What's New :
Gist of India Year Book (IYB) 2024. Download Here...
Thematic Current Affairs Compilation. Download here...

31st December 2022

India-Australia major trade pact comes into effect

Context

The Indian Commerce minister has formally operationalised one of the major free trade agreements (FTA) in 2022 – the India-Australia Economic and Cooperation Trade Agreement (Ind-Aus ECTA) – by issuing ‘preferential certificates of origin’ to export consignments related to textiles, jewellery and pharmaceutical sectors in Mumbai.

What are preferential certificates of origin?

  • This type of Certificate of Origin is given towards goods that are subject to preferential tariff treatment in the payment of duties. These duties may be a reduction of the standard tariff, or they also may be a complete exemption from the tariffs.

Background

  • In September 2021, Australia and India formally re-launched CECA negotiations with the intention of concluding an Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (AI-ECTA).
  • It aims to swiftly liberalise and deepen bilateral trade in goods and services, and then use this foundation to resume negotiations on the more ambitious CECA.
  • The Australian Parliament ratified it last month and has now come into effect, called the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) with India. This pact has been seen as an opportunity for growing Indian Businesses.
About

The India-Australia ECTA:

  • It covers almost all the tariff lines dealt in by India and Australia.

Tariff Lines: It is a product as defined in lists of tariff rates. A specific tariff is a tax imposed directly onto one imported good and does not depend on the value of that imported good. A specific tariff is usually based on the weight or number of imported goods.

  • India will benefit from preferential market access provided by Australia on 100% of its tariff lines.
  • India will be offering preferential access to Australia on over 70% of its tariff lines.
  • Under the agreement, Indian graduates from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) will be granted extended post-study work visas.
  • It will provide zero-duty access to 96% of India’s exports to Australia and will give about 85% of Australia’s exports zero-duty access to the Indian market
  • It will boost bilateral trade in goods and services to USD 45-50 billion over five years, up from around USD 27 billion, and generate over one million jobs in India, according to a government estimate.

Significance:

  • Enhanced Exports: Currently, Indian exports face a tariff disadvantage of 4-5% in many labour-intensive sectors vis-à-vis competitors in the Australian market such as China, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia.
    • Removing these barriers under the ECTA can enhance India’s merchandise exports significantly.
  • Cheaper Raw Materials: Australian exports to India are more concentrated in raw materials and intermediate products.
    • Due to zero-duty access to 85% of Australian products, many industries in India will get cheaper raw materials and thus become more competitive, particularly in sectors like steel, aluminium, power, engineering and so on.
  • Change in Perceptions for India: It will help to change perceptions of developed countries towards India as ‘protectionist’ and address scepticism around India’s openness to doing business with the world.
  • Elimination of Double taxation on IT services: The Agreement will also eliminate double taxation on IT services which was making us less competitive and making us less profitable in the IT sector.

Impacts on India:

  • Global supply chains get strengthened: India’s rationale for signing a comprehensive economic agreement with these countries is to be part of the global value chains (GVCs), both, trade and foreign investment are central to GVCs.
  • Stronger Indo-Pacific: Strong Australia-India economic ties will also pave the way for a stronger Indo-Pacific economic architecture.
  • Will create jobs and opportunity: The double taxation has now been removed by amending the law and from 1st April 2023, we will save millions and millions of dollars, and going forward, over 5-7 years, the savings will be over a billion dollars, giving us a competitive edge and also creating a lot many jobs.

How the courts changed for women in 2022?

Context

Women judges, lawyers and litigants have, since India’s independence, faced hurdles in accessing the country’s court system, and shattering the proverbial glass ceiling has been a tedious task.

