Weekly Current Affairs (8th to 14th December 2022) - 1 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Chairperson of Rajya Sabha

Context: Recently, Rajya Sabha (RS) welcomed its new Chairman, Jagdeep Dhankhar.

What are the Key Points Related to RS Chairman?

About:

• The Vice-President is the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
• The Vice-President as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is the unchallenged guardian of the eminence and dignity of the House.

Constitutional Provisions:

• Article 64: The Vice-President shall be ex officio Chairman of the Council of States and shall not hold any other office of profit. 
• Article 89 of the Constitution provides provision for the Chairman (Vice-President of India) and the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Power and Functions:

• The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is empowered to adjourn the House or to suspend its sitting in the event of the absence of quorum.
• The 10th Schedule of the Constitution empowers the Chairman to determines the question as to disqualification of a member of the Rajya Sabha on the ground of defection;
• The Chairman's consent is needed to raise a question of breach of privilege in the House.
• Parliamentary Committees, regardless of whether set up by the Chairman or by the House, work under the direction of the Chairman.
• He nominates members to different Standing Committees and the Department-related Parliamentary Committees. He is the Chairman of the Business Advisory Committee, the Rules Committee and the General Purposes Committee.
• It is the duty of the Chairman to interpret the Constitution and rules so far as matters in or relating to the House are concerned, and no one can enter into any argument or controversy with the Chairman over such interpretation.

Removal of Chairperson:

• He can only be removed as the chairman of Rajya Sabha when he is removed from the office of Vice-President of India.
• While the resolution is in effect for the removal of Vice-President, he cannot preside over the house as chairman, although he can be part of the house.

What are the Provisions Related to the Vice-President?

• Vice President:
  • The Vice President is the second highest constitutional office in India. He/She serves for a five-year term, but can continue to be in office. Irrespective of the expiry of the term, until the successor assumes office.
  • The Vice President may resign his office by submitting his resignation to the President of India. The resignation becomes effective from the day it is accepted.
  • The Vice President can be removed from office by a resolution of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), passed by a majority of its members at that time and agreed to by the House of the People (Lok Sabha). A resolution for this purpose may be moved only after a notice of at least a minimum of 14 days has been given of such an intention.
• Eligibility:
  • Should be a citizen of India.
  • Should have completed 35 years of age.
  • Should be qualified for election as a member of the Rajya Sabha.
  • Should not hold any office of profit under the Union government or any state government or any local authority or any other public authority.
• Electoral College:
  • As per Article 66 of the Constitution of India, the Vice-President is elected by the members of the Electoral College.
  • Electoral College consists of:
  • Elected members of Rajya Sabha.
  • Nominated members of Rajya Sabha.
  • Elected members of Lok Sabha.
• Election Procedure:
  • As per Article 68 of the Constitution, the election to fill the vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing vice-president is required to be completed before the expiration of the term.
  • Article 324 of the Constitution read with the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952 and the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974, vests the superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of election to the office of the Vice-President of India in the Election Commission of India.
  • The notification for election shall be issued on or after the sixtieth day before the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing Vice-President.
  • Since all the electors are members of both Houses of Parliament, the value of the vote of each Member of Parliament would be the same i.e.,1 (one).
  • The Election Commission, in consultation with the Central Government, appoints the Secretary-General of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, by rotation, as the Returning Officer.
  • Accordingly, the Secretary-General, Lok Sabha will be appointed as the Returning Officer for the present election to the Office of the Vice-President of India.
  • The Commission also decides to appoint Assistant Returning Officers in Parliament House (Lok Sabha) to assist Returning Officers.
  • As per Rule 8 of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974, polls for the election are taken in the Parliament House.

ChatGPT Chatbot

Context: Recently, OpenAI has introduced a new chatbot called ChatGPT, which is a ‘conversational’ AI and will answer queries just like a human would.

What is ChatGPT?

About:

• The ChatGPT can answer “follow-up questions”, and can also “admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”
• It is based on the company’s GPT 3.5 series of language learning models (LLM).
• GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 and this is a kind of computer language model that relies on deep learning techniques to produce human-like text based on inputs.
• The model is trained to predict what will come next, and that’s why one can technically have a ‘conversation’ with ChatGPT.
• The chatbot was also trained using Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).

