Daily Current Affairs 11 June 2020 | UPSC Current Affairs 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) Asiatic lions numbers increased

• Gujarat prides itself on hosting Asiatic lions exclusively, and their numbers have now risen to an estimated 674 in the Gir forest region and other revenue areas of coastal Saurashtra. 
• Once seen as threatened by extinction, the lion population has grown by almost 29% from the last
• count in 2015. Today, Asiatic lions are present in Protected Areas and agropastoral landscapes of Saurashtra covering nine districts, over an expanse of about 30,000 sq. km. 
• The State Forest Department says the population is 674 including males, females, and cubs. During 2015, the baseline was 523 lions. Moreover, the distribution of the lions expanded from 22,000 sq. km in 2015 to 30,000 sq. km in 2020. 
• Forest officials said there was a consistent increase in the population and distribution. The department had implemented strategies and interventions like community participation, use of technology, habitat management and increase in prey base, human­lion conflict mitigation, and healthcare including import of vaccines after some lions were infected with Canine Distemper Virus (CDV). 
• In October 2018, Gir witnessed an outbreak of CDV in which 36 lions died. 
• As per Forest Department data, there are 161 male, 260 female, 45 sub-adult male, 49 sub-adult female, 22 unidentified, and 137 cubs. Experts said the male-female ratio was healthy in the Gir region with 161 males vs 260 females

Gir National Park

• Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, also known as Sasan Gir, is a forest and wildlife sanctuary near Talala Gir in Gujarat, India. It is located 43 km (27 mi) north-east of Somnath, 65 km (40 mi) south-east of Junagadh, and 60 km (37 mi) south-west of Amreli. It was established in 1965, with a total area of 1,412 km2 (545 sq mi), of which 258 km2 (100 sq mi) is fully protected as a national park and 1,153 km2 (445 sq mi) as a wildlife sanctuary. It is part of the Khathiar-Gir dry deciduous forests ecoregion
• The Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary are located in the Junagadh district of Gujarat.
• The Gir Forests is the only natural habitat of Asiatic lions.
• It was declared as a sanctuary in 1965 and a national park in 1975.
• The Gir Forests is the largest compact tract of dry deciduous forests in the semi-arid western part of India.
• The Gir Forests forms a unique habitat for many mammals, reptiles, birds and insect species along with a rich variety of flora.
• Gir is often linked with "Maldharis" who have survived through the ages by having a symbiotic relationship with the lion.
• Maldharis are religious pastoral communities living in Gir. Their settlements are called "nesses".
• Other National Parks in Gujarat
• Blackbuck National Park
• Vansda National park
• Marine National Park

Asiatic Lion

• Scientific Name: Panthera leo persica
• Habitat: Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary
• Threats
• They are vulnerable to disease, encroachment, forest fire, natural calamities, grazing, collection of fuelwood, Non-timber forest produce (NTFP), poaching, tourism, religious pilgrimage, and accidental lion deaths due to human causes.
• In 2018, the Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) was responsible for the death of more than 25 Lions in the Gir forest of Gujarat.
• Also, there have been indications of poaching incidents in recent years.
• Protection Status
• IUCN Red List: Endangered
• CITES Appendix I
• Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972: Schedule I

Source: The Hindu

2) S&P affirms India’s rating

• Global rating major S&P has affirmed the country’s long term rating at BBB­, the lowest investment grade, and said the outlook on the longterm rating is stable
• The rating agency said though risks to long­term growth are rising, if the ongoing reform process is executed well,  the country’s growth rate would be ahead of its peers
• It also expects there could be a fiscal consolidation over the next three years after a larger fiscal deficit this financial year due to the COVID­19 pandemic.
• “The stable outlook reflects our expectation that India’s economy will recover following the containment of the COVID­19 pandemic, and the country will maintain its sound net external position,” S&P said. 
• The stable outlook also assumes that the government’s fiscal deficit will recede markedly following multi­year high in the fiscal year 2021 (ending March 31, 2021) India can face a ratings downgrade over the next 1­2 years if GDP growth fails to meaningfully recover  2021 onwards and the net general government deficits materially exceed forecasts, which would signify a weakening of the country’s institutional capacity to maintain sustainable public finances.
• On the other hand, there could be an upgrade if the fiscal deficits are significantly curtailed.
• S&P expects the Indian economy to contract by 5% this fiscal. 
• It said the country’s productive capacity had been severely disrupted as millions of workers had left their jobs to return home, “sometimes crossing the country to do so.” 
• “India’s labor markets have therefore weakened dramatically, and may take some time to heal,” it said.
• The economy is expected to make a strong comeback in the next financial year as S&P projected 8.5% growth in real GDP in fiscal 2022.
• The economy’s long­term outperformance highlights its resilience. India’s wide range of structural trends, including healthy demographics and competitive unit labor costs, work in its favor. 
• “A more favorable corporate tax regime, which is particularly supportive of manufacturing firms, should reinforce growth, alongside additional fiscal and monetary easing,” S&P said. 

