Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

Editorials are covered separately. HINDU NOTES are available free date wise| CLICK HERE

Gender gap in wages, unemployment

News

• Gender equality still remains a distant dream in economic participation in Despite achieving parity in the field of education, Kerala faces the ignominy of having the highest female unemployment rate in the country.
• While the overall unemployment rate in Kerala stood at 6.7%, a wide gender gap of 14.1% for women and 2.9% for men existed, according to the Gender Statistics 2017-18 which was released by the Department of Economics and Statistics (DES).

Findings

• The national average in both unemployment rate for women and men stood at 2.2%.
• The scenario existed despite the State maintaining higher economic growth rate than many other States and ensuring relatively high literacy level among women. Highlighting gender parity in literacy in Kerala, youth literacy levels for male and female stood at 99.04 and 99.03 respectively.
• The DES findings, derived from the latest National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data for 2011-12, also provided an insight into the employment disparity. The rural and urban divide in unemployment rate for female in Kerala is narrow unlike at the all-India level, in which the corresponding rate for female in rural areas is often double than those in urban areas.
• The study summarised that while gender bias is more pronounced in Kerala, it is the spatial bias that is more pronounced at the all-India level.
• Wage discrimination in the State remained much higher than the national average with men receiving almost double than women among casual labourers. While the average remuneration of male casual labourers is ₹345.14 in rural areas and ₹335.76 in urban areas, those received by their female counterparts were ₹169.61 in rural areas and ₹167.56 in urban areas. The gender gap at the national level is not as significant.
• However, the gender differential in wages among regular wage/salaried employees showed equal pattern at both the State and national levels. Here, the gender gap in wages in the rural sector is ₹128 in Kerala and ₹121 at the national level, and ₹107 in Kerala and ₹104 at the national level in the urban sector.
• Shedding light on the structure of employment, more than one-third of women workers (38%) in Kerala were in the tertiary sector, much higher than the national average (17%). Notably, females outnumbered males in the primary sector both in Kerala and at the national level.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Order on surveillance meant to protect privacy, govt. tells SC

News

• The Centre told the Supreme Court that its notification allowing 10 central agencies to snoop on people is in fact a measure to protect citizens’ privacy.

Beyond News

• The order allows central agencies, from the Intelligence Bureau to the Central Board of Direct Taxes to the Cabinet Secretariat (RAW) to the Commissioner of Delhi Police, to intercept, monitor and de-crypt “any information” generated, transmitted, received or stored in “any computer resource”.
• The order is based on Section 69 (1) of the Information Technology Act of 2000 and Rule 4 of the Information Technology 2009 Rules (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009.
• Turning the argument on its head, the Centre said the order, in fact, limits the power of surveillance to these 10 central agencies and none other.
• It said the very purpose of the order is to ensure that surveillance is done as per due process of law; that any interception, monitoring, decryption of computer resource is done only by authorised agencies and with approval of competent authority; to prevent unauthorised use of these powers by any agency, individual or intermediary so that the right to privacy of citizen is not violated.
• The government said surveillance is necessary “in the modern world where modern tools of information communication, including encryption, is used”. Surveillance is done only in the defence of India, to maintain public order, etc.
• The affidavit explained how there are “grave threats to the country from terrorism, radicalisation, cross border terrorism, cyber crime, drug cartels”, and these cannot be ignored or under-stated. There is a need for “speedy collection of actionable intelligence” to counter threat to national interests.

‘J&K ordinance cleared by Union Cabinet doesn’t tinker with 35A or 370’

News

• The Union Cabinet approved the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 that will pave the way to extend reservation in jobs, promotions and education to people living 10 km from the International Border (IB) in Jammu.

Beyond News

• Earlier the benefits were only reserved for people living 10 km beyond the Line of Control (LoC) and affected by shelling and firing from across the border.
• The ordinance in no way affected the rights of people of the State nor did it tinker with Article 35-A, which provides special rights and privileges to permanent residents of J&K. The 740 km LoC in J&K is under the operational control of the Army and 192 km IB in Jammu is manned by the BSF.
• People living along the IB in Jammu live under similar conditions as those along the LoC. They also face continuous shelling and firing from across the border. While the population along the LoC was getting reservation benefits, those along the IB were not. Through this ordinance the anomaly has been corrected. It has nothing to do with altering 35A or Article 370.
• Since the State was under President’s rule, the ordinance had to be cleared by the Centre. An ordinance to implement the 10% reservation quota for the economically weaker sections, as passed by the Parliament earlier this year, was also cleared by the President.

