Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Inflation
- Section 69 A of IT Act
- ISRO satellites Launch
- Palk Bay fisheries conflict
- Facts for Prelims
1 . Inflation
Context : India’s retail inflation accelerated past the 6% mark in January to hit 6.01%, breaching the central bank’s tolerance threshold for consumer price inflation for the first time since June 2021. Retail inflation was 5.66% in December 2021.
About the News
- Rural India bore the brunt of the inflation spike as per official data, with the pace of price rise touching 6.12% from 5.36% in December.
- Inflation in urban India was virtually unchanged at 5.91% in January, from 5.9% a month earlier.
- The Consumer Food Price Index spiked significantly from 4.05% in December to 5.43% in January, with rural India again reporting a sharper rise.
- Food inflation is high mainly due to the higher edible oils component, but the overall basket is below the headline number at 5.6%
How does India measure retail inflation?
- Rate of inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) is called as Retail Inflation
- The CPI monitors retail prices at a certain level for a particular commodity; price movement of goods and services at rural, urban and all-India levels.
- The change in the price index over a period of time is referred to as CPI-based inflation, or retail inflation.
What is Consumer Price Index
- Consumer Price Index is a measure of change in retail prices of goods and services consumed by defined population group in a given area with reference to a base year.
- This basket of goods and services represents the level of living or the utility derived by the consumers at given levels of their income, prices and tastes.
- The consumer price index number measures changes only in one of the factors; prices.
- This index is an important economic indicator and is widely considered as a barometer of inflation, a tool for monitoring price stability and as a deflator in national accounts.
- The dearness allowance of Government employees and wage contracts between labour and employer is based on this index.
- Consumer price indices compiled in India are CPI for Industrial workers CPI(IW), CPI for Agricultural Labourers CPI(AL) and; Rural Labourers CPI(RL) and (Urban) and CPI(Rural).
CPI(IW) and CPI(AL& RL)
- The CPI(IW) and CPI(AL& RL) compiled are occupation specific and centre specific and are compiled by Labour Bureau.
- This means that these index numbers measure changes in the retail price of the basket of goods and services consumed by the specific occupational groups in the specific centres.
CPI(Urban) and CPI(Rural)
- CPI(Urban) and CPI(Rural) are new indices in the group of Consumer price index and has a wider coverage of population.
- This index compiled by Central Statistical Organisation tries to encompass the entire population and is likely to replace all the other indices presently compiled.
- In addition to this, Consumer Food Price Indices (CFPI) for all India for rural, urban and combined separately are also released w.e.f May, 2014.
Other Important Points
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has started using CPI-combined as the sole inflation measure for the purpose of monetary policy.
Why is faster inflation a concern for policymakers?
- Faster retail inflation is indicative of prices of household items rising quickly. While inflation affects everyone, it is often referred to as a ‘tax on the poor’ as the low-income stratum of society bears the brunt.
- Persistent high inflation pushes several items out of reach for this category of consumers. For example, onions and potatoes are generally a key staple in an average Indian family’s diet.
- But, if the price of potatoes starts rising rapidly, a poor household is often forced to sharply reduce or forgo its consumption of this key source of essential nutrients, including carbohydrates.
- Over time, if unchecked, persistent high inflation erodes the value of money and hurts several other segments of the population, including the elderly living off a fixed pension. It hence ends up undermining a society’s consumptive capacity, and thereby, economic growth itself.
What is the RBI’s role in tackling inflation?
- In 2016, the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, was amended to provide a statutory basis for the implementation of a flexible inflation-targeting framework, where the Centre and the RBI would review and agree upon a specific inflation target every five years.
- Under this, 4% was set as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation target for the period from August 5, 2016, to March 31, 2021, with the upper tolerance limit of 6% and the lower tolerance limit of 2%.
- To the extent that ensuring price stability is its primary goal, the RBI through its MPC must constantly assess not just current levels of inflation and prices of various goods and services in the economy, but also take into consideration inflation expectations both of consumers and financial markets so as to use an array of monetary tools, including interest rates, to contain inflation within its target range.
2 . Section 69 A of the Information Technology Act
Context : The Centre on Monday banned over 50 new Chinese mobile applications, including Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade, Tencent Xriver, Nice Video baidu and Viva Video Editor, citing concerns over privacy and national security.
About the News
- The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had issued interim directions for blocking 54 apps, sources said, adding these were allegedly collecting sensitive user data, which were being misused and transmitted to servers outside India.
- The new apps, IT ministry officials said, have been banned using emergency powers under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act. Most of these apps, the officials said, were operating as clones or shadow apps of the apps that had earlier been banned by the government.
