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Distribution: weekly

  • Appointment of Election Commissioners

    President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday appointed of Anup Chandra Pandey, a retired Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer, to the post of Election Commissioner.

    Election Commission of India (ECI)

    • The ECI is a constitutional body responsible for administering elections in India according to the rules and regulations mentioned in the Constitution of India.
    • It was established on January 25, 1950.
    • The major aim of the election commission of India is to define and control the process for elections conducted at various levels, Parliament, State Legislatures, and the offices of the President and Vice President of India.
    • It can be said that the Election Commission of India ensures the smooth and successful operation of the democracy.

    Functions

    According to Article 324 of the Indian Constitution:

    • the ECI has superintendence, direction, and control of the entire process for conduct of elections to Parliament and Legislature (state legislative assembly & state legislative council) of every State and to
    • the offices of President and Vice-President of India

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following statements:

    1. The Election Commission of India is a five-member body.
    2. Union Ministry of Home Affairs decides the election schedule for the conduct of both general elections and bye-elections.
    3. Election Commission resolves the disputes relating to splits/mergers of recognized political parties.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2017)

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 2 and 3 only

    (d) 3 only

    Its composition

    • Initially, the commission had only a Chief Election Commissioner. Presently, it consists of a Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners.
    • For the first time, two additional Commissioners were appointed on 16th October 1989 but they had a very short term till 1st January 1990.
    • Afterward, on 1st October 1993, two additional Election Commissioners were appointed.
    • The concept of a multi-member Commission has been in operation since then, with decision-making power by majority vote.

    Appointment & Tenure of Commissioners

    • The President has the power to select Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.
    • They have a tenure of six years, or up to the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.
    • They have the same status and receive pay and perks as available to Judges of the Supreme Court of India.
    • The CEC can be removed from office only through accusation by Parliament.
    • The election commissioner or a regional commissioner shall not be removed from office except on the recommendation of the CEC.

  • Adoption of COVID-19-orphaned children

    The Supreme Court has directed the States and Union Territories (UTs) to take stringent action against private individuals and NGOs who invite people to illegally adopt children orphaned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Also read

    Legal issues involved in adoption pleas for Covid-19 orphans

    SC ruling against illegal adoption

    • The court ordered the government to step in and prevent private entities from revealing the identities of COVID-19 affected children, usually on social media and inviting people to adopt them.
    • No adoption of affected children should be permitted contrary to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 the court-ordered.
    • It was illegal to invite strangers to adopt children, already traumatized by their personal losses, without the involvement of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).

    About CARA

    • Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is an autonomous and statutory body of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. It was set up in 1990.
    • It functions as the nodal body for the adoption of Indian children and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions.
    • CARA is designated as the Central Authority to deal with inter-country adoptions in accordance with the provisions of the 1993 Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, ratified India in 2003.
    • It primarily deals with the adoption of orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children through its associated and recognized adoption agencies.
    • In 2018, CARA has allowed individuals in a live-in relationship to adopt children from and within India.

  • Operation Pangea XIV

    More than 1.10 lakh web links, including websites and online marketplaces, have been taken down in the operation Pangea XIV.

    Operation Pangea XIV

    • Code-named “Operation Pangea XIV”, the exercise was coordinated by Interpol.
    • It involved the police, customs, and health regulatory authorities of 92 countries against the sale of fake and illicit medicines and medical products.
    • Indian agencies also participated in the operation, said an official of the Central Bureau of Investigation that is the nodal body for the Interpol in the country.
    • It showed that criminals were continuing to cash in on the huge demand for personal protection and hygiene products due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • New geometrical lines discovered in Thar Desert

    Using satellite observations and field visits, two independent researchers from France have identified eight sites around Jaisalmer in the Thar Desert, that show linear features resembling geoglyphs.

    What are geoglyphs?

    • Geoglyphs are large, un-explained geometrical patterns on land usually proposed to be man-made features.
    • The largest concentration of geoglyphs is reported from southern Peru, covering an area of about 1,000 square km.
    • A new paper published notes that the identified geoglyphs in the Thar Desert cover an area of about 6 square km.

    Boha Geoglyphs in Thar

    • The authors’ main area of interest was Boha, a small village 40 km to the north of Jaisalmer where they noticed a series of concentric and linear features.
    • They named these features Boha geoglyphs and suggested that the features could be at least 150 years old.
    • It is however conceivable that they were built at the beginning of the British colonial period, in the middle of the 19th century.

