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  • Issues with treating mineral sale proceeds as revenue or income

    The rate at which we are extracting mineral and spending the proceeds from it without consideration for the future generation needs a rethink. The article deals with this issue.

    The principle of Intergenerational Equity

    • We cannot compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs, and this is reflected in the aim for the sustainable economy.
    • The principle of Intergenerational Equity would make it imperative for us to ensure future generations inherit at least as much as we did.
    • If we are successful in abiding by intergenerational equity, our children will be at least as well off as we are.

    Issues with our mineral policy

    • India’s National Mineral Policy 2019 states: “natural resources, including minerals, are a shared inheritance where the state is the trustee on behalf of the people to ensure that future generations receive the benefit of inheritance.”
    • The extraction of oil, gas, and minerals is effectively the sale of this inheritance.
    • Unfortunately, governments everywhere treat the mineral sale proceeds as revenue or income which is basically a sale of inherited wealth.
    • This results in governments selling minerals at prices significantly lower than what they are worth, driven by lobbying, political donations, and corruption.

    Error in accounting

    • Proceeds received by the government are treated as “revenue” and spent.
    • This is just not sustainable.
    • There is growing empirical evidence of large losses in mining from around the world.
    • There is also growing evidence from the International Monetary Fund that many governments of resource-rich nations face declining public sector net worth, i.e., their governments are becoming poorer.
    • Due to the high profits involved, the extractors are keen to extract as quickly as possible and move on.
    • More mining would make a bad situation significantly worse.
    • The Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board needs to correct this error in the standards for public sector accounting and reporting for mineral wealth.

    Way forward

    • If we extract and sell our mineral wealth, the explicit objective must be to achieve zero loss in value; the state as trustee must capture the full economic rent.
    • Any loss is a loss to all of us and our future generations, and makes some rich; that is patently unfair.
    • India’s National Mineral Policy 2019 says: “State Governments will endeavor to ensure that the full value of the extracted minerals is received by the State.”
    • Like Norway, the entire mineral sale proceeds must be saved in a Future Generations Fund.
    • The Future Generations Fund could be passively invested through the National Pension Scheme framework.
    • The real income of a fund of this nature may be distributed only as a citizens’ dividend, equally to all as owners.
    • For the Indian economy, this is sustainable — capital has been maintained; the savings rate would rise, making available more long-term domestic capital; it diversifies risk while likely improving returns.

    Consider the question “What are the issues with our mining policies? Suggest the changes to make it more sustainable.”

    Conclusion

    Through these changes, let us be the generation that changes the course of history for the better, not the one that consumed the planet.

  • Task force on Age of Marriage for Women submits its report

    The task force set up to take a re-look at the age of marriage for women has submitted its report to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

    Try this question for mains:

    Q.The different minimum age of marriage for women and men is a discriminatory provision. Analyse.

    What is the issue?

    • PM in his I-Day speech last year spoke about a panel formed to decide on the “right age of marriage” for women.
    • The minimum age of marriage, especially for women, has been a contentious issue.
    • The law evolved in the face of much resistance from religious and social conservatives.
    • Currently, the law prescribes that the minimum age of marriage is 21 years and 18 years for men and women respectively.

    Invoking ‘Majority’

    • The minimum age of marriage is distinct from the age of majority which is gender-neutral.
    • An individual attains the age of majority at 18 as per the Indian Majority Act, 1875.
    • The law prescribes a minimum age of marriage to essentially outlaw child marriages and prevents the abuse of minors.

    About the Committee

    • The Union Ministry for WCD had set up a task force to examine matters pertaining to the age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering Maternal Mortality Ratio and the improvement of nutritional levels among women.
    • The task force would examine the correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with health, medical well-being, and nutritional status of the mother and neonate, infant or child, during pregnancy, birth and thereafter.
    • It will also examine the possibility of increasing the age of marriage for women from the present 18 years to 21 years.

    How common are child marriages in India?

    • UNICEF estimates suggest that each year, at least 1.5 million girls under the age of 18 are married in India.
    • It makes our country home to the largest number of child brides in the world — accounting for a third of the global total.
    • Nearly 16 per cent adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married.

