In News: Two BSF personnel who were part of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), were recently killed during a protest in an eastern town near the border with Uganda.

About the News:

• A total of 175 Indian peacekeepers have so far died while serving with the United Nations.
• India is not to have lost more peacekeepers than any other UN Member State up until now.

What is UN Peacekeeping?

• UN Peacekeeping began in 1948 when the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of UN military observers to the Middle East.
• It helps countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace.
• It deploys troops and police from around the world, integrating them with civilian peacekeepers to address a range of mandates set by the UNSC and the General Assembly. 
• Composition:
  • UN peacekeepers (often referred to as Blue Berets or Blue Helmets because of their light blue berets or helmets) can include soldiers, police officers, and civilian personnel.
  • Peacekeeping forces are contributed by member states on a voluntary basis.
  • The civilian staff of peace operations are international civil servants, recruited and deployed by the UN Secretariat.
• Since 1948, UN Peacekeepers have undertaken 71 Field Missions. 

India’s contribution to UN Peacekeeping

• India has a long history of service in UN Peacekeeping, having contributed more personnel than any other country.

• • To date, more than 2,53,000 Indians have served in 49 of the 71 UN Peacekeeping missions established around the world since 1948.
  • Currently, there are around 5,500 troops and police from India who have been deployed to UN Peacekeeping missions, the fifth highest amongst troop-contributing countries.
• India’s contribution to UN Peacekeeping began with its participation in the UN operation in Korea in the 1950s.
• Here, India’s mediatory role in resolving the stalemate over prisoners of war in Korea led to the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean War.
• India chaired the five-member Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission, while the Indian Custodian Force supervised the process of interviews and repatriation that followed.
• The UN entrusted the Indian armed forces with subsequent peace missions in the Middle East, Cyprus, and the Congo (since 1971, Zaire).
• India also served as Chair of the three international commissions for supervision and control of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos established by the 1954 Geneva Accords on Indochina.

Role of women in Indian Peacekeeping

• India has been sending women personnel on UN Peacekeeping Missions.
• In 2007, India became the first country to deploy an all-women contingent to a UN Peacekeeping Mission.

• The Formed Police Unit in Liberia provided 24-hour guard duty and conducted night patrols in the capital Monrovia, and helped to build the capacity of the Liberian police.
  • These women officers not only played a role in restoring security in the West African nation but also contributed to an increase in the number of women in Liberia’s security sector.

     Medical care as part of India’s Missions:

• Medical care is among the many services Indian Peacekeepers provide to the communities in which they serve on behalf of the Organization. They also perform specialised tasks such as veterinary support and engineering services.
• Indian veterinarians serving with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), stepped up to help cattle herders who were losing much of their stock to malnutrition and disease in the war-torn nation.
• The Indian contingent in South Sudan has provided vocational training and life-saving medical assistance, as well as carrying out significant road repair work.
• The Hospital by India in Goma, operational since January 2005, has 90 Indian nationals including 18 specialists.

Source:

• Explained: India’s role in UN Peacekeeping Missions over the years
• Explained India’s Role In UN Peacekeeping Missions Over The Years

Image source:

• https://www.statista.com/chart/14007/top-contributors-to-un-peacekeeping-operations-by-country/

In News: The Supreme Court has recently upheld the amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

About the News:

• The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional validity of the PMLA 2002, as amended from time to time including those dealing with the powers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) regarding arrest, search, attachment and seizure in money laundering offences, underlining that “the principle of innocence of the accused/offender is regarded as a human right” but “that presumption can be interdicted by a law made by the Parliament/Legislature”.

The Supreme Court Ruling:

• On Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR):
  • The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR)cannot be equated with an FIR.

