UPSC Key- April 6, 2023: Know about Forest Carbon Stock, Compensatory Afforestation, Media One and Sealed Cover

SC quashes ban on Media One: ‘Chilling effect’ on free press

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.

• 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- Quashing the Centre’s order banning the broadcast of Media One, a Malayalam news channel, the Supreme Court Wednesday said the Union of India had raised the claim of national security in a “cavalier manner” to refuse renewal of licence and said the denial of security clearance to a channel for its views produces “a chilling effect on free speech and particularly on press freedom”.

• What exactly is the case?

• Why the apex court ruled in favour of Media One

• Why Media one channel was banned by the Central Government?

• What reasons were given by the Government?

• Did the media one knew the reasons they were banned?

• Know the Crux-In this particular case, the High Court was told by the Ministry of Home Affairs through documents submitted in a sealed cover as to the reasons for withholding security clearance but the channel was kept in the dark about them. The Supreme Court criticised the High Court’s procedure and noted that the sealed cover procedure made the appellant’s remedies useless.

• The Apex Court’s Verdict-The Supreme Court set aside the January 31, 2022, order of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) which cited the denial of security clearance by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as the reason for refusing to renew the channel’s licence. The apex court bench also set aside the Kerala High Court judgement of March 2, 2022, that upheld the I&B Ministry’s order. On the High Court’s decision to rely on material disclosed solely to it by MHA in a ‘sealed cover’, to which Media One did not have access, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, who represented Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd (owners of Media One) said this “negated the principles of natural justice”. “This procedure is violative of the principle of an open court and of fairness to parties,” he argued.

• “National security claims cannot be made out of thin air”-decode in the context of this case

• On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued detailed guidelines for courts using the “sealed cover” process when hearing national security-related cases-know the guidelines set by the Supreme Court of India

• ‘On the High Court’s decision to rely on material disclosed solely to it by MHA in a ‘sealed cover’, to which Media One did not have access, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, who represented Madhyamam Broadcasting Ltd (owners of Media One) said this “negated the principles of natural justice”. “This procedure is violative of the principle of an open court and of fairness to parties,” he argued’-Pay attention on the terms like Natural Justice, sealed cover and principle of an open court, open justice

• What is ‘sealed cover’?

• What is open justice and principle of an open court?

• What do understand by the term ‘Natural Justice’?

• What is doctrine of proportionality in law?

• Natural Justice in the context of Indian society and polity-How they are connected?

• Principles of Natural Justice in Indian Constitution-is it Implicit or Explicitly given through Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution?

• Do You Know-The bench said that the “sealed cover” procedure followed by the single judge and the division bench have necessarily left the appellants without the right to writ remedies which have been described as the “heart and soul of the constitution and a basic feature of the Constitution”. “The appellant’s right to writ remedies has been denied through a formalistic order by the High Court,” the judgement said, adding “the procedure that was followed by the High Court has left the appellants in a maze where they are attempting strenuously to fight in the dark.” The court held that “non-renewal of permission to operate a media channel is a restriction on the freedom of the press which can only be reasonably restricted on grounds laid down in Article 19(2) of the Constitution”.

• Elaborating on press freedom, what exactly did the Apex Court say?

• The freedom of expression is guaranteed under the Constitution of India-Does this right is absolute or there is any restriction on the use or its misuse in electronic or print media?

• Try to Comprehend-“An independent press is vital for the robust functioning of a democratic republic. Its role in a democratic society is crucial for it shines a light on the functioning of the state. The press has a duty to speak truth to power and present citizens with hard facts enabling them to make choices that propel democracy in the right direction. The restriction on the freedom of the press compels citizens to think along the same tangent. A homogenised view on issues that range from socio-economic polity to political ideologies would pose grave dangers to democracy”

• What is ‘freedom of press’?

• What do you understand when you hear the sentence ‘freedom of the press’?

• How much of the press ought to be free?

• Is India’s media, whether on the left or the right, too biased?

• Why Media is called as the Fourth Pillar of Democracy?

• How Media is regulated in India?

• What are the Loopholes in Media Regulation in India?

• The critical views of the channel, Media One, on policies of the government cannot be termed ‘anti-establishment’-With the given statement, examine the role of Media in India

• “The action of the MIB by denying a security clearance to a media channel on the basis of the views which the channel is constitutionally entitled to hold produces a chilling effect on free speech and particularly on press freedom.”-Examine freedom of press in India?