  • Let us see how the court’s environment changed for women last year and what are the scopes further.
About

Landmark Judgements favouring equal rights for Women:

  • Women's right to bodily autonomy: In a Judgment, the Supreme Court recently put a decision on abortion rights for all adult women in India to have the right to seek a safe abortion through a medical expert till up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

There are five key aspects of this judgment that need to be shared:

    • Acknowledging the context of criminality: IPC criminalises accessing and providing an abortion except where there is an immediate necessity to save the life of the pregnant woman, and the MTP Act is an exception to this criminal offence.
    • Removal of ‘compulsory’ marital status: The judgment basically holds that what is accessible and available for a married pregnant woman should be accessible and available to any pregnant woman and that a classification based on marital status is fallacious and illegal.
    • Inclusive of the concept of Marital Rape: An acknowledgement has been put that a pregnancy can be sought to be terminated on the ground of it being a result of rape by the husband of the pregnant woman must be recognised.
    • Confidentiality: This judgment clarifies that while the need to report mandatorily remains, the identity of the pregnant person need not be disclosed in the cases of consensual sexual activity and where the minor and/or her guardian request the medical service provider to maintain confidentiality.
    • Relief to Medical Practitioners: It recognises the extra-legal requirements that medical practitioners insist upon before providing MTP services, only to safeguard themselves due to the context of criminality and the present law is non-inclusive.
  • Inclusion of Marital Rape as a Crime:
    • In the August 2021 Judgment, the Chhattisgarh High Court upheld that sexual intercourse by a husband is not rape, even if it was by force or against the wife's wish. This ruling has been deemed outrageous by many. Later the Delhi High Court gave a decision in favour of marital rape in May 2022.
    • The definition of Marital Rape is provided under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), framed by the colonial rulers.
    • Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) defines the term rape as, any form of sexual assault involving non-consensual intercourse with a woman.
    • However, as per the law, a wife is presumed to deliver perpetual consent to have intercourse with her husband after entering into a marital relationship.
    • Exception 2 to Section 375 provides a non-criminal status to sexual intercourse without the consent of the wife and immunizes such actions of the husband.
    • The concept of marital rape is the epitome of ‘implied consent’, marital relations between a man and a woman implies to have consented to sexual intercourse from both sides.

Two-finger test questioning women’s virginity repealed: The Supreme Court held that any person found conducting the archaic and unscientific two-finger test on a victim of rape or penetrative sexual assault will be guilty of misconduct.

    • While doing so, the top court discontent or sorrowful that such tests continued to be conducted, and said that the test does not have any scientific basis but only ‘re-traumatises’ victims of sexual assault.

Other developments:

  • Call for Better infrastructure:
    • In September, the Delhi High Court ordered the State government to make facilities including separate toilets for women available to lawyers and litigants in consumer forums located in the capital.
    • The order was passed in light of the petitioner placing on record some photographs which revealed the abysmal conditions of the district consumer forums in Delhi-NCR.
    • In a significant move, the Delhi High Court also set up a rèche facility within its premises this April.
  • Attitudinal changes inside the Courtroom:
    • The Kerala High Court stressed the need for men to change their attitude, particularly when it comes to their outlook towards crimes against women. The Court, while hearing a plea for anticipatory bail by a rape accused, recorded that crimes against women were continuing to increase, but the patriarchal mindset of society was changing.
    • Highlighting the importance of women’s safety, the Delhi High Court called for zero tolerance to anybody who intimidates a girl, woman or child. The Court opined that society should ensure that women do not have to fear when they step out of their homes.

‘International Day of Women Judges’:

  • The Supreme Court this year also hosted a special programme to commemorate the first ever ‘International Day of Women Judges’.
  • ·All women judges of the Constitutional courts and all women judicial officers from across the country were invited to join the programme online.

Way forward:

  • Gender-sensitive practices: The Courtrooms must hasten to incorporate more gender-inclusive practices in their day-to-day functioning.
    • It is essential that courts begin recognising challenges faced by not only those who identify as women but also Trans and non-binary lawyers.
  • More women on the bench: As per official data from the Government of India, only a mere 9 per cent of High Court judges across the country are women.
    • In fact, five High Courts - those of Manipur, Meghalaya, Patna, Tripura and Uttarakhand - do not even have one woman on the bench.
    • The High Courts of Delhi and Gauhati see the highest representation, though it continues to be woefully low at 17 per cent.
  • Sensitisation of judges, and judicial officers: The only way that women, particularly those from conservative backgrounds and marginalised communities, will be able to participate in our justice system effectively is if we ensure that courtrooms are safe spaces for them.
    • If women are subjected to incessant casual sexism and implicit bias, the adequate representation will remain a distant dream.

Conclusion:

The need of the hour is to promote gender inclusiveness and equality of thought, expression and belief for women, rather than to just giving them political rights and not educating women about it.

