DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS IAS | UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam –10th May 2024

Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – Current Event,India and its neighbourhood relations.

Context: Nepal’s cabinet last week decided to put a map on its Rs 100 currency note showing certain areas administered by India in Uttarakhand as part of its territory, provoking External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to say that such “unilateral measures” by Kathmandu would not change the reality on the ground.

Background:-

• The map was adopted by consensus in Nepal’s Parliament four years ago.Unlike then, when the new map was adopted, the May 2 decision to put it on the currency note has met with scepticism and criticism in Nepal.

About the issue

• The territorial dispute is about a 372-sq-km area that includes Limpiadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani at the India-Nepal-China trijunction in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district. Nepal has claimed for long that these areas belong to it both historically and evidently.
• The Treaty of Sugauli at the end of the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16 resulted in Nepal losing a chunk of territory to the East India Company. Article 5 of the treaty took away the jurisdiction of Nepal’s rulers over the land to the east of the Kali River.
• The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Nepal in 2014 gave rise to hopes of a resolution of all contentious issues.
• Modi and his Nepali counterpart, Sushil Prasad Koirala, agreed to set up a boundary working group for speedy settlement of the border issue in Kalapani and Susta, a 145-sq-km area that had fallen on the Indian side after the River Gandak changed course.

Frictions in bilateral ties

• The goodwill of the 2005-14 period when India mediated the transition of the Hindu Kingdom into a secular federal republic, evaporated in 2015 after the Maoists rejected outright the suggestion of New Delhi, conveyed through then Foreign Secretary Jaishankar, that Nepal’s new constitution should be delayed until the concerns of the Terai parties were addressed.
• The 134-day blockade of Nepal that began in September 2015 created significant distrust against India, and K P Sharma Oli, who took over as Prime Minister that October, quickly moved to sign a trade and transit agreement with China in order to create a fallback source for the supply of essential goods.
• In February 2018, Oli, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), returned as Prime Minister with a massive mandate in the first election held under the new constitution.
• In 2020, he took the lead to build the consensus in Parliament for Nepal’s new map that formally included the 372 sq km in Uttarakhand, and pledged to bring it back.
• India decried Nepal’s “cartographic aggression” as unacceptable, but said the issue would have to be sorted out through diplomatic channels, on the basis of evidence. It is noteworthy that the cabinet decision on printing the new Rs 100 notes has come less than two months after Oli’s party joined the ruling coalition in Nepal.
• Nepal sorted out its boundary issues with China in the early 1960s through bilateral meetings of the boundary commission. Nepal’s former Prime Minister Kirtinidhi Bista had once quoted his Chinese counterpart Chou En-lai as saying that border issues, if left unresolved, turn into problems for the future generations that are difficult to address.

Source:Indian Express

Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – Economic and Social Development

Context: A new government will soon be taking up the challenge of making India viksit by 2047. With women lagging behind on several parameters of well-being in the country today, empowering them economically lies at the heart of the challenge we face in transforming India into a developed country.

Background:

• As history has shown, women are empowered when they step out of their homes and enter market work only when their education levels rise and “good” jobs appear. Improving the value of investments in women’s human capital, and at a low cost, is our best bet for engendering gender parity and creating a “developed” society.”

