Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
- GS PAPER 2
- Government backs verdict denying AMU minority status {Government Schemes}
- Towards restorative criminal justice {Justice System}
- Planning the future {Family Planning (Public Health) }
- Returning India to the Gulf {International relations}
- Why local bodies polls aren’t free and fair {Local Bodies Election}
- Yes to a government college, but no to government schools {Education}
- India’s great power aspiration {International Diplomacy}
- GS PAPER 3
- E-commerce norms will curb unfair practices {Industry rules & regulations}
GS PAPER 2
[1] Government backs verdict denying AMU minority status
Issue
- Aligarh Muslim University has been denied Minority status. The Azeez Basha versus Union of India verdict of the Supreme Court had denied AMU protection under Article 30 of the Constitution
Aligarh Muslim University
- Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is a public university funded by the Government of India. It was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875. The Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College became Aligarh Muslim University in 1920
What does a minority status mean
Article 30 of the Indian constitution provides minority communities the fundamental right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice
Article 30 also includes the right of the minority to impart education to its children in its own language.
- Institutions that seek recognition as well as aid from the state
- Institutions that seek only recognition from the state and not aid
- Institutions that neither seek recognition nor aid from the state.
With regard to syllabus,academic standard, sanitation,employment- institutions that seek recognition are subject to regulatory power of the state.
Other institutions are free to administer their affairs
Why was the minority status removed
- Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi made it clear in the Supreme Court that the government is convinced that the 1967 Constitution Bench judgment, which had held that AMU was not “established” by Muslims
- In 1981, Parliament restored the minority status to the university. But the Allahabad High Court in January 2006 struck down the provision of the AMU (Amendment) Act, 1981, according minority status to the university.
- This order was challenged in the Supreme Court by the UPA government.
Chief Justice Thakur’s Bench was hearing a petition challenging the appointment of Lt. General Zameer Uddin Shah as AMU Vice-Chancellor when the A-G intervened. Mr. Rohatgi went on to repeat the submission in a separate hearing before a Bench led by Justice J.S. Khehar later in the day, where Chief Justice Thakur asked how a Central university could be tagged a “minority” institution. “Can a university be a minority institution?” We can understand a college being called a minority institution, but a university?”
[2] Towards restorative criminal justice
Issue
- Reforms in the criminal justice system
Why reforms are required?
- Current criminal justice system does not deter criminals because of the delay and uncertainties involved in its processes and ridiculously ineffective punishments it imposes on those few who get convicted.
- It provides wide discretion to the police and the prosecution, rendering the system vulnerable to corruption and manipulation and endangering basic rights of innocent citizens.
- It ignores the real victim, often compelling him/her to find extralegal methods of getting justice.
- It puts heavy economic costs on the state for its maintenance without commensurate benefits in return.
- With around 40 million cases pending, whatever is left of the system is bound to collapse completely unless some radical alternatives are adopted urgently.
- The way criminal justice is designed and administered today hardly serves any of the purposes for which it is set up: towards securing life and property.
Reforms suggested by Committee on Criminal Justice Reforms
- The law, substantive and procedural, requires a fresh comprehensive look based on changes in society and economy as well as priorities in governance.
- A suggestion was made to divide the Penal Code into four different codes
(1) “Social Offences Code”
(2) Correctional Offences Code”
(3) “Economic Offences Code”
(4) “Indian Penal Code” :- It will have only major crimes which warrant 10 years’ imprisonment or more or death and deserve a full-fledged warrant trial with all safeguards of a criminal trial.
- The guiding principle in the reform process should be decriminalisation wherever possible and diversion, reserving the criminal justice system mainly to deal with real “hard” crimes.
- Institutional reform of police processes, including investigation of crimes.
- Professionalisation and rationalisation of court systems with induction of technology and limiting appeal procedures to the minimum required.
Victim-oriented criminal justice
It means restoring the confidence of victims in the system and achieving the goal of justice. For this, the system must confer certain rights on victims to
- To enable them to participate in the proceedings
- The right to be impleaded and to engage an advocate in serious offences,
- The right to track the progress of the proceedings,
- The right to be heard on critical issues and to assist the court in the pursuit of truth.
- Victims have the right to seek and receive compensation for injuries suffered including appropriate interim relief irrespective of the fate of the proceedings.
Towards restorative justice system
- Restorative justice takes on board all three parties — the offender, the victim and the community — in a harmonious resolution of the injury, maximising the sense of justice and restoring peace and harmony in the community.
- It involves meetings and dialogues to fix responsibility for wrongdoing and to find a solution acceptable to all three parties.
- It looks at the needs of crime victims which are today outside criminal justice concerns, leading to frustration and alienation of victims from the system itself.
- It aims to respond to the needs of the victim and help sustain interpersonal relationships while reinforcing offender obligations.