Usage:

• It can be used in real-world applications such as digital marketing, online content creation, answering customer service queries or as some users have found, even to help debug code.
• The bot can respond to a large range of questions while imitating human speaking styles.
• It is being seen as a replacement for the basic emails, party planning lists, CVs, and even college essays and homework.
• It can also be used to write code, as examples have shown.

Limitations:

• The chatbot displayed clear racial and sexist biases, which remains a problem with almost all AI models.
• The chatbot gives answers which are grammatically correct and read well– though some have pointed out that these lack context and substance, which is largely true.
• ChatGPT occasionally produces inaccurate information and that its knowledge is restricted to global events that occurred before 2021.

What is a Chatbot?

About:

• Chatbots, also called chatterbots, is a form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) used in messaging apps.
• This tool helps add convenience for customers—they are automated programs that interact with customers like a human would and cost little to nothing to engage with.
• Key examples are chatbots used by businesses in Facebook Messenger, or as virtual assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa.
• Chatbots tend to operate in one of two ways—either via machine learning or with set guidelines.
• However, due to advancements in AI technology, chatbots using set guidelines are becoming a historical footnote.

Types:

• Chatbot with Set Guidelines: It can only respond to a set number of requests and vocabulary and is only as intelligent as its programming code. An example of a limited bot is an automated banking bot that asks the caller some questions to understand what the caller wants to do.
• Machine Learning Chatbot: A chatbot that functions through machine learning have an artificial neural network inspired by the neural nodes of the human brain. The bot is programmed to self-learn as it is introduced to new dialogues and words. In effect, as a chatbot receives new voice or textual dialogues, the number of inquiries that it can reply to and the accuracy of each response it gives increases. Meta (as Facebook's parent company is now known) has a machine learning chatbot that creates a platform for companies to interact with their consumers through the Messenger application.
• Advantages: Chatbots are convenient for providing customer service and support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They also free up phone lines and are far less expensive over the long run than hiring people to perform support. Using AI and natural language processing, chatbots are becoming better at understanding what customers want and providing the help they need. Companies also like chatbots because they can collect data about customer queries, response times, satisfaction, and so on.
• Disadvantages: Even with natural language processing, they may not fully comprehend a customer's input and may provide incoherent answers. Many chatbots are also limited in the scope of queries that they are able to respond to. Chatbots can be expensive to implement and maintain, especially if they must be customized and updated often. The challenges of AI metamorphosing into sentient are far in the future; however, unethical AI perpetuating historical bias and echoing hate speech are the real dangers to watch for.

Import & Smuggling of Gold

Context: Recently, the Finance Minister of India has said that officials should find out whether there is a correlation between higher gold imports and smuggling, and whether a pattern is emerging in the detection of smuggling.

• It has been noted that whenever there is a surge in gold imports, gold smuggling also typically goes up.

How much Gold is Smuggled into India?

About:

• According to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence’s (DRI’s) Smuggling in India Report 2021-22, a total 833 kg of smuggled gold, worth around Rs 500 crore, was confiscated in FY 2021-22.
  • 2020-21 had witnessed a decline in smuggling from the Gulf region because flights were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• More than 11 tonnes of gold have been seized in 16,555 smuggling cases at airports across India in the five years ending August 2020.
• The figures reported was of the gold that was seized, the smuggling that succeeded could be much more than what the agencies confiscated.
• According to the World Gold Council (WGC), smuggling could increase by 33% to touch 160 tonnes in 2022 compared to the pre-Covid period due to the increase in the import duty on gold to 12.5% from 7.5%.
• In the last 10 years, Maharashtra has smuggled most of the Gold in India followed by Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

North East Smuggling Route:

• According to the DRI Report, 73% of the gold caught had been brought through Myanmar and Bangladesh.
• 37% of all the gold seized in FY22 was from Myanmar. 20% of it originated from West Asia.
• Many international reports suggest that smuggled gold is brought into Myanmar from China through the towns of Ruili and Muse on the Chinese and Myanmarese sides of the border respectively.
• Muse is located in the Shan State in Northeastern Myanmar and Ruili is in the Dehong Dai Prefecture of Yunnan Province, China.

How much Gold does India Import?

• Gold imports through official channels, involving a major outflow of foreign exchange, have also been rising.
• Imports worth Rs 3.44 lakh crore were reported in 2021-22, up from Rs 2.54 lakh crore in 2020-21.
• According to the World Gold Council, India, the world’s second-biggest gold consumer after China, imports about 900 tonnes of gold a year, consumption in India was 797.3 tonnes in 2021 (Highest in past 5 years).
• India imports gold dore bar as well as refined gold.
• In the last five years, imports of gold dore bars made up 30% of the total official imports of the yellow metal in India.

