UPSC Daily Current Affairs: 9th November 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-II

Context

Government of India launched the logo, website and theme for India’s presidency of the G20, setting the tone for the country’s G20 presidency, beginning December 1. Modi’s clarion call was “One Earth, One Family, One Future”, aptly underscored by the phrase “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”.

What is G-20?

• Formed in 1999, the G20 is an international forum of the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies.
• It brings together 19 of the world’s major economies and the European Union.
• Its members account for more than 80% of global GDP, 75% of trade and 60% of population
• To tackle the problems or address issues that plague the world, the heads of governments of the G20 nations periodically participate in summits.
• India has been a member of the G20 since its inception in 1999.

Do you know the aims and objective of G20?

• The Group was formed with the aim of studying, reviewing, and promoting high-level discussion of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability.
• The forum aims to pre-empt the balance of payments problems and turmoil on financial markets by improved coordination of monetary, fiscal, and financial policies.
• It seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization.
• Its members account for more than 80% of global GDP, 75% of trade and 60% of population.

Current Global scenario and India’s G20 Presidency

• War between Russia and west: It must nonetheless countenance a complex geopolitical moment, with tensions between G7 nations and Russia over the war in Ukraine, and growing friction between the US and China.
• India’s efforts to be a meditator: PM Modi’s recent advice to President Putin that “now is not the time for war” is anchored in the ethos of peace and non-violence, the legacy of Buddha and Gandhi.
• Energy crisis: The developmental agenda must receive first billing. Differences over energy diversification and the emerging challenges in trade and technology will need reconciliation.
• Economic crisis: Stagflation in the US, China and Europe threatens to affect the global economic outlook. Policy coherence in macroeconomics and trade is an important imperative.
• Supply chain disruptions: At the “Global Supply Chain Resilience” meeting in October 2021, Modi advocated cooperation on three critical aspects trusted source, transparency and time frame to improve global supply chains. At the SCO Summit this year, he cited the disruption of supply chains due to the Ukraine crisis and spoke of the unprecedented energy and food crises.

What India can show to the world?

• Growing economy and rising stature: India’s G20 presidency coincides with its growing confidence, matched by its rising stature and high economic growth rate.
• India’s digital infrastructure: India’s commitment to digital transformation will be a key element in forging an accessible and inclusive digital public architecture. The country’s exemplary success with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Direct Benefits Transfer and Aadhaar authentication in welfare schemes has growing relevance to the developing world.
• Efforts for TRIPS waiver on vaccine: The use of the CoWIN platform enhanced vaccine accessibility and equity. India has made a strong pitch for a TRIPS waiver to ensure equitable access to vaccine production.
• Vaccine assistance to the world: India’s commitment to advancing South-South cooperation is well acknowledged. At the height of the pandemic, India provided 250 million vaccine doses to 101 countries, apart from other medical assistance.
• SAGAR and Blue Economy: India’s global initiatives in recent years such as SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in The Region), “blue economy”, “clean oceans”, and disaster-resilient infrastructure have the potential to gain traction in the G20.
• India as true climate leader: PM Modi’s “Panchamrit” announcements at COP26 — net zero by 2070, non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030, 50 per cent of energy requirement through renewables by 2030, reduction of carbon emission by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, and reduction of carbon intensity in the Indian economy to less than 45 per cent by 2030 — established India as a climate leader.

What should be India’s Priority as President of G20?

