UPSC Key-October 18, 2022: Why you should read ‘Compulsory Voting’ or ‘Multidimensional Poverty Index’ for UPSC CSE

Centre cleared release of Bilkis case convicts, CBI & court opposed: Gujarat

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies I: Social empowerment, communalism

• General Studies II: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary—Ministries and Departments of the Government; pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity.

• General Studies IV: Public/Civil service values and Ethics in Public administration

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- THE GUJARAT government told the Supreme Court on Monday that it decided to release the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case as they had “completed 14 years and above in prison… their behaviour was found to be good” and the Centre had also “conveyed (its) concurrence/ approval”

• Who is Bilkis Bano?

• Bilkis Bano case: What did the CBI find in its investigation?

• How did the trial in the case proceed?

• What are the laws on remission?

• Quick Revision– Eleven men who were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case of 2002 were released from Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after a panel set up by the Gujarat government approved their application for remission of the sentence.

• What is the role of Civil Servants in Sentence Review Board to exercise the powers under Section 432 of the CrPC?

• As per the 1992 policy, “the Inspector General of Jail is mandated to obtain the opinion of the District Police Officer, District Magistrate, Jail Superintendent and Advisory Board Committee for early release of a convict-What was the stand of district collector, superintendent of police, or jail superintendent, in this entire case?

• What you know about Gujarat’s remission policy?

• How Gujarat’s remission policy applied to Bilkis case?

• What are the grounds for remission?

• What is the 1992 policy in this case?

• Articles 72 and 161 of the Constitution-Know in detail

• What is collective conscience of society?

• Why is collective conscience important?

• Bilkis Bano case and collective conscience of society-connect the dots

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Our Bilkis moment

Gujarat firms sign MoU with EC, to name, shame workers who don’t vote

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-FOR THE first time, over 1,000 corporate houses in Gujarat have signed agreements with the Election Commission (EC), undertaking to monitor “electoral participation of their workforce” and publish the names of those who don’t vote on their websites or office notice boards.

• How Election Commission of India has justified this step?

• What is the meaning of voter participation?

• What do you understand by voter apathy?

• ‘But the decision to name and shame those who don’t vote may be seen as a coercive step towards compulsory voting’-How far you agree?

• What is Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation program (SVEEP)?

• Do You Know-According to Section 135B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, every registered voter employed in any business, trade, industrial undertaking or any other establishment and entitled to vote in a Parliament or Assembly election has to be granted a paid holiday for the purpose. The state and central governments always notify polling day as a paid holiday within the meaning of Section 25 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.

• Compulsory Voting-Know the merits and demerits

• Do you think that now India should have Compulsory Voting?

• A number of countries around the world make it mandatory for citizens to vote-Can you name those countries? And what provisions they have regarding compulsory voting?

• Can you recall Compulsory Voting Bill, 2019?

• What is the Law Commission’s stand on the idea of compulsory voting?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Private Bill on compulsory voting divides House

EXPRESS NETWORK

PM points to challenge of high import bill on edible oil, fertiliser

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Underlining the challenges posed by Covid-19 and Russia’s war on Ukraine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged people to make a “resolve” and reduce expenditure on imports and make the country self-reliant.

• Prime Minister on Monday launched a scheme ‘Bharat’-Know about this scheme

• Self-Reliant and Self Sufficient-Know the Difference

• Self-Reliant India Campaign is inspired by Swadeshi Movement 1905-Do you agree?

• Self-Reliant India Campaign-Issues and Challenges ahead

• What is Fertiliser?

• Fertiliser Consumption in India

• Why ‘Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Urvarak Pariyojan– One Nation, One Fertiliser’, assumes significance in view of the sharp increase in the overall fertiliser requirement in the country during the last five years?

• Know in detail about ‘Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Urvarak Pariyojan– One Nation, One Fertiliser’-highlights, features, significance, issues, challenges and other alternative to this proposed scheme

• What is integrated fertiliser management system?

• Soil Health Card and neem-coated urea-know about them

• Know more about Fertiliser Sector in India and Related Policies

• Fertiliser comes under Union List, State List or Concurrent List?

