UPSC Key-14 June, 2023: What you should read in the news today

Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for June 14, 2023. If you missed the June 13, 2023 UPSC key from the Indian Express, read it here

FRONT PAGE

Twitter ex-chief says threatened with shutdown, raids; Govt says outright lie

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story– Twitter’s co-founder and former boss Jack Dorsey has reiterated that the platform received “many requests” from the Indian government to block accounts covering farmers’ protests and those critical of the government. He has also said that the platform was threatened with “a shutdown” and conducting raids at its employees’ homes in the country.

• Who is Jack Dorsey?

• What exactly did Jack Dorsey say that prompted the uproar?

• How Government responded?

• For Your Information-There has been a significant surge in legal demands being made by India — from various courts and the government — to remove content from Twitter between 2014 and 2020, an analysis of Twitter’s global transparency reports by The Indian Express had earlier shown. Incidentally, in the same time period, the number of content blocking orders issued to social media companies by the government has also increased by almost 2,000 per cent, data shared with Parliament showed, highlighting the growing trend of online censorship in India. In the first six months of 2021, Twitter was asked by various Indian courts and the government to block a little more than 4,900 tweets — this coincided with the company blocking more than 250 accounts in relation to sharing “provocative” tweets over the then ongoing farmers’ protests and the company receiving orders from the government to take down some tweets critical of the government’s handling of Covid-19.

• What was the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s content-blocking orders issued under Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000?

• Do You Know-In July 2022, Twitter initiated legal action against some of the government missives ordering it to take down certain content posted on the microblogging site. Alleging disproportionate use of power by officials, the social media company moved the Karnataka High Court Tuesday against the Ministry’s content-blocking orders issued under Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

• Why has Twitter filed the lawsuit?

• What were the events preceding the lawsuit?

• How has the government reacted?

• What is Twitter’s track record on complying with government orders?

• What Section 69 (A) of the IT Act, 2000 says?

• The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021-Key highlights

• Social Media Intermediaries-What is ‘intermediaries’?

• In Shreya Singhal v/s Union of India judgment, Supreme court of India upheld Section 69A and struck down Section 66A of the IT Act-Why?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021

📍Explained: Why Twitter has moved court against govt’s content-blocking orders

GOVT & POLITICS

Need to invest more in UN peacekeepers: Rajnath

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said there is a need to invest more in training, technology and resources for the safety and productivity of United Nations (UN) Peacekeepers deployed in conflict-torn regions and called for the “meaningful participation” of women in peacekeeping operations.

• What is UN peacekeeping?

• What do United Nations peacekeepers do?

• What is India’s contribution in UN Peacekeeping

• Role of women in Indian Peacekeeping-Know in detail

• How many countries are in the UN Peacekeeping?

• For Your Information-According to UN website, UN peacekeeping is a unique global partnership. It brings together the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Secretariat, troop and police contributors and the host governments in a combined effort to maintain international peace and security. Its strength lies in the legitimacy of the UN Charter and in the wide range of contributing countries that participate and provide precious resources. Peacekeeping has proven to be one of the most effective tools available to the UN to assist host countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace. Peacekeeping has unique strengths, including legitimacy, burden sharing, and an ability to deploy and sustain troops and police from around the globe, integrating them with civilian peacekeepers to advance multidimensional mandates. UN peacekeepers provide security and the political and peacebuilding support to help countries make the difficult, early transition from conflict to peace. UN Peacekeeping is guided by three basic principles that is Consent of the parties, Impartiality and Non-use of force except in self-defence and defence of the mandate. Peacekeeping is flexible and over the past two decades has been deployed in many configurations. There are currently 12 UN peacekeeping operations deployed on three continents.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: India’s role in UN Peacekeeping Missions over the years

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

Holes in the digital net

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

• General Studies II: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Apar Gupta writes: On June 12, three events occurred that demonstrate a gulf between the rhetoric and reality of Digital India. In the morning readers of the Malayala Manorama were greeted with the front page news of a data breach on the CoWIN platform (first reported on the online portal, “The Fourth”). Sensitive personal details including date and place of vaccination, with Aadhaar, PAN, Passport, Voter ID, & Mobile numbers were circulating on the internet-based messaging platform Telegram. Though details of the breach were established by many, the Union Government responded with denials.

• What happened exactly?

• What exactly is CoWIN data breach?

• What is CoWIN?

• What happened to the CoWIN data?

• How serious is a data leak?

• Why does data matter?

• What is Data Protection?

• What is personal data?

• What is non-personal data?

• Personal data and Non-personal data-compare

• “All this is compounded by the lack of a National Cyber Security Strategy — a draft put to public consultation in December 2019 awaits finalisation”-What is India’s strategy to secure data?

• What is CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) cyber security?

• What does computer emergency response team CERT India do?

• Why Cyber Security is required?

• What kind of data’s are vulnerable and What information can be compromised?

• What are the or what should be the features of Cyber Security?

