{"id":8254,"date":"2017-09-15T11:05:25","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T05:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=8254"},"modified":"2017-09-11T18:07:11","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T12:37:11","slug":"answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-september-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-september-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 September 14"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/mains-marathon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Archives<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Q1- Discuss the role of JAM(Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile) in achieving Social Revolution in India. Has JAM achieved equality in the digital space?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JAM, deriving from Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">combines bank accounts for the poor, who barely had the money to deposit in them, direct transfer of benefits<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into these accounts and the facility of making financial payments through mobile phones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Achieving Social Revolution and JAM:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Given the extraordinary <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">challenges faced by India in the provision of public infrastructure<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ranging from health and education to drainage and sewerage, the claim made for JAM is breathtaking in its simplicity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aadhaar is the pivot here, allowing the government to ensure that benefits reach the poor and enabling them to make payments through ordinary mobile phones. For furthering the latter the government has devised the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These developments are a \u201csocial revolution\u201d, perhaps alluding to the feature that the poor are the most direct beneficiaries.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JAM ensures seamless transfer of welfare payments and facilitates the making payments in real time. These are worthy objectives, but fall well short of the social revolution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our social revolution will arrive when all Indians are empowered through an equality of capabilities. This would require committing resources to building the requisite social and physical infrastructure and investing time to govern its functioning.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JAM may have achieved equality in the digital space but is far from having empowered Indians in spheres in which they are severely deprived at present<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an empowerment that they clearly value.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government has leveraged IT smartly in operationalizing JAM but the possibility of replicating this to transform the ecosystem of production for firms and the ecosystem of living for individuals is limited.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Q2- What are the major challenges and their reasons that Indian economy is facing presently? Suggest measures for economic reforms in India?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Ans:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Current<\/span><b> status of Indian economy:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the latest report of World Bank\u2019s ease of doing business index for the year 2017, India has been ranked <\/span><b>at 130<\/b><b>th<\/b><b> position<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> among the 190 countries<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s economic growth unexpectedly slowed to 5.7% in the June quarter, the slowest pace in three years.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Challenges that Indian economy is facing<\/b><b>:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1-<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span> <b>Vulnerability of rupee:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following reasons are responsible for this:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rising crude oil prices after OPEC deal on production cut that will push up import bill.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sluggish service export<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">US fed hikes that will reduce interest rate gap between India and the US and induce capital outflows from India\u2019s debt market.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Slowing net FDI inflows.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>2-<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><b>Macroeconomic stability under pressure:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Macroeconomic stability will be \u00a0under pressure in this year because of the following reasons:<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Continued low commodity prices especially of crude oil have helped Indian government contain fiscal deficit and rein in inflation. However, oil prices are hardening again. This is not good for India\u2019s current account balances.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>3-<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><b>Increasing divergence between consumption and investment:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consumption has remained steady (growing at 6 to 7%) till demonetization.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Investment as measured by gross fixed capital formation has been in the negative zone for the last three quarters.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reason for negative zone of investment is due to deleveraging of corporate balance sheets, lower capacity utilization and demand slump in both domestic and in export markets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It fell 1.9% in the last quarter of FY 2015-16; further fell 3.1% in first quarter and 5.6% in the second quarter of the current financial year.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increased government\u2019s spending on implementation of 7<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Pay Commission award will limit the government\u2019s spending on infrastructure and other productive ventures.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>4-<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><b>Demonetization :<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Demonetization induced reduction in consumption demand decline in the sales of businesses.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5-<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span> <b>GST conundrum<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Multiple GST rates mean that there will be unending classification disputes and scope for discretion and inspector raj is not going way anytime soon.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SMEs and informal sector which have been hit hard by demonetization are also the one to be hit hard by GST.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This would be a worry factor for policy makers as over 90% of India\u2019s workforce is employed by SMEs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>6-<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><b>The problem of Jobless growth:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problem of jobless growth will continue to hurt India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This has the potential to gradually turn the country\u2019s demographic dividend into demographic disaster with serious long term implications for demand for homes and consumer goods.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7-<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indian banking system is over-exposed to the real estate sector which is suffering from buyer\u2019s disinterest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8-<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Higher NPA: The NPAs have been adversely affecting the banking system in the country<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">9-<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span> <b> Inflation: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is failing to meet its target inflation rate every year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10-<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><b>Low level of technology: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to illiteracy, use of advanced or sophisticated technology is rather an exception in India.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Measures need to be taken for economic reform in India:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In order to attain the status of egalitarian society, there is need to step up appropriate measures:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public investment revival will give the needed boost.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is need for bringing more transparency in the system<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indian economy requires a fundamental rebalancing across multiple macroeconomic parameters.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Need to rebalance savings and investments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The share of manufacturing in GDP must be stepped up in accordance with the employment imperative and the need to build an advanced knowledge-intensive.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s financial sector requires modernization and integration with the larger global system.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is need to expand India\u2019s global integration in terms of the flow of goods, services, technology and funds must be greatly expanded.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government needs to create right conditions of governance, macroeconomic stability, and policy framework for private sector entrepreneurship to flourish.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Q3<\/b><b>&#8211; What is the legal status of LGBT community in India? What will be the implications of recent Supreme Court judgment on right to privacy, on the rights of LGBT community?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ans:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Legal status of LGBT Community in India:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, criminalises sexual activities \u201cagainst the order of nature\u201d, including homosexual sexual activities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On 2 July 2009, in Naz Foundation vs Govt. of NCT of Delhi, the Delhi High Court ruled \u00a0the provision to be unconstitutional with respect to sex between consenting adults.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the High Court did not strike down Section 377 completely. It held the section to be valid in case of non-consensual non-vaginal intercourse or to intercours with minors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court overruled that judgment in 2013.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On December 2015 Shashi Tharoor, a member of the Indian National Congress, introduced a Private Members Bill for the decriminalisation of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in the Lok Sabha. But the motion was defeated.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Supreme Court verdict on homosexuality in the privacy judgment:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court, in its recent judgment on privacy, said that right to privacy and the protection of sexual orientation lie at the core of the fundamental rights guaranteed by <\/span><b>Articles 14, 15 and 21<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Constitution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;That a minuscule fraction of the country&#8217;s population constitutes lesbians, gays, bisexuals or transgender is not a sustainable basis to deny the right to privacy,&#8221; Supreme Court ruled<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court noted that sexual orientation is an essential attribute of privacy, and discrimination against an individual on the basis of sexual orientation is deeply offensive to the dignity and self-worth of the individual. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ruling has a bearing on the constitutional validity of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which criminalises acts \u201cagainst the order of nature.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Implications of ruling on Section 377:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court bench ruling cleared the way for decriminalizing homosexuality.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The judgment will help in protecting the dignity of LGBT community<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The judgment gives a new lease of life to the prolonged fight to decriminalize Section 377 of the IPC, a colonial-era provision criminalizing consensual sexual acts of LGBT adults in private.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The judgment has made it clear that LGBT citizens like anyone else enjoy not just the right to privacy, but right to equality, right to free expression and right to life.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The judgement will help in building the normative as well as substantive directions under the right to life and liberty.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archives\u00a0 Q1- Discuss the role of JAM(Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile) in achieving Social Revolution in India. Has JAM achieved equality in the digital space? JAM, deriving from Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile, combines bank accounts for the poor, who barely had the money to deposit in them, direct transfer of benefits into these accounts&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answers-mains-marathon-upsc-mains-current-affairs-questions-september-14\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Answers: Mains Marathon \u2013 UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions \u2013 September 14<\/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-8254","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":1704799508},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8254","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=8254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8254\/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=8254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}