Key Takeaways

• India’s overall employment rate has historically been around 50 per cent of the working-age population — much lower than in China (almost 70 per cent) or even our neighbour, Bangladesh (about 55 per cent), according to ILO and World Bank estimates. Bringing more working-age population into the productive workforce is critical to achieving a high GDP growth rate. Amongst the main reasons for the significantly lower labour force participation (LFP) rate in India, is women’s low LFP (currently around 25 per cent).
• According to World Bank estimates, Increasing women’s LFP to 50 per cent of labour force will bring India closer to 8 per cent GDP growth rates and a five-trillion dollar economy by 2030.
• At the core of expanding the LFP rates of the currently low-skilled, low-educated women, is expanding our manufacturing capacity, which shrank from 17 per cent of GDP to about 13 per cent in the last decade.
• Increasing production capacity is required in labour-intensive sectors such as readymade garments, footwear, and other light manufacturing, where women form a large proportion of workers.
• A key marker of a developed country is a dominant formal sector. The underlying challenge is to provide high-quality, relevant and affordable skilling to the masses, and women in particular.  Improving physical access, easing financial support and improving employer matches after skill training are some of the key areas that require interventions.
• While about 25 per cent of India’s employed are engaged in salaried (mostly formal sector) work, this proportion is 55 per cent and 40 per cent in China and Bangladesh, respectively.
• The ongoing structural transformation away from agriculture, and the informal character of the labour market, has affected women disproportionately in the past few decades — the fall in rural women’s labour force participation accompanies a high proportion of women working in the informal sector (almost 90 per cent).
• Although several policy initiatives are being undertaken to improve the skilling ecosystem in India, they currently lack focus on redressing stark gender imbalances. Improving physical access, easing financial support and improving employer matches after skill training are some of the key areas that require interventions. Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) offer the most affordable and dense network of skilling programs across the country, but only about 7 per cent of those who enrol in ITIs are women.
• Evidence also suggests that women have worse employment outcomes even if they are skill-trained, relative to men. Career counselling, job placement cells embedded in training institutes and harnessing alumni networks to activate women “role models” and mentors for female trainees, may be effective tools to redress this gender imbalance.”
• As India urbanises at a rapid pace, we need cities that welcome, accommodate and enable women’s mobility.
• Urgent policy focus is required for planning urban infrastructure, transportation and public safety with a gender lens. With rapid demographic shifts and population ageing, a high-quality, subsidised urban care infrastructure will not only release women from care work but also create new jobs for them in this sector.

Source: Indian Express

Syllabus

• Prelims & Mains – Environment

Context: The Supreme Court sought a report from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) related to the illegal sand mining case in Tamil Nadu.

Background:

• The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 130.60 crore in connection with an illegal sand mining case in Tamil Nadu.

Key takeaways:

• Sand mining involves the extraction of sand from various sources, including rivers, beaches, and seabeds.
• Sand is a valuable resource used in construction, manufacturing, and other industries.
• Approximately 40-50 billion tonnes of sand are extracted globally each year, but the management and regulation of sand mining are often inadequate in many countries.

Illegal Sand Mining in India

• Illegal sand mining in India is a crime under Sections 378 and 379 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
• Natural resources are considered public property, and the state acts as their trustee.
• Violating this trust by engaging in illegal sand mining can have severe consequences.

Some of the social and economic Impacts:

• Displacement: Communities that depend on riverbanks for their livelihoods, such as fishing and agriculture, face displacement due to sand mining.
• Environmental Degradation: Excessive sand mining disrupts river ecosystems, alters river channels, and contributes to erosion. For instance, in the Papagani catchment area in Karnataka, illegal sand mining has led to groundwater depletion and environmental degradation in communities along the river banks in both Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
• Biodiversity Loss: Sand mining affects aquatic habitats, threatening native species adapted to pre-mining conditions.

• Groundwater Depletion: Unregulated extraction impacts groundwater levels, affecting water availability for communities.

Source: The Hindu

Previous Year Question

1. Q) Which of the following is/are the possible consequences/s of heavy sand mining in riverbeds?
2. Decreased salinity in the river
3. Pollution of groundwater
4. Lowering of the water table

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

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

Syllabus

• Prelims – Geography

Context: Israel’s military has ordered tens of thousands of Palestinians to leave Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip.

Background:

• This move comes amid growing fears of a ground assault on the area. Approximately 100,000 people in eastern Rafah have been directed to evacuate to “an expanded humanitarian area” along the coast.

About Rafah :

• Rafah is a city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt.
• It is the capital of the Rafah Governorate of the State of Palestine, located approximately 30 kilometers southwest of Gaza City.

Importance:

• Historical Significance: Rafah has been a site of human settlement since ancient times, known by various names throughout history.
• Geopolitical Relevance: The city’s proximity to Egypt makes it a strategic location for trade and cross-border movement. It is also the site of the Rafah Border Crossing, the sole crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
• Humanitarian Aspect: Rafah has been a refuge for Palestinians, especially during conflicts. As of April 2024, it is reported that about 1.5 million people are believed to be sheltering in Rafah due to massive bombardment and ground assaults in other parts of the Gaza Strip.
• Military Operations: The city has been a focal point in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, with recent military operations targeting the area due to the presence of Hamas operative.

Source: The Hindu

Syllabus

• Mains – GS 4

Context: Patronage appointments in the public sector raise several ethical issues that can affect the efficiency and accountability of the civil service.

