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The Union government plans to draw up a “benchmark framework” to assess students at the secondary and higher secondary level to bring about “uniformity” across state and central boards which currently follow different standards of evaluation, leading to wide disparities in scores.
Over the last few months, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has held a series of meetings with the representatives of state boards and State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs) to arrive at a common understanding to implement the plan, as part of which a new assessment regulator is being set up.
The proposed regulator, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), which will act as a constituent unit of the NCERT, will also be tasked with holding periodic learning outcome tests like the National Achievement Survey (NAS) and State Achievement Surveys.
The benchmark assessment framework will seek to put an end to the emphasis on rote learning, as envisaged by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. PARAKH, the proposed implementing agency, is also part of the NEP proposal.
It is learnt that during the discussions, most states endorsed the NEP proposal to hold board exams twice a year, including one for helping students improve their scores.
States are also on board regarding a proposal to offer two types of papers on mathematics — a standard exam, and another to test higher-level competency.
It will help reduce the fear of maths among students and encourage learning. We also used the meetings as a sounding board on the NEP proposals to have two sets of question papers for most subjects – one with MCQs (multiple choice questions), and the other descriptive.
Express Network
Only 16% of human trafficking cases in 2021 saw convictions: NCRB data (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Issues Related to development and Management of Social Sector)
THE CONVICTION rate in human trafficking cases across the country continues to be low, according to the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
While police filed chargesheets in 84.7 per cent of the 2,189 cases registered under the Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) across the country in 2021, only 16 per cent of the cases saw convictions.
While the data on convictions was not available for 11 states, as many as eight states and three Union territories saw no convictions at all. The top performer was Jharkhand, which saw convictions in 84.2 per cent of the 92 cases that were registered in 2021.
In 2020, police filed chargesheets in 85.2 per cent of the 1,714 trafficking cases that were registered, but only 10.6 per cent of the total cases saw convictions. Seven states reported no convictions while two reported a conviction rate of less than 2 per cent.
In 2019, a total of 2,260 human trafficking cases were registered, of which police filed chargesheets in 83.7 per cent, while there were convictions in 22 per cent. Four states reported no convictions at all.
The states and Union territories which reported zero convictions in 2021 are: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Telangana, Delhi, Chandigarh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Of these, police had filed final chargesheets in over 90 per cent of the cases in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana; and in over 80 per cent of the cases in Goa and Haryana.
The highest number of trafficking cases was registered in Telangana (347 cases), Maharashtra (320 cases), and Assam (203 cases).
Over the last three years, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have seen the highest number of human trafficking cases, followed by Assam, Jharkhand, Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan. Barring Telangana, all states saw a dip in cases in 2020, the first year of the pandemic which saw lockdowns.
Idea Page
Let Ganpathi come to Idgah (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms…”, said German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. India is a secular country with religion occupying centre stage.
Religion is, has always been, an indispensable and ineffaceable part of human civilisation. Man is “incurably religious”, and Indians more so. Sir Harcourt Butler, first governor of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, had rightly said that the “Indians are essentially religious as Europeans are essentially secular.
Religion is still the alpha and omega of Indian’s life”. The litigation about the Bengaluru Idgah and the HubbaliIdgah is yet another example of the centrality of religion in our lives and how it can be used for political purposes.
What is the religion-state relationship under our constitution? What kind of freedom of religion has the constitution guaranteed? What is the history of Ganesh Chaturthi? Why should faith communities, rather than the state, come forward to resolve such disputes? These are some of the issues at the heart of the Idgah controversy.
Freedom of religion can be best described as the relationship between religion and the individual from which the state is completely excluded.
The state is expected to maintain a principled distance from all religions. Moreover, the state won’t align itself with any particular religion, particularly the majority religion, nor pursue any religious tasks of its own.
To the framers of our constitution for a multi-religious society like ours, the state’s neutrality in religious matters was the mechanism to regulate inter-group behaviour.
Unfortunately, the Indian state, rather than withdrawing from religion, has been playing a central role in religious matters in the name of “public order”. To further their narrow political ends, political parties too have been using religious idioms in their election campaigns.
Even in the latest controversy, the Karnataka government did not demonstrate the desired neutrality. The matter unnecessarily went to the high court and Supreme Court.
Power and its discontents (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The government introduced the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022 in the Lok Sabha recently, and, as expected, the proceedings were not smooth.
Though the Bill has been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Energy, states fear that the Centre is encroaching into their domain in power sector governance.
Their biggest grouse is against the proposal to give additional distribution licences in an area already serviced by a distribution company (discom). The licence will be deemed to have been granted if the state electricity regulatory commission (SERC) does not take any action within the stipulated time.
Some of the fears of the states are misplaced. The proposal doesn’t tantamount to encroaching into the their domain because it pertains to policy matters.
The Centre is well within its rights to suggest additional licences because power is a Concurrent subject. The feasibility of multiple licences is, however, another issue.
