19 June 2023

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System: GS II – Governance-related issues

Context:

• The 13th Report on the effectiveness of Central Ministries/Departments on CPGRAMS has been released by DARPG.

Key details:

• The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) released the monthly report for the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS).
• It provides an in-depth analysis of the categories, subgroups, and resolution processes for public complaints.
• The fourteenth report on Central Ministries from DARPG is this one.

About CPGRAMS:

• Residents have 24/7 access to the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), an online forum where they can complain to the government about any problem connected to the delivery of services.
• Through a single platform, it connects to all of the Ministries/Departments of the Government of India and the States.
• All Ministries and States have access to this system on a role-based basis.
• Additionally, CPGRAMS can be accessed by the general public via a mobile app that is connected with UMANG or a different app that can be downloaded from the Google Play store.
• There is also an appeals procedure available through CPGRAMS if a person disagrees with the Grievance Officer’s ruling.

Public grievances:

The Allocation of Business Rules, 1961 state that DARPG is in responsibility of formulating policy, coordinating efforts, and keeping an eye on issues relating to:

• general public complaint resolution and.
• complaints concerning centralised government entities.
• The Public Grievance Division has been in charge of this activity since 1987.
• The Citizens Charter and other citizen-focused initiatives have been added to the Division’s list of duties since 1997.

Source The Hindu

2 – Sections 298, 295A, 505 (2), and 153A of the Indian Penal Code: GS III – Judiciary-related issues

Context:

• Over the past 12 weeks, at least five individuals have been jailed in Maharashtra for allegedly publishing writings glorifying the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

Important details

• The men have been charged under Indian Penal Code Sections 298, 295A, 505 (2), and 153A.

The Conditions:

The following people were arrested:

• Section 298 (offending religious sensitivities through language or other actions).
• 295A (punishment for purposeful and malicious behaviour intended to harm any class’s religion or religious beliefs or to provoke its members to feel strongly about religion),
• statements that encourage public mischief are punishable under section 505 (2), and
• In accordance with Section 153A of the IPC, it is illegal to engage in actions that “promote hostility between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and act against the maintenance of harmony.”
• All of these phrases include the “intention” or “mens rea” to do things like outrage religious sensibilities or do evil crimes.
• Therefore, a key element of the laws prohibiting hate speech is intent.

Section 153A:

• Under Section 153A of the IPC, it is illegal to incite animosity between diverse groups based on factors like as race, religion, national origin, place of birth, residence, language, etc., as well as to take activities that endanger the preservation of peace.
• This carries a maximum three-year prison sentence, a fine, or both.
• The 1898-enacted Section 153A was not included in the original penal code.

Section 505:

• The IPC now includes Section 505 as well as Section 153A.
• The IPC’s Section 505 penalises speech that stirs up unrest in the community.
• A potential three-year prison sentence, a fine, or both are possible penalties.
• In 1969, significant changes were made to the crime in order to expand its application and ease racial tensions.
• The same legislation made the offence cognizable, allowing police officers to conduct arrests without a warrant.

Section 295A:

• For purposeful and malicious actions meant to insult any group by insulting their religion or religious beliefs, Section 295A specifies these actions and lays out the consequences.

Section 298:

• According to Section 298 of the IPC, the maximum penalty is one year in prison, a fine, or both.
• It is imposed on those who purposefully use “any word,” “any sound,” or “any motion” in front of another person in an effort to hurt their religious sensibilities.

Safeguards against abuse:

• Sections 153A and 153B state that before any prosecution can start, the government must give its approval.
• However, this must be done before the trial begins, not during the preliminary inquiry.
• The Supreme court created a set of guidelines to stop arbitrary arrests in its ruling in “Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar” from 2014.
• According to the guidelines, if a crime carries a sentence of less than seven years, police cannot automatically arrest a suspect prior to an investigation.
• In Patricia Mukhim v. The State of Meghalaya, the Supreme Court declared in 2021 that the state must prove intent in order to get a conviction under Section 153A.

Source The Hindu

3 – World’s largest grain storage plan: GS III – Agriculture related issues:

Context:

• The Union Cabinet has approved the formation of an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) in order to permit the “largest grain storage plan in the cooperative sector.”

