Author: Explains

Attempt the questions individually by clicking on them.

Q.1) There are formidable social, economic and environmental reasons which cry out against GM mustard. In the light of the above statement critically discuss the pros and cons of GM mustard.

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/gm-mustard-debate/

Genetically modified organisms (GMO) can be defined as organisms (i.e. plants, animals or microorganisms) in which genetic material has been altered in a way that cannot be altered naturally.  DMH-11 is a Genetically Modified (GM) mustard hybrid. Hybrids are normally obtained by crossing two genetically diverse plants from the same species.  

GM Mustard being the first GM food crop has some perceived benefits. The expected benefits of introducing GM Mustard in India are as follows-

• Presently, the production of edible oil in India is not much due to which India has to import lot of edible oil outside from outside.GM mustard is expected to boost the production of mustard and thereby would help to cut the import of oil.
• GM crops are engineered to withstand the extremes of weather. In India, where variability of monsoon badly affects the crop production, the introduction of GM crops would help to alleviate the risks associated with it.
• The most perceived benefit which GM mustard or GM crop in general is expected to bring about is their ability to be pest resistance. It would allow farmers to save the money which they would earlier spend on buying pesticides.
• The resulting GM mustard hybrid, it is claimed, gives 25-30% more yield than the best varieties such as ‘Varuna’ currently grown in the country.

The Cons associated with GM crops are as follows:

• At a time when sustainable farming and low-input agriculture are becoming the buzzwords, GM mustard will require almost double the quantity of fertilizer and water.
• Health concerns of GM Mustard include allergenicity, gene transfer, especially of antibiotic-resistant genes, from GM foods to cells or bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. The movement of genes from GM plants to conventional crops, posing indirect threats to food safety and security.
• GM mustard can affect honeybees directly and indirectly through effecting flowering and pollen production. Protease inhibitors have proved detrimental to the longevity and behaviour of bees.
• The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, which is responsible for approving large-scale releases and commercialization of GMOs, is not entirely independent and accused of regulatory weakness.
• GM technology makes the crops to survive high doses of herbicides resulting in higher herbicides residues in food.
• There is growing concern that GMO are creating ‘super weeds ’which can only by killed by toxic poisons.
• Further, GMO contaminate forever.GMO cross pollinate and their seeds can travel far and wide. It is impossible to fully clean the contaminated pool of genes.
  

Way forward

There is need to construct a possible way to address the concerns related to GM crops while at the same time, leveraging benefits associated with the GM technology. There should be independent and autonomous evaluation of GM crops before commercially introducing them. The risk assessment along with public awareness and enhanced information dissemination has to undertaken before the clearance to allay the fears. The results should be made available to public transparently so there would be coherence among the stakeholders to adopt this technology.

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Q.2) Li-Fi is not expected to completely replace Wi-Fi, but the two technologies could be used complementarily to create more efficient, green and future-proof access networks.” Discuss.

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/li-fi/

Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) is a breakthrough high-speed wireless communication technology that uses visible light to transmit information. This technology invented by German physicist and Professor Harald Haas, is a wireless technology that makes use of visible light in place of radio waves to transmit data at terabits per second speeds—more than 100 times the speed of Wi-Fi.

Multiplier benefits of Li-Fi

• Li-Fi relies on visible light to communicate, which is a good thing in more ways than one. These waves are able to carry far more information than the traditional radio waves used in WiFi technology.
• The visible light spectrum is almost 10,000 times larger than the spectrum occupied by radio waves.
• Also, Li-Fi is said to increase bandwidth by 100 times what we have today with Wi-Fi.
• A Li-Fi connection can transmit data at the rate of 224 gigabytes per second.
• Li-Fi is also more suitable in electromagnetic-sensitive areas like hospitals, airplane cabins, and nuclear power plants (where electromagnetic disturbance can be disastrous).
• Also, it presents another unique possibility: transmitting power wirelessly, wherein the smart phone will not only receive data through Li-Fi, but will also receives power to charge itself.

Shortcomings of LI-FI

• Since it uses visible light to transmit data, Li-Fi would be rather useless in conditions where there is no light. That means no Internet while lying in your bed at night.
• If you have a Wi-Fi router installed in one room of your house, you can connect your devices sitting anywhere in the house, but this is not the case with Li-Fi.
• Since visible rays cannot pass through walls, you have to be in the immediate vicinity of the source of light to access the Internet on your device, which may not sound particularly convenient to many people.
• This technology is also said to be less reliable (again, due to it being dependent on visible light) and has high installation charges.
• The main challenge is to create a Li-Fi ecosystem, which will need the conversion of existing smartphones into Li-Fi enabled ones by the use of a converter/adapter.

If Li-Fi can be put into practical use, every LED lamp (indoor as well as outdoor) can be converted into something like a hot spot to transmit data to every mobile device to achieve universal broadband communication between devices.

There’s no doubt that Li-Fi is going to transform the world of Internet connectivity, but it seems unlikely that its rise would necessarily mean the death of Wi-Fi, since the latter is deeply embedded in the lifestyles of billions of people. A more likely scenario, though, is that we’ll eventually have a wide range of technologies available at our disposal and will be free to choose the most appropriate one. Having that flexibility certainly seems like the most desirable scenario to us.

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Q.3) There is nothing Indian about denying rohingyas refuge. Critically discuss

Source: http://www.dailyo.in/variety/dont-deport-rohingya-muslims-india-myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi/story/1/19362.html

Rohingya Muslims comprise one million out of the 53 million people that live in Myanmar, forming the world’s largest stateless population in a single country. The discrimination and persecution of Rohingyas has existed since the 1962 coup by the Burmese Army, which went on to legally strip Rohingyas of their Burmese nationality in 1982. The current round of oppression is therefore only a continuation of the ethno-communal identity politics played by Buddhist majority Myanmar.

India’s tough stand on deporting Rohingyas back to Rakhine State in the midst of the ongoing violence has evoked criticism from national and international human rights activists.

India’s national fabric is not divisiveness; it is universal acceptance and tolerance. India’s idea was and should remain every religion is true, every path leads to the same destination. In order to preserve India it is imperative to deny refuge to Muslim Rohingyas is incongruous with India and its civilizational ethos. Fear begets hatred, fearlessness is love. India has sheltered persecuted Jews, Zoroastrians, Muslims of Prophet’s family and Syrian Christians. India is already home to diverse groups of refugees including Chakmas from Bangladesh, Bhutanese, Nepalis and many other groups from African and Asian countries.

However, in recent some years, the resurgence of atrocities on Rohingya Muslims has raised question on this long tradition of generosity of India.There are two reasons for which India has been criticized. It is against the culture and values that India has been following from the beginning. India should offer shelter to refuges in the same way as it had done with other minorities. Though India is not a signatory to United Nations Convention on Refugees, it hails the principle of non-refoulement, which applies to everyone.

Though the above mentioned issues to some extent valid, but there is another angle which should be analyzed prior to any judgment. India is justified with its decision on the following grounds:

• They are a potential threat to national security on the behest of their alleged association with Islamic state and other terrorist organizations.
• Given the limited resources and increasing population, the pressure on existing resources is increasing day by day. At this point of time, giving shelter to more people could provide challenges in terms of providing adequate facilities to the people.
• Ethnic conflicts have been the part of Indian history. Influx of more people could create more ethnic conflicts. The fragile North east corridor may further become destabilized.
• Myanmar is considered to be safe haven for various insurgent groups. Accepting Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar could be detrimental to the internal security of India.
• There is also a serious possibility of violence against Buddhists living in India by radicalized Rohingyas.

Thus, India should take a middle ground to address the humanitarian concerns of Rohingyas and the security concerns of the country. It must be understood that deportation of Rohingyas must be seen in right perspective. Financial aid to Bangladesh for rehabilitation of refugees should be considered. The ideal solution would be for Rohingyas to be equal and free citizens in their own land Myanmar, but that would require the US, India and China and the UN to align and speak in one voice through international pressure against the Burmese Military Junta, instead of the present trend of placating Myanmar for its strategic-economic importance. India should engage bilaterally with Myanmar and mobilize regional forums like ASEAN to solve this issue. India has been equally concerned about the situation. But it should show it by active engagement with Myanmar to solve this problem.

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Q.4) Do you think the existence of Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 is justifiable in a true democracy? Critically comment

Source:  https://www.civilsdaily.com/should-section-124-be-amended/

Some time back, it was commented that  judiciary must draw its own ‘Lakshman rekha (inviolable boundary)’ and not take decisions that fall in the domain of executive, highlighting the increasing friction between the judiciary and executive over a perceived overreach by the courts by the use of two devices at its dispersion that are- Judicial Activism and Judicial Overreach.

Judicial Activism is the view that courts make political rather than legal decisions to further some agenda. It refers to the process in which judiciary steps into the shoes of legislature and comes up with new rules and regulations, which the legislature ought to have done earlier.

Judicial Overreach refers to an extreme form of judicial activism where arbitrary, unreasonable and frequent interventions are made by judiciary into the legislature’s domain.

Judicial activism is important

1. When the other branches of the government fail to discharge their functions leading to erosion of the citizens confidence in the constitutional values and democracy.
2. Also when the fundamental rights of the citizens are trampled, then the judiciary steps in to restore the primacy of the fundamental rights over the arbitrary action of the government or the third party.
3. It also helps to fill the legislative vacuum to provide for the immediate societal needs.

The Constitution of India empowers the judiciary to strike down arbitrary legislation infringing citizen’s fundamental rights and the ones that has been framed by the legislature beyond its competence through Articles 13, 21, 32, 226 and 227. Also Article 142 extends a unique, extraordinary power to our Supreme Court to do ‘complete justice’ in any matter before it.

However, judicial activism has been criticized on various grounds as

1. Viewed as a challenge to basic structure of the Constitution by challenging the idea of separation of powers.
2. Just as independence of the judiciary is part of basic structure, the primacy of the legislature in policy making is also part of basic structure and interference by the courts into their domain is not justified.
3. Judiciary has the function of interpreting the laws and decides whether they conform to the Constitution of India or not. It shall not consider itself sole custodian of public interest.

Judicial activism seeks to correct the failings of the legislature and the misdeeds of the executive but it must not intrude into the domain of legislative functioning. Judiciary must set its own limits and be accountable to the citizens like all other institutions in the democracy.  Also, strive to plug the loopholes like inadequate judicial infrastructure, judges strength and effective case management through use of information and technology.

 

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Q.5) Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has decided to leapfrog from BS-IV to BS-VI emission norms directly by completely skipping BS-V norms. Discuss the Significance of this step and challenges in implementing this decision.

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/a-direct-shift-from-bs-1v-to-bs-vi-by-2020-issues-challenges/

Bharat stage emission standards were instituted by the Government of India in 1991 to normalize the productivity of air pollutants from internal combustion engine equipment. Recently the government decided to directly shift to BS VI norms by April 1, 2020 norms from the current BS IV norms in order to contain the large amount of vehicular emissions and their debilitating effects on climate change. This is a progressive step towards air pollution control but the direct transition to BS VI norms comes with several techno-economic challenges posing the automobile industry.

Significance of direct transition to BS VI norms

1. It would improve air quality and is in direction of the India’s commitment at Paris climate change conference.
2. The BS-VI compliant fuels have sulphur concentration of as low as 10 parts per million as compared to 50 parts per million (ppm) in BS-IV fuels. This means a lower level concentration of PM 2.5 and thus reduced incidence of lung diseases.
3. It will also reduce concentration of carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons and nitrous oxide.
4. India has been lagging behind its counterparts for example China has already upgraded to BS V equivalent Euro V emission norms.
5. The experience of countries such as China and Malaysia shows that poor air quality can be bad for business.