• know the basics-Fertiliser Subsidy

• Subsidy Mechanism in the form of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)-know more in detail

• For Your Information-Official records show that the actual expenditure on fertiliser subsidy was 1.27 lakh crore in 2020-21. In the Union Budget 2021-22, the government budgeted an amount of Rs 79,530 crore, which increased to Rs 1.40 lakh crore in the revised estimates (RE). However, the final figure of fertiliser subsidy touched Rs 1.62 lakh crore in 2021-22.

• Do You Know-In the current financial year (2022-23) the government has allocated Rs 1.05 lakh crore. The Fertiliser Minister has said that the fertiliser subsidy figure could cross Rs 2.25 lakh crore during this year. The total requirement of four fertilisers, Urea, DAP (Di-ammonium Phosphate), MOP (Muriate of potash), NPKS (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) in the country increased by 21 per cent to 640.27 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) in 2021-22 from 528.86 lakh metric tonnes in 2017-18.

• Primary (Macro) Nutrients and Secondary (Micro) Nutrients in Fertiliser-Know the difference

• What is the fertiliser requirement of a typical farmer?

• How much subsidy does a farmer really get per acre?

• What is Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP)?

• NPK in Fertilisers-Have you heard of ‘NPK’? What is NPK and Its Ideal Ratio in Fertilisers?

• Advantages of fertigation in agriculture?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: The One Nation One Fertiliser scheme, the Govt’s logic, and some immediate risks

📍System of Fertilizer Subsidy

Confidentiality clause unfair to blocked users: Twitter in HC

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- The confidentiality clause in the Centre’s rules for blocking Twitter accounts and tweets — which disallows information to users on why their accounts were blocked — is “unreasonable” and denies a fair opportunity to those challenging the blocking orders, the social media platform told the Karnataka HC on Monday.

• What was the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s content-blocking orders issued under Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000?

• Why Twitter moved the Karnataka High Court against the Central government?

• What were the events preceding the lawsuit?

• How has the government reacted?

• What is Twitter’s track record on complying with government orders?

• What is the section 69A of IT Act?

• What sort of content comes under the Section 69A?

• The confidentiality clause in the Centre’s rules for blocking Twitter accounts and tweets-Know what is the confidentiality clause?

• The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021-Key highlights

• Social Media Intermediaries-What is ‘intermediaries’?

• In Shreya Singhal v/s Union of India judgment, Supreme court of India upheld Section 69A and striked down Section 66A of the IT Act-Why?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021

📍Explained: Why Twitter has moved court against govt’s content-blocking orders

415 mn Indians rose from poverty between 2005-06, 2019-21: Report

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies II: Issues relating to poverty and hunger

• General Studies III: Inclusive growth and issues arising from it

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Around 415 million people in India climbed out of poverty between 2005-06 and 2019-21, with the incidence of poverty falling from 55 per cent to just over 16 per cent over this period, according to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2022

• For Your Information-Despite the significant reductions, however, the largest number of poor people in the world, 228.9 million lived in India in 2020, said the MPI report, released Monday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford.

• Do you Know-India’s MPI value and incidence of poverty were both more than halved. The MPI value fell from 0.283 in 2005-2006 to 0.122 in 2015-2016 to 0.069 in 2019-2021. The incidence of poverty fell from 55.1 per cent in 2005-2006 to 27.7 per cent in 2015-2016 to 16.4 per cent in 2015-2016.

• What is the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)?

• MPI uses three dimensions and ten indicators-Know in detail the dimensions, indicators, deprivation cutoffs, and weights of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index

• “India’s progress shows that Sustainable Development Goal 1.2 to reduce poverty is feasible, even at a large scale,”-How India reduced poverty?

• What is Poverty?

• How poverty is defined by different international institutions??

• What has the Multidimensional Poverty Index stated about India’s poverty levels?

• Classifications of poverty-Know in Detail (Hint: Absolute and Relative)

• Poverty estimation in India-How Poverty is defined in India?

• Alagh Committee (1979) Lakdawala Committee (1993), Tendulkar Committee (2009), Rangarajan committee (2012) and their poverty estimation.

• What do you understand by the term ‘head-count ratio’?

• What do understand by Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) and Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE)?

• Poverty Alleviation Programs in India by Government of India

• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY)-Key Features

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍2022 GLOBAL MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY INDEX (MPI)

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

Under Beijing’s shadow

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story--C Raja Mohan writes: Indian and American policies are converging. For both Delhi and Washington, Beijing presents the main national challenges. The current churn offers a promising opportunity for collaboration

• “America’s national security strategy issued by the Joe Biden Administration last week and the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Congress this week promise to reshape the geopolitics of Asia and the Indo-Pacific”-What author is trying to convey?

