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  • How scarcity of jobs is fuelling nativism in the States

    The article examines the factors contributing to the States pursuing domicile based employment policies.

    What is driving states to provide reservation to locals in private jobs

    • The Haryana government has recently passed legislation that mandates companies in Haryana to provide jobs to local Haryanvis first.
    • The unemployment rate in Haryana is the highest of all States in India, as per data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, or CMIE.
    • The cabinet of the government of Jharkhand approved similar legislation to reserve jobs for Jharkhand residents.
    • The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu announced a similar proposal in its manifesto for the upcoming Assembly elections.
    • Such moves have attracted criticism from economists and commentators
    • Creating more jobs, not on reserving the few available ones’ is the popular refrain.
    • Creation of new jobs is not entirely in the control of State governments. It is a complex interplay of multitude of factors.

    Factors playing role in job creation

    • Job creation is obviously an outcome of the performance of the larger economy.
    • Chief Minister of a State in India has limited control over the management of the larger economy and thereby, attract new investors and businesses who can create jobs.
    • Businesses need abundant high quality skilled and unskilled labour, land at affordable prices, uninterrupted supply of electricity, water and other such ‘ease of business’ facilities for its expansion.
    • State governments in India can theoretically compete with each on these parameters.
    • Further, any tax advantages that a particular State can provide vis-à-vis others will increase its attractiveness.
    • But, realistically in India, in very few of these parameters can a poorer State compete against a richer State.

    Issues faced by the States

    • The availability of skilled local labour is a function of many decades of social progress of the State and cannot be retooled immediately.
    • After the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), State governments in India have lost their fiscal autonomy and have no powers to provide any tax concessions to businesses.
    • Beyond all these, the most critical factor in the choice of a location for a large business is what economists term as the ‘agglomeration effect’
    • Agglomeration effect is the ecosystem of supply chain, talent, good living conditions and so on attracting the other businesses.
    • So, a State with an already well-established network of suppliers, people, schools, etc. are at a greater advantage to attract even more businesses.
    • It is due to this agglomeration effect that the three richest large States (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka) are three times richer than the three poorest large States (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh), in per-capita income, compared to 1.4 times in 1970.
    • In the absence of a level playing field and with no fiscal autonomy, it is enormously difficult for developing States in India to attract new investments and create new jobs.

    Consider the question “Examine the factors contributing to the nativist tendencies in the employment within the States. Suggest the measures to deal with the issue.”

    Conclusion

    Until the economic playing fields for the various States are levelled and much greater fiscal freedom provided to the States, “don’t protect but create jobs” will only remain a topic of a hollow lecture and moral sermons.

  • Govt. reconstitutes panel for studying mythical Sarasvati River

    The Centre has reconstituted an advisory committee to chalk out a plan for studying the mythical Sarasvati River for the next two years after the earlier panel’s term ended in 2019.

    Do you know?

    Rigveda describes India as a land of Sapta Sindhavah.

    There is a verse in Nadistuti sukta of Rigveda , hymn of praise of rivers which mentions the following 10 rivers: Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Sutudri, Parusni, Asikni, Marudvrdha , Vitasta , Arjikiya , Susoma.

    The Shutudri was Sutlej, Parushni was Ravi, Asikni was Chenab and Vitasta was Jhelum.

    Sarasvati River

    • The Sarasvati River is an extinct river mentioned in the Rig Veda and later Vedic and post-Vedic texts.
    • As a physical river, it is described as a small river ending in “a terminal lake (Samudra).
    • As the goddess Sarasvati, the main referent for the term “Sarasvati” which developed into an independent identity in post-Vedic times, she is described as a powerful river and mighty flood.
    • The Sarasvati is also considered by Hindus to exist in a metaphysical form, in which it formed a confluence with the sacred rivers Ganges and Yamuna, at the Triveni Sangam.

    Vedic reference of the river

    • Rigvedic and later Vedic texts have been used to propose identification with present-day rivers, or ancient riverbeds.
    • The Nadistuti hymn in the Rigveda (10.75) mentions the Sarasvati between the Yamuna in the east and the Sutlej in the west.
    • Later Vedic texts like the Tandya and Jaiminiya Brahmanas, as well as the Mahabharata, mention that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert.

