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www.visionias.in
CURRENT AFFAIRS
JANUARY 2020
2.3. ISRAEL-PALESTINE
Why in news?
US President Donald Trump unveiled his Middle East peace plan, Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the
Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People aimed at solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
About Israel-Palestine conflict
• In 1917, during World War I, the British captured Palestine from the Ottoman Empire after the Sykes-Picot
Agreement with France.
• Later in the Balfour Declaration, Britain pledged establishment of Palestine as national home for Jews.
• During World War II, over 3 lakh Jews
migrated & resettled in Palestine and India’s stance on Israel Palestine conflict
• India believes in the 2-state solution and has maintained a
demanded a new country. This led to fight
balanced approach. It supports the establishment of a
to fight between Arabs and Jews i.e. Israel sovereign independent and a viable state of Palestine along
Palestine conflict. with maintaining India’s growing relationship with Israel.
• In 1947 the United Nations voted to split
the Palestine between Arabs and Jews.
o The Jewish residents accepted the agreement and declared independence of Israel in 1948 while Arabs
rejected the agreement.
o Consequently, the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria declared war on Israel.
• Israel won the war and expanded its territory reducing Palestine to just Gaza strip and West bank & forcing
lakhs of Palestinians to flee from Israel.
• It was the beginning of this Palestine refugee crisis which ultimately led to the creation of PLO (Palestine
Liberation Organization) in 1964. What makes Jerusalem so important?
• In June, 1967 Six day war was • Jerusalem is situated on the border between Israel and the West Bank.
fought between Israel and It is home to some of the holiest sites in both Judaism and Islam, and
neighboring Arab countries. so both Israel and Palestine want to make it their capital.
During this, Israel captured Gaza • It is an Important pilgrimage for Christians as well whose holiest
strip, Sinai peninsula from Egypt, Church of Sepulcher is located here.
West bank from Jordan and o The Church contains two important sites, one where Jesus was
Golan heights from Syria. crucified and the other being Jesus’ empty tomb where he said to
• UN Security Council then have been buried and resurrected.
• It also hosts the third holiest site of Islam, the dome of the rock, which
adopted a resolution for ‘Land
is one of the oldest extant works of Islamic architecture.
for peace’ and it mandated that o It is believed that Prophet Mohamad’s night journey to the heaven
Israel should return the captured started from the rock at the center of the structure.
areas back to the defeated • The western wall or the Buraq wall is the ancient limestone wall in this
nations. city. It is considered holy due to its connection to the temple mount.
• In the light of Israel’s reluctance o Israeli Jews weren’t allowed to pray in the temple mount area
to return the captured while Jordan controlled it. Because of the temple mount entry
territories, another Arab-Israeli restrictions, the wall is the holiest place where the Jews are
war erupted in 1973 (Yom permitted to pray.
Kippur war) in which Israel suffered some setbacks.
Grants-in-aid
In 2020-21, the following grants will be provided to states: (i) revenue deficit grants, (ii) grants to local bodies, and (iii)
disaster management grants. The Commission has also proposed a framework for sector-specific and performance-based
grants. State-specific grants will be provided in the final report.
Revenue • In 2020-21, 14 states are estimated to have an aggregate revenue deficit of Rs 74,340 crore post-
deficit grants devolution. The Commission recommended revenue deficit grants for these states.
Special Grants • In case of three states (Karnataka, Mizoram, and Telangana), the sum of devolution and revenue
deficit grants is estimated to decline in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20. The Commission has
recommended special grants to these states aggregating to Rs 6,764 crore.
Sectoral • The Commission has recommended a grant of Rs 7,375 crore for nutrition in 2020-21.
Grants • Sector-specific grants for the following sectors will be provided in the final report: health, pre-primary
education, judiciary, rural connectivity, railways, statistics, police training and housing.
Performance • The following domains have been identified- implementation of agricultural reforms, development of
Based aspirational districts and blocks, power sector reforms, enhancing trade including exports, incentives
Incentives for education, and promotion of domestic and international tourism.
Empowering Local Bodies
Changes • Grants should be given to all tiers of the panchayati raj so as to enable pooling of resources across
brought villages and blocks to create durable community assets and improve their functional viability.
• Grants to the Fifth and Sixth Schedule areas and Cantonment Boards.
• Tied grants in the critical sectors of sanitation and drinking water.
• Share of urban local bodies in the grants to local bodies should be gradually increased to 40 per cent
over the medium term.
• The fifty Million-Plus cities in the country need differentiated treatment, with special emphasis on
meeting the challenges of bad ambient air quality, ground water depletion and sanitation.
Grants in aid • The total grants to local bodies for 2020-21 has been fixed at Rs 90,000 crore which is equivalent to
4.31% of the divisible pool for 2020-21, up from the 3.54% (2019-20), of the divisible pool.
• The proportion of grants between rural and urban local bodies will be in the ratio of 67.5: 32.5.
• The grants will be divided between states based on population and area in the ratio 90:10.
Disaster Risk Management
Mitigation • Set up Mitigation funds at both national and state levels in the form of a National Disaster Mitigation
Funds Fund (NDMF) and State Disaster Mitigation Funds (SDMF), in accordance with the Disaster
Management Act.
