UPSC Key—10th November, 2023: Criminal Law Bills, Reservation Ceiling and Gwalior Music Gharana

8 former Navy personnel on Qatar death row: India files first appeal

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Two weeks after eight former Indian Navy personnel, arrested in an alleged case of espionage, were sentenced to death by a court in Qatar, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said an appeal has been filed in the case. Meanwhile, India got another round of consular access to the detainees on November 7.

• Indian espionage case in Qatar-What you know so far?

• Who are these Indians, and what were they doing in Qatar?

• Know the Background-The eight former Navy personnel — Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal and Sailor Ragesh — were working at Al Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a defence services provider company.
The company is owned by an Omani national, Khamis al-Ajmi, a retired squadron leader of the Royal Oman Air Force. This man too, was arrested along with the eight Indians, but he was released in November 2022.
The company’s old website, which no longer exists, said it provided training, logistics and maintenance services to the Qatari Emiri Naval Force (QENF). On its new website, the company is called Dahra Global, but there is no mention of the connection to the QENF, nor of the seven former Navy officers who had leadership roles in the company.
Commander Purnendu Tiwari (retd), who was Managing Director of the company, received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2019 for his services in furthering the bilateral relationship between India and Qatar. He was feted in Doha by then Indian Ambassador P Kumaran, and a former head of the Qatar defence forces’ International Military Cooperation. The function was held at the Indian Cultural Centre. Captain Kapil Kaushik of the Indian Navy, who was the defence attache at Embassy of India at the time, was present at this event.
The Dahra website had certificates from Kumaran, and his successor at the Indian Embassy in Doha, Ambassador Deepak Mittal, praising the company’s work as furthering the cause of good relations between the two countries. Most of the arrested men had been working at Dahra for four to six years at the time of their arrests.

• When were the men arrested by the Qatari authorities, and why?

• What is the nature of the relationship between India and Qatar?

• What are the challenges, if any, in the relationship?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:  

📍Who are the 8 Indian Navy veterans sentenced to death by a court in Qatar, and what is the case against them?

EXPRESS NETWORK

Criminal law Bills: Centre to work on suggested changes

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary-Ministries and Departments of the Government; pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Taking into account some of the key changes proposed by the parliamentary panel, the Centre is likely to introduce the three criminal law Bills in the winter session of Parliament, The Indian Express has learnt. The Parliamentary panel, which adopted its report on the three Bills on November 7, is expected to submit the report to the government Friday. However, sources told The Indian Express that the Law Ministry is already working internally on new drafts that would include key changes. The Parliamentary panel, headed by BJP MP Brij Lal, had suggested over 50 amendments and also underlined several typographical and numbering errors in the three Bills.

• What is Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023?

• The new Bills —Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, to replace the IPC; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, for CrPC; and Bharatiya Sakshya (BS) Bill, 2023, for the Indian Evidence Act-Know in detail

• What exactly Government has proposed in Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023?

• What is criminal justice system in detail?

• What is Indian criminal justice system?

• What are the key suggestions of the panel given to the government on this?

• Quick Recall-In a complete overhaul of colonial-era criminal laws, Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced three Bills on August 11, in Lok Sabha to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860; The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (originally enacted in 1898); and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. The Bills — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, to replace the IPC; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, for CrPC; and Bharatiya Sakshya (BS) Bill, 2023, for the Indian Evidence Act — were referred to a standing committee. From a new provision on mob lynching, punishable by seven years imprisonment or life imprisonment or death penalty; to enabling speedy justice through video trials, e-filing of FIRs; expanding the definition of sedition; bringing corruption, terrorism and organised crime under the penal laws; introducing community service and solitary confinement as new forms of punishment; holding trials in the absence of an accused; and expanding the scope of offence against women pertaining to sexual intercourse by employing “deceitful means” — the new Bills provide for substantive changes in criminal jurisprudence.

• The Indian Penal Code-Know its history

• But why this recent changes?

• Retributive Justice and Restorative Justice-Compare

• What is Retributive Justice?

• “Every saint has a past and every sinner a future”-Decode the quote

• “Objective of justice should be reformative and not retributive”-Comment

• What is Criminal Justice System in India?

• What are the different stages of the criminal justice system?

• Why there is a need for Reforms in criminal justice system?

• Which committee is related to reforms in Criminal Justice System of India (CJSI)?

• Know Malimath Committee Report in detail

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Expert Explains: What does the proposed legislation to overhaul criminal justice system mean?

