UPSC Daily Current Affairs- January 26, 2022 | Current Affairs: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - CLAT PDF Download

GS-II

Context

This year we are celebrating our 73rd Republic Day. The Constitution has been our guiding force in the journey of the nation as a mature democracy among comity of nations.

Role of the Parliament

• Representative institutions and democratic traditions have always been an integral part of our rich heritage.
• Our Parliament has been playing a pivotal role in the all-round development of the nation by adopting many parliamentary devices for ensuring free and fair discussions and dialogue. 
• We have to ensure that our institutions and governance ensure inclusivity and the participation of our population in our developmental journey, particularly our women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and all other marginalised sections become equal partners in our growth story.

Ensuring the best legislative practices

• Repository of the proceedings: To ensure that best legislative practices are shared, a national portal is being planned to serve as a repository of the proceedings of Parliament and all State/Union Territory legislatures in the country.
• Research support is being provided to Members to help them participate better and meaningfully in matters brought before Parliament.
• Review of the laws to make them relevant: It is also time in the journey of our nation to take stock and review laws that were enacted during the pre-Independence era so as to make them more relevant to our current requirements and future challenges.

Context

• A lawsuit has been filed in the Supreme Court requesting a directive to the Electoral Commission of India (ECI) to confiscate the election symbol or de-register any political party that promises or distributes "irrational gifts" from public monies prior to the 2019 general elections in India.
• It stated that such populist methods to acquire excessive political favours from voters should be completely prohibited since they violate the Constitution, and that the ECI should adopt appropriate deterrent measures to prevent this from happening in the future.

Need for

• The petition sought the court to declare that the offer of illogical gifts from public monies before elections has an undue impact on voters, disrupts the equal playing field, and taints the integrity of the voting process. 
• In the same way that politicians bribe voters at the expense of the public purse in order to stay in power, this unethical practise must be avoided at all costs in order to preserve democratic principles and practises.

To be considered for membership in the 'National Political Party of India

• To be elected to the House of Representatives or the State Legislative Assembly, it must receive at least six percent of the valid votes cast in any four or more states in a general election.
• In addition, it obtains at least four members in the House of Representatives from any state or states in which it is represented.
• It obtains at least two percent of the seats in the House of the People (i.e., 11 seats in the current House of Representatives with 543 members), and these members are elected from at least three separate state legislatures.

To be eligible for membership in a 'State Political Party,' one must meet the following requirements

• A majority of the legitimate votes cast in a state's general election, whether for the House of the People or the State's Legislative Assembly, is required for the party to be declared victorious. 
• Aside from that, it is guaranteed at least two seats in the Legislative Assembly of the state in which it is running. 
• In order to be elected to the State Legislative Assembly, the party must win at least three percent (3 percent) of the total number of Assembly seats or at least three seats in the Assembly, whichever is greater.

Benefits

• The exclusive allotment of its reserved symbol to the candidates set up by a party recognised as a 'State Party' is granted to the candidates set up by the party in the State in which it is so recognised, and the exclusive allotment of its reserved symbol to the candidates set up by the party throughout India is granted to the candidates set up by the party throughout India is granted to the candidates set up by the party throughout India. 
• When nominating candidates for the General Elections, recognised "State" and "National" parties require only one proposer. Recognized "State" and "National" parties are also entitled to two sets of electoral rolls at no cost when the electoral rolls are revised, and their candidates are entitled to one copy of the electoral roll at no cost when the General Elections are held. 
• During general elections, they also have access to broadcast/telecast services through Akashvani/Doordarshan. 
• There is no need to account for the travel expenses of celebrity campaigners in the election expense accounts of candidates from their respective political parties.

Context

A republic is made robust and kept alive by its people. In its current form, the Indian republic marks 73 years of maintaining a dynamic balance.

Directly elected representation

• It is to the credit of our people that today we have a pyramidal three-layered elected representative system that governs us. 
• This system today has over 3 million elected representatives (a million of them women), over 4,000 elected to the state legislatures and over 500 in the Parliament. 
• This scale of directly elected representation, perhaps, can be seen nowhere else in the world.

Moral and spiritual basis of the Constitution

• In Pilgrimage to Freedom, K M Munshi writes, “our Constitution has a moral background — to secure justice for every section of our society; as also a spiritual basis — to preserve and protect all religions in the exercise of their functions”. 
• The challenges continue in securing justice for every section of our society. 
• The Backward Classes, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and the poor across all categories clamour for better opportunities and affordable justice. 
• What Munshi calls the spiritual basis of our Constitution in having to preserve and protect all religions is also seen under stress. 
• When the right to practise one’s religion is denied or threatened, the silence of the thinking public or the media weakens that constitutionally embedded protection.

