Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for February 15, 2024. If you missed the February 14, 2024 UPSC CSE exam key from the Indian Express, read it here.

FRONT PAGE

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: India and its neighbourhood- relations.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Chinese nationals have started occupying several of their model “Xiaokang” border defence villages across India’s north-eastern borders which the country has been building along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since 2019, The Indian Express has learnt.

• For Your Information- 

China has been constructing 628 such “well-off villages” along India’s borders with the Tibet Autonomous Region, including along Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh for over five years now.

While the exact nature of these villages is unclear, the dwellings are understood to be “dual-use infrastructure” — for both civil and military purposes — and seen as a Chinese assertion of its territorial claims along the LAC. They have thus remained a concern for the military.

In the last few months Chinese nationals have been moving in — it’s not known if the occupants are civilians or military personnel.

China has also been constructing infrastructure, including border villages, in Bhutanese territory.

• What is Vibrant Villages programme?

• MAP WORK: LAC, Lohit Valley, Tawang, Siligudi Corridor, Siang Valley and Dibang Valley.

• As tensions continue between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), what the line means on the ground and the disagreements over it?

(The LAC is the demarcation that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory. India considers the LAC to be 3,488 km long, while the Chinese consider it to be only around 2,000 km. It is divided into three sectors: the eastern sector which spans Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, the middle sector in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and the western sector in Ladakh.)

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

• Line of Actual Control (LAC): Where it is located, and where India and China differ

• Line of Actual Control: Past tense, present uncertain

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 Interest

General Studies I: Art and Culture

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-

Inaugurating the first Hindu temple – BAPS in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for “writing a golden chapter in human history”.

• For Your Information

The Nagara-style temple, built at an estimated cost of Rs 700 crore, is located in the Abu Mureikha area, about 50 km from the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Through the carvings on its pink sandstone exteriors, it brings a glimpse of Ayodhya to Abu Dhabi with the depiction of episodes from the Ramayana. Another wall shows the temple carved alongside other UAE landmarks like the Burj Khalifa, highlighting how it has become a part of the UAE skyline.

It is among 1,200 temples built and managed by the Swaminarayan Sanstha in India and abroad, including countries like the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand that have a sizable presence of the Indian community.

The land on which the temple complex has been built was gifted by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2015. The foundation of the temple was laid by Modi in 2017.

Several elements have been included in the temple to bring the two nations and cultures together. For instance, it has seven shikhars or spires, representing the seven Emirates that come together to form the UAE. At the entrance, eight idols symbolise universal values such as faith, charity and compassion.

Deities from North, East, West and South India have been given space in the temple – including Ram, Shiva, Jagannath, Krishna, Swaminarayan (considered a reincarnation of Krishna), Balaji and Ayyappa. The temple is surrounded by artificially created rivers, containing water from the Ganga and Yamuna rivers.

To give equal representation to the host country, the falcon, which is the UAE’s national bird, has also been given space.

• Points to ponder:

How does the temple tell us the tales from world over?

How does architecture symbolise harmony and peace?

FROM EXPLAINED: PM Modi to inaugurate BAPS temple in UAE  Its special features, architecture, significance

What is the significance of the temple?

A BAPS spokesperson said, “A Muslim king donated land for a Hindu Mandir, where the lead architect is a Catholic Christian, the project manager a Sikh, the foundational designer a Buddhist, the construction company a Parsi group, and the director comes from the Jain tradition.”

Gujarat, especially Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, has recently seen increasing interest from and presence of realtors from the UAE.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, was the chief guest for the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024 held in January in Gandhinagar, where PM Modi personally received him at the Sardar Vallabhbhai International Airport in Ahmedabad.

When PM Modi reached UAE on Tuesday (February 13), he was received at the airport by President Zayed, and the two leaders hugged each other.

• YOU SHOULDN’T MISS: World Governments Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that citizens should neither feel the absence of a government and nor there should be pressure from the government.

Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Abu Dhabi, Modi said, “I believe that people should neither feel the absence of a government, but at the same time, nor should there be pressure from the government,” he said while stressing the mantra of ‘minimum government, maximum governance’.

