Daily Current Affairs : 9th March 2022

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. BBIN MVA Pact
2. Office of Governor
3. Guardianship of Minors
4. Steps to make Evacuation process more efficient
5. Facts for Prelims

1 . BBIN Motor Vehicle Agreement

Context : With Bhutan continuing to sit out the Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) of the sub-regional Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) grouping, a meeting of the other three countries was held to discuss the next steps in operationalising the agreement for the free flow of goods and people between them.

About the Meeting

• The BBIN meeting was the first such in-person meeting since February 2020 to discuss the MVA since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and officials finalised the wording of two separate protocols on passenger and cargo movement with an “enabling” agreement.
• “During the meeting, an enabling MoU to be signed by India, Bangladesh and Nepal for implementation of the BBIN MVA by the three countries, pending ratification of the MVA by Bhutan, was finalised
• “Operationalising the MVA by concluding the Passenger and the Cargo Protocol will help realise the full potential of trade and people to people connectivity between the BBIN countries by fostering greater sub-regional cooperation

Background

• The BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement was signed by representatives of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal on June 15, 2015 in Thimphu, Bhutan.  Subsequently, it has been ratified by Bangladesh, India and Nepal. The National Assembly (Lower House) of Bhutan had endorsed the BBIN MVA in May 2016, and forwarded it to the National Council (Upper House) of Bhutan for consideration.
• After objections in Bhutan over sustainability and environmental concerns, the Bhutanese Parliament decided not to endorse the plan, and the then Tobgay Tshering government agreed to allow the other three countries to go ahead with the project for vehicular movement (BIN-MVA) in 2017.
• Since the 1980s, tariffs within the region have been gradually reduced. Following the signing of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, intra-regional trade in South Asia doubled from $10 billion in 2006 to $20 billion in 2012. However, non-tariff barriers continue to impede growth of intra-regional trade.

About BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA)

• BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) is a regional transport initiative where a motor-vehicle agreement was signed for developing a sub-regional protocol for a cost-effective, efficient and seamless multimodal transport system linking these four of the South Asian nations.
• According to the agreement a cargo originating in India will be allowed to go directly to its destination in Bangladesh, instead of waiting at the border for transhipment, it will reduce both time and cost involved in cross-border trade. There will be a win-win situation for all parties involved as they will be in a better position to capitalise their comparative advantages.

Benefits

• Finalisation of the BBIN Motor Vehicle Agreement represents considerable efforts of South Asian countries to facilitate cross-border trade and travel.
• It will allow passenger, personal, and cargo vehicles to cross international borders and traverse key trade routes in the participating countries. 
• Once implemented, the agreement will reduce costly and time-consuming trans-shipment of people and goods at border crossings.
• Operationalising the MVA by concluding the passenger and the cargo protocol will help realise the full potential of trade and people-to-people connectivity between the BBIN countries by fostering greater sub-regional cooperation.

What is the need for BBIN agreement?

• The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has been unable to achieve its potential as key initiatives, including in the important area of connectivity, are held back due to the obstructionist approach of Pakistan.
• The finalisation of the SAARC Regional Railways Agreement and the SAARC Motor Vehicle Agreement, aimed at increasing cross-border and regional connectivity, has been pending due to lack of response from Pakistan.
• Initiatives to enhance connectivity in the region have been pursued at sub-regional level by the Indian government.
• The Indian government expects that regional cooperation would advance under the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and BBIN.
• Towards enhancing connectivity, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal concluded the sub-regional Motor Vehicle Agreement.

Challenges

• Effective implementation of the BBIN MVA requires addressing a number of challenges such as infrastructure deficits, particularly in designated border posts, harmonisation of regulations and customs procedures.
• While they can be addressed through enhanced investment and better regulations, a number of on-the-ground political economy factors are to be addressed. For example, there are apprehensions among small transport operators and truck owners. They think that the implementation of the BBIN MVA will favour large logistics companies who enjoy economies of scale and will drive the smaller ones out of business.
• In addition, there are issues with cargo insurance as every vehicle plying in the territory of another country should have a comprehensive insurance policy. At present, such a policy of a country among the parties to the Agreement is not recognised in another country.

