9 PM Daily Current Affairs Brief – October 12th, 2022

Current Affairs Compilations for UPSC IAS Prelims 2022

Mains Oriented Articles

GS Paper 1

• Act quickly: Hate speech gets encouragement with late action from cops and courts. Parties must get tough too
• About the shift in the Indian monsoon: The lingering monsoon

GS Paper 2

• Blaming technology for deaths by suicide is misguided
• India@75 looking at 100: What India’s education system needs
• Pension system should be fair and sustainable
• We have come a long way on abortion rights in India

GS Paper 3

• Ineffective implementation: Ban on single-use plastic is not working
• Why NPAs are not just about bank governance
• Solutions by the people, solutions for the people

Prelims Oriented Articles (Factly)

• Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Forestry Report: Sustainable forestry paramount for biodiversity conservation: FAO
• Parliament panel moots use of Hindi, local languages in higher educational institutes
• PM addresses United Nations World Geospatial International Congress
• The promise and challenges of flex fuel vehicles
• Principle of seniority and next CJI Chandrachud’s ‘5+1’ collegium
• What are the allegations against Google by the NBDA?
• Three lakh and counting: RTI pleas pile up at information commissions across India

Mains Oriented Articles

GS Paper 1

Act quickly: Hate speech gets encouragement with late action from cops and courts. Parties must get tough too

News– The article explains the reasons for hate speeches. It also provides the solution to curb instances of hate speech.

Recently there were instances of elected representatives of parties and religious organizations giving hate speeches.

What are the reasons behind encouragement for hate speech?

Lack of quick and meaningful police and legal actions encourages hate speech.

There are delays by the police in registering FIR.

Courts take a very long time to decide the cases related to hate speeches.

Political parties do not act against their members giving hate speeches.

What is the way forward?

Police forces have to be vigilant and proactive in registering FIRs, making arrests, filing chargesheets and pursuing trials.

Political parties should show zero tolerance for hate speeches.

Higher courts should take a proactive stand. They should supervise a few hare speeches. If necessary, they should also pull up lower courts.

A separate law on hate speeches is unnecessary. It can be misinterpreted.

About the shift in the Indian monsoon: The lingering monsoon

News: Incessant rain over Delhi and several other parts of North and Northwest India over the last few days provide further evidence of the shifting patterns in monsoon activity over the Indian subcontinent.

What is the shift in the Indian monsoon?

The monsoon season earlier confined neatly to the four-month June-September period. But it is clearly spilling over into October now. The monsoon rainfall has also become more erratic — fewer rainy days but more intense rain. Extreme rainfall events are increasing both in intensity and frequency. For instance, Delhi had its fourth-wettest October of the last 120 years.

The recent spell of rainfall over Western Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Eastern Rajasthan and Delhi were a result of the interaction of monsoon winds, moving east to west, with the western disturbance wind system. Such interactions happen several times during the monsoon season.

Due to this, three years ago, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had revised the expected dates of onset and withdrawal of the monsoon for several regions of the country. The withdrawal dates for North, Northwest and Central India were pushed back by one to two weeks to account for the trends witnessed over the last 50 years.

What is the reason for the shift in the Indian monsoon?

Climate change: The shift in the Indian monsoon is being driven primarily by climate change.

Global warming: One possible reason for the spillover of monsoon rainfall to October could be the fact that the oceans (Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea) are now warmer than earlier.

Warmer ocean currents help the formation of monsoon winds. Earlier, rainfall during the monsoon season would bring down the temperature of the ocean. But possibly because of global warming, the oceans continue to remain warm even after the traditional monsoon season is over.

Similarly, a warmer atmosphere has a greater capacity to hold water. When this water is finally released, it often results in a heavier downpour.

What are the challenges associated with the shift in the Indian monsoon?

A challenge for forecasting: The IMD has over the past 10-12 years, invested heavily in setting up observational equipment, upgrading computing resources, and fine-tuning weather forecast models. But despite that, the IMD is battling public perception for its generic forecasts.

