UPSC Key—18th December, 2023: Swadesh Darshan scheme, Post Office Bill, 2023 and Terms of trade

Assam Rifles plans op changes for deployment on LAC, if required

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies III: Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– The Assam Rifles is planning critical operational changes so that it can be deployed for conventional roles along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in contingencies, while continuing to perform its traditional counter-insurgency duties in the Northeast and guarding the India-Myanmar border.

• “The Assam Rifles is planning critical operational changes”-what changes exactly?

• Assam Rifles (AR)-Know in detail

• Who are the Assam Rifles, and what is their role?

• For Your Information- The Assam Rifles are a central armed police force. The AR is one of the six central armed police forces (CAPFs) under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The other five forces are the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). The AR is tasked with maintaining law and order in the Northeast along with the Indian Army. It also guards the Indo-Myanmar border. The AR have a sanctioned strength of more than 63,000 personnel, organised in 46 battalions, apart from administrative and training staff. It is the only paramilitary force with a dual control structure. While the administrative control of the force is with the MHA, its operational control is with the Indian Army, which is under the Ministry of Defence (MoD). This means that salaries and infrastructure for the force is provided by the MHA, but the deployment, posting, transfers, and deputation of AR personnel is decided by the Army. All its senior ranks, from DG to IG and sector headquarters are manned by officers from the Army. The force is commanded by a Lieutenant General of the Indian Army. The AR is in effect a central paramilitary force (CPMF) — its operational duties and regimentation are on the lines of the Indian Army. However, being a CAPF under the MHA, the recruitment, perks, and promotion of AR personnel, and their retirement policies are governed according to rules framed for CAPFs by the MHA.

• The Assam Rifles have a long and illustrious history-Know the legacy of Assam Rifles

• What has been the contribution of Assam Rifles?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: Assam Rifles’ dual control structure, and its role

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

Political, not constitutional

Syllabus:

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

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Indian Constitution—historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Fali S Nariman writes: Politically, it’s good that Article 370, a temporary provision, is gone. But the SC verdict lets Centre get away — with violating the Constitution and federal principles.

• “Politically, it is a good thing that a temporary provision in India’s Constitution (Article 370) has ceased to be operative”-Discuss

• According to the author “what was actually done by the Centre was, in my view, not according to the provisions of the Constitution, nor in accordance with well-settled principles of federalism, a basic feature of the Constitution as was held in a 1994 judgment of a Constitution Bench of nine judges”-Comment

• “Under Article 370 of the Constitution of India, 1950, read with Presidential Order No. 48 of 1954 passed there under, an important safeguard was introduced”-What was that?

• Why author thinks that status of J&K from state to Union Territory (with the much diminished area) was neither warranted nor justified by any provision in the Constitution?

• “Another important safeguard for the state of Jammu & Kashmir had been set out in Article 370 (3) itself as enacted in 1950”-Know in detail

• “The power of the President under Article 370 (which is, in fact, the power of the Centre) to declare the entire Article 370 inoperative, was to come into effect only if the precondition mentioned in the proviso to Article 370 (3) was fulfilled”- What precondition?

• “The present decision of the Supreme Court, even if politically acceptable, is not constitutionally correct”-Analyse

• What Article 370 of the constitution said?

• How was Article 370 enacted?

• What happened in Aug 2019?

• What did the Centre do in 2019?

• What specific aspect of Article 370 has been contested before the Supreme Court?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍This end is a beginning

THE IDEAS PAGE

The algorithm-savvy regulator

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The past couple of months have seen a flurry of activity related to the regulation of artificial intelligence. The US White House issued an executive order for the regulation of AI, the European Parliament and the European Council have agreed on a legislation to regulate AI, the UK hosted a summit on AI safety that resulted in the Bletchley Declaration, and at the GPAI summit in Delhi this week, participating countries agreed to create a global framework on AI trust and safety, among other things.

• “The past couple of months have seen a flurry of activity related to the regulation of artificial intelligence”-What steps and initiatives are taken recently?

• “This wave of high level discussions will soon begin to highlight the downstream challenge”- What Kind of downstream challenge?