Challenges posed by social media

• Through the power of technology and its capacity to broadcast at mass scale, an otherwise useful tool, social media, has become a challenge and sometimes a threat to one or several of the rights enshrined in our Constitution. 
• Curtailing them to protect the rights of citizens is seen as trampling upon the right to free speech. 
• Without any action, the damage caused to social harmony by such rampant false news can result in people losing faith in the Constitution itself.

Constitution as a living, dynamic process

• Our Constitution is the most amended of all constitutions in the world. 
• If there are more than 100 amendments made to the Constitution, there are more than 1,500 laws that have been repealed because they have outlived their times. 
• These deadwood laws, by remaining on paper, occasionally became a weapon in the hands of rent-seekers. 
• Their removal, as a part of administrative reform, has kept the role of the executive transparent and accountable. 
• That the Constitution is always evolving is best exemplified by the 101st amendment which rolled out the Goods and Services Tax. 
• His amendment brought in a unified indirect tax regime by subsuming most of the indirect taxes of the Centre and the states. 
• Yet to complete five full years, the GST Council has stood the test of challenging times even in its initial years. It augurs well for cooperative federalism.

Conclusion
Our Constitution has served us well in these seven decades. Several republics in the post-imperial era have rejected their earlier constitutions and tested new ones. It is the people who can keep the republic robust and alive.

Context

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Arunachal Pradesh government to submit an action taken report against the racial profiling and relocation of people belonging to the Chakma and Hajong communities.

About Chakma and Hajong

• Chakmas are predominantly Buddhists while Hajongs are Hindus. 
• They were inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) who migrated to India due to: 
  • Submergence of their land by the Kaptai dam on the Karnaphuli River in the 1960s. 
  • Religious persecution they faced in East Pakistan as they were non-Muslims. 
• The Indian government set up relief camps in Arunachal Pradesh and a majority of them continue to live there even after 50 years.

About National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)

• NHRC was established in 1993. 
• It is in conformity with the Paris Principles, adopted at the first international workshop on national institutions for the protection of human rights held in Paris in 1991. 
• Status: It is a statutory organization established under the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA), 1993.
• Headquarters: New Delhi. 
• Functions
  • To investigate the violation of human rights/ the failures of the states/other to prevent a human rights violation.
  • The commissions may also take on research about human rights, create awareness campaigns through various mediums, and encourage the work of NGOs. 
• Composition
  • Chairperson, four full-time Members and four deemed Members. 
  • A Chairperson, should be retired Chief Justice of India or a Judge of the Supreme Court. 
• Appointment: The Chairperson and members of the NHRC are appointed by the President of India, on the recommendation of a committee consisting of: 
  • The Prime Minister (Chairperson) 
  • The Home Minister 
  • The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha 
  • The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha 
  • The Speaker of the Lok Sabha 
  • The Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha 
• They hold office for a term of three years or until they attain the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier. 
• The President can remove them from the office under specific circumstances.

Context

The Supreme Court is expected to begin hearing a fresh challenge to the provision allowing restitution of conjugal rights under Hindu personal laws.

About Conjugal rights

• Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 deals with restitution of conjugal rights. 
• It recognises one aspect of conjugal rights — the right to consortium and protects it by allowing a spouse to move court to enforce the right. 
• Conjugal rights are rights created by marriage, i.e. right of the husband or the wife to the society of the other spouse. The law recognises these rights— both in personal laws dealing with marriage, divorce etc, and in criminal law requiring payment of maintenance and alimony to a spouse. 
• Conjugal Rights includes
  • Living together: The spouses or the married couple should live together.
  • Marital intercourse: The spouses or the married couple have rights and duties together with each other and have physical or sexual relationships.
  • Comfort to each other: The spouses should give comfort to each other like; emotional and mental comfort. 
  • Matrimonial Obligation: The married couple is supposed to share the responsibility of the households as well.

Why has the law been challenged?

• Main ground is that it is violative of the fundamental right to privacy. 
• It amounted to a “coercive act” on the part of the state, which violates one’s sexual and decisional autonomy, and right to privacy and dignity. 
• The provision disproportionately affects women. 
• Women are often called back to marital homes under the provision, and given that marital rape is not a crime, leaves them susceptible to such coerced cohabitation. 
• Also in question is whether the state can have such a compelling interest in protecting the institution of marriage that it allows a legislation to enforce cohabitation of spouses.