    What led to its extinction?

    • Since the late 19th-century, scholars have proposed to identify the Rig Vedic Saraswati river with the Ghaggar-Hakra river system.
    • This flows through northwestern India and eastern Pakistan, between the Yamuna and the Sutlej.
    • Recent geophysical research suggests that the Ghaggar-Hakra system was glacier-fed until 8,000 years ago, and then became a system of monsoon-fed rivers.
    • ISRO has observed that major Indus Valley Civilization sites at Kalibangan (Rajasthan), Banawali and Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Dholavira and Lothal (Gujarat) lay along this course.
    • The Indus Valley Civilisation may have declined as a result of climatic change when the monsoons that fed the rivers diminished at around the time civilisation diminished some 4,000 years ago.

  • What is Index of Industrial Production (IIP)?

    Last week saw the release of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which recorded a contraction of 1.6% in January.

    Index of Industrial Production (IIP)

    • Index of Industrial Production data or IIP as it is commonly called is an index that tracks manufacturing activity in different sectors of an economy.
    • The IIP number measures the industrial production for the period under review, usually a month, as against the reference period.
    • IIP is a key economic indicator of the manufacturing sector of the economy.
    • There is a lag of six weeks in the publication of the IIP index data after the reference month ends.
    • IIP index is currently calculated using 2011-2012 as the base year.

    IIP Index Components:

    • Mining, manufacturing, and electricity are the three broad sectors in which IIP constituents fall.
    • The relative weights of these three sectors are 77.6% (manufacturing), 14.4% (mining) and 8% (electricity).
    • Electricity, crude oil, coal, cement, steel, refinery products, natural gas, and fertilizers are the eight core industries that comprise about 40 per cent of the weight of items included in the IIP.

    Basket of products

    There are 6 sub-categories:

    1. Primary Goods (consisting of mining, electricity, fuels and fertilisers)
    2. Capital Goods (e.g. machinery items)
    3. Intermediate Goods (e.g. yarns, chemicals, semi-finished steel items, etc)
    4. Infrastructure Goods (e.g. paints, cement, cables, bricks and tiles, rail materials, etc)
    5. Consumer Durables (e.g. garments, telephones, passenger vehicles, etc)
    6. Consumer Non-durables (e.g. food items, medicines, toiletries, etc)

    Who releases IIP data?

    • The IIP data is compiled and published by CSO every month.
    • CSO or Central Statistical Organisation operates under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
    • The IIP index data, once released, is also available on the PIB website.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. In the ‘Index of Eight Core Industries’, which one of the following is given the highest weight?

    (a) Coal production

    (b) Electricity generation

    (c) Fertilizer production

    (d) Steel production

    Who uses IIP data?

    • The factory production data (IIP) is used by various government agencies such as the Ministry of Finance, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), private firms and analysts, among others for analytical purposes.
    • The data is also used to compile the Gross Value Added (GVA) of the manufacturing sector in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on a quarterly basis.

    IIP base year change:

    • The base year was changed to 2011-12 from 2004-05 in the year 2017.
    • The earlier base years were 1937, 1946, 1951, 1956, 1960, 1970, 1980-81, 1993-94 and 2004-05.

    IIP vs ASI

    • While the IIP is a monthly indicator, the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) is the prime source of long-term industrial statistics.
    • The ASI is used to track the health of industrial activity in the economy over a longer period. The index is compiled out of a much larger sample of industries compared to IIP.
    • The IIP essentially tracks the change in the volume of production in Indian industries.

  • What are AT1 Bonds?

    The decision of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to slap restrictions on mutual fund (MF) investments in additional tier-1 (AT1) bonds has raised a storm in the MF and banking sectors.

    What are AT1 Bonds?

    • AT1 Bonds stand for additional tier-1 bonds. These are unsecured bonds that have perpetual tenure. In other words, the bonds have no maturity date.
    • They have a call option, which can be used by the banks to buy these bonds back from investors.
    • These bonds are typically used by banks to bolster their core or tier-1 capital.
    • AT1 bonds are subordinate to all other debt and only senior to common equity.
    • Mutual funds (MFs) are among the largest investors in perpetual debt instruments and hold over Rs 35,000 crore of the outstanding additional tier-I bond issuances of Rs 90,000 crore.