    Provisions for the minimum age for marriage

    • Personal laws of various religions that deal with marriage have their own standards, often reflecting custom.
    • For Hindus, Section 5(iii) of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, sets 18 years as the minimum age for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom.
    • However, child marriages are not illegal — even though they can be declared void at the request of the minor in the marriage.
    • In Islam, the marriage of a minor who has attained puberty is considered valid.
    • The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 also prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men respectively.
    • Additionally, sexual intercourse with a minor is rape, and the ‘consent’ of a minor is regarded as invalid since she is deemed incapable of giving consent at that age.

    Evolution of the law

    • The IPC enacted in 1860 criminalised sexual intercourse with a girl below the age of 10.
    • The provision of rape was amended in 1927 through The Age of Consent Bill, 1927, which declared that marriage with a girl under 12 would be invalid.
    • The law faced opposition from conservative leaders of the Indian National Movement, who saw the British intervention as an attack on Hindu customs.
    • A legal framework for the age of consent for marriage in India only began in the 1880s.

    Comes in: The Sarda Act

    • In 1929, The Child Marriage Restraint Act set 16 and 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for girls and boys respectively.
    • The law, popularly known as the Sarda Act after its sponsor Harbilas Sarda, a judge and a member of Arya Samaj, was eventually amended in 1978 to prescribe 18 and 21 years as the age of marriage for a woman and a man respectively.

    Contention over different legal standards

    • There is no reasoning in the law for having different legal standards of age for men and women to marry. The laws are a codification of custom and religious practices.
    • The Law Commission consultation paper has argued that having different legal standards “contributes to the stereotype that wives must be younger than their husbands”.
    • Women’s rights activists have argued that the law also perpetuates the stereotype that women are more mature than men of the same age and, therefore, can be allowed to marry sooner.
    • The international treaty Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), also calls for the abolition of laws that assume women have a different physical or intellectual rate of growth than men.

    Why is the law being relooked at?

    • Despite laws mandating minimum age and criminalizing sexual intercourse with a minor, child marriages are very prevalent in the country.
    • From bringing in gender-neutrality to reduce the risks of early pregnancy among women, there are many arguments in favour of increasing the minimum age of marriage of women.
    • Early pregnancy is associated with increased child mortality rates and affects the health of the mother.

    Upholding the Constitution

    • Petitioners, in this case, had challenged the law on the grounds of discrimination.
    • It is argued that Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which guarantee the right to equality and the right to live with dignity, were violated by having different legal ages for men and women to marry.
    • Two significant Supreme Court rulings can act as precedents to support the petitioner’s claim.
    • In 2014, in the ‘NALSA v Union of India’ case, the Supreme Court, while recognising transgenders as the third gender, said that justice is delivered with the “assumption that humans have equal value and should, therefore, be treated as equal, as well as by equal laws”.
    • In 2019, in ‘Joseph Shine v Union of India’, the Supreme Court decriminalized adultery, and said that “a law that treats women differently based on gender stereotypes is an affront to women’s dignity”.
  • [pib] Second edition of India Innovation Index 2020

    NITI Aayog is set to release the second edition of the India Innovation Index 2020 tomorrow.

    *Statewise rankings will be updated tomorrow.

    Updated on 21st Jan, Thursday.

    India Innovation Index (III)

    • The release of the second edition of the index—the first was launched in October 2019—demonstrates the Government’s continued commitment towards transforming the country into an innovation-driven economy.
    • The index attempts to create an extensive framework for the continual evaluation of the innovation environment of 29 states and seven UTs in India.
    • It intends to perform the following three functions-
    1. Ranking of states and UTs based on their index scores
    2. Recognizing opportunities and challenges, and
    3. Assisting in tailoring governmental policies to foster innovation
    • The India Innovation Index 2019 is calculated as the average of the scores of its two dimensions – Enablers and Performance.
    • The states have been bifurcated into three categories: major states, north-east and hill states, and union territories/city-states/small states.