• For Your Information-While the court agreed that “national security is one of the few grounds on which the right to a reasonable procedural guarantee may be restricted”, it observed that the mere involvement of issues concerning national security would not preclude the state’s duty to act fairly. “If the state discards its duty to act fairly, then it must be justified before the court in the facts of the case. Firstly, the state must satisfy the court that national security concerns are involved. Secondly, the state must satisfy the court that an abrogation of the principles of natural justice is justified. The state has to now prove that these are the two purposes that the state action seeks to serve,”

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Kerala High Court dismisses appeal, upholds Centre’s ban on Media One

📍MediaOne: SC on freedom, national security

📍‘Natural Justice’ and ‘Proportionality’: Why Supreme Court ruled in Media One’s favour

Paper ‘leak’: Telangana BJP chief arrested, charged with conspiracy

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-TELANGANA BJP president and Lok Sabha member from Karimnagar, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, was arrested in a late night operation on Tuesday for an alleged “conspiracy” to “leak” the ongoing Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam question papers in order to “provoke breach of peace”. Kumar, who was picked up from his residence in Karimnagar, was produced before a magistrate court in Hanamkonda on Wednesday, which sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.

• What is the TPSC question paper leak controversy?

• What was the fallout of this controversy?

• Why has Bandi Sanjay Kumar been arrested?

• What is the punishment for leaking question paper?

• Can a question paper have copyright protection?

• “With a country as vast as India, conducting entrance and recruitment examination for millions of candidates is a Herculean task. It just takes one weak link in the chain to nullify the efforts of all those involved in the entire exercise. While the government bears huge financial losses, candidates too face unwarranted hassles”-Elaborate

• Why is that the authority have so far failed to check cheating and paper leaks?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Telangana SSC question paper ‘leaks’: What is the row, why has state BJP chief been arrested?

📍Paper leak: What measures government should take to check it

GOVT & POLITICS

India elected to UN stats panel for 4-year term

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– India has been elected to the UN Statistical Commission for a four-year term. A second candidate is yet to be decided between South Korea and China and the balloting process will resume later in the day (local time) for electing the remaining Asia Pacific states member, PTI reported from the UN.

• What is UN Statistical Commission?

• What is the role of UN Statistical Commission?

• For Your Information-The United Nations Statistical Commission, established in 1947, is the highest body of the global statistical system bringing together the Chief Statisticians from member states from around the world. It is the highest decision making body for international statistical activities, responsible for setting of statistical standards and the development of concepts and methods, including their implementation at the national and international level. The Statistical Commission oversees the work of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), and it is a Functional Commission of the UN Economic and Social Council.

• How does the UN Statistical Commission elect its members?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍United Nations Statistical Commission

EXPRESS NETWORK

Subansiri landslides: CEA sought safety audits; NHPC said not needed

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– In April 2022, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) advised the NHPC’s 2000-MW Lower Subansiri hydroelectric project, near North Lakhimpur along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border, to engage a specialised agency to examine the strength of the project’s powerhouse retention wall, and also assess the impact of diversion tunnels on the site’s slope stability before the onset of monsoon. The studies were not carried out. At least four major landslides have occurred since – the latest last Monday when boulders came crashing down the river’s left bank from the slope above the diversion tunnels.

• What according to National Hydroelectric Power Corporation are the causes of landslides in Subansiri Lower hydroelectric project?

• Map Work- Subansiri

• What Are the Landslide Prone States in India?

• What is Landslide?

• What causes Landslides?

• What are the types of landslides?

• The Geological Survey of India (GSI) and national landslide susceptibility mapping-connect the dots

• In April 2022, referring to a recent collapse of the project’s guard wall, a field inspection report by the CEA warned that “significantly higher flow predicted during monsoons would result in higher pressure” and “advised… that the adequacy of powerhouse protection wall’s strength” be “vetted by a specialised agency before the coming monsoons.”-what is the environmental impact of Subansiri Lower hydroelectric project?

