[Mission 2022] INSIGHTS DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB SUMMARY 02 FEBRUARY 2022

GS Paper 2:

Topics Covered: Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions.

Context:

Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana has agreed to immediately list for hearing a petition to initiate contempt action against Haryana authorities for not reining in ‘hooligans’ who have created an ‘atmosphere of communal hatred and terror’ for worshippers offering Friday prayers in Gurugram.

What’s the issue?

The petition condemned the inaction of the Haryana officials in violation of a Supreme Court judgment of 2018, which mandated that authorities should not be either silent spectators or tolerate communal violence and should use the law against hate crimes.

What is Contempt?

While the basic idea of a contempt law is to punish those who do not respect the orders of the courts, in the Indian context, contempt is also used to punish speech that lowers the dignity of the court and interferes with the administration of justice.

Contempt of court can be of two kinds:

1. Civil, that is the willful disobedience of a court order or judgment or willful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
2. Criminal, that is written or spoken words or any act that scandalises the court or lowers its authority or prejudices or interferes with the due course of a judicial proceeding or interferes/obstructs the administration of justice.

Relevant provisions:

• Article 129 and 215 of the Constitution of India empowers the Supreme Court and High Court respectively to punish people for their respective contempt.
• Section 10 of The Contempt of Courts Act of 1971 defines the power of the High Court to punish contempts of its subordinate courts.
• The Constitution also includes contempt of court as a reasonable restriction to the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19, along with elements like public order and defamation.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. Powers of SC vs HCs wrt Contempt cases.
2. Constitutional provisions in this regard.
3. Changes brought about by Contempt of Courts (Amendment) Act, 2006.
4. Civil vs Criminal contempt.
5. Rights under Article 19.
6. Section 10 of The Contempt of Courts Act of 1971 is related to?

Mains Link:

Discuss how contempt cases are handled by Supreme Court in India.

Sources: the Hindu.

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Government Budgeting.

Context:

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 presented a budget worth Rs 39.45 lakh crore with massive push to infrastructure spending.

Note: Know about budget, what it means, related constitutional provisions and presentation stages here.

Now, highlights of the 2022 budget:

Total spending and Focus:

• To enhance job creation and boost economic activity.
• Total government spending will be 4.6 per cent more than the current year and additional support of Rs 1 lakh crore to states has been announced.
• The total expenditure in 2022-23 is estimated at Rs 39.45 lakh crore, while the total receipts other than borrowings are estimated at Rs 22.84 lakh crore.
• The outlay for capital expenditure is once again being stepped up sharply by 35.4 per cent from Rs 5.54 lakh crore in the current year to Rs 7.50 lakh crore in 2022-23.

Few observations about the State of the economy:

• The government projects India’s economy to grow by 9.2 per cent in the current fiscal year.
• India’s gross domestic product (GDP) in dollar terms has already crossed $3 trillion.
• Fiscal deficit is projected to be higher at 6.9 per cent this fiscal as against 6.8 per cent estimated earlier. The fiscal deficit of the government for 2022-23 is estimated to be Rs 16,61,196 crore.
• Soaring inflation levels continue to be a cause of concern for the economy.
• Foreign exchange reserves stood at $634.287 billion on January 21, providing a cover equivalent to 13 months of imports projected for 2021-22.

What’s in the budget for infrastructure development?

• PM GatiShakti National Master Plan will encompass the seven engines for economic transformation, seamless multimodal connectivity and logistics efficiency.
  • The seven engines include roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways, and logistics infrastructure. All seven engines will pull forward the economy in unison.
• 400 new Vande Bharat trains will be introduced and the Railways will also develop new products for small farmers and MSMEs.
• Integration of postal and railways network facilitating parcel movement was announced.
• Master plan has been formulated for highways, targets to complete 25,000 km national highways in 2022-23.
• Sovereign Green Bonds to be issued for mobilizing resources for green infrastructure.
• Data Centres and Energy Storage Systems to be given infrastructure status.

