Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2 (Governance)

Context:

In popular perception, indian courts aren’t associated first with the delivery of justice, but with long delays and difficulties for ordinary litigants. Consistent with data released by the supreme court within the june 2020 newsletter of the e-committee, 3.27 crore cases are pending before indian courts, of which 85,000 are pending for over 30 years.

E-courts project:

• The e-committee of the supreme court of india recently released its draft vision document for phase iii of the e-courts project.
• Phases i and ii had dealt with digitisation of the judiciary, i.e., e-filing, tracking cases online, uploading judgments online, etc. This has helped in easing justice delivery procedures.
• For example, phase ii of the e-courts project saw the development of the national service and tracking of electronic processes, software that enabled e-service of summons.

SYLLABUS: GENERAL STUDIES PAPER 2 (GOVERNANCE)

CONTEXT:

The pandemic has hit millions of people and caused a great deal of suffering across communities. But there is one community that is especially hard hit and that is sex workers. Owing to the non-recognition of sex work as “legitimate work”, sex workers have mostly been kept at arm’s length from the government’s relief programmes. COVID-19 has thus provided more reason to consider a long-pending demand of sex workers in India — decriminalisation of sex work and a guaranteed set of labour rights.

AN ARCHAIC, REGRESSIVE VIEW:

• The legislation governing sex work in Indiais the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
• The Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Children Act was enacted in 1956.
• Subsequent amendments were made to the law and the name of the Act was changed to Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
• The legislation penalises actssuch as:
  • keeping a brothel,
  • soliciting in a public place,

Syllabus– General Studies-2 (Health)

Context–

Various incidents of vaccine hesitancy have been reported across the country in recent months.

• In Uttar Pradesh, villagers reportedly jumped into the river due to rumours about the vaccines causing impotency.
• In Kashmir, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Baramullah declared that “adding to vaccine hesitancy should be treated as abetting murder.”
• In Madhya Pradesh, health officials were attacked over vaccine hesitancy.

All this is happening even after in early January, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) released the ‘Covid-19 Vaccine Communication Strategy’. This comprehensive document with action points was supposed to serve as a guide for national, state and district level authorities to fight vaccine hesitancy.

Syllabus- General Studies 1(Human geography)

Context

• China has announced that it will allow couples to have up to three children, after census data showed a steep decline in birth rates.
• China scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2016, replacing it with a two-child limit which has failed to lead to a sustained upsurge in births.

India, on the other hand, has been toying with the idea of population control measures through a two-child norm.

Lessons from China

• This policy decision by China should serve as a warningto India that coercive population strategies can be counter-productive.
• India can learn from China’s failed experience of enforcing coercive population policies.
• Stringent population control measures in India can make the country land in the issues of an ageing population and very few people to take care of them.

Present Status

Syllabus- General Studies 2(Health)

Context-

• The second wave Covid has shook the country with widespread infection and high number of cases.
• However, despite the spike in cases, the average Covid patient in India faces 50 per cent less risk of mortality compared to the global average.
• India’s Covid case fatality at 1.16 per cent is nearly half of the global average of 2.17 per cent.

Facts-

• Studies have shown that over 70 per cent of mortalities associated with Covid are due to underlying noncommunicable diseases (NCD) like diabetes, cardiovascular ailments and cancer.
• A study by the NCD team, Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and Viatris shows that every 10% decline in the NCD mortality rate leads to a 20% decline in Covid mortality rate.

Syllabus- General Studies 2: Indian Polity

Context

As the elections in four states and one Union territory in March-April are suspected to have contributed to the second wave of Covid infections, a well-reasoned debate on a concept as important as “one nation, one election” is called for.

• According to NITI Ayog, barring a few exceptional years within a normal 5 year tenure of the Lok Sabha, the country witnesses, on an average, elections to about 5-7 State Assemblies every year.
• The idea has been around since at least 1983, when the Election Commission first mooted it.

Concerns

The concept needs to be debated mainly around five issues:

1. Financial costs of conducting elections;
2. Cost of repeated administrative freezes;
3. Campaign and finance costs of political parties
4. Visible and invisible costs of repeatedly deploying security forces; and
5. Question of regional/smaller parties having a level playing field.

Syllabus: General studies paper 1 (child rights)

Context:

Recently, the Supreme Court had to injunct an interpretation of ‘skin-to-skin contact’ given by the Bombay High Court.

More in News:

1. Over the last nine years, India has sought to “protect children from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography” through the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
2. But the POCSO act has so far not been able to bring about the desirable change.
3. Protection of children by the state is guaranteed to Indian citizens by an expansive reading of Article 21 of the Constitution of Indiaand also mandated given India’s status as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
4. Before the implementation of the POCSO Act, the Goa Children’s Act, 2003, was the only specific piece of child abuse legislation.

Syllabus: General studies paper 3(IT & computer)

Context:

• Recently, vitalik buterin, the founder of ethereum donated cryptocurrency worth $1 bn for covid19 relief in india.

Introduction:

• Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, was created in 2008 by satoshi nakamoto and with the growth of the internet; many more crypto currencies have been introduced in the world such as ethereum , doge coin etc. It has spread overwhelmingly across the world. As of today market share has touched $2.5 tn in may, 2020.

Technology used in cryptocurrency:

Blockchain:

• The blockchain is a network where people share their extra space and computational powers in computers and create a global supercomputer that is accessible to everyone. It performs functions like verifications of transactions and contracts, and updating and maintenance of such records in tamper proof ledgers.

Why in News ?

• Recently, the former Chief Secretary of West Bengalwas served a show cause notice by the Home Ministry under Section 51 of the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005.
  • Key Points

About the Show Cause Notice:

• The notice was issuedfor failing to comply with the Centre’s directions to attend the review meeting on Cyclone Yaas chaired by the Prime Minister in Bengal’s Kalaikunda.
• The Act is violative of Section 51 (b) of the DM Act, 2005.
• Though the DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training)is the cadre-controlling authority of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, the show cause notice was served under provisions of the DM Act, which is under the purview of the Home Ministry.

SYLLABUS: GENERAL STUDIES PAPER 2 (POLICIES AND INTERVENTIONS FOR DEVELPOMENT)

CONTEXT:

New Lakshadweep regulations proposed by its new administrator are attracting opposition from local leaders. The smallest union territory of India (Lakshadweep) is undergoing severe changes for the last few days. The new administrator has introduced 4 new regulations that would alter the culture, livelihood, ecology, and development level of the island.

Lakshadweep Regulations formulated by the Administrator

1. The draft legislations are:
   1. Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation 2021
   2. The Lakshadweep Animal Preservation Regulation, 2021;
   3. The Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation (PASA);
   4. The Lakshadweep Panchayat Regulation, 2021.