• Do You Know-Conceived to be the largest hydropower project of the country, the 2,000 MW Lower Subansiri project has been repeatedly red-flagged by experts and activists for its weak sandstone base, shallow foundation, inadequate quake resistance, absence of flood-control capacity, downstream impact on ecology and livelihood etc. Observing that these safety issues could not be resolved despite numerous committees and that several modifications made to the original dam plan indicated serious problems with the project, the NGT in 2017 asked for yet another expert panel to consider the recommendations of all the previous panels as well as an alternative dam design.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Landslide hits Subansiri dam project; ‘Nothing to panic’, assures NHPC

📍Subansiri dam: Work on despite assurance to NGT that it won’t

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

Rebalance of power

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran writes: China has the capacity to limit Russian engagement with India, including in defence. This must enter our foreign policy and security calculations

• “Xi Jinping’s state visit to Russia from March 21 to 23 is of greater significance than is apparent in most analytical comments in India and abroad”-Elaborate

• The Ukraine war has not diminished Chinese commitment to Sino-Russia partnership; in fact, it has enhanced it. The reasons are two-fold-what are those?

• ‘China and Russia continue to believe that despite their current dominance, the US and the West in general are in terminal decline’-Decode this statement

• What do you understand by the term ‘hegemony’ in the context of geopolitics?

• USA and West hegemony-what you know about it?

• China is no longer a neutral party in the Ukraine crisis-What exactly is China’s stand?

• ‘China now has the capacity to limit Russian engagement with India, including in defence.’-Should India Worry?

• For Your Information-Russia is clearly the junior partner in the Sino-Russian strategic partnership, by compulsion if not by choice. China has been able to structure a significantly advantageous economic and energy partnership with Russia. During the past year, China’s import of Russian oil has gone up by 8 per cent but of natural gas by 50 per cent. A new pipeline is being planned from the Russian Arctic gas field of Yamal to China through Mongolia. This will be the second long-distance gas pipeline, “The Power of Siberia 2”, bringing gas supplies to China overland. The long-term effort of China has been to diversify its energy supplies away from the strategically vulnerable maritime route to the more secure landward supply routes from Russia and Central Asia. Chinese energy security is enhanced through a long-term energy partnership with Russia and this is also an important driver of the strategic partnership.

• How will this unequal partnership affect the relative influence of Russia and China in what Russia describes as its “near neighbourhood” in Central Asia?

• How India is responding with this current developments?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍C Raja Mohan writes: Russia and China’s plan is to divide and rule the West

EXPLAINED

Trading forests for trees

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance and General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change

Main 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- On March 29, the government introduced The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 in Lok Sabha to make changes to The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
The predominant idea of the proposed changes is to build forest carbon stock by raising plantations. The Bill also seeks to make land available for developers to meet their legal obligation towards compensatory afforestation in lieu of forest land diverted for development projects.

• The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023-Know the key highlights

• The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 -What amendments are done?

• So, how the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 is different from the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980?

• What is forest carbon stock?

• What is forest carbon stock of India?

• How forest carbon stock is calculated?

• Which state in India has the highest forest carbon stock?

• For Your Information-In 1996, the Supreme Court suspended the felling of trees across the country, and ruled that the Forest (Conservation) Act would apply to all land parcels that were either recorded as ‘forest’ or resembled the dictionary meaning of forest. This sweeping order helped check rampant deforestation on land not recorded as ‘forest’, but it also came in the way of excluding from recorded forests vast areas that were already in use for agriculture or as homesteads. The amendment Bill, instead of completing the demarcation process on the ground, seeks to limit the applicability of the Forest (Conservation) Act only to land recorded as ‘forest’. This will have the effect of removing the protection of the Act from millions of hectares of land that have the characteristics of forests, but are not notified as such.

• How much area will be affected?

• Do You Know-The global standard for “forest” is provided by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations: at least 1 hectare of land with a minimum of 10% per cent tree canopy cover. While the FAO does not include areas “predominantly under agriculture or urban land use” in a forest, India counts all 1-hectare plots with 10% canopy cover “irrespective of land use” as forest. The FSI is not the only one looking at India’s forest cover. Over the years, several independent studies have reported significant loss of forests in India. According to Global Forest Watch, a World Resources Institute platform, India lost 1,270 sq km of natural forest between 2010 and 2021.

• What is “forest”?

• For Your Information-India is one of the few countries to have a scientific system of periodic forest cover assessment that provides “valuable inputs for planning, policy formulation and evidence-based decision-making”. Since 19.53% in the early 1980s, India’s forest cover has increased to 21.71% in 2021. Adding to this a notional 2.91% tree cover estimated in 2021, the country’s total green cover now stands at 24.62%, on paper.

• What is the India State of Forest Report?

