DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

17^th December 2021

No.	Topic Name	Prelims/Mains
1.	About the Minimum Age at Marriage of Girls	Prelims & Mains
2.	About the Four Labour Codes	Prelims & Mains
3.	Details of the Vijay Diwas	Prelims & Mains
4.	About the International Atomic Energy Agency	Prelims & Mains
5.	Need for the Privatisation of PSBs	Prelims & Mains

 

1 – ABOUT MINIMUM AGE AT MARRIAGE OF GIRLS:

GS – II

Topic – Government Policies & Interventions

• Background:
• The Union. Cabinet has accepted the proposal to increase the minimum age at marriage for girls from 18 years to 21 years.
• This idea was adopted a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced it during his Independence Day speech in August 2020.
• The current marriage age:
• Men must be 21 years old to marry, while women must be 18 years old.
• Task Force Details:
• In June 2020, the Task Force, led by Jaya Jaitley, was established.
• It was established by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to re-examine the appropriate age for females to marry.
• It will submit a report in December 2020. It was advised that women be 21 years old at the time of their first child’s birth.
• The task panel recommended raising the age of marriage for girls from 18 to 21 years.
• The marriage age was also linked to health and social indices such as maternal mortality, infant mortality, and nutrition levels in mothers and children, according to the proposal.
• What laws are going to be changed now:
• After this plan is approved, the government would change the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, the Hindu Marriage Act, and the Special Marriage Act to give the new proposal shape.
• The Move’s Importance:
• Women, children, households, and society will benefit economically, socially, and in terms of health if marriage is postponed. It will help prevent ladies from becoming malnourished.
• What are the opinions of experts:
• Increasing the age of marriage, according to experts, will not work.
• Because of the following reasons:
• The law aimed at preventing child marriages is ineffective. In 1978, the age of marriage was raised to 18 years old. Child marriage, on the other hand, began to diminish in the 1990s, when the government began emphasising elementary education for girls and took steps to alleviate poverty.
• Marriages will become more criminalised as a result of the new law.
• Source – The Hindu – 17/12/21 – Page Number 8

2 – ABOUT THE FOUR LABOUR CODES:

GS II

Topic – Government Policies & Interventions

• What are the Labour Codes:
• Wage Code, Social Security Code, Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, and Industrial Relations Code are among the 44 labour laws consolidated in the new set of rules.
• All four Codes have previously been ratified by Parliament, and the President has given his approval.
• The four codes are as follows:
• The Wages Code of 2019, which applies to all employees in the organised and unorganised sectors, aims to govern salary and bonus payments in all occupations and to provide comparable recompense to employees performing equivalent labour in any industry, trade, business, or manufacture.
• The 2020 Code on Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions aims to regulate the health and safety of workers in establishments with ten or more employees, as well as in all mines and docks.
• The Social Security Code of 2020 unifies nine statutes concerning social security and maternity benefits.
• The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the Trade Unions Act, 1926, and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 are all consolidated in the Code on Industrial Relations, 2020. The Code intends to improve the country’s business environment by minimising the burden of labour compliance on businesses.
• Problems with these codes include:
• Regular workers do not have the ability to set work hours beyond eight hours per day because of the work hours provisions.
• Part-time employees are likewise not covered by the codes’ uniform provisions.
• There are provisions that affect employee wages as well.
• Fines for non-compliance with provisions, second offences, and officer-in-default are also spelled out in the labour codes. In the current pandemic, the majority of small firms are unable to accept and implement changes to the labour legislation.
• Source – The Hindu – 17/12/21 – Page Number 1

3 – DETAILS OF VIJAY DIWAS:

GS I

Topic – Indian Culture

• Why is it in the news:
• On December 16, 2021, India commemorated 51 years of the Indo-Pak War, also known as Swarnim Vijay Varsh.
• The Prime Minister will attend the celebration’s inaugural ceremony, which will be place at the National War Memorial (NWM) in New Delhi.
• The National War Memorial is a homage to the soldiers who gave their lives defending the country, as well as those who participated in and made the ultimate sacrifice in peacekeeping missions and counter-insurgency operations after independence.
• Basic Info:
• Every year on December 16th, Vijay Diwas commemorates India’s triumph over Pakistan in the 1971 war.
• On December 3, 1971, the Indian government resolved to go to war with Pakistan in order to safeguard Bengali Muslims and Hindus.
• This 13-day battle was fought between India and Pakistan.
• On the 16th of December 1971, the Pakistani forces’ commander surrendered unconditionally in Dhaka to the joint forces of the Indian Army and Mukti Bahini.
• During the Bangladesh Liberation War, armed organisations known as Mukti Bahini fought against the Pakistan Army. It was a form of guerrilla resistance.
• On this day, Bangladesh was founded. Bangladesh commemorates its independence day (Bijoy Dibos) every year on December 16th.
• Source – The Hindu – 17/12/21 – Page Number 1

4 – ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY:

GS II

Topic – International Organizations

• IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency):
• Within the United Nations family, it was founded in 1957 as the world’s “Atoms for Peace” organisation.
• Both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations receive reports.
• The organization’s headquarters are in Vienna, Austria.
• Functions:
• Promotes the safe, secure, and peaceful use of nuclear technologies with its Member States and diverse partners throughout the world.
• Attempts to encourage the peaceful use of nuclear energy while prohibiting its use for military purposes, including the development of nuclear weapons.
• Governors’ Council:
• The General Conference (11 members every year) elects 22 member nations (who must reflect a specified geographic variety) for a two-year tenure.
• The outgoing Board has proposed at least ten member states.
• Each board member has one vote.
• Functions:
• Recommendations to the General Conference on the operations and budget of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
• IAEA standards are published by this organisation.
• The majority of the IAEA’s policies are made by them.
• Subject to the permission of the General Conference, appoints the Director General.
• Programs:
• Action Plan for Cancer Treatment (PACT)
• The Human Health Program is a government-funded initiative
• Project to Increase Water Availability
• In the year 2000, the International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles was launched.
• Source – The Hindu – 17/12/21 – Page Number 11

5 – NEED FOR THE PRIVATISATION OF PSBs:

GS III

Topic – Indian Economy

• Context:
• This fiscal year, the budget contemplates privatising two public sector banks.
• What is the requirement of this move:
• Capital injections and governance changes have failed to appreciably improve the financial status of public sector banks over the years.
• Many of them have more stressed assets than private banks, and they also outperform them in terms of profitability, market capitalization, and dividend payment history.
• Through recapitalisation bonds, the government invested Rs 70,000 crore in government-run banks in September 2019, Rs 80,000 crore in FY18, and Rs 1.06 lakh crore in FY19. The government combined ten public sector banks into four in 2019.
• The move’s significance and ramifications are as follows:
• The privatisation of two public sector banks will kick off a long-term initiative that envisions only a few state-owned banks remaining, with the remainder being combined with strong banks or privatised.
• This will free the government, as the largest owner, from providing year after year equity support to the banks.
• What are the problems that PSU banks are facing:
• PSU banks continue to have large non-performing assets (NPAs) and stressed assets when compared to commercial banks, albeit this has begun to decline.
• The government would need to invest stock into weak public sector banks if the Covid-related regulatory relaxations are rescinded.
• Nationalisation of PSBs:
• Bank nationalisation is a term used to describe the process of a bank being nationalised
• On July 19, 1969, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was also the Finance Minister at the time, decided to nationalise the 14 largest private banks.
• The goal was to align the banking industry with the government’s socialist policies at the time. The State Bank of India was nationalised in 1955, and the insurance sector was nationalised in 1956.
• Many committees advocated reducing the government’s share in public banks to less than 51%:
• The Narasimham Committee advocated 33%, while the P J Nayak Committee proposed less than 50%.

• Source – The Hindu – 17/12/21 – Page Number 8