    Significance

    • The study examines the innovation ecosystem of Indian states and union territories.
    • The aim is to create a holistic tool which can be used by policymakers across the country to identify the challenges to be addressed and strengths to build on when designing policies.
  • New ideas needed for online privacy policies

    The article discusses challenges posed by online privacy policies and suggests some ideas to make them more user friendly.

    Issues with online privacy policies

    • Such policies are not designed for easy reading.
    • These policies are full of legal jargon and most are difficult to read.
    • Most policies are exclusively in English, which is clearly inadequate in a country where no more than 12 per cent are comfortable with the language.
    • A human-centric study across India found that even people who couldn’t read or write, when made aware of what they were consenting to, cared deeply about it.
    • Online consent is, therefore, a false choice for most Indians.

    Importance of consent in data ecosystem

    • Consent is also the fulcrum of India’s fast-growing data ecosystem.
    • The Data Protection Bill under consideration by Parliament lists consent as a legal ground for data processing.
    • Last year, NITI Aayog sought public comments on the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA), a system that will connect an individual’s financial, health, telecom and other data so that it can be moved from one provider to another.
    • DEPA intends to use consent to ensure that users remain in control of their data.

    New ideas needed to give users greater control

    1) Business as steward of consumer trust

    • Businesses need to become more responsible stewards of consumer trust.
    • Experiments suggest that making consumers read privacy policies by getting them to stay on the “privacy policy” page for a few minutes, led to increased trust in businesses and greater data sharing.
    • Businesses can adopt such ideas to make users trust them more.

    2) Regulatory bodies need to guide consumers

    • Consumers do not have the time or knowledge to go through privacy policies.
    • The food regulator’s food safety certifications and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)’s rating guides have become part of our everyday lives.
    • Similarly, a “privacy rating” for apps can help individuals make more informed choices about their data.
    • Such “rule of thumbs” can help them cut through the jargon, trust businesses more and share more data.

    3) Running awareness campaign

    • Governments and industry associations can play an enabling role by running innovative awareness campaigns that leverage local contexts, and relatable narrative styles.
    • The campaign should include awareness about messages logging off from public computers, and not sharing phone numbers easily.

    4) Some other ideas

    • The “burden of proof” on privacy should rest with providers rather than consumers.
    • Businesses should act as fiduciaries of user data and act in the best interest of the user than simply maximising profits.
    • Regulators can create a new class of intermediaries that warn consumers about dangerous practices, represent them, and seek recourse on their behalf.

    Consider the question “What are the issues with the consent to the online privacy policies? Suggest the measures to give users greater control over their digital destinies.

    Conclusion

    By educating and empowering every Indian, we will enable her to participate fully in India’s digital economy, and thereby create a meaningful digital life for every Indian. Only then will the true potential of Digital India be realised.

  • UK invites India to attend G7 Summit

    The United Kingdom has invited PM Modi to attend the G7 summit that is scheduled to be held in June.

    Note the members of G7 and G20. UPSC may puzzle you asking which G20 nation isn’t a member of G7.

    G7 Countries

    • The G-7 or ‘Group of Seven’ includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
    • It is an intergovernmental organisation that was formed in 1975 by the top economies of the time as an informal forum to discuss pressing world issues.
    • Initially, it was formed as an effort by the US and its allies to discuss economic issues.
    • The G-7 forum now discusses several challenges such as oil prices and many pressing issues such as financial crises, terrorism, arms control, and drug trafficking.
    • It does not have a formal constitution or a fixed headquarters. The decisions taken by leaders during annual summits are non-binding.
    • Canada joined the group in 1976, and the European Union began attending in 1977.

    Evolution of the G-7

    • When it started in 1975—with six members, Canada joining a year later—it represented about 70% of the world economy.
    • And it was a cozy club for tackling issues such as the response to oil shocks.
    • Now it accounts for about 40% of global GDP.
    • Since the global financial crisis of 2007-09, it has sometimes been overshadowed by the broader g20.
    • The G-7 became the G-8 in 1997 when Russia was invited to join.
    • In 2014, Russia was debarred after it took over Crimea.

