Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Disengagement in Pangong
- Petrol Pricing
- Breach of Privilege
- Privatization of Banks
- Accessible India Campaign
- Facts for Prelims
1 . Pangong Disengagement
Context : China’s military announced that frontline troops of India and China had begun disengaging in a “synchronised and organised” manner from the north and south banks of Pangong lake, where both sides have been locked in a stand-off for months which, an official source in Delhi said, was the first step in the long process of disengagement and de-escalation.
Details of the Disengagement Process
- It would be a multi-step process for disengagement and de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control
- This is the first phase of disengagement with some tanks and armoured elements on the south bank being withdrawn as well as thinning down of troops on the north bank. However, troops continue to remain in key positions.
- As of now, the disengagement process seems restricted to the north and south banks of Pangong Tso.
- Process has started with the pulling back of certain columns of tanks from the south bank region by both sides. At the moment, there is no pullback of troops from the friction points and the heights they are positioned on. That will happen in a phased and verified manner.
- China will pull its troops on the north bank towards the east of Finger 8. Similarly, India will also position its forces at its permanent base at the Dhan Singh Thapa post near Finger 3. Similar action will be taken by both the parties in the south bank area as well.
- Both sides have also agreed that the area between Finger 3 and Finger 8 will become a no-patrolling zone temporarily, till both sides reach an agreement through military and diplomatic discussions to restore patrolling.
- Further, all the construction done by both sides on the north and south banks of the lake since April 2020 will be removed.
- Process, as announced, will send Indian and Chinese troops back to their traditional bases on the north bank. While India has its traditional base at the Dhan Singh Thapa Post, just west of Finger 3, China has had its base east of Finger 8.
2 . Petrol Pricing Mechanism
Context : Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday it was wrong to campaign that fuel prices are at an all-time high as petrol and diesel prices are governed by an international price mechanism.
Pricing Mechanism
- The price of petrol and diesel in India is not determined by the actual costs incurred by PSU refiners such as Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL on crude oil sourcing, refining and marketing. Rather, a formula — trade parity price (TPP) — is used to price these products.
- It assumes that 80 per cent of petrol and diesel is imported into India and 20 per cent is exported.
- So, petrol and diesel prices in India are determined based on prices of these fuels in the international market — and not on the basis of crude oil prices.
- Now, while international petrol and diesel prices generally move in line with crude oil prices, it need not always be the case, given that demand and supply dynamics could be different.
- It doesn’t help that global crude prices have been rising and now trade about $50 a barrel, up from the Covid-induced low of about $20 in April.
- The TPP in dollars is converted to rupees. Then come other costs and margins of the oil companies, dealer commission and taxes.
- From mid-June 2017, the pricing of petrol and diesel is done through a ‘daily pricing’ mechanism, based on a 15-day rolling average international rate. So, time lag has an effect too. The weakening of the rupee against the dollar over the years has added to the fuel’s cost.
- Txes : Petrol and diesel are the government’s cash cows. During the crude crash earlier this year, a cash-strapped Centre raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by ₹13-16 a litre; many States too increased their sales tax/VAT. But when oil prices started rising, the taxes were not rolled back, fuel prices increased, and customers bore the brunt. Taxes now account for about 60 per cent of the fuels’ price.
3 . Privilege Motion
Context : BJP MP issues breach of privilege notice against Mahua
About Privilege Motion
- Parliamentary privileges are certain rights and immunities enjoyed by members of Parliament, individually and collectively, so that they can “effectively discharge their functions”.
- When any of these rights and immunities are disregarded, the offence is called a breach of privilege and is punishable under law of Parliament. A notice is moved in the form of a motion by any member of either House against those being held guilty of breach of privilege.
- Each House also claims the right to punish as contempt actions which, while not breach of any specific privilege, are offences against its authority and dignity.
Where do these rules find mention?
- The rules governing privilege motion are mentioned as Rule 222 in Chapter 20 of the Lok Sabha Rule Book and as Rule 187 in Chapter 16 of the Rajya Sabha Rule Book.
- According to the rules, an MP may raise a question of breach of privilege with the Speaker or the Chairperson, notices for which have to be sent to them before 10am.
- The breach of privilege could be of another MP, a committee or of the House. However, the rules mandate the notice should be regarding an incident which has occurred recently and that it needs the intervention of the House.
What is the authority of the Speaker/ Chairperson vis-à-vis privilege motion?