Core sector output rises 5.4% in uneven recovery

Context

The output growth of India’s eight core sectors rebounded to 5.4% in November against a 3.2 percent growth in the same month last year.


More about the news:

  • Sectors having Positive Growth: Coal, fertilizer, steel, cement, and electricity segment

Strategic Sectors:

  1. Atomic energy, space, and defence
  2. Transport and telecommunications
  3. Power, petroleum, coal, and other minerals and
  4. Banking, insurance, and financial services
  • Sectors having Negative Growth: Crude oil, natural gas, and refinery products

What are Core Sectors?

  • Eight Core Sectors: Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizer, Steel, Cement, and Electricity.
  • These comprise 27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
  • The eight core sector industries in decreasing order of their weightage:
  • Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas> Cement> Fertilizers.

Index of Industrial Production:

  • IIP is an indicator that measures the changes in the volume of production of industrial products during a given period.
  • It is compiled and published monthly by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Ministry of Statistics, and Programme Implementation.
  • The base year for IIP is 2011-2012.
  • It is a composite indicator that measures the growth rate of industry groups classified under:
    • Broad sectors: Mining, Manufacturing, and Electricity.
    • Use-based sectors: Basic Goods, Capital Goods, and Intermediate Goods.

Significance of IIP:

  • It is used by government agencies including the Ministry of Finance, the Reserve Bank of India, etc, for policy-making purposes.
  • IIP remains extremely relevant for the calculation of the quarterly and advanced GDP (Gross Domestic Product) estimates.

Government Initiatives for Growth of the Industrial Sector in India

  • Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) - To scale up domestic manufacturing capability.
  • PM Gati Shakti- National Master Plan - Multimodal connectivity infrastructure project.
  • Bharatmala Project - To Improve connectivity in North East India
  • Start-up India - To catalyze Startup culture in India
  • Make in India 2.0 - To transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub.
  • Atmanirbhar Bharat Campaign - To cut down import dependence
  • Disinvestment Plans - To support India’s economic recovery
  • Special Economic Zones- To create additional economic activity and boost the export of goods and services.
  • MSME Innovative Scheme- To promote the complete value chain from developing ideas into innovation through incubation and design interventions

Evolution of disability rights in India

Context

India is expected to witness significant judicial activism in the space of disability rights with the court’s taking measures to make more inclusive and disability-friendly environment in the country, but it is also pertinent to trace the history of the disability rights movement and underscore its importance.

About

The evolution of Disability Rights in India:

  • From a charity-based approach to a rights-based approach: Through the years, an incremental change one will notice is the shift from a charity-based approach to a rights-based approach adopted while spelling out and enforcing statutory rights of persons with disabilities.
  • From the inception of the disability rights movement in India back to The Proclamation on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities, this led to The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.
  • Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016:
  • Another significant evolution can be attributed to the shift from the medical model of disability that was envisaged in the 1995 Act to the social model of disability coupled with the human rights approach which gained prominence after the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the resulting Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
  • At the global level, the Incheon Strategy of Disability inclusiveness also played a role in giving effect to the 2016 Act. 

Efforts for the welfare of Persons with Disability (PwDs):

  • The Supreme Court, which led to reservation for PwDs in Group A and B posts.
  • The persons with visual impairment were allowed to write the civil services examination in Braille script or with the help of a scribe.

What are the challenges?

  • Societal perspective: Any disabled person was treated like dirt in Indian society. Most of these people were either seen as beggars or in better cases they were associated with the field of music.
    • Many people thought of disability as the result of someone’s previous life’s sins and thus held them responsible for their present condition. This absurdity led to various forms of injustice in India.
  • Judiciary’s view:
    • The judges even in the higher judiciary were not been sensitised to persons with disability. Many times, they are judged against sympathy rather than empathy.
  • Legislators' view: PwDs is often seen as a vote bank by the politicians in our country however the legislators are bound by the Constitutional provisions in favour of people with disability;
    • Article 25 – Health: States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure access for persons with disabilities to health services that are gender-sensitive, including health-related rehabilitation.
    • Article 41 of the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) states that State shall make effective provisions for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, within the limits of its economic capacity and development.
    • The subject of ‘relief of the disabled and unemployable’ is specified in the state list of the Seventh Schedule of the constitution.

