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Union Home Minister Amit Shah Sunday asked all states to modernise their prisons and said that a new law on jail reforms is coming soon.
He also called for a rehabilitative view of prisoners and jails, saying India’s incarceration system is prone to abuse because it was set up by the British to subjugate political prisoners.
Shah was speaking after inaugurating the All India Prison Duty Meet, a three-day event in Ahmedabad. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi, among others, were present.
At the event, Shah said the jail department is a major component of the nation’s internal security and should not be neglected.
There is a need to make jails modern and technologically adept with stringent security measures, and to introduce better living and health facilities, libraries, and training programmes for prisoners to help them get back to society and initiatives to promote mental development.
It is very important that the states give a lot of value to prisons. For that reason, the Narendra Modi government in 2016 introduced the ‘Model Prison Manual’ to replace the existing prison manual after a lot of discussion on these aspects.
Only 11 states and Centre-administered Union territories have adopted the new manual. I urge other states to accept the new manual without delay for prison reforms,” said the Union Home Minister.
In the manual, Shah said, the government considered aspects such as human rights, the rehabilitation of prisoners in society, the rights of female prisoners, laws for prison inspection and the right to education even for death row convicts.
I would also urge the states to introduce the facility of video conferencing for courts in at least every district jail. The new manual also has provisions to stop gangs in jail and keep those involved in radicalisation or those involved in narcotics cases in separate areas in jail.
Shah said that the government is also in talks with states to introduce a model Act for the prison system. “This will bring changes to the Act made by the British and I am confident that within the next six months, we will be able to bring the act to the table,” he said.
There is a need to change the view with which prisons are seen in our society. Not every prisoner is a criminal by nature. Many times, some incidents happen, and they get involved in various criminal acts and subsequently get punished for them. For a society to be fit and fine, the clause of punishment is important.
If there is no punishment, then there will be no fear and if there is no fear, there will not be any discipline and without discipline, we cannot imagine a healthy society. Punishment is necessary for society.
However, it is the responsibility of the jail administration to ensure that jails become a medium for such people who are not ‘born criminals’ or ‘criminals by nature’ to get back to society.”
Taliban using Indian Assistance for their own families ,not people in need :Ahmad Massoud (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, International Relations)
A year after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Ahmad Massoud — the founder and leader of National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, the key opposition to the Taliban — says the country has moved several steps back on all fronts.
In an exclusive interview to The Indian Express from an undisclosed location, the 33-year-old son of legendary fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was known as the Lion of Panjshir, talked about the situation in Afghanistan under Taliban, Pakistan’s role in supporting the Taliban and terrorist groups, and how he wants help from India in military logistics and the resistance from guerrilla fighters within Afghanistan.
I can say that under the rule of the Taliban, Afghanistan took not just one, or two but many big steps back, from political, social and economic development, and from tolerance, openness, acceptance and many other aspects of our society. We have lost the rule of law, institutions, and the trust of the people.
The minorities, like Sikhs and Shias, have lost their sense of security, safety and acceptance in society. We have lost the freedom of speech and we have lost freedom as a whole. Afghanistan has gone back to the dark ages.
I do not want power and my struggle is for justice right now. There is no such thing as justice in Afghanistan. My people are being targeted and persecuted. There is no freedom. There is no right for women or for other ethnicities.
There’s tyranny in my country. So in this situation, my fight, it is for justice and freedom. I do not want anything for myself as long as I see my country breathing the air of freedom and having a just government which is appointed by the people.
I believe that this was a good step, one evil man less in this world. However, it was not surprising for us that the Taliban was harbouring Zawahiri.
Our intelligence, from Taliban and Al Qaeda’s behaviour, indicated that the two are in complete cooperation. The Taliban are harbouring them, and many other terrorist groups are now active in Afghanistan.
They are walking around and operating freely. In the last one year, we have tried to explain to the world that giving in to the will of the Taliban is giving in to the will of terrorism as a whole.
We must put all the pressure required to make them accountable to international law, especially when it comes to countering terrorism, and also establishing a justice system.
Pakistan has always played this double game, that they always try to support the groups which destabilise other countries without understanding the consequences of it.
Right now, they have a lot of issues internally, too, and it is due to their own behaviour regarding the people of Afghanistan and the situation of Afghanistan.
