UPSC Key: New Tiger Reserve, Paris Treaty, and the 42nd Constitutional AmendmentSubscriber Only

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

What’s the ongoing story: Earlier this month, the Chhattisgarh government notified the Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla in the state as India’s 56th tiger reserve. The reserve is expected to help Chhattisgarh improve its tiger population, which has been dwindling in recent years. It also opens an avenue to the state’s ambition of reintroducing cheetahs at the reserve — the last cheetah was spotted here in the 1940s.

Key Points to Ponder:

• How is the tiger reserve different from national parks and wildlife sanctuaries?

• What is the process of designating a tiger reserve?

• What are the issues associated with tiger conservation in India?

• What are the steps taken by the government for the conservation of tigers?

• What is Project Tiger?

• What is the role and function of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)?

• What are the conservation efforts for other big cats in India?

• What is the Tiger Conservation Plan?

Key Takeaways:

• The Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla is the fourth tiger reserve in Chhattisgarh after Achanakmar, Indravati, and Udanti Sitanadi. The total area of the new tiger reserve is 2,829.387 sq km, making it the third largest tiger reserve in India.

• It is spread across four districts, Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur (MCB), Korea, Surajpur, and Balrampur in the northern tribal Sarguja region of Chhattisgarh.

• The Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla falls between two other important tiger reserves located in Bandhavgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Palamau, Jharkhand. It is adjacent to Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve, also in MP.

• The reserve comprises a wide range of wildlife species (apart from tigers) such as elephants, sloth bears, vultures, peacocks, wolves, leopards, otters, chitals, jackals, nilgai, bison, hyenas, langurs, cobras etc.

• The Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla is also rich in flora — comprising sal, saja, dhavda, kusum etc — different types of vegetation. It consists of hills, plateaus, valleys, and a river system which create a diverse habitat for its rich wildlife.

• There are five to six tigers at the Guru Ghasidas-Tamor Pingla Tiger Reserve as of now. The state’s tiger population fell from 46 in 2014 to 17 in 2022, the last official tiger status report released by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), released in 2023, revealed.

• Authorities are preparing a comprehensive Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP), which will tackle different challenges that tiger conservation at the reserve may face – Developing a robust road and wireless connectivity to help patrol the hilly terrain, which forms more than 50% of the reserve, Increasing the prey base for tigers…

• The government is working on creating an entire eco-tourism circuit and getting a heritage site tag for the reserve. Apart from the jungle safari, infrastructure is being developed for eight ancient cave painting sites, religious places, river walk, vulture siting, origin of Hasdeo river, 360 degrees view of Balam Ghat and waterfalls.

Do You Know:

• In August, the state cabinet merged the regions of the Guru Ghasidas National Park and the Tamor Pingla Sanctuary, located in the districts of Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur, Koriya, Surajpur and Balrampur, to create the new reserve.

• India has had a long and varied history of forest and wildlife conservation. The management of tiger reserves is based on the Tiger Conservation Plan which includes a detailed plan for core and buffer zones.

• Under the Environment Ministry, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) oversees tiger conservation and Project Tiger.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????Revival of the tiger: A joint effort, a cultural renaissance

????NTCA seeks action plan from states on relocation of villages from tiger reserves

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(1) Among the following Tiger Reserves, which one has the largest area under “Critical Tiger Habitat”? (UPSC CSE 2020)

(a) Corbett

(b) Ranthambore

(d) Sunderbans

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

What’s the ongoing story: “If you and I don’t have trust, then the countries cannot have trust,” a senior Chinese government official told The Indian Express in Beijing last week. The official was referring to the trust deficit between India and China over the last four-and-half years of the border standoff in Ladakh.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What are the border issues between India and China?

• What was the Galwan Valley clash?

• What are the areas of cooperation and conflict between India and China?

• What are the steps taken by both nations towards de-escalations?

• What is the significance of cooperation between India and China in the global south?