    How are they patterned?

    • The Boha geoglyphs are clearly manmade as the main unit is a giant spiral, but they have been eroded due to the cars running over the lines lately.
    • So, they are clearly not formed by weathering or another natural phenomenon.”
    • The observed features might have been formed naturally, but degraded over time due to both natural and human-related causes.

    Degraded over time

    • The rocky terrain is home to a typical weathering feature, especially over the iron-rich sandstone and shale beds.
    • Here, extreme aridity and high temperature lead to slow geochemical translocation of minerals for centuries, such that the heavier minerals like iron and manganese move away from the lighter minerals.
    • This lead to the gradual formation of alternate bands of harder and softer mineral concentrations.
    • With time the areas with softer materials get slowly eroded, while the harder ones stand out, producing the typical concentric or box-like geometric features.

  • 7 Years of UPA Government vs 7 Years of NDA Government

    The article compares the performance of the present government under Prime Minister Modi with the first seven years of the Manmohan Singh government on various fronts.

    Context

    The current government completed seven years at the Centre recently. It is time to reflect and look back at its performance on basic economic parameters over the last seven years. It may also be interesting to compare and see how it fared vis-à-vis the first seven years of UPA government (2004-05 to 2010-11) under Manmohan Singh.

    Analysing the progress by studying key economic indicator

    1)  GDP growth

    • One of the key economic parameters is GDP growth.
    • It is not the most perfect one, as it does not capture specifically the impact on the poor, or on inequality.
    • But higher GDP growth is considered central to economic performance as it enlarges the size of the economic pie.
    • The average annual rate of growth of GDP under the Modi government so far has been just 4.8 per cent compared to 8.4 per cent during the first seven years of the Manmohan Singh government.
    • If this continues as business as usual, the dream of a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 is not likely to be achieved.

    2) Inflation

    • The Modi government scores much better on the inflation front with CPI (rural and urban combined) rising at 4.8 per cent per annum.
    • It is well within the tolerance limits of RBI’s targeted inflation band and also much lower than 7.8 per cent during the first seven years of the Manmohan Singh government.

    3) Forex reserves

    • Also, at macro level, foreign exchange reserves provide resilience to the economy against any external shocks.
    • On this score too, the Modi government fares quite well with forex reserves rising from $313 billion on May 23, 2014 to $593 billion on May 21, 2021.

    4) Food and agriculture

    • It engages the largest share of the workforce in the economy and matters most to poorer segments.
    • On the agri-front, both governments recorded an annual average growth of 3.5 per cent during their respective first seven years.
    • However, on the food and fertiliser subsidy front, the Modi government broke all records in FY21, by spending Rs 6.52 lakh crore and accumulating grain stocks exceeding 100 million tonnes in May end, 2021.
    • One area in which the Modi government performed very poorly is agri-exports.
    • In 2013-14 agri-exports had crossed $43 billion while during all the seven years of the Modi government agri-exports remained below this mark of $43 billion.
    • Sluggish agri-exports with rising output put downward pressure on food prices.
    • It helped contain CPI inflation, but subdued farmers’ incomes.

    5) Infrastructure development

    • The Modi government has done better in power generation by increasing it from 720 billion units per annum to 1,280 billion units per annum.
    • Similarly, road construction too has been at least 30 per cent faster under the Modi government.

    6) Social sector

    • Based on an international definition of extreme poverty (2011 PPP of $ 1.9 per capita per day), the World Bank estimated India’s extreme poverty in 2015 to be about 13.4 per cent, down from 21.6 per cent in FY 2011-12.
    • Even the incidence of multidimensional poverty hovered around 28 per cent in 2015-16.
    • Three key indicators can be used to assess performance on this front:
    • One, average annual person days generated under MGNREGA in the first five years since this programme started under the UPA in 2006-07 to 2010-11, which was 200 crore, and under Modi government it improved to 230 crore.
    • Two, average annual number of houses completed under the Indira Awaas Yojana and PM Awaas Yojana-Gramin, which improved from 21 lakhs to 30 lakhs per annum.
    • Three, open defecation free (ODF) which was only 38.7 per cent on October 2, 2014 and shot up to 100 per cent by October 2, 2019, as per government records.