Road ahead
- India needs to experiment with more democratic models aimed at reconciliation and restoration of relationships as crime and violence constitute a major impediment for development and social integration for a plural society like India
- Restorative justice is a welcome idea particularly in the matter of juvenile justice, property offences, communal conflicts, family disputes, etc.
What is needed is
- A change of mindset,
- Willingness to bring victims to the centre stage of criminal proceedings and
- To acknowledge that restoring relationships and correcting the harm are important elements of the criminal justice system.
[3] Planning the future
Issue
- Importance of Family Planning
Background
- India launched the world’s first National Family Planning Programme in 1952.
- And has been consistently working towards improving health and reducing fertility for sustainable development.
Benefits of family planning
- It extend well beyond a woman’s health, to her wellbeing and prosperity.
- When couples choose to have smaller families, they have the means to provide for them and build a more prosperous future not only for themselves, but for the entire nation.
- It is critical for our nation’s economic development, and is a big first step towards growth, equality and sustainable development that opens the door to opportunity and prosperity for women and families everywhere.
Objective of Family Planning
The central aim is to empower more women to make informed choices about their health and future.
Means to achieve the objective
- Our public health delivery system should play a key role in putting an end to all preventable child and maternal deaths and government should strengthen processes, ensuring quality care and providing access to every woman and child.
- Improving access to quality family planning tools and services through the provision of fixed day static services, expanding the basket of choice, addressing the demand for contraceptives as well as improving the overall access and quality of services.
- Government should ensure that women experience healthy pregnancies and safe childbirth.
- Strengthen community partnerships to reach more women with the services that they want and choose. Asha workers are a great example of how community partnerships can help in the delivery of public health services
- Community partnerships and accountability mechanisms will go a long way in strengthening health systems and ease last-mile delivery of services.
- Develop robust policies that are backed by high-impact strategies and health interventions.
- Government needs to work closely through private-sector engagement, using approaches such as social marketing and franchising to consistently build strong public-private partnerships to ensure that its interventions reach everyone.
- Health workers should be trained to provide quality counselling to couples about their family planning choices, including the equal promotion of all contraceptive methods.
Conclusion
Public health concerns should be central to our governance, and the health of women, children and adolescents should be one of the most prominent and pressing agendas for our government.
[4] Returning India to the Gulf
Context
- India needs to get back to the gulf region and explore different avenues other than oil, diaspora and remittances from its growing number of expatriate workers.
Recent 2 day visit by PM Modi to Saudi Arabia
- India’s engagement with the middle east marks and important point
- Agenda for bilateral security cooperation with Saudi Arabia
- Security environment in Gulf Arabs and Saudis in particular has been profoundly altered in the political aftermath of Arab Spring, which has compelled Saudi to think differently.
Saudi Arabia looking for new avenues
- America as a traditional partner in the name of democratization and embrace of their adversary, Iran, in the name of political realism has deeply troubled Saudi Arabia.
- The Saudis have chosen to take charge of their own destiny and are spending much treasure to limit Iran’s influence, from Lebanon to Yemen and from Basra to Damascus.
- Fall in oil revenues has squeezed the the Saudi economy, and now Saudi is compelled to look at changing its national business model and diversification of its strategic partnerships
- India has begun to figure prominently in the Saudi calculus
What is India doing different this time
- There is a lot more to the Middle East than Israel. Modi figured that India’s imagined binaries — West versus Muslims and Israel versus Arabs have long ceased to be the defining political themes in the Middle East.
- India’s new approach to the region, under Modi, is fashioned around three axes.
- The first is to leverage the Gulf riches to accelerate India’s economic growth.
- The second is to tap into the huge potential for strengthening counter-terror cooperation, Delhi’s most important national security preoccupation.
- The third is to explore the prospects for deepening defence cooperation with the Gulf states.
Defence cooperation
- New Delhi was hesitant initially on the subject of defence cooperation during UPA regime but now NDA seems enthusiastic in returning India to its historic role as a provider of security in the Gulf
- There is a belief in Delhi against the activist course of India in the Gulf would involve balancing competing interests, making strategic choices and projecting power.
Raja-Mandal
The Rajamandala (meaning “circle of kings”;mandala is a Sanskrit word that means “circle”) was formulated by the Indian author Kautilya in his work on politics, the Arthashastra (written between 4th century BC and 2nd century AD). It describes circles of friendly and enemy states surrounding the king’s (raja) state.
[5] Why local bodies polls aren’t free and fair
How these elections are not free and fair?
- Panchayat and municipal corporation elections come under the purview of the State Election Commissions that are constituted under a state Act.
- It does not provide for the independence and impartiality enjoyed by the Central Election Commission as their terms and conditions are subject to the whims and fancies of the state government.
- So, these elections are not as free and fair as those conducted by the Election Commission of India.
Grievances of the opposition parties in the States
- The opposition parties always question the neutrality of the conduct of such polls.
- The rules relating to the compilation of voters’ register, timing and scheduling of elections, regulation of campaign expenditure, staffing of polling booths, use of state police machinery, etc., vary from state to state.