• Read more – G20, ASEAN, and BRICS

Key Takeaways:

• This correspondent was part of an Indian media delegation that visited China at the invitation of the Chinese government. This was the first media delegation to visit the country since 2019 — after the Covid-19 pandemic and the border standoff.

• The officials said the two sides were discussing ways to bring ties back to “normal” – as it was before the face-off started in April-May 2020 along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

• The officials outlined their “wish-list”: resumption of “direct flights” between the countries, easing of visa curbs on Chinese nationals including diplomats and scholars, lifting of the ban on Chinese mobile apps, letting Chinese journalists report from India, allowing more Indian movies in Chinese theatres, etc.

• All these restrictions and curbs were put after the bloody clashes in Galwan in June 2020, in which 20 Indian soldiers including a Colonel-rank officer and at least four Chinese soldiers were killed.

• The Galwan clash was the deadliest along the border since 1967, and cast a dark shadow on political ties. After many rounds of discussions between the two countries, India announced a breakthrough on October 21 this year — and soldiers from both sides started patrols along the LAC.

• The agreement on “patrolling arrangements” was an important beginning to the three-step process of disengagement, de-escalation and de-induction of troops. An important meeting took place this week to take the process forward.

• On September 18, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The two Ministers discussed the “next steps in India-China relations”, according to the official statement issued by India.

• On Thursday, in the most recent indication that India and China were moving to repair ties, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun met in Vientiane, Lao PDR, on the sidelines of the 11th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus.

• Singh said the two countries needed to “focus on cooperation rather than conflict”, and “emphasised and looked forward to greater trust and confidence building between the two sides through de-escalation”

Do You Know:

• India-China border agreement: Five reasons to be cautiously optimisticIndia-China border agreement: Five reasons to be cautiously optimistic writes Manoj Kewalramani

1. China’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged that “the two sides have reached a solution to the relevant issues.” It added that “China positively evaluates this”, and will be working with India to implement the solution that has been agreed. There is little that this reveals, other than the fact that there has been no implementation of the deal on the ground so far.

2. It is unclear whether the current agreement implies that the buffer zones created over the past four years across several friction points will cease to exist. Some reporting has indicated that this is the logical conclusion of an agreement that restores patrolling rights. However, a formal clarification from the government would be useful in this regard.

3. There needs to be greater clarity on whether patrolling will take place based on earlier standard operating procedures or whether there is a new SOP under this agreement.

4. It is important to examine Beijing’s incentives to concede on the issue of patrolling rights at this time, given that there has been little progress in talks since the last disengagement from Patrolling Point 15 in September 2022. It has been evident for some time that for all the sabre-rattling, keeping the peace with India is also in China’s interest. China faces an increasingly adverse external environment and economic uncertainty at home.

5. It is important to keep in mind that the announcement is just the first step in a long process of normalisation of the situation along the boundary areas.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????S Jaishankar writes: How India is making friends and influencing the world

????P Chidambaram writes: It is too early to tell

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(2) ‘Hand-in-Hand 2007’ a joint anti-terrorism military training was held by the officers of the Indian Army and officers of the Army of which one of the following countries? (UPSC CSE 2008)

(a) China

(b) Japan

(d) USA

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

‘China is using its economic relations and positive trade surplus as tools to develop potential military power status in Asia’, In the light of this statement, discuss its impact on India as her neighbor. (UPSC CSE 2017)

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate

What’s the ongoing story: Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei is considering withdrawing his country from the Paris Agreement, which aims to curb global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to several Western media reports. The speculation surfaced after Milei’s government asked its negotiators to leave the ongoing COP29 climate summit last week.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What are greenhouse gases?

• What is the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change?

• What is the Paris Agreement?

• What are the issues associated with the Paris Agreement?

• What is the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement?

• Why has the USA pulled out of the Paris Agreement during Trump’s first tenure?

• What is the status of limiting the global warming to 1.5 degrees?

Key Takeaways:

• The Paris Agreement is an international accord that was adopted by nearly every country in 2015 to address climate change and its adverse effects. Its primary goal is to substantially reduce GHG emissions in a bid to limit global warming in this century to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing the means to curb warming to 1.5 degrees.

