The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 11 September 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 9 September 2023

• The G-20, under the Indian Presidency, should convene virtually towards November-end to take stock of the progress made on the proposals received during the September 9-10 summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Sunday.
• Modi handed over the ceremonial gavel to Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, initiating the process of transition of the President’s Chair for the next round of the G-20 in Brazil.
• New Delhi Declaration, African Union membership among high points of the event

 The Hindu Editorial Today

• The climate crisis intricately wove itself into the G-20 summit in Delhi, particularly during the discussions on clean energy, sustainable development and the collective responsibility necessary to avert it.
• The United Nations’ Global Stocktake, a report that was released just ahead of the G-20 meet, set out the scope of challenges that awaited the major economies of the world even as it presented little beyond what is already known.
• This stocktake is to serve as a template to guide discussion ahead of the 28th Conference of Parties scheduled in Dubai this November and is meant to be an official reckoning of the work actually done by countries since 2015, in stemming greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
• Based on current information submitted by countries, the emissions gap consistent with 1.5°C in 2030 is estimated to be 20.3 billion tonnes–23.9 billion tonnes of CO2.
• The G-20 Leader’s Declaration formally recognised the need for “…USD 5.8-5.9 trillion in the pre-2030 period required for developing countries….as well as USD 4 trillion per year for clean energy technologies by 2030 to reach net zero by 2050”.

About the Global Stocktake

• Global Stocktake is essentially a periodic review of global climate action which aims to assess whether current efforts will enable us to reach the objectives set out in the Paris Agreement. This includes
• Progress on greenhouse gas reduction,
• Building resilience to climate impacts, and
• Securing finance to address the climate crisis.
• The Global Stocktake is mandated under Article 14 (1) of the Paris Agreement to assess collective progress towards long-term global goals.

• India’s efforts to regulate insidious e-commerce trade practices, known as dark patterns, are a welcome step, and long overdue.
• Examples of dark patterns that have since become ubiquitous include the auto check mark for travel insurance while booking flight tickets; the mandatory requirement of entering emails or phone numbers to access e-commerce sites, which are then used to send text messages or emails that become difficult to block; or birthday wishes that nudge users to buy themselves a gift.

• Last March, the European Data Protection Board issued guidelines on how to recognise and avoid dark patterns on social media platforms, and the United States’ Federal Trade Commission last September warned of a “rise in sophisticated dark patterns designed to trick and trap consumers”.
• An Advertising Standards Council of India report in 2021 estimated that over 50% of e-commerce sites used dark patterns to sell their products.

• As leaders underscored at the G20 summit in New Delhi yesterday, ahead of the United Nations General Assembly SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) summit in New York next week,the world stands at a critical juncture. Risks are being created faster than they are being reduced.
• Headlines this year alone have brought a relentless wave of bad news across the world, from severe flooding in China to destructive wildfires in Europe and Hawaii to the hottest month ever on record in July. This is set to become the new normal if more action isn’t taken.
• The majority of the 50 countries most vulnerable to climate change also suffer from severe debt issues.
• India, already among the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is experiencing this new reality acutely. In 2022, the country was battered by disasters or extreme weather nearly every day, while this year’s severe monsoon has caused widespread loss of livelihood and lives.
• Many lessons are being learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, including on the importance of systems-wide disaster risk reduction, resilience, and adaptation. The crisis not only revealed our vulnerability to risk, but also forged new ways of working together, including through digital innovations, such as computer modelling and India’s CoWIN digital vaccine system.
• Another reason for optimism is India’s stewardship on disaster risk reduction. All the 28 States have prepared their own disaster management plans in recent years.
• India’s ongoing G20 presidency established the first-ever work stream on disaster risk reduction. The Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group is aligned with the SDGs and reflects many of our shared priorities.

• With the Himachal Pradesh government taking steps to legalise cannabis (hemp) cultivation in the State, growers are upbeat and optimistic about getting an economic boost. A committee comprising lawmakers that explored the possibility of legal cultivation of cannabis recently recommended cultivation of cannabis for “non-narcotic use of cannabis for medicinal, industrial, and scientific use”.
• However, there are social concerns, especially of adolescents and youth being drawn towards the use and abuse of cannabis, the nexus between illegal producers and suppliers of cannabis getting stronger, the risk of pilferage, and the occurrence of amotivational syndrome.
• Hemp is a botanical class of Cannabis sativa cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It is produced in parts of Himachal Pradesh, though it is illegal under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
• The State Cabinet approval is awaited after which a policy is expected to be framed soon by the State government on cannabis cultivation, keeping in view the provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985, and the NDPS Rules, 1989.
• The NDPS Act of 1985, imposes a ban on extracting the resin and flowers from the plant, but the law determines the method and extent of its cultivation for medicinal and scientific purposes.
• Section 10 (a) (iii) of the Act empowers the States to make rules regarding the cultivation of any cannabis plant, production, possession, transport, consumption, use and purchase and sale, and consumption of cannabis (except charas). The States are empowered to permit, by general or special order, the cultivation of hemp only for obtaining fibre or seeds or for horticultural purposes.
• In 2017, Himachal Pradesh’s neighbour Uttarakhand became the first State in the country to legalise cannabis cultivation.
• “The NDPS Act was enacted in order to meet the then United Nations Conventions on Drug Policy in the year 1985. The objective was to prevent rampant drug use in society.

• Section 69 of the proposed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, identifies ‘sexual intercourse on false promise of marriage’ as an offence.
• If a man promises to marry a woman but never intends to, and still has ‘consensual’ sex with her, it will amount to a criminal offence under Section 69 of the proposed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
• Section 69 creates two violations: one by deceitful means, and one by a ‘false promise to marry.’ Deceitful means will include the “false promise of employment or promotion, inducement or marrying after suppressing identity.” The false promise to marry will be attracted only when a man makes a promise to marry a woman, with the intention of breaking it, for the purpose of getting her consent and sexually exploiting her.
• In 2016, a quarter of the total rape cases registered in Delhi pertained to sex under ‘false promise of marriage’, as per Delhi Police data. The National Crime Records Bureau in the same year recorded 10,068 similar cases of rape by “known persons on a promise to marry the victim”
• Researchers Nikita Sonavane and Neetika Vishwanath explained that these cases happen in one of two ways — when rape is committed, and the promise of marriage is used to silence the victim, or where the promise is made to ‘convince’ the person into entering a sexual relationship.
• Cases of ‘false promise of marriage’ look at two central issues — how consent is obtained (through deceitful means, or by misconception), and whether the man ever intended to marry the woman.

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