Daily Mains Newsletter for UPSC 28 Jun 2022

Daily Mains Newsletter For
UPSC | RaghukulCS

28 June 2022 -Tuesday

Index

Table of Contents

District Performance Grading Index (PGI-D)

In News, why?

  • The Ministry of Education’s Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L) recently published the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) for the Center for the academic years 2018–19 and 2019–20.
  • The Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2019–20 for States and Union Territories will be released in June 2021, with approval from the Union Education Minister.

What is the purpose of the Index?

  • About: PGI-D evaluates the effectiveness of the district-level school system by developing an index for thorough study.
  • Based on information gathered from a variety of sources, including the 2017 National Achievement Survey (NAS), the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE +), and data provided by the relevant districts, the PGI-D evaluated district-level performance in school education.

Methodology:

  • Structure:
  • Six categories, including Outcomes, Effective Classroom Transaction, Infrastructure Facilities & Student’s Entitlements, School Safety & Child Protection, Digital Learning, and Governance Process, make up the PGI-D structure, which has a total weightage of 600 points across 83 indicators.
  • In light of the Covid-19 epidemic, two categories—digital learning and efficient classroom interaction—have been introduced. However, the state-level PGI does not include these categories.
  • Twelve domains are created by further segmenting these categories.
Assessment Grades:
  • The PGI-D assigns ten grades to the districts. For districts earning more than 90% of the total points in that category or altogether, the highest grade available is “Daksh.”
  • It is followed by “Utkarsh” (81-90 percent), “Ati Uttam” (71-80 percent), “Uttam” (61-70 percent), “Prachesta-1” (51–60 percent), and “Prachesta-2” (41 percent to 50 percent ).
  • The PGI-lowest D’s grade, “Akanshi-3,” is given for scores that are less than 10% of the total points.
  • In neither of these years, any district received the highest “Daksh” grade.
Relevance:
  • A district’s improvement needs are indicated by the indicator-wise PGI score. The PGI-D will display the relative performance of each district on an equal scale, motivating them to improve.
  • It will also serve as a reliable source of data on best practises used by States and UTs that can be exchanged.
  • It is beneficial for all parties involved in the school education system, such as students, parents, teachers, and administrators, to be aware of how their district is performing in comparison to other districts.

What are the Report’s Key Highlights?

  • Best athletes:
  • The three Rajasthani districts that performed the best in the evaluation were.
  • The three districts—Sikar, Jhunjhunu, and Jaipur—were noted in the report’s “Utkarsh” grade in 2019–20, as opposed to the previous year, when no district was included in that category.
  • In this grade, Rajasthan has the most districts (24), followed by Punjab (14), Gujarat (13), and Kerala (13).
Lowest Performers:
  • In this category, South Salmara-Mankachar (Assam), Alirajpur (Madhya Pradesh), North and South Garo Hills (Meghalaya), and Khowai (Tripura) had the lowest ratings (1 out of 50).
  • The twelve states/UTs (Bihar, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, and Uttarakhand) that lack even a single district in the Ati-Uttam and Uttam are:
Progress:
  • According to the report, there are now more districts across all categories.
  • The number of districts in the “Ati Uttam” grade climbed from 49 to 86 between 2018–19 and 2019–20, demonstrating “amazing progress.”
  • There was an improvement in results for 33 districts, but there was no grade-level gain.
  • Students’ learning results, teachers’ availability, and professional outcomes are all included in the outcomes category.
  • Digital Learning Category: 43 districts improved their score by over 10% in 2019–20, while 20 districts showed over 20% improvement from 2018–19.
Infrastructure:
  • 478 districts saw an increase in their score from 2018–19 to 2019–20.
  • Out of these 478, 37 districts saw their scores rise by more than 20%, and 115 saw their scores rise by more than 10%, indicating grade-level improvement.

What other government initiatives are there in this area?

  • 2020 National Education Policy By implementing many modifications from the secondary to the post-secondary levels in the Indian educational system, it seeks to “make India a global knowledge superpower.”
  • To achieve accessible and equitable quality education at all stages of schooling, Samagra Shiksha is an integrated programme for school education that runs from pre-school to class XII.
  • Every student enrolled in classes I through VIII who is between the ages of six and fourteen years old is entitled to free, hot, nutritious meals every day, barring school holidays, under the terms of the midday meal programme.
  • The Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship Scheme (RGNF) and Eklavya Model School both promote students from Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities to pursue higher education.

New VPN Laws

In News, why?

  • Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) recently established regulations requiring VPN companies to keep a five-year record of the personal information of their users, including the reason for utilising the service.
  • The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology oversees CERT-In, an organisation whose mission is to protect Indian cyberspace.

Describe VPN.