• • Supplying an ECIR in every case to the person concerned is not mandatory and “it is enough if the Enforcement Directorate (ED), at the time of arrest, discloses the grounds of such arrest”.
• On Section 3 of the PMLA Act:
  • This section has a wider reach and captures that the offence of money laundering is an independent offence.
  • This means that the process or activity connected with theproceeds of crime which had been derived or obtained as a result of criminal activity relating to or in relation to a scheduled offence will be treated as a separate offence.
  • The Authorities under the 2002 Act cannot prosecute any person on notional basis or on the assumptionthat a scheduled offence has been committed unless it is so registered with the jurisdictional police and pending enquiry including by way of criminal complaint before the competent forum.
• On Enforcement Directorate:
  • The bench upheld the ED’s power under Section 5 of the Act(order provisional attachment of any proceeds of crime).

• • It rejected the argument that ED authorities are police officersand, hence, a statement recorded by them under the Act would be hit by Article 20(3) of the Constitution which says no person accused of an offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.

Understanding Enforcement Directorate:

• The Directorate of Enforcement or the EDis a multi-disciplinary organization mandated to investigate economic crimes and violations of foreign exchange laws.
• The ED was established in 1956 when an‘Enforcement Unit’ was formed in the Department of Economic Affairs for handling Exchange Control Laws violations under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 (FERA ’47).
• ED has been given the responsibility to enforce the provisions of the PMLAby conducting an investigation to trace the assets derived from proceeds of crime, to provisionally attach the property and to ensure prosecution of the offenders and confiscation of the property by the Special court.
• It also conducts investigations into suspected contraventions of foreign exchange laws and regulations,to adjudicate and impose penalties on those adjudged to have contravened the law (FEMA 1999).
• Under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, the Directorate is mandated to attach the properties of the fugitive economic offenders who have escaped from India warranting arrestand provide for the confiscation of their properties to the Central Government.
• Under theConservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA), the Directorate is empowered to sponsor cases of preventive detention with regard to contraventions of FEMA.

Source:

• Supreme Court upholds PMLA, says presuming innocence can be reversed by law
• SC upholds amendments to PMLA giving ED unbridled powers of summons, arrests, and raids.

Image source:

• https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/supreme-court-upholds-eds-power-to-arrest-under-pmla-1130500.html

In News

The Indian Navy recently took delivery of IAC-1, the nation’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier from its manufacturer, Cochin Shipyard Ltd.

About the News

• The carrier, which after commissioning will be called ‘Vikrant’, has been handed over to the Navy ahead of schedule.
• The aircraft carrier, which successfully completed its fourth and final phase of sea trials three weeks ago, puts India in an elite club of nations that have the capability to design and build these giant, powerful warships.
• India has had aircraft carriers earlier too-but those were built either by the British or the Russians. The ‘INS Vikramaditya’, which was commissioned in 2013 and which is currently the Navy’s only aircraft carrier, started out as the Soviet-Russian warship ‘Admiral Gorshkov’.
  • India’s two earlier carriers, the ‘INS Vikrant’ and the ‘INS Viraat’, were originally the British-built ‘HMS Hercules’ and ‘HMS Hermes’. These two warships were commissioned into the Navy in 1961 and 1987 respectively.

About IAC -1 or INS Vikrant

• IAC-1-as the carrier is currently codenamed — has been designed by the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design (DND), and built at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), a public sector shipyard under the Ministry of Shipping.

• Once commissioned, it will be called ‘INS Vikrant’, the name that originally belonged to India’s much-loved first aircraft carrier, a source of immense national pride over several decades of service before it was decommissioned in 1997.
• According to the Navy, over 76 per cent of the material and equipment on board IAC-1 is indigenous.
• The new warship is comparable to India’s existing carrier ‘INS Vikramaditya’, which is a 44,500-tonne vessel and can carry up to 34 aircraft, including both fighter jets and helicopters.
• Once commissioned, IAC-1 will be the most potent sea-based asset, which will operate the Russian-made MiG-29K fighter aircraft and Kamov-31 Air Early Warning Helicopters, both of which are already in use on the ‘Vikramaditya’.
• The new ‘Vikrant’ will also operate the soon-to-be-inducted MH-60R Seahawk multirole helicopter.
  • The original ‘Vikrant’, a Majestic-class 19,500-tonne warship, which was acquired from the UK in 1961, played a stellar role in the 1971 War with Pakistan. India deployed the ‘Vikrant’ in the Bay of Bengal, and its two air squadrons of Sea Hawk fighter jets and Alize surveillance aircraft were used in strikes on ports, merchant ships, and other targets, and to prevent Pakistani forces from escaping through maritime routes.
  • According to the Navy, the warship will offer an incomparable military instrument with its ability to project Air Power over long distances, including Air Interdiction, Anti-Surface Warfare, offensive and defensive Counter-Air, Airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare and Airborne Early Warning”.

