The Hindu Newspaper Analysis | 30 May 2023 | Current Affairs Today | UPSC Editorial Analysis

Introduction

The speaker introduces the Daily Hindu news analysis and mentions a scholarship offer. They also provide an overview of the topics that will be covered in the session.

• A mega scholarship is available for courses with almost 60% discount.

• Two important articles from the editorial and column page are chosen for discussion.

• Six important articles covering various subjects including international relations, science and technology, economy, etc., will be covered comprehensively.

Editorial on Supercomputers in India

The speaker discusses an editorial from page six of the newspaper about supercomputers in India. They explain what supercomputers are, their applications, and where India stands compared to other countries.

• A recent development was discussed about a new supercomputer that India is procuring from France which is all set to become the fastest supercomputer in India.

• Supercomputers are essentially computing platforms which can operate at their highest operational capacity.

• They have immensely higher computational capabilities compared to regular general processing systems due to parallel computing capabilities.

• Performance of supercomputers is often measured in flops or floating point operations per second.

• Supercomputers have tremendous applications both in civilian and military domains such as weather forecasting, simulating oceanic circulation and atmospheric circulation.

Applications of Supercomputers

The speaker continues discussing applications of supercomputers in detail.

• In addition to weather forecasting, they can also be used for scientific research such as drug discovery and genomics research.

• On the military side, they can be used for nuclear weapons simulations and missile defense systems.

• China currently has the most number of top-performing supercomputers followed by Japan and United States while India ranks fourth with only two machines among the top 500 supercomputers in the world.

• India needs to invest more in research and development, infrastructure, and human resources to scale up its supercomputing capabilities.

Polity Article

The speaker discusses an article from page seven of the newspaper about polity.

• The article talks about the recent controversy surrounding the appointment of judges to higher courts in India.

• It highlights the need for transparency and accountability in the appointment process.

• The speaker explains how judges are appointed in India and compares it with other countries such as United States and United Kingdom.

• They also discuss some of the challenges faced by the Indian judiciary system such as backlog of cases and lack of diversity among judges.

Supercomputers in India

In this section, the speaker talks about the applications of supercomputers in India and how they are used for weather forecasting, drug discovery, aerospace modeling, and defense purposes. The speaker also discusses India's plan to procure one of the fastest supercomputers from a French company.

Applications of Supercomputers

• Supercomputers are primarily used in weather forecasting due to the complex computations involved in weather modeling.

• Supercomputers play a critical role in Aerospace modeling to design airframes and come up with more efficient designs of planes and other vessels.

• Supercomputing has numerous defense applications such as designing fighter jets, transport aircraft, drones, naval ships, and submarines.

• In medicine and pharmaceuticals, supercomputing plays a critical role especially in drug discovery and understanding the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19.

Procurement of Fastest Supercomputer

• India is going to procure one of the fastest supercomputers from a French company known as Atos worth around 4500 crore rupees by 2025.

• The first batch of supercomputers will be installed at the Indian Institute of Tropical Metrology in Pune and the National Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting at Noida under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

• The French supercomputer that India is looking to procure will bring an operational capacity of 18 petaflops making it one of the fastest supercomputers in the country.

Supercomputers and their Significance

In this section, the speaker discusses the significance of supercomputers in various domains such as mass surveillance, artificial intelligence, and national pride.

Importance of Supercomputers

• Supercomputers are required for mass surveillance using AI-powered facial recognition technology to pick out individuals from millions of images in a database.

• Intelligence agencies use supercomputers to intercept and tap communication by looking out for certain keywords or voice patterns.

• Supercomputers play a key role in all emerging and critical technologies, especially artificial intelligence.

• Having more supercomputers has become a symbol of national pride for many countries.

Evolution of Supercomputing Technology

• The term "supercomputer" is temporary because today's supercomputer can quickly become outdated.

• Moore's Law predicts that every two years there will be a doubling of the number of transistors on a microchip, leading to rapid changes in electronics and computing.

• Rapid evolutionary changes happen every year or even every month in the field of electronics and computing.

India's Position in Supercomputing

• India lags behind major powers like the US, China, Russia, Japan, and European countries when it comes to high-performance computational capabilities.

• Many Indian research institutions have their own supercomputers but they don't rank highly on the global Top 500 project list.

