THE INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

EXPLAINED: WHAT ARE THE RULES FOR THE RESIGNATION AND REINSTATEMENT OF AN IAS OFFICER?

THE CONTEXT: An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Kashmir, who resigned from the service in protest against the “unabated” killings in Kashmir in 2019, has been reinstated.

THE EXPLANATION:

• A “resignation” is a formal intimation in writing by an officer of their intention to leave the IAS. Guidelines of the Department of Personnel, the cadre controlling Department for the IAS, say that a resignation has to be clear and unconditional
• The resignation of an officer of any of the three All-India Services (IAS, Indian Police Service, and Indian Forest Service) is governed by Rule 5(1) and 5(1)(a) of the All India Services (Death-cum-retirement benefits) Rules, 1958. There are similar rules for other central services as well.

To whom does an officer submit his/her resignation?

• An officer serving in a cadre (state) must submit his/her resignation to the chief secretary of the state. An officer who is on central deputation is required to submit his/her resignation to the secretary of the concerned Ministry or Department.
• The Ministry/Department forwards the officer’s resignation to the concerned state cadre, with its comments/recommendations.
• A resignation can be rejected. In mid-2020, a principal secretary to the Punjab government resigned, but it was rejected by then Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh.

What happens after the resignation is submitted?

• The state checks to see if any dues are outstanding against the officer, as well as the vigilance status of the officer. The concerned state government is supposed to send, along with its recommendation, information on these two matters to the central government.
• The resignation of the officer is considered by the competent authority, i.e., the central government, only after the recommendation of the concerned cadre has been received.
• The competent authorities are the Minister of State at the Department of Personnel & Training in respect of the IAS, the Minister for Home Affairs in respect of IPS, and the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change in respect of the Forest Service.

Under what circumstances is a resignation accepted?

• The guidelines say that it is not in the interest of the government to retain an unwilling officer. As per the guidelines, resignations are accepted under normal circumstances.
• However, according to the guidelines, where an officer who is under suspension, submits a resignation, the competent authority should examine, with reference to the merit of the disciplinary case pending against the officer, whether it would be in the public interest to accept the resignation.
• In some cases, resignations have been rejected because disciplinary cases were pending against officers. In such cases, the concurrence of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is obtained.
• The government also checks whether the concerned officer had executed any bond for serving the government for a specified number of years on account of being given specialized training, a fellowship, or a scholarship for studies.

Can an officer withdraw his/her resignation?

• Following an amendment in the Rules in 2013, officers have the opportunity to withdraw a resignation within 90 days of it being accepted. Rule 5(1A)(i) says the central government may permit an officer to withdraw his/her resignation “in the public interest”.
• However, “Request for withdrawal of resignation shall not be accepted by the Central Government where a member of the Service resigns from his/her service or post with a view to be associated with any political parties or any organisation which takes part in politics, or to take part in, or subscribe in aid of, or assist in any other manner, any political movement or political activity or to canvass or otherwise interfere with, or use his/her influence in connection with, or take part in, an election to any legislature or local authority.”

 

HATTIS OF HIMACHAL PRADESH & THEIR DEMAND FOR SCHEDULED TRIBE STATUS

THE CONTEXT: The Union Home Ministry assured that the Centre would consider favorably the state government’s request for inclusion of the Hatti community in the list of Scheduled Tribes in the state and that the state government would complete all the formalities required for getting tribal status for the 3 lakh-strong community.

THE EXPLANATION:

Who are the Hattis?

• The Hattisare a close-knit community that got their name from their tradition of selling homegrown vegetables, crops, meat, and wool at small markets called ‘haat’ in towns.

