Insights Daily Current Affairs + PIB: 29 June 2019
Relevant articles from PIB:
Paper 2:
Topics covered:
- Development processes and the development industry the role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations, donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders.
What to study?
For prelims and mains: key features, need for and significance of the scheme.
Context: The Government of India is implementing One Stop Centre (OSC) scheme for setting up One Stop Centre since 1st April 2015 to support women affected by violence.
About the scheme:
- Popularly known as Sakhi, Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has formulated this Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
- It is a sub – scheme of Umbrella Scheme for National Mission for Empowerment of women including Indira Gandhi Mattritav Sahyaog Yojana.
- Under the scheme, One Stop Centres are being established across the country to provide integrated support and assistance under one roof to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces in phased manner.
- Target group: The OSC will support all women including girls below 18 years of age affected by violence, irrespective of caste, class, religion, region, sexual orientation or marital status.
The Centres will be integrated with a Women Helpline to facilitate access to following services:
- Emergency response and rescue services.
- Medical assistance.
- Assistance to women in lodging the FIR.
- Psycho- social support and counselling.
- Legal aid and counselling.
- Shelter
- Video conferencing facility.
Funds:
The Scheme will be funded through Nirbhaya Fund. The Central Government will provide 100% financial assistance to the State Government /UT Administrations under the Scheme.
Need for protection:
- Gender Based Violence (GBV) is a global health, human rights and development issue that transcends geography, class, culture, age, race and religion to affect every community and country in every corner of the world.
- The Article 1 of UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence 1993 provides a definition of gender – based abuse, calling it “any act of gender – based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”.
- In India, gender based violence has many manifestations; from the more universally prevalent forms of domestic and sexual violence including rape, to harmful practices such as, dowry, honour killings, acid attacks, witch – hunting, sexual harassment, child sexual abuse, trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, child marriage, sex selective abortion, sati etc.
Paper 2:
Topics covered:
- Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
What to study?
For Prelims: Van Dhan Vikas Kendras.
For Mains: MFP and its significance.
Context: Training Workshop for implementing teams of Van Dhan Yojana Organized.
About Van Dhan Vikas Kendras initiative:
- The initiative aims to promote MFPs-centric livelihood development of tribal gatherers and artisans.
- It mainstreams the tribal community by promoting primary level value addition to MFP at grassroots level.
- Significance: Through this initiative, the share of tribals in the value chain of Non-Timber Forest Produce is expected to rise from the present 20% to around 60%.
Implementation:
- The scheme will be implemented through Ministry of Tribal Affairs as Nodal Department at the Central Level and TRIFED as Nodal Agency at the National Level.
- At State level, the State Nodal Agency for MFPs and the District collectors are envisaged to play a pivot role in scheme implementation at grassroot level.
- Locally the Kendras are proposed to be managed by a Managing Committee (an SHG)consisting of representatives of Van Dhan SHGs in the cluster.
- Composition: As per the plan, TRIFED will facilitate establishment of MFP-led multi-purpose Van Dhan Vikas Kendras, a cluster of 10 SHGs comprising of 30 tribal MFP gatherers each, in the tribal areas.
Significance of MFP:
- Minor Forest Produce (MFP) is a major source of livelihood for tribals living in forest areas. The importance of MFPs for this section of the society can be gauged from the fact that around 100 million forest dwellers depend on MFPs for food, shelter, medicines and cash income.
- It provides them critical subsistence during the lean seasons, particularly for primitive tribal groups such as hunter gatherers, and the landless. Tribals derive 20-40% of their annual income from MFP on which they spend major portion of their time.
- This activity has strong linkage to women’s financial empowerment as most of the MFPs are collected and used/sold by women. MFP sector has the potential to create about 10 million workdays annually in the country.
Paper 2:
Topics Covered:
- Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban
What to study?
For Prelims: PMAY- Urban- key features.
For Mains: Significance of the scheme, challenges ahead and measures needed to achieve the target.
Context: Houses Sanctioned Under PMAY(U) now Stands at 83.62 Lakhs.
Uttar Pradesh tops list for Sanctioned Houses at 13 Lakhs.
About PMAY- Urban:
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Programme launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA), in Mission mode envisions provision of Housing for All by 2022, when the Nation completes 75 years of its Independence.
The Mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor including slum dwellers through following programme verticals:
- Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private developers using land as a resource.
- Promotion of Affordable Housing for weaker section through credit linked subsidy.
- Affordable Housing in Partnership with Public & Private sectors.
- Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction /enhancement.
Key facts:
- The beneficiaries are poor and people living under EWS and LIG categories in the country.
- The scheme is divided into three phases. In the first phase, a total of 100 cities will be covered from April 2015 to March 2017. In phase two, 200 cities will be covered from April 2017 to March 2019. In the third phase, the leftover cities will be covered from April 2019 to March 2022.
- The government is providing an interest subsidy of 6.5% on housing loans which can be availed by beneficiaries for 15 years from start of loan date.