What is the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence?

• It is India's chief anti-smuggling intelligence, investigations and operations agency.
• It works under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Ministry of Finance.
• It is headed by a Director General of the rank of Special Secretary to the Government of India.
• DRI works to secure India's national and economic security by preventing the outright smuggling of firearms, gold, narcotics, fake Indian Currency notes, antiques, wildlife and environmental products.
  • Moreover, it also works to prevent the proliferation of black money, commercial frauds and trade-based money laundering.
• It is headquartered in New Delhi.

PM SVANidhi Scheme Extended

Context: The Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme has been extended beyond March, 2022.

What are the Provisions for the Extended Scheme?

• Extension of lending period till December 2024.
• Introduction of 3rd loan of up to ₹50,000 in addition to 1st & 2nd loans of ₹10,000 and ₹20,000 respectively.
• Extension of ‘SVANidhi Se Samriddhi’ component for all beneficiaries of PM SVANidhi scheme across the country.
• ‘SVANidhi Se Samriddhi’ was launched in January 2021 to map the socio-economic profile of the PM SVANidhi beneficiaries and their families.

What is PM SVANidhi Scheme?

About:

• The scheme was announced as a part of the Economic Stimulus-II under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
• It has been implemented since 1st June 2020, for providing affordable working capital loans to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdowns.
• A total of 13,403 vending zones have been identified so far.
• 42 lakh street vendors are to be provided benefits under PM SVANidhi Scheme by December, 2024.

Funding:

• It is a Central Sector Scheme i.e., fully funded by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs with the following objectives:
• To facilitate working capital loan;
• To incentivize regular repayment; and
• To reward digital transactions

Significance:

• The scheme will open up new opportunities for street vendors to move up the economic ladder.

Eligibility:

• States/Union Territories (UTs): The Scheme is available for beneficiaries belonging to only those States/UTs which have notified Rules and Scheme under Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014. Beneficiaries from Meghalaya, which has its own State Street Vendors Act may, however, participate.
• Street Vendors: The Scheme is available to all street vendors engaged in vending in urban areas. Earlier the Scheme was available to all street vendors engaged in vending on or before March 24, 2020.

Biodiversity Framework & Indigenous People

Context: Recently, at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a group representing indigenous people stressed that the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) must work on respecting, promoting and supporting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPCL).

• Members of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) have also stressed upon the rights of indigenous people.

What are the Key Areas Stressed by Indigenous People?

• The rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, who have always been the most effective guardians of biodiversity, also need to be recognised and protected.
• The framework should follow a “human rights-based approach, by respecting, protecting and fulfilling the rights, and particularly indigenous and collective rights, and gender equity” by actively seeking ways to support and promote indigenous communities and their rights.
• The implementation of the post-2020 GBF must include traditional knowledge, practices and technologies while respecting the principles of free, prior and informed consent.

What is the Role of Indigenous People in Biodiversity Conservation?

Conserving Natural Flora:

• The magico-religious belief of plants’ tribal communities as a god and goddess habitat leads to their conservation in their natural habitat.
• Further, a wide variety of plants such as crop plants, wild fruits, seeds, bulb, roots and tubers are conserved by the ethnic and indigenous people as they have to depend on these sources for edible purposes.

Application of Traditional Knowledge:

• Indigenous people and biodiversity complement each other.
• Over time, the rural communities have gathered a pool of indigenous knowledge for the cultivation of the medicinal plants and their propagation.
• These plants conserved are antidotes to snake bites and scorpion bites or even for broken bones or orthopaedic treatments.

Conserving the Sacred Groves:

• India’s ethnic people have played a vital role in preserving the biodiversity of several virgin forests and have conserved flora and fauna in sacred groves of tribals. Otherwise, these flora and fauna might have disappeared from the natural ecosystem.

What are the Difficulties Faced by Indigenous People?

Disruption After Designation of the Status of World Heritage Site:

• The approach adopted to isolate the indigenous people from their natural habitats to protect biodiversity is the root cause of conflict between them and conservationists.
• With the announcement of natural habitat as a World Heritage Site, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) takes charge of the region’s conservation.
• This leads to an infusion of many outside people and technological equipment, which in turn disrupt the lives of the Indigenous people.

