UPSC Essentials: Key terms of the past week with MCQs
The Indian Express | 1 day ago | 21-11-2022 | 07:40 pm
The Indian Express
1 day ago | 21-11-2022 | 07:40 pm
Essential key terms from the last week’s news headlines or between the lines categorised as per the relevance to the UPSC-CSE syllabus along with the MCQs followed.Why in news?— Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday (November 13) addressed the East Asia Summit on the last day of his visit to Cambodia, as the three-day Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit concluded.KEY TAKEAWAYSWhat is the East Asia Summit?— Beginning in 2005, 16 participating countries comprised this grouping, with their first meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. These members were the 10 ASEAN countries, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea.— ASEAN’s 10 member countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The United States and the Russian Federation joined at the 6th East Asia Summit in 2011.— Simply, the EAS is an ASEAN initiative and refers to the annual Meeting of Heads of States/Governments of these countries, where they are able to discuss common concerns and interests.— Its creation was based on the idea of enhancing cooperation among East Asian countries and those in the neighbouring regions. Six priority areas of cooperation were identified – environment and energy, education, finance, global health issues and pandemic diseases, natural disaster management, and ASEAN Connectivity.— In the past, the issues of claims over the South China Sea, the United Nations Convention on the Law Of the Sea, terrorism, the actions of North Korea and the conflict situation in Myanmar have been discussed by the countries.What are the EAS’s links with India?— This year marks the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-India relations and is being celebrated as the ASEAN-India Friendship Year.— In a joint statement, ASEAN-India acknowledged the deep civilisational linkages, maritime connectivity, and cross-cultural exchanges between Southeast Asia and India which have grown stronger over the last 30 years, providing a strong foundation for ASEAN-India relations.— VP Dhankhar on Saturday announced an additional contribution of USD 5 million to the ASEAN-India science and technology fund to enhance cooperation in sectors of public health, renewable energy and smart agriculture.— According to a 2021 statement by the Prime Minister’s website, “ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership stands on a strong foundation of shared geographical, historical and civilizational ties. ASEAN is central to our Act East Policy and our wider vision of the Indo-Pacific.”WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW- ASEAN— The annual summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) under the chairmanship of Cambodia was held from November 10 to November 13. Amid the war in Ukraine and contestation between US and China, the 10-member regional grouping stressed its common interest and concern, such as strengthening energy cooperation and people-to-people connectivity.— Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo mentioned the idea of a new Cold War amid increasing tensions between the United States and China, saying ASEAN would not become “a proxy to any powers”.— With a combined population of 700 million people that has long been seen as a relatively stable and unified grouping, especially when compared to other regions of the world like Europe or South Asia, ASEAN has also remained important for India. We explain its history and development.What is India’s link with ASEAN?— Apart from the individual ties that India has had with these countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said ASEAN is central to India’s Act East policy, which focuses on the extended neighbourhood in the Asia-Pacific region. The policy was originally conceived as an economic initiative but has gained political, strategic and cultural dimensions including the establishment of institutional mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation. In 2018, ASEAN leaders were the chief guests at India’s republic day parade.— India is part of the ASEAN Plus Six grouping, which includes China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia as well.— In 2010 a Free Trade Agreement was also signed and entered into force between India and ASEAN. While India was part of negotiations to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2020, it ultimately decided not to do so. However, in the largest seven years trade has grown in terms of value, barring the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.— ASEAN itself has recently faced issues that complicate coordination, such as the rise of China and its claims over the South China Sea (many of which compete with claims of ASEAN members like the Philippines) and the issue of military conflict in Myanmar.Point to ponder: In the wake of China-US rivalry, India needs to reboot its ASEAN strategy. Comment.1. MCQ:The term ‘Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership’ often appears in the news in the context of the affairs of a group of countries known as (2016)(a) G20(b) ASEAN(c) SCO(d) SAARCWhy in news?