• Know Cyber Security initiatives in India- Computer Emergency Response Team – India (CERT-IN), Cyber Surakshit Bharat Initiative, National Cyber Security Coordination Centre (NCCC), Cyber Swachhta Kendra, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Cyberdome (Kerala)

• Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI)-Know the facts like who publishes and what are the components of this Index etc.

• Snooping and Surveillance in the name of Cyber and National Security-Where to draw the line?

• Supreme Court of India on snooping and surveillance-People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) vs Union of India case in 1996, Rule 419A of the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951

• Personal Data Protection Bill 2019-key Highlights

• Supreme Court on Right to Privacy (Justice K.S. Puttaswamy vs. Union of India, 2017)-know the verdict

• Justice B N Srikrishna committee recommendation on Data Protection-Know key recommendations

• Personal Data Protection Bill 2019- how this Bill propose to regulate data transfer?

• Key features of Personal Data Protection Bill 2019-know in brief

• What is data localisation? Know the Case for Data Localisation in India.

• What Srikrishna Committee Report says on data localisation?

• Initiative/steps taken by Government of India for Data Protection and Data Privacy-Know in detail

• Justice Raveendran Committee Report-Know in detail

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍CoWIN data ‘leak’: Why the govt statement raises more questions than it answers

NOT LIKE A FRIEND

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Harsh V. Pant Writes: At a time when, in the run-up to the 2024 general elections, political battle lines in India are being redrawn ever so sharply by the day, Canada seems to have done the unthinkable. It has brought the BJP and Congress together in their strong condemnation of the celebration of violent extremism.

• Why Khalistan movement is in news again?

• How Khalistan movement affected or can affect Indo-Canadian relationship?

• Quick Recall-The 39th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, the controversial Army action to flush out Khalistan militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, was observed on June 6. In the lead up to it, on June 4, a parade was organised in Brampton, Ontario, in Canada. A tableau in the 5 km-long parade seemed to celebrate the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi – a female figure was shown in a blood-stained white saree, with the hands up, as turbaned men pointed guns at her. A poster behind the scene read “Revenge for the attack on Darbar Sahib”. The tableau drew strong reactions from India, with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar registering his disapproval.

• What are the Historical events responsible for Khalistan?

• Khalistan and Canada-Connect the dots

• ‘This is not the first time that Khalistan has figured in an India-Canada context. Nor is this the first time that the assassination of Indira Gandhi has been celebrated in Canada’-Why Pro-Khalistani elements are still there in Canada?

• Canada has for long been considered a safe haven for Khalistan supporters and militant voices accused of terrorism in India-Why so?

• Why do Canadian politicians pander to Sikh extremists?

• For Your Information-As per the 2021 Canadian census, Sikhs account for 2.1 per cent of Canada’s population, and are the country’s fastest growing religious group. After India, Canada is home to the largest population of Sikhs in the world. Today, Sikhs lawmakers and officials serve at all levels of Canada’s government, and their burgeoning population is one of the most important political constituencies in the country. In 2017, Jagmeet Singh, 39, became the first Sikh leader of a major Canadian political party when he took the reins of the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP).

• ‘The Khalistan movement has been a global movement from its inception’-Discuss

• What do you understand by the word “diaspora”?

• Sikh Diaspora and India-Know in detail

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Khalistan and the Sikh Diaspora: Why a small but loud movement continues to survive in Canada

THE IDEAS PAGE

Don’t museumise the puppet

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: History of India

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Anurupa Roy writes: The next 75 years will be significant in terms of how we understand culture individually, in communities and in the context of the country. Sometimes, the three come together and, sometimes, these are very separate experiences. When I talk about puppet theatre, it also refers to folk theatre, mask and other forms. As an artist who represents the niche cultural sector of puppet theatre, I would like to look up from the grassroots. Puppet theatre is not just one performing art but, traditionally, a space where a lot of knowledge systems come together.

• What do you understand by the term ‘Puppetry’?

• How has puppetry been an integral part of India’s art and culture?

• In India, puppetry has been a subject of interest for a considerable period of time, serving as a means of both entertainment and education-Explain

• Puppetry in India can be broadly classified into certain categories-what are they?

• The oldest written reference to puppetry in India is found where?

• “But in the last 75 years, policy has looked at art forms as belonging to compartments of regional or linguistic identities”-Do you agree with the same?

• String Puppetry, Shadow Puppetry, Glove Puppetry and Rod Puppetry-Compare and Contrast

• Kathputli, Kundhei, Gombeyatta, Bommalattam belongs to which category?

• What is Cultural Policy?

• What is the role of the cultural policy?

• What is the strategy for cultural policy?

• What is India’s cultural policy?

• Does India have a cultural policy?

