Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Polity & International Relations) – August 2, 2020

Mahatma Gandhi had first championed the idea of little village republics but it was under P.V. Narasimha Rao that the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, better known as the Panchayati Raj Act, became effective.

Article 256 of the Constitution obligates the State government to ensure implementation of the laws made by Parliament.

• If the State government fails to do so, the Government of India is empowered to give “such directions to a State as may appear… to be necessary”.
• The refusal to enforce the law even after the Centre issues directions would empower the President to impose President’s Rule in those States under Articles 356 and 365.
• The Supreme Court of India has also confirmed this reading of the law in S.R. Bommai v. Union of India.

In 1951 the University of Madras invited Jennings to deliver a series of lectures on the just born Indian Constitution.

• Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, one of the chief architects of the Constitution, attended them and stayed through all his lectures which Jennings delivered in parts on three successive days.
• Jennings began his address by summing up India’s Constitution in one cynical sentence: “Too long, too rigid, too prolix.” Over the course of three lectures, Jennings elaborated on his views.
• He focused on some primary aspects: The Constitution’s rigidity and its superfluous provisions; fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy; and, finally, key aspects of India’s federalism.
• Jennings finally handed down a largely unfavourable verdict. India’s Constitution, he declared, was “far too large and therefore far too rigid”, too caged by its history, and too unwieldy to be moulded into something useful through judicious interpretations.

The Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution contains a list of 22 scheduled languages viz. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Sindhi(added by 21st Amendment Act, 1967) Konkani, Manipuri, Nepali (added by 71st Amendment Act, 1992), Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Santal (added by 92nd Amendment 2003). The list had originally 14 languages only but subsequently through amendments 8 new languages were added.

The Supreme Court recently held that the state is well within its rights to introduce a regulatory regime in the “national interest” to provide minority educational institutions with well-qualified teachers in order for them to “achieve excellence in education.”

• The managements of minority institutions cannot ignore such a legal regime by saying that it is their fundamental right under Article 30 of the Constitution to establish and administer their educational institutions according to their choice.
• “When it comes to the right to appoint teachers, in terms of law laid down in the TMA Pai Foundation case, a regulation framed in the national interest must necessarily apply to all institutions regardless whether they are run by majority or minority as the essence of Article 30(1) is to ensure equal treatment between the majority and minority institutions.
• An objection can certainly be raised if an unfavourable treatment is meted out to an educational institution established and administered by minority.
• But if ensuring of excellence in educational institutions is the underlying principle behind a regulatory regime and the mechanism of selection of teachers is so designed to achieve excellence in institutions, the matter may stand on a completely different footing”.

Turkey has been active in the eight-year-old civil war in Syria, its recent military incursion significantly ups the ante on the conflict.

• Its egregiously named ‘Operation Peace Spring’ aims to create a “safe zone” that is 480 km wide and up to 35 km deep inside Syria.
• Ankara says it intends to relocate some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey in this “safe zone”.

The Australian government is launching a campaign ‘Zero Chance’ to raise awareness among people trying to enter the country illegally by boats.

“The message of Zero Chance is simple. Anyone who tries to come illegally to Australia by boat has zero chance of success”.

United Nations Peacekeeping is a joint effort between the Department of Peace Operations and the Department of Operational Support.

• We operate in some of the toughest and most dangerous places in the world, going where others cannot or will not.
• We tailor each deployment to suit the specific needs on the ground and we adapt to new threats and challenges protecting more people than ever before.
• Our peacekeepers are actively engaged in protecting civilian populations, helping prevent conflict, reducing violence and strengthening security in the field where it matters most.
• Ethiopia is the largest contributor of UN peacekeeping.

The ETBPS, developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), in collaboration with the EC is being used for the first time for a general election.

• The system enables a service voter to cast his/her vote using an electronically received postal ballot from anywhere outside the constituency.
• The record officer who receives a batch of postal ballots electronically will download it and operate using a one-time password.
• The voter will exercise his/ her franchise on the postal ballot, sign it and get it signed by his higher-up and despatch it to the Returning Officer.
• The e-postal ballot system can avoid delay in postal ballots reaching recording offices. In the previous system, the ballot papers were sent by the electoral authorities via registered post.
• The ETPBS was first used in a by-election in the Nellithope Assembly constituency in Puducherry in 2016 and on pilot basis in the State during the Chengannur bypoll.
• The pilot and trials were carried out in U.P., Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur Assembly elections.

As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UNWTO promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.

• UNWTO encourages the implementation of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, to maximize tourism’s socio-economic contribution while minimizing its possible negative impacts.
• And is committed to promoting tourism as an instrument in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), geared towards reducing poverty and fostering sustainable development worldwide.
• UNWTO’s membership includes 159 countries, 6 Associate Members and over 500 Affiliate Members representing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations and local tourism authorities.