UPSC Key- February 8, 2023: Know about Post-disaster management, Additional Judge, Bard and ChatGPT

Army medical, NDRF teams land in Turkey with relief material

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

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.

• General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- INDIA ON Tuesday sent rescue and medical teams, including an Army medical team and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel, along with medical supplies to quake-hit Turkey. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, in a Twitter post, said the first flight had reached Adana in Turkey.

• Recent Turkey and Syria Earthquake-Know in detail

• Map Work-Mark the epicentre of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria

• Which part of Turkey and Syria affected by earthquake?

• Why is Turkey so prone to earthquakes?

• What is Earthquake?

• Do shallow earthquakes cause greater damage?

• What are the pre disaster measures taken to manage earthquake disaster?

• What is post-disaster management of earthquakes?

• “There is an urgent need to combine all efforts to bring succour to the people who face a human tragedy, in this terrible hour”-How India can help in this situation?

• What are the previous instances of India sending aid to natural disaster-hit countries?

• What is the story behind the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)?

• For Your Information- International debate and discussion on disaster response and preparedness peaked in the middle of the 1990s and continued for the next ten years. The UN’s adoption of the Yokohama Strategy Plan (1994) and the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005) were two of the more noteworthy and significant ones. India saw some of its worst natural disasters during that time, including the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the Gujarat Earthquake, and the Orissa Super Cyclone (1999). (2004). The need for an extensive disaster management plan was highlighted by this series of events and the global context. This resulted in the Disaster Management Act being passed on December 26th, 2005. To establish the policies, plans, and procedures for disaster management, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was established.

• What is the role and mandate of NDRF?

• Do You Know-Kahramanmaraş, the epicentre of the recent earthquake, is well-known as the home of dondurma, which is traditional Turkish ice cream. Dondurma is a sticky ice cream, often made from goat milk, with added salep, a powder extracted from orchids.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍PM: Will extend all help to quake-hit Turkey, Syria

📍In Turkey’s hour of need

📍India sends aid to Turkey: What role India has played to help natural disaster-hit countries in the past?

Gowri sworn in as Madras HC judge, SC rejects plea to stop appointment

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

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

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Advocate Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri was sworn in as an Additional Judge of Madras High Court Tuesday, minutes before the Supreme Court dismissed a plea challenging her appointment. Pointing out that a “consultative process” had taken place before the Collegium recommended her name, the bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai said, “We are not entertaining the writ petition. Reasons to follow.” The bench reminded the petitioners that her appointment was only as an Additional Judge and if an Additional Judge is not true to his or her oath, the Collegium has the power to not make him or her a Permanent Judge.

• Who is Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri?

• What exactly is the controversy surrounding Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri’s appointment?

• Why was the Supreme Court hearing petitions against Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri’s elevation to the high court?

• What is Additional Judge?

• Who appoints additional judges to a high court?

• What aspects are taken into account while adding new judges to a high court?

• What is your understanding about the collegium system?

• Who appoints the Judges of the High Court?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Supreme Court dismisses plea challenging Victoria Gowri’s appointment as Madras High Court judge

GOVT & POLITICS

Number of deaths due to LWE fell below 100 in 2022, says Shah

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Linkages between development and spread of extremism and Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- FOR THE first time in four decades, the number of deaths of civilians and security forces in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) came down under 100 in 2022, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday. Shah, who chaired the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs to discuss Left Wing Extremism, said the MHA is determined to destroy the entire ecosystem of LWE by “financial choking”. He said the MHA is determined to destroy the entire ecosystem of LWEs by financial choking.

• “There is no place for violence and LWE ideas in “self-reliant New India” and the central government has adopted a policy of zero tolerance in this direction”-Elaborate further

• The MHA’s policy to deal with LWE has three main pillars-What are they?

• Do You Know-The MHA on deaths due to LWE violence, stated that the death toll was at its highest 1,005 in 2010, which was down to 147 in 2021. “Their sphere of influence has (also) decreased significantly. Simultaneously, the area of influence of Maoists has also reduced significantly…from 96 districts in 2010 to only 39 districts in 2022”.

• Naxalism in India-Know the background

• What is red corridor or red zone?

• Map Work-Red Corridor

• How many states are affected by Naxalism in India?

• Maoism and Naxalism-Compare and Contrast

• What are Naxals fighting for in India?

• What are the socio-economic conditions the districts that make up the red corridor?

• ‘Naxalism is a social, economic and developmental issue manifesting as a violent internal security threat’-discuss

• What steps being taken by the Government of India to eradicate Naxal and LWE forces from the country?