A grain storage strategy is necessary because:

Enormous population:

• With 1.4 billion people, or 18% of the world’s 7.9 billion inhabitants, India is the most populous country in the world.
• It only makes about 11% (160 million hectares) of the 1,380 million hectares of arable land worldwide.
• India is governed by the National Food Security Act of 2013, which also oversees the largest food programme in the world, which provides food to 81 crore people.
• To ensure the food security of a population of more than a billion people, a strong network of foodgrain storage facilities becomes essential.

Ability to store:

• India now has 145 million metric tonnes (MMT) of food grain storage capacity, which is 166 MMT less than the nation’s annual food production of 311 MMT.
• Sometimes there aren’t enough storage facilities, so foodgrains are left out in the open, which is harmful.
• India may have 47% of the nation’s overall grain production.
• On a regional scale, only a few southern states have storage capabilities of 90% or above.
• In northern states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, it is less than 50%.

Storage technique:

• Numerous government agencies, notably the Central Warehouse Corporation and the Food Corporation of India (FCI), manage grains.
• However, it hasn’t led to the results we were expecting for.
• The Ministry of Cooperation seeks to establish a statewide network of integrated grain storage facilities with the aid of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS).
• According to the ministry, there are over a million PACS spread out across the country, with over 13 crore farmers as members.
• This was one of several factors that led to the PACS network being chosen for the new strategy.

How does PACS operate?

• Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), cooperative credit societies that function at the village level, are the last link in a three-tier cooperative credit system that is supervised by State Cooperative Banks (SCB) at the state level.
• Credit is given by the SCBs to District Central Cooperative Banks, or DCCBs, which operate at the district level.
• PACS, which directly assists farmers, works with the DCCBs.
• These businesses collaborate.
• Individual farmers who belong to the PACS are chosen to fill office positions.
• In a hamlet, various PACS are feasible.
• PACS makes agricultural loans, commonly known as short-term loans.

Committee of Ministers:

• The Union Cabinet has approved the creation of an IMC for the initiative, which will be run by the Minister of Cooperation.

The following three ministers will also be on the committee:

• Minister for farmer welfare and agriculture.
• Food, consumer, and public distribution minister.
• Minister of Food Processing Industries and secretary.
• The IMC shall adjust the rules/implementation processes for the schemes of the respective Ministries as and when appropriate, within the approved budgets and defined objectives for the scheme’s facilitation.

Financial support:

• Despite the lack of a precise allocation, the plan will nonetheless be carried out via convergence of 8 methods.

These plans consist of:

• The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, or AIF
• AMI is an initiative for the infrastructure of agricultural marketing.
• Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture is referred to as MIDH.
• Sub Mission for Agriculture Mechanisation (SMAM)
• The Pradhan Mantri Scheme for Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) was established in 2008.
• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana, or PMKSY
• Distribution of food grains in compliance with the National Food Security Act
• operations for procurement with a minimal support price.

Benefits of the approach:

• It will address the nation’s deficit of agricultural storage facilities by allowing the development of godowns at the level of PACS.
• It would also enable PACS to perform a number of additional jobs, such as
• acting as procurement departments for government organisations, including the Food Corporation of India (FCI);
• services comparable to Fair Price Shops (FPS);
• developing facilities for custom hiring;
• constructing shared processing facilities, such those for grading, sorting, and testing agricultural goods, etc.
• After harvest, losses would be reduced.
• Food grain handling and transportation expenses would go down.
• Farmers would have the choice to sell their products based on the state of the market rather than being forced into distress sales.

Source The Hindu

4 – New chikungunya vaccine – GS II – Health-related issues:

Context:

• Positive results from a Phase III chikungunya vaccine trial have been reported in a recent clinical study, the first to test the vaccine on humans.

What is chikungunya, exactly?

• The virus that causes fever and agonising joint pain is called the chikungunya virus (CHIKV), and it is spread by mosquitoes.
• The sickness was first discovered in southern Tanzania in 1952 following an outbreak.
• It belongs to the alphavirus genus of the Togaviridae family and is an RNA virus.
• The word “chikungunya” comes from a verb that in the Kimakonde language of southern Tanzania meaning “to become contorted” and refers to the bent posture of those who experience joint pain (arthralgia).
• The two infected female mosquito species Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are the main carriers of the chikungunya virus in humans.