2 . Office of Governor

Context : The makers of the Constitution of India did not anticipate that the office of the Governor, meant to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law”, would metamorphose into the most controversial constitutional office rendering the constitutional praxis rugged.

Office of Governor as per Draft Constitution and Final Constitution

• Though the original Draft of the Constitution provided for either the direct election or the appointment of the Governor (Article 131 of the draft which was to become Article 155), the Constituent Assembly chose a third alternative for the appointment of the Governor by the President, so as to avoid confrontation with the elected executive.
• Article 131 of the draft Constitution had provided for an elected Governor or a Governor appointed by the President from a panel of four candidates elected by the Legislative Assembly. After elaborate deliberations, the Assembly voted for a nomination provision which rules out any role for the Legislative Assembly.
• Jawaharlal Nehru also strongly supported a nominated Governor as an elected Governor may lead “to conflict and waste of energy and money and also leading to certain disruptive tendency in this big context of an elective governor plus parliamentary system of democracy.
• ” Finally, a process by which the Governor is nominated by the President on the advice of the Council of Ministers was adopted and it became Article 155 of the enacted Constitution.
• Dr. Ambedkar categorically stated on the floor that “The Governor under the Constitution has no functions which he can discharge by himself; no functions at all. While he has no functions, he has certain duties to perform…” Instead of a powerful Governor, what the Constitution conceived was a duty-bound Governor

Politics till the Bommai verdict

• A classic example of Raj Bhavan getting embroiled in partisan politics was sketched by a series of events in Tamil Nadu beginning from the declaration of national emergency on June 25, 1975.
• This was followed by the DMK regime offering political support and shelter to the national dissidents which led to realignments in State politics. A report was then sent by the then Governor K. K. Shah seeking the dismissal of the DMK government for pervasive corruption and therefore, President’s Rule was imposed on February 3, 1976.
• The President’s Rule was imposed in States over a 100 times prior to 1994. But after the Supreme Court’s judgment in the S. R. Bommai case, such rampant practices came to an end as the Supreme Court declared that the imposition of President’s Rule shall be confined only to the breakdown of constitutional machinery.

Sarkaria Commission

• Commission on Centre-State Relations was constituted by Central Government in 1983. The three-member commission headed by Justice R. S. Sarkaria remains till date the bedrock of any inquiry into the relations between the Centre and State. The Commission, which submitted its report in 1988, sought to reinfuse the spirit of co-operative federalism in Indian politics.
• The Sarkaria Commission sought to restore dignity to the Raj Bhavan by focusing more on the appointee who shall be an eminent person in some walk of life, someone outside the respective State so that he would not have any personal interest to protect.
• The Commission reiterated the views of Nehru as expressed on the floor of the Constituent Assembly that it is “better to have a detached figure” as Governor who has not been recently active in politics.
• While batting for a secure term for the Governor, the Commission condemned the practice of Governors venturing further into active politics as well as ascending to other offices after the completion of the term, all of which contaminate the purity of gubernatorial intent.
• Regarding the Governor’s role as the Chancellor of State universities, the Sarkaria Commission was of the view that it is desirable to consult the Chief Minister or the concerned minister, though it shall be left to the Governor to act on the same or not.

First ARC & National Commission

• The first Administrative Reforms Commission (1966) in its report on “Centre-State Relationships” had recommended strongly that once the Governor completes his term of five years, he shall not be made eligible for further appointment as Governor. Unlike the Sarkaria Commission which was specifically on Centre State Relations, the mandate and canvas of the Administrative Reform Commission (ARC) was wider.
• The National Commission (2000) also reiterated the view of the Sarkaria Commission regarding the appointment of Governor. It enriched the discourse by stipulating that there should be a time-limit, desirably six months to give assent or to reserve a Bill for consideration of the President. If the Bill is reserved for consideration of the President, there should be a time-limit, desirably of three months, within which the President should take a decision whether to accord his assent or to direct the Governor to return it to the State Legislature or to seek the advisory opinion of the Supreme Court.

