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DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Monthly DNA

03 Apr, 2023

16 Min Read

SCO EXPANSION

GS-II : International Relations International Organizations

SCO EXPANSION

About SCO Expansion

  • As a result of the United States departure from the region, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have taken steps to diversify their security allies. Through this process, the nations have gotten closer to China.
  • The recent restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, facilitated by China, and Iran's impending admission as the SCO's newest member are significant developments in this regard.
  • Saudi Aramco (Investor) announced that it has upped its investment in China by finalising a planned joint venture in SCO provides a very good opportunity for India to connect with the leadership of Central Asian countries and that is a very big takeaway.
  • India has a good record of economic growth and handling problem which is a problem of other countries and lays the foundation for huge foreign investment. Northeast China and buying a share in a privately managed petrochemical business in response to the Saudi government's decision.

Background About SCO

  • An ongoing International Intergovernmental Organisation is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
  • The announcement of its foundation was made on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai (China) by the Republics of Kazakhstan, China (People's Republic), Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
  • The mechanism of the Shanghai Five came before it.
  • During the SCO Heads of the State summit in St. Petersburg in June 2002, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Charter was ratified, and it became effective on September 19, 2003.
  • Russian and Chinese are the official languages of the SCO.
  • A political, economic, and military organisation with Eurasian roots, the SCO works to uphold regional stability, security, and peace.
  • It accounts for almost 20% of the world's GDP, 40% of the world's population, and 22% of the planet's surface.

SCO Member Countries

  • Eight nations make up the SCO: the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Republic of India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
  • Observer states in the SCO are the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Republic of Mongolia.
  • The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of Turkey, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, and the Republic of Azerbaijan are the six dialogue partners of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

India and SCO

  • India has the opportunity to launch global and regional counterterrorism initiatives as well as regional initiatives to combat the illicit drug trade due to the SCO.
  • India can increase collaboration to address regional security issues by utilising the SCO's Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS).
  • India can use the SCO to promote the Chabahar Port Project and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC). To work more closely together on the Chabahar port and other connectivity initiatives, India, Iran, and Uzbekistan jointly established a trilateral working committee in 2020.
Targets and Objectives
  • Encouraging neighbourliness and mutual trust.
  • Encouraging collaboration in commerce, business, the economy, research, technology, and culture.
  • Increasing connections in fields like healthcare, energy, transportation, tourism, and environmental protection.
  • Maintaining and ensuring regional peace, security, and stability.
  • Establishing a political and economic system that is democratic, equitable, and reasonable.
Shanghai Spirit: The Foundational Ideas
  • Internal regulations are based on the values of equality, respect for cultural variety, mutual benefit, trust, and benefit to all parties involved.
  • Openness, non-alignment, and non-targeting of any third country are the guiding principles of foreign policy.
West View on SCO
  • Moving towards the formation of a new, democratic, fair, and reasonable global political and economic order is one of the SCO's stated primary objectives.
  • The U.S. and Europe, therefore, viewed the SCO with some apprehension. Because it advocated military collaboration, it was even termed the "Anti-NATO".
  • Although China supported Russia by negotiating a 30-year, $400 billion petrol pipeline framework agreement, Western and NATO fears were increased when they imposed harsh penalties against Moscow for its activities in Crimea.
Way Ahead
  • A significant takeaway from the SCO is that it gives India a great opportunity to interact with the leaders of Central Asian nations.

India has a solid track record of economic growth and managing issues that other nations face, which paves the way for significant global investment.

Source: The Hindu

India Literacy Programme

GS-II : Governance Education

India Literacy Programme

  • The "New India Literacy Programme" (NILP), a new centrally sponsored scheme that would be implemented across five years from the FYs 2022–2023 to 2026–2027, has been established by the government.

About

  • The program's target population of 5.00 crore nonliterates aged 15 and over
  • The Program consists of five parts:
    • (i) Foundational Reading and Numeracy,
    • (ii) Crucial Life Skills,
    • (iii) Development of Vocational Skills,
    • (iv) Basic Education, and
    • (v) Continued Education.
  • The assessors in the States/UTs identify the beneficiaries of the programme using a door-to-door survey on a mobile app.
  • Non-literate people can also benefit from the programme by directly registering through a mobile app from any location. The basic foundation of the programme is volunteerism in education.
  • The plan is mainly technologically driven and is primarily carried out online. The teaching tools and learning materials are accessible through mobile apps on the NCERT DIKSHA platform.

Basics of Literacy

  • Reading comprehension and mathematical problem-solving skills are referred to as FLN (such as addition and subtraction).

Issues

  • Improvements in school facilities, uniforms, lavatory accessibility, water availability, and textbook accessibility are still challenges in the classroom.
  • The allocation of non-teaching activities to teachers, teacher vacancies, and a lack of direct funding to schools all have a negative impact on education.
  • There is still a lack of a systematic approach to hiring excellent teachers and creating institutions for teacher education.
  • Initiatives like Nishtha, Pratham's Read India campaign, and other face-to-face or online teacher development programmes are less effective if there's poor governance.

Way Forward

By utilising technology, decentralising funding, and including the community in the process, basic literacy can be further improved.

Source: The Hindu

Institution Of Eminence Scheme

GS-II : Governance Education

Institution Of Eminence Scheme

  • Many institutes that were chosen for Institution of Eminence (IoE) Status are still waiting for the IOE designation after more than three years have passed.

Background

  • UGC (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) 2017 regulations allowed for the creation of the Institute of Eminence Programme.
  • Ten Universities - ten Public and ten Private - were chosen for the programme.
  • To aid in their development as Teaching and Research Institutes of World-Class calibre, these chosen universities will be given additional autonomy.
  • The Institute of Eminence scheme seeks to place a limited group of IoEs in the top 500 global rankings during the next ten years, and ultimately in the top 100.
  • Institutions were chosen by an Empowered Expert Committee in N. Gopalaswami.

