UPSC Daily Current Affairs- September 19, 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-I

Context

The Government of India began its year-long celebrations for the ‘Telangana Liberation Day’ on September 17, marking how on the same day in 1948, the state of Hyderabad got its independence from Nizam’s rule, as said in a press release.

Why in news?

• From 1911 to 1948, Nizam Mir Usman Ali, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, ruled the state composed of Telangana and parts of present-day Karnataka and Maharashtra (Marathwada).
• While these states mark the Liberation Day officially, Telangana has never done so.

Who were the Razakars and the Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen?

• By October 1946, the Nizam banned the AMS.
• A close aide of the Nizam, Qasim Razvi, leader of the Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, became closely involved in securing the Nizam’s position.
• The Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen was a political outfit that sought a greater role for Muslims in the early 20th century, but after Razvi took over the organisation, it became extremist in its ideology.
• It was under him that a militia of the ‘Razakars’ was formed to suppress the peasant and communist movement, launching a brutal attack.
• Around this time, the Standstill Agreement was also signed between the Nizam and the Indian government in November 1947, declaring a status quo.
• This meant that until November 1948, the Nizam could let things be as they were and not finalise a decision as negotiations with the Indian union continued.

How did the situation escalate to military action?

• In the first half of 1948, tensions grew as the razakar leaders and the government in Hyderabad began to speak of war with India and began border raids with Madras and Bombay Presidencies.
• As a response, India stationed troops around Hyderabad and began to ready itself for military intervention.

India commences Operation Polo

• With the Nizam importing more arms and the violence of the Razakars approaching dangerous proportions, India officially launched ‘Operation Polo’ on September 9 and deployed its troops in Hyderabad four days later.
• On September 17, three days after the deployment, the Nizam surrendered and acceded to the Indian Union in November.
• India has decided to be generous and not punish the Nizam.
• He was retained as the official ruler of the state and given a privy purse of five million rupees.

The legacy of Operation Polo

• It has also been said that the army’s march into Hyderabad did not just target the razakars and the radical extremist forces.
• A four-member goodwill mission led by Pandit Sunderlal was constituted by the then Prime Minister.
• At the request of then PM Nehru, a month was spent in Hyderabad in November 1948 where evidence was gathered and at the end, a report was filed.
• Estimated thousands of people died in communal violence during the military action.

Why debate now?

• The debate about whether the day of independence was about integration into the Indian union after months of negotiations, or liberation from an autocratic monarch has continued.
• Hyderabad’s history continues to affect today’s politics.
• After Qasim Rizvi left India for Pakistan, the organisation was handed over to Abdul Wahed Owaisi, the grandfather of a present day Parliamentarian.
• And communal-sectarian politics is storming up the city of Hyderabad leading to religious tensions.

GS-II

Context

Recently, India and Cambodia co-chaired the 19^th ASEAN-India Economic Ministers’ meeting in Cambodia.

• The Economic Ministers or their representatives from all the 10 ASEAN countries attended the meeting.

What are the Highlights of the Meeting?

• Noted Economic Relations: The Ministers noted that trade and economic relations between ASEAN and India are starting to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the two-way trade between ASEAN and India reached USD 91.5 billion in 2021 increasing by 39.2% year-on-year.
• ASEAN India Business Council: The Ministers also took note of the recommendations made by ASEAN India Business Council (AIBC) to enhance the ASEAN India economic partnership and the activities undertaken by AIBC in 2022.
  • ASEAN India-Business Council (AIBC) was set up in March 2003 as a forum to bring key private sector players from India and the ASEAN countries on a single platform for business networking and sharing of ideas.
• Post Covid-19 Recovery: Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to take collective actions to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic and work towards a sustainable post-Covid-19 recovery.
• Supply Chain Connectivity: The Ministers welcomed ASEAN and India to forge collective actions in securing a robust supply chain connectivity to maintain the flow of essential goods and services through ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) Upgrade Negotiations, mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination, vaccines production, public health surveillance, and medical technologies.
• ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement
  • The Ministers endorsed the Scope of the Review of the AITIGA to make it more user-friendly, simple, and trade facilitative for businesses, as well as responsive to the current global and regional challenges including supply chain disruptions.
  • The Ministers also activated the AITIGA Joint Committee to undertake the review of AITIGA expeditiously.

