National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 18th July 2019

Kulbhushan Jadhav Case and International Court of Justice

Topic: Important International Organisations

In News: International Court of Justice (ICJ) has directed Pakistan to review conviction order of Kulbhushan Jadhav and, until then, put his death sentence on hold. ICJ also asked Islamabad to allow New Delhi consular access at earliest. This is a major diplomatic and legal victory for India in Kulbhushan Jadhav case.

More on the Topic:

• Jadhav was captured by Pakistan in 2016 and accused of being a spy, fomenting trouble in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province. He was arrested on 3 March 2016, while India was informed on March 25.
• New Delhi has denied that Jadhav had any links to India’s intelligence or security agencies after he retired from the Navy.
• He was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court in 2017 after a “farcical trial”. India approached the ICJ in May 2017 against Pakistan for denying consular access to Jadhav.
• The ICJ on 18 May, 2017 restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav till the adjudication of the case.

Highlights of The Verdict:

• In a 15:1 verdict, the ICJ granted India consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav and asked Pakistan to review and reconsider the death sentence awarded to him.
• Pakistan violated the provisions under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
• There was a three-week delay in informing India about Jadhav’s arrest on March 3, 2016, leading to a “breach” of Pakistan’s obligations under the convention.
• Pakistan ‘deprived India of the right to communicate with and have access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, to visit him in detention and to arrange for his legal representation.
• ICJ rejects annulment of military court decision convicting Kulbhushan Jadhav, his release and safe passage to India.
• On Pakistan’s argument that India has failed to prove Jadhav’s nationality, ICJ said it was satisfied that the evidence before it proves Jadhav is of Indian nationality.

About Vienna Convention on consular relations:

• The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 is an international treaty that defines a framework for consular relations between independent states. A consul normally operates out of an embassy in another country, and performs two functions: (1) protecting in the host country the interests of their countrymen, and (2) furthering the commercial and economic relations between the two states.
• Article 36 of the convention addresses communications between consular officers and nationals of the sending state. The Convention provides that “consular officers shall be free to communicate with nationals of the sending State and to have access to them.
• Foreign nationals who are arrested or detained be given notice “without delay” of their right to have their embassy or consulate notified of that arrest, and “consular officers shall have the right to visit a national of the sending State who is in prison, custody or detention, to converse and correspond with him and to arrange for his legal representation.

About ICJ:

• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial body of the UN. Established in 1946 to replace the Permanent Court of International Justice, the ICJ mainly operates under the statute of its predecessor, which is included in the UN Charter.
• It has two primary functions: to settle legal disputes submitted by States in accordance with established international laws, and to act as an advisory board on issues submitted to it by authorized international organizations.
• The International Court of Justice is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.
• These organs vote simultaneously but separately. In order to be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes in both bodies. In order to ensure a measure of continuity, one third of the Court is elected every three years. Judges are eligible for re-election.
• Once elected, a Member of the Court is a delegate neither of the government of his own country nor of that of any other State. Unlike most other organs of international organizations, the Court is not composed of representatives of governments.
• Despite having no-binding force, the Court’s advisory opinions nevertheless, carry great legal weight and moral authority and thus help in the development and clarification of International Laws.

Source: The Hindu, Livemint and Wikipedia

Ebola Outbreak

Topic: Health

In News: WHO declared Ebola outbreak in Congo a global health emergency.

More on the Topic:

• Ebola virus disease (EVD), also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) or simply Ebola, is a viral hemorrhagic fever of humans and other primates caused by ebolaviruses.
• Humans may spread the virus to other humans through contact with bodily fluids such as blood.
• Initial symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain and chills. Later, a person may experience internal bleeding resulting in vomiting or coughing blood.
• There’s no cure for Ebola, though researchers are working on it. Treatment includes an experimental serum that destroys infected cells. Doctors manage the symptoms of Ebola with: Fluids and electrolytes.
• There is no approved vaccine for clinical use in humans for Ebola.

Source: Hindu, WHO

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

Topic: Government Policies

In News: Agriculture minister invited suggestions from fellow members in improving implementation of Fasal Bima Yojana.