Source: The Hindu

3) Development bank needed

• The Association of Power Producers (APP) has demanded setting up of a development bank to meet the long­term and low­cost funding needs of infrastructure sectors such as power, that are reeling under stress due to the COVID-­19 pandemic.
• With IDBI/ ICICI/ IDFC converting to commercial banks, there is a need for separate and specialized development financing institutions and supporting framework for long­term, low­cost funding needs of the infra sector. This will also enable achieving the investment of ₹102 trillion over the next five years as per the National Infrastructure Plan
• Between Dec. 2018 and May 2020, RBI reduced the repo rate by 250 bps, but this has not been transmitted to borrowers. Banks have not been commensurate in reducing their one-year MCLR. There is a need to have a seamless transmission of repo rate reduction to the reduction of Rate of Interest (RoI)
• Despite all these efforts, a larger section of the economy including infrastructure sector has been struggling to keep up against the impact of extended lockdown
• APP said that the attitude of the banking sector towards infrastructure projects needed to change.

Source: The Hindu

4) Border adjustment tax

• NITI Aayog member V.K. Saraswat favored imposing a border adjustment tax (BAT) on imports to provide a level­playing field to domestic industries
• U.S.-China trade tensions are currently at historically high levels. In the post-­COVID world, it is expected to rise further... so first we have to do a border adjustment tax to provide the domestic industry a level­playing field vis­a­vis imports
• BAT is a duty that is proposed to be imposed on imported goods in addition to the customs levy that gets charged at the port of entry
• Various taxes such as electricity duty, mandi tax, clean energy cess, and royalty lead to an escalation of price. “Such taxes  imposed on domestic goods, give them (imported goods) a price advantage in
• India.” Indian industry has been complaining to the government about such domestic taxes that get charged on domestically produced goods as these duties get embedded into the product.  But many imported goods do not get loaded with such levies in their respective country of origin and this gives such products a price advantage in India.

About Border Adjustment Tax (BAT)

• Border adjustment tax is a short name for a proposed destination-based cash flow tax (DBCFT). It is a value-added tax on imported goods and is also referred to as a border-adjusted tax, destination tax, or border tax adjustment. In this scenario, exported goods are exempt from tax while imported goods sold in the United States are subject to the tax.
• The border adjustment tax (BAT) levies a tax depending on where a good is consumed rather than where it is produced. For example, if a corporation ship tires to Mexico where they will be used to make cars, the profit the tire company makes on the tires it exports is not taxed. However, if a U.S. car company purchases tires from Mexico for use in cars made in the United States, the money the company makes on the cars (including the tires) sold in the United States is taxed. Also, the company cannot deduct the cost of imported tires as a business expense. The concept was first introduced by 1997 by economist Alan J. Auerbach, who believed that the tax system would be in line with business goals and the national interest.

Source: Mint

5) QS World University Rankings 2021

Recently, QS World University Rankings 2021 shows a decline in the rankings of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Only the newer IITs in Guwahati and Hyderabad have shown some improvement.

QS World University Rankings

• Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a leading global career and education network for ambitious professionals looking to further their personal and professional development.
• QS develops and successfully implements methods of comparative data collection and analysis used to highlight institutions’ strengths.
• The ‘QS World University Rankings’ is an annual publication of university rankings that comprises the global overall and subject rankings.
• Six parameters and their weightage for the evaluation:
• Academic Reputation (40%)
• Employer Reputation (10%)
• Faculty/Student Ratio (20%)
• Citations per faculty (20%)
• International Faculty Ratio (5%)
• International Student Ratio (5%)

