 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar Reyes Academy for the date 28th of November 2021. We have taken four articles today for a discussion, we will see them one by one. Before that I will give you a brief about what we are going to discuss today. The first article is about Judiciary. In that discussion we will see what is the role of Judiciary and we will understand the salient feature of Indian constitution which is independent and integrated Judiciary. We will understand separately what does it mean to have independent Judiciary and what does it mean to have integrated Judiciary. And finally we will end the discussion with some of the provisions which ensures independence of Indian Judiciary. Moving on, the second article it is a FAQ article, it is about economically weaker section. So in that discussion we will see the Constitutional Amendment Act which brought the reservation for the EWS and we will see the eligibility criteria of EWS. And finally we will see why the government is thinking about revisiting the eligibility criteria. And moving on, the third article is about Interpol. In that we will cover the operation conducted by Interpol which is HE2 and we will cover some of the basic details such as cybercrime and I will give you a brief about the Interpol organization also. And the last article is about TRIPS. It is an important and comprehensive agreement of the World Trade Organization. In that discussion we will see what is intellectual property rights and we will see extensively about the TRIPS agreement also. Before going into the discussion I have a tip for you, have a syllabus, have a copy of syllabus in your hand so that you can categorize the articles given here under the sections of syllabus. I have also given the syllabus related to the articles but it is always better for you to categorize them yourself. It is quite often easy to deviate from the right path in the course of UPSC preparation. What makes you stay in the right path is knowing your syllabus back to back. So this practice of categorizing the articles daily will help you understand the syllabus better. So, let us take an example. The first article today is about Judiciary. So we all know that it comes under GS2 likewise daily practice categorizing the articles under the sections of your syllabus so that you won't stay or you won't deviate from the right path. So on that note we will get into the discussion of today's articles without any delay. This news article here is about the statement by Chief Justice Ramana in the celebrations of the Constitution Day. He said that courts intervene not to take in its hand the role of the government but to nudge it towards the right path. In the recent times, Supreme Court intervened on issues as varied as vaccination program for the COVID-19, distribution of oxygen to Delhi's dying citizens, setting up the Justice R.V. Ravindran expert committee to enquire into Pegasus spyware allegations and appointing a retired high court judge to monitor the Lakhimpur Keri killing of farmers and civilians in which a prime accused is the son of a union minister. So the Supreme Court's intervention is as varied as these kind of issues. He also said that people misunderstand the role of judiciary. For example, some people believe that it's the court that makes the law. So on this context we are going to understand the role of judiciary and its structure, features and challenges faced by them. The syllabus related to this topic is given here for your reference. First of all understand that there are three distinct activities in every government through which the will of people are expressed. These are the legislative, executive, judicial functions of the government. So under the government of India, the executive functions are performed by the executives which includes president, vice president, prime minister, cabinet ministers. They implement the law made by the parliamentarians. The legislative functions of the government are performed by members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. They make the laws and finally the assent is given by the executive which is president. That is why the executive's responsibility is to pass the law made by the legislature and it also implements the law. The implementation is performed by bureaucrats. The judicial functions of the government are performed by the judiciary which includes Supreme Court of India and the High Court of India and other subordinate courts. They resolve the conflicts between executive and legislature and other public related matters or conflicts. Since the article is about judiciary, let us concentrate more on the role of judiciary in this discussion. See, in any society disputes are bound to arise between individuals, between groups, between individuals and government. All such disputes must be settled by an independent body in accordance with the principle of rule of law. This idea of rule of law implies that all individuals, it doesn't matter whether they are rich or poor, men or women, forward or backward castes, they all are subjected to the same law. Equality before law is an element of this rule of law and is established by article 14 of Indian constitution. The principle role of judiciary is to protect rule of law and ensure supremacy of the constitution. Supreme Court held that rule of law in article 14 is considered as basic structure and it cannot be changed by amendment. It safeguards the rights of the individual, settles disputes in accordance with the law and ensures that democracy does not give way to individual or group dictatorship. From the citizen's point of view, judiciary is the most important organ of the government because it acts as their protector against the possible excesses of legislative and executive organs. So the judiciary is the guardian protector of the constitution and the fundamental rights of the people. So to perform this function, it is important to ensure the independence