• The agreement mentions the safer limit of 1.5 degrees based on a fact-finding report which found that breaching the threshold could lead to “some regions and vulnerable ecosystems” facing high risks, over an extended, decades-long period.

• The treaty also requires all Parties (countries which have joined the agreement) to state every five years what they are doing to tackle climate change — what is known as their nationally determined contribution (NDC). Each successive NDC is meant to reflect an increasingly higher degree of ambition compared to the previous version, according to the website of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

• Article 28 of the Paris Agreement lays out the procedure and timeline for a country’s withdrawal from the treaty.

It says, “[a]t any time after three years from the date on which this Agreement has entered into force (this happened in 2016) for a Party, that Party may withdraw from this Agreement by giving written notification to the Depositary”.

• The Article also states, “[a]ny such withdrawal shall take effect upon expiry of one year from the date of receipt by the Depositary of the notification of withdrawal, or on such later date as may be specified in the notification of withdrawal.”

• If a member state wants to withdraw from the treaty, it has to submit the notification of a withdrawal to the Office of Legal Affairs of the UN, based at UN Headquarters in New York.

• Once the withdrawal notification has been received, it only becomes effective after one year (or later if the member state so says in the notification). Until the withdrawal comes into force, the member state remains in the Paris Agreement and has to fully participate in all activities under it, according to the UNFCCC website.

• Experts fear that Argentina’s exit could trigger a domino effect, causing other countries to reconsider their own participation. This could undermine the Paris Agreement and the world’s climate goals — countries have to slash their emissions by 42% by 2030 and 57% by 2035 to ensure that the planet does not breach the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold.

• Argentina is South America’s second-largest economy and the world’s 24th-largest emitter of GHGs. It comprises significant fossil fuel resources and exports, with the second-largest reserves of shale gas (a type of natural gas) and the fourth-largest reserves of shale oil worldwide, according to a report by The Washington Post.

• The withdrawal could also isolate Argentina, Niklas Höhne, an expert in climate policy at the nonprofit think tank NewClimate Institute, told DW.

• However, some observers believe that President Milei will not be able to withdraw Argentina from the treaty easily due to domestic opposition. To implement the withdrawal, he will need the approval of the parliament which can prove to be a daunting task for him. Argentina ratified the Paris Agreement in 2016 and all international treaties ratified by the country hold constitutional status.

Do You Know:

• The UNFCCC came into being in 1994, with the mandate to find a solution to the problem of climate change. It divided the world into two neat groups — countries that needed to cut GHG emissions and those that didn’t. The 37 countries that were supposed to take emission cuts were named in Annexure I of the Convention and came to be famously known as ‘Annex-I’ countries. The rest of the world was the ‘non-Annex countries’.

• Annex-I countries were rich and more capable, and thus better placed to take emission cuts, which could not be achieved without restraining economic activity in some way. Also, it wasn’t as if the non-Annex countries needed to do nothing. The UNFCCC realised, and stressed, that climate change was a global problem, and needed to be tackled with global effort. Once emitted, GHGs cannot be restricted to a particular country or region and added to the global concentration in the atmosphere.

• Non-Annex countries too were, therefore, expected to act on climate change — taking adaptation measures and acting swiftly to move to a low-carbon growth trajectory. However, mandatory emission cuts were something they were supposed to be exempt from, at least in the near term.

• This led to the establishment of the principle of differentiation, through the expression ‘Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities’ (CBDR-RC), in the UNFCCC, recognising the fact that while all countries share a responsibility to address climate change, their obligations differ according to their capacities and circumstances.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

????Explained: US is exiting the Paris Agreement. What does this mean?

