UPSC Daily Current Affairs- January 22, 2022 | Current Affairs: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - CLAT PDF Download

GS-I

Context

The iconic Amar Jawan Jyoti (AJJ) at India Gate was extinguished as a part of its merger with the flame at the National War Memorial (NWM). This has sparked a political controversy.

About Amar Jawan Jyoti

• The eternal flame at the AJJ underneath India Gate in central Delhi was an iconic symbol of the nation’s tributes to the soldiers who have died for the country in various wars and conflicts since Independence.
• Established in 1972, it was to mark India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 War, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.
• The then PM Indira Gandhi had inaugurated it on Republic Day 1972, after India defeated Pakistan in December 1971.

How the eternal flame was kept burning?

• For 50 years the eternal flame had been burning underneath India Gate, without being extinguished. 
• But on Friday, the flame was finally put off, as it was merged with another eternal flame at the National War Memorial. 
• Since 1972, when it was inaugurated, it used to be kept alive with the help of cylinders of liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG. 
• One cylinder could keep one burner alive for a day and a half. 
• In 2006 that was changed. Though a project that cost around Rs 6 lakh the fuel for the flames was changed from LPG to piped natural gas, or PNG. 
• It is through this piped gas that the flame marking the tribute to Indian soldiers had been kept alive eternally.

Reasons for its relocation

• The correct perspective is that the flame will not be extinguished, but just moved to be merged with the one at the National War Memorial. 
• The flame which paid homage to the soldiers killed in the 1971 War, does not even mention their name, and the India Gate is a “symbol of our colonial past”. 
• The names of all Indian martyrs from all the wars, including 1971 and wars before and after it are housed at the National War Memorial. 
• Hence it is a true tribute to have the flame paying tribute to martyrs there. 
• Further, it can also be seen as part of the government’s redevelopment of the entire Central Vista, of which India Gate, the AJJ and the National War Memorial are parts of.

Why was it placed at India Gate?

• The India Gate, All India War Memorial, as it was known earlier, was built by the British in 1931. 
• It was erected as a memorial to around 90,000 Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army, who had died in several wars and campaigns till then. 
• Names of more than 13,000 dead soldiers are mentioned on the memorial commemorating them. 
• As it was a memorial for the Indian soldiers killed in wars, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was established underneath it by the government in 1972.

Description of the bust

• The key elements of the Amar Jawan Jyoti included a black marble plinth, a cenotaph, which acted as a tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 
• The plinth had an inverted L1A1 self-loading rifle with a bayonet, on top of which was a soldier’s war helmet.

What else is planned with the extinguisher?

• The canopy next to the India Gate will get a statue of the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. 
• The new statue will be 28 feet high. 
• Till the statue is completed, a hologram statue of Bose will be placed under the canopy, which he will unveil on January 23. 
• The canopy used to have a statue of Kind George V, which was removed in 1968.

Why Netaji?

• January 23 this year marks his 125th birth anniversary. 
• From this year onwards, Republic Day celebrations will start on January 23, as opposed to the usual practice of starting it on January 24, to mark the birth anniversary of Bose. 
• It will end on January 30, the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. 
• The government had earlier announced that Bose’s birth anniversary would be celebrated as Parakram Divas.

What is the National War Memorial and when was it made?

• The National War Memorial, which is around 400 meters from India Gate was inaugurated in February 2019, in an area of around 40 acres. 
• It was built to commemorate all the soldiers who have laid down their lives in the various battles, wars, operations and conflicts of Independent India. 
• There are many independent memorials for such soldiers, but no memorial existed commemorating them all at the national level. 
• Discussions to build such a memorial had been ongoing since 1961, but it did not come up.

About its architecture

• The architecture of the memorial is based on four concentric circles.
• Largest is the Raksha Chakra or the Circle of Protection which is marked by a row of trees, each of which represent soldiers, who protect the country. 
• The Tyag Chakra, the Circle of Sacrifice, has circular concentric walls of honour based on the Chakravyuh. 
• The walls have independent granite tablets for each of the soldiers who have died for the country since Independence. 
• As of today, there are 26,466 names of such soldiers on these granite tablets etched in golden letters. 
• A tablet is added every time a soldier is killed in the line of duty. 
• The final is the Amar Chakra, the Circle of Immortality, which has an obelisk, and the Eternal Flame. 
• Busts of the 21 soldiers who have been conferred with the highest gallantry award of the country, Param Vir Chakra, are also installed at the memorial.