Challenges in implementation

1. According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) economic burden of moving to BS VI norms will  be very significant for automobile manufacturers as many new technologies would have to be developed.
2. The transition will involve overhauling the working dynamics of the automakers and will alter the cost structure forever.
3. There’s a time crunch and firms would have to develop and optimize the Diesel Particulate Filter  and Selective Catalytic Reduction systems in parallel, instead of doing it sequentially.
4. The shift to BS VI is set to shake up the auto component industry.
5. In a cost-sensitive market like India, the challenge is to design a system for India that would not just meet the stringent particulate matter (PM) and NOx emissions of BS VI but also be cost-effective and robust.
6. Skilled manpower would be required by the industry which in itself is a mammoth cahllenge.
7. The climatic conditions, driving habits ,road conditions, fuel conditions and maintenance practices in India are different from that in Europe.

Thus, this binary transition to BS VI standards is not a easy task. It must be supplemented with government efforts to increase fuel standards, increase the frequency and number of public transport vehicles and steps like hiking parking charges to disincentivise private transport  will also help to improve air quality. As under Article 21, right to clean air is a fundamental right, required steps must be undertaken by the government.

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Q.6) UBI is a “powerful idea” and would be more effective at combating poverty than existing state benefits. Critically discuss

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/should-india-adopt-universal-basic-income-model/

The large scale poverty, deepening income inequalities and the prospective job losses owing to the automation in the economy which already has high unemployment rate calls for Universal Basic Income(UBI) which guarantees a minimum level of income support. UBI is based on the three cardinal principles of universality, unconditionality and agency.

Benefits of UBI

1. 1. Free from inclusion and exclusion errors as it is universal and unconditional
   2. The money will be transferred directly into the account of the beneficiaries making the process transparent and less prone to leakages.
   3. It will empower the people providing them with greater decision making opportunities to spend their money according to their priorities and needs.
   4. It will reduce poverty as people will be less worried about from where there next meal will come from and will invest more time in planning their lives and businesses. This will also usher innovative thinking at the level of an individual.

 

• It will also tackle the problem of multiple authorities giving different subsidies like food, water, housing, education etc. Thus, freeing up bureaucracy from complex welfare activities.

 

1. Currently more than 350 welfare schemes are being run by government, UBI will help by clubbing them into one and therefore increasing efficiency and better targeting.
2. It will provide a minimum safety net to all people thus minimizing exploitations because for survival people do all kinds of menial jobs  (example- manual scavenging).

Challenges in implementation of UBI

1. Unaffordable– It will amount to huge fiscal burden on the government, even if Rs 5000 is provided every month owing to the huge population of India. Switzerland UBI due to its fiscal pressures.
2. Inflation– Universal cash transfers are subject to inflation as they will influence people spending behavior and also will raise the labour costs thus affecting markets.
3. It might hamper the motivation to work leading to laziness.
4. It may also lead to unproductive spending. Example on alcohol, gambing etc.
5. It also poses challenges to how food subsidies will be implemented and if they are abolished it may affect food Security to all farmers may not feel motivated enough to grow more.
6. It may also lead to market fluctuations.
7. India has still not achieved the goal of universal financial inclusion and it acts as an impediment in the implementation of UBI.

Way Forward

Basic incomes are no panacea; but for overworked developing-country citizens living in extreme poverty, they would certainly be a relief. But they need to be supplemented with broad based economic reforms which strive to encourage entrepreneurship, lead to job creation, strive for development in MSMEs and agriculture sector. UBI gave results when implemented on a pilot basis in a village in Madhya Pradesh, Finland is also successfully implemented UBI as experimental scheme. But UBI must not be a solution to collusion and connivance in welfare scheme because we cannot throw baby with the bathwater.

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Q.7)  Sexual consent is the right of every woman, married or unmarried, as much as of men, and non-consensual sex should be treated exactly the same, irrespective of the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim. In the light of the above statement discuss whether Marital rape should be criminalized?

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/should-marital-rape-be-criminalized/

Hints:

• Sexual intercourse releases physical & mental tension, gives a sense of psychological fulfillment, enhances body image & boosts self-esteem. Perhaps the biggest role that sex plays in human life is the strengthening of the bonds of intimacy between two steady partners. However, the consent matters the most every time from both sides.
• Thus the sex without consent by spouse with his wife/husband obtained by force, threat of force, or by physical violence, or when s/he is unable to give consent is termed as marital rape. Marital rape occurs mostly against women and is not criminalized in India as Section 375 of IPC only criminalizes (recognizes rape) when women is below 15 years of age.
• However, the growing sufferings of women due to harassment by spouse made it necessary to think on the issue and criminalize marital rape.

Why it should be criminalized?

• An informal survey conducted by NFHS indicates that 97.7% rapes were committed by the people known to the victim, of which marital rape accounts for 2/3rd. Thus the sheer intensity suggests it to be criminalized.
• This inflicts mental trauma among women who are forcefully raped every night, even during pregnancy and expecting child that too by the person who is known to her and are supposed to take care of her feelings.
• This also violates Fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 21 – right to live dignified life, Article 14 – right to have equal consent and equal protection apart from violating the person’s human rights.
• Marital privacy – which justifies laws such as the marital rape exception – is a fundamental denial of society’s commitment to treating all persons with equal concern and respect.
• Many countries have made it a crime for a husband to force his wife to have sex in recent years.  India too being a progressive country should consider criminalizing marital rape otherwise India would be gagged for not protecting women at par with men.
• Even the law commission and Justice Verma committee have recommended criminalizing marital rape by doing away with the exemption granted to marital rape in the laws.

However, Criminalizing Marital rape will have certain considerations such as:

• • Prone to misuse: If marital rape is criminalized without adequate safeguards it could be misused like the current dowry law by the dis-satisfied wives to harass and   torture their Husbands.
  • Subjectivism: It is very subjective and intricate to determine whether consent was acquired or not. Sometimes women use denying intercourse even if she is comfortable with, as a tool for punishment or getting their demands fulfilled.
  • Affects social fabric: Marriage is the holy institution and application of such laws will wither away its basic fabric as it will lead the investigation to the intricate relationship between the couple.
  • Burden on Judiciary: Will increase the burden of judiciary which otherwise may serve other more important causes.
  • Cannot be applied to India: Due to dynamic society with various factors like level of education/illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament the concept will never be applied to India.

Conclusion:

• • The need of the hour is to bring adequate safeguard in the law which the opportunities for misusing this law like the dowry Act could be avoided.
  • Here we also need to focus that, only legal reforms are not sufficient as along with legal reforms we also need social reform so that this menace could be eradicated from our society.
  • However, this law is a progressive one considering the current situations but the political will as well as social consciousness is the need of the hour.

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Q.8) India was one of the most sued countries in 2015. Will the country’s new model bilateral investment treaty attract and safeguard foreign investment more effectively?

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/model-bilateral-investment-treaty/

Hints:

• Bilateral investment Treaties (BITs) or Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements (BIPAs) are agreements between two countries for the reciprocal promotion and protection of investments in each other’s territories by individuals and companies situated in either State.
• Though, they are signed by governments, their beneficiaries are business entities.
• Due to some lacunas in BIT-1993 which resulted India being sued several times by foreign corporations like Sistema, Vodafone, and Children Investment Fund etc. tempted the policy makers to reframe the BITs.
• In the year 2016, India drafted new Model Bilateral Investment Treaty to overcome the earlier drawbacks with many modified provisions. The move is important as it will help the country to make its treaty more specific in international arbitrations. The textual consistency of a countries’ BIT determines its success in BIT negotiations and disputes.

How it will attract and safeguard foreign investment?

• Enterprise based definition of investment instead of asset based definition: Recognizing whole of enterprise instead of individual products in order to narrow the scope of protected investments are reduce the potential liability of the state under Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims.

• • Exclusion of MFN treatment: This is adopted in order to eliminate discrimination among investors from various countries means providing equal opportunities for all.

 

• Full Protection and Security: The new MBIT ensures physical security of investors and to investment which strengthens trust among investors and thus bound to attract more corporations.

• State Government as Stakeholders: this gives opportunity to state government also in order to participate in business with foreign investors. This will boost technological transfer as well as expertise.

• Fair and Equitable treatment: The new model BIT recognizes international laws in order to treat any dispute redressal and other issues. This ensures more hold of government and regulators on corporation investing.

• Expropriation:  The new model BIT provides security to investors by restricting the state from nationalizing the foreign investment, except for reasons of public purpose.

 

• • Non-Discriminatory treatment: The Model BIT includes a new clause on non-discriminatory treatment for compensation of losses. As per the clause, investors can avail non-discriminatory just compensation in circumstances like armed conflict, natural disasters and in the state of national emergency.
  • It recognizes Corporate Social Responsibility: The Model BIT mandates foreign investors to voluntarily adopt internationally recognized standards of corporate social responsibility.

 

• Taxation: The model BIT tries to balance protection to the investor with state regulations.

 

Conclusion:

 

• Hence, the above mentioned features indicates that the new Indian Model BIT text will provide appropriate protection to foreign investors in India and Indian investors in the foreign country in the light of relevant international precedents and practices, while at the same time maintaining a balance between the investor’s rights and the Government obligations.

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Q.9) What do you understand by Big Data? Discuss some of its applications

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/big-data/

Hints:

• Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing application software is inadequate to deal with them. This include capturing data, data storage, data analysis, search, sharing, transfer, visualization, querying, updating and information privacy.
• Here, the challenging data could be from social networks, web server logs, traffic flow sensors, satellite imagery, broadcast audio streams, banking transactions, MP3s of rock music, the content of web pages, scans of government documents, GPS trails, telemetry from automobiles, financial market data and so on.
• The Big Data is very useful to identify ‘patterns of certain type that could be used for other purposes.

Some of its potential applications are as follows:

• Seed Selection – Big-data businesses can analyse varieties of seeds across numerous fields, soil types, and climates and select the best.
• Crop disease – Similar to the way in which Google can identify flu outbreaks based on where web searches are originating, analysing crops across farms helps identify diseases that could ruin a potential harvest.
• Irrigation – Precision agriculture aids farmers in tailored and effective water management, helping in production, improving economic efficiency and minimising waste and environmental impact.
• Weather – Advanced analytics capabilities and agri-robotics such as aerial imagery, sensors help provide sophisticated local weather forecasts can help increasing global agricultural productivity over the next few decades.
• Climate change – Since, climate change and extreme weather events will demand proactive measures to adapt or develop resiliency, Big Data can bring in the right information to take informed decisions.
• Food processing – They help in streamlining food processing value chains by finding the core determinants of process performance, and taking action to continually improve the accuracy, quality and yield of production. They also optimize production schedules based on supplier, customer, machine availability and cost constraints.
• Loss control – In India, every year 21 million tons of wheat is lost, primarily due to scare cold-storage centres and refrigerated vehicles, poor transportation facilities and unreliable electricity supply. Big Data has the potential of systematization of demand forecasting thus reducing such losses.
• Pricing – A trading platform for agricultural commodities that links small-scale producers to retailers and bulk purchasers via mobile phone messaging can help send up-to-date market prices via an app or SMS and connect farmers with buyers, offering collective bargaining opportunities for small and marginal farmers.