    Significance of G7 for India

    • India will get more voice, more influence, and more power by entering the G7.
    • After the UN Security Council (UNSC), this is the most influential grouping.
    • If the group is expanded it will collectively address the humongous issues created by the Wuhan virus,
    • Diplomatically, a seat at the high table could help India further its security and foreign policy interests, especially at the nuclear club and UN Security Council reform as well as protecting its interests in the Indian Ocean.

    Back2Basics: The G-20

    • The G-20 is a larger group of countries, which also includes G7 members.
    • The G-20 was formed in 1999, in response to a felt need to bring more countries on board to address global economic concerns.
    • Apart from the G-7 countries, the G-20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey.
    • Together, the G-20 countries make up around 80% of the world’s economy.
    • As opposed to the G-7, which discusses a broad range of issues, deliberations at the G-20 are confined to those concerning the global economy and financial markets.
    • India is slated to host a G-20 summit in 2022.
  • UN Adaptation Gap Report, 2020

    The United Nations Adaptation Gap Report, 2020 was recently released by the UNEP.

    Must read edition: Five years of Paris Agreement

    UN Adaptation Gap Report

    • UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has managed the production of UN Environment’s Adaptation Gap Report series since its first edition in 2014.
    • The aim of the reports is to inform national and international efforts to advance climate change adaptation.

    Behind the concept: Adaptation Cost

    • Adaptation Cost includes costs of planning, preparing for, facilitating and implementing the climate change adaptation measures.
    • It thus derives benefits as the avoided damage costs or the accrued benefits following the adoption and implementation of adaptation measures.

    Highlights of the 2020 report

    • The annual cost of adaptation to the effects of climate change for developing countries is estimated to at least quadruple by 2050, according to the United Nations Adaptation Gap Report, 2020.
    • The current cost for developing countries is in the range of $70 billion (Rs 5.1 lakh crore) and may rise to $140-300 billion in 2030 and $280-500 billion in 2050.

    Funding gaps

    • The ever-increasing adaptation cost has also outpaced the growth in adaptation finance that refers to the flow of funds to developing countries to help them tide over the damages caused by climate change.
    • This, in turn, has kept the adaptation finance gap from closing with the current efforts, although the fund flow has increased, the report said.
    • Adaptation costs, in actual terms, are higher in developed countries but the burden of adaptation is greater for developing countries in relation to their gross domestic product.
    • These countries, especially in Africa and Asia, which are least equipped to tackle climate change will also, be the most impacted by it, the report noted.
  • Problem of control and governance of knowledge in a globalised world

    The article highlights the issues with the criteria applied by the UGC to evaluate the faculty research.

    Impact of UGC standardisation on social sciences and humanities research

    • UGC has been the regulatory body responsible for maintaining standards in higher education, while addressing challenges of globalisation.
    • Processes of UGC mandated standardisation have in particular impacted social sciences and humanities research in Indian universities.
    • Over the years, UGC has linked institutional funding to ranking and accreditation systems like NAAC and NIRF.
    • In order to evaluate institutions, these bodies have evolved  criteria, which rank universities based on faculty research measured by citations in global journal databases like SCOPUS.
    • In comparison, importance granted to research outputs like books or other forms is declining.

    Issues with the criteria

    • The insistence of publication in journals fails to distinguish between the varied trajectory of disciplines.
    • While in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Management) disciplines, research is often highly objective and quantified.
    • In social sciences and humanities research is subjective, analytical and argumentative.
    • In disciplines like history, sociology, politics, philosophy, psychology and literature, researchers spend years writing books that engage with ideas in complex ways.
    • In devaluing books as authentic forms of research, UGC does major disservice to scholars of social sciences and humanities.
    • Due to emphasis on publication, teachers spend most of their productive time writing articles and getting them published, thereby missing out on quality engagement with pedagogy and research.

    Issues with the process of peer review

    • The process of peer review itself is subjective, and depends upon the knowledge, inclination and availability of time of the particular reviewer.
    • It is often quite challenging for scholars to meet peer-review standards of A-listed journals.
    • This has actually required the UGC to expand its own list, ending up including and subsequently deleting a large number of locally published journals.