What is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations?

• About
  • It is a regional grouping that promotes economic, political, and security cooperation.
  • It was established in August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the founding fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
  • Its chairmanship rotates annually, based on the alphabetical order of the English names of Member States.
  • ASEAN countries have a total population of 650 million people and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 2.8 trillion.
  • Commodity trade between India and ASEAN region has reached 98.39 billion in the period April 2021- February 2022.India’s main trading ties are with Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.
• Members: ASEAN brings together ten Southeast Asian states – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – into one organisation.

Context

Recently, the 9th National Level Exhibition and Project Competition (NLEPC) for the INSPIRE Awards – MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge), has commenced.

What is the INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) Award?

• About
  • It is aligned with the ‘Start-up India’ initiative and is being executed by DST (Department of Science and Technology) with National Innovation Foundation – India (NIF), an autonomous body of DST.
  • Under this, the students are invited from all government or private schools throughout the country, irrespective of their educational boards (national and state).
  • Financial support of Rs 10,000 each would be provided so that they could develop prototypes of the ideas which they submitted for the scheme.
  • As a next step, they competed at respective District Level Exhibition and Project Competition (DLEPC) and State Level Exhibition and Project Competition (SLEPC) and finally National Level Exhibition and Project Competition (NLEPC).
• Aim: To motivate students to become future innovators and critical thinkers.
• Objectives
  • To target one million original ideas/innovations rooted in science and societal applications to foster a culture of creativity and innovative thinking among school children.
  • To address the societal needs through science and technology and nurture them to become sensitive and responsible citizens and innovation leaders of tomorrow.
• INSPIRE Awards 2022
  • The INSPIRE Awards were presented to 60 Start-Ups and financial support was provided to 53,021 students.
  • It touched an unparalleled level of inclusivity by representing ideas and innovations of 702 districts of the country (96%) including 123 out of 124 aspirational districts, with 51% representation from girls, 84% participation from schools located in rural areas of the country and 71% of the schools run by the State / UT Governments.

What do we Know about INSPIRE Scheme?

• The INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
• Its objective is to communicate to the youth population of the country the creative pursuit of science and attract talent to the study of science at an early stage and build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the Science & Technology system and Research & Development base.
• The Government of India has successfully implemented the INSPIRE scheme since 2010. The scheme covers students in the age group of 10-32 years and has five components.
  • The INSPIRE Awards- MANAK is one of its components.

What are the Other Related Initiatives?

• Draft National Science Technology and Innovation Policy, 2020: Its aim is to identify and address strengths and weaknesses of the Indian Science Technology and Innovation (STI) ecosystem to catalyse socio-economic development of the country and also make the Indian STI ecosystem globally competitive.
• SERB-POWER Scheme: It is a scheme designed exclusively for women scientists to mitigate gender disparity in science and engineering research in various science and technology (S&T) programmes in Indian academic institutions and Research and Development (R&D) laboratories.
• Swarna Jayanti Fellowship: It provides special assistance and support to a selected number of young scientists with a proven track record to enable them to pursue basic research in frontier areas of science and technology.

Context

Over the recent years India’s manoeuvres in indo-pacific have highlighted the India’s geopolitical and ambitions. Pandemic and Chinese incursion in Ladakh forced India to move fast to achieve its geopolitical ends. However missing link in India’s endeavour is geoeconomics.

What is mean by geopolitics and geo-economics?

• Geopolitics: is defined as the struggle over the control of geographical entities with an international and global dimension, and the use of such geographical entities for political advantage.
• Geo-economics: is defined as the combination of economic and geographic factors relating to international trade and a governmental policy guided by geoeconomics.
• Geopolitics and geoeconomics are sometimes used interchangeably.

What is the strategy to pursue geopolitical goals in indo-pacific?

• India has managed to emerge as a major pivot of the global Indo-Pacific grand strategic imagination.
• Avoided the temptations to militarise/securitise the Quad (Australia, Japan, India and the United States).
• Which has ensured that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) states do not feel uneasy by the ever-increasing balance of power articulations in the Indo-Pacific.

What is the missing link in India’s geopolitical strategy?

