UPSC Daily Current Affairs- 4th October 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS- II

The Mediation Bill,2021: Needs And Concerns

Context

• The Mediation Bill, 2021 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December20, 2021,with the Parliamentary Standing Committee being tasked with a review of the Bill. The committee’s report to the Rajya Sabha was submitted on July 13, 2022. In its report, the Committee recommends substantial changes to the Mediation Bill, aimed at institutionalising mediation and establishing the Mediation Council of India.

What is mean by mediation?

• Mediation: Mediation is a process wherein the parties meet with a mutually selected impartial and neutral person who assists them in the negotiation of their differences.
• Brings Parties Together: Parties can save and sometimes rebuild their relationship like during a family dispute or commercial dispute.
• Very Convenient: The parties can control the time, location, and duration of the proceedings to large extent. Scheduling isn’t subject to the convenience of courts.

Why does India need mediation?

• No separate law: While there is no standalone legislation for mediation in India, there are several statutes containing mediation provisions,such as the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908,the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996,the Companies Act, 2013, the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, and the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
• Supreme Court mandate: The Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee of the Supreme Court of India describes mediation as a tried and tested alternative for conflict resolution.
• Being an international signatory: As India is a signatory to the Singapore Convention on Mediation (formally the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation), it is appropriate to enact a law governing domestic and international mediation.

What are the Key features of the Mediation bill?

• Promote mediation: The Bill aims to promote, encourage, and facilitate mediation, especially institutional mediation, to resolve disputes, commercial and otherwise.
• Mandatory Mediation: The Bill further proposes mandatory mediation before litigation. At the same time, it safeguards the rights of litigants to approach competent adjudicatory forums/courts for urgent relief.
• Confidentiality: The mediation process will be confidential and immunity is provided against its disclosure in certain cases.
• Legally binding: The outcome of the mediation process in the form of a Mediation Settlement Agreement (MSA) will be legally enforceable and can be registered with the State district or taluk legal authorities within 90days to ensure authenticated records of the settlement.
• Mediation Council of India: The Bill establishes the Mediation Council of India and also provides for community mediation.
• Services of Mediator: If the parties agree, they may appoint any person as a mediator. If not, they may apply to a mediation service provider to appoint a person from its panel of mediators.
• Disputes where no mediation required: The Bill lists disputes that are not fit for mediation (such as those involving criminal prosecution, or affecting the rights of third parties). The central government may amend this list.
• Time bound process: The mediation process must be completed within 180 days, which may be extended by another 180 days by the parties.

What are the Concerns over the bill?

• Mandatory provision: According to the Bill, pre-litigation mediation is mandatory for both parties before filing any suit or proceeding in a court,whether or not there is a mediation agreement between them.
• Monetary punishment: Parties who fail to attend pre-litigation mediation without a reasonable reason may incur a cost. However,as per Article 21 of the Constitution,access to justice is constitutional right which cannot be fettered or restricted. Mediation should just be voluntary and making it otherwise would amount to denial of justice.
• Clause 26: According to Clause26 of the Bill, court annexed mediation, including pre-litigation mediation, will be conducted in accordance with the directions or rules framed by the Supreme Court or High Courts. However, the Committee objected to this. It stated that Clause26 went against the spirit of the Constitution.In countries that follow the Common Law system, it is a healthy tradition that inthe absence of statutes, apex court judgments and decisions carry the same weight. The moment a law is passed however, it becomes the guiding force rather than the instructions or judgments given by the courts. Therefore, Clause 26 is unconstitutional.
• Lack of international enforceability: Bill considers international mediation to be domestic when it is conducted in India with the settlement being recognised as a judgment or decree ofa court. The Singapore Convention does not apply to settlements that already have the status of judgments or decrees. As a result, conducting cross border mediation in India will exclude the tremendous benefits of worldwide enforceability.

Conclusion

In order to enable a faster resolution of disputes,the Bill should be implemented after discussion with stakeholders and resolve the issues in an amicable manner. It’s a good opportunity for India to become an international mediation hub for easy business transactions.

World Habitat Day

Context

The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October of every year as World Habitat Day (3rd October 2022) to reflect on the state of our habitats, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter.

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) celebrated World Habitat Day 2022 at Vigyan Bhawan.

What is World Habitat Day?

• About:
  • The Day is intended to remind the world that we all have the power and the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns.
  • World Habitat Day 2022 seeks to draw attention to the growing inequalities and vulnerabilities that have been exacerbated by the Triple ‘C’ Crises: COVID-19, Climate and Conflict.
• Theme of WHD 2022:
  • “Mind the Gap. Leave No One Behind and No Place Behind.”
  • The theme serves a strong reminder that “we cannot leave behind any citizen and any place as we build towards a more resilient future.”
• History:
  • In 1985 the United Nations designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day.
  • World Habitat Day was first celebrated in 1986 with the theme “Shelter is My Right”.
  • Nairobi (Kenya) was the host city for the observance that year.

