Daily Prelims Notes 20 July 2020

July 20, 2020
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

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Table Of Contents

1. Network Products

Subject: Economy

Context:

Network products have potential to generate jobs in post COVID economy of India

Concept:

The Economic Survey 2019-20 promoted this by suggesting “assembly in India for the world”, especially in “networked products”, in a bid to create four crore well-paid jobs by 2025 and eight crore jobs by 2030.
Network product is one where production processes are globally fragmented and controlled by leading Multi-National Enterprises (MNEs) within their “producer driven” global production networks.
Examples of network products include computers, electronic and electrical equipment, telecommunication equipment, road vehicles etc.
The Survey notes that China’s remarkable export performance vis-a-vis India is driven primarily by deliberate specialization at large scale in labour–intensive activities, especially “network product” where production occurs across Global Value Chains (GVCs) operated by multi-national corporations.

2. Community Transmission

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is going to make COVID test on patients without any travel history or contact with novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) for signs of community transmission

Concept:

Community transmission is a stage in disease transmission where those have not been exposed to an infected person or anyone who has a travel history to affected countries, still test positive.
In other words, people are unable to identify where they might have picked up the virus from.

3. China’s National Sword Policy

Subject: IR

Context:

China’s plastic ban

Concept:

China’s “National Sword” policy, enacted in January 2018, banned the import of most plastics and other materials headed for that nation’s recycling processors, which had handled nearly half of the world’s recyclable waste for the past quarter century.
The move was an effort to halt a deluge of soiled and contaminated materials that was overwhelming Chinese processing facilities and leaving the country with yet another environmental problem.
In the year since, China’s plastics imports have plummeted by 99 percent, leading to a major global shift in where and how materials tossed in the recycling bin are being processed.
Globally more plastics are now ending up in landfills, incinerators, or likely littering the environment as rising costs to haul away recyclable materials increasingly render the practice unprofitable
Plastic-exporting countries scrambled for alternatives, and in some cases, diverted their shipments to nearby countries in Southeast Asia.

4. Swarm , upsurge and plague

Subject: Environment

Context:

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned India to remain on high alert against locust attack for the next four weeks.

Concept:

The FAO has three categories of Desert Locust situations:
Outbreak: It is common occurence
Upsurge: current locust attack (2019-2020) has been categorised as an upsurge.
Plague
Upsurges and plagues do not occur overnight; instead, they take many months to develop.
The last major plague was in 1987-89 and the last major upsurge was in 2003-05.

Locust attacks and developments:

Before the outbreak stage, the FAO first issues ‘Desert Locust threats’ that are determined from an analysis of national survey and control data combined with remote sensing imagery and historical records. Such threats have been issued in 2012, 2013, and 2015. Not all threats develop into an outbreak.
When there are good rains and green vegetation develops, desert Locusts which are always present somewhere in the deserts between Mauritania and India can rapidly increase in number and within a month or two, start to concentrate.

5. Rule of law

Subject:Polity

Context:

The Supreme Court has said that government has the responsibility to uphold the law while hearing a plea connection with the death of gangster Vikas Dubey.

Concept:

The concept of equality before law is an element of the concept of Rule of Law, propounded by A.V. Dicey, the British jurist. His concept has the following three elements or aspects:

Absence of arbitrary power, that is, no man can be punished except for a breach of law.
Equality before the law, that is, equal subjection of all citizens (rich or poor, high or low, official or non-official) to the ordinary law of the land administered by the ordinary law courts.
The primacy of the rights of the individual, that is, the constitution is the result of the rights of the individual as defined and enforced by the courts of law rather than the constitution being the source of the individual rights.
The first and the second elements are applicable to the Indian System and not the third one. In the Indian System, the constitution is the source of the individual rights.
The Supreme Court held that the Rule of Law as embodied in Article 14 is a basic feature of the constitution. Hence, it cannot be destroyed even by an amendment.

Rule of Law Index

The World Justice Project Rule of Law Indexis the world’s leading source for original, independent data on the rule of law.
The Rule of law Index measures “how the rule of law is experienced and perceived by the general public.”
In 2019, on this Index, India was ranked 68 out of 126 countries, down 3 places from last year.
This Index measures performance across various socio-legal and political focus-areas including “Open Government, Fundamental Rights, Regulatory Enforcement, Civil Justice, and Criminal Justice.”
India has never been rated among top 50 in the index.
Recently a petition was filed in SC to direct the government to take measure to improve its ranking on the index

6. Consumer protection act

Subject: Polity

Context:

New consumer protection act comes into force today.

Concept:

The newly enacted Consumer Protection Act replacing more than three decades old Consumer Protection Act, 1986.
The new Consumer Protection Act 2019 seeks to revamp the process of administration and settlement of consumer disputes, with strict penalties, including jail term for adulteration and misleading ads by firms.
It defined 6 rights of the consumers which include:
Right to be protected against the marketing of goods, products or services which can be hazardous to life and property
Right to be informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods, products and services
Right to be assured of access to goods, products and services at competitive prices.
Right to be heard at appropriate forums
Right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices that are involved in exploitation of customers
Right to consumer awareness
It proposes to set up Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers. The CCPA would make interventions to prevent consumer detriment arising from unfair trade practices. The agency can also initiate class action, including enforcing recall, refund and return of products.
It also simplified dispute resolution process, has provision for Mediation and e-filing of cases. The Consumer will be able to file cases in the nearest commission under the jurisdiction of which he resides.

Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (CDRCs) would be setup at various levels. The CDRCs would be set up at multiple levels – district, state and national. Consumers can file complaints with the CDRCs regarding any of the following.
Defective goods or services
Overcharging or deceptive charging on goods and services
Any unfair or restrictive trade practices
Offering services or sale of goods which can be hazardous to life or not safe
As per the new act, all the laws that apply for direct selling would also be applicable for E-Commerce.
Consumers can file complaints from anywhere and they do not need to hire lawyer to represent their cases. For mediation, there will be strict timeline fixed in the rules.
On misleading advertisements there is provision for jail term and fine for manufacturers.
For the first time there will be an exclusive law dealing with Product Liability. A manufacturer or product service provider or product seller will now be responsible to compensate for injury or damage caused by defective product or deficiency in services.

7. High real interest rate

Subject: Economy

Context:

High real interest rates are holding back investments in Indian economy

Concept:

Real interest rate is essentially derived after subtracting the inflation rate from the nominal interest rate.
RBI targets retail inflation, which is calculated by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), it is easy to believe that the real interest rates are coming down.
Real Interest (R) = Nominal Interest Rate (N) — Inflation Rate (I)
If N is falling sharply and I is increasing the latest retail inflation was over 6% then, R or the real interest rate must be falling.