  • About: The term “Virtual Private Network,” or VPN, refers to the possibility of creating a secure network connection when utilising public networks.
  • VPNs mask the user’s online identity and encrypt internet traffic. This makes it more challenging for other parties to monitor online activity and steal data. Real-time encryption is employed.
Functioning:
  • A VPN cloaks a user’s IP address by allowing the network to route traffic through a distant server that has been specially set up and is managed by a VPN host.
  • In other words, if a user is using a VPN to browse the internet, the VPN server is now the source of data.
  • The user’s visited websites and any online data is not visible to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or any third parties.
Benefits:
  • Secures encryption: A VPN connection cloaks online data transit and guards against unauthorised access.
  • Anyone with network access can examine material that has not been encrypted. The authorities, hackers, and online criminals are unable to decode this data when using a VPN.
Access to regional web material:

  • Not all locations always have access to regional web content. Services and websites frequently include content that is only available in specific regions of the world. Standard connections use national local servers to pinpoint your location.
  • One can effortlessly change their location by switching a server to a different nation using VPN location spoofing.
  • Secure data transfer: VPN services link to private servers and employ encryption techniques to lower the possibility of data leakage, providing data with a safe transit.

Limitations:

  • Lower Internet Speed:
  •  Because VPNs force your traffic to go through a VPN server, it could take longer to get to your desired website.
  • VPNs do not perform the same functions as full anti-virus software. A VPN connection does not shield one’s computer from outside intrusion, even while it protects one’s IP and encrypts one’s internet history.
  • Regardless of whether a VPN is active or not, once the malware has gained access to a device, it can steal or corrupt the data.
  • Regulating or outright banning VPNs: At the moment, only a few governments do either.
  • These nations include the UAE, China, Belarus, Iraq, North Korea, Oman, and Oman. Using a VPN is dangerous because so many other nations have laws requiring internet restriction.

What new regulations apply to VPNs?

  • New guidelines from the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology require VPN providers to keep records of their users’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, and IP addresses for five years.
  • They must also keep track of usage patterns, the reason for hiring services, and a variety of other details.
  • In addition to data centres, virtual service network providers, and VPN firms, cloud service providers have been ordered to collect and maintain comparable data.
  • Additionally, organisations must notify CERT-In of cybersecurity incidents within six hours of learning about them or becoming aware of them.

Why did the government enact these regulations?

  • The country’s internet will be safe and trustworthy thanks to these regulations, which “improve overall cyber security posture.”
  • It was mentioned that the new reporting guidelines for cyber incidents were established as a result of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which acts as a defence against cyber-attacks, identifying “gaps” in the way it analyses online threats.
  • In a report to the Rajya Sabha in 2021, a Parliamentary Standing Committee requested that the Ministry work with internet service providers to prohibit VPNs.

What are the associated problems?

  • When registering to use a VPN, customers must go through a rigorous KYC process and specify why they are utilising the services.
  • With the new regulations, the use of a VPN is no longer necessary because the government will essentially have access to the customers’ personal information.
  • Many VPN companies are considering the effects of the new regulations, and some have even threatened to stop offering service in the nation.

A virtual server: what is it?

  • An actual physical server is used as the foundation for a virtual server, which simulates a server environment. It mimics the features of a devoted physical server.
  • It makes advantage of the physical server’s resources. A single physical server can host several virtual servers.

Key Ideas

  • Efficiency:
  • By running numerous operating systems and applications on one partitioned server, companies can use processing power and resources more effectively by converting one physical server into multiple virtual servers.
  • Cost Savings:
  • Virtualization also saves money because it is less expensive to maintain virtual server infrastructure than physical server infrastructure.
  • Security:
  •  Since the operating system and applications are contained within a virtual machine, virtual servers are more secure than a physical server infrastructure.
  • This protects the virtual computer from security breaches and harmful activity.
  • Testing:
  • Without having to manually install and run applications on numerous physical machines, virtual servers are helpful for testing and debugging software across various operating systems and versions.

State Support Program for Road Safety in India

In News, why?

In order to effectively handle the aftermath of accidents, the World Bank has granted a USD 250 million loan for India’s State Support Program for Road Safety, which would benefit seven States.

The World Bank is what?

  • In 1944, it was founded with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (IMF). The World Bank is now known as the IBRD.
  • The World Bank Group is a distinctive five-institution worldwide cooperation that works to find long-term solutions to poverty reduction and shared prosperity in emerging nations.
Member countries: There are 189 of them.
  • India is a member as well.
  • The Human Capital Index is a major report.
  • Report on World Development.
Its Five Development Organizations:
  • International Finance Corporation, International Development Association, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IFC).
  • India is not a member of the Multilateral Guarantee Agency (MIGA) or the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

What are the program’s main highlights?

