{"id":12109,"date":"2017-11-14T12:05:31","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T06:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=12109"},"modified":"2017-11-13T14:45:06","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T09:15:06","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-november-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-november-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 November 13"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/mains-marathon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archives<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.1 What is the three-judge case? What are the problems Indian Judiciary is facing today? Also, discuss the steps taken by the government to tackle it. (<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GS-2)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction : Three-judge case<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to first judges case chief justice of India does not have primacy over executive in the matter of appointment of judges of Supreme Court and High Courts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second judges case decision made the judiciary the \u2018de facto\u2019 appointing authority of themselves curtailing the power of council of ministers under Article 74(1).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In third judges case, nine judge Bench again confirmed that the opinion of the collegiums of judges have primacy in appointing and transfer of judges of higher judiciary. In light of this decision detailed Memorandum of Procedure was prepared, which took the form of present collegiums system.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The problems of Indian judiciary<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Huge pendency of cases<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of judges and inefficient management is the reason behind delay in justice delivery.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inadequate data on pending cases and \u201clack of scientific maintenance\u201d of data makes it difficult to analyse problems and propose sustainable solutions for the judiciary.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is \u201cno unanimity on the number of judges in the country\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proliferation through SLPs: A lot of cases are entertained under article 136, which would otherwise not fall in the criminal\/appellate\/advisory jurisdictions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Technical nature of cases: Often the judges have to hear cases related to technical matters such as taxation, environmental policy etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of infrastructure and manpower shortage.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Expensive and delayed justice: Judicial proceedings are prohibitively expensive, confusing for commoners and delay in justice delivery has denied gainful opportunities for many.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of expertise: Judiciary lacks expertise in dealing with new age problems like Corp Tax, Cyber laws, International treaties, Climate change and its conservative attitude is exploited and corrupt go scot free.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Corruption is also an major issue in judicial system as it is any other government department especially in lower courts increasing transparency and accountability corruption can be bought down.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Absence of separate Commercial Courts to adjudicate on disputes of civil nature resulting in large number of pending civil suits related to various business and services related disputes in the high courts.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Steps taken by the government to address the above-mentioned problems:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tribunals: They have been set up to deal with technical matters and appeals against their orders are usually capped.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Special bencheslike the social justice bench have been set up.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quasi judicial bodies like NHRC take some load off the judiciary<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently efforts like separate benches for Trade disputes, Tribunals, Lok Adalats and Rural courts, NJAC, release of undertrials, PIL etc has been taken.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Efforts made to address the concerns:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NDA government has tried twice, unsuccessfully both times, to replace the collegium system with a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The BJP-led government of 1998-2003 had appointed the Justice M N Venkatachaliah Commission to opine whether there was need to change the collegium system. The Commission favoured change, and prescribed an NJAC consisting of the CJI and two senior most judges, the Law Minister, and an eminent person from the public, to be chosen by the President in consultation with the CJI.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.2 Commerce and Industry Ministry is planning to expand exports by increasing agri-exports. Discuss the benefit that this step will incur. Also suggest what more can be done for promoting exports of agricultural products? <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(GS-3)<\/span><b><br \/>\n<\/b><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Commerce and Industry Ministry is planning to expand exports by increasing agri-exports.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>The benefits <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increasing agri \u2013 exports will help increase India\u2019s export basket and would also expand farmers\u2019 incomes and amend farm distress.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This objective is achievable, provided there is a paradigm shift in policy-making from being obsessively consumer-oriented to according greater priority to farmers\u2019 interests.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the Survey, the IMF\u2019s January update of its World Economic Outlook forecast projecting an increase in global growth from 3.1 per cent in 2016 to 3.4 per cent in 2017, with a corresponding increase in growth for advanced economies from 1.6 per cent to 1.9 per cent, augured well for India\u2019s exports.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Steps to promote agri-exports<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government needs to <\/span><b>put in money to push infrastructure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> if exports have to be increased.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Improvement in warehousing infrastructure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> would also counter inflation concerns due to seasonal factors such as poor monsoon rains.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s warehousing capacity for <\/span><b>perishables is disproportionately concentrated<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a few regions. Almost 50% of cold-storage capacity is concentrated in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to a report on warehousing in India by the <\/span><b>National Institute of Public Finance and Policy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> released in September 2015, post-harvest losses of agricultural commodities is estimated to be at about Rs44,000 crore annually.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>The cobweb effect<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> means that <\/span><b>higher cultivation leads to lower prices<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which in turn leads to lower cultivation in the next period.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problem of <\/span><b>bumper crops<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> leading to a price crash can be taken care of by policies such as <\/span><b>minimum support prices.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India pursued the cause of <\/span><b>legitimizing its procurement-based PDS<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the WTO in the past two WTO ministerial conferences.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If India has to promote agri-exports, the country\u2019s policymakers must <\/span><b>build global value-chains<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for some important agri-commodities in which the country has a <\/span><b>comparative advantage.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>On the exports front<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, India is relatively competitive in cereals, especially rice and wheat and maize, and, at times, oilseeds, especially groundnuts and oil meals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>The country can also be competitive in groundnut and mustard oil<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, provided there is an open and stable export policy. India has also been the world\u2019s second largest exporter of cotton.