• “Regardless of whether AI has the potential to be self-sustaining in the future, two consequences of the deployment of generative AI products have already become apparent”-Discuss

• For Your Information- Two consequences of the deployment of generative AI products have already become apparent. The first is the vast scope of use for the technology. The second is the rapid improvement in the quality of services on offer. ChatGPT is a whole lot better than it was on the day it was launched. This in turn means that the potential for adoption across the economy becomes even stronger.
The Economist Intelligence Unit reports that banks and credit card companies have started using AI for fraud detection, risk assessment and digital marketing. E-commerce companies are using AI to predict credit risk and personalise services. The Indian insurance industry now uses AI for risk-management. Similar uses are being adopted in other parts of the economy. While these are examples of limited use, AI usage may become much more prevalent soon as the technology improves and people start understanding how to use the technology better.
The Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India have both recently begun to develop AI tools for regulatory supervision. Since 2019, SEBI has required mutual funds to disclose the use of AI in their product offerings and product managements. However, they and other regulators will need to do much more to prepare for potentially transformative changes.
AI may also alter professional practices and norms. The use of AI for book-keeping and accounting practices will potentially change the way a chartered accountant and an auditor works. Similarly, AI-drafted contracts will reshape the work of corporate lawyers. These changes may be slow at first, but will soon reach an inflection point. With the change in the way the professions work, the role of professional bodies in charge of maintaining the integrity of professional norms and practices is also likely to undergo a change.

• “Governments and regulators in some countries have so far implemented nascent regulatory frameworks for the use of AI”-Discuss

• Why AI governance is required?

• India hosts the GPAI summit in Delhi, what kind of lessons can it draw in dealing with AI?

• How is artificial intelligence (AI) currently governed?

• What are the use of AI in different areas?

• ‘AI is not intelligence and idea that AI will replace human intelligence is unlikely’-Comment

• Why AI regulation is needed?

• If Regulated then what should be the limit?

• If regulated, then what are the risks associated with regulating AI?

• What has been India’s Response to demands for AI Regulation?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍AI threat demands new approach to security designs

📍India & geopolitics of AI

EXPRESS NETWORK

Why Bihar govt’s Rs 72-cr plan to develop ‘Sita birthplace’ has sparked a controversy

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains 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– Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar earlier this week unveiled his government’s Rs 72-crore plan to redevelop the Punourdham in Sitamarhi, which is believed to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Sita, the consort of Lord Ram. “The renovation must be completed fast. Sitakund must be developed and its surroundings must be beautified to attract more devotees,” Nitish said at the event on December 13.

The move comes just over a month before the scheduled inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya that is being publicised by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar on a large scale. The Bihar government’s decision has triggered a war of words between the JD(U) and its former ally BJP.

• What does the plan involve?

• Map Work-Sitamarhi

• For Your Information-The Bihar government’s plan for Sitamarhi comes even though it features in the Centre’s list of 15 tourism-cum-religious places on the Ramayana Circuit, which is one of the 15 thematic circuits identified for development under the Swadesh Darshan scheme of the Union Ministry of Tourism. The projects under the scheme are identified in consultation with the state governments or Union Territory administrations.
The state government’s plan includes the setting up of a parikrama path (a path to circumambulate the temple) with a roof and sandstone pillars. A Sita Vatika (Sita’s garden), Luv-Kush Vatika (Luv-Kush garden) and a shanti mandap (area for meditation) are also being planned besides a cafeteria and a parking lot. A 3-D animation film, depicting Sita’s life, is also in the pipeline.
As a part of the plan, the state’s tourism department is also working to redevelop at least a dozen sites believed to be associated with Lord Ram and Sita.

• What is Swadesh Darshan scheme?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍A day in the life of ‘birthplace’ of sita: Looking for Sita in Sitamarhi

EXPLAINED

Post Office Bill, 2023: why it was brought in, criticism

Syllabus:

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

Mains 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-After being passed in the Rajya Sabha on December 4, the Post Office Bill, 2023, was brought to the Lok Sabha for consideration on Wednesday (December 13). Seeking to repeal the 125-year-old Indian Post Office Act of 1898, the Bill contains provisions that allow the Centre to intercept, open, or detain any item, and deliver it to customs authorities.

