[Mission 2023] INSIGHTS DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB SUMMARY 20 March 2023

GS Paper 2

Syllabus: Mechanisms, Laws, Institutions and Bodies constituted for the Protection and Betterment of these Vulnerable Sections

Source: TH

Context: A Bench led by CJI referred petitions to legally recognise same-sex marriages to a Constitution Bench of five judges of the SC.

What is the case?

• Even if LGBTQIA+ couples may live together, they do not enjoy the rights married couples do.
• For example,
  • They cannot adopt children or have a child by surrogacy;
  • They do not have automatic rights to inheritance, maintenance and tax benefits after a partner passes away,
  • They cannot avail of benefits like pension or compensation.
• The Court has been hearing multiple petitioners’ requests for legal recognition of same-sex marriages under the Special Marriage Act (SMA) 1954 and making the law gender-neutral.

How has the SC recently viewed LGBTQIA+ rights?

• In Navtej Singh Johar (2018) case [decriminalised homosexuality by reading down Section 377 (IPC)], the SC held that the community is entitled to the benefit of equal citizenship and to the equal protection of the law.
  • Article 21 of the Indian constitution (right to life and liberty) guarantees the choice of whom to partner with, the ability to find fulfilment in sexual intimacies, etc.
• In K.S. Puttaswamy’s (2017) case, SC ruled that the fundamental right to privacy (including bodily autonomy, and sexual orientation) is intrinsic to life and liberty and thus integral to Article 21.
• After these judgements, there was hope that same-sex marriages would be legalised, but that has not been the case, prompting many couples to move to court.

What is the Centre’s stand?

• Opposed same-sex marriage and said judicial interference will cause complete havoc with the delicate balance of personal laws.
• This definition of marriage is socially, culturally and legally ingrained into the very idea of the heterogeneous institution (a union between two persons of the opposite sex) of marriage.
• The decriminalisation of Section 377 IPC does not give rise to a claim to seek recognition for same-sex marriage.
• Even if same-sex marriage is claimed under Article 21, the right can be curtailed by the competent legislature on permissible constitutional grounds including legitimate state interest.

Way ahead:

• It is clear that the two organs of the state are not in agreement on same-sex marriages.
• Even if the Court rules in its favour, the march towards same-sex marriage in a diverse country with well-entrenched traditions will not be easy.
• Therefore, awareness of sex, gender and constitutional rights from the school level to change things on the ground is the need of the hour.

Insta Links:

SC transfers to itself all pleas related to same-sex marriage

GS Paper 3

Syllabus: Banking/ Financial Inclusion

Source: PIB, Forbes, PIB

Context: In January this year, about eight billion (800 crores) transactions worth nearly $200 billion (Rs. 2 lakh crores approximately) were carried out on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI)

What is Digital Payment System?

A digital payment sometimes called an electronic payment, is the transfer of value from one payment account to another using a digital device such as a mobile phone, POS (Point of Sales) or computer.

Modes of Digital Payments:

• Unified Payments Interface (UPI)
• Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM)
• UPI 123PAY
• UPI Lite
• Cards (including RuPay Debit Cards)
• Immediate Payment Services (IMPS)
• Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS)

Status of Digital payments in India:

• 40% of all payments done are digital
• Nearly 50 per cent of them are classified as small or micropayments
• The value of instant digital transactions in 2022 was four times more than the combined transactions in the United States, Britain, Germany, and France together.

Components of Digital Payment Ecosystem:

Tools used for Digital Payment ecosystem:  

• JAM trinity
  • Jan Dhan Accounts: As of 2022, over 46 crore bank accounts have been opened, with 56% belonging to women and 67% opened in rural and semi-urban areas
  • Aadhar: Today 99% of adults have a biometric identification number with more than 1.3 billion IDs issued.
  • Mobile: The cost of data dropped by 95% since 2016.
  • JAM Trinity has catapulted verticals such as e-commerce, food delivery, and OTT content to take off in India.
• Unified Payments Interface (UPI) (launched in 2016 by NPCI with 21 member banks): It is a public-private partnership (PPP) that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) led with an interoperable platform to facilitates direct payments linked to a bank account.
  • An advanced version of Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), UPI manages multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood.

Significance:

• Made daily life more convenient
• Financial Inclusion: Expanded banking services like credit and savings to millions more Indians
• Last mile access: Extended the reach of government programs and tax collection
• Encouraged entrepreneurship: The digital infrastructure is seen as a set of ‘rail tracks’ laid by the government, on top of which innovation can happen at a low cost.
• The significant behavioural shift from a cash-driven economy.

Comparison of the digital evolution of America, China, and India:

Acceptance across the world

• Indian digital payment systems are available in Singapore, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, France, and BENELUX markets – Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – and Switzerland, among others.
• India has signed MoUs with 13 countriesthat want to adopt the UPI interface for digital payments
• Singapore: UPI-PayNow linkage

Insta Links

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

Mains Links

India’s progress in payment systems will provide a useful backbone to make a state-of-the-art central bank digital currency (CBDC), but challenges remain. Discuss. (250 Words)

Prelims Links

GS Paper 3

Syllabus: Issues relating to Poverty and Hunger

Source: PIB

Context: At the inaugural edition of the global conference on millets, the PM of India spoke about how millets, considered to be “high-fibre foods”, are effective for health.

