DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS IAS | UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam – 20th September 2022

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Non-Statutory bodies

Context: The SC has called it a caged parrot, and CJIs have expressed doubts over its credibility and said it is no longer trusted. Attempts to secure its independence have been opposed or overturned by successive governments.

In this regard, let us know the institution in detail:

What is CBI?

• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is an elite force playing a major role in the preservation of values in public life and in ensuring the health of the national economy.
• It is also the nodal police agency in India, which coordinates investigation on behalf of Interpol Member countries.
• It functions under the Department of Personnel, Ministry of Personnel, Pension & Public Grievances of the Government of India.
• It is not a statutory body; it derives its powers from the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.
• It works under the supervision of the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) in matters of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

History of Central Bureau of Investigation:

• Following corrupt practices in World War 2, the organization known as the Special Police Establishment (S.P.E.) was created under a Deputy Inspector General of Police by the Government of India, in 1941, by executive order.
• he Central Bureau of Investigation traces its origin to the Special Police Establishment (SPE) which was set up in 1941 by the Government of India.
• The Delhi Special Police Establishment Act was brought into force in 1946. This Act transferred the superintendence of the SPE to the Home Department and its functions were enlarged to cover all departments of the Govt. of India.
  • The jurisdiction of the SPE extended to all the Union Territories and could be extended also to the States with the consent of the State Government concerned.
• The Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption recommended the establishment of the CBI.
• The DSPE acquired its popular current name, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through a Home Ministry resolution in 1963.
• In 2021, The Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, of 1946 and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act, of 2003 were amended to extend the tenure of CBI and ED directors

Director of CBI:

• Director, CBI as Inspector General of Police, Delhi Special Police Establishment, is responsible for the administration of the organization.

In 2014, the Lokpal Act provided a committee for the appointment of CBI Director:

• Headed by Prime Minister
• Other members – Leader of Opposition/ Leader of the single largest opposition party, Chief Justice of India/ a Supreme Court Judge.
• Home Ministry sends a list of eligible candidates to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). Then, the DoPT prepares the final list on basis of seniority, integrity, and experience in the investigation of anti-corruption cases, and sends it to the committee

Jurisdiction of Central Bureau of Investigation:

• Initially, the offenses that were notified by the Central Government related only to corruption by Central Govt. servants.
• As a large number of public sector undertakings came up, the employees of these undertakings were also brought under CBI purview.
• Similarly, with the nationalization of the banks in 1969, the Public Sector Banks and their employees also came within the ambit of the CBI.
• From 1965 onwards, the CBI has also been entrusted with the investigation of Economic Offences and important conventional crimes such as murders, kidnapping, terrorist crimes, etc., on a selective basis.
• CBI can Suo-moto take up investigation of offenses only in the Union Territories.
• The Central Government can authorize CBI to investigate a crime in a State but only with the consent of the concerned State Government.
• The Supreme Court and High Courts, however, can order CBI to investigate a crime anywhere in the country without the consent of the State.

Source: Indian Express           

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Economy

In News: The Prime Minister launched the National Logistics Policy (NLP) at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi; a significant step in fulfilling the ‘Pran’ of India being a developed country.

India is the 5th largest economy in the world but the logistics cost is high at around 13-14%.

Under the policy a new digital platform Ease of logistics Services -E-Logs has also been started. Through this portal, industry associations can directly take up any such matters which are causing problems in their operations and performance with the government agencies.

About:

• The National Logistics Policy is an overarching interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral, and multi-jurisdictional framework for the development of the entire logistics ecosystem and will bring new energy to all sectors.
• Objective: To develop world-class modern infrastructure through the integration of all stakeholders in holistic planning and implementation so that efficiency and synergy are achieved in the execution of the project.

Need for logistics policy:

• High logistics costs in India as compared to other developed economies.
• To improve the competitiveness of Indian goods both in domestic as well as export markets.
• To improve efficiency cutting across various sectors of the economy, encouraging value addition and enterprise.

Steps to improve logistics sector:

• PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan for muti-modal connectivity
• Unified Logistics Interface Platform or ULIP will bring all the digital services related with the transportation sector on a single portal, freeing the exporters from a host of very long and cumbersome processes.
• Increasing total capacity of Indian ports and the average turn-around time of container vessels, which has come down from 44 hours to 26 hours.
• For promoting export, 40 air cargo terminals have been constructed and 30 airports have been provided cold-storage facilities as well as 35 multimodal hubs are coming up in the country.
• Many new waterways are being built for eco-friendly and cost-effective transportation
• Kisan Rail and airports having the facility of Krishi Udaan have been constructed.
• Paperless EXIM trade process through e-sanchit and faceless assessment for customs
• Provisions for e-way bills, FASTag that have greatly increased the efficiency of the logistics sector.
• Unified tax system like GST in smoothening the issues of the logistics sector
• Change in drone policy and connecting it with the PLI scheme is promoting the use of drones in the logistics sector.
• Sagarmala, Bharatmala scheme and Dedicated Freight Corridors to improve logistics connectivity for systematic infrastructure development.

