UPSC Daily Current Affairs- 8th December 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-I

Context

The Sherpas of the G20 countries and invitees from countries and international organisations recently visited the famous Kumbhalgarh Fort in Udaipur.

GS-II

Context

VP asked the two Houses for not taking cognizance, over the last seven years, of the 2015 Supreme Court judgment setting aside the Constitutional amendment to constitute the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC).

Background

• Since few days, Judiciary and Executive are at loggerheads.
• VP pointed out that the amendment had been passed with unprecedented support by both Houses and approval from 16 State Assemblies.
• However, on October 16, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that it was not in consonance with the basic structure of the Constitution, and scrapped the legislation.

What was NJAC?

• The NJAC was a body which was proposed to make appointments of Chief Justices, Supreme Court judges, and High Court judges in a more transparent manner as compared to the existing collegium system.
• It sought to replace the Collegium System.
• It was proposed via the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014.
• The bill was passed by both the houses; Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and also received the President’s assent.
• The commission was established by the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2014.
• The Act proposed that the members of NJAC would be composed of members from the legislative, judicial, and civil society.

Composition of NJAC

• Chief Justice of India would be the Chairman of the NJAC
• Two senior-most judges of the Supreme Court
• The Law and Justice Minister
• Two eminent persons would be selected by a committee which would be composed of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Opposition

Why was the NJAC Act struck down?

• The five-judge SC bench struck down the NJAC Act along with the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act in a 4:1 ratio.
• It was repealed by a five-judge bench, famously known as the Fourth Judges Case, 2015.
• It was termed ‘unconstitutional’ and was struck down, citing it as having affected the independence of the judiciary.

Benefits of the NJAC Act

Justice Chelameshwar praised the NJAC Act because-

• Transparent process: It involved a smooth and transparent process for the appointment of judges.
• Brings checks and balances: the exclusion of checks and balances principle leads to the destruction of the basic structure of the Constitution.
• Seeks balance of power: In a democratic setup, the executive cannot be completely excluded.
• Global examples: In the dissent order, an example of the United States of America was given, where the head of the Executive is conferred with the power to appoint the judges.

Issues with collegium system

• Alleged favouritism: The collegium system does not provide any guidelines or criteria for the appointment of the Supreme Court judges and it increases the ambit of favouritism.
• Ambiguous process: The absence of an administrative body is also a reason for worry because it means that the members of the collegium system are not answerable for the selection of any of the judges.
• Isolating the executive: The check and balance principle is necessary because it ensures that no organ of democracy is exercising its power in an excessive manner.
• Extra-constitutional nature: The collegium system tells us that even though the collegium system is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, rather it has evolved over a period of time from different landmark cases.
• Lack of transparency: Nepotism has been often witnessed in the judiciary due to a lack of criteria for the appointment of judges.

What can we, as aspirants, observe here?

• After analyzing both NJAC and the collegium system, it can be inferred that neither of the methods is complete and both lack certain aspects.
• Many former judges and legal experts are supporting the NJAC.
• However, legal jurists are divided on NJAC, with some supporting it while others calling for amendments to the Act.
• It is quite evident that neither the collegium system nor the NJAC is accurate; both have some shortcomings.

Way forward

• NJAC needs to be amended to keep the judiciary independent.
• According to Justice Deepak Gupta, retired senior civil servants need to be inducted into the body appointing judges.
• The Supreme Court needs to lay down certain guidelines for appointing judges and those guidelines should be strictly followed and codified.
• Apart from that, all the notifications should be issued in the public domain to make the process more transparent.

Source: Indian Express

Context

Big industry do not follow labour standards in India, representatives of worker unions said at the ongoing Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting of the International Labour Organization (APRM of ILO).

Context

The State of Punjab has recently furthered the cause of right to life and personal liberty of prisoners by allowing conjugal visits for inmates.

GS-III

Context

Crimes against tourists and other foreign nationals appear to be on the rise in India. Consider several recent cases, and the lessons they suggest.