• Open application programming interface: As economies everywhere move rapidly towards digitalization, it is important to develop a consensus on an open source, open application programming interface (API) and an interoperable framework for public digital platforms on which the private sector can freely innovate. This would help maximize the impact of the digital transformation for the global public good, including new data, measurement tools, indicators of economic growth and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Promotion of LiFE philosophy: At the COP26 in Glasgow, Modi proposed Mission LiFE, which places individual behavior at the centre of the global climate action narrative. The Mission intends to establish and nurture a global network of individuals known as Pro-Planet People (P3), committed to adopting and promoting environmentally friendly lifestyles. This is based on the idea that responsible individual behavior can undo the damage wrought upon nature.
• Focus on climate financing: At COP27 as well as during its G20 presidency, India will have to focus attention on climate finance, especially a new quantified goal beyond the existing annual $100 billion pledge by Advanced Economies (AEs) to assist developing nations in climate change adaptation and mitigation from 2020 to 2025. The delayed pledge is expected to be fulfilled in 2023 during India’s presidency and from there on, the G20 needs to raise the bar.
• Clean energy partnership: The G20 presidency will provide India with an opportunity to give impetus to several of its initiatives for clean energy partnerships especially in solar, wind and hydrogen with the EU, Japan and the US. It will provide a platform to give a fillip to the idea of, “One Sun, One World, One Grid”, first mooted by Modi at the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in 2018.
• Achieving the Net Zero target: India has the scale and capacity to set a shining example of rapid and decarbonized economic growth to help realize the G20’s global net zero ambitions. A viable international framework for development and international trade in GH2, together with green ammonia and green shipping, is the key. Reliable supplies of critical minerals and technological collaborations for energy storage, including a global battery coalition, could provide answers.
• Nuclear energy as an alternative: Given the nascent support today for civilian nuclear energy in Europe due to energy market volatility, the G20 could work toward an expanded and robust civilian nuclear energy cooperation framework, including for small modular reactors.
• Reforming the multilateralism: Multilateral institutions are perceived today as unrepresentative, ineffective, or worse still, both. The call for a new multilateralism and reassessment of the Global Financial Order to ensure adequate credit enhancement and blended finance for sustainable green transitions reflects a popular global sentiment.

Conclusion

India’s presidency should represent the widest and most vulnerable constituencies, especially in South Asia. This can truly advance intra-South Asian economic integration, which is so essential for India’s rise.

Source: Indian Express

Context

The child rights body has received complaint from an NGO which alleged that the All India Mission was involved in ‘illegally converting children in India’.

About NCPCR:

• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR was established in March 2007 under an Act of Parliament (December 2005) under the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005.
• The commission’s mandate is to ensure that all laws, policies, programs and administrative systems conform to the vision of the rights of the child as enunciated in the Constitution of India as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• A child is defined as a person falling in the age group of 0 to 18 years.
• The Commission envisages a rights-based perspective, which flows into national policies and programmes, including defined responses at the state, district and block levels, considering the specifics and strengths of each region.
  • For the purpose of this, it is intended to make deep penetration into the communities and families of and it is expected that the collective experience gained in the field will be considered by all the authorities at the higher level.
• Thus, the Commission envisages an indispensable role for the state to ensure children and their well-being, strong institution-building processes, respect for local bodies and decentralization at the community level and greater social concern in this direction.

The Commission, while inquiring into any matter under Section 13(1)(j) of CPCR Act, 2005 has

all the powers of a civil court trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and, in

particular, in respect of the following matters, namely:-

• summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath;
• discovery and production of any document;
• receiving evidence on affidavits;
• requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office; and
• issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses or documents.

The Commission has also the power to forward any case to a Magistrate having jurisdiction to try the same and the Magistrate to whom any such case is forwarded shall proceed to hear the complaint against the accused as if the case has been forwarded to him under section 346 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974).

Source: The Hindu

Context

The Karnataka High Court has asked the Law Commission to rethink the age of consent under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences, or POCSO, Act 2012.

What is the Age of Consent?

• The age of consent for sex in India is 18 under the POCSO Act.
• Consent given by a girl aged below 18 is not regarded as valid and sexual intercourse with her amounts to rape.

What did the HC say?

• The aspect of consent by a girl of 16 years, but who is below 18 years, would have to be considered.
• This has to be if it is indeed an offence under the Indian Penal Code and/or the POCSO Act, said the HC.
• The offender should be booked under Section 366 of the IPC, Section 6 of the POCSO Act and Section 9 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.

What are the terms of the POCSO Act?

• Under the POCSO Act, 2012, considers a child anyone below 18 years of age.
• Even if the girl is 16 years old, she is considered a “child” under the POCSO Act and hence her consent does not matter, and any sexual intercourse is treated as rape.

Issues with such consent

• Consent is ignored: It thus opens the accused up to stringent punishment.
• Child abuse charges are ruled out: There have been several instances when the courts have quashed criminal proceedings of rape and kidnapping.
• Misuse of the provision: The court is often convinced that the law is being misused to suit one or the other party.

Is the law being misused?