• India has a few fast supercomputers such as Mihir and Pratyush, but they are not in the top 500 list.

Supercomputing in India

In this section, the speaker talks about India's journey in the world of supercomputers and its current status.

India's Journey in Supercomputing

• Key Indian institutions like CDAC and research institutions started their journey into supercomputing back in the 1990s.

• Many academic and research institutions including all top IITs and Indian Institute of Science have their own supercomputers.

• Institutions like Indian Institute of Science Bangalore are setting up their super computational capabilities along with other civilian and security-related institutions.

Challenges Faced by India

• India is miles behind major powers when it comes to high-performance computational capabilities.

• Many of India's supercomputers don't even rank on the global Top 500 project list.

• India needs to catch up with other countries in terms of high-performance computing to stay competitive.

India's National Super Computing Mission

This section discusses India's progress in the supercomputing domain and the challenges it faces.

India's Ranking in Supercomputing

• Within three years, India has fallen from being ranked around 120-130 to being out of the top hundred list.

• Currently, there is only one system from India in the top hundred and three in the top 500.

• India has installed around 15 supercomputers since 2015 under the National Super Computing Mission, with a total computational capability of 24 petaflops.

National Super Computing Mission

• The National Super Computing Mission was launched in 2015 by the Modi government to enhance India's capacities and capabilities in the supercomputing domain.

• The mission aims to create a supercomputing grid by connecting all supercomputers in the country with national knowledge network as its backbone.

• The focus is on research institutions, academic institutions like IITs and Indian Institute of Science, and weather forecasting institutions under IMD and Ministry of Earth Sciences.

• The initiative is backed by Department of Science and Technology along with Ministry of Electronics at I.T CDAC (Center for Development of Advanced Computing), and IISC Bengaluru.

Challenges Faced by India

• Despite progress made over recent decades, speed, scale, lack of adequate infrastructure investment are still major challenges faced by India.

• India's dependency on foreign imports for semiconductor devices is a significant challenge, as it forms the core of a supercomputing machine.

India's Supercomputing Mission

The editorial discusses the limitations and challenges faced by India in the supercomputing sector. It highlights India's progress under the National Super Computing Mission and compares it with other countries, such as the US and China.

India's Progress in Supercomputing

• Despite limitations, India has made significant progress under the National Super Computing Mission.

• In 2020, India had two supercomputers in the top 100 bracket - Param and Mihir Pratyush combination. However, as of 2022, there are no Indian supercomputers in the top 100 list.

• According to the latest Top 500 list, only one Indian supercomputer from Pune has entered the top hundred bracket. In contrast, China and US own almost two-thirds of global super computing capacity.

Need for Further Investment

• The editorial calls upon the government to invest further in technology and scale up semiconductor capabilities to diversify applications of supercomputers beyond weather forecasting models.

• Public and private research institutions can play a big role in scaling up indigenous technology to compete with other global powers.

Role of Chief Justice of India

Aditya Bharat examines a recent judgment involving expanding powers of Chief Justice of India. He discusses the role and powers of Chief Justice of India in this context.

Context: Ritu Chabriya vs Union of India Case

• A division bench of Supreme Court passed a judgment that an under trial has a right to be released on default bail if investigation is delayed beyond statutory time limit.

• The division bench upheld the right of under trials to get default bail if investigation remains incomplete.

Role of Chief Justice of India

• Aditya Bharat examines the role and powers of Chief Justice of India in this context.

• He discusses how Chief Justice of India is the master of the roster and has the power to allocate cases to different benches.

Unlawful Practice of Filing Preliminary Charge Sheet

The Indian investigating agencies, especially at the state level, file for a preliminary charge sheet to prevent the accused from getting bail if they are unable to bring up all the evidence within the time limit. This practice is against the rights of the accused to get default bail.

Ruling by Supreme Court on Default Bail

• If investigation is not completed within the statutory time limit, then the accused has a right to seek default bail.

• The division bench in Ritu Chabriya case ruled that this right will not be extinguished by just filing a preliminary charge sheet.

• This landmark ruling upheld the rights of the accused to get default bail.

Government's Response and Interim Order

• The government of India filed a recall petition urging Chief Justice of India to recall this order of division bench.

