{"id":13482,"date":"2017-12-21T13:00:13","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T07:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=13482"},"modified":"2017-12-19T16:25:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T10:55:12","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-december-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-december-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 December 20"},"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) Recently, the Centre government has decided to set up special courts with the aim of disposing large number of cases against politicians. What are the significance of this move and possible challenges in the implementation? (GS-2)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SC is setting up a plan to exclusively try pending criminal cases against politicians and law makers by constituting special courts on the lines of Fast track courts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Significance:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is an important development given the fact that we are faced with criminalization of politics at every level right from gross root level to parliament level. \u00a0Many politicians are facing criminal charges.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is significant because country should strive for corruption free and elimination of criminalization of politics. If the cases are pending against law makers for a long time then it\u2019s neither good for them nor the people of the country. If they are innocent then they should be adjudged not guilty and in case of convictions they should be punished.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As many as 1352 politicians are involved and at the same time our courts are overburdened. So if we go by the normal procedure it will take lot of time. SC, in 2014, has already passed an order and they have decided a limit of one year.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, SC realized that unless the special courts are constituted for this purpose. By now they came up with this solution and this has a great significance.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The challenges in implementing special courts in India are as follows:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a <\/span><b>lack of adequate Judges<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for deciding cases at Special courts. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As these courts are fast tracked, all <\/span><b>necessary infrastructures are to be provided<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The amount of <\/span><b>funds is quite insufficient <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that can be earmarked for setting up of Special Courts. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Corruption <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is also a major issue in judicial system as it is any other government department <\/span><b>especially in lower courts <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">increasing transparency and accountability corruption can be bought down. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These courts might be <\/span><b>confusing for commoners<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for which delay in justice delivery may be gainful opportunities for many.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.2) \u201cThough poverty declined but income inequality increased in the post-reform period\u201d. Explain and also bring out the reasons of the same. (GS-1)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Decline in Poverty:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Poverty declined by 1.36 percentage points per annum after 1991, compared to that of 0.44 percentage points per annum prior to 1991.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Increase in income inequality: <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the 1951-1980 period, the bottom 50% group captured 28% of total growth and incomes of this group grew faster than the average.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While on the other hand, the income of the top 0.1% decreased.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the 1980-2014 periods, the situation got reversed as the top 0.1% of earners captured a higher share of total growth (12%) than the bottom 50% (11%).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the same period, the top 1% received a higher share of total growth (29%) than the middle 40% (23%).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the causes of rising income inequality in India<\/b> <b>post-reform period?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The major reasons are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Increased GDP growth:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Post reform period, increased GDP growth has come at the cost of ever-widening inequality.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s opening up of the economy and liberalization was much in favour of the top income earners and capital owners.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Top Tax rates reduced<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Tax progressivity was reduced progressively reduced. Top tax rates, which were very high in the 1970s (up to 98%), decreased to 30% in the 1980s and after.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Increasing wage inequality<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Post-reform, privatization removed government set pay-scales which were less unequal. As a result, the wage inequality dispersion increased in many sectors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Lower growth rates for low income group<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Growth at the bottom of the distribution was significantly lower than average growth rates since the 1980s.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What should be done<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Job creation in the modern sectors<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the economy rather than redistribution through fiscal spending id needed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Focus more on <\/span><b>economic growth <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rather than populist policies<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Strong labour rights<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a country help young people secure a fair wage.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Government spending on <\/span><b>infrastructure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is important in rural areas<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government\u2019s spending on <\/span><b>quality of primary education<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> remains a problem and needs improvement.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Government <\/span><b>expenditure on health<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> must be increased.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>A social safety net<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the informal sector workers like life insurance and pension policies is important.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.3) What needs to be done to achieve the aim of attaining self-reliance in design development and manufacturing in the defence sector? Discuss your answer with its possible drawbacks. (GS-3)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India&#8217;s defense sector is at a very <\/span><b>crucial juncture in its expansion cycle<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is driven <\/span><b>by modernization plants, increased focus on security and India&#8217;s growing attractiveness as a market for defense manufacturing.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In terms of manufacturing the market is dominated by <\/span><b>defense public sector undertakings and ordnance factories<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which have not performed to the expectations so far.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Measures to be taken to achieve the aim of attaining self-reliance in design development and manufacturing in the defence sector:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government has <\/span><b>taken several steps<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> over the years to fire up the defence manufacturing sector with an aim to become self-reliant. The main key to manufacture defence weapons is to have a <\/span><b>design of own.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this regard, <\/span><b>IDDM (Indigenously Designed and Developed and Manufactured Equipment) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">encourages indigenous designing and production.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several other steps such as <\/span><b>relaxation in offset policy and FDI norms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have also been taken to attract foreign players<\/span><b>.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Strategic partnership policy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has also been rolled out to create capacity in the private sector on a long-term basis.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>The military must be made responsible<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for any and every defence related projects undertaken.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government should make sure that <\/span><b>private sector has a definite role<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to play in defence.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There must be allowance to <\/span><b>export from private firms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The hurdles in defence manufacturing in India:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The root cause of the failure of defence manufacturing in India is the <\/span><b>systematic failure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a lack of <\/span><b>accountability<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or what can be called as <\/span><b>structural deficiency<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>private sector is yet to be benefitted<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from the reforms of Make in India scheme for they <\/span><b>aren\u2019t given concrete orders <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to move ahead with the \u00a0scheme<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is<\/span><b> no complete privatisation of defence PSUs.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The designing capability in defence sector is <\/span><b>only limited to small and medium projects handled locally.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives\u00a0 Q.1) Recently, the Centre government has decided to set up special courts with the aim of disposing large number of cases against politicians. What are the significance of this move and possible challenges in the implementation? (GS-2) SC is setting up a plan to exclusively try pending criminal cases against politicians and law makers&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-december-20\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 December 20<\/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-13482","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":1704737400},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13482","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=13482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13482\/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=13482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}