Context

Recently, the government has decided to install a grand statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate to commemorate his 125th birth anniversary and as part of the year long celebrations. 

• The Subhas Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskars, for the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 in the investiture ceremony will also be conferred.

About Subhas Chandra Bose

• Birth
  • Subhas Chandra Bose was born on 23rd January 1897, in Cuttack, Orissa Division, Bengal Province, to Prabhavati Dutt Bose and Janakinath Bose. 
  • His Jayanti is celebrated as 'Parakram Diwas' on 23rd January. 
• Education and Early Life
  • In 1919, he had cleared the Indian Civil Services (ICS) examination. Bose, however, resigned later. 
  • He was highly influenced by Vivekananda's teachings and considered him as his spiritual Guru. His political mentor was Chittaranjan Das. 
    • He worked as the editor for Das’s newspaper–Forward, and later started his own newspaper, Swaraj. 
• Association with Congress
  • He stood for unqualified swaraj (independence), and opposed the Motilal Nehru Report which spoke for dominion status for India.
  • He actively participated in the Salt Satyagraha of 1930 and vehemently opposed the suspension of Civil Disobedience Movement and signing of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact in 1931.
  • In the 1930s, he was closely associated with left politics in Congress along with Jawaharlal Nehru and M.N. Roy. 
  • Bose won the congress presidential elections at Haripura in 1938. 
  • Again in 1939 at Tripuri, he won the presidential elections against Gandhi's candidate Pattabhi Sitarammayya. Due to ideological differences with Gandhi, Bose resigned and left congress. Rajendra Prasad was appointed in his place. 
  • He founded a new party, 'the Forward Bloc'. The purpose was to consolidate the political left and major support base in his home state Bengal.
• Indian National Army
  • He reached Japanese-controlled Singapore from Germany in July 1943, issued from there his famous call, ‘Delhi Chalo’, and announced the formation of the Azad Hind Government and the Indian National Army on 21st October 1943.
  • The INA was first formed under Mohan Singh and Japanese Major Iwaichi Fujiwara and comprised Indian prisoners of war of the British-Indian Army captured by Japan in the Malayan (present-day Malaysia) campaign and at Singapore.
  • The INA included both the Indian prisoners of war from Singapore and Indian civilians in South-East Asia. It's strength grew to 50,000.
  • The INA fought allied forces in 1944 inside the borders of India in Imphal and in Burma. 
  • In November 1945, a British move to put the INA men on trial immediately sparked massive demonstrations all over the country.
• Death
  • He is said to have died in 1945 when his plane crashed in Taiwan. However, there are still many conspiracy theories regarding his death.

About Subhas Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar

• The annual Subhas Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar has been instituted to recognize and honour the invaluable contribution and selfless service rendered by individuals and organisations in India in the field of disaster management.
• The award is announced every year on 23rd January.
• It carries a cash prize of Rs. 51 lakh and a certificate in case of an institution and Rs. 5 lakh and a certificate in case of an individual.

Context

On the Statehood Day of Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura (21st January), Prime Minister and other leaders praised the traditions and culture of the three northeast states. 

• On 21st January, 1972, all the three states became full-fledged states under the North Eastern Region (Reorganisation) Act, 1971.

Merger of Manipur with India

• Before 15^th August 1947, peaceful negotiations had brought almost all states whose territories were contiguous to the new boundaries of India, into the Indian Union.
• The rulers of most of the states signed a document called the ‘Instrument of Accession’ which meant that their state agreed to become a part of the Union of India.
• A few days before Independence, the Maharaja of Manipur, Bodhachandra Singh, signed the Instrument of Accession with the Indian government on the assurance that the internal autonomy of Manipur would be maintained.
• Under the pressure of public opinion, the Maharaja held elections in Manipur in June 1948 and the state became a constitutional monarchy. Thus Manipur was the first part of India to hold an election based on universal adult franchise.
• In the Legislative Assembly of Manipur there were sharp differences over the question of merger of Manipur with India. The Government of India succeeded in pressuring the Maharaja into signing a Merger Agreement in September 1949, without consulting the popularly elected Legislative Assembly of Manipur.