• The missing link in geoeconomics is India’s decision to take to the Indo-Pacific and Quad in a big way.
• While unwilling to join two of the region’s key multilateral trading agreements goes to show that geoeconomics and geopolitics are imagined and pursued parallelly in New Delhi, not as complimenting each other.
• The most recent example is India’s refusal to join the trade pillar of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) while deciding to join the three other pillars of the IPEF supply chains, tax and anti-corruption, and clean energy.
• India also withdrew from ASEAN led RCEP.

Is the lack of geoeconomic bad for foreign policy?

• The absence of the world’s fifth largest economy from various regional trading platforms will invariably boost China’s geo-economic hegemony in Asia.
• Staying out of IPEF is a bad idea is because for India, it would be hard to integrate itself into the regional and global supply chains without being a part of important regional multilateral trading agreements.
• We have no option but to address some of the deeper challenges plaguing the investment and business environment in India.
• If India is indeed serious about its maritime grand strategy, which cannot be solely military in nature, it needs to get the states in the region to create economic stakes in India (something China has done cleverly and consistently) and vice-versa.
• Another impact of India’s hesitation about joining regional multilateral trading arrangements is its potential regional economic isolation. The less India engages with the region economically, and the more China does so, and given the Sino-Indian rivalry, India might risk getting economically isolated in the broader region.

What can be done?

• New Delhi should: rethink its geoeconomic choices if it is serious about enhancing its geopolitical influence in the region. Given that India has not closed the door on the trade pillar of the IPEF, we have an opportunity to rethink our position.
• India should: also rethink its decision not to join the RECP and seek to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) from which the U.S. walked out and China is seeking to join.
• India should: also proactively lobby to become a part of the Minerals Security Partnership, the U.S.-led 11-member grouping to secure supply chains of critical minerals.

Conclusion

• In the words of external affairs minister Dr. Jaishankar,” geopolitics follows the geoeconomics and not vice-versa”. Geoeconomics is inclusive of geoeconomics. 
• India should integrate itself into multilateral trading platforms and leverage its big market to bargain the best deal for itself.

Context

After much discontent on the High Court (HC) verdict in the three capitals case, the Andhra Pradesh government has finally challenged it in the Supreme Court through a special leave petition (SLP).

AP’s move for three capitals

• AP had introduced a ‘Three Capitals Act’ titled Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act, 2020.
• Thus, it was decided that:
  • Amaravati was to be the Legislative capital
  • Visakhapatnam the Executive capital and
  • Kurnool the Judicial capital
• However, the Andhra Pradesh High Court repealed this Act citing that the legislature has no competence to enact any law for shifting the three organs of the capital.

Concerns raised by AP government

• AP contended that the judgement was in violation of the basic structure of the Constitution as the HC cannot hold that the State does not have the powers to decide on its capital.
• The judgement was against the doctrine of separation of powers as it sought to preempt the legislature from taking up the issue (of three capitals).
• Further, it is argued that under the federal structure of the Constitution, every State has an inherent right to determine where it should carry out its capital functions from.

Reasons for AP’s consideration

• Viable option of Visakhapatnam
  • Vizag always had been the biggest city, after Hyderabad, even in the combined State.
  • It has all the settings to become a good living space.
• Sri Krishna panel recommendations
  • The advantages and qualities of Visakhapatnam to become the capital was elaborately deliberated by the Sri Krishna Committee to study the alternatives for a new capital for the State of Andhra Pradesh.
  • Coming to suggestion for the alternative capital, the Committee primarily took up three things for consideration — creation of single city or super city in greenfield location, expanding existing cities and distributed development.
• Decentralisation
  • This idea was elaborately described in the Sri Bagh pact.
  • The pact clearly defined decentralisation, for the benefit of all three main regions such as Coastal AP, Godavari and Krishna districts and Rayalaseema.

Major practical problems

• Continuum of work: The government argues that the Assembly meets only after gaps of several months, and government Ministers, officers, and staff can simply go to Amaravati when required.
• Logistics nightmare: coordinating between seats of legislature and executive in separate cities will be easier said than done.
• Time and costs of travel: The distances in Andhra Pradesh are not inconsiderable. Executive capital Visakhapatnam is 700 km from judicial capital Kurnool, and 400 km from legislative capital Amaravati.

