UPSC MAIN STORMING JUNE - 2016 SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY Plot No. 1742, 1st Floor, Syndicate Bank Building, 18th Main Road, Anna Nagar, Chennai - 600 040. Phone : 044-26216435, 64597222, 4353 3445 Mobile : 94441 66435 www.shankariasacademy.com MAIN STORMING  SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY JUNE - 2016 Content Sl No. NEWS Page No. GENERAL STUDIES PAPER I 1. A ‘TOLERANT’ STATE (EPW) .......................................................................1 2. CONTRACT TEACHERS IN INDIA (EPW) .................................................2 3. TRIBAL CITIZENS AND BORDER THINKING IN INDIA (EPW) .............4 4. MIGRANT AND THE NEO-LIBERAL CITY (EPW) .....................................5 5. RIGHTS OF SECOND WIVES (EPW) ..........................................................8 6. UNIFORM CIVIL CODE (EPW) ...................................................................8 7. COMMUNAL CLASHES ..............................................................................10 GENERAL STUDIES PAPER II 8. JUDICIAL ACTIVISM .................................................................................12 9. NUCLEAR WORLD IS SHIFTING TO ASIA– PACIFIC INDIA’S ...........14 10 INDIA’S FOREIGN POLICY ........................................................................15 11. RACISM- AFRICANS ATTACK IN INDIA ..................................................17 12. TAPI PROJECT .............................................................................................18 13. NSG ................................................................................................................19 14. INDIA – CHINA ............................................................................................22 15. MEDICAL TREATMENT OF TERMINALLY-ILL PATIENTS BILL, 2016 ..................................................................................23 16. INDIAN CONSTITUTION ............................................................................24 ii All Rights Reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing. This course material - MAIN STORMING is only for bonafide students of Shankar IAS Academy and is NOT for sale. MAIN STORMING  SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY JUNE - 2016 Sl No. NEWS Page No. 17. WELFARE SCHEMES FOR VULNERABLE SECTIONS ...........................26 18. REACHING OUT THROUGH E-GOVERNANCE .......................................27 19. FOR INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT AND LARGER FOOTPRINTS ..........28 20. UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE ...........................................................30 21. SOCIAL INCLUSION THROUGH SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMMES ............................................................................................31 22. SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR ...........................33 23. QUALITY EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA ............................35 24. AMBIVALENCE OF CITIZENSHIP IN ASSAM (EPW) ............................36 25. MANUAL SCAVENGING (EPW) .................................................................38 26 MANUAL SCAVENGING IN MAHARASHTRA (EPW) .......................40 27. HEALTH INEQUALITY IN INDIA (EPW) ..................................................41 28, JUDGING THE JUDGES ..............................................................................44 29. RAISING A STINK (EPW)...........................................................................45 30. INDO–US RELATIONS (EPW) ...................................................................47 31. STUDYING CHILDHOOD IN INDIA (EPW) ........................................49 32. THE ANTI-SPITTING INITIATIVES IN INDIA? (EPW) ..........................49 33 “BREXIT”(EPW) ..........................................................................................51 34. THE ROLE OF NGOS, SHGS, VARIOUS GROUPS AND ASSOCIATIONS. ..........................................................................................54 All Rights Reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing. iiiiii This course material - MAIN STORMING is only for bonafide students of Shankar IAS Academy and is NOT for sale. SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY MAIN STORMING - 2016 Sl No. NEWS Page No. GENERAL STUDIES PAPER III 35. SUSTAINING GDP GROWTH ....................................................................55 36. THE WETLAND ISSUES ............................................................................56 37. A SINKING MIGRANT BOAT .....................................................................58 38. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. .....................................................................59 39. LEAVING THE RATES UNCHANGED: .......................................................60 40. DISASTER AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT. ..........................................61 41. CHALLENGES TO INTERNAL SECURITY ...............................................61 42. ISSUES RELATING TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS .............63 43. “VIEWS TO WATCH” ..................................................................................64 44. “MERGER MAKES WAVES AGAIN” ..........................................................65 45. “SCIENCE AND THE SCIENTIST IN A CHANGING CLIMATE” .............66 46. UNLEASHING GROWTH THROUGH EMPOWERMENT .......................68 47. AGRICULTURE AND FARMER WELL BEING ..........................................69 48. AGRICULTURE AND FARMER WELL BEING : PRESENT SCENARIO ....................................................................................................71 49. FOR INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT AND LARGER FOOT PRINTS .........72 50. ECONOMIC GROWTH AND ISSUES .......................................................73 51. ISSUES OF FOOD SECURITY IN INDIA (EPW) ......................................74 52. DE-PLOUGHING THE “RURAL” (EPW) ...................................................76 iv All Rights Reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing. This