• The Hatti community, whose men generally don a distinctive white headgear during ceremonies, is cut off from Sirmaur by two rivers called Giri and Tons. Tons divides it from the JaunsarBawar area of Uttarakhand. The Hattis who live in the trans-Giri area and JaunsarBawar in Uttarakhand were once part of the royal estate of Sirmaur until JaunsarBawar’s separation in 1815.
• Due to topographical disadvantages, the Hattis living in the Kamrau, Sangrah, and Shilliai areas lag behind in education and employment.
• The Hattisare governed by a traditional council called Khumbli, which like the khaps of Haryana, decides community matters. The Khumbli’s power has remained unchallenged despite the establishment of the Panchayati raj system.

What are the benefits of being accorded as a Scheduled Tribe?

The Indian Constitution ensures certain protection for communities deemed as having Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. However, which groups should be accorded that status has been contentious. Getting ST status means that members of the group have access to highly desired tangible benefits such as political representation, reserved seats in schools, and government jobs.

Who has the power to declare a community/Tribes as Scheduled Tribe?

• The Indian Constitution only states that STs are specified by the President after consultation with the Governor; it does not specify specific criteria.
• According to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the criterion—while not spelled out in legislation—“is well established,” and includes an indication of “primitive” traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, “shyness of connecting” with the community at large, and “backwardness.” These general standards were established following the definitions of the 1931 Census, the reports of the First Backward Classes Commission 1955, Kalelkar Advisory Committee, and the Revision of SC/ST list by the Lokur Committee. However, more than a half-century later, these broad criteria leave a lot of discretion.

 

THE ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY, AND CLIMATE CHANGE

LARGE SHARE OF INDIA’S THREATENED ENDEMIC SPECIES IN KERALA, TAMIL NADU, AND KARNATAKA: STUDY

THE CONTEXT: According to a study published in Environmental Research 2022 the three states account for 51 percent of the country’s species threat abatement and restoration (STAR) score. A higher STAR score indicates the greater presence of threatened species.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The study noted that the top 20 percent of all 36 states contributed 80 percent to the national STAR score. These include Kerala (20 percent), Tamil Nadu (18 percent), Karnataka (13 percent), Arunachal Pradesh (6 percent), Assam (5 percent), Maharashtra (5 percent), and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean (12 percent).
• The score is a measure of the contribution that investments can make to reduce species extinction risk. It can help national and subnational governments, cities, and other entities target their investments and activities to achieve conservation outcomes, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• India’s total national STAR score was 41,817, of which 11,585 were for mammals, 10,843 for birds, and 19,389 for amphibians.
• The global STAR score for the three species groups combined was 1,223,500. India’s national STAR score represented 3.4 percent of the global STAR; it was 3.7 percent for mammals, 2.9 percent for birds, and 3.6 percent for amphibians.

• Several bigger states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, and Telangana, however, contributed less than 1 percent to the national STAR score.
• The high STAR scores of the top three states (51 percent combined) were primarily due to the presence of several endemic amphibian species that are critically endangered like Indiana phrynoderma (Kerala Indian frog), Fejervaryamurthii (Ghats wart frog), Indiranagundia (Gundia frog), Micrixaluskottigeharensis (Kottigehar dancing frog) and others, the report noted.
• The high scores of the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam were due to the presence of a high number of threatened birds and mammals such as Liocichlabugunorum and Biswamoyopterusbiswasi.

 

THE SECURITY AFFAIRS

REPORTING OF CYBER BREACHES MADE MANDATORY FOR ALL FIRMS

THE CONTEXT: The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has made it mandatory for all service providers, intermediaries, data center providers, corporates as well as government organizations to report cyber incidents within six hours of their detection.

THE EXPLANATION:

• To strengthen India’s overall cybersecurity position, the country’s nodal cybersecurity agency has also issued additional directions relating to synchronisation of ICT system clocks, maintenance of logs of ICT systems and subscriber/customer registration details by data centers, virtual private server (VPS) providers, VPN service providers, and cloud service providers.
• In a statement released by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, “To coordinate response activities as well as emergency measures with respect to cybersecurity incidents, CERT-In calls for information from service providers, intermediaries, data centers and body corporate.
• “During handling cyber incidents and interactions with the constituency, CERT-In has identified certain gaps causing hindrance in incident analysis,” it added.
• It said that to address the identified gaps and facilitate incident response measures, CERT-In had issued directions relating to information security practices, procedures, prevention, response, and reporting of cyber incidents. These directions will take effect after 60 days.
• It also noted, “Any service provider, intermediary, data center, body corporate and government organisation shall mandatorily report cyber incidents… to CERT-In within 6 hours of noticing such incidents or being brought to notice about such incidents”.

