28 October 2022

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – Gilgit Baltistan Region: GS II – Topic International Relations:

Context:

• According to Rajnath Singh, Union Defense Minister, the operation to fully integrate J&K, which began on August 5, 2019, will be completed on October 27, 2022, “when Gilgit-Baltistan and regions of the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) will rejoin with India.” Singh also referred to the Indian Army as “the best army in the world.”

About:

• With this development, it will acquire the status of a province and become a separate region.
• Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan are the four provinces that make up contemporary Pakistan.

India’s perspective:

• With its fully legal and irrevocable accession, India has made it abundantly plain to Pakistan that the entirety of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the territories of Gilgit and Baltistan, are a part of it.
• Gilgit Baltistan’s exact location is unknown.
• China to the north, Kashmir to the east, and Afghanistan to the west are its neighbours.
• Geographically, it is separated from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
• When Kashmir was still a part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, on November 4, 1947, Pakistan’s army and tribal militias entered the area and for the first time took control of it.
• It is traversed by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

What it looks like right now:

• Despite the resolution that the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) adopted on April 28, 1949, the region is currently governed by Pakistan.
• Gilgit-agreement Despite appeals from the UNCIP for Pakistan to withdraw its forces from the contentious territory, Baltistan was illegally occupied and remains so today.
• Gilgit-Baltistan has been politically independent, without a tenable constitutional position, for more than 60 years.

 Source The Hindu

 2 – TRAI: GS II – Statutory and Non-Statutory Bodies:

Context:

• The government is considering removing clauses pertaining to regulators from the bill due to worries that the new telecom policy may limit the scope of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI(TRAI)). According to a reliable source, the administration is considering creating a new law in the future to strengthen the regulatory body.
• As a result, on February 20, 1997, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997, a piece of law approved by Parliament, established the TRAI.

About TRAI:

• The TRAI, which was created to govern the sector, set and modified pricing for the Central Government’s prior telecom service providers.

About TDSAT:

• When an ordinance modifying the TRAI Act went into effect on January 24, 2000, the Telecommunications Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal assumed the TRAI’s adjudicatory and dispute-resolution duties. (TDSAT).

Eligibility:

• A person must currently occupy the position of Chief Justice of the High Court or a judgeship on the Supreme Court, or have previously held such positions, in order to be nominated as Chairperson.
• The positions of Secretary to the Government of India or any equivalent ones in the Central or State Governments must have been held by other members.
• The term of the Chairperson is only four years, or seventy years if the other TDSAT members are still alive.
• Members, with the exception of the Chairperson, must be 65 or older.

How Long a Membership Lasts:

• The same rules that apply to the TRAI also apply to the expulsion of a Tribunal member.
• Civil courts are not permitted to hear any disputes, which must be resolved by the TDSAT.
• The Tribunal has the same power as a civil court, and TDSAT rulings have the same legal significance and ramifications.
• It is regulated by the ideas of natural justice rather than being constrained by the rules of civil procedure.
• The Tribunal has the authority to control its behaviour.
• The same punishments as under TRAI apply to offences committed under the authority of the TDSAT.

The goals of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI):

• Creating a just and open political environment that supports equality of opportunity and encourages fair competition is one of TRAI’s key goals.
• In an effort to address concerns that have been brought to its attention and provide the necessary guidance for the evolution of the Indian telecom market from a Government owned monopoly to a multi-operator multi-service open competitive market, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has occasionally issued a sizable number of regulations, orders, and directives.

Source The Hindu

3 – Indo Greeks: GS I – Indian Culture:

Context:

• India has a long tradition of producing coins with divine representations. The first depictions of the Iranian god of wealth, Ardochsho, and the Hindu goddess Lakshmi on coins are attributed to the Kushans, a Central Asian royal family that reigned until the third century AD.

Introduction:

• The Indo-Greek Empire, also known as the Graeco-Indian Empire or the Yavana Empire, was a Hellenistic-era Greek empire that ruled over a small portion of Iran, the northwest Indian subcontinent (which included all of contemporary Pakistan), and a portion of Afghanistan from 180 BCE to around 10 CE.
• A monarchy that broke away from the dominant Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, which was centred in Bactria, was created after the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded India in 180 BCE.

Background:

• Greeks were among the first nationalities to emigrate to India.
• After capturing control of the westernmost portion of the Indian subcontinent up to the Hyphasis River in 326 BCE, Alexander III established satrapies.
• Later, in 303 BCE, Chandragupta took over Seleucus’ northwesterly possessions.
• The historian Megasthenes was one of the Greeks who went to the Mauryan court, and he was followed by Deimachus and Dionysius. The two kings never stopped exchanging gifts.
• Greeks are thought to have frequented the northwest of the Indian subcontinent during the Mauryan era.
• According to Ashoka’s directives, Buddhist messengers were also sent to Greek kings as far as the Mediterranean.
• Greeks seem to be actively promoting Buddhism right now in India.

Greek participation in Bactria:

• the prehistoric territory of Bactria or Bactriana in Central Asia.
• Alexander established towns close to Indian territory, including Ai-Khanoum and Begram, as well as a Seleucid and Greco-Bactrian administration that lasted for more than two centuries.

The Ascent of the Sungas (185 BCE):

• The Maurya Dynasty was overthrown in India in 185 BCE by Pusyamitra Sunga, a Brahmin who led the Mauryan Imperial army and killed Brhadrata, the final Mauryan monarch. “Senapati” is the term used to describe Pusyamitra.
• Pusyamitra Sunga established the Sunga Empire at that time, which he later extended to incorporate the Punjab in the west.

History of the Indo-Greek kingdom:

• In 180 BCE, Demetrius I, the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus I’s son, overthrew the Hindu Kush and established the “Indo-Greek empire.”
• While Apollodotus, who appeared to be a relative of Demetrius, directed the onslaught to the south, Menander oversaw the invasion from the east.
• On their trip to the Ganges River, the Greeks under Menander are thought to have reached as far as Pataliputra’s capital.
• Greek geographer Strabo claimed that Greek conquests only fleetingly reached Pataliputra, the Sunga people’s capital city in eastern India (current-day Patna).
• Greek colonisers may have reached Surat (Greek: Saraostus), which is close to Mumbai (Bombay) and possesses the crucial Barygaza harbour, in the far south (Bharuch)
• Most historians consider Menander (reigned c.165/155-130 BC) to have been the most prosperous and successful Indo-Greek king as well as the largest land conqueror.

Source The Hindu

4 – IARI: GS II – Statutory and Non-Statutory Bodies:

Context:

• Ashok Kumar Singh, the director of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), praised the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee’s (GEAC) choice to approve the use of genetically modified mustard in the environment. Furthermore, he asserted that it would help in the development of a scientific response to a significant problem, the import of edible oil. According to Dr. Singh, the licence will allow the company to produce additional high-yielding hybrids.

How IARI operates:

• The Pusa Institute, popularly known as IARI, was founded in Pusa, Bihar, in 1905 thanks to a charity donation from American philanthropist Mr. Henry Phipps.
• The institute was moved to Delhi on July 29, 1936, as a result of a severe earthquake that occurred in 1934.
• The organisation changed its name to Indian Agricultural Research Institute after attaining independence (IARI).
• Thanks to the adoption of well-known wheat cultivars that produced much more, millions of Indians took advantage of the green revolution that started in the IARI fields.
• IARI is remains the leading institution in the nation for agricultural extension, instruction, and research.

Source The Hindu