INSIGHTS DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS + PIB SUMMARY- 24 July 2021 – INSIGHTSIAS

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InstaLinks help you think beyond the issue but relevant to the issue from UPSC prelims and Mains exam point of view. These linkages provided in this ‘hint’ format help you frame possible questions in your mind that might arise(or an examiner might imagine) from each current event. InstaLinks also connect every issue to their static or theoretical background. This helps you study a topic holistically and add new dimensions to every current event to help you think analytically. 

current affairs, current events, current gk, insights ias current affairs, upsc ias current affairs

 

Table of Contents:

GS Paper 2:

1. The ‘Right to be Forgotten’ in India.

2. Essential Defence Services Bill.

3. (PLI) Scheme for Specialty Steel.

4. UNESCO world heritage sites.

 

GS Paper 3:

1. Global Survey of 143 economies on Digital Trade Facilitation.

2. Clean Gnaga Fund.

3. The election in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

 

Facts for Prelims:

1. Alexander Dalrymple award.

2. ARMEX-21.

GS Paper  :  2

 

Topics Covered: Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

The ‘Right to be Forgotten’ in India:

Context:

Ashutosh Kaushik, a celebrity, has approached Delhi High Court seeking removal of his videos, photographs and articles from the internet. He has cited his “Right to be Forgotten“.

 

What are his demands?

  • Kaushik’s plea mentions that the posts and videos on internet related to him have caused him psychological pain for diminutive acts, which were erroneously committed a decade ago.
  • The plea also says that mistakes in his personal life becomes and remains in public knowledge for generations to come.

 

What is the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ in the Indian context?

  • The Right to be Forgotten falls under the purview of an individual’s right to privacy.
  • In 2017, the Right to Privacy was declared a fundamental right (under Article 21) by the Supreme Court in its landmark verdict (Puttuswamy case).

 

What does the Personal Data Protection Bill say about this?

Right to privacy is also governed by the Personal Data Protection Bill that is yet to be passed by Parliament.

The bill exclusively talks about the “Right to be Forgotten.”

  • Broadly, under the Right to be forgotten, users can de-link, limit, delete or correct the disclosure of their personal information held by data fiduciaries.

 

But, what are the issues associated with this provision in the Bill?

The main issue with the provision is that the sensitivity of the personal data and information cannot be determined independently by the person concerned, but will be overseen by the Data Protection Authority (DPA).

  • This means that while the draft bill gives some provisions under which a user can seek that his data be removed, but his or her rights are subject to authorisation by the Adjudicating Officer who works for the DPA.

 

Insta Curious: 

Do you know that the EU’s 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also provides for the “right to be forgotten”?  Reference

 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. About the Right to be forgotten.
  2. What is right to privacy?
  3. Highlights of Personal Data Protection Bill.

Mains Link:

Discuss the significance of the right to be forgotten.

Sources: Indian Express.

 

Topics Covered: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Essential Defence Services Bill:

Read here

Context:

The Bill was recently introduced by the Parliament.

  • It is aimed at preventing the staff of the government-owned ordnance factories from going on a strike.

 

Highlights of the Bill:

  1. It is meant to “provide for the maintenance of essential defence services so as to secure the security of nation and the life and property of public at large and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.
  2. The Bill empowers the government to declare services mentioned in it as essential defence services.
  3. It also prohibits strike and lockouts in “any industrial establishment or unit engaged in essential defence services”.

 

Latest changes:

The Ordnance Factory Board was directly under the Department of Defence Production and worked as an arm of the government. But, in June the government announced its corporatisation.

  • As per this plan, 41 factories ammunition and other equipment to the armed forces will become part of seven government owned corporate entities.
  • The government has claimed that the move is aimed at improving the efficiency and accountability of these factories.
  • However, following this, many federations announced the launch of indefinite strikes.
  • This was countered by the Essential Defence Services Ordinance which was promulgated on June 30.

 

Who will it affect?

It has a direct bearing on around 70,000 employees of the 41 ordnance factories around the country, who are unhappy with the corporatisation of OFB, fearing that it will impact their service and retirement conditions.

 

Need for:

The ordnance factories form an integrated base for indigenous production of defence hardware and equipment, with the primary objective of self reliance in equipping the armed forces with state of the art battlefield equipment.

  • Therefore, there is a need to provide for the maintenance of essential defence services so as to secure the security of nation and the life and property of public at large and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

 

Insta Curious: 

Do you know the differences between privatisation and corporatisation? Read Here

 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. What is OFB?
  2. Highlights of the Bill.

Mains Link:

Discuss the concerns associated with the corporatisation of OFB.

Sources: Indian Express.

 

Topics Covered: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

PLI Scheme for Specialty Steel:

Read here

Context:

Union Cabinet approves Production-linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Specialty Steel.

