UPSC Key—25 September, 2023: Pacific Island Nations, Scarborough Shoal issue and Criminal Justice System

Biden to host leaders of Pacific islands to counter China influence

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains 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-President Joe Biden will host a second summit with Pacific island leaders this week, part of a U.S. charm offensive to block further Chinese inroads into a strategic region Washington has long considered its own backyard. During the three-day meeting, the U.S. will announce diplomatic recognition for two Pacific islands, promise new money for infrastructure, including to improve Internet connectivity via undersea cables, and honor regional leaders at an NFL game.

• What is the Pacific Island Nations Summit?

• How many nations are in the Pacific Island?

• Map Work-Pacific Island Nations

• Why Solomon Islands will skip the summit?

• Why Pacific Islands are important?

• Map Work-Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia

• Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia-Compare and Contrast

• How is India’s relation with Pacific island nations?

• What is Forum for India–Pacific Islands Cooperation?

• Who are the members of the FIPIC?

• Map Work- members of the FIPIC

• What was the idea behind FIPIC?

• And what is the FIPIC summit?

• What happened at the FIPIC summit 2023?

• What is Oceania?

• Significance of India-Papua New Guinea relations-Know in detail

• Do You Know-Of the 14 PICs, Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG) are the ones with the biggest populations and the most heft. India’s interaction with the PICs has traditionally focussed on its engagement with Fiji and PNG, mainly due to the presence of a large diaspora — about 37% of Fiji’s 849,000 population (2009 estimates) is of Indian origin, and about 3,000 Indians live in PNG.

• Indian indentured labour, Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG)-Connect the dots

• Indian officials say the engagement with the 14 PICs is part of India’s Act East Policy-What is India’s Act East Policy?

• China’s role in Pacific region-Know in detail

• How is China reaching out, and why?

• Why are Western countries worried?

• Why US and China Compete for Influence With Pacific Island Nations?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍FIPIC

Previous Year UPSC Main Paper Questions covering the same theme: 

📍Why indentured labour was taken by British from India to other colonies? Have they been able to preserve their cultural identity over there? (GS1, 2018)

Manila accuses Beijing of placing floating barrier in South China Sea

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s Interest

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The Philippines on Sunday accused China’s coast guard of installing a “floating barrier” in a disputed area of the South China Sea, saying it prevented Filipinos from entering and fishing in the area. Manila’s coast guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources “strongly condemn” China’s installation of the barrier in part of the Scarborough Shoal, Commodore Jay Tarriela, a coast guard spokesperson, posted on the X social media platform, formerly Twitter.

The barrier blocking fishermen from the shoal was depriving them of their fishing and livelihood activities”, he said. “The (Philippine Coast Guard) will continue to work closely with all concerned government agencies to address these challenges, uphold our maritime rights and protect our maritime domains,” Tarriela said.

• What happened exactly?

• What is the Scarborough Shoal issue?

• Locate on Map-Scarborough Shoal

• What is the dispute between the Philippines and China over the South China Sea?

• Why are countries interested in these waters?

• Do You Know- China claims sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, including the Second Thomas Shoal, based on historical records dating to the Xia dynasty, nearly 4,000 years ago.
Beijing has illustrated its claim to the critical maritime area – a key sea transport route – with a vague, U-shaped “nine-dash line” that cuts into the exclusive economic zones, or EEZs, of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. China’s growing presence in the South China Sea began decades ago. Beijing seized the Paracel Islands from Vietnam in 1974 and took control of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands from the Philippines in 1995. But a tribunal at The Hague, based on a suit brought by the Philippines, ruled in 2016 that China had no “historic title” over the waters of the South China Sea and that its nine-dash line and historic claims were superseded by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Beijing has ignored the ruling, however. The South China Sea is a major shipping route. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates that over 21% of global trade, amounting to $3.37 trillion, transited through these waters in 2016. It is also home to rich fishing grounds that provide for the livelihoods of millions of people across the region. More than half of the world’s fishing vessels operate in this area. Although largely uninhabited, the Paracels and the Spratlys may have reserves of natural resources around them. There has been little detailed exploration of the area, so estimates are largely extrapolated from the mineral wealth of neighbouring areas.
Experts say China wants control of the South China Sea to dominate a major trade through which most of its imported oil flows. Control of the sea lane would allow China to potentially disrupt, or threaten to disrupt, cargo shipments travelling to and from all countries in East and Southeast Asia.
China could also deny foreign military forces, particularly the United States’, access to the maritime region. Additionally, the South China Sea may contain massive oil and natural gas reserves beneath its seafloor. Sovereignty over the region could also give China a level of energy security and independence far beyond what it currently possesses. Since The Hague ruling, China has turned seven of the reefs it controls in the disputed waters into missile-protected military bases.

