In News

The recently announced Agnipath Scheme received backlash from students in different parts of the country.

About the News

• Protest after announcement: Two days after the government unveiled its Agnipath scheme for recruiting soldiers across the three services, protests raged in several cities against the new defence recruitment path with aspirants raising job security and post-service benefits as their major concerns.

• Change in Age Limit: After the protest, the upper age limit for the recruitment process for Agnipath scheme for 2022 has been increased to 23 years since there was no recruitment in the services “during the last two years”.
  • It would allow those who were 21 years old in 2020, when recruitments were stalled, to be eligible — only for this year.
  • Under the original scheme announced, only aspirants between 17-and-a-half years and 21 years of age are eligible for recruitment.
• The Agnipath scheme is the government’s defence recruitment reform under which around 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually, and most will leave service in just four years.
  • Of the total annual recruits, only 25 per cent will be allowed to continue for another 15 years under permanent commission.
• The new system is only for personnel below officer ranks (those who do not join the forces as commissioned officers). The scheme is not optional as all personnel below officer rank will be hired only through this route from now on
• The Government also rolled out a series of welfare measures for those who would be let go early, including priority in recruitment for the Central Armed Police Forces, Assam Rifles and some state police services.

What are the concerns w.r.t. the scheme?

• Loss of Pension and Health Benefits: The Agniveers, as the soldiers will be called under the four-year Agnipath scheme, will be paid for the tenure, and will get a lumpsum amount of Rs 11.7 lakh at the end of the service, which will be tax free. There is no concept of pension or lifelong health benefits.
  • These benefits will, however, continue for those who become part of the armed forces after the four-year period.
• Loss of Job Security: Until now, a soldier had job security for approximately 17 years. The Agnipath scheme will end these benefits. Merely four years of service will mean that the Agniveers will have to study for others jobs after that, and be left behind others in their age.
• Only one-time Payout in case of death: In case an Agniveer dies while in service, the family will get Rs 1 crore including insurance, ex-gratia and balance salary. But it will be a one-time payout.
  • Previously, in case a soldier died in action, the benefits continued for his family.
• Problem of System mismatch: There is also concern about how the new recruitment path will align with the previous system based on the Recruitable Male Population (RMP) system for the Army, which is the proportion of the male population, which meets the Qualitative Recruitments laid down for recruitment, and is about 10 per cent of the total male population of a state, based on the census. The modalities of how this will happen are still being worked out.
• Loss of Experienced soldiers: Then there are also concerns that the forces will lose experienced soldiers. The jawans joining the Army, Navy and Air Force will be given technical training so that they are able to support the ongoing operations. But these men and women will leave after four years, which could create a void.

 For more details on the Agnipath Scheme, please refer:

Sources:

• Explained: Why are job aspirants protesting against the ‘Agnipath’ scheme?
• Behind Agnipath scheme protest: Temporary stint, no pension or health benefit:
• Agnipath: 5 Points On Concerns Around Centre's Ambitious Scheme:
• Agnipath:

In News

The World Competitiveness Index compiled by the Institute for Management Development has been released recently.

About the Index

• The World Competitiveness Index, is a comprehensive annual report that ranks 63 economies based on how they manage their competencies to achieve long-term value creation.

• It assesses the extent to which a country promotes the prosperity of its people by measuring economic well-being via hard data and survey responses from executives.
• It provides benchmarking, trends, statistics and survey data based on extensive research.
• It analyzes and ranks countries according to how they manage their competencies to achieve long-term value creation.

Key Rankings of the World Competitiveness Index 2022

• Denmark tops the list from the third position last year, while Switzerland slipped from the top ranking to the second position and Singapore regained the third spot from fifth.
• Others in the top 10 include Sweden at the 4^th position, followed by Hong Kong SAR (5th), the Netherlands (6th), Taiwan (7th), Finland (8th), Norway (9th), and the USA (10th).
• Meanwhile, the top-performing Asian economies are Singapore (3rd), Hong Kong (5th), Taiwan (7th), China (17th), and Australia (19th).

