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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday named the 21 largest unnamed islands of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands after 21 Param Vir Chakra awardees.
Mr. Modi participated in the ceremony through video conference and unveiled a model of the national memorial dedicated to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose that’s to be built on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep.
Home Minister Amit Shah was present in Port Blair at the culmination of a seven-day event organised by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in honour of Netaji.
Mr. Shah said that the 126th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is being celebrated as ‘Parakram Divas’ across the country.
Stating that the identity of the Andaman was associated with the symbols of slavery instead of the memories of the freedom struggle, Mr. Modi said, “Even the names of our islands had the imprint of slavery.”
Mr. Modi said that many messages are contained in the naming of the 21 islands. “The message is the message of ‘Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat’; this message is the message of the bravery of our Armed Forces,” he said.
From Major Somnath Sharma, Piru Singh, Major Shaitan Singh to Captain Manoj Pandey, Subedar Joginder Singh and Lance Naik Albert Ekka, from Veer Abdul Hameed and Major Ramaswamy Parameswaran to all 21 Paramveers, everyone had only one resolve — Nation First! India First! This resolution has now become immortal forever in the name of these islands. A hill in Andaman is also being dedicated in the name of Captain Vikram Batra from the Kargil war.
Mr. Shah said that the memories of the heroes could never be erased nor were they dependent on anyone’s mercy to live on. He added that Netaji would shine like the pole star in India’s history.
After Narendra Modi became Prime Minister he had a statue of Subhas Chandra Bose installed in Kartavya Path [in Delhi], he decided to celebrate Netaji’s birth anniversary as Parakram Divas.
And he chose the same day to announce the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Island as his memorial to ensure that it’s developed in a manner that evokes deep respect for the great hero in the hearts of the people who set foot here for generations. I thank the Prime Minister from the bottom of my heart.
Editorial
Democracy and its structural slippages(Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The democracy that is functional around the world today — even as it has a long history of evolution — was essentially a 19th century to 20th century western creation.
Every civilisation, of course, claims to have had some form of democratic origin. But the institution of universal adult franchise and governance through regular and multi-party elections (the universal norm today) has at the most a 100 years or less of practice behind it.
Even in the most “advanced” democracies such as the United States, “universal franchise” of the 1920s did not include African-American citizens.
In Britain, women obtained the right to vote in the 1930s, in France in 1944, and in Switzerland as late as 1971, over two decades after their Indian sisters.
Basic to democracy is the devolution of power, and with it, welfare from the elite echelons to the ground level. Devolution occurs on the premise of the individual and equality.
In practice, is there a good record for these principles? If one is to go by the long view of history, the answer is ‘yes, most effectively’.
The near-universal abolition of autocratic monarchies and hereditary aristocracies and their replacement by governance through popular mandate (with exceptions) and the spread of economic resources, infrastructure, education, health, etc. to the masses, with all their shortcomings and lacunae, call for acknowledgment even as the demand for these grows every day, constantly, and legitimately.
Yet, there is an unbreakable link between the wide spread of this devolution and capitalism. In capitalism’s basic requirement to seek freedom for resources such as land, labour, and movement from the autocratic restraints of medieval monarchies, the notions of the individual’s rights and equality evolved, culminating in the notion of a free market for every kind of resource mobilisation, including labour. It also implied a great deal of uniformity.
It is important to note that human history has been witness to several experiences of equality, mostly in its religious form: non-theistic Buddhism and monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Islam and Sikhism were proponents of social equality. However, equality here demanded the subjugation of the individual to the community or society.
Clearly, humanity’s urge for equality has erupted over and over again in different parts of the world at different times; it was the same urge that had led to the most recent experiment of Marxian socialism in about a third of the globe and a large chunk of the population.
Needed, a new approach to data protection for minors(Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
These are important questions to answer correctly to achieve India’s digital ambitions. The draft Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, 2022 currently provides for mandatory parental consent for all data processing activities by children, defined as any person aged under 18 years. This approach however misses the mark on two fronts.
First, instead of incentivising online platforms to proactively build safer and better services for minors, the Bill relies on parents to grant consent on behalf of the child in all cases.
In a country with low digital literacy, where parents in fact often rely on their children (who are digital natives) to help them navigate the Internet, this is an ineffective approach to keep children safe online.
Second, it does not take into account the “best interests of the child”, a standard originating in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, to which India is a signatory.
India has upheld this standard in laws such as the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
However, it has not been applied to the issue of data protection. The Bill does not factor in how teenagers use various Internet platforms for self-expression and personal development and how central it is to the experience of adolescents these days.
From taking music lessons to preparing for examinations to forming communities with people of similar worldviews, the Internet is a window to the world.