Conclusion:

• Big Data is a revolution in data processing and information technology and is a boon for India at a time when India is suffering from vulnerable cyber threats, and lacks proper handling of online data. Given India’s urge for digitization this will give a big push to the concept. However, there is need to implement a proper system to deal with the big data so that its advantages can be harnessed can concerns could be addressed properly.

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Q.10) Critically examine the performance of Demonetization?

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/demonetization-an-analysis/

Achievements

1. Increase in tax collection: As a result of demonetization drive, there is a substantial increase in the number of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed. The number of Returns filed as on August 5, 2017 registered an increase of 24.7% compared to a growth rate of 9.9% in the previous year.
2. Curb on Black money: Transactions of more than 3 lakh registered companies are under the radar of suspicion while one lakh companies were struck off the list. The government has already identified more than 37000 shell companies which were engaged in hiding black money and hawala transactions. Around 163 companies which were listed on the exchange platforms were suspended from trading, pending submission of proof documents.
3. Impact on terrorism and naxalism
   i. As a result of demonetization of SBNs, terrorist and naxalite financing stopped almost entirely.
   ii. No high quality FICN was found / seized by intelligence operations, including at the Indo-Bangladesh Border since demonetization.
   iii.Further, it also adversely affected the hawala operators and dabba trading venues.
4. Promoted Digital Payment: In 2015-16, the value of transactions for debit and credit cards was ₹1.6 lakh crore and ₹2.4 lakh crore, respectively; in 2016-17, it was ₹3.3 lakh crore for each. Also, in 2016, the National Electronic Funds Transfer handled 160 crore transactions valued at ₹120 lakh crore, up from around 130 crore transactions worth ₹83 lakh crore in the previous year. Note that the demonetisation impact would only have been registered in the final four to five of 2016-17. The gains in 2017-18 will be even more.

On the other hand, the drawbacks of demonetization are as follows:

Black money

1. . It was thought that if cash was squeezed out, the black economy would be eliminated.
2. But cash is only one component of black wealth: about 1% of it.
3. It has now been confirmed that 98.8% of demonetised currency has come back to the Reserve Bank of India.
4. Further, of the ₹16,000 crore that is still out, most of it is accounted for. In brief, not even 0.01% of black money has been extinguished.
5. Black money is a result of black income generation. This is produced by various means which are not affected by the one-shot squeezing out of cash. Any black cash squeezed out by demonetisation would then quickly get regenerated. So, there is little impact of demonetisation on the black economy, on either wealth or incomes

GDP growth

1. GDP growth in the first quarter of 2017-18, at 5.7 per cent, compared with 7.9% in the same quarter a year ago, was way lower than consensus estimates by Reuters (6.6%) and Bloomberg (6.5%). Both supply and demand were impacted due to a combination of demonetisation
2. The big failure of demonetisation is that it was carried out without preparation and caused big losses to the unorganised sector. This has not been factored into the recent data on growth rate, so the loss to the economy would be in lakhs of crores of rupees. Farmers, traders and the youth are all agitating.

Agriculture

1. Another factor that did not support growth as anticipated is agriculture, particularly in view of the record food grain production in 2016-17.
2. Agricultural growth declined to 2.3% from 5.2% in January-March 2017 and 2.5% in April-June 2016. In view of record foodgrain production, it appears the shortfall is mainly due to the underperformance of allied sectors, namely dairy, fisheries etc.
3. The main negative economic consequence of demonetisation has been the disruption of unorganized supply chains that are dependent on cash transactions; it is still not clear how smoothly they were being rebuilt as the economy was remonetized.
4. RBI annual report shows a rather dramatic spike in the number of suspicious transaction reports filed by banks, financial institutions and intermediaries in 2016-17—it was up from 61,361 in the previous year to a staggering 361,214.

Job Loss

Demonetization decision may have resulted in the loss of roughly 1.5 million jobs, according to survey data put out by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). CMIE’s data is based on the result of consecutive waves of household surveys performed from January 2016 to April 2017 .

Conlcusion

1. Available data points to a lingering impact of demonetisation.
2. All economic data points are from the organised/corporate sector. The unorganised/informal sector was badly impacted by demonetisation and the present data set has not been able to capture its impact. The annual survey of industries will be able to capture the impact of demonetisation on the unorganised/informal sector, but this will come with a lag. The organised/corporate sector depends on the unorganised/informal sector for provision of intermediate goods and services, which are used in final production. The Central Statistical Office is using only the database of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The true picture may emerge only after the annual surveys of industries results are available.
3. Tax reforms and effective monitoring of suspicious transactions are a better alternative for addressing the issues that the policy-makers sought to fix through demonetisation.

Ethics

Q.11) Define and explain with examples the following terms:

a) Probity

b) Integrity

c) Objectivity

d) Accountability

Probity : The quality of having strong moral principles, honesty and rectitude. It brings the objectivity in the concept of Ethics and Morality because it lets a person to take an extra step to confer to what they feel right. It is the high action part of ethics and morality.

Example of Probity: If you found that a poor person is in distress and need some financial help and you don’t have enough money to help. Helping with how much you can is Ethics or Morality, but arranging money for him by requesting others to also help and taking care of non-financial part will be Probity.

Integrity: The quality to remain consistent to your basic ethics and morality even at the time of crisis. Most of the people will behave ethically in moderate situations, but an extreme situation actually tests one’s Integrity.

Example of Integrity: Sharing food while you are also feeling hungry with someone from whom you don’t expect anything in return shows your Integrity of moral of selfless help.

Objectivity: The ability of finding, reaching or exhibiting a discrete and clear conclusion for your actions.

Example of Objectivity: In time of moral dilemma if you are able to come to conclusion in lesser amount of time with clear resolution.

Accountability: The principle of taking responsibility of failure or low-quality result of your actions. It is important attribute of highly successful and humble personalities to take full responsiblity and admit their mistake and not to hide.

Example of Accountablity: If you are project owner and under your guidance whole team’s effort didn’t yield expected result. You take responsibility for it and inspire team to work harder for next time rather than blaming them for such result.

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Q.12) You are stranded in traffic in your car. You are driving the car. A poor girl looking very frail approaches you and start begging for money. Looking at he frail appearance, out of compassion, you take out your wallet to search for a ten Rupees note. The girl who is standing very near to you snatches the wallet and starts running. A man on a motorbike who see this act, catches the girl and starts beating her in full view of public. Now the traffic is moving and your car is in the middle of the road. What will you do in such a situation? And why?

Action should be as follow:

1. Park Car- so that no disturbance to the traffic
2. Call to destination where I was heading about the emergency so that they will not wait for me.
3. Reach the spot where the man is beating girl and immediately stop him and ask him not to beat or take law in his hand. Thank him for taking notice of the theft and taking action, but remind him that the girl is very young and could have acted out of hunger too. Remind him gently that it is a public space and such act physical violence could land him in legal trouble. This should lower his anger.
4. If girl is injured- carry out first aid from the box available in the car. Get her something to eat and drink.
5. Try to know her history and then informing to NGO or child care centre and personally taking to there will be my choice since leaving her just like that will make her to repeat the act since its the poverty and poor care made her to act. If these are given girl will desist from such acts.
6. Make an occasional follow up of the girl with the agency to whom she had been handed over to.

 

• India embraced an economic model which has the features of both free market capitalism and socialism. The policy makers called this a model of ‘Mixed Economy’.
• The reason for adopting such a hybrid model was to raise people’s standard of living and reduce income inequality.
• India embraced an economic model that uniquely combined free market capitalism with that of State intervention in essential sectors of the economy.
• The record of India’s successive governments in providing social welfare is at best mediocre.
• The Government must build a comprehensive welfare state with a strong emphasis on redistribution of resources to poor along with provisions of social services (Public Health, Education, Equitable Institutions, Un-Employment Benefits, Old Age Pensions etc.) financed through taxation.
• In today’s changing World of high technology, the Government must do a lot of public spending on investment in human capital and research and development.
• On Jobs creation front, the government must adopt a judicious mix of labour market institution that includes a fairly flexible labour market allowing easy hiring and firing of employees along with strong labour associations to safeguard the interest of employees.
• On the External front, the government must embrace globalisation, openness to trade and investment but with risk sharing approach. The government should share the risk arising out of globalisation, by training and skilling those who have suffered from the negative impact of globalisation. The process of risk sharing will make globalisation acceptable to all.
• Adopting the above features will allow India to achieve high growth along with high social ambitions/indicators.
• Therefore, in a nutshell, the future of India’s rapid and sustainable development lies in the following:

Note4Students

This article is related to many important topics of the mains syllabus viz Environment, Automobile Industry, Government Policies, etc. Hybrid Vehicle is an effective solution against rising pollution and environmental issues.Given the Push the Current Government is giving to Electric Vehicles and number of times op-ed have come on this issue in recent times. CD considers this topic as very important for mains 2017.

Hybrid Electric Vehicles

1. Conventional cars use an internal combustion engine for power.
2. Battery electric vehicles only use an electric motor and battery, eschewing conventional engines altogether.
3. Hybrid cars have the advantage of both of above type of vehicle. They have, in addition to internal combustion engine, also an electric motor and a battery.
4. If we had better batteries with greater power storage capacity, we would need hybrid cars.
5. The most advanced hybrids have larger batteries and can recharge their batteries from an outlet. These are known as “plug-in hybrids” and can cover long distances.

Benefits

1. Fuel Efficiency: It greatly increases fuel efficiency by increasing mileage, turning off combustion engine while driving at lower speeds and when the car is stopped, battery provides power for air conditioning.
2. While accelerating or at higher speeds, combustion engine can be used, thus not compromising with the power of vehicles.
3. Global Warming: Will cut down emissions of global warming pollutants by a 1/3 to 1/2.
4. It will greatly reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
5. Later model may cut down these emissions even further.

FAME India – Hybrid and Electric vehicles scheme

Union Government on 1 April 2015 launched Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) – India Scheme

The scheme was launched as part of the National Mission for Electric Mobility to boost eco-friendly vehicles sales in the country

Key facts:

1. Objective: To support the hybrid or electric vehicles market development and its manufacturing eco-system in the country in order to achieve self-sustenance in stipulated period
2. The overall scheme is proposed to be implemented over a period next 6 years i.e. till 2020
3. It envisages providing Rs 795 crore support till 2020 for the manufacturing and sale of electric and hybrid vehicles
4. It also seeks to provide demand incentives to electric and hybrid vehicles from two-wheeler to buses
5. Implementation: It will be implemented in phases
6. The Phase-1 will be implemented over a two year period in FY15-16 and FY16-17
7. Based on the outcome and experience from the Phase-1, it will be reviewed for implementation after 31 March 2017
8. Then appropriate fund will be allocated for future.
9. Four focus areas: Technology development, Pilot Projects, Demand Creation and Charging Infrastructure.
10. In the first two years Rs 260 crore and Rs 535 crore will be spent on the focus areas
11. The Department of Heavy Industries under the aegis of Union Ministry of Heavy Industries will be will be nodal department for the scheme

Question

Q.) “An incremental, technology-neutral approach to the adoption of electric vehicles is the way forward for Automobile Sector in India” Comment.

Attempt the questions individually by clicking on them.

Q.1)  The proposed ban on the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at agricultural markets violates fundamental rights of food and livelihood, and the spirit of federalism. Discuss

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/prevention-of-cruelty-to-animals-regulation-of-livestock-markets-rules-2017/

Following the Supreme Court’s orders in the case of Gauri Maulekhi versus Union of India and others, the Government of India sought to effectively prohibit cattle slaughter across the country through rules made under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.  Though these  rules do not explicitly ban slaughter, they ban the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at agricultural markets and therefore, in effect, are attempting to put an end to all kinds of cattle slaughter across the country. Therefore, they came under heavy criticism for violating various Fundamental Rights and interfering with the spirit of federalism.