Lax Implementation of the Forest Rights Act:

• Many states in India have a dismal record in implementing the Forest Rights Act (FRA).
• FRA’s constitutionality has been challenged in the Supreme Court several times by various conservation organisations.

Development vs Conservation:

• Often, the combined stretch of land claimed by Indigenous people has been taken away for building dams, mining, laying railway lines and roads, power plants, etc.
• Moreover, forcibly removing tribal peoples from their land will only result in environmental damage and violate human rights.

What is the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework?

About:

• The post-2020 global biodiversity framework builds on the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.
• As the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity 2011-2020 comes to an end, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) actively supports the development of what needs to be an ambitious new global biodiversity framework.

Goals and Targets:

• The new frameworks have four goals to achieve by 2050.
  • To halt the extinction and decline of biodiversity.
  • To enhance and retain nature’s services to humans by conserving.
  • To ensure fair and equitable benefits to all from use of genetic resources.
  • To close the gap between available financial and other means of implementation and those necessary to achieve the 2050 Vision.
• 2030 Action Targets: The framework has 21 action-oriented targets for urgent action over the decade to 2030, which includes:
  • To bring at least 30% of land and sea under the world’s protected areas.
  • A 50% greater reduction in the rate of introduction of invasive alien species, and controls or eradication of such species to eliminate or reduce their impacts.
  • Reducing nutrients lost to the environment by at least half, and pesticides by at least two thirds, and eliminating the discharge of plastic waste.
  • Nature-based contributions to global climate change mitigation efforts of at least 10 GtCO2e (gigatonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide) per year, and that all mitigation and adaptation efforts avoid negative impacts on biodiversity.

What is the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity?

• The IIFB is a collection of representatives from indigenous governments, indigenous non- governmental organizations and indigenous scholars and activists that organize around the CBD and other important international environmental meetings.
• Its aim is to help coordinate indigenous strategies at the meetings, provide advice to the government parties, and influence the interpretation of government obligations to recognize and respect indigenous rights to the knowledge and resources.
• The IIFB was formed during the III Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CoP III) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November 1996.

What should be the Approach Moving Forward?

• Recognition of the Rights of the Indigenous People:
  • For preserving the rich biodiversity of the region, the recognition of the rights of the forest dwellers who depend on the forests is as important as the declaration of natural habitat as a World Heritage Site.
• Effective Implementation of the FRA:
  • The government must make an effort to build trust between its agencies in the area and the people who depend on these forests by treating them as equal citizens like everyone else in the country.
• Traditional Knowledge of the Tribal People for Conservation:
  • The Biodiversity Act, 2002 mentions the equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use and knowledge of biological resources with the local communities.
  • Therefore, all the stakeholders should realise that indigenous people’s traditional knowledge is a way forward for more effective conservation of biodiversity.
• Tribals, The Forest Scientists:
  • Tribal peoples are generally regarded as the best conservationists, as they connect with nature more spiritually.
  • The cheapest and quickest way to conserve areas of high biodiversity is to respect tribal peoples’ rights.

Greater Tipraland, Demand of Tripura

Context: Recently, chief of a political party of Tripura led a two-day dharna at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, to raise the demand for a “Greater Tipraland”.

• The objective is to secure the rights of indigenous communities in the state.

What is the Issue?

Demand:

• The party is demanding a separate state of ‘Greater Tipraland’ for the indigenous communities of the north-eastern state.
• They want the Centre to carve out the separate state under Article 2 and 3 of the Constitution.
  • Among the 19 notified Scheduled Tribes in Tripura, Tripuris (aka Tipra and Tiprasas) are the largest.
  • According to the 2011 census, there are at least 5.92 lakh Tripuris in the state, followed by Bru or Reang (1.88 lakh) and Jamatias (83,000).
• They are demanding a separate state not only for the indigenous people but also for all communities who live in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) area.

Historical Background:

• Tripura was a kingdom ruled by the Manikya dynasty from the late 13th century until the signing of the Instrument of Accession with the Indian government in 1949.
• The demand stems from the anxiety of the indigenous communities in connection with the change in the demographics of the state, which has reduced them to a minority.
• It happened due to the displacement of Bengalis from the erstwhile East Pakistan between 1947 and 1971.
• From 63.77% in 1881, the population of the tribals in Tripura was down to 31.80% by 2011.
• In the intervening decades, ethnic conflict and insurgency gripped the state, which shares a nearly 860-km long boundary with Bangladesh.
• The joint forum has also pointed out that the indigenous people have not only been reduced to a minority, but have also been dislodged from land reserved for them by the penultimate king of the Manikya dynasty Bir Bikram Kishore Debbarman.