- The ruling parties are often accused of interfering with the conduct of these elections.
- There is a growing demand from the opposition parties for bringing the administrative control of State Election Commissions under the purview of the Central Election Commission.
- Because the appointment of state election commissioners and deployment of central paramilitary forces by the Election Commission of India can help conduct more fair elections.
How can it be done
- It can be done only if there is a constitutional amendment.
- But this will never be accepted by the parties that are in power in the states.
[6] Yes to a government college, but no to government schools
Context
Private schools are preferred over government schools due to better quality education
What is the reason people prefer private schools over government schools
- Private schools can offer better all-round education.
- Punctuality, hygiene and discipline—these are the three soft skills parents look at while getting their children admitted in elementary school
- Lure for the English language.
- Higher attendance levels of teachers and are known to be less discriminatory.
- It is a well-established fact that household and other characteristics of private school children are very different from those of government schoolchildren and learning levels also depends on their own and household characteristics
- In fact, one can go a step further. Economic research on public goods shows that the elite opting out of public provisioning of such goods negatively impacts the quality of supply. This is because they are the best suited to exercise political pressure and maintain accountability. Thus, in a society where the rich confine themselves to private schools, it would take more than money to improve the quality of education in government schools.
What is problem with government schools
- A lot of the teachers in rural areas in government schools are money-lenders. So naturally attendance levels are affected as priorities are split, there is a need to see the importance of measuring learning outcomes regularly to improve accountability of teachers in government educational institutions.
- More than 92% of students in rural India opt for a private school at the primary level because of one of three reasons.
- Better learning environment in private schools
- English being the medium of instruction in private schools
- Quality of education being unsatisfactory in government schools.
- As per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014, learning outcomes in private schools in rural areas have been consistently better than government schools, with the gap widening in most cases
Government institutions in higher learning
- At the same time, with teachers being paid well at higher levels in government colleges, quality of education is considered to be better in comparison with their private counterparts. Attracting teachers of similar qualifications or teaching experience would fare a lot costlier for a private college.
[7] India’s great power aspiration
Context
- Narendra Modi seeks to transform India into an entity whose weight and preferences define international politics
First phase of Indian foreign policy
- It had essentially a defensive strategy
- India’s material weaknesses ensured that its strategic aims in practice during this first phase were focused principally on protecting the country’s democracy and development from the intense bipolar competition of the Cold War
- India survived the Cold War with its territorial integrity broadly intact, its state and nation-building activities largely successful. In the process, it created some impressive industrial and technological capabilities.
Second phase of Indian foreign policy(after 1991)
- Building strategic partnerships
- Domestic economic reforms paved the way for consolidating India’s path towards higher growth
- From the abysmal 3.5% annual growth witnessed until the 1980s, the 1991 reforms accelerated the improving 5.5% growth rate to the 7% demonstrated the new millennium
India’s aspirations
- India would seek to create the distribution of capabilities at both the global and the continental levels that would accommodate its presence as an authentic great power
- Transform India from being merely an influential entity into one whose weight and preferences are defining for international politics
- Attaining Modi’s ambition will require India to undergo a concerted transformation. This entails strengthening what India has most successfully achieved thus far—territorial integrity, liberal democratic politics and civic nationalism
- As larger international politics is concerned, India welcomes the growing reality of a multi-polar world, as it does, of a multi-polar Asia
- India, by its choices at home and its actions abroad, would seek to create the distribution of capabilities at both the global and the continental levels that would accommodate its presence as an authentic great power
- Modi’s appeal that India become a leading power offers transformative possibilities if it drives the speedy acquisition of great power capabilities and makes their procurement a purposeful object of Indian national policy
Strategic partnerships that India has sought to build in furtherance of its own interests, taking the initiative in developing cooperative solutions that address the most pressing regional and global challenges, and building the military capabilities necessary to protect India and to provide the public goods needed to strengthen peace and security in the Indo-Pacific.
GS PAPER 3
[1] E-commerce norms will curb unfair practices
What?
- According to Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the recent foreign direct investment (FDI) guidelines on e-commerce will curb anti-competitive practices and bring in a level-playing field between offline and online entities
Norms
- Government has allowed 100 per cent FDI in the market place-based model of e-commerce.
- Market place-based model of e-commerce is where an entity provides a platform to act as a facilitator between the buyer and the seller.
- As per guidelines, market place e-commerce entities will not directly or indirectly influence the sale price of goods and services.
- Norms have brought a level-playing field to the brick-and-mortar firms and online entities.
- It will help in checking predatory pricing and discount-giving exercises.
Predatory Pricing
- Predatory pricing is an anti-competitive practice (under the Competition Act) .
- It refers to a dominant player reducing prices to a very low level to edge out competing players from the market.
In most cases, after the rivals are driven out, the dominant firm increases the prices and makes huge gains.
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