📍From holding trials on video to community service as punishment: Centre’s overhaul of criminal laws

Bihar House passes Bill to raise quota cap from 50% to 65%

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Two days after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called for an increase in reservation, the Bihar Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a Bill to hike the overall quota in educational institutions and government jobs for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from 50% to 65%.

• Do You Know-With the existing 10% quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), the effective quota will be 75%.
The main beneficiaries are the EBCs and OBCs, whose quota is proposed to be raised from 12% to 25% and 8% to 18% respectively. According to the state’s caste survey, 36.01% of the population are EBCs, and 27.13% are OBCs.
For SCs, the proposed new quota is 20%, up from the existing 14%. The SC population is estimated at 19.65%. The quota for STs, however, is proposed to be slashed from 10% to 2%. With most of the tribal areas going to Jharkhand after the bifurcation of Bihar in 2000, the tribal population in Bihar is less than 2%.
In its 1992 decision in ‘Indra Sawhney vs Union of India’, the Supreme Court had fixed the reservation ceiling at 50%.

• What is the maximum limit of reservation in India?

• How much is total reservation in India?

• In which of the cases reservation was capped at 50% by the Supreme Court?

• What was the Indira Sawhney and others vs Union of India case and how was it settled?

• For Your Information- In 1979, the Second Backward Classes Commission (Mandal Commission) was set up to determine the criteria for defining the socially and educationally backward classes. The Mandal report identified 52% of the population at that time as “Socially and Economically Backward Classes” (SEBCs) and recommended 27% reservation for SEBCs in addition to the previously existing 22.5% reservation for SC/STs.
In 1990, when the V P Singh led-government set out to implement the Mandal report, it was challenged in court amidst widespread protests against the move. The case came up before a nine-judge Bench and a 6:3 verdict was delivered in 1992.
The court upheld the office memorandums that essentially implemented the Mandal report. The majority opinion, penned by justice Jeevan Reddy, said the executive orders mandating 27% reservation for backward castes were valid and that the reservation was made not just on the basis of caste, even if it appears so, but on the basis of objective evaluation of social and educational backwardness of classes, which is the criteria previously laid down by the court.
“To conclude, though prima facie the list of Backward Classes which is under attack before us may be considered to be on the basis of caste, a closer examination will clearly show that it is only a description of the group following the particular occupations or professions, exhaustively referred to by the Commission. Even on the assumption that the list is based exclusively on caste, it is clear from the materials before the Commission and the reasons given by it in its report that the entire caste is socially and educationally backward and therefore their inclusion in the list of Backward Classes is warranted by Article 15(4). The groups mentioned therein have been included in the list of Backward classes as they satisfy the various tests, which have been laid down by this Court for ascertaining the social and educational backwardness of a class,” the court said.
The landmark Indra Sawhney ruling set two important precedents. First, it said that the criteria for a group to qualify for reservation is “social and educational backwardness”. Additionally, the court also reiterated the 50% limit to vertical quotas it had set out in earlier judgements in 1963 (M R Balaji v State of Mysore) and in 1964 (Devadasan v Union of India), reasoning that it was needed to ensure “efficiency” in administration. The court said this 50% limit will apply — unless in “exceptional circumstances”.
While the social and educational backwardness criteria stemmed from interpretation of various constitutional provisions, the 50% limit is often criticised as being an arbitrary limit.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Reservation debate: a new, post-myth era

GOVT & POLITICS

Now, report to go to Speaker, he will take call on tabling in LS

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee’s report recommending the expulsion of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra will now go to the Lok Sabha Speaker. The committee on Thursday adopted the report by six votes to four.

A complaint by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey that Moitra sought favours from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions against industrialist Gautam Adani — something Hiranandani accepted in a letter to the committee — sparked a chain of events leading to the report.

• Rules on what happens next?

• Do You Know-The rules governing the procedures of the Ethics Committee — incorporated in Chapter XXA of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha in August 2015 — state that the recommendations of the Committee shall be in the form of a report and it shall be presented to the Speaker who may direct that it be tabled in the House. The rules say that the report “may also state the procedure to be followed by the House in giving effect to the recommendations made by the Committee”.
Rule 316 E lays down the procedure to be adopted for consideration of the report by the House. “After the report has been presented, the Chairperson or any member of the Committee or any other member may move that the report be taken into consideration whereupon the Speaker may put the question to the House,” it reads.
Before putting the question to the House, the rules say the Speaker may permit a debate on the motion not exceeding half an hour. After the motion is agreed to, the chairperson or any member of the committee, or any other member, “may move that the House agrees or disagrees, or agrees with amendments, with the recommendations contained in the report”.
Rule 316 F says that “a motion that the report of the Committee be taken into consideration shall be put down in the list of business after disposal of questions”.