Examples of multi-capital states in India

• Among Indian states, Maharashtra has two capitals– Mumbai and Nagpur (which holds the winter session of the state assembly).
• Himachal Pradesh has capitals at Shimla and Dharamshala (winter).
• The former state of Jammu & Kashmir had Srinagar and Jammu (winter) as capitals where Darbar Move is carried out.

Context

The EC has been on a mission to clean up the list of registered unrecognized political parties, deleting 284 since May for either being untraceable during a physical check or not responding to communications.

Why de-list political parties?

• The news highlights the tale of a Bharatiya XYZ Party.
• Its registered address, the ground floor of a Delhi Development Authority flat, has been home to a family since they purchased the house in 2008.

When is a party de-registered?

• The EC’s recent order has highlighted that a party must contest an election within five years of its registration, and should continue to contest thereafter.
• If the party does not contest elections continuously for six years, the party shall be taken off the list of registered parties.

Registering a Political Party

• The registration of all political parties is governed by the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
• According to the Election Commission (EC), any party seeking registration has to submit an application to the Commission within a period of 30 days.
• This is done as per guidelines prescribed by the EC in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 29A of the RP Act, 1951.

Process of registration

• The applicant is asked to publish a proposed party name in two national daily newspapers and two local daily newspapers, and provide two days for submitting objections, if any.
• The notice for publication is also displayed on the website of the Election Commission.

Why registering with the EC is important?

• It is not mandatory to register with the Election Commission.
• However, registering as a political party with the EC has its advantage in terms of intending to avail itself of the provisions of the RP Act, 1951.
• The candidates set up by a political party registered with the EC will get preference in the matter of allotment of free symbols vis-à-vis purely independent candidates.
• More importantly, these registered political parties, over course of time, can get expanded recognition as a ‘state party’ or a ‘national party’.

How EC recognises a political party as a state or national party?

• For recognition as a NATIONAL PARTY, the conditions specified are:
  • a 6% vote share in the last Assembly polls in each of any four states, as well as four seats in the last Lok Sabha polls; or
  • 2% of all Lok Sabha seats in the last such election, with MPs elected from at least three states; or
  • recognition as a state party in at least four states.
• For recognition as a STATE PARTY, any one of five conditions needs to be satisfied:
  • two seats plus a 6% vote share in the last Assembly election in that state; or
  • one seat plus a 6% vote share in the last Lok Sabha election from that state; or
  • 3% of the total Assembly seats or 3 seats, whichever is more; or
  • one of every 25 Lok Sabha seats (or an equivalent fraction) from a state; or
  • an 8% state-wide vote share in either the last Lok Sabha or the last Assembly polls.

GS-III

Context

For the first time, scientists at the University of Oxford have been able to demonstrate a network of two entangled optical atomic clocks.

What is the news?

• The high-precision atomic clocks and quantum entanglement have been achieved altogether.
• This means the inherent uncertainty in measuring their frequencies simultaneously is highly reduced.

What are Atomic Clocks?

• An atomic clock is a clock that uses the resonance frequencies of atoms as its resonator.
• Cesium is incredibly accurate at timekeeping and is used in atomic clocks.

Fundamental limit of precision through entanglement

• Entanglement is a quantum phenomenon in which two or more particles become linked together so that they can no longer be described independently, even at vast distances.
• This is the key to reaching the fundamental limit of precision that’s determined by quantum theory.
• Previous experiments have demonstrated that entanglement between two atomic clocks in the same system can be used to improve the quality of measurements.
• This is the first time researchers have been able to achieve this between clocks in two separate remotely entangled systems.

Why do we use clocks to navigate in space?

• To determine a spacecraft’s distance from Earth, navigators send a signal to the spacecraft, which then returns it to Earth.
• The time the signal requires to make that two-way journey reveals the spacecraft’s distance from Earth, because the signal travels at a known speed (the speed of light).
• While it may sound complicated, most of us use this concept every day. The grocery store might be a 30-minute walk from your house.
• If you know you can walk about a mile in 20 minutes, then you can calculate the distance to the store.
• By sending multiple signals and taking many measurements over time, navigators can calculate a spacecraft’s trajectory: where it is and where it’s headed.

Why need atomic clocks?

• To know the spacecraft’s position within a meter, navigators’ need clocks with precision time resolution — clocks that can measure billionths of a second.
• Navigators also need clocks that are extremely stable.
• Stability refers to how consistently a clock measures a unit of time; its measurement of the length of a second, for example, needs to be the same (to better than a billionth of a second) over days and weeks.