Background:

• Based on India’s proposal, the year 2023 was declared the International Year of Millets (IYM) by the UNGA.
• In order to make the IYM 2023 a ‘people’s movement’ and position India as the ‘global hub for millets’, all stakeholders are being engaged to spread awareness about the benefits of millets (Shree Anna) for the –
  • Cultivator,
  • Consumer and
• The organisation of the Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference in India is an important programme in this context.
• It was organised by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

PM’s address at the Conference:

• As Shree Anna is linked with Gaon as well as Garib (Village and the poor), it is becoming a medium of holistic development in India.
• Shree Anna –
  • A door to prosperity for the small farmers of the country.
  • The cornerstone of nutrition for crores of countrymen.
  • Felicitation of the Adivasi community.
  • Getting more crops for less water.
  • A big foundation for chemical-free farming and a huge help in fighting climate change.

Consistent efforts of the Indian government to turn Shree Anna into a global movement:

• Millets were declared nutri-cereals in 2018 → making the farmers aware of its benefits, and generating interest in the market.
• Millets have been selected in 19 districts of the country under the ‘One District, One Product’ scheme.
• The National Food Security Mission (NFSM) as NFSM-Coarse Cereals and implemented in 14 States.
• In 2021, the PM POSHAN (earlier known as the mid-day meal scheme) was approved to include millet to enhance the nutritional outcome.
• India is planning to launch a global initiative – Millet International Initiative for Research and Awareness (MIIRA), to encourage the consumption and production of millets.

Impact of these initiatives:

• Consumption/month/person from 3 to 14 kgs today.
• The sale of millet food products was boosted by roughly 30%.

Insta Links:

Tasks for India’s millet revolution

Mains Links:

There is a growing divergence in the relationship between poverty and hunger in India. The shrinking of social expenditure by the government is forcing the poor to spend more on non-food essential items squeezing their food budget – Elucidate. (UPSC 2019)

GS Paper 3

Syllabus: Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation

Source: IE

 Context: According to a Global Commission on the Economics of Water report, human activities (from destroying forests to burning gas-oil-coal for energy) are disrupting the rainfall the world depends on.

Background:

• The report comes ahead of a key U.N. Water Conference – the first in five decades – aimed at charting a path to shore up declining global water security.
• According to 2021 data from UN-Water, about 3 billion people (almost one in three) live in water-stressed countries and a third of those facing critical pressures.
• According to the UN FAO 2020 report, 2 billion living in agricultural areas face high to very high water scarcity or shortages.
• Behind all the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), there is a volume of freshwater that powers the delivery of services.

Findings of the report:

• Impact of losses of forests: Argentina’s soybean and wheat fields are experiencing worsening drought as the Amazon shrinks (water vapour rising from rainforests falls on distant places).
  • This is further aggravated by land use change and climate change.
• Huge economic, health and social stability threats:
  • Eroding water security poses a risk to everything from food supplies to hydropower production, a key source of low-carbon energy.
  • For example, severe water scarcity in the Horn of Africa has the potential to trigger political instability, conflict, displacement and migration.

Recommendations – Rethinking water:

• A deeper understanding of how closely water supplies are linked to climate and nature protection.
• Looking at freshwater as a global rather than just a local or regional issue, and strengthening how limited supplies are managed, shared and valued.

Challenges:

• A desire to capture and store more water is leading to a surge in dam-building around the world, which often results in losses of forests, land rights of local communities, etc.
• Increasing water storage in river dams can lead to growing tensions with neighbours downstream.
  • For example, the India-Pakistan conflict over more dam-building on the Indus River system.
• With agriculture responsible for more than 70% of global freshwater use each year, trade in food is also trade in water.

Way ahead:

• Improving water security requires a shift towards –
  • More precise and sparing irrigation systems,
  • Crops that require less water,
  • Farming methods that stand up to drought and grow fewer thirsty crops in water-short places.
• In urban areas, boosting freshwater storage, recycling more wastewater and using less water in manufacturing will be key.
• Richer nations should help poor countries in their water conservation efforts (financially, tech transfer).
• Just Water Partnerships, modelled on existing Just Energy Transition Partnerships – designed to speed a global transition to clean energy, should also be considered.

Conclusion: The U.N. Water Conference can be a “Paris moment” [2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change] for water. This will ensure a sustainable and globally equitable future – that’s in every nation’s interest.

Insta Links:

Growing water crisis and One water Approach (OWA)

GS Paper 3

 Syllabus: Environment – Coastal Erosion

Source: DTE

Context: Data from the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, shows that 74 villages in the state of Odisha are severely affected by shoreline erosion—the highest in the country.

• A study paper published in the journal Spatial Information Research in June 2018 finds that almost half of Odisha’s coast—196 km of shoreline—has undergone erosion between 1990 and 2015.
• A major reason for this is the rising sea level, which is surging along the Odisha coast at a rate faster than the rest of the country.

About Coastal Erosion:

• Coastal erosion is the temporary or permanent loss of land owing to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other effects of storms.
• It can also be the long-term removal of soil and rocks along the shoreline.

Reasons for Coastal Erosion:

Natural reasons

• Wave energy
• Natural hazards
• El Niño and effects of climate change (e.g., sea level rise).

Anthropogenic reasons

• Mining activities such as sand and Coral mining.
• Fishing harbours and dams were constructed in the catchment area of rivers and ports.

Impact of Coastal Erosion:

Solution:

• Green belts and artificial reefs help in the mitigation of coastal erosion.
• Coastal habitats such as Mangroves, Coral Reefs, and lagoons are recognized as the best defence against sea storms and erosion, deflecting and absorbing much of the energy of sea storms.

• Using Geosynthetic tubes: currently being used along the coast in Odisha.

• Union environment ministry prepared an Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan (ICZM) to be implemented on a pilot basis in Odisha, along with two other states prone to shoreline erosion—Gujarat and West Bengal.

Insta Links:

Coastal erosion and landforms thus formed

Mains Link:

The extent and severity of the coastal erosion problem are worsening with global sea level rise. It has both ecological and economic costs and needs to be addressed urgently. Analyse. (250 words)