Fundamental Right to Food– These are said to depriving the citizen of their food choices, imposing forced vegetarism to some extent and also violating Article 21 as right to food is derived from it. Some states like Kerala, West Bengal, Tripura and Karnataka represent allege that they are protected from any such legislative or executive encroachment under Article 29 of the  Indian Constitution as they represent a unique culture of their own that comprises of beef and meat eating. On the contrary, some people are supporting the rules as they consider beef eating against Hindu religion.

Fundamental Right to Livelihood- These rules are said to be inconsistent with  the Article-19 of the Indian Constitution. Also,  it has immensely impacted the livestock and leather industry(most of them Muslim meat and leather traders). They have  also deprived farmers of their traditional source of income from selling non-milch and ageing cattle.and have also added the financial burden of their upkeep and care.

Spirit of Federalism-The Centre has taken recourse to PCA,1960 to frame the rules, although cruelty to animals subject is listed under concurrent list, but cattle is state subject. There exist multiple state legislations that permit the slaughter of cattle and the the PCA, 1960 act allows the killing of animals if permitted under other existing laws, therefore the government cannot render such slaughter illegal under this act. Also, in issuing these set of rules the government has exercised the power it does not have under the PCA,1960.The government is justifying the slaughter under DPSP(Article-48), it was framed by the constitution makers in the interest of animal husbandry but the impact of the rules indicate huge losses to the livestock trade.

A glaring anomaly in the new rules is that the government seems interested in preventing cruelty only to cattle  and not other animals like chickens, fishes, pigs etc which raises a doubt about the real intentions of the government. But the recent steps taken by the Bombay High Court which struck down the prohibition contained in legislation and also upheld the constitutional liberty to determine individual dietary preference surely protects fundament rights enshrined in the Constitution.

 

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Q.2) Recently the Environment Ministry has decided to allow some States to cull wildlife? Critically Discuss the issues involved in this decision.

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/should-culling-of-animals-be-allowed/

 

The Ministry of Environment recently permitted states to declare earlier protected wild animal species as “vermin” under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, thereby allowing private shooters and others to kill these species with few safeguards and no risk of prosecution. Recent examples are Nilgai in Bihar and Maharashtra, Rhesus macaque in HP, Wild pig in all States except Himachal Pradesh

Culling is basically selective killing of a species, usually as a population control measure. Section 11(1) A of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) authorizes chief wildlife warden to permit hunting of any problem wild animal only if it cannot be captured, tranquillized or translocation. Section 62 of Act empowers Centre to declare wild animals other than Schedule I & II to be vermin for specified area and period.

Arguments in favour of culling

• It is the feasible solution to save life and property of the citizens.
• By law, wildlife is protected because they are too few and require protection.
• It destroys hard work of one year of the farmers and pushes them to the debt crises.
• The absence of lawful intervention often triggers retaliation by illegal means. Hence such a law is very necessary.
• Can be monitored easily using strict guidelines and law enforcement.
• Fencing is not a good measure in this regard and is expensive and its maintenance is not effective.
• Even selection of crops that traditionally repelled animals does not seem to work any longer. For example, farmers in Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, now complain that monkeys raid garlic fields that they avoided until recently.

Arguments against culling

• Ethical grounds: Even Supreme Court recognized the Right to Life to animals.
• Animal welfare activists believe that every individual animal is ethically indispensable, even at the cost of putting entire species at risk.
• Culling is against animal protection and conservation.
• It shows the barbarian mind-set still existing in human beings, according to the animal welfare groups.
• Culling creates a conducive atmosphere for the poaching mafia to move in.
• Man-animal conflict can be controlled through non-invasive means, including fencing crop fields, planting chilli around cropland, selecting non-edible crops etc.

Alternative solutions

• Popularizing insurance of crops and other properties.
• Forest department should be more active to deter the animals from harming humans.
• Use sedatives rather killing.
• Reduce activities causing habitat loss of animals

Conclusion

Animals are not the real problem. We need to look into the root cause of such conflicts. Providing human needs, enhancing local amenities, and adopting science-based and sustained interventions will provide more lasting solutions. India is already suffering from serious effects of climate change, including a warming climate, changing rainfall patterns, and droughts—all factors which hurt farmers first. Without healthy forests for our wildlife to live in, animals, and humans, suffer. Also, it is the duty of every Indian citizen under Article 51A (G) of our nation’s constitution to protect wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures.

 

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Q.3) The new law creates a situation where an Indian citizen who has legally bought and developed an enemy property after 1968, will be divested of his rights in the property. In the light of the above statement, Critically analyse the Key features of Enemy Property Ordinance 2016.

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/enemy-protection-ordinance-issues-and-analysis/

Enemy property refers to any property belonging to, held or managed on behalf of an enemy, an enemy subject or an enemy firm. After the India-Pakistan War of 1965, the Enemy Property Act was enacted in 1968, which regulates such properties and lists the Custodian’s powers. The government brought the amendment in the wake of a claim laid by the heirs of Raja Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan, known as Raja of Mahmudabad, on his properties spread across Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The important provisions of the bill have been enumerated as follows:

Key Provisions:

• The definition of “enemy” and “enemy subject” shall include the legal heir and successor of an enemy, whether a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy, and also include the succeeding firm of an enemy firm in the definition of “enemy firm” irrespective of the nationality of its members or partners.
• The enemy property shall continue to vest in the Custodian even if the enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm ceases to be an enemy due to death, extinction, winding up of business or change of nationality or that the legal heir or successor is a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy.
• The enemy property shall continue to vest in the Custodian with all rights; title and interest in the property, and the Custodian shall preserve the same until it is disposed of by the Custodian, with the prior approval of the Central Government, in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
• The law of succession or any custom or usage governing succession shall not apply in relation to enemy property.
• No enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm shall have any right, and shall never be deemed to have any right to transfer any property vested in the Custodian, and any transfer of such property shall be void.
• The amendments through the Ordinance include that once an enemy property is vested in the Custodian, it shall continue to be vested in him as enemy property irrespective of whether the enemy, enemy subject or enemy firm has ceased to be an enemy due to reasons such as death etc;
• There cannot be transfer of any property vested in the Custodian by an enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm and that the Custodian shall preserve the enemy property till it is disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
• The Custodian, with prior approval of the Central Government, may dispose of enemy properties vested in him in accordance with the provisions of the Act, and for this purpose, the Government may issue such directions to the Custodian that shall be binding upon him.
• The Central Government may transfer property vested in the Custodian which was not actually enemy property to the person who was aggrieved by the vesting order issued by the Custodian.
• No civil court or other authority shall entertain any suit or proceeding in respect of any enemy property or any action taken by the Government or the Custodian.

Issues Involved

• The new law creates a situation where an Indian citizen who has legally bought and developed an enemy property after 1968, will be divested of his rights in the property.
• This situation could be challenged in court as a violation of Article 14 , which guarantees the right to equality and protects people from arbitrary actions of the government.
• Further, following the passage of the Bill, judicial recourse on enemy property disputes will only be available before High Courts and the Supreme Court, limiting the options available to people whose property rights have been affected.
• The thrust of the amendments is to guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties left by people who migrated to Pakistan and China after the wars.
• The amendments deny legal heirs any right over enemy property. The main aim is to negate the effect of a court judgment in this regard. The Act gives the sole right of disposal of enemy property to the Custodian.
• Once an enemy property is vested in the Custodian, it shall continue to be vested in him as enemy property irrespective of whether the enemy, enemy subject or enemy firm has ceased to be an enemy due to reasons such as death etc.,
• Law of succession does not apply to enemy property, that there cannot be transfer of any property vested in the Custodian by an enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm, and the Custodian shall preserve the enemy property till it is disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

 

The amendments are aimed at plugging the loopholes in the Act to ensure that the enemy properties that have been vested in the Custodian remain so and do not revert to the enemy subject or firm. However, rights of citizens also. There are no permanent enemies or friends. The citizens should not be deprived of rights including inheritance and succession. Moreover, those assets could be diverted towards public welfare.

 

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Q.4) What is First past the post system? How it is different form Proportional representation?  Is it time for India to shift from FPTP system to PR system? Critically analyse.

Source:https://www.civilsdaily.com/should-first-past-the-post-system-be-replaced-with-proportional-representation-system/

 

• India adopted Parliamentary form of government with representative democracy in which legislatures are elected by First Past The Post system (FPTP) type of election.
• Under this FPTP system in India:
  • Entire country divided in to constituencies now 543.
  • Each constituency elects one candidate
  • Candidate who gets highest number of votes declared elected than others. Even if votes share less than 50%.(Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) massive election victory is the claim that they got 31.84% of vote share and  won 282 seats that, therefore, 69% of those who voted did not vote in favour of the winning party)
• This system is also known as Single Member Plurality or Plurality Voting system in which winner takes it all. And all other votes are disregarded.

In proportional representation system Seats are allotted to the political parties according to their vote share. Here voter vote for party not for candidates.

Is it time for India to shift from FPTP system to PR system?

Yes, because Proportional Representation system

• Faithfully translate votes cast into seats won.
• Encourage or require the formation of political parties.
• Give rise to very few wasted votes, depending on the threshold.
• Facilitate minority parties’ access to representation depending on the or the district magnitude.
• Encourage parties to campaign beyond the districts.
• Restrict the growth of ‘regional fiefdoms’.
• Make power-sharing between parties and interest groups more visible.

No PR system also leads to:

• Gives rise to coalition governments and a fragmented party system i.e. Less stable government.
• The inability of the voter to enforce accountability by throwing a party out of power or a particular candidate out of office.
• Difficulties either for voters to understand or for the electoral administration to implement depending on voter’s education and training of poll workers.

Way Forwards

• On the lines of European countries Dual system of election model need to be studied in which voters cast vote both to Political party and candidate.
• recommendations of the Law Commission’s 170th and 255th report should be implemented:
  • A hybrid of both first-past-the-post and proportional representation should be tried.
  • Both the reports have suggested that 25% or 136 more seats should be added to the present Lok Sabha and be filled by Proportional Representation.
• Need to study PR system on pilot basis.

 

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Q.5) The government of India recently decided to build a high-speed rail (HSR) corridor between Mumbai and Ahmedabad at a cost of Rs 97,636 crore with Japanese financial and technical assistance.  Does India need projects such as this at such a high cost? Comment.

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/do-india-require-high-speed-rail/

High-speed rail is a type of rail transport that operates significantly faster than traditional rail traffic, using an integrated system of specialized rolling stock and dedicated tracks.

The first Proposed High speed Train in India would run some 500 kilometers (310 miles) between India’s financial capital Mumbai and the western city of Ahmadabad, at a top speed of 320 km/h. Under the Japanese proposal, construction is expected to begin in 2017 and be completed in 2023. It would cost about 980 billion (US$15 billion) and be financed by Low interest loan from Japan.

