IAS UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 22nd October 2019

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(PRELIMS + MAINS FOCUS)

Annual Crime in India Report 2017

Part of: GS Prelims and GS Mains III–Security

In News

• After a delay of two years the annual Crime in India Report 2017 was published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 
• Some of the findings of the report are:
• Delhi had the highest crime rate in the country with 1050 crimes committed per one lakh of the population as listed under the Indian Penal Code

• Crime against women:

• • 3,59,849 cases of crime against women were reported in the country in 2017an increaseof 6% with respect to 2016 figures
  • Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 56,011 cases followed by Maharashtra with 31,979 cases and West Bengal 30,002
  • Majority of cases under crimes against women were registered under ‘Cruelty by Husband or his Relatives’ (27.9%) followed by ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ (21.7%), ‘Kidnapping & Abduction of Women’ (20.5%) and ‘Rape’ (7.0%)
• Rioting:  58,880 incidents of rioting were reported, of which the maximum incidents were reported from Bihar – 11,698, followed by Uttar Pradesh – 8,990 and Maharashtra – 7,743
  • Of the total riots reported, communal and sectarian riots accounted for 723 and 183 incidents respectively. There were 805 riots due to caste conflict and 1909 riots occurred due to political reasons,
• SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act: The incidents registered under this act saw an increase from 5,082 in 2016 to 5,775 in 2017.
• Incidents of crime related to Scheduled Tribes dipped from 844 in 2016 to 720 in 2017
• Kidnapping/Abduction:A total of 95,893 cases of kidnapping and abduction were registered during 2017, showing an increase of 9.0% over 2016 (88,008 cases).
• The NCRB for the first time collected data on circulationof “false/fake news and rumours.”Under the category, maximum incidents were reported from Madhya Pradesh (138), Uttar Pradesh (32) and Kerala (18).

About NCRB

• NCRB was set-up in 1986 to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators, based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981)
• It was set up by merging the Directorate of Coordination and Police Computer (DCPC), Inter State Criminals Data Branch of CBI, Central Finger Print Bureau of CBI, and Statistical Branch of BPR&D.
• NCRB was entrusted with the responsibility for monitoring, coordinating and implementing the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) project in the year 2009. The project connects 15000+ police stations and 6000 higher offices of police in the country.
• In 2017, NCRB launched National Digital Police Portal-  It allows search for a criminal / suspect on the CCTNS database apart from providing various services to citizens like filing of complaints online and seeking antecedent verification of tenants, domestic helps, drivers

Many hydropower projects could face closure

Part of: GS Prelims and GS Mains III – Economy

In News

• India’s hydropower projects that do not comply with the Centre’s ecological flow notification, which mandates that project developers ensure a minimum supply of water all through the year, could face closure.

• Power producers generally hoard water to create reserves to increase power production.
• Central Water Commission (CWC) has been tasked to ascertain actual flows and the amount of water present in the rivers
• The e-flow notification specifies that the upper stretches of the Ganga — from its origins in the glaciers and until Haridwar — would have to maintain: 
  • 20% of the monthly average flow of the preceding 10-days between November and March, which is the dry season
  • 25% of the average during the ‘lean season’ of October, April and May; and 
  • 30% of monthly average during the monsoon months of June-September.

Col. Chewang Rinchen Setu

Part of: GS Prelims and GS Mains I – Geography

In News

• The Siachen glacier is “now open” for tourists and tourism, after government inaugurated a strategically important bridge on theShyok river in Eastern Ladakh.
• The ‘Col. Chewang Rinchen Setu’ was constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) at an altitude of 14,650 feet in the forward area of Ladakh region
• This bridge has been completed in record time. It will not only provide all-weather connectivity in the region but also be a strategic asset in the border areas,
• From Siachen Base Camp to Kumar Post, the entire area has been opened for tourism purposes
• There is already an army-facilitated civilian trek from the Siachen Base Camp to the Kumar post located at about 15,500 feet. While it was supposed to be annual, it was cancelled on several occasions due to weather and border tensions.

Do You Know?

