ remains primarily a concern of the States.
Efforts should be made to encourage more women to join the police force — for this, a conductive environment and basic infrastructure are a minimum necessity.

Hill areas in Manipur will continue to be under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) for another six months from October.
The State government has issued a notification to extend the law’s imposition to the whole State, barring the areas falling under 19 police stations in the Imphal valley.

In normal circumstances, the only question that may have arisen is whether AFSPA is needed any longer. However, given the violent ethnic conflict since this May between the Meitei and the Kuki communities, the exclusion of the Imphal Valley from its purview even while extending it elsewhere comes across as quite ironical.
The Centre should not delay any further a serious initiative to bring about reconciliation between the two communities, lest the situation fester and deteriorate.

The move by the Philippines to remove a 300-metre floating barrier installed by China near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and Beijing’s warning to Manila asking it “not to stir up trouble” underscore how delicate the situation is in one of the world’s busiest waters.
The U.S. and its Paciﬁc allies might get dragged into a conflict between China and the Philippines, potentially turning the South China Sea into a battle theatre, which is in nobody’s interest.
Both China and the Philippines should be mindful of the risks that their actions pose to the world and be ready to engage in talks and establish guardrails, ensuring stability in their volatile relationship.

Output at the eight core infrastructure sectors rose by a combined 12.1% in August, the fastest pace in 14 months, with five reporting double-digit growth, spurring hopes of a healthy uptick in industrial production last month.
This was the second straight month that all eight sectors, which constitute about 40% of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), recorded an uptick, after a 14-month streak of uneven trends.
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.
Core Industries
The core sector is an aggregate of 8 core sectors that are fundamental to the Indian economy.
These are Coal, Crude oil, Natural gas, Refinery products, Fertilisers, Steel, Cement and Electricity.
These 8 sectors constituting the core sector are important because they account for nearly 40.27% of the overall IIP and hence have long term repercussions for corporate profit growth as well as for the overall GDP growth.
The growth of the country’s eight core sectors is a lead indicator of the monthly industrial performance.
The Office of Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in the Commerce and Industry Ministry releases the Index of Eight Core Industries.
Index of Industrial Production
It is one of the Prime indicators of economic development for the measurement of trends in the behavior of Industrial Production over a period of time with reference to a chosen base year.
It indicates the relative change of physical production in the field of industries during a specified year as compared to the previous year.
It is computed and published by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) on a monthly basis.