• The killing of 14 civilians in a botched military operation in Nagaland has led to fresh calls for repealing The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), a stringent law that allows the armed forces to use maximum force in an area declared as ‘disturbed’.

Origin of AFSPA

• In the wake of the partition riots, four ordinances were promulgated in 1947.
  • The first was the Bengal Disturbed Areas (Special Powers of Armed Forces) Ordinance;
  • this was followed by ordinances for Assam, East Punjab and Delhi , and the United Provinces.
  • These were replaced by a common legislation, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1948. This was meant to be in force for one year, but was repealed only in 1957.
• Thereafter, the President promulgated the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance in May 1958.
• This was subsequently replaced by an act of Parliament. Initially known as the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958, it was subsequently adapted appropriately after the creation of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.

Context:

• The pandemic has revealed the limits of our wherewithal to look after the collective needs of children during a calamity. A child in the family has a radically different status from that accorded to children as a collective entity in our country.
• The pandemic has revealed that society and state institutions prefer to ignore the conditions under which the family copes with the demands of childhood.

Peripheral concern

Children’s education and health are two major domains in which welfare policies of the modern state are expected to support and enhance the family’s role.

• In both these domains, the policy framework reflects a minimalist stance, both in terms of financial investment and institutional strength. In policies as well as in their execution, there is considerable diversity and disparity among the States. The overall picture suggests that childhood is of peripheral concern. Gains made in this context have proved difficult to sustain.

Context:

The threat posed by Omicron is tenuous and it will still be a few weeks before a comprehensive understanding of it emerges, but what is known unambiguously is that this latest variant of the coronavirus is extremely infectious.

What we know till now

• Nearly 50 countries now have reported its presence within their borders but insight into its effects is available only fromSouth Africa. A preliminary analysis of patients in Tshwane district, in Gauteng Province of South Africa, which has been the global epicentre of the Omicron-led fourth wave, suggests that despite its infectiousness, Omicron is less deadly than other variants that have led the country’s previous three waves. When 166 new admissions were analysed, there were 10 deaths in the past two weeks, making up 6.6% of the 166 admissions. By comparison, the death rates in previous waves ranged from 17%-23%.
  • The major caveat, as scientists who are part of the South African Medical Research Council point out, is that patterns could rapidly change in the next two weeks as it takes nearly a month for infection to reveal its worst-case outcome of death, and so the current data of two weeks are insufficient. Trends in hospitalisation too are encouraging, the scientists say.

Context:

• At the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow countries did commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and put forth a record-shattering U.S.$356 million in new support from contributing national and regional governments to protect the most vulnerable.
• But this is not enough to stay below the limit of 2°C above pre-industrial levels. COP26 fell far short of the ground-breaking successmany had hoped for.

Climate crisis and hunger

Climate crisis and hunger are linked inextricably-

• Analysis by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) shows that a 2°C rise in average global temperature from pre-industrial levels will see a staggering 189 million additional people in the grip of hunger.
• Vulnerable communities, a vast majority of whom rely on subsistence agriculture, fishing, and livestock and, who contribute the least to the climate crisis, will continue to bear the brunt of the impacts with limited means to cushion the blow.
• The absence of social protection measures such as food safety nets forces the food insecure to depend on humanitarian aid for survival.
• Across the world, up to 811 million people do not have enough food and as per the recent WFP estimates, 41 million people in 43 countries are at risk of sliding into famine.
• Crop failures, water scarcity, and declining nutrition threaten millions who rely on agriculture, fishing, and livestock

Context:

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) late last month decided to keep on hold the implementation of a recommendation made by an internal working group to issue banking licences to large industrial groups. Many view the RBI’s decision as a prudent step to preserve financial stability.

More on the news-

An internal working group of the RBI headed by P.K. Mohanty last year recommended, that the RBI allow large industrial groups to set up banks.

• The group’s recommendation was seen by analysts as an effort to bring more private capital into the banking system and help increase lending.
• The proposal was met with criticism from many experts, including former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and former RBI deputy governor Viral Acharya.
• International practices -Many countries across the world either completely ban industrial groups from owning banks or heavily restrict such ownership.

RBI decided to put on hold the major recommendation to allow industrial groups to own and operate banks.

Context:

The Union Cabinet recently approved the funding and implementation of the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project at a cost of ₹44,605 crore at the 2020-21 price level.