Agriculture and food processing:

• Budget allocation for the ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare: Rs 1,32,513 crore for 2022-23 fiscal.
• ‘Kisan Drones’ to be promoted for crop assessment, digitisation of land records and spraying of insecticides.
• A fund with blended capital raised under the co-investment model through Nabard will be set up to finance startups and rural enterprises working in agri-space.
• Zero-budget natural farming: The agriculture universities in the country will be encouraged to include these areas in their syllabus.

Education:

• A Digital University would be established to provide access to students across the country for world-class quality universal education.
• One class one TV channel programme to be expanded to 200 TV channels.
• Virtual labs and skilling e-labs will be established to promote critical thinking skills and simulated learning environment.
• The Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood – the DESH-Stack e-portal would be launched.

Healthcare:

The health sector has been allocated Rs 86,200.65 crore in the Union Budget.

• A National Tele Mental Health Programme will be launched to improve access to quality mental health counselling and care services.
• An open platform for National Digital Health Ecosystem will also be rolled out.
• For the National Health Mission, the budget allocation increased from Rs 36,576 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 37,000 crore in 2022-23.

Tax proposals:

• Taxpayers have been allowed a one-time window to correct omissions in income tax returns (ITR). They can file the updated returns within 2 years from the assessment year.
• 30 per cent tax on income from transfer of virtual digital assets has been proposed.
• One per cent tax deducted at source (TDS) on transfer of virtual assets above a threshold, gifts would be taxed.
• Government will soon roll out digital rupee based on blockchain technology.

Boost for MSMEs:

• A Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance (RAMP) programme will be rolled out with a Rs 6,000 crore outlay spread over 5 years for MSMEs.
• The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) that provided much needed additional credit to over 1.3 crore MSMEs will be extended till March 2023 with its guarantee cover expanded by Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 5 lakh crore.

Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East (PM-DevINE):

New scheme PM-DevINE launched to fund infrastructure and social development projects in the North-East.

• An initial allocation of Rs. 1,500 crore made to enable livelihood activities for youth and women under the scheme.

Sources: PIB, Time of India, the Hindu.

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Conservation related issues.

Context:

An allocation of Rs 60,000 crore has been made to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23 under Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal scheme.

Nal Se Jal Yojana:

Launched in 2019.

Nodal Agency: Ministry of Jal Shakti

• Aim: To provide piped drinking water to every rural home by 2024
• It is a component of the government’s Jal Jivan Mission.

Implementation:

• The scheme is based on a unique model where paani samitis (water committee) comprising villagers will decide what they will pay for the water they consume.
• The tariff they fix will not be the same for everyone in the village. Those who have large households will pay more, while poor households or households where there is no earning member, will be exempted.

Need for:

• According to a 2018 NITI Aayog report, 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress and about two lakh people die every year due to inadequate access to safe water.
• By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual ~6% loss in the country’s GDP.
• Studies also show that 84% of rural homes have no access to piped water, with more than 70% of the country’s water contaminated.

About Jal Jeevan Mission:

JJM envisages supply of 55 litres of water per person per day to every rural household through Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) by 2024.

• It is under the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
• It was launched in 2019.

Implementation:

• The Mission is based on a community approach to water and includes extensive Information, Education and Communication as a key component of the mission.
• JJM looks to create a jan andolan for water, thereby making it everyone’s priority.
• The fund sharing pattern between the Centre and states is 90:10 for Himalayan and North-Eastern States, 50:50 for other states, and 100% for Union Territories.

Insta Curious:

Did you know that Bihar also has a similar scheme for providing water to households? Know more about it here.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. Mission goal.
2. Implementation.
3. Fund allocation.

Mains Link:

Discuss the significance of the mission.

Sources: the Hindu.

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Conservation related issues.

Context:

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed a project to link five rivers in India in her budget speech.

The rivers identified for linking are:

Godavari-Krishna, Krishna-Pennar and Pennar-Cauvery, Damanganga-Pinjal and Par-Tapi-Narmada.

A brief overview of these rivers:

• Krishna, the fourth largest river in India, originates in Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra and flows through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
• Cauvery originates in Kodagu and flows through Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
• Penna originates in Chikkaballapura and flows through Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
• Godavari which is the third largest river in India originates in Nashik and flows through Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.

The Damanganga-Pinjal river linking aims to divert surplus water from the Damanganga basin to provide domestic water for Mumbai city.

