UPSC Key- January 11, 2023: Know About Le Corbusier, Section 6A of citizenship Act, Online gaming and GST and many more

SC bars division of living units to save ‘Corbusian’ Chandigarh

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

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Stating “it is high time” that the legislature, executive and policy makers at the Centre and states “take note of the damage to the environment on account of haphazard development,” the Supreme Court Tuesday prohibited “fragmentation/ division/ bifurcation/ apartmentalization” of residential units in Phase I of Chandigarh.

• Who was Le Corbusier?

• What was Le Corbusier contribution to Chandigarh?

• What you understand by “Corbusian Chandigarh”?

• Why was “fragmentation, division, bifurcation, or apartmentalization” of residential units in Chandigarh Phase I prohibited by the Supreme Court?

• “Exercising its powers under Article 142, the Court directed the Heritage Committee to consider the issue of redensification in Phase I, subsequent to which the Chandigarh Administration should consider amending the CMP2031 and the 2017 Rules applicable to Phase I”-What is Article 142?

• But, why Supreme Court invoked Article 142 in this issue?

• The Supreme Court of India invoked the extraordinary power conferred on the court under Article 142 of the Constitution in this case-What is that “Extraordinary Power” granted to Supreme Court under Article 142 of the Indian Constitution?

• Article 142 of the Constitution and ‘complete justice’-How Article 142 ensures ‘Complete Justice’?

• Can High court use Article 142?

• “The warning flagged by the city of Bengaluru needs to be given due attention by the legislature, executive and the policy makers”-Analyse

• Why it is necessary that a proper balance is struck between sustainable development and environmental protection?

• The Court mentioned measures being taken for the protection of cities including Le Havre, the White City of Tel Aviv, and Brasilia during debates. What protective measures are these cities taking?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:    

📍Ban on conversion of residential units to apartments in Chandigarh: major excerpts from SC judgment

📍Article-142 Constitution of India – Is it Sword of “complete justice”?

GOVT & POLITICS

DAC approves DRDO missile systems worth Rs 4,276 crore

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Security challenges and their management in border areas – linkages of organized crime with terrorism.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Amid the ongoing military standoff with China at the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, India is planning to procure the Very Short Range Air Defence System or VSHORAD (IR Homing) missile system, which is being designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

• Defence Acquisition Council-About, Role and Functions

• Why Defence Acquisitions Council was created?

• What is VSHORAD (IR Homing) missile system?

• Why India is planning to procure the Very Short Range Air Defence System or VSHORAD (IR Homing) missile system?

• How VSHORAD (IR Homing) missile system will enhance India’s security parameters?

• For Your Information-Along with VSHORAD (IR Homing) missile system, the DAC also approved procurement of the HELINA Anti-Tank Guided Missiles, launchers and associated support equipment for the indigenous Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) with the Army and the Brahmos Launcher and Fire Control System (FCS) for the Shivalik class of ships and Next Generation Missile Vessels (NGMVs) for the Navy.

• What do you understand by the term ‘Acceptance of Necessity (AoN)’?

• Do You Know-Meant to kill low altitude aerial threats at short ranges, VSHORADS is a man portable Air Defence System (MANPAD) designed and developed indigenously by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad, in collaboration with other DRDO laboratories and Indian Industry Partners.

• When are they expected to be inducted?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:    

📍How the VSHORAD missile system will boost Army’s mountain warfare prowess

SC: Will first decide on constitutional validity of Sec 6A

Syllabus:

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

Main 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- The Supreme Court Constitution Bench while hearing petitions challenging Section 6A of the Citizenship Act said Tuesday it will first decide whether the provision is constitutionally valid before proceeding to other issues raised in the pleas. “Presently, the following issue as framed for primary determination for the Constitution Bench, whether section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, suffers from any constitutional infirmity,”, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, who was presiding over the five-judge Constitution Bench, said.

• What is the plea before the constitutional bench?

• Who are ‘Citizens’?

• Who is a citizen in India’s constitutional scheme? What are various principles/kinds of citizenship?

• How did Partition and the large-scale migration from territories that became part of Pakistan impact citizenship?

• Citizens and Aliens-compare and contrast in terms of civil and political rights

• What are those rights and privileges that the Constitution of India confers on the citizens of India and denies the same to aliens?

• Do You Know-Questions around citizenship, “illegal immigrants” and rights of “indigenous Assamese” citizens in Assam largely revolve around the Assam Accord, which was signed in 1985 between the Rajiv Gandhi government and the All Assam Students’ Union at the end of a six-year-long agitation against the influx of migrants from Bangladesh into the state.

• The Citizenship Act of 1955 prescribes five ways of acquiring citizenship-Know them in detail

• The Citizenship Act, 1955, prescribes three ways of losing citizenship-What are they?

