22nd Feb 2021 Current Affairs Analysis
By IASToppers' Editorial Team | 2021-02-22 17:00:00
Polity & Governance
Sub-categorization of Other Backward Classes (OBCs)
The Justice Rohini Commission has been studying sub-categorization of OBCs and is expected to submit its report to the government.
Proposed four categories of OBCs:
Justice Rohini Commission has proposed four sub-categories of OBCs:
Benefited adequately from reservation Less benefited from reservation
Least benefited from reservation Not benefited from reservation
Currently, the Government of India has only one category for OBCs.
OBCs are granted 27 per cent reservation in jobs and education under the Central government.
Rationale:
The debate, regarding sub-categorization, arises out of the perception that only a few affluent communities among the over 2,600 included in the central list of OBCs have secured a major part of this 27 per cent quota.
The argument for sub-categorization — or creating categories within OBCs for reservation — is that it would ensure “equitable distribution” of representation among all OBC communities.
National Commission for Backward Classes:
Following the Mandal case judgment (1992) by the Supreme Court, the National Commission for Backward Classes was set up in 1993.
Later, the 102nd Amendment Act of 2018 conferred a constitutional status on the Commission.
For this purpose, the amendment inserted a new Article 338-B in the constitution.
The constitutional status of the NCBC is at par with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST).
The Commission consists of a chairperson, a vice-chairperson and three other members.
They are appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal.
Their conditions of service and tenure of office are also determined by the President.
The Commission presents an annual report to the President.
The President places all such reports before the Parliament, along with a memorandum explaining the action taken on the recommendations made by the Commission.
Functions of the commission:
To investigate and monitor all matters relating to the constitutional and other legal safeguards for the socially and educationally backward classes.
To inquire into specific complaints with respect to the deprivation of rights and safeguards of the socially and educationally backward classes.
To participate and advise on the socioeconomic development of the socially and educationally backward classes and to evaluate the progress of their development under the Union or a state.
Powers of the commission:
The Commission, while investigating any matter or enquiring into any complaint, has all the powers of a civil court.
Summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath.
Requiring the discovery and production of any document.
Receiving evidence on affidavits.
Requisitioning any public record from any court or office.
Issuing summons for the examination of witnesses and documents.
[Ref: Indian Express]
Why does India need conclusive land titling?
The Centre wants to reform the country’s land markets through a fundamental legal and procedural shift in how land titles are awarded.
Background:
In 2020, even as laws for farm reform and labour code reform were being enacted, the NITI Aayog took steps to initiate land reforms.
A Model Bill on Conclusive Land Titling was sent to States and Union Territories in June 2020.
In September, after many States failed to send in their feedback, the Centre warned that their agreement would be presumed.
Model Bill on Conclusive Land Titling:
The Bill calls for Land Authorities to be set up by each State government, which will appoint a Title Registration Officer (TRO) to prepare and publish a draft list of land titles based on existing records and documents.
This will be considered a valid notice to all potential claimants interested in the property, who will have to file their claims or objections within a set period of time.
In case of disputing claims, the TRO will verify all the relevant documents and refer the case to a Land Dispute Resolution Officer (LDRO) for resolution.
Having considered and resolved all the disputed claims, the Land Authority will publish a Record of Titles.
Over a three-year period, these titles and the decisions of the TRO and the LDRO can be challenged before Land Titling Appellate Tribunals.
After a three-year period, entries in the Record of Titles will be considered conclusive proof of ownership. Further appeals can only be taken up in High Courts.
Presumptive land titling system:
In this system, land records are maintained, with information on possession, which is determined through details of past transactions.
Ownership is established on the basis of current possession.
Registration of land is actually a registration of transactions, such as sale deeds, records of inheritance, mortgage and lease.
Holding registration papers does not actually involve the government or the legal framework guaranteeing the ownership title of the land.
India currently follows a system of presumptive land titling.
Conclusive land titling system:
Land records designate actual ownership. The title is granted by the government, which takes the responsibility for accuracy.