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(3) With reference to the Agreement at the UNFCCC Meeting in Paris in 2015, which of the following statements is/are correct? (UPSC CSE 2016)

1. The Agreement was signed by all the member countries of the UN and it will go into effect in 2017.

2. The Agreement aims to limit the greenhouse gas emissions so that the rise in average global temperature by the end of this century does not exceed 2°C or even 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

3. Developed countries acknowledged their historical responsibility in global warming and committed to donate $ 1000 billion a year from 2020 to help developing countries to cope with climate change.

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

(a) 1 and 3 only

(b) 2 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

Discuss global warming and mention its effects on the global climate. Explain the control measures to bring down the level of greenhouse gases which cause global warming, in light of the Kyoto Protocol, 1997. (UPSC CSE 2022)

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

General Studies IV: Corporate Governance, challenges of corruption

What’s the ongoing story: Sanjaya Baru writes: The Adani Group’s global footprint has stretched from Australia to Greece, Bangladesh to Kenya, China to the United Arab Emirates and beyond. The global forays of the Adani Group have been overtly supported by the Government of India in the name of geopolitics and as geo-economic statecraft.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is crony capitalism?

• What is economic diplomacy?

• What is the recent verdict on Adani in the USA?

• What are the issues related to crony capitalism?

Key Takeaways:

• The Russian newsmagazine, Sputnik, recently quoted an Indian diplomat defending the globalisation of India’s crony capitalism as serving New Delhi’s “geo-strategic objectives”. Economic diplomacy, he was quoted as saying, aims to promote India’s comprehensive national power.

• The problem with this view is that Adani was investing overseas with funds borrowed overseas. It is this external financial exposure that has now come to bite him. The US judicial system has entered the picture because Adani Green, an Adani Group firm, raised funds in the US and is a firm registered in the US, inviting the attention of the anti-bribery clause in US laws pertaining to overseas investments.

• The Adani indictment also points to another key vulnerability in India’s geo-economics strategy. While China has been able to extend its economic footprint using its own financial resources, many Indian firms have been drawing on western finance to fund their global business.

• This has made the globalisation of Indian business dependent on western support, as in the case of the US funding of an Adani project in Sri Lanka. However, this dependence on funding from the US exposes the Indian firm to the disciplines of the US legal system.

• Much effort has gone into building the global equity of Indian brands over the past quarter century. Business groups like the Tatas and companies like Infosys have been able to establish themselves as global brands after years of working at it. In one fell go, Gautam Adani has considerably weakened Brand India.

• The Adani expose has damaged the global credibility of Indian business. The sooner exemplary action is taken the better. At any rate, there is no case for defending the wrong practices of a business group in the name of national interest.

Do You Know:

• The United States Department of Justice has indicted Adani Group Chairman Gautam S Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and six others on charges of defrauding investors and concealing a bribery scheme.

• The indictment alleges that between 2020 and 2024, the Adani Group paid over $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure favourable contracts for solar energy projects, which were projected to generate profits exceeding $2 billion.

• The defendants are accused of misleading U.S. investors by concealing these illicit payments while raising more than $3 billion through loans and bond offerings

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????Explained: The SECI solar bid at the centre of Gautam Adani’s US indictment

????The new corruption

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

Capitalism has guided the world economy to unprecedented prosperity. However, it often encourages short sightedness and contributes to wide disparities between the rich and the poor. In this light, would it be correct to believe and adopt capitalism for bringing inclusive growth in India? Discuss. (UPSC CSE 2014)

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to the development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health

General Studies III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

What’s the ongoing story: Kamini Walia writes: Modern medicine is under threat because of the growing burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR happens when microbes stop responding to the drugs used against them. The drug-resistant infections are almost impossible to treat and claim many more lives.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is antimicrobial resistance?

• What are the reasons behind the increasing antimicrobial resistance?

• What is the impact of increasing AMR?

• What are the outcomes of the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level Meeting on AMR?

• What initiatives have been taken by the government to tackle the challenge of increasing AMR?

• What is the UN Resolution on AMR?

Key Takeaways:

• The initial response to AMR was hampered by a lack of quality data due to absent surveillance systems across the globe, especially in low- and middle-income countries where the burden is the highest.