Levels of Discrimination faced by PwDs:

  • Discrimination at workplace
  • Societal non-inclusion
  • Social boycotting
  • Considered abnormal
  • Seen by disability rather than a special ability

Some programmes and initiatives for PwD in India:

  • Accessible India Campaign: Creation of Accessible Environment for PwDs:
    • A nationwide flagship campaign for achieving universal accessibility that will enable persons with disabilities to gain access to equal opportunity.
    • The campaign targets at enhancing the accessibility of the built environment, transport system and Information & communication ecosystem.
  • National Fellowship for Students with Disabilities (RGMF)
    • The scheme aims to increase opportunities for students with disabilities for pursuing higher education.
  • DeenDayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme: Under the scheme financial assistance is provided to NGOs for providing various services to Persons with Disabilities, like special schools, vocational training centres, community-based rehabilitation, preschool and early intervention etc
  • Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/fitting of Aids and Appliances (ADIP): The Scheme aims at helping disabled persons by bringing suitable, durable, scientifically-manufactured, modern, standard aids and appliances within their reach.

Study shows butterflies bedazzle predators and escape

Context
  • Scientists of the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) have discovered secrets of a long evolutionary game through which butterflies come to warn, fool, and escape their predators.

About

About the discovery:

  • The objective of the Discovery: Use of Mimicry by butterflies as an Adaptive phenomenon to escape their predators.
    • Investigating the evolution of Mimicry traits.
    • The study was conducted on Butterfly “mimetic communities” of the Western Ghats.
  • About Mimicry: Mimicry is a clever adaption that butterflies or any other species use to fend off their predators.
    • It is an adaptive phenomenon.
    • In mimicry, a palatable organism resembles an unpalatable organism to deceive predators.
    • “The unpalatable one is called models (Müllerian co-models) and the palatable one is called mimics (Batesian mimics).

A Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both.

Müllerian mimicry is a natural phenomenon in which two or more well-defended species, often foul-tasting and sharing common predators, have come to mimic each other's honest warning signals, to their mutual benefit.

Where are mimetic communities most common?

  • These mimetic communities are generally common in tropical and sub-tropical biodiversity hotspots.

Mimicry in Butterflies:

  • Mimicry in butterflies is not limited to the resemblance in wing colour patterns alone.
  • Some mimics have also evolved to imitate the flight behaviours of model species
  • In nature, multiple models and mimic butterflies could be found in the same habitat at the same time.
  • These similar-looking co-occurring butterflies together form a mimetic community.

Significance of the Findings:

  • For the first time, the evolution of multiple traits was examined in a biological community, especially in a biodiversity hotspot of the Indian subcontinent.
  • These (findings) can be carried forward to investigate whether the rate of trait evolution is similar in young communities, such as in the Western Ghats versus large, old communities in NE India, SE Asia and the neotropics.

The Bills introduced and cleared in Parliament for year 2022

Context

According to the data collated by non-profit organisation PRS Legislative Research shows that the overall Parliament recorded 56 sittings in 2022, across the Budget, Monsoon, and winter sessions, the number of Parliament sittings has been declining over the last 50 years and has halved since the 1950s and 1960s.

So, let us assess the bill that passed this year in Parliament.

About

About the Bills:

  • The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022:
    • The Bill amends the 2005 version of the Act, which prohibits the unlawful manufacture, transport, or transfer of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and their means of delivery.
    • It includes the prohibition of financing any activity related to WMD and their delivery systems and gives the central government the power to crack down on financial sources suspected of catering to the same.
  • The Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022:
    • The Bill aims to regulate visits and activities to Antarctica as well as potential disputes that may arise among those present on the continent.
    • It prohibits private tours and expeditions to Antarctica without a permit or written authorisation from a member country and includes provisions for penalising defaulters.
    • The Bill also includes a structure for government officials to inspect a vessel and conduct checks of research facilities and calls for creating a fund to protect the continent’s environment.
  • The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022:
    • This Bill replaces the Identification of Prisoners Act, of 1920.
    • It allows the police and prison authorities to collect store and analyse physical and biological samples including the retina and iris scans of convicted, arrested and detained persons.

The National Crime Records Bureau of India (NCRB), under the Union Home Ministry, is allowed to preserve records for at least 75 years.

