Tuesday, December 14, 2021

As per a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju stated that, on May 31, 2021 Supreme Court in its order on a writ petition had observed that “ambit & parameters of provisions of Sections 124A, 505 and 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 requires interpretation, especially with respect to right of electronic & print media to communicate news”.
As per minister, SC has also issued notice to Centre on a plea in which petitioners have asked for an appropriate writ, order or direction to declare Section 124A of IPC, 1860 unconstitutional and void.

What is Sedition law?

Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) deals with the Sedition Law. This section defines sedition as an offence committed when “any person attempts to excite disaffection towards government established by law, by means of spoken or written words, or by signs, or by visible representation. Such disaffection includes disloyalty and feelings of enmity. Sedition is a non-bailable offence. Its punishment ranges from imprisonment up to three years to a life term. Fines may also be added. A person charged with sedition law is barred from government job and they have to live without their passport.

History of the Sedition Laws

Sedition laws were enacted in 17th century. During that time, lawmakers believed that only good opinions towards government should survive, because bad opinions were detrimental to government and monarchy. Laws were first drafted by Thomas Macaulay in 1837. Original laws were inexplicably omitted when IPC was enacted in 1860.

India’s Harnaaz Sandhu crowned Miss Universe 2021

Key Facts

The 70^th Miss Universe 2021 was held in Eilat, Israel.
India was represented by Ms Harnaaz Sandhu.
Ms Sandhu is 21-year-old and comes from Punjab.
She claimed the Miss Universe crown, siding out Nadia Ferreira from Paraguay and Lalela Mswane from South Africa.

Who presented the crown to Ms Sandhu?

Crown was presented to Ms Sandhu by Andrea Meza, who was the former Miss Universe 2020 from Mexico.

Indians who won this title before?

Before Ms Sandhu, only two Indians have won the title of Miss Universe:

Sushmita Sen in 1994 and
Lara Dutta in 2000.

Journey of Ms Sandhu

Ms Sandhu had started her journey at the age of 17, in pageantry. She has previously been crowned with-

Femina Miss India Punjab 2019
Miss Diva 2021
She was also placed in Top 12 at Femina Miss India 2019.

She has also worked in Punjabi movies such as- Yaara Diyan Poo Baran and Bai Ji Kuttange.

About Miss Universe

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant. It is run by the United States–based Miss Universe Organization. This pageant is one of the most watched pageants worldwide, with an estimated audience of 500 million viewers across 190 territories. Apart from Miss World; Miss International, Miss Earth and Miss Universe are among Big Four international beauty pageants.

Who own the miss universe organization?

Miss Universe Organization and its brand are presently owned by Endeavor. Telemundo has got the licensing rights to air the pageant for next 5 years.

Current Affairs- December 14, 2021

INDIA

– Parliament passes High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2021

– Lok Sabha passes Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021

– Chairperson of Lokpal Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose inaugurates digital Platform for Management of Complaints

– India launches Supersonic Missile Assisted Torpedo System (SMAT) from Abdul Kalam island off the Odisha coast

– Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: Defence inaugurates nation-wide events of Defence Production

– Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dr. Virendra Kumar launches National Helpline Against Atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

– CBSE drops controversial comprehension from class 10 English board exam paper

– Alejandro Simancas Marin appointed new Ambassador of Cuba to India

– PM inaugurates the first phase of Kashi Vishwanath Dham in Varanasi

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) collaborates with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for Green Hydrogen production

– Retail inflation inches up to a 3-month high of 4.91% in November

– Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices (HMD) allowed to continue operations at Faridabad plant

– Walmart-owned Flipkart invests $145 million in agritech startup Ninjacart

– Tega Industries debuts on stock markets at more than 60% premium over issue price

WORLD

– India is 4th most powerful country in Asia after US, Japan and China: Sydney-based Lowy Institute

– India’s Harnaaz Sandhu crowned Miss Universe 2021 in Israel

– Tesla CEO Elon Musk named Time’s 2021 ‘Person of the Year’

– Dubai govt goes 100% paperless, world’s first: Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

– Two cargo ships collide in the Baltic Sea off the Swedish coast

Workers of the world are in need of a better deal in today’s times

The last four decades of globalization and technological innovation have been a boon for those with the skills, wealth and connections to take advantage of new markets and opportunities. But ordinary workers have had much less to cheer about. In advanced economies, earnings for those with less education often stagnated despite gains in overall labour productivity. Since 1979, for example, US production workers’ compensation has risen by less than a third of the rate of productivity growth. Labour-market insecurity and inequality rose, and many communities were left behind as factories closed and jobs migrated elsewhere.

