05 August 2022

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – Chief Justice of India: GS II – Constitutional and Non-Constitutional Bodies

 Context:

• Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, the second-most senior judge on the Supreme Court, was suggested as his replacement by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Thursday.

About the Appointment of Chief Justice of India:

• According to Section 2 of Article 124 of the Constitution, the President appoints the Chief Justice of the India and the Supreme Court judges.
• The CJI was typically chosen from 1950 to 1973 by the SC’s senior-most judge.
• When A N Ray was appointed India’s Chief Justice in 1973 by displacing three senior justices, this accepted practise was broken.
• M U Beg was once more named chief justice of India in 1977 by displacing the highest ranking judge at the time.
• In the Second Judges Case (1993), the SC decided that only the senior-most judge should be appointed to the position of CJI, restricting the government’s latitude.

Selection of Judges:

• The President appoints the additional judges after consulting with the Chief Justice of India and any other SC and HC justices he considers essential.
• In the event that a judge other than the CJI is appointed, consultation with the CJI is required.

Judges’ qualifications:

• Should be an Indian national.
• Should have served five years as a judge of an HC (or HCs in succession).
• Should, in the President’s judgment, be a respected jurist.
• The Constitution does not specify a minimum age requirement for SC judge appointments.

An affirmation or oath:

• A judge of the Supreme Court must take and sign an oath or affirmation in front of the President or another person he has selected for this purpose.
• A judge promises to “bear true faith and loyalty to the Constitution of India” upon taking the oath.
• uphold India’s independence and integrity.
• Without fear or favor, affection or malice, he will fulfill the duties of the Office honestly, faithfully, and to the best of his knowledge and judgment.
• uphold the law and the constitution.

Judges’ terms:

• The tenure of a Supreme Court judge is not set forth in the Constitution.
• In this regard, it does, however, make the following three provisions:
• holds onto their position until they become 65.
• Any age-related dispute must be resolved by the authorities and in the ways specified by Parliament.
• Can write to the President and resign from their position.
• At the suggestion of the Parliament, the President may remove him from his position.

Removal of Judges:

• A President’s order is necessary to remove a Supreme Court judge from their position.
• Only after the Parliament has made an address in the same session calling for such removal can the President issue the order for removal.
• A special majority of each House of Parliament must support the address.
• Reasons for Removal: demonstrated bad behavior or disability.
• The method for removing a Supreme Court judge through the impeachment process is governed by the Judges Enquiry Act of 1968.
• To date, no SC judge has been impeached.
• Motions to impeach Justices Dipak Misra (2017–18) and V. Ramaswami (1991–1993) were lost in Parliament.

Pay and Allowances:

• The Parliament periodically decides on the salaries, benefits, privileges, leave, and pension for SC judges.
• After their appointment, they cannot be changed to their detriment unless there is an urgent need for money.

Source The Indian Express

2 – Rare Earth Elements: GS III – Environmental Conservation related issues

Context:

• A group of western countries is working together to provide alternatives to China in order to secure crucial industrial supplies as part of a global “China-plus-one” policy adopted during the Covid-19 outbreak, which caused severe supply-chain disruptions.

About:

• They consist of a group of seventeen metals. These comprise the fifteen lanthanides listed on the periodic table in addition to scandium and yttrium, which exhibit lanthanides-like physical and chemical characteristics.
• The seventeen rare earth elements are cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (T (Y).
• These minerals are employed in numerous modern technologies, such as consumer electronics, computers, and networks, communications, health care, national security, etc., because of their distinctive magnetic, luminescent, and electrochemical properties.
• Even cutting-edge technology needs these REEs (For example high-temperature superconductivity, safe storage and transport of hydrogen for a post-hydrocarbon economy, environmental global warming, and energy efficiency issues).
• Because it used to be technically challenging to separate them from their oxide forms, they are known as “rare earth.”
• They are found in numerous minerals, but usually in insufficient quantities to be processed profitably.