Benefits of the policy:

• National Logistics Policy has immense potential for development of infrastructure, expansion of business and increasing employment opportunities.
• Improve competitiveness
• Ensuring quick last mile delivery, end transport-related challenges, save time and money of the manufacturers, prevent wastage of the agro-products and improvement in coordination.
• Strengthening of the logistics sector will not only make the life of common man easier but will also help in increasing the respect of labour and workers.
• Issues related to logistics are reduced and when the country’s exports increase, small industries and the people working in them benefit the most.

Way forward

The PM said, “When parameters, roadmap and timeline for performance come together then policy plus performance equal to progress emerges”

The world is looking at India as a ‘democratic superpower’ and the ‘extraordinary talent ecosystem’ of India has impressed the field experts. Today the world’s attitude towards India is changing for the better.

Source: Pib.Gov

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Govt schemes

In News: As per the data collected by the Indian Medical Association, over 1,800 doctors have died in the line of COVID-19 duty.

However, dependents of doctors got just over 20% of the total money distributed under the insurance scheme for health workers.

A special leave petition has been filed in the Supreme Court in this context.

About PMGKP:

• It is a comprehensive relief package of Rs 1.70 Lakh Crore for the poor to help them fight the battle against Corona Virus and enable them to buy essential supplies and meet essential needs.
• It was announced in March 2020
• It includes
• an insurance cover of Rs 50 Lakh per health worker fighting COVID-19
• 80 crore poor people to get 5 kg wheat or rice and 1 kg of preferred pulses for free every month
• 20 crore women Jan Dhan account holders to get Rs 500 per month for next three months
• Increase in MNREGA wage to Rs 202 a day from Rs 182 to benefit 13.62 crore families
• Ex-gratia of Rs 1,000 to 3 crore poor senior citizen, poor widows and poor disabled

Issues:

• Over 75% of doctors who succumbed to the infection have not benefited from the scheme because a majority of them were not working in COVID-designated hospitals.
• Total number of beneficiaries as on August 31 was 1,962 and the amount disbursed was ₹981 crore. However, just over 21.5% of the money disbursed under the PMGKP has been given to doctors.

Source: The Hindu            

 Previous Year Question

Q.1) With reference to Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, consider the following statements: (2018)

1. It is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
2. It, among other things will also impart training in soft skills, entrepreneurship, financial and digital literacy.
3. It aims to align the competencies of the unregulated workforce of the country to the National Skill Qualification Framework.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 and 3 only
2. 2 only
3. 2 and 3 only
4. 1, 2, and 3

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Current Affairs (International Relations)

Context: China defended its controversial move to block a joint India-U.S. effort to place a Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist on the U.N. Security Council’s 1267 committee sanctions list.

Type of UNSC Resolutions:

A UNSC resolution is of two kinds:

• One is obligatory: An obligatory or binding resolution of the UNSC is passed under Article 39, Chapter VII of the UN charter.
• Other non-obligatory: A non-binding resolution of the UNSC is one that is passed under Article 33, Chapter VI of the UN charter.
• During UNSC voting, abstention by non-P5 members merely means that temporary members do not wish to take sides in a resolution.
• When a P5 member abstain from a resolution, it is called a Veto. Resolution fails in this case.

Important Resolutions adopted by the Security Council in 2022:

• Resolution 2650 : The situation in the Middle East (UNIFIL)
• Resolution 2650 : The situation in Mali
• Resolution 2648: The situation in the Central African Republic
• Resolution 2636: Reports of the Secretary-General on the Sudan and South Sudan (UNITAMS)
• Resolution 2626: The situation in Afghanistan
• Resolution 2623: Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on Ukraine

Source:  The Hindu

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Syllabus

• Mains: GS 2 Indian Constitution

In News: Recently, a bench of five judges of the Supreme Court has been constituted so as to determine whether the Constitution 103^rd Amendment Act, 2019 violates the “basic structure of the Constitution”.