India’s Ranking

• India has witnessed the sharpest rise among the Asian economies, with a six-position jump from 43rd to 37th rank in the index.
• After a stable but stagnant five years, 2022 witnessed significant improvement in the competitiveness of the Indian economy, largely due to gains in economic performance (from 37th to 28th).
• The domestic economy has experienced a stratospheric rise from 30th to 9th position in a year.
• The labour market, a key sub-factor in the business efficiency parameter, moved up from 15th to 6th, while management practices and business attitudes and values also made major leaps.
• Major improvements in the context of retrospective taxes in 2021, India appears to have restored the trust of the business community.
  • Its re-regulation of several sectors, including drones, space, and geo-spatial mapping, have also likely played a role in performance.
• India is also a driving force in the global movement to fight climate change and its pledge of net-zero by 2070 at the COP26.
• The challenges that India has to face include:
  • managing trade disruptions and energy security
  • maintaining high GDP growth post the pandemic
  • skill development, and employment generation
  • asset monetization and resource mobilization for infrastructure development.
• The top five attractive factors of India’s economy for business include:
  • a skilled workforce
  • cost competitiveness
  • dynamism of the economy
  • high educational level and
  • open and positive attitudes

Global level Challenges

• Inflationary pressure is affecting most economies along with COVID and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
• The three most important trends found to be impacting businesses in 2022 are inflationary pressures (50 percent), geopolitical conflicts (49%), and supply chain bottlenecks (48%) with COVID being the fourth (43%).

Source:

• India jumps 6 places to 37th rank on IMD’s World Competitiveness Index; Denmark tops the chart
• India leaps 6 places on World Competitiveness Index; now at 37th position

Image source:

• India jumps 6 places to 37th rank on IMD's World Competitiveness Index

In News

The Digital News Report 2022 has been recently released by Reuters Institute.

About the Report

• The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism tracks how news is consumed in different countries. 
• It is dedicated to exploring the future of journalismworldwide through debate, engagement, and research.
• This year’s report, the eleventh overall, is based on a survey conducted through online questionnaires covering 46 markets in six continents.

Highlights of the Report

• The report broadly documents the ways in which “the connection between journalism and much of the public may be fraying”.
• It flags six major trends which could have wider socio-political implications.
  • People are trusting news content less.
  • Consumption of traditional news media declined in nearly all the countries surveyed.

• • The proportion of news consumers who say that they “avoid news” has risen sharply across countries- described as “selective avoidance”.
  • Despite small increases in the proportion of people willing to pay for online news (mostly in richer countries), the growth in digital subscriptions for news content seems to be levelling off.
  • The smartphone has become the dominant way in which most people first access news in the morning.
  • While Facebook remained the most-used social network for news, it is TikTok that has become the fastest-growing network. TikTok, however, is currently banned in India.
• Preferred Modes of News Consumption: Across markets and age groups, text is still kingwhen it comes to news consumption. However, younger audiences were more likely to say they watch the news.
• Main Gateway to News: Smartphonebeing the preferred mode of access, direct access to apps and websites were becoming less important over time, giving ground to social media, which is becoming more important as a gateway to news due to its ubiquity and convenience.
  • At an aggregate level, the social media preference is (28%) surging ahead of direct access (23%).

Trends in India

• India is a strongly mobile-focused market.
• 72%of the survey respondents accessed news through smartphones and 35% did so via computers.
• 84% of the Indianrespondents sourced news online, 63% from social   media, 59% from television, and 49% from print.
• YouTube (53%) and WhatsApp (51%)were the top social media platforms for sourcing news.
• India has registered asmall increase in the level of trust, with 41% trusting news overall.
• A minority of respondents - 36% and 35% - felt that legacy print brands and public broadcasters lacked undue political influence and business influence, respectively.

Source:

• A closer look at the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2022
• Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2022

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• Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2022

On June 17, 1956 the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 obtained the President's assent and was signed into law. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 is an Act relating to the succession and inheritance of property. This Act lays down a comprehensive and uniform system which incorporates both succession and inheritance. This Act also deals with intestate or unwilled (testamentary) succession. Therefore, this Act combines all the aspects of Hindu succession and brings them into its ambit.