— Ten years after the enactment of The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which deals specifically with child sexual abuse, an analysis of POCSO cases across India has found gaps in its implementation – including increasing pendency of cases and a high rate of acquittals.— The analysis, titled ‘A Decade of POCSO’, was carried out by the Justice, Access and Lowering Delays in India (JALDI) Initiative at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, in collaboration with the Data Evidence for Justice Reform (DE JURE) program at the World Bank. It analysed a total of 230,730 cases from 486 districts spanning 28 states and Union Territories, from 2012 to February 2021. Case laws, policy interventions and case metadata was collected from the eCourts, the digital platform which gives information on pending cases, court orders, etc.KEY TAKEAWAYSWhat is POCSO, and why was it enacted in 2012?— The Constitution of India has incorporated several provisions to protect the rights of children and India has also been a signatory to landmark international instruments, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, etc., However, India lacked any dedicated provision against child sexual abuse. Cases would be tried under different provisions of the Indian Penal Code, which was found to be ill-equipped.— In the 1990s, a child sexual abuse racket was busted in Goa, following which the state government enacted a law to promote child rights in 2003. Also, the Special Expert Committee under Justice VR Krishna Iyer presented a draft code for child rights in India – the Children’s Code Bill, 2000.— These two initiatives established the basis for dedicated legislation against child sexual abuse. In 2005, the Department of Women and Child Development prepared a draft bill to address different offences targeted against children.— The Study of Child Abuse, a 2007 report published by the Ministry of Women and Child Development covering 13 states with a sample size of 12,447 children, 2,324 young adults and 2,449 stakeholders, looked at different forms of child abuse and found that 50.76% of children surveyed reported having faced one or more form of sexual abuse. Contrary to the general perception then, the overall percentage of boys reporting experiencing sexual abuse was much higher than that of girls.— In September 2010, the Ministry of Women and Child Development prepared a draft Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill, 2010 which after several rounds of revisions came into force as the POCSO Act on Children’s Day – 14 November, 2012.What are the key findings on crimes against children?— The analysis has found that 43.44% of trials under POCSO end in acquittals while only 14.03% end in convictions. For every one conviction in a POCSO case, there are three acquittals.— Acquittals are significantly higher than convictions for all the states studied. For instance, in Andhra Pradesh, acquittals are seven times more than convictions; and in West Bengal, acquittals are five times more than convictions. In Kerala, the gap between acquittal and conviction is not very high with acquittals constituting 20.5% of the total disposals and convictions constituting 16.49%.— Out of 138 judgements looked at in detail by the study, only in 6% of the cases were the accused people strangers to the victim. While in 44% of the cases, the relationship between the victim and accused had not been identified, 22.9% accused were known to the victims, 3.7% were family members and 18% of cases had a prior romantic relationship.— As per data published by the National Crime Record Bureau in 2021, in 96% of the cases filed under the POCSO Act, 2012, the accused was a person known to the child victim – in 48.66% of cases, the accused is either a friend or a romantic partner of the victim.— In these 138 cases, the study has found that 5.47% of victims were under 10 years of age, 17.8% between 10-15 years and 28% between 15-18 years. The age of the victim in 48% of cases was not identified.— While the age of the accused was not identified in 63.6% of cases, in the rest around 11.6% of accused were between 19-25 years of age and 10.9% were between 25-35 years; 6.1% of accused were between 35-45 years and 6.8% were more than 45 years old.— Offences of penetrative sexual assault (31.18%) and aggravated penetrative sexual assault (25.59%), which prescribe the most stringent punishments under the POCSO Act, together comprise over half of all POCSO cases.What is the quality of justice under POCSO?— The study has found on average, it takes 509.78 days for a POCSO case to be disposed of – whereas it has been stipulated under the Act that such cases need to be disposed of within a year.— Though the pendency of POCSO cases was increasing gradually over the years, there was a sharp increase in the number of pending cases between 2019 and 2020, which could be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report has observed that one of the primary reasons for this is the slow pace of investigation by the police and the delay in depositing samples with the Forensic Science Laboratories.