Merger of Tripura with India

• Tripura was a princely state till the merger with the Indian union on 15th November, 1949. 
• The last king Bir Bikram who was on the throne, immediately before India's independence, died on 17th May, 1947. 
• After his demise, his minor son Kirri Bikram Mannikya took the throne of Tripura kingdom, but he could not rule as he was minor. 
• So his widow queen Kanchan Prabha took the charge of regency of Tripura and took over the administrative charges. 
• She was instrumental for Merger of the Tripura kingdom in the Indian Union.

Merger of Meghalaya into India

• In 1947 the rulers of the Garo and Khasi region acceded to the newly independent country of India. 
• Meghalaya, a small hilly state located in the North Eastern Region of India, came into existence as an autonomous state within the state of Assam on 2nd April 1970 comprising the United Khasi and Jaintia Hills and the Garo Hills districts.

GS-II

Context

It is time that we took a fresh look at the Tenth Schedule to our Constitution.

Shortcomings of the anti-defection law

• Partisan nature of Speaker: Paragraph 3 of the Tenth Schedule was omitted by the Constitution (91st Amendment) Act, 2003, which came into effect on January 1, 2004. 
• Paragraph 3, as it existed prior to the amendment, protected defectors as long as one-third of the members of a political party formed a separate group.
• In the context of small assemblies, one-third of the members could easily be cobbled together.
• Often, the speaker of the assembly was seen to be collaborating with the political party in power to protect the defectors under the one-third rule.
• Such partisan conduct of the speakers is at the heart of a non-functional Tenth Schedule. 
• The seeming political bias of the speakers acting as tribunals is apparent from how disqualification petitions are dealt with.
• We have seen this happen in Manipur, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and other jurisdictions.
• Allowing two-third members to merge with another party: After the omission of paragraph 3, paragraph 4 allowed for the protection of defecting members provided two-thirds of the members of the legislative party merged with another political party.
• This provision has invariably been misused.
• Constitutional flaw in provisions of paragraph 4: Third, there is a constitutional flaw in the manner in which the provisions of paragraph 4 have been enacted.
• Paragraph 4(1) stipulates that a member of the house will not be disqualified from his membership where his original political party merges with another political party and he claims that he and other members have become members of the other political party or a new political party is being formed by such merger.
• However, paragraph 4(2) provides that such a merger would be deemed to have taken place only if not less than two-thirds of the members of the legislative party agreed to such a merger.
• This allows for clandestine corruption where two-thirds of the members of the legislative party are bought over, by means fair or foul, to either topple governments or to strengthen a razor-thin majority of the party in power.
• This makes the entire provision unworkable and unconstitutional.
• Prolonging the proceedings: We have witnessed situations where, even though the provisions of paragraph 4 are not ex-facie attracted, the speaker of the assembly makes sure that the proceedings are interminably prolonged so that the term of the assembly comes to an end before the proceedings under the Tenth Schedule against those ex-facie defectors have been concluded.

Need for urgent attention to Article 164(1B)

• This allows for the toppling of governments by inducements of various kinds.
• The motivation is that a fresh election allows the disqualified member to be re-elected.
• He then becomes a member of the assembly once again, as its term is not over and can also be appointed a minister.
• Under Article 164(1B), such a defection has no real consequences.

Conclusion
If our polity wants to get rid of open corruption, it needs to take urgent steps to plug existing loopholes that have made the Tenth Schedule unworkable.

Context

Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) while hearing a plea by the Maharashtra government decided to recall its December 2021 order, which stayed 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local body elections. 

• The Supreme Court has entrusted the Backward Classes Commission with the responsibility of giving political reservation to OBCs in the upcoming local body elections in Maharashtra. 
• Maharashtra is not the only state where OBC reservation in local bodies was stayed. In December 2021, the top court passed a similar order for the Madhya Pradesh government, directing the OBC seats to be notified as general category for failing to comply with the three-test criteria (as stated in the 2010 judgement). 
  • Likewise, the Madhya Pradesh government has filed a similar application, claiming to have 51% OBC population in the state.

About OBC Reservation

• In March 2021, the SC asked the state government to comply with triple conditions — setting up a dedicated commission for collecting empirical data on the OBC population, specifying the proportion of reservation and ensuring that the cumulative share of reserved seats doesn’t breach 50% of total seats. 
• Following the SC order, the government appointed the dedicated commission for empirical data of OBCs and also promulgated an ordinance to give up to 27% reservation to the OBCs in local bodies without exceeding the 50% ceiling limit of the reservation. 
• However, the apex court stayed it in December 2021, saying it cannot be implemented without the empirical data, and asked the State Election Commission (SEC) to convert the OBC seats into the general category and hold the elections.

