National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 22nd November 2019

by Mentors4ias · November 23, 2019

NRC

Topic: Polity and Governance

In News: Union home minister Amit Shah said in Parliament that the Nation Register of Citizens (NRC) would be prepared for every state in the country.

Background:

Till now, an NRC has been prepared only in Assam. Necessitated by widespread allegations of massive and unabated illegal immigration from Bangladesh, the state had taken out its first NRC list in 1951.
This NRC was updated on August 31 this year through a massive exercise monitored by the Supreme Court of India and it was found that 1.9 million of the 329 million, who had applied for inclusion of their names in NRC, were not eligible for citizenship.
Assam finance minister recently said that the state government had decided to reject the Supreme Court-monitored NRC as it “included many who should not have been and excluded many who are genuine Indian citizens.”

Concerns and Criticism:

Suspicion Regarding Bias towards certain religions: On paper, there is nothing wrong in the preparation of an NRC. It’s important for a nation to keep a count of its citizens. This exercise may have a crucial impact on the national security of India, but critics of the ruling party see this exercise as an attempt to isolate Muslims in the country.
The rush to discard the 2019 Assam NRC has further raised this suspicion, as several sources confirm that an unexpectedly low number of Muslims got excluded from NRC.
What to do with the illegal Migrants Question: The goal of a nationwide NRC-to count citizens and detect all illegal immigrants in the country-is an ideal and ambitious one, but the government must first prepare a policy to handle those found to be illegally staying in the country.
It’s easy to detect a foreign national, but dumping them in jail is hardly a feasible solution.
India doesn’t yet have the logistics and resources to house large number of detained illegal immigrants. Even Assam, the state, which saw the highest influx, still doesn’t have a permanent detention center.
Proving the Citizenship: Proving in court that an individual is not a bona fide citizen of India is the first part of the process. The tougher task will be to determine and prove his or her country of origin and to convince that country to accept that individual back.

Case Study:

Between 1964 and March 2019, the Foreigners’ Tribunals have identified 117,164 individuals as foreigners; of these, only 29,855 (25 per cent) have been deported and the remaining aren’t exactly languishing in detention centres-only 1,145, or 0.009 per cent, are housed in six temporary detention centres.

Conclusion:

The decisions which impact national security should not be politically motivated. NRC should not be another electoral gimmick to garner votes.
If at all the Government is serious about rolling out a nation-wide NRC, It will have to do a lot of policy research and analysis before embarking on this project.

Source: India Today

Indian citizenship

Topic: Polity and Governance

In News: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) cancelled the citizenship of one of the MLAs from Telangana. The MHA has cancelled his citizenship on the ground of misrepresentation of facts at the time of applying for citizenship in 2008.

More on the Topic:

The conferment of a person, as a citizen of India, is governed by Articles 5 to 11 (Part II) of Indian Constitution.
The legislation related to this matter is the Citizenship Act 1955, which has been amended by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 1986, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 1992, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003, and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2005.
Article 9 of Indian Constitution says that a person who voluntarily acquires citizenship of any other country is no longer an Indian citizen.
Acquisition of Indian Citizenship as per Citizenship Act 1955: Indian Citizenship can be acquired under the following ways : (1) Citizenship at the commencement of the constitution of India (2) Citizenship by birth : NB – This provision has different clauses for different periods (3) Citizenship by descent (4) Citizenship by registration (5) Citizenship by naturalization.
Persons domiciled in the territory of India as on 26 November 1949 automatically became Indian citizens by virtue of operation of the relevant provisions of the Indian Constitution coming into force. (Citizenship at the commencement of the constitution of India.)
Termination of Indian Citizenship as per Citizenship Act 1955: One can lose citizenship of India in three ways – Renunciation, Termination and Deprivation.
Overseas Indian Card : A new Bill is pending in Parliament [The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill], which seeks to do away with the existing overseas citizen of India (OCI) card and the person of Indian origin (PIO) card, and replace them with a new overseas Indian card.
Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) Card : A PIO card applicant has to be a person of Indian origin who is a citizen of any country, other than Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan, China and Nepal; or a person who has held an Indian passport at any time or is the spouse of an Indian citizen or a person of Indian origin;
Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card : OCI Card is for foreign nationals who were eligible to become a citizen of India on 26.01.1950 or was a citizen of India on or after that date. Applications from citizens of Bangladesh and Pakistan are not allowed.