The Punchhi Commission

• The Punchhi Commission on Centre-State relations (2007), headed by former Chief Justice of India Justice M. M. Punchhi, was constituted to enquire into Centre-State Relations taking into account the changes in the last years since Sarkaria Commission submitted its report in 1988.
• Though Punchhi Commission affirmed most of the recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission, its views also reflected the changing times and its needs.
• The Commision could not appreciate the practice of Governors being called back at the bell of regime change, something that does not befit the salutary position assigned to the Governor. Supreme Court in the B. P. Singhal Case (2010) declared that a change in power at the Centre cannot be grounds to recall governor and hence such actions are judicially reviewable.
• While Sarkaria Commission recommended that Governor’s tenure of five years shall only be sparingly cut short, Punchhi Commission went one step ahead and recommended that Governor shall have fixed tenure so that they wouldn’t hold office under the intangible pleasure of the Central government.
• It proposed an amendment to Article 156 so that there would be a procedure to remove the Governor from office.
• It also went further in recommending that Governors shall not be overburdened with the task of running universities by virtue of them being made Chancellors under the State University Acts.

Case Laws

• The Apex Court must be credited for having drawn the lakshman rekha on gubernatorial over-reach through a catena of clear decisions ranging from the landmark S. R. Bommai (1994) , Rameshwar Prasad (Bihar Assembly Dissolution Case of 2006) and Nabam Rebia (Arunachal Assembly Case of 2016) by which the possibility of gross high handedness is either eliminated or reduced to the time taken for judicial review.

3 . Guardianship of Minors

Context : In the recent past, there have been changes to the rules for passport and PAN card that allow an applicant to furnish their mother’s name if she is a single parent. But this continues to be a niggling issue when it comes to school certificates and umpteen other documents that insist on the father’s name as the guardian. Last year in September, a PIL in Madras High Court sought that all documents must also require the mother’s name to be mentioned along with the father’s.

What are the rules for issuing of passport and PAN cards to those with single parents?

• In December, 2016, the Ministry of External Affairs liberalised its rules for the issuance of passports and took a number of steps. Certain changes were made following the recommendations of a three-member committee comprising of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Women and Child Development that examined various concerns pertaining to passports for children after a divorce or in case of adoptions.
• Following the changes, applicants could provide the name of either parent instead of providing details of both the father and mother. The new passport application form also does not require the applicant to provide the name of her or his spouse when they are divorced and neither are they required to provide the divorce decree.
• Similarly, in November 2018, the Central Board of Direct Taxes amended Income Tax Rules, 1962, so that the father’s name was not mandatory when a mother was a single parent. The new PAN application form also seeks the mother’s name alongside the father’s. Applicants can also choose whether they want their father’s name on the PAN card or their mother’s name.

What do the guardianship laws in the country say?

• Indian laws accord superiority to the father in case of guardianship of a minor. Under the religious law of Hindus, or the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, (HMGA) 1956, the natural guardian of a Hindu minor in respect of the minor’s person or property “is the father, and after him, the mother: provided the custody of a minor who has not completed the age of five years shall ordinarily be with the mother.”
• The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 says that the Shariat or the religious law will apply in case of guardianship according to which the father is the natural guardian, but custody vests with the mother until the son reaches the age of seven and the daughter reaches puberty though the father’s right to general supervision and control exists.
• The concept of Hizanat in Muslim law states that the welfare of the child is above all else. This is the reason why Muslim law gives preference to the mother over father in the matter of custody of children in their tender years.

Case Laws and Law commission reports

• The Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in Githa Hariharan v. Reserve Bank of India in 1999 provides partial relief. In this case, the HMGA was challenged for violating the guarantee of equality of sexes under Article 14 of the Constitution of India and the court held that the term “after” should not be taken to mean “after the lifetime of the father “, but rather “in the absence of the father”. But the judgment failed to recognise both parents as equal guardians, subordinating a mother’s role to that of the father. Though the judgment sets a precedent for courts, it has not led to an amendment to the HMGA.
• The Law Commission of India in its 257th report on “Reforms in Guardianship and Custody Laws in India” in May 2015 recommended that the “superiority of one parent over the other should be removed and that both the mother and the father should be regarded, simultaneously, as the natural guardians of a minor.”
• Before this, in its 133 report too the Commission had recommended that the HMGA be amended to “constitute both the father and the mother as being natural guardians ‘jointly and severally,’ having equal rights in respect of a minor and his property.”