of judiciary. Note that independent and integrated judiciary is a salient feature of Indian constitution. Now let us see what does it mean to be independent and integrated. Simply stated, independence of judiciary means that the other organs of the government like the executor and the legislature must not restrain the functioning of the judiciary in such a way that it is unable to do justice. The other organs of the government should not interfere with the decision of the judiciary. And more importantly, judges must be able to perform their functions without fear or favor. These provisions ensure the independence of judiciary. We'll see some more details about how it is provided in the Indian constitution later in the discussion. Now let us see what does it mean to have integrated judiciary. The Supreme Court stands at the top of the integrated judicial system in India. Below it, there are high courts at the state level. Under a high court, there is a hierarchy of lower courts that is district courts and subordinate courts. The single system of courts enforces both the central law as well as the state law unlike in USA where the federal laws are enforced by the federal judiciary and the state laws are enforced by the state judiciary. So far we saw different organs of the government. What are they? They are executive, legislature and judiciary. President, prime minister, vice president, cabinet ministers comes under the category of executor and bureaucrats who implement the law also comes under the category of executors. Members of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and members of state legislative assemblies comes under the category of legislature. And supreme court, high court and other subordinate court comes under the category of judiciary. And also we saw the role of judiciary in India. What are they? They are it safeguards the rights of the individual and it settles disputes in accordance with the law. It ensures that the democracy does not give way to individual or group dictatorship and it is a guardian protector of the constitution and the fundamental rights of the people. And finally we saw this alien feature of Indian constitution which is independent and integrated judiciary. Independent in the sense, executive and legislature must not restrain the functioning of the judiciary. It should not interfere with the decision. Integrated in the sense, supreme court is at the top of the judicial system in India below that high courts and below that subordinate courts are there. And they enforce both the central law and the state law. With that let's move on to the next part of the discussion that is independence of judiciary. We'll understand how this independence is provided to judicial members. Firstly, the legislature is not involved in the process of appointment of judges. When it comes to the appointment of Chief Justice of India, the convention is that the senior most judge of the supreme court is appointed as Chief Justice of India. With respect to other supreme court judges, president consults the Chief Justice of India and the Chief Justice of India in turn consults four senior most judges of the supreme court. According to the three judges case 1998. The Chief Justice of High Court is appointed by president after consulting Chief Justice of India governor of the concerned state. With respect to the other judges of high court, president consults the Chief Justice of India, Chief Justice of the concerned high court and the governor of the concerned state and the Chief Justice of India in turn consults a collegium of two senior most judges of the supreme court. Read more about the three judges case for clear understanding. So we saw how independence is ensured in the appointment of judges. Let's move on to the second point which is the judges have a fixed tenure. They hold office till the age of retirement. Only in exceptional cases, judges may be removed, but otherwise they have security of tenure. Security of tenure ensures that judges could function without fear or favor. The constitution prescribes a very difficult procedure for removal of judges. The constitution makers believe that a difficult procedure of removal would provide security of office to the members of judiciary. Now let us see briefly about the removal of judges. A judge of the supreme court or high court can be removed only on the grounds of proven misbehavior or incapacity. A motion containing the charges against the judge must be approved by special majority in both the houses of the parliament. Special majority is nothing but majority of total membership of the house and a majority not less than two thoughts of the members of that house present and voting. Here for your reference, read the step-by-step procedure of removal of judges so that you will have a clear picture of how judges are removed. And thirdly, the judiciary is not financially dependent on either the executive or the legislature. The constitution provides that the salaries, allowances and the pensions of the judges are not subjected to the approval of the legislature. They are charged on consolidated fund of India and hence are non-votable by the parliament. So these are the three main provisions that ensures the independence of judiciary. Other provisions include the actions and decisions of the judges are immune from personal criticisms. The judiciary has the power to penalize those who are found guilty of contempt of court. This authority of the court is seen as an effective protection to the judges from unfair criticism. Parliament cannot discuss the conduct of the judges except when the proceeding to remove a judge is being carried out. This gives the judiciary independence to adjudicate without fear of being criticized. The parliament cannot curtail the jurisdiction and powers of the court however it can extend the same. So these are the provisions which ensure the independence of judiciary. See Indian judiciary enjoys a big importance