UPSCVerse Weekly Summary #15
Essay, Ethics and other Important articles for UPSC
Welcome to UPSCVerse Weekly Summary #15! This week, we have compiled a collection of important topics from major news sources that will be useful for UPSC preparation. We hope you find this summary and recommendations helpful!https://upsc.substack.com/i/115130335/upsc-gyan
UPSC Gyan
Read the Static, read the right areas, revise.
Do the Subject wise mocks, Read CA, write Full-length tests.
Something I keep saying to the students, have faith first, if you really know why you are preparing for UPSC, then you will make it work, action leads to momentum, momentum leads to completion, completion leads to confidence, and confidence through hard work in the exam hall is priceless. Self-sustaining mindset and ecosystem.
“Tṛishṇā: Weekend Recommendations for Curious Minds”
Movies: The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Some birds are not meant to be caged.
Books: "Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts." written by P. Sainath is a powerful and insightful portrayal of poverty and inequality in India.
Podcast: 4 kinds of regret -- and what they teach you about yourself | Daniel H. Pink
YouTube:
Others in UPSCVerse: Vivek Singh Sir launched his Update Indian Economy Text book as free PDF. Indian Economy by Vivek Singh 7th Edition
Quotes I liked:
Social Bases of Administrative Culture in India.
In India, the administration and its culture does not seem to be depending on legal-rational sources, but on particular groups or specific norms. Particularism always results in discriminative behaviour, with the result that universal norms become difficult. The particularistic administrative culture is summed up in the following statement, "tell me the name of the man, I will tell the rule" Chester Bowles aptly characterised it, when he stated, "it is a public jungle and a private paradise" Haragopal, G., & Prasad, V. S. (1990)
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who famously remarked,
“What is the village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow-mindedness and communalism. I am glad that the Draft Constitution has discarded the village and adopted the individual as its unit.”
“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Justice Venkatachaliah, who was Chief Justice of India in 1993-94, underlined that
“under our laws the police have not been conferred any right to take away the life of another person”, and “if, by his act, the policeman kills a person, he commits the offence of culpable homicide whether amounting to the offence of murder or not unless it is proved that such killing was not an offence under the law”.
The only two circumstances in which such killing would not constitute an offence were
(i) “if death is caused in the exercise of the right of private defence”, and
ii) under Section 46 of the CrPC, which “authorises the police to use force, extending upto the causing of death, as may be necessary to arrest the person accused of an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life”.
Food For Thought, what is your interpretation of these quotes?
"He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee." Friedrich Nietzsche
"No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, or in any other way destroyed, except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land." - Magna Carta
"When one individual becomes judge, jury and executioner, we are all in deep trouble." - Eleanor Roosevelt
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Essay, Ethics and International Relations
Essay
India signs MoU with World Food Programme for sending wheat to Afghanistan
India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the World Food Programme (WFP) paving the way for sending 10,000 metric tonnes of wheat for the people of Afghanistan.
Children take centre stage to raise awareness about sexual abuse of boys
Through mediums like street plays, dance and mime shows, children aged between 8 and 14, associated with Butterflies, an NGO, performed at various locations of the city, including Dilli Haat, to sensitise the public about sexual abuse of boys.
Bengaluru to get first-of-its-kind 3D printed post office building
In what is reportedly the country’s first-of-its-kind post office building, to accommodate the Ulsoor Bazaar post office, 3D printing technology is being employed to construct the building. While houses and other buildings were previously built with this technology, it is a first when it comes to post offices.The cost of this building will be 30-40% lesser than regular low-cost buildings.
India Justice Report 2022 | Judge vacancies remain endemic
As of December 2022, against a sanctioned strength of 1,108 judges, the High Courts were functioning with only 778 judges. The subordinate courts were found functioning with 19,288 judges against a sanctioned strength of 24,631 judges. “If every State appointed each of its sanctioned judges, only four States and four UTs would have enough court halls. In 11 States/UTs there would be a shortfall of more than 25%,” the report said.
R. Vineel Krishna, a Special Secretary to the Chief Minister of Odisha, recently visited Swabhiman Anchal in Malkangiri district, where he was previously abducted by armed cadres of CPI (Maoist) in 2011. The region, once a bastion of left-wing extremists, has undergone a transformation with the support of the government.
The area was isolated due to its remoteness, but development programs and infrastructure have brought it into the mainstream, with mobile towers, increased security forces, and new infrastructure projects. Operation Ghar Wapasi and Operation Khoj have also been launched to completely sanitize the area from Maoist influences and integrate the people into the state's social and developmental mainstream.
Utility: Development and Social Justice, Dedication to duty.
India’s tiger population tops 3,000, shows census
India has at least 3,167 tigers, according to estimates from the latest tiger census.India hosts close to 75% of the world’s tiger population, and its conservation success — evidenced by increasing tiger numbers from 1,411 in 2006 to at least 3,167 presently — without relying on fenced reserves is seen as a global model worth emulating.
SC takes landmark initiatives for inclusion of LGBTQIA+
The Supreme Court has initiated steps towards inclusive infrastructure and sexuality sensitisation for LGBTQIA+ community at its court. To create nine universal rest rooms at different locations in the main building as well as the additional building complex of the Supreme Court.
Maulana Azad reference omitted in NCERT textbook
He was a freedom fighter and India’s first Education Minister, but any mention of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad has been deleted from a revised political science textbook published by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
A beginner’s guide to the Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is three things. First, it is large – so large that it’s the world’s largest science experiment. Second, it’s a collider. It accelerates two beams of particles in opposite directions and smashes them head on. Third, these particles are hadrons. The LHC, built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), is on the energy frontier of physics research, conducting experiments with highly energised particles.
