Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
- GS PAPER 2
- China ‘won’t allow’ a Korean war {International Affairs}
- India not competing with China in the Pacific {International Affairs}
- Sedition law brings only disrepute to governments that brandish it {Sedition}
- The trap of personal laws {Bills and Laws}
- India’s challenge in Afghanistan {Foreign Policy}
- Time to put an end to film censorship {Freedom of speech and expression}
- GS PAPER 3
- Reforms a must to boost apparel exports {Indian Economy}
- GDP growth is not creating enough jobs {GDP}
- A higher well-being {Economy}
- How to start a broadband revolution in India {E-Literacy}
GS PAPER 2
[1] China ‘won’t allow’ a Korean war
China
- Will not allow war on the Korean Peninsula
- It will play a leading role in maintaining peace in Asia
- This is a position that could increase friction between Beijing and Washington
- that there is no room for outside powers, or internationalisation, for resolving differences among Asian countries, which have rival territorial claims in the South China Sea
- China wants peaceful resolution for the disputes through friendly consultations and negotiations with the parties those are directly involved
China’s stand is also backed by Russian government.
Background
- Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have spiked after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by tests of missiles that could carry atomic warheads.
[2] India not competing with China in the Pacific
What happened?
- Recently, Indian head of state made its first ever visit to Papua New Guinea.
What he said?
- India is not in competition with China in the Pacific region.
- His visit will be a precursor to intensified economic and security cooperation with the Pacific island nation.
- India was ready to cooperate with Pacific Island countries in protecting their Exclusive Economic Zones.
- He made a pointed reference to Papua New Guinea’s natural resources and said there were many opportunities waiting to be seized as both countries had prioritised sustainable use of ocean and marine resources
- India will also pledge support to establish a pharmaceutical production unit here to meet the demand for life-saving medicines.
[3] Sedition law brings only disrepute to governments that brandish it
To understand the conflict between Sedition and Freedom of Speech and Expression, refer the following article:
Sedition v/s Freedom of Expression
Context
- According to the author, the Government has gained nothing by applying the law of sedition.
Instances:
- Hardik Patel has formed his political party Patidar Anamat Andolan Samitis.
- The arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar has backfired and it has turned the student union leader into a celebrity of sorts. He is planning to write a book about his experiences, titled, From Bihar to Tihar.
- Sedition law has failed to discredit Binayak Sen, Arundhati Roy and S.A.R. Geelani.
Conclusion
- None of the celebrated sedition cases of recent years brought any credit to government.It should be noted that besides being colonial rather than democratic, Section 124A offers no tactical returns either. It is a loser on all counts.
[4] The trap of personal laws
Context
- According to author, personal laws actually harm rather than preserve religious freedom.
Why in news?
- Recently, Shayara Bano, a 35-year-old woman from Uttarakhand, has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) before the Supreme Court.
- The PIL seeks to declare the practice of triple talaq, nikah halala (bar against remarriage with divorced husband without an intervening marriage with another man) and polygamy under Muslim personal laws as illegal, unconstitutional, and violative of the rights to equality, dignity, life and freedom of religion under the Constitution.
Arguments of orthodox Muslim Organisations to prevent any reforms within the society
- They state that Islamic law is divine and should not be interfered with.
- Any interference in Muslim personal law is against the fundamental right of freedom of religion which has been given to all citizens by the Constitution of India.
- They declared that Muslim women are satisfied with their rights under the Sharia and feel more protected than women of other faiths.
Opinion of a liberal citizen
- She worries about the AIMPLB’s indifference to another constitutional right in Article 15, which prohibits the state from discrimination on the grounds of sex, and rejects the claimed divine immunity because it is contrary to public reason.
- She is also skeptical of the Hindu right’s hypocritical use of the anti-discrimination argument, given its predilection to enforce gender norms and indifference to the discriminatory tax implications of the Hindu Undivided Family.
No choice left for smaller groups
- Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists, are miscategorised by the personal law system and force-fitted into a religious identity (Hindu) they don’t themselves recognise.