in the eyes of people because it acts as the dispenser of justice, protector of the rights of people, guardian protector of the constitution of the state, arbitrar of centre state, disputes, safeguard against legislative and executive excesses, a check against arbitrary exercise of powers by the power holders, guardian of rule of law and justice. But the main challenge faced by judiciary is pendency of cases and vacancy that is low strength of judges in the courts. See the Indian judicial system is one of the strongest amongst all but it is facing certain challenges that are making it ineffective. This can be overcome by introducing all India judicial services and in this particular article Chief Justice Ramana mentioned about the suggestion of attorney general Venugopal which is nothing but restructuring of judicial hierarchy by including national court of appeals across the country. These appellate courts will act as buffer between the high courts and the supreme courts. What will it do? It will observe ordinary appeals from the high courts which does not include the constitutional questions of law. So implementing all India judicial services will address the challenge of vacancy and attorney general's suggestion of restructuring the judicial hierarchy will address the pendency of cases and also will reduce the burden of supreme court. And with this we have come to the end of our discussion. Let's have a quick recap. What all we saw today? We saw three different organs of the government, executive, legislature, judiciary and role of judiciary in particular which is safeguarding rights of the individuals settling disputes, protecting constitution and dispensing justice. And we saw the salient feature of Indian constitution which is independent and integrated judiciary and we saw in detail what does it mean to have independent judiciary and what does it mean to have integrated judiciary. And finally we saw the provisions which ensured the independence of judiciary. That's it for this article. Now let's move on to the next one. Now let us take up this FAQ article. See recently the union government decided to revisit the eligibility criteria for the economically weaker sections EWS category. And this particular article is written in this background. Now let us know more about this issue through this article. See the concept of EWS that is economically weaker section and their 10% reservation was introduced through 103rd Constitution Amendment Act which was enforced in January 2019. Now this amendment brought in two important changes. One was that it added clause 6 to article 15. This clause empowers the government to introduce special provisions for the EWS among the citizens excluding those people who already enjoy reservation. And it allows for reservation up to a maximum of 10% in aided or unaided public and private educational institutions excluding those run by minority institutions. So this is the amendment that has been brought in article 15. Secondly the amendment added clause 6 to article 16 of our constitution in order to facilitate reservation in employment. So these new clauses made it clear that EWS reservation will be in addition to the existing reservation. As we all know the constitution initially allowed such special provisions only for the socially and educationally backward classes but then this notion was changed under the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act. Because through this amendment act the government had introduced the concept of economic backwardness which is designed for those who are not covered by or for those who are not eligible for the community based quotas. I hope you understand what does it mean by economic backwardness. Now let's quickly see the criteria for identifying economically weaker sections. See the main criterion is that those above an annual income limit of 8 lakh are excluded from this category. And this 8 lakh criterion includes the family income from all sources. Apart from this possessing any of the following assets can also take a person outside the economically weaker section pool. Let us see them one by one. So a person having five or more acres of agricultural land, a person having a residential flat of 1000 square feet and above, a residential plot of 100 square yards and above in notified municipalities, a residential plot of 200 square yards and above in other areas. So these are the criteria which takes a person outside the EWS pool. Now the main concern of the Supreme Court in this regard is this income limit which is fixed at 8 lakh per year. Let us see what is the concern. The concern is that the cap of 8 lakh per year is the same figure which is used for excluding the creamy layer from the OBC reservation benefits as well. So this creates the contention. As we know the EWS are a part of the general category. And one important point to be noted here is that the people in the general category to whom the EWS quota is applicable do not suffer much social or educational backwardness like that which is faced by the people who are classified as OBC. That is compared to economically weaker section, the OBC, other backward classes have additional impediments to overcome. So when viewed in this angle, the court feels that it would be unfair to provide the same 8 lakh per year income limit both for the OBC and EWS categories. And this is the reason why there are talks to revisit the eligibility criteria now. Now let us have a quick recap. So far we saw the amendment which brought the reservation for economically weaker section which is nothing but one third constitutional amendment act 2019. And under that amendment we saw the changes brought to the article 15 and the article 16. And after that we saw the criteria for eligibility of EWS which is an annual income limit of 8 lakh. Apart from this other four criteria which takes a person out of EWS pool are a person having five or more acres of agricultural land, residential flat of 1000 square feet and above, a residential plot of 100 square yards and above in notified municipalities, a residential plot of 200 square yards and above in other areas. And finally we saw the main concern revolving it. What is that concern? The concern is the cap of 8 lakh per year which is the same annual income limit for excluding the creamy layer from the OBC reservation as well. Considering the fact that OBC has additional impediments to overcome, it would be unfair to provide the same income limit both for the OBC and EWS categories. With this we have come to the end of our discussion. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now for my next news discussion I have chosen this news article. It is about an operation codenamed HE2 which was coordinated by the Interpol or the International Criminal Polis Organization. And this operation targeted to crack down cyber enabled financial crime and offences. This is the basic crux of this news article. Now based on this context let us learn about cyber crimes in general and then about the Interpol and its current operation HE2 and its findings. I have given the syllabus covered by this article here. You can make a note of it. See the cyber crime is the use of a computer or online network to commit crimes. Cyber crime includes hacking, malware, identity theft, financial and medical fraud. It also includes certain offences against persons which involve revealing their personal information, messages, images, video and audio recordings without the individual's consent or permission. So basically if you are revealing someone's identity or personal images without their permission or consent then it is called a cyber crime. Now let us see some examples of cyber crimes. They are cyber stalking, cyber harassment and cyber bullying. With time this cyber crime has become more sophisticated and the criminals are targeting individuals at times businesses, education institutes and even governments also. Such crimes threaten a persons or a nation's security and financial health. As we are aware cyber crime is increasing day by day and nowadays it has become a new fashion to earn money by fraud calls or to take revenge through hacking other accounts. So the recent trend is if you want to take revenge on some person it means that you can hack their personal accounts and reveal personal information about them on social media platforms. See cyber crimes are prevalent throughout the world. When you take India for example according to the latest NCRB 2019 data that is National Crime Records Bureau data a total of 44,546 cases of cyber crimes were registered. And this has marked an increase of about 63.5% compared to 2018 estimations. So what does it show? A 63% increase was observed within one year of time. So far we saw what a cyber crime which includes hacking, malware, identity theft, financial and medical fraud and sometimes it also includes certain offenses against persons which involves revealing their personal information, messages, images, video audio recordings without their consent. Examples of it are cyber stalking, cyber bullying, cyber harassment and we also saw the status in India based on the data by NCRB which said that between the period 2018 and 19 there has been a huge increase in the percentage of cyber crimes in India. So to combat this growing threat the Interpol which is international criminal police organization has come up with this operation which is HE2. Before going into the operation let us see some details about Interpol. See the Interpol or the international criminal police organization it is an intergovernmental organization. So it is an organization between the government of different countries. It has 195 member countries. So what they basically do is that they help the polis in all of these member countries to work together in order to make the world a safer place. And they enable the polis of member countries to share an access data on crimes and criminals. And Interpol also offers a range of technical and operational support. So what does Interpol do? It basically connects the member countries and it helps the polis of the member countries to share and access data on crimes and criminals. In some cases it offers technical and operational support also. Now coming back to the operation HE2. HE2 is one such operation which provides technical and operational support. It is the second such operation in a three year project that was launched to tackle cyber enabled financial crime. In this exercise the polis units targeted specific types of online frauds such as romance scams, investment fraud and money laundering linked to illegal online gambling. This operation coordinated by Interpol was conducted over four months from June to September. And specialized polis units from more than 20 countries took part in the exercise. And the notable point here is that India was also a participant country. At the end of the operation around 1,003 individuals were arrested and investigators closed 1,660 cases. And the operation also helped in intercepting about 27 million dollars of illicit funds. In addition to this around 2,350 bank accounts which were linked to the illicit proceeds of online financial crime were also blocked. And this operation helped in identifying 10 new criminal modus operandi or the criminal operating ways. Know that in this operation the Interpol officials pilot tested a new global stop payment mechanism called anti money laundering rapid response protocol ARRP. See this initiator will help assess the member countries who liars with authorities in overseas jurisdiction to process stop money requests urgently. So this protocol will enable authorities to stop the circulation of illegal money. So to overcome the huge procedures and paperwork to stop the illegal money processing in overseas jurisdiction this stop payment mechanism has been tested so that the requests can be processed quickly. Interpol plans to officially launch the ARRP