    Issue of inaccessibility

    • Publication of research in paywalled journal databases makes research inaccessible for students as universities continue to cut down library budgets.
    • Students and teachers, access articles through pirated sites like Libgen and Scihub, prone to be shut down at any point of time as evident from the litigations.
    • Clearly, access to knowledge is structurally made inequitable in favour of the elite and/or moneyed institutions and their constituents.

    Way forward

    • The above arguments maintain for the possible multiplicity that can emerge as the end-result of research.
    • Interdisciplinary and practice-based research can throw up social and ecological experiments, artworks and performances, and numerous new outcomes yet to be conceived as research outputs.
    • While the UGC hopes to raise the standards to global levels, precarity of employment, longer teaching hours, a dismal student-teacher ratio, lack of sabbaticals, research and travel grants, access to research facilities and office space, adversely impact the research potential of teachers.
    • Regulating research needs to be replaced with facilitating research, allowing minds to think and gestate.
    • Regulations without facilitation will merely bureaucratise the governance of knowledge without generating any pathbreaking insights.

    Conclusion

    The UGC needs to widen its criteria which values publication of a book as much as a research paper in the mandated journal to widen the research in social sciences and humanities.

  • India’s trade with China falls at five-year low

    India’s trade with China last year fell to the lowest since 2017, with the trade imbalance declining to a five-year low on the back of a slump in India’s imports from China.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Among the following, which one is the largest exporter of rice in the world in the last five years? (CSP 2019)

    (a) China

    (b) India

    (c) Myanmar

    (d) Vietnam

    India-China Trade

    • Two-way trade in 2020 reached $87.6 billion, down by 5.6%, according to new figures from China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC).
    • India’s imports from China accounted for $66.7 billion, declining by 10.8% year-on-year and the lowest figure since 2016.
    • It, however, rose to the highest figure on record, for the first time crossing the $20 billion-mark and growing 16% last year to $20.86 billion.

    What constitutes India’s import from China?

    • While there was no immediate break-up of the data in 2020, India’s biggest import in 2019 was electrical machinery and equipment, worth $20.17 billion.
    • Other major imports in 2019 were organic chemicals ($8.39 billion) and fertilizers ($1.67 billion), while India’s top exports were iron ore, organic chemicals, cotton and unfinished diamonds.

    India’s exports to China

    • The past 12 months saw a surge in demand for iron ore in China with a slew of new infrastructure projects aimed at reviving growth after the COVID-19 slump.
    • China’s total iron ore imports were up 9.5 per cent in 2020.

    A friction-induced low

    • The trade deficit, a source of friction between India and China, declined to a five year-low of $45.8 billion, the lowest since 2015.
    • Whether 2020 is an exception or marks a turn away from the recent pattern of India’s trade with China remains to be seen.
    • While India’s imports from China declined, so did India’s imports overall with a slump in domestic demand last year.
    • There is, as yet, no evidence to suggest India has replaced its import dependence on China by either sourcing those goods elsewhere or manufacturing them at home.
  • [pib] PMKVY 3.0

    The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 3.0.

    Note the differences between all three versions of PMKVY.

    PMKVY 3.0

    • PMKVY 3.0 envisages training of eight lakh candidates over the scheme period of 2020-2021.
    • This phase three will focus on new-age and COVID-related skills.
    • The 729 PM Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs), empanelled non-PMKK training centres and more than 200 industrial training institutes under Skill India will be rolling out under it.
    • On the basis of the learning gained from PMKVY 1.0 and PMKVY 2.0, the MSDE has improved the newer version of the scheme to match the current policy doctrine and energize the skilling ecosystem.

    Implementation

    • PMKVY 3.0 will be implemented in a more decentralized structure with greater responsibilities and support from States/UTs and Districts.
    • District Skill Committees (DSCs), under the guidance of State Skill Development Missions (SSDM), shall play a key role in addressing the skill gap and assessing demand at the district level.
    • The new scheme will be more trainee- and learner-centric addressing the ambitions of aspirational Bharat.
    • PMKVY 2.0 broadened the skill development with the inclusion of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and focus on training.
    • With the advent of PMKVY 3.0, the focus is on bridging the demand-supply gap by promoting skill development in areas of new-age and Industry 4.0 job roles.