Doctrine of Basic Structure:

• The doctrine states that no amendment to the Constitution is permissible if it alters “the basic structure or framework of the Constitution”.
• It was developed by the Supreme Court of India in a series of constitutional law cases in the 1960s and 1970s that culminated in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala in 1973 where the doctrine was formally adopted.
• The doctrine thus forms the basis of the power of the Supreme Court of India to review and strike down constitutional amendments and acts enacted by the Parliament which conflict with or seek to alter this “basic structure” of the Constitution.
• The basic structure is a tool or judicial innovation to ensure that the legislature does not abuse the power given to it in Article 368.

Components of the Doctrine:

• The doctrine has not been specifically defined but the various court judgements have helped in formulating a scope of the same and it includes the following:

Significance:

• It has been applied to discover the intent of the constitution makers in framing the constitutional provisions, as in the case of Indira Gandhi v. Raj Narain.
• The basic structure doctrine constitutes a high watermark in the assertion of the Supreme Court’s judicial power in the teeth of a determined majoritarian regime.
• It protects the fundamental rights of the citizens against arbitrariness and authoritarianism of the legislature.
• It strengthens the cause of democracy and maintains the sanctity of the vision of our founding fathers.

Challenges:

• Fundamentally, it is inconsistent with the principle of separation of powers – By propounding the basic structure theory, the guardians of the Constitution had at one bound become guardians over the Constitution. In other words, constitutional adjudicators had assumed the role of constitutional governors.
• Vagueness and elusiveness of the basic and essential features of the Constitution – When the highest law of a country is not defined, persons in authority can manufacture definitions that can serve their political ambitions. It is, thus, dangerous to leave the meaning of ‘basic structure’ open-ended.
• The doctrine does not provide a technical solution to the amendment of constitutional amendments, which was the reason for its birth.

Way forward

The Constitution of India is an organic or living document and needs to be amended with the changing time and needs of the society. The framers of the Indian Constitution were aware of the fact that no generation has a monopoly of wisdom nor has it the right to place its decisions on future generations to mould the machinery of government according to their requirements. However, such power of amendment must be used judiciously.

Ninth Schedule of the Constitution

• In order to free India from the zamindari system, the Constitution went through its First Amendment, in the year 1951 and the Ninth Schedule became part of this document.
• It contains a list of central and state laws that are shielded from Judicial review.
• The Ninth Schedule is the detailed explanation of Article 31-B of the Indian Constitution.
• Initially, it had 13 laws, all of them aimed at land reforms but presently it contains 284 laws covering reservation, trade, industries, mine, etc.

Amendments as per article 368

• The framers of the Constitution took a middle path and made our Constitution rigid as well as flexible. Dr. Ambedkar called it a “flexible federation”.
• Part XX of the Indian Constitution contains Article 368.
• This article gives the Parliament power to amend the Constitution.
• It mentions three types of amendment:
• By a simple majority of both the houses of the Parliament (the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha)
• By a special majority of both the houses of the Parliament
• By a special majority of both the houses of the Parliament and ratified by half of the states. Ratified here means introduced as a bill on the floor of the state assembly and passed by a simple majority i.e., more than fifty percent present and voting.

Note: Various doctrines of Supreme Court

• Doctrine of Pith and Substance – if the substance of legislation falls within a legislature’s lawful power, the legislation does not become unconstitutional just because it impacts an issue beyond its area of authority.
• Doctrine of severability – when some particular provision of a statute offends or is against a constitutional limitation, but that provision is severable from the rest of the statute, only that offending provision will be declared void by the Court and not the entire statute.
• Doctrine of Eclipse – any law which is inconsistent with fundamental rights is not invalid. It is not totally dead but overshadowed by the fundamental right. The inconsistency (conflict) can be removed by constitutional amendment.
• Doctrine of Laches – emanates from the principle that the Courts will not help people who sleep over their rights and helps only those who are aware and vigilant about their rights. A party is said to be guilty of laches when they come to the Court to assert their rights after a considerable delay in that respect.
• Doctrine of territorial nexus- It means that the object shall be located outside the territorial limits of the state and has a territorial connection with the state.
• Doctrine of Colourable Legislation – It means when a legislature does not have the power to make laws on a particular subject directly, it cannot make laws on it indirectly.
• Doctrine of Harmonious Construction – when two provisions of a legal text seem to conflict, they should be interpreted so that each has a separate effect and neither is redundant or nullified.

Source:  Indian Express

Previous Year Question

Q.1) Consider the following statements: (2020)

1. The Constitution of India defines its ‘basic structure’ in terms of federalism, secularism, fundamental rights and democracy.
2. The Constitution of India provides for ‘judicial review’ to safeguard the citizens’ liberties and to preserve the ideals on which the Constitution is based.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

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

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Syllabus

• Prelims – International groups and maps
• Mains – GS 2 (Governance and International Relations)

Context: In recent Sweden elections, the Social Democrats a party with origins in the neo-Nazi movement conceded defeat even as Moderates are expected to form the government with other right-wing parties offering support.