Points in Favour of High speed rail Corridor

• Cheap: The rate of interest of 0.1 per cent per annum and tenure of 50 years with 15 years, grace is the best till now for any project financed through a bilateral/multilateral agency in India.
• Speed: High speed is one of the biggest reasons for the proposal of this idea when it was first initiated in India. Major cities connecting with towns of economic growth face the problem of fast transportation. This would save time and boost businesses amongst the connected cities. Reduction in commuting time is greatly required in Mumbai and other metro cities where a lot of time is consumed in the process.
• Promote Make in India: Second, the assistance programme involves transfer of technology and a Make in India component, which will have long-term benefits for Indian manufacturing.
• Stronger and eco-friendly: Not only these High speed trains are stronger enough to carry heavier weight but are also eco-friendly as they do not require deforestations to set tracks. It is a modern and technologically advanced means of transportation which can be a step towards growth and development in India.
• Gestation period is long: The bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will cost Rs 97,636 crore and will be built over seven years. Hence, the entire Rs 98,000 crore (approximately) will not be spent in one year.
• Will have multiplier effect: A growing economy like India needs investment in infrastructure and railways, which has a multiplier effect. The Indian Railways is not constrained by demand but by capacity, and any substantial investment in railways will enable economic growth.
• Will enhance transport capacity: The HSR will enhance transport capacity by four to five times of the normal capacity and facilitate the movement of a large number of people. The high cost of the project is offset by much higher utilization rates of the network and rolling stock per km than conventional rail.
• Highly Safe: Eighthly since the HSR system is highly safe, they reduce external costs (accidents, air/ noise pollution, impact on climate, etc). There has been no casualty due to accidents on Japanese high-speed trains since they started in 1964.

Challenges /Criticisms

The project looks ambitious but challenges are many

• • Land acquisition: Bullet trains require seamless straight tracks on a flat terrain. Though France managed it in the existing tracks itself, but if new lands need to be acquired, it can come only at an expensive compensation in Mumbai-Ahmedabad industrial cluster. It will also demand huge political will.
  • Operation and maintenance: Considering the existing scenario of the quality of O&M in Indian railways, the maintenance of this new elephant will pose many challenges even if it is privatized. Fencing all along the track and over bridges at all the line crossings will cost too dearer. The power demand will be more too. It will require the infrastructure of existing railway stations from where bullet train will pass to be upgraded as per the specifications which again will cost enormously.

• Utility: Indian Railways is the lifeline of a common man. Common man will find it expensive. In the era of multimodal integrated transportation, isn’t it wise to better utilize the existing infrastructure more wisely? Invest to improve all existing tracks to make them sustain 160+ speeds. Major part of the city population is middle and lower income household, who demand more capacity rather than ultra high speed.

• Cost-Benefit: The bullet trains in china run in losses. China being an infrastructure driven economy could sustain it. We need to analyze can we bear such a loss. We need huge investment in infrastructure in coming two decades. With limited resources we must ensure that cost benefit ratio is most efficient.

 

Bullet train has sets of pros and cons under India’s present situations and they need to be properly handled so that it brings prosperity and development in the country and not debacles. Every factor must be considered wisely and safeguarding of people’s living should not be compromised. There are risks in this project but without risks nothing big can be acquired. Constructing HSR lines in the country should be seen as a nation-building exercise rather than a standalone project justified only on transport demand.

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Q.6) It is commented by many experts that Farm Loan Waiver creates Moral Hazard Problem among Farmers? In the Light of the above statement critically Discuss the rationale behind Farm loan waiver?

Source: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/JGWTvQih0NMED3pXJoasiM/Are-farm-loan-waivers-really-so-bad.html

There has been a rising trend in farm loan waivers recently with UP, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka announcing them for few categories of farmers. RBI Governor Urijit Patel has recently put up concern with this trend he called them to engender moral hazard as-

1. Farm loan waivers pose risk of inflation.
2. It creates pressure on State’s finances.
3. Undermines honest credit culture, even those who can afford to pay may not, in the expectation of a waiver.
4. Entails transfer of taxpayers money to borrowers .
5. It also leads to crowding out of private borrowers .
6. Other states may also follow the suit.

Also, according to recent report by CAG out of all granted debt waivers, about 8.5% of the beneficiaries were not eligible for it. Thus identification of eligible categories is another set of problem. Many have termed such loan waiver announcements as populist agenda for vote bank politics.

But, at the same time farm loan waivers are justified as-

1. Agriculture in India has been facing many issues like fragmented land holding, depleting water table, deteriorating soil quality, low productivity, rising input costs and low output prices for the produce. In addition the two consecutive draught years has resulted into acute agrarian distress which culminated into huge number of farmer suicide.
2. No evidence of weak credit culture or repeated demands of farm waivers has been found after the incident of waivers. Also credit culture and timely repayment of loan is an individual attribute and cannot be generalized.
3. The present distress in the agriculture is said to be largely because of demonetization following which farmers faced cash shortage to buy farm inputs and sow their crops timely.
4. Agricultural loans by banks in India are compulsorily insured by the Agricultural Insurance Company of India (AIC), whose liabilities are back-stopped by the Centre through budgetary support. Hence, even if loans aren’t waived, there is no loss to banks. Only difference being that in case of farm loan waiver States bear the cost and in case of default the Union government pays, thus even in case of default transfer from taxpayers to borrowers is taking place.

Way Forward:

1. Long Term Solution

The problems faced by Indian agriculture are structural and the government needs to support the agriculture sector by investing the money in irrigation, water conservation, better storage facilities, market connectivity, in agriculture research and insurance. The recent initiatives like PMSY, PMFBY, Sampada Yojana are steps in the right direction.

1. In the Short Run to overcome immediate distress the government needs to implement a well designed loan waiver programme, for example which contains eligibility rules like loan utilization, investment and repayment patterns. This will lead to productive investments by the farmers in the future and healthy credit culture.

 

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Q.7) In 2016 the union government announced new hydrocarbon exploration and pricing policy. Examine the merits and demerits of this policy.

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/hydrocarbon-exploration-and-licensing-policy/

Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licencing Policy (HELP), recently introduced by the government is being hailed as a landmark policy change.

The merits of the new policy could be:

– Revenue Sharing Contract (RSC) under HELP, instead of Production Sharing Contract (PSC) under the earlier New Exploration and Licencing Policy (NELP). This is in accordance with CAG recommendation. The step could result in lesser disputes and delays in the projects.
– Uniform Licensing and Policy Framework for Oil, Gas and Coal Bed Methane.
– Open Acreage: Private explorers can also bid on blocks not put up for bidding by the government
– Boost to Ease of Doing Business
– Boost to investment in the oil and gas exploration and development, increased transparency and employment opportunities in the sector
– Reduced dependency on imports
– Settlement or withdrawal of pending arbitration, since the new regime applies only if there’s not any pending legal proceedings.
– Pricing freedom, subject to a cap, on hydrocarbon discoveries in deep sea and other difficult areas would promote investments in their exploration

Possible demerits of the policy could be:
– Price rise in downstream industries, which might have an adverse impact on sectors such as fertilizers, power and steel which take in raw materials from downstream sector. This might lead to inflation. The ceiling price may be higher than ideal.
– Higher risk on the investor’s part
– Blocks already under production aren’t covered
– Banks may not give credit easily to such projects given their high gestation periods and the rising NPAs
– A shift from PSC to RSC shows lack of faith in investors on government’s part.

Overall, the policy is a step in the right direction. It should be tweaked in the future to ensure better implementation. If followed in its letter and spirit, the policy can help India achieve energy security in the long run.

 

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Q.8) A pre-requisite to Stable and Developed North East is Strong ties between India & Myanmar. Discuss

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/indo-myanmar-relations/

Introduction:

• Myanmar is the bridge between ASEAN and India which can boost the relationship among East Asian countries with special focus to the development of northeastern region of India in terms of strengthening cultural, economic, social, political and strategic ties.
• Both the countries have history old common cultural and religious bond between their citizens which flourished due to open border and trade relation through the maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal.
• However, in the time of decades both the countries have not been able to exploit these close historical and cultural connections. For the development of North-Eastern region of India and western part of Myanmar, both the countries need to be effectively engaged with effective cooperation on strategic line.

Problems in North-Eastern region and their solutions:

• Throughout the year since independence the northeastern region remained underdeveloped due to its isolation from the mainland India, difficult terrain, ethnic clashes and history old insurgencies. This led to the feeling of alienation among the people of North-east and developed hatred against India.
• Active engagement with Myanmar will open the positive opportunities for the people of northeast. The projects like Kaladan Multimodel Project which ensures faster connectivity with the hinterland of NE states will be highly beneficial in this regard.
• This underdeveloped condition is also with the western part of Myanmar consisting of Chin, Sagaing and Kachin states which has caused multiple problems like rise in insurgencies, illegal trade and human trafficking. Such tendency of insurgents/illegal merchants for taking shelter across border will effectively be tackled with positive cooperation.
• The energy produced in Myanmar will fuel the NE state to push start the industrial development in the region subsequently providing livelihood opportunities to millions of people there by raising entrepreneurial skills and multiple business opportunities.
• The cases of illegal migration impacting the demography as well as exploitation of limited resources in the region (for example: recent Rohingya Crisis) from Myanmar will be effectively dealt with strong ties between the countries.
• India is known to be the hub of education since ancient. Connectivity with the East Asian countries and other South East Asian countries will develop the North-East as a new hub of education in India which will attract the students from across the border.
• The project like India-Myanmar-Thailand highway will boost connectivity among the states of NE and will provide greater market access for India in ASEAN region. This will have multiplier effect in the Economy of North East.
• Projects like BCIM Corridor, Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, developing sittwe port in Myanmar by India along with forums like BIMSTEC, ASEAN and SAARC etc. will not only boost the economy but also will bring people together with amalgamation of cultural ties and regional cooperation.

Conclusion:

• The saying that Southeast Asia begins in northeast India takes credence. The need of the hour is to have positive will power among the political bosses of both the countries to take the faster implementation of projects for the sake of regional development of both the countries.
• With the coming of democratic regime in Myanmar the opportunities have doubled for India for active bilateral engagement. This positive engagement will certainly ensure strengthening of close cultural ties, geopolitical as well as geo-economical stability of both the countries and also for the NE regions of India.

 

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Q.9) What do you understand by ‘internet of things’ (IoT)? How will digitization help IoT and how will IOT help India in turn? Examine.

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/internet-of-things/

Introduction: Internet of Things

• IoT is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, or people that are provided with unique identifiers.
• Thus it can be said that it is an inter-networking of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors and network connectivity.
• This internetworking has the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
• IoT is also dubbed as the infrastructure of the information society. It allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure.
• Thus it creates opportunities for more direct integration of physical world into computer-based systems, and resulting in improved accuracy, efficiency and economic benefits.

How Digitization will help in IoT?

• Digitalization is the process of making available the services to the citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet Connectivity or by making the country digitally empowered in the field of technologies.
• India is set for a “digitization revolution” which, in turn, would fuel the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). Digitization would bring digital connectivity, affordability, accessibility and would provide a platform for Internet of Things. With a push to digitization in India like Bharat-Net, Optical Fibre Network etc. IoT can be taken to even the remotest of areas.
• Digitalization will bring technology and technological illiteracy among masses which in turn will help in Internet of Things and fruitful use of IoT applications. IoT is bridging the physical, digital, cyber and virtual worlds and this requires extensive information processing capabilities.

How IoT will help India in turn:

• Internet of things on broader scale can be applied to things like transportation networks: ‘smart cities’ which can help us reduce waste and improve efficiency for things such as energy use, health care, other sectors of day to day life like collecting data on temperature, signal strength, pressure, pH, voltage etc. technical parameters and helping us understand and improve how we work and live.
• Other fields of applications include: waste management, urban planning, environmental sensing, social interaction gadgets, sustainable urban environment, continuous care, emergency response, intelligent shopping, smart product management, smart meters, home automation, smart events and smart grids etc.
• IoT itself, fuelled by the advancement of digital technologies, is dramatically changing the way companies engage in business activities and how people interact with their environment.