- This misrecognition is a problem because the system claims to apply your laws to you.
- For these groups, the system is clearly failing to achieve its own stated objective(Religious freedom).
- Groups such as Baha’is are worse off, as they are simply ignored by the personal law system — they are deemed too insignificant to even be misrecognised, and have to contend with non-recognition.
- This is a serious criticism of a system defended primarily in terms of the supposed protection it offers to religious minorities.
What about atheists, rationalists and agnostics?
- The personal law system, except in some areas, doesn’t have an exit option for non-believers.
- A religious identity is forced upon you, whether you like it or not.
- Thus the personal law system stands in the way of the enjoyment of freedom from religion.
What about believers?
- The personal law system also violates the religious autonomy of believers of those faiths which it does recognise.
- When people get married, divorced, inherit property, make gifts, bequeath property, etc, they often have to do so in accordance with their (state-determined) personal law.
- But religious people are likely to have a wide range of mutually incompatible views about what their religion requires.
- The personal law system cannot possibly accommodate all these diverse viewpoints.
- It has to choose one or a couple of religious interpretations to apply by law.
- The result is that those whose interpretations vary from that of the state must follow religious forms and practices they might deeply disagree with.
- The heterodox believer is forced to act according to religious beliefs not her own. The system simultaneously injures and insults her religious freedom: It forces her to follow practices inimical to her faith because the state claims that her faith requires them.
[5] India’s challenge in Afghanistan
News
- India hosted the Heart of Asia (HoA) conference
Countries participated:
Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.
Context
- Reconstruction in war torn afghanistan and bringing peace and normalcy to the nation
How is Afghanistan dealing with terrorism
- Afghanistan is again reviewing its policy towards Pakistan
- It has said that it will lodge a formal complaint to the UN Security Council if Pakistan is does not understand Afghanistan’s hopes regional cooperation
- It expects Pakistan to take military action against Taliban instead of negotiating with the terrorist group
- Afghanistan government is having tough time in holding key districts of Helmand province because of the renewed offensive by Taliban
- Overdue parliamentary elections is a struggle amid worsening security situation
- Afghanistan has alleged that Haqqani network in Pakistan is responsible for recent attacks where 64 were killed and 347 injured, and is Afghanistan is now seeing to isolate Pakistan at regional and international level, so that the world knows where the terrorists are.
How is India helping Afghanistan
- Assisted Afghanistan to build its parliament
- Gifted Mi-25 attack helicopters to Afghan forces
- For Afghanistan’s stability it has demanded that safe havens for terrorists be destroyed and called for deeper engagement of various stakeholders for Afghanistan’s stability and security
- [Indian embassy in Kabul was attacked, Indian consulates Jalalabad, Herat and Mazar-e-sharif was attacked to show retaliation of assistance by India in Afghanistan]
- India has shown commitment to Afghanistan economic viability by signing TAPI(Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) pipeline agreement.
China also wants to have deeper ties with Afghanistan
- Plans to strengthen counter-terror and intelligence cooperation
- Training of Afghan military and civilian personnel
- It sees Afghanistan’s security as a key to stability in China, specially Xinjiang province, where extremists and separatists have killed hundreds of people
- China is keen to see a political settlement in Afghanistan that ensures a stable balance of power
Last notes
India now needs to move ahead from economic and military engagement with Afghanistan and evolve a comprehensive policy which involves all dimensions of power
[6] Time to put an end to film censorship
Why in news?
- Recently, a committee headed by veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal had submitted its report recommending a number of amendments to the Cinematograph Act, 1952.
Central Board of Film Certification
- The Central Board of Film Certification (often referred to as the Censor Board) is a statutory censorship and classification body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
- It is tasked with “regulating the public exhibition of films under the provisions of the Cinematograph Act 1952”.
- It assigns certifications to films, television shows, television ads, and publications for exhibition, sale or hire in India.
- Films can be publicly exhibited in India only after they are certified by the Board, including films shown on television.