While the Bill does allow the government to provide exemptions in the future from strict parental consent requirements, profiling, tracking prohibitions, etc., this whitelisting process does not acknowledge the blurring lines between what a platform can be used for.
For example, Instagram is, strictly speaking, a social media platform, but is regularly used as an educational and professional development tool by millions of artists around the world.
Another issue in the current draft of the DPDP Bill is that each platform will have to obtain ‘verifiable parental consent’ in the case of minors.
This provision, if enforced strictly, can change the nature of the Internet as we know it. Since it is not possible to tell if the user is a minor without confirming their age, platforms will have to verify the age of every user.
The government will prescribe later whether verifiability will be based on ID-proof, or facial recognition, or reference-based verification, or some other means.
Opinion
An India chapter for foreign universities(Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
For a long time, proponents of the internationalisation of higher education have cherished the dream of foreign universities operating in India.
For nearly two decades, they have emphasised the need to provide conducive conditions and an enabling framework for such institutions.
But the idea failed to come to fruition due to the concerns of the regulatory authorities and governments in India as well as the foreign higher educational institutions.
Promoting excellence, preventing malpractices, safeguarding the interests of students and protecting national interests have been some of the major concerns.
Many were wary of the cultural threat that this initiative posed. Some of those who were at the forefront of preserving the purity of Indian culture are now a part of the political dispensation.
Policy planners and regulators have been particularly concerned about how to come up with a framework that attracts the best of the best and deters the fly-by-night kinds of universities.
On the other hand, the sought-after universities are concerned about the potential adverse effect of setting up offshore campuses with their accreditation, ranking and reputation.
Truly reputed higher educational institutions operate on a not-for-profit basis and have no materialistic motives to go offshore.
A few countries that have such offshore campuses had to hard-sell the institutions the idea by leasing land at almost no cost, bearing the bulk of infrastructure cost and promising them the academic, administrative and financial autonomy that they enjoy in their home country. India could hardly afford any such incentives. Whatever was offered was riddled with caveats and contradictions.
Past setbacks notwithstanding, the idea of having world-class universities establish and operate their campuses in India has been so compelling that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 provided that “selected universities e.g., those from among the top 100 universities in the world will be facilitated to operate in India.
A legislative framework facilitating such entry will be put in place, and such universities will be given special dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms on par with other autonomous institutions of India.”
Even though the NEP favoured a “legislative framework”, the idea is being executed through a regulatory route by the University Grants Commission (UGC). There seems to be determination to get the idea going, even if it amounts to some dilution in standards.
Text and Context
The basic structure of the Constitution(Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Constitution)
he Chief Justice of India, D. Y. Chandrachud compared the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution to the North Star, an unfailing guide which shows the way when the path appears convoluted.
His observation marks the response of the Supreme Court to a recent statement made by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar that the basic structure doctrine introduced by a 13-judge Bench 40 years ago, in the Kesavananda Bharati Sripadagalvaru versus State of Kerala through a 7:6 wafer-thin majority judgment, diluted parliamentary sovereignty.
The opinion of the Vice President and the reply from the top judge have come amidst an ongoing verbal skirmish initiated by the government over the striking down of the 99th Constitutional Amendment and the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act in a 4:1 majority decision of the Supreme Court in October 2015.
The government is now vying, after a gap of nearly eight years, for a stronger, if not dominant, spot in judicial appointments to constitutional courts.
It remains bitter about the failure of the NJAC, a constitutional amendment, it said, was an exercise of the “will of the people” through Parliament.
At the heart of both the Kesavananda Bharati case, better known as the Fundamental Rights case, and the current debate over the Collegium, a powerful body of Supreme Court judges which recommends names for judicial appointments, is a fundamental question — does Parliament have unlimited power to amend the Constitution or is it subject to inherent limitations?
The Kesavananda Bharati judgment held that Parliament cannot use its constituent power to alter the basic structure or the essential features of the Constitution.
The Parliament, as senior advocate Nani Palkhivala said (at whose memorial lecture Chief Justice Chandrachud gave his reply) cannot cease to be a creature of the Constitution and become its master.
The basic structure or framework of the Constitution is its living spirit, holding up the body of its text. Its existence cannot be pin-pointed to any particular provision of the text.
It is the “soul” of the Constitution, inextricably linked to the values enshrined in the Preamble, without which the document and the ideas that make it sacred would collapse.
The dark sky is a natural resource, and too much light is polluting it(Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
On December 14, 2022, the district administration of Ladakh designated six hamlets within the Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary a “dark-sky reserve” – an area whose skies were free of light pollution. The designation meant that the reserve had a responsibility to keep the skies dark, particularly for the astronomical observatories located in the area.