They obviously accept it — that they supported the Taliban, they harboured them for the past 20 years. The leaders were found there, and if Afghanistan was not recaptured by the Taliban, we could definitely see the killing of Ayman Al Zawahiri — in Pakistan, instead of Kabul — just like Osama bin Laden. So Pakistan has supported and harboured Al Qaeda, the Taliban and many other groups.
Express Network
Most number of sedition cases in last 8 years came from Assam: NCRB data (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Assam recorded the most number of sedition cases in the country in the last eight years, according to an analysis of official data.
The data from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports showed that out of 475 sedition cases registered in the country between 2014 and 2021, Assam accounted for 69 cases — 14.52 per cent. This means that around one in six sedition cases registered in the country in the last eight years came from Assam.
The NCRB compiles and publishes crime statistics as reported by states and Union Territories, and data on sedition cases (registered under Section 124A of the IPC) is available since 2014.
The latest edition of the NCRB’s Crime in India report showed that 76 sedition cases were registered across the country in 2021, a marginal increase from the 73 registered in 2020. The number of these cases stood at 93 in 2019, 70 in 2018, 51 in 2017, 35 in 2016, 30 in 2015 and 47 in 2014.
A state-wise analysis of sedition cases shows that after Assam, the most number of such cases were reported from Haryana (42 cases), followed by Jharkhand (40), Karnataka (38), Andhra Pradesh (32) and Jammu and Kashmir (29). These six states accounted for 250 cases — more than half the number of total sedition cases recorded in the country — in the eight-year period.
Of Assam’s 69 sedition cases registered in that period, three were from 2021, 12 from 2020, 17 from 2019, 17 again from 2018, 19 from 2017 and one from 2014. No sedition case was registered in the state in 2015 and 2016.
Nine other states and UTs registered sedition cases in double digits in the last eight years — Manipur (28), Uttar Pradesh (27), Bihar (25), Kerala (25), Nagaland (17), Delhi (13), Himachal Pradesh (12), Rajasthan (12) and West Bengal (12).
Three states — Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana — reported eight sedition cases each in the 2014-21 period, while Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh registered six cases and Goa four.
Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Lakshadweep registered just one sedition case each. Sikkim and Tripura recorded two sedition cases, and Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat registered three each.
States and UTs that did not register even one sedition case in that period were Meghalaya, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Puducherry.
Editorial Page
Building the future (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The Prime Minister has called for “Energy Atmanirbharta” by 2040. I offer below 10 suggestions for achieving this objective.
First, definitional clarity. Atmanirbharta translates literally to self-reliance. Many interpret it to mean self-sufficiency. That should not be our goal. Energy self-sufficiency is infeasible and uneconomic. A better statement of intent would be “strategic autonomy”.
Second, prioritise access to fossil fuels. The transition to a green energy system will take long. American factories took four decades to shift from steam power to electric power.
This was because they had to be redesigned, if not rebuilt. Our policy must continue to emphasise affordable and secure access to oil and gas. Part of this objective could be met by intensifying domestic exploration.
We must recognise, however, the low probability of finding substantive, additional domestic resources of hydrocarbons. Our geology is complex. Also, the fact that even if we were successful in making discoveries, it may be difficult to produce them on commercially viable terms. This is because of high exploration and development costs.
The larger point is our PSUs do not have an impressive track record in this respect. We must ask, therefore, whether scarce public resources should continue to be directed towards this high-risk, capital-intensive activity.
Third, prioritise access to the building blocks of green energy. We have ambitious targets for renewables. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has forecast that wind and solar energy will make up around 51 per cent of the installed power generation capacity of 830 GW by 2030.
This will be an increase from 22 per cent today. The sine qua non for realising this forecast will be cost-competitive access to minerals/components (copper, cobalt, lithium, semiconductor chips etc) required to build EVs, solar panels, wind turbines and batteries.
The problem is these commodities are concentrated in countries that are not on the same political page with India. A study by S&P Global has noted, for instance, that 38 per cent of copper is produced from Chile and Peru.
These countries have left-wing governments unreceptive to private sector mining. Further, China controls 47 per cent of copper smelting and 42 per cent of copper refining.
Rajesh Chadha and Ganesh Sivamani (CSEP ) have noted in their paper, “Critical Minerals for India: Assessing their criticality and projecting their need for green technologies,” India has some resources such as cobalt, nickel and heavy rare earth metals but it has done little to expedite their mining and processing.