• The court of Chief Justice entertained this recall petition and passed an interim order saying that all courts should not consider precedent set by Ritu Chabriya judgment when deciding bail applications for now.

• This step taken by court of Chief Justice was against established norms and practices.

The Role of the Chief Justice of India

In this section, the speaker discusses the role of the Chief Justice of India and how it differs from other judges in the Supreme Court.

The Importance of Judicial Competence

• All judges in the Supreme Court are equal in terms of judicial competence and power.

• The author argues that by accepting a recall petition instead of a review petition, the Chief Justice has breached established norms and undermined the supremacy of division benches.

• This raises concerns about expanding powers for the Chief Justice.

The Master of Roster

• The Chief Justice's role as master of roster gives them extra power to allocate cases to different benches and handle administration.

• However, this does not give them special treatment or privilege compared to other judges.

Concerning Developments

• Entertaining an intra-court appeal within the Supreme Court bypasses established norms and is against all established laws and constitutional principles.

• This is a concerning development that undermines legal processes.

The Expanding Powers of the Chief Justice of India

This section discusses the role of the Chief Justice of India (CGI) in assigning cases to different benches and constituting different ventures, including constitutional benches. It also highlights concerns about the expanding powers of the CGI.

The Role of the CGI

• The CGI functions as the master of the roster while assigning cases to different benches and constituting different ventures, including constitutional benches.

• The CGI has extra powers to allocate cases, set up benches, and assign references to different benches.

The Powers of the CGI Compared to Other Countries

• In other Commonwealth countries like Australia, Canada, and United Kingdom, all judges are equal and the chief justice is simply first amongst equals.

• Even if a majority judgment does not include CJI, it doesn't mean that he can overrule it on his own right.

• In contrast to other Commonwealth countries, in the US all judges collectively exercise their power.

Concerns About Expanding Powers

• There are concerns about subjectivity being exercised by the Chief Justice of India when favoring certain parties in a case and suitably assigning cases to different benches.

• To eliminate human bias in roster allocation and case assignment, some suggest that this process should be computerized.

Minority Judgments vs. Majority Judgments

This section discusses how minority judgments work in India's Supreme Court compared to majority judgments.

Minority Judgments

• There are several cases where the CGI has been on the minority side of a judgment.

• In a recent case involving EWS quota, the minority judgment included the Chief Justice himself.

Majority Judgments

• Eventually, what prevails is the majority judgment.

• The CGI is not supreme over other judges; they are all equals. If a majority judgment does not include CJI, it doesn't mean that he can overrule it on his own right.

Conclusion and Concerns

This section summarizes the concerns expressed by the writer about how the expanding powers of the CJI are seen to be giving more power to his office.

Expanding Powers of CJI

• The clear overreach being done both by government and CJI points towards expanding powers of CJI.

• The writer expresses concern about how CJI is seen to be giving more powers to his office where he is superior to other judges and even in overruling judges without constitutional legal basis.

Understanding the One Day Bharat Express and ISRO's Navigation Satellite

In this section, the speaker discusses two important articles related to India's transportation and space technology. The first article talks about the launch of the One Day Bharat Express in Northeast India, which is a faster passenger train with better amenities. The second article discusses ISRO's successful launch of the GSLV rocket carrying an important payload into orbit.

One Day Bharat Express

• The One Day Bharat Express is a flagship train launched by the Modi government across India.

• The latest route connects Guwahati in Assam with New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.

• The Modi government has committed a higher budgetary allocation to Northeast India as far as railway budget is concerned, almost 10,000 crore rupees have been allocated.

• The long-term vision is to connect all capitals of Northeast India with the rest of the country soon.

ISRO's Navigation Satellite

• ISRO has successfully launched GSLV rocket carrying NVS01 navigation satellite into orbit.

• NVS01 navigation satellite is part of Navic constellation being launched by ISRO as part of IRNSS project.

• Navic constellation will provide positional and navigational information for civilian and military applications similar to GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo.

India's Regional Navigation System

In this section, the speaker discusses India's regional navigation system and its potential applications.

India's Navigation System

• India is building a regional navigation system, if not a global satellite system.

• The Navic project or IRNSS is an ambitious initiative of ISRO to set up a series of satellites around India.

• The constellation of satellites carries atomic clocks on board that have been equipped with indigenous atomic clocks.