- The first level of scrutiny that a privilege motion has to go through is that of the Speaker, in case the motion is moved in the Lok Sabha, and that of the Chairperson when a motion is moved in the Rajya Sabha. The Speaker/Chairperson may decide on the privilege motion at their own discretion or they may refer it to a parliamentary committee. If the Speaker/Chairperson admits the motion, then the concerned member is given an opportunity to explain themselves by making a short statement.
What if the Speaker/Chairperson refers the motion to a parliamentary committee?
- In the Lok Sabha, the Speaker nominates a committee of privileges which consists of 15 members proportionate to the strengths of various political parties in the Lower House of Parliament.
- They prepare a report which is then presented before the House for its consideration. The Speaker may allow a half-an-hour debate on the report before she/he passed the final orders.
- The Speaker can also direct that the report be tabled before the House and a resolution may be unanimously passed on the breach of privilege. Currently, Congress MP PC Chacko is the chairperson of the privilege committee.
- The process is similar in the Upper House, except that the privilege committee consists of 10 members and is headed by the deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
Have privilege motions been passed in Parliament earlier?
A number of privilege motions have been passed in Parliament earlier, with most of them being rejected and very few demanding penal action.
- The most significant privilege motion was passed against Indira Gandhi in 1978. The then Home Minister Charan Singh had moved a resolution of breach of privilege against her on the basis of observations made by Justice Shah Commission, which investigated the excesses during the Emergency. Mrs Gandhi, who had just won the Lok Sabha elections from Chikmagalur, was expelled from the House.
- In another case, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy was expelled from Rajya Sabha in 1976 for bringing disgrace to Parliament through his interviews to foreign publications.
- In 1961, editor of ‘Blitz’ RK Karanjia was indicted with gross breach of privilege after the publication put out an article that publicly castigated Congress veteran JB Kripalani. Karanjia was reprimanded in Lok Sabha and the gallery pass of his correspondent was annulled.
4 . Privatization of Banks
Context : The banking landscape in India is set to change with the government’s decision to privatise two public sector banks. Coming after 51 years of nationalisation of government-owned banks in 1969, the move will give the private sector a key role in the banking sector.
About the proposal
- The Union Budget has announced the privatisation of two public sector banks (in addition to IDBI Bank) and one general insurance company in the upcoming fiscal.
- It also announced a strategic sale/disinvestment policy for four strategic sectors — including banking, insurance and financial services — in which it will have a “bare minimum presence”.
Need
- Years of capital injections and governance reforms have not been able to improve the financial position of in public sector banks significantly.
- Many of them have higher levels of stressed assets than private banks, and also lag the latter on profitability, market capitalisation and dividend payment record.
- The government front-loaded Rs 70,000 crore into government-run banks in September 2019, Rs 80,000 crore in in FY18, and Rs 1.06 lakh crore in FY19 through recapitalisation bonds. In 2019, the government merged ten PSU banks into four.
Importance
- Privatisation of two public sector banks will set the ball rolling for a long-term project that envisages only a handful of state-owned banks, with the rest either consolidated with strong banks or privatised.
- This will free up the government, the majority owner, from continuing to provide equity support to the banks year after year.
New Proposal
- Currently, there are ten nationalised banks in addition to IDBI Bank and SBI. While the government is unlikely to touch the top three including SBI, smaller and middle-level banks are likely to be privatised. The Finance Minister did not disclose which two banks will be privatised this fiscal.
- The initial plan of the government was to privatise four. Depending on the success with the first two, the government is likely to go for divestment in another two or three banks in the next financial year. PSU banks are under dual control, with the RBI supervising the banking operations and the Finance Ministry handling ownership issues
- The two banks that will now be privatised will be selected through a process in which NITI Aayog will make recommendations, which will be considered by a core group of secretaries on disinvestment and then the Alternative Mechanism (or Group of Ministers).
What are the issues plaguing PSU banks?
- After a series of mergers and equity injections by the government, the performance of public sector banks has shown improvement over the last couple of years. However, compared with private banks, they continue to have high non-performing assets (NPAs) and stressed assets although this has started declining.
- After the Covid-related regulatory relaxations are lifted, banks are expected to report higher NPAs and loan losses. As per the RBI’s recent Financial Stability Report, gross NPA ratio of all commercial banks may increase from 7.5% in September 2020 to 13.5% by September 2021 under the baseline scenario (from 9.7% to 16.2% for public sector banks; from 4.6% to 7.9% for private banks).
- This would mean the government would again need to inject equity into weak public sector banks. The government is trying to strengthen the strong banks and also minimise their numbers through privatisation to reduce its burden of support.
Why were private banks nationalised in the first place?
- Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was also Finance Minister, decided to nationalise the 14 largest private banks on July 19, 1969.
