Daily Mains Practice Questions 04-01-2023

KINDLY REVIEW

KINDLY REVIEW

KINDLY REVIEW

1) KEY POINTS

·        The UN’s World Drug Report 2022 (WDR) stated that in 2020, one in every 18 people an astounding 284 million people had used a drug in the past 12 months.

·        Per latest data published by National Crime Records Bureau, 1,052 kg of heroin was seized in 2021, a staggering increase from 343 kg and 137 kg in 2020 and 2019 respectively.

·        India’s 15,106.7 km land border and 7516.6 km coastline makes it vulnerable to narcotics smuggling.

·        The North-East States that share borders with Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, China, and Bhutan are the hot-spots for drug smuggling.

·        The location of India with the ‘golden crescent’ on one side and the ‘golden triangle’ on the other makes it all the more vulnerable to drug smuggling.

·        Given the addictive nature, youth are particularly susceptible to fall prey to drugs and concerted effort is needed tackle the issue not only at the borders but also internally.

·        Drug and alcohol addiction centres should be supported and non-stigmatised, leveraging the support of CSR initiatives of corporates.

·        There should be greater coordination between Customs and other enforcement agencies to break the backbone of drug syndicates.

·        Dedicated further capacity building of canine squads in Customs along with leveraging technology to improve detection can be considered.

2) KEY POINTS

·        It is an oft-repeated judicial view that courts must defer to the elected government’s judgment in matters of economic and social policy.

·        The scope of judicial intervention was only to examine the decision-making process, but the majority has given its uncritical endorsement to the process, terming it to be free of flaws.

·        It has upheld the government’s power to demonetise notes without quantitative restrictions and accepted the claim that there was adequate consultation between the Union government, which initiated the proposal, and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

·        What might seem distressing about the majority verdict is that it has made light of the enormous suffering of the people that demonetisation entailed.

·        These are limited by context to say neither individual suffering nor errors of judgment can be cited to invalidate the action.

·        It is unfortunate that the court had nothing critical to say about the government failing to anticipate the ruinous effect of extinguishing the value of 86% of available currency on the economy and the immense miseries it heaped on the population.

·        In a larger sense, of course, a judicial rap on policy questions matters little. But it might give governments cause for pause before implementing decisions with far-reaching consequences for the people.

3) KEY POINTS

·        In a move to bring more transparency and structure to the market, SEBI shared a consultation paper on the regulatory framework for index providers.

·        The most prominent indices in India are the Nifty50 by NSE Indices, and Sensex provided by a venture of S&P Dow Jones Indices and BSE Lied.

·        The regulations have come after a series of consultations with various stakeholders.

·        The proposed regulations require the index providers to ensure the integrity and independence of the index determination process.

·        The data, processes and interests of the determination of the index need to be kept sacrosanct from any other business interests.

·        SEBI proposes that the index providers need to consider all relevant data for creating an index.

·        It also needs to exercise enough care and caution to ensure that there is no distortion of the data.

·        It needs to exercise due diligence in the on-boarding of data submitters. And, importantly, the index provider has to ensure that the data submitters source data from only regulated entities and no other sources.

·        With the exponential increase in the number of passive funds and the asset under management of these funds, the governance of the indices assumes greater significance.

2)demonitisation