• What happens if a motion to approve a recommendation of the Ethics Committee to expel a member is adopted by the Lok Sabha with a majority?

• What does the Ethics Committee do?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Opp dissents against ethics panel report on Mahua: Hasty, will set dangerous precedent

CBI a separate entity, have no control over it, Govt tells SC

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Underlining that the CBI is an “independent legal person” with a “separate legal identity outside the Union of India”, the Centre on Thursday questioned the logic of the West Bengal government filing an original suit against it to stop the agency from probing cases in the state after the general consent was withdrawn.

Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta told a Supreme Court bench of Justices B R Gavai and Aravind Kumar that the independent existence of the CBI “is in fact a product of the judgments of” the apex court, “wherein the CBI was vested with a separate legal and functional identity”.

• Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-Organisation, Role and Functions

• What Santhanam Committee said on Prevention of Corruption?

• What is Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946?

• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) draws its power from which act/statute?

• Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-Connect the dots

• Is CBI constitutional or non-constitutional or statutory body?

• Issues and Challenges associated with CBI-Brainstorm

• What was the landmark 1997 Vineet Narain judgment of the Supreme Court (Vineet Narain & Others vs Union Of India & Anr)?

• The tenure of the CBI Director at two years is fixed-True or false?

• SC’s Famed ‘Caged Parrot’ Remark-why CBI was remarked as ‘Caged Parrot’?

• CBI-a credible institution or Still a Caged Parrot?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The CBI’s uneasy history

📍With Supreme Court order on EC appointments, a history of futile Opp dissent on picks for top posts

ECONOMY

For developing nations, energy transition has a heavy cost: CEA

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development–Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

• General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran Thursday said energy transition imposes a heavy cost on developing nations, which are already grappling with the twin challenges of poverty alleviation and economic growth.
He said work is also underway with a multilateral development bank to prepare estimates for the cost of India’s net-zero transition.

• “Countries are already grappling with the twin challenges of poverty alleviation and economic growth”-Analyse

• “The energy transition is no doubt complex”-why?

• What is ‘Transition to clean energy’?

• What is India’s energy transition plan?

• What is India’s New Renewables Energy Target?

• How can net zero be achieved?

• Public-Private partnership frameworks to achieve ‘net zero’-issues and challenges

• India’s emission Status-Present Scenario

• What Is “intermittency” In Renewable Energy?

• What are the types of intermittency?

• What are the challenges of intermittent Renewable Energy?

• What is intermittent resources?

• Do You Know-In India, grid managers are already grappling with the challenge of operationally sustaining a massive monthly addition of an average 1,000 megawatt – almost five times the amount of power a 250 MWe nuclear plant produces – from renewables to the electricity grid.
Policy makers are of the view that New Delhi needs to expeditiously work on developing viable energy storage options in a country that is the world’s third largest producer of renewable energy; nearly 40 per cent of installed electricity capacity comes from non-fossil fuel sources. This green push has resulted in a 24 per cent reduction in emission intensity of GDP between 2005 and 2016, but it has also thrown up challenges of a grid being increasingly powered by renewables.
There are two alternatives being considered by the government for now: hydrogen and hybrid generation models blended with off-stream pumped storage. In 2023, as the hidden challenges of the renewable energy transition are likely to manifest more concretely, the government is making a renewed push on both technologies.
In September, Union Power Minister R K Singh said the government will soon accept bids for the construction of a 100MW round-the-clock clean energy system, backed by storage. A policy for stepping up green hydrogen production and tapping into its potential as a fuel was cleared by the Cabinet last year. The Union Power Ministry had also wrapped up a survey of all pumped hydro sites, and hydro PSUs had been given a target of taking up pumped hydro schemes. The ministry had also written to the Union Coal Ministry to consider the option of opencast mines as potential sites for pumped hydro in the future.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Storing energy in blocks: How gravity may solve green power’s problem

📍Transition without playbook

EXPLAINED

UNESCO declares Gwalior ‘city of music’: story of its melodious past

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Main Examination: General Studies I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- The city of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh was added to UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network (UCCN) on Wednesday (November 1) for its “strong commitment to harnessing culture and creativity”. Kozikodhe from Kerala was also among the 55 new cities to join the network.