• This shows a declining popularity of the Nordic model, or “democratic socialism”, as advocated by the new Green Movement and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, in the Nordic countries themselves.

Socialism and social democracy in Scandinavian:

• Terming the political-economic system in the Scandinavian countries, despite its strong welfarist basis and emphasis on collective bargaining as “socialist” would be a misnomer.
  • For one, the term “socialism” is associated with the regimes of the erstwhile Communist bloc, which had a heavy preponderance of the state in not just the ownership of the major means of production but also in political life with a one-party system drawing its ideological basis for rule on behalf of the working class.
• Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, new socialist regimes in recent years have sought to distance themselves from the one-party model in the so-called “second world”, instead focusing on retaining the functioning of market economies, while emphasising redistribution of wealth and a greater preponderance for the state in this process.
• The regimes in Latin America led by ruling parties in Venezuela, Bolivia and recently in Chile, can be termed “democratic socialist” — seeking to achieve socialist goals of redistribution and restructuring of formal democratic and liberal institutions in vastly unequal and elite driven systems.
• Political circles began to associate social democracy with Keynesianism, the Nordic model, the social-liberal paradigm, as well as welfare states in the late 20th century.

Defining features:

• Within socialism, social democracy is a left-wing political, social, and economic theory that promotes political and economic democracy. It is defined as a policy regime that supports economic and social interventions to advance social justice inside the framework of a liberal-democratic polity and a mixed economy that is capitalist-oriented.
  • A dedication to representative and participatory democracy
  • mechanisms for income redistribution
  • management of the economy in the public interest
  • social welfare policies

The ‘exceptional’ Scandinavian model

• In the Scandinavian countries, on the other hand, the systems are more akin to typical “social democracies” —
  • reliance on representative and participatory democratic institutions where separation of powers is ensured;
  • a comprehensive social welfare schema with emphasis on publicly provided social services and investment in child care, education, and research among others, that are funded by progressive taxation;
  • presence of strong labour market institutions with active labour unions and employer associations which allow for significant collective bargaining, wage negotiations and coordination besides an active role in governance and policy.
  • All these countries also follow a capitalist model of development, allowing for entrepreneurism and funding of welfare policies through a large degree of wage taxation in relation to corporate taxes.

Success of the Nordic countries:

• The commonalities in the Scandinavian countries — Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland — on many of these counts are measurable.
  • For example, among countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (featuring most high-income countries in the world), Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway have the highest proportion of the workforce belonging to trade unions.
• Education is free in all the Nordic States; health care is free in Denmark and Finland and partially free in Norway, Sweden, and Iceland ;
• workers get several benefits — from unemployment insurance to old age pensions, besides effective child care. Therefore, labour participation rates in these countries are among the highest in the world (even among women).
• The five Nordic nations rank in the top 10 among OECD countries in government expenditure on health and education if calculated as percentage of GDP.
• India can take a cue from the Nordic model since the State needs to find employment for its youth as well as provide welfare support to its vast section of vulnerable population.

Way Forward:

• One key reason for the thriving social democratic model in the Nordic countries has been their relatively smaller and more homogenous populations enabling focused governance.
• The “corporatist” model of involving interests of both capital and labour, mediated by the government at many levels, has allowed these countries to transition from agrarian to industrial to post-industrial (in some cases) and knowledge/service economies relatively smoothly.
• Thus, the Nordic model of social democracy offers lessons to the developing world, including countries like India despite the myriad complexities of diversities, differential internal development, and histories.

Source:  The Hindu               

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Syllabus

• Prelims – Polity and Governance
• Mains – Polity and Constitution

Context: A two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India is presently hearing arguments on the correctness of a Karnataka High Court judgment that upheld the ban on the use of the hijab by students in Karnataka.

The Karnataka Hijab row:

• A dispute pertaining to school uniforms erupted in Karnataka, when some Muslim students of a college who wanted to wear hijab to classes were denied entry on the grounds that it was a violation of the college’s uniform policy.
• Several educational institutions Karnataka government’s compulsory uniform order and denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab. This was challenged in the Karnataka High Court (HC).