• How the Government of India has taken several specific initiatives in LWE affected States with Special reference to expansion of road network, improving Telecommunication connectivity, skill development and financial inclusion?

• What do you know about the ‘Integrated Action Plan in Naxal-affected Districts’?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Left-wing extremism in region almost eliminated, efforts must sustain: Shah

EXPRESS NETWORK

New Zealand Foreign Minister meets Jaishankar, discusses ties, Indo-Pacific

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: 

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

• 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- NEW ZEALAND Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday and they exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest. The two ministers discussed India and New Zealand’s shared vision for a rules-based, peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Mahuta, who is on an official visit to India from February 7 to 10, is accompanied by a high-level official and business delegation. This is her first visit as Foreign Minister. She will also visit Mumbai as part of her trip.

• Map Work-New Zealand

• New Zealand consists of two main landmasses, the North Island and the South Island. Can you name the water body which is between both the islands?

• India and New Zealand have historically shared close and cordial ties-Can you brainstorm the cooperation areas between the two nations?

• Bilateral Economic & Commercial Relations between India and New Zealand-know in brief

• Pacific Islands forum (PIF) and India-connect the dots

• India, New Zealand and India’s Pursuit for Asia-Pacific region-can you correlate?

• For Your Information-“India and New Zealand share close bilateral relations based on commonalities of democratic traditions and shared values bolstered by strong people-to-people ties. The two countries are engaging in cooperation across a wide range of areas, including economic, political, defence, education, and science & technology,” the MEA said.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍INDIA – NEW ZEALAND: BILATERAL BRIEF

Virginity test unconstitutional, archaic even on accused: Delhi HC

Syllabus:

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

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Social empowerment

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Declaring that “virginity test” conducted on a woman detainee or accused is unconstitutional, “sexist and in violation of the right to dignity”, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday observed that this test rests on a gender bias and “society’s view and obsession with the false concept of virginity being equated with purity of a woman”

• What exactly Delhi Court said?

• For Your Information-The HC was hearing a plea by Sister Sephy, a nun from St Pius Convent in Kerala’s Kottayam, who has been convicted and sentenced to life in Sister Abhaya’s murder case by a Kerala trial court. In her 2009 plea, Sephy had challenged the conduct of the virginity test on her by the CBI and pleaded that it be declared unconstitutional.

• What is ““virginity test”?

• Do You Know-In its 2013 verdict in Lillu v State of Haryana, the SC held that the virginity test is “violative of right to dignity, integrity and privacy of victims of sexual assault”. In the 2020 decision in State of Gujarat v Rameshchandra Ramabhai Panchal, the top court held that “the two-finger test or virginity test was declared as unconstitutional”.

• “Virginity test amounts to controlling women’s body, their sexual behavior”-Comment

• What medical experts says about the Virginity test?

• The Justice Verma Committee had recommended the discontinuation of the Virginity test-What was the Verma Committee’s recommendation on the same?

• Why the Supreme Court called it “regrettable”?

• How Supreme Court of India consistently shown itself to be a champion of women’s rights?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍SC: ‘Two-finger test’ on rape victims an act of misconduct

📍The humiliating ‘virginity tests’ for brides, a reality in India’s Kanjarbhat community

EXPLAINED

Row over Nagaland DGP: How are state police chiefs appointed?

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability and Role of civil services in a democracy.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- The Nagaland government on Saturday issued an order appointing Rupin Sharma as Director General of the state police, and relieved him of the charge of Home Guards and civil defence. On January 23, the Supreme Court had directed the Nagaland government to appoint the 1992-batch IPS officer as police chief within a week. The order was passed after Nagaland challenged the Union Public Service Commission’s (UPSC) recommendation of Sharma as the only candidate for the post.

• How did this situation arise?

• What Supreme Court said in the Prakash Singh judgment (2006)?

• What did Prakash Singh say?

• So what is the process of appointment?

• For Your Information-Based on the judgment, the UPSC issued its own guidelines in 2009 on the appointment of police chiefs of states. According to these guidelines, states are supposed to draw up and send to the UPSC a list of eligible officers with at least 30 years of service behind them, along with these officers’ service record, performance appraisal, and vigilance clearance. These officers are to be of the rank of ADG or the rank of police chief (and one below) stipulated for that state. The list is supposed to be given to UPSC six months before the incumbent DGP is to retire. An empanelment committee headed by the UPSC chairman, and with the union home secretary, state chief secretary, state DGP, and the chief of a central police organisation in it, is supposed to select a panel of three officers “based on merit”. For smaller states that may have only one cadre post of DGP, the committee is supposed to send two names.