next year and its financial crime unit is currently working with member countries to integrate the system into the existing communication channels. So to conclude cyber fraud is a social problem. It can be reduced only with awareness and education and it needs global cooperation and coordination to effectively tackle this parallel cyber crime pandemic. Now let us have a quick recap here. First of all we saw we saw cyber crimes some of the examples of it and the status of cyber crime in India. And we saw about Interpol as an organization and the operation conducted by Interpol which is nothing but HE2 and a novel pilot tested stop payment mechanism ARRP anti money laundering rapid response protocol. With this let's wind up this discussion and move on to the next news article. So this particular news article is about India, South Africa and Indonesia requesting a waiver from the key terms of WTO's agreement, TRIPS. WTO is nothing but World Trade Organization and TRIPS is nothing but trade related aspects of intellectual property rights. So India, South Africa and Indonesia are requesting a waiver in this agreement to provide some cheap vaccinations and medicines to combat the epidemic that is happening right now. So in this context let us understand the acronym TRIPS. First of all know that TRIPS which is trade related aspects of intellectual property rights is one of the most important comprehensive and multilateral agreement of World Trade Organization. It addresses a wide range of intellectual property rights. So let us see some of the other important agreements under WTO. They are general agreement on tariffs and trade, general agreement on trade and services. We are not going to discuss in detail about these agreements in this discussion. You refer to it and see what are they. Okay now coming back. See the IPR are the rights that are given to people over the creations of their minds and these rights are given by the society through the state as an incentive to provide and disseminate ideas and expressions that will benefit society as a whole. So they usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his or her creation for a certain period of time. Now let us understand what are these intellectual property rights. Intellectual property rights are divided into two main areas. The first one is copyright and the rights related to copyright. The right of authors of literary and artistic works such as books, musical compositions, paintings, sculpture, computer programs and films are protected by copyright. See the main social purpose of the protection of copyright and the related rights is to encourage and reward creative work. So the protection under copyright is given to encourage persons or people to do more creative work. The other category under the IPR is industrial property. So industrial property can be used fully divided into two main areas. One area can be characterized as the protection of distinctive signs in particular trade marks. So trade marks are nothing but signs which distinguish the goods and services of one enterprise from the other enterprises. And the distinctive signs also include geographical indications which identify a good as originating in a place where a characteristic of good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin. So you have to understand why it is protected. The protection of such distinctive signs aims to stimulate and ensure fair competition among the enterprises and to protect consumers also. So how are they protecting consumers here by enabling them to make informed choices between various goods and services. Here let us consider two enterprises A and B. They are making electronic goods and they are having the same signs. Say let us consider they are having same logo. So in this situation it creates a confusion among the consumers to find out which products are enterprises A's products and which products are enterprises B's products in the retail store. So this is where trade marks distinctive signs and geographical indications come in. So by having this condition it helps the consumers to make informed choices and it protects the rights of consumers also. So under the industrial category we saw one category which are distinctive signs, trade marks, geographical indications, other types of industrial property which are protected primarily to stimulate innovation, design and creation of technology falls under innovations protected by patents, industrial designs and trade secrets. The social purpose here is to provide protection for the results of investment in the development of new technology. How this is done? This is done by giving incentive and means to finance research and developmental activities. Remember IPRs are statutory rights that are enacted by the law making authority in a country. So far we saw a brief introduction about trips and we saw some details about IPR for better understanding of the concept. Now let us have a quick recap. So trips, trade related aspects of intellectual property rights. It is a comprehensive agreement of WTO. It addresses intellectual property rights. Under the intellectual property rights we saw two main categories. One is copyrights and the other one is industrial property. Under industrial property we saw two categories. One is distinctive signs, trade marks, geographical indications, the other is patents, industrial designs and trade secrets. For copyrights we saw the social purpose is to encourage and reward creative work. And for the industrial properties we saw the social purpose is to incentivize and to finance research and developmental activities. Now let us see some more details about trips. Trips is the most comprehensive international agreement on intellectual property and it has a major role in enabling trade in creativity and knowledge. In resolving trade disputes over intellectual property and in assuring WTO members the latitude to achieve their domestic policy objectives. Trips agreement lays down