• Colonel Chewang Rinchen (1931 – 1997) was a highly decorated officer in the Indian Army from the Ladakh region. He was one of only six Indian service personnel to have twice won the Maha Vir Chakra (MVC), the second highest Indian gallantry decoration.
• Functioning under the control of the Ministry of Defence since 2015, the BRO is engaged in road construction to provide connectivity to difficult and inaccessible regions in the border areas of the country.
• The highly-skilled BRO personnel undertook and successfully completed construction of the Delaram-Zaranj Highway in Afghanistan in 2008.

Regulation of Social Media

Part of: GS Prelims and GS Mains II – Governance

In News

• The Government has stated that Information Technology Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules would be notified by January 15, 2020.These would be the new guidelines to regulate social media.
• This is in the light of ever-growing threats to individual rights and the nation’s integrity, sovereignty, and security.
• If on the one hand technology has led to economic growth and societal development, on the other hand there has been an exponential rise in hate speech, fake news, public order, anti-national activities, defamatory postings, and other unlawful activities using Internet/social media platforms.
• Social media intermediaries like Facebook and WhatsApp have argued that this would lead to loss of individual privacy. 

(MAINS FOCUS)

ECONOMY

TOPIC: General Studies 3:

• Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.
• Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

• Economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, who, along with Michael Kremer, won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics for their “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”,
• The three adopted an evidence-based approach to apply theory to real-life situations using randomised trials and assessing the outcomes.
•  The effort was to understand the impact of interventions to achieve desirable outcomes. 
• The approach is derived from the concept of clinical trials in the pharmaceuticals industry.
• They have published a new book, Good Economics for Hard Times. The book explains where the economy has failed, where ideology has blinded us, and where and why good economics is useful, especially in today’s world

“new experiment-based” approach:

• The “new, powerful tool” employed by the Laureates is the use of Randomised Control Trials (or RCTs). So if one wanted to understand whether providing a mobile vaccination van and/or a sack of grains would incentivise villagers to vaccinate their kids, then under an RCT, village households would be divided into four groups.
• Group A would be provided with a mobile vaccination van facility, Group B would be given a sack of foodgrains, Group C would get both, and Group D would get neither. 
• Households would be chosen at random to ensure there was no bias, and that any difference in vaccination levels was essentially because of the “intervention”.
• Group D is called the “control” group while others are called “treatment” groups. Such an experiment would not only show whether a policy initiative works, but would also provide a measure of the difference it brings about.
• It would also show what happens when more than one initiatives are combined. This would help policymakers to have the evidence before they choose a policy.

Also Read Link 1 : https://iasbaba.com/2019/10/daily-current-affairs-ias-upsc-prelims-and-mains-exam-15th-october-2019/

Excerpts:

• Growth in India, like that in China, will slow. And there is no guarantee it will slow when India has reached the same level of per capita income as China.
• Many economists worry that there may be such a thing as the middle income trap, an intermediate-level GDP where countries get stuck or nearly stuck. 
• According to the World Bank, of 101 middle-income economies in 1960, only 13 had become high income by 2008. Malaysia, Thailand, Egypt, Mexico and Peru all seem to have trouble moving up.
• We know very little about why some countries get stuck but others don’t.(Ex: south korea grew but others dint)

• Recent “business friendly” nature to preserve growth may be interpreted, as it was in the U.S. and U.K. in the Reagan-Thatcher era, enrich the top earners at the cost of everyone else, and do nothing for growth.( IMF also criticises this)

• In this situation the political backlash leads to the election of populist leaders touting miracle solutions that rarely work and often lead to Venezuela-style disasters.
• Ultimate goal remains one of raising the quality of life of the average person and especially the worst-off person.
• A higher GDP may be one way in which this can be given to the poor, but it is only one of the ways.

Way forward:

• Get rid of the most egregious sources of waste in their economy
• Improve the welfare of their citizens
• Improve health and education

Conclusion:

• A clear focus on the well-being of the poorest offers the possibility of transforming millions of lives much more profoundly than we could by finding the recipe to increase growth from 2% to 2.3% in the rich countries.