Habitat Scroll of Honour Award:

• The Habitat Scroll of Honour Award was launched by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (U.N.-Habitat) in 1989.
• It is currently the most prestigious human settlements award in the world.
• Its aim is to acknowledge initiatives which have made outstanding contributions in various fields such as shelter provision, highlighting the plight of the homeless, leadership in post conflict reconstruction etc.

What are Key Highlights of WHD Celebrations at Vigyan Bhawan?

• Schemes like Pradhan Matri Awas Yojana (PMAY), PM SVANidhi scheme, Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihood Mission (DAY-NULM), Swachh Bharat Mission have been conceptualised with focus on vulnerable and marginalised sections.
• India will be able to make the central pledge of Sustainable Development Goals, i.e. ‘leave no one behind’ a reality by 2030.
• Stress on making cities cleaner, greener and economically, socially and environmentally sustainable for the next 25 years.

What are India’s Initiatives for Urban & Rural Management?

• Smart Cities
• AMRUT Mission
• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) 2005
• Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM)
• Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

Context

India has completed four years of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), the world’s largest public health insurance programme.

What is Ayushman Bharat?

• Ayushman Bharat is National Health Protection Scheme, which will cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage upto 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.
• It was launched in September 2018 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• It is a centrally sponsored scheme and is jointly funded by both the union government and the states.
• It has subsumed the on-going centrally sponsored schemes – Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).

Features of the scheme

• It will have a defined benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year.
• Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country.
• It will be an entitlement based scheme with entitlement decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the SECC database.
• The beneficiaries can avail benefits in both public and empanelled private facilities.
• To control costs, the payments for treatment will be done on package rate (to be defined by the Government in advance) basis.

India’s health expenditure post Ayushman Bharat

•  India’s public healthcare spending is still among the lowest in the world.
• Total health expenditure declined to 3.2% of GDP in 2018-19 from 3.3% in 2017-18, while the government’s health expenditure (centre and state) as a percentage of GDP fell from 1.35% to 1.28% in the same period.
• National health estimates showed the Centre’s share decreasing to 34.3% in 2018-19 from 40.8% in the previous year, while that of states rose from 59.2% to 65.7%.
• Out-of-pocket spending as a percentage of total health expenditure declined to 48.2% in 2018-19, though it is significantly higher than the world average of 18.1% in 2019

What about health insurance penetration?

• Retail health insurance covers a meagre 3.2% of the country’s population.
• With a population of 1.36 billion, India is the world’s second most populous country, and is expected to surpass China soon.
• Launched in 2018 to provide universal health coverage, AB-PMJAY, takes care of the bottom 50% of the population of approximately 700 million individuals.
• The top 20% of the population is covered through social and private health insurance.
• Therefore, about 30% of the population, or about 400 million, is “the missing middle”— they don’t have any financial protection for health emergencies.

Why is sound healthcare important for the economy?

• Covid-19 exposed the economic consequences of poor healthcare. Higher out-of-pocket healthcare spending hits savings and consumption.
• In the work space, poor health impacts physical and mental abilities, increase turnover and lead to lower productivity.
• Data shows that 7% of India’s population is pushed into poverty every year due to healthcare costs.

Way forward

• Healthcare management and disease prevention should be the focus, along with an all-encompassing healthcare system, including OPD.
• The government also needs to pay attention on healthcare cover for “the missing middle” population.
• As a pilot, states may allow the authority already implementing the AB-PMJAY scheme in the state to cover the missing middle.

Context

• On September 27, the Supreme Court enabled the live streaming of the hearing of cases.
• A full court of all Supreme Court judges under the leadership of Chief Justice U U Lalit took the unanimous decision to live-stream constitutional bench proceedings.
• Justice Chandrachud, the Chairperson of the Supreme Court’s E-committee and the driving force behind the live streaming initiative, began the hearing in his courtroom by announcing,”We are virtual”.

Background

• The Court’s original decision by the bench of the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud on September 27, 2018, allowing the live telecast of important proceedings paved the way for this outcome. They had held that the live-streaming of court proceedings is in the public interest.
• Their vision had the full support of Chief Justices M V Ramana and U U Lalit.

What is live-streaming technology?

• At its core, streaming content is meant to help people attend events, expos, and experiences they cannot attend in person.
• Live streaming technology is how videos are streamed over the internet, live, in real-time, as they are being recorded.
• Live streaming technology is the internet’s response to live television broadcasts, with the most popular being news shows and sports.

What is Live-streaming of the court?