Films are certified into four categories
- ‘U’ (Unrestricted)
- ‘UA’ (Unrestricted, but with caution that parental discretion is required for children under age 12)
- ‘A’ (Adult)
- ‘S’ (Only for a special class of persons).
Films with S certification should not be viewed by the public. Only people associated with science (Engineers, Doctors, Scientists etc.) have permission to watch those films.
Key recommendations of the Committee:-
- An emphasis on certification over censorship (or so it claims)
- CBFC should only be a film certification body whose scope should be restricted to categorizing the suitability of the film to audience groups on the basis of age and maturity except in the following instances to refuse certification –
- When a film contains anything that contravenes the provisions of Section 5B (1) of the Cinematograph Act, 1952.
- When content in a film crosses the ceiling laid down in the highest category of certification.
- More categories of certification, more leeway
- Regarding the categorisation of films, the committee recommends that it should be more specific and apart from U category, the UA Category can be broken up into further sub-categories — UA12+ & UA15+. The A category should also be sub-divided into A and AC (Adult with Caution) categories.
- Curbing potential ‘reigns of terror’
- The committee has also made certain recommendations regarding the functioning of the board and has stated that the Board, including Chairman, should only play the role of a guiding mechanism for the CBFC, and not be involved in the day-to-day affairs of certification of films.
- The government will have no (direct) hand in appointing Examining Committee members.
- Regarding the Regional Advisory Panel the committee has laid down the criteria for appointment. All nine regions will have advisory panels comprising persons who are acquainted with the languages being certified by that regional office.
- The board will, once again, have the power of re-certifying films for TV
- Recertification of a film for purposes of telecast on television or for any other purpose should be permitted.
- The CBFC-certified version of a film will not be valid for posterity
- “In order to preserve Indian Cinema, the committee recommends that every applicant be asked to deposit the Director’s Cut in the NFAI [National Film Archive of India] for preservation of Indian Cinema, instead of the certified version, in order to truly reflect the cinematic history of Indian cinema.”
Conclusion
- The Shyam Benegal Committee’s report, although incomplete, contains several suggestions that are long overdue and definitely represent a step in the right direction.
- If the Shyam Benegal committee report’s recommendations are implemented, it will be a substantial step towards addressing these issues, allied with the Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling that states can’t ban films cleared by the CBFC.
GS PAPER 3
[1] Reforms a must to boost apparel exports
Why in news?
A World Bank report titled ‘Stitches to Riches? Apparel Employment, Trade, and Economic Development in South Asia,’ has suggested India to carry out reforms in the apparel sector.
What kind of reforms?
- India should consider reforms including reduce tariffs and import barriers to ease access to manmade fibres — such as more transparency for duty drawback schemes and bonded warehouses, and removing anti-dumping duties on manmade fibres.
- India could also lower excise taxes or provide other incentives to develop a domestic manmade fibre industry.
- To improve productivity, they (India) could help firms enter the formal sector and take advantage of economies of scale with less complex labor policies.
- They (India) could also promote foreign investment for apparel by adopting clear and transparent policies on foreign ownership (already in place for textiles) and within Export Promotion Zones.
India needs to seize the moment
- The apparel sector of China — which holds the largest share of global apparel trade at 41 per cent (as against India’s share of just 3.5 per cent) — is likely to be hit by factors such as higher wages and the production shift to higher value-added industries like electronics.
- Rising costs of apparel manufacturing in China provides a window of opportunity for India to focus on apparel in productively employing its huge working-age population.
[2] GDP growth is not creating enough jobs+India’s jobless growth is undermining its ability to reap the demographic dividend
News
- India’s employment growth is slowing down an analysis of the annual reports of the companies
- Jobs growth slowed to near-zero during 2014-15 in a sample of 1,072 companies.
Concern
- Employment growth in the sample slowed to 0.3%, the slowest in four years,
- The number of jobs in manufacturing sector also declined, despite the government’s ‘Make In India’ push.