Impact on Indian economy: A significant part of Indian agriculture still depends on monsoon rainfall for irrigation. The supply of drinking water and the generation of electricity are also linked to the monsoon.

Dam management: Most reservoirs in the northern and central parts of the country seek to attain full capacity levels by the end of September because not much rain is expected after that.

What needs to be done to adapt to the shift in the Indian monsoon?

Augment IMD capacity: Capacity upgradation has to be a continuous exercise. So, India need to set up more observation stations, collect more data, and do more computing.

Follow-up action in agriculture and economy: Not just the preferred time of sowing of crops, but the entire cropping cycle — even the choice of crops — might need to be changed.

GS Paper 2

Blaming technology for deaths by suicide is misguided

News: The data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2021 shows that suicide claimed 1,64,033 lives in that year.

What are the reasons for suicides?

One of the reasons for suicide today is the expanding role of digital technologies.

Technological factors such as cyberbullying, loss of self-esteem due to social media or heavy reliance on virtual followers are contributing to the issue of suicide.

It is true that the role of technology has increased human life and its influence will create positive as well as negative impacts on human life.

However, there is also a need to realize that technology is neither the main reason for a problem nor the perfect solution.

Although technology plays a role in mental health or in suicides, technology cannot only be blamed completely. There are other issues that need to be addressed in a comprehensive and holistic manner.

For example, according to a study in the U.S., participants who experienced cyberbullying, are more likely to commit suicide or attempt to it, compared to those who did not.

However, similar results are true even for those who are bullied in person.

Therefore, the medium of bullying is not an issue but it is the act of bullying that needs to be addressed.

Moreover, awareness campaigns, sensitisation programmes, community support, etc. can be adopted to find the solution to bullying.

What has led to higher suicide cases in Tamil Nadu and what are the solutions for it?

Reasons

Tamil Nadu has been consistently reporting highest shares of reported deaths by suicide in the country. It has reported over 11% of total cases in the previous decade and nearly 19,000 cases in 2021 alone.

The suicides in Tamil Nadu were mainly associated with playing online rummy games.

This led Tamil Nadu government to ban most online games played for money including rummy and poker.

Analysis of the data from the NCRB on deaths by suicide in Tamil Nadu makes it evident that the policy response is not adequate to address the magnitude of the crisis in the State.

According to the NCRB, family problems, illness, marriage/love-related issues, etc. alone contribute to more than two-thirds of the deaths by suicide in India.

Solutions

Evolve a holistic policy response to minimise future cases rather than top-down policy formulations which focuses only on a few high-profile incidents.

An inclusive community-based mental health and suicide-prevention approach.

The central government is already accepting technology in improving mental health outcomes for citizens. Like the announcement of the National Tele-Mental Health Program. It provides access to free, round-the-clock mental health interventions in remote and underserved areas.

Therefore, it is wrong to blame only technology for the suicides and there is a need for effective policy to address inter-related causes.

India@75 looking at 100: What India’s education system needs

News: The article discusses problems with the current education system in India and the importance of value education in the schools

What are the current problems with the Indian education system?

Ignorance: Educated class has not been sensitized enough about our country and the social issues of the nation, by our education system.

Because they have never been trained to look beyond their personal needs or comfort zones.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for a program of education for national understanding.

Value Education: Values Education is not recognized as integral to Indian schooling.

The pattern of schooling focuses on the material world and neglects the intangible aspects of our socio-culture.

Therefore, there is a need to train teachers committed to the promotion of peace and equality to hold value education classes through translated works.

What is the significance of translation of different work into mother tongue?

Translated texts silently open doors to different experiences and sensitize readers to experiences, feelings and situations completely different from their own.

Moreover, today we are struggling to move our education system towards English language but there are many people who even cannot read his or her mother tongue.

Therefore, there is a need to invest in two things: Translation into and out of Indian languages and ethics education in schools and colleges.

Pension system should be fair and sustainable

News: There is a growing push to switch back to India’s old system of state pensions.