    What action has been taken by the Sebi recently and why?

    • In a recent circular, the Sebi told mutual funds to value these perpetual bonds as a 100-year instrument.
    • This essentially means MFs have to make the assumption that these bonds would be redeemed in 100 years.
    • The regulator also asked MFs to limit the ownership of the bonds to 10 per cent of the assets of a scheme.
    • According to the Sebi, these instruments could be riskier than other debt instruments.

    Try this PYQ:

    Consider the following statements:

    1. The Reserve Bank of India manages and services the Government of India Securities but not any State Government Securities.
    2. Treasury bills are issued by the Government of India and there are no treasury bills issued by the State Governments.
    3. Treasury bills offer are issued at a discount from the par value.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 3 Only

    (c) 2 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    How MFs will be affected?

    • Typically, MFs have treated the date of the call option on AT1 bonds as the maturity date.
    • Now, if these bonds are treated as 100-year bonds, it raises the risk in these bonds as they become ultra long-term.
    • This could also lead to volatility in the prices of these bonds as the risk increases the yields on these bonds rises.
    • Bond yields and bond prices move in opposite directions and therefore, the higher yield will drive down the price of the bond, which in turn will lead to a decrease in the net asset value of MF schemes holding these bonds.
    • Moreover, these bonds are not liquid and it will be difficult for MFs to sell these to meet redemption pressure.

    What’s the impact on banks?

    • AT1 bonds have emerged as the capital instrument of choice for state banks as they strive to shore up capital ratios.
    • If there are restrictions on investments by mutual funds in such bonds, banks will find it tough to raise capital at a time when they need funds in the wake of the soaring bad assets.
    • A major chunk of AT1 bonds is bought by mutual funds.

    Why has the Finance Ministry asked Sebi to review the decision?

    • The FM has sought withdrawal of valuation norms for AT1 bonds as it might lead to mutual funds making losses and exiting from these bonds, affecting capital raising plans of PSU banks.
    • The government doesn’t want a disruption in the fund mobilization exercise of banks at a time when two PSU banks are on the privatization block.
    • Banks are yet to receive the proposed capital injection in FY21 although they will need more capital to face the asset-quality challenges in the foreseeable future.
    • Fitch’s own estimate pegs the sector’s capital requirement between $15 billion-58 billion under various stress scenarios for the next two years, of which state banks account for the bulk.

  • Need for national security shield in FDI

     

    Relaxation on Chinese FDI

    • Last April, India had subjected all Chinese FDI to mandatory government screening.
    • The aim was to curb opportunistic takeovers of Indian companies, a concern fuelled by sharp corrections in equity markets in March 2020.
    • Several economies including the US, Australia, Canada and Germany faced similar concerns.
    • They blocked specific takeover attempts, using special laws for national security screening of inward FDI.
    •  In the absence of similar legislation, India did not differentiate between investments which raised genuine national security concerns and those that did not.
    • This is a crucial shortcoming.
    • With market indices now hovering at their peaks, reportedly India may allow Chinese FDI up to 25 per cent in equity under the automatic route.

    Regulation of FDI and issues with it

    • India regulates foreign investments primarily through FEMA.
    • FEMA clearly provides two specific macro-prudential objectives — facilitating external trade and payments; and promoting orderly development and maintenance of foreign exchange markets in India.
    • Accordingly, it empowers the central government and the RBI, acting in consultation with each other, to regulate capital account transactions.
    • These regulations determine who can invest through the FDI route, in which sector and how much.
    • In practice, however, FEMA regulations have often responded to concerns not strictly related to macro-prudential objectives.
    • One such concern has been national security.

    Need for the law to scrutinise FDI from national security angle

    • Shortcoming of FEMA underscores the need for India to emulates its western peers and enact a statute specifically designed for national security screening of strategic FDI.
    • Unlike FEMA, this new statute must explicitly lay down legal principles for determining when a foreign acquisition of an Indian company poses genuine national security threats.
    • In this regard, a policy paper published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics three types of legitimate threats from foreign acquisitions.

