IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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Citizenship law India’s internal matter, Pak PM habitually abusing global fora: MEA

News

• Hours after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan criticised the new citizenship law passed by India at the Global Forum on Refugees platform, the MEA termed Khan’s statement as ‘gratuitous’ and ‘unwarranted’.

Internal matter

• Clarifying that it’s an internal matter of India, the MEA also rejected Pakistan’s resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act adopted.
• Calling the resolution a ‘poorly disguised’ effort, India said the neighbouring country is trying to divert attention from its ‘appalling’ treatment and persecution of its own religious minorities.
• Pakistan’s National Assembly moved a resolution against the new citizenship law stating it was against the bilateral agreements and understanding between the two countries and asked India to revoke the discriminatory clauses in it.
• Pakistan has called out the new law ‘against international norms of equality and non-discrimination and International Human Rights Law’.

India slips to 112th place on gender gap; in bottom-5 on health, economic fronts

News

• India has slipped four places to rank 112th globally in terms of gender gap amid widening disparity in terms of women’s health and survival and economic participation the two areas where the country is now ranked in the bottom-five, an annual survey showed on Tuesday.

Gender gap

• While Iceland remains the world’s most gender-neutral country, India has moved down the ladder from its 108th position last year on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report to rank below countries like China (106th), Sri Lanka (102nd), Nepal (101st), Brazil (92nd), Indonesia (85th) and Bangladesh (50th).
• Yemen is ranked the worst (153rd), while Iraq is 152nd and Pakistan 151st.
• The time it will take to close the gender gap narrowed to 99.5 years in 2019. While an improvement on 2018 when the gap was calculated to take 108 years to close it still means parity between men and women across health, education, work and politics will take more than a lifetime to achieve.
• The political gender gap will take 95 years to close, compared to 107 years last year. Worldwide, women now hold 25.2 per cent of parliamentary lower-house seats and 21.2 per cent of ministerial positions, compared to 24.1 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively last year.
• The economic opportunity gap has worsened, widening to 257 years, compared to 202 years last year. The report said one of the greatest challenges to closing this gap is women’s under-representation in emerging roles, such as cloud computing, engineering and data and AI.
• The WEF had published its first gender gap report in 2006, when India was ranked relatively higher at 98th place.
• Since then, India’s rank has worsened on three of four metrics used for the overall ranking. While India has improved to 18th place on political empowerment, it has slipped to 150th on health and survival, to 149th in terms of economic participation and opportunity and to 112th place for educational attainment.
• It also named India among countries with very low women representation on company boards (13.8 per cent), while it was even worse in China (9.7 per cent).
• It also flagged abnormally low sex ratios at birth in India (91 girls for every 100 boys) and Pakistan (92/100).
• Since 2006, the gap has significantly widened and India is the only country among the 153 countries studied where the economic gender gap is larger than the political one.
• Only one-quarter of women, compared with 82 per cent of men, engage actively in the labour market one of the lowest rates globally (145th).
• Furthermore, the female estimated earned income is mere one-fifth of the male income, again among the world’s lowest (144th).
• Women account for only 14 per cent of leadership roles (136th) and 30 per cent of professional and technical workers.
• India ranks high on the political empowerment sub-index, largely because the country was headed by a woman for 20 of the past 50 years. But, female political representation today is low as women make up only 14.4 per cent of Parliament (122nd rank globally) and 23 per cent of the cabinet (69th), the report said.

Andhra Assembly passes Bill for separate SC, ST commissions

News

• The Andhra Pradesh Assembly cleared The Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Schedule Tribes Bill, which will enable the government set up a separate commission each for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).

Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Schedule Tribes Bill

• The government wants to focus on the welfare and upliftment of STs in the state by allocating special funds and a separate ST Commission would work towards that.
• It would enable the setting up of a separate commission for SCs to safeguard their interests.
• The government is planning to establish more residential schools, a medical college, and create more jobs for tribals.
• The government has sanctioned a medical college, proposed to be set up at Paderu in Visakhapatnam district and a budget of Rs 4,900 crore has been set aside for tribal welfare.
• The government also plans to set up super-speciality hospitals in tribal areas and make ambulances available in all the tribal areas.

Global refugee meet currently underway in Geneva

News

• The first Global Refugee Forum (GRF), a two-day gathering of United Nations member states, began in Geneva, Switzerland.
• The Forum, jointly hosted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency, and the government of Switzerland, aims to debate and discuss the response of the world’s countries to the global refugee situation.