— A total of 22.76% of cases were disposed of by virtue of transfers from one court to another, and “one-fifth of the cases in this dataset ended in transfers’’, said the study. Since POCSO cases are supposed to be tried by the Special Court, the transfers indicate “either administrative mismanagement or wrongful appreciation of facts by the police”.— While the percentage of transfers out of total disposals was only around 8% in 2013, it rose to a little over 19% in 2019 and a startling 42% in 2020. The report has found this trend “concerning’’ for the time wasted as cases are transferred from one court to another.How do different Indian states fare?— Delhi has the highest number of POCSO trials in the country with 13.54 cases per 100,000 population in 2018 – which does not necessarily mean the number of incidents of sexual offences is higher, but that there is increasing awareness and reporting of cases. But Delhi also had the highest average case length in the country in 2020, at 1,284.33 days.— Chandigarh and West Bengal are the only states where the average time taken for convictions is within one year. States like Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kerala, Sikkim, Chandigarh and the NCT of Delhi seem to have a much higher reporting of POCSO cases.ALSO READ |UPSC Essentials: Weekly news express with MCQs — World population, pension scheme and more— The five districts with the highest number of POCSO trials (pending and disposed) are: Namchi (Sikkim), New Delhi, Central Delhi, Medak (Telangana) and West Garo Hills (Meghalaya).— Uttar Pradesh has the highest pendency with more than three-fourths (77.77%) of the total POCSO cases filed between November 2012 and February 2021 pending. On the other hand, at 80.2%, Tamil Nadu has the highest disposal percentage. — Five districts with the highest pendency percentages include Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Hardoi (Uttar Pradesh), Budaun (Uttar Pradesh), Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) and Howrah (West Bengal).What are the gaps in implementation?— According to the study, “support persons” are not being appointed in most POCSO cases. The Supreme Court had also noted that in 96% of cases, a support person was not provided to the victim.— A support person may be a person or organisation working in the field of child rights or child protection, an official of a children’s home or a shelter home having custody of the child, or a person employed by the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), who hand holds the victim through the entire legal process.— The analysis further notes POCSO courts have not been designated in all districts. As of 2022, 408 POCSO courts have been set up in 28 States as part of the Government’s Fast Track Special Court’s Scheme. There is a lack of Special Public Prosecutors appointed specifically to handle POCSO cases, and even when they are appointed they are often employed for non-POCSO cases.(Source: 10 years of POCSO: An analysis of India’s landmark child abuse law by Esha Roy )Point to ponder: Where does POCSO lacks ?2. MCQ: With respect to POCSO, consider the following statements1. “Children” according to the Act are individuals aged below 16 years. 2. POCSO was first enacted in 2012.Which statements is/are correct?a) Only 1b) Only 2c) Both 1 and 2d) Neither 1 nor 2Why in news?— Kashi Tamil Sangamam began on Thursday.KEY TAKEAWAYS— Legend has it that King Parakrama Pandya, who ruled over the region around Madurai in the 15th century, wanted to build a temple to Lord Shiva, and he travelled to Kashi to bring back a lingam. While returning, he stopped to rest under a tree — but when he tried to continue his journey, the cow carrying the lingam refused to move.—Parakrama Pandya understood this to be the Lord’s wish, and installed the lingam there, a place that came to be known as Sivakasi. For devotees who could not visit Kashi, the Pandyas had built the Kasi Viswanathar Temple in what is today Tenkasi in southwestern Tamil Nadu, close to the state’s border with Kerala.What is the history of ties between Kashi and Tamil Nadu?— The connection between Kashi and the Tamil region is deep and old, said Dr Vinay Kumar of the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). “Much later, another king, Adhivir Ram Pandyan, after returning from a pilgrimage to Kashi, constructed another Shiva temple in Tenkasi in the 19th century,” Dr Kumar said.— There’s more: “Sant Kumara Gurupara from Thoothukudi district had negotiated with the princely state of Kashi to get a place for the consecration of Kedarghat and Vishvesvaralingam in Varanasi. He also composed Kashi Kalambagam, a collection of grammar poems on Kashi,” Dr Kumar said.What is the Kashi Tamil Sangamam?