This article shall further explore the applicability, and the basic terms and definitions and the rules for succession in the case of males and females. This act gives a broad view of who can be given the property and the rights available for both males and females while acquiring a property. This law is applicable to anyone who is a Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh by religion. Any person who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion unless otherwise proven by law that this particular person does not come under the ambit of this law.  This section is not applicable to the Schedule tribes covered under the meaning of section 366(25).

Sources:

• The Hindu Succession Act, 1956:
• This day, that year: What happened on June 17 in history:
• Summary of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956:

• Context: Unavailability of Biomass Pellets of agricultural residues has been slowing down the implementation of the Power Ministry’s direction to Co-Fire biomass with coalin thermal power plants.

• Biomass co-firing is the practice of substituting a part of the fuel with biomassat coal thermal plants which is adding biomass as a partial substitute fuel in high efficiency coal boilers.
• Co-firing isan option to convert biomass to electricity, in an efficient, cost-effective and clean way, and to reduce GHG emissions of the power plant.
• It curbs emissions from open burning of crop residue (stubble burning) and also decarbonises the process of electricity generation using coal (substituting 5-7 % of coal with biomass in coal-based power plants can save 38 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions).
• However in India, the existing infrastructure is not robust enoughto turn this into reality.
• India’s pellet manufacturing capacity is 7,000 tonnes per day at presentagainst the requirement of 95,000-96,000 tonnes of biomass pellets for per day for co-firing.
• Storing these pellets for long durations is also a problem as they absorb moisture from air quickly, rendering them useless for co-firing.

Source:

• Biomass co-firing: Why India’s target for coal power plants is challenging
• Biomass co-firing

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• Biomass co-firing

• Context: The Nagaland Police have recently arrested three people under the Wildlife and Arms Act for torturing and killing the Great Indian Hornbill.
• The Great Indian Hornbill, a member of the hornbill family, is found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

• Due to its declining numbers and fragmented distribution, the species was listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List in 2018.
  • The vulnerable (VU) category lists those species which possess a very high risk of global extinction. 
• They are the cultural symbols of ethnic communities in the northeast, especially theNyishi of Arunachal Pradesh.
• The Hornbill festival celebrated in Nagalandis named after the bird- the most admired bird for the Nagas.
• They are referred to as ‘forest engineers’ or ‘farmers of forest’ for playing a key role in dispersing seeds of tropical treesand indicate the prosperity and balance of the forest they build nests in.
• Forest loss and hunting pose substantial threat to the species.
• It is mainly hunted for food as well as for its casque and tail feathers, which are used as adornments by local communities.
• Its fat is used for medical treatments, gun polishing etc.

Source:

• All about Great Indian Hornbill, the ‘vulnerable’ bird species tortured to death in Nagaland
• Great Indian Hornbill tortured and killed in Nagaland

Image source:

• Great Indian Hornbill

• Context: The United Kingdom (UK) has recently highlighted the need to renegotiate the Northern Ireland Protocol in the backdrop of its potential to create problems.
• Northern Ireland Protocol deals with the border issue between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
• Northern Ireland is part of the UK and the Republic of Ireland remains part of the European Union (EU).

• Need for the Protocol:
  • During Brexit negotiations, all the parties had agreed on protecting the 1998 Northern Ireland peace deal.
  • This protocol means that, keeping the land border open and avoiding setting up new infrastructure like cameras and border posts.
  • This was easy to do when Ireland and Northern Ireland were part of the EU as both the parties automatically shared the same EU rules on trade and no checks were required on goods travelling between them.
  • However, in the backdrop of Brexit, new arrangement was required because EU requires goods like milk and eggs to be checked when they arrive from non-EU countries, while products like chilled meat is not allowed to enter EU at all.
• Under the Northern Ireland Protocol it was agreed that Northern Ireland will continue to follow EU rules on product standards in order to prevent checks across the border.
• Goods entering Northern Ireland from Scotland, England or Wales would be inspected.

Source:

• Explained | The controversy around the Northern Ireland Protocol
• What Is the Northern Ireland Protocol? How & Why Does the UK Want to Change It?