• Early projections published by British economist Jim O’Neill in 2014, estimating 10 million annual deaths from AMR by 2050, drew the attention of policymakers and led to some strong actions like consolidation of the Global Action Plan in 2015 and the UN Resolution on AMR in 2016.

• In 2015, WHO launched the first global surveillance initiative — the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS). It provides a standardised process for countries to share country-level AMR data. As of February this year, 137 countries participated in GLASS.

• A recent report in The Lancet documented that 1.14 million deaths in 2021 were directly attributable to AMR, with the highest burden in South Asia and Africa. AMR also poses the biggest threat to older adults, as deaths in adults aged 70 and above increased by more than 80 per cent between 1990 and 2021, thus putting countries with rapidly ageing populations at higher AMR risk.

• Since the disease burden data from India does not look very different from the estimates published in the reports, this should bring a sense of urgency for greater action towards AMR containment.

• The National Essential Diagnostics List mandates that all district hospitals must have a microbiology lab, which is now being implemented in many states. In a few years, we will have AMR data from district hospitals too.

• India also has a surveillance network for livestock, poultry and fisheries. Efforts have been initiated to monitor antimicrobial consumption. All these need to be sustained and expanded to improve the quality of evidence that can contribute to disease-burden estimations for the country, which will, in turn, guide policies and investments.

• This year will be remembered as critical in the fight against AMR. Global leaders in the political declaration at the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level Meeting on AMR, including India, committed to reducing human deaths associated with bacterial AMR annually by 10 per cent by 2030.

• The declaration also called for sustainable national financing and US$100 million in catalytic funding, to help achieve a target of at least 60 per cent of countries having funded national action plans on AMR by 2030.

• Going forward, India can do the following to escalate its commitment towards AMR containment. First, as we draft the second NAP on AMR, we should commit to improved governance and accountability at the highest level to achieve the national targets.

• Investments in healthcare systems will therefore be crucial in our fight against AMR.

• Third, investments to translate research into the development of new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines will enable us to respond better to crises.

Do You Know:

• AMR is a condition in which a pathogen acquires the ability to survive and cause infection even in the presence of an antimicrobial drug. AMR is the result of evolution of microbes in a situation where there is a misuse or overuse of antibiotics.

• Excessive use of antimicrobial drugs can lead to the creation of resistant or extremely resistant superbugs, which can circulate in hospitals, through drinking water, or sewers. Infections caused by these pathogens will not respond to commonly prescribed antibiotics.

• Growing antibiotic resistance would mean that simple infections would become difficult to treat.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????Anti-microbial resistant bacteria kills 5 million people every year, says Lancet study: How to prevent this?

????Grave threat from AMR

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(4) Which of the following are the reasons for the occurrence of multi-drug resistance in microbial pathogens in India? (UPSC CSE 2019)

1. Genetic predisposition of some people

2. Taking incorrect doses of antibiotics to cure diseases

3. Using antibiotics in livestock farming

4. Multiple chronic diseases in some people

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

(a) 1 and 2

(b) 2 and 3 only

(d) 2, 3 and 4

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

Can overuse and free availability of antibiotics without Doctor’s prescription, be contributors to the emergence of drug-resistant diseasesin India? What are the available mechanisms for monitoring and control? Critically discuss the various issues involved. (UPSC CSE 2014)

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

What’s the ongoing story: On the final day of the COP29 negotiations Friday, the developed countries revealed their offer on climate finance — a mere 250 billion dollars a year from 2035 — angering developing countries which have been asking for 1.3 trillion dollars a year. The conference has now gone into extra time as developing countries made a concerted effort to extract a better offer.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is the outcome of COP29?

• What is climate financing?

• What are the challenges of climate financing?

• What is the Paris agreement?

• What are the issues of developing countries?

• What are the concerns of developed countries?

Key Takeaways:

• The proposal, part of a new draft agreement that came out Friday, did acknowledge the 1.3-trillion dollar demand but called on “all actors”, meaning both developed and developing countries, to “work together” to enable scaling up climate finance to this level. Essentially, it means the developed countries took no responsibility for attempting to raise the 1.3 trillion dollars.

