07 January 2021: The Hindu Editorial Analysis

1) Boosting India with maritime domain awareness?

Beyond monitoring Chinese activity in the Indian Ocean, India’s initiatives could help generate intraregional synergy.

GS 2:  India and its neighbourhood-relations.India and its neighbourhood-relations.

GS-2: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

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CONTEXT:

1. The Indian Ocean, India’s initiatives could help generate intraregional synergy.
2. Time to shift focus to the maritime sphere, Nature of the enemy at sea.
3. Think beyond a division the current ‘Indo-Pacific Division Briefs’ document put out by the MEA.

Sun Tzu - is once said to have observed that the critical element in battle was foreknowledge, but that it “could not be elicited from spirits, nor from gods, nor by analogy with past events, nor from calculations”.

 

 

 

 

Nature of the enemy at sea change?

1. Today, the enemy at sea is often unrecognisable — a terrorist, a pirate, a criminal or a sea robber — an invisible presence that lurks behind regular actors such as fishermen and port workers. 

Solution:

1.  A lot more vigilant, highly reliant on high-grade sensors and communication networks that observe and track suspicious movements, sharing information in real time. 
2. Practitioners describe this state of enhanced consciousness as maritime domain awareness.
3. Improve domain awareness in the Indian Ocean by setting up radar stations in the Maldives, Myanmar and Bangladesh; Mauritius, the Seychelles and Sri Lanka have already integrated into the wider coastal radar chain network

 

Chinese presence in the eastern littorals.

Solution:  

1. In recent months, India’s P-8I aircraft have scoured the near-seas for People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) submarines,
2.  Indian naval ships have patrolled the Andaman Seas and eastern chokepoints to deter any maritime adventurism by Beijing.

 

Neighbourhood Synergies?

1. Maritime domain awareness is also generating cooperative synergies in the neighbourhood. Seven Indian Ocean countries — Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Mauritius and the Seychelles — will soon post Liaison Officers at the Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region in Gurugram.
2. France already has an officer at the IFC, and four other Indo-Pacific navies — Australia, Japan, the U.K and the U.S. — have also agreed to position officers at the centre, fast emerging as the most prominent information hub in the Eastern Indian Ocean
3. Engagement in the Western Indian Ocean by positioning a Liaison Officer at the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre (RMIFC) in Madagascar.
4. Indian Ocean Commission that India joined recently as an ‘observer’, the RMIFC is a key centre of maritime information in the Western Indian Ocean.
5. India has also posted an officer at the European Maritime Awareness in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASOH) in Abu Dhabi to assist in the monitoring of maritime activity in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

 

Realize French connection and China Watch?

France :

1. Reunion island of the Mascarene Islands and a French overseas département and overseas region are in the western Indian Ocean.
2. Having signed a logistics agreement with New Delhi in 2019, Paris is keen for a stronger partnership in the maritime commons.
3.  France has been instrumental in securing ‘observer’ status for India at the Indian Ocean Commission, and is pushing for greater Indian participation in security initiatives in the Western Indian Ocean.
4.  From an operational perspective, however, the Indian Navy’s priority remains South Asia, where the naval leadership remains focused on underwater domain awareness in the Eastern Indian Ocean

 

China:  

1. Next generation of PLAN nuclear submarines could be stealthier than ever, capable of beating adversary surveillance.
2. The recent discovery of a Chinese unmanned underwater vehicle close to a southern Indonesian island suggests that China may already be mapping the undersea terrain in the approaches to the Indian Ocean Region, with a view to advance submarine operations.
3. India has moved to expand its underwater detection capabilities in the Eastern chokepoints on gulf of Malacca.   

Putting the SAGAR vision on the real test:

Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR). SAGAR is an vision document  that seeks to differentiate India’s leadership from the modus operandi of other regionally active major powers and to reassure littoral states as India’s maritime influence grows. As External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar signalled at the fourth Indian Ocean Conference in September last year, India’s SAGAR vision is intended to be “consultative, democratic and equitable”. India’s recent admission as observer to the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) will put this vision to the test.

   

 

 

 

 

1. India’s initiatives in the maritime domain are motivated by more than just strategic considerations. India recognises the need for cooperative tools to fight transnational crime in the littorals.
2. Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR), Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s philosophical mantra that advances the idea of India as a ‘security provider’ and ‘preferred partner’ in the Indo-Pacific region.
3. Indian initiatives, however, are yet to bring about an alignment of objectives and strategies of regional littoral states.
4. While cooperative information sharing allows for a joint evaluation of threats, countries do not always share vital information timeously.