The fact is that till we do away with commercial losses, remove cross-subsidies and have complete metering right from the periphery of a discom to the consumer, we really cannot have multiple licences.
That said, some provisions in the Bill do give an impression that the Centre is attempting to undermine the states. Amongst them is the clause pertaining to applicants seeking a distribution licence in more than one state.
It states that the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), and not the SERC, will grant the licence. This is problematic because a SERC is likely to be more aware of the field-level conditions in a state than its central counterpart. Even if an applicant applies for licences in several states, they should be processed by the SERCs concerned — wherever necessary, these agencies should consult each other. Moreover, the agency that grants the licence should also administer it.
Second, the Bill has a provision empowering the Centre to give directions directly to the SERCs. Till now, the CERC received instructions from the Centre and the SERCs were under the state. The new Bill enables the Centre to bypass state governments. It’s not surprising that this is a matter of concern for the states.
Third, the Bill has made a small change in the composition of the committee for selection of Chairman/members of the SERCs (amendment of section 85). Instead of having Chairman CEA/Chairman CERC as the third member, it will now be a nominee of the central government at the level of additional secretary.
Actually, the fears of encroachment did not begin with the Bill. Concerns were raised when earlier versions of the Bill were introduced. The enactment of the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020 aggravated the fears. These rules spoke of matters solely related to distribution which, no doubt, is a state subject.
Explained Page
Bhang, ganja, and criminality in the NDPS Act (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
While granting bail to a man arrested on June 1 for possessing 29 kg of bhang and 400 g of ganja, Karnataka High Court recently observed that nowhere in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act is bhang referred to as a prohibited drink or prohibited drug. Since the ganja recovered was below commercial quantity, the accused was given bail on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh.
The single judge Bench relied on two earlier judgments, Madhukar vs the State of Maharashtra, 2002 and Arjun Singh vs State of Haryana, 2004, where the courts had ruled that bhang is not ganja, and is therefore not covered under the NDPS Act.
Bhang is the edible preparation made from the leaves of the cannabis plant, often incorporated into drinks such as thandai and lassi, along with various foods. Bhang has been consumed in the Indian subcontinent for centuries, and is frequently consumed during the festivals of Holi and Mahashivratri.
Its widespread use caught the attention of Europeans, with Garcia da Orta, a Portuguese physician who arrived in Goa in the 16th century, noting that, “[Bhang] is so generally used and by such a number of people that there is no mystery about it”.
Enacted in 1985, the NDPS Act is the main legislation that deals with drugs and their trafficking. Various provisions of the Act punish production, manufacture, sale, possession, consumption, purchase, transport, and use of banned drugs, except for medical and scientific purposes.
The NDPS Act defines cannabis (hemp) as a narcotic drug based on the parts of the plant that come under its purview. The Act lists these parts as:
(a) Charas: “The separated resin, in whatever form, whether crude or purified, obtained from the cannabis plant and also includes concentrated preparation and resin known as hashish oil or liquid hashish.”
(b) Ganja: “The flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant (excluding the seeds and leaves when not accompanied by the tops), by whatever name they be known or designated.”
(c) “Any mixture, with or without any neutral material, of any of the above forms of cannabis or any drink prepared therefrom.”
The Act, in its definition, excludes seeds and leaves “when not accompanied by the tops”. Bhang, which is made with the leaves of the plant, is not mentioned in the NDPS Act.
As a “special provision”, the Act states that the government “may allow cultivation of any cannabis plant for industrial purposes only of obtaining fibre or seed or for horticultural purposes”.
Gorbachev and India (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3,International Relations)
Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Wednesday at the age of 92, came to the helm in the Soviet Union just a few months after a forced leadership change in India. Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 led to her son Rajiv Gandhi assuming the mantle.
The relationship between the two leaders, the Russian Rajiv’s senior by 15 years, inaugurated a five-year waltz between the two countries, ironically at a time when the Soviet Union itself was heading towards its eventual, spectacular collapse.
The fortunes of the two leaders rose and fell almost in tandem. Gorbachev succeeded Konstantin Chernenko as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in March 1985, a little more than four months after Rajiv became Prime Minister.
And in November 1989, as India voted to defeat Rajiv in that year’s parliamentary elections, the world was celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall that presaged the end of the Soviet Union.
Between May 1988 and February 1989, Gorbachev had pulled the Red Army out of Afghanistan. With the USSR falling apart, he was removed as leader of the CPSU in August 1991, and in December that year, the Soviet Union was formally dissolved.
Between 1985 and 1989, Rajiv and Gorbachev found enough common ground to mark a high point in India-Soviet relations — their differences over the Soviet leader’s idea of an “all-Asia forum” along the lines of the “common European home” notwithstanding. Rajiv, who had been labelled as a “pro-West” leader during his initial months in charge, belied Soviet fears of a change in the traditional relationship.