• Along with existing disaster response funds (NDRF & SDRF), they will now together be called as
National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) and State Disaster Risk Management Funds
(SDRMF).
• They shall be used for those local level and community-based interventions which reduce the risks and
promote environment-friendly settlements and livelihood practices.
• However, large-scale mitigation interventions such as construction of coastal walls, flood
embankments, support for drought resilience etc. should be pursued through regular development
schemes and not from the mitigation fund.
• The cost-sharing pattern between centre and states is (i) 75:25 for all states, and (ii) 90:10 for north-
eastern and Himalayan states.
Specific • Expanding and Modernisation of Fire Services
For more details refer to Urban Cooperative Banks (UCB) article in October 2019 Monthly Current Affairs.
Benefits Challenges
• Improved efficiency: A private firm is interested in making a • Natural monopoly: Privatization in railways might
profit, and so it is more likely to cut costs and be efficient. create a private monopoly which might seek to
• Lack of political interference: Governments often make poor set higher prices which exploit consumers.
economic managers as they are motivated by political • Public interest: Given that a private enterprise
pressures rather than sound economic and business sense. runs on profit, it might hike fares, thus rendering
• Long term Planning: A government might think only in terms the service out of reach for lower income groups.
of the next election and thus be unwilling to invest in • Coverage Limited to Lucrative Sectors: With
infrastructure improvements which will benefit the firm in the privatization routes which are less popular could
long term. This could be facilitated by private enterprises. be eliminated, thus having a negative impact on
• Shareholders: Private players face pressure from connectivity, rendering some parts of the country
shareholders to perform efficiently. virtually inaccessible.
• Increased competition: It would ensure improved quality of • Accountability: Private companies are
service with competitive fares. unpredictable in their dealings and do not share
• Prevent Government’s loss: The revenue generated by the their governance secrets with the world at large.
Indian Railways is low and keeps the system always in losses. In such a scenario it would be difficult to pin the
• Improved quality of service: The quality of service in Indian accountability on a particular entity, in case of a
Railways faces massive criticism especially in the fields of discrepancy.
catering and punctuality. • Fragmentation in railways industry: In the UK, rail
• Latest technology: The privatization will also help in privatization led to breaking up the rail network
accommodating the latest technology in railway coaches, into infrastructure and train operating companies.
station facilities, online services etc. This led to areas where it was unclear who had
• Lesser accidents: Private ownership is considered responsibility.
synonymous with better maintenance, which will reduce the • Regulatory Burden: High costs and lower returns,
number of accidents, thus resulting in safe travel and higher policy uncertainty, lack of a regulator to create a
monetary savings in the long run. level playing field, lack of incentives for investors
• Reducing the supply demand deficit: Since waitlisted and procedural/operational issues such as delays
passengers comprise ~15% of the reserved passengers. in land acquisition etc. have significantly
• Facilitating capacity augmentation: as capacity constraints restricted private sector participation.
lead to loss of passenger business to other modes such as air
travel.
Key Highlights
Pre-School Education and Care in India
Key Takeaways • The Right to Education Act proposes that state governments make
the necessary arrangements for early childhood care and education
• Status of Pre-school and school for all pre-school age children, that is 3 to 6 years.
enrolment patterns among young • The draft National Education Policy 2019 underlines the importance
children (age 4-8): More than 90% of early childhood education and prescribes guidelines for providing
of young children in this age group pre-primary education.
are enrolled in some type of • However, the India Early Childhood Education Impact Study 2017
educational institution. presents evidence that young children do not follow the enrollment
• Status of Children in early primary trajectories outlined by policy.
grades (Std I-III): The variation in
age distribution which is widest in Std I, decreases in each subsequent grade. And older children continue to
do better than younger ones on every task.
• Private schools performing better than the Government schools: They have a learning advantage on all the
crucial factors, such as, age distribution in grade one, home factors such as affluence, mother’s education
and some baseline abilities that children enter grade one with.
o They expose children to school-like curricula even before they have entered school.
• Role of Mother’s education: Among the pre-primary section, children with mothers who completed eight or
fewer years of schooling are more likely to be attending anganwadis or government pre-primary classes.
o Whereas their peers whose mothers studied beyond the elementary stage are more likely to be enrolled
in private LKG/UKG classes.
Concerns
• Gender gaps: It is visible among the young children of age 4-8 years, with more girls than boys enrolled in
government institutions, and more boys than girls enrolled in private institutions.
• Cognitive skills: At age of 5, a large proportion of children is unable to do all of the activities. Moreover,
children from less advantaged homes are affected disproportionately.
• Difference in the age distribution: Right to Education Act, 2009 (RTE) mandates that children should enter
Std I at age 6. However, 4 out of every 10 children in Std I are younger than 5 or older than 6.
o Children in Std I in government schools are younger than those in the same grade in private school.
• Mismatch with curriculum expectations: Children's skills and abilities improve in each subsequent grade.
But the huge jump between curriculum expectations at each grade means that by Std III, their early language
and numeracy outcomes are already well behind curriculum expectations.
o For example: 41.1% of students in Std I can recognize 2-digit numbers, while 72.2% of students in Std III
can do so. But according to NCERT's specification of learning outcomes, children are expected to be able
to recognize numbers up to 99 in Std I itself.