• The Par-Tapi-Narmada project proposes to provide water to doubt-prone regions of Kutch and Saurashtra by diverting excess water from seven reservoirs in the Western Ghats in North Maharashtra and south Gujarat.

Benefits of interlinking:

• Enhances water and food security.
• Proper utilisation of water.
• Boost to agriculture.
• Disaster mitigation.
• Boost to transportation.

Issues and Concerns:c

• Interlinking of rivers is a very expensive proposal. It will adversely affect land, forests, biodiversity, rivers and the livelihood of millions of people.
• Interlinking of rivers will lead to destruction of forests, wetlands and local water bodies, which are major groundwater recharge mechanisms.
• It causes massive displacement of people. Huge burden on the government to deal with the issue of rehabilitation of displaced people.
• Due to interlinking of rivers, there will be decrease in the amount of fresh water entering seas and this will cause a serious threat to the marine life.

Insta Curious:

Do you know about the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers? Reference: read this.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. About the Project.
2. Ken and Betwa- tributaries and basin states.
3. About Panna Tiger Reserve.
4. Biosphere Reserves in India.

Mains Link:

Discuss the significance of the project.

Sources: the Hindu.

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth.

Context:

To speed up dispute resolution, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the setting up of an international arbitration centre at GIFT City.

• The Centre could be on the lines of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, or the London Commercial Arbitration Centre.

What is an IFSC?

An IFSC caters to customers outside the jurisdiction of the domestic economy.

• Such centres deal with flows of finance, financial products and services across borders.

Currently, GIFT-IFSC is the maiden international financial services centre in India.

Regulation:

• The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), headquartered at GIFT City, Gandhinagar Gujarat, has been established under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019.
• It works as a unified authority for the development and regulation of financial products, financial services and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in India.

Services an IFSC can provide:

• Fund-raising services for individuals, corporations and governments.
• Asset management and global portfolio diversification undertaken by pension funds, insurance companies and mutual funds.
• Wealth management.
• Global tax management and cross-border tax liability optimization, which provides a business opportunity for financial intermediaries, accountants and law firms.
• Global and regional corporate treasury management operations that involve fund-raising, liquidity investment and management and asset-liability matching.
• Risk management operations such as insurance and reinsurance.
• Merger and acquisition activities among trans-national corporations.

Can an IFSC be set up in a special economic zone (SEZ)?

The SEZ Act 2005 allows setting up an IFSC in an SEZ or as an SEZ after approval from the central government.

About Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC):

It is a not-for-profit international arbitration organisation based in Singapore, which administers arbitrations under its own rules of arbitration and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Arbitration Rules.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. What are IFSCs?
2. Can they be set up in SEZs?
3. India’s first IFSC.
4. Services they provide?
5. Limitations.

Mains Link:

Discuss the significance of international financial services centres.

Sources: the Hindu.

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Developments in Science and Technology.

Context:

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced the launch of the Digital Rupee — a central bank digital currency (CBDC) — 2022-23 onwards.

• The Reserve Bank of India will launch the CBDC from the upcoming financial year.

What is the CBDC or National Digital currency?

A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), or national digital currency, is simply the digital form of a country’s fiat currency. Instead of printing paper currency or minting coins, the central bank issues electronic tokens. This token value is backed by the full faith and credit of the government.

Four major use cases of CBDC in the Indian context:

1. ‘Fit-for-purpose’ money used for social benefits and other targeted payments in a country. For such cases, the central bank can pay intended beneficiaries pre-programmed CBDC, which could be accepted only for a specific purpose.
2. CBDCs could be used for faster cross-border remittance payments. International collaboration among the major economies of the world, including India, could help create the necessary infrastructure and arrangements for CBDC transfer and conversion.
3. Payment instruments could be made available for payment transactions to be made via CBDC. Furthermore, universal access attributes of a CBDC could also include an offline payment functionality.
4. Instant lending to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India can be possible with the help of CBDC.

Need for CBDC:

1. An official digital currency would reduce the cost of currency management while enabling real-time payments without any inter-bank settlement.
2. India’s fairly high currency-to-GDP ratio holds out another benefit of CBDC — to the extent large cash usage can be replaced by CBDC, the cost of printing, transporting and storing paper currency can be substantially reduced.
3. The need for inter-bank settlement would disappear as it would be a central bank liability handed over from one person to another.