    Conclusion

    The current government has turned out to be more welfare-oriented than reformist in revving up GDP growth. How long this welfare approach is sustainable without enlarging the size of GDP pie is an open question.

  • Simultaneous Elections in India

    The article deals with the issue frequent elections in the country and highlights the need for debate on the idea of “one nation, one election”.

    Need for debate on one nation one election

    The idea has been around since at least 1983, when the Election Commission first mooted it. The concept needs to be debated mainly around five issues.

    1) Financial costs of  conducting elections

    • The costs of conducting each assembly or parliamentary election are huge and, in some senses, incalculable.
    • Directly budgeted costs are around Rs 300 crore for a state the size of Bihar.
    • But there are other financial costs, and incalculable economic costs.
    • Before each election, a “revision” of electoral rolls is mandatory.
    • The costs of the millions of man-hours used are not charged to the election budget.
    • The economic costs of lost teaching weeks, delayed public works, badly delivered or undelivered welfare schemes to the poor have never been calculated.

    2) Cost of repeated administrative freezes

    • The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has economic costs too.
    • Works may have been announced long before an election is announced, but tenders cannot be finalised, nor work awarded, once the MCC comes into effect.
    • Time overruns translate into cost overruns.
    • But the huge costs of salaries and other administrative expenditures continue to be incurred.
    • Add to this the invisible cost of a missing leadership.
    • Important meetings and decisions get postponed, with costs and consequences that are difficult to calculate.
    • A NITI Aayog paper says that the country has at least one election each year.

    3) Visible and invisible costs of repeatedly deploying security forces

    • There are also huge and visible costs of deploying security forces and transporting them, repeatedly.
    • A bigger invisible cost is paid by the nation in terms of diverting these forces from sensitive areas.

    4)  Campaign and finance costs of political parties

    • There is little doubt that the fiscal and economic costs of an election are not trivial, and that two elections, held separately, will almost double costs, including those incurred by political parties themselves.

    5) Question of regional/smaller parties having a level playing field

    • There are fears about the Centre somehow gaining greater power, or regional parties being at a disadvantage during simultaneously held elections.
    • However, fixed five-year terms for state legislatures in fact take away the central government’s power to dissolve state assemblies.
    •  Until 1967 when simultaneous elections were the norm.
    • The Constitution and other laws would need to be amended is obvious, but that is hardly an argument against the proposal.

    Consider the question “There are huge costs associated with the frequent elections in the country. Is simultaneous elections a solution? What are the issues involved?”

    Conclusion

    As the elections in four states and one Union territory in March-April are suspected to have contributed to the second wave of Covid infections, a well-reasoned debate on a concept as important as “one nation, one election” is called for.

  • Need to deal with distortions built into GST

    The article highlights the issues with the one state one vote system adopted in the GST Council decision making.

    Context

    The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council in India is still engaged in a discussion on whether life-saving and hard-to-come-by products should be taxed. Such delay in decision-making can largely be explained by the distorted design and incentive structure of the GST itself.

    Imbalance in collection and distribution of taxes

    • The taxes collected under GST are accumulated by the Union government and a portion is transferred back to each state under a formula.
    • As is the case with most federal countries, there is a large imbalance in the collection and distribution of taxes between states.
    • this holds true also for income accrued to, and distributed, from the GST pool.
    • Four states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Gujarat contribute nearly as much as the remaining 27 states combined.
    • Most federal countries exhibit this characteristic where a few large, rich, provinces or states contribute disproportionately.

    Variation in dependence of States on transfers from the Union government

    • Only about 30 per cent of the overall revenue of the states mentioned above — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Karnataka — comes from the Union government.
    • But for the remaining 27 states, roughly 60 per cent of their revenues are obtained through transfers from the Union government.
    • For the smaller Northeastern states, these transfers from the Union government constitute 80-90 per cent of their total revenues.
    •  In effect, the states that contribute the most to the GST pool are the least dependent on transfers from the Union government while the ones that contribute the least are the most dependent.

    Two problems in net-transfers in India

    1) One-sided transfers

    •  In almost every federal union, net-transfers work to reduce differences in development between states over time.
    • However, Over the last 25 years or so, net transfers have become increasingly one-sided in India.
    • That is, the quantum of net-transfers diminishes, as states become more equal through such transfers.
    • But in India, the opposite has occurred.