In developing countries, where standard economic theory predicted that workers would be the main beneficiary of the expanding global division of labour, corporations and capital again reaped the biggest gains. A forthcoming book by George Washington University’s Adam Dean shows that even where democratic governments prevailed, trade liberalization went hand in hand with repression of labour rights.

Labour-market ills create broader social and political strains. In his pathbreaking 1996 book When Work Disappears, sociologist William Julius Wilson described how the decline in blue-collar jobs had fuelled an increase in family breakdown, drug abuse, and crime. More recently, the economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton have documented the rise in “deaths of despair" among less-educated American men. And a growing empirical literature has linked the rise of authoritarian, right-wing populism in advanced economies to the disappearance of good jobs for ordinary workers.

As a result of the covid pandemic, labour problems are receiving renewed attention, and rightly so. But how can workers not only get their fair share but also have access to decent jobs that enable meaningful lives?

One approach is to rely on the enlightened self-interest of large corporations. Happy, fulfilled workers are more productive, less likely to quit, and more likely to provide good customer service. MIT’s Zeynep Ton has shown that retail establishments can cut costs and boost profits by paying good wages, investing in their workers, and responding to employees’ needs. But many firms that claim to take the high road in labour standards are also vehemently anti-union; taking the low road by minimizing workers’ pay and say is too often a profitable corporate strategy. Historically, it is the countervailing power of labour—through collective action and union organization—that has brought about the most significant gains for workers.

So, a second strategy to help workers consists of increasing the organizational power of labour vis-à-vis employers. US President Joe Biden has explicitly endorsed this approach, arguing that the shrinking of the US middle class is a consequence of a decline in union power, and has vowed to strengthen organized labour and collective bargaining.

In countries such as the US, where unions have become significantly weaker, this strategy is indispensable to redress imbalances in bargaining power. But the experience in many European countries, where labour organization and collective bargaining remain strong, suggests that it may not be the full remedy. The trouble is that strong worker rights can also create dualistic labour markets, where the benefits accrue to ‘insiders’ while many less experienced workers struggle to find jobs. Extensive collective bargaining and robust labour regulations have generally served French workers well. But France has one of the highest youth unemployment rates among advanced economies.

A third strategy, which aims to minimize unemployment, is to ensure adequate labour demand through expansionary macroeconomic policies. When fiscal policy keeps aggregate demand high, employers chase workers—rather than the other way around—and unemployment can remain low. Research by Larry Mishel and Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute shows that macro-economic austerity is a major reason why US wages have lagged behind productivity since the 1980s. By contrast, the Biden administration’s aggressive fiscal response to the covid crisis has ensured that US wages have increased amid a sharp fall in unemployment. But although tight labour markets can help workers, they can also pose an inflation risk. Moreover, macroeconomic policy can’t target the lowest-skilled workers or the regions where jobs are most needed.

A fourth strategy, then, is to shift the structure of demand in the economy in order to benefit less-educated workers and depressed regions in particular. The shortage of secure, middle-class jobs is closely linked to the disappearance—as a result of globalization and technological change—of blue-collar manufacturing work and service-sector sales and clerical jobs. Policymakers must focus on expanding the supply of jobs in the middle of the skill distribution in order to reverse these polarizing effects.

This entails revising existing industrial and business-development programmes so that incentives go to the firms most likely to generate decent jobs in the right places and are designed with these firms’ needs in mind. Conventional industrial policies that target skill- and capital-intensive manufacturing, and rely heavily on tax breaks, will not do much to spur the expansion of good jobs for those who most need them.

Also, we must consider how new technologies help or hurt workers, and rethink national innovation policies. The current narrative focuses almost exclusively on how workers should retrain to adapt to new technologies, and too little on how innovation should adapt to the workforce’s skills.

As economists such as Daron Acemoglu, Joseph Stiglitz, and Anton Korinek have pointed out, the direction of technological change is flexible and depends on price incentives, taxes and the norms prevailing among innovators. Government policies can help guide automation and artificial-intelligence technologies along a more labour-friendly path that complements workers’ skills instead of replacing them.

Ultimately, boosting labour earnings and the dignity of work requires both strengthening workers’ bargaining power and increasing the supply of good jobs. That would give workers a better deal and a fair share of future prosperity.

Source: Mintepaper, 13/12/21

Oxford University alumnus Sarthak Agrawal shares the know-how of applying to a foreign university

Many people ask me about the importance of internships and work experience while applying to places like Oxford. They definitely convey a sense of purpose, especially if your internship is in a similar sector as your course, he says.

After graduating from Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce, the question of “what next” never bothered me, thanks to my professors at SRCC. Given my interests and abilities, they suggested that I would gain more from courses offered outside India. Moreover, I was keen to pursue a research-based master’s and most domestic programs lack that component.