 

Highlights and significance of the scheme:

  • The duration of the scheme is from 2023-24 to 2027-28 (five years).
  • It aims to boost the production of high-grade specialty steel in the country.
  • There are 3 slabs of PLI incentives under the scheme. The lowest being 4% and the highest is 12%, which has been provided for electrical steel (CRGO).
  • It has a budgetary outlay of ₹6322 crores.
  • It is expected to bring in investment of approximately ₹40,000 crores and capacity addition of 25 MT for speciality steel.
  • The scheme is expected to give employment to about 5,25,000 people of which 68,000 will be direct employment.

 

Coverage:

The five categories of specialty steel that have been chosen in the PLI Scheme are: Coated/Plated Steel Products, High Strength/Wear-resistant Steel, Specialty Rails, Alloy Steel Products, and Steel wires, and Electrical Steel.

 

What is Specialty Steel?

Specialty steel is value-added steel wherein normal finished steel is worked upon by way of coating, plating, heat treatment, etc. to convert it into high-value-added steel.

  • This steel can be used in various strategic applications like Defense, Space, Power, apart from the automobile sector, specialized capital goods among others.

 

Why was Speciality Steel chosen for the PLI Scheme?

  • It is because out of the production of 102 million tonnes of steel in India in 2020-21, only 18 million tonnes of value-added steel/specialty steel was produced in the country.
  • Apart from this, out of 6.7 million tonnes of imports in 2020-21, about 4 million tonnes import was of specialty steel alone resulting in Forex expenditure of Rs.30,000 crores.

Hence, by becoming Atma Nirbhar in producing speciality steel, India will move up the steel value chain and come at par with advanced steel-making countries like Korea and Japan.

 

Insta Curious: 

Do you know the differences between carbon steel and alloy steel? Reference

Do you know What Curie Point is? Read Here

 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. What is speciality steel?
  2. Applications.
  3. Significance.
  4. About the scheme.
  5. Eligibility.

Mains Link:

Discuss the significance of the scheme.

Sources: PIB.

 

Topics Covered: Important International Conventions.

UNESCO world heritage sites:

Context:

  • UNESCO has voted to remove Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City from its world heritage list.
  • The waterfront was stripped off of its status by the committee because of “irreversible loss of attributes conveying the outstanding universal value of the property”.

 

What is a World Heritage site?

  • A World Heritage site is classified as a natural or man-made area or a structure that is of international importance, and a space which requires special protection.
  • These sites are officially recognised by the UN and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, also known as UNESCO.
  • UNESCO believes that the sites classified as World Heritage are important for humanity, and they hold cultural and physical significance.
  • They are protected under a international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.

 

Key facts:

  1. The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 UNESCO member states which are elected by the General Assembly.
  2. Each World Heritage Site remains part of the legal territory of the state wherein the site is located and UNESCO considers it in the interest of the international community to preserve each site.
  3. To be selected, a World Heritage Site must be an already classified landmark, unique in some respect as a geographically and historically identifiable place having special cultural or physical significance.

 

Types:

  1. Cultural heritage sites include historic buildings and town sites, important archaeological sites, and works of monumental sculpture or painting.
  2. Natural heritage sites are restricted to natural areas.
  3. Mixed heritage sites contain elements of both natural and cultural significance.

 

Insta Curious: 

Did you that recently the Great Barrier Reef was recommended to be added to a list of “in danger” World Heritage Sites? What are “in danger” World Heritage Sites? Reference

 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. Who declares a site as world heritage site?
  2. What is endangered list?
  3. What is tentative list?
  4. WHS in India and their locations?

Sources: Indian Express.

GS Paper  :  3

 

Topics Covered: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.

Global Survey of 143 economies on Digital Trade Facilitation:

Context:

United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific’s (UNESCAP) has released its latest Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation.

  • It is done every two years and aims to review the progress of trade facilitation reforms in their respective member states.
  • The survey has been carried out since 2015 jointly by the five United Nations Regional Commissions (UNRCs) — ECA, ECE, ECLAC, ESCAP and ESCWA.
  • The 2021 survey includes an assessment of 58 trade facilitation measures covered by the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement.

 

India’s performance:

  1. India has scored 90.32 percent compared to the 78.49 percent in 2019.
  2. India’s scores on five key indicators: Transparency: 100%; Formalities: 95.83%; Institutional Arrangement and Cooperation: 88.89%; Paperless Trade: 96.3%; Cross-Border Paperless Trade: 66.67%.
  3. India’s overall score is higher than many OECD countries, EU region average.
  4. India is also the best performing country when compared to South and South West Asia region (63.12%) and Asia Pacific region (65.85%).

