16-sep-2023-daily-current-affairs

1.GS2(INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE)–THEHINDU-TRADE DEFICIT

Goods trade deficit hits a 10month high

• India’s foreign trade hit a fresh trough in August, with goods exports shrinking for the seventh successive month, services exports estimated to have dropped for the first time in well over a year, and the goods trade deficit hitting a 10-month high.
• Nearly half of the decline in exports this year has been driven by the decline in petroleum prices
• The Federation of Indian Exporters’ Organisations (FIEO) said that demand was subdued not just in major economies like the EU, U.S., and China, but also in markets such as Australia and Asia
• The need of the hour is to provide easy and cheaper credit to small enterprises and meet the long-pending demand for marketing support to promote Indian products as well as exempt GST levies on freight for exports

Trade deficit:

• A Trade deficit occurs when the cost of a country’s imports exceeds the cost of its exports. It’s also known as a negative balance of trade, and it’s one way of measuring international commerce.

Federation of Indian Exporters’ Organisations

• The Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) is the apex body representing India’s exporters across various sectors.

Established in 1965, FIEO serves as a platform for exporters to voice their concerns, seek government support, and collaborate with industry peers to promote and strengthen India’s export performance on the global stage.

2.GS2 (INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE)THE HINDUHATE SPEECHES

Book suo motu cases on instances of fake news, hate speech, and moral policing: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tells police

• Law and order is directly related to the development of the State and we will not tolerate anyone who disturbs peace
• The Constitution has rejected social Darwinism and given equal rights to all. Police should not side with the powerful against hapless common people. The police are often accused of high-handedness when interacting with common people
• Fake news is a serious problem around the world, and spreading misinformation or disinformation is a crime under both the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, 2000

To read more –https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-law/bill-demote-election-commissioners-status-8941373/

• Hate speech covers many forms of expressions which advocate, incite, promote or justify hatred, violence and discrimination against a person or group of persons for a variety
• Hate speech has not been defined in any law in India. y of reasons.

Important judgement

• In Pravasi Bhalai Sangathan v. Union of India, the Supreme Court held that the implementation of existing laws would solve the problem of hate speech to a great extent.
• In Jafar Imam Naqvi v. Election Commission of India, the petitioners filed a writ petition challenging the vitriolic speeches made by the candidates in the election and prayed for issue of writ of mandamus to the Election Commission for taking appropriate steps against such speeches.

Moral Policing:

Moral Policing in its broadest sense could mean a system where a strict vigil and restriction is imposed on those who violate the basic standards of our society.

Manifestations of Moral Policing:

Mob Lynching

Cow Vigilantism

Cultural terrorism

Honor Killing

Affecting Fundamental Rights

3. GS2 (INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE)THE HINDU FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

Editors Guild of India has right to free speech, says CJI

Background:

• The Editors Guild was founded in 1978 with the twin objectives of protecting press freedom and raising the standards of editorial leadership of newspapers and magazines.
• Romesh Thappar v. State of Madras, 1950: The Supreme Court in Romesh Thappar v. the State of Madras observed that freedom of the press lay at the foundation of all democratic organisations.
• Fundamental Right Under Article 19: The Indian Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression under Article 19, which deals with ‘Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc.
• However, Freedom of the press is also not absolute.

Today in news:

• Editors Guild of India (EGI) may be right or wrong in its report about “partisan media coverage” of the Manipur violence, but it has a right to free speech to put forth its views in print.
• We are concerned. The moment somebody puts something in print, it may be wrong, you lodge an FIR under Section 153A? Your entire complaint is a counter-narrative of the government
• The EGI said that it had visited Manipur on the Army’s invitation to make an “objective assessment” of the “unethical and ex parte reporting” by the vernacular media.
• The EGI members were booked under various sections of the IPC including Sections 153A, 200, and 298 (deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), and under provisions of the Information Technology Act and Press Council Act

4.GS2 (INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE)THE HINDU APPOINTMENT OF CJI