The Karnataka HC, while it upheld the restriction on Muslim women wearing a hijab in educational institutions, made three primary findings in its judgment:

• First, it held that the use of a hijab is not essential to the practice of Islam. Thus, the right to freedom of religion was not violated.
• Second, it ruled that there exists no substantive right to freedom of expression or privacy inside a classroom and, therefore, these rights were simply not at stake here. It held classrooms as “qualified public spaces” where individual rights must give way to the interests of “general discipline and decorum”.
• Third, it held that the ban did not stem directly out of the government’s order, which only called for a uniform dress code to be prescribed by the State or school management committees, and, hence, the law did not discriminate, either directly or indirectly, against Muslim students.

To decide on the correctness of this verdict, the Supreme Court need not answer all the questions posed before it. A reversal of any of the three findings made by the High Court ought to result in a nullification of the ban.

Law and religion:

• In theory, the issues emanating out of these submissions ought to be capable of easy resolution, through an application of ordinary doctrines of constitutional law.
• But, as transcripts from the hearings have shown us, every time an argument over religious freedom in India is made, it invariably mires itself in the court-crafted doctrine of essential practice (ERP).

Essential religious practice (ERP) test is a doctrine evolved by the supreme court (SC) to protect only such religious practices under fundamental rights, which are essential and integral to religion. The doctrine of “essentiality” was invented by the SC in the Shirur Mutt case in 1954.

Constituent Assembly Debate:

The essential practices doctrine owes its existence to a speech made by B.R. Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly: “Ambedkar was striving to distinguish the religious from the secular, by arguing that the state should be allowed to intervene in matters that are connected to religion but are not intrinsically religious”.

Judicial verdict in Shirur Mutt case:

• Supreme Court (SC), in the Shirur Mutt case (1954), held that to determine what constituted an ‘essential’ aspect of religion, the Court ought to look towards the religion concerned, and to what its adherents believed was demanded by their faith.
• It has allowed the Court to narrow the extent of safeguards available to religious customs by directly impinging on the autonomy of groups to decide for themselves what they deem valuable, violating, in the process, their right to ethical independence.

The Sabarimala verdict on ERP:

• The essential practices test is not without alternatives. In his concurring opinion, in the case concerning the ban on entry of women into the Sabarimala temple, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud proposed one such doctrine: a principle of anti-exclusion.
• The anti-exclusion principal postulates that where a religious practice causes the exclusion of individuals in a manner which impairs their dignity or hampers their access to basic goods, the freedom of religion must give way to the over-arching values of a liberal constitution.

Way Forward:

But until such time as the essential practices doctrine is overruled by a Bench of more than seven judges, the Court is bound to apply its tenets. Perhaps that reassessment will happen when a nine-judge Bench constituted in the review petitions filed against the judgment in the Sabarimala case passes judgment.

For now, any Court hearing a matter touching upon a matter of faith including wearing hijab has the unenviable task of acting not merely as an expert on law but also as an expert on religion.

Source:  The Hindu

Previous Year Question

Q.1) A legislation which confers on the executive or administrative authority an unguided and uncontrolled discretionary power in the matter of the application of law violates which one of the following Articles of the Constitution of India? (2022)

1. Article 14
2. Article 28
3. Article 32
4. Article 44

Q.2) Consider the following statements:   (2020)

1. The Constitution of India defines its ‘basic structure’ in terms of federalism, secularism, fundamental rights, and democracy.
2. The Constitution of India provides for ‘judicial review’ to safeguard the citizens’ liberties and to preserve the ideals on which the Constitution is based.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

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

Syllabus

• GS-2: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
• GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context: Time and again, Supreme Court has called out on the partisan nature of CBI, India’s premier investigative agency. CBI has been termed as “caged parrot” pointing towards subordination of agency to the executive and its disastrous consequences for the cause of justice.

Read Complete Details on CBI and its troubles

Q.1) Consider the following statements:

1. The power of Judicial Review has been defined in the Constitution.
2. The legislature has full powers to amend all the Fundamental Rights of individuals.
3. As per the Supreme Court, every constitutional amendment has to be judged on its own merits.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 and only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 2 only
4. 3 only

Q.2) With reference to Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP), consider the following statements:

1. It was announced in March 2020 during the covid-19 pandemic.
2. It, among other things will also provide insurance cover to health workers.
3. It aims to provide employment to the poor in rural areas.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. 1 and 3 only
2. 2 only
3. 1 and 2 only
4. 1, 2, and 3

Q.3) Consider the following statements regarding Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in India:

1. The Santhanam Committee recommended for the establishment of the CBI.
2. CBI Director is appointed by the committee which is headed by the Home Minister.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

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

Comment the answers to the above questions in the comment section below!!

ANSWERS FOR ’20th September 2022 – Daily Practice MCQs’ will be updated along with tomorrow’s Daily Current Affairs.

Q.1) – a

Q.2) – d

Q.3) – d