Omicron variants evolve strategies to evade T cell immunity
A recent study published in PNAS found that SARS-CoV-2 virus encodes multiple viral factors that modulate major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC I) expression in the host cells, which plays an important role in alerting the immune system to virally infected cells.
The study revealed that SARS-CoV-2 has evolved multiple strategies to inhibit MHC I expression, which is not seen in the case of the influenza virus, and this suppression is specifically seen in the infected cells and varies between different viral strains.
Will platforms have to take down ‘fake news’?
In the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023, the Union government has added a provision of a fact-check unit to identify fake or false or misleading online content related to the government. Against such content identified by this unit, intermediaries, such as social media companies or net service providers, will have to take action or risk losing their “safe harbour” protections in Section 79 of the IT Act, which allows intermediaries to avoid liabilities for what third parties post on their websites.
What is the open-source seeds movement?
The OSSI simply asks for a pledge, that an individual won’t “restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives”.
A ‘casteless’ society: an aspiration or a myth to cover up privilege?
In a ‘casteless’ society, people from different backgrounds would be treated with dignity and respect. However, Satish Deshpande argues that only upper castes are enabled to think of themselves as “casteless,” while the under-privileged lower castes are often restricted to their caste identities
Ethics
There is no dearth of political will to act against corruption: PM Modi
Addressing a gathering at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the prime minister said corruption is the biggest roadblock to democracy and justice and the agency's key responsibility is to free India from it. He asked the CBI to device ways to fast track its investigations against the corrupt because a languishing probe gives a sense of safety to the corrupt while innocent keep suffering.
Utility: Challenges of corruption.
Transparent accounting of subsidies must: CAG Murmu
While we understand the importance of subsidies to help the underprivileged, it is essential to transparently account for such subsidies and we require to distinguish between justifiable subsidies from freebies, which are not fiscally responsible.
Utility: Utilization of public funds.
Do the wealthy influence policy-making more across all forms of democracy?
American political scientist Martin Gilens who, in a 2012 study, found that in the U.S., public policy decidedly favoured the preferences of the affluent, at the expense of the poor and the middle classes.
In this research paper, Ruben B Mathisen, a political scientist with the University of Bergen, seeks to test Gilens’ findings further by assessing the extent of policy unresponsiveness in a democracy that has “gone furthest in reducing economic inequality and restricting money in politics: Norway”.
The study concludes by pointing out that although policy-making in democracies overall (including Norway), tended to skew in favour of the affluent, thereby violating the basic democratic principle of political equality, the Norway example demonstrated two things: one, in a welfarist social democracy with low inequality, education was a stronger predictor of responsiveness than income; and two, restricting how money can be used to influence elections, and strengthening countervailing forces (such as trade unions) might change the balance of power.
The obstacles against humane policing
The serious complaint of human rights violation recently against an IPS officer in Ambasamudram in south Tamil Nadu should greatly embarrass the State government and the police hierarchy.
The pressure to produce results has been on the rise. Our country has large police forces. To disseminate the message of ethics to the bottom of such large outfits is a gargantuan task.
Taking a cue from some ‘tough’ Chief Ministers the police leadership has succumbed to the lure of human rights transgressions. They have unabashedly preached the use of third-degree and extra-legal methods to the problem of solving crime.
whether solid training in ethics at the time of induction could smoothen the rough edges of a recruit.?
Lokpal disposed of 68% corruption complaints against public servants without any action:
Around 68% corruption complaints against public functionaries that landed with the Lokpal of India were “disposed off” without any action in the past four years. Only three complaints were fully investigated, according to information provided by the Lokpal’s office to a parliamentary panel.
"Transforming the Steel Frame" is treatise on civil service reforms in India.
Curated by veteran bureaucrat, former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai, Transforming the Steel Frame: Promise and Paradox of Civil Service Reform examines the roles and responsibilities of the bureaucracy in modern times. It sets forth a vision of the future through an analysis and review of past attempts at reform, in the process revisiting the strengths of the systems as well as the flaws that prevent its optimal functioning
Transforming the Steel Frame: Promise and Paradox of Civil Service Reform
Manish Sabharwal of TeamLease, India’s largest staffing firm, presents a refreshing perspective by explaining why and how the famed steel frame has degenerated into a steel cage. Calling for a rebooting of the government’s human capital, Mr Sabharwal recommends fundamental reforms in the structure of civil service in India through financial decentralisation, rationalisation of central ministries, expedited disinvestment of government equity in public sector enterprises and an end to top-heavy secretariats, which are an outcome of “indiscriminate and guaranteed promotions for civil servants.”
International Relations
Myanmar’s military did it again. The junta, notorious for its attacks on civilians, carried out air strikes on an opposition gathering in the rebel-held Sagaing region, killing over 100, including women and children. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had earlier proposed a five-point peace plan, urging an end to hostilities and starting inclusive dialogue.
India to bridge language gap with neighbours
Looking to expand its cultural footprint in nations with whom it has historical ties, including those in its immediate neighbourhood, India is planning to create a pool of experts in languages spoken in countries like Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and Indonesia to facilitate better people-to-people exchanges.
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has envisaged a special project called ‘The Language Friendship Bridge’, which plans to train five to 10 people in the official languages of each of these countries. [Soft Power]
Saudi Arabia’s quest for strategic autonomy
Saudi Arabia, a nation with a foreign policy which has always centred around Iran, is now reaching out to old rivals, holding talks with new enemies and seeking to balance between great powers, all while trying to transform its economy at home
What is behind China’s renaming spree?
The renaming and issuing of “standardised” names by the Chinese government — which has essentially conveyed to the Chinese public that the eastern sector is also non-negotiable for China — has only underlined the hardening Chinese stand, which has left prospects of a settlement dimmer than ever.
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