• What is the nine-dash line?

• Have they tried to reach a resolution?

• Why has the Philippine grounded a warship on a reef?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: What’s behind diplomatic tensions in the South China Sea?

NASA’s first asteroid samples from deep space land on Earth

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General Science

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– NASA’s first asteroid samples fetched from deep space parachuted into the Utah desert Sunday to cap a seven-year journey. In a flyby of Earth, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the sample capsule from 63,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) out. The small capsule landed four hours later on a remote expanse of military land, as the mothership set off after another asteroid.
“We have touchdown!” Mission Recovery Operations announced, immediately repeating the news since the landing occurred three minutes early. Officials later said the orange striped parachute opened four times higher than anticipated — around 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) — basing it on the deceleration rate.

• What happens to the OSIRIS-REx?

• What happens to the asteroid sample?

• Why this is significant?

• Do You Know-Osiris-Rex, the mothership, rocketed away on the $1 billion mission in 2016. It reached Bennu two years later and, using a long stick vacuum, grabbed rubble from the small roundish space rock in 2020. By the time it returned, the spacecraft had logged 4 billion miles (6.2 billion kilometers). This was NASA’s third sample return from a deep-space robotic mission. The Genesis spacecraft dropped off bits of solar wind in 2004, but the samples were compromised when the parachute failed and the capsule slammed into the ground. The Stardust spacecraft successfully delivered comet dust in 2006. NASA’s plans to return samples from Mars are on hold after an independent review board criticized the cost and complexity. The Martian rover Perseverance has spent the past two years collecting core samples for eventual transport to Earth.

• What is Asteroids?

• What’s the Difference Between Asteroids, Comets and Meteors?

• Do You Know-According to NASA, an asteroid is a small rocky object that orbits the Sun. Asteroids are smaller than a planet, but they are larger than the pebble-size objects we call meteoroids. A meteor is what happens when a meteoroid – a small piece of an asteroid or comet – burns up upon entering Earth’s atmosphere, creating a streak of light in the sky.
Asteroids are smaller than a planet, but they are larger than the pebble-size objects we call meteoroids. Most asteroids in our solar system are found in the main asteroid belt, a region between Mars and Jupiter. But they can also hang out in other locations around the solar system. For example, some asteroids orbit the Sun in a path that takes them near Earth.
Sometimes one asteroid can smash into another. This can cause small pieces of the asteroid to break off. Those pieces are called meteoroids. Meteoroids can also come from comets. A meteor is what happens when a small piece of an asteroid or comet, called a meteoroid, burns up upon entering Earth’s atmosphere. If a meteoroid comes close enough to Earth and enters Earth’s atmosphere, it vaporizes and turns into a meteor: a streak of light in the sky.
Because of their appearance, these streaks of light are sometimes called “shooting stars.” But meteors are not actually stars. Because meteors leave streaks of light in the sky, they are sometimes confused with comets. However, these two things are very different. Comets orbit the Sun, like asteroids. But comets are made of ice and dust—not rock. As a comet’s orbit takes it toward the Sun, the ice and dust begin to vaporize. That vaporized ice and dust become the comet’s tail.
Sometimes meteoroids don’t vaporize completely in the atmosphere. In fact, sometimes they survive their trip through Earth’s atmosphere and land on the Earth’s surface. When they land on Earth, they are called meteorites.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍NASA gears up for landmark sample delivery from Asteroid Bennu

EXPLAINED

September rain relief

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Main Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment and Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– For Ajay Kumar Singh, a farmer from Emiliya village in Chandauli district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, the showers in September have been “amrit sanjeevani”, a potion giving new lease of life to his paddy plants that had nearly dried up. It’s been the same for Raju Borkhatariya, a groundnut grower from Matiana village in Gujarat’s Junagadh district, who calls the southwest monsoon’s revival this month “kachu sona” or raw gold from heaven. Both weathered an extended dry spell in August, through which they kept their crop alive by pumping out groundwater. The majority of Indian farmers though, with no tubewell or canal water irrigation access, would have simply seen their crop wilt.