• What is UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN)?

• Do You Know-The UCCN was created in 2004 to promote cooperation among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. It now includes 350 cities in over a hundred countries.
The network is aimed at leveraging the creative, social, and economic potential of cultural industries. It was launched to promote UNESCO’s goals of cultural diversity and strengthen resilience to threats such as climate change, rising inequality, and rapid urbanisation. It encourages a culture of creativity in urban planning and solutions to urban problems.
Apart from Kozhikode and Gwalior, Varanasi (music), Srinagar (crafts and folk arts) and Chennai (music) are part of the network.

• What is the Gwalior music gharana?

• Who is founder of Gwalior Gharana?

• For Your Information-Indian music history would be incomplete without the mention of Gwalior and the gharana that stemmed from there. The city’s illustrious past is dotted with patronage of music — many of its rulers were musicians themselves or took a keen interest in music. Gwalior also hosted well-known musicians, who were either born in the city or came there to learn from the masters.
Gwalior gharana, the oldest musical gharana and a significant chapter of Hindustani classical music’s history flourished under the aegis of Raja Man Singh Tomar during the 15th century. Man Singh’s great grandfather Dungarendra Singh Tomar, a musician himself, attempted a revival of Indian classical music through academic interest and patronage. He is known to have gifted two music treatises in Sanskrit – Sangeet Shiromani and Sangeet Choodamani – to his friend and Sultan of Kashmir Zain-ul-Abdin. The treatises comprised detailed discussions on music and musical instruments.
Dungarendra also composed Vishnupadas (songs in praise of Vishnu) with a unique style of singing that he passed down to Man Singh, who ascended the throne in 1486. It’s also believed that Man Singh invented dhrupad, in a classical genre sense. His Horis and Dhamars also became quite popular. The king would take advice from Sufi saints, who were often musicians too. In an attempt to popularise Indian music, he replaced Sanskrit songs with those in simple Hindi.
Man Singh also wrote Manakutuhala (Quest for Learning), considered the first treatise of music in Hindi, helping a wider audience to understand high art performed in kings’ courts. This made dhrupad more accessible, which now comprised Vishnupadas sung in ragas. The king also built huge music halls in his palace and held regular music sessions. His music was also popular among Sufis as well as Muslim Sultans.
Before Hindustani classical music was divided into various gharanas – musical ideologies and systems where the musicians identify with a style either by lineage or by learning and following this style – Gwalior emerged as the first proper gharana of music and evolved under the Mughal rule. The initial ustads of the gharana included Naththan Khan, Naththan Pir Baksh and his grandsons Haddu, Hassu, and Natthu Khan.

• What is Tansen famous for?

• Who gave title Mian to Tansen?

• Do You Know-Mian Tansen born as Ramatanu to a poet and musician was one of Gwalior’s early proteges. At the beginning of the 16th century, he trained under Swami Haridas, who practised dhrupad but the poetry was dedicated to Krishna instead of Vishnu. The famed Sufi saint Mohommad Ghous also had a huge impact on Tansen. While learning from Ghous, Tansen understood and honed the Gwalior gharana style and was the court musician for King Ram Chandra Singh of Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, for many years.
The story of his musical brilliance and knowledge travelled and Akbar invited Tansen to be a part of his court musicians in the Mughal court. A Vaishnava musician, he first refused, but after Ram Chandra insisted he go, he joined the court at the age of 60.
Abul Fazl’s Ain-i-Akbari mentions 36 imperial musicians, out of which 15 were from Gwalior. Akbar’s admiration for Tansen has found much place in popular culture and much of it comes from the writings about the musician.

• Some notable names from the Gwalior gharana-Know them

• Indian Classical Music-Key Features

• Hindustani Music and Carnatic Music-Compare and Contrast

• Genesis of Hindustani Music-Have you heard of Bharata’s Natyashastra?

• Major Styles of Hindustani Music-Know in Brief (Hint-Dhrupad, Khayal, Thumri etc.)

• Hindustani Music Gharanas-What do you understand by the term ‘Gharana’?

• Can you name some other Hindustani Music Gharanas?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Gwalior, Kozhikode join UNESCO Creative Cities Network

For any queries and feedback, contact priya.shukla@indianexpress.com

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