Defence Minister recently highlighted the challenges faced by India due to what he termed ‘unprovoked aggression” on the northern border.

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• Addressing the first India-Russia 2+2 ministerial meeting, Defence Minister urged to discuss in detail the emerging challenges India is confronted with and the enhanced requirement of India for closer military-to-military technical collaboration with Russia. The pandemic, the extraordinary militarization and expansion of armament in our neighborhood and unprovoked aggression on our northern border since early summer of 2020 has thrown in several challenges.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has urged the State Governments to follow the crime analytics model of Delhi Police in preventing street crimes against women through crime mapping and identification of hotspots for reinforced action.

Key Points

• The Crime Mapping Analytics and Productive System and related tools were deployed on the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS).
• As part of the initiatives to strengthen the capacity to deal with cases of crimes against women, it was recommended that the SOP on registration of FIRs should include guidelines to police to record reasons for delay in reporting of crimes by the complainants to the police.
• A provision was made for recording this statement in the FIRs on the CCTNS.
• The States and Union Territories were told to widely circulate the BPR&D’s handbooks on ‘Women’s Safety & Security’ and ‘First respondents and Investigators’ to police personnel, and include the guidelines in the training modules.

Even as the southwest monsoon began to retreat from the subcontinent, Kerala and Uttarakhand received record rainfall in October.

• Over the last few years, there have been variations in the pattern and intensity of rainfallin both these States and others.

What explains the torrential rain in Kerala and Uttarakhand?

When the atmosphere and the ocean is considered as a whole, rain everywhere is the result of moisture rushing up to fill differences in temperature between oceans and the land.

• Warming oceans are contributing to intense spells of rainfall in pockets followed by long rainless spells.

But specific instances — such as what is being seen in Kerala and Uttarakhand — aren’t unprecedented.

The monsoon cycle is prone to large variations, and every year, regional factors get accentuated which then lead to extreme climate events.

Context: As Sri Lanka battles to revive its Covid-battered economy, New Delhi and Colombo have agreed on a four-pronged cooperation package comprising urgent food and health security, energy security, currency swap and Indian investments.

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• The short- to medium-term plan was decided during the Sri Lanka Finance Minister visit to India recently.
• Sri Lankan met his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, among others.
• The brother of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister and President, the Finance Minister is considered a political strategist.
• Both sides expressed satisfaction over the evolving trajectory of the bilateral relationship. During the discussions, they identified ways and means through which the existing bilateral economic relationship between the two countries could be further broadened and deepened.
• The Indian ministers expressed solidarity and reiterated that the country has always stood by Sri Lanka.
• According to the statement it was agreed that modalities to implement these objectives would be finalised within a mutually agreed timeline.
• The ministers also agreed to open direct lines of communication to coordinate the initiatives.
• According to a statement issued by the Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi, the two sides discussed “four pillars” for short- and medium-term cooperation.

Over the last few sessions, MPs mainly from the Opposition have often alleged their questions have been disallowed.

How are questions admitted?

• In both Houses, elected members enjoy the right to seek information from various ministries and departments in the form of starred questions, unstarred questions, short notice questions and questions to private members.
• Usually, MPs’ questions form a long list, which then go through a rigorous process of clearance. The admissibility of questions in Rajya Sabha is governed by Rules 47-50 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States.
• Once a question that fulfils the conditions of admissibility is received, the Secretariat sends it to the ministry concerned.
• Once the facts are received from the ministry, the question is further examined for admissibility. A final list of questions is circulated to ministers, on the basis of which they frame their answers.
• In Lok Sabha, once the notice for questions is received, ballots determine priority.
  • Starred, unstarred and short notice questions are entered into software, separately.
  • Next, the questions are examined for admissibility under Rules 41-44 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.
• For answering the questions, ministries and departments have been divided into five groups (I to V) that have been allotted Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays respectively.

The 1817 Paika rebellion of Odisha could not be called the first war of Independence, but considering it as a beginning of a popular uprising against the British, it would be included as a case study in the Class 8 National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) history textbook, according to the Union Culture Minister.

• The Culture Ministry had received a reference from the Odisha Chief Minister asking that the Paika rebellion be declared the first war of Independence.