Once a title is granted, any other claimant will have to settle disputes with the government, not the title holder.
Further, the government may provide compensation to claimants in case of disputes, but the title holder is not in any danger of losing ownership.
Why is conclusive land titling needed?
A conclusive system will drastically lower litigation related to land.
In conclusive titling, investors who want to purchase land for business activities will be able to do so without facing the constant risk that their ownership may be questioned and their entire investment may go to waste.
The spectre of long-running court cases currently stifles the appetite for investment in many sectors of the economy. The idea is to promote an active land market.
In rural areas, access to agricultural credit is dependent on the ability to use land as collateral.
Without being able to prove their ownership of land and access formal credit from banks, small and marginal farmers are often left at the mercy of unscrupulous moneylenders, entrenching themselves in a mountain of debt.
Government Schemes & Policies
Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0 launched
Union Health Minister launched Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0.
The Union Minister also launched the IMI 3.0 portal and released the Operational Guidelines for IMI 3.0 and the awareness material/IEC package developed as part of the campaign.
Highlights of Indradhanush 3.0:
The mission will be conducted in two rounds starting from February 22 and March 22 across 250 districts/urban areas identified in 29 States/Union Territories.
Focus of the IMI 3.0 will be the children and pregnant women who have missed their vaccine doses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They will be identified and vaccinated during the two rounds of IMI 3.0. Each round will be for 15 days each.
Beneficiaries from migration areas and hard to reach areas will be targeted as they may have missed their vaccine doses during COVID19.
The first phase will be launched at Kalaburagi, Karnataka. This will be a four-day campaign.
Expecting mothers would also be immunised for tetanus.
About Mission Indradhanush:
Mission Indradhanush was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India in 2014.
It aims to achieve more than 90 % full immunisation coverage among children by 2020 who are either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated against vaccine preventable diseases.
IMI is supported by 12 other ministries and departments.
It is monitored under a special initiative called ‘Proactive Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI)’.
The mission aims for the 12 Vaccine-Preventable Diseases:
1. Diphtheria
2. Whooping cough 3. Tetanus
4. Poliomyelitis 5. Tuberculosis 6. Measles 7. Hepatitis B
8. Japanese Encephalitis
9. Haemophilus influenzae type B 10. Rubella
11. Injectable Polio Vaccine Bivalent
12. Rotavirus.
Areas Under Focus
High risk areas identified by the polio eradication programme Areas with missed/low routine immunization (RI) coverage Areas with vacant sub-centers
Small villages, hamlets, dhanis or purbas clubbed with another village for RI sessions and not having independent RI sessions.
[Ref: Hindustan Times]
Defense & Security Issues
Successful trials of Helina and Dhruvastra
Successful user trials of Helina (Army Version) and Dhruvastra (Air Force Version) Missile Systems were carried out recently.
The missile systems have been designed and developed indigenously by Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
About the Missile Systems:
The Helina and Dhruvastra are third generation, Lock on Before Launch (LOBL) fire and forget Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) systems.
Fire and forget means that the weapon system can track the target all through its course and hit the target with high precision.
The missile systems are indigenously developed by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
The missiles can engage targets both in direct hit mode as well as top attack mode.
The system has all-weather day and night capability and can defeat battle tanks with conventional armor as well as with explosive reactive armor.
It is one of the most-advanced anti-tank weapons in the world.
Range: 7-10 Km [Ref: PIB]
1-in-2 Tejas fighters to have UTTAM radar
In a major boost to indigenous defence technologies, at least 51% of the 123 LCA Tejas fighters that will be inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) will have the desi Uttam radar.
The UTTAM radars will replace Israeli radars that the first batch of aircraft will be equipped with.
In all IAF will get 123 Tejas fighters and 83 Tejas Mark-1A.
While the first 40 will have mechanical radars (all Israeli) 83 Mk-1A planes will have Active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars.
The 63 of the 83 will be indigenous Uttam radars developed by LRDE (Electronics and Radar Development Establishment).