• Post Office Bill, 2023-Know the Key features

• For Your Information-Introduced by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in August and is pending in both Houses. It seeks to consolidate and amend the law relating to Post Offices in India. It said of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898: “This Act primarily addresses mail services provided through the Post Office. Over the years, services available through the Post Office have diversified beyond mails and the Post Office network has become a vehicle for delivery of a variety of citizen centric services which necessitated the repeal of the said Act and enactment of new law in its place.” Further, it mentions the grounds under which the Central Government can intercept, open or detain delivery items. These include the interests of the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, emergency, or public safety. It also speaks of the appointment of a Director General of Postal Services and their powers. The Bill aims to “consolidate and amend the law relating to Post Office in India,” which today provides many services beyond simply mail delivery, the primary concern of the Indian Post Office Act of 1898. The Post Office network today has become a vehicle for delivery of different citizen-centric services, which necessitated the repeal enactment of a new law, the Bill states.
Notably, Section 9 of the Bill allows the Centre to, by notification, empower any officer to “intercept, open or detain any item” in the interest of state security, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, emergency, public safety, or contravention of other laws. This provision also allows post officers to hand over postal items to customs authorities if they are suspected to contain any prohibited item, or if such items are liable to duty.
This is similar to Sections 19, 25, and 26 of the 1898 Act. Section 19(1) disallowed persons from sending by post “any explosive, dangerous, filthy, noxious or deleterious substance, any sharp instrument not properly protected, or any living creature which is either noxious or likely to injure postal articles” or postal service officers in the course of transmission.
Furthermore, the power to intercept any prohibited or restricted articles during transmission by post, or any postal article for public good during emergency or in the interest of public safety could also be exercised by the government and its officials under Sections 25 and 26 of the 1898 Act. The Law Commission in 1968, while examining the 1898 Act, observed that the term emergency is not explicitly defined, thereby allowing significant discretion while intercepting goods.

• Why Section 10 of the bill is problematic?

• “The present Bill has removed Section 4 of the 1898 Act”-What is Section 4 of the 1898 Act?

• Several members of the Opposition have vociferously criticised the Bill-Why so?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Rajya Sabha passes Post Office Bill, Vaishnaw allays Opp concerns on interception

📍Post Office Bill retains its ‘draconian and colonial’ provisions: Shashi Tharoor during debate

The agri terms of trade

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– Terms of trade (ToT) for Indian agriculture — movement in prices of farm commodities relative to that of non-farm goods and services — have recorded significant improvement in the last decade and a half, going by data derived from national income statistics.

• What do you understand by “Terms of trade (ToT) for Indian agriculture”?

• Do You Know-ToT can be calculated using so-called implicit price deflators. Gross Value Added (GVA) — the value of all goods and services produced in an economy minus the value of their inputs consumed during a given year, net of product taxes and subsidies — is estimated at both current and constant prices. Current prices are price levels for the given year, while constant prices are those that prevailed during a fixed “base” year.

• What is deflator?

• What is deflator for agriculture?

• What it means for farmers and farm workers?

• What are the political economy implications of this?

• For Your Information-The ToT based on implicit price deflators is a broad-based indicator of how prices for agricultural commodities have moved vis-à-vis for non-agricultural goods and services. It does not show whether and how much the ToT has improved for those actually engaged in crop production: farmers and agricultural labourers.
The Agriculture Ministry maintains data on both the prices received by farmers for the produce they sell and the prices paid for the products bought by them. The latter include final consumption items (from purchased foods to toilet soap, toothpaste, medicines, mobile services, two-wheelers and gold jewellery), intermediate inputs (seed, fertiliser, pesticides, livestock feed, irrigation charges, diesel, hired labour, marketing costs and interest on loans) and capital goods (tractors, electric motor/pumps, cement, bricks, steel and other construction materials).
Based on the above, the Ministry has constructed year-wise indices of prices received (IPR) and prices paid (IPP) with the three years ended 2011-12=100 as base value. The ToT for farmers is the ratio of IPR to IPP. A ratio above one (or 100%) implies their enjoying favourable pricing power, in terms of what they sell versus what they buy. A ToT ratio below one indicates unfavourable conditions of exchange.
The Ministry has, likewise, constructed year-wise IPR for agricultural labourers, which is basically wages received by them. The IPP in their case is only for final consumption items. Agricultural workers, unlike farmers, have just their labour power to sell, with the money from it also mainly spent on consumption goods.
The farmers’ ToT ratio went up significantly — by 17.3%, from 87.8 to 102.9 — between 2004-05 and 2010-11. It has, however, fallen thereafter and stagnated at 97-99 levels. The agricultural labourers’ ToT ratio rose more spectacularly, by 109.2% from a mere 64.2 in 2004-05 to 134.4 in 2016-17. But even it has registered a decline to 119.5 in the last computed year of 2021-22.
Simply put, while the ToT for the farm sector as a whole may have improved since the mid-2000s, it has been more for agricultural labourers than for farmers. Moreover, the last few years have been marked by stagnation or deterioration for both.
Agricultural labourers — a big chunk of them from Dalit, Adivasi or Most Backward Classes backgrounds — have historically occupied the bottom-most rung of India’s socioeconomic ladder.
Accelerated growth in the wider economy from around 2003-04 helped create new employment avenues for them outside of agriculture, particularly in construction and the urban services sector. Together with parallel government interventions such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the targeted public distribution system, it led to a tightening of labour markets. Farm workers, in the process, discovered hitherto non-existent alternatives (“opportunity cost”) to transplanting paddy, harvesting sugarcane, picking cotton, spraying insecticides or removing weeds in fields.
The resultant rise in real wages for agricultural labourers, also reflected in their ToT, has impacted farmers. They have been squeezed between higher costs — for not just hired labour, but also agro-chemicals, seed, feed, diesel, tractors and farm machinery, and other inputs — and no commensurate increase in produce prices.
Subsidies on fertiliser, electricity/canal irrigation charges, agricultural credit and crop insurance may have partly protected farmers from rising production costs, just as MSP procurement has ensured stable realisations in select crops like paddy, wheat and sugarcane. But even after factoring these, the ToT for farmers has stagnated at best in the last 10 years. That, along with not many new crop yield breakthroughs and fragmentation of landholdings, probably also explains the clamour for reservations in government jobs and educational institutions by Marathas, Jats, Patidars, Kapus and other dominant agrarian communities.
Even for agricultural laborers, the ToT ratio, while still favourable, has fallen after 2018-19. This is reflected in rural wages, too, hardly rising in real terms after adjusting for inflation.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Terms of Trade (TOT): Definition, Use as Indicator, and Factors