Other Demands in the North East:

• Greater nagalim (Parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam and Myanmar)
• Bodoland (Assam)
• Tribal Autonomy Meghalaya

Does Parliament have Powers to Create a New State?

• Parliament derives powers to create a new state from Article 2 and Article 3 of the Constitution of India.
• Article 2:
  • Parliament may by law admit into the Union, or establish, new States on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit.
• States like Sikkim (previously not within India) became a part of the country under Article 2.
• Article 3:
  • It empowered the Parliament to make law relating to the formation of new states and alteration of existing states.

What Initiatives have the Government taken to Address the Issue?

Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council:

• The Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTADC) was formed under the sixth schedule of the Constitution in 1985 to ensure development and secure the rights and cultural heritage of the tribal communities.
• ‘Greater Tipraland’ envisages a situation in which the entire TTADC area will be a separate state. It also proposes dedicated bodies to secure the rights of the Tripuris and other aboriginal communities living outside Tripura.
• The TTADC, which has legislative and executive powers, covers nearly two-third of the state’s geographical area.
• The council comprises 30 members of which 28 are elected while two are nominated by the Governor.

Reservation:

• Also, out of the 60 Assembly seats in the state, 20 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

What should be the Approach Moving Forward?

• Economic and social viability rather than political considerations must be given primacy.
• There should be certain clear-cut parameters and safeguards to check the unfettered demands.
• It is better to allow democratic concerns like development, decentralisation and governance rather than religion, caste, language or dialect to be the valid bases for conceding the demands for a new state.
• Apart from this the fundamental problems of development and governance deficit such as concentration of power, corruption, administrative inefficiency etc must be addressed.

National and State Parties

Context: Recently, the Aam Aadmi Party became the 9th National Party of India after the result of Gujarat elections where it gained almost 13% of the vote share.

• At the time of the first General Elections (1952), there were 14 national parties in India.

Note

• The Election Commission of India (ECI) registers political parties for the purpose of elections and grants them recognition as national or state parties on the basis of their poll performance.
• The other parties are simply declared as registered-unrecognised parties.
  • As per the Representation of People Act 1951, Registered political parties, in course of time, can get recognition as 'State Party’ or National Party’.

What is a National Party?

• About: As the name suggests, it has a nationwide presence as opposed to a regional party that is restricted to only a particular state or region.
  • A certain stature is sometimes associated with being a national party, but this does not necessarily translate into having a lot of national political influence.

Conditions for Declaring a Party ‘National’:

• As per the ECI’s Political Parties and Election Symbols, 2019 handbook, a political party would be considered a national party if:
• It is ‘recognised’ in four or more states; or
• If its candidates have secured at least 6% of total valid votes in at least 4 states (in latest Lok Sabha or Assembly elections) and the party has at least 4 MPs in the last LS polls; or
• If it has won at least 2% of the total seats in the LS from at least 3 states.

How is a Party Declared a State Party?

• A party is recognised as a state party in a state if any of the following conditions is fulfilled:
  • If it secures 6% of the valid votes polled in the state at a general election to the respective state legislative assembly (state LA) and also, it wins 2 seats in the same state LA.
  • If it secures 6% of the total valid votes in the state at a general election to the LS; and also, it wins 1 seat in the LS from the same state.
  • If it wins 3% of seats in the LA at a general election to the legislative assembly of the state concerned or 3 seats in the assembly (whichever is more).
  • If it wins 1 seat in the LS for every 25 seats or any fraction thereof allotted to the state at a general election to the LS from the state concerned.
  • If it secures 8% of the total valid votes polled in the state at a General Election to the LS from the state or to the State LA.

What is the Significance of Being Declared a National/State Party?

• A recognised party (national or state) has the right to certain privileges like allocation of the party symbols, provision of time for political broadcasts on the state-owned television and radio stations and access to electoral rolls.
• These parties are allowed to have 40 “star campaigners” during the time of elections (the registered-unrecognised parties are allowed to have 20 “star campaigners”).
• Every national party is allotted a symbol exclusively reserved for its use throughout the country. Even in the states where it is not contesting elections.
• For a state party, the allotted symbol is exclusively reserved for its use in the state/s in which it is so recognised.