Connecting the dots:

• Despite the best efforts of generations of economists, the deep mechanisms of persistent economic growth remain elusive. Examine

ECONOMY

TOPIC: General Studies 3:

• Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.
• Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Asia’s remarkable Economic Transformation

Asian economy in 19th Century:

• Asia accounted for two-thirds of the world’s population and more than a half of world income. 
• Asia contributed more than a half of manufacturing production in the world economy. 

Decline of Asia in 20th Century:

• Colonialism and  imperialism. 
• Asia’s  share in world income had plummeted to 15%, 
• Asia’s Share in world manufacturing had dropped to 6%. 
• End of 20th Century, Asia became the poorest continent. 
• Its demographic and social indicators of development, among the worst anywhere, epitomised its underdevelopment.

Rise of Asia in 21st Century:

• Asia has witnessed a profound transformation in terms of economic progress of nations and living conditions of people.

• Now it accounted for 30% of world income, 40% of world manufacturing, and over a third of world trade.

• This transformation was unequal across countries and between people.

Why unequal?

• Diversity of Asia.(geographical size, embedded histories, colonial legacies, nationalist movements, initial conditions, natural resource endowments, population size, income levels and political systems)

• The reliance on markets and degree of openness in economies varied greatly.

• Diversity in politics (authoritarian regimes or oligarchies to political democracies) 

• Diversity in  ideologies (communism to state capitalism and capitalism)

Economic Development:

• Growth was driven by rapid industrialisation

• Rapid investment growth coincided in time with rapid export growth, leading to rapid GDP growth. 

• This was associated with structural changes in the composition of output and employment.

• The process was also supported by a coordination of economic policies across sectors and over time.

• Literacy rates and life expectancy rose everywhere. 

• Massive reduction in absolute poverty.

Unequal outcomes:

• East Asia was the leader and South Asia was the laggard, with Southeast Asia in the middle, while progress in West Asia did not match its high-income levels. 

• South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore joined the league of industrialised nations. 

• China developed impressively after 1990. 

• The economic dynamism of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand waned after the Asian financial crisis. 

• The growth performance of India, Bangladesh and Vietnam was most impressive during the past quarter century (but less social progress). 

• In comparison, the performance of Sri Lanka was respectable, while that of Turkey was average; but that of Pakistan and the Philippines was relatively poor.

Negatives:

• Inequality between people within countries rose almost everywhere, while the gap between the richest and poorest countries in Asia remains awesome.

Way forward:

• The future will be shaped partly by how Asia exploits the opportunities and meets the challenges and partly by how the present difficult economic and political conjuncture in the world unfolds.

• By 2030, per capita income in Asia, relative to the world, will return to its level in 1820.

Conclusion:

• It is plausible to suggest that in circa 2050, a century after the end of colonial rule, Asia will account for more than a half of world income and will be home to more than half the people on earth.

Connecting the dots:

• The rise of Asia represents the beginnings of a shift in the balance of economic power in the world and some erosion in the political hegemony of the West. Analyse

(TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE)

Model questions: (You can now post your answers in comment section)

Note: 

• Featured Comments and comments Up-voted by IASbaba are the “correct answers”.
• IASbaba App users – Team IASbaba will provide correct answers in comment section. Kindly refer to it and update your answers.

Q.1)Delaram-Zaranj Highway sometimes seen in the news is located in which country?

1. Myanmar
2. Afghanistan
3. Iran
4. None of the above

Q.2)Border Road Organisation works under the overall guidance of which Union Ministry?

1. Ministry of Home Affairs
2. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
3. Ministry of Defence
4. None of the above

Q.3)Consider the following statements

1. National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) is a statutory body established under Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946
2. NCRB data of 2017 shows that crime against women has declined in comparison to 2016

Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Q.4)Consider the following statements

1. Union government’s ecological flow regulation mandates that hydropower project developers should ensure a minimum supply of water all through the year
2. NITI Aayog has been tasked to ascertain actual flows and the amount of water present in the rivers

Which of the statement(s) given above is/are correct?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

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