Conclusion:

• With the explosion of data, the role of information technology is shifting from that of an enabler to a strategic partner. The digital wave, in this backdrop, is turning out to be a disruptor in multiple industry verticals. For example, the present banking system is much impacted by digitization and accordingly every sector of the economy is transforming itself from being cash based to using the Internet as the growing means of payment.
• Among other things, IoT has made the mode of payments so easy that there is no direct access to the customer at the time of purchase. The process—where customers can pay their bills through any of the multiple acquirers via multiple banks and points of sale terminals to the merchant/brand—is possible with help of IoT. For a country such as India, digitization coupled with IoT could be a real game changer.

 

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Q.10) What Do you understand by Paid news? What are the challenges in Dealing with Paid News? Should Election commission make Paid news an electoral offence?

Source: https://www.civilsdaily.com/issue-of-paid-news/

Introduction:

• Paid news is “any news or analysis appearing in any media (print & electronic) for a price in cash or kind as consideration”. 
• In other words, ‘The news or articles on Newspapers, Magzines and the Electronic Media which has/have been brought by some institution for vested interests in return of payment in cash or kind.
• This kind of news has been considered a serious malpractice since it deceives the citizens, not letting them know that the news is, in fact, an advertisement. Secondly, the payment modes usually violate tax laws and election spending laws. More seriously, it has raised electoral concerns because the media has a direct influence on voters.

Challenges in dealing with the Paid News:

• Corporatization of media, desegregation of ownership and editorial roles, decline in autonomy of editors/journalists due to emergence of contract system and poor wage levels of journalists are the main reason as well as challenges in dealing with paid news.
• Lack of adequate power with regulators, lack of effective penal action against those who violate the rules and inaction by the government in cases related to paid news are also important challenges to deal with.
• Establishing transaction of cash or kind is almost impossible as it is usually done without any record and promptly denied by both sides when enquired. In these circumstances, identifying cases is a herculean task.
• Media violations, surrogate advertisement and unreported advertisements are often mistaken as Paid News sometimes in true cases also.
• It is difficult to identify and solve the cases in a set time limit. The cases keep on pending for a long period of time before the courts.
• The independence of the media and its ability to bring about transparency in society by playing an adversarial role against the establishment get compromised because of corruption within the folds of the media itself and it is usually difficult to fix the accountability in such cases.

Should paid news be made an electoral offence?

• Paid News deceives and misleads the public and hampers the ability of people to form correct opinions.
• Paid News causes undue influence on voters and also affects their Right to Information by furnishing fake news or news of vested interests.
• Paid News seeks to circumvent election expenditure laws/ ceiling. The payment modes usually violate tax laws and election spending laws. It displays the role of money in election.
• Paid News adversely affects level playing field by favouring one party. Such practices interfere with free and fair elections in the country by violating democratic principle enshrined in our constitution.
• Media is described as the fourth pillar of democracy. Such incidents bring down the faith of people in democratic institutions by conveying incorrect and false information to the people.
• The above circumstances show that there is no any benefit of paid news for the concern of citizens and of democracy. By providing benefits to individual, it harms the society and the country most. Hence, the Election Commission should declare the paid news as an offence which should be punishable also.

Conclusion

• The media acts as a repository of public trust for conveying correct and true information to the people. The “paid news” is therefore, a serious matter as it influences the functioning of a free press. There is an urgent need to protect the right of the public to accurate information before voters exercise their franchise when such incidents are on rise.
• Hence, a legal framework in which electoral issues are expeditiously adjudicated must be put in place if election laws are to be enforced in both letter and spirit.

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Ethics Questions

Q.11) How would you classify the conscience? Suppose an old man has a pension claim before a civil servant and according to law it is a doubtful claim, what he should do and why?   

The conscience is defined as that part of the human psyche that induces mental anguish and feelings of guilt when we violate it and feelings of pleasure and well-being when our actions, thoughts and words are in conformity to our value systems. Conscience is not be bound by the logic, facts and arguments. Conscience for a civil servant should be derived from constitutional morality and galvanized with emotional intelligence.

There are several different interpretations of conscience based on which it can be classified such as:

1. Conscience as a faculty of moral cognition: A faculty that enables us to ascertain what is morally right and what is morally wrong (Buttler).
2. Conscience as a mode of developed sensibility: Such that we feel painful regret and remorse when we act contrary to it (Mill).
3. Conscience as an internal judge or the moral worth of our ends and motives: Conscience does not determine what we are to do, but it can judge whether we have acted in a morally worthy manner (Kant).
4. Conscience as a faculty of practical reason by which we deliberate with a view to deciding on
   particular actions to perform, in aiming at conformity with moral principles. Conscience specifies particular actions in the overall project of aiming at what we take to be  This allows scope for the possibility that an agent could be conscientious but have wrong values(Aquinas).
5. Conscience as a reflective consideration guiding employment of criteria of moral soundness with a view to ascertaining which actions meet those criteria (Smith).

In case of doubtful pension claim by an old man as mentioned in the above case, the civil servants should act in conscience manner. The following steps he can include in his action.

He should take through enquiry of the legitimacy of his claim. If found genuine, he should be facilitated with the pension as soon as possible and in case of doubtful claim the person should be asked to clear the doubt by furnishing the relevant document as a proof. The office staff should be asked to cooperate with the old person in his effort of finding the valid documental proof.

The Civil Servants have delegated authority and are allowed to act with conscience in times of need. His action should not be bound by the common code of conduct rather should be guided by his experience and rationality.

Strictly following the rules and regulation will not be in conformity of the dynamic nature of our society and values.  In case, if the minor proof in missing, the Civil Servant should take action as per his cognizance if his inner conscience allows about the same. Person with the old age should be looked with sympathy and empathy and should not be harassed and asked to furnish the relevant proof again and again. Here, the action of the civil servant should be in accordance with his conscience.

However, the civil servant should also look for other options for availing the benefits to the old age person to avoid any confrontation with laws and regulations. There should not be huge compromization with the rules and regulation while allowing for pension, and also it should not hurt in any manner to other beneficiaries.

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Q.12) You are a senior functionary in rural development ministry of government of India and in course of your tour in the remote part of the country you want to have a first hand assessment of rural development programmes and their impact on the socio economic condition of people especially of BPL category. The district officials show you some of the houses constructed under rural housing schemes. You also talked to the people and local PRI representatives.

The officials gave you a brighter picture of the situation where as people in general were critical about the attitude and approach of the officials. You were sad when you found impact of the rural development programmes/schemes far from satisfactory.

(a) Bring out the ethical issues involved in rural development programmes.

(b) What would be your reaction after your above visit?

(c) What recommendations you propose to make so as to bring impact on rural development programmes.

 

Answer:

(a) The various ethical issues involved in rural development programmes are-

– Lack of proper evaluation on part of officials shows acting in an irresponsible way

– Failure to realize the flight of poor reflects the lack of empathy.

– The officers are responsible to make sure the benefits of these schemes reach the poor for whom such schemes are intended. But they are not doing it and moreover giving a different picture in front of senior officials. It reflects negligent attitude on their part.

(c) When it is found that the impact of these programmes is far from satisfactory, it is the duty of the senior officers to himself conduct an evaluation programme and arrive at the real solution of the problem.

– He should check the records himself rather than believing the officials.

– He should set up some monitoring committees, the function of which is to see if the benefits

of such schemes is ultimately reaching the poor people or not.

– Adequate steps to fill any gap in the results should be taken.

 

 

 

Note4Students

Marital Rape has been in news recently because Modi government has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court arguing against criminalizing marital rape. A number of op-eds have been written over this issue in past few Months. Also, this topic is linked to GS 1 Social issues and GS 2 Vulnerable sections. Therefore, CD considers this topic important for mains 2017.

Context

The Narendra Modi government has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court arguing against criminalizing marital rape. According to Government Doing so would “destabilize the institution of marriage, apart from being an easy tool for harassing husbands

 

What is marital rape?

Marital rape (also known as spousal rape and rape in marriage) is non-consensual sex in which the perpetrator is the victim’s spouse. It is a form of partner rape, Domestic violence and sexual violence.

Current status of marital rape in India

1. Our legal system doesn’t provide any concrete protection to the victims of marital rape. Under Hindu marriage act, 1955 one of the “conjugal duties” of the wife is to provide sexual satisfaction to her husband, a very archaic thought congruent to the thoughts of a patriarchal society. Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) considers forced sex in marriages as a crime only when the wife is below 15 or the couple is legally separated. Thus, marital rape is not a criminal offense under the IPC.
2. Marital rape victims have to take recourse to the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005(PWDVA).The PWDVA, which came into force in 2006, outlaws marital rape. However, it offers only a civil remedy for the offence.

 

Arguments in favour of criminalizing marital rape

1. Sheer Number: Out of the total number of rapes reported to NFHS (though it is an informal survey whose premise was to provide anonymity), 97.7% rapes were committed by the people known to the victim, out of which marital rapes accounts for 2/3rd.Thus the sheer  intensity  of marital rape suggests that it should be criminalized.
2. Mental Trauma: There have been many heartrending stories of women raped every night, even during pregnancy and child birth. It is a physical as well as mental trauma because the perpetrator is known to the person, often very close.
3. Violation of Fundamental right: Marital rape is considered as the violation of Fundamental Right guaranteed under Article 14 of the Indian constitution which guarantees the equal protection of laws to all persons.
4. By depriving married women of an effective penal remedy against forced sexual intercourse, it violates their right to privacy and bodily integrity, aspects of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21, by differentiating them from unmarried women.
5. Marital privacy – which justifies laws such as the marital rape exception – is a fundamental denial of society’s commitment to treating all persons with equal concern and respect.
6. After making high pitch for the government flagship Beti Bachao beti padao, we want our ‘Beti’ to not have a right on her own body. If marital rape has been committed, wife is a rape survivor and she has same rights like any other rape survivor.
7. International Example: Many countries have made it a crime for a husband to force his wife to have sex in recent years. Malaysia changed its laws to that effect in 2007; Turkey in 2005; and Bolivia in 2013. The United States began criminalizing marital rape in 1970s and most European countries in the 1990s. The United Nations has also recommended India to criminalize marital rape. Though we try to emulate US in many areas to prove ourselves as progressive, doesn’t this law provide the opportunity for the same
8.  Even the Law Commission’s report (2000) and Justice Verma panel’s (2013) recommended to do away with the exemption granted to marital rape in the laws.

 

Arguments against Criminalization ?

1. Subjective: It is very subjective and intricate to determine whether consent was acquired or not. Sometimes women use denying intercourse even if she is comfortable with, as a tool for punishment or getting their demands fulfilled.
2.  Prone to Misuse: If marital rape is criminalized without adequate safeguards it could be misused like the current dowry law by the dissatisfied wives to harass and   torture their Husbands.
3. Marriage is the holy institution and application of such laws will wither away its basic fabric as it will lead the investigation to the intricate relationship between the couple.
4. Burden on Judiciary: Will increase the burden of judiciary which otherwise may serve other more important causes
5. Potentially miniscule Law: This law will more likely to be a passive and potentially minuscule law. Since less educated and rural women are not likely to use it and the other strata of women can be said to empowered enough to say no for this kind of acts of their rapist husband’s. 
6. Cannot be applied to India: The concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors like level of education/illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament, etc.
7. U.S.A did criminalize marital rapes in 1970’s, most European countries have done so, countries such as Bolivia and Turkey, being the latest entrants to this list. It is a weak argument that just because so and so country have done it, so should we. Going by this logic, Netherlands has legalized prostitution and marijuana, then, so should we.