  • The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022:
    • This amendment Bill was introduced when Delhi was gearing up for Municipal Corporation elections, which were then halted.
    • This Bill amended the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act of 1957, which was in turn amended by the Delhi Legislative Assembly in 2011, to divide the Municipal Corporation of Delhi into three bodies— North, South, and East.
    • The new amendment merged all three bodies into one.
  • The Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Amendment) Bills, 2022: This bill includes;
    • The Bill amends the ST order to include the Deshwari, Ganjhu, Dautalbandi (Dwalbandi), Patbandi, Raut, Maajhia, Khairi (Kheri), Tamaria (Tamadia), and Puran communities of Jharkhand in the ST list and recategorises the Bhogta community in the State as ST from SC.
    • It also excludes the Gond community from the SC list in four districts of Uttar Pradesh – Sant Kabir Nagar, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Kushinagar, and Chandauli, and adds it to the ST list in these four districts.
    • The Bill amends the ST order to make the Darlong community of Tripura a sub-tribe of the Kuki tribe.
    • It includes the Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran communities in the Tamil Nadu ST list.
    • It includes Betta-Kuruba as a synonym for the Kadu Kuruba community in the Karnataka ST list.
  • The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2022:
    • This Bill seeks to convert the National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTU) into the ‘Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya’, an autonomous central university.
    • It also expands the scope of the university from just the railways to cover the entire transport sector and supports growth and modernisation in the field.
  • The Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022:
    • This Bill pertained only to Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
    • It amends the Family Courts Act, 1984, and extends the application of the Act to the mentioned States.
    • Governments in both Nagaland and Himachal Pradesh had already set up family courts under the 1984 Act before it was applicable there.
  • The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (Amendment) Bill, 2022:
    • This Bill renames the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre as the India International Arbitration Centre.
  • The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022:
    • This Bill facilitates the promotion of green Hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels used by industries and incentivises efforts to use clean energy.

India’s oldest botanical garden

Context

A West Bengal-based environmentalist has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to take immediate action for saving the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Botanic Garden in Howrah.

What is Botanical Garden?

  • A botanical garden or botanic garden is a garden with a documented collection of living plants for the purpose of scientific research, conservation, display, and education.
  • Typically, plants are labelled with their botanical names.
  • Most are at least partly open to the public and may offer guided tours.

Acharya Jagadish Chandra (AJC) Bose Indian Botanic Garden

  • It is India’s largest botanical garden and is spread over 270 acres.
  • The gardens were founded in 1787 by Colonel Robert Kyd, an army officer of the East India Company.
  • It has about 12,000 specimens of as many as 1,000 species.
  • It is considered the ‘largest man-made plant kingdom’.
  • The garden is under the jurisdiction of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) and the Kolkata Port Trust (KPT) has the jurisdictional command over the length of the river from Farakka to Ganga Sagar.
  • Some of its Plant collections:
    • ‘Great Banyan Tree’, a living wonder in the plant kingdom;
    • Branching palm (Hyphane thebaica) was introduced in Egypt;
    • Giant Water Lily (Victoria amazonica) brought from the Amazon river
    • Mountain rose or Venezuelan rose.

The pattern of Change in plant Introduction:

  • Well before the Rio Earth Summite. the way back in 1987 AJC Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah adopted and implemented a well-planned decision of Introducing Rare, Endangered, and Threatened (RET) indigenous plant species, in the ‘Annual Action Plans’.
  • After the Rio Convention in 1992, the trend of introducing RET indigenous plant species has increased many folds.

Under Threat:

  • The garden has been highly impacted on its eastern fringe due to erosion by the Ganga River.
  • It may wash away parts of its fence and inner plantation soon.

Fund crunch

  • The cost of managing bank erosion is very high — around Rs 25 crore per km.
  • Both KPT, Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), and the state irrigation department, asked for funds from the Union government for stopping erosion

Short News Article

Polity & Governance

ECI develops remote voting machine prototype


The election Commission of India (ECI) has developed a prototype for the Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM) aimed to facilitate voting for domestic migrants across India.