The promises are being made to lure the voters in the upcoming elections.

These types of promises make fiscal reforms difficult and acts burden on the state.

How does the NPS and old pension schemes work?

The central and state government pensions were moved to the National Pension System (NPS) on January 1, 2004.

It acts like a retirement fund that promises to pay back a monthly pension depending on the amount of money contributed by workers during their work life.

It is like a long-range investment scheme whereas the previous pension system assured a fixed amount depending upon the one’s last drawn salary and was adjusted with inflation.

The old pension system provides the workers a fixed pay out based on the last drawn salary.

What are the problems with the old pension system?

Offering a fixed pensions can turn into an excessive burden for the government. Thus, the decision to move back to the old pension system can affect the finances of the states as they are already under heavy pension obligations.

A State Bank of India research report estimated that pensions involve big proportion of amount of the total committed expenditures of states. It was 125% of their own revenue receipts for the year 2020-21.

States that are poor will find it hard to afford the pension amount as they have other uses for the public money.

Further, the government has limited resources to perform a huge set of tasks and moving to an old pension system will be difficult for the government.

What can be the course of action?

States should stay with the NPS which is fiscally sensible and put employs of the private and public sector on an equal footing.

A probable long-term solution is to ask workers to put money into a savings scheme that would pay it back later instead of putting money in the pension schemes of the government.

We have come a long way on abortion rights in India

News- The article explains the decision by the Supreme Court that allows unmarried women to terminate pregnancy between 20 and 24 weeks under Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971.

Earlier Delhi High Court dismissed the plea of a single woman to terminate her 23 weeks pregnancy. It observed that single women are not included under the ambit of rule 3B of MTP Act, 1971. Rule 3B allows termination of pregnancy between 20 and 24 weeks.

What are key takeaways of the judgement?

It puts married and unmarried women on equal footing. It includes different categories of women like survivor of rape, women with physical disability, minor girls, women suffering from foetal abnormalities under the ambit of rule 3B of MTP Act to avail abortion services.

It recognizes the right to reproductive autonomy, right to dignified life and right to privacy of women under MTP Act. It reaffirms the SC decision in Suchita Srivastava case vs Chandigarh Administration case that places the right to reproductive autonomy under Article 21.

It says that prohibition on unmarried women to have safe abortion services between 20-24 weeks is violation of right to equality under Article 14.

It addresses the discriminatory behavior of doctors against single women. It gives suggestive directions to doctors to refrain from imposing extra-legal conditions like consent of the family, authorization of courts etc.

It addresses the social stigma related to sexual intercourse by single women. It precludes the law from narrow patriarchal principles.

GS Paper 3

Ineffective implementation: Ban on single-use plastic is not working

News: The ban on single-use plastic came into effect on 1^st July 2022.

However, items like plastic straws and cutlery are being marketed and used routinely in most places and the ban seems to have remained largely on paper.

The concept of extended producer responsibility to ensure sound management of plastic products has failed to produce the desired results.

What are the problems with single-use plastic bags?

The discarded plastic products are thrown randomly which litter roads and block drainage and cause waterlogging.

These plastic products are disposed of in an environment-unfriendly manner of open burning and emitting highly toxic fumes.

These wastes also affect aquatic life and biodiversity when dissolved in water.

Plastic carry bags of less than 75-micron thickness were banned long ago but they are still being used especially by street vendors and small shopkeepers.

The deadline for phasing out bags of slightly thicker material of up to 120 microns is December 31, 2022. However, with the current situation even this target seems unlikely to be met.

What can be the course of action?

India adopted the resolution on addressing the single-use plastic pollution issue in the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2019.

Whereas, some countries like Kenya and Bangladesh had stopped the use of some plastic bags before the resolution. Kenya had barred the use of plastic carry bags in 2017 while Bangladesh did in 2002.

Many other countries have put in place systems to return the used plastic products back to the producers for appropriate recycling or safe disposal.