Key Points

• Only three educational institutes from India, the IIT Bombay (172), IISc Bengaluru (185) and IIT Delhi (193) feature in the top 200 list.
• Despite the Centre's flagship Institutes of Eminence (IoE) scheme to boost the Indian presence in these global rankings, the total number of Indian institutions in the top 1,000 global list has fallen from 24 to 21.
• In private universities, BITS Pilani and the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) have dropped out of the top 1,000 list, but OP Jindal Global University has climbed to the 650-700 band in the rankings.
• Out of the six parameters, Indian institutions get zero scores on the ratio of international faculty and students while scoring well on research impact, measured through citations per faculty.
• India also scores poorly on faculty-student ratio because of counting only full-time faculty whereas American universities include Ph.D. students who are teaching or are research assistants.
• Indian academics have focused on that if a parameter comparing the cost of education to students is introduced, Indian institutions would be among the world’s top 50.
• Earlier in 2020, IITs jointly decided to boycott the World University Rankings released by the Times Higher Education (THE) questioning its methodology and transparency.
• One of the reasons for a drop in Indian universities’ rank is the lack of sufficient efforts.
• Other universities across the world are making increasingly-intense efforts to enhance their educational offerings.
• A committee of IIT directors has been formed to see how Indian institutes can improve the perception of them abroad and also make efforts to enhance the quality of standards within the country.
• Suggestions:
• The government should launch a campaign for improving educational institutes, similar to Incredible India which promotes tourism in India and engages with travelers.
• Success should be based on five pillars:
• Not-for-profit status.
• Strong commitment to faculty hiring and research.
• Focus on internationalisation.
• Devotion to humanities and social sciences.
• Drive to build a reputation through students and employers.

Institutions of Eminence Scheme

• It is a government's scheme to provide the regulatory architecture for setting up or upgrading of 20 Institutions (10 from the public sector and 10 from the private sector) as world-class teaching and research institutions called ‘Institutions of Eminence’.
• Objectives:
• Excellence and Innovation: To provide for higher education leading to excellence and innovations in such branches of knowledge as may be deemed fit at post-graduate, graduate, and research degree levels.
• Specialization: To engage in areas of specialization to make distinctive contributions to the objectives of the university education system.
• Global Rating: To aim to be rated internationally for its teaching and research as a top hundred Institution in the world over time.
• Quality teaching and Research: To provide for high-quality teaching and research and for the advancement of knowledge and its dissemination.
• Benefits:
• Autonomy: Institutes with IoE tag will be given greater autonomy and freedom to decide fees, course durations, and governance structures.
• Grant: The public institutions under the IoE tag will receive a government grant of Rs 1,000 crore, while the private institutions will not get any funding under the scheme.

 National Assessment and Accreditation Council views on the report

• International rankings help Indian institutions to benchmark themselves to a global standard but may not reflect a level­playing field, says National Assessment and Accreditation Council chairperson V.S. Chauhan. He said other metrics such as the relative cost of education might better reflect Indian priorities and strengths
• Another metric should be the cost of education, he said, pointing out that there is a tremendous social responsibility aspect to Indian higher education. “Look at the amount spent in an IIT on a single undergraduate versus the amount spent on a student in a university in the top 50 in QS rankings,”
• said Dr. Chauhan
• The Ministry of Human Resource Development will release its own higher education rankings for domestic institutions. The National Institution Ranking Framework, launched in 2016, has a different focus than most world rankings, which give higher weightage to parameters that even elite Indian institutions struggle with such as internationalization and global academic and employer perception. 
• Instead, the NIRF uses parameters related to student and faculty strength, use of financial resources, research papers and patents, graduation outcomes, inclusivity and gender, geographical, disability, and socio­economic diversity as well as perception and reputation.

Way Forward

• The perception about India and its education standards play a major role that cannot be changed by an individual institution so all of the universities and institutes have to come together to tackle the issue.
• To regain lost ground, Indian higher education must find ways of increasing teaching capacity and of attracting more talented students and faculty across the world to study and work in India.

