Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for March 24, 2023. If you missed the March 23, 2023 UPSC key from the Indian Express, read it here FRONT PAGE Rahul convicted in defamation case, Cong scrambles to keep him in House Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc. Mains Examination: General Studies II: Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story- A Surat court Thursday convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case over his 2019 remark about thieves with the surname Modi, and sentenced him to two years in prison. The court approved Gandhi’s bail on a surety of Rs 15,000 and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal. • What is the defamation case against Gandhi? • What did the Surat Court rule? • What exactly court said? • What Is Defamation? • What Law in India says about defamation? • What is reputation in defamation? • What does the Representation of the People Act of 1951 say? • What is Section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act of 1951? • For Your Information-Section 8(4) of the RPA said that the disqualification takes effect only “after three months have elapsed” from the date of conviction. Within that period, the convicted lawmaker could have filed an appeal against the sentence before a higher court. However, this provision was struck down as “unconstitutional” in the Supreme Court’s landmark 2013 ruling in ‘Lily Thomas v Union of India’. • Supreme Court’s landmark 2013 ruling in ‘Lily Thomas v Union of India’-what was that? • Rahul Gandhi’s case and Lily Thomas v Union of India-Connect the dots • Why was Gandhi disqualified? • Do You Know-Disqualification of a lawmaker is prescribed in three situations. First is through the Articles 102(1) and 191(1) for disqualification of a member of Parliament and a member of the Legislative Assembly respectively. The grounds here include holding an office of profit, being of unsound mind or insolvent or not having valid citizenship. The second prescription of disqualification is in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which provides for the disqualification of the members on grounds of defection. The third prescription is under The Representation of The People Act (RPA), 1951. This law provides for disqualification for conviction in criminal cases. • Suspension of MPs vs Disqualification of MPs-Know the difference Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍After Rahul’s conviction 📍What is SC’s Lily Thomas verdict, which impacts Rahul Gandhi case IN PARLIAMENT Extension of Smart Cities Mission an ‘open issue’, Ministry tells House panel Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, 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- As some of the 100 cities in the Smart Cities Mission have asked for more time to complete projects, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has informed a Parliamentary Standing Committee that the extension of the mission beyond its current deadline of June 30 is an “open issue”, as per the panel’s report. • What is the purpose of smart city mission? • What is the objective of Smart City Mission? • For Your Information-The Smart Cities Mission is an initiative of the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 25, 2015. Cities across the country were asked to submit proposals for projects to improve municipal services and to make their jurisdictions more liveable. Between January 2016 and June 2018 (when the last city, Shillong, was chosen), the Ministry selected 100 cities for the Mission over five rounds. The projects were supposed to be completed within five years of the selection of the city, but in 2021 the Ministry changed the deadline for all cities to June 2023, which was earlier the deadline for Shillong alone. • Which ministry is responsible for Smart City Mission Scheme? • What is the extended timeline for Smart Cities Mission? • What makes a city ‘smart?’ • What is an Integrated Command and Control Centre? • Do You Know-The Smart Cities Mission includes setting up ICCCs for each such city as a vital step. These ICCCs are designed to enable authorities to monitor the status of various amenities in real time. Initially aimed at controlling and monitoring water and power supply, sanitation, traffic movement, integrated building management, city connectivity and Internet infrastructure, these centres have since evolved to monitor various other parameters. The ICCCs are now also linked to the CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Networks and Systems) network under the Ministry of Home Affairs. • What kinds of projects were proposed? • What is the current status of the Smarts Cities Mission? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Explained: Smart city’s nerve centre 📍The Smart Cities Mission: With deadline looming, a status check LS passes Budget Demands for Grants without discussion Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc. Mains Examination: General Studies III: Government Budgeting. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story-The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Demands for Grants for Budget 2023-24 and the Appropriation Bill by a voice vote without any discussion. • What are Grants in Parliament? • What is demand for grant in Indian Constitution? • Demand for Grants: What does it include? • Demand for Grants: How it is prepared • What is Article 113 of the Constitution? • Appropriation Bill-What do you know about this Bill? • What does appropriation mean in government? • Appropriation Bill and Article 114 of the constitution • What is the Procedure Followed for the Appropriation Bill in Parliament? • Power of Rajya Sabha over Appropriation Bill? • Appropriation Bill and Appropriation Act-Know the Difference • Appropriation Bill vs Finance Bill-Know the Difference • What do you understand by ‘Vote on Account’? • The budget consists of two types of expenditure—the expenditure ‘charged’ upon the Consolidated Fund of India and the expenditure ‘made’ from the Consolidated Fund of India, what are the ‘Charged’ and ‘made’ Expenditure? • Annual Financial Statement (AFS) or Union Budget, Article 112 of the Indian Constitution and Stages of Budget in the parliament Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍What is Demand for Grants? Odisha introduces Bill to amend Central law, ease land acquisition Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, 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- THE