Rights champions in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine get Nobel

Rights champions in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine get Nobel

A trio of human rights watchdogs from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a highly symbolic choice of laureates drawn from three nations at the centre of the war in Ukraine.

• The honour went to detained activist Ales Bialiatski of Belarus, Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties
• The Nobel committee’s choice marked a stinging criticism of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 
• The committee called on Belarus to release Mr. Bialiatski, 60, the founder of rights group Viasna whose work has charted the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of President Alexander Lukashenko, a Russian ally.

About Nobel Prize

• Most coveted international award in the world.
• Instituted by Alfred Bernard Nobel (inventor of dynamite).
• The award is given on December 10 (death anniversary of Alfred Bernard Nobel).

Nobel Prize is given every year to those eminent persons who have made pioneering achievements in the following fields:

• Physics
• Chemistry
• Medicine
• Peace
• Literature
• Economics
• Apart from Economics, all other categories have been given since 1901. Economics Nobel Prize was instituted in 1967 and was first given in 1969.

What do the winners receive?

Laureates will receive a Nobel Prize diploma, a Nobel Prize medal and a document detailing the Nobel Prize amount, which this year amounts to 10 million Swedish krona, or about $900,000 in current exchange rates.

Panel to study SC status of Dalits post conversion

The Union government has now formed a three-member Commission of Inquiry headed by former Chief Justice of India, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, to examine whether the Scheduled Caste (SC) status can be accorded to Dalits who have over the years converted to religions other than Sikhism or Buddhism.

• The three-member commission will also comprise Professor Sushma Yadav, member, UGC, and retired IAS officer Ravinder Kumar Jain.
• It has been given a two-year deadline to submit a report on the issue starting from the day Justice Balakrishnan takes charge of the commission.
• The commission’s is also expected to look into the changes an SC person goes through after converting to another religion and its implications on the question of including them as SCs.

Why this committee was constituted:

• Supreme Court on October 11 is expected to hear the Centre’s present position on a batch of petitions seeking the inclusion of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims and the removal of religion as criterion for inclusion as SCs.
• Kaka Kalelkar Commission have documented the existence of caste and caste discrimination among Indian Christians and Indian Muslims, concluding that Dalit converts continued to face the same social disabilities even after leaving the Hindu fold.

Current conditions of converted SC/ST communities:

• Currently, the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 provides for only those belonging to Hindu, Sikh, or Buddhist communities to be categorized as SCs.
• The initial Order only allowed for Hindu communities to be classified as SCs based on the social disabilities and discrimination they faced due to untouchability.
• It was amended in 1956 to include Sikh communities and again in 1990 to include Buddhist communities as SCs.

Various committees/Reports that look upon the issue:

• The petitions arguing for inclusion have cited several independent Commission reports that have documented the existence of caste and caste inequalities among Indian Christians and Indian Muslims.
• This was substantiated in:
  • the First Backward Classes Commission’s report in 1953,
  • the Report of the Committee on Untouchability Economic and Educational Development of the Scheduled Castes in 1969,
  • the HPP report on SCs, STs, and Minorities in 1983,
  • the Mandal Commission Report,
  • the report of the Prime Minister’s High-Level Committee formed in 2006,
  • a 2008 study conducted by the National Commission for Minorities,
  • the Ranganath Misra Commission Report and several other studies.
• In addition to this, the petitions have argued against the proposition that caste identity is lost upon conversion, noting that even in Sikhism and Buddhism, casteism is not present and yet they have been included as SCs.

The above-mentioned reports argue that caste-based discrimination continues even after conversion, hence entitling these communities to SC status. However, the Union government refuses to accept the reports of the Commissions on the basis that these reports do not have enough empirical evidence to support their claims.

Respect and guarantee human rights to Uighurs of Xinjiang, says MEA

India on Friday addressed the issue of the Uighurs of Xinjiang directly for the first time saying that the community’s human rights should be “respected”.

• India has generally avoided commenting on the reported crackdown on the Uighurs in Xinjiang. This policy was evident in 2016, when India issued a visa for leading Uighur activist Dolkun Isa but canceled it at the last moment preventing him from traveling to Delhi.
• The statement from the MEA came a day after India abstained on voting on a draft resolution at the 51st Regular Session at the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold a debate on the human rights situation in Xinjiang.
• Explaining India’s decision to abstain at the HRC, Mr. Bagchi said, “India remains committed to upholding all human rights. India’s vote is in line with its long held position that country specific resolutions are never helpful. India favours a dialogue to deal with such issues.