KETAMINE

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-More than a month after the “Friends” actor Matthew Perry suddenly passed away, the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office on Friday (December 15) released an autopsy report, saying Perry died from the “acute effects” of ketamine.

The actor was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles on October 28, “floating face down in the heated end,” according to the media reports. He was 54-year-old. The autopsy report also mentioned that drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of an opioid, buprenorphine, had contributed to his death.
In recent years, ketamine has been a subject of widespread debate due to its growing use for treating depression and other serious mental health issues. While some experts and patients call it lifesaving, others say it’s addictive and causes bladder ailments. Here is a look at what ketamine is, and whether it is safe to consume.

• What is ketamine?

• How is ketamine consumed?

• What are the effects of ketamine?

• Is it safe to consume ketamine?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Matthew Perry died from the effects of ketamine, autopsy report says

From Guptas to Mughals: history of Mathura’s Krishna Janmasthan temple

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: History of India and Current events of national and international importance and History of India

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The Supreme Court on Friday (December 15) declined to stay an order issued by the Allahabad High Court a day earlier allowing a survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura, believed to have been built at Krishna Janmasthan, the site where Lord Krishna was born.

The mosque was built in the 17th century during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The application filed by Hindu petitioners who asked for the survey said that “it is a matter of fact and history that Aurangzeb…issued orders for demolition of a large number of Hindu religious places and temples including the temple standing at the birth place of Lord Shree Krishna…”

• “Located in the heart of Braj, along the banks of the Yamuna, Mathura assumed importance as a trading and administrative hub during the time of the Mauryas”-Know more in detail

• The temples of Mathura saw a resurgence under the early Mughal rulers-Know in detail

• “Temple was ultimately destroyed by the order of Aurangzeb”- Know in detail

• What is the latest plea in Shahi Idgah mosque complex?

• What is Muslim side’s counterclaims?

• Do You Know-The mosque was built by Aurangzeb in 1670 on the site of an earlier temple. The area was regarded as nazul land — non-agricultural state land owned by the Marathas, and then the British. Before the mosque was built, Raja Veer Singh Bundela of Orchha had also built a temple on the same premises in 1618.
In 1815, Raja Patni Mal of Benaras bought the 13.77 acres in an auction from the East India Company. The Raja’s descendants — Rai Kishan Das and Rai Anand Das — sold the land to Jugal Kishore Birla for Rs 13,400, and it was registered in the names of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Goswami Ganesh Dutt, and Bhiken Lalji Aattrey.
The Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust was set up by Birla, and it acquired the ownership rights over the Katra Keshav Dev temple. In 1951, the 13.77 acres were placed in the trust, with the condition that the “trust property will never be sold or pledged.”
In 1956, the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Sewa Sangh was set up to manage the affairs of the temple. In 1977, the word ‘Sangh’ in the registered society’s name was replaced with ‘Sansthan.’

• The case so far and Gyanvapi order-Compare and Contrast

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Allahabad HC allows survey of Mathura Idgah: current plea, age-old dispute

📍Mathura dispute: HC allows survey of Shahi Idgah mosque complex

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