• India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021- Major Findings

• ‘A key condition for forest clearance is that a developer must carry out compensatory afforestation on equivalent non-forest land or, if non-forest land is not available, on degraded forest land twice the extent of the forest area diverted’-What is compensatory afforestation?

• What is the ‘Compensatory Afforestation Fund and Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA)’?

• Do You Know-The compensatory afforestation law came into being only in 2016, but the concept has existed since the 1980s, as an offshoot of the Forest Conservation Act of 1980, which made it mandatory for project developers to seek ‘clearance’ of the Environment Ministry for any diversion of forest land. The practice got institutionalised through the Supreme Court orders and observations during the hearings of the famous Godavarman case in the 1990s and 2000s.
But due to other litigation, the money collected for compensatory afforestation before 2016 had remained largely unutilised. Serious work on compensatory afforestation has begun only after the 2016 Act.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Unused funds, unsuitable land: The problems with Compensatory Afforestation in India

Previous Prelims Questions covering the same/similar theme:

📍 Consider the following statements:
1. As per law, the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority exists at both National and State levels.
2. People’s participation is mandatory in the compensatory afforestation programmes carried out under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016. (Please refer GS1 2019 for complete question)

GRANT OF BAIL: THE QUESTION OF DELAY, EVEN IN LAWS LIKE NDPS

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– Giving weight to the right to a speedy trial, the Supreme Court last week held that “undue delay” in a trial can be a ground for granting bail to an accused even under stringent special legislation such as the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. The ruling is significant because the bar for bail otherwise is quite high under the law, similar to the standards in anti-terror legislation.

• What was the case?

• What is the Narcotic Drugs And Psychotropic Substances Act?

• For Your Information-NDPS is an exception to the ordinary rules for granting bail. Under Section 37 of the Act, for a court to grant bail it has to be satisfied that “that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such an offence” and that upon release, “isn’t likely to commit any offence.” This high bar, requiring the accused to prove innocence at the time of seeking bail, ensures getting bail under the law is virtually impossible for certain offences. Now, the SC has said that the condition seeking the court’s satisfaction to the extent that an accused is not guilty of an offence “has to be interpreted reasonably.” In a 2008 verdict in ‘Vaman Narain Ghiya v. State of Rajasthan’, the Supreme Court has upheld the stringent bail provisions under NDPS by “balancing two competing values, i.e., the right of the accused to enjoy freedom, based on the presumption of innocence, and societal interest.” “They are, at the same time, upheld on the condition that the trial is concluded expeditiously,” the present ruling said.

• What does undue delay mean in law?

• When bail is exception, not rule-What are the Bail Conditions?

• When can anticipatory bail be granted?

• What are the conditions for granting anticipatory bail?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Pressing need for law in India to streamline grant of bails, says Supreme Court

Finland joins NATO: What the end of ‘Finlandisation’ means for Russia, West

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– Finland joined NATO on Tuesday (April 4), marking a definitive shift in Europe’s post World War II alignment and isolating Russia further. To join the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the small Nordic country, which shares a 1,340-km border with Russia, has ended more than 70 years of military non-alignment — in fact, in the Cold War years, a policy of neutrality between the Soviet Union and the West was known as ‘Finlandisation’, and Finlandisation had been one of the options discussed for Ukraine before Russia invaded it.

• Why has Finland joined NATO?

• Finland-Russia ties and NATO-Connect the dots

• Significance of Finland joining NATO-Know in detail

• Map work-Mark Finland, Turkey and Sweden (Both Physical and Political Map)

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-Know the historical background and current Status

• NATO: Why Russia has a problem with its eastward expansion

• What is Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty (Collective Security)?

• What is Article 4 of NATO’s Founding Treaty?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Finland joins NATO, Russia issues warning

📍The new Warsaw pact

📍NEUTRAL NO MORE

Attention Please:

Are you Prelims ready? The countdown for UPSC CSE 2023 has begun. Check your progress and revise your topics through daily quiz as the UPSC Essentials brings to you its new initiative of subject-wise quizzes. UPSC Daily Subject Quiz will cover all topics under UPSC Civil Services syllabus like Polity, History, Geography, Economics, Environment, Science and Technology, International Relations, and more. These quizzes are designed to help you revise some of the most important topics from the static part of the syllabus.

Each day one new subject will be covered. Attempt today’s subject quiz on History, Culture and Social Issues to check your progress. Come back tomorrow to solve the MCQs from Environment and Science and Technology. Don’t miss to check the answers and explanations at the end of the quiz.

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