• Uighur Muslims:
  
  
  • The Uighurs are a predominantly Muslim minority Turkic ethnic group, whose origins can be traced to Central and East Asia.
    
    
    • The Uighurs speak their own language, similar to Turkish, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations.
  • The Uighurs are considered to be one of the 55 officially recognized ethnic minority communities in China.
    
    
    • However, China recognises the community only as a regional minority and rejects that they are an indigenous group.
  • Currently, the largest population of the Uighur ethnic community lives in Xinjiang region of China.
    
    
    • A significant population of Uighurs also lives in the neighbouring Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
    • Xinjiang is technically an autonomous region within China — its largest region, rich in minerals, and sharing borders with eight countries, including India, Pakistan, Russia and Afghanistan.
• Persecution of Uighurs:
  
  
  • Over the past few decades, as economic prosperity has come to Xinjiang, it has brought with it in large numbers the majority Han Chinese, who have cornered the better jobs, and left the Uighurs feeling their livelihoods and identity were under threat.
    
    
    • This led to sporadic violence, in 2009 culminating in a riot that killed 200 people, mostly Han Chinese, in the region’s capital Urumqi.
  • Uighur Muslims for decades, under the false accusation by the Chinese government of terrorism and separatism, have suffered from abuses including persecution, forced detention, intense scrutiny, surveillance and even slavery.
    
    
    • However, China claims its camps to be ‘educational centres’ where the Uighurs are being cured of “extremist thoughts” and radicalisation, and learning vocational skills.
  • China claims that Uighur groups want to establish an independent state and, because of the Uighurs’ cultural ties to their neighbours, leaders fear that elements in places like Pakistan may back a separatist movement in Xinjiang.
• China’s Extradition Treaty:
  
  
  • In December 2020, China approved an extradition treaty with Turkey aimed at strengthened judicial cooperation to facilitate a crackdown on transnational criminals including terrorists.
    
    
    • Extradition is the formal process of one state surrendering an individual to another state for prosecution or punishment for crimes committed in the requesting country’s jurisdiction.
  • The extradition agreement comes amidst deepening economic and financial ties between Turkey and China.
    
    
    • China is also Turkey’s leading supplier of Covid-19 vaccines.
  • Since 1990, the Uighur diaspora in Turkey has become more vibrant and has attracted widespread attention globally through demonstrations, conferences, meetings and briefings.
  • Concerns of Uighur Muslims:
    
    
    • If Turkey ratifies the treaty, this will be the last nail in the coffin of Uighur culture as China will silence the biggest Uighur diaspora outside Xinjiang.
    • The treaty will become another instrument in the hands of China for the prosecution of its enslaved Uighur minority.

Way Forward

• All the countries should reconsider their position and urge China to immediately stop the persecution of Muslims and the prohibition of Islam in Xinjiang.
• China must close its “Vocational Training Centers,” release the religious and political prisoners from prisons and detention camps. It should adopt multiculturalism and accept the Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims of China as ordinary citizens equal to native Chinese.

Sugar Production in India

India emerges as the world’s largest producer and consumer of sugar and world’s 2nd largest exporter of sugar.

• In Sugar Season (Oct-Sep) 2021-22, a record of more than 5000 Lakh Metric Tons (LMT) sugarcane was produced in the country
• With this, India has emerged as the world’s largest producer and consumer of sugar as well as the world’s 2nd largest exporter of sugar.
• Maharashtra emerged as the highest sugar exporter and producer in India in 2021-22 Sugar Season (SS) exporting almost 60 per cent of total exports in India.
• Supportive international prices and Indian Government Policy led to this feat of Indian Sugar Industry.
• The exports earned foreign currency of about Rs. 40,000 crores for the country.

Factors that led to largest Producer of Sugar:

• Synchronous and collaborative efforts of Central and State Governments, farmers, sugar mills, ethanol distilleries with very supportive overall ecosystem for business in the country led to this feat.
• During 2021-22, sugar mills procured sugarcane worth more than 1.18 lakh with no financial assistance (subsidy) from Government of India.
• 95% of cane dues have already been cleared.
• In 2020-21, more than 99.9% cane dues are cleared.
• Scheme for Extending Financial Assistance to Sugar Undertakings (SEFASU) and National Policy on Biofuels are two of the government initiatives to support sugarcane production and the sugar industry.