• How closely is this system followed?

• So does the process of appointment itself carry the seeds of disputes such as the one involving DGP Rupin Sharma?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Clarify if IPS officer’s concurrence is needed to empanel him for DGP appointment, SC tells MHA

Assam’s child marriage arrests

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination:

• General Studies I: Social empowerment and Salient features of Indian Society

• 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-Over the last few days, Assam has arrested over 2,000 men in a state-wide crackdown on child marriages that have taken place in the state. Those arrested have been booked under the provisions of the stringent POCSO Act and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the police will retrospectively book people who participated in child marriage in the last seven years and the focus will especially be on “mullahs, kazis, and pujaris” conducting these marriages. The arrests come in the backdrop of growing debate on the minimum age of marriage of Muslim women.

• What is child marriage?

• What is the current situation of child marriage in India?

• Some data’s and facts-As many as 650 million women in the world today were married as children. About a third of them were married before the age of 15. In India, which has the dubious distinction of being home to the most number of child brides, UN estimates suggest that 1.5 million girls get married before they turn 18. About 16 per cent of girls in the age group of 15-19 are married at present. According to the 2011 census, 44 per cent of women in Assam were married before the age of 18. The figures for Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh were 47 per cent, 46 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively.

• Under what law are the arrests being made?

• Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012- Know the Salient features of the Act and its amendment

• The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006- Know the Salient features of the Act and its amendment

• Who is regarded as child as per the provisions of POCSO Act, 2012?

• Why Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012?

• What is the debate on Muslim age of marriage?

• What have the courts said on the issue?

• What is the central government’s stand?

• Child Marriages and Assam-what is happening?

• What are the causes of child marriage in Assam?

• “The Assam police began a crackdown on child marriage and arrested more than 2500 people”-why this crackdown?

• Is this a correct way to stop child marriages-What experts are saying?

• Where does India stand in Child Marriages statistics?

• What does the constitution and laws says about Child Marriages?

• “Child marriages affect the national economy negatively and do not allow us to come out of the vicious cycle of inter-generational poverty”-Elaborate

• Are mass arrests and the indiscriminate use of criminal sanctions, that the Assam government has resorted to, the only solution to the problem of child marriage?

• What does the UN Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages (1962), the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) and the Beijing Declaration (1995) says on child marriages?

• The Age of Consent Act 1891-Know in detail

• The Child Marriage Restraint Act , 1929 or the Sharda Act-Know in detail

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍STOP THE ARRESTS

📍Faizan Mustafa writes: Instead of criminalising child marriage, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma should heed PM Modi’s call of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

PACS

Syllabus:

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

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country, – different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- The Union Budget has announced Rs 2,516 crore for computerisation of 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) over the next five years, with the aim of bringing greater transparency and accountability in their operations and enabling them to diversify their business and undertake more activities.

• What are Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)?

• Do You Know-PACS are village level cooperative credit societies that serve as the last link in a three-tier cooperative credit structure headed by the State Cooperative Banks (SCB) at the state level. Credit from the SCBs is transferred to the district central cooperative banks, or DCCBs, that operate at the district level. The DCCBs work with PACS, which deal directly with farmers.

• “PACS are involved in short term lending or what is known as crop loan”-Elaborate

• Why are PACS attractive?

• For Your Information-A report published by the Reserve Bank of India on December 27, 2022 put the number of PACS at 1.02 lakh. At the end of March 2021, only 47,297 of them were in profit. The same report said PACS had reported lending worth Rs 1,43,044 crore and NPAs of Rs 72,550 crore. Maharashtra has 20,897 PACS of which 11,326 are in losses.

• Where is computerisation needed?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Cabinet approves computerisation of primary agricultural credit societies

ECONOMY

Google’s Bard to take on ChatGPT: How does it work?

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Google has finally decided to answer the challenge and threat posed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI and its AI chatbot, ChatGPT. The search giant confirmed it will soon start public testing for a new AI chatbot of its own called Bard, based on the company’s Language Model for Dialogue Application or LaMDA. In a blog post, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai also spoke about how AI-based features would be coming to Google Search as well. It should be noted that so far LaMDA was available in limited testing to select users of the company’s AI Test Kitchen app.

• Bard and ChatGPT- Compare and Contrast

• What is Bard?

• Is Bard better than ChatGPT? What is Bard based on?

• Why has Google announced Bard right now?

• So how will Google’s Bard work?

• With the race to build AI-based generative chatbots hotting up, what are the concerns?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Bard vs ChatGPT, and the concerns with both AI chatbots

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