    3 Types of threat from foreign acquisitions

    1) Dependency on foreign supplier

    • The first threat arises if a foreign acquisition renders India dependent on a foreign-controlled supplier of goods or services crucial to the functioning of the Indian economy.
    • For this threat to be credible, it needs to be further established that the industry in which the acquisition is supposed to take place is tightly concentrated, the number of close substitutes limited, and the switching costs are high.

    2) Technology transfer

    • The second threat emanates from a proposed acquisition transferring a technology or an expertise to a foreign-controlled entity that might be deployed by that entity or a foreign government in a manner harmful to India’s national interests.
    • The credibility of this threat again depends on whether the market for such technology or expertise is tightly concentrated or if they are readily available elsewhere.

    3) Threat of infiltration, surveillance or sabotage

    • The third threat arises if a proposed acquisition allows insertion of some potential capability for infiltration, surveillance or sabotage via human or non-human agents into the provision of goods or services crucial to the functioning of Indian economy.
    • This threat is particularly credible when the target company supplies crucial goods or services to the Indian government, its military or even critical infrastructure units and the switching costs are high.

    Way forward

    • The above stated 3 types of threats could provide conceptual clarity in the new statute could make national security assessments objective, transparent and amenable to the rule of law.
    • On procedure, the statute must empower only the finance minister to reject certain strategic foreign acquisitions on national security grounds.
    • Both the power and accountability mechanisms should be hardcoded into the statute itself, as is the case in some mature parliamentary democracies.
    • For instance, the Australian Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act, 1975 empowers the treasurer to block certain foreign acquisitions on national security grounds.
    • Similarly, the Investment Canada Act, 1985 empowers a minister to reject certain foreign acquisitions.

    Consider the question “India needs to recognise the national security threat emanating from strategic FDI. This requires identifying threats. In lights of this, examine the types of threats and suggest the ways to deal with it.” 

    Conclusion

    Overall, India’s tryst with Chinese FDI underscores the importance of identifying specific national security threats emanating from strategic FDI and addressing them objectively. This is too sensitive a matter to be left to capital controls under FEMA. A dedicated statute for national security screening of inward FDI would be best suited for handling such issues.

  • Bureaucrats cannot be State Election Commissioners: SC

    The Supreme Court gas held that independent persons and not bureaucrats should be appointed State Election Commissioners.

    No bureaucrats in SEC

    • The judgment came on an appeal against an order of the Bombay High Court which had set aside the election notification issued by the Goa State Election Commission in some municipalities.
    • Justice F. Nariman, in a judgment, said giving government employees the additional charge of State Election Commissioners is a “mockery of the Constitution”.
    • It said government employees holding the post of State Election Commissioners as additional charge should give up the post.
    • The Supreme Court said its direction should be followed strictly.

    Why such a move?

    • Under the constitutional mandate, it is the duty of the State to not interfere with the functioning of the State Election Commission.
    • The independence of Election Commissions cannot be compromised at any cost, the Bench said.

    State Election Commission

    • Under the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment acts, State Election Commissions were created for every state to conduct elections to panchayats and municipalities.
    • The SECs came into as envisaged in Articles 243K and 243ZA of the Constitution of India.
    • The above Articles provide that the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for, and the Conduct of all elections to the Panchayats and Municipalities shall vest in the SEC.
    • The Constitution itself has facilitated provision for smooth, free and fair, regular elections to the Local bodies and has, therefore, entrusted the SEC with the responsibility for holding such elections.
    • In the domain of the elections to the local bodies, the SEC functions independently and has the same powers and duties as that of the Election Commission of India.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.The Constitution (Seventy-Third Amendment) Act, 1992, which aims at promoting the Panchayati Raj Institutions in the country, provides for which of the following?

    1. Constitution of District Planning Committees.
    2. State Election Commissions to conduct all panchayat elections.
    3. Establishment of State Finance Commissions.

    Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

    (a) Only 1

    (b) 1 and 2 only

    (c) 2 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    The Election Commissioner

    • The State Election Commissioner is appointed by the Governor.
    • It has the status, salary and allowance of a Judge of a High Court and cannot be removed from office except in the like manner and on the like grounds as a Judge of a High Court.
    • The Election Commissioner is also the Chairman of the Delimitation Commission.

    Its duties

    • The first and foremost duty of the SEC is to prepare the elector rolls of Panchayats, Municipalities and Municipal Corporation and conduct their elections.

    In addition to the above functions, the State Election Commission has also the following functions:

    1. Conduct of elections to the offices of the Mayor/Chairman/President/Deputy Mayor/Vice Chairman/Vice President and the no-confidence motion against them.
    2. Conduct of the Elections to various Standing Committees and their Chairpersons
    3. Determination of disqualification of elected members/Councilors.
    4. Determination of disqualification of elected members on the ground of defection.

    Back2Basics: Election Commission of India (ECI)

    • ECI is an autonomous and permanent constitutional authority responsible for administering election processes in India at the national and state level.
    • The body administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, State Legislative Councils and the offices of the President and Vice President of the country.
    • The EC operates under the authority of the Constitution per Article 324 and subsequently enacted the Representation of the People Act.
    • The commission has the powers under the Constitution, to act in an appropriate manner when the enacted laws make insufficient provisions to deal with a given situation in the conduct of an election.
    • Being a constitutional authority, EC is amongst the few institutions which function with both autonomy and freedom, along with the country’s higher judiciary, the UPSC and the CAG.

  • Places of Worship Act, 1991

    The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to respond to a plea challenging the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. The court has opened the doors for litigation in various places of worship across the country including Mathura and Varanasi.

    Take this ‘wonderful’ question from CS Mains 2019:

    Q.What are the challenges to our cultural practices in the name of secularism?

    Places of Worship Act, 1991

    • It was passed in 1991 by the P V Narasimha Rao-led government.
    • The law seeks to maintain the “religious character” of places of worship as it was in 1947 — except in the case of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, which was already in court.
    • The law was brought in at the peak of the Ram Mandir movement, exactly a year before the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
    • Introducing the law, then Home Minister S B Chavan said in Parliament that it was adopted to curb communal tension.

    What are its provisions?

    The objective of the law describes it as an Act to prohibit conversion of any place of worship.

    • It aims to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August 1947, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.
    • Sections 3 and 4 of the Act declared that the religious character of a place of worship shall continue to be the same as it was on August 15, 1947.
    • No person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination into one of a different denomination or section.
    • Section 4(2) says that all suits, appeals or others regarding converting the character of a place of worship, that was pending on August 15, 1947, will stand abated when the Act commences and no fresh proceedings can be filed.
    • However, legal proceedings can be initiated after the commencement of the Act if the change of status took place after the cut-off date of August 15, 1947.

    What does it say about Ayodhya, and what else is exempted?

    • Act does not to apply to Ram Janma Bhumi Babri Masjid.

    Besides the Ayodhya dispute, the Act also exempted:

    • any place of worship that is an ancient and historical monument or an archaeological site, or is covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958;
    • a suit that has been finally settled or disposed of;
    • any dispute that has been settled by the parties or conversion of any place that took place by acquiescence before the Act commenced.

    What has the Supreme Court said about the Act?

    • In the 2019 Ayodhya verdict, the Constitution Bench led by former CJI Ranjan Gogoi referred to the law and said it manifests the secular values of the Constitution and strictly prohibits retrogression.
    • In providing a guarantee for the preservation of the religious character of places, Parliament determined that independence from colonial rule furnishes a constitutional basis for healing the injustices of the past.
    • The law addresses itself to the State as much as to every citizen of the nation. Its norms bind those who govern the affairs of the nation at every level.
    • Those norms implement the Fundamental Duties under Article 51A and are hence positive mandates to every citizen as well.

    Why is the law under challenge?

