National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 7th August 2019

India’s fast-track courts

Topic: Polity and Governance

In News: Minister for Women and Child Development informed the Rajya Sabha that the government has proposed to set up 1,023 fast-track courts to clear the cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

More on the Topic: 

• The first FTC was established in the year 2000. Fast track courts were the result of recommendations made by the 11th Finance Commission.
• 11th FC advised the creation of 1,734 such courts to deal with the judicial backlog.
• These are meant to be set up by the State governments in consultation with the respective high courts.

Concerns:

• With all these years of experience and money spent, it is discomforting to see not only the decline of FTCs across the country but also systemic issues prevalent in the States that have the courts.
• In a survey of FTCs conducted by National Law University Delhi, it was observed that there is a huge variation in the kinds of cases handled by these courts across States, with certain States primarily allocating rape and sexual offence cases to them and other States allocating various other matters.
• Further, several FTCs lacked technological resources to conduct audio and video recordings of the victims and many of them did not have regular staff.

Factors that have an impact on disposal of cases:

• Inadequate staff and IT infrastructure, delay in getting reports from the understaffed forensic science laboratories, frivolous adjournments and over-listing of cases in the cause list are some of the variables.
• Furthermore, given the vacancies in subordinate courts across the country, it also needs to be seen whether States will hire additional judges or appoint FTCs from the current pool of judges.
• For instance, in the case of commercial courts, several States designate special judges from the current pool of judges. Such a move could prove to be problematic as it would increase substantially the workload of the remaining judges.
• It is often noted that policies and regulations are passed without keeping in view the ground realities.

Way Forward:

• The final responsibility of making sure that the entire exercise results in a positive change vests with the States. For the FTCs to become successful, States will need to take stock of the issues at the ground level.
• It is important that States engage with the principal and senior district judges to get a sense of issues the courts are facing in various districts.
• Equal attention must be paid to both the metropolitan and far-flung non-metropolitan areas.
• Critical issues such as inadequate court staff, improper physical and IT infrastructure and understaffed forensic labs, which affect the day-to-day functioning of the FTCs, must be comprehensively addressed.
• For the overall system to work productively, it is important to ensure that its various components work efficiently and without any hindrance.

Source: Hindu and Vikaspedia

Anticipated Challenges in Jammu and Kashmir

Topic: Polity and Governance

In News: According to experts a dispassionate analysis of the possible immediate implications of these constitutional changes is needed. Some assertions in support of the changes may partially be true while others may run contrary to the facts.

More on the Topic:

• Greater counterterrorism preparedness: The strength of any counterinsurgency grid is largely based on human intelligence coming from the ground. Here, it will be unrealistic to expect that merely changing the administrative and political set-up of the State will lead to more intelligence to the security apparatus; in fact, there is a high possibility of the contrary happening in the short-term on account of the decision’s unpopularity in the Kashmir Valley.
• Misadventures Pakistan: India needs to be mindful of the fact that historically, any spike in disaffection in Jammu and Kashmir has facilitated a misadventure by Pakistan. For instance, the maximum dilution of Article 370 took place in the 1960s, including changes concerning the nomenclature of the ‘head of the State’. And this was followed by the infamous ‘Operation Gibraltar’ by Pakistani President Ayub Khan in August 1965.
• Relying Purely on Militaristic tools: Bringing the State directly under the Centre as a Union Territory, the government may have overlooked the hard lessons learned by India’s intelligence in its nearly 30 years of counterinsurgency operations relying purely on militaristic tools can be self-defeating.
• Claim of the moral high ground: New Delhi has often objected to the Chinese infrastructural projects in the Gilgit and Baltistan region and also opposed Islamabad’s decision to separate it from the rest of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Now, after stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status, India cannot claim the moral high ground any more by pointing out unlike Pakistan, it kept the integrity of the State intact.
• Ladakh’s concerns: Though the demand for Union Territory status picked up momentum in Ladakh in the 1990s, its spread was limited to the Leh district of Ladakh. The Shia population of Kargil has consistently opposed such a call as it fears Buddhist domination in the new set-up. Hence, the Centre needs to assure leaders from Kargil that their interests would be safeguarded in the new Union Territory.
• Polarisation: In the absence of any institutional mechanism to address regional and ethnic aspirations, polarisation has continued to increase among different regions, often taking a communal turn. New decision might polarise the State even further along regional and religious lines.

Way forward:

 Bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir may trigger demands for further division of the State which, unless they are categorically rejected, could trigger a long period of instability and turbulence.

• Separation of ethnically and culturally distinct Ladakh from the rest of Jammu and Kashmir is somewhat less challenging, because of its relatively smaller population.
• On the whole, the country needs to be better informed of the implications of the changes on the ground. The road to resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir tangle lies in bringing the policymaking closer to facts, learning from the past and avoiding unrealistic expectations.

Source: The Hindu

Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2017-18

Topic: Economy

In News: The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for the year 2017-18 has been released.

