Answers: Mains Marathon – UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions – March 14, 2018

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Q.1) In the context of the recent judgment on the case of Hadiya, what are the reasons for which the apex court set aside the former judgment of the Kerala High Court? What are the conditions in which courts can intervene in marriages in India? (GS–1)

Introduction:

  • The Supreme Court recognised and upheld Ms. Hadiya’s freedom “to pursue her future endeavours according to law” which means that Ms. Hadiya is free to leave her college hostel at Salem and join her husband Mr. Shafin Jahan.

The reasons for which the apex court was compelled to set aside the former judgment of the Kerala High Court are as follows:

  • Firstly, courts cannot withdraw marriages between two consenting adults or resort to a “roving enquiry” on whether the married relationship between a man and woman is based on consent.
  • Secondly, courts cannot investigate whether a person married a good person or a bad person. That’s a personal choice.
  • Thirdly, the apex court said that marriage and plurality are the fundamental core of our culture. Plurality in India should be zealously guarded.
  • The moment public law (law of relations between individuals and the State) is allowed to encroach into marriage, the state finds its way to interfere in individual choices of a citizen.
  • Fourthly, it is not just the state, but parents too cannot wield their influence against adults who marry a person of their own choice.

Conditions in which courts can intervene marriages in India are as follows:

Protection of Child from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and Child Marriage and Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006:

  • If the case involves a minor woman, and she being enticed to enter a sexual relationship, then there is a case of the man being a pedophile.
  • The Acts covering this offence would be Protection of Child from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and Child Marriage and Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.

Section 366 of the IPC:

  • If the court finds that there has been abduction followed by a forced marriage, then the court can punish the accused under Section 366 of the IPC which punishes abduction leading to forced marriage or sexual relationship against the woman’s will.
  • The offence is punishable with up to 10 years.

Other condition:

  • When a girl of age 16 marries a man of 70 or 80, the marriage revolves around trafficking.
  • Such a marriage may occur due to poverty or ignorance.
  • Courts can indeed intervene in such marriages taking into consideration the inherent mental capacity of the woman or the socio-economic circumstances.

Q.2) Sometime soon in 2018, India’s annual GDP will cross England’s ($2.6 trillion) GDP, it is the result of economic mistakes that it has taken 71 years for 1.2 billion people to cross the output of 66 million people. Elaborate. GS – 3

Context:

  • Sometime soon in 2018, India’s annual GDP will cross England ($2.6 trillion) GDP, but why it has taken 71 years for 1.2 billion people to cross the output of 66 million people.

Explanation:

India’s pathetic productivity is the result of economic mistakes after 1947.

  • The 1955 Avadi resolution gave us bad phone service, chose colleges over schools, exploded the public sector, and kneecapped capital markets.
  • The country has only 52 cities with more than 1 million people, only 50 per cent of labour force works outside farms, only 25 per cent of labour force has formal wage employment, only 43 per cent of 14-18 aged kids can solve a basic division problem, only 5 lakh of 30 crore students get an apprenticeship, only 7 million of 63 million enterprises were registered for indirect taxes before GST, and only 1.5 per cent of 1.2 billion citizens paid income taxes before demonetisation.
  • Global GDP is churning too; the UK was 10 per cent in 1900, USSR was 14 per cent in 1960, and Japan was 17 per cent in 1990 but they are all now down 70 per cent from those peaks.
  • Whereas, China’s GDP is now four times England because of leadership, luck, and a powerful story.

Conclusion:

  • India is a new nation with an ancient past; the challenge is thinking about its future with stories that don’t ignore or glorify its past.
  • For example, it is not the law of god that people in Asia should be poor and Pakistan is destined for greatness”, but the toxic economic stories of Quaid-e-Awam perpetuated mass poverty and Pakistan’s GDP today is less than Maharashtra.
  • India’s old stories were also toxic; but its new stories of formalisation, urbanisation, industrialisation, financialisation and human capital suggest what is happening in India is not once in a decade, or once in a millennium, but once in the lifetime of a country.
  • India’s new economic stories expand economic and personal freedom and recently made it world’s fastest growing economy.

Q.3) Write short notes on:

a) International Solar Alliance (GS – 3)

b) ‘Revenge trading’ in Economy (GS – 3)

c) Living Will (GS -2)

a) International Solar Alliance (GS – 3)

  • The International Solar Alliance (ISA) was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then French President Francois Hollande at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris on November 30, 2015.
  • The idea was to form a coalition of solar resource-rich countries to collaborate on addressing the identified gaps in their energy requirements through a common approach.
  • Towards this, the ISA has set a target of 1 TW of solar energy by 2030, which current French President Emmanuel Macron said would require $1 trillion to achieve.
  • The ISA is open to 121 prospective member countries, most of them located between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn as this is the region worldwide with a surplus of bright sunlight for most of the year.
  • So far, however, only 56 countries have signed the ISA Framework Agreement.
  • These include Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, Comoros, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominican, Republic, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Gambia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, India, Kiribati, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nauru, Niger, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, Sao Tome, Senegal, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, UAE, Uganda, Vanuatu, Venezuela and Yemen.

b) ‘Revenge trading’ in Economy (GS – 3)

  • ‘Revenge trading’ refers to a style of trading in financial markets that is motivated purely by the goal of recovering previous losses from the market.
  • The market is seen as an enemy that imposed unjustified losses and the trader is keen on recovering the losses from the market.
  • Traders who engage in revenge trading allow their personal emotions to override their rational thought process during trading, thus increasing the risk of making more mistakes that could lead to further losses.
  • Revenge trading is considered to be one of the major reasons why many traders get wiped out of the market.

c) Living Will (GS -2)

  • A Living Will is a healthcare directive, in which people can state their wishes for their end-of-life care, in case they are not in a position to make that decision.
  • An adult with a sound and healthy mind. It should be voluntarily executed and based on informed consent.
  • It should be expressed in specific terms in a language “absolutely clear and unambiguous”.
  • The circumstances in which medical treatment should be withheld or withdrawn
  • It should specify that the Will can be revoked any time
  • It should give the name of the “guardian or close relative” who will give the go-ahead for starting the procedure of passive euthanasia
  • If there are more than one Living Will, the latest one will be valid.
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