  • About: The project will create a nationwide standardised crash record system so that accidents can be studied and used to improve and safer roadways.
  • The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (IBRD) USD 250 million variable spread loan has an 18-year maturity duration with a 5.5-year grace period.
  • Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal will all adopt it.
  • The funding will be used to expand the network of basic and advanced life support ambulances and to train first responders to provide on-the-spot care for victims of traffic accidents.
  • The project will also give states incentives to use Public Private Partnership (PPP) concessions and pilot projects to attract private funding.
  • Indirectly, women bear the burden of traffic accidents. In order to address this issue, the project will improve the representation of women in managerial positions in the field of road safety.
  • Additionally, the project will give women, in particular, job chances in command and control centres for post-crash care.

What is the Indian Road Accident Scenario?

  • The cost of road accidents to the Indian economy is estimated to be between 5% and 7% of GDP annually.
  • According to official government statistics, approximately 1,50,000 persons are killed and 4,50,000 are injured in traffic accidents each year in India.
  • More than half of the victims are motorcyclists, cyclists, or pedestrians, while road users between the ages of 18 and 60 make up over 84 percent of all fatalities.
  • Due to lost wages, high medical costs, and restricted access to social safety nets, poor households—which make up over 70% of crash victims—bear a greater share of the socioeconomic burden of traffic accidents.

What are the Road Safety Initiatives?

  • 3rd High Level Global Conference on Road Safety for 2030 Global Goals:
  • The Third High Level Global Conference on Road Safety for Achieving Global Goals 2030, in which MoRTH (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways) participated, conceptualised having zero road fatalities in India by 2030.
  • India endorsed the Brasilia Declaration and pledged to lower the number of fatalities.
  • At the second global high-level conference on road safety, which took place in Brazil, the declaration was signed.

The 2019 Motor Vehicles (MV) (Amendment) Act

  • It increased the fines for moving infractions, defective cars, underage driving, etc.
  • It calls for the creation of a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, which would require all Indian road users to carry insurance coverage for a specific range of accidents.

Juvenile Justice Amendment Act, 2021: Problem

In News, why?

  • The Juvenile Justice Act Amendment makes it more difficult to disclose abuse at child care facilities by disqualifying abuse and cruelty committed by employees or those in control of CCI.
  • Several elements of the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015 were amended with the passage of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2021.

What is the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Amendment Act 2021’s list of provisions?

  • Crimes against children that are listed in the JJ Act, 2015’s chapter on “Other Offenses Against Children,” and that carry sentences of three to seven years in jail, are classified as “non-cognisable offences.”
  • Adoption: The modification strengthens the clause allowing for child protection and adoption. There are numerous adoption cases pending before the court, thus in order to speed up court proceedings, authority has now been given to the district magistrate.
  • According to the amendment, the district magistrate may issue such adoption orders.

What are the 2015 Juvenile Justice Act’s Highlights?

  • In order to replace the Juvenile Delinquency Law and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act) 2000, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children Act) was introduced by the legislature and passed in 2015.
  • The Act included provisions that would allow minors between the ages of 16 and 18 who were found to have broken the law, particularly for grave offences, to be tried as adults.
  • The Act included provisions for adoption as well. The Act substituted a more openly applicable adoption statute for the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (1956) and the Guardians of the Ward Act (1890).
  • All child care institutions (CCIs), whether administered by the State Government, by nonprofit groups, or by for-profit businesses, must be mandatedly registered under the Act within six months of the Act’s taking effect.

What worries people about the Juvenile Justice Amendment Act of 2021?

  • The revision to Section 86 of the JJ Act that is specifically being contested reclassifies offences under the special law that carry sentences of three to seven years as non-cognizable.
  • The majority of these crimes are reported to the police by either parents or child rights organisations and Child Welfare Committees, as the victims themselves are unable to directly report them due to the imbalance in power (CWC).
  • The majority of the parents of these children are day labourers who are either unable or unwilling to report the crimes to the authorities.
  • They do not want to participate in the legal procedure because doing so would require them to miss work and cost them money.
  • Committees for Child Welfare (CWC): Most of the time, CWCs prefer to “negotiate and come to a settlement” instead of reporting the situation to the police.
  • It would be more challenging to report an offence to the police if these offences, along with a number of other significant crimes, were made non-cognisable under the special law.

In India, what is a cognizable and non-cognizable offense?

  • The Criminal Procedure Code gives forth the guidelines for how legal actions against somebody who has broken a criminal law are to be carried out.
Criminal Conduct:
  • A cognizable offence is one for which a police officer may detain the defendant without a warrant and launch an inquiry without the judge’s approval under the first schedule or any other currently in effect law.
  • The majority of crimes that are considered to be “cognizable” are severe or terrible in character, such as murder, rape, kidnapping, theft, dowry deaths, etc.
  • The first information report (FIR) is only recorded in offences that are legally punishable.