Supreme Court has prepared a ‘platform’ to assess ‘top’ 50 judges before appointment in the apex court: CJI

• Interns and law researchers had prepared a “broad platform” to assess every one of the “top 50 judges” in the country who would be considered for appointment as judges of the Supreme Court.
• One of the criticisms about the collegium system is that we have no factual data to evaluate people whom we are considering for appointment to the Supreme Court
• The Chief Justice said the idea was to make the process of appointments to the Supreme Court transparent by identifying definite parameters of selection even though the process cannot be held in the public realm
• The Chief Justice, however, did not specify whether the 50 “top” judges would be identified from the first 50 of the seniormost High Court judges or whether the candidates would be picked solely on the basis of their merit and performance on the Bench.
• As of now, the appointments are made on the basis of several criteria, which include seniority, regional representation and merit while following a Memorandum of Procedure moulded through the Three Judges Cases.

Third Judges Case (1998):

SC on the President’s reference (Article 143) expanded the Collegium to a five-member body, comprising the CJI and four of his senior-most colleagues.

Fourth Judges Case (2015):

• The 99th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act of 2014 has replaced the collegium system of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts with a new body called the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).

However, in 2015, the Supreme Court declared both the 99th Constitutional Amendment as well as the NJAC Act as unconstitutional and void in the fourth judge case. Consequently, the earlier collegium system became operative again.

5.GS1 (INDIAN SOCIETY)-THE HINDU-JAL JEEVAN MISSION Jal Jeevan Mission remains a pipe dream

• On Independence Day, 2019, this water-starved district in south-eastern Uttar Pradesh reported only 1,612 households with tap connections. Four years later, 1,29,209 households – or about 98% of all rural homes in Mahoba district – have water connections, according to the public dashboard of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the Centre’s ₹3.6 lakh crore scheme that aims to provide piped water to every village home by 2024.
• No other district in India has reported such a dramatic increase in tap connections.

Claim vs reality

• Even in villages which have been officially certified as having 100% coverage of functional household tap connections (FHTC), several households do not actually have taps
• According to the scheme’s definitions, an FHTC household is one where at least 55 litres of potable water per person a day is made available to every household.

Still reliant on groundwater

• Many houses did have a pipe connection drawn out from the main central pipeline that had recently been laid out in the village; however, this was too narrow and inadequate to convey water into houses.
• Women here continue to walk to the several handpumps or to the village well to draw water. Water-scarce Mahoba has historically relied on lakes and ponds for irrigation, but the region’s rocky sub-surface means that perennial sources of groundwater are few.
• Har Ghar Jal mission’s overarching aim is to wean villagers off their dependence on groundwater and handpumps, and instead provide piped water sourced from dams and rivers.

6.GS3 (ECONOMY)-THE HINDU-GDP AND INFLATION CALCULATION

 Wrong to assess economic activity on GDP alone: Finance Ministry

• The credibility of Indian GDP data, which showed a 7.8% uptick in the first quarter of this year, stressing that Indian GDP data is not seasonally adjusted and is finalised three years later so “it is wrong to look at the underlying economic activity based on GDP indicators alone”.
• Purchasing Managers’ Indices indicate that the manufacturing and services sectors are growing. Bank credit growth is in double digits. Consumption is improving, and the government has vigorously ramped up capital expenditure
• The Ministry also called out references to nominal GDP growth being lower than real GDP growth as “a new bogey being spread to discredit the GDP numbers and indicate that underlying economic activity is quite weak
• India’s GDP deflator is dominated by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) [which] peaked in the first quarter of 2022-23 due to the oil and food price increases in the wake of the war in Ukraine and supply-side disruptions.
• If inflation were higher, critics would argue that nominal GDP growth is much higher because of inflation and that there was little underlying activity.
• In other words, growth as per the Income Approach was lower
• So, arguing that nominal GDP growth is more reliable because India has issues with its calculation of GDP deflator is to invent an argument where none exists. This is just to justify the liking for nominal GDP growth because it has been moderating in recent quarters after the high growth in the first fiscal quarter of FY2