Source: The Hindu

6) Anti-microbial multilayer face mask to annihilate pathogenic microorganisms

• As of now, there is no vaccine or drug available to combat novel coronavirus. Mask, physical distancing, and frequent handwashing are the only ways that can save lives. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also given recommendations on the kind of mask that is most suitable for protection against coronavirus. But wearing masks for a long time may cause suffocation and proper handling of masks is tricky too. To address a few of such issues, Dr. Marshal and his team at the School of Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-BHU), have developed an anti-microbial five-layered face mask.
• This face mask can annihilate pathogenic microorganisms that are stuck to its outer surface and thereby limit the spread of secondary infections. “The mask that is available in the market currently acts as a filter to stop the entry of microbes to oral and nasal airways but does not have any effect on the microbe stuck to the mask surface,” said Dr. Marshal, Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, IIT (BHU), while speaking with India Science Wire. 
• This shortcoming in masks could be dangerous for medical and paramedical staff due to the presence of higher viral or bacterial load on their outer surface. Dr. Marshal’s team addresses this problem by stacking different layers of nanometal conjugated with a protonated amine matrix.
• The first layer of the mask can degrade any type of RNA, the next layer is anti-microbial, the third one is for air filtration, and the fourth and fifth layers are ‘comfortable layers’, which will remain close to the nose and mouth. “Copper and silver are de-transition elements and as per our knowledge, they can degrade this virus and all the other members of the SARS virus. We took a cocktail combination of copper, copper oxides, silver, and activated charged silver, which can help degrade RNA,” said Dr. Marshal.
• For degradation testing, the researchers took the RNA of lung cells as novel coronavirus propagates rapidly in the lungs. The RNA of other cells were also extracted. “We have extracted both cancerous and non-cancerous cells too. We have checked the degradation of these molecules. We have tested this in solution base and in coating base methods. This testing showed that the RNA was getting degraded. After this, we have optimized it,” said the researcher. The mask has a hydrophobic surface on the outer layer to deflect water droplets containing the viruses. The patent has been applied for the product.

Source: PIB

7) World Accreditation Day (WAD)

• The World Accreditation Day (WAD) is celebrated on 9th June every year to highlight as well as promote the role of accreditation in trade & economy. The theme for WAD 2020 is “Accreditation: Improving Food Safety”, as decided by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).
• National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) and National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), the two accreditation boards of the Quality Council of India (QCI), organized a Webinar to commemorate the event, in which all concerned stakeholders participated.
• Accreditation is a formal, independent verification that a program or institution meets established quality standards in terms of testing, inspection, or certification.
• Importance of Accreditation:
• It is an important tool to improve the quality of product and services in the field of health, education, food as well as other areas.
• It also promotes the adoption of quality standards relating to Quality Management Systems, Food Safety Management Systems and Product Certification.
• Overall, it helps in realizing the objective of improving quality competitiveness of Indian products and services.
• The International Accreditation Forum:
• It is the world association of Conformity Assessment Accreditation bodies and other bodies interested in conformity assessment in the fields of management systems, products, services, personnel and other similar programs of conformity assessment.
• Conformity Assessment Bodies: These are bodies that can certify product, process or services, management systems or persons. E.g. International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
• India is also a member.
• Quality Assessment in the Food Sector:
• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has recognized the role of credible, competent accreditation inputs in overall services.
• There is an urgent need for development of conformity assessment infrastructure and consumer empowerment in the country.
• There is a need to institutionalize the virtual assessment and the accreditation of state food testing laboratories.
• There is a need to encourage accredited laboratories to undertake Proficiency Testing (PT) and increase the number of accredited Reference Materials Producers (RMPs).
• An Integrated System for information exchange is also necessary for the food sector.
• Suggested Measures:
• Six Point Programme for Future:
• Scaling up conformity assessment systems in different parts of the country.
• Encourage PPP model of FSSAI to work forward for “Saajha Nivesh, Saajha Vikas, Saajha Vishwas.
• Working in direction of Certified in India and accepted globally.
• Informal Market formalization.
• Rashtriya Gunavatta Abhiyan: It will help in crowdsourcing to check quality issues in the local market and to develop a robust Market Surveillance.
• Rapid Alert System with all Regulators on one single e-platform.

Quality Council of India

• The Quality Council of India (QCI) set up in 1997 is an autonomous body attached to the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• The Chairman of QCI is appointed by the Prime Minister on recommendation of the industry to the government.
• Its mandate is to establish and operate the National Accreditation Structure (NAS) for conformity assessment bodies and providing accreditation in the field of health, education and quality promotion .
• National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) and National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) are the two accreditation boards of the QCI.
• These two bodies work closely to support the Government and regulators to ensure that the data provided by accredited conformity assessment bodies is robust, reliable, trustworthy in terms of decision making, compliance testing and standards setting.
• Indian industry is represented in QCI by three premier industry associations namely ASSOCHAM; CII; and FICCI.

Source: PIB

8) Delhi’s decision to limit health services

• Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal has issued two orders that struck down key announcements made by the Delhi government in the past week. These include:
• To reserve beds in private and Delhi government hospitals for residents of Delhi.
• To limit the scope of Covid-19 testing.

