Humans Collective

The HINDU editorial notes for UPSC September 27,2019   1) Subject to people's will: On Karnataka by-polls pic source: nammakpsc.com Earlier this year ,Karnataka assembly speaker disqualified some MLAs on ground of defection and banned them from contesting election until the life of the current assembly.  The Election commission has agreed to defer by-election to 15 of 17 assembly seats in karnataka until Supreme court decides the fate of the defectors. The Tenth schedule (Anti defection law) has a lot of gray areas,it provides  the speaker complete  authority to decide on defection ,but if decision were found to be in malafide intent ,then the aggrieved MLAs can approach the court.Using this clause ,the MLAs petitioned in supreme court against the speaker's decision. Instead of the courts or speakers deciding the fate of defectors,let them contest again and let people of  their constituency decide their fate.          To read complete source arti

The HINDU editorial notes for UPSC September 26,2019 1) The Real Deal,On India-U.S. trade deal Despite all the bonhomie between US president and Indian PM Modi ,both sides failed to arrive at a limited trade deal. The most concerning issue was the Indian tariff of 20% on ICT products which US wants to be reduced.India put those tariff  in order to check influx of Chinese electronic goods. pic source: deccanherald America has also asked India to open up its diary , agriculture products and medical devices market.They are politically and economically crucial sectors for India.Trump's desperation to show a trade deal victory before an election year is looming over the trade negotiations Trump's tariff tactics to succumb China didn't work ,He should not repeat the same with India.  Trump must remember that a trade deal is not one side bullying another side to succumb to its interests ,both the parties have to believe in a policy of give and take for a

The HINDU editorial notes for UPSC September 25,2019 1) Climate for action: On UN Climate Action Summit                   pic source: loksatta.com  Prime Minister Modi, in his address to UN Climate action summit asked all the countries" to walk the talk" on climate change control measures. PM Modi also announced that India will enhance its renewable energy  capacity from 175 GW to 450 GW by 2022 to meet its NDC(Nationally Determined Contribution) India despite being third largest polluter in absolute terms, is still not a major polluter on per capita emission standards as well as on historic emissions thanks to environment  friendly behavior of most of its citizens. Thus India taking strident steps towards renewable and e-Vehicles is a welcome move But there are some conflicting signals by Indian Government as well,namely policy announcements such opening of 100% FDI in coal plants,future reliance on coal plants etc Besides the NAPCC(National Action Plan

The HINDU editorial notes September 23,2019   1) The Nationalist hindrance to Climate actions                        pic credits: foreignpolicy.com On September 20 , global climate strike led by youngsters took place across many parts of the world Recent events like heat waves in Europe  and unprecedented floods across many parts of world have awakened many people to the realities of climate change But still the political and economic discourse has not changed much., rising tide of Nationalist politics across the world has made matters worse by prioritizing short term national interests over global emergencies In such a political scenario ,the UN secretary general has convened a Global climate action summit Summit aims to achieve two things:- Countries are urged to enhance pledges for action made as part of the Paris agreement on lower emissions. Even after repeated requests by the scientific community as well as youth movements ,the major economies of the worl

 Topic: India-ASEAN FTA review Why in News? India and the 10-member ASEAN have agreed to initiate a review of the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in goods to make it “more user-friendly, simple and trade facilitative”. India is not happy about the fact that its trade deficit with ASEAN has widened significantly since the pact was implemented in January 2010. A NITI Aayog study reveals that India’s trade deficit with ASEAN doubled to $10 billion in 2017 from $5 billion in 2011. A review of the India-ASEAN FTA would make the pact simpler and more user-friendly. In the joint statement, the ministers of both sides welcomed the recommendations of the ASEAN-India Business Council to further promote the potential of bilateral trade through the utilisation of the ASEAN-India FTA as well as furthering cooperation in some areas of mutual interest, such as financial technology, connectivity, start-ups and innovation, empowerment of youth, and women and MSME developmen

The HINDU editorial notes September 21,2019 1) An Independent fiscal watchdog for Parliament The Rafale controversy highlighted the need of an independent and nonpartisan  facts collection body for the benefit of parliamentarians and electorate. Besides the amount of information that Parliamentarians have to scrutinize in budget document has exponentially increased in recent times. Thus there is a  need for an independent fiscal watch dog along the lines of  Parliamentary Budget Offices(PBO) of UK,Australia. PBOs need not always be seen as challenger to Government statistics and ministries ,it might as well  augment and verify the government's statistics.                     pic credits: livemint.com                How PBO differs from the existing Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) ? CAG provides retrospective analysis of financial accounts and Government operation, thus CAG acts as a mere fact checker. While a PBO would provide prospective future

THE HINDU EDITORIAL NOTES September 20,2019   1) Over the hills and far, far away In last week of July ,eleven Himalayan states of Indian met in Dehradun demanding a Green Bonus or a payment for environmental services they provide to the nation. The states asked for help to develop hydro power resources , subsidies to compensate for their environmental protection measures . Be it political social or economic ,Indian mainstream plains based culture has found it difficult to come to terms with specificity of Himalayan region. Many notable scholars have researched and written about this issue of how structurally different are the Himalayan regions from the Indian mainstream in terms of their social and economic structure.But hardly these research findings are translated into policy formula . This integration problem of Mountainside lifestyle with majoritarian plain inhabiting people is not unique to India.China , Myanmar , Thailand also experience the same problem.   

THE HINDU EDITORIAL Analysis and Notes September 19,2019 1) Obama was right about Iran                 pic credits: express.co.uk This article compares Obama’s carrot and stick approach towards Iran with that of Trump’s unilateral maximum pressure approach When Trump pulled US unilaterally out of the Iran nuclear deal ,he felt that Iran would eventually cave into another deal under maximum pressure of sanctions But to Trump’s dismay, Iran retaliated for Trump's unpredictability with its own unpredictable behavior and retaliated for Trump's maximum pressure with maximum resistance. Post US withdrawal from nuclear deal and subsequent unilateral sanctions , Iran initially waited for other signatories of the deal (P5+EU +Germany) to react, but they remained mere spectators in front of US unilateral sanctions Iran then upped its ante through two pronged approach Firstly a step by step violation of JCPOA nuclear deal Secondly Iran believes that if it cannot m

THE HINDU EDITORIAL NOTES September 18,2019 1) Red sea red lines and Yemen's inflection point Yemen is currently embroiled in a civil war between the Saudi supported Government forces and Iran backed Houthi rebels. Yemen although located at Southwest of oil rich Arab peninsula ,is a poor country ,due to lack of oil resources and decades long ethnic strife between northern Shia dominated groups and southern Sunni dominated groups. The year 1930 saw Yemen being coerced by powerful neighbor Saudi Arabia to cede some territories,this was first of many foreign intervention in Yemen's politics. In 1960s war to depose Imam and to establish Republic , Saudi Arabia rooted for monarchy and Egypt backed republican forces,finally a Yemeni republic was established.A fully united Yemen was founded on 1990,but secessionist elements of south tried to cede away . Since 2000 there has been insurrection movement against top leaders ,in 2011 the Yemeni Arab spring movement took pl