• The Paris Agreement puts the onus of generating climate finance solely on developed countries. As of now, they are under commitment to raise 100 billion dollars per year, a target that they have most not met. The Paris Agreement has a provision that says a new higher figure should be decided before 2025, a goal the countries assembled at COP29 are trying to achieve.

• It is not just the proposed amount that was underwhelming. While developing countries have been demanding that a bulk of climate finance be raised from public sources, and disbursed largely in the form of grants or concessionary loans, Friday’s proposal talked about raising 250 billion dollars from all sources — private and public, bilateral and multilateral.

• While developing countries have been demanding that a bulk of climate finance be raised from public sources, and disbursed largely in the form of grants or concessionary loans, Friday’s proposal talked about raising 250 billion dollars from all sources — private and public, bilateral and multilateral.

• Also, the 250 billion dollars is proposed to be provided only from 2035, after a gap of 11 years. This means that in the meanwhile, the developed countries would continue to provide only the 100 billion dollars they are currently obligated to raise. In 2009 too, when the developed countries had first proposed the 100 billion dollar figure, they had promised to mobilise it only from 2020.

• The small island countries rejected the proposal, saying it was an example of asking parties how low they could go in climate ambition. “This text will not be adequate to fully implement the Paris Agreement, to truly drive action to hold the 1.5º C limit. This is unacceptable,” the countries said in a statement.

Do You Know:

• China, India, and other BASIC country partners Brazil and South Africa have been complaining against the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) introduced by the EU last year. On Friday, China and India confronted the European Union (EU) and warned that unilateral trade measures could be detrimental to multilateral cooperation.

• CBAM taxes certain products coming in from other countries on the basis of their emissions footprint in their production process. For instance, if the imported steel was produced through a process that entailed higher emissions than the emissions standards for that product in Europe, it would be taxed.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(5) “Climate Action Tracker” which monitors the emission reduction pledges of different countries is (UPSC CSE 2022)

(a) Database created by coalition of research organisations

(b) Wing of “International Panel of Climate Change”

(d) Agency promoted and financed by United Nations Environment Programme and World

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Constitution of India —historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure

What’s the ongoing story: The 42nd Amendment to the Constitution, by which the words socialist and secular were inserted in the Constitution during the Emergency, has been the subject of judicial review and it cannot be said that whatever Parliament did at that time is nullity, the Supreme Court said on Friday as it reserved its decision on petitions seeking striking down of the amendment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is the 42nd constitutional amendment?

• How are the socialist and secular principles enshrined in the Constitution?

• What are the provisions related to the Emergency in India?

• Why was an Emergency imposed in 1975?

• What constitutional amendments were made regarding the Emergency?

• What is the process of constitutional amendment?

• What is judicial review?

• Is the Preamble part of the Constitution?

• What are the constitutional provisions related to Emergency?

Key Takeaways:

• “This 42nd Amendment has been subjected to a certain amount of judicial review. This court and even Parliament has intervened. We are concerned with a very limited issue over here… We can’t say whatever Parliament did at that time… is nullity,” said CJI Sanjiv Khanna, presiding over a bench also comprising Justice P V Sanjay Kumar.

• CJI Khanna, however, said “The word socialism used over here is in a different context that the State must ensure it’s a welfare state, and that there should be equality of opportunity. That’s done through so many articles. Then why worry about that score? Why go into all that?”

• CJI Khanna said “the question is power under Article 368 (to amend the Constitution) will extend to the Preamble. The Preamble is a part and parcel of the Constitution. The Constitution was adopted by the people of India on a particular day. That’s a fact. But amendments are made…”

Do You Know:

• A preamble serves as an introduction to a document and contains its basic principles and goals. When the Indian Constitution was being drafted, the ideals behind the preamble were first laid down in the Objectives Resolution, adopted by the Constituent Assembly in 1947. These ideals emerged out of the numerous debates that took place during the drafting of the Constitution.

