Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• Recently, the Karnataka High Court decided in favour of the state’s circular requiring students at educational institutions to only wear uniforms that were specified by the school. The ruling came in response to the hijab dispute.
• Accordingly, the ruling effectively supported the restriction of access to students who were wearing the hijab.
• When it came to Muslim females wearing head scarves, the court rejected an argument based on the concept of ‘reasonable accommodation’ in favour of the practise.

The ‘Reasonable Accommodation’ principle is defined as follows:

• ‘Reasonable accommodation’ is a principle that promotes equality, allows for the giving of positive rights, and prohibits discrimination on the basis of a disability, health condition, or personal belief.
• Its primary application is in the field of disability rights.
• It highlights the affirmative duty of the state and private parties to give additional help to people with disabilities in order to enable them to participate fully and effectively in society.
• It is impossible for a disabled person to claim the constitutionally established fundamental rights to equality (Article 14), the six freedoms (Article 19), and the right to life (Article 21) without receiving the additional support that helps to make these rights real and meaningful for themselves.
• Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) states that it is necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments that do not impose a disproportionate or undue burden on persons with disabilities in order to ensure that they can enjoy or exercise all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with others (including voting).

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• In spite of the fact that India has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, it is one of the world’s unhappiest countries.
• The World Happiness Report 2022, released ahead of the United Nations International Day of Happiness, which will be marked on March 20, ranks India 136th, ninth from the bottom of the list.

The World Happiness Report

• The World Happiness Report is a publication of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network that is based on data from the Gallup World Poll and is released every year.
• Beyond economic and social characteristics, the study, now in its 10th year, makes use of worldwide survey data to report on how individuals perceive their own lives, in addition to economic and social parameters.
• In order to arrive at these rankings, They used average data from a three-year period between 2019 and 2021.
• The World Happiness Report assesses levels of happiness throughout the world by taking into consideration characteristics such as GDP, social support, personal freedom, and degrees of corruption in each country.

Highlights of the report

• According to the 10th edition of the World Happiness Report, Finland topped the list for the fifth year in a row, surpassing the United States.
• Finland came in first, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Finland was the only country to make the top five.
• When it comes to other western countries, although the United States came in at number 16, Britain was at number 17 and France came in at number twenty.
• India’s performance in the World Happiness Measure remained weak, with its place improving just barely to 136 from 139 the previous year, according to the index.
• Only Afghanistan, which is administered by the Taliban, performed worse than India among the South Asian countries.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The Navy said it is building capacity to ensure that whatever capacity China can bring into the region, it has all those capabilities to counter that, at the parliamentary standing committee on defence.

How geography helps India 

• India’s central location in the Indian Ocean makes it the natural naval power in that ocean. India can use historical ties, the influence of diaspora communities, and the guarantee of security to increase its naval involvement in both the eastern and western extremities of the Indian Ocean, near the Straits of Malacca and in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.
• Lord Curzon pointed out that India could veto any rival in Tibet, but India has lost its position there since the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China moved into Tibet in 1950. Having lost control of the high ground — literally — in regards to Tibet, there is little India can do to exert influence in that direction, or over a stronger China.
• India could shore up its relations with Southeast Asia, which shares both land and sea borders with India and the Indian Ocean.
• India’s only foreign military base is located in Tajikistan, which allows it to continue to be involved in Afghanistan and Central Asia.
• Modern India is situated between the Middle East, Central Asia, China, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean.
• India can also use its central location in the Indian Ocean to become a hub of transportation, communication, and trade.
• On the high seas it commands the routes to Australia and the China Sea.
• In the case of China, the Navy said China’s coastline is 18,000 km and has other adversaries. So, the number of assets that China can bring into the Indian Ocean is much less.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• Japan has conveyed that it still has not given up hope that India might reconsider joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that it quit in 2019, indicating that India-Japan collaborations in other countries may be impacted if India continues to stay out.
• The Japanese Government said that India will be treated exceptionally as a founding member and if India is willing to negotiate its re-entry to RCEP, Japan would be happy to take a lead on that.

About RCEP

• 15 Asia-Pacific nations has signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which covers over 2.2 billion people and accounts for 30 per cent of the world’s economy. It came into force on January 1 this year.
• The signatory countries include 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — and their five trade partners — Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
• Described as the “largest” regional trading agreement to this day, RCEP was originally being negotiated between 16 countries — ASEAN members and six countries namely Australia, China, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and India.
• The purpose of RCEP was to make it easier for products and services of each of these countries to be available across this region. The agreement also includes rules on intellectual property, telecommunications, financial and professional services, and e-commerce.
• Negotiations to chart out this deal had been on since 2013, and India was expected to be a signatory.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• During the current financial year, Annual Action Plans of 33 States/ Union Territories (UTs) have been approved under RGSA and an amount of Rs. 547.411 crore has been released to 23 States/ UTs for undertaking approved activities including Capacity Building & Training of ERs and other stakeholders. Nearly 25,75,636 participants have been trained during the current financial year.

Rationale of the Scheme

• Mahatma Gandhi envisioned villages as mini-republics and advocated that true democracy should begin with participation from the grass-root level by the people of every village.
• The 73rd Constitutional Amendment mandated the three tier Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to function as units of local self–government and envisioned a people-led development at the grass roots level.
• Panchayati Raj System was mandated with the twin objectives of ensuring economic development and social justice for the people living in the rural areas.

About Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA)

• The Union Budget 2016-17 announced the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for building capabilities of Panchayati Raj Institutions for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Key local development challenges faced by the country viz. poverty, public health, nutrition, education, gender, sanitation, drinking water, livelihood generation, etc. are in sync with SDGs and fall within the realm of Panchayats.
• The Panchayats have therefore been designated as a key player for implementation of the United Nations SDGs to be achieved by 2030.
• The scheme extends to all States and UTs including non-Part IX areas where Panchayats do not exist.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• The International Court of Justice has ruled that Russia should suspend its military operations in Ukraine immediately. The ICJ in its order said that the Russian Federation shall immediately suspend the military operations that it commenced recently in the territory of Ukraine.

About ICJ

• The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in 1946.
• The court is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which was brought into being through, and by, the League of Nations, and which held its inaugural sitting at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1922.
• After World War II, the League of Nations and PCIJ were replaced by the United Nations and ICJ respectively. The PCIJ was formally dissolved in 1946, and its last president, Judge José Gustavo Guerrero of El Salvador, became the first president of the ICJ.
• The first case, which was brought by the UK against Albania and concerned incidents in the Corfu channel — the narrow strait of the Ionian Sea between the Greek island of Corfu and Albania on the European mainland — was submitted in 1947.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• In 2021, India will have added a record 10 Gigawatts (GW) of solar energy capacity to its total installed capacity. This has been the most significant 12-month capacity expansion, with approximately a 200 percent increase in capacity year on year. As of the 28th of February, in 2022, India has achieved a total installed solar capacity of more than 50 GW.
• This is a significant step forward in India’s goal of generating 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030, with solar power accounting for almost 30% of the total. India’s capacity increases place the nation sixth in the world in terms of solar power deployment, accounting for roughly 6.5 percent of the world’s total cumulative solar power capacity of 709.68 Gigawatts (GW).

Why is India falling short in roof-top solar installations?

• It is symptomatic of the significant drive to increase the number of utility-scale solar projects across the country that there has been a rapid increase in big, ground-mounted solar energy installations. The deployment of RTS is expected to reach 6.48 GW in 2021, falling well short of the Union Government’s aim of 40 GW of RTS by the end of the year 2022. Due to the emphasis on large-scale solar PV, the various benefits of decentralised renewable energy (DRE) choices, such as the decrease in transmission and distribution (T&D) losses, are not being fully exploited.
• One of the key advantages of solar PV technology is that it can be deployed close to the point of consumption, hence avoiding the need for big, capital-intensive transmission system facilities. As a result, India must deploy large-scale solar PV together with smaller-scale solar PV, and it must increase its efforts in renewable transportation systems (RTS). Residential users and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) that wish to install RTS, on the other hand, may find it difficult to obtain financing.
• As a result of this, and the tepid response from power distribution companies (DISCOMS) to adopting net metering, RTS adoption continues to be low across the country. Governments, utilities, and banks will all need to look at new financial systems that will lower the cost of loans while also lowering the risk of investing on the part of investors.
• Increased awareness, as well as inexpensive financing for RTS projects, have the potential to enable the widespread adoption of RTS by thousands of SMEs and households across the country. Roof space consolidation might also assist to lower the overall cost of RTS installations by allowing for the development of economies of scale.

Context

• Under the FAME-India Scheme, incentives are provided to buyers of electric vehicles in the form of an upfront reduction in the purchase price of electric vehicles.
• The incentive is linked to battery capacity i.e. Rs. 10,000/KWh for e-3W and e-4W with a cap 20% of the cost of vehicle. Further, the incentive/ subsidies for e-2W has been increased to Rs. 15,000/KWh from Rs. 10,000/KWh with an increase in cap from 20% to 40% of the cost of vehicle w.e.f. 11th June, 2021.

About the Scheme

• The National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 is a National Mission document providing the vision and the roadmap for the faster adoption of electric vehicles and their manufacturing in the country.
• As part of the NEMMP 2020, the Department of Heavy Industry (under the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises) formulated a Scheme viz. Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme in 2015.
• The objective of the FAME India scheme is to promote manufacturing of electric and hybrid vehicle technology and to ensure sustainable growth of the same.
• The scheme encourages adoption of Electric and hybrid vehicles by offering upfront incentives on purchase of Electric vehicles and establishing a necessary charging Infrastructure for electric vehicles.
• The scheme aims at addressing the issue of environmental pollution and fuel security.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Context

• To punish Russia for its actions in Ukraine, the United States and other members of the Group of Seven (G7) will remove Russia’s “Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR)” designation.
• Taking this step would open the door for the United States to slap tariffs on a wide variety of Russian imports, increasing the pressure on a country that is on the verge of entering a serious recession.
  • A recession is defined as a period of falling economic performance throughout an entire economy that lasts for many months or more.
  • The G7 is a group of industrialised western countries (the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States) that was created in 1975.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• Recently, Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change in Lok Sabha gave information on ICAP.

About ICAP

• The India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) was launched in 2019 by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. The ICAP provides a 20-year perspective and outlines actions needed to provide access to sustainable cooling.
• The plan describes cooling as a “developmental need” and seeks to address the rising demand in cooling, from buildings to transport to cold-chains, through sustainable actions.
• The overarching goal of ICAP is to provide sustainable cooling and thermal comfort for all while securing environmental and socio-economic benefits for the society. This will also help in reducing both direct and indirect emissions.
• The plan estimates that the national cooling demand would grow eight times in the next 20 years, which would result in a corresponding five to eight-fold rise in the demand for refrigerants that involve the use of HFCs.