Therefore, India needs to follow these countries in ensuring plastic-product manufacturers’ stringent compliance with the extended producer responsibility.

Why NPAs are not just about bank governance

News– The article explains the cause behind higher NPAs between 2011-18.

By the late 2000s, NPAs, as a percentage of gross advances had decreased to less than 3.5 per cent. It began to rise in 2011 and peaked at 11.18 per cent in 2018.

Governance issues that stem from government ownership are cited as reasons for higher NPAs.

Why are governance issues not solely responsible for stressed balance sheets?

The government ownership doesn’t explain the improvement on performance of banks during the 2000s.

Most of these NPAs arose due to defaults by private sector non-financial firms.

The difference in the business models of public and private sector banks has not been considered. At the beginning of the 2010s, public sector banks had significantly higher exposure to commodity-sensitive sectors such as iron and steel and textiles compared to private sector banks.

How the fall in commodity prices is responsible for the stressed balance sheet of banks?

The rise in NPAs coincides with fall in international commodity prices. Earlier fall in commodity prices during the late 90s also led to a rise in NPAs. But it was not as severe as between 2011-16.

During the pandemic, the balance sheet was not stressed despite the economic crisis. It can be attributed to the rise in commodity prices during the pandemic.

Decline in commodity prices leads to a decline in raw material cost. But it also causes a more proportionate decline in sales revenue. It impacts the profitability of firms.

The banks which experienced a higher decline in prices also experienced higher NPAs. Public sector banks generally had higher exposure to commodity-sensitive sectors. They experienced a relatively higher decline in prices and a bigger rise in non-performing assets between 2011-16.

What can be done?

We can create a nominal price index using data on banks’ sectoral exposure and commodity prices. For each bank, we multiply the exposure with the sectoral price in that year and the sum of all sectors provide the nominal price index. It will capture the bank-wise variation in their exposure to commodity prices.

Solutions by the people, solutions for the people

News- The article explains the different economic models across the world and suggests a model for the future. It also explains the challenges faced by the presently dominant economic model.

What are different economic models across the world?

There have been two predominant economic models followed since the 20th century- Welfarist model and free market economy model.

The welfarists were in favor of government intervention in the economy. On the other hand, supporters of a free-market economy want a free hand for markets and minimum government intervention in the economy.

The alternate model was suggested by Club of Rome in 1972. It advocated for including environmental cost while estimating profits and growth.

The neoliberal economic model has prevailed in recent times.

What are the challenges faced by the current model of economic governance?

The 2008 financial crisis shows the limitation of this model. To check the slowdown, countries bailed out large financial institutions. There was no compensation for common citizens. Austerity measures were imposed on some countries like Greece.

The low inflation and balanced budget provisions has led to waves of protest. Citizens complain that the system favors wealthiest people. There is a demand to include the needs of people in economic policy.

Social tensions are too high within many countries. Their governments are unable to find fair solutions through conventional democratic processes.

Disillusionment with democratic institutions is increasing even in U.S. and Europe. Authoritarian governments are coming to power in many countries with support of citizens.

What is the new economic model suggested by Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity?

It is based on the “3P” slogan- People, Planet and Profit.

It proposes collaboration between economists, ecologists and social scientists.

It proposes five systematic solutions: ending poverty; addressing gross inequality; empowering women; making food systems healthy for people and ecosystems; and transitioning to clean energy.

It compares the outcomes between present patterns and proposed alternative approaches.

The present path is called “Too Little Too Late” and the other is called “Big Leap”.

The present path will lead to environmental and social collapse. It will preserve the present inequitable distribution of wealth and power.

Big Leap”, on the other hand, can prevent catastrophe. It will lead to a more equitable distribution of economic wealth and social power. It will avoid disruptive political revolutions. It allows us to estimate whether policies related to income redistribution might cause social tensions.

What is the way forward?

Policymaking must become more inclusive and less dominated by the powerful and the wealthy.

Solutions should not be imposed by experts from the top. There is a need for deliberations among diverse disciplines and dialogue among experts and citizens.