— The month-long Kashi Tamil Sangamam, which begins in Varanasi on Thursday, will celebrate the many aspects of the historical and civilisational connection between India’s North and South. Some 2,400 people from Tamil Nadu will be taken to Varanasi in groups for visits that will last eight days and will include, besides an immersive local experience, trips to Ayodhya and Prayagraj. “The broader objective is to bring the two knowledge and cultural traditions (of the North and South) closer, create an understanding of our shared heritage and deepen the people-to-people bond between the regions,” the official note for the event, organised by the Ministry of Education, says.— This is in sync with the National Education Policy, 2020 which emphasises “on nurturing a generation that is modern and in sync with the 21st-century mindset, while being rooted in the Indian culture and ethos”, officials said.— BHU and IIT-Madras are knowledge partners for the event, and the Ministries of Culture, Tourism, Railways, Textiles and Food Processing have been roped in as stakeholders, besides the government of Uttar Pradesh and the Varanasi administration.— Educationist Chamu Krishna Shastry, chairman of the Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti under the Ministry of Education that proposed the Sangamam, said that since ancient times, higher education in Southern India was not considered complete without a visit by the scholar to Kashi. “The connection between the two centres of knowledge (Kashi and Kanchi) is evident in the similar themes in literature, and the presence of the name Kashi in every village in Tamil Nadu,” Shastry said. “Kashinath is a popular name in Tamil Nadu.”— Besides the Kasi Viswanathar temple in Tenkasi, there are hundreds of Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu that bear the name of Kashi — there are some 18 of them in the area around Chennai alone, Shastry said. “People from Rameswaram would take a dip in the Koti teertha (in the temple) before visiting Kashi for darshan; and they would bring back (Ganga) water from Kashi for abhiseka at the temple in Rameswaram. Only this would complete their pilgrimage at a time when it took six months to travel between Kashi and Rameswaram,” he said.— Shastry also mentioned the connection between the traders dealing in silk saris and textiles from Bananas and Kanchipuram, and architectural, culinary, and other kinds of connections. “We have just started the process of discovery and reconnection,” he said.(Source: Kashi Tamil Sangamam begins Thursday: What is the ancient connect between Kashi and the Tamil land? by Divya A )3. MCQThe first freight village of India is being developed ata) Haldiab) Srinagarc) Varanasid) AhemdabadWhy in news?— The 14th Dalai Lama was Saturday conferred the Gandhi Mandela Award 2022 at Thekchen Choeling in Dharamshala’s McleodGanj by Himachal Pradesh governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar.KEY TAKEAWAYSWhat is the Gandhi Mandela Award?— A government of India registered Trust, the Gandhi Mandela Foundation is a non-profit organisation, formed with the motive to promote Mahatma Gandhi’s and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela’s values of non-violence. It has constituted an international prize, the Gandhi Mandela Award.— The foundation instituted the award on the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, MK Gandhi.Who gets the award and how are they selected?— The award is given to personalities who have carried forward the legacies of Gandhi and Mandela by making significant contributions in the fields of Peace, Social Welfare, Culture, Environment, Education, Healthcare, Sports and Innovation.ALSO READ |UPSC Essentials: Case Study — IAS officer bridging gap in learning outcomes— This time, the awardee, Dalai Lama, was selected by a jury including former Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan and Justice Dipak Misra, former Supreme Court Judge Gyan Sudha Misra, former Chief Justice of Nepal Justice Kedarnath Upadhyay and former Chief Justice of Bangladesh Justice MD Tafazzul Islam.Eminent nominees of the Gandhi Mandela award— Eminent nominations in the 1st Edition of the Gandhi Mandela Award in 2019 included Prime Minister of Nepal Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, first president of Bangladesh Late Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, first president of Sri Lanka late Don Stephen Senanayake, former deputy Prime Minister of India Lal Krishna Advani and other head of states and governments.Which other peace prize the Dalai Lama received?— The Tibetan spiritual leader is the recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize. “The Dalai Lama has developed his philosophy of peace from a great reverence for all things living and upon the concept of universal responsibility embracing all mankind as well as nature,” the Nobel website says. He has also received several other awards.(Source: Dalai Lama receives Gandhi Mandela Award: What is this honour by Dorjee Wangmo)Point to ponder: As mature states and a regional powers, it is time that India and China should stop viewing the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan community as a “political card”. Comment.4. MCQ:Long Walk to Freedom is an autobiography credited toa) Mahatma Gandhib) Mao Zedongc) Nelson Mandelad) Dalai Lama