- The government will grant Rs 1 lakh to all the beneficiaries of the scheme. In addition, Rs 1.5 lakh will be given to all eligible urban poor who want to construct their houses in urban areas or plan to go for renovation in their existing houses. One can also avail loans under this scheme to build toilets in existing houses.
Challenges ahead:
The central government has to mobilise Rs 1 lakh crore in the next three years for achieving its target of building 1 crore houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U).
This is going to be a tall task given the current fiscal arithmetic. The scheme also faces headwinds such as unavailability of land in prime areas, low participation of private developers on account of brand dilution, bidding mechanism, stringent cost and time schedules resulting in low yields, increasing construction costs due to absence of bulk sourcing of materials, and lack of new technology that impacts productivity, cost efficiency and quality.
Significance of the scheme:
PMAY-U does offer a huge opportunity for several sectors by setting off a virtuous cycle.
One crore houses would mean an opportunity for over Rs 2 lakh crore of home loans, and incremental consumption of 80-100 million tonne of cement and 10-15 million tonne of steel.
The construction opportunity is of about four billion square feet over the life of PMAY-U and all that would translate into 9-10 crore incremental jobs over the execution period.
Paper 3:
Topics covered:
- Disaster and disaster management.
First Resilient Kerala Program
What to study?
For prelims: key features and partnerships.
For mains: Vulnerability of Kerala, challenges present and need for coordination among various stakeholders.
Context: The Government of India, the Government of Kerala and the World Bank have signed a Loan Agreement of USD 250 million for the First Resilient Kerala Program to enhance the State’s resilience against the impacts of natural disasters and climate change.
Key features of the programme:
- The Program will focus on strengthening the State’s institutional and financial capacity to protect the assets and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable groups through an inclusive and participatory approach.
- The Program, which represents the First ‘State Partnership’ of the World Bank in India, is the First of two Development Policy Operations aiming to mainstream disaster and climate resilience into critical infrastructure and services.
Need for and significance of the programme:
The 2018 floods and landslides in Kerala led to severe impact on property, infrastructure, and lives and livelihoods of people. One sixth of the State’s population – about 5.4 million people – were affected while 1.4 million were displaced from their homes, especially the poor and vulnerable segments of the population.
Relevant articles from various news sources:
Paper 2:
Topic covered:
- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
What to study?
For prelims and mains: key features, need for and significance of the project.
Context: The Higher Education Department of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has finalized and released a 5-year Vision Plan titled as Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP).
Key features:
EQUIP was crafted by ten committees led by experts within the government.
Aims: EQUIP is meant to bridge the gap between policy and implementation. The project is made to bring transformation in the higher education system in the upcoming 5 years.
Goals set for Higher Education Sector by Expert Group are:
- Doubling Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and resolving geographically and socially skewed access to higher education institutions in India.
- Promoting India as a global study destination.
- Upgrade Quality of Education to global standards.
- Positioning minimum 50 Indian institutions among Top-1000 Global Universities.
- Promote Research & Innovation ecosystems for positioning India in Top-3 countries globally in matters of knowledge creation.
- Introducing governance reforms in higher education for well-administered campuses.
- Accreditation of all institutions for assurance of quality.
- Doubling employability of students passing out of higher education.
- Harnessing education technology for expanding reach and improving pedagogy (method and practise of teaching).
- Achieving a quantum increase in investment in higher education.
Sources: the Hindu.
Paper 2:
Topics Covered:
- Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.
- Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.
What to study?
For Prelims: Key features of Article 370 and related facts.
For Mains: Arguments in favour and against the removal of Article 370, what is the right move and can an amendment solve the issue?
Context: Article 370 only temporary provision, not permanent, Said Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently. He said this during a debate on extension of President’s rule in J&K.
What is Article 370?
Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is a ‘temporary provision’ which grants special autonomous status to Jammu & Kashmir.
Under Part XXI of the Constitution of India, which deals with “Temporary, Transitional and Special provisions”, the state of Jammu & Kashmir has been accorded special status under Article 370.
All the provisions of the Constitution which are applicable to other states are not applicable to J&K.
Important provisions under the article:
- According to this article, except for defence, foreign affairs, finance and communications, Parliament needs the state government’s concurrence for applying all other laws. Thus the state’s residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians.
- Indian citizens from other states cannot purchase land or property in Jammu & Kashmir.
- Under Article 370, the Centre has no power to declare financial emergency under Article 360 in the state. It can declare emergency in the state only in case of war or external aggression. The Union government can therefore not declare emergency on grounds of internal disturbance or imminent danger unless it is made at the request or with the concurrence of the state government.
- Under Article 370, the Indian Parliament cannot increase or reduce the borders of the state.
- The Jurisdiction of the Parliament of India in relation to Jammu and Kashmir is confined to the matters enumerated in the Union List, and also the concurrent list. There is no State list for the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
- At the same time, while in relation to the other States, the residuary power of legislation belongs to Parliament, in the case of Jammu and Kashmir, the residuary powers belong to the Legislature of the State, except certain matters to which Parliament has exclusive powers such as preventing the activities relating to cession or secession, or disrupting the sovereignty or integrity of India.