 

Indian ocean country:

Importance of Indian Ocean :

1. The Indian Ocean is third largest water body of the world that has vital sea lanes of communication crisscrossing it and which feeds Asia's largest economies.
2. Around 80 per cent of the world's seaborne oil trade passes through the choke points of this ocean and therefore it literally connects the east to the west.
3. The region has 51 coastal and landlocked states, namely 26 Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) states, five Red Sea states, four Persian Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, France, Britain and 13 landlocked states.
4. Four critically important access waterways are the Suez Canal (Egypt), Bab el Mandeb (Djibouti-Yemen), Strait of Hormuz (IranOman), and Strait of Malacca (Indonesia-Malaysia).

 

Way forward :

1. Indian Ocean countries have a long history of trade, culture and military interaction with the rest of the world.
2. Today the Indian Ocean’s traditional status as an international trade highway is more significant than ever before, while international military presence in the ocean is unprecedented.
3. The region contains 1/3 of the world’s population, 25% of its landmass, 40% of the world’s oil and gas reserves.

 

2) The challenge of distributing opportunities better The line between ‘reserved’ and ‘general’ is blurring, impacting reservation as an idea and as practice.

GS 2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

GS 1: Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India. and Social empowerment

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CONTEXT:

1. Reservation divided Indians into the implacably opposed camps of the ‘reserved’ and the ‘general’ categories, with the latter dominating every aspect of public life with the partial exception of electoral politics.
2. What are your views on reservation?” would be a good or a bad post-concussion diagnostic question. On the one hand, every Indian has an opinion.
3. How have these changes impacted reservation as an idea and as practice? The answer to this question has many dimensions

 

Quota, ideology and merit?

1. The ideologies that influence us most deeply shape our view of the world while remaining fully transparent themselves, like the lenses of our spectacles. Reservation — especially caste-based reservation — is a subject saturated in ideology.
2. Quotas meant for “us” — like the reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), or for the wards of employees or alumni of universities and colleges — are not even visible as quotas, and even when they are, they do not look the same at all.  
3. In other words, 50% of our seats in MA/MSc are reserved for those with BA/BSc honours degrees in the same subject from our own university. This is a straightforward quota, but it is officially called the ‘Merit Stream’.
4. The fact, all quotas are merit quotas since they apply merit-based criteria of selection to the pool of eligible candidates.

 

Negative fallouts?

1. Reservation is similar to internal partition among SC, ST,OBC, upper class.
2.  Reservations are the biggest enemy of meritocracy like IIT,IIM and so on.
3. Caste Based Reservation only perpetuates the notion of caste in society.
4. Affirmative Action can be provided. factors of exclusion such as caste, economic conditions, gender,
5. The benefits of reservation policy have largely been appropriated. 

Poor people from “forward castes” do not have any social or economic.

 

Is it mutually exclusiveness among reservation?

1. The most recent judgment of the Supreme Court on reservation (Saurav Yadav vs. State of Uttar Pradesh & Others, October 18, 2020) serves as a reminder that it is an increasingly complex intersectional issue because social identities are no longer singular.
2.  The judgment also upholds the principle, stated and clarified in the wake of the so-called “Mandal judgment” during the 1990s, that the un-reserved category must be open to all, including those belonging to categories entitled to reservations.
3. A side-effect of the “reservation castes” forcing their way into the un-reserved category has been the grudging acknowledgement that rather than recognising excellence, merit criteria actually perform a rationing function in our system.
4. True merit cannot be measured by examination marks alone, as the late Arun Jaitley declared in Parliament when piloting the EWS reservation bill.

 

Turning point in reservation policy:

1. The EWS reservation law passed in 2019, which created the first explicit mechanism of reservation for the upper castes (though carefully not named as such)
2. The year 2021 happens to be the centenary year of the “Communal” Government Order (GO) in Madras Presidency, which introduced reservation based on castes and communities

 

Constitutional provisions related to the reservation?

1. Part XVI of the Indian Constitution deals withReservation for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in federal and state legislatures.
2. The constitutional authority of the President to set up commissions to assess and suggest remedies for the welfare of SC and ST sections.
3. Article 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution – extends benefits of reservation to socially and educationally backward classes.

 

Why demand growing rapidly?

1. Agriculture crisis.
2. Unemployment Privilege
3. Salaries and Wage
4. Demands of Upper castes
5. Life style change
6. Political narrowness

 

Fare of reservation?

1. Historical injustice: 
2.  Level Playing field
3. Meritocracy Vs Equality Vs diversity .
4. Administration quality,
5. Minority vs majority

 

Way forward :

1. Acknowledging caste as norm The Communal GO was the colonial government’s way of acknowledging the inequalities of caste and finding politically expedient ways of dealing with it.
2. Create a reservation system according to economic status. Reservations based on caste and not on the basis of the economic condition are unethical and unacceptable.Provide an opportunity for students to earn while they study, lagging, and food facility.

 

3) The importance of social interactions

A year of being homebound has deepened divisions in a society already fraught with prejudices.

GS 1: Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India.

GS4:  Ethics and Human Interface: Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in-human actions and Human Values - lessons from the lives

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CONTEXT:

1. 1. India a country where religious and cultural prejudices run deep, social interactions are important to overcome bias.
   2.  Hypothesis on how to reduce prejudice among majority and minority groups, popularly called the ‘Contact Hypothesis’.
   3. The idea was simple: contact (with some caveats) reduces prejudice. Subsequently, decades of social psychology research arrived at a far simpler idea: friendship reduces prejudice.

 

Why social interactions Essential in Indian society? 

1. 1. COVID-19 pandemic: Cut the social interactions and the millions of friendships that should have formed at schools and workplaces.
   2. Many inequities: Among Religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, sect, region, classes and so on. 
   3. The religious identities of Hindus and Muslims have shaped their social ties, their political loyalties and their interaction with the Indian state.
   4. The long history of Hindu-Muslim ties in the subcontinent is marred by grotesque violence fuelled by myths, rumours and prejudice.
   5. Increased physical health. Seniors who engage in relationships tend to be more active, improving their physical health through their social activities.
   6. Boosted immune system. Studies show socially active seniors have increased immune systems, allowing them to fight of colds, flus and other ailments, more easily.
   7. More positive outlook on life. Staying connected with others makes us feel more connect-ed to the world and increases our sense of belonging.
   8. Improved mental sharpness. Keeping our brains active and engaged can sharpen our minds and reduce the risk of cognitive decline
   9. Longer, happier lives. By keeping an active social calendar, seniors can increase their lifespan and longevity. 
   10. Social support and social interaction have a positive influence on human beings’ physical and mental health. It lowers occurrence of stress, depression, anxiety and also highly affects our endocrine-immune system.

 

‘Contact  Hypothesis’?

The contact hypothesis is a theory in psychology which suggests that prejudice and conflict between groups can be reduced if members of the groups interact with each other.

1. In 1954, Gordon Allport published The Nature of Prejudice, which contained, among other analyses of inter-group behaviour,
2. Theory on prejudice. Specifically, it contained a hypothesis on how to reduce prejudice among majority and minority groups, popularly called the ‘Contact Hypothesis’.
3. The idea was simple: contact (with some caveats) reduces prejudice. Subsequently, decades of social psychology research arrived at a far simpler idea: friendship reduces prejudice.

 

How to overcome religious friction in india (Hindu-Muslim) :

Although close interaction may ‘significantly’ reduce prejudices, this reduction is minimal at best.

1. The attitudes of suspicion and negativity towards the Muslim minority are deeply entrenched in the Indian society.
2. As this newspaper has reported over the last few years, the ghettoization of Muslims continues to define both urban and rural landscapes. This ensures that most instances of quotidian social interactions — be it an evening tea or meeting at markets — is effectively denied, thereby limiting the building of lasting friendships at workplaces and schools.
3. While Hindu individuals might hold great respect and affection for Muslim friends, they might not hold the same view about the community as a whole since they would consider a Muslim friend to be an ‘exception to the rule’.
4. As a result, whilst interactions do take place and reduce prejudice, they do not cross a threshold already laid down by generations of socialisation and stereotypes.

 

Way forward :

1. It behoves parents, teachers and employers to encourage engagement through social organisations or other forms of safe civic engagement.
2. Better mental health – it can lighten your mood and make you feel happier. Lower your risk of dementia – social interaction is good for your brain health.
3. Promotes a sense of safety, belonging and security. Allows you to confide in others and let them confide in you.