• Why irregular rain?

• Why this time, the monsoon has been erratic?

• Do You Know-The monsoon has been erratic, arriving a week late in June that recorded overall 10.1% rainfall deficiency. But the 12.6% above-normal rain in July helped spur plantings of most kharif crops.
What followed, however, was the driest ever August since 1901. With an all-India 36.2% deficit, vis-à-vis the historical average precipitation for the month, the crops that were already sown experienced severe moisture stress.
July-August are usually the peak monsoon rainfall months, not only meeting the kharif crop’s requirements, but also filling up ponds and reservoirs and recharging groundwater tables. This time, it was the other way round: Farmers had to rely on releases from dams by irrigation departments and draw down underground water reserves to salvage their crops.

• What is normal rainfall in India?

• What is the arrival and departure of monsoon?

• What is the all India monthly and seasonal rainfall?

• What do we mean by long period average (LPA) of rainfall?

• What is large excess, excess, normal, deficient, large deficient rainfall?

• What is meant by the “onset of the monsoon”?

• What are these conditions, which determine the onset of monsoon?

• For Your Information-IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra pointed to El Nino conditions, a warming of equatorial Pacific Ocean waters that is associated with suppression of rainfall, as a major factor for deficit rain in August. “El Nino was one of the most important factors to have caused deficient rainfall activity in August. In addition to that, there are many other factors – the Madden Julian Oscillation was unfavourable, low-pressure systems did not form (there were only nine low pressure system days against a normal of around 16.3 days in August), and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) was neutral,” he said. The Madden Julian Oscillation refers to an eastward moving system of clouds and wind along the equator, which can influence rainfall depending on whether it is in an active or weak phase. While weak to moderate El Nino conditions are prevailing over the Pacific Ocean, it is expected to strengthen and extend into the early part of next year, Mohapatra said.
An IOD that is now positive, which is marked by warming over the western Indian Ocean and cooling over the eastern Indian Ocean, could help counter the impact of El Nino conditions in September.

• What are the conditions which causes El Niño?

• EL Nino Southern Oscillation or ENSO impact on Monsoon?

• How El Niño Impacts-Know Sector and region wise

• Do You Know-El Nino refers to the unusual warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean off the coast of northwest South America, which influences weather events across the world. Over India, it has the effect of suppressing the monsoon rainfall. A similar phenomenon in the Indian Ocean, called the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), was expected to turn favourable for the monsoon rainfall this year, but did not have much impact, Rajeevan said.
“It is only now that the IOD is getting into a positive phase. But the relationship of the IOD with the Indian monsoon is not as well established as El Nino’s. It is futile to expect that IOD would compensate for El Nino. In fact, there is some evidence to even suggest that it is the monsoon that affects the IOD, and not the other way. This is not yet a settled question,” Rajeevan said. The only regions that received good rainfall in August were east and northeast India. Incidentally, these parts had remained significantly dry in June and July, showing a deficit of 15 per cent and 32 per cent in those respective months. August rainfall brought welcome relief in this region, but even though the monthly rainfall in most of these states has been more than normal, it has not been sufficient to wipe off the seasonal deficit. “The impacts of El Nino unfold in such a manner that rainfall over almost the entire country, barring the east and northeast, is suppressed. And that is exactly what we have seen in August. Beyond El Nino, there are some other systems that can also bring about short spells of rain. Many of these were favourable during July, but unfortunately, none in August. For example, except for one feeble low-pressure event that brought some rains over Madhya Pradesh, there was a complete absence of low-pressure systems in August,” D Sivananda Pai, a senior scientist with IMD, said. Both Rajeevan and Pai said there were chances of a revival of the monsoon in the first or second week of September. “A strengthening of monsoon activity is expected around the first week of September and it is likely to last for a week or 10 days, but it is uncertain how much rainfall this will result in. As of now, under the influence of El Nino, September is expected to be deficient too,” Rajeevan said.

• But why have El Niño conditions continued for three years?

• What is Inter Tropical Convergence Zone?