Ethanol Production:

• Government has been encouraging sugar mills to divert sugar to ethanol.
• Growth of ethanol as biofuel sector in last 5 years has amply supported the sugar sector as use of sugar to ethanol has led to better financial positions of sugar mills due to:
  • faster payments,
  • reduced working capital requirements and
  • less blockage of funds due to less surplus sugar with mills.
• Ethanol production capacity of molasses/sugar-based distilleries has increased to 605 crore liters per annum and the progress is still continuing to meet targets of 20% blending by 2025 under Ethanol Blending with Petrol (EBP) Programme.
• In new season, the diversion of sugar to ethanol is expected to increase from 35 LMT to 50 LMT which would generate revenue for sugar mills amounting to about ₹ 25,000 crores.

Sugarcane Cultivated:

• Temperature: Between 21-27°C with hot and humid climate.
• Rainfall: Around 75-100 cm.
• Soil Type: Deep rich loamy soil.
• Top Sugarcane Producing States: Maharashtra>Uttar Pradesh > Karnataka
• It can be grown on all varieties of soils ranging from sandy loam to clay loam given these soils should be well drained.
• It needs manual labour from sowing to harvesting.
• It is the main source of sugar, Gur (jaggery), khandsari and molasses.

Online Content Regulation laws

The European Union (EU) has given final approval to online safety-focused legislation, which is an overhaul of the region’s social media and e-commerce rules, called the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Features of DSA:

• The law tightly regulates the way intermediaries, especially large platforms such as Google, Meta, Twitter, and YouTube, function in terms of moderating user content.
• Faster removals and provisions to challenge: As part of the overhaul, social media companies will have to add “new procedures for faster removal” of content deemed illegal or harmful.
• Social media companies will have to explain to users how their content takedown policy works. The DSA also allows for users to challenge takedown decisions taken by platforms and seek out-of-court settlements.
• VLOPs must allow regulators to access their data to assess compliance and let researchers access their data to identify systemic risks of illegal or harmful content.
• Bigger platforms have greater responsibility: One of the most crucial features of the legislation is that it avoids a one-size fits all approach and places increased accountability on the Big Tech companies. The ‘Very Large Online Platforms’ (VLOPs) and ‘Very Large Online Search Engines’ (VLOSEs), that is platforms, having more than 45 million users in the EU, will have more stringent requirements.
• Direct supervision by European Commission: a key way to ensure that companies do not sidestep the legislation at the member-state level.
• Clearer identifiers for ads and who’s paying for them: Online platforms must ensure that users can easily identify advertisements and understand who presents or pays for the advertisement. They must not display personalised advertising directed towards minors or based on sensitive personal data.

Significance:

• It will give better protection to users and to fundamental rights online, establish a powerful transparency and accountability framework for online platforms and provide a single, uniform framework across the EU.
• More transparency on how algorithms work: VLOPs and VLOSEs will face transparency measures and scrutiny of how their algorithms work
• Systemic risk analysis by social media companies will drive accountability about the society impacts of their products.

Comparison with Indian Laws:

• In 2021, India had notified extensive changes to its social media regulations in the form of the Information Technology Rules, 2021 (IT Rules)
• IT Rules placed significant due diligence requirements on large social media platforms such as Meta and Twitter.
• These included appointing key personnel to handle law enforcement requests and user grievances, enabling identification of the first originator of the information on its platform under certain conditions, and deploying technology-based measures on a best-effort basis to identify certain types of content.
• Ensuring greater transparency such as if a user has shared child sexual abuse material on a platform.
• However, WhatsApp has filed a case and has alleged that the requirement to identify the first originator of information will dilute the encryption security on its platform and could compromise personal messages of millions of Indians.
• Proposal for further amendments to the IT Rules include the creation of government-backed grievance appellate committees which would have the authority to review and revoke content moderation decisions taken by platforms.
• India is also working on a complete overhaul of its technology policies and is expected to soon come out with a replacement of its IT Act, 2000, which is expected to look at ensuring net neutrality and algorithmic accountability of social media platforms, among other things.