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THE POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

INDIAN LAWS ON ABORTIONS

THE CONTEXT: In a significant step backwards for women’s rights in the U.S., the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade judgement of 1973, which gave women in America the right to have an abortion before the foetus is viable outside the womb or before the 24–28-week mark. With the setting aside of the historic judgement on abortion in the U.S, here’s a look at the laws that govern abortion in India.

THE EXPLANATION:

How did abortion laws come about in India?

• In the 1960s, in the wake of a high number of induced abortions taking place, the Union government ordered the constitution of the Shantilal Shah Committee to deliberate on the legalisation of abortion in the country. In order to reduce maternal mortality owing to unsafe abortions, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act was brought into force in 1971.
• This law is an exception to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) provisions of 312 and 313 and sets out the rules of how and when a medical abortion can be carried out.
• Under Section 312 of the IPC, a person who “voluntarily causes a woman with child to miscarry” is liable for punishment, attracting a jail term of up to three years or fine or both, unless it was done in good faith where the purpose was to save the life of the pregnant woman.
• Section 313 of the IPC states that a person who causes the miscarriage without the consent of the pregnant woman, whether or not she is the in the advanced stages of her pregnancy, shall be punished with life imprisonment or a jail term that could extend to 10 years, as well as a fine.

What is the MTP (Amendment) Act, 2021?

• Under the 2021 Act, medical termination of pregnancy is permitted if it is backed by medical opinion and is being sought for at least one of the following reasons —
  1. If the continuation of pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman
  2. If its continuation would result in grave injury to the woman’s physical or mental health
  3. In the case of a substantial risk that if the child was born, it would suffer from serious physical or mental abnormality.
• The pregnancy can be terminated upto 24 weeks of gestational age after the opinion of two registered medical practitioners under these conditions —
  • If the woman is either a survivor of sexual assault or rape or incest
  • If she is a minor
  • If her marital status has changed during the ongoing pregnancy (i.e. either widowhood or divorce)
  • If she has major physical disabilities or is mentally ill
  • (5) On the grounds of foetal malformation incompatible with life or if the child is born, it would be seriously handicapped
  • (6) If the woman is in humanitarian settings or disaster, or emergency situations as declared by the government.
• Besides, if the pregnancy has to be terminated beyond the 24-week gestational age, it can only be done on the grounds of foetal abnormalities if a four-member Medical Board, as set up in each State under the Act, gives permission to do so.
• The law, notwithstanding any of the above conditions, also provides that where it is immediately necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman, abortion can be carried out at any time by a single registered medical practitioner.
• Unmarried women can also access abortion under the above-mentioned conditions, because it does not mention the requirement of spousal consent. If the woman is a minor, however, the consent of a guardian is required.

Have there been judicial interventions in cases of abortions?

• Despite the fact that existing laws do not permit unconditional abortion in the country, in the landmark 2017 Right to Privacy judgement in the Justice S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India and others, the Supreme Court had held that the decision by a pregnant person on whether to continue a pregnancy or not is part of such a person’s right to privacy as well and, therefore, the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.
• Several women annually approach the apex court and High Courts, when medical boards reject their application to access MTP beyond the gestational upper limit (now 24 weeks), seeking permission to abort a pregnancy, mostly in cases where it is a result of sexual assault or when there is a foetal abnormality.

What are the criticisms against the abortion law?

• According to a 2018 study in the Lancet, 6 million abortions were accessed every year in India as of 2015. The MTP Act requires abortion to be performed only by doctors with specialisation in gynaecology or obstetrics. However, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s 2019-20 report on Rural Health Statistics indicates that there is a 70% shortage of obstetrician-gynaecologists in rural India.
• As the law does not permit abortion at will, critics say that it pushes women to access illicit abortions under unsafe conditions. Statistics put the annual number of unsafe and illegal abortions performed in India at 8,00,000, many of them resulting in maternal mortality.

THE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

EXPLAINED: WHY GERMANY IS PUSHING FOR A ‘CLIMATE CLUB’

THE CONTEXT: Germany is hosting this year’s meeting of leaders from the Group of Seven leading economies and also, plans to get the G-7 to commit to collective progress on curbing global warming, and one of the ideas being discussed is the creation of a climate club’ for countries that want to speed ahead when it comes to tackling the issue.

THE EXPLANATION:

What is a climate club?

• The idea was first floated by Yale economist and Nobel Prize winner William Nordhaus, who said the voluntary nature of existing climate agreements hasn’t resulted in sufficient progress.
• He proposed that countries which were serious about reducing their emissions could come together and form a club which would jointly set ambitious targets and exempt each other from climate-related trade tariffs that non-members would be subject to.

Who might join?