India’s current Rare Earth Elements Policy:

• The Department of Atomic Energy and the Bureau of Mines has carried out exploration in India. IREL (India) Limited, a Public Sector Undertaking under the Department of Atomic Energy, now controls the majority of the mining and processing, which was formerly handled by a few tiny private firms.
• Monazite beach sand, which is present in many coastal states and is the principal mineral that includes REEs, has been given to government firms like IREL a monopoly by India.
• Rare earth oxides are produced by IREL using low-cost, low-reward “upstream procedures,” which are then sold to international companies which use high-cost, high-reward “downstream processes” to extract the metals and make the final goods.
• The primary goal of IREL is to give the Department of Atomic Energy thorium that has been recovered from monazite.

China’s Hegemony:

• Over time, China has consolidated its position as the world’s leading producer of rare earth; at one point, it supplied 90% of worldwide demand.
• But now, just 60% of it is generated domestically, with the rest coming from other nations, like the Quad (Australia, India, Japan, and United States).
• Production facilities have popped up in Australia, the US, and smaller facilities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America since 2010 when China restricted shipments of Rare Earths to Japan, the US, and Europe.
• However, China holds the lion’s share of the processed Rare Earths market.
• Heavy reliance on China (India and the World): India possesses the fifth-largest rare earth element reserves in the world, about twice as much as Australia, yet it imports the majority of its finished rare earth requirements from China.
• While the European Union receives 98 percent of its supplies from China, the US imported 80% of its rare earth materials from that country in 2019.

Steps to Take:

• India must establish a new Department for Rare Earths (DRE), which would serve as a regulator and facilitator for companies operating in this sector.
• IREL (India) Limited, a PSU under the department of atomic energy, currently controls a substantial portion of mining and processing.
• Even if its development and production capabilities are expanding slowly, it is still far behind major multinational REE corporations.
• To prospect for REEs and supply value-added products into the Indian market, Indian enterprises can be encouraged to establish such junior exploration businesses in the Indian Ocean region.
• The majority of the governments in this region favor mining and exploration and encourage investment. Strong historical, cultural, commercial, and diasporic ties to India exist in this area and have grown as a result of centuries of trade and migration.
• India can also work with other organizations to directly collaborate with organizations like the Quad, creating a strategic reserve as a safety net against worldwide supply issues.

Source The Hindu

3 – International Monetary Fund: Prelims Specific Topic

Context:

• In order to maintain a comfortable external sector balance over the medium term, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday recommended India gradually withdraw fiscal and monetary policy stimulus, develop export infrastructure, and scale up shipments by signing free trade agreements with important trading partners.

About:

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a membership-based institution with 190 member nations. The most influential nations in the global economy are represented on the IMF’s executive board in proportion to their financial weight.

What are the goals of the IMF?

• Encourage international financial cooperation
• Stabilize the financial situation
• Promote high employment and sustainable economic growth by facilitating international trade
• Advice on public policy and funding for emerging nations,
• Fostering the development of an international payment system and currency rate stability

How Does the IMF Operate?

• Its three key objectives are to advance global monetary cooperation, promote trade and economic progress, and deter actions that would be detrimental to prosperity.
• IMF member nations collaborate with one another and with other international organizations to carry out these missions.

What roles does the IMF play?

Financial Assistance:The IMF lends money to member nations experiencing balance of payments issues in order to replenish foreign reserves, stabilise currencies, and improve the environment for economic growth. Governments must implement structural adjustment plans that are supervised by the IMF.

IMF Surveillance: The IMF keeps an eye on the global monetary system as well as the 190 of its member nations’ financial and economic plans.

The IMF emphasises potential stability risks as part of this process, which occurs both globally and in specific nations, and offers guidance on necessary policy adjustments.

Capacity Development:It gives central banks, finance ministries, tax authorities, and other financial institutions technical support and training.

Developing robust legal frameworks, enhancing governance, modernizing banking systems, increasing public revenue, and improving the reporting of macroeconomic and financial data are all aided by this. Additionally, it aids nations in advancing toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Special Drawing Rights (SDR) – what are they?