• ‘Asia has seen multiple phases in the US-China relationship’-Can you recall different phases and India’s stand in each phase of US-China relationship?

• ‘In the second half of the 20th century, Asia was secondary to the Cold War in Europe. Today, it is the primary focus for the US in its confrontation with China’-Discuss

• India and the rest of Asia must now engage with at least three dimensions of the Sino-US conflict- What are those three dimensions of the Sino-US conflict?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Why the world is keenly waiting for Chinese Communist Party’s 20th national congress

📍In US security strategy, China ‘only competitor’, India key partner

THE IDEAS PAGE

A more credible deterrence

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- C. Uday Bhaskar Writes: Acquiring the optimum degree of nuclear deterrence is imperative for India, given its distinctive spectrum of security and strategic challenges. Restraint in relation to announcements and claims about strategic capability burnishes deterrence in a quiet but effective manner.

• Quick Recall-On October 14, India joined a select group of nations when it announced the successful launch of an SLBM (submarine-launched ballistic missile). The other six nations that have demonstrated similar underwater capability include the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Russia, the UK, France and China. In August 2016, North Korea claimed a successful launch of an SLBM.

• Know in detail about the indigenous ballistic missile nuclear submarine INS Arihant

• Why the test is significant for the nuclear ballistic submarine, or SSBN, programme?

• INS Arihant-Know in detail

• For Your Information– Launched in 2009 and Commissioned in 2016, INS Arihant is India’s first indigenous nuclear powered ballistic missile capable submarine built under the secretive Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project, which was initiated in the 1990s.

• Do You Know-INS Arihant and its class of submarines are classified as ‘SSBN’, which is the hull classification symbol for nuclear powered ballistic missile carrying submarines. While the Navy operates the vessel, the operations of the SLBMs from the SSBN are under the purview of India’s Strategic Forces Command, which is part of India’s Nuclear Command Authority.

• Know about the Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) and its significance

• “While the October 14 launch validates the credibility of the Indian underwater deterrent, it must be added that this is still a ‘work in progress’”-What do you understand by the statement?

• “India can be justifiably proud of having acquired and demonstrated this level of competence, but this achievement needs to be located objectively”-Decode the statement

• ‘It wouldn’t be wrong to say that India is in a “complex chrysalis phase” as far as the maritime domain is concerned’- Why India is in a “complex chrysalis phase”?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍SLBM launch by INS Arihant: Why this successful test is important for India’s credible nuclear deterrence

EXPLAINED

Reading India’s ‘hunger’ score

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to poverty and hunger.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story India has ranked 107th out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022, down from the 101st position the previous year. Jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerlife, the GHI lists countries by ‘severity’. Yemen has ranked in the lowest position at 121, while the top of the list is dominated by European nations including Croatia, Estonia and Montenegro. Among Asian nations, China and Kuwait have ranked the highest.

• What is the Global Hunger Index?

• When was GHI started, and who brings it out?

• How is hunger measured?

• The GHI looks at four main indicators-What are those?

• Why does GHI look at all these variables for hunger?

• What has GHI 2022 found?

• What is child wasting?

• What is India’s score relative to those of the others?

• Why has the Indian government criticised GHI 2022?

• How justified is the government in its criticism?

• What about the use of 3 indicators that are related to children?

• What about the government’s contention that these indicators do not measure “hunger”?

• What about the government’s allegation that GHI is doing this to malign India’s image?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍What is the Global Hunger Index and why is India trailing?

📍DON’T BE PRICKLY

KAMIKAZE DRONES

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Ukraine’s capital region was struck by Iranian-made kamikaze drones early Thursday (October 14), Ukrainian officials said. The Deputy head of the presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said “critical infrastructure facilities” in the area were hit, The Associated Press reported. The extent of damage was not elaborated on by officials.

• What are Kamikaze drones?

• Why are they called ‘kamikaze’ drones?

• Where do they come from?

• Will they change the course of the war in Ukraine?

• What is Ukraine alleging?

• Which countries have such drones?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Ukraine’s Kyiv area hit by Iranian-made kamikaze drones

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