• Germany’s Scholz hopes to get the whole G-7 behind the idea. France and Italy are virtually given, since both countries are also members of the European Union that is itself a club with strong climate targets. Canada is keen to finalize a long-discussed trade agreement with the EU and membership of the climate club could help.
• Britain left the EU in 2020 and is skeptical about joining any arrangement with the bloc. But a club that includes members beyond the EU would likely be acceptable to London, especially if the United States is in.
• Washington has always had a problem entering into binding agreements on climate change, particularly due to Republican opposition. President George W. Bush withdrew America’s signature under the 1997 Kyoto treaty and President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris accord — a much less stringent pact.
• The US rejoined Paris under President Joe Biden, however, and there is growing realization that a go-it-alone approach may not be in America’s interest, especially if it wants to force China to pull its weight on reducing emissions.
• Japan may also be swayed by the prospect of putting pressure on its big neighbour and privileged access to European and North American markets.

What about China?

• The world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gas isn’t likely to join But if it wants to export its wares to the rest of the world without having climate tariffs slapped on them, it may have to join.
• Expect Beijing to be sharply critical of the idea, just as it has been of the EU’s planned “carbon border adjustment mechanism” — which also entails tariffs for polluters who don’t play by the bloc’s rules.
• China has tried to rally other emerging economies such as South Africa and Indonesia in opposition to the plan. That’s one reason why Scholz has invited both of those countries attend the G-7 as guests and made clear that the climate club is open to all.

Will the idea take off?

• Experts say a critical mass of countries will need to join the club for it to become attractive enough that others feel compelled to apply too.
• The exact details of how the club’s rules would work are still sketchy. General support by the G-7, without any formal commitments, could help put the idea on the agenda at upcoming meetings, particularly the UN climate summit in November 2022. An endorsement there would show that the club isn’t the exclusive preserve of rich nations but a genuine addition to existing climate efforts.

INDIA REOPENS EMBASSY IN KABUL

THE CONTEXT: According to the External Affairs Ministry, the decision to have a diplomatic presence in Kabul was taken keeping in mind ‘historical and civilisational relationship’ with Afghans.

THE EXPLANATION:

• A little over 10 months after the Taliban seized power in Kabul and India subsequently shut its mission down, New Delhi deployed a “technical team” consisting of diplomats and others to the Afghan capital to “closely monitor and coordinate” the delivery of humanitarian assistance there.
• The ministry also said, “Our longstanding links with Afghan society and our development partnership, including humanitarian assistance for the people of Afghanistan, will continue to guide our approach going forward.”
• India’s announcement was welcomed by the Taliban government, which said it demonstrates the country’s security situation.

STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE OF AFGHANISTAN FOR INDIA:

• Natural resources: Afghanistan is known for its geo-strategic importance and abundance of natural resources. Afghanistan has an estimated 1 trillion USD of untapped resources according to a joint report of The Pentagon and US Geological Survey. Stable Afghanistan with better relations means more economic development in the region and of India.
• Security: A stable Afghanistan is crucial for regional and domestic security and stability for India. With Afghanistan becoming a centre of radical ideology and violence again, such a development would affect Pakistan and would inevitably reach India. Further, there is threat of drug trafficking through the Afghanistan route. Peaceful Afghanistan is thus a necessity to reduce the threat to internal security of india.
• Connectivity: Afghanistan is always considered as India’s gateway to Central Asia. It implies continental outreach. For instance, connectivity with Afghanistan and further with Central Asia have been primarily the reasons for India’s engagement with Iran to develop Chabahar port. Similarly, Delaram-Zaranj highway is an important route to connect Indian economy via Afghanistan.
• Strengthening regional foothold: Increasing strategic engagements with Afghanistan combination is beneficial for India in strengthening a foothold in the region. For example, India’s relations with Iran at present are dominated by oil. Diversification of engagements would strengthen India’s relations with Iran and other countries.
• Energy ambitions: To address its energy needs to sustain its economic growth, pipelines from Iran and Central Asia would be extremely important. India sees Afghanistan as an essential component of the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline. An unstable Afghanistan would hurt the construction of this pipeline and the subsequent flow of gas.
• Trade: In case of trade, Afghanistan can help India export its products to Europe, gaining foreign exchange. The railway line from Chabahar to Zahedan in Afghanistan envisages to connect New Delhi with Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Europe.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

NITI AAYOG LAUNCHES REPORT ON INDIA’S GIG AND PLATFORM ECONOMY

THE CONTEXT: NITI Aayog launched a report that presented comprehensive perspectives and recommendations on the gig economy in India titled ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The report is a first-of-its-kind study that presents comprehensive perspectives and recommendations on the gig–platform economy in India. The report provides a scientific methodological approach to estimate the current size and job-generation potential of the sector.
• It highlights the opportunities and challenges of this emerging sector and presents global best practices on initiatives for social security and delineates strategies for skill development and job creation for different categories of workers in the sector.

Who are Gig Workers?

• A gig worker is a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns from such activities outside of the traditional employer-employee relationship.
• The gig economy encompasses freelancers, online platform workers, self-employed, on-call workers, and other temporary contractual workers.
• Gig workers get the flexibility to work for several employers at the same time. A gig economy can benefit employees as well as companies. While workers can choose the projects they want to be associated with, companies can manage costs by adjusting their flexible workforce based on the demand.