 

Conclusion

1. Sexual consent is the right of every woman, married or unmarried, as much as of men, and nonconsensual sex should be treated exactly the same, irrespective of the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim. Adequate safeguards however need to be included in the law which limits the opportunities for misusing this law like the dowry law. Just because the law can be misused does not mean that we should evade from our responsibility. However just legal reform is not sufficient as along with legal reform we also need social reform so that this menace could be eradicated from our society.  It is the progressive social consciousness which is need of the hour.

 

 

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Note4students

It is important due to its applications in many fields(as given below).

Basics of the ‘Big Data’

Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing application software is inadequate to deal with them. Big data challenges include capturing data, data storage, data analysis, search, sharing, transfer, visualization, querying, updating and information privacy.

The data could be from social networks, web server logs, traffic flow sensors, satellite imagery, broadcast audio streams, banking transactions, MP3s of rock music, the content of web pages, scans of government documents, GPS trails, telemetry from automobiles, financial market data and so on.

It answers specific questions such as the need of the customers, their opinion and image of the brand

For organisations, analysis of this hidden data may give an insight into things which were previously hidden due to its bulk and the subsequent cost required for its process. This is done by collecting, organizing and analysing large sets of data to discover patterns and other useful information.

For instance, analysis of shoppers’ transactions, social and geographical data gives the analyst knowledge about peer influence on customers, greatly reducing the time that would otherwise require for sampling followed by extensive investigations.

It also enables new products and services, by combining a large number of signals from a user’s actions and those of their friends, Facebook has been able to craft a highly personalized user experience and create a new kind of advertising business.

With the right big data analytics platforms an enterprise can boost sales, increase efficiency, and improve operations, customer service and risk management.

One of the fundamental reasons for opposition of Big Data is centered on privacy since massive amounts of personal data is collected and analysed without a consideration to the person in question.

The large volume of information being collected may be used by finance companies to personalise various schemes for maximisation of their benefits thereby leading to indiscrimination against a certain group of people.

Applications based on ‘Big Data’ Technology

Seed Selection – Big-data businesses can analyse varieties of seeds across numerous fields, soil types, and climates and select the best.

Crop disease – Similar to the way in which Google can identify flu outbreaks based on where web searches are originating, analysing crops across farms helps identify diseases that could ruin a potential harvest.

Irrigation – Precision agriculture aids farmers in tailored and effective water management, helping in production, improving economic efficiency and minimising waste and environmental impact.

Weather – Advanced analytics capabilities and agri-robotics such as aerial imagery, sensors help provide sophisticated local weather forecasts can help increasing global agricultural productivity over the next few decades.

Climate change –  Since, climate change and extreme weather events will demand proactive measures to adapt or develop resiliency, Big Data can bring in the right information to take informed decisions.

Food processing – They help in streamlining food processing value chains by finding the core determinants of process performance, and taking action to continually improve the accuracy, quality and yield of production. They also optimise production schedules based on supplier, customer, machine availability and cost constraints.

Loss control – In India, every year 21 million tons of wheat is lost, primarily due to scare cold-storage centres and refrigerated vehicles, poor transportation facilities and unreliable electricity supply. Big Data has the potential of systematisation of demand forecasting thus reducing such losses.

Pricing – A trading platform for agricultural commodities that links small-scale producers to retailers and bulk purchasers via mobile phone messaging can help send up-to-date market prices via an app or SMS and connect farmers with buyers, offering collective bargaining opportunities for small and marginal farmers.

How can it be a Challenge?

The challenges and opportunities of data is immense in a country like India with 638,000 villages and 130 million with 140 million hectares of cultivable land under 127 agro climatic regions capable of supporting 3,000 different crops and one million varieties.

Self-driven vehicles can already drive themselves across fields using Global Positioning System (GPS) signals accurate to less than inch of error thus helping farmers plant more accurately.

But the real potential is what happens when this data from thousands of tractors on thousands of farms is collected, grouped and analysed in real time.

There is need to formulate a business model wherein value can be captured from the scale of data being captured by different players in the agri-supply chain.

Companies must act now to focus, simplify and standardise big data through an enterprise-wide data management strategy.

Question

Q.) The age of Big Data, the growing pervasiveness of Aadhaar, and the government’s push towards a cashless and digital economy has led to a re-emergence of interest in privacy and data protection in India. In your opinion, what are the key elements that should drive the design of a privacy law (when it is actually enacted), or laws that have an impact on privacy? Discuss.

 

 

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Note4students

It has recently became a hot topic of discussion due to a famous debate between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

1. Artificial intelligence is the branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans. The term was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

2. Artificial Intelligence is the area of computer science focussing on creating machines that can engage on behavior that human consider intelligent.

3. It is the study of ways in which machines can be made to have sufficient creative reasoning power to perform mental task at which, at prevent, human beings are better.

4. Examples of problem that falls under the area of Artificial Intelligence include common sense tasks, such as understanding of language, recognising scenes, finding a way to reach an object that is far overhead etc.

5. In addition Artificial Intelligence includes expert tasks, such as diagnosing diseases, designing computer system and planning scientific expedition.

Where can we use Artificial Intelligence?

1. Games playing: programming computers to play games against human opponents.

2. Expert systems: programming computers to make decisions in real-life situations (for example, some expert systems help doctors diagnose diseases based on symptoms).

3. Natural language: programming computers to understand natural human languages.

4. Neural networks: Systems that simulate intelligence by attempting to reproduce the types of physical connections that occur in animal brains.

5. Robotics: programming computers to see and hear and react to other sensory stimuli.

Approaches:

1. Neural Network: This is bottom up approach. It basically aims at mimicking the structure & functioning of the human brain, to create intelligent behaviour. Researchers are attempting to build a silicon based electronic network that is modeled on the working & form of human brain.

2. Expert System: This is top down approach. Instead of starting at the base level of neurons, followers of the expert system are designing intelligent machines by taking advantage of the phenomenal computational power of the modern computer that can solve problem by deductive logic.

 

Application of AI

They combine precision & computational powers with pure logic, to solve problems & reduce error in operation therefore are used in every field of human endeavor.

1. Heavy Industries & Space: Through AI an entire manufacturing process can be made totally automated, controlled & maintained by computer system in car manufacturing machine tool production, computer chip production. etc. They carry out dangerous tasks like handling hazardous radioactive materials.

2. Finance: Banks use intelligent software application to screen & analyse financial data. Software that can predicts trends in stock market have been created which have been known to beat humans in predictive power.

3. Computer Science: Researchers in quest of AI have created spin offs like dynamic programming, object oriented programming, symbolic programming, intelligent storage management system etc.

4. Aviation: Air lines use expert system in planes to monitor atmospheric condition & system status.

5. Weather Forecast: Neural Network is used for predicting weather condition. Previous data are fed to a neural network which learns the pattern & uses that knowledge to predict weather pattern.

Question

Q.)Discuss critically various opinions  expressed against Artificial Intelligence by scientists, philosophers and technology leaders.

 

Note4Students/Syllabus Mapping: GS3

The Economic Survey 2015-16 for the first time highlighted the weakening balance sheets of public sector banks and that of some large corporate houses as one of the most critical short-term challenges for the Indian economy and an impediment to economic recovery. Terming it as ‘Twin balance sheet challenge’, it is clear that the TBS problem is the major impediment to private investment, and thereby to a full-fledged economic recovery. Undoubtedly, this makes it a hot topic for 2017 CSE Mains in the context of Indian economic challenges that need immediate attention.

 

What is this Twin Balance Sheet Problem?

The twin balance sheet problem refers to the ballooning of debt on the books of corporate entities and the estimated Rs10 trillion of stressed assets that have piled up at banks because of the inability of borrowers to repay.

Thus, TBS is two-fold problems for Indian economy which deals with:

1. Overleveraged companies – Debt accumulation on companies is very high and thus they are unable to pay interest payments on loans. Note: 40% of corporate debt is owed by companies who are not earning enough to pay back their interest payments. In technical terms, this means that they have an interest coverage ratio less than 1.
2. Bad-loan-encumbered-banks – Non Performing Assets (NPA) of the banks is 9% for the total banking system of India. It is as high as 12.1% for Public Sector Banks contributing to four-fifths of the total NPAs. As companies fail to pay back principal or interest, banks are also in trouble.

 

Concerns  around this TBS issue

Corporate Sector	Banking Sector
Gross capital formation by the private sector has come down sharply over the past three years. The Gross Fixed Capital Formation has declined from 34% in 2011-12 to 27% in 2016-17 which indicates stalled investments in the economy.	More than four-fifths of the non-performing assets are in the public sector banks, where the NPA ratio had reached almost 12 percent.
 The corporate investment is in the doldrums right now. New data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy shows that new project proposals in the June quarter were at their lowest level in three years.	At its current level, India’s NPA ratio is higher than any other major emerging market (with the exception of Russia), higher even than the peak levels seen in Korea during the East Asian crisis.
New data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy shows that new project proposals in the June quarter were at their lowest level in three years.   40 percent of the corporate debt it monitored did not earn enough to pay the interest obligations on their loans.	 The capital adequacy ratio of six banks is likely to fall below 9% in a severe macro stress scenario, dragging the system-level ratio down to 11.2% by March 2018 from 13.3% as of March 2017.
 While corporate debts are rising, the economic survey noted that their profits are low and the situation is forcing the firms to cut investment and preserve their cash flow.	 The latest edition of the regulator’s Financial Stability Report (FSR), released on Friday, said a severe credit shock is likely to impact capital adequacy and profitability of a significant number of banks.
	At least 13 of these banks accounting for approximately 40 per cent of total loans are severely stressed

 

What are the reasons for this issue?

1. The origins of the NPA problem dates back to the decision taken during the mid-2000s.
2. During this period for the first time in the country’s history, everything was going right: corporate profitability was amongst the highest in the world, encouraging firms to hire labor aggressively, which in turn sent wages soaring.
3. Firms made plans accordingly. They launched new projects worth lakhs of crores, particularly in infrastructure-related areas such as power generation, steel, and telecoms, setting off the biggest investment boom in the country’s history.
4. Within the span of four short years, the investment-GDP ratio had soared by 11 percentage points, reaching over 38 percent by 2007-08.
5. This time saw extraordinary increase in the debt of non-financial corporations.

Work in Progress- yet visible shortcomings!!

RBI has deployed several mechanisms to deal with the stressed asset problems, of these mechanisms that are particularly notable. Success of schemes, however, has been limited. There are several reasons why progress has been so limited:

Poor Loss recognition: – The Asset Quality Review (AQR) was meant to force banks to recognize the true state of their balance sheets but banks kept on ever greening loans.

Coordination Issues: – The RBI has encouraged creditors to come together in Joint Lenders Forums, where decisions can be taken by 75 percent of creditors by value and 60 percent by number. But reaching agreement in these Forums has proved difficult, because different banks have different degrees of credit exposure, capital cushions, and incentives.

Lack of Proper incentives: – The S4A scheme recognizes that large debt reductions will be needed to restore viability in many cases. But public sector bankers are reluctant to grant write-downs, because there are no rewards for doing so. To address this problem, the Bank Board Bureau (BBB) has created an Oversight Committee which can vet and certify write-down proposals.

