{"id":14646,"date":"2018-01-19T12:46:07","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T07:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=14646"},"modified":"2018-01-17T16:48:21","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T11:18:21","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-january-18-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-january-18-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 January 18, 2018"},"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) The government recently decided to set up Special Courts in India. In this context discuss the salient features of special courts and how these courts will deal with tainted lawmakers? What are the challenges in the way of setting up these courts in India? \u00a0(GS-2)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The legislature has introduced special courts on many occasions through various laws, usually with the intention to enable quick and efficient disposal of cases.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Special Court:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A special court is a court with limited jurisdiction, that deals with a particular field of law rather than a particular territorial jurisdiction.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Centre decided to set up 17 special courts within a year time frame.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How Special Courts will deal with tainted lawmakers?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The issue of tainted lawmakers is important issue because these are law makers which are supposed to frame legislations, lay down policies and help in achieving the democratic principles. Special courts will deal with tainted lawmakers in following ways:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Centre\u2019s decision will a body blow for politicians who despite facing criminal charges has state in Parliament because of delay in trying them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will help in quick and efficient disposal of cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To ensure effective trial and that have powers of district or sessions courts. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will help in put an end to the inordinate delay in the prosecution of politicians and criminal cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will exclusively deal with cases against MP and MLAs, and dispose them within a year.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laws enacted in the last three decades have considered special courts as quick remedy for questions of delays in trial.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cases related to corruption, terrorism, sexual offences against children and drug trafficking are dealt with by special courts.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Some of the challenges in setting special courts:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of infrastructure and facilities for special courts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">High rates of pendency and absence of Special courts plagues in several states.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The provision of special courts in laws does not match with the backlog and pendency of cases in specific <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">category. For example, There is huge backlog under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act but there is no provision of exclusive courts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no criteria which justify provision of special courts in a particular law.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Forums like quasi-judicial bodies, tribunals, and commissions were excluded.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Setting special courts is not a long term solution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By setting special courts, regular courts will suffer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The objective of special courts has been unclear.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is not very revealing whether specific legislations which provides for special courts necessarily intend quick disposal of cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The provision to set up special courts is a welcome step we need to make on long term and permanent solution to deal with pendency of cases and for better justice delivery system for a healthy democracy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although this is a welcome step by the government of India but there are lots of other issues apart from tainted lawmakers like women\u2019s safety. Special courts cannot take place on the regular dispensation. This is an issue for several years.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q.2) India\u2019s public distribution system (PDS) is in danger of being derailed in several States across the country due to some unwanted reforms. Discuss.(GS-3)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Public Distribution System (PDS) evolved as a system for distribution of food grains at affordable prices and management of emergency situations.Public distribution system (PDS) is an Indian food security system.Established by the Government of India under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution and are managed jointly by state governments in India.It distributes subsidized food and non-food items to India\u2019s poor. This scheme was launched in June 1947.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s public distribution system (PDS) is in danger of being derailed in several states. Some of the examples are discussed below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jharkhand:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jharkhand is a prime example of this problem.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By mid-2016, the PDS in Jharkhand had greatly improved, partly due to a series of reforms inspired by Chhattisgarh\u2019s experience and intensified under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state government has made Aadhaar-based biometric authentication compulsory for PDS users.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Large number of people like vulnerable groups such as widows and the elderly people found themselves excluded from the PDS.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a huge corruption involved in the system.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The mass-cancellation of Aadhaar-less ration cards, without verification and without even informing the victims, was both inhuman and illegal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jharkhand is among the worst cases of destabilisation of the PDS, but similar moves are happening in other States. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of them are under tremendous pressure from the Central government to impose Aadhaar-based biometric authentication or move towards DBT.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Rajasthan:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Rajasthan, the biometric authentication has caused enormous damage, evident even in the government\u2019s own transactions data.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Chhattisgarh:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even Chhattisgarh, known for its model PDS, is under pressure to follow the diktats of the Central government and adopt Aadhaar-based technology.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Reasons for failure :<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The system is blamed for inefficiency and rural-urban biasness.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is frequently being criticized for corruption and black marketing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PDS dealers often give less than what they are entitled to, and pocket the rest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Food grains supplied by ration shops are either not enough to meet demand or are of inferior quality.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leakages in PDS: \u00a0Leakages refer to food grains not reaching intended beneficiaries.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Storage of food grains is another challenge.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Poor quality of food grains: \u00a0Poor quality of food may impact the willingness of people to buy food from fair price shops, and may have an adverse impact on their health.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Growing instances of the consumers receiving inferior quality food grains in ration shops.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Malpractices make safe and nutritious food inaccessible and unaffordable to poor people.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The recent development of Aadhar UIDAI cards has taken up the challenge of solving the problem of identification and distribution of PDs services along with Direct Cash Transfers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regional allocation and coverage of FPS are unsatisfactory and the core objective of price stabilization of essential commodities has not met<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no set criteria as to which family is BPL and which is APL .This non ambiguity gives massive scope for corruption and fallouts in PDS systems because those who are actually meant to be benefitted are not able to taste the fruits of PDS.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Q.3<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) <\/span>Write a short note on any two of the following?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a)\u00a0<\/span>National Solar Mission (GS-3)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">b)\u00a0<\/span>Malimath Report(GS-2)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">c)\u00a0<\/span>Green Bonds: (GS-3)<\/p>\n<p><b>National Solar Mission:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Solar Mission, launched in 2010, aims to establish India as a global leader in solar energy by creating the policy conditions for its diffusion across the country as quickly as possible.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Mission has set the ambitious target of deploying 20,000 MW of grid connected solar power by 2022 and aims at reducing the cost of solar power generation in the country.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Malimath Report<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report of the committee for the \u201ccomprehensive\u201d reform of the Criminal Justice System was chaired by Justice V.S. Malimath.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Committee gave <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recommendations with regard to the police, prosecution, the judiciary and criminal jurisprudence.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Some recommendations of the committee:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It recommends that the court be empowered to summon and examine as a witness any person it considers appropriate and to issue directions to the investigating officers as may be necessary to assist it in its search for the truth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The committee also concluded that the current standard of proof \u2014 &#8220;beyond reasonable doubt&#8221; \u2014 put a &#8220;very unreasonable burden&#8221; on the prosecution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has suggested that the standard of proof be set midway between the current standard in India and the much lower standard current in continental Europe, namely &#8220;preponderance of probabilities&#8221;, at &#8220;clear and convincing&#8221; proof.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Committee also suggested constituting a<\/span><b> National Judicial Commission<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and amending Article 124 to make impeachment of judges less difficult.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Green Bonds.<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Green bond is a tax-exempt bond issued by federally qualified organizations or by municipalities for the development of brownfield sites.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brownfield sites are areas of land that are underutilized, have abandoned buildings or are underdeveloped, often containing low levels of industrial pollution. Green bonds are short for qualified green building and sustainable design project bonds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bonds basically are debt instruments which help issuer to get capital while the investors receive fixed income in the form of interest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In case of Green Bonds, the issuer gets capital from the investors only if investment (capital) is being raised to fund green projects relating to renewable energy or emission reductions etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives\u00a0 Q.1) The government recently decided to set up Special Courts in India. In this context discuss the salient features of special courts and how these courts will deal with tainted lawmakers? What are the challenges in the way of setting up these courts in India? \u00a0(GS-2) The legislature has introduced special courts on many&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-january-18-2018\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 January 18, 2018<\/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-14646","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":1704929714},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14646","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=14646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14646\/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=14646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}