About

  • The multi-constituency remote EVM, developed by a public sector undertaking, can handle up to 72 constituencies from a single remote polling booth, the statement issued by the poll watchdog said.
  • The ECI "has now explored the option of using a modified version of the time-tested model of M3 (Mark 3) EVMs to enable voting at remote polling stations -- polling stations outside home constituency, for domestic migrants.
  • The Representation of the People Act, 1950 and 1951, The Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, and The Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, will need to be amended to introduce remote voting.

Polity & Governance

Centre gives nod for DPR of Kalasa Banduri Nala project

The Center has given its nod for the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the Kalasa Banduri Nala Project.

About

  • The project proposes to divert water from two tributaries of the Mahadayi river (also known as Mandovi) – Kalasa and Banduri – to the Malaprabha river, providing much needed drinking water to regions in Dharwad, Belagavi, Bagalkote and Gadag among others.
  • These areas together make up the country’s second most arid region after Rajasthan.
  • The approval would help Karnataka to get 1.5 tmc ft for drinking and irrigation purposes and can divert 2.18 tmc ft to Bhandura and 1.72 tmc ft to Kalasa dams.

Science & Technology

IAF test-fires extended-range BrahMos


For the second time this year, the Indian Air Force (IAF) fired the “extended-range” version of the BrahMos air-launched missile from a Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft.

About

  • The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile has a two-stage solid propellant booster engine as its first stage which takes it to supersonic speed.
  • The second stage is the liquid ramjet engine which takes it closer to Mach 3 (3 times the speed of sound) speed in the cruise phase.
  • The BrahMos missile is universal for multiple platforms and can be launched from air, land, and sea platforms.
  • The missile works on the 'Fire and Forget principle', meaning it doesn't require further guidance after launch, and it maintains a high supersonic throughout the flight.
  • The missile is said to have a low radar signature.

“Extended-Range” version

  • The “extended-range” version means the missile can travel more than 300 km.
  • Before India joined the MTCR, the Russian technology of the BrahMos was restricted as the MTCR limits the export of missile technology which can travel beyond 300 km.
  • The missile cap of 300 km range on India was lifted after it was inducted into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) six years ago.

Editorial

In the new evolving world, India needs a new vision

Context:

This article talks about the necessity of a new vision for India in the new world which is based on a harmonious and inclusive society.

‘Foe trade’ and an aggressive China

  • Changing Trade Practices: The existing network of global production and consumption appear to be nearing its end. America is more inclined to trade restrictions and ‘free-trade’ has taken a back seat.
  • China’s military aggression: The timing and rationale of China’s military threat are intriguing and, purportedly, have a larger motive than just territorial interests across India’s borders.
  • Countering China: The counter to the Sino-centric world order is an economically powerful India. The knee reactions such as trade restrictions by the west can only backfire and yield nothing.
You must be logged in to get greater insights.

ThinkQ

img
QUIZ - 31st December 2022

Mains Question:

Question: “The Judicial Activism in India had played a significant role in the upliftment of Rights of Disabled people”. Justify the statement while highlighting the importance of Judicial Activism and how it helped in making Indian society more inclusive. (250 words)

  • Subject: Polity and Governance (GS-II)
    • Sub-topic: Functioning of Judiciary and Judicial Review
  • Introduction with the Supreme Court judgment of 2016 on Rights of Disability of people.
  • Emphasis on the importance of such judgment in the empowerment of disabled people in India.
  • Here highlight the importance of Judicial Activism in India and how it helped in the fast tracking of law making on several social issues making society more inclusive.
  • Conclude with the need of equitable and inclusive society which is one of the objective of the Indian Constitution and how Judicial Activism is working for its achievement.
GS Mains Classes GS Classes 2024 GS Classes 2024 UPSC Study Material
X

Verifying, please be patient.

Our Centers

DELHI (Karol Bagh)

GS SCORE, 1B, Second Floor, Pusa Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi - 110005 (Beside Karol Bagh Metro Station Gate No. 8)

Get directions on Google Maps

BHUBANESWAR (Jaydev Vihar)

GS SCORE, Plot No.2298, Jaydev Vihar Square, Near HCG Day Care, BBSR - 751013

Get directions on Google Maps

LUCKNOW (Aliganj)

GS SCORE, 2nd Floor, B-33, Sangam Chauraha, Sector H, Aliganj, Lucknow, UP - 226024

Get directions on Google Maps

Enquire Now