When SpaceX’s Starlink constellation of small satellites began to obscure the view of ground-based telescopes around Earth, the idea of the sky as a natural resource capable of being polluted became popular. These incidents also rendered the absence of a global treaty to reduce light pollution more conspicuous.
But while authorities safeguard telescopes’ access to dark skies by actively lowering light pollution around their sites, the night is actually becoming brighter in almost the rest of the world thanks to ‘skyglow’, with significant ecological, health and cultural consequences.
In a new study, researchers from Germany and the U.S. analysed a global database of what the dimmest star visible from a particular location is; the database had more than 51,000 entries submitted by citizen scientists.
They found that non-natural light had increased the brightness of the artificial glow of the night sky, or skyglow, by 9.2-10% every year between 2011 and 2022.
Specifically, they reported that skyglow had brightened around 6.5% over Europe, 10.4% over North America, and 7.7% over the rest of the world.
The finding is significant because it disagrees with satellite-based data, which has indicated that the rate of increase has been around 2% per year.
According to the new study, the discrepancy is probably the result of the satellites being unable to ‘sense’ blue light emitted by LEDs and to study light that is emitted parallel to the ground.
Visible light emitted by many sources (except e.g. lasers) is divergent, so light emitted insufficiently downward could find its way into the sky. Almost all surfaces in cities also reflect light, meaning a portion of entirely down-cast light will be reflected upwards, contributing to nighttime light pollution.
The researchers recommend light sources casting light at an angle below the plane of the horizon, capping the emissions of these sources and calibrating their output according to the total brightness at the spot being lit.
The study had few observations from Asia, South America and Africa. Africa had only 452 observations between January 2011 and August 2022 in the database.
News
President Murmu to confer PM’s national award for children(Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
President DroupadiMurmu will confer the Prime Minister’s National Award for children for the year 2023 to 11 children for their exceptional achievements in fields such as art and culture, innovation and sports.
President Murmu will present the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar awards to the children on Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with the children.
Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani will interact with the children and congratulate them along with Minister of State for WCD MunjparaMahendrabhai for their exemplary performances in their respective categories.
The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (PMRBP) is awarded to children in the age group of 5-18 years for their exceptional performance which deserve national recognition.
The six categories for which they are given are art and culture, bravery, innovation, scholastic, social service and sports. Each awardee is given a medal, a cash prize of ₹ 1 lakh and a certificate.
Fifth Scorpene-class submarine INS Vagir commissioned into the Indian Navy(Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The fifth Scorpene class conventional submarine was commissioned into the Indian Navy as INS Vagir in the presence of Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R. Hari Kumar at Naval Dockyard Mumbai on Monday.
The sixth and last of the French-origin Scorpène-class submarines being built in India under technology transfer is currently undergoing sea-trials and will be delivered to the Navy in 2024, the original manufacturer Naval Group said.
With this, the Navy now has 16 conventional and one nuclear submarine in service. It includes seven Russian Kilo class submarines, four German HDW submarines, five Scorpene class submarines, and the indigenous nuclear ballistic missile submarine INS Arihant.
Vagir will be the third submarine inducted into the Navy in a short span of 24 months. This is no small achievement, and underscores the coming of age of India’s shipbuilding industry, and the maturing of our defence ecosystem.
It is also a shining testimony to the expertise and experience of our shipyards to construct complex and complicated platforms,” Admiral Kumar said, speaking at the commissioning ceremony.
These aspects also serve to reinforce the Indian Navy’s unequivocal commitment and steadfast resolve to be a fully AatmaNirbhar force by 2047.
The Navy chief further complimented the submarine’s Commanding Officer and his team for pushing through “all major trials, including those of weapons and sensors, within a short span of just 11 months”.
The name Vagir is a reincarnation of the erstwhile Vagir, a Soviet origin Foxtrot Class submarine, which was commissioned on November 01, 1973 and was decommissioned on January 7, 2001 after serving the country for three decades.
Vagir takes its name from the sand shark, a deadly deep sea predator of the Indian Ocean. In the Navy, it’s a time-honoured naval tradition that “old ships and submarines never die.
The sixth and last of the Scorpene class submarines, Vagsheer, being built by the Mazgaon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), was launched into water in April 2022 and is expected to be delivered to the Navy by the end of 2023.
Six Scorpene submarines are being built under Project-75 by the MDL under technology transfer from the Naval Group of France under a $3.75 billion deal signed in October 2005.
The project is about four years behind schedule. The first submarine, INS Kalvari, was commissioned in December 2017; the second submarine, INS Khanderi, in September 2019; the third was INS Karanj in March 2021; and the fourth one, INS Vela, joined the service in November 2021.