Criteria to Select

  • Global/National Ranking: The IoE status will only be suggested for universities that have appeared in one of the global/national ranks (e.g., QS, NIRF).

The organisations should include

  • The top 50 institutions in their area according to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
  • Top 500 in rankings that are well regarded, such as the Times Higher Education Global University Rankings, QS.
  • Greenfield Proposals: If there are any open slots after applying the selected criteria, consideration will be granted to plans that have not yet been established (Greenfield) proposals.
  • In general, the phrase "greenfield project" refers to the start of a project without taking into account any earlier work.
  • The Greenfield Institutions would have a time of three years to develop and operationalize the institution, following which the EEC would consider and then grant such institutions IoE status.
Objective
  • Excellence and Innovation: To offer post-graduate, graduate-level, and research degree programmes in higher education that foster excellence and innovations in the fields of knowledge that may be deemed appropriate.
  • Specialization: Engaging in specialised activities to contribute uniquely to the goals of the higher education system.
  • World Rating: To eventually rank among the top 100 institutions in the world for both its teaching and research on a global scale.

High-quality Teaching and Research: To promote the growth of knowledge and its transmission while ensuring high-quality teaching and research

Source: Indian Express

Gun Violence

GS-III : Internal security Internal security

Gun Violence

In Nashville, Tennessee (in the United States), a school was the scene of a mass shooting in March 2023 that left 7 people dead as well as It was the 129th large-scale shooting in America in 2023.

Also, the Punjab Government revoked 813 permits for firearms around the state to combat the "gun culture" there.

Argument in Favour to Access to Gun

Guns, according to some, can lower crime rates by increasing the cost of committing a crime. They have emphasised how difficult it is to estimate the number of lives that may have been saved by citizens who owned weapons, let alone the number of crimes that were prevented because the possible victims had firearms.

According to some experts, black Americans' access to firearms and lynching instances are strongly inversely related. According to the research, having access to firearms improved black people's ability to defend themselves against lynchings.

Gun Violence in USA

The rate of gun violence in the US is far higher than that of any other developed nation in the world.

In the US, there were 48,830 gun-related fatalities in 2021. While mass shootings and other gun-related homicides frequently make headlines, more than half of all homicides in 2021 were suicides.

In the US, there have been more than 600 mass shootings over the past three years or over two per day on average. An incident in which four or more persons are hurt or killed is referred to as a mass shooting. This includes shootings that take place in both private and public settings.

Reason for Gun Violence

The US Supreme Court decided in New York State Rifle v. Bruen (2022) that carrying a gun openly is a constitutional right protected by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

Federal law forbids certain individuals, such as those with specific criminal histories or mental illnesses, from possessing weapons. However, the system has significant flaws, such as insufficient background checks and an incomplete list of these individuals.

The majority of firearms laws are state-level regulations. Yet, there is a wide range of gun-carrying rules. The majority of states don't require a licence or permit for anyone who is legally allowed to own a gun to carry it openly and in public.

Status of Gun Violence in India

India reportedly has an incredible 70 million civilian gun owners, second only to the US, according to the Small Arms Survey of 2018.

The number seems strange given that there are only 3.4 million gun licences in India, with more than a third of them located in Uttar Pradesh.

About 90% of gun-related homicides in India in 2016 involved the use of illegal firearms, placing the country third overall. This suggests that the confiscation of illegal firearms is only a minor portion of a wider issue.

An estimated 75,000 weapons were confiscated in 2020, with nearly half of them coming from the United Provinces (UP), which is well-known for being the centre of illicit arms production.

With the deaths of kabaddi player Sandeep Nangal Ambian in March 2022 and singer Sidhu Moosewala in May 2022, the Punjab government has come under fire for "worsening" law and order. More than 3.5 lakh licences for arms are in Punjab, according to official data.

The Punjab government issued an order in November 2022 banning the open exhibition of firearms and the performance of songs that celebrate violence.

Various Gun Law in India

Arm act 1959: It seeks to be as thorough as possible to cover every aspect of the purchase, possession, manufacturing, sale, import, export, and transportation of arms and ammunition in India.

The prerequisites for obtaining a gun licence

In India, 21 years of age is the minimum required to obtain a firearms licence.

The candidate must not have been convicted of any violent or immoral offences five years before applying, and they must not be of "unsound mind" or pose a threat to the peace and safety of the public.

A firearms licence cannot be obtained based on a property qualification.

the Home Ministry requests the officer in charge of the closest police station to produce a report regarding the applicant after receiving an application and conducting a thorough investigation within the proper time

2016 Regulations for Arms

The Arms Rules, 1962 were replaced by the new Arms Rules, 2016, which were published by the Centre in 2016. Under the new rules, anyone wishing to join a rifle club, an association, or a firing range was required to complete a safety training programme that covered proper handling and carrying techniques.

Arms Amendment Act 2019

The Arms Act amendment 2019 decreased the number of firearms that an individual could purchase from three to two.

The license's current three-year term has been extended to five years.

To ensure societal harmony, it also includes specific clauses that restrict the use of weapons that have been granted a licence.

When banned ammunition is purchased, obtained, or carried without a licence, the penalty is doubled to a prison sentence of 7 to 14 years and a fine.

It forbids the unlicensed conversion of one kind of firearm to another.

Way Forward

One solution is to enact strong gun laws and severely limit who is allowed to purchase or possess weapons. In this aspect, American laws are both excessively tolerant and careless.

The regulations governing the purchase and possession of firearms need to be reviewed and strengthened in India as well.

Read Also: Arms Trade Treaty

Source: The Hindu

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