9 PM Daily Brief -18 July 2016

Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation

What is 9 PM brief?

• GS PAPER 1
  1. India basks in glow of UNESCO honours {Art and Culture}
• GS PAPER 2
  1. Living in denial {Internal Security}
  2. Speaker facing the axe can’t disqualify MLAs, says SC {Polity}
  3. WHO report sounds alarm on doctors in India {Health}
  4. Turmoil in Turkey  { International Affairs}
  5. South China Sea and world disorder {International Affairs}
• GS PAPER 3
  1. All eyes on fate of GST bill as Modi calls for consensus {Economy}

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GS PAPER 1

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[1]India basks in glow of UNESCO honours

The Hindu

Context:

Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP), Sikkim and buildings in Chandigarh has been named and added to the world heritage site list by the World Heritage Committee (WHC) of UNESCO.

Analysis:

1. The new list has been declared at the 40th session of the WHC, currently going one Istanbul, Turkey.
2. Apart from KNP, recently, two sites –  Nalanda Mahavihara (Nalanda University), Bihar and The Capitol Complex in Chandigarh were also added as a heritage site which in total makes it 3 sites.
3. Hence, India becomes the 1st  country to get 3 sites marked in the Word Heritage List at a single session of the committee meeting.
4. India now has total of 35 sites, including 27 cultural properties, 7 natural sites and one mixed site, notified as World Heritage Sites.
5. The KNP is the first ‘mixed’ heritage site from India added to this list. A ‘mixed site’ indicates the qualities of both natural and cultural significance.
6. The KNP, covers 25% of Sikkim, has large number of endemic, rare and threatened plant and animal species.
7. The park is a mixed site qualified under the Operational Guidelines of WHC for its “exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared.
8. Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex, which has the Legislative Assembly, Secretariat and High Court, was designed by French architect Le Corbusier in 1950s when the city was constructed as a symbol of independent and modern India.

 

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GS PAPER 2

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[1]Living in denial

Indian Express

Context

The government of Jammu & Kashmir has asked suspended the publishing of newspapers in the valley. Many printing press were raided and copies of newspapers were seized after this verbal decision.

Analysis

• This ban even if temporary is a violation of Article 19 -freedom of speech and expression.
• The worse thing about this is that this right is available to the citizens of other parts of India and not Kashmir. Such a step would not only not make the situation better but would further alienate the Kashmiris who would think that again it is only them whose voice has been suppressed.
• This is not the first time this has happened.Even earlier in the valley, mobile internet, broadband and newspaper have been banned.Not only is this against the principles of democracy but even the authoritarian regime of the world do not take such drastic steps.The reason given by the govt. for banning newspapers is that certain projections by the newspapers has multiplied the tragedies. But one must ask the question that where are the newspapers at fault in this till the time their projection of what is happening is true and based on evidence.

It is not the media which is responsible for the situation in Kashmir ,hence, there is no point in making it a culprit.

[2]Speaker facing the axe can’t disqualify MLAs, says SC

The Hindu

Context

Supreme Court has adjudged that the Speaker who is himself facing the prospects of removal shall not decide the disqualification of MLAs for defection under 10th Schedule of Indian Constitution.

Analysis

• Court opined that the Speaker who is under a threat of removal may start disqualifying the legislators in order to change the composition of the house in his favour. Thus, he must not be allowed to do so under defection when his own removal process is going on.
• As per Article 179(c), Speaker can be removed from his office by a resolution passed by a majority of all the then members of the assembly.
• Taking Article 179 (c) into consideration, the SC held that the composition of the legislators in the house should remain the same while deciding whether a majority in the house wants the Speaker to continue or not.
• The court said that “ Any change in the strength and composition of the Assembly, by disqualifying sitting MLAs, for the period during which the notice of resolution for the removal of the Speaker (or the Deputy Speaker) is pending, would conflict with the express mandate of Article 179(c)”

Conclusion

Since the office of the Speaker is the one which deals with the disqualification of the members. It becomes important to make sure that the Speaker enjoys the confidence of the MLAs and does not use this power to save his own skin.

[3]WHO report sounds alarm on doctors in India 

The Hindu

Context:

A recent WHO research report done on medical qualification of doctors suggests that almost one-third (31 %) of claimed allopathic doctors in 2001 were educated only up to the secondary school level whereas the large percentage (57 %)  did not have any medical qualification which is alarming and questions on India’s healthcare workforce.

Analysis:

1. The study on The Health Workforce in India has been  published in June 2016, which indicates that the situation is even worse in rural India, where only about 18% of claimed allopathic doctors had a medical qualification.
2. Compare to males, female healthcare workers are found to be more educated and medically qualified.
3. The district wise data from the 2001 census were specially extracted for this study in order to provide a district wise picture of health workers.