ODISHA government has proposed to amend the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 to ease land acquisition process for various industrial and infrastructure projects. With the amendment to the Central legislation, the Odisha government aims to do away with the mandatory provision of social impact assessment (SIA) study before land acquisition, which, it says, is a time-consuming process. • What is right to fair compensation and transparency in Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Act 2013? • What does the right to fair compensation and transparency in land acquisition rehabilitation and resettlement act statutorily provide for? • What is the objective of Right to Fair Compensation and Land Acquisition Act 2013? • For Your Information-Odisha will be the fourth state to amend the legislation as Gujarat (2016), Maharashtra (2018) and Karnataka (2019) have already made the amendment and received the assent of the President of India. • ‘Acquisition of private land under the land acquisition and resettlement Act has been a major challenge for the state government’-why? • “The SIA study consumes time and delays the land acquisition process. Hence, we have decided to do away with it for certain projects,”-What is Social Impact Assessment (SIA)? • What is an example of social impact assessment? • What are the main steps of Social Impact Assessment? • What is the difference between Environment impact assessment (EIA) & Social Impact Assessment (SIA)? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍A case of judicial law making THE WORLD ‘If not now, when?’: Australia PM advances Indigenous referendum 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, Indian diaspora. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story- Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday outlined key details for a proposed referendum between October and December this year on recognising the nation’s Indigenous people in its constitution. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who represent about 3.2% of Australia’s population, are currently not mentioned in the constitution. • What are the Proposed changes to the Constitution? • Albanese has proposed adding an additional chapter to Australia’s constitution-Know in brief • What is the proposed referendum question? • How does the referendum work? • How many votes are needed? • How have past referendums fared? • What does Aboriginal mean? • What ethnicity is Aboriginal? • Is indigenous and Aboriginal different? • What does Aboriginal refer to in India? • Are there Aboriginal people in India? • What are the problems faced by Indigenous Peoples in India? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Explained: Australia Day, and the controversy surrounding it After Iran, Saudi to revive diplomatic ties with Syria 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, Indian diaspora. Key Points to Ponder: • What’s the ongoing story-Saudi Arabia is in talks with Syria to reopen its embassy in the war-torn nation for the first time in a decade, state television in the kingdom reported late Thursday, the latest diplomatic reshuffling in the region. The announcement on state TV comes after Chinese-mediated talks in Beijing saw Saudi Arabia and Iran agree to reopen embassies in each other’s nations after years of tensions. • Saudi Arabia and Syria bilateral relations-know in detail • Map Work-Saudi Arabia and Syria • Why relation between these two countries were severed? • India has so far avoided commenting this entire matter-Examine India’s role Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍Beijing plays peace-maker EXPLAINED What India is doing to eliminate TB by target year 2025 Syllabus: Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development Main 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-With India setting the target of eliminating tuberculosis by 2025, five years ahead of the global target, scientists are rushing to test newer vaccines and shorter courses of treatment, the government is focusing on active case finding, entrepreneurs have helped increase testing capacity, and the community at large has come forward to provide nutritional support to patients. On World TB Day 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the One World TB Summit on Friday. He is likely to announce initiatives to help the country meet the 2025 target. This year’s theme ‘Yes! We can end TB!’ also relates to India’s goal for itself. • How many TB cases are detected each year in India? • For Your Information-Although India continues to be the largest contributor to global TB cases, there has been a decline in the number of cases in 2021. Reporting of TB cases also improved in 2021 – although it didn’t reach the pre-pandemic levels, it bounced back from the lows seen during the first year of the pandemic, according to the Global TB Report 2022. The incidence of TB – new cases detected through the year – reduced by 18% in 2021 over the 2015 baseline, dropping to 210 cases per lakh population as compared to 256 cases per lakh population. The incidence of drug-resistant TB also went down by 20% during the period from 1.49 lakh cases in 2015 to 1.19 lakh cases in 2021. India accounts for 28% of all TB cases in the world, according to the Global TB Report 2022. There were 21.3 lakh cases detected in 2021 as compared to 18.05 lakh cases in 2020. The numbers are still lower than the 24.04 lakh cases reported before the pandemic in 2019, according to data from the government’s Ni-kshay portal that can help in real-time reporting of new TB cases. A survey conducted across 20 states pegged the incidence at a higher 312 cases per lakh population. • TB in India-Pre and Post Pandemic • Tuberculosis (TB) and India-Impact • India TB Report 2021 and Global TB Report 2021-key Highlights and who publishes? • Know the term-BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) • What is India’s TB elimination target? • National Strategic Plan 2017-2025 for TB Elimination in India-Issues and Challenges • What is being done to try to achieve this target? • What are the improvements in treatment protocols? • Are there newer vaccines in the pipeline? Other Important Articles Covering the same topic: 📍National Strategic Plan 2017-2025 for TB Elimination in India For any queries and feedback, contact priya.shukla@indianexpress.com The Indian Express UPSC Hub is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with the latest Updates.