Key findings and recommendations of the report:

• The report estimates that in 2020–21, 77 lakh (7.7 million) workers were engaged in the gig economy. They constituted 6% of the non-agricultural workforce or 1.5% of the total workforce in India. The gig workforce is expected to expand to 2.35 crore (23.5 million) workers by 2029–30. Gig workers are expected to form 6.7% of the non-agricultural workforce or 4.1% of the total livelihood in India by 2029–30.
• At present, about 47% of the gig work is in medium skilled jobs, about 22% in high skilled, and about 31% in low skilled jobs. Trend shows the concentration of workers in medium skills is gradually declining and that of the low skilled and high skilled is increasing.
• To harness the potential of the gig-platform sector, the report recommends accelerating access to finance through products specifically designed for platform workers, linking self-employed individuals engaged in the business of selling regional and rural cuisine, street food, etc., with platforms to enable them to sell their produce to wider markets in towns and cities.
• The report puts forth suggestions for platform-led transformational and outcome-based skilling, enhancing social inclusion through gender sensitization and accessibility awareness programmes for workers and their families and extending social security measures in partnership mode as envisaged in the Code on Social Security 2020.
• Other recommendations include undertaking a separate enumeration exercise to estimate the size of the gig and platform workforce and collecting information during official enumerations (Periodic Labour Force Survey) to identify gig workers.

THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

IMPLICATIONS OF INDIA’S NEW VPN RULES

THE CONTEXT: India’s cybersecurity agency (CERT-IN) passed a rule mandating Virtual Private Network (VPN) provider to record and keep their customers’ logs for 180 days. It also asked these firms to collect and store customer data for up to five years.

THE EXPLANATION:

• It further mandated that any cybercrime recorded must be reported to the CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team) within six hours of the crime. The new directives, if passed, will be effective from June 28.
• In response to the CERT-In rules, Nord VPN, one of the world’s largest VPN providers, has said it is moving its servers out of the country.

Who all will be affected by the new rules?

CERT-In directions are applicable to data centres, virtual private server (VPS) providers, cloud service providers, virtual asset service providers, virtual asset exchange providers, custodian wallet providers and government organisations. Firms that provide Internet proxy-like services through VPN technologies also come under the ambit of the new rule. Corporate entities are not under the scanner.

What is a virtual server, and what are its uses?

• A virtual server is a simulated server environment built on an actual physical server. It recreates the functionality of a dedicated physical server. The virtual twin functions like a physical server that runs software and uses resources of the physical server. Multiple virtual servers can run on a single physical server.
• Virtualising servers helps reallocate resources for changing workloads. Converting one physical server into multiple virtual servers allows organisations to use processing power and resources more efficiently by running multiple operating systems and applications on one partitioned server. Running multiple operating systems and applications on a single physical machine reduces cost as it consumes less space and hardware.
• Virtualisation also reduces cost as maintaining a virtual server infrastructure is low compared to physical server infrastructure. Virtual servers are also said to offer higher security than a physical server infrastructure as the operating system and applications are enclosed in a virtual machine. This helps contain security attacks and malicious behaviour inside the virtual machine.
• Virtual servers are also useful in testing and debugging applications in different operating systems and versions without having to manually install and run them in several physical machines. Software developers can create, run, and test new software applications on a virtual server without taking processing power away from other users.

How will the law impact India’s IT sector?

• On the impact of removal of physical servers from the country on jobs, SurfsharkVPN said “It would be difficult to estimate the exact number of individuals impacted in terms of employment because we were renting servers from Indian providers.”
• VPN suppliers leaving India is not good for its burgeoning IT sector. Taking such radical action that highly impacts the privacy of millions of people in India will most likely be counterproductive and strongly damage the IT sector’s growth in the country, the company said in a release last week.
• It estimated that 9 million Indians have had their accounts breached since 2004 and raised its concern that collecting excessive amounts of data within Indian jurisdiction without robust protection mechanisms could lead to even more breaches.
• The Netherlands-based company further said that they have never received a similar directive on storing customer logs from any other governments in the world.

THE NEWS IN NUMBERS

INDIA-EGYPT WHEAT TRADE

According to Egyptian Government, 1.8 In lakh tonnes, the amount of wheat Egypt has contracted to buy from India, Shipment will happen once the cargo “reaches the ports” in India. Egypt has strategic reserves of wheat sufficient for 5.7 months. The country has procured 3.9 million tonnes of wheat in the harvest so far. The strategic reserves for sugar are sufficient for more than six months, 6.3 months for vegetable oils while rice reserves will be enough for 3.3 months.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTION OF THE DAY

The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment was recently launched by which of the following?

a) WEF

b) OECD

c) G7

d) G20

ANSWER FOR 25^TH JUNE 2022

Answer: B

Explanation:

• Guiding principles of NITI Aayog –
•