• The SDR is a type of international reserve asset that was developed by the IMF in 1969 to supplement the official reserves of its member nations.
• A total of SDR 660.7 billion, or roughly US$943 billion, have been allotted thus far.
• Included in this is the biggest grant ever, SDR 456 billion, approved on August 2, 2021. (effective on August 23, 2021).
• This was done to help countries deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and to meet the long-term worldwide demand for reserves.
• A basket of five currencies—the US dollar, the euro, the Chinese yuan, the Japanese yen, and the British pound sterling—serves as the basis for the SDR’s value.
• Five years are spent reviewing the SDR basket.
• The Board determined that the Chinese renminbi (RMB) meets the requirements for inclusion in the SDR basket during the most recent assessment, which was completed in November 2015.

What does India contribute to the IMF’s lending of resources?

• At the Group of Twenty (G-20) summit in London, it was decided to increase the IMF’s loan capacity by three times, to US$ 500 billion.
• India opted to invest its reserves in accordance with this decision, first up to US$ 10 billion under the Notes Purchase Agreement (NPA) and then up to US$ 14 billion through the New Arrangement to Borrow (NAB).
• India had signed nine note purchase agreements with the IMF for a total investment of SDR 750 million (or approximately 5,340.36 crores) as of 7 April 2011.

What is the criticism of IMF?

• A point of disagreement is the governance of the IMF. For many years, Europe and the United States have ensured that a European will lead the IMF and an American will lead the World Bank.
• Rising emerging economies that, notwithstanding minor adjustments in 2015, do not have as significant a vote share in the IMF as the United States and Europe have little faith in the current situation.
• Conditions attached to loans are overly onerous and violate the recipient nations’ economic and political sovereignty. ‘Conditionality’ refers to stronger requirements, frequently transforming the loan into an instrument for implementing policy.
• These include monetary and fiscal policies, which cover topics like banking laws, budget deficits, and pension plans.
• Because they would face too much internal opposition, many of these adjustments are simply political impossibilities.
• IMF imposed policies on nations without taking into account the unique traits of particular nations, which made them challenging to implement, pointless, or even harmful.
• Instead of being implemented in the proper order, policies were implemented all at once. IMF requires that the nations to it lends money to quickly privatize public services. It leads to a naive belief in the free market that disregards the necessity of privatization preparation.

Source The Indian Express

4 – One China System: Prelims Specific Topic

Context:

• Ranil Wickremesinghe, the president of Sri Lanka, reaffirmed the island nation’s adherence to the “One China Policy” on Thursday and urged other nations to “avoid provocations.

What does the “One China” policy entail?

• One of the main pillars of Sino-US ties is the One China policy. In a diplomatic sense, it is a recognition of China’s stance that there is only one Chinese government.
• As a result of this policy, the US recognizes and maintains diplomatic relations with China rather than Taiwan, which China views as a secessionist province.
• Taiwan, according to China, is an integral component of that country. Therefore, any nation seeking to establish diplomatic connections with mainland China must sever all diplomatic ties with Taipei.
• Since the US formally established diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1979, it was forced to break off relations with Taiwan and close its embassy in Taipei. As a result, Taiwan is now diplomatically cut off from the rest of the world.

What causes the rift between China and Taiwan?

• After the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, the “One-China” policy was established.
• While the victorious Communists started governing the mainland as the People’s Republic of China, the vanquished Nationalists, also known as the Kuomintang, withdrew to Taiwan and established Taiwan as their base of operations.
• Both parties claimed to speak for all of China. Since then, if Taiwan ever formally declares its independence, China’s governing Communist Party has threatened to use force.
• Many states, including the US, first recognized Taiwan and avoided communist China.
• The US and other nations began severing ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing in the 1970s, however, as a result of a shared need to improve relations with China.

What has been happening recently?

• When the United States reaffirmed its commitment to upholding the One China policy, the rumors that the Trump administration would strengthen ties with Taiwan and use the policy as leverage against China were effectively put to rest.
• According to some accounts, Beijing set a red line for future US-China cooperation on critical topics.

What does it represent?

• Picking a dispute with China over a delicate matter, especially in the early days of the new administration, demonstrates poor diplomatic judgment on the side of the United States.
• This could serve as a wake-up call for the United States regarding its interactions with China in the future.
• This does not imply that the United States must agree with China on every international issue. There are areas in which they can work together, in which they can compete, and in which they can disagree.
• The U.S. must resolve problems with Beijing without upsetting the balance between the two countries.

Source The Hindu