- The last quarterly survey by the Labour Bureau showed that India has never created so few jobs
- These figures are particularly alarming since almost one million new people enter the job market every month.
Manufacturing sector
- Sector accounted for more than 40 per cent of the jobs, the highest share in employment, followed by banking (23.0 per cent) and IT (18.4 per cent).
- This means that the future of job creation would largely be dependent on the growth in this sector and the low growth in the last 3 years is a cause for concern.
Jobless growth may be explained in many different ways, but two factors in particular need to be highlighted.
- India has an employability problem. While the services can rather easily recruit skilled white-collar workers (IT engineers, English-speaking people for the call centres, etc), the industry cannot transform peasants into factory workers so quickly. Such a transition requires basic training, which is missing.
- Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is not being promoted in India. Their labour intensity is four times higher than that of large firms.
What is there in the budget for education?
- Minuscule increase in the share of education in the 2015-16 budget, from 3 to 3.1 per cent, will hardly make any significant difference.
- Government seems to rely on private initiatives in this domain also stands in stark contrast to an obvious reality: No country has developed without a robust public education system.
The Make in India programme is revealing of the jobless growth syndrome:
- Highly capitalistic multinationals will start factories in India to sell their products to the white-collar middle class but will not create the manufacturing workforce the country is longing for.
- SMEs, which employ 40 per cent of the workforce of the country and which represent about 45 per cent of India’s manufacturing output and 40 per cent of India’s total exports, are in a better position to do so — but they are not treated well.
- What are the main issues related to SME’s
- They have poor access to credit.
- The SMEs are badly affected by the erosion of state protections which harked back to the Gandhian era.
- The big companies are also the main beneficiaries of the fiscal policy of the government.
- What are the main issues related to SME’s
Conclusion
- The rationale of crony capitalism is the same all over the world: Those who pay for electoral campaigns and who command other forms of influence can somewhat dictate their terms, even if this balance of power results in distortions of the market economy — and the creation of fewer jobs.
[3] A higher well-being
- Actual well-being of the household will be higher than what is indicated by the poverty line
- Methods used by India to conclude poverty line does not take into account many aspects.
- Aspects such as the expenditure on health education, sewage drainage, cleanliness etc.
- Editor gives stats that studies have shown that include of social schemes into account will reduce the amount of poverty.
- Since most schemes are targeting poor’s. Cases like PDS clearly shows variation in poverty ratio.
[4] How to start a broadband revolution in India
Problems of providing Internet access in India
- Government is selling spectrum mainly to increase its income and not with the motive of providing access or public good. This creates scarcity of spectrum.
- Telecom operators buy these to increase quality or to reduce competition in the market, thus, driving the prices up which are often passed on to the end consumer.
- To keep the prices down and profits up, operators choose options like Airtel Zero which are not ethical and violation of net neutrality.
How to deal with these issues?
- Release spectrum in larger chunks
- Have lower reserve prices
- Create an environment where market forces drive telecom operators to bring down the pricing of Internet access to users.
We have had many changes in the market dynamics that have brought us millions of Internet users in India in the past year alone. With the onset of 3G and 4G technologies this user base is increasing day by day. In such a scenario the quality of access is essential in growing Internet usage, and other changes can be made to facilitate that.
Some of the changes that can be made are:
- Ensure that all phones sold in India use Indic language-ready operating system software, covering most of the major languages. This will ensure that the internet is used by even those who are not well versed with English.
- Encourage companies to host locally, avoiding the additional cost (and latency) associated with sending traffic out of India
- Government buildings should host Wi-Fi routers from private ISPs. This will reduce the congestion by offloading to Wi-Fi.
- Encourage competition among ISPs to bring down prices:
- Launch of mobile operators such as Uninor and Tata Docomo
- Pricing innovation of per-second billing that brought prices down
Conclusion
- We need to bring more Indians online
- Encourage users to both consume and create in an open Internet environment
1. The lead article of the day is covered under Editorial Today. Click here to read.
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