- The power to make laws related to preventive detention in Jammu and Kashmir belong to the Legislature of J & K and not the Indian Parliament. Thus, no preventive detention law made in India extends to Jammu & Kashmir.
- Part IV (Directive Principles of the State Policy) and Part IVA (Fundamental Duties) of the Constitution are not applicable to J&K.
How should the centre counter the growing unrest in the region?
- Focus on investing in J&K’s infrastructure.
- Absence of an effective information and communication planhas hobbled the government’s ability to respond even when it is on the moral high ground. This must be immediately corrected.
- Standard operating procedures must require the use of lethal force only when there is an imminent threat to life and property, force should be used proportionately and not as a punitive measure.
- What is needed at the moment is the deployment of new socio-cultural resources, and a new operational culture to wind down the militancy without alienating more locals who could either join or influence their relatives and friends to join various terrorist organisations.
- Lethal force should be the last resort, used only when lives are threatened. Promptly investigating allegations of abuses and prosecuting those responsible is key to resolving this mess.
- Externally, wide-ranging peace talks between India and Pakistan, the Indian administration and ‘azaadi’ groups is needed and internally, peace-building on the ground by multiple stakeholders involved is necessary.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 2:
Topic covered:
- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
National Mission on Natural Language Translation
What to study?
For prelims: key features of the programme.
For mains: Language translation- need, challenges and ways to address them.
Context: The Ministry of Electronics and IT is planning to launch a National Mission on Natural Language Translation.
It is one of the key missions identified by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).
Key features of the programme:
It aims to make science and technology accessible to all by facilitating access to teaching and researching material bilingually — in English and in one’s native Indian language.
Significance and the need for translation:
Translation activities can help generate employment for educated unemployed. The mission would help not just students but also teachers, authors, publishers, translation software developers and general readers.
Sources: the Hindu.
Facts for prelims:
Relevant facts in New from PIB:
- Prices of milk in the country are decided by the Cooperative and Private dairies based on cost of production.
- Under the distribution of legislatives powers between the Union of India and States under Article 246(3) of the Constitution, the preservation of cattle is a matter on which the legislature of the States has exclusive powers to legislate.
- As per article 48 of Indian Constitution the state shall endeavour to organize agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall in particular take steps for preserving improving the breed, and prohibiting the slaughter, of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.
- ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India and therefore, the State Governments are primarily responsible for prevention, detection, registration and investigation of crime and for prosecuting the criminals through the machinery of their law Enforcement agencies, as also for protecting the life and property of the citizens.
About NCPCR:
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) was set up in March 2007 under the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005.
It works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women & Child Development.
The Child is defined as a person in the 0 to 18 years age group.
The Commission’s Mandate is to ensure that all Laws, Policies, Programmes, and Administrative Mechanisms are in consonance with the Child Rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
GAMA portal:
The Government has launched an online portal called “Grievance Against Misleading Advertisements” (GAMA) where complaints relating to misleading advertisements can be lodged.
Go Tribal Campaign:
TRIFED has organized this event to institutionalize collaborations and partnerships with different organizations to promote tribal products.
Campaign will be launched under which a number of innovative activities have been planned to be undertaken to promote use of tribal handicrafts, handicrafts and natural products.
Summaries of important Editorials:
Why Govt wants to bank DNA?
Context: The Union Cabinet cleared the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill once again, paving the way for its reintroduction in Parliament.
Issues with the Bill:
- Written consent is required from everyone for their DNA samples to be collected, processed and included in the database except from those who have committed crimes with punishment of 7+ years or death.
However, a similarly specific instruction is missing for the collection of DNA samples for civil matters. Such matters include parentage disputes, emigration or immigration and transplantation of human organs.
The Bill also doesn’t state that the consent has to be voluntary.
- Issues over storage: It’s not clear if DNA samples collected to resolve civil disputes will also be stored in the databank (regional or national), although there is no index specific for the same.
If they will be stored, then the problem cascades because the Bill also does not provide for information, consent and appeals.
If a person’s DNA data has entered the databank, there is no process specified by which they can have it removed.
All of these issues together could violate the right to privacy.
- Safety issues: There’s also the question of whether the DNA labs accredited by the Regulatory Board are allowed to store copies of the samples they analyse.
And if so, how the owners of those samples can ensure the data is safe or needs to be removed from their own indices.
It’s unclear if the Regulatory Board will oversee other tests performed at the accredited labs.
This could become necessary because, unlike one’s biometric data or PAN number, the human genome contains lots of information about every individual.
- Prone to misuse: a test undertaken to ascertain a person’s identity by analysing her DNA will in the process may also reveal a lot of other things about that person, including information about their ancestry, diseases to which they are susceptible, etc. – i.e. information that the individual has a right to keep private.
The Bill does not specify which parts of an individual’s DNA can be analysed to ascertain their identity.
What the govt says?
The government has been arguing that since DNA tests are already happening, and frequently used as the most reliable tool to establish identity, it would be better to have regulatory safeguards so that it is carried out only in prescribed manner and by authorised personnel and institutions.
The government has also claimed that very limited information is proposed to be stored in the indices — just 17 sets of numbers out of billions that DNA samples can reveal.