• Impact of Monsoons on Life in India-Economical, Cultural and Social

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍El Nino and the monsoon

📍Express View: Monsoon worries

📍Staring at driest-ever August: Breaking down El Nino impact on the monsoon

Three Hoysala temples on UNESCO heritage list: what sets them apart

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination:

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

• General Studies II: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Three Hoysala-era temples in Karnataka recently made it to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, under the collective entry of ‘Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas’.
Hoysala temples are known for the rare beauty and finesse of their wall sculptures, and have been described as “art which applies to stone the technique of the ivory worker or the goldsmith”.
Built in the 12th and 13th centuries, the three temples selected for the UNESCO list are important not just because they demonstrate their builders’ superior skill, but also because they narrate the tale of the politics that shaped them.

• Which are the three Hoysala temples selected for the UNESCO list?

• Who were the Hoysalas?

• When were the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas built?

• What makes Hoysala architecture stand out?

• What makes the three temples on UNESCO list special?

• What you know about the sacred ensembles of the Hoysalas?

• Where is sacred ensembles of the Hoysala?

• Map Work-Belur, Halebid and Somnathapura

• Map Work-Sketch the extent of Hoysala Empire

• The Hoysala Empire originated from where, and what was the time period?

• How did the Hoysala Empire fare in terms of its economy, government, society, and culture?

• The Hoysala Empire exhibited specific discernible attributes in the domains of art, architecture, and culture. Can you tell what was that?

• Temple architecture during Hoysala time period-what was the style of architecture?

• What are the features of belur, halebid, and somnathapura temples ?

• Hoysala temples are sometimes called hybrid or vesara style-what is vesara style of architecture?

• For Your Information-According to NCERT Text book, with the waning of Chola and Pandya power, the Hoysalas of Karnataka grew to prominence in South India and became the most important patrons centred at Mysore. The remains of around hundred temples have been found in southern Deccan, though it is only three of them that are most frequently discussed: the temples at Belur, Halebid and Somnathpuram. Perhaps the most characteristic feature of these temples is that they grow extremely complex with so many projecting angles emerging from the previously straightforward square temple, that the plan of these temples starts looking like a star, and is thus known as a stellateplan. Since they are made out of soapstone which is a relatively soft stone, the artists were able to carve their sculptures intricately. This can be seen particularly in the jewellery of the gods that adorn their temple walls.
The Hoysaleshvara temple (Lord of the Hoysalas) at Halebid in Karnataka was built in dark schist stone by the Hoysala king in 1150. Hoysala temples are sometimes called hybrid or vesara as their unique style seems neither completely dravida nor nagara, but somewhere in between. They are easily distinguishable from other medieval temples by their highly original star-like ground-plans and a profusion of decorative carvings. Dedicated to Shiva as Nataraja, the Halebid temple is a double building with a large hall for the mandapa to facilitate music and dance. A Nandi pavilion precedes each building. The tower of the temple here and at nearby Belur fell long ago, and an idea of the temples’ appearance can now only be gleaned from their detailed miniature versions flanking the entrances. From the central square plan cutout angular projections create the star effect decorated with the most profuse carvings of animals and deities. So intricate is the carving that it is said, for instance, in the bottom-most frieze featuring a continuous procession of hundreds of elephants with their mahouts, no two elephants are in the same pose.

• What is World Heritage Site?

• Know about United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

• How is a World Heritage Site selected?

• What are the criteria for determining outstanding universal value?

• What is the role of UNESCO in protecting the World Heritage?

• Why should we protect World Heritage Sites in India?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: How UNESCO grants World Heritage Site tag

FRONT PAGE

US agencies gave intel to Canada on killing of separatist: NYT report

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains 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-Amid the deepening diplomatic stand-off between India and Canada, US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen has said that it was “shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners” that helped “lead” Canada make the claim of a potential link between “agents” of the Indian government and the killing of pro-Khalistan separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

• What is Five Eyes Alliance?

• Why was the Five Eyes Alliance formed?