Why is it important for India to have an aircraft carrier?

• An aircraft carrier is one of the most potent marine assets for any nation, which enhances a Navy’s capability to travel far from its home shores to carry out air domination operations.
• Many experts consider having an aircraft carrier as essential to be considered a “blue water” navy, that is, a navy that has the capacity to project a nation’s strength and power across the high seas.
• An aircraft carrier generally leads as the capital ship of a carrier strike/ battle group. As the aircraft carrier is a prized and sometimes vulnerable target, it is usually escorted in the group by destroyers, missile cruisers, frigates, submarines, and supply ships.

Source:

• Explained: Why an aircraft carrier matters, even more so that it is Made in India:

On July 29, 2010, several countries became signatories to an agreement at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit in Russia. Since then, International Tiger Day is celebrated on July 29 to raise awareness about the conservation of the wild cat, which over the last 150 years has witnessed a massive drop of nearly 95% in its population.

India accounts for nearly 70% of the world's total tiger population and has already achieved the target of doubling its numbers. India is home to 51 tiger reserves located across 18 states. The tiger census of 2018 showed an increase in the population of India's national animal.

Source:

• International Tiger Day: Date, Significance And Why It Is Celebrated:

• Context: According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), 75 tigers have died across India this year, while 127 died last year, the highest in the last decade.
• Madhya Pradesh, which has six tiger reserves, and the highest population of tigers in the country, recorded 202 deaths between 2012 and 2020, followed by Maharashtra (141), Karnataka (123), Uttarakhand (93), Assam (60), Tamil Nadu (62), Uttar Pradesh (44) and Kerala (45).

• Tiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest cat species, of the family Felidae with a total body length of up to 3.38 m and weighing up to 388.7 kg in the wild. 
• It is both flagship and umbrella species (leads to conservation of other species).
• The Females of the species hold small, mutually exclusive territories and Males hold territories that include as many female ranges as possible.
• They tend to live in solitary (temporary association during mating), except for females with cubs.
• They are categorised as “endangered” in the IUCN Red List.

Source:

• 1,059 tiger deaths in 10 years, most in Madhya Pradesh: NTCA
• Madhya Pradesh lost most tigers in 10 years, yet to get protection force

Image source:

• https://www.ranthamborenationalpark.com/blog/tiger-deaths-in-india-in-first-half-of-2016/

• Context: James Lovelock, the creator of the Gaia hypothesis, recently died on his 103rd birthday. 
• The Gaia hypothesis also known as the Gaia theory or the Gaia principle proposes that organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet.

• It was first proposed in 1970.
• It postulates that this single system as a whole maintains Earth's surface in a habitable state by self-regulating feedback mechanisms.
• Therefore it holistically covers aspects of how the biosphere and the evolution of life forms affect the stability of global temperature, ocean salinity, oxygen in the atmosphere, the maintenance of a hydrosphere of liquid water and other environmental variables that affect the habitability of Earth.