More on the Topic:

• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the flagship programme launched with much fanfare in 2016, has run into rough weather. With both the area covered and the number of enrolled farmers declining, the country’s premium crop insurance scheme is certainly in need of an overhaul.

Challenges:

• Insufficient reach and the issue of penetration.
• Data constraints: With just around 45% of the claims made by farmers over the last three crop seasons data for the last rabi season is not available paid by the insurance companies.
• Low payout of claims: The reason for the very low payout of claims is that only few state governments are paying their share of the premiums on time and till they do, the central government doesn’t pay its share either. Till they get the premium, insurance companies simply sit on the claims.
• Gaps in assessment of crop loss: There is hardly any use of modern technology in assessing crop damages. There is lack of trained outsourced agencies, scope of corruption during implementation and the non-utilisation of technologies like smart phones and drones to improve reliability of such sampling
• Less number of notified crops than can avail insurance, Inadequate and delayed claim payment.
• High actuarial premium rates: Insurance companies charged high actuarial premium rates.
• If states delay notifications, or payment of premiums, or crop cutting data, companies cannot pay compensation to the farmers in time.
• Poor capacity to deliver: There has been no concerted effort by the state government and insurance companies to build awareness of farmers on PMFBY. Insurance companies have failed to set-up infrastructure for proper Implementation of PMFBY.
• PMBY is not beneficial for farmers in vulnerable regions as factors like low indemnity levels, low threshold yields, low sum insured and default on loans make it a poor scheme to safeguard against extreme weather events.

Changes Proposed By Government:

• The agriculture ministry proposed setting up of State Level Corpus Fund, and migration of savings to a National-level Insurance Risk Pool to quell public perception that insurance companies are making profits from the scheme.
• Making the scheme voluntary to all farmers including loanee farmers. This has been done because compulsory enrolment of loanee farmers was leading to dissent.
• Migration to smart sampling and optimisation of Crop cutting Experiments in the short run, and adoption of direct yield estimation through technology for all major crops.
• To address the delay in payment of state governments’ share of subsidy, deduction of overdue state subsidy from the central transfer to states.
• Three-year compulsory allocation of work to insurance companies by states to prevent repeated tendering process that delays implementation of the scheme. It has also suggested migration of crops having inconsistent yield data to weather-based insurance scheme.

About PMFBY:

• In April, 2016, the government of India had launched Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) after rolling back the earlier insurance schemes viz. National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS), Weather-based Crop Insurance scheme and Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS).
• Premium: It envisages a uniform premium of only 2% to be paid by farmers for Kharif crops, and 1.5% for Rabi crops. The premium for annual commercial and horticultural crops will be 5%.
• The scheme is mandatory for farmers who have taken institutional loans from banks. It’s optional for farmers who have not taken institutional credit.

Objectives:

• Providing financial support to farmers suffering crop loss/damage arising out of unforeseen events.
• Stabilizing the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.
• Encouraging farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices.
• Ensuring flow of credit to the agriculture sector which contributes to food security, crop diversification and enhancing growth and competitiveness of agriculture sector besides protecting farmers from production risks.

Source: Hindu, Vikaspedia, Hindu Business Line

Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS)

Topic: e- Governance

In News: Against a target of covering 14306 police stations, a total of 14874 police stations (excluding police stations in Bihar) have been covered under the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), which includes new police stations.

More on the Topic:

• CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan of Govt. of India.
• The project was initiated in June 2009 which aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at the Police Station level.
• This will be done through adoption of principles of e-Governance, and creation of a nationwide networked infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system around “investigation of crime and detection of criminals”.
• The Project will interconnect about 15000 Police Stations and additional 5000 offices of supervisory police officers across the country and digitize data related to FIR registration, investigation and charge sheets in all Police Stations.
• It will not only automate Police functions at Police station and higher levels but will also create facilities and mechanism to provide public services like registration of online complaints, ascertaining the status of case registered at the police station, verification of persons etc.
• In 2015, an additional objective of establishing a basic platform for an Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) was added to the Project.