Background:

• Increasing number of patronage appointments at various levels are a serious concern.

Patronage Appointments:

• It refers to the appointments that are made based on the recommendation or source (personal connections) of an influential person, political leader, public servant, etc. This has not only affected the people involved by has affected the overall Governance of India.

Ethical Issues involved in Patronage Appointments:

• When appointees get their position through patronage, then they are likely to be more accountable to that person rather than to the system.
• Ideally, positions should be awarded based on individuals’ abilities and qualifications. Bypassing meritocracy indirectly compromises the integrity of the system and can result in ineffective or incompetent individuals occupying important roles.
• In the light of appointments through patronage, qualified and capable individuals may feel their efforts and qualifications are not given equal consideration.
• It erodes public trust in the fairness and impartiality of the system and people in power. It leads to a loss of confidence in the administration as a whole. The associated nepotism/favouritism further erodes the trust of the individual in the system.

Impacts of Patronage Appointments:

• It can be used as a means to reward political allies, secure support, or engage in quid pro quo arrangements. It promotes the diversion of resources away from public welfare toward personal gain.
• Incompetent and inexperienced officeholders appointed through patronage struggle to implement policies effectively. This can result in poor policy outcomes, delays, or hindrances in the overall governance process.
• This can lead to a loss of motivation and talent within the public service as individuals feel undervalued and unappreciated.
• Citizens may perceive the system as corrupt, nepotistic, and lacking in transparency. This can weaken the legitimacy of the government and undermine its ability to govern effectively.
• Growth and development are dependent on governance. Ineffective officials who are appointed through a patronage system may not be able to effect optimal utilization of resources.

Way Forward:

• Ensure that institutions have the authority, resources, and mandate to conduct fair and transparent selection processes based on merit.
• Reduce political influence in the appointment process by establishing an independent and non-partisan body responsible for overseeing appointments in public offices.
• Emphasize the importance of qualifications, experience, and competence in the recruitment and selection process.
• Promote the internalization of concepts of public service and integrity to ensure ethical decision-making.
• Foster collaboration with civil society organizations, professional associations, and academic institutions to promote accountability, monitor the appointment process, and advocate for reforms.

Source: Microeconomic Insights

Syllabus

• Prelims- Polity

Context: A recent article contrasts end-of-life care in India and the West, emphasizing the need for a dignified passing for all.

Background:

• It calls for a rational system to ensure peaceful deaths and highlights the Right to Peaceful Death.

Key takeaways

• The Right to Peaceful Death refers to the right of individuals to pass away with dignity and without unnecessary suffering.
• Although it is not explicitly mentioned in the Indian Constitution, the Supreme Court of India has recognized the right to die with dignity as a fundamental aspect of the right to life under Article 21.
• This recognition came in the landmark case of Common Cause (A Regd. Society) v. Union of India (2018), where the court upheld the legality of passive euthanasia and the right to make advance directives for medical treatment.

Euthanasia in India

• The law in India distinguishes between active and passive euthanasia.
• Active Euthanasia: This involves intentionally administering lethal compounds to end a person’s life. It remains illegal in India.
• Passive Euthanasia: This refers to withholding or withdrawing life support, allowing a terminally ill or vegetative patient to pass away naturally. Passive euthanasia has been legalized in specific circumstances.

Source: The Hindu

Q1.) Supreme Court of India has recognized the right to die with dignity as a fundamental aspect of the right to life under

1. Article 14
2. Article 20
3. Article 19
4. Article 21

Q2.) Rafah Border Crossing, recently seen in news is the sole crossing point between

1. Russia and the Crimea
2. Egypt and the Gaza Strip
3. Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh
4. Sudan with the Tigray Region

Q3.) With reference to sand mining, consider the following statements:

1. Sand mining involves the extraction of sand from various sources, including rivers, beaches, and seabeds.
2. Unregulated Sand extraction destroys river and beach habitats critical for various aquatic species.
3. Illegal sand mining in India is a crime under the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

How many of the statements given above are correct?

1. Only one
2. Only two
3. All three
4. None

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

ANSWERS FOR ’  10th May 2024 – Daily Practice MCQs’ will be updated along with tomorrow’s Daily Current Affairs.st

Q.1) – c

Q.2) – a

Q.3) – c