At the same time, Rajiv did not flinch from telling Gorbachev that Asian security was “an old concept”, and that India was against “countries…interfering, intervening in areas outside their own”. (Indo-Soviet Relations: The Rajiv Era: BushraGohar, 1987).
Arms sales from the Soviet Union to India continued to define much of the bilateral ties, picking up after a slowdown in the late 1970s following Indira’s refusal to become part of a Soviet- led security compact in Asia.
From the mid-1980s, the USSR was supplying more sophisticated hardware to India than earlier. P V Narasimha Rao, defence minister in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet, took a military delegation to Moscow for defence shopping and came back with several agreements.
Anti-Radiation Pills (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3,Science and Technology)
With fears of a nuclear disaster at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant growing, the European Union has decided to pre-emptively supply 5.5 million anti-radiation pills to be distributed among residents in the vicinity.
Those being handed out the pills are being told to only take them once a radiation leak has been confirmed. What are anti-radiation pills, and how do they protect people in case of a radiation emergency?
These are unplanned or accidental events that create radio-nuclear hazard to humans and the environment. Such situations involve radiation exposure from a radioactive source and require prompt intervention to mitigate the threat. Dealing with such an emergency also involves the use of anti-radiation tablets.
Potassium iodide (KI) tablets, or anti-radiation pills, are known to provide some protection in cases of radiation exposure. They contain non-radioactive iodine and can help block absorption, and subsequent concentration, of radioactive iodine in the thyroid gland.
After a radiation leak, radioactive iodine floats through the air and then contaminates food, water and soil. While radioactive iodine deposited during external exposure can be removed using warm water and soap, according to the World Health Organisation, the bigger risk is inhaling it.
Internal exposure, or irradiation, occurs when radioactive iodine enters the body and accumulates in the thyroid gland, says the WHO.
The thyroid gland, which uses iodine to produce hormones to regulate the body’s metabolism, has no way of telling radioactive from non-radioactive iodine.
Potassium iodide (KI) tablets rely on this to achieve ‘thyroid blocking’. KI pills taken a few hours before or soon after radiation exposure ensure that non-radioactive iodine in the medicine is absorbed quickly to make the thyroid “full”.
“Because KI contains so much non-radioactive iodine, the thyroid becomes full and cannot absorb any more iodine – either stable or radioactive – for the next 24 hours,” says the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
But KI pills are preventive only and cannot reverse any damage done by radiation to the thyroid gland. Once thyroid gland absorbs radioactive iodine, those exposed are at a high risk of developing thyroid cancer.
Anti-radiation pills do not provide 100% protection. “The effectiveness of KI also depends on how much radioactive iodine gets into the body and how quickly it is absorbed in the body.
Also, the pills are not meant for everybody. They are recommended for people under 40 years of age. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are also advised to take them. While it can protect the thyroid against radioactive iodine, it cannot protect other organs against radiation contamination.
Economy
Urban joblessness decline to 7.6% in April-June 2022: NSO (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above in urban areas declined to7.6per cent during April-June 2022 against 12.6 per cent a year ago, according to National Statistical Office (NSO).
Joblessness or unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons among the labour force. The rate was high in April-June 2021, mainly due to the staggering impact of Covid-related restrictions in the country.
Joblessness was high in April-June 2021 mainly due to the staggering impact of Covid-related restrictions in the country.
The latest data based on a periodic labour force survey, underlining a decline in unemployment rate amid improved labour force participation ratio, point towards a sustained economic recovery from the shadow of the pandemic.
The unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above in January-March 2022 was 8.2 per cent in urban areas, the 15th Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) showed.
It also showed that the unemployment rate among females (aged 15 years and above) in urban areas declined to 9.5 per cent in April-June, 2022 from 14.3 per cent a year ago. It was 10.1 per cent in January-March, 2022.
Among males, the unemployment rate in urban areas dipped to 7.1 per cent in April-June 2022 compared to 12.2 per cent a year ago. It was 7.7 per cent in January-March 2022.
Labour force participation rate in CWS (Current Weekly Status) in urban areas for persons aged 15 years and above increased to 47.5 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2022, from 46.8 per cent in the same period a year ago. It was 47.3 per cent in January-March 2022.
Labour force refers to the part of the population which supplies or offers to supply labour for pursuing economic activities for the production of goods and services and, therefore, includes both employed and unemployed persons.
NSO launched PLFS in April 2017. On the basis of PLFS, a quarterly bulletin is brought out giving estimates of labour force indicators namely unemployment rate, Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), distribution of workers by broad status in employment and industry of work in CWS.
The estimates of unemployed persons in CWS give an average picture of unemployment in a short period of seven days during the survey period.
In the CWS approach, a person is considered unemployed if he/she did not work even for one hour on any day during the week but sought or was available for work at least for one hour on any day during the period.