Massive Capital Constraints: –The government has promised under the Indradhanush scheme to infuse Rs 70,000 crores of capital into the public sector banks by 2018-19. But this is far from sufficient.

IBC in nascent stage: The new bankruptcy system is not yet fully in place, and even when it is, the new procedures (and participants) will need to be tested first on smaller cases.

Severe viability issues: – At this point, large write-offs will be required to restore viability to the large IC1 companies (those companies whose earnings do not even cover their interest obligations).

Lack of teeth in private Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs)

Many ARCs have been created, but they have solved only a small portion of the problem, buying up only about 5 percent of total NPAs. The problem is that ARCs have found it difficult to recover much from the debtors. Thus they have only been able to offer low prices to banks, prices which banks have found it difficult to accept.

Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR) scheme

Under this creditors could take over firms that were unable to pay and sell them to new owners. Only those projects that have started commercial production can take advantage of this scheme

Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A)

Under this, creditors could provide firms with debt reductions up to 50 percent in order to restore their financial viability. Unlike CDR, S4A does not allow the banks to offer any moratorium on debt repayment; they are also not allowed to extend the repayment schedule or reduce the interest rate.

Way forward:

1. TBS problem can be resolved by taking a four step path that involves – recognition, recapitalization, resolution and reform.
2. First, there needs to be a readiness to confront the losses that have already occurred in the banking system, and accept the political consequences of dealing with the problem.
3. Second, the PARA needs to follow commercial rather than political principles. To achieve this, it would need to be an independent agency, staffed by banking professionals. It would also need a clear mandate of maximizing recoveries within a specified, reasonably short time period.
4. The third issue is pricing. If loans are transferred at inflated prices, banks would be transferring losses to the Rehabilitation Agency. As a result, private sector banks could not be allowed to participate – and then co-ordination issues would remain – while private capital would not want to invest in the Agency, since PARA would make losses.
5. A rekindled optimism on structural reforms in the Indian economy, along with implementation of GST and diligent implementation of Bankruptcy Code will play supporting pillars.

Conclusion:

The twin balance sheet problem is a serious drag on credit growth. The setting up of a centrally-assisted rehabilitation agency will help in taking difficult decisions which the public sector banks are unable to take. The past mechanisms of resolving this problem in the form of decentralized approach have failed. There is no point of delaying this problem because the delay is very costly for the economy as impaired banks are scaling back their credit while the stressed companies are cutting their investments. Time is opportune to create a centralized agency called Public Sector Asset Rehabilitation Agency (PARA) akin to that of East Asia adopted during their crises period. The centralized agency in the form of PARA would allow debt problems to be worked out quickly as highlighted in this year’s Economic Survey.

 

Note4Students/Syllabus Mapping: GS2

Amid allegations of EVM tampering in the recently concluded state polls and by-polls in 5 states of Punjab, Manipur, UP, Goa, and Uttarakhand have reignited the controversies and raised questions on the fairness of elections in our democracy. Some have demanded revert to ballot paper system and others for wide scale investment in VVPATs. In this article we discuss the various aspects around this issue and how VVPATs can be a solution to a transparent electoral process. Electoral reforms have always been a favourite topic of UPSC and undoubtedly VVPAT analysis in this context makes it a potential question in this year CSE Mains 2017.

 

What are the ensuing issues?

1. In the recent episode of state assembly elections many political parties have raised questions on vulnerability of EVMs and allege result fixing and whether EVMs are tamper-proof?
2. In the back drop of the media reports that a VVPAT machine showed discrepancies during a demonstration exercise in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind, concerns are rife about whether EVMs are a reliable medium for fair and transparent elections in the country. Further questions are being raised if people are casting their votes or machines itself deciding it?
3. Most of the advanced democracies like USA, Germany and Japan continue to rely on paper ballots.
4. Cross checking and auditing is not feasible, unless equipped with VVPATs.

 

Introduction:

In the wake of the above controversy the Election Commission intends to use voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) in all coming elections to bring in more transparency and boosting the confidence of people in the electoral process. ECI has sent multiple reminders to the Central government to release adequate funds for manufacture of VVPATs.

 

What is VVPAT?

1. VVPAT is a slip generated in a printer-like a machine attached to EVM and flashes voter’s choice of candidate and party. Generated slip is shown for a few seconds to the voter to cross check before it falls into a sealed drop box which can be opened during counting.
2. VVPATs are a second line of verification and are particularly useful in the time when allegations around Electronic Voting Machines’ tampering crop up.
3. After voting, the VVPAT machine dispenses a paper slip with the name, serial number and symbol of the candidate voted for.

 

Advantage VVPAT:

1. The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail is a method that provides feedback to voters.
2. It is an independent verification printer machine and is attached to electronic voting machines.
3. It allows voters to verify if their vote has gone to the intended candidate.
4. Under VVPATs, initially, election results are announced based on the recording of votes given by EVMs. If the election results are disputed, then the votes recorded under Paper Trail System shall be counted and announced.
5. If there is any discrepancy between the two results, then the result given by VVPAT will prevail over the EVMs.

Working procedure of EVM’s equipped with Voter-verified paper audit trail

1. VVPAT device functions like a printer to be attached to the ballot unit.
2. Once the vote is cast it dispenses a paper slip showing the symbol on which it is cast.
3. The voter can only see this slip through a screened window.
4. After seven seconds, the slip automatically gets cut and falls into a sealed drop box.
5. The machines can be accessed, though, by the polling officials and not by the voter.
6. The printout is deposited in a box and can be used to resolve any dispute regarding the election.

 

Flipside Arguments: Election Commission’s response to allegations

1. ECI said that EVMs can neither be reprogrammed nor controlled by the external device. The source
   code is so designed that it allows the voter to cast the vote only once. The next vote can be
   recorded only after the Presiding Officer enables the ballot on the Control Unit. In between, the
   machine becomes dead to any signal from outside.
2. The Election Commission said that the comparison between EVMs in India and abroad, where they have
   failed, are both misplaced and misguided. This is because most of the systems used in other
   countries are PC based and running on the operating system. Hence they are vulnerable to hacking.
3. But EVMs in India are the standalone machine without being part of any input. The software in the
   chip is one time programmable and is burnt into the chip at the time of manufacture. Nothing
   can be written on the chip after manufacture. Thus there is a fundamental difference between
   EVMs in India and abroad.

Way forward:

1. The Supreme Court has supported the ECI’s endeavor to use VVPATs in a phased manner to usher in more transparency in voting.
2. The recent cabinet decision to release funds of Rs 3173 crores for 1.6 million Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units attached electronic voting machines (EVMs), is a positive step in line with ECI’s strategy for the 2019 next general election.
3. Two public sector units —Electronic Corp. of India Ltd (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) have been approached for manufacture of those VVPATs.

Conclusion:

A free and fair election is the key requirement for sustaining the faith in the democratic ethos and thus, all such allegations on the integrity of EVMs shall be put to test by the ECI with active involvement of political parties. The increased usage of VVPATs attached EVMs are a major step in strengthening democracy as directed by the Supreme Court. It should be followed up with other electoral reforms like Right to rejection, transparency in political parties and their election finances, disqualifying criminals from contesting elections on filing of charge sheets etc as recommended by various law commissions. Political parties should come together irrespective of their positions and decide upon these electoral issues in order to further strengthen the largest democracy in world.

Note4Students

Malaria is a major public health problem in India but is preventable and curable. Malaria interventions are highly cost-effective and demonstrate one of the highest returns on investment in public health. The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) outlines India’s strategy for elimination of the disease by 2030. It’s important to its objectives, various provisions, challenges and way forward.

Introduction

1. 1. Disease burden due to malaria in India has been reduced significantly over the years with an overall decline in malaria–related morbidity and mortality. This has been made possible by a series of interventions such as the introduction of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) ,revision of the National Drug Policy for malaria in 2013 etc. However, a number of challenges have emerged in recent years which pose a threat to the country’s progress in its fight against malaria. These include the development of antimalarial drug resistance and insecticide resistance, development of malaria multi-drug resistance including ACT resistance in neighbouring countries, emergence of malaria in urban areas, existence of high endemic malaria pockets in hard-to-reach areas and in tribal populations, climate change and increased tourism and migration.

 

• In order to address these challenges, a national strategy for malaria elimination has been envisaged prompting the development of the National Framework for Malaria Elimination in India 2016–2030.

 

Vision

1. Eliminate malaria nationally and contribute to improved health, quality of life and alleviation of poverty.

Goals

1. Eliminate malaria (zero indigenous cases) throughout the entire country by 2030; and
2. Maintain malaria–free status in areas where malaria transmission has been interrupted and prevent re-introduction of malaria.

Objectives

The Framework has four objectives:

1. Eliminate malaria from all 26 low (Category 1) and moderate (Category 2) transmission states/union territories (UTs) by 2022;
2. Reduce the incidence of malaria to less than 1 case per 1000 population per year in all states and UTs and their districts by 2024;
3. Interrupt indigenous transmission of malaria throughout the entire country, including all high transmission states and union territories (UTs) (Category 3) by 2027; and
4. Prevent the re-establishment of local transmission of malaria in areas where it has been eliminated and maintain national malaria-free status by 2030 and beyond

Key strategic approach

1. Programme phasing considering the varying malaria endemicity in the country
2. Classification of States/UTs based on API as primary criterion (Category 0: Prevention of re- introduction phase; Category 1: Elimination phase; Category 2: Pre-elimination phase; Category 3: Intensified control phase)
3. District as the unit of planning and implementation
4. Focus on high endemic areas
5. Special strategy for P. vivax elimination.

Short term milestones

1. By end of 2016, all states/UTs are expected to include malaria elimination in their broader health policies and planning framework
2. By end of 2017, all states are expected to bring down API to less than 1 per thousand population
3. By end of 2020, 15 states/UTs under category 1 (elimination phase) are expected to interrupt transmission of malaria and achieve zero indigenous cases and deaths due to malaria.

Challenges

• Population movements, often uncontrolled across states/UTs, and sharing of large international borders with neighbouring malaria endemic countries
• Shortage of skilled human resources

 

1. Insecticide resistance: The extensive use of insecticides, particularly DDT, under the vector control programme controlled malaria to a great extent but exerted high selection pressure on the vector population to develop resistance.
2. Access to conflict-affected tribal areas and to areas with a high malaria endemicity is a problem
3. High endemicity states include those in the Northeast, which share borders with neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, where the prevalence of malaria is high.
4. Neglect of malaria and unreliable data:
   • There is no reliable data to know how many people suffer from this disease annually as estimates do not take into account the 60-80% patients in the urban area who gets treatment from private hospitals
5. Although malaria is made as a notifiable disease, penalties are not imposed on doctors and hospitals if they are not notifying.

Way forward

1. With the availability of medicines and diagnostic kits, the delivery mechanism has to be streamlined to enable access to them.
2. Overburdened staffs tend to underperform. So, more community health workers and supporting staffs need to be appointed and trained to function effectively.
3. Budgetary allocation for the programme in specific and overall health care in general has to be increased.
4. Secure and sustain adequate financial resources for implementing the elimination programme through domestic funding.
5. Additionally, innovative financing models, partnerships and integration with other government departments has to be explored.
6. Also, steps have to be taken to create awareness among the people so as to ensure their active participation.
7. Lastly, there is a need for community mobilization and sustenance of efforts to make this program successful.

Questions

1. Discuss the objectives and provisions of National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination
2. How should India address the rising challenge of Malaria?