• For Your Information-According to the Canadian government’s website, “These partner countries share a broad range of intelligence with one another in one of the world’s most unified multilateral arrangements. The Five Eyes agreement stands out from other arrangements because the parties are diverse societies, governed by rule of law and robust human rights and are bonded by a common language. These characteristics aid the partners in sharing information with one another to protect their shared national interests.”
Holzer traced back the alliance’s origins to the Second World War. The UK and the US decided to share intelligence after successfully breaking German and Japanese codes, respectively.
In 1943, the Britain-USA (BRUSA) agreement laid the foundations for what would become the UK-USA (UKUSA) agreement, after UK computer scientist Alan Turing’s visit to Washington and several bilateral visits between the two countries’ officials.
BRUSA was signed between the US War Department and the UK’s intelligence and security agency Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), to “share intelligence information between the two countries to support US forces in Europe, exchange personnel and develop joint regulations for the handling and distribution of highly sensitive material,” according to the UK government’s website.
Following this, the UKUSA was signed in 1946. Canada joined it in 1949, and New Zealand and Australia did so in 1956, forming the alliance. The Agreement was not officially acknowledged though its existence was known about from the 1980s. But in 2010, the UKUSA agreement files were released.
In 2016, the Five Eyes Intelligence Oversight and Review Council came into being. It includes the non-political intelligence oversight, review, and security entities of the Five Eyes countries. They exchange views of mutual interest, compare best practices, hold conference calls throughout the year and gather in person annually.
However, that closeness has not always meant uniformity in their foreign policy. Since 2021, New Zealand has stayed away from issuing an outright condemnation of Chinese actions regarding Hong Kong’s political systems and its treatment of the Uighur minority in the Xinjiang region, unlike the other four countries. A major reason for this is the deep trade ties between them, with China being the biggest market for New Zealand’s exports.
Meanwhile, the US has also sought to exert its influence through other groupings with like-minded countries on issues of security, like the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) featuring itself, Japan, Australia and India. The AUKUS grouping similarly includes Australia, the UK and the US.

• How does the Five Eyes Alliance work, exactly?

• And how could Five Eyes play a role in the current India-Canada issue?

• How recent India-Canada standoff can impact India’s geopolitical structure?

• What you know about the Khalistan movement?

• What are the Historical events responsible for Khalistan?

• How Khalistan movement affected or can affect Indo-Canadian relationship?

• Khalistan and Canada-Connect the dots

• Do You Know-Over the years, there have been many instances. These are the two most recent ones. The most recent one took place on June 4, when a parade was organised in Brampton, Ontario, ahead of the 39th anniversary of Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
A tableau in the 5 km-long parade seemed to celebrate the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi — a female figure was shown in a blood-stained white saree, with the hands up, as turbaned men pointed guns at her. A poster behind the scene read “Revenge for the attack on Darbar Sahib”.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar registered his strong disapproval. “…We are at a loss to understand other than the requirements of vote bank politics why anybody would do this… I think there is a larger underlying issue about the space which is given to separatists, to extremists, to people who advocate violence,” he said.
Brampton is home to Canada’s largest Sikh population. Last year, a pro-Khalistan organisation known as Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) held a so-called “referendum” on Khalistan here. The organisers claimed that more than 100,000 people had turned up in support of Khalistan.
The Government of India issued a strong rebuke, urging Canada to curtail any “anti-India activities”. It asked the Canadian government to designate as terrorists all those individuals who were so designated in India. SFJ is an outlawed organisation in India, and has been linked to the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack at Punjab Intelligence headquarters in Mohali in May 2022.

• ‘This is not the first time that Khalistan has figured in an India-Canada context-Why Pro-Khalistan elements are still there in Canada?

• Canada has for long been considered a safe haven for Khalistan supporters and militant voices accused of terrorism in India-Why so?

• Why do Canadian politicians pander to Sikh extremists?

• For Your Information- Canada hosts one of the largest Indian diasporas in the world, numbering 16 lakh people of Indian origin, accounting for more than 3 percent of the total Canadian population and 700,000 NRIs. India became the top source of foreign students studying in Canada — 2.3 lakh, according to 2022 data. India’s total trade with Canada (goods and services) in 2021-22 was US $11.68 billion, much below potential, but when it comes to India’s import of pulses, almost 30% of the total import comes from Canada.
Canadian pension funds have cumulatively invested around US $55 billion in India. Cumulative FDI from Canada since 2000 is about US$4.07 billion.
All these have continued despite speed bumps like the recent pause in trade talks — and despite challenges over the Khalistan issue.
As per the 2021 Canadian census, Sikhs account for 2.1 per cent of Canada’s population, and are the country’s fastest growing religious group. After India, Canada is home to the largest population of Sikhs in the world. Today, Sikhs lawmakers and officials serve at all levels of Canada’s government, and their burgeoning population is one of the most important political constituencies in the country. In 2017, Jagmeet Singh, 39, became the first Sikh leader of a major Canadian political party when he took the reins of the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP).

