The Prayas ePathshala

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20 January 2023

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. No. Topic Name Prelims/Mains
1.  GAZA STRIP Prelims & Mains
2.  UDAN SCHEME Prelims & Mains
3.  BRICS COUNTRIES Prelims & Mains
4.  PENDENCY OF CASES IN SUPREME COURT Prelims Specific Topic

1 – GAZA STRIP: GS II – International Relations

What is Hamas:

  • Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist political and militant movement that has waged war on Israel since its foundation in 1987, primarily through suicide bombers and rocket assaults.
  • It aims to depose Israel and replace it with a Palestinian state. It also rules Gaza on its own, without the help of the Palestinian Authority.

An agreement is required:

  • Since 2007, Gaza has been under a strengthened Israeli siege, with most basic goods still subject to severe restrictions.

What happened to the Gaza Strip:

  • The Gaza Strip is a man-made entity that arose in 1948 when about three-quarters of Palestine’s Arab inhabitants was moved, and in some cases expelled, as part of Israel’s establishment. And the majority of the refugees were dispersed around the area, in countries such as Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
  • Some migrated to Jordan, which took control of the West Bank after 1948. And a big number of them travelled to Gaza, which is a tiny coastal area between Egypt and what is now Israel. Approximately 70 percent of Gaza’s population is now made up of refugees.

Who is in charge of it:

  • In 2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip by force. The Israelis then enforced a complete closure on Gaza’s borders shortly after. They designated Gaza as a hostile entity. Gaza, of course, is not a country.
  • Because of its history of assaults on civilians and other crimes, Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel and many of the international community, including the United States.

Situation right now:

  • Israel continues to occupy the West Bank, and the UN still considers Gaza to be part of occupied territory despite Israel’s withdrawal.
  • The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, while Israel claims the entire city of Jerusalem as its capital.
  • Only a few countries, including the United States, recognise Israel’s claim to the entire city.

What’s going on right now:

  • Tensions between Israel and Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank are frequently high.
  • Gaza is headed by Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that has attacked Israel numerous times. Israel and Egypt maintain strict control over Gaza’s borders in order to prevent weaponry from reaching Hamas.
  • Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank believe Israeli measures and restrictions are causing them pain. Israel claims it is just acting in self-defense against Palestinian violence.
  • Since the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in mid-April 2021, things have gotten worse, with nightly skirmishes between police and Palestinians.
  • The potential of eviction for certain Palestinian families in East Jerusalem has sparked further outrage.

Source The Hindu

2 – UDAN SCHEME: GS II – Government Policies and Interventions

About the UdeDesh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) Scheme:

  • The project, which was launched in 2016, aims to improve connectivity to remote and regional sections of the country while also making air travel more cheap.
  • It is a crucial component of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Civil Aviation Policy, which was introduced in June 2017.
  • The regional connectivity scheme (RCS) aims to increase air connectivity to tier-2 and tier-3 cities by revitalising abandoned and underused airports.
  • Nearly half of the seats on Udan flights are subsidised under the scheme, and participating carriers are given a specific amount of viability gap money (VGF), which is split between the Centre and the affected states.
  • The initiative will be supported equally by the federal and state governments.
  • The programme will last for ten years and can be extended if necessary.

The scheme’s main features are as follows:

  • Airlines are given routes through a bidding process and must offer airfares of 2,500 per hour of travel.
  • A minimum of 50% of an aircraft’s total seats must be available at a lower cost.
  • The government provides a three-year subsidy to airlines in order to enable them to offer low-cost flights.
  • In the first three years, the government had set aside $4,500 crore for the restoration of 50 airports.
  • UDAN 4.0 is a new version of UDAN.
  • In December 2019, the 4th round of UDAN was launched, with a focus on North-Eastern Regions, Hilly States, and Islands.
  • The Scheme prioritises the allocation of VGF (Viability Gap Funding) to airports that have already been developed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
  • The functioning of helicopters and seaplanes has also been included in UDAN 4.

What obstacles did you face:

  • The concept has been hampered by the financial health of many smaller, regional carriers.
  • Many players just have one or two planes, and they are frequently neglected. For these lesser players, new planes are prohibitively expensive.

Source The Hindu

3 – BRICS COUNTRIES: GS II – International Relations

What are the BRICS countries:

  • The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) group is made up of the five biggest emerging countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
  • It is home to 42 percent of the world’s population, 23 percent of GDP, 30 percent of the land, and 18 percent of global trade.
  • In 2001, Goldman Sachs economist ‘Jim O’Neill’ invented the acronym BRIC to denote the developing powers that will be, with the United States, the world’s five greatest economies in the twenty-first century.
  • BRIC countries began their communication in 2006, and it has continued since 2009 at yearly meetings of chiefs of state and government.
  • With the addition of South Africa to the group in 2011, the BRICS reached its final makeup, which included a country from Africa.

Source The Hindu

4 – ABOUT THE PENDENCY OF CASES IN SUPREME COURT: GS II – Indian Judiciary

The issue at hand:

  • The retirements come at a time when the court is attempting to regain its footing following particularly harsh epidemic waves. A large number of cases are pending.
  • India’s legal system has the world’s greatest backlog of pending cases, with up to 30 million cases pending.
  • The fact that this number continues to rise demonstrates the legal system’s incompetence.
  • In addition, majority of the inmates in India’s prisons are detainees awaiting trial as a result of the backlog.

In the Supreme Court, there is a pending case:

  • According to the Supreme Court’s data, there are 70,362 cases outstanding as of April 1, 2022.
  • Because they have not completed the essential preliminaries, almost 19% of them are not ready to be brought before a judge for a judicial hearing.
  • There are 52,110 admission cases and 18,522 regular hearing cases.
  • There are a total of 422 Constitution Bench cases (including main and related topics).
  • After two years of virtual hearings, the Supreme Court has only lately begun full physical hearings.

The government has taken a number of initiatives to reduce detention:

  • Adoption of the “National Litigation Policy 2010” in order to transform the government into a more effective and responsible litigator.
  • Following the National Litigation Policy of 2010, all states developed their own state litigation policies.
  • LIMBS (Legal Information Management and Briefing System) was established in 2015 with the goal of keeping track of cases in which the government is a party.
  • The Supreme Court had instructed the government that criminals sentenced to 6 months or a year in prison should be assigned social service work rather than being transferred to overcrowded prisons.

The necessity of the hour:

  • Revisions to the national litigation policy are needed.
  • To encourage mediation, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms should be promoted.
  • Government and judiciary action that is coordinated.
  • To relieve the strain on higher courts, judicial capability in subordinate courts should be improved.
  • Increase the amount of money spent on the judiciary.
  • Improve the judicial system’s case handling and automation.
  • Make benches for each subject.
  • Internal dispute resolution techniques that are effective.
  • Judges should draught rulings that are shorter and more focused.

Source The Hindu

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