Source:

• James Lovelock talks about his Gaia hypothesis and climate change in 2014 interview – video
• Gaia Hypothesis

Image source:

• https://guernseydonkey.com/what-is-the-gaia-hypothesis/

• Context: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recently recommended the MIST (Myanmar/Malaysia-India-Singapore Transit) Submarine Cable System for Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)
• This will be the 17^thsuch Optical Cable System to land in Mumbai and is expected to be in service by 2023.
• MIST is an international submarine cable communication network,traversing the undersea to connect India with other Asian countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

• It is an 8,100km-long undersea transnational fibre optic cable systemconnecting Mumbai to Singapore, via Chennai.
• Of the total length of the international undersea cable system, 50 km will be laid along the Tamil Nadu coastal watersabout 12 nautical miles offshore. and about 202.06 km in the CRZ boundary of Maharashtra.
• The MIST cable system will provide secure, reliable, robust and affordable telecom facilities in Asia.
• It will boost telecom connectivity between India and other Asian countries, namely Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
• This is a project of immense importance to global communications and will have a minimal footprint on Mumbai’s coastal environment.
• It would also help avoid conflict with various stakeholdersconsidering the increasing number of international cable landing on the Chennai coast.

Source:

• Panel moots separate corridor for submarine cable system in Chennai
• MIST

Image source:

• MIST

• Context: The Union Health Ministry has recently declared that India has achieved replacement level fertility, with as many as 31 States/Union Territories reaching a Total Fertility Rate of 2.1 or less.
• Total fertility rate (TFR)refers to the total number of children born or likely to be born to a woman in her lifetime if she were subject to the prevailing rate of age-specific fertility in the population.

• TFR of about 1 children per womanis called Replacement-level fertility. TFR lower than 2.1 children per woman indicates that a generation is not producing enough children to replace itself, eventually leading to an outright reduction in population.
• The major reasons behind the reduction in TFR include:
  1. Women Empowerment
  2. Contraceptives
  3. Reversible Spacing
  4. Government Efforts: India was the first country to launch a national-level family planning programme.

Source:

• India has achieved replacement level fertility: Union Minister
• India has achieved replacement level fertility: MoS Health

Image source:

• http://indpaedia.com/ind/index.php/Population_growth_and_fertility_rate:_India

Essence: As per the article Board examination results are all about numbers, comparisons and competition. They do not prepare the child for the knowledge economy. The winner takes all and the loser stands small. The child is made to believe that more the marks, more the intelligence quotient.

Progress in learning should be related to developing sensitivities. We need to encourage students to engage and explore.

Why should you read this article?

• To understand the problems arising due to high competition and comparisons in education system.
• To understand the best practices for education

Source:

• Board examination results: We need criteria that give a fair assessment of a child’s capacities:

Essence: The Supreme Court of India has in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary and Ors versus Union of India, which challenged the constitutionality of certain provisions of the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), laid bare the true character of the Indian state. As per the author, the money laundering Act is opaque and draconian, giving the state arbitrary powers over citizens. Now, it has the SC's approval.

The PMLA was introduced in 2002, ostensibly to tackle the problem of money laundering. The tragedy of this law is that all parties are complicit in producing it. No political party in power seems to want to relinquish arbitrary powers of the state. The second is the international context. Post 9/11, there was concern about terrorist financing. The goal of international treaties is laudable. But the rhetoric of international treaties is often used to override domestic rights safeguards. The state argued less on Indian constitutional law and more on the rhetoric of international obligations.

Why should you read this article?

• To understand the challenges with the PMLA Act.

Source:

• Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: By upholding PMLA, SC puts its stamp on Kafka’s law:

Background

The 92-year-old Padma Shri awardee Sankaranarayana Menon of Kerala is working towards keeping the flame of kalarippayattu martial art alive with his dedication and love for it.

How are the traditional values helping to keep the art form alive?

• Menon has been into martial arts since the age of seven and has practised under the royal patronage as well.
• Though the advent of British reduced the number of practitioners, Sankaranarayana Menon received royal patronage and survived the times.
• Later, he opened a school teaching the natural form of art. But, modern martial art forms such as karate and kung-fu started becoming popular in the state, and kalarippayattu lost its reach and resonance.
• But, globalisation opened new vistas for the school and helped Menon and his sons to open up schools outside India too.
• Even after all the praises and awards, Menon stays humble to the art and teaches whoever knocks on his door.

Quote:

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Source:

• Padma Shri at 93, Kalari ace says will teach ‘as long as I am alive’: