DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS IAS | UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 2nd May 2022

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Polity & Geography
• Mains – GS-2 (Constitution and Governance)

Why in News: Custodial death of a couple of Chakma community – Overlap of administration between tribal customary laws and regular penal provisions.

About

• Chakmas are one of the major tribes of Tripura.
• The Tribal Areas of State Tripura are administered under the sixth schedule of the Indian constitution

Sixth Schedule

• The provisions of the sixth schedule are provided under Articles 244(2) and 275(1) of the Indian Constitution.
• Administration of Tribal Areas in the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram falls under the sixth schedule of the constitution
• The most important provisions of the Sixth Schedule are that the tribal areas are to be administered as Autonomous Districts and Autonomous Regions.
• The Governor of the State is empowered to determine the area or areas as administrative units of the Autonomous Districts and Autonomous Regions.
• If there are different tribes in an autonomous district, the governor can divide the district into several autonomous regions.
• Each Autonomous District shall have a District Council consisting of not more than thirty members, out of which four are nominated by the Governor while the rest are elected on the basis of adult franchise.
• The elected members hold office for a term of five and nominated members to hold office during the pleasure of the governor.
• Autonomous District Councils and Regional Councils are endowed with certain legislative, executive, judicial and financial powers.

Judicial Powers

• The District and Regional Councils are also empowered to constitute Village and District Council Courts for the trial of suits and cases where all parties to the dispute belong to Scheduled Tribes within the district.
• And no other courts except the High Courts and the Supreme Court have the jurisdiction over such suits or cases of the Council Courts.
• The region where the incident took place falls under Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council.

What Happened?

• Under Chakma laws, a couple who has eloped thrice is considered married.
• As a precautionary measure elders of the community seek the involvement of police in the case, thus leading to grey zone administration between tribal customary laws and regular penal provisions.

Source: Indian Express

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Syllabus

• Prelims- Science and Technology

Why in News: Two of the Indian track-and-field Tokyo Olympians have failed a dope test for using banned anabolic steroids

Anabolic Steroids

• Anabolic steroids are essentially lab-made versions of the male hormone testosterone and have a similar effect of increasing muscle mass as the natural hormone does.

How are they different from Prescription Steroids?

• Prescription steroids are the steroids prescribed by the doctors for inflammations, several autoimmune diseases etc
• These medicines are called corticosteroids and are lab-made molecules that mimic the action of the hormone called cortisol which controls the body’s stress response, metabolism, and inflammation.
• Anabolic steroids are mainly misused by athletes and sportspersons nowadays

Anabolic steroids used for treatments

• Anabolic steroids have a very limited medical role and are mainly used by doctors to help patients gain weight after a severe illness or injury.
• Prescribed in small doses to the elderly to build muscle mass and in some cases also helps to treat anaemia.
• To treat men who have low levels of natural testosterone.

Impacts

Male

• In the short term can cause acne and hair fall.
• Extended misuse of the substance can also lead to gynecomastia (growth of breasts in men) and erectile dysfunction.

Female

• It can lead to the growth of facial hair.
• It also causes extreme anger, paranoia, and impaired judgement.

Source: Indian Express

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Economy
• Mains – GS – 3 (Economic Development)

Stats: India’s funding for R&D

• It has remained static and hovers between 0.6 to 0.8% of GDP over a decade.
• While India’s global R&D expenditure remains static at 1-3% of the global total, the U.S. and China accounted for 25% and 23%, respectively.
• The World Bank statistics indicate that India had 255 researchers per million people in 2017.
• In contrast to 8,342 per million in Israel, 7,597 in Sweden and 7,498 in South Korea. Compared to 111 in the U.S. and 423 in China, India has only 15 researchers per 1,00,000 population.

National Research Foundation (NRF)

• The 2021-22 budget offered ₹10,000 crores ($1.37 billion) every year starting from 2021, over the next five years, for a new funding agency called the National Research Foundation (NRF).
• This newly proposed idea is also in tune with what is being stated in the National Education Policy 2020
• The National Research Foundation (NRF) will be functioning as a structure that will connect the industry, academia and the R&D of the country.
• The NRF will provide a reliable base of merit-based but equitable peer-reviewed research funding, helping to develop a culture of research in the country through suitable incentives for and recognition of outstanding research.

Source: The Hindu

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Syllabus

• Prelims – (Economy and Society)
• Mains – GS-2 (Social Justice and e-governance)

Why in News: Union Labour and Employment Ministry said that the Ministry was working on a mechanism to process accident insurance claims by unorganised workers registered on the e-Shram portal

e – shram portal

• The portal was launched with the aim of creating a national database of unorganised workers (NDUW)
• Ministry of Labour & Employment is responsible for the implementation
• e-Shram Card: Workers will be provided with an e-SHRAM card which will have a 12 digit unique number.
• The details of workers will also be shared by the state government and departments.
• Single window: This will be a single-point reference to help authorities reach out to and track workers in the informal sector, and offer welfare in times of crisis.
• Who all are included: The database will include construction workers, migrant workers, gig and platform workers, street vendors, domestic workers, agriculture workers, migrant workers and similar other sub-groups of unorganised workers.
• Self enrolment: It will be available in public for open access where workers can self-enroll through Aadhaar and mobile numbers.
• Important Provision: Accidental insurance – After registering, he/she will get an Accidental Insurance cover of 2 Lakh

The scheme would allow the workers to get the direct benefit transfer (DBT) through the e-Shram unique ID number

Stats:

• Till October 2021, 15 crore registrations are made
• Men to women ratio:02% of the registered workers were women and the remaining 49.98% were men.
• Age Group: Around 65.68% of these registered workers are in the age group of 16-40 years and 34.32% are in the age group of 40 years and above
• Dominant Sector: The largest number of workers registered are from agriculture and construction, given the sheer volume of these two sectors in employment generation in India

Source: The Hindu

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Polity
• Mains – GS-3 (Internal Security)

Why in News: Prime Minister of India indicated that operation of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) may come to an end in the whole of the north-eastern region, if ongoing efforts to normalise the situation bear fruit.

• Recently, the Union Government has partially withdrawn the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958 from parts of three Northeast states— Assam, Nagaland and Manipur.
• Currently, AFSPA remains in force in parts of these three states as well as in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

What is AFSPA?

• A colonial era legislation that was enacted to quell the protests during the Quit India movement, the AFSPA was issued by way of four ordinances in 1947.
• The ordinances were replaced by an Act in 1948 and the present law effective in the Northeast was introduced in Parliament in 1958
• The ASFPA gives unfettered powers to the armed forces and the Central armed police forces deployed in “disturbed areas”
• It allows them to open fire, even causing death, against any person in contravention to the law or carrying arms and ammunition.
• Also, it gives them powers to arrest individuals without warrants, on the basis of “reasonable suspicion”, and search premises without warrants.
• The law first came into effect in 1958 to deal with the uprising in the Naga Hills, followed by the insurgency in Assam.

Disturbed Areas:

• The Act was amended in 1972 and the powers to declare an area as “disturbed” were conferred concurrently upon the Central government along with the States.

Controversy around the Act

Human Rights Violations:

• The exercise of these extraordinary powers has often led to fake encounters and other human rights violations by security forces
• Example: Custodial rape and killing of the Thangjam Manorama by the Assam rifles in 2004

Misuse of Absolute Power:

• The power to shoot on sight violates the fundamental right to life, making the soldier on the ground the judge of the value of different lives and people the mere subjects of an officer’s discretion
• Violates Fundamental Rights:
• The power of arbitrary arrest and detention given to the armed forces goes against the fundamental right vested in Article 22

Immunity against any Punitive Action

• The act provides immunity to the armed forces against prosecution, suit or another legal proceeding, which shall be instituted only with the previous sanction of the central government.

Supreme Court Views on the Act

• The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of AFSPA in a 1998 judgment (Naga People’s Movement of Human Rights v. Union of India).

Supreme Court Orders – 2016

The Supreme Court judgement said:

• Every death in the ‘disturbed areas’, be it of a common person or insurgent, should be thoroughly enquired by the CID at the instance of the NHRC.
• Not every armed person violating the prohibitory order in a disturbed area is an enemy. Even though he is considered an enemy a thorough investigation has to be conducted, since every citizen of India is entitled to all the fundamental rights including Article 21 of the constitution.
• Even if the enquiry finds the victim to be an enemy, a probe should look into whether excessive or retaliatory force was used.
• There is no concept of absolute immunity for army personnel who commit a crime.

Recommendations of Jeevan Reddy Committee:

• In November 2004, the Central government appointed a five-member committee headed by Justice B P Jeevan Reddy to review the provisions of the act in the northeastern states.

The committee recommended that:

• AFSPA should be repealed and appropriate provisions should be inserted in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967
• The Unlawful Activities Act should be modified to clearly specify the powers of the armed forces and paramilitary forces and Grievance cells should be set up in each district where the armed forces are deployed.

Current Status: There is gradual reduction in areas under the Act

Reasons

• Improvement in the security situation
• An increase in development activity in the region
• On the political side much headway has been made in moving towards a political solution like peace accords, ceasefire and creation of sub-regional administrative arrangements.

Way forward

• The AFSPA has become a symbol of oppression in the areas it has been enacted. Hence the government needs to address the affected people and reassure them of favourable action.
• The armed forces must build the necessary trust amongst the locals to ensure their support in countering insurgency.
• The state bureaucracy, army, and the grass-root civil society organization should come together in the developmental activities of the state

Source: The Hindu