Vaccinations and healthcare:

• The clinical management deals with two issues: fever and joint discomfort.
• There isn’t a specific antiviral drug for CHIKV infections.
• There is currently no commercially available vaccine to prevent chikungunya virus infection.

A global situation:

• The virus is currently most common in tropical regions; the worst affected countries include Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Thailand.
• Although there have been outbreaks in the Congo, Sudan, and Kenya since 2018, there have only been a small number of infections.
• In contrast, a sizable chikungunya outbreak in South America in 2013 led to more than 1 million infections in a short period of time.
• Despite the low fatality rate, 52% of those infected experienced severe joint discomfort that persisted for months.
• Studies show that the illness claimed 150,000 years of life with a disability in just 2014 alone.
• The assessment captures a year’s worth of unhealthy lifestyle lost.

The newly developed vaccine:

• A modified, live strain of the chikungunya virus used in the vaccination may reproduce in the body without gravely illening the patient.
• The immune response elicited by live vaccines, which closely match genuine infections, provides extensive and long-lasting protection.
• supplementary live vaccines
• Live vaccines include those for smallpox, yellow fever, and measles (the MMR immunisation).
• Live vaccine hazards include:
• The virus has a small risk of returning to its more hazardous form.

Source The Hindu

5 – Dheeram scheme: GS II – Government Policies and Interventions

Context:

• At two gender resource centres, the Ernakulam District Kudumbashree Mission will shortly introduce “Dheeram,” a course meant to teach women martial arts-based self-defense.

Regarding the strategy:

• On the Dheeram project, Kudumbashree and Sports Kerala Foundation worked together.
• It is a part of the 100-day effort of the state government, which aims to empower women by promoting self-assurance and self-defense abilities.
• Aim:
• By creating karate training groups that adhere to an entrepreneurial model, the project seeks to empower women for self-defense and give them a support system.

In relation to the Kudumbashree plan:

• To end poverty and empower women, the State Poverty Eradication Mission (SPEM) of the Government of Kerala has been implementing the Kudumbashree programme.

The women’s community network of Kudumbashree is divided into three tiers, as follows:

• Neighbourhood groups, or NHGs, are the most fundamental type.
• Area Development Societies (ADS) in the middle level.
• Community Development Societies (CDS), local government organisations.
• Kudumbashree is essentially Kerala’s state-wide community network.
• In my opinion, one of the largest women’s networks in the globe.

Source The Hindu

6 – The status of transgenic crops in India: GS III – Agriculture-related issues:

Context:

• Following approval by the Centre’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), three States—Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Telangana—have postponed a plan to test a novel transgenic cotton seed that purports to make cotton resistant to the damaging pink bollworm, or Cry2Ai.

How are GM crops performing in India?

• Tests are being conducted on a variety of transgenic crops, including the brinjal, tomato, maize, and chickpea.
• However, cotton is now the only transgenic crop grown commercially in India.
• The GEAC recently approved the environmental release of the Mustard hybrid DMH-11 and its parent lines.
• In 2017, the GEAC cleared GM mustard, but later changed its mind and demanded more testing.
• The GEAC had approved GM brinjal in 2010, but the government put it on an indefinite embargo.

How transgenic crops are regulated in India:

• Before they are approved for additional testing in open plots of land that are either located at agricultural universities or are plots maintained by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), they must pass multiple safety evaluations by committees.
• A transgenic plant cannot apply for commercial clearance until it has proven that it performs demonstrably better than comparable non-GM variants on claimed parameters (like drought tolerance or insect resistance) without endangering other species that may be grown nearby.
• To determine its appropriateness across various States, open field trials are frequently conducted during various crop seasons and under various sorts of geographic situations.

About  GMOs:

• Any organism whose genetic makeup has been altered through the laboratory-based transfer of genetic material from another creature is referred to as a genetically modified organism (GMO) or living modified organism (LMO).
• The mass manufacturing of human insulin, vaccines, growth hormones, and other medications using GM technology has significantly improved access to and availability of life-saving medications.
• The enzyme chymosin produced by genetically modified microbes has replaced the need of animal-based rennet for cheese manufacture to the amount of 80–90% worldwide.