• What is Section 6A of citizenship Act?

• What are the questions surrounding Section 6A?

• For Your Information-Section 6A deals with “special provisions as to the citizenship of persons covered by the Assam Accord”. It says that all those who came to Assam on or after January 1, 1966, but before March 25, 1971, from the specified territory (it includes all territories of Bangladesh at the time of commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1985), and since then are residents of Assam, must register themselves under Section 18 for citizenship.

• How did the situation in Assam impact the nature of citizenship?

• What are some of the cases linked to citizenship in Assam that have gone to the Supreme Court?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:    

📍SC to decide on constitutional validity of Citizenship Act’s Section 6A: What this section is

📍Who is a citizen — in Assam, India?

EXPRESS NETWORK

Migrant fruit-seller near RBI headquarters in Mumbai is now part of key pilot project — launched by RBI

Syllabus:

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

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- He came to Mumbai 25 years ago, leaving his home in Bihar’s Vaishali district, and now sells fruit near the Reserve Bank of India’s headquarters on Mint Road. But what makes the story of Bachhe Lal Sahani unique is something else. The 45-year-old is part of the nationwide pilot project on using Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or e-rupee — an initiative of the RBI itself.

• What is CBDC or the digital rupee?

• Do You Know –CBDC is a legal tender issued by the RBI in digital form. It is the same as the fiat currency, and is exchangeable one-to-one with the fiat currency. Only its form is different — it is not paper (or polymer) like physical cash. It is a fungible legal tender, for which holders need not have a bank account. CBDC will appear as ‘liability’ (currency in circulation) on the RBI’s balance sheet.

• What banks are involved in the pilot programme?

• What is the need for digital rupee?

• What was the need to introduce the e-rupee?

• Digital rupee and Cryptocurrency-how they are different?

• How digital rupee will help Indian Economy?

• How digital currency will impact citizens?

• Central bank digital currency (CBDC)-Meaning, Issues and Challenges

• How is RBI introducing the CBDC?

• How can an individual use the e-rupee?

• How is this different from other wallets?

• What are the types of e-rupee?

• Will CBDC work in offline mode?

• Is it vulnerable to cyber-attacks?

• For Your Information-The pilot covers Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar and will later be extended to Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla. So far, four banks — State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank – are part of the first phase of the pilot. Four more — Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank — are slated to join subsequently.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:    

📍How the e-rupee will work

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

The game in perspective

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-Arvind P Datar Writes: History teaches us that higher the taxes, lower is the collection; a lesson that must not be ignored

• Quick Recall-An inter-ministerial task force, set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to propose contours of a national-level legislation to regulate online gaming, has proposed the creation of a central regulatory body for the sector, clearly defining what games of skill and chance are, and bringing online gaming under the purview of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, among other things.

• Why a central-level law?

• Online gaming so far has been a state subject-true or false?

• How big is the online gaming market in India?

• What are the recommendations of the task force?

• Which ministry will be in charge of the regulation?

• What did the task force say about offshore betting apps?

• Games of chance and Games of skill-compare and contrast

• “The distinction between a game of chance and a game of skill has been maintained for over 150 years”-Analyse the statement

• ‘In May 2022, Group of Ministers (GoM) were formed to look into the tax rate on casinos, online gaming and race courses, has arrived at a broad consensus to levy a flat rate of 28 per cent on these services under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime’-But, why 28 percent?

• The author writes that ‘it would be extremely unwise to levy GST at 28 per cent on the gross amount for the online gaming’-do you agree with the author?

• Why the author of this article feels that It is economically unwise to look at online games from a purely GST perspective?

• GST on online gaming-brainstorm the pros and cons

• What is your opinion on this entire issue?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:    

📍Explained: Why online gaming could now attract a higher GST of 28%

THE IDEAS PAGE

The future is international

Syllabus:

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

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- Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar Writes-The cumulative effects of the enabling provisions in the new UGC proposal must be seen as a catalyst for transforming higher education in India

• Quick Recall-Foreign universities can set up their campuses in India, decide their admission process, fee structure, and will also be able to repatriate funds to their parent campuses according to draft norms announced by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

• UGC (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations 2023-Know the highlights

• What New Education Policy 2020 says about Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India?

• ‘With the launch of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the world is looking at India as an ideal destination to establish campuses and invest in the higher education sector’-What are the salient features of New Education Policy 2020?

• How does the UGC (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations 2023 will empower the positioning of India as an affordable value player in the global education sector?

• What legal and regulatory structures are required for the implementation of UGC (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations 2023?

• What is the FDI in the education sector in India?

