Current Affairs 17 July 2021 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 17 July 2021 focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :

Build Back Better World (B3W)

Source : Indian Express
International Relation

What is discussed under Build Back Better World (B3W) ?

1. Guideline principles
2. What are the challenges posed by China-BRI ?
3. How China’s BRI impact India and region ?

Why in News ?

G-7 leaders  proposed Build Back Better World (B3W) to counter China’s rising influence across 100-plus countries through Belt Road Initiative (BRI) projects.

• The space which has been increasingly captured by China through 2,600 BRI projects with trillions of dollars of investment.

Key Facts

• What is the news ?
  • B3W aims to address the infrastructure investment deficit in developing and lower income countries.
  • It would leverage the G-7’s development finance tools in investments in low- and middle-income countries around the globe.
  • G-7 leaders should also be able to leverage their domestic and international experience to enhance equity and address the needs of vulnerable populations.
  • According to G-7 countries the low and middle income countries need $40+ trillion infrastructure requirement.
  • G-7 and their partners also have deep experience with bilateral and multilateral development finance, which could help address the $40+ trillion global infrastructure gap that has been identified by the G-7.
• Build Back Better World (B3W)

  

  • Initiative undertaken by G7 countries launched on June 21.
  • Providing support for the infrastructure development of the low and middle income countries
  • B3W aims to catalyze funding for quality infrastructure from the private sector and will encourage private-sector investments.
  • This also support climate, health and health security, digital technology, and gender equity and equality.
  • Guideline principles :
    • Values-Driven : Infrastructure development carried out in a transparent and sustainable manner—financially, environmentally, and socially.
    • Climate-Friendly : The investments will be made in a manner consistent with achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
    • Strategic Partnerships : Infrastructure that is developed in partnership with parties whom it benefits will last longer and generate more development impact.
    • Private Partnership : Significant increase in private capital to address infrastructure needs. 
    • Multilateral Public Finance : Make use of Multilateral development banks standards for project planning, implementation, social and environmental safeguards, and analytical capability. 

What are the challenges posed by China-BRI ?

• Belt and Road Initiative
  • The BRI seeks to build rail, maritime and road links from Asia to Europe and Africa in a revival of ancient Silk Road trading routes.
    • BRI, earlier known as One Belt One Road (OBOR).
    • South-east Asia to Eastern Europe and Africa, Belt and Road includes 71 countries that account for half the world’s population and a quarter of global GDP.
  • Improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth are the major aim.
  • Belt and Road Initiative is expected to cost more than $1tn.
  • BRI projects broadly aim to facilitate cross-border transportation of goods, access to energy, creating demand for existing excess capacity in Chinese industries.
  • Objectives of the projects undertaken in different countries vary but overall focus is on developing transportation, logistics and communications.
    • This would reduce trade and transaction cost for China’s trade, give more market access to Chinese markets and ensure stable supply of energy and other resources.
• What is its impact ?
  • China’s FDI outflow to inflow ratio increased to 1 from around 0.34 during 2001-10.
  • In volume terms the FDI outflow increased to an average of $140 billion in 2016-19 from an annual average $25 billion during 2001-10.
  • China’s share of FDI outflows increased from 2.3 per cent during 2001-10 to 10.7 per cent during 2016-2019.
  • China has signed diverse projects worth $548.4 billion, including four-fifths in the BRI participating countries ($461 billion).
    • Presence in Africa
      • China has an exposure of vast contracts worth around $123 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
      • Mainly with Nigeria, Zambia, Ethiopia, Angola, Tanzania and Kenya, mostly focusing on hydro and oil energy, shipping and rail transport.
      • Kenya the African hub and plans to connect it with other land-locked countries in the region, including Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, etc.
    • China’s second preferred region under the BRI as construction contracts worth $110 billion are under way, and 80 per cent contracts are concentrated in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan.
    • China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the Bangladesh-China, India, the Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM) and the Colombo Port City Project in Sri Lanka are other projects.
    • China has signed construction contracts worth around $96 billion under BRI, largely focusing on Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt, with 70 per cent allocation of total regional contract agreements.
    • East Asian Region
      • Biggest contracts have been with Indonesia, Malaysia and Laos worth $18.5 billion, $17.1 billion and $11.2 billion respectively.
      • Focusing on transportation, railways, roadways and waterways, for better integration between China and ASEAN countries.
    • China with Europe
      • Major projects include a freight train project from Ukraine to Kazakhstan through Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan.
      • Greek port Pireaus, the China-Belarus Industrial Park, and the Green Ecological Silk Road Investment Fund are other major projects.

How China’s BRI impact India and region ?

• Many countries, including India, would see an adverse trade impact on their products’ competitiveness, market access, resource extraction etc. due to Chinese competition.
• China has stepped up its huge infrastructure investments in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives rising concerns of its growing influence in India’s immediate neighbourhood.
• India and US raise concerns over debt-diplomacy of China
  • As part of this policy recently Sri Lanka handed over its Hambantota Port to a state-run Chinese firm in 2017 for a 99 years’ lease in a debt swap amounting to $1.2 billion.
  • Malaysia has also deferred several projects under the BRI, citing cost revaluation.
  • Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan and Tajikistan are among the poorest in their respective regions and will owe more than half of all their foreign debt to China.
• India was the only country in the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation grouping which opposed the initiative.

Law Of Sedition UPSC Perspective

Source : The Hindu
Polity

What is discussed under Law Of Sedition UPSC Perspective ?

1. What is Sedition law ?
2. Impact on person
3. Comments made against the law by various personalities
4. Argument in favour and against the sedition Law
5. Sedition Laws in other countries

Why in News ?

Chief Justice of India criticise the way the sedition law is used by the government to crush liberties.

• Why a colonial law used against Mahatma Gandhi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak continued to survive in the law book 75 years after Independence.

Key Facts

• What is the news ?
  • Sedition is a colonial law and it was used to suppresses freedoms.
  • It was used against Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak and sedition law or Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, was
    prone to misuse by the government.
  • A number of petitions have been filed highlighting the chilling effect sedition has on the fundamental right of free speech.
• What is Law Of Sedition UPSC Perspective ?
  • Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

    

  • It deals with sedition was drafted by Thomas Babington Macaulay that was included in the IPC in 1870.
  • The Law : Whoever, words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government established by law in India shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine
• Impact on person
  • It is a non bailable offence.
  • Person who is charged under 124A cant be applied for government jobs.
• Comments made against the law by various personalities
  • Mahatma Gandhi called Section 124A “the prince among the political sections design to suppress the liberty of citizens.
  • Jawaharlal Nehru : obnoxious and highly objectionable.

History of Sedition law in India

• IPC was brought into force in colonial India in 1860
  • Section 124A was inserted in 1870 by an amendment introduced by Sir James Stephen when it felt the need for a specific section to deal with the offence.
  • Inserted on the grounds that it was dropped from the original IPC draft by mistake. 
• Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Jawaharlal Nehru are accused under the law.
  • First case was against Jogendra Chandra Bose editor of Bangobasi (Queen-Empress v. Jogendra Chunder Bose & Ors., (1892) ILR 19 Cal 35) while he criticised Age of consent Bill in 1891.
  • Bal Gangadhar Tilak ( Queen-Empress v. Bal Gangadhar Tilak & Keshav Mahadev Bal) was the first person to be convicted of sedition in colonial India by the Bombay high court.
  • Tilak’s Marathi newspaper Kesari would encourage people to foil the government’s efforts at curbing the plague epidemic
  • Trial against Mahatma Gandhi in 1922.
• Privy Council that was the highest court of appeal based in London by 1937.
• Section 124A continued to stay in the IPC even after the declaration of Constitution that provide Article 19(1)(a) gave absolute freedom of speech and expression. 
• The case of Tara Singh Gopi Chand v. The State (1951) was the first instance of a court in independent India adjudicating on the constitutional validity of section 124A of the IPC.
• Kedar Nath Singh which is considered the most authoritative judgement of the Supreme Court on the interpretation of the sedition law.

Argument in favour of sedition Law

• Mostly the supporters favoured the law argues that the law deals with Anti National Elements and terrorist of the society.
• India have the law for punishment for contempt of court in the same way the government act should be protected to a limit.
• India is prone to internal disturbances caused by anti-government group like Maoist threats and other group who are trying to over-through the government by advocating through various means.
• Government established by law should be required for a peaceful existence of various sections of the society.

Argument against of sedition Law

• The sedition clause is a part of British colonial rule to suppress critical voices from the Indian freedom movement.
• IPC we have today  was absent from the original draft of Macaulay’s IPC in 1860, and was only introduced in the year 1870.
• Britishers who introduced the law now abolishes the sedition law through Section 73 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
• In India there are alternative law placed through Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 2019 to penalize disrupting the public order” or “overthrowing the government with violence and illegal means.
• India is a signatory and ratified International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which favoured Freedom of Speech.

Sedition Laws in other countries

• Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Sudan, Senegal and Turkey are among the few countries that deals with sedition as a criminal act.
• United Kingdom
  • In India sedition law was implemented by colonial era the same and UK now abolished the sedition law.
  • Sedition by an alien resident but not a national of the country however is an offence.
  • Section 73 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 abolishes sedition and seditious libel.
• United States of America
  • Section 2385 of the US Code deals with treason, sedition and subversive activities.
  • Also deals with advocating overthrow of government.
  • In fact US rarely enforced to uphold the freedom of speech.
  • Major part of the law was struck down by the US
• Malaysian Sedition Act 1948
  • laws on sedition against any ruler, ruling government, administration of justice and rights and privileges under the Federal Constitution
  • It also includes the prohibitions on racial hate-speech.
• Indonesia
  • They declared sedition law as unconstitutional.
  • The Dutch government implemented the law during colonial period.
• South Korea
  • South Korea abolishes the sedition law.
  • The democratic and legal reforms in 1988 decided to abolish the sedition law.

Way Forward

• There is an imminent need to relook the invocation of sedition under section 124A.
• Importantly it ensure that the offence is used within defined legal limits so as to strike a balance between national security and the fundamental rights of citizens.

Daily Current Affairs : Click Here