The World Governments Summit is being held on the theme of “Shaping Future Governments” with the conversation involving governments, international organisations, thought leaders, and private sector leaders from around the globe.

• What are the important agreements signed between India and UAE on PM Modi’s current visit to UAE?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

India-UAE, a decade of successful engagement

India, UAE ink pacts on linking digital payment platforms, trade, energy

EXPRESS NETWORK

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity

Mains Examination: Parliament and State Legislatures

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Simultaneous elections are expected to aid growth besides reducing uncertainty in the minds of investors and other societal stakeholders, according to a paper co-authored by NK Singh, former Chairperson, Fifteenth Finance Commission, and Prachi Mishra, Chief of Systemic Division Issues, International Monetary Fund.

• What are the arguments around holding simultaneous elections?

For Your Information:

The government constituted a committee headed by former president of India Ram Nath Kovind to explore the possibility of “one nation, one election”, sources told the news agency PTI.

Over the years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed for the idea of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly polls. He said in June 2019, after his re-election, that a committee would be formed to examine the issue and a meeting with leaders of political parties would be called. Many Opposition parties have been against the idea in the past.

In November of that year, then Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said that even though the Election Commission would “prefer it”, but he did not see it “happening very shortly”. He said it could happen only if political parties “sit together and evolve some consensus. Do the requisite amendments in the law, so that (poll) cycle can be brought together,” he added.

• Has the idea of simultaneous polls been explored before?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

Govt forms committee on simultaneous elections: What is the idea, and the arguments around it?

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

Plainly on MSP

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Main Examination: General Studies III: Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Government must talk to farmers but legal guarantee of MSP will be a logistical nightmare at best, fiscal disaster at worst.

What is the Express View:

Farmers on a tractor march to the national capital are primarily seeking a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) for various crops announced by the Centre. Their demand is illogical and impractical.

The government can “guarantee” MSP only on the crops and the quantities that it buys. It cannot obviously procure the entire produce brought by farmers to the mandis. Nor can it enforce MSP on private trade.

The latter will choose to not purchase at all if asked to pay more than the prevailing supply-and-demand determined rate.

A third option could be the trade buying at the market-clearing price and the government transferring the difference between it and the higher MSP to farmers’ bank accounts. But that requires generating data on how much of produce each farmer has sold and at what price.

It, in turn, creates scope for market manipulation: The trade may convince farmers to sell at below normal equilibrium price and make the government foot the higher difference vis-à-vis the MSP.

Simply put, guaranteeing MSP through legislation will result in a logistical nightmare at best and fiscal disaster at worst. It’s true that farming is a business with high price as well as production risks, more so with the growing vagaries of climate change.

But the solution for production loss — whether due to dry weather, unseasonal rain or pest attack — lies in crop insurance and timely payout of claims. Prices, on the other hand, basically reflect what the market wants.

Cost-plus MSPs oblivious to demand conditions would only distort farmers’ production decisions, leading to over-supply of some crops and under-supply of others. The net outcome is more, not less, price volatility. What farmers probably require is a minimum income support — MIS, not MSP.

• What is MIS? How does it help?

• Back to basics: What are MSPs? What are the crops covered under MSPs?

• Protesting farmers want MSP law: How would such a guarantee work?

• What is the price versus income support in this debate?

FROM ECONOMY: India faces WTO pressure on farm subsidies amid protests for minimum support price

The government’s headroom to accede to the protesting farmers demand for a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) is somewhat limited given India is under pressure on its farm subsidies at the World Trade Organization (WTO), with the latest attack by an influential group of 19 agri exporting countries.

To attain greater flexibility to offer farm support, India is in the process of pushing for a permanent solution at the upcoming inter-ministerial summit at Abu Dhabi from February 26 to 29 but a deadlock over the politically charged issues between developed and developing countries is unlikely to see a resolution.

The Cairns Group – comprising Australia, Brazil and Canada among others members — have claimed that India’s public stockholding (PSH) programme is highly subsidised and the farm support that India gives is “distorting” global food prices and “hurting” food security of other countries.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

Explained: What are MSPs, and how are they decided?

The question of MSP: Is income support for farmers better than pricing that is delinked from market demand?

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