The Global Liveability Index, 2021, was recently launched by?
a. World Bank
b. UN Habitat
c. Economist Intelligence Unit
d. Institute of Economics & Peace
2) Which of the following with respective to Famous cases in India are matched correctly?
Case Judgement
A.K. Gopalan Case – Preventive Detention
Golaknath Case – Basic Structure of Constitution
Kesavananda Bharati Case – Amendment of Fundamental Rights
Kedar Nath Singh case – Validity of Sedition law
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
a. 1 and 3 only
b. 1, 2 and 3 only
c. 1 and 4 only
d. 1, 2 and 4 only
3)Trirashmi Buddhist Cave complex is located in which of the following states?
a. Karnataka
b. Uttar Pradesh
c. Maharashtra
d. Madhya Pradesh
Prelims Specific News Items
1) El Salvador has become the first country to formally adopt bitcoin as legal tender.
Legal tender is something which is acknowledged by the laws as a mechanism to settle a private or public debt or in order to meet a fiscal responsibility which includes paying taxes, abiding by contracts, and finally damages or fines.
The legal tender money is of two types:
(i) Limited Legal Tender Money: This is a form of money, which can be paid in discharge of a debt up to a certain limit and beyond this limit, a person may refuse to accept the payment and no legal action can be taken against. Coins are limited legal tender in India.
(ii) Unlimited Legal Tender Money: In this form of money, which can be paid in discharge of a debt of any amount. A person who refuses to accept this money a legal action can be taken against. Paper notes/currency are unlimited legal tender in India.
The ‘Legal tender’ is the money that is recognised by the law of the land, as valid for payment of debt. It must be accepted for discharge of debt. The RBI Act of 1934, which gives the Central Bank the sole right to issue bank notes, states that “Every bank note shall be legal tender at any place in India in payment for the amount expressed therein”.
2)Most Livable Cities:- Auckland came out on top on The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index of 140 cities around the world thanks to its success in containing the pandemic quickly, enabling restrictions to be lifted early on.
The annual list did not go ahead in 2020, but Austria’s Vienna, number one in both 2018 and 2019, has completely dropped out of the top 10 after being heavily effected by Covid, and now sits in 12th place.
Osaka in japan was ranked 2.
The world’s most livable cities 2021
1. Auckland, New Zealand
2. Osaka, Japan
3. Adelaide, Australia
4. Wellington, New Zealand
4. Tokyo, Japan
6. Perth, Australia
7. Zurich, Switzerland
8. Geneva, Switzerland
8. Melbourne, Australia
10. Brisbane, Australia
The world’s least livable cities 2021
1. Damascus, Syria
2. Lagos, Nigeria
3. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
4. Dhaka, Bangladesh
5. Algiers, Algeria
6. Tripoli, Libya
7. Karachi, Pakistan
8. Harare, Zimbabwe
9. Douala, Cameroon
10. Caracas, Venezuela
3)Indian Navy is set to receive three of 24 MH-60 Romeo multirole helicopters from United States (US) in July 2021.
4) Russia is building its first naval ship which will be fully equipped with stealth technology. Stealth technology will to make it hard to detect.
Key points :- Hull of the Mercury naval corvette dubbed project 20386 is ready and vessel is expected to be delivered to navy in 2022.
5)Centre announces hike in MSP for paddy, pulses, oilseeds :– Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices. The minimum support prices are announced by the Government of India at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
Government announces minimum support prices (MSPs) for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane. The mandated crops are 14 crops of the kharif season, 6 rabi crops and two other commercial crops. In addition, the MSPs of toria and de-husked coconut are fixed on the basis of the MSPs of rapeseed/mustard and copra, respectively. The list of crops are as follows.
Cereals (7) – paddy, wheat, barley, jowar, bajra, maize and ragi
Pulses (5) – gram, arhar/tur, moong, urad and lentil
Oilseeds (8) – groundnut, rapeseed/mustard, toria, soyabean, sunflower seed, sesamum, safflower seed and nigerseed
Raw cotton
Raw jute
Copra
De-husked coconut
Sugarcane (Fair and remunerative price)
Virginia flu cured (VFC) tobacco
6)Pakke Tiger Reserve’s contingency workers go on strike :- More than 200 contingency workers of the Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh went on an indefinite strike from Wednesday over nonpayment of wages since December 2020.
7)No decision yet on Indian consulate in Addu Atoll: The Maldives has made no decision on opening an Indian consulate in its southern Addu Atoll, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a fortnight after the Indian Cabinet cleared a proposal for it.
EDITORIALS OF THE DAY
Editorial 01 : The promise and perils of digital justice delivery
3.27 crore cases are pending before Indian courts, of which 85,000 have been pending for over 30 years.
Author says that the Use of technology can help in addressing the issues of the judiciary but in a limited way. As per Author if the technology is excessively induced then that might lead to not only violation of the Right of Privacy but also will create new stereotypes.
Use of Technology in Judiciary :- The use of Technology in Judiciary has been in 3 Phases. E-courts ( Phase I, II, III).
The e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India recently released its draft vision document for Phase III of the eCourts project. Phases I and II had dealt with digitisation of the judiciary, i.e., e-filing, tracking cases online, uploading judgments online, etc. Even though the job is not complete, particularly at the lower levels of the judiciary, the project can so far be termed a success.
Especially during COVID-19 pandemic, when physical courts were forced to shut down. Despite some hiccups, the Supreme Court and High Courts have been able to function online. This was made possible by the eCourts project, monitored by the e-Committee.
As per author Phase III of the e-Courts is crossing the limits by joining the different pillars of Criminal Justice System ( ICJS )- where Police, Prison, Courts, Forensics all will be connected and streamlined data transfer will be possible.
What are the Problems in this :- Author says that suppose if the Data of a petty Civil case is gone online and is transferred across the Pillars then the person accused of a petty civil case will come in the category of offenders.
Also The ICJS project is administered by Home Ministry and courts are one of the pillars of ICJS then why should court data come under Home Ministry’s Scanner.
As per Author ICJS says that ICJS will likely exacerbate existing class and caste inequalities that characterise the police and prison system. This is because the exercise of data creation happens at local police stations, which have historically contributed to the criminalisation of entire communities through colonial era laws such as the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, by labelling such communities as “habitual offenders”.
Author’s Concerns:- The Supreme Court must take care not to violate the privacy standards that it set in Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), especially since India does not yet have a data protection regime.
Editorial 02 :- South Asia’s healthcare burden
Author highlights that how South Asian major countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan are having a lot of disease burden but still they have not been focussing on the issue.
What are the Problems. with these countries :-
These Countries Focus more on the Defence Expenditure and less on the Health expenditure. During Covid-19 Pakistan and Bangladesh have further increased the Defence expenditure by 12%.
Next issue is that Out of Pocket Expenditure for all of these Countries is More than 60% which should be 10-12% only.
Public Expenditure on health has been only 1% of the GDP which should be 3-4%.
Availability of beds and Doctors per 1000 population is much less than the prescribed WHO limit.
What Should be done :- South Asian countries must step up investment in their public healthcare sectors to make them sustainable, up to date and pro-poor; most importantly, the system should not turn its back on citizens. Given the high chances of another wave or even the impending crisis of climate change, stopgap measures ought to be replaced by a well thought-out vision and political commitment for long-term healing.