• This technology has several civilian and military applications such as improving transportation and logistics, guiding targeted weapon systems, disaster management, etc.

GSLV Rocket Launch

• GSLV rocket successfully launched the NVS01 navigation satellite which is part of the Navic system.

• GSLV is now equipped with the cryogenic stage in the last stage which provides for immense thrust to carry heavier payloads into orbit.

• Cryogenic engine has proven its capabilities in yesterday's launch. It will be crucial for Gaganyaan mission which is coming up - India's first manned space flight.

Atomic Clock

• An indigenously developed atomic clock was flown on this satellite which is part of the Navic system.

• It will improve our navigation and positional capabilities and very soon we'll have a much bigger network of Navic satellites that will cover this immediate region around India.

[#](no timestamp available) India's Experience in UN Peacekeeping

In this section, the speaker mentions India's experience in UN peacekeeping.

• India has a lot of experience in U.N peacekeeping.

India's Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Missions

India has suffered the largest losses in UN peacekeeping missions, with over 175 soldiers lost, 150 of whom were from the Indian army. As part of their defense cooperation, India and ASEAN countries have signed an agreement to promote defense relations. Under this agreement, India will train all-women contingents from ASEAN countries in UN peacekeeping missions.

Training for ASEAN Countries

• India has agreed to train all-women contingents from ASEAN countries in UN peacekeeping missions.

• The training is part of India-ASEAN defense cooperation.

• The goal is to help prepare these women for deployment under the UN banner.

Sufiana Mausiki and Chakri - Traditional Folk Songs from Kashmir

Sufiana Mausiki and Chakri are traditional folk songs from Kashmir that are associated with carpet and shawl weavers. These devotional folk songs represent a cultural heritage of India.

Art Form Recognition

• Sufiana Mausiki and Chakri are traditional folk songs from Kashmir.

• They are associated with carpet and shawl weavers who practice this traditional art form.

• Indian institutions recognize this art form as representing India's rich cultural heritage.

CAG Re-elected as Auditor for WHO

The Comptroller orator General for India (CAG), a constitutional authority, has been re-elected as the auditor for the World Health Organization (WHO) for a second term. India's CAG is a member of the UN panel of external auditors.

Re-election of CAG

• India's CAG has been re-elected as the auditor for WHO for a second four-year term.

• Only auditing organizations that are members of the UN panel of external auditors can contest elections for WHO auditors.

• India's CAG is a member of the UN panel of external auditors.

Central Vigilance Commission and New Chief Vigilance Commissioner

Praveen Kumar Srivastava, who played a key role in India's negotiations with WTO, has been sworn in by the president as India's new Chief Vigilance Commissioner. Let's understand what exactly is the role of CVC and its functions.

Role and Functions

• The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is responsible for preventing corruption in government organizations.

• The functions of CVC include advising on policies related to vigilance, conducting investigations into corruption cases, and monitoring progress in anti-corruption measures.

Origin and Role of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)

This section discusses the origin and role of the CVC in India, including its appointment process, powers, functions, and relationship with other government bodies.

The British Era and the Santaram Committee

• The British established a vigilance organization along with a special police establishment to tackle corruption in the warrant supply department.

• The special police establishment eventually became the CBI, while the vigilance agency became the CVC.

• The Santaram Committee recommended a vigilance commission to tackle corruption within the government.

• The CVC is an independent organization responsible only to the parliament of India.

Appointment Process and Powers

• The CVC was set up in 1964 and became a statutory body when the CVC Act was enacted in 2003.

• The President of India appoints the CVC and vigilance commissioners on aid and advice of Council of Ministers headed by PM.

• The appointment process, terms, powers, and functions are well defined under law.

• It plays a key role in ensuring transparency and accountability within central government.

Functions

• It ensures vigilance within government to prevent any leakage or diversion of funds or corruption within central government.

• It receives complaints from various sources such as lokpal, whistleblowers within government or media or civil society or NGOs.

• It does not have its own investigative powers and relies on the CBI for that.

• It works with chief vigilance officers in each ministry and department to coordinate vigilance activities.

Conclusion

This section provides an overview of the origin, appointment process, powers, functions, and relationship of the CVC with other government bodies. The CVC plays a key role in ensuring transparency and accountability within central government by maintaining vigilance over corrupt and illegal activities.