    2) Indirect taxes and cess

    • The Union government of the last seven years has greatly exacerbated this problem through two actions.
    • First, it has reconstructed the composition of taxation away from the fair and progressive channel of direct taxation towards the inherently regressive and unfair channel of indirect taxes.
    • Second, the Union has shifted a large proportion of taxation roughly 18 per cent of its overall revenues into cesses, a special form of taxes that remain outside the GST pool and hence do not have to be shared with the states.
    • Since 2014, cess revenues grew 21 per cent every year leading to a doubling in terms of its share of GDP.

    Implications of these two problems for fiscal federalism

    • The combined effect of these problems is that all states (collectively) get a lower share of overall revenues.
    • Individual states face an ever-increasing disparity in the ratio of funds received from the Union as a proportion of taxes collected by the Union from that state.
    • This is an affront to fiscal federalism and an assault on “cooperative federalism”.

    Issue of ‘one state one vote’ system

    • States that are more dependent on transfers from the Union want to maximise GST collections while states that are less dependent can afford to be more sensitive to citizens’ concerns.
    • The case of taxes on Covid products is perhaps the starkest instance of such differences.
    • Most large states are ready to forego this tax revenue for humanitarian considerations.
    • But 19 states representing the remaining 30 per cent of the population seem keen to continue to levy GST on Covid products.
    •  These are mostly smaller states.
    • Given the smaller population of such states, the adverse impact of Covid taxes will be minimal for them.
    • But they will reap the benefits of additional revenues from GST on Covid products levied on the much larger populations of the bigger states.

    Conclusion

    When direct tax policy decisions are legislated by Parliament, which has proportional representation from states according to their size of the population, indirect tax policy decisions should not be subject to one state one vote system.

  • BRICS

    As India is gearing up to host this year’s BRICS summit, the grouping is facing fresh challenges, from disputes among member countries to tackling COVID-triggered crises and opportunities.

    What is BRICS?

    • To be clear, BRICS was not invented by any of its members.
    • In 2001, Goldman Sachs’ Jim O’Neill authored a paper called “Building Better Global Economic BRICs”, pointing out that future GDP growth in the world would come from China, India, Russia and Brazil.
    • Significantly, the paper didn’t recommend a separate grouping for them, but made the case that the G-7 grouping, made up of the world’s most industrialized, and essentially Western countries, should include them.
    • O’Neill also suggested that the G-7 group needed revamping after the introduction of a common currency for Europe, the euro, in 1999.
    • In 2003, Goldman Sachs wrote another paper, “Dreaming with BRICs: Path to 2050”, predicting that the global map would significantly change due to these four emerging economies.
    • In 2006, leaders of the BRIC countries met on the margins of a G-8 (now called G-7) summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, and BRIC was formalized that year.

    Issues in its consolidation

    • Common ground for the members was built by ensuring that no bilateral issues were brought up, but the contradictions remained.
    • Many economists soon grew tired of “emerging” economies that didn’t reach the goals they had predicted.
    • Others saw India’s closer ties with the US after the civil nuclear deal as a sign its bonds with BRICS would weaken.
    • Meanwhile, Russia, which had hoped to bolster its own global influence through the group, had been cast out of the G-7 order altogether after its actions in Crimea in 2014.
    • China, under Xi Jinping, grew increasingly aggressive, and impatient about the other underperforming economies in the group, as it became the U.S.’s main challenger on the global stage.

    Long-term prospects

    • China’s decision to launch the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative in 2017 was opposed by India, and even Russia did not join the BRI plan, although it has considerable infrastructure projects with China.
    • South Africa’s debt-laden economy and the negative current account have led some to predict an economic collapse in the next decade.
    • Brazil’s poor handling during the Covid-19 crisis has ranked it amongst the world’s worst-affected countries, and its recovery is expected to be delayed.
    • India’s economic slowdown was a concern even before Covid-19 hit, and government policies like “Aatmanirbhar” were seen as a plan to turn inward.

    Issues with BRICS nations

    • Concerns about aggressions from Russia in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and China in the South China Sea, the border with India and internally in Hongkong and Xinjiang are clear visible.
    • There is creeping authoritarianism in democracies like Brazil and India have made investors question long-term prospects of the group.
    • In the market, BRICS has been mocked for being “broken”, while others have suggested it should be expanded to include more emerging economies like Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey, called the “Next-11”.