course material - MAIN STORMING is only for bonafide students of Shankar IAS Academy and is NOT for sale. SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY MAIN STORMING - 2016 Sl No. NEWS Page No. 53. CLEAN GANGA (EPW).................................................................................77 54. DRAFT GUIDELINES FOR SAFE HANDLING OF NANO MATERIALS (EPW) ..........................................................................79 55. GDP GROWTH IN INDIA (EPW) .........................................................80 56. LANDOWNING NON-CULTIVATING HOUSEHOLDS (EPW) .................80 57. INDIAN RESIDENTIAL RENTAL HOUSING (EPW) ..........................82 58. MANUFACTURING CHILDREN (EPW) ...................................................83 59. PERFORMANCE OF ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY (EPW) .......................84 60. RELIANCE JIO CASE (EPW) ......................................................................85 61. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (EPW) ...................................................86 62. CHALLENGES IN COAL AND POWER SECTORS (EPW) .......................88 iiiii All Rights Reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing. vv This course material - MAIN STORMING is only for bonafide students of Shankar IAS Academy and is NOT for sale. MAIN STORMING JUNE 2016 country’s first comprehensive law against black Main storming - GS - I magic and other superstitious practices, was enacted on December 13, 2013, four months A ‘TOLERANT’ STATE EPW after Dabholkar was killed. Pro – Hindutva forces THREE years after the rationalist thinker Narendra Dabholkar was gunned down in Pune on ¾ The MANS had consistently complained about August 20, 2013, the Central Bureau of Investigation the intimidation and harassment against it as (CBI) has made its first arrest in the case—Dr well as the rumours and “propaganda” carried Virendrasinh Tawade, a 48-year-old ENT specialist. out by pro-Hindutva forces in their attempts Tawade is believed to be a member of the Sanatan to influence devout Hindus into believing that Sanstha and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, both self- they were being persecuted and discriminated professed Hindutva organisations. against. The case was initially investigated by the ¾ Dabholkar and the members of his organisation Maharashtra Police, but the Bombay High Court were termed “Naxalites” receiving foreign took notice of a public interest petition filed by the funds from Christians and of wanting to destroy former journalist Ketan Tirodkar that there was no Hinduism. progress in the case several months after the killing and ordered the CBI to take over the investigation. ¾ They were also accused of financial fraud and The CBI filed an FIR on May 9, 2014. misuse of foreign funds. Black Magic Act Powerful politicians ¾ Dabholkar had campaigned for several decades ¾ The ruling political establishment, the police against black magic and similar superstitious and later, the investigation agencies did not practices, and debunked several so-called take these complaints seriously is the most godmen in the process. important insight that can be derived from this episode. ¾ The crusade led by his Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti– MANS ¾ There have been, and continue to be, demands (committee for eradication of superstitious to ban the Sanstha. These demands are being practices) brought him many enemies, among made by the same politicians who failed to them the Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu initiate legal and punitive action against it when JanajagrutiSamiti. complaints were made. ¾ The Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of ¾ Existing provisions of the law would have been Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and sufficient to take cognisance of the complaints Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013, the but this was not done. All Rights Reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing. 1 This course material - MAIN STORMING is only for bonafide students of Shankar IAS Academy and is NOT for sale. MAIN STORMING SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY JUNE - 2016 ¾ The Sanstha was allowed to carry on its activities Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan decided even as the media reported on its propaganda to appoint contract teachers. and how influential individuals, including Contract teachers employed for a fixed period of powerful politicians, were endorsing its work. time or whose contracts can be terminated relatively ¾ The reasons why this happened are hardly a easily have been an important feature of the school mystery. Rarely does a politician or a policeman system in India since the 1990s. The aim of rapidly dare to antagonise an organisation with such a extending education to an increasing number of wide reach and influence among professionals children in a fiscally affordable manner, states across like doctors, lawyers, teachers and even the country began to hire contract teachers. These journalists. teachers were hired for a fixed term, typically just ¾ Dabholkar and many other anti-superstition under a year, and were paid a small fraction of activists in “progressive” Maharashtra what regular teachers were paid. While expected to consistently faced harassment with hardly any perform the same job as regular teachers, the bar relief from the state machinery. on their educational qualifications was lower than for regular teachers. Tolerate dissenting views Salient feature in education ¾ Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi’s murders as well as the harassment meted out ¾ Over the next 15–20 years, contract teachers to others like them. became an increasingly salient feature of the education system in India, with most states ¾ The silence of large sections of the population having hired them and researchers examining and the continuing support of political interests their ability to improve student performance. to their tormentors. ¾ Depending on the state, time period, and source ¾ The lack of response is a clear indication