Paika rebellion of 1817

• Paikas had been recruited since the 16th century by kings in Odisha from a variety of social groups to render martial services in return for rent-free land (nish-kar jagirs) and titles.
• After entering Odisha in 1803, the British introduced new revenue settlements, due to which many Odia proprietors ended up losing their lands to absentee Bengali landlords.
• Changes in the currency and revenue systems meant the Odias had to pay taxes in silver, which was more expensive for them, and resulted in their further marginalisation and oppression.

The country has 58,098 manual scavengers and 42,594 of them belong to the Scheduled Castes, the government has told Parliament.

Key Data

• The Minister of State of Social Justice and Empowerment said that a number of surveys on manual scavengers in the country have been carried out according to the provisions of the manual scavenging Act, 2013.
• These surveys have confirmed a disproportionately large number of manual scavengers from Scheduled Castes alone.
• According to this data, 431 manual scavengers are OBCs, 421 are from Scheduled Tribes and 351 manual scavengers belong to the “Others’’ category.
• The ministry said the government is implementing a central employment scheme for rehabilitation of manual scavengers which provides a one-time cash assistance of Rs 40,000, and skill training for the person and their dependents with a stipend of Rs 3,000 per month for the period of their training.
• It also provides for capital subsidy of Rs 5 lakh for those who have taken loans for self-employment projects and health insurance under Ayushman Bharat for scavengers and their families.

 The latest World Inequality Report 2022 states that Since the mid-1990s, the richest 1 per cent captured 38 per cent of wealth growth at the global level.

Key Highlights of the report

• Global billionaire wealth in 2021 represents 3.5 per cent of the world’s household wealth, with the share of the global top 0.01 per cent up from 7 per cent of global wealth in 1995 to 11 per cent this year.
• The report suggested developing new forms of wealth taxation on multimillionaires, including a progressive rate of wealth tax with tax rates according to the value of the total amount of wealth owned.
• Proposal: 
  • The time is right to develop new forms of wealth taxation, to modernise our tax system, to take stock of what has been happening in the economy over the past decades.
  • What has been happening is a higher concentration of wealth, more wealth inequality and our tax systems so far in most countries in the world have not adapted to this.
  • It makes sense when the governments are looking for money, looking for how to repay the debt of Covid.
  • A global wealth tax on multi millionaires, people who own more than a million dollars or euros and this tax in this proposal is progressive, meaning that the rates are going to be according to the value of the total amount of wealth that you own.
• In countries, where wealth is highly concentrated, more rates on the stock of wealth of very wealthy individuals can deliver high amounts of revenues.
• As per the report, the richest 10 per cent own around 60-80 per cent of wealth and the poorest half systematically own less than 5 per cent of wealth.
• The government intervention is key to tackle inequality with social and tax policies.
• Women today get just one-third of all labour income in the world whereas gender parity would mean they get half of that.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has batted for more functional autonomy to civic bodies as the Covid pandemic has put severe strain on the third tier of the government.

Reason behind this–

• According to the RBI’s report on state governments’ finances, the third-tier governments in India playing a frontline role in combating the pandemic by implementing containment strategies, healthcare, quarantining and testing facilities, organising vaccination camps and maintaining the supply of essential goods and services, their finances have come under severe strain, forcing them to cut down expenditures and mobilise funding from various sources.

Recommendations–

• According to the central bank, increasing the functional autonomy of the civic bodies, strengthening their governance structure and financially empowering them via higher resource availability through self-resource generation and transfers are critical for building resilience and effective interventions at the grass-root level.
• State governments should set up State Finance Commissions (SFC) at regular intervals, in line with the recommendations of FC XV.
• States may also urge rural and urban local bodies to make audited accounts available online in a timely manner to access grants.
• In addition, States should undertake local body reforms as stipulated by the Centre to improve the financial autonomy of third-tier governments.

More than six lakh Indians renounced citizenship in the past five years, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the Lok Sabha recently.

• In 2021, till September 30, 1,11,287 Indians gave up their citizenship.

Probable reason for exodus

• The reason for a large number of Indians surrendering their citizenship was not stated.
• Though, in 2018, the MHA revised Form XXII under Citizenship Rules for declaration of renunciation of citizenship, which, for the first time, included a column on “circumstances/reasons due to which applicant intends to acquire foreign citizenship and renounce Indian citizenship”.
• Recently, the MHA had simplified the process and provisions were made for the applicants to upload documents online and an upper limit of 60 days was fixed for the renunciation process to be completed.