• Why there is the need for Foreign higher education institutions (FHEI) campuses in India?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:    

📍Don’t outsource excellence

📍The Gimmicks Commission

📍New UGC norms: Foreign universities can set up campus, decide fee, repatriate funds

EXPLAINED

What is a cold wave, why northwest India is shivering

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-Delhi and other parts of northwest India have been reeling under a cold wave spell that set in last week. In Delhi, the Safdarjung weather station, which provides representative figures for the city, has recorded cold wave conditions for five consecutive days so far this month, making it the longest such spell in a decade. The lowest minimum temperature recorded this month was 1.9 degrees Celsius on January 8, the second-lowest minimum temperature in January in 15 years.

• What is a cold wave?

• What is the forecast for the week ahead?

• What are some major factors that are contributing to colder than normal temperatures over north India this month?

• What do you understand by westerly and north-westerly winds?

• How westerly and north-westerly winds affects climate and weather of a region?

• How western disturbances impacts India’s climate?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:    

📍Delhi gripped by longest cold wave in a decade, with lowest minimum temperature at 1.9 degree

Ozone hole, filling up now

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization.

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

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-The ozone ‘hole’, once considered to be the gravest danger to planetary life, is now expected to be completely repaired by 2066, a scientific assessment has suggested. In fact, it is only the ozone layer over Antarctica — where the hole is the most prominent — which will take a long time to heal completely. Over the rest of the world, the ozone layer is expected to be back to where it was in 1980 by 2040 itself, a UN-backed scientific panel has reported.

• What is ozone ‘hole’?

• ‘The recovery of the ozone layer has been made possible by the successful elimination of some harmful industrial chemicals, together referred to as Ozone Depleting Substances or ODSs, through the implementation of the 1989 Montreal Protocol’-Elaborate

• Why is the Ozone layer important?

• What steps are being taken to repair the ozone layer?

• 1989 Montreal Protocol-Know the key highlights

• Do You Know-The depletion of the ozone layer, first noticed in the early 1980s, used to be the biggest environmental threat before climate change came along. Ozone (chemically, a molecule having three Oxygen atoms, or O3) is found mainly in the upper atmosphere, an area called stratosphere, between 10 and 50 km from the Earth’s surface. It is critical for planetary life, since it absorbs ultraviolet rays coming from the Sun. UV rays are known to cause skin cancer and many other diseases and deformities in plants and animals.

• The elimination of ozone-depleting substances has an important climate change co-benefit as well-What are they?

• The success of the Montreal Protocol in repairing the ozone hole is often offered as a model for climate action. It is argued that emissions of greenhouse gases can also similarly be curtailed to arrest rapidly rising global temperatures-Discuss

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:    

📍Explained: What to read in ozone hole size

📍Earth’s ozone layer is on track to recover completely in four decades

Delegated Legislation

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

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.

• General Studies III: Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- In upholding the Centre’s 2016 decision on demonetisation, one of the key questions to decide for the Supreme Court was whether Parliament gave excessive powers to the Centre under the law to demonetise currency. While the majority ruling upheld the validity of the delegated legislation, the dissenting verdict noted that excessive delegation of power is arbitrary.

• What is delegated legislation?

• What was the delegation of power in the demonetisation case?

• Why was this challenged?

• Why is excessive delegation power an issue?

• What did the Court decide?

• The apex court upheld the decision taken by the Central Government six years ago to demonetise these currency notes in a 4:1 majority judgement- The apex court, in its verdict, held what?

• Justice Nagarathna, who differed from Justice Gavai, held the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes had to be done through legislation, and not through a gazette notification-What exactly she said?

• Who is Justice B V Nagarathna, who penned the sole dissent in the 4:1 judgment on demonetisation delivered by the Supreme Court?

• ‘One of the reason given for demonetisation was that Government of India has shared its concern with regard to infusion of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and generation of black money’-Critically Analyse the statement

• The court said “the power available to the Central Government under section 26(2) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, cannot be restricted to mean that it can be exercised only for ‘one’ or ‘some’ series of bank notes and not for ‘all’ series of bank notes. The power can be exercised for all series of bank notes”- What section 26(2) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 says?

• “Demonetisation was a shockingly cruel policy enacted under false pretences. It did not achieve any of its stated objectives: A cashless economy, a revenue bonanza for the government, cleaning the system of illicit money, or stopping terror finance”-How far you agree with this statement?

• “The demonetisation decision pushed the boundaries of constitutionalism to the edge”-Discuss

• What was the role of RBI in the entire demonetisation process?

• Demonetisation in 1946 and 1978 and Demonetisation in 2016-compare and contrast

• Demonetisation in 2016 was the decision taken in haste and not gone into the nitty-gritties of this step-Do you agree?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:    

📍Demonetisation decision gets Supreme Court seal of approval

 

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