that of funding, contract teachers were referred to by citizens feel they are not safe if they speak out multiple names, such as para-teachers, ad hoc against entrenched religious vested interests teachers, temporary teachers, guest teachers, as and that the state will not take their complaints seriously. well as a number of names designated by central and state government programmes. ¾ A society that cannot tolerate dissenting views or keeps quiet in the face of a violent reaction ¾ The SarvaShikshaAbhiyan (SSA) in 2001 and to such views, is staring at a cultural and increasing enrolments, the Government of India intellectual abyss. encouraged states to hire contract teachers using SSA funds. Main storming - GS - I ¾ New teachers were called SSA teachers CONTRACT TEACHERS IN INDIA EPW presumably indicating that they were project employees who may or may not be absorbed into the regular teaching cadre once the mission The liberalisation of India’s economy in the ends. early 1990s, the government began increasingly employing contract workers to perform a range of ¾ Different names and terms notwithstanding, state functions from cleaning sewers to collecting these teachers are all expected to do work taxes. The education sector was no different. Since similar to other teachers, that is, regular the late 1980s, states in India, including Haryana, All Rights Reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing. 2 This course material - MAIN STORMING is only for bonafide students of Shankar IAS Academy and is NOT for sale. MAIN STORMING SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY JUNE - 2016 teachers, but are retained on contracts that are ¾ However, over the years there have been for limited duration, or can be easily terminated instances in many states where local elites (at least in theory), and generally receive far less doled out contract teacher jobs to individuals pay and other benefits. defeating the goals of accountability from the start. No-transfer policy ¾ In addition to routine reports of corruption ¾ Contract teachers in general have little scope for related to appointing teachers in all the study career progression in terms of promotion within states, those with contract teachers now the contract teacher cadre. Their only scope for had a new type of corruption: that related to regularising contract teachers. career mobility lies in becoming a part of the cadre of regular teachers. NCTE guidelines ¾ Across all states contract teachers cannot be ¾ The late 1990s and early 2000s, when there was transferred, at least in policy. In effect, they an increasing tendency in states to hire contract belong to a school cadre, although they cannot teachers on one–two year contracts, the trend typically choose their school. appears to be reversing in a number of states. ¾ In Rajasthan (till 2014), with close to 50% ¾ Although many states continue to hire contract of teachers on contract, and a no-transfer teachers, there is an increasing propensity policy for contract teachers, the study team to regularise them, either based upon years was informed that transfers could be done if of service or/and additional qualifications there was sufficient pressure from the “right” acquired. quarters. ¾ In Madhya Pradesh, all new teachers are hired ¾ Regular teachers are eligible for leave in all initially on contract for a period of three years, states, although their nature and duration after which they are due for regularisation. varies. Similarly, in Odisha, contract teachers are regularised after completing six years of service. ¾ The main categories of leave for regular teachers In Uttar Pradesh the government has decided in all states are: casual, earned, paid, half-pay, to regularise contract teachers and refrain from maternity, paternity and medical. hiring more contract teachers. ¾ Apart from these, in some states, regular ¾ The trend towards regularisation and increasing teachers are also entitled to privileged leave, parity between regular and contract teachers extraordinary leave and unpaid leave as well as has been driven by technical, political, and paid leave to get a higher degree legislative pressures. New type of corruption ¾ The recognition after RTE 2009 and the NCTE guidelines on teachers that all teachers need ¾ An important aspect of recruiting contract to be qualified as per NCTE guidelines has teachers instead of regular teachers was the strengthened the argument in favour of parity expectation that locally appointed teachers between teachers with similar qualifications could be held accountable by the local playing similar roles. government and local community more easily, ¾ In Madhya Pradesh, an important contribution relative to a distant bureaucrat sitting in the towards regularisation of teachers was the state capital or district headquarter. All Rights Reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing. 3 This course material - MAIN STORMING is only for bonafide students of Shankar IAS Academy and is NOT for sale. MAIN STORMING SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY JUNE - 2016 Dube Committee report that recommended indigenous are inhabiting the borderline conditions the government rebuild the teaching cadre. of temporal disjunction; it is both inside and outside Most of its recommendations were accepted the logic of nation state, market and the capital. and notified as the adhyapak samvarg cadre Dominant national culture rules 2008. ¾ In several states, prominently, Rajasthan, ¾ The “community” becomes the site of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, pressure social agency that the nation forms and its from teacher unions on the government to treat homogeneous empty time claims to liberate, all teachers equally has contributed towards acts of defiance and acts of resistance can regularisation. perhaps be seen as agentic political practices in non-Western societies. Main storming - GS - I ¾ The minority with its out sidedness, collective TRIBAL CITIZENS AND BORDER EPW agency and lived experience rearticulates what THINKING IN INDIA it means to belong to a traditional and atavistic culture (like that of the indigenous people in The site of