 

VALUE ADDITION:

• CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents as and when they occur. The constituency of CERT-In is the Indian Cyber Community.
• CERT-In was established in 2004 as a functional organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Functions:

• The Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008 designated CERT-In to serve as the national agency to perform the following functions in the area of cyber security:
• Collection, analysis, and dissemination of information on cyber incidents.
• Forecast and alerts of cyber security incidents
• Emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents
• Coordination of cyber incident response activities.
• Issue guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes, and whitepapers relating to information
• security practices, procedures, prevention, response, and reporting of cyber incidents.
• Such other functions relating to cyber security as may be prescribed.

QUICK FACTS:

• Budapest Convention on Cybercrime: It is the first international treaty that seeks to address Internet and cybercrime by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations. It came into force in 2004. India is not a signatory to this convention.
• Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre(I4C): It was established in 2018 to combat cybercrime in India in a comprehensive and coordinated manner. It functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

THE NEWS IN NUMBERS

INTERNET FREEDOM

About 56 nations have now signed a political commitment to push rules for the internet that are underpinned by democratic values. This comes at a time when the U.S. has accused Russia of wielding internet disruptions as a part of its escalating attacks on Ukraine. The commitment called the “Declaration for the Future of the Internet”, protects human rights, promotes the free flow of information, protects user privacy, and sets rules for a growing global digital economy among steps to counter digital authoritarianism.

REPTILES AT RISK

• According to the first major global assessment about 21 percent of reptile species are at risk of extinction according to the world’s cold-blooded creatures. At least 1,829 species of reptiles are either vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered, including more than half of the turtles and crocodiles, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
• The researchers assessed 10,196 reptile species and evaluated them using criteria from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.

 MEASLES SURGE

According to United Nations, around an 80 percentage, of the surge in measles cases worldwide this year(2022), warning that the rise of the illness indicated that outbreaks of other diseases were likely on the way. The coronavirus pandemic has interrupted vaccination campaigns for non-COVID diseases around the world, creating a “perfect storm” that could put millions of children’s lives at risk, UNICEF and the World Health Organization said in a statement. More than 17,300 measles cases were reported globally in January and February 2022.

About Measles:

Measles is a contagious disease caused by a virus. It’s a contagious illness spread by mucus and saliva. The virus is released into the air when a measles-infected person sneezes or coughs. The measles virus can spread through the air. As a result, anyone in that area could be infected by the virus.

• It is caused by the Rubella virus, a member of the para myxovirus family.
• It is spread by droplets from an infected person’s nose, throat, or mouth.
• Respiratory droplets produced by coughing or sneezing spread the disease through the air.
• Before the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, the disease claimed the lives of over 2 million people each year.
• Despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine, lakhs of children worldwide die each year from measles.
• The majority of the victims are children under the age of five.

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Q1. Which dance form uses Jayadeva’s ‘Gita Govinda’ extensively?

a) Sattriya

b) Kuchipudi

c) Bharatnatyam

d) Odissi

 

Q2. Giddha, Sammi, and Kikli are folk dances from which of the following states of India?

a) Rajasthan

b) Punjab

c) Haryana

d) Uttar Pradesh

ANSWER FOR 28TH APRIL 2022

Answer: B

Explanation:

A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by the Prime Minister on 27th April 2022 approved an investment of ₹4,526.12 crores for the 540- megawatt Kwar hydroelectric project on the Chenab in the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.

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