    A roadmap to progress

    • BRICS is an idea that has endured two decades, an idea its members remain committed to, and not one has skipped the annual summits held since 2009.
    • Along the way, BRICS has created the New Development Bank (NDB) set up with an initial capital of $100 billion.
    • There is a BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement fund to deal with global liquidity crunches, and a BRICS payment system proposing to be an alternative to the SWIFT payment system.

    Reforming the multilaterals

    • The BRICS ministerial meeting held this week sent several important signals to that end, issuing two outcome documents.
    • It included the first “standalone” joint statement on reforming multilateral institutions, including the UN and the UNSC, IMF and World Bank and the WTO.
    • It remains to be seen how far countries like China and Russia, which are already “inside the tent” at the UNSC, will go in advocating for the other BRICS members.
    • Another important agreement was the BRICS ministerial decision to support negotiations at the WTO for the waiver of trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) for vaccines and medicines to tackle the Coronavirus.

    Way forward

    • What appears clear is in the post-Covid world, priorities for all economies will change, and offer up a churning in the world of the kind seen two decades ago, when the idea of a grouping of emerging economies was first floated.
    • For BRICS, the next few months could crystallize that idea, or sink it further, leaving others to wonder whether the “Rise of the Rest” as it was once called, is an idea whose time will ever come at all.

  • Performance Grading Index 2020 by Education Ministry

    The Education Ministry’s Performance Grading Index for 2019-20 was recently released.

    Performance Grading Index

    • The PGI is a tool to provide insights on the status of school education in States and UTs including key levers that drive their performance and critical areas for improvement.
    • It monitors the progress that States and UTs have made in school education with regard to learning outcomes, access and equity, infrastructure and facilities, and governance and management processes.
    • Grading will allow all States and UTs to occupy the highest level i.e Grade I, at the same time which is a sign of a fully developed nation.

    Its methodology

    • This is the third edition of the index and uses 70 indicators to measure progress.
    • Of these, the 16 indicators related to learning outcomes remain unchanged through all three editions, as they are based on data from the 2017 National Achievement Survey, which tested students in Classes 3, 5, 8, and 10.

    Highlights of the 2019-20 Report

    • Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala have all scored higher than 90%.
    • Gujarat dropped from second to the eighth rank in the index, while MP and Chhattisgarh are the only States which have seen actual regression in scores over this period.

  • ‘Sea Snot’ outbreak in Turkey

    There has been growing environmental concern in Turkey over the accumulation of ‘sea snot’, a slimy layer of grey or green sludge in the country’s seas, which can cause considerable damage to the marine ecosystem.

    What is ‘Sea Snot’?

    • ‘Sea snot’ is marine mucilage that is formed when algae are overloaded with nutrients as a result of water pollution combined with the effects of climate change.
    • A ‘sea snot’ outbreak was first recorded in the country in 2007. Back then, it was also spotted in the Aegean Sea near Greece.
    • But the current outbreak in the Sea of Marmara is by far the biggest in the country’s history.
    • The nutrient overload occurs when algae feast on warm weather caused by global warming. Water pollution adds to the problem.
    • Environmental experts have said that the overproduction of phytoplankton caused by climate change and the uncontrolled dumping of household and industrial waste into the seas has led to the present crisis.

    Where has it been found?

    • Turkey’s Sea of Marmara, which connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, has witnessed the largest outbreak of ‘sea snot’.
    • The sludge has also been spotted in the adjoining Black and Aegean seas.

    How badly can the crisis affect the marine ecosystem?

    • The growth of the mucilage, which floats upon the surface of the sea like brown phlegm, is posing a severe threat to the marine ecosystem of the country.
    • Divers have said that it has caused mass deaths among the fish population, and also killed other aquatic organisms such as corals and sponges.
    • The mucilage is now covering the surface of the sea and has also spread to 80-100 feet below the surface.
    • If unchecked, this can collapse to the bottom and cover the sea floor, causing major damage to the marine ecosystem.
    • Over a period of time, it could end up poisoning all aquatic life, including fishes, crabs, oysters, mussels and sea stars.