National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams- 21st January 2020

by Mentors4ias · January 21, 2020

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)

Topic: International Affairs

In News: Iran said that it will consider withdrawing from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) if a dispute over its atomic programme goes before the UN Security Council.

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Britain, France and Germany launched a process charging Iran with failing to observe the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, a move that could eventually see the Security Council reimpose international sanctions on the country.
Iran has accused the three EU member states of inaction over sanctions the United States reimposed on it after unilaterally withdrawing from the landmark accord in 2018.

Back Ground:

In 2002 an Iranian opposition group reveals that Iran is developing nuclear facilities including a uranium enrichment plant. In pursuance of this, several sanctions are imposed by the UN, the US and the EU against Iran.
US President George Bush denounces Iran as part of an “axis of evil” with Iraq and North Korea. This causes Iran’s currency to lose two-thirds of its value in two years.
In September 2013, Iran’s new moderate President Hassan Rouhani takes office.
In 2015, after a flurry of diplomatic activity, Iran agrees on a long-term deal on its nuclear programme- Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with a group of world powers known as the P5+1 – the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.
Under the accord, Iran agrees to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.
In May 2018, US President Donald Trump abandons the nuclear deal and reinstated economic sanctions against Iran and threatening to do the same to countries and firms that continue buying its oil.
Iran acted with restraint, with thinking that abiding by the nuclear deal it could get economic favour from EU. However, this policy failed to work for Iran and thereby it began a counter-pressure campaign.
In June 2019, Iranian forces shoot down a US military drone over the Strait of Hormuz and then began the cycle of response and escalation between the two countries.
Recently, the top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani (the commander of the Al-Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC) was assassinated by the US during his visit to Iraq.
The assassination of Qassem Soleimani further heightened the tension in the region.

About NPT:

The treaty was drawn, drafted and negotiated by the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament, a UN-sponsored organisation based in Switzerland.
On August 6th and 9th,1945, the twin Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed by the United States with a powerful and terrible weapon – The Atom Bomb. The act brought about the end of World War 2, but with a terrible price. Total casualties amounted between 129,000 to 226,000 between the two cities, with countless other injured and suffering from radiation sickness.
The after-effects of the bombings were a serious cause of concern among world powers, along with potential misuse of the weapon. This concern led to calls for a safeguard to ensure a Nuclear Arms Control was in place. Thus it was in 1961, a U.N resolution called for a treaty to prevent an arms race for nuclear weapons. This treaty would go on to become the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The signatories:

Ever since it came into effect since 1970 after it was opened for signing in 1968, the Non-Proliferation Treaty has 187 nations who are a party to it – more than any other arms limitation treaty.
The Non-Proliferation Treaty prohibits the nations who don’t have nuclear weapons from acquiring them, at the same time prohibiting the nuclear states from helping others in acquiring the weapons.
At the same time working towards total disarmament. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the successor of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission verifies the compliance with the treaty. The compliance, in turn, is enforced by the United Nations Security Council.
There are a total of nine nations who possess nuclear weapons.
Five of the nations namely – US, UK, France, Russia and China have signed the treaty. The remaining four nations namely – India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have not signed the treaty and thus not a party to the treaty.

Source: Hindu

BrahMos-armed SU-30MKI

Topic: Defence and Security

In News: The Indian Air Force inducted a squadron of Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter planes, with the capability to carry BrahMos missiles, at its Thanjavur airbase.

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With the SU-30MKI Squadron getting positioned in Thanjavur, the Indian Air Force would get more air power to strike from long stand off ranges on any target at sea or on land with accuracy by day or night and in all weather conditions.
The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a twinjet multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russia’s Sukhoi and built under licence by India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF). A variant of the Sukhoi Su-30, it is a heavy, all-weather, long-range fighter.
Brahmos Missile: The BrahMos is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft, or land.
It is the fastest supersonic cruise missile in the world.
It is a joint venture between the Russian Federation’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) who together have formed BrahMos Aerospace.

Source: Hindu

Xenobot

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: Scientists in the United States have created the world’s first “living machines” tiny robots built from the cells of the African clawed frog, that can move around on their own.

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Scientists have repurposed living cells scraped from frog embryos and assembled them into entirely new life-forms.
The xenobots can move toward a target, perhaps pick up a payload (like a medicine that needs to be carried to a specific place inside a patient) and heal themselves after being cut.
These bots are “novel living machines” and “neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal”, but “a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism”.
Applycations of the xenobot includes searching out nasty compounds or radioactive contamination, gathering microplastic in the oceans, travelling in arteries to scrape out plaque etc.

Source: Hindu

Social Mobility Index

Topic: Reports and Indices

In News: India has been ranked very low at 76th place out of 82 countries on a new Social Mobility Index compiled by the World Economic Forum, while Denmark has topped the charts.