• ‘The Khalistan movement has been a global movement from its inception’-Discuss

• What do you understand by the word “diaspora”?

• Sikh Diaspora and India-Know in detail

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍India-Canada stand-off: What is the Five Eyes Alliance, which helped ‘lead’ Canada PM Trudeau to claims on Nijjar’s death?

GOVT & POLITICS

New Vande Bharat trains match aspirations of a new India: Modi

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off nine Vande Bharat trains via video conferencing, taking the total number of operational Vande Bharat trains in the country to 34. The trains were inaugurated in 11 states, with the Prime Minister saying that the government has been focusing on modernising rail infrastructure and providing “ease of travel” over the past nine years. He underlined that the speed and scale of infrastructure development in the country now matches the aspirations of 140 crore Indians.

The nine trains will boost connectivity across Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat. They include the Udaipur-Jaipur line, Tirunelveli-Madurai- Chennai, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Vijayawada-Chennai (via Renigunta), Patna-Howrah, Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram, Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Puri, Ranchi-Howrah and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad.

• What are Vande Bharat trains?

• Vande Bharat express-Know the history of the project

• Vande Bharat Express-what makes them different from the other trains?

• “The nation’s collective capabilities can reach its pinnacle if the country remains united. “Vande Bharat Express
is a reflection of this belief…”-Comment

• What is the Speciality of Vande Bharat train?

• What are the Features of the Vande Bharat Trains?

• What is the route of Vande Bharat train?

• Indian Railways-know in brief

• Indian railways and India’s struggle for Independence-how railways helped?

• “The Indian Railways must be modernized in order to compete globally and serve as a major growth engine for the
nation”-Discuss

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Indian Railways needs restructuring and modernisation, efforts since 2014 are bearing fruit

EXPRESS NETWORK

India, UN launch global capacity building initiative

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains 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-India and the United Nations have joined hands to introduce a groundbreaking initiative called the “India-UN Capacity Building Initiative,” designed to foster growth and development in the Global South. The primary goal of this initiative is to share India’s wealth of developmental knowledge, successful practices, and expertise with partner countries in the Global South through comprehensive capacity-building programs and training.

• India-UN Capacity Building Initiative-Know in details

• For Your Information-The “India-UN Capacity Building Initiative” builds upon India’s existing extensive collaborations in development and capacity building with partner countries. It also complements the India-UN partnership through the “India-UN Development Partnership Fund,” which has successfully executed 75 development projects in 61 countries over the last six years.
Furthermore, this initiative will witness a collaboration between the UN India team and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leveraging India’s Technical and Economic Cooperation platform to disseminate its development insights and best practices worldwide. A Joint Declaration of Intent was formalized between the UN Resident Coordinator in India and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to this effect.
Notably, this initiative will operationalize the development-focused objectives of India’s G20 Presidency, including the G20 Action Plan for Accelerating Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and enhancing technological transformation, Digital Public Infrastructure, among others.
In essence, the “India-UN Capacity Building Initiative” stands as a remarkable contribution to global endeavors aimed at expediting progress towards achieving the SDGs, fortified by strengthened South-South Cooperation. It serves as a testament to India’s unwavering commitment to bolstering its developmental partnership with the Global South, building upon the successes of its G20 Presidency, which prominently amplified the voices of the Global South within the G20 and welcomed the African Union into this influential grouping.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT)

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

NOT JUST OIL

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains 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-If there is one region with which India’s foreign relations have had a genuine lift-off in the last 10 years, it is the Middle East. If India’s relations with any country have gained exponentially in momentum, it is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The recently concluded state visit to India by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) in conjunction with the G20 Summit in New Delhi brings this out in no uncertain terms.

• What is India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)?