About Uttam Radars:
Uttam is an AESA (Active electronically scanned array), multi-mode, solid state phased array radar.
It has been developed by Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), a laboratory of the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO).
It is intended to be used with HAL Tejas Mk.1A, HAL Tejas Mk.2 and HAL TEDBF aircraft with plans to implement a larger variant on-board India's 5th Generation fighter aircraft HAL AMCA.
It is a liquid cooled AESA radar featuring quad band modules that can be stacked to form a larger unit.
This allows the manufacturer to scale the radar to be used in larger aircraft.
The radar development started in 2008.
The Uttam radar will be used with DRDO's Unified Electronic Warfare suite.
[Ref: The Times of India]
Bilateral & International Relations
Biden declares ‘America is back’ in welcome words to allies
President Joe Biden used his first address at the virtual Munich Security Conference, before a global audience and declared that "America is back, the transatlantic alliance is back.
Highlights of the President first address:
President Joe Biden said he would require close cooperation between the U.S. and its Western allies.
The transatlantic alliance is the foundation on which the collective security and shared prosperity of the US and Europe are built.
He talked about a reinvigorated democratic alliance.
The United States is determined to reengage with Europe and also fully committed to the NATO alliance.
The U.S. stands ready to rejoin talks about reentering the 2015 multilateral Iran nuclear deal abandoned by the Trump administration.
Mr. Biden also spoke out about the two-decade war in Afghanistan, where he faces a May 1 deadline to remove the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops under a Trump administration negotiated peace agreement with the Taliban.
He also called for cooperation in addressing economic and national security challenges posed by Russia and China and identified cyberspace, artificial intelligence and biotechnology as areas of growing competition.
His message was girded by an underlying argument that democracies, not autocracies, are models of governance that can best meet the challenges of the moment.
The U.S. will soon begin releasing $4 billion for an international effort to bolster the purchase and distribution of vaccine to poor nations.
The G-7 partners were encouraged to make good on their pledges to COVAX, an initiative by the World Health Organization to improve access to vaccines.
Background:
A lot has changed over the past four years between U.S.-Europe relations in ways creating new challenges.
The U.S. has reconsidered long-held national security and economic priorities embedded in the transatlantic alliance.
China has cemented its place as a fierce economic competitor on the European continent.
Populism has grown through much of Europe.
Other Western countries have, at moments, sought to fill the vacuum left as America stepped back.
Europe sees China's economic ambitions as less of an existential threat than the U.S. does.
About Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP):
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was a proposed trade agreement between the European Union and the United States.
The TTIP aims of promoting trade and multilateral economic growth.
It would have been the largest bilateral trade initiative ever negotiated, involving the two largest economic areas in the world and also its potential global reach in setting an example for future partners and agreements.
Negotiations were halted by United States president Donald Trump, who then initiated a trade conflict with the EU.
On 15 April 2019, the negotiations have been declared "obsolete and no longer relevant" by the European Commission.
The European Commission says that the TTIP would have boosted the EU's economy by
€120 billion, the US economy by €90 billion and the rest of the world by €100 billion.
About NATO:
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is
an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 European and North American countries.
The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.
NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
Its Headquarters are located in Evere, Brussels, Belgium.
The headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.
The admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 30.
Most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia in 2020.
NATO currently recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine as aspiring members.
An additional 20 countries participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global total.
Members agreed that their aim is to reach or maintain the target defense spending of at least 2% of GDP by 2024.
[Ref: The Hindu; Wikipedia]
Art & Culture
Saka Nankana Sahib
The centenary of Sri Nankana Sahib massacre popularly known as Saka Nankana Sahib was marked on February 21, 2021.
Nankana Sahib:
Nankana Sahib is the birth place of first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak Dev.
It is the most important religious site for the Sikh religion.
It is a city and capital of Nankana Sahib District in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
It was also the site of the first big agitation by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to take back control of gurdwaras from mahants backed by the British.