4 . Steps to make Evacuation process more efficient

Context : The increasing size and complexity of the diaspora requires the government to expand capacity and improve procedures. More than 11 million Indians now reside abroad and 20 million travel internationally every year.

Steps to make Evacuation process more efficient

• First, the government will need to build on its rich experience in conducting more than 30 evacuation operations since the 1950s. Studying India’s history, best practices and lessons learned will help institutionalise them and avoid the need to reinvent the wheel every time a crisis erupts. By supporting policy-oriented research at universities and think tanks to document the memory of senior officials, the government would also facilitate the transmission of their expertise to younger officials.
• Every evacuation case is unique, given the specific nature and location of the crisis, but this should not preclude an analytical attempt to formulate a blueprint that lists core tasks for all operations. An inter-ministerial committee should prepare a manual with guidelines that establish a clear chain of command and division of competencies; identify regional support bases, assembly points and routes for evacuation; develop country-specific warden systems to communicate with expatriates; and establish evacuation priority and embarkation criteria.
• India’s diplomatic cadre must be given specific training to operate in hostile environments. As a senior government official told me, when it comes to operating in complex theatres, “practice and preparedness make perfection”. To achieve this, the government could instruct the police or army to train Indian Foreign Service probationers to operate in war zones; conduct frequent evacuation simulations and emergency drills; and create rapid reaction teams of Indian security personnel to be deployed to protect diplomatic staff and installations abroad.
• Fourth, the success of future operations will also rely on New Delhi’s willingness to work together with friendly governments. India will have to invest in cooperative frameworks that facilitate coordination among countries that have large expatriate populations in West Asia, in particular Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and among leading powers with evacuation capacity in the Indian Ocean region.
• Fifth, the government will have to assign a greater role to its armed forces, in particular by strengthening the Navy and Air Force’s capacity to operate in tandem with civilian authorities.
• Sixth, to minimise redundancies, the government must institutionalise a permanent inter-ministerial coordinating mechanism for emergency evacuations, incentivise inter-agency cross-posting of officials dealing with diaspora affairs, and encourage State governments to create regional contingency plans.
• Seventh, to avoid cost inflation and delays, the government must establish a permanent civil reserve air fleet that pools aircraft from all Indian airlines based on pre-established requisition and reimbursement procedures.
• Eighth, the government will have to invest in new technologies to better monitor the diaspora’s profile and mobility. This can be achieved by encouraging more diplomatic missions to provide online consular registration forms, developing an online registration system for overseas travellers, utilising social media, and by making the Aadhaar card compulsory to facilitate biometric identity verification and reduce identity fraud during evacuation.
• Finally, the government must expand efforts to manage public opinion and be able to conduct a quiet diplomacy that is crucial to safely extricate Overseas Indians from conflict zones. To reduce domestic pressures, it should embed media representatives more frequently in such missions, reassure the diaspora by ensuring that high-level political representatives are personally engaged, and avoid raising expectations by clearly distinguishing Indian citizens from people of Indian origin.

5 . Facts for Prelims

Indian Citizens Fighting for a Foreign Country

• Indian domestic law clearly states such an act is punishable under Chapter VI, Section 121-130 of the Indian Penal Code (offences against the state).
• Under the section “Committing depredation on territories of power at peace with the Government of India”, “Whoever commits depredation, or makes preparation to commit depredation, on the territories of any Power in alliance or at peace with the Government of India, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine and to forfeiture of any property used or intended to be used in committing such depredation, or acquired by such depredation.”
• The law is applicable when the foreign Army in which Indian nationals are joining is doing inimical things or is an adversary of India, experts noted referring to the efforts of Indian nationals to join ISIS in Syria which was prevented.

Land Pooling

• Land Pooling is a concept that where small chunks of land are owned by group of owners who assemble for the development of infrastructure as per the provisions of the Delhi Development Act 1957.
• After the development of the land, the Land Pooling agency redistributed the land after deducting some portion as compensation towards infrastructure costs. This is done to develop and bring out the potential of housing and infrastructure to reduce the load on the existing congested and saturated areas, like core parts of Delhi.

Creche Facility as per Labour Code

• According to the Labour Code on Social Security, 2020, every establishment with 50 or more employees should have a creche within a distance prescribed by the Union government. The employer must also allow four visits a day to the creche by the woman, including for nursing breaks.