• Live streaming of court is that its proceedings that the people can watch on their mobiles and computers.All courtrooms function under camera glare.

Why Live-streaming of court is so important?

• Instilling Faith in the Judiciary: Enabling the ordinary people of the country to view, without any barrier, the workings of the highest court of the land will go a long way in instilling faith in the judiciary.
• Empowering the masses: It will enable the legal system to deliver on its promise of empowering the masses.Important step toward developing an informed citizenry.
• Respect to Rule of Law: The decision will enable people to understand the importance of the rule of law.It will help people appreciate that the judiciary is firm in protecting the rights of the impoverished, historically marginalised and disempowered sections of society. Potential to build a culture of respect for the rule of law.
• Living up the expectation of Constitution: Live-Streaming of Court proceedings is manifested in public interest. Public interest has always been preserved through the Constitution article 19 and 21.
• More transparency: It will encourage the principle of open court and reduce dependence on second-hand views. It will effectuate the public’s right to know. This would inspire confidence in the functioning of the judiciary as an institution and help maintain the respect that it deserved as a co-equal organ of the state.
• Raise the quality and standards of the legal profession: Lawyers will be better prepared to appear before the court and they will be mindful of not making irresponsible remarks. An inclusive approach to public scrutiny could nudge and enable lawyers to take the justice delivery mechanisms more seriously than they may have in the past.
• Level playing field: It also creates a level playing ground for the younger members of the legal profession as their preparedness and intellectual prowess will be apparent to all.
• Academic help: Watching courtroom proceedings,actual arguments by lawyers and searching questions by judges  could inspire law students to take up this relatively neglected field.Law faculty members and legal researchers will be motivated to work on new areas of scholarship and research relating to the functioning of the judiciary and legal profession.
• Easy accessibility reducing the obstacle of distance: With live-streaming, the litigants will no longer have to come to Delhi to witness proceedings of their case which would be just a click away.
• Strengthening Democracy: Transparency and accessibility of the process of justice delivery will strengthen the country’s democracy.

What are the Concerns around live-streaming of court?

• Contempt of court: Video clips of proceedings from Indian courts are already on YouTube and other social media platforms with sensational titles and little context, such as “HIGH COURT super angry on army officer”.
• Disinformation and sensationalism: There are fears that irresponsible or motivated use of content could spread disinformation among the public.
• Unnecessary activism: With the advent of social media, every citizen became a potential journalist. Study shows that justices behave like politicians when given free television time, they act to maximize their individual exposure
• Internet connectivity: Internet connectivity issues and the need for a well-equipped space where lawyers can conduct their cases are some of the major problems requiring attention.
• Awareness and training: Judges, court staff and lawyers are not well-versed with digital technology and its benefits. The need of the hour is for them to be made aware of these and receive adequate training.

Which countries live-stream their court hearing?

Internationally,constitutional court proceedings are recorded in some form or the other.

• United States: The Supreme Court of the United States streams its hearings in audio format at the end of each week.The US top court publishes hearings on its website and Oyez of all cases. Oyez is a multimedia judicial archive of the Supreme Court of the United States’ proceedings.
• Brazil: The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil live streams hearings of all cases in video format on television.
• UK: The UK Supreme Court live streams hearings of all cases in video format on its website.
• Canada: The Canadian Supreme Court also live streams hearings of all its cases in video format on its website.
• Australia: The Australian Supreme Court streams hearings of its full-court cases on its website with a delay of about a day. Meanwhile, the High Court of Australia (HCA) does not live-stream its proceedings.
• China: In China,court proceedings are live-streamed from trial courts up to the Supreme People’s Court of China.

Conclusion

The chief justices (past and present) and the judges of the Supreme Court deserve to be congratulated for enabling a path-breaking and democratic decision that allows the people of India to be able to watch the live proceedings of the Constitutional Bench.The distinguished jurist, Oliver Holmes,famously observed,“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.” The judges of the Supreme Court of India have ensured that we are indeed moving in the right direction.

Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) Scheme

Context

• Recently, the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) launched the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) Scheme.
• Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) is a body under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to fund rural and remote digital connectivity.
• The Centre in the draft telecom bill, 2022 has said that the USOF, created under the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885, shall be referred to as the “Telecommunication Development Fund”.

What is the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) Scheme?

• TTDF aims to fund R&D in rural-specific communication technology applications and form synergies among academia, start-ups, research institutes, and the industry to build and develop the telecom ecosystem.
• The scheme aims to promote technology ownership and indigenous manufacturing, create a culture of technology co-innovation, reduce imports, boost export opportunities and creation of Intellectual Property.
• Under the scheme, USOF is also targeting to develop standards to meet countrywide requirements and create the ecosystem for research, design, prototyping, use cases, pilots, and proof of concept testing, among others.
• The scheme entails grants to Indian entities to encourage and induct indigenous technologies tailor-made to meet domestic needs.