Prelims Oriented Articles (Factly)

Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Forestry Report: Sustainable forestry paramount for biodiversity conservation: FAO

Source: The post is based on the article “Sustainable forestry paramount for biodiversity conservation: FAO” published in the Down To Earth on 7^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The Food and Agriculture Organization has recently released a report titled “Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Forestry Report.”

What is Mainstreaming Biodiversity?

Mainstreaming Biodiversity is the process of embedding biodiversity considerations into policies, strategies, and practices of key public and private actors to promote the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

About the Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Forestry Report

FAO’s forestry statutory body, Committee on Forestry (COFO), had asked FAO to review biodiversity mainstreaming in forestry in its 25th session in 2020.

COFO has also asked the FAO to share good practices on solutions that balance conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity.

What are the key findings of Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Forestry Report?

The world’s forests provide habitats for about 80% of amphibian species, 75% of bird species and 68% of mammal species. In addition, about 60% of all vascular plants occur in tropical forests.

But forests and their biodiversity continue to be lost at an alarming rate. Much progress has been made towards mainstreaming biodiversity in production forest management. On the other hand, biodiversity continues to decline globally.

Forests that are managed primarily for economic benefits are critical for biodiversity conservation.

What are the concerns highlighted by the report on Mainstreaming Biodiversity?

Weak governance and law enforcement are the biggest stumbling blocks behind biodiversity conservation in the protected area.

Deforestation is the greatest driver of the loss of valuable biodiversity, with around 10 million hectares lost to deforestation each year, mainly for agricultural expansion.

Other threats include over-harvesting of timber, invasive species, climate change, desertification and forest fires.

What are the global efforts in Mainstreaming Biodiversity?

-The role of forests in maintaining biodiversity is explicitly recognised by the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030.

-In 2019, FAO adopted the Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors.

What are the recommendations of the report on Mainstreaming Biodiversity?

The report recommended various measures and actions such as,

a) Halting and reversing deforestation, b) Combating illegal and unregulated forest activities, c) Recognising the forest tenure of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, d) Preventing the conversion of natural forests into monospecific forest plantations, e) Managing and controlling invasive and overabundant species, f) Adopting a multisectoral perspective, and g) Leveraging global momentum on restoration to enhance biodiversity conservation.

Parliament panel moots use of Hindi, local languages in higher educational institutes

Source: The post is based on the article “Parliament panel moots use of Hindi, local languages in higher educational institutes” published in The Times of India on 10^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The committee of Parliament on Official Language has submitted its 11th report to the President.

About the committee of Parliament on Official Language

Headed by: Union Home Minister.

The committee has framed the recommendations as per the new National Education Policy which suggested that the medium of instruction should either be official or regional languages.

What are the major recommendations of the committee of Parliament on Official Language?

-Local languages should be given preference over English in all states. Hindi should be given a respectable place in ‘A’ category states and it should be used 100%.

-The medium of instruction in technical and non-technical higher education institutes such as IITs in Hindi-speaking states should be Hindi and in other parts of India their respective local language. The use of English should be made optional in these institutes.

-The committee has suggested Hindi should be given a respectable place in ‘A’ category states, and it should be used 100%. For instance, the higher education institutions such as Banaras Hindu University, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia, and Aligarh Muslim University, Hindi is being used only 20-30%, whereas it should be used 100%.

-A total of 193 countries are members of the UN, but not all of them use foreign languages as official languages. The committee is of the opinion that English is a foreign language, and India should do away with this colonial practice. So, the committee is of the opinion that Hindi should be one of the official languages of the United Nations.

PM addresses United Nations World Geospatial International Congress

Source: The post is based on the following articles

“PM addresses United Nations World Geospatial International Congress” published in the PIB on 11^th October 2022.

“India’s geospatial economy is expected to cross Rs 63,000 crore by 2025 at a growth rate of 12.8% and to provide employment to more than 10 lakh people” published in the PIB on 11^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The Second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UN-WGIC) 2022 was recently held in Hyderabad.