- The ban on these apps was recommended by the Ministry of Home Affairs, IT ministry officials said, adding that they have also been removed from the Google PlayStore.
- “On receipt of the interim order passed under Section 69A of the IT Act, following established process, we have notified the affected developers and have temporarily blocked access to the apps that remained available on the Play Store in India,” a spokesperson for the company said.
Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act
- Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, was introduced by an amendment to the Act in 2008. It gives the Central government the power to block public access to any information online — whether on websites or mobile apps.
- Under Section 69A, if a website threatens India’s defence, its sovereignty and integrity, friendly relations with foreign countries and public order, the government can ban it, after following due procedure.
- The detailed procedures to do so are listed under the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. Apart from this, a court may also issue directions for blocking information online. The Department of Telecommunications, too, can issue blocking orders to internet service providers, to enforce licensing conditions.
Blocking Procedure
- In terms of process, there are two options available to the government under Section 69A of the IT Act to issue ban orders — normal and emergency.
- Section 69A mandates that every ministry in central, state and Union Territory governments must have a nodal officer, to receive complaints about websites that host ‘offensive’ content. Once the nodal officer sees merit in the complaint, he/she then forwards it to a designated officer, who chairs a committee to examine the grievance.
- This committee includes representatives from the Ministries of Law and Justice, Home Affairs, Information and Broadcasting and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), and give the intermediary a hearing.
- In the normal course, an order to block content requires: (a) a decision to be made by a government committee (b) relevant intermediaries to be given an opportunity to be heard by this committee. These processes are not required when emergency provisions are used.
- The emergency route allows content to be blocked on the directions of the Secretary, Department of IT, who must consider the impugned content and record his reasons for doing so.
- However, in the case of emergencies, the order of the Secretary, Department of IT, must be placed before the government committee within 48 hours. Based on the recommendations of this committee, the order can then be finalised or vacated.
3 . ISRO satellites Launch
Context : Thick orange fumes from the PSLV C-52 briefly lit up the pre-dawn dark sky and Pulicat Lake as the workhorse of the Indian Space Research Organisation soared into the skies from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on Monday, the booming noise of the launch vehicle carrying three satellites breaking the morning silence.
About the News
- The ISRO’s maiden launch of 2022 and the first under its new Chairman, S. Somanath, went off without a glitch, placing all the three satellites into orbit with precision. The PSLV C-52 was the 54th flight of the rocket and the 23rd in its XL configuration.
- The success of the launch was crucial for ISRO that had a very muted 2020 with just two launches, one of which — the GSLV- F10 — failed after launch. The PSLV C-52 carrying the Earth Observation Satellite, EOS-04, the INS-2TD, a technology demonstrator from ISRO, and the INSPIREsat-1, a student satellite, lifted off at 5.59 a.m .
- Around 18 minutes later, the three satellites were separated and placed into their orbits. “The primary satellite, the EOS-04 has been put in a precise orbit. The co-passenger satellites have been placed into the right orbit,
EOS-4
- With a mission life of 10 years, the EOS-4, a radar imaging satellite is designed to provide high-quality images in all weather conditions for applications such as agriculture, forestry, plantation, flood mapping, soil moisture and hydrology.
- The satellite will collect earth observation data in C-band and will complement and supplement the data from Resourcesat, Cartosat series and RISAT-2B series
INS-2TD
- The INS-2TD is a precursor to the India-Bhutan joint satellite [INS 2-B] and will assess land and water surface temperatures, delineation of crops and forest and thermal inertia.
Student satellite
- The INSPIREsat-1 is a student satellite from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology in association with the University of Colorado, U.S., and is aimed at improving the understanding of ionosphere dynamics and the Sun’s coronal heating processes.
- The Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and the National Central University, Taiwan, were part of the development team of the INSPIREsat.
- Taiwanese media reported that this was the first time Taiwan collaborated with an international team to launch a satellite from India.
4 . Palk Bay Conflict
Context : The Sri Lankan Navy on Saturday arrested 12 Indian fishermen from Rameswaram district, Tamil Nadu, and seized two of their fishing boats on charges of engaging in illegal fishing activity. This is the third such arrest in a fortnight, prompting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to, yet again, write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking the Centre’s immediate intervention to secure their release. The development comes about 10 days after fishermen in Jaffna, in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, held a large protest, demanding strict implementation of Sri Lankan laws against illegal fishing by foreign vessels.
Background
- For well over a decade now, fishermen of India and Sri Lanka have been unable to agree on how to share the fishes in the narrow Palk Strait separating the two countries. The Strait begins just north of Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula and spans about 100 km at its widest point. It is known to be a breeding ground for rich marine resources, especially shrimp.