Some of the recent cases of crime against tourists

• A case of rape and murder in Kerala: A few days ago, a Kerala session court sentenced two men to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a Latvian tourist in 2018.
• A case of a rape of a girl child in Goa: A 12-year-old Russian girl was raped in a hotel in Goa on April 6 this year. The rapist was an employee of the hotel in which the girl was staying with her mother.
• A case extortion in Gurugram: An Iraqi couple staying at a hotel in Gurugram for the treatment of the husband in the Medanta hospital was accosted by two miscreants posing as policemen on October 23. They accused the couple of carrying drugs and on the pretext of checking their wallets, fled with $15,000 the couple had saved for the treatment.
• A case of sexual misconduct in Delhi: On September 2, a British woman lawyer lodged a complaint of sexual misconduct against a cab driver who was ferrying her from the airport to her hotel in South Delhi. The incident traumatized her to the extent that she left for the U.K. within two days of her arrival.

Status of Crimes against foreigners

• Drastic decline in cases of crimes against foreigners in Delhi: According to data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Delhi recorded 27 cases of crime against foreigners last year, a drastic decline from 62 cases reported in 2020 and 123 in 2019.
• Sharp reduction Rajasthan: Rajasthan has shown a sharp reduction in registration of crimes from 16 in 2019 to just 4 in 2020 and two cases last year, which could be attributed to the sharp decline in tourist arrivals due to COVID-19.
• Though there is a decline in cases but the data is still shameful and to be studied: As many as 29 foreigners were murdered in the last three years. While 14 foreigners fell victim to rape last year, 16 were raped in 2020 and 12 in 2019. As many as 15 cases of assault to outraging modesty of foreign women were registered last year across the country, apart from 14 complaints of cheating. While 142 cases of theft were lodged by foreigners in 2019, it declined to 52 in 2020 and further dipped to 23 in 2021.
• Women are more prone and most cases go unreported: Women are more prone to sexual attacks by criminals on the prowl in tourist destinations. For every crime committed against foreigners, there would be several others that go unreported for multifarious reasons, with one of them being the fear instilled in them by the threats of these criminals. In the South Delhi incident, the British national was reluctant to lodge a formal complaint out of fear

How do such cases of crimes against tourists tarnish our image?

• Not only dents our image but also impacts on tourism: Crime against foreigners not only dents our image globally but could also adversely affect the inflow of foreign tourists, which is a vital source of income for our country.
• It impacts Tourism sector which is one of the significant sources of FOREX: Tourism happens to be one of the biggest foreign exchange earners for India. Such cases may leave tourists morale down and they may lose sense of security.

What is Tourist police scheme and what steps can be taken to ensure security of the Tourists?

• Booklet on the tourist police scheme and tourist police stations: The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) has brought out a booklet on the tourist police scheme detailing the mode of setting up of tourist police stations and control rooms, outposts, uniforms, recruitment, qualifications, training and logistics requirements for tourist police stations.
• Identified tourist spots: As many as 25 popular tourist spots have been identified in the country where the tourist police necessarily need to be deployed to help foreigners. As an incentive, 30% deputation allowance has been recommended for the police personnel who joins the tourist police on deputation.
• Identified Criminals in and around tourists’ spots need to be kept on constant surveillance: While the setting up of tourist police stations is a commendable step to provide safety to foreigners, much needs to be done to instil a sense of security in them even before they leave their countries for India. With theft being the most common crime committed against foreigners, all criminals in and around tourist spots need to be identified and kept under constant surveillance.
• Fast track courts should be set immediately to try cases of crimes against tourists: Since foreigners come for short durations, the cases cannot be allowed to linger on in courts for long. Fast track courts should be set up immediately to try cases of crime against foreigners and the culprits punished speedily. It may be recalled that a rape convict, Bitihotra Mohanty, was tried for raping a German national in Alwar (Rajasthan) on March 21, 2006 and he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment on April 12, that is, within 22 days.