Once I finalised the decision to study abroad, the next big questions were which university and course to pursue. I did plenty of online research before applying to four universities – Oxford, Cambridge University, University College London (UCL), and the London School of Economics (LSE).

However, Oxford University was my first choice as during the research I found that the MPhil programme in Economics offered by the university is considered one of the best in the world. I also interacted with the Oxford alumni to know about the university. It is easiest to get in touch with alumni by contacting them over LinkedIn – most people I corresponded with were very helpful and I have been trying to return the favor since.

To study at a foreign university, one has to qualify the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) which is a standardized test. I secured 337/340 – 170/170 in quantitative, 167/170 in verbal, and 6.0/6.0 in analytical writing in the GRE.

With these scores, my admission application was accepted at all the universities I applied to. But the most important criterion for me was funding. I was fortunate to receive a 100 per cent scholarship from Oxford University that covered my tuition and provided a generous stipend of almost £15,000 per year.

Spending three carefree years at SRCC was a very different experience to spending a couple of academically intensive years at Oxford. I had a more friendly and collegial relationship with my professors at Shri Ram College of Commerce while Oxford teachers spent more time focusing on their own research. However, I appreciated the focus on research and innovation abroad and the complete absence of any spoon-feeding.

Applying to Oxford University

Usually, the application requirements consist of the following: transcripts, CV, letters of recommendations, statement of purpose, GRE (optional), and writing sample. There may be further demands for scholarship applications. Out of these, the most important is your grades, which are often sealed while you’re in college. Please don’t neglect your studies if you’re keen to pursue higher studies abroad.

Customize your statement of purpose (SOP) for every university you apply to by including a paragraph on what attracts you to that very course. Moreover, resist the urge to look at others’ statements before preparing your first draft.

On letters of recommendation – try to develop a relationship with your professors early in the course. It’s best to alert your teachers well in advance that you are interested in applying abroad – and make sure you take their candid feedback on which universities you should target. If your recommenders can give your relative ranking in their letter (“this candidate is among the top 3 in the present cohort”), that’s often very useful for admission committees.

On GRE – take it well in advance lest you don’t score well in your first attempt and need to retake it later. In most courses, a high GRE score will not guarantee you an admission, but a low score may damage your chances of getting selected. For most social science courses at Oxford, the writing sample will merely test your skills in constructing and defending an argument. This is a skill worth imbibing by consulting easily available online resources.

Applying to scholarships is another crucial aspect of graduate applications if you can’t self-fund your studies. There are several scholarships available for Indian nationals at places like Oxford, so make sure to check all of them out (e.g., Rhodes, Weidenfeld-Hoffman, Commonwealth, Chevening, Felix, and Clarendon). Indian scholarships are of three kinds – those that give grants (Inlaks), interest-free loans (Narotam Sekhsaria, KC Mahindra), and a hybrid of the two (JN Tata Endowment). Each has its own requirements and deadlines so start exploring early.

Relevance of internships while applying to foreign universities

Many people ask me about the importance of internships and work experience while applying to places like Oxford. They definitely convey a sense of purpose, especially if your internship is in a similar sector as your course, but not having one doesn’t necessarily nullify your chances. Still, I would suggest pursuing at least a couple of summer internships to explore your interests and abilities in different fields.

In my experience, besides applying to formal internship programmes, the best way to get an internship is by writing emails to the kind of people you look up to and want to work with. This is how I got opportunities to work at ICRIER, NITI Aayog, and the Ministry of Finance while I was a student at SRCC. Introduce yourself well and concisely state what you hope to gain from the experience and what you can offer in terms of skills.

Make sure the email is very well written, with no typos or grammatical errors. And be prepared for rejections – for every 100 emails you send, 95 may go unanswered. But hey, you only need one person to back you.

Choosing the right college and course

The choice between course and college can sometimes get tricky. It is often the case that one gets selected into a more preferred course at a lower-ranked institution, which generates a conundrum. At that juncture, it is important to be self-aware and ask yourself what your near-term goals look like. If it is just exposure, then go for a better university. However, if you want to pursue a job or another course related to your subject of study, it is better to prioritise a programme you will enjoy studying, and do well in.

Sarthak Agrawal

(The author is an MPhil in Economics from Oxford University and a trainee IAS officer)

Source: Indian Express, 14/12/21

Monday, December 13, 2021

Quote of the Day December 13, 2021

“If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”
Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), Poet

“आप अपने रहस्य यदि पवन पर खोल देते हैं तो वृक्षों में बात फैल जाने का दोष पवन पर मत मढ़ें।”
ख़लील जिब्रान (१८८३-१९३१), सीरियाई कवि एवं चित्रकार

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