About the Second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UN-WGIC)

Aim: To promote a broad dialogue on global geospatial information management with all relevant governments, non-governmental organisations, academia, and the private sector.

Theme: ‘Geo-Enabling the Global Village: No one should be left behind’

Hosted by: Ministry of science and technology.

About United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC)

Objective: Enhancing international collaboration among the Member States and relevant stakeholders in Geospatial information management and capacities.

It is conducted every four years. The first UNWGIC was organized by China in October 2018.

What is the status of India’s geospatial economy?

India’s geospatial economy is expected to cross Rs 63,000 crore by 2025 at a growth rate of 12.8% and to provide employment to more than 10 lakh people.

More than 250 Geospatial start-ups in India working across a range of domains like waste resource management, forestry, urban planning and mapping of roads to demonstrate the applications of Geospatial Technology.

Geospatial Science and Technology and trained manpower will help develop an international GIS services market for the Indian geospatial industry.

The promise and challenges of flex fuel vehicles

Source: The post is based on the following articles

“Union Minister Launches first of its kind pilot project on Flexi-Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FFV-SHEV) in India” published in the PIB on 11^th October 2022.

“The promise and challenges of flex fuel vehicles” published in the Livemint on 12^th October 2022.

What is the News?

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways has launched Toyota’s first-of-its-kind pilot project on Flexi-Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FFV-SHEV) in India. The vehicle would run on 100% petrol as well as 20 to 100% blended ethanol and electric power.

What are flex-fuel vehicles?

Like traditional vehicles, flex fuel vehicles have an internal combustion engine, but instead of regular petrol, it can run on blended fuel—petrol with ethanol or methanol. The ethanol mix can vary between 20% and 85%

The vehicle has additional sensors and different programming of the engine control module to assess the blend of the fuel and adjust accordingly.

What are the advantages of flex-fuel vehicles?

Upgrading existing vehicles to run on high blend of ethanol fuel, however, is possible but expensive and not considered feasible.

Flex-fuel vehicles are seen as a one-shot solution for multiple problems—pollution, oil import bill and glut in sugar production.

Flex fuel vehicles bring down India’s crude oil import bill.

With a much lower cost of running, they also offer a better economy for consumers.

What are the challenges in Flex-fuel vehicles?

Chances of frequent revision: Ethanol is controlled by the government. So, chances of frequent revision are high. On the contrary, the fuel economy is likely to fall by 4-8%.

Less direct benefit to the consumer: Ethanol costs much lower than petrol at ₹47-64/ltr depending on the sugarcane source. However, oil marketing companies are expected to pocket the cost differential.

Significant investment: For mass adoption, adequate supply of different types of ethanol blends is needed across the country. This would have to be in addition to the existing network as current vehicles on the road would have to be supplied with fuel that has only 10% ethanol blending. This means significant investment in infra by oil firms.

Impact of Sugarcane crop: Constant supply of ethanol largely depends on sugarcane in India, which is a water-guzzling crop, any drought could have an impact on blending rates.

Overall, the success of flex-fuel vehicles project will create an ecosystem of electric vehicles and make New India, a global leader in the manufacture of these electric vehicles. These technologies are innovative, revolutionary, sustainable, cost-effective, energy-efficient & will completely transform the transportation sector in New India.

Principle of seniority and next CJI Chandrachud’s ‘5+1’ collegium

Source: The post is based on the article “Principle of seniority and next CJI Chandrachud’s ‘5+1’ collegium” published in the Indian Express on 12^th October 2022.

What is the News?

The current Chief Justice of India (CJI) has written to the government recommending his successor in the post, and as per the convention of seniority, Justice D Y Chandrachud will take over as the next CJI on November 9.

What is the collegium?

What are the Judges Cases?

Who is in the collegium?

The ruling in the Third Judges Case gave legal backing to the current system of appointment of judges and created the collegium of the CJI and four senior-most judges.