A positive step by Ministry of Tourism

• For the effective implementation of Tourism police scheme: In order to provide a safe environment for tourists, the Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD), organised a conference in New Delhi on October 19, 2022. It was organised with a view to “sensitise the specific requirements of the tourists for effective implementation of Uniform Tourist Police Scheme at pan-India level”.
• States that have tourist police: Though the concept of ‘tourist police’ has been in vogue for the past few years, it has not been given the kind of attention it deserves. The States that have tourist police are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Rajasthan and Kerala.
• Delhi a neglected state is gearing up for tourist police wing: In view of the forthcoming G20 Summit, the Delhi police is gearing up its tourist police wing, which was hitherto in a neglected state and so are other States which will see a huge influx of foreigners.

Conclusion

• With optimistic predictions of about 13.34 million foreign tourists arriving by 2024, there is a pressing need to upgrade our security systems specially to provide a flawless security blanket cover to foreign tourists. Safety assumes utmost importance to draw tourists in hordes.

Source: Indian Express

Context

 Last week, OpenAI, introduced a new chatbot called ChatGPT.

About ChatGPT:

• ChatGPT is a ‘conversational’ AI.
• It is based on the company’s GPT 3.5 series of language learning models (LLM).
• GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3
• This is a kind of computer language model that relies on deep learning techniques to produce human-like text based on inputs.
• It has gone viral is because of the kind of responses it gives, being seen as a replacement for much of the daily mundane writing, from an email to even college-style essays.
• The model is trained to predict what will come next, and that’s why one can technically have a ‘conversation’ with ChatGPT.
• It is trained using “Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).”
• OpenAI uses Microsoft Azure’s cloud infrastructure to run these models.
• Users have the option of downvoting or upvoting a response.

How to access:

• Currently, it is open in beta to all users.
• One can go to the OpenAI website and sign up to try out ChatGPT by creating an account.
• The chatbot has already crossed one million users, and you might get a message that the beta is full.

Application:

• It will answer queries just like a human would.
• Such as tips on how to set up a birthday party, write an essay on why parliamentary democracy is better, and even a fictional meeting between two well-known personalities.
• It can answer follow-up questions and can also admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.
• It is being seen as a replacement for the basic emails, party planning lists, CVs, and even college essays and homework.
• It can also be used to write code, solve math equations, and even spot errors in code.
• It can write fiction but not at the level of a humans.

Limitations:

• It may generate incorrect information, and create “biased”
• Its knowledge of the world and events after 2021 is limited
• It could give “plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical”
• It can sometimes overuse certain phrases
• The chatbot displayed clear racial and sexist biases
• The chatbot gives answers which are grammatically correct and read well– though some have pointed out that these lack context and substance, which is largely true.

About Open AI:

• ChatGPT is a start-up of Open AI focused on artificial intelligence and its potential use cases.
• OpenAI’s notable investors include Microsoft, Khosla Ventures and Reid Hoffman’s charitable foundation. Greg Brockman is the company’s chairman and president, while Sam Altman is the CEO. Ilya Sutskever is Open AI’s chief scientist.
• The company is best known for Dall-E — the AI-based text-to-image generator

Source: Indianexpress

RoDTEP Scheme gets extended to Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals and Articles of Iron & Steel under chapters 28, 29, 30 and 73 of ITC(HS) schedule of items.

About the scheme:

• RoDTEP stands for Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products.
• The scheme is being implemented from 1st January 2021
• It replaced MEIS (Merchandise Exports from India Scheme).
• RoDTEP is based on the globally accepted principle that taxes and duties should not be exported, and taxes and levies borne on the exported products should be either exempted or remitted to exporters.
• The RoDTEP scheme rebates/refunds the embedded Central, State and local duties/taxes to the exporters that were so far not being rebated/refunded.
• The rebate is issued as a transferable electronic scrip by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) in an end-to-end IT environment.
• Quick verification through digitisation – Verification of the records of the exporters will be done with the help of an IT-based risk management system to ensure speed and accuracy of transaction processing.
• The ICEGATE portal (Indian Customs Electronic Gateway) will contain the details regarding the credits availed by the exporter.

Aim:

• to boost exports which were relatively poor in volume previously.
• to support domestic industry and make it more competitive in the international markets.
• Export centric industries are being reformed and introduced to better mechanisms to increase their competitiveness, boost exports, generate employment and contribute to the overall economy.
• Achieving our vision of building an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

Source : PIB