    • A politician has challenged the law on the ground that violates secularism.
    • He has also argued that the cut-off date of August 15, 1947, is “arbitrary, irrational and retrospective” and prohibits Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs from approaching courts to “reclaim” their places of worship.
    • Such places, he argued, were “invaded” and “encroached” upon by “fundamentalist barbaric invaders”.
    • The right-wing politicians have opposed the law even when it was introduced, arguing that the Centre has no power to legislate on “pilgrimages” or “burial grounds” which is under the state list.
    • Another criticism against the law is that the cut-off is the date of Independence, which means that the status quo determined by a colonial power is considered final.

  • Curbing Benzene Emission

    A joint committee appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to study air pollution in Kerala has pointed out that petrol refuelling stations were a major source of benzene emissions and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

    Why such a move?

    • Benzene is a major constituent of evaporative emission due to its high volatility.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following:

    1. Carbon monoxide
    2. Methane
    3. Ozone
    4. Sulphur dioxide

    Which of the above are released into atmosphere due to the burning of crop/biomass residue?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2, 3 and 4 only

    (c) 1 and 4 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

    What is Benzene?

    • Benzene is a chemical that is a colourless or light yellow liquid at room temperature. It has a sweet odour and is highly flammable.
    • It evaporates into the air very quickly. Its vapour is heavier than air and may sink into low-lying areas.
    • It dissolves only slightly in water and will float on top of the water.

    Its formation and uses

    Benzene is formed from both natural processes and human activities.

    • Natural sources of benzene include volcanoes and forest fires. Benzene is also a natural part of crude oil, gasoline, and cigarette smoke.
    • Some industries use benzene to make other chemicals that are used to make plastics, resins, and nylon and synthetic fibres.
    • It is also used to make some types of lubricants, rubbers, dyes, detergents, drugs, and pesticides.

    Benzene emission

    • The major sources of benzene exposure are tobacco smoke, automobile service stations, exhaust from motor vehicles, and industrial emissions.
    • Benzene is present in both exhaust and evaporative emissions. Motor vehicles account for approximately 85% of the total benzene emissions.
    • However, ingestion and dermal absorption of benzene can also occur through contact with contaminated water.

  • How to grow better colleges

    The article highlights the important role students can play in improving the quality of colleges and institution in India.

    Improving the colleges

    • The global QS ranking is out and India has 12 universities and institutions in the top-100 in particular subjects.
    • We have many colleges offering higher education but typically they are not very good.
    • Today, with a huge number of students going to college, education is tied strongly to career prospects.
    • If studying and thinking harder do not lead to even a decent chance of career improvement, it is natural for most students to lose academic ambition.

    Career prospects in various colleges

    • For admission in IIT, many work extremely hard to secure admission, but then lose motivation and drift towards near-certain graduation.
    • IIT admission is a value signal to future employers who do not see much relevance in the actual syllabus.
    • The entry wall is high, the exit wall is low, and the four-year syllabus is an obstacle course between the student and an employer with whom eye contact was made from atop the entry wall itself.
    • Students of varied subjects thus remain uninterested in their core syllabi.
    • Lower-ranked colleges may attract a slightly different mix of employment prospects, some in core areas.
    • In many colleges, both good and bad ones, high grades correlate only loosely with career outcomes. 

    Improving the college

    • Very few jobs actually require the highest quality education — the best academic and research jobs.
    • In such a system, it may not be worthwhile or even practical for a mediocre college to unilaterally improve itself.
    • Having improved, it remains to convince society that it deserves to displace the pre-eminent colleges at the top.
    • For lower-ranking colleges to improve itself, its students must first see useful value in a better education.
    • That requires system-wide growth in opportunity.