What is the Present Status of the Telecom Sector of India?

• The Telecom industry in India is the second largest in the world with a subscriber base of 1.17 billion as of 2022. India has an overall teledensity of 85.11%.
• The industry’s exponential growth over the last few years is primarily driven by affordable tariffs, wider availability, the roll-out of Mobile Number Portability (MNP), expanding 3G and 4G coverage, and evolving consumption patterns of subscribers.
• The Telecom sector is the 3rd largest sector in terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, contributing 6.44% of total FDI inflow, and contributes directly to 2.2 million employment and indirectly to 1.8 million jobs.
• Between 2014 and 2021, the FDI inflows in the Telecom sector rose by 150% to USD 20.72 billion from USD 8.32 billion during 2002-2014.
• 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has now been allowed in the Telecom sector under the automatic route.
• India is on its way to becoming the second-largest smartphone market globally by 2025 with around 1 billion installed devices and is expected to have 920 million unique mobile subscribers by 2025 which will include 88 million 5G connections.

Context

India’s manufacturing sector experienced its slowest expansion in September since June, the S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) indicated, with the index easing to 55.1 from August’s 56.2.

PMI improves

• A PMI reading above 50 indicates an increase in firms’ activity levels, and September marked the 15th straight month of growth in manufacturing activity.

Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)

• PMI is an indicator of business activity — both in the manufacturing and services sectors.
• It is a survey-based measure that asks the respondents about changes in their perception of some key business variables from the month before.
• It is calculated separately for the manufacturing and services sectors and then a composite index is constructed.
• The PMI is compiled by IHS Markit based on responses to questionnaires sent to purchasing managers in a panel of around 400 manufacturers.

How is the PMI derived?

• The PMI is derived from a series of qualitative questions.
• Executives from a reasonably big sample, running into hundreds of firms, are asked whether key indicators such as output, new orders, business expectations and employment were stronger than the month before and are asked to rate them.

How does one read the PMI?

• A figure above 50 denotes expansion in business activity. Anything below 50 denotes contraction.
• Higher the difference from this mid-point greater the expansion or contraction. The rate of expansion can also be judged by comparing the PMI with that of the previous month data.
• If the figure is higher than the previous month’s then the economy is expanding at a faster rate.
• If it is lower than the previous month then it is growing at a lower rate.

What are its implications for the economy?

• The PMI is usually released at the start of the month, much before most of the official data on industrial output, manufacturing and GDP growth becomes available.
• It is, therefore, considered a good leading indicator of economic activity.
• Economists consider the manufacturing growth measured by the PMI as a good indicator of industrial output, for which official statistics are released later.
• Central banks of many countries also use the index to help make decisions on interest rates.

Context

Swedish scientist Svante Paabo won the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discoveries on human evolution that provided key insights into our immune system and what makes us unique compared with our extinct ancestors.

Svante Paabo: His work, explained

• Svante Paabo’s seminal discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human.
• Hominins refer to the now-extinct species of apes that are believed to be related to modern humans, as well as modern humans themselves.
• Paabo found that gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct Hominins to Homo sapiens following the migration out of Africa around 70,000 years ago.
• This ancient flow of genes to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, for example affecting how our immune system reacts to infections.
• Paabo established an entirely new scientific discipline, called paleogenomics that focuses on studying the DNA and genetic information of extinct hominins through reconstruction.

What is the relation between evolution and biology?

• Paabo’s discoveries have established a unique resource, which is utilized extensively by the scientific community to better understand human evolution and migration.
• We now understand that archaic gene sequences from our extinct relatives influence the physiology of present-day humans.

How did Paabo establish the linkage?

• Paabo extracted DNA from bone specimens from extinct hominins, from Neanderthal remains in the Denisova caves of Germany.
• The bone contained exceptionally well-preserved DNA, which his team sequenced.
• It was found that this DNA sequence was unique when compared to all known sequences from Neanderthals and present-day humans.
• Comparisons with sequences from contemporary humans from different parts of the world showed that gene flow, or mixing of genetic information among a species, had also occurred between Denisova and Homo sapiens – the species of modern-day humans.
• This relationship was first seen in populations in Melanesia (near Australia) and other parts of South East Asia, where individuals carry up to 6% Denisova DNA.
• The Denisovan version of the gene EPAS1 confers an advantage for survival at high altitudes and is common among present-day Tibetans.

What are the challenges in carrying out such research?

• There are extreme technical challenges because with time DNA becomes chemically modified and degrades into short fragments.
• The main issue is that only trace amounts of DNA are left after thousands of years, and exposure to the natural environment leads to contamination with DNA.