About its Plea

• The Maharashtra government claimed that the top court’s December order would result in two adverse effects. 
• The persons belonging to OBC are deprived of an opportunity to be elected to the elected positions through democratic process and fulfill the aspirations of not only the residents of the OBC community but everyone else, which helps in the development of leadership quality in such communities.
• Such inadequate representation or non-representation of OBCs is strictly contrary to the object, intent and purpose of the Constitutional scheme.
• The state also claimed that it had already complied with two of the three-fold test guidelines by appointing a commission and gathering data.
• The reservation in various districts of Maharashtra is based on the proportion of population of OBCs in the respective districts and is not a blanket reservation of 27% in all the districts in the entire state of Maharashtra.
• As an intermediate measure to justify the 27% OBC quota in local bodies, the state referred to a sample survey which said that the distribution of OBCs in the sample size was found to be 48.6%.

SC’s Direction
The Supreme Court directed the Maharashtra government to submit data on OBCs to the MSCBC (Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes) to examine its correctness and make recommendations on their representation in elections for the local bodies.

About its Implications

• The SC’s order has increased the chances of restoring the OBC quota in the upcoming local bodies polls. 
• The government data includes the various surveys of the state’s rural development department and urban development department carried out in the local bodies for poverty alleviation, health and education sectors. 
• The government is likely to refer to the data of the previous backward classes commission and the census 2011 data as well. 
• The government should ensure proper coordination with the MSCBC and the State Election Commission (SEC) and should work together to restore the OBC quota in the local bodies.

GS-III

Context

At COP-26 in Glasgow, countries got together to sign the Declaration on Forests and Land Use (or the Deforestation Declaration). However, India was among the few countries that did not sign the declaration.

About Deforestation Declaration

• It was signed by 142 countries, which represented over 90 percent of forests across the world. 
• The declaration commits to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation. 
• The signatories committed $19 billion in private and public funds to this end.

India abstained from many things

• A look at India’s positions on some other recent critical pledges and decisions related to climate change reveals a clear pattern of objections or absence. 
• At CoP26, India was not part of the dialogue on Forests, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT). 
• FACT, which is supported by 28 countries seeks to encourage “sustainable development and trade of agricultural commodities while protecting and managing sustainably forests and other critical ecosystems”. 
• India also voted against a recent draft resolution to allow for discussions related to climate change and its impact on international peace and security to be taken up at the UNSC.

Why did India abstain from joining?

• India had concerns about the linkage the declaration makes between deforestation, infrastructure development and trade. 
• Any commitment to the environment and climate change should not involve any reference to trade, cited India. 
• Analysts in India have linked the decision to a proposed amendment to the Forest Conservation Act 1980 that would ease the clearances presently required for acquiring forest land for new infrastructure projects.

Why should India join this declaration?

• Broadly speaking, all of India’s objections are based on procedural issues at multilateral fora. 
• Although justifiable on paper, these objections seem blind to the diverse ways in which climate change is linked to global trade, deforestation, agriculture, and international peace, among other issues. 
• For context, consider India’s palm oil trade. India is the largest importer of crude palm oil in the world. 
• Palm oil cultivation, covering roughly 16 million acres of land in Indonesia and Malaysia, has been the biggest driver of deforestation in the two countries.

Context

Recently, scientists investigating how the shape of dark matter affects the motion of stars in the centre of some galaxies (stellar bars) have found that out-of-plane bending can be explained through dark matter halos in barred galaxies. 

• Out of plane bending of the bar in barred galaxies is a rare violent bar thickening mechanism known as buckling. 
• A dark halo is the inferred halo of invisible material (dark matter) that permeates and surrounds individual galaxies, as well as groups and clusters of galaxies.

About Dark Matter

• Dark matter, though never detected, is believed to be present in the entire universe. 
• It is presumed that primordial black holes, those that were formed in the early age of the universe, are a source of dark matter. It was proposed by Professor Stephen Hawking. 
• It is believed that combined with dark energy, it makes up more than 95% of the universe. 
• Its gravitational force prevents stars in our Milky Way from flying apart. 
• However, attempts to detect such dark matter particles using underground experiments, or accelerator experiments including the world's largest accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), have failed so far.