• During the debates in the Constituent Assembly, members such as K T Shah and Brajeshwar Prasad had raised the demand to add these words to the preamble.

• However, Dr B R Ambedkar argued: “What should be the policy of the State, how the Society should be organised in its social and economic side are matters which must be decided by the people themselves according to time and circumstances. It cannot be laid down in the Constitution itself because that is destroying democracy altogether.”

• In his petition, Dr Swamy mentioned Ambedkar’s position. Ambedkar also said, “My contention is that what is suggested in this amendment is already contained in the draft Preamble”.

• Indeed, many principles affirming secularism and socialism were contained in the Constitution originally, such as in the Directive Principles of State Policy that is meant to guide the government in its actions. Some examples are provisions related to the “equitable distribution of material resources of the community for the common good”, and protecting the rights of workers.

• Similarly, in the fundamental rights that allow the freedom to profess and propagate one’s religion, as well as in the government policies that recognise religious occasions across communities, an Indian version of secularism is followed. Unlike western secularism which strictly separates the state and religion, the Indian state has over the years acknowledged and involved itself in matters related to all religions.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

????Plea against insertions in 1976: Can Preamble be amended without altering date, asks SC

????December 15, 1977, Forty Years Ago: 42nd amendment

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

(6) Which principle among the following was added to the Directive Principles of State Policy by the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution? (UPSC CSE 2017)

(a) Equal pay for equal work for both men and women

(b) Participation of workers in the management of industries

(d) Securing living wage and human conditions of work to workers

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life

What’s the ongoing story: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has told the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) that farm fire data currently extracted from different satellites may not be present ground reality, and that it will develop in-house algorithms to analyse foreign satellite data to get accurate counts.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is GEO-KOMPSAT 2A?

• What are geostationary satellites?

• What are the satellites used to map land?

• What is the significance of the Cartosat series of satellites?

• What is CAQM?

Key Takeaways:

• The space agency’s response to farm fires in the country was shared by CAQM with the Supreme Court in an affidavit Thursday after the apex court’s latest directions to procure data from geostationary satellites instead of from Nasa’s polar-orbiting satellites and to make it available for states to take prompt action.

• On Monday, the Supreme Court was informed that there could be an undercount in the data on farm fires collected through the polar-orbiting Nasa satellite.

• The apex court was also informed that data from GEO-KOMPSAT 2A, the geostationary Korean satellite, had picked up fires after Nasa’s polar-orbiting had passed, raising questions over the count of farm fires.

• Speaking about the different satellites available in the afternoon or evening, the affidavit said INSAT-3DR, Geo-Kompsat 2-AMI, Meteosat-9, Feng Yun-4A/4B, HIMAWARI-8 from India, South Korea, European Union, China and Japan, respectively, are inadequate to give an accurate farm fire count.

• Government agencies, including the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) and various state remote sensing centres, at present, use data from the Nasa satellites Suomi NPP, Terra MODIS, and Aqua MODIS.

• It said INSAT-3DR, the Indian satellite with a 30-minute observation frequency, cannot be used to accurately detect farm fire counts yet, because the images generated by it are of coarser resolution compared to Aqua MODIS.

Do You Know:

• The Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing to launch a satellite that will help us track Earth’s “surface motions down to fractions of an inch.”

• Developed in partnership with NASA, the new satellite dubbed NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) will help humans track the motion of glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice and map the changes to the planet’s vegetation.

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Practice question for UPSC Prelims Covering a similar theme

(7) With reference to the NISAR satellite, consider the following statements:

1. This satellite is developed by the Indian Space and Research Organisation in partnership with NASA.

2. It will measure the motion of the entire planet’s land and ice-covered surface every 28 days.

3. The satellite will work only during the daytime.

4. The satellite will be able to predict earthquakes.

How many of the statements given above are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(d) All four

The Indian Express UPSC Essentials brings to you the November issue of its monthly magazine. Click Here to read. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com

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