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The country has a <\/span><b>great potential<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to <\/span><b>export fish and seafood, bovine meat, and fruits, nuts and vegetables<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. These are the commodities to focus on in order to stimulate agri-exports.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stimulating agri \u2013 exports would require <\/span><b>infrastructure and institutional support<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 connecting <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">export houses directly to farmer producer organizations (FPOs), sidestepping the APMC-regulated mandis, removing stocking limits and trading restrictions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stimulating such exports would also require <\/span><b>structural reforms in agriculture<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A special package to support <\/span><b>value-chains through infrastructural investments<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (in assaying, grading, packaging and storing facilities), which will <\/span><b>also create jobs in rural areas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or assistance in adhering to sanitary and phytosanitary standards would make them more resilient to future price shocks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The import policy must be designed such that the landed price of palm oil and yellow pea never goes much below the domestic prices of their nearest rivals, say, soybean oil and chickpea, respectively.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Liberalization of factor markets, especially land-lease markets, would also help in building more efficient and reliable export value-chains.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Long land-lease arrangements can facilitate private investments in building export-oriented global value-chains, generating rural non-farm employment and enhancing farmers\u2019 incomes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A farm-to-foreign\u201d strategy, improving agri-trade surpluses by promoting agri-exports, and most importantly create more jobs and bring prosperity to rural areas can sure be a go ahead.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.3 India hosted Charles, the Prince of Wales with an agenda to revive the future of the Commonwealth. What is the significance of Commonwealth meetings in present scenario and the importance that it holds for India specifically in the context of trade and services?\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(GS-2)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Charles came to India to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend <\/span><b>the Commonwealth Summit scheduled in London in April 2018<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Charles stopped over in three other commonwealth countries \u2014 Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia before arriving in Delhi.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is significant for many reasons:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Charles, with his considerable interest in Commonwealth affairs in recent years, is likely to take over from Queen Elizabeth as the head of the organization. As the largest country in the Commonwealth, India will have a key role in formalizing this transition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Britain\u2019s renewed interest in the Commonwealth amidst its looming separation from the European Union is important. London is making a <\/span><b>big push to reconnect with its historic partners<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the Commonwealth and the Anglo sphere.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Charles declared that \u201cthe Commonwealth should, and does, have a pivotal role\u201d in resolving contemporary global problems like <\/span><b>climate change, urbanization and sustainable development<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Commonwealth forum can draw on a <\/span><b>uniquely wide range of national contexts, experiences, traditions <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and, above all, <\/span><b>professional associations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the solutions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>India\u2019s new possibilities with the Commonwealth<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A group of realists dealing with the foreign policy of India would want to explore with Britain <\/span><b>the idea of a long-term partnership between Delhi and London in rejuvenating the Commonwealth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delhi\u2019s lack of interest in the Commonwealth in recent decades was reinforced <\/span><b>by the preoccupation with managing the complex relationships with its immediate neighbours<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, reordering its ties with the major powers, and becoming part of regional institutions like the Association of the South East.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Trade and services ties <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Post-Brexit, the two countries want to expand their bilateral trade which was pegged at $14.02 billion in 2015-16. The two sides have also been looking to work out a trade deal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to a <\/span><b>Commonwealth report titled \u2018The Commonwealth in the Unfolding Global Trade Landscape<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019, trade within this grouping was pegged at $592 billion in 2013 and is projected to surpass the $1 trillion mark by 2020.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asian members account for 55 per cent of intra<\/span><b>-Commonwealth trade with India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Malaysia and Singapore contributing to over half the total intra-Commonwealth goods exports.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a founding member, India is the largest member and the fourth largest contributor to its budget after the UK, Australia and Canada. Besides, India shares close ties with many Commonwealth members including the African nations and island states.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the UK works to persuade India into playing a greater role in the Commonwealth, it needs to put forth the reason that India can generate more influence for itself and increase its soft power by staying as a part of Commonwealth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New Delhi clearly would want something more substantive from the UK in return for backing it on the Commonwealth reforms front.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A sticking point between the two governments has been <\/span><b>restrictive visas for Indian students and IT professionals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, with 10 Downing firm in its resolve not to grant concessions, it\u2019s unlikely to bag a trade pact with India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the strategic trajectories of India and Britain diverging in the last few decades ruined the bilateral relationship between Delhi and London. The falling off the Commonwealth was inevitable.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way ahead<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The essence of the original idea that the <\/span><b>Commonwealth can serve the interests of both countries<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has not just survived but has come back to the fore today.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Britain,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that is reinventing itself politically after Brexit. The Commonwealth has now become a significant forum to recalibrate London\u2019s international relations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For India<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Commonwealth is the most natural theatre to demonstrate its credibility as a <\/span><b>\u201cleading power<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d. With a globally dispersed membership from the Caribbean to the South Pacific and Southern Africa to East Asia, the Commonwealth <\/span><b>can easily reinforce India\u2019s expanding international footprint.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives\u00a0 Q.1 What is the three-judge case? What are the problems Indian Judiciary is facing today? Also, discuss the steps taken by the government to tackle it. (GS-2) Introduction : Three-judge case According to first judges case chief justice of India does not have primacy over executive in the matter of appointment of judges of&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-november-13\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 November 13<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":2292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mains-marathon-answers","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/pen-paper-laptop.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700805369},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}