 

The Government of India has implemented various measures bringing technological intervention to bring transparency in the day to day administration. These include:

  1. AEBAS- Aadhar Enabled Biometric Attendance enables real time and flawless monitoring of employee attendance thereby ensuring punctuality among employee.
  2. e-Office aims to usher in more efficient, effective and transparent inter-government and intra-government transactions and processes. It enhances transparency, assure data security and data.
  3. GeM: Government e-Market (GeM) provided rich listing products for individual categories of Goods Services, transparent and ease of buying and user-friendly dash board for buying and monitoring supplies and payment.

 

Insta Curious: 

Do you know what Complementary Currency is? Read Here

Do you know the exact difference between International Commerce and International Trade? Click here

 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. About the survey.
  2. Parameters.
  3. Performance of India.
  4. Performance of other countries.

Mains Link:

Discuss about the performance of India in the latest survey.

Sources: PIB.

 

Topics Covered: Conservation related issues.

Clean Ganga Fund:

Context:

Ministry of Jal Shakti has informed that as on March 2021, funds of more than Rs 450 crore have been deposited in the Clean Ganga Fund.

 

About CGF:

  • It has been setup as a trust under the Indian Trust Act, 1882.
  • It will allow resident Indians, Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origins (PIOs), Corporates (Public as well as private sector) to contribute towards the conservation of the river Ganga.
  • The contributions to Clean Ganga Fund falls within the purview of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity as defined in Schedule VII to the Companies Act, 2013.

 

The following activities are offered under CSR:

  1. Ghats Construction /Modification / Extension.
  2. Cleaning of Ghats.
  3. Providing Amenities at important Ghats.
  4. Crematoria Construction / Modification / Extension.
  5. Ganga Gram.
  6. Bioremediation of Nallas & Drains.
  7. Information Education Communication (IEC) Activities.
  8. River Surface Cleaning using Trash Skimmers.
  9. Solid Waste Management.
  10.  Tree Plantation.

 

Significance of Clean Ganga Fund:

  • It is an initiative to harness the enthusiasm of people for Ganga and to bring them closer to the Ganga and inculcate a sense of ownership.
  • It involves major organizations and general public at large who are coming forward to contribute to the Ganga fund which strengthens the Mission to achieve the objective of a clean and healthy Ganga.

 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. About CGF.
  2. What is NMCG.
  3. About NGRBA.

Mains Link:

Write a note on efforts taken up by Government of India for the conservation of river Ganga.

Sources: PIB.

 

Topics Covered: Internal security related issues.

The election in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir:

Context:

Elections are scheduled to be held in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) for 53 seats. There are about 20 lakh voters.

 

Present position of PoK:

  • PoK is called “Azad Jammu & Kashmir” (“AJK” in short).
  • It came into being after the 1949 ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
  • It comprises the parts of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir that were occupied by the Pakistani forces.
  • Pakistan’s constitutional position on PoK is that it is not a part of the country, but the “liberated” part of Kashmir.

However, Article 257 of Pakistan’s Constitution says: “When the people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir decide to accede to Pakistan, the relationship between Pakistan and the State shall be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of that State.”

 

Political structure and how is it administered?

  • The constitution of Pakistan lists the country’s four provinces — Punjab, Sind, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
  • For all practical purposes, PoK is run by the Pakistan government through the all-powerful Kashmir Council, a nominated 14-member body headed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
  • The Assembly has a five-year term. The legislators elect a “prime minister” and a “president” for the territory.
  • While PoK is ostensibly an autonomous, self-governing territory, the Pakistan Army is the final arbiter on all matters Kashmir.

 

India’s stand on PoK:

  • The fact that PoK is an integral part of India has been our consistent policy ever since 1947.
  • India has also made clear to the world that any issue related to PoK is the internal matter of India.
  • Please note that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is part of the newly created Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, while Gilgit-Baltistan is in the UT of Ladakh in the fresh maps released by the government.

 

Insta Curious: 

Did you know that there are 12 seats reserved for Refugees in PoK elections? Read Here Briefly

 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. Location of PoK.
  2. Rivers flowing through.
  3. Neighbours.
  4. Instrument of Accession.

Mains Link:

Discuss why PoK is significant for India.

Sources: Indian Express.

 

Facts for Prelims:

Alexander Dalrymple award:

Chief Hydrographer to the Govt. of India has received the Alexander Dalrymple award from the British High Commissioner. He was rewarded in recognition of his leadership in the disciplines of hydrography and nautical cartography.

  • The Alexander Dalrymple award has been named after the first hydrographer of the Admiralty and was instituted in 2006.
  • Recipients are selected for their efforts in raising the standards of hydrography, cartography and navigation around the world.

 

ARMEX-21:

It is the Indian Army Skiing Expedition.

  • It was conducted in the mountain ranges of the Himalayan region to promote the adventure activity in the country and the Indian Army.
  • The expedition was flagged off at Karakoram Pass in Ladakh on 10th March and culminated at Malari in Uttarakhand on 6th of July.

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