- Although India and Sri Lanka agreed to divide the Strait with an imaginary boundary line in the 1970s —the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) – Indian fishermen, from the coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, and from Puducherry, are frequently arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for “poaching” or engaging in “illegal” fishing activity in Sri Lankan waters.
- Several rounds of bilateral negotiations between the two governments and talks between fishing community leaders from both sides have been held over the years, but a solution remains elusive.
What is the conflict, and between whom?
- The main contention between the fishermen on either side is not so much about territorial rights, as historically both sides have amicably shared marine resources in the stretch. It is more to do with the use of “bottom trawling”, the fishing method used by fishermen from Tamil Nadu.
- A group of daily-wage fishermen set out on mechanised boats, owned by other affluent fishermen, and drag large fishing nets through the seabed. While they primarily target fish species and shrimps, the practice of bottom trawling scoops out eggs, young fishes, and other marine organisms that eventually die and are thrown back into the sea.
- The primary conflict here is between the Tamil Nadu trawler owners and the northern Sri Lankan fishermen, who are trying to rebuild their livelihoods after Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in 2009. Until then, they were denied access to the sea at different points and displaced from their homes.
- It is in the post-war decade that the Sri Lankan fishermen started voicing concern about depleting catches, owing to incessant trawling by the Indian fishermen. With the Indian side of the IMBL already ravaged by decades of high profit-yielding bottom trawling, they flock to the Sri Lankan side, with relatively less damage and therefore, more marine resources.
- The clash now is essentially over competing livelihoods of two Tamil-speaking fisher communities, with a glaring asymmetry in power and resources. The Tamil Nadu fishing community, especially the trawler owners, are not only wealthier but also very politically influential. The northern Sri Lankan fishermen, on the other hand, are coming out of a brutal war, braving enormous losses and destruction. They use modest boats to practice traditional fishing and get little state support to resurrect their livelihoods.
Why is it yet to be resolved?
- One reason is the growing human cost of the conflict —five Indian fishermen returned home dead last year after the Sri Lankan Navy allegedly attacked them mid-sea. More recently, the death of the two Jaffna fishermen has aggravated the anger on the Sri Lankan side as well.
- For years now, India has urged Sri Lanka to adopt a humanitarian approach when it deters Indian fishermen. However, when fishermen deaths occur, apart from customary condemnations and denials, there is little effort from authorities on either side to ensure investigations are completed and perpetrators brought to book.
- Secondly, New Delhi tried diverting Tamil Nadu fishermen to deep sea fishing methods to wean them away from bottom trawling in the Palk Strait. But the initiative did not take off as planned , and the fishermen still resort to trawling, and often get caught by Sri Lankan authorities.
- Thirdly, Tamil Nadu is yet to agree to the chief demand of northern Tamil fishermen — to stop bottom trawling to restore trust between the fishermen on both sides, and provide a real opportunity to re-commence talks, which they prefer over confrontation.
- The northern Tamil fishermen repeatedly acknowledge Tamil Nadu’s solidarity and support extended to Sri Lankan Tamils during the years of war and later. But they also remind their brothers across the Palk Strait that solidarity does not justify exploitation of resources on which their lives and livelihoods depend
5 . Facts for Prelims
Salient Features of Ayushman Bharat -PradhanMantri Jan ArogyaYojana
- Government of India has launched Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) on 23.09.2018. PMJAY is a centrally sponsored scheme. It is entirely funded by Government and the funding is shared between Centre and State governments as per prevailing guidelines of Ministry of Finance.
- PMJAY provides health cover up to Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalization to around 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families (approx. 50 crore beneficiaries).
- PMJAY is an entitlement based scheme. This scheme covers poor and vulnerable families based on deprivation and occupational criteria as per SECC database.
- PMJAY provides cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service in any (both public and private) empanelled hospitals across India. In other words, a beneficiary from one State can avail benefits from an empanelled Hospital anywhere in the Country.
- Under PMAJY, the States are free to choose the modalities for implementation. They can implement the scheme through insurance company or directly through the Trust/ Society or mixed model.
- There is no restriction on family size, ensuring all members of designated families specifically girl child and senior citizens get coverage.
- A well-defined Complaint and Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism, has been put in place through which complaints/ grievances are registered, acknowledged, escalated for relevant action, resolved and monitored.
- PMJAY has created a robust IT system for implementation and role of real time transaction data.
- At National level, National Health Authority (NHA) has been set up as an attached office to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to manage the implementation of the scheme.