Key Highlights of the project

• The Centre would fund ₹39,317 crore for the project, with ₹36,290 crore as a grant and ₹3,027 crore as a loan.
• The project involves transferring of water from the Ken river to the Betwa river through the construction of Daudhan dam and a canal linking the two rivers, the Lower Orr Project, Kotha Barrage and the Bina Complex Multipurpose Project.
• The project is slated to irrigate 10.62 lakh hectares annually, provide drinking water supply to 62 lakh people and generate 103 MW of hydropower and 27 MW of solar power. The project is proposed to be completed in eight years.

Recently, the Law and Justice Minister, stated that there is a growing voice in favour of reintroduction of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Bill.

Background:

• The NJAC Act, 2014 was enacted by the incumbent government to regulate the procedure to be followed by the NJAC for recommending names for appointment as Chief Justice of India and other judges of Supreme Court and Chief Justices and judges of High Courts and for their transfers.
• However, in October 2015, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional an amendment to the Constitution establishing the NJAC.
• Replying to the debate on the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2021, which was passed by the House with a voice vote, Law minister said, There has been a huge support regarding NJAC.
• The appointment process of judges in the higher judiciary is going on smoothly. From the government side, there is no effort to scuttle or to create any kind of slow down in the process of appointments.
• Some of the allegations are also not correct to say that the government is stopping some of the names recommended by the Collegium.
• The minister also appreciated the performance of the judiciary during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context:

Recently, Karnataka Chief Minister informed the Centre that the state is opposed to the Kasturirangan Committee report on Western Ghats.

Concerns of Karnataka Government

• It said that declaring Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive zone would adversely affect the livelihood of people in the region.
• The experts called the state’s opposition disastrous for the ecologically fragile Western Ghats.
• The recommendations of the Kasturirangan committee report
  • The committee report proposes 37 per cent of the total area of Western Ghats, which is roughly 60,000 square kilometres, to be declared as eco-sensitive area (ESA).
    • Out of this, 20,668 sq km of the area falls in Karnataka covering 1,576 villages.
  • The report recommended a blanket ban on mining, quarrying, setting up of red category industries and thermal power projects.
  • It also stated that the impact of infrastructural projects on the forest and wildlife should be studied before permission is given for these activities.
  • It also stated that the UNESCO Heritage tag is an opportunity to build global and domestic recognition of the enormous natural wealth that exists in the Western Ghats.
    • The 39 sites are located across the Western Ghats and distributed across the states (Kerala 19), Karnataka (10), Tamil Nadu (6) and Maharashtra (4). The boundary of the sites, are in most cases, boundaries of the legally demarcated national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, tiger reserves and forest divisions and therefore, already accorded with high level of protection.

High pendency of cases, large number of vacancies and the collegium system of appointment were among the key issues raised by Lok Sabha members recently while debating a Bill that seeks to bring clarity on when Supreme Court and High Court judges will get enhanced pension on attaining a certain age.

Some Critical Observations on the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill 2021

• The judiciary failing to stem the tide of majoritarianism.
• Judiciary’s “inaction” always favours those in power.
• A number of examples such the judicial challenge to the abrogation of Article 370 and Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
• The “insensitivity” shown by higher judiciary while dealing with the plight of migrant workers during the COVID-19 lockdown.
• The issue of transfer of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee from the Madras High Court to the Meghalaya High Court by the SC Collegium, and said that the decision was tantamount to “wasting a property of the nation”.
• Opposition called for a mechanism to ensure accountability for corruption in the judiciary.
• Several members also stressed the need to increase the retirement age of High Court judges and bring it on a par with the retirement age of SC judges. As of now, HC judges retire at 62 and SC judges at 65.
• Some members called for a cooling-off period for judges, saying two former Chief Justices of India were “demoted” — one was appointed a Governor and the other became a Rajya Sabha member.

Context:

Amid talk of MSP guarantee and Punjab’s urgent need to break away from the wheat-paddy cycle, experts feel that the state must follow cropping pattern as per its agro-climatic and soil conditions to protect the environment while increasing farmers’ income.

About the Six Agri Zones of Punjab

• According to Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana, there are six agro-climatic zones in Punjab which include
  • Sub-Mountain Undulating Region,
  • Undulating Plain Region (UPR),
  • Central Plain Region (CPR),
  • Western Plain Region (WPR),
  • Western Region (WR) and
  • Flood Plain Region (FPR).
• These regions have rainfall variations from 165 mm to 2000 mm annually and climate from humid to cold-arid to arid and extreme arid.
• The variations in soil range from hill soils, tarai, brown hill, alluvial to desert.
• In these zones all agro-climatic conditions, rainfall pattern, distribution, soil texture are taken into account to have a suitable cropping pattern.
• Temperatures and humidity levels are also little bit different from each other in all these zones.