the minority and the marginalised, Latin America, Australia or New Zealand or the instead of breaking from the past, evinces Adivasi in India). continual interlinkages of past and present. The minoritiesindigenous in modernising societies ¾ The concern, therefore, is to engage with the or the migrant culture in metropolitan modern border thinking or the community practices, is often defined by the Western national culture which are neither contemporaneous with the as “behind” or “belated in time still to catch up modernity of the dominant national culture, with the modernity of national culture;” this nor simply “out of date” or lagging behind that foundationalismliberal notion could be critiqued modernity. by arguing that the partial culture of minority is ¾ The Adivasi in India is a possible form of temporally disjunctive, neither contemporaneous existence that cannot be fitted either in the with modernity of the dominant culture nor simply procedural dissent of the political minority or in out of date or lagging behind that modernity. the cultural minority group negotiating inclusion Moving away from the “right-discourses” of of their difference through representation. minority groups within a nation state, minority theorists have engaged with the forms of agency that ¾ A member of cultural community, the tribal are collective and affective. Without opposing “the citizen, in her otherwise collective life, would individual” or her “rationality” the attempt is to point be apt to invoke her “individual” scheduled out at the minority subject of agency that provides tribe–citizen status only to ensure that the alternative accounts of historical chronology state is not depriving her of the constitutionally and hierarchy. For minority or marginalised guaranteed freedom. subjects have to “constitute their subjectivities and Ethnic communities collectivises through dislocated and exclusionary practices”. The marginalised minority therefore is a ¾ The Sikkim gets identified as the only state possible form of existence that is beyond the binary in India with richest biodiversity, the Sikkim’s of “being assimilated” or “being different only to government proudly announces that all the be represented in the structures of modern state;” three indigenous ethnic communities of the it, instead, presents a third space. This is a domain state (that is Lepcha, Bhutia and Limbu) possess that brings in the argument that the marginalised All Rights Reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing. 4 This course material - MAIN STORMING is only for bonafide students of Shankar IAS Academy and is NOT for sale. MAIN STORMING SHANKAR IAS ACADEMY JUNE - 2016 rich traditional knowledge of biodiversity and political interventions in the cultural debate have their own indigenous ways of “conserving” with their ecological wisdom. nature. ¾ In spite of relying on slash and burn cultivation, ¾ The Mundhumi explanations of flowers make this indigenous community of north Sikkim the Limbu community worship “Nam Yo,” a preserves one of the best biodiversity zones in flower of an herbal plant as the only material entire South Asia. representative of the goddess of wisdom. This ¾ The minority, or marginalised cultural groups goddess has endowed nature not only with the intervene from a position of colonial difference. aesthetics of beauty but also with the power of healing. At the same time, the tradition of ¾ The rationale is to look at the self-governing morality makes the local “primitive” Lepcha communities of Adivasis or the STs in India as nurture the richest biodiversity zone in India. an alternate sites, where modern governance/ modernisation is contested not merely for ¾ It is community knowledge that helped the retention of community knowledge but also for indigenous people of Dzongu in North Sikkim abiding by the diversity of knowledge practices. continue with their traditional occupations of hunting gathering and slash and burn cultivation ¾ The need for engaging with the life world and yet retain the best forest cover in their practices of the dominated communities the natural habitat. world over arises from the enormous diversity of ecological, artistic and intellectual riches ¾ The Lepcha intervention in nurturing biodiversity, that these self-governing communities have in many ways, introduces the ethical/political in nurtured over centuries. the cultural debate. The community’s ecological prudence is most vivid in the emotional bonding ¾ The indigenous community articulates through its members have with the non-human world— its lived experience what it means by non- the high altitude lakes, mountains, springs, modern culture, prevalent among many cultural rivers, females of wild animal species, rare breed communities the world over, be it the Zapatistas of animal, or the system of sparing a portion of in Mexico or the Adivasis in India. edible roots in the soil. ¾ In such situations of cultural relativism the Indigenous community liberal understanding of accommodating diversity or integrating difference through ¾ The cultural communities in east Himalayas, representation appears inadequate as the as the study suggests, are sites of non-modern minorities indigenous stands for the singularity knowledge in the form of oral traditions and has of the singular that can neither be “assimilated” different thinking to offer. nor “represented” within the homogeneous time and space of a nation state. ¾ The Mundhumi oral scriptures and its transcriptions part of the school curriculum Main storming - GS - I in Sikkim new generations of Limbu language subjects are becoming aware of the non-human MIGRANT AND THE NEO-LIBERAL EPW world— birds and flowers indigenous to eastern CITY Himalayas—and its relation to their very own well-being. The reinforce the point, which is not novel and is common sense to the migrants, that the ¾ At the same time, the predominantly hunter migrant sits at the heart of the city in neo liberal gatherer tribe of Lepchas is making ethical/ All Rights Reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing. 5 This course material - MAIN STORMING is only for bonafide students of Shankar IAS Academy and is NOT for sale.