Source: The Hindu

Botulism

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: The Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly, confirmed that the thousands of birds which were found dead at Rajasthan’s Sambhar Lake died of avian botulism.

More on the Topic:

Botulism is a paralytic, frequently fatal disease caused by the ingestion of toxins which are produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum.
About Sambar Salt Lake: The Sambhar Salt Lake is India’s largest inland salt lake.
The lake receives water from five rivers Medtha, Samaod, Mantha, Rupangarh, Khari and Khandela.
The lake is an extensive saline wetland and the source of most of Rajasthan’s salt production.
Sambhar has been designated as a Ramsar site (recognized wetland of international importance) because the wetland is a key wintering area for tens of thousands of pink flamingos and other birds that migrate from northern Asia and siberia.
The specialized algae and bacteria growing in the lake provide striking water colours and support the lake ecology that, in turn, sustains the migrating waterfowl.

Source: Indian Express

First woman pilot of Indian Navy

Topic: Miscellaneous

In News: Lieutenant Shivangi become first woman pilot of Indian Navy will join Naval operations.

More on the Topic:

Prior to this, Aviation branch of Indian Navy had women officers only operating as air traffic control (ATC) officers and as observers in the aircraft who are responsible for communication and weapons.
Women in armed Forces:

Source: PIB

K-12 Education Transformation Framework

Topic: Science and technology

In News: Software giant Microsoft has launched its “K-12 Education Transformation Framework” to facilitate comprehensive digital transformation of schools in India.

More on the Topic:

So far, this framework model has been adopted by education leaders in more than 50 countries to help plan their learning strategies.
The project is aimed at providing education leadership, government decision makers, teachers and most importantly learners, tools to achieve ambitious change many schools seek and to thoughtfully integrate technology in powerful and productive ways.
It comprises four pillars: Leadership and policy, modern teaching and learning, intelligent environments and technology blueprint.
Features of the project: It provides holistic framework to facilitate a comprehensive digital transformation of schools. It is a flexible platform based on latest research and input from hundreds of academics, experts, and policymakers.
To help school principals initiate their journey of digital transformation, this framework programme offer them series of workshops based on each of the four pillars.

Source: Hindu

Patent Prosecution Highway Programme

Topic: Government Policies

In News: Cabinet has approved Patent Prosecution Highway programme.

More on the Topic:

It is a pilot programme between the Indian Patent Office (IPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO).
Under the programme, Indian Patent Office may receive patent applications in certain specified technical fields only while JPO may receive applications in all fields of technology.
The technical fields include Electrical, Electronics, Computer Science, Information Technology, Physics, Civil, Mechanical, Textiles, Automobiles and Metallurgy.
It will be operative for 3 years.
IPO works under the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM), Ministry of Commerce and Industry with patent offices of various other interest countries or regions.

Significance of the Programme:

PPH programme would lead to benefits for the Indian IP office, including reduction in time to dispose patent applications and reduction in pendency of patent applications. It will lead to improvement in quality of search and examination of patent applications.

Source: PIB

Chit Funds (Amendment) Bill, 2019

Topic: Economy

In News: Lok Sabha has passed Chit Funds (Amendment) Bill, 2019 recently.

More on the Topic:

It seeks to amend the Chit Funds Act, 1982, which regulates chit funds and prohibits a fund from being created without the prior sanction of a State Government.
Under the legislation, the prescribed ceiling of aggregate chit fund amount for individuals has been raised from one lakh rupees to three lakh rupees and in case of firms, the limit has been raised from 6 lakh to 18 lakh rupees.
Also increases the maximum commission of a foreman from five per cent to seven per cent and also allows the foreman a right to lien against the credit balance from subscribers.

About Chit Funds:

Chit fund is defined as per the Section 2(b) of the Chit Fund Act, 1982. According to this act; A chit fund is a type of rotating savings and agreement among different persons i.e. friends, relatives, neighbours and family members to subscribe a certain sum of money for a specified period of time. Chit funds are often microfinance organizations.
There are over 10,000 registered chit funds in India.
Since every chit company; works like a pyramid to form a network of agents. Hence, the numbers of agents and subscribers increase day by day. In this process the money received from the new subscribers or investors is distributed among matured policy holders but problem arises when the liabilities of the chit funds companies becomes more than their receipts.
To avoid this situation these chit companies elop with the entire money without returning the matured amounts to the subscribers.
The Saradha Chit fund scam and the Rose Valley scams are similar scams in which millions of rupees of thousands of the people have been duped.

Source: The Hindu