- The idea was to align the banking sector with the socialistic approach of the then government. State Bank of India had been nationalised in 1955 itself, and the insurance sector in 1956.
What has been the government and RBI stand on privatisation since 1969?
- The UPA government of 2004-14 refrained from taking any decision on privatisation. Many committees had proposed bringing down the government stake in public banks below 51% — the Narasimham Committee proposed 33% and the P J Nayak Committee suggested below 50%. An RBI Working Group recently suggested the entry of business houses into the banking sector. The NDA government, in its second term, has been pushing for privatisation and reducing the number of PSU banks to five or six.
- According to RBI’s History series, the number of commercial banks was brought down sharply from 566 in 1951 to 91 in 1967 in order to consolidate commercial banking, which was very fragile. By the mid-1960s, Indian banking had become far more viable than ever before. However, the expansion of branches was mostly in urban areas, and rural and semi-urban areas continued to go unserved, RBI History’s Volume 3 notes.
- The big question is: will private banks repeat the mistakes of 1960s. There is widespread perception that the private sector then was not sufficiently aware of its larger social responsibilities and was more concerned with profit, which made private banks unwilling to diversify their loan portfolios as this would raise transaction costs and reduce profits.
5 . Accessible India Campaign
Context : Less than 7% of public buses in the country were fully accessible to wheelchair users as of December 2020, with the target of 25% of buses being accessible by June 2022 under the Accessible India Campaign getting closer
About the Issue
- According to data from the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry’s Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) via a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways report in January, 42,169 buses or 28.6% of the total 1.47 lakh buses operated by State road transport undertakings were “partially accessible” and 10,175 buses or 6.9% were “fully accessible”. In addition, 3,217 bus stations in 24 States and Union Territories out of 3,487 were made accessible
- When the Accessible India Campaign was launched in 2015, the deadline for making at least 25% of public buses fully accessible was March 2018. However, the deadline had been pushed back to June 2022, a DEPwD official said.
- Out of the total buses operated by States, 1.02 lakh are inter-city buses and 44,768 function in urban areas, the report said. Of the inter-city buses, 210 were fully accessible, 27,133 were accessible and 75,257 were not accessible as of December 2020.
- Among urban buses, 9,965 were fully accessible, 15,036 partially accessible and 19,767 were not accessible, the data showed.
About Accessible India Campaign
About AIC
- The main objective of the campaign is to make public spaces friendly for persons with disabilities.The campaign is also called Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan.
- The scheme was launched by Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
- The initiative is in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to which India signed in 2007.
- The scheme was also launched under Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995. Under the act, the scheme comes under the jurisdiction of sections 44, 45 and 46 that provides equal opportunities and protection of rights in transport sector to those who are physically challenged.
- Apart from public buses, the Accessible India Campaign, was aimed at making government buildings, airports, railway stations and government websites accessible to persons with disabilities.
Targets of the campaign
- The campaign aims at making at least 50% of government owned buildings as disabled-friendly. It was aimed at doing in three phases.
- In phase 1, the campaign focused on making international airports disabled-friendly by 2016.
- In phase 2, it aimed at making 25% of public transport vehicles disabled-friendly by 2018.
- In phase 3, it aimed at making 50% of government buildings disabled-friendly.
6 . Facts for Prelims
Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)
- Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a group of inherited disorders characterized by a loss of certain nerve cells in the spinal cord called motor neurons or anterior horn cells.
- Motor neurons receive the nerve impulses transmitted from the brain to the spinal cord (brainstem) and, in turn, transmit the impulses to the muscle via the peripheral nerves.
- The loss of motor neurons leads to progressive muscle weakness and muscle wasting (atrophy) in muscles closest to the trunk of the body (proximal muscles) such as the shoulders, hips and back.
- These muscles are necessary for crawling, walking, sitting up and head control.
- The more severe types of SMA can affect muscles involved in feeding, swallowing and breathing. SMA is divided into subtypes based on age of onset and maximum function achieved.
- SMA types 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 are inherited as autosomal recessive genetic disorders and are associated with abnormalities (mutations) in the SMN1 and SMA2 genes which are located on chromosome 5.
- Recently a therapy know as Zolgensma — was offered free to a 14-month-old baby from Bhatkal (Uttara Kannada) who was the lucky winner of a lottery through a compassionate access programme by Novartis, the Swiss drugmaker.
- “The therapy is a one-time infusion that takes about an hour. The therapy was approved by U.S. regulators in May 2019 and has since then turned into a miracle drug for this rare disorder that destroys a baby’s muscle control.