The context

• According to the UNHCR, the first GRF is being held “at the end of a tumultuous decade in which the number of refugees has risen to over 25 million people worldwide”.
• Guided by the Global Compact on Refugees, the Global Refugee Forum is an opportunity to translate the principle of international responsibility-sharing into concrete action. The Forum will showcase impactful pledges and contributions and the exchange of good practices.

The goal

• The GRF will be held every four years at the Ministerial level. It is intended to present an opportunity for UN member states and other stakeholders to announce action plans and pledges towards meeting objectives such as easing the burden on the host country, enhancing refugee self-reliance, expanding access to third-country solutions, and supporting conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity.
• The first GRF has been organised around six areas of focus: burden- and responsibility-sharing, education, jobs and livelihoods, energy and infrastructure, solutions, and protection capacity.

The issues

• Some of the issues discussed at the Forum on the first day include the displacement of Afghans and Central Americans, providing education for refugee children, and emergency situations and financial support through Islamic finance.

If proven, Bangladesh to take back illegal migrants living in India: Dhaka Official

News

• Bangladesh will take back any of its citizen if it is proven he/she was staying in India illegally, an advisor to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told.
• Statement comes days after two senior Bangladesh ministers cancelled their visits to India after the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 was passed by the Indian Parliament.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Two versions of BrahMos missile successfully test-fired

News

• India successfully conducted separate trials of two variants of supersonic cruise missile BrahMos to check its capability to hit targets with precision and accuracy, Defence sources said.

Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos

• • A land-attack version of the missile was test-launched from a mobile autonomous launcher at Launch Pad-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur.
  • Its air force variant was fired in the afternoon when a fighter jet of the IAF flew from Kalaikunda airbase and launched the missile towards an air-borne target over the Bay of Bengal.
  • The BrahMos missile is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile capable of being launched from submarines, warships, fighter jets or land. The 2.5-tonne missile has a strike range of nearly 300 kilometres.
  • The first extended version of the missile with a strike range of 450 km was successfully tested on March 11, 2017, Defence sources said.
  • A shorter range land-attack version of the BrahMos was earlier successfully test-fired from the ITR at Chandipur on September 30, 2019.
  • Similarly, the IAF had conducted successful trials of BrahMos missiles from Trak Island in Andaman and Nicobar Islands on October 22 this year.
  • BrahMos is a joint venture of the DRDO of India and the NPOM of Russia. The missile is operational with the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force.
  • The BrahMos is regarded as the fastest supersonic cruise missile in the world, the sources said adding that it has established itself as a major force multiplier in modern warfare with its land-attack and anti-ship capabilities with multi-role and multi-platform abilities.

Kashmir economy suffered loss of Rs 17,878 cr in 4 months after Article 370 abrogation

News

• The Kashmir economy suffered loss to the tune of Rs 17,878 crore in four months of restrictions and shutdown in the valley following abrogation of Article 370 and creation of two union territories out of Jammu and Kashmir, a trade body said.

Economy suffered loss

• Releasing a comprehensive sector-wise report on losses due to disturbance after the August 5 announcement by Home Minister Amit Shah, the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) said the losses have been assessed based on Jammu and Kashmir’s gross domestic product of 2017-18.
• The study has focused on the 10 districts of Kashmir Valley comprising 55 per cent of the total population of Jammu and Kashmir. A time span of 120 days has been assumed for the calculations. As per this method, Kashmir’s economy has suffered a loss of Rs 17,878.18 crores.
• KCCI said the present disruption has resulted in loss of jobs of lakhs of people.
• Borrowers of financial institutions have lost their capacity to fulfil their commitments and a substantial number of accounts are likely to turn bankrupt, many business establishments have closed down or are contemplating closure, it said.
• The sectors directly dependent on internet like information technology and e-commerce have been ruined. The government intervention in the horticulture sector for which Rs 8,000 crore was earmarked for purchase of apples has come a cropper and caused price turmoil and panic sales.

Pakistan Army stands by Musharraf, says death sentence received with ‘pain and anguish’

News

• Hours after former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was handed death penalty by a special court, Pakistan’s Inter Services Public Relations said the decision has been received with pain by Pakistan Armed Forces and the due legal process has been ignored.

Death penalty

• Musharraf was handed death penalty by a special court for imposing Emergency in 2007.
• Musharraf, who is in Dubai since 2016 for medical treatment, had declared a state of emergency on November 3, 2007, suspending Pakistan’s Constitution. He also detained several judges, including the chief justice of Pakistan.
• Defending the move, Musharraf had claimed that members of the judiciary were “working at cross purposes with the executive and legislature in the fight against terrorism and extremism”.

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