Wg Cmdr Abhinandan returns to India

News

• Pakistan released Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured on February 27 after the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) violated the Indian airspace and downed his MiG 21 ‘Bison’ aircraft in an engagement on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

Beyond News

• He bailed out and landed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
• Reports said he shot down a Pakistan F-16 before being hit.
• On February 26, India bombed terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s (JeM) biggest training camp at Balakot in Pakistan.
• This was preceded by the JeM’s car bombing of a CRPF convoy on February 14that killed 40 personnel of the para-military force in Pulwama.  

Cabinet okays National Mineral Policy 2019

News

The Union Cabinet approved the National Mineral Policy 2019.

• The policy is aimed at bringing about more effective regulation to the sector as well as a more sustainable approach while addressing the issues of those affected by mining.

Beyond News

• The aim of National Mineral Policy 2019 is to have a more effective, meaningful and implementable policy that brings in further transparency, better regulation and enforcement, balanced social and economic growth as well as sustainable mining practices.
• Some of the features in the policy include the introduction of the right of first refusal for the reconnaissance permit (RP) and prospecting license holders, encouraging the private sector to take up exploration and the auctioning of virgin areas on a revenue- sharing basis.
• In a separate decision, the Union Cabinet gave its ex-post facto approval for the creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the disinvestment of Air India and its subsidiaries and joint ventures.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

At OIC meet, India flays terror funding

News

• In a major diplomatic move, India hit out at Pakistan during a meeting of Foreign Ministers at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
• In a speech at the inaugural plenary of the 46th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj stressed that the anti-terror fight was not a clash among civilisations.

Beyond News

• India is not a member of the OIC, but was invited to the Abu Dhabi meeting as the guest of honour.
• The speech by the Indian Minister was overshadowed by the current tension between India and Pakistan.
• As External Affairs Minister delivered her address that touched upon the rich relations between India and various Islamic countries, a chair meant for Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi remained empty as he had cancelled the trip to Abu Dhabi.
• In a strong statement, the Pakistan Foreign Minister protested the OIC’s decision to grant a “guest of honour” status to India. Mr Qureshi’s letter argued India has no “legal or moral grounds” for being present at the meeting.
• External Affairs Minister named countries like Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh for the support extended for building ties with OIC. The Minister also named Afghanistan, Indonesia, Brunei, Egypt, Iran, Tunisia and the African and Central Asian members of the OIC for maintaining historic and multi-layered ties with India.

Union Cabinet approves software product policy

News

• The Union Cabinet approved the National Policy on Software Products 2019 that aims to help the industry grow at CAGR of 40% to reach $70-80 billion by 2025, while creating employment opportunities for 3.5 million people.

Beyond News

• The policy aims to adopt a shift in strategy so that IT products also contribute equitably and significantly to the industry along with IT services.
• In a statement, the government said that initially an outlay of Rs. 1,500 crore is being planned for various schemes under in policy in the next seven years.
• Further, the policy proposes to create a Rs. 5,000-crore fund with industry participation to promote emerging technology such as Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Big Data and robotics. Of this, government contribution will be Rs. 1,000 crore.
• The SPDF will be financially managed by a professional financial institution.
• Presently, total revenue of IT-ITeS industry in India is pegged at about $168 billion (including e-commerce), with revenue of about $7.1 billion from software product industry, of which $2.3 billion is from exports.
• The policy, which aims to increase share of Indian software products in global market by tenfold, pitches for nurturing of 10,000 technology start-ups in software product industry, including 1,000 such start-ups in tier-II and tier-III towns.
• It also proposes up-skilling of 10 lakh IT professionals as well specialise 10,000 professionals to “provide leadership.”

CLICK HERE TO SEE DATE WISE CURRENT AFFAIRS