• Foiling consensual relations
  • Sometimes, disgruntled parents file a case to foil a relationship between two adolescents or children on the threshold of adolescence.
  • POCSO is often used by parents who want to control who their daughters or sons want to marry.
• Coercion for marriage:
  • The study noted that in many cases, a couple elopes fearing opposition from parents resulting run away to get married.
  • The parents then book the boy for rape under the POCSO Act and abduction with the intent to marry under IPC or the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
  • Judicial interpretations for lower age of consent
  • In 2021, in the Vijaylakshmi vs State Rep case, the Madras High Court, while dismissing a POCSO case, said the definition of ‘child’ under Section 2(d) of the POCSO Act can be redefined as 16 instead of 18.
  • The court suggested that the age difference in consensual relationships should not be more than five years.
  • This, it said, will ensure that a girl of an impressionable age is not taken advantage or duped sexually of by a person who is much older.

Policy measures so far

• A parliamentary committee is looking into the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which seeks to increase the minimum age of marriage for women to 21 years.
• Rights activists feel instead of helping the community, raising the age may force vulnerable women to remain under the yoke of family and social pressures.

Way forward

• With the courts and rights activists seeking an amendment to the age of consent criteria, the ball lies in the government’s court to look into the issue.
• In the meantime, adolescents have to be made aware of the stringent provisions of the POCSO Act and also the IPC.

Source: Indian Express

Context

Recently Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Deal, which was launched to mitigate food inflation caused by conflict in Ukraine.

About Black Sea Grain Initiative:

• The Black Sea Grain Initiative was an agreement between Russia and Ukraine with Turkey and the United Nations.
• It sought to create a safe passage of food grains exported from Ukraine, which is currently in war with Russia.
• Under this agreement, export of grain, food and fertilizers will be allowed to resume from Ukraine via a “safe maritime humanitarian corridor” from three key Ukrainian ports i.e., Chornomorsk, Odesa, and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi.
• A Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) having representatives from signatories of the Black Sea Grain Initiative was set up to implement this deal.

Reasons why it was signed:

• Ukraine exports around 45 million tonnes of grain to the global market each year. However, after Russia launched military campaign in February 2022, Ukraine was left with large amount of grains stored in silos unable to be transported to other parts of the world.
• This has severely affected the global supply of grains. With the energy prices and food prices increasing because of the conflict, many countries, especially those in Africa, were at the brink of famine.
  • The Black Sea Grain Initiative sought to address these issues.
• By mid-September, over three million tonnes of cargo left Ukraine under this deal.
• About 51 per cent of the total cargo was corn, 25 per cent was wheat, 11 per cent sunflower products, 6 per cent rapeseed and 5 per cent barley.
• The rest of the cargo included soya beans and other food commodities.

Current status of the Black Sea Grain Initiative:

• Black Sea Grain deal set to expire on November 19, 2022.
• The renewal negotiations were led by the United Nations throughout October 2022.
• However, Russia pulled out of this agreement on October 29 due to drone attack on its naval ships in the port of Sevastopol.
• Despite Russia withdrawing from the deal, several grain ships continued to depart from ports in Ukraine with support from Turkey and UN.

Source: The Hindu 

GS-III

Context

India’s decision to host the special session of the United Nations Security Council’s Counter Terrorism Committee (UNSCCTC) last month held in Mumbai and New Delhi, it focused on new and emerging technologies is one of a number of events planned by the Government to give its counterterror diplomacy a greater push.

What is Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC)?

• The CTC is a subsidiary body of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
• The 15-member CTC was established at the same time to monitor the implementation of the resolution.
• In the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, the UNSC unanimously adopted resolution 1373. This among its provisions obliges all States

The Delhi Declaration on Terrorism

• On day 2 of the Special Meeting, the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) unanimously adopted the Delhi Declaration on countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes.
• Among the listed items in the Declaration include the decision to continue to work on recommendations on the three themes of the Special meeting and the intention to develop a set of non-binding guiding principles to assist Member States to counter the threat posed by the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes.
• The declaration aims to cover the main concerns surrounding the abuse of drones, social media platforms, and crowdfunding, and create guidelines that will help to tackle the growing issue.

What are the challenges to build international Consensus on counter-terrorism?