Efforts to free Nankana Sahib:
SGPC came to existence in November 1920, a month after Sikhs removed partial restrictions on Dalit rights inside Golden Temple in Amritsar.
It started gurdwara reform movement, aimed at taking possession of historical Sikh Gurdwaras, which had turned personal property of the priests or mahants.
These mahants were also accused of running practices from gurdwaras which were not approved in Sikhism.
The February massacre:
Mahant Narain Das controlled Gurdwara Nankana Sahib.
He was asked to improve the administration of gurdwaras in October 1920, which he took as a challenge to his authority and started equipping himself with arms and fortified the gurdwara.
In February 1921, an unarmed Sikh jatha entered inside the gurdwara and with a plan to take possession of gurdwara in a non-violent manner.
The mahant leashed his men equipped with fire arms, sticks and sharp-edged weapons on the jatha.
Around 60 Sikhs were killed in the main hall of Gurudwara. Total number of causalities stood between 150 to 200.
After the massacre, all the prominent Sikh leaders reached Nankana Sahib on February 21, 1921 and were allowed to take control of the gurdwara.
Key Facts:
The SGPC passed a resolution to support the Non-Cooperation Movement being run by Mahatma Gandhi in 1921 which asked Sikhs to give all the support to the movement.
Nankana Sahib Gurdwara agitation was a big leap in Gurdwara Reform movement followed by Guru Ka Bagh Morcha which culminated into Sikh Gurdwara Act in 1925.
[Ref: Indian Express]
Science & Technology
Material to tap waste heat generated by appliances
Bengaluru-based scientists have developed a new material that can help in tapping waste heat produced by all kinds of domestic and industrial appliances.
Major Highlights:
Industrial processes and power plants produce ample amount of waste heat that can be utilised to do significant amounts of work.
For Ex: The heat from the laptop can be used to charge a mobile phone.
Energy conversion is not a very efficient process.
Only a small fraction of energy that is used is actually productive.
The rest of it becomes waste, often getting released as heat.
The researchers claim to have found a new material, Silver Antimony Telluride, that can facilitate this energy conversion.
Thermoelectric effect:
If two ends of an electrically-conducting material, like a metal, are maintained at different temperatures, current flows from the hot end towards the cold one.
This phenomenon makes it possible to generate an electric current in a metallic attachment that is connected to the exhaust pipe of an automobile engine, or a generator, or any other source of waste heat.
The end connected to the heat source would be hotter than the other end, a current would be induced, which can be tapped by connecting the cooler end to a battery or some other device.
The problem in facilitating this transfer of energy is that most materials that conduct electricity, also happen to be good conductors of heat.
This means there would not be any significant temperature difference between the two ends of the material for very long.
Traditionally, thermo-electric effect has been demonstrated and utilised by using two different metals joined together, and by mechanically maintaining two different temperatures at the ends.
But such materials do not offer efficient or economical solutions.
The quest was to find a material that is a good conductor of electricity but a bad conductor of heat.
Silver Antimony Telluride:
There are two factors that facilitate the thermo-electric effect in any material – electrical conductivity and heat conductivity.
Electrical conductivity has to be high, while heat conductivity must be low.
The material of Silver Antimony Telluride has been doped to bring in a very high degree of order in its atoms.
This has facilitated to control both the electrical conductivity, as well as heat conductivity of the material.
[Ref: Indian Express]
Key Facts for Prelims
International Mother Language Day
International Mother Language Day and is commemorated every year on February 21.
About the International Mother Language Day:
On November 17, 1999, UNESCO officially made the announcement in the UN General Assembly.
The idea was said to have been inspired by the language-based movement which was spearheaded by Bangladesh.
It was on February 21 when the fight for their Bangla language gained momentum. Hence, this
very day is chosen to celebrate.
Theme for 2021: Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society.
Aim: To promote the use of mother tongue more often than already do.
In the realm of education, UNESCO wants to pay special attention to multilingual education, especially from early childhood, so that even children are exposed to this at a young age.