Generally, one or more of the four senior judges in the collegium would be a potential CJI candidate. The next in line is considered important to ensure continuity of decision-making.

If the situation should be such that the successor Chief Justice is not one of the four senior-most puisne Judges, he must invariably be made part of the collegium.

What is a 5+1 collegium?

In the two-year tenure of Justice Chandrachud as CJI, a potential CJI candidate (Justice Khanna) is unlikely to be in the collegium until May 2023. So, Justice Khanna will be the sixth member of the collegium from November 9, 2022 itself.

Previous instances of 5+1 collegium: In 2007 when then CJI took the top office, the collegium he headed did not have a potential CJI candidate. So, next in line to be CJI, was invited to the collegium as the sixth member.

What are the allegations against Google by the NBDA?

Source: The post is based on the article “What are the allegations against Google by the NBDA?” published in The Hindu on 12^th October 2022.

What is the News?

Recently News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA) approached the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against search-engine operator Google. The NBDA said that Google had deprived them of their justifiable revenue acquired from news dissemination on the tech giant’s platforms.

Note: The complaint would be clubbed with similar cases earlier filed by the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) and the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA).

How search engines are the first port of call for information online?

As per the NBDA, Google’s search engine commands a 94% market share in the country.

The traditional newspaper industry in India has sustained itself on a business model wherein advertising accounts for two-thirds of its total revenue. With online proliferation, there is an increased reliance of news publishers on digital ad revenues, and in turn, tech-based companies.

More than half of the total traffic on news websites is routed through Google. The search engine determines which news websites would be prioritised in search queries. This has made search engines the first port of call for information online.

What are the key allegations against Google?

Google has been found to be dominant in both markets of relevance to digital publishers. A news website sells advertising spaces on its platform through ad exchanges. Google also operates a platform that manages a publisher’s sale of online ads and tools to purchase display ad space.

But, Google has not compensated news publishers for their contribution to (Google’s various) platforms and has engaged in practices to bolster its monopoly in the space. The website publishers receive only 51% of the advertisement revenue.

On the other hand, Google says that the revenues accrued are spent towards running “a complex and evolving business” such as maintaining data centres, further technological investments, enabling innovations that increase publisher revenue and maximising advertiser return on investment.

How do other countries view and manage Google and News publishers?

The European Publishers Council (EPC) filed an anti-trust complaint against Google with the European Commission. The EPC also complained about Google’s “ad tech stranglehold” over press publishers.

Australia introduced the ‘Media Bargaining Code’ to address the imbalance. The code requires news outlets to negotiate commercial deals individually or collectively with Facebook and Google with violations calling for civil penalties of up to $10 million. The tech firms would also have to give media outlets notice when they change search algorithms that may affect publishers’ content.

Three lakh and counting: RTI pleas pile up at information commissions across India

Source: The post is based on the article “Three lakh and counting: RTI pleas pile up at information commissions across India” published in The Hindu on 12^th October 2022.

What is the News?

According to a private report, after 17 years of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, nearly 3.15 lakh complaints and appeals are pending with 26 information commissions across India.

What is the present status of RTI complaints and appeals?

Incremental backlogs: The backlog of appeals or complaints is increasing in commissions every year. The number of appeals and complaints pending in 2019, from data obtained from 26 information commissions was 2,18,347. In 2022 the number was 3,14,323.

The large backlog of cases has resulted in a long waiting time for disposal.

States with high backlogs: The highest number of pending cases was in Maharashtra (at 99,722), followed by Uttar Pradesh (at 44,482), Karnataka, the Central Information Commission and Bihar.

Defunct information commissions: Two information commissions—Jharkhand and Tripura—out of 29 across the country have been completely defunct for 29 months and 15 months respectively.

Lack of enough manpower: Several information commissions, including the Central Information Commission, are working at reduced capacity with less than the stipulated number of members being in office.

Another report mentions that one-fourth of information commissioner posts are vacant and there are only 5% (only 8) women information commissioners in the country.