• Narrow Global War on Terrorism (GWOT): The first challenge is that the “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT), as it was conceived by a post 9/11 United States is over with the last chapter written last year, as the United States negotiated with the Taliban, and then withdrew from Afghanistan.
• Non-cooperation with India by USA and world: GWOT itself was built on an unequal campaign when India had asked for similar help to deal with the IC814 hijacking (December 1999) less than two years prior to the 9/11 attacks (with evidence now clear that those who the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was forced to release were all terrorists who went on to help with planning, funding or providing safe havens to the al-Qaida leadership), its pleas fell on deaf ears in the U.S., the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and of course, Pakistan, all of whom were hit by the same terrorists in later years.
• USA and China Escorting the Pakistan: Even after GWOT was launched, Pakistan’s role as the U.S.’s ally, and China’s “iron friend” ensured that the UNSC designations of those who threatened India the most, including Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed, never mentioned their role in attacks in India.
• FATF is becoming toothless: The maximum India received in terms of global cooperation was actually from economic strictures that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s grey list placed on Pakistan — Pakistan was cleared from this in October indicating that the global appetite to punish Pakistan for terrorism has petered out.
• Realpolitik over Global problem: In addition, the weak international reaction to the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, and its persecution of women and minorities in the country, demonstrate rising fatigue levels in dealing with “another country’s problems”.
• Ineffective UNSC resolutions: The hard reality for India is that the future of counterterrorism cooperation is going to be less cooperative, and counterterror regimes such as the UNSC Resolutions 1267, 1373, etc. rendered outdated and toothless.

How polarized world pose a challenge for fight against terrorism and the questions raised?

• Distraction due to Russia-Ukraine war: War not only shifting the focus from terrorism but is also blurring the lines on what constitutes terrorism. The CTC meeting in Delhi, for example, was disrupted over Russia’s claims that the U.K. helped Ukraine launch drone attacks on Russia’s naval fleet in Sevastopol. The question remains: if drone attacks by Yemeni Houthis on the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure were condemned as terrorist attacks, why was the line drawn for drone attacks on Russian ships in a port used for loading grain, or a bridge bombing that put so many civilian lives at risk?
• Likely recruitment of Afghan soldiers in Ukraine war: On the other hand, Russia squares up the possible recruitment of the former Afghan republic’s National Army Commando Corps into its war in Ukraine, Would not these commandos who once fought Taliban terrorists, now qualify as terrorists themselves?
• Divided UN security council: Away from the battle field, the polarisation has rendered the body tasked with global peace, paralysed, as the UNSC is unable to pass any meaningful resolutions that are not vetoed by Russia or western members, and China has been able to block as many as five terror designations requested by India and the U.S. Perhaps the biggest opportunity lost due to the UNSC’s other preoccupations has been the need to move forward on India’s proposal, of 1996, of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT).
• Convention on International Terrorism is not accepted: While each conference, including the CTC meeting in Delhi, makes passing the CCIT a goal, very little progress has been made on the actual issues such as the definition of terrorism, concerns over human rights law conflicts, and the old debate on ‘freedom fighter vs terrorist’. Despite several changes in the draft made by India in 2016, consensus for the convention is still elusive

What are New and emerging technology in terrorism?

• Drone attacks: Emerging technologies and the weaponization of a number of different mechanisms for terrorism purposes. Drones are already being used to deliver funds, drugs, weapons, ammunition and even improvised explosive devices.
• Possible bio-war: After the COVID19 pandemic, worries have grown about the use of biowarfare, and Gain of Function (GoF) research to mutate viruses and vectors which could be released into targeted populations.
• AI and robotic soldiers: In a future that is already here, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems and robotic soldiers makes it even easier to perpetrate mass attacks while maintaining anonymity.
• Cryptocurrency and terror Financing: Terror financing uses bitcoins and cryptocurrency, and terror communications use social media, the dark web and even gaming centres.

• India’s opportunity to build global consensus

• India is on forefront since long: India has been at the forefront for a call of global action against terrorism which is increasingly becoming a global phenomenon.
• India will host No money for terror conference: New Delhi will host the third edition of the “No Money for Terror” (NMFT) conference that will look at tackling future modes of terror financing.
• Using Global Counter Terrorism Architecture: In December, when India takes over the United Nations Security Council Presidency for the last time before its two-year term in the Council ends, India will chair a special briefing on the “Global Counter Terrorism Architecture”, looking at the challenges ahead.

Conclusion

With Taliban taking over Afghanistan, USA and west have practically withdrawn from global fight against terrorism. India’s efforts for global consensus on cross border terrorism is getting harder as world is polarizing. Fight against terrorism will be very arduous task for diplomacy of India.

Source: Indian Express

Context

 A group of animal biologists at the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) at Nagoya University in central Japan, have identified the pheromone involved in the mechanism that triggers puffer fish to spawn (release/deposit eggs) on beaches using moonlight.