Benefits:

• Benefits to Police Department: Enhanced tools for investigation,Centralized crime and criminal information repository,Enhanced ability to analyze crime patterns,Faster turnaround time for the analysis results (criminal and traffic) to reach the officers on the field,Reduced workload for the police stations,Better co-ordination and communication with external stakeholders.
• Benefits to Ministry of Home Affairs (NCRB): Standardized means of capturing the crime and criminal data across the police stations in the country,Faster and easier access to crime and criminal information,Enhanced ability to detect crime patterns, the ability to respond faster and with greater accuracy to inquiries from the parliament, citizens and citizens groups; and to RTI queries, Easy and low-cost scalability of crime and criminal systems in the future.
• Benefits to Citizens: Multiple channels to access services from police,Simplified process for registering petitions,accessing general services such as requests for certificates, verifications, and permissions,tracking the progress of the case during trials, grievance registration.Improved relationship management for victims and witnesses,Faster and assured response from police to any emergency calls for assistance.

Model Mains Question: e- governance can add value to good governance. Comment

Source: Hindu, NCRB Website

National Bamboo Mission

Topic: Agriculture

In News: Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare informed Lok Sabha that the restructured National Bamboo Mission (NBM) has been providing intended results.

More on the Topic:

• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.
• Bamboo is a versatile group of plants which is capable of providing ecological, economic and livelihood to the people.
• The restructured NBM focuses to supplement farm income with the development of complete value chain of bamboo sector and link growers with markets.

Its Objectives are:

• To increase the area under bamboo plantation in non forest Government and private lands.
• To improve post-harvest management through establishment of innovative primary processing units and market infrastructure.
• To promote product development by assisting R&D, entrepreneurship & business models at MSME level.
• To rejuvenate the under developed bamboo industry in India and promote skill development, capacity building, awareness generation for development of bamboo sector.
• To realign efforts so as to reduce dependency on import of bamboo and bamboo products by improved productivity.

The Mission would adopt the following strategies:

• Development of bamboo in limited States where it has social, commercial and economical advantage,Production of genetically superior planting material,Adoption of end to end solution and Capacity building.
• Set up National, State and sub-State level structures, to ensure adequate returns and eliminate middlemen.
• Popularizing use of bamboo & bamboo based products through various medias and public interactions.

Source: PIB

Incredible India Campaign

Topic: Government Policies

In News: The Incredible India “Find the Incredible You” campaign released globally by the Ministry of Tourism during 2018-19 has been declared winner of the PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Gold Award 2019 in the “Marketing – Primary Government Destination” category.

More on the Topic:

• The Ministry of Tourism, as part of its promotional initiatives annually releases Global Media Campaigns under the ‘Incredible India’ brand-line in the Television, Print, Digital and Social Media, in key and potential source markets overseas.
• To take the Campaigns to the next level, the ‘Incredible India 2.0’ Campaign was launched in September 2017, which marks a shift from generic promotions undertaken across the world to market specific promotional plans and content creation.
• The campaign focuses on digital and social media and the promotion of Niche Tourism products of the country.

Significance of Tourism Industry for India:

• Vast natural and manpower resources of the Country will be put to better use.
• It generates Employment and promotes Enterprises and gives fillip to Economic Development and appreciation of Cultural similarities and differences.
• Transport, Hospitality, Finance , Recreation, Health and Adventure sectors attract additional investments to cater to the demand.
• Results in upgrading of Skills and Innovative practices in rendering the services of Travel, Stay, Entertainment, Catering, Sports and Events etc.,
• Tourism related infrastructure expands and generates addtional opportunities for Employment and development of under developed regions.
• Capacities of local population to acquire new skills and upgrading of the same will result in area development and economic progress.

Challenges:

• Underdeveloped tourism infrastructure, poor sanitation and hygiene issues, inadequate trained manpower, Safety and security of the tourists, Lack of adequate marketing and promotion of tourism at the global level, Coplex Visa procedure.

Way Forward:

• Development of tourism infrastrucuture with focus on hygiene and sanitation.
• More emphasis on training and human resource development to cater the needs of the industry.
• Standard operating procedure for safety norms and mandatory inspections from regulatory agencies.
• Better marketing strategies and easy Visa procedures.

Model Mains Question: Comment on the Potential of Tourism industry in inclusive development of the country.

Source: PIB, Longdom