Dark Matter Presence in the Universe

• Laws of gravity expect us to see stars closer to the center of galaxies rotating faster than the stars on the edge. 
  • However, in most galaxies, the stars closer to the center and the stars at the edge of the galaxies take almost the same time to make one revolution. 
• This implied that something invisible and enveloping the galaxies was giving an extra push to the outer stars, speeding them up. 
• This entity has remained as one of the unresolved puzzles in cosmology since the 1930s. It was named `Dark Matter’. 
• The material is considered to be a ‘matter’ since it has gravitational attraction and it is ‘dark’ because it does not seem to interact with light (or any part of the electromagnetic spectrum).

Dark Matter and Dark Energy

• While dark matter attracts and holds galaxies together, dark energy repels and causes the expansion of our universe. 
• Despite both components being invisible, a lot more is known about dark matter, since its existence was suggested as early as the 1920s, while dark energy wasn’t discovered until 1998.

About Dark Energy

• The Big Bang occurred nearly 15 billion years ago and expanded. 
• Earlier, astronomers believed that eventually the expansion of the Universe will slow down because of gravity and it will recollapse. 
  • However, data from the Hubble Telescope suggested that the Universe's expansion is accelerating. 
• The astronomers theorize that the faster expansion rate is due to a mysterious, dark force or energy that is pulling galaxies apart. 
  • The term ‘dark’ is used to denote the unknown. 
• The following diagram reveals changes in the rate of expansion since the universe's birth 15 billion years ago.

Context

Recently, the 4^th Asia Ministerial Conference on tiger conservation was held. 

• India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority has also decided to introduce guidelines for the reintroduction of tigers that can be used by other Tiger Range Countries.

About 4^th Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation

• The conference is an important event for reviewing progress towards the Global Tiger Recovery Programme and commitments to tiger conservation. 
• It was organized by Malaysia and Global Tiger Forum (GTF). 
• India will facilitate Tiger Range Countries towards finalisation of New Delhi declaration for the Global Tiger Summit to be held in Russia later this year (2022). 
  • A “Pre-Tiger Summit” meeting was held at New Delhi in 2010, wherein the draft declaration on tiger conservation for Global Tiger Summit was finalised. 
  • India is one of the Founding members of the intergovernmental platform of Tiger Range Countries – Global Tiger Forum. 
  • Over the years, GTF has expanded its programme on multiple thematic areas, while working closely with the Government of India, tiger states in India and tiger range countries. 
  • Tiger Range Countries in GTF: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Significance of Tiger Conservation

• Vital in Regulating Ecological Processes: Tigers, the top predators in the ecosystem, are vital in regulating and perpetuating ecological processes. 
  • Forests are known to provide ecological services like clean air, water, pollination, temperature regulation etc. 
• Maintaining Food Chain
  • It is a top predator which is at the apex of the food chain and keeps the population of wild ungulates (primarily large mammals) in check. 
  • Thus, Tiger helps in maintaining the balance between prey herbivores and the vegetation upon which they feed.

Conservation Status of Tiger

• Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I 
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List: Endangered. 
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES): Appendix I.

Tiger Population in India

• India is home to over 70% of the tiger population globally.
• India is home to 53 tiger reserves spread across 18 states and the last tiger census of 2018 showed a rise in the tiger population.
  • Guru Ghasidas (Chattisgarh) is the 53^rd Tiger Reserve.
• India has achieved the remarkable feat of doubling the tiger population in 2018 itself, 4 years ahead of the targeted year 2022 of the St. Petersburg Declaration on tiger conservation.
  • Now, the model of success of India’s tiger governance is now being replicated for other wildlife like the Lion, Dolphin, Leopard, Snow Leopard and other small wild cats, while the country is on the threshold of introducing Cheetah in its historical range.

Steps Taken

• Conservation Assured/Tiger Standards (CA/TS): 14 Tiger Reserves in India have already been awarded with international CA/TS accreditation and efforts are on to bring in more Tiger Reserves under CA/TS accreditation. 
• Project Tiger: It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) launched in 1973. It provides havens for tigers in the country’s national parks. 
• Budgetary Allocation: The budgetary allocation for tiger conservation has increased from Rs 185 crore in 2014 to Rs 300 crore in 2022. 
• Helping Frontline Staff: The Frontline staff, which is an important pillar of tiger conservation, have extended Rs 2 lakh life cover to each contractual/temporary worker under e-Sharm, a recent initiative of the Ministry of Labour and Employment and Rs 5 lakh health cover under Ayushman Yojana.