More on the Topic:

• According to Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2017-18, 6.1% of India’s labour force, and 17.8% of young people (15-29 years) in the labour force are unemployed.
• The data shows that the proportion of the workforce engaged in regular wage/salaried jobs increased by 5 percentage points between 2011-12 (when the last NSSO employment unemployment survey was conducted) and 2017-18.
• But this increase was partly because of the denominator effect (the overall workforce declined by 4 percentage points between 2011-12 and 2017-18).
• As a share of the population, regular workers increased only by one percentage point to 8% over the same period.
• Moreover, it is worth noting that India still lags far behind its South Asian neighbours and developing economies such as China (53.1%), Brazil (67.7%) and South Africa (84.8%) in the share of salaried or regular jobs.
• The median daily earnings were higher for men and women in regular jobs, as compared to self-employment and casual work.
• Around 45% of salaried workers earned less than ₹10,000 per month, and only about 4% of them earned more than ₹50,000 per month in 2017-18.
• Overall, 72% of regular workers earned below the minimum monthly salary of ₹18,000 prescribed by the 7th Pay Commission.
• Across categories of the workforce, wages and earnings were higher in urban areas than in rural areas, and for men than for women.
• About 15% of regular workers were engaged in elementary occupations such as building caretakers, garbage collectors and manual workers.
• This includes 21% of women regular workers and 13% of men regular workers.
• The median earnings of these workers was only about one-fourth of the top-earning occupational group (legislators, senior officials and managers).
• The median earnings in elementary occupations is followed by service workers and those engaged in skilled agricultural work and fisheries (median earnings of ₹8000 per month for both sets of workers).
• Regular jobs are important and in high demand globally because they tend to offer better pay and job security.
• About 71% of the regular workers in the non-agricultural sector did not have a written job contract in 2017-18.
• Absence of a written job contract undermines job security, and the proportion without a job contract increased for both men and women regular workers between 2011-12 and 2017-18. So did the proportion of workers who were not eligible for paid leave.

Source: The Hindu

Aqua Ponics

Topic: Agriculture

In News: Aqua-ponics is a new addition to ecologically sustainable agriculture.

More on the Topic:

• It combines hydroponics with aquaculture.
• Hydroponics is the soil-less growing of plants, where soil is replaced with water. Aquaculture is the raising of fish. With aquaponics, you grow both fish and plants in one integrated eco-system.
• The fish waste provides an organic food source for the plants, which in turn naturally filter the water for the fish, creating a balanced eco-system.
• There is a third participant: microbes or nitrifying bacteria that eventually convert the ammonia from the fish waste into nitrates which plants need to grow.
• Since both the fish and the plants can be used for consumption and income generation, the method delivers a two-fold benefit.
• In terms of taste, quality and appearance, aquaponically grown produce relies solely on naturally produced fertilisers. This ensures plants get macro- and micro-nutrients, making the produce nutrient-dense and improving sensory credentials.

Source: The Hindu

Water Stress

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: A new data about ‘water stress’ was released by the World Resources Institute (WRI).

More on the Topic:

• One-quarter of the world’s population faces “extremely high” levels of baseline water stress.India is 13th among 17 countries which faces huge water stress.
• India has more than three times the population of the other 16 extremely highly stressed countries. It implies that more than three-quarters of these populations facing extremely high water stress live in India.
• The report noted that last year, NITI Aayog declared that the country is “suffering from the worst water crisis in its history.India’s groundwater resources are severely overdrawn, largely to provide water for irrigation.
• Groundwater tables in some northern aquifers declined at a rate of more than 8 cm per year between 1990 and 2014.
• Steps taken by India to mitigate water stress including,Setting up the Jal Shakti Ministry.
• More efficient irrigation, conserving and restoring lakes, floodplains,g roundwater recharge areas; and collecting and storing rainwater are the other solutions which the WRI suggested.

Global Scenario:

• Globally, water withdrawals have more than doubled since the 1960s due to growing demand.
• 17 countries faces withdrawals of 80% or more from available supply, 12 of them are in the Middle East and North Africa.
• Another 44 countries (home to one-third of the world) face “high” levels of stress, where on average more than 40% of available supply is withdrawn every year.
• The World Bank found that this region has the greatest expected economic losses from climate-related water scarcity,The economic losses is estimated at 6%-14% of GDP by 2050.

Model Mains Question: What are the implication of water stress particular to Indian scenario.

Source: Indian Express

Global coalition to protect pollinators

Topic: International Groupings

In News: Nigeria becomes fourth African nation to join global coalition to protect pollinators. Ethiopia was the first African nation to be part of this global coalition in 2017.

More on the Topic:

• The organisation was formed three years ago, to follow up on the findings of IPBES(Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) Assessment on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production, which found that many of the world’s pollinator species are on the decline.
• The initiative to form a coalition was taken by the Netherlands on December 12, 2016 at the Conference of the Parties–Convention of Biological Diversity held in Mexico.
• Members: The coalition now has 28 signatories including 17 European countries, five from Latin America and the Caribbean and four from Africa.

Significance:

• About 16.5 per cent of vertebrate pollinators are threatened with global extinction, say the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessments.
• The assessment highlights that 75 per cent of food crops in the world and nearly 90 per cent of wild flowering plants depend, at least to some extent, on animal pollination.
• Pollinator-dependent species include several fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and oil crops, which are major sources of micronutrients, vitamins and minerals to humans.

About IPBES:

• The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an intergovernmental organization established to improve the interface between science and policy on issues of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Source: Down to earth