What’s the issue?

• Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced to restrict COVID-19 treatment in Delhi’s private hospitals and those run by the government of NCT only to those with proof of residence in the city.
• Besides, the Director-General of Health Services Delhi (DGHS), had ruled out testing of asymptomatic contacts of confirmed patients.

Why the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi overruled this decision?

• Right to Health’ is an integral part of ‘Right to Life’ under Article 21 of the Constitution. While health care is far from being universal in India, positively denying that to someone on the grounds of residency is insensitive and irresponsible.
• The NCT is functionally contiguous with Gurugram in Haryana and NOIDA in Uttar Pradesh. Thousands cross these borders for work and other needs including health care. People contribute to tax revenues in three different jurisdictions. And hence there cannot be restrictions.
• In his second order, the L-G, pointing out “deviation” from guidelines of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), directed the Delhi government to test asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of confirmed cases as well. It is because deviation in the ICMR guidelines can result in inadequate contact tracing of affected individuals and can result in further spread of COVID-19 in NCT of Delhi.

What has been the government’s argument and the rationale behind this move?

• The situation in Delhi is already worsening. 5.5 lakh COVID-19 cases are expected by July-end for which 80,000 beds could be needed.

Powers of Lt. Governor to issue such orders:

• He is empowered to issue such orders in his capacity as chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).
• These powers have been conferred under Section 18(3) read with Section 18(2)(d) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

What was the problem with the Delhi Government’s order?

• If this order was implemented, it would have largely had two effects:
• It would have denied healthcare to scores of patients from other states who come to Delhi for specialized treatment that is unavailable to them in their hometowns.
• It would have led to the denial of medical care to even those living and working in Delhi as they don’t have identity proofs of residency in Delhi.

Source: The Hindu

9) Krishna and Godavari water utilization.

• The Union government is going to take stock of water utilization from the Krishna and Godavari rivers following Telangana and Andhra Pradesh filing complaints against each other.
• In this regard, the Union Ministry of Jal Sakthi has asked the Chairpersons of the Krishna and Godavari River Management Boards to procure the details of the irrigation projects in Maharashtra and Karnataka, too, and submit them to the Centre in a month.

Need for:

• The main objective of the exercise appears to be to assess whether surplus water will be available for the new projects in the light of the disputes.

What’s the issue?

• The two States- AP and Telangana- share stretches of the Krishna and the Godavari and own their tributaries.
• They have embarked on several new projects without getting clearance from the river boards, the Central Water Commission, and the apex council comprising the Union Water Resources Minister and the Chief Ministers, as mandated by the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. 
• But, the Telangana government last year filed a complaint against the AP government for taking up projects across the Krishna river.

The Krishna:

• It is an east-flowing river.
• Originates at Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra and merges with the Bay of Bengal, flowing through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
• Tributaries: Tungabhadra, Mallaprabha, Koyna, Bhima, Ghataprabha, Yerla, Warna, Dindi, Musi and Dudhganga.

Godavari River:

• Rises from Trimbakeshwar near Nasik in Maharashtra and flows for a length of about 1465 km before outfalling into the Bay of Bengal.
• Basin: The Godavari basin extends over states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha in addition to smaller parts in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Union Territory of Puducherry.
• Tributaries: Pravara, Purna, Manjra, Penganga, Wardha, Wainganga, Pranhita (combined flow of Wainganga, Penganga, Wardha), Indravati, Maner and the Sabri.

Source: The Hindu

10) Coronavirus lockdown | Migrant workers should not be prosecuted, says Supreme Court

• The court passed the order on migrant workers after suo motu taking cognizance of the migrant workers’ exodus.
• Power of High Courts to take up such matters:
• High Courts, as constitutional courts, were well within their jurisdiction to take cognizance of violation of fundamental rights of migrant workers and we have no doubt that those proceedings shall proceed.

What has the Court said?

• Migrant workers should not be prosecuted for trying to reach home amid the national lockdown.
• States/Union Territories should withdraw all complaints under Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act and other related offenses lodged against migrant laborers who are alleged to have violated lockdown measures by moving on roads.
• Railways should provide the States with 171 more Shramik Special trains within the next 24 hours to transport migrant workers.

What’s the issue?

• Society as a whole is moved by the miseries and difficulties being faced by migrant workers.
• They had set out on foot from big cities for their native villages to escape starvation, unemployment, and disease during the pandemic.
• But, they are often stopped by the police at various check posts and prevented from entering into their states or villages. This has left them shelterless and made more vulnerable.
• A migrant worker who walked home would have faced a year in prison or been fined or suffered both if found guilty of obstructing the law under Section 51 of the Act.