Non-Cognizable Offenses:

  • A non-cognizable offence is one that is bailable and is one of those mentioned in the Indian Penal Code’s first schedule.
  • In the event of a non-cognizable offence, police are prohibited from initiating an inquiry or making an arrest without a warrant.
  • The magistrate receives a criminal complaint and is responsible for directing the concerned police station to launch an inquiry.
  • Non-cognizable crimes include such like forgery, cheating, defamation, public disturbance, etc.
Cases with both Cognizable Offenses and Non-Cognizable Offenses:
  • When two or more offences are present in a case, at least one of which is of a cognizable nature and the other of a non-cognizable nature, Section 155(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code applies.
  • The matter must then be handled as a whole as if it were a cognizable case, and the investigating officer will have the same rights and privileges that come with looking into a cognizable case.

What do the numbers indicate?

  • The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports that by 2019, these offences had increased by more than 700% since it first began keeping track of them in 2017.
  • 328 children were victims of 278 crimes committed by CCI in-charges in 2017 according to the NCRB. In 2019, there were 1,968 of these cases, with up to 2,699 children as victims.

What Other Legal Frameworks Exist for Children’s Welfare?

  • The Child Labor (Protection and Regulation) Act of 2016 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) of 2013
  • Child Rights Convention of the United Nations (UNCRC)
  • 2005 National Commission for the Protection of Children’s Rights

Way ahead

  • The reporting capacity of victims must be made easier through parents or independent civil society organisations, who will provide the victim with the necessary support and ensure that the child returns to a normal life, in addition to addressing procedural flaws and ensuring quicker delivery of justice.
  • A high conviction rate would go a long way toward guaranteeing a safe environment for kids.
  • District magistrates typically lack the knowledge and resources necessary to comply with these specific laws, so it is important to provide them with specialised training in child protection laws.
  • District Administration should work closely with all five arms—the CWC, JJ Board, CCI, district child protection units, and special juvenile police units—to ensure the children’s safety.

Malaysia and India Defense Cooperation

In News, why?

  • In order to strengthen defence cooperation between the two nations, the Indian Defense Minister recently spoke with his Malaysian counterpart.
  • Several countries have submitted bids for the 18 new light fighter jets that the Malaysian air force is seeking, including South Korea, Pakistan, China, and Sweden. The LCA Mk1A version is what the Indian offer is for.
  • India has provided Malaysia with a dual package that includes maintenance for the Su30 MKM aircraft of Russian origin as well as the indigenous fighter jets.

What were the Meeting’s High Points?

  • Both nations emphasised the ways that Indian defence companies could help Malaysia. India asked top officials from Malaysia to visit the country so they could see the infrastructure and goods produced by the country’s defence sector firsthand.
  • Malaysia emphasised the need of including women in peacekeeping deployments. Both parties concurred to have a discussion about this.
  • The capabilities for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) activities will be improved, as agreed upon by the two nations.
  • Both parties talked about methods to improve the current Malaysia India Defence Cooperation Meeting (MIDCOM) framework’s existing defence cooperation activities and framework between the two nations.
  • It was determined to use the upcoming MIDCOM, which is slated to take place in July 2022, as a venue for a stronger participation in defence.

What Constitutes India-Malaysia Relations’ Key Elements?

  • In 1957, India and Malaysia formally reestablished their diplomatic ties.
  • Economic Partnership: A Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement has been inked between Malaysia and India (CECA). A type of free trade agreement is CECA (FTA).
  • India and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have also inked a free trade agreement (FTA) for services and investments (ASEAN).
  • The third-largest commercial partner in ASEAN is Malaysia.
  • India and Malaysia’s bilateral trade is skewed heavily in Malaysia’s favour.
  • Defense and Security Coordination: Each year, the two nations conduct joint military drills called “Harimau Shakti.”
  • Traditional medicine: In October 2010, India and Malaysia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of traditional medicine.
  • The AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy) systems have been actively promoted in Malaysia by the government.
  • In Malaysia, AYUSH practises are used.
  • Developments recently:
  • India began buying Malaysian palm oil in 2020 after a four-month hiatus due to a diplomatic dispute between the two nations.
  • The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was seen as interfering in India’s internal affairs, was criticised by the former prime minister of Malaysia.

What is Malaysia’s Importance to India?

  • Malaysia occupies a significant position in India’s foreign policy as a nation where 7.2% of the population is of Indian descent.
  • In addition to being a crucial component of India’s Act East policy and essential to its maritime connectivity goals, Malaysia is surrounded by active sea lanes of communication, such as the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea.
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