China’s Taiwan Misadventure (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
As a reaction to the visit of United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, China has been conducting provocative military drills in the Taiwan Strait.
Chinese drones have been intruding on Taiwan’s airspace, which forced Taiwan to shoot down a drone recently. While the world assesses the political and economic costs of a revisionist China that will not shy away from using force to achieve its territorial ambitions, an important question is will Beijing’s use of force against Taiwan be consistent with international law?
One of the scathing criticisms of the League of Nations (predecessor of the United Nations) was that it failed to outlaw war. This failure was partly responsible for the Second World War, after which the UN was established.
The Charter of the UN outlaws war in clear terms. This is evident from the Preamble and Articles 1 and 2 of the Charter. For example, Article 2.4 states that “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”
The only situation where the UN Charter allows for war is those given in Article 51, which recognises the “inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs” against a UN member state.
Two points must be noted here: First, the provisions relate to a “state”, and second, the right of self-defence is triggered only in the case of an “armed attack”.
Arguably, if Taiwan is not a “state”, as China contends, Article 2(4) of the UN Charter does not protect Taiwan’s territorial integrity or political independence. Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention provides that to qualify as a state, an entity must have a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government; and d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.
Taiwan satisfies all these criteria. It is a prosperous country, with robust democracy, and a well-functioning government. Its political and economic systems are diametrically opposed to that of China.
It has existed as an independent entity, outside the control of China for more than 70 years. However, despite all of this, Taiwan has never formally declared its political independence.
Thus, its statehood in international law remains disputed. Nonetheless, as many international lawyers assert, Taiwan is a stabilised “de facto” state that has a comparable right to self-defence just like any other UN member.
In other words, even if the question of Taiwan’s statehood has not been settled under international law, nothing gives China the right to either use or threaten to use force against it. Pelosi’s visit per se can’t be invoked as a justification for launching an armed attack.
Idea Page
Feeding humanity, saving the planet (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Agriculture/Environment)
There is increasing awareness that humans are over-exploiting this planet’s natural resource endowment. This may boomerang and threaten the very existence of humanity.
Whether it is a question of survival or prosperity of the human race, one thing is clear: Lands are degrading, especially the topsoil that is crucial for providing us with food, animal feed and fibre. Groundwater is depleting and its quality is becoming poorer with the increasing use of chemical fertilisers and other industrial waste.
The air that we breathe is becoming polluted at an alarming rate in certain parts of the world, especially in India, where at times it is difficult to even breathe in a city like Delhi when stubble burning peaks in farmers’ fields in Punjab and Haryana. As a result of many of these factors and some more, even biodiversity is taking a hit.
Against this backdrop, the moot question that arises is: What is the real cause behind such a rapid deterioration in nature’s wealth and whether humanity will be able to feed itself in a sustainable manner.
Are there any silver linings on the horizon with improved scientific knowledge? Or do we need to go back to natural farming/organic farming to survive? These are some of the questions weighing over every awakened citizen’s mind.
The extreme weather events such as the recent heat waves in Europe and Asia alongside droughts and floods in other areas, exacerbate these issues even more.
What we know is that roughly it took more than 2,00,000 years for homo sapiens to evolve into the current form of mankind. In 1804, for the first time in history, the human population touched one billion.
The next billion was added in 123 years with the count touching two billion by 1927. Several major breakthroughs in medical science ensured that the next billion was added in just 33 years by 1960.
Thereafter, humanity progressed even faster, no matter that a country like India faced a “ship to mouth” situation on the food front. The next billion was added in just 14 years with the population reaching four billion in 1974.
The next billion took just 13 years (five billion in 1987), 11 years thereafter (six billion in 1998), 12 years thereon (seven billion in 2010), and another 12 years to touch eight billion in 2022.
This explosive growth of humans, with higher and higher aspirations, has created a huge imbalance between the demands of people and the capacity of this planet to supply them in a sustainable manner.
Can this planet provide food for all through natural farming without the use of any chemical fertilisers, pesticides, modern high yielding varieties of seeds, etc? Many governments, religious organisations, and some NGOs and individuals believe that there is no option but to go back to nature and practice organic/natural farming.
Sri Lanka, for example, wanted to get rid of chemical fertilizers. Even in India, we have some states (like Sikkim) declared as organic states, and many others are attempting to do so.
Explained Page
Why launches have windows (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Space agency NASA had to abort its Artmemis-1 mission to the moon for the second time in a week, after the discovery of a liquid hydrogen leak during the fuelling of the rocket engine’s tanks.