The science behind agricultural genetic modification:

• Instead of using controlled pollination to change the desired features, GM technology directly manipulates DNA.
• One strategy for crop improvement is genetic modification, which aims to generate superior varieties by introducing desirable genes and deleting undesirable ones.
• Crops that are more desirable naturally or via breeding are selected for and crossed with other crops through control pollination.

The creation of GM crops:

• The first step in creating GM crops is to identify the desired gene and separate it from the host organism.
• By utilising an agrobacterium or a laboratory-based gene gun, the gene is inserted into the crop plant’s DNA.
• The effectiveness of the GM crop is tested in both lab and field settings under exacting regulations.

Global cultivation of GM crops:

Major nations producing GM crops:

• The top five GM-producing nations are the USA, Brazil, Argentina, India, and Canada, which together produce around 80% of all GM. 90% of the region is used for GM farming.

Primary GM crops:

• The main GM crops grown worldwide are soybean, maize, cotton, and canola with herbicide tolerance and insect resistance.

Controlling GM crops:

• In order to protect human health, animal health, and biodiversity, GM crops are developed, grown, and moved across international borders under strict regulations.
• The Environment Protection Act of 1986 in India contains such regulations in the Rules for Manufacture, Use, Import, Export, and Storage of Hazardous Microorganisms (HM) Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells, 1989.

The guidelines encompass:

• everything that involves the production of GMO-containing items, including as transgenic crops, pharmaceuticals, industrial products, food, and other foodstuffs.
• clinical and field tests.
• either a planned or unplanned discharge.
• manufacture, export, and import.

Legislative bodies in India that regulate GM crops:

RDAC, or the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee:

• keeps track of biotechnology advancements both domestically and abroad.

IBSC, or Institutional Biosafety Committee:

• approves low-risk research and makes sure that the set safety regulations are followed.
• encourages the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) to approve high-risk studies.

RCGM, or Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation:

• Analyses all active studies employing controlled field experiments with high risk.
• approves requests for the creation of GM plant research data.

GEAC, or the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee:

• Supports initiatives that involve the extensive use of GMOs in research and production.

SBCC, or the State Biotechnology Coordination Committee:

• Examines the safety and control procedures used by the many entities that handle GMOs.
• serves as the nodal agency at the state level to assess any damage caused by the release of GMOs and to implement on-site management measures.

About DLC:

• inspects, investigates, and reports any violations of regulatory requirements to the GEAC or SBCC.
• serves as the district’s nodal agency for assessing any damage caused by the release of GMOs and implementing on-site management measures.

Benefits of GM crops:

• Crop protection can be improved by genetic engineering.
• It is possible to develop crops that are more pest and disease resistant.
• Pesticides and herbicides can be used less frequently or perhaps never.
• Farmers can produce a high yield, which increases their income.
• The nutritional value can be raised.
• Foods’ shelf lives can be increased.
• It is possible to create food with improved flavour and texture.
• Crops can be designed to survive harsh weather conditions.

Concerns:

Toxicity:

• Some plants have been modified to produce their own poisons to ward off pests.
• This could be harmful to non-targets such agricultural animals that consume them.
• Additionally, the pollutants might impair a person’s stomach and trigger allergies.

Resistance to antibiotics:

• Antibiotics are added to GM crops to eliminate pathogens and pests.
• These antibiotic indicators also stay in our bodies after we eat them, making real antibiotics less effective over time and raising the risk of superbugs.
• This implies that diseases will become more challenging to treat.

Economic and social problems:

• Experts have expressed grave concern about large agribusiness corporations assuming control of agriculture from small farmers.
• Dependence on GM seed producers can end up costing farmers money.

Farmers’ worries:

• Farmers are reluctant because their ability to save and reuse seeds will be severely restricted.
• They are also concerned about finding a market for GM food.

Not organic:

• Due to the fact that GM crops are created in a lab and do not exist in nature, most people are distrustful of them.

Moving ahead:

• Priorities for the growth of agriculture are the focus of the GM research agenda.
• Building of GM research, development, and regulatory capacity.
• Raising public knowledge of GM goods and crops by providing accurate, evidence-based information.
• Regulatory policy that is consistent and based on science.
• Modules for managing and assessing risk that have been simplified.

Source The Hindu