the permissible exceptions and limitations for balancing the interests of intellectual property with the interests of public health and economic development. So that is why the protection is given for a certain period of time to establish the balance between interests of intellectual property with the interests of public health and economic development. It came into force in 1995 as a part of the agreement that established WTO. It establishes minimum standards for the availability, scope and use of seven forms of intellectual property namely trade marks, copyrights, geographical indications, patents, industrial designs, layout designs for integrated circuits and undisclosed information or trade secrets. So to put it in simple words it applies basic international trade principles regarding intellectual property to member states and it is applicable to all WTO members. Note here India is also a WTO member. Remember it frames the IP system in terms of innovation, technology transfer and public welfare. So the entire intellectual property system it is framed on innovation, technology transfer and public welfare. The Trips Council is responsible for administering and monitoring the operation of Trips agreement. The Trips agreement is also described as Bernie and Paris plus agreement. With that we have come to the end of our discussion. Let us have a quick recap. We saw Trips, a brief introduction and different categories of IPR under which we saw copyright and industrial properties. And finally we discussed the features of the agreement Trips in detail. That's it for this article. Come let us move on to the next part of our discussion. I have given here a couple of prelims questions for your practice. Let's see them one by one. Under which one of the following Constitution Amendment Act, the concept of economic backwardness was introduced. So we saw this in our economically weaker section article. So the correct option here is option C. That is 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act which was enforced in January 2019. And we saw this extensively in our economically weaker section article discussion. Under this amendment act two changes were brought in. One in article 15 and one in article 16. So it changed the notion that Constitution allowed special provisions only for the socially and educationally backward classes. A new concept of economic backwardness was introduced in 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act 2019. Now let us see this prelims question which is based on National Intellectual Property Rights Policy. So with reference to National Intellectual Property Rights Policy, consider the following statements. It re-iterates India's commitment to Doha Development Agenda and the Trips Agreement. Statement two, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion is the nodal agency for regulating Intellectual Property Rights in India. So in the article discussion we didn't see anything about National Intellectual Property Rights Policy. So I'll give you a brief introduction about the policy and afterwards we'll see which are the statements are right and which are the statements are wrong. The Union Cabinet approved National Intellectual Property Rights Policy in 2016 that lay the future roadmap for Intellectual Property in India. This policy shall be when the strengths of the government, research and development organizations, educational institutions, corporate entities including MS Amis, startups and other stakeholders in the creation of an innovation conducive environment which stimulates creativity and innovation across sectors. It also facilitates a stable, transparent and service oriented IPR administration in the country. So the policy ensures bringing together different stakeholders such as government, R&D organizations, educational institutions and corporate such as MS Amis, startups to create an innovation conducive environment. So that's what the policy aspires for. The policy recognizes that India has a well established TRIPS compliant legislative, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard IPRs which meets its international obligations while utilizing the flexibilities provided in the international regime to address its developmental concerns. So this particular line reiterates the India's commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and the TRIPS Agreement and hence the statement one is correct. The following objectives, the objectives we saw so far are sought to be achieved through detailed action plans. The action by different ministries and departments shall be monitored by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion which shall be the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee implementation of the policy and future development of IPRs in India and hence here the statement two is also correct. Let us see a quick recap of what is national intellectual property rights policy. Union Cabinet approved the policy in 2016 to lay a roadmap for intellectual property in India. What does the policy aspire for? It aspires for bringing together different stakeholders such as government, educational institutions, corporates for creating an innovation conducive environment. It also ensures TRIPS compliant legislative, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard IPRs and it reiterates India's commitment to Doha Development Agenda and the objectives of the policies are achieved through detailed action points and the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee the implementation is Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. I have given some of the main questions here for your practice. Interested candidates, write the answer and post it in the comment section, I will evaluate them. With this, we have come to the end of our discussion. If you find the video useful, please like, share and comment and do subscribe to the Shankar Iyer's Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.