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The index Measured countries across five key dimensions distributed over 10 pillars, health; education (access, quality and equity); technology; work (opportunities, wages, conditions); and protections and institutions (social protection and inclusive institutions)
Fair wages, social protection and lifelong learning are the biggest drags on social mobility globally.
India Specific Findings: India ranks 41st in lifelong learning and 53rd in working conditions.
The Areas of improvement for India include social protection (76th) and fair wage distribution (79th).

Global Trend

The Nordic nations hold the top five spots, led by Denmark in the first place (scoring 85 points), followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden (all above 83 points) and Iceland (82 points).
Among the world’s large emerging economies, the Russian Federation is the most socially mobile of the BRICS grouping, ranking 39th, with a score of 64 points. Next is China (45th), followed by Brazil (60th), India (76th) and South Africa (77th).
The report also examines which economies stand to gain the most from increases in social mobility. The economy with the most to gain is China, whose economy could grow by an extra USD 103 billion a year, or USD 1 trillion dollars over the decade.
The US is the economy that would make the second-largest gains, at USD 87 billion a year. Next is India, followed by Japan, Germany, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, the UK and France.
The returns are intangible in the form of social cohesion, stability and enhanced opportunity for more people to fulfil their potential.

Recommendations

The report calls for a new financing model for social mobility: Improving tax progressivity on personal income, policies that address wealth concentration and broadly rebalancing the sources of taxation can support the social mobility agenda.
Most importantly, however, the mix of public spending and policy incentives must change to put greater emphasis on the factors of social spending.

Source: Hindu

Global Wealth Inequality

Topic: Reports and Indices

In News: The report, titled Time to Care: Unpaid and Underpaid Care Work and the Global Inequality Crisis, released by Oxfam revealed that India’s richest 1% hold more than four times the wealth held by the 953 million who make up for the bottom 70% of the country’s population.

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2,153 individuals, the number of billionnaires in the world in 2019, have more wealth among them than 4.6 billion people.
An additional 0.5% tax on the wealth of the richest 1% over the next 10 years can create 117 million jobs in education, health and elderly care, etc.
From 2011 to 2017, average wages in G7 countries grew 3%, while dividends to wealthy shareholders increased by 31%.
The Gender Gap: Globally, extreme poverty rates are 4% higher for women than men; this gap rises to 22% during women’s peak productive and reproductive ages largely due to childcare responsibilities.
$10.8 trillion is the estimated minimum annual monetary value of the unpaid care work by women aged 15 and above globally, this is three times the size of the world’s tech industry.
Globally, 42% of working age women are outside the paid labour force, compared with 6% of men, due to unpaid care responsibilities.

Analysis

Concern about inequality underlies recent social unrest in almost every continent, although it may be sparked by different tipping points such as corruption, constitutional breaches, or the rise in prices for basic goods and services.
“Sexist” economies are fuelling the inequality crisis by enabling wealthy elite to accumulate vast fortunes at the expense of ordinary people and particularly poor women and girls.
Regarding India, Oxfam said the combined total wealth of 63 Indian billionaires is higher than the total Union Budget of India for the fiscal year 2018-19 which was at ₹24,42,200 crore.
The gap between rich and poor cannot be resolved without deliberate inequality-busting policies, and too few governments are committed to these.

Source: Hindu

Death Penalty Annual Statistics

Topic: Reports and Indices

In News: The fourth edition of ‘The Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics’ was published by Project 39A of NLU-Delhi.

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The number of death sentences awarded for murders involving sexual offences in 2019 was at the highest in four years.
The trial courts in India imposed 102 death sentences in 2019, a significant drop from 162 death sentences in 2018.
However, the percentage of sexual offences in these cases increased from 41.35 (67 out of 162) in 2018 to 52.94 in 2019 (54 out of 102 sentences). This trend was also seen at the High Courts where 65.38% (17 out of 26) cases of confirmations of death sentences involved sexual offences along with murder, the highest in four years.
The Supreme Court in 2019 dealt with 27 capital punishment cases, highest number since 2001, primarily under former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi’s tenure.
The amendment to The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, introducing stringent mandatory minimum punishments and death penalty for penetrative sexual assault on children was a major development in dealing with sexual harassment cases.
Additionally, in response to the public outcry following a brutal gang-rape and murder in Hyderabad, the Andhra Pradesh amended the Indian Penal Code to introduce the death penalty for rape.

· Project 39-A is unique initiative of National Law University, Delhi.

· Project 39A is inspired by Article 39-A of the Indian Constitution, a provision that furthers the intertwined values of equal justice and equal opportunity by removing economic and social barriers.

Model Mains Question: Capital punishment is retributive justice and its effectiveness in curbing crime is contested. Discuss.

Source: Hindu

Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Block chain Technology

Topic: Science and Technology

In News: Recently NIC has set up the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Blockchain Technology in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

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New and previously unforeseen applications of Blockchain in the Government are expected to enhance transparency, traceability and trust in e-governance systems.
The Centre of Excellence will facilitate the Government Departments in building proof of concepts for use of Block chain technology in different dimensions of governance leading to large-scale deployment of some such applications.

Source: Hindu