A similar problem had aborted the scheduled launch of the mission last Sunday (August 29) as well. At that time, there was also an issue of insufficient cooling of one of the four engines of the rocket.
Over the week, NASA engineers had worked on the problems and thought they had fixed it. But the liquid hydrogen leakage recurred multiple times during the fuelling ahead of Saturday night’s launch, with engineers continuously engaged in firefighting.
NASA was targeting a two-hour launch window, starting 11.47 pm India time. There are launch windows available on September 5 and September 6, but it was not clear whether NASA would take another shot at sending the mission so soon.
Nelson said the mission management team would explore all the possibilities, but that the launch looked more likely to happen in October now.
“If it has to happen in October, though the launch window opens in early October, it would more likely happen in the middle of October,” he said, citing the scheduled departure of a space crew to the International Space Station in early October.
Nelson, a former US Senator who has himself made a space flight aboard Space Shuttle Columbia’s 24th mission in 1986, said launch postponements were not unexpected. He recalled that his own space flight had gone in the fifth attempt.
Artemis-1 is supposed to be the start of a new generation of interplanetary space missions whose specific purpose is to get humans back on the moon, and then much deeper into space, hopefully on other planets as well.
Artemis-1 is not carrying any astronauts though. It is an exploratory mission, meant to set up the foundation for more ambitious missions in the future that aspire to set up permanent base stations on the moon.
Fifty years after the Apollo missions took humans to the lunar surface for the first time, there is a renewed interest now in going back to the moon, this time with the intent of staying longer, set up permanent bases, and use the moon as the launch pad for deep space missions.
Who can enter ATC complex in India (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
Delhi Police have registered an FIR accusing the deputy commissioner of Deoghar of sedition after the IAS officer reported to the Jharkhand government that two BJP MPs had entered Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the airport and forced officials to clear their aircraft for take-off even though the airport does not have facilities for night operations.
According to a complaint filed with Jharkhand Police on September 1 by airport security in-charge SumanAnand, Godda MP Nishikant Dubey, North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari, and some others including Dubey’s two sons violated “safety standards” by entering the ATC room the previous evening and pressuring officials to grant take-off clearance after the air services window had closed for the day.
On Saturday evening, the DC, ManjunathBhajantri, and the MP, Dubey, accused each other of violating rules on entering restricted areas of the airport. The Delhi Police FIR, which is based on a complaint by Dubey, said the DC “had entered the Deoghar airport’s secured DRDO-restricted area where one goes only after PMO’s permission”.
A person who is not a passenger with a valid ticket requires an Aerodrome Entry Permit (AEP) that is issued by the airport operator in concurrence with the security agency in charge of the airport.
Typically, at the bigger airports, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) undertakes the security responsibilities, while at a smaller airport like Deoghar, it is the state police that manages security.
The security in-charge of Deoghar airport is Deputy Superintendent of Police SumanAnand, who was the complainant in the case.
Air traffic control, as the name suggests, is the traffic control room for aircraft at airports and in certain designated airspaces, from where ground-based air traffic controllers direct aircraft movements.
The controllers use equipment including radar to track aircraft, and communicate with pilots over radio. The ATC complex typically has a tower, which may be attached to a building.
The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says “the primary purpose of the ATC system is to prevent a collision between aircraft operating in the system and to organize and expedite the flow of (air) traffic”.
Under certain circumstances, the ATC may have security or defence responsibilities as well, and may be manned by military officers.
It does not happen automatically; prior approval is needed to enter the ATC building. The AEP application form, which is issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), mentions 13 zones that a person can potentially enter.
Among them are the arrivals hall, the departures hall, the terminal building, the security hold area, the apron area, the ATC building, the ATC tower, the cargo terminal building, etc.
Ramon Magsaysay of Philippines, and his stance on communism (Page no. 14)
(Miscellaneous)
On Sunday, in response to a report that the CPI (M) had vetoed her selection as a finalist for the international Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2022, former Kerala health minister K KShailaja said that she had consented to her party’s decision.
Shailaja said that in view of the anti-communist stance of Ramon Magsaysay, the former Philippines president whose legacy the prestigious award honours, and for its foundation’s decision to consider her as an individual recipient for what was a state initiative, she had declined her nomination.
