Daily Mains Practice Questions 03-01-2023

1) KEY POINTS

·        The prison administration has incorporated stringent security measures in the design such as constructing high walls between cells to prevent inmates from viewing others.

·        With this prison design, the Delhi prison administration is essentially creating solitary confinement which will have a severe detrimental effect on prisoners’ mental health.

·        Prisons in India are still governed by the Prisons Act, 1894, a colonial legislation which treats prisoners as sub-par citizens, and provides the legal basis for punishment to be retributive, rather than rehabilitative.

·        It is helpful to look towards President Murmu’s timely and emphatic clarion call at the Constitutional Day speeches, where she insightfully noted that progress is antithetical to setting up prisons, and we must address congestion in prisons in non-carceral ways.

·        These could include releasing unwell or old inmates, reducing penalties, allowing bail at affordable costs, employing anti-carceral ways of holding people accountable for their crimes, and expediting trials.

·        The primary reason why prisons are overcrowded is because India has not done enough to truly prevent crime.

·        As the three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice U.U. Lalit recently quoted Oscar Wilde while commuting a death sentence, we must recognise that ‘Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.’

2) KEY POINTS

·        The Ukraine-Russia war followed by sanctions has had an interesting fallout  the opening of doors for foreign trade in local currency.

·        Trade still carries on with Russia with payments being made through third parties, which is also common when commodities are dealt with globall.

·        Typically, two countries run either a deficit or surplus with the other. Therefore, one country will end up getting more of the other currency.

·        If India is able to breakthrough with rupee trade with some of them, it would help in conserving forex.

·        A broader issue one needs to look at when considering rupee trade is while it would be possible to group countries with similar mindsets.

·        Therefore matching of countries is important, involving a mix of both the countries with whom we have surplus and deficit.

·        The need to have trade in domestic currencies is compelling because US will be using the tool of sanctions against countries that it believes are going wrong on the political side.

·        This can lead to also putting an embargo on dealing through SWIFT, the international clearance system for currencies.

·        The Russia-Ukraine conflict exposes these vulnerabilities for the rest of the world.

3) KEY POINTS

·        The Government of India is paying special attention to the development of border villages, especially from a security perspective.

·        Borders could be permanently secured only when border villages are populated by patriotic citizens who are concerned for the country.

·        the Vibrant Village Programme (VVP), announced by the Centre in the 2022 Budget, to promote development and communication in border villages.

·        The scheme is for funding development of “border villages with sparse population, limited connectivity and infrastructure (that) often get left out from the development gains.

·        The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed Parliament on March 29, 2022 that plans were afoot for the convergence of existing schemes into the new one; and an implementation framework, fund requirements and other modalities were being finalised.

·        One year after it was announced, there is little clarity on the details of VVP, including on the question of whether it will cover all border areas or only the northern border with China as mentioned in the Budget.

·        Holding border areas close to the rest of the country is a dynamic challenge and requires a sensitive approach.

·        Borders divide people of shared ethnic and cultural heritage, who are unmoved by rivalries of nations that animate strategists. They should not be challenged to be the vanguards of patriotism.

3)border villaged

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