GS-III

Context

While many developing countries made net-zero pledges at COP26 in Glasgow, they face enormous developmental challenges in their attempts to grow in a climate-constrained world.

Developmental challenges for India

• For India, the national context is shaped by high youth unemployment, millions more entering the workforce each year, and a country hungry for substantial investments in hard infrastructure to industrialise and urbanise. 
• Growth with low emission footprint: India’s economic growth in the last three decades, led by growth in the services sector, has come at a significantly lower emissions footprint. 
• But in the coming decades, India will have to move to an investment-led and manufacturing-intensive growth model to create job opportunities and create entirely new cities and infrastructure to accommodate and connect an increasingly urban population. 
• All of this requires a lot of energy. Can India do all of this with a low emissions footprint?

What could India do to pursue an industrialization pathway that is climate-compatible?

• A coherent national transition strategy is important in a global context where industrialised countries are discussing the imposition of carbon border taxes while failing to provide developing countries the necessary carbon space to grow or the finance and technological assistance necessary to decarbonise. 
• What India needs is an overarching green industrialisation strategy that combines laws, policy instruments, and new or reformed implementing institutions to steer its decentralised economic activities to become climate-friendly and resilient.

Issues with India’s domestic manufacturing of renewable technology components

• India’s industrial policy efforts to increase the domestic manufacturing of renewable energy technology components have been affected by policy incoherence, poor management of economic rents, and contradictory policy objectives.
• India managed to create just a third of jobs per megawatt that China has managed to in its efforts to promote solar PV and wind technologies.
• China has created more jobs in manufacturing solar and wind components for exports than domestic deployment. India could have retained some of those jobs if it were strategic in promoting these technologies.

Opportunities in decarbonising transport and industry sector

• Technologies needed to decarbonise the transport and industry sectors provide a significant opportunity for India. 
• However, India’s R&D investments in these emerging green technologies are non-existent. 
• PLI is a step in right direction: The production-linked incentives (PLIs) under ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ are a step in the right direction for localising clean energy manufacturing activities. 
• Focus on R&D: Aligning existing RD&D investments with the technologies needed for green industrialisation is crucial for realising quantum jumps in economic activities.
• Encourage private entrepreneurship: India also needs to nurture private entrepreneurship and experimentation in clean energy technologies.
• Besides China, Korea’s green growth strategy provide examples of how India could gain economic and employment rents from green industrialisation without implementing restrictive policies.

Conclusion
The government should neither succumb to international pressure to decarbonise soon nor should it postpone its investment in decarbonisation technologies and lose its long-term competitiveness in a global low-carbon economy.

Context

Recently, the Peruvian government declared a 90-day “environmental emergency” in damaged coastal territories, after an oil spill that saw 6,000 barrels of crude oil pour into the sea.

About Environmental Emergency

• It is defined as a “sudden-onset disaster or accident resulting from natural, technological or human-induced factors, or a combination of these, that causes or threatens to cause severe environmental damage as well as loss of human lives and property”.
• According to UNEP, Countries facing an environmental emergency often require technical support and specialized expertise to respond effectively, minimize adverse impacts, and recover rapidly.

What is oil spill?

• An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. 
• The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur on land.

About Peru

• Peru is a country in western South America.
• It is a megadiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon Basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river.
• It is essentially a tropical country.
• The cold Peru Current (or Humboldt Current), flows along its Pacific shoreline.

Context

The details of the recently released draft environment impact assessment (EIA) report for the mega development project in the Great Nicobar Island have raised serious questions.

• The questions are related to submission of incorrect or incomplete information, scientific inaccuracy and failure to follow appropriate procedure. 
• A public hearing to discuss the report has been scheduled.

What is the matter related to?

• The matter is related to the NITI Aayog-piloted Rs. 72,000-crore integrated project in Great Nicobar that includes construction of a mega port, an airport complex, a township spread over 130 sq. km of pristine forest and a solar and gas-based power plant. 
• Ecologists and researchers have been raising concerns about this project for over a year.

About Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)

• It is a process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project.
• It is statutorily backed by the Environment Protection Act, 1986.
• Environment Impact Assessment Notification of 2006 has decentralized the environmental clearance projects by categorizing the developmental projects in two categories – Category A (national level appraisal) and Category B (state level appraisal). 
  • Category A projects – They require mandatory environmental clearance and thus they do not undergo the screening process. 
  • Category B Projects – They undergo screening process and they are classified into two types: 
  • Category B1 projects (Mandatorily require EIA). 
  • Category B2 projects (Do not require EIA).