Launched in 1958, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, widely considered to be Asia’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize, recognises outstanding leadership and communitarian contributions in Asia.
This year’s annual list of awardees was announced last week. Shailaja was considered for the award for her performance as state health minister from 2016 to 2021, a period which saw Kerala fight against the Nipah virus and Covid-19.
Born on August 31, 1907 to a father who worked as a blacksmith and a mother who was a teacher, Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay Senior was the seventh president of the Philippines, from 1953 until his death in an air crash in 1957.
Magsaysay started out as an automobile mechanic before being drafted into the Pacific War (1941-1945), during World War II.
The Pacific War would see the Japanese occupation of the Philippines — then a colony of the US — for nearly four years. The US formally recognised the Philippines as an independent nation in 1946.
As a guerrilla leader resisting the Japanese occupation, Magsaysay’s bravery and leadership saw his appointment as a military governor.
In 1946, he would be elected under the Liberal Party to the Philippine House of Representatives, where he would serve two terms as a Congressman before being appointed secretary of National Defence in 1950.
On December 30, 1953, he would be elected president from the Nationalist Party, the oldest political party in the Philippines.
Founded in 1902, the Unión ObreraDemocrática is considered the first modern trade federation in Philippines.The Communist Party of the Philippines or the PartidoKomunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) was formed in 1930.
The Hukbong Bayan Laban saHapon or the People’s Army Against the Japanese, popularly known as the Hukbalahap (Huk), was a prominent guerrilla outfit that fought the Japanese.
As the country plunged into post-war chaos after 1946, the fortunes of the Hukbalahaps, too, changed dramatically. With the expansion of capitalism, the gap between the rich and poor widened and the farmers continued to languish. Huk leaders were viewed with suspicion over their declaration of commitment to communism and the demand for peasant rights.
With the US as its close ally, the Philippine government cracked down on the Huks, who formed an alliance with the PKP to take their struggle to a parliamentary platform.
The severe crackdown against the Huks continued until Magsaysay became the National Defence Secretary under President ElpidioQuirino. Magsaysay drew upon his own experience of guerrilla warfare to initiate a two-pronged system of reforms and military campaigns. It was under his administrative and military policies that the Huk threat was considered to be neutralised.
Economy
Online gaming: Lens on winners to pay taxes, update ITRs (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Tax authorities on both the direct and indirect tax side are raising scrutiny for possible evasion in one major upcoming sector — online gaming.
Direct tax officials are learnt to be scrutinising data for winnings to the tune of Rs 58,000 crore over a span of three years for an online gaming platform, urging taxpayers to come forward and pay taxes.
Meanwhile, a Group of Ministers (GoM) will meet Monday to discuss the contours of Goods and Services Tax (GST) for online gaming, horse racing and casinos.
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Nitin Gupta has urged taxpayers to come forward and report the undeclared winnings from the online gaming platform in the facility for updated returns, which allows taxpayers to update their information for last two assessment years, i.e. FY20 and FY21.
It is an Indian (online gaming) company … requesting the winners to come forward and file the updated return to pay the tax. Whatsoever data we have, we will proceed forward.
Taxpayers should come forward voluntarily and it is the best thing. Some may have earned more and some less, some might have earned in millions and some in small amounts. They are usually in a ledger account and they merge win and loss, it (data) is humongous.
GameKing, Dream 11, Nazara Technologies are some big players in the online gaming industry. The online gaming industry is currently contributing more than Rs 2,200 crores of GST, as per a recent study by EY and Assocham.
Tax authorities are asking taxpayers to make use of the updated returns facility introduced under Section 139 (8A) in this year’s Budget to report any such undeclared transactions.
As per the Income Tax Department, over 1.55 lakh updated ITRs have been filed up to September 2 and more than 20,000 taxpayers have filed updated ITRs for both AYs 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Over Rs 50 crore worth of undeclared tax payments have come in through these updated returns. In times to come, this is expected to increase.
Winnings from lottery or prize money in a competition are liable to a flat rate of tax at 30 per cent without any basic exemption limit. In such a case, the payer of prize money will generally deduct tax at source (TDS) from the winnings and will pay only the balance amount.
No expenses allowed. If you have lost the game, nothing is allowed. Each win is taxed. It is like a lottery. Loss cannot be adjusted against the win. We are looking into it and the figure could be huge. We have collected some data on that. We leave it to taxpayers to come forward and pay taxes as there is a facility of updated returns.