What next?

• Migrant laborers are forced to proceed to their native place after cessation of their employment. They are already suffering. They have to deal with the police and other authorities humanely.
• So, once they are brought back to their homes, the states need to attend the needs of the migrant laborers. These include a source of employment, provision of food, and ration for them.
• Counseling centers should be set up to reach out to them and explain the various schemes framed for their rehabilitation and employment. The centers should freely provide information and even “extend helping hand” to those workers who want to return to their places of past employment.

Source: The Hindu

11) Does using a UV ray mechanism on food items kill the coronavirus?

• Many sweet shop owners across India have started using the UV light mechanism to disinfect food items and killing the virus.

How is it being used?

• UV radiations are normally used to kill microorganisms.
• Particularly, UV-C, also known as Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) is a disinfection method that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet light to kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying their nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA, leaving them unable to perform vital cellular functions and stops their replication.
• UVGI is used in a variety of applications, such as food, air, and water disinfection.
• Few research studies have found that UVC radiation is also effective in killing coronaviruses on various surfaces, but efficiency is variable for different kinds of surfaces depending on their texture.

What is UV radiation?

• UV radiation is the portion of the Electro-Magnetic spectrum between X-rays and visible light.
• The most common form of UV radiation is sunlight, which produces three main types of UV rays:
• UVA
• UVB
• UVC

Key features:

• UVA rays have the longest wavelengths, followed by UVB, and UVC rays which have the shortest wavelengths.
• While UVA and UVB rays are transmitted through the atmosphere, all UVC and some UVB rays are absorbed by the Earth’s ozone layer. So, most of the UV rays you come in contact with are UVA with a small amount of UVB.

Source: Indian Express

12) Democrats unveil police reform bill

• Top US congressional Democrats have unveiled a bill- the Justice in Policing Act- to overhaul police practices as Americans gather daily to protest excessive use of force and systemic racism.
• The legislation would make sweeping changes designed both to deter police use of force and hold officers more accountable for abuses. 
• The legislation now needs support from Republicans.

Background:

• This comes two weeks after the death of George Floyd, the black, unarmed man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
• The incident sparked a nationwide furor over sustained brutality against black Americans.

The bill proposes to:

• Reform “qualified immunity” for officers, making it easier for people whose constitutional rights were violated to recover damages
• Change the federal standard of criminal police behavior from “willful” to acting “knowingly or with reckless disregard,” to address the difficulty of prosecuting officers
• Start a federal registry of police misconduct and require states to report the use of force to the U.S. Justice Department
• Ban police use of chokeholds and carotid holds, and condition funding for state and local departments on barring the practices
• Stop the use of “no-knock” search warrants in drug cases in the U.S., while also making state and local money contingent on stopping use of the warrants
• Give the Justice Department subpoena power to carry out “pattern and practice” investigations into police department conduct
• Provide state attorneys general with grants to carry out pattern and practice probes and create a process for independent investigations into uses of force
• Require training on racial bias and implicit bias at the federal level, and condition state and local funding on offering training
• Curb transfers of military-grade weapons to state and local police
• Classify lynching as a federal hate crime

Racism in the USA:

• Despite the civil war over slavery, and the civil rights movement for dignity and equality, systemic discrimination and violence against blacks persists. Racism continues unabated.

What is Racism?

• Racism is a systematic ideology, a complex set of beliefs and practices that, on the presumed basis of biology, divides humanity into the ‘higher’ us and a lower ‘them’.

What can it lead to?

• It not only sustains a permanent group hierarchy but deeply stigmatizes those designated as inferior. This sense of hierarchy provides a motive for say, whites to treat blacks in ways that would be viewed as cruel or unjust if applied to members of their own group. For instance, contact with them is often regarded as contaminating, polluting.
• It should, therefore, be avoided or kept to a minimum.
• Racism naturalizes a person’s belief, character, and culture. For example, being uneducated is seen not as socio-economic deprivation but a sign of inherited low IQ; blacks are predatory and are also seen to have an innate streak of savagery, which unless kept down by brute force from time to time, might explode and destroy civilization.

Need of the hour:

• Only a peaceful movement to end institutionalized racism, with both blacks and white participants, quite like the recent protests after Floyd’s murder, can break the back of this evil.

Source: The Hindu