What do atoms have to do with clocks?

• By space navigation standards, quartz crystal clocks aren’t very stable.
• After only an hour, even the best-performing quartz oscillators can be off by a nanosecond (one billionth of a second).
• After six weeks, they may be off by a full millisecond (one thousandth of a second), or a distance error of 185 miles (300 kilometers).
• That would have a huge impact on measuring the position of a fast-moving spacecraft.
• Atomic clocks combine a quartz crystal oscillator with an ensemble of atoms to achieve greater stability.

Context

The Ministry of Textiles recently cleared 23 strategic research projects worth around Rs 60 crores in Specialty fibres, Sustainable Textiles, Geotextiles, Mobiltech and Sports textiles under the National Technical Textiles Mission.

What do we know about the National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM)?

• About
  • It was approved in 2020 by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) with total outlay of Rs.1480 Crore.
  • The implementation period is four years, from FY 2020-21 to FY 2023-24.
• Aim
  • The aim of the mission is to position India as a global leader in Technical Textiles by taking the domestic market size from USD 40 billion to USD 50 billion by 2024.
  • It also supports the ‘Make in India’ Initiative promoting domestic manufacturing of related machinery and equipment.
• Components
  • First component: It will focus on research, development and innovation with an outlay of Rs. 1,000 crores.
    • The research will be at both fiber level and application-based in geo, agro, medical, sports and mobile textiles and the development of biodegradable technical textiles.
    • Research activities will also focus on the development of indigenous machinery and process equipment.
  • Second component: It will be for the promotion and development of the market for technical textiles.
    • The penetration level of technical textiles is low in India varying between 5-10% against the level of 30-70% in developed countries.
    • The Mission will aim at an average growth rate of 15-20% per annum by 2024.
  • Third component: It will focus on export promotion so that technical textile exports from the country reach from Rs 14,000 crores to Rs 20,000 crores by 2021-2022 and ensure 10% average growth every year till the Mission ends.
    • An export promotion council for technical textiles will be set up.
  • Fourth component: It will focus on education, training and skill development.
    • The Mission will promote technical education at higher engineering and technology levels related to technical textiles and its application areas.
• Scenario of Textile sector
  • The growth of technical textiles in India has gained momentum in the past five years, currently growing at an 8% per annum rate.
    • It aims to hasten this growth to the 15-20% range during the next five years.
  • Indian Technical Textiles segment is estimated at USD 16 Billion which is approximately 6% of the 250 billion USD global technical textiles market.
    • The biggest players are the USA, western Europe, China and Japan (20-40% share).
• Implementation & Governance: The mission will be implemented via a three-tier institutional mechanism which will consist of the following:
  • Mission Steering Group: The group will be authorized to approve all financial norms with respect to schemes, components and programme of the mission.
    • The group will also be entrusted with the responsibility of approving all scientific and technological research projects under the mission.
  • Empowered Programme Committee: The committee will be required to approve all projects (except research projects) within the financial limits of various programs as approved by the Mission Steering Group.
    • The committee will also be entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the implementation of various components of the mission.
  • Committee on Technical Textiles on Research, Development & Innovation: This committee will be responsible for the identification and recommendation of research projects to the Mission Steering Group for approval.
    • These projects will be related to strategic sectors such as space, security, defence, para-military, and atomic energy.

What are the Other Initiatives Related to Technical Textile?

• Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Textiles Sector: It aims to promote the production of high-value Man-Made Fiber (MMF) fabrics, garments and technical textiles.
• Harmonized System of Nomenclature (HSN) Codes for Technical Textile: In 2019, the Government of India dedicated 207 HSN codes to technical textiles to help in monitoring the data of import and export, in providing financial support and other incentives to manufacturers.
• 100% FDI under Automatic Route: The Government of India allows 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) under the automatic route. International technical textile manufacturers such as Ahlstrom, Johnson & Johnson etc have already initiated operations in India.
• Technotex India: It is a flagship event organized by the Ministry of Textiles, in collaboration with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and comprises exhibitions, conferences and seminars with the participation of stakeholders from across the global technical textile value chain.
• Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme: To improve exports and indirectly promote investments in textile machinery.