About:

• Along coastlines around the world, at the time of the spring tide, thousands of puffer fish gather at the water’s edge and perform a writhing motion as they spawn. These fish are known as ‘semilunar spawners’.
• Puffer fish display a synchronised beach-spawning behaviour.
• This is due to release of a pheromone PGE2 into the seawater by the spawning puffers.
• Spring tide means a tide just after a new moon or full moon.

Puffer Fish (or Blow Fish):

• These clumsy swimmers fill their elastic stomachs with huge amounts of water (and sometimes air) and inflate into a ball shape to evade predators.
• Most pufferfish contain a toxic substance that makes them foul tasting and potentially deadly to other fish. The toxin is deadly to humans.
• Most puffers are found in tropical and subtropical ocean waters, but some species live in brackish and even fresh water.
• Threat: pollution, habitat loss, and overfishing

Source: The Hindu

Context

Elon Musk owned SpaceX recently launched the Falcon Heavy rocket into a geosynchronous Earth orbit in Florida, U.S. 

About Falcon Heavy Rocket:

• This is considered as a National Security Space Launch for the U.S. military.
• The company hails this as the most powerful operational rocket in the world.
• This is the fourth launch of the giant rocket system, and the first one in nearly three years since its last launch in 2019.
• The rocket is carrying satellites to space for the U.S. military in a mission named as U.S. Space Force (USSF)-44.

The mission deployed two spacecraft payloads:

• One is the TETRA 1 microsatellite created for various prototype missions in and around the geosynchronous earth orbit.
• It will place the satellites for the Space Systems Command’s Innovation and Prototyping.
• Space Systems Command (SSC) is the oldest military space organisation in the United States Armed Forces.
• It is responsible for developing, acquiring, equipping, fielding and sustaining lethal and resilient space capabilities.
• SSC mission capability areas include launch acquisition and operations, communications and positioning, navigation and timing, space sensing, battle management command, control, and communications, and space domain awareness and combat power.

Source: The Hindu

Context

• The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was recently designated by the Government of India as the implementing agency for the establishment of 100 fodder-centric Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in 2022-23.

The Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs):

• Background:
  • There is a need to facilitate Indian farmers with access to improved technology, credit, better input and more markets to incentivize themto produce better quality commodities.
  • Because more than 86% of farmers in India are small, marginal and landless, aggregating these farmers into FPOs will assist farmers improve their economic strength and market linkages, hence increasing their income.
• About FPOs:
  • FPO is a type of voluntary Producer Organisation (PO) registered under the Companies Act, 2013and controlled by farmer-members who actively participate in making decisions and setting policies.
    • The PO is a producer-led organisation that aggregates any produce, such as non-farm products, agricultural products, artisan products, etc.
  • Supported by the Small Farmers' Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), the primary operations of the FPOs include the supply of seed, market linkages and fertiliser, machinery, training, financial, networking and technical advice.
  • The main aim of the FPOs is to increase the income for the producers as a small producer does not have the volume to take advantage of economies of scale. Thus, FPOs boost farmers’ competitiveness.
• Benefits of FPOs:
  • The FPOs can engage farmers in addressing productivity issues, emanating from small farm sizes.
  • It may also result in additional employment generation because of the increased intensity of farming.
  • It allows farmer members to negotiate with corporates as a group and help small farmers in both output and input markets.
  • The FPOs can provide quality and low-cost inputs to member farmers, enable them to save time, avoid distress sales, reduce transaction costs, isolate themselves from price fluctuations, etc.
  • Social capital will develop in FPOs, improving women farmers’ decision-making and gender relations in the FPOs. It will ensure food-nutritional security and reduce social conflicts.
• Government initiatives to promote FPOs:
  • Since 2011, the government has intensively promoted the FPOs under the NABARD, SFAC, NGOs and state governments.
  • The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare stated that the FPOs are developed under ‘One District One Product’ scheme, where the agricultural/horticultural produce are grown to improve market access for members and leverage economies of scale.
  • The ongoing support for the FPOs is mainly in the form ofcash infusion(up to Rs.10 lakh to registered FPOs) and providing credit guarantee cover to lending institutions.
  • The Union Budget 2019-20 talked of setting up additional 10,000 FPOs in the next five years.
  • As a result, the Central Sector Scheme of “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” till 2027-28 was launched in 2021.

Source: Indian Express