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• https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/A3C0/production/_125402914_northern_ireland_protocol_2x640-nc.png

• Context: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is expected to decide whether to take Pakistan off the ‘grey’ list at the end of its ongoing plenary session in Berlin.
• As of March 2022, there are 23 countries on the FATF’s increased monitoring list — officially referred to as “jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies”.

• • It includes Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Myanmar, Philippines, South Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen.
• FATF was established in July 1989 by a G-7 Summit in Paris, initially to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering.
  • After 9/11 attack, its mandate was expanded to include terror financing, and other threats to global financial networks.
• The FATF currently comprises 37 member jurisdictions and also two regional organizations - European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Council. India has been a member of the FATF since 2010.
• Lists under FATF:
  • Grey List (Warning): Countries that are considered safe haven for supporting terror funding and money laundering are put in the FATF grey list.
  • Black List (support terror funding and money laundering activities): Countries known as Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories (NCCTs) are put in the blacklist. Presently only Iran and North Korea is under this list.

Sources:

• Explained: What is the FATF’s grey list, and could Pakistan be taken off it at last?
• Pakistan likely to stay on FATF grey list in decision today
• Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring - March 2022

Image Source:

• https://strafasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-1.jpg

Essence: Ministry of statistics and programme implementation released the 4th annual report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for the reference period July 2020 to June 2021.

Author urges policy makers and readers to interpret findings of PLFS cautiously and critically. A causal interpretation of the findings of the report may lead to conclusion that labor force participation is increasing and unemployment rate is on decline, suggesting economic recovery.

However, a deeper study would reveal increasing informalization and quality of job, distressed families forced to send more people to the workforce and increase in employment in agriculture. Employment scenario in India yet to show unmistakable signs of recovery.

Why should you read this article?

• To critically understand employment scenarios in India in the light of recently published PLFS data.

Source:

• Our employment data should be interpreted cautiously:

Essence: The Supreme Court's endeavour to improve the death penalty's administration is crucial. It will be difficult, however, to get significant compliance at all levels of the judiciary. Due to unprincipled sentencing, arbitrariness, and subjectivity, there has long been a judicial crisis in death sentence sentencing. Crime-related factors, such as the nature of the crime and its violence, are frequently prominent concerns. There hasn't been much discussion about using the socioeconomic status of death row inmates as a mitigating factor.

The manner in which death sentence sentencing is carried out at various levels of the judiciary is unsustainable from a constitutional standpoint. Attempts to bring procedural coherence and integrity to the fore will be difficult. The way judges handle sentencing information is a Pandora's box that will surely open.

Why should you read this article?

• To comprehend the procedural flaws in capital punishment sentencing.
• To understand the manner in which death sentence is carried out at various levels of the judiciary is unsustainable from a constitutional standpoint.

Source:

• There is a concerted effort to plug procedural gaps in death penalty sentencing:

Background

• Correct information at critical phases of farming can help extensively from pest control to high yield.
• A platform Krishi Network is working in this regard focussing on the development of farmers.

About the Platform

• Founded by IIT-Kharagpur alumni Ashish Mishra and Siddhant Bhomia, this platform aims to make essential information more accessible to farmers, allowing them to generate larger income.
• Providing a mix of online and offline support, the platform has also on-boarded agri-brands, agri-input merchants, and other stakeholders in the agricultural supply chain.
• Facilitating all this work online is the Krishi Network app, currently available in Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, and English.
• Currently, the platform is linked to 30 lakh farmers. It gives professional advice for making crucial farm decisions through experienced and trusted farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.
• Unlike other firms that sell inputs, sell outputs, or provide finance, it provides immediate and correct answers to all types of agri-related technical inquiries a farmer may have.
• The Krishi Network mobile application information has helped reduce crop loss by controlling pests.

Quote: The key lies in empowering the millions of smallholder producers and landless workers who form the backbone of rural economy in most developing countries to row their incomes and improve their livelihoods by raising agricultural productivity and engaging in markets.- James Dargie

Source:

• IIT Duo Help 30 Lakh Farmers Get Timely Expert Advice on Crop, Increase Income & Yield: