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20 09 19

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SL. NO. TOPICS

THE HINDU

PAGE NO.

1 keeladi findings traceable to 6th century BCE: report 01

2 Access to internet is a basic right : kerala HC 01

3 Can Hindi unite India? 11

4 Being mindful of diversity 11

5 Over the hills and far away 10

6 India unlikely to meet ‘Poshan Abhiyan’ targets, finds study 09

Dated: 20.Sep.2019 DNS Notes Title 1. keeladi findings traceable to 6th century BCE: report (The Hindu,

2)

Syllabus Prelims : GS Paper : History

Theme Sangam literature

Highlights • The Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department (TNAD) has stated that the cultural

deposits unearthed during excavations at Keeladi in Sivaganga district can be safely dated to a period between 6th century BCE and 1st century CE.

• TNAD has placed Keeladi artefacts about 300 years earlier than previously

believed — 3rd century BCE.

• The study suggests that the “second urbanisation in the Vaigai plains happened in Tamil Nadu around 6th century BCE.

• The first urbanisation in Indian History is from the Indus Valley Civilisation.

• The recent scientific dates obtained for Keeladi findings push back the date of

Tamil-Brahmi script to another century, i.e., 6th century BCE.

• These results clearly ascertained that they attained literacy or learned the art of writing as early as 6th century BCE

• This finding suggests that the society in Keeladi had used animals

predominantly for agricultural purposes.

Personal Notes

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Dated: 20.Sep.2019 DNS Notes

Title 2. Access to internet is a basic right : kerala HC (The Hindu, Page 01)

Syllabus GS Paper 2: Polity

Theme Rights

Highlights

Context: The Kerala High Court has held that the right to have access to the Internet is part of the fundamental right to education as well as the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. The Petition:

• A student in college of Kozhikode was expelled for using mobile phone during restricted hours. The student filed a petition challenging her expulsion for not adhering to restrictions on the use of mobile phone.

• She contended that the use of mobile phones amounted to a violation of fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

• This is because access to internet through mobile phones or laptops, provided an avenue for the students to gather knowledge and the college authorities had no right to deny her fundamental right.

Judgment: • The court observed, “When the Human Rights Council of the United Nations has

found that the right of access to Internet is a fundamental freedom and a tool to ensure right to education, a rule or instruction which impairs the said right of the students cannot be permitted to stand in the eye of law.”

• The Judge observed that the action of the college authorities infringed the fundamental freedom as well as privacy and would adversely affect the future and


career of students who want to acquire knowledge and compete with their peers. • So, such restriction by college authorities on restriction of mobile phones cannot not

be permitted to be enforced. • The court further said that college authorities as well as parents should be conscious

of the fact that the students in a college hostel are adults capable of taking decisions as to how and when they want to study.

Personal Notes

Title 3. Can Hindi unite India? – (The Hindu, Page 11)

Syllabus GS paper 2 : Polity

Theme Languages

Dated: 20.Sep.2019 DNS Notes Highlights

Can Hindi unite India? Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement last week that Hindi can unite the country once again evoked sharp disapproval from political parties, especially in south India. Mr. Shah later clarified that he meant Hindi as a second language. Is Hindi everyone’s language? Views of G.N. Devy The 2011 Census listed 1,369 ‘mother tongues’ in the country. Hindi is only one among them. When the languages were enumerated, Hindi subsumed Bhojpuri, which is spoken by a little over five crore people. The Census has put Bhojpuri as a subset of Hindi. So, it may be true that Hindi is spoken by a large number of people in India, but it is equally true that it is not spoken by a majority of Indians. Language does not connect nation, Constitution, our history and some epoch-making phenomena, whether it is the Buddha, the Bhakti movement or the freedom struggle connects India. The government should not interfere with the linguistic behaviour or choices of people. Views of Yogendra Yadav ‘One nation, one language, one culture’ is a 19th century European idea that failed to create unity. Instead, it caused a lot of bloodshed in the world. Just when the world is moving away from this preposterous idea, our rulers wish to copy it. This is the real curse of the colonised mind. Our tragedy was not just that we were colonised, but also that we were colonised by linguistically challenged islanders who could not think beyond one language. This idea is not in tune with our history, culture and civilisation. India is a multilingual society. Is there need for single language as Inter-state migration increasing? Views of G.N. Devy Today nearly 35% of people are migrating daily for work. In such a situation, we have to conceptualise a new form of language identity for our States. Cities must be recognised as multilingual entities. This will help in unhinging the education policy for some large metropolises. The current practice of clubbing together multilingual spaces with monolingual habitats is not fair to the large cities today. For instance, in Maharashtra, one may argue that a child should be instructed only in Marathi. This is a good argument for a linguistic State. But it is not a good idea to impose this universally in Mumbai as well. So, the language choice of citizens should be widened and not narrowed by the state. If there is a mechanical and monolithic idea of unity followed by any entity, such an entity generally generates great hostility beyond its immediate borders. If India were to remain obsessed with this kind of a deeply flawed idea of nationalism, Indians will never have a happy relationship with their neighbours. A united nation has to have space for diversity. India is united in its diversity. Any idea of one link language, whether Hindi or English, will be economically disastrous for India. It will slow down migration and reduce the ease of capital flow. Is it time to rethink the three-language policy? When a child goes to school, her initial language of instruction should be as close to the language spoken by her mother or home language. If it is Konkani or Bhojpuri, the primary schools must use that as a medium of instruction. Then, gradually, the child should be shifted to the State’s official language, say, Marathi or Kannada. English can and should be taught from the beginning as a language but not as a medium of instruction. Those who need higher-level skills in English for higher or technical education should be given that, but everyone need not be burdened with that. Hindi should be introduced in non-Hindi-speaking States from an early stage and the Hindi-speaking States should introduce a non-Hindi Indian language. That was the three-language formula.


Sadly, the formula was sabotaged: • Most non-Hindi speaking States did introduce Hindi, • The Hindi-speaking States bypassed the requirement to teach a non-Hindi language

(preferably a South Indian language, said the original formulation). Instead of learning Tamil or Telugu — languages that are older and richer than Hindi — they fulfilled the third language requirement with perfunctory Sanskrit.

• The other violation was that our elites started shifting to English-only education with perfunctory knowledge of an Indian language.

The three-language formula exists just on paper now. Views of G.N. Devy: Language disaster All tribal languages are rapidly disappearing. That is because there are not enough livelihood opportunities in those languages. Livelihood possibilities for tribals are diminishing; languages are not encouraged and people are getting assimilated in some larger language. But there is a huge loss entailed in the process, both economically and culturally. Conclusion Language diversity is a great economic proposition. India is uniquely gifted in that out of the world’s 6,000 languages, we have close to 10% of the spoken languages. Our pride will get dented if we had only one language or become only a bilingual nation. All of us have the collective responsibility to think about this and worry about the less privileged languages.


Personal Notes


Title 4. Being mindful of Diversity – (The Hindu, Page 11)

Syllabus Mains: GS Paper I – Society

Theme Diversity in Indian Society

Highlights

Context: This article highlights that what binds us is our shared common history and we do not need imposition of a particular language to feel connected.

• The people of southern India hold strongly to the idea that they are Dravidian language speakers.

• Hindi belongs to the group of Indo-European languages and is no less foreign in their reckoning than English is to them.

• This view is independent of the fast-growing evidence from population genetics that Indo-European language speakers are very likely the most recent migrants into the subcontinent.

• It is not dependent on an assertion that the Dravidians themselves are the ‘original inhabitants’ of this land.

• It is based purely on the principle that privileging any one Indian language would be discriminatory.

• Privileging one on grounds that it is spoken by the largest number is no more than crass majoritarianism.

Example of Ashoka • It is a fallacy to imagine that we need a common language to feel connected. Indians

already feel connected due to a shared history of several millennia. • In an extraordinary phase of history India had the ruler Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty

trying to unify the peoples of his far-flung kingdom through ideals. • The language used in the Ashokan edicts found in the eastern part of the subcontinent is

a type of Magadhi, likely the language of Ashoka’s court; the language used in the edicts found in the western part of India is closer to Sanskrit; and a bilingual edict in Afghanistan is written in Aramaic and Greek.

• So, Ashoka was clearly aware of the bigger prize of national integration and had not allowed himself to be held back by narrow linguistic nationalism or imposition of any particular language in the whole country.


Personal Notes

Title 5. Over the hills and far away (The Hindu, Page 10)

Syllabus Mains GS paper 2 : Governance

Theme Green Bous

Highlights

Context: The article highlights about lack of integration of Himalayan regions with the rest of India from the context of their specific needs – political, social, economic and ecological. It is in this backdrop that these Himalayan states have demanded Green Bonus from the Central Government and a separate ministry to deal with their specific issues. It also says that the


problem of integrating the northern mountains to the national mainstream is not specific to India and also extends to entire mountain zone stretching from Balochistan, through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, J&K, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim and Gorkhaland, to Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and the Chittagong Hill Tracts. (Himachal as the only exception) The issue of integration of hill regions with their national mainstream is also faced by China, Myanmar, Thailand and other South Asian countries.

Demand for Green Bonus

• In the one-day conclave of Himalayan states, eleven states comprising – Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakahand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagalaland, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur, passed a ‘Mussoorie Resolution’ pledging to make endeavours to protect and conserve the rich Himalayan heritage and ethos and nurture the wealth of biodiversity.

• They also took a unanimous stand on demanding green bonus or a payment for environmental services they provide to the nation by the Centre.

• These states highlighted that they pay a developmental price to maintain forests, rivers, and other environmental goods which helped the rest of the country.

• These States also asked for help to develop hydropower resources, subsidies for their environmental protection measures which deny them normal ‘development models’, and recognition of their efforts to meet human development parameters.

• They have also demanded a separate Ministry to deal with problems unique to their hilly region.

The Indian Himalayan Region

• Himalayan states provide critical and huge ecosystem services to the country.

• The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) is endowed with rich vegetation and is home to almost 36% of India's total biodiversity.

• Over 41.5% of IHR states are covered by forests, representing one-third of total forest cover of India.

• The total geographical area of IHR states is approximately 18% of India and it is inhabited by about 3.8% of the country’s population.

• Also, these states can be termed as the water reservoir of the country.

• The strategic importance of the IHR is evident from the fact that IHR states share borders with 6 neighbouring countries.

• These states, by protecting forests and ecosystems, ensure larger life-saving services to the country. For these, they also face numerous restrictions in their usual development works such as taking up big projects that destroy forests.

ABOUT GREEN BONUS

• A green bonus is needed to compensate the Himalayan States for their disadvantages


due to hindrance of their development as large swathes of land fell into eco-sensitive zones where all sorts of development activities could not be carried out.

• Himalayan states are demanding green bonus as most of the country’s rivers originate in the Himalayas and therefore the states have to play the most significant role in the prime minister’s water conservation initiative.

• Further the states urge that GST implementation has resulted in more challenges for them and suitable compensation must be made for that.

• Payment for ecosystem services (PES)-Green bonus will be a form of compensation to be provided to the states for the ecological services and resources provided by them.

• How different this would be from the present system? -The demand is that it should be over and above the present devolution, grant and assistance.

Way Forward - Need for social, economic and people to people integration of IHR

• The article further explains that even in our imagination about the political, social, economic situations of India, the hilly regions are excluded. So, the norms of what an ‘Indian village’ is, how its society is structured, how its economy is backward or in what ways does its political life work make no reference to the specificities of the mountain regions.

• These are at best imagined by the national mainstream as idyllic ‘hill stations’ peopled by ‘noble savages’, or, at worst, as wild regions inhabited by irrational blood-thirsty tribesmen. So, this national norm (which excludes the hill region) gains more importance even in our political discourse of policy making and formulations.

• This article concludes by saying that there is a need for greater integration initiative of all the hill states with the national mainstream including Jammu and Kashmir. Isolation of the hill states will act as a barrier for these states to integrate.

• Thus, there is a need for Indian mainstream to recognise the various specificities of each Himalayan state (including their culture, customs, practices, local economy and free communication) with rest of the country and make suitable policies for their overall development and integration with the rest of the country.


Personal Notes


Title 6. India unlikely to meet ‘Poshan Abhiyan’ targets, finds study

(The Hindu, Page 09)

Syllabus Mains GS paper 2 : Social issues

Theme Health

Highlights

What’s the news?

• As per a new study published in Lancet, India is unlikely to meet its target under national Nutrition Mission or Poshan Abhiyaan.

• The report is a joint initiative of Indian Council of Medical Research, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Finding of the Lancet Study


• India is unlikely to meet targets set under the ambitious Poshan Abhiyaan or National Nutrition Mission (NNM) for reduction in prevalence of stunting, underweight, low birth weight and anaemia in women and children by 2022, if there is no progress made to improve the rate of decline observed between 1990 and 2017, according to a new study published in The Lancet.

• The study points out that India will miss its target for stunting levels of 25% by 9.6%; underweight target of 22.7% by 4.8%; desired low birth level of 11.4% by 8.9%; anaemia level among women of 39.4% by 13.8%; and anaemia level among children of 44.7% by 11.7%.

• Additional efforts over the last two years in the Poshan Abhiyan as well as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan have hastened improvement, however the gaps shown in the study highlight how much more of these efforts are needed in different States to reach the targets set by the government.

• According to the National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-2016), 38.4% of children under the age of five are stunted; 35.7% are underweight; 18% of children were born underweight (less than 2.5 kg); and 58% of children between the age of 6-59 months and 53% of women in the age of 14-49 years have anaemia.

About Poshan Abhiyaan

• Poshan Abhiyaan, the world’s largest nutrition programme, expected to benefit 10 crore people, was launched in 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

• India’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children, adolescents, pregnant women and lactating mothers by leveraging technology and a targeted approach and convergence.

• It aims to reduce stunting, underweight, and low birth weight, each by 2% per year; and anaemia among young children, adolescents and women each by 3% per year until 2022.

• A special target for stunting is set at 25% by 2022.

• It converges various programmes like Anganwadi Services, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) , Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), National Health Mission (NHM), Swachh-Bharat Mission, Public Distribution System (PDS), etc

• It will comprise mapping of various Schemes, ICT based Real Time Monitoring system, incentivizing States/UTs for meeting the targets, incentivizing Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) for using IT based tools, eliminating registers used by AWWs, introducing measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), Social Audits, setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres, involving masses through Jan Andolan for their participation on nutrition through various activities, among others.


Personal Notes

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