• India has significant potential for the expansion of its puppet industry. Examine.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍World Puppetry Day: Tradition on a string, some thrive, others barely survive

EXPLAINED

El Nino and the monsoon

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story- Any discussion on Indian monsoon these days invariably has references to the El Nino phenomenon. It is almost as if the fate of the Indian monsoon depends on the abnormalities in sea surface temperatures in far-away Pacific Ocean. This year’s monsoon is also progressing under the cloud of an El Nino in the Pacific Ocean. El Nino, as is commonly known, refers to an abnormal warming of surface waters in equatorial Pacific Ocean. It is known to suppress monsoon rainfall. The opposite phase, La Nina, which is the abnormal cooling of sea surface waters in the same region, is known to aid rainfall over India. There is a third, neutral phase, as well in which the sea surface temperatures remain roughly in line with long-term averages. Together, these three phases in the Pacific Ocean are referred to as El Nino Southern Oscillation, or ENSO.

• What is El Nino?

• Why is called El Nino?

• Why do the surface waters in equatorial Pacific Ocean get abnormally warm or cold?

• Why do these warm or cold phases have any bearing on Indian monsoon?

• What is El Nino effect in India?

• During El Niño, trade winds weaken or stronger than usual?

• El Niño and La Niña events are not mirror images of each other. They differ in length and strength-How

• ‘Not all El Nino years are bad monsoon years’-Analyse

• Do You Know-El Nino conditions, usually associated with suppressed rainfall over India during the monsoon season, refer to a warming of central and eastern Pacific Ocean waters, in contrast to La Nina conditions which refer to a cooling of these waters. The El Nino conditions that are likely to develop this year come on the heels of a “triple dip” La Nina phenomenon from 2020 to 2022. According to IMD data, in 2002, 2004, 2009 and 2015, El Nino conditions coincided with below normal rainfall, with the lowest (78.2 cm) being recorded in 2009. Of the 15 El Nino years from 1951 to 2022, six years recorded normal to above normal rainfall.

• In addition to El Nino conditions, the IMD pointed to two other dominant largescale parameters that can influence the monsoon-what are that two other dominant parameters?

• What is Indian Ocean Dipole?

• India Meteorological Department (IMD)-About, Role and Objectives

• For Your Information-El Nino and La Nina are climate patterns in the Pacific Ocean that can affect weather worldwide. Episodes of El Nino and La Nina typically last 9-12 months, but can sometimes last for years. El Nino and La Nina events occur every two to seven years, on average, but they don’t occur on a regular schedule, say experts. Generally, El Nino occurs more frequently than La Nina. According to the latest forecast by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a transition from La Niña to ENSO-neutral will occur mostly during the February-April 2023 season. Climate models are predicting a potential return to El Niño by May-July, which coincides with the summer monsoon that spans from June- September. The occurrence of three consecutive La Niña in the Northern Hemisphere is a relatively rare phenomenon and is known as the ‘triple dip’ La Niña. The latest triple dip La Nina occurred between 2021-23.

• What are the conditions which causes El Niño?

• EL Nino Southern Oscillation or ENSO impact on Monsoon?

• How El Niño Impacts-Know Sector and region wise

• But why have El Niño conditions continued for three years?

• What is Inter Tropical Convergence Zone?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍El Niño and the monsoon

Why a 2014 Arunachal Pradesh law is facing protests

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-A legislation enacted in Arunachal Pradesh in 2014, the Arunachal Pradesh Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (APUAPA), is currently under the scanner, with civil society organisations demanding its repeal and a petition challenging it before the Itanagar bench of the Gauhati High Court.

• What is the APUAPA?

• For Your Information-The APUAPA was notified in 2014 “to provide for more effective prevention of certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations.” It enables the state government or any official not below the rank of a Secretary to the State Government or a District Magistrate to make on order for detaining certain categories of people to prevent them from “acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State, or maintenance of public order or maintenance of daily supplies and services essential to the public”.

• What prompted the current focus on this Act?

• Was this the first time the APUAPA was invoked?

• What are the grounds on which it is being opposed?

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Tribal outfit suspends protest agitation, 20 detained under Arunachal UAPA released

ECONOMY

Disinflation process to be slow, protracted: RBI Guv

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What’s the ongoing story-Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Tuesday said the disinflation process in the country is likely to be slow and protracted, with the 4 per cent inflation target to be reached only over the medium-term. The RBI has been mandated by the government to keep consumer price index-based inflation (CPI) at 4 per cent with a band of +/- 2 per cent.

• What is Disinflation?

• What is Deflation?

• How is Disinflation Measured?

• Deflation and Disinflation-Compare and Contrast

• What Causes Disinflation?

• Why Disinflation is not good for an Indian Economy?

• What factor distinguishes India’s inflation from many other developed countries?

• What is Inflation?

• Know the Types of Inflation like Moderate Inflation, Galloping Inflation, Hyper-Inflation, Stagflation, Deflation, Core Inflation etc.

• What are the causes of Inflation in the present situation

• How Inflation is Measured in India?

• What is the Long term, Medium Term and Short-term impact of Inflation?

• New Standard for Measuring Inflation in India and Old Standard for Measuring Inflation-Key Differences

• Steps or Measures Taken by GOI to Control Inflation

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍In negative territory, WPI at 34-month low; to remain subdued

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