• For Your Information-The rail and shipping corridor is part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII) — a collaborative effort by G7 nations to fund infrastructure projects in developing nations. PGII is considered to be the bloc’s counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The project will aim to enable greater trade among the involved countries, including energy products. “It could also be one of the more ambitious counters to China’s massive infrastructure program, through which it has sought to connect more of the world to that country’s economy,” AP said.
The corridor will include a rail link as well as an electricity cable, a hydrogen pipeline and a high-speed data cable, according to a document prepared by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The document also called the project “a green and digital bridge across continents and civilizations.”
Speaking to AP, Jon Finer, President Biden’s principal deputy national security adviser, gave three major reasons for developing the corridor. First, it would increase prosperity among the countries involved through an increased flow of energy and digital communications. Second, the project would help deal with the lack of infrastructure needed for growth in lower- and middle-income nations. And third, it could help “turn the temperature down” on “turbulence and insecurity” coming out of the Middle East, Finer said, according to AP.
“We see this as having a high appeal to the countries involved, and also globally, because it is transparent, because it is a high standard because it is not coercive,” he added. Moreover, the project could be seen as Biden’s attempt to further strengthen the G20 group to counter the dominance of China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

• The IMEC will include two separate corridors-Know them and mark them on map

• Can you mark or sketch the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) on world map?

• Which are the key places, water bodies and industrial belt in India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor? Mark them on the map

• What is the objective behind this corridor?

• What is the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council?

• For Your Information-The pact to establish the SPC was signed during PM Modi’s visit to Saudi Arabia in October 2019, his second in three years. The Strategic Partnership Council essentially aimed to “establish a high-level council to steer the Indo-Saudi relationship”, according to a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement.
PM Modi had then said that the SPC would “begin a new era of cooperation across sectors. Our ties across various dimensions such as trade, investment, security and defence cooperation are robust and deep, and will only strengthen further.”
According to the MEA, the SPC has two main pillars: Committee on Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation; and Committee on Economy and Investments.
Both sub-committees have four functional levels of engagements: Summit level (Prime Minister & Crown Prince); Ministerial-level; Senior Officials’ Meetings; and Joint Working Groups (JWGs).
Four JWGs have been formed under each sub-committee. The JWGs under the Political committee are Political & Consular; Legal & Security; Social & Cultural; and Joint Committee on Defence Cooperation.
The JWGs under the Economic committee are Agriculture & Food Security; Energy; Technology & Information Technology; and Industry and Infrastructure.
In September 2022, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal visited Saudi Arabia to attend the Ministerial meeting of the SPC. From the Saudi side, the Minister for Energy, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, co-chaired the meeting.
Outcomes from that meeting included streamlining efforts to realise the announcement made by Mohammad Bin Salman during his visit to India in February 2019, of investments worth $100 billion in India.
The meeting also saw the “endorsement of the 41 areas of cooperation identified by the technical teams under the four broad domains of Agriculture & Food Security; Energy; Technology & IT; and Industry & Infrastructure,” according to a Press Information Bureau (PIB) statement.
The PIB listed as another outcome the “agreement to undertake implementation of the priority projects in a time bound manner. Priority areas of cooperation include: Collaboration in digital fintech sector through operationalisation of UPI and Rupay Card in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Re-affirmation of continued cooperation in joint projects including the West coast refinery, LNG infrastructure investment and development of strategic petroleum storage facilities in India.”

• How India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is different from China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI)?

• India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and China’s Belt and Road initiative-Compare and contrast

• To what degree will the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) contribute to the enhancement of India’s external trade?

• What will be the challenges in implementing India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)?

• Map Work-Saudi Arabia

• What is the Economic Significance of the Saudi Arabia for India?

• India and the Saudi Arabia diplomatic relations established when?

• What is the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍India-Middle East-Europe mega economic corridor: What is the project and why is it being proposed?

📍PM Modi, Saudi Crown Prince MBS chair SPC meeting: What is the Strategic Partnership Council

THE IDEAS PAGE

Gap between law and justice

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-Anup Surendranath , Neetika Vishwanath Writes: On August 11, the Home Minister presented three Bills in the Lok Sabha that, if passed, will replace the existing criminal laws of the country.

• What is present existing criminal laws of the country?

• Why new bill?

• What is Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023?

• “Soon Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 will be replaced with Section 316 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS)”-What you know about section 420?

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

• What is criminal justice system in detail?

• What is Indian criminal justice system?

• Quick Recall-In a complete overhaul of colonial-era criminal laws, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday introduced three Bills 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:

📍THE BHARATIYA NYAYA SANHITA, 2023

📍REWRITING THE CODE

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