    How to achieve system-wide growth in opportunity

    • Such growth cannot be legislated from above. It must occur organically, from below.
    • There are several stakeholders involved in such transition.
    • 1) At the top are policymakers.
    • Policymakers are trying and have achieved many things.
    • In recent years, however, our demographics have caught up with us.
    • We have more than 650 million people under age 25.
    • No other country is close. We need more than policies.
    • 2) Next is industry. It faces a learning curve for technology.
    • Countries that wish to lead must develop their own technology, even at high cost.
    • Indian industry can often choose between importing slightly older technology from outside or developing things in-house.
    • A slow growth in the latter has begun and may pull our college system upward over time.
    • 3) Our next stakeholders are college teachers.
    • For a college to flourish, it needs many students who compete to enroll.
    • Our entrance exams for good engineering colleges are hard.
    • Our nationally renowned degree colleges which admit based on board marks are frequently forced to set very high cutoffs.
    • The need for more engineering colleges, for many students who are clearly good enough, has led to the creation of several private colleges that teach well in large volumes.
    • Quality of teachers’ is improving.
    • College teachers improve as their employers aim higher, and as their students bring more into the classroom.
    • 4) Finally, we have students. If students demand better instruction, colleges will sooner or later supply it.

    Way forward for students

    • Students must aim to relate their learning to society.
    • They must see their learning not as an obstacle course but as an initiation into a process that yields tangible long-term value.
    • Indian society does not merely have people looking for work.
    • It also has work looking for people: Work in food, health, design, manufacturing, transport, safety, garbage, water, energy, farming, and a hundred other things that we can do better.
    • Room for improvement is plentiful, though the market models may not be efficient or mature yet.
    • The walls between our classrooms and our lives must be broken, if our colleges are to flourish.
    • In recent decades, India has also attracted much work from overseas. Growth in that direction may well be sustained.

    Consider the question “India has many colleges and institutions offering higher education but few could get the spot in the list of top global institutes. Examine the factors responsible for this. Suggest the measures to deal with this issue.”

    Conclusion

    Such change, driven by student aspirations, will be organic, bottom-up, and unstoppable.

  • The legacy and return of the Bamiyan Buddhas

    Two decades later after its destruction, the Bamiyan Buddhas have been brought back to life in the form of 3D projections in an event called “A Night with Buddha”.

    Bamiyan Buddhas

    • In their Roman draperies and with two different mudras, the Bamiyan Buddhas were great examples of a confluence of Gupta, Sassanian and Hellenistic artistic styles.
    • They are said to date back to the 5th century AD and were once the tallest standing Buddhas in the world.
    • Salsal and Shamama, as they were called by the locals, rose to heights of 55 and 38 metres respectively, and were said to be male and female.
    • Salsal means “the light shines through the universe”; Shamama is “Queen Mother”.
    • The statues were set in niches on either end of a cliffside and hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2014:

    Q.Lord Buddha’s image is sometimes shown with a hand gesture called ‘Bhumisparsha Mudra’. It symbolizes-

    a) Buddha’s calling of the Earth to watch over Mara and to prevent Mara from disturbing his meditation

    b) Buddha’s calling of the Earth to witness his purity and chastity despite the temptations of Mara

    c) Buddha’s reminder to his followers that they all arise from the Earth and finally dissolve into the Earth and thus this life is transitory

    d) Both the statements ‘a’ and ‘b’ are correct in this context

    The significance of Bamiyan

    • Bamiyan is situated in the high mountains of the Hindu Kush in the central highlands of Afghanistan.
    • The valley, which is set along the line of the Bamiyan River, was once integral to the early days of the Silk Roads, providing passage for not just merchants, but also culture, religion and language.
    • When the Buddhist Kushan Empire spread, acting as a crucible of sorts, Bamiyan became a major trade, cultural and religious centre.
    • As China, India and Rome sought passage through Bamiyan, the Kushans were able to develop a syncretic (mix) culture.
    • In the rapid spread of Buddhism between the 1st to 5th centuries AD, Bamiyan’s landscape reflected the faith, especially its monastic qualities.

    Taliban’s destruction of the Buddhas

    • The hardline Taliban movement, which emerged in the early 1990s, was in control of almost 90 per cent of Afghanistan by the end of the decade.
    • The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas was part of this extremist culture.
    • In February 2001, the Taliban declared its intention to destroy the statues, despite condemnation and protest from governments and cultural ambassadors’ world over.

    The aftermath of the destruction

    • The Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas met with global criticism, many of whom saw it as a cultural crime not just against Afghanistan but also against the idea of global syncretism.
    • Following the fall, UNESCO included the remains in its list of world heritage sites in 2003, with subsequent efforts made to restore and reconstruct.