[4]Turmoil in Turkey  

The Hindu

Issue

• Analysis of attempted coup in Turkey.

 

Turkish system

• Turkey’s is a classic case of a coup-prone political system.
• The military is a relatively autonomous and popular institution. It has in the past toppled civilian governments four times.
• There had always been tension between the ruling elite and the military establishment.

 

Recent events

• The recent development busted the myth that military coups having become a thing of the past.
• The failed coup exposes the weakness of Mr. Erdogan’s regime.
• The fact that it was not a minor revolt by a few soldiers, but an uprising by thousands of troops, raises serious questions about the coherence of the Turkish state.

 

Contribution of Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the weakening of the state

• His disastrous foreign policy  has worsened the security situation
• Forced Islamisation  has sharpened the contradiction between the Islamist and secular sections
• And the push to rewrite the Constitution to award more powers to himself.

Means are as important as Ends

• The coup-plotters may have sensed they would get support from the anti-Erdogan masses and the secular political class.
• Turkey  has a thriving public sphere where anti-Erdoganism is a common theme for mobilising people.
• But they don’t want the soldiers to “solve” their problem through force.
• That is why thousands thronged the streets to defend the government they had elected.

Road ahead

• How the fissures that have been exposed will impact Turkey will depends, in large measure, on the choices Mr. Erdogan makes.
• He could see the people’s commitment to democracy and use the crisis as an opportunity to reconsider his dictatorial policies.
• Or he could use the military revolt as a pretext to purge more of his enemies and get what he always wanted, which is a more powerful executive presidency.
• His choice will guide the future of Turkey’s democracy.

[5]South China Sea and world disorder

Livemint

Issue

• It is likely that China’s reaction to the Hague ruling will have a negative impact on other multilateral processes.

Attitude of China

• China’s shrill and bellicose response during and after the ruling of Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) has only served to heighten alarm over Beijing’s intentions and behaviour among all the major powers, including India.
• China’s attitude ranged from benign disengagement and denial of the court’s jurisdiction to rabid intimidation and downright threats.
• It made little effort to engage with either the PCA or to build support for its cause.
• Instead, it erroneously assumed that as a global power, it had earned the right to violate the very rules that it had signed up to earlier.

The PCA ruling also challenges two additional myths of an emerging peaceful world order.

• First, that the greater the economic and trade links, the less the geopolitical competition between countries. However, this is not the experience vis-à-vis China:-
• According to Philippine statistics, in 2015, China was the second largest trading partner and third largest export market of the Philippines.
• Yet, as the bitter stand-off over the PCA ruling underlines, none of this translated into political bonhomie.

 

• Second, there is also the perception that the closer the web of international institutions and arrangements, especially with dispute resolution mechanisms, is woven, the less the inclination of nations to resort to brute force or the threat of use of force. This too has been belied by China’s actions.
• China has flown a long range bomber over the disputed Spratly islands and commissioned two naval supply ships, reinforcing its intent to deepen its anchorage in the South China Sea (SCS).
• Chinese air force has published a picture of its modern H-6K strategic bomber overflying the Scarborough shoal in the Spratly islands, which is in the cross-hairs of a dispute between China and the Philippines.
• The H-6K is a long range bomber, with a nuclear capability, which has been designed to target U.S. aircraft carrier groups.

Welcome to a more chaotic, dangerous and disorderly world.

• The U.S. has now got the approval to establish five military bases in the Philippines.
• Analysts say that the militarisation of the shoal by China, which could develop an airstrip there, is likely to be viewed as a “red line,” which could lead to a more assertive response by Washington.
• Chinese media is also reporting that preparations are being made to deploy floating nuclear reactors, which can be used for de-salinisation, in order to deliver ample quantities of fresh water as well as generate electricity for personnel deployed in the disputed Spratly islands.
• The reports, if affirmed would yet again underscore Beijing’s intent towards establishing a firmer entrenchment in the SCS.

 

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GS PAPER 3

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[1]All eyes on fate of GST bill as Modi calls for consensus 

The Hindu

Issue

• All party meeting convened by the government to reach a consensus on the issue of passing of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.

What did the government said?

• GST is of national importance; the issue here is not which government gets credit for its passage. All of us represent both the people and parties and let’s keep national interests above everything else.

What did the opposition said?

• The opposition said the passage of the GST was affected by “a lack of trust between the States and the Centre.”
• It wants a concrete draft proposal from the government on GST. If we know how they plan to address the three contentious issues, we can revert.