Challenges in rolling out National Digital Currency:

1. Potential cybersecurity threat.
2. Lack of digital literacy of population.
3. Introduction of digital currency also creates various associated challenges in regulation, tracking investment and purchase, taxing individuals, etc.
4. Threat to Privacy: The digital currency must collect certain basic information of an individual so that the person can prove that he’s the holder of that digital currency.

Insta Curious:

Do you know what the IOTA Tangle is? Read Here

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. What is a blockchain?
2. What are Cryptocurrencies?
3. Which countries have issued Cryptocurrencies?
4. What is a Bitcoin?

Mains Link:

Discuss the pros and cons of CBDC.

Sources :Indian Express

GS Paper 2

Topics Covered: Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Context:

Khadi Sanghas activists have written to PM and HM on the move to allow non-khadi material for the national flag.

The amendments:

As per rule 1. 2 of part 1 of the Flag code of India 2002, only khadi or hand-spun cloth was the material for the flag. Use of other material was punishable.

• But the recent amendment has changed it to “The National Flag shall be made of hand spun and hand woven or machine made, cotton, polyester, wool, silk khadi bunting.”
• That means machine made polyester that is made in India or imported from elsewhere can now be used for the tricolour.

So far, the hand spun, hand woven khadi flag was made in the country’s sole BIS-approved flag manufacturing unit in Hubballi, Karnataka.

• They now contend that the move will only dilute the definition of khadi but also undermine the spirit of freedom struggle.

Previous amendments to the Flag Code:

• The code has been amended earlier too. The original flag code of India 1947 was amended in 2002 after a Supreme Court judgment.
• This expanded the definition of places where the flag could be displayed or hoisted. However, part one of the code that deals with the description of the flag had remained untouched.

Evolution of National flag:

• Present flag is based on the Swaraj flag, a flag of the Indian National Congress designed by Pingali Venkayya.
• After undergoing several changes, the Tricolour was adopted as our national flag at a Congress Committee meeting in Karachi in 1931.

Constitutional & Statutory Provisions regarding National Flag of India:

Art 51A(a) – To abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem.

Statutes Governing Use of Flag:

• Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950.
• Prevention of Insults to National Honor Act, 1971.

Rules governing the display of the Tricolour:

The Flag Code of 2002 is divided into three parts:

1-a general description of the tricolour

2-rules for display of the flag by governments and government bodies.

3-rules on display of the flag by public and private bodies and educational institutions.

Notable facts:

• The National Flag of India shall be made of hand spun and hand woven wool/cotton/silk khadi bunting.
• The National Flag shall be rectangular in shape. The ratio of the length to the height (width) of the Flag shall be 3:2.
• The Flag shall not be flown at half-mast except on occasions on which the Flag is flown at half-mast on public buildings in accordance with the instructions issued by the Government.
• The Flag shall not be used as a drapery in any form whatsoever, including private funerals except in State funerals or armed forces or other paramilitary forces funerals”.
• The Flag shall not be used as a portion of costume or uniform of any description nor shall it be embroidered or printed upon cushions, handkerchiefs, napkins or any dress material.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan narrated significance of National flag as:

1. The “Ashoka Chakra” is the wheel of the law of dharma. Chakra intend to show that there is LIFE IN MOVEMENT and death in stagnation.
2. The saffron color denotes renunciation of disinterestedness.
3. The white in the center is light, the path of truth to guide our conduct.
4. The green shows our relation to the soil, our relation to the plant life here, on which all other life depends.

Insta Curious:

Do you know about Flag Satyagraha, the Jhanda Satyagraha? It was held in Jabalpur and Nagpur in 1923. Reference: 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

1. When was the flag designed by Venkayya officially accepted by the Indian National Congress?
2. Adoption of National Flag by the Constituent Assembly.
3. Flag Code of India- overview.
4. Manufacturer of the national flag in India.
5. About Flag Protests in India.

Mains Link:

Discuss the key provisions of Flag Code of India, 2002.

Sources: Indian Express.