    Back2Basics: PMKVY 1.0

    • PMKVY is a skill development initiative scheme of the Government of India for recognition and standardization of skills launched on16 July 2015;.
    • The aim of the scheme is to encourage aptitude towards employable skills and to increase the working efficiency of probable and existing daily wage earners, by giving monetary awards and rewards and by providing quality training to them.
    • For this qualification plans and quality, plans have been developed by various Sector Skill Councils (SSC) created with the participation of Industries.
    • National Skill Development Council (NSDC) has been made coordinating and driving agency for the same.
  • Adultery Law and the Armed Forces

    The Supreme Court has admitted a petition filed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) seeking to exempt armed forces personnel from the ambit of a Constitution Bench judgment of 2018 that decriminalized adultery.

    Q.  Personnels of the Indian Armed Forces constitute a ‘Distinct Class’.

    Discuss this statement in context to the extension of IPC section 497 to the Armed forces.

    What was the 2018 historic Judgment?

    • The Supreme Court had struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalized adultery.
    • It also declared Section 198 of the Criminal Procedure Code as unconstitutional, which deals with the procedure for filing a complaint about the offence of adultery.

    Important observations of the judgment

    • Section 497 was unconstitutional and is violative of Article 21 (Right to life and personal liberty) and Article 14 (Right to equality).
    • The court observed that two individuals may part if one cheats, but to attach criminality to infidelity is going too far. How married couples deal with adultery is absolutely a matter of privacy.
    • Besides, there is no data to back claims that abolition of adultery as a crime would result in “chaos in sexual morality” or an increase of divorce.
    • Any provision of law affecting individual dignity and equality of women invites the wrath of the Constitution.
    • It’s time to say that a husband is not the master of the wife. Legal sovereignty of one sex over other sex is wrong, ruled the court.
    • Marriage does not mean ceding autonomy of one to the other. Ability to make sexual choices is essential to human liberty. Even within private zones, an individual should be allowed her choice.

    What about Armed forces?

    • The judgment of 2018 created “instability”. It allowed personnel charged with carrying on an adulterous or illicit relationship to take cover under the judgment.
    • The bench had then referred the case to the CJI to pass appropriate orders to form a five-judge Bench to clarify the impact of the 2018 judgment on the armed forces.
    • This case is now being under the observation of the apex court.

    Govt. stance over this

    • The MoD has sought for an exemption to this decriminalization in the petition.
    • It said that there will always be a concern in the minds of the Army personnel who are operating far away from their families under challenging conditions about the family indulging in untoward activity.
    • The petition goes on to say that personnel of the Army, Navy and the Air Force were a “distinct class”. They were governed by special legislation, the Army Act, the Navy Act and the Air Force Act.
    • Adultery amounted to unbecoming conduct and a violation of discipline under these three Acts.
    • Unlike Section 497, the provisions of the three Acts did not differentiate between a man and a woman if they were guilty of an offence.

    Constitutional backing for an exception

    • These special laws imposed restrictions on the fundamental rights of the personnel, who function in a peculiar situation requiring utmost discipline.
    • The three laws were protected by Article 33 of the Constitution, which allowed the government to modify the fundamental rights of the armed forces personnel.

    The core idea behind govt. proposition

    • One has to remember that the armed forces exist in an environment wholly different and distinct from civilians. Honour is a sine qua non of the service.
    • The provisions of the Acts should be allowed to continue to govern the personnel as a “distinct class”, irrespective of the 2018 judgment.
    • This is because, the discipline necessary for the performance of duty, crucial for national safety, would break down.
    • It said the court would not, at the time, have been appraised of the different circumstances under which the armed forces operated.

    Back2Basics: Article 33 of the Indian Constitution

    • It deals with the power of Parliament to modify the rights conferred by this Part III in their application etc.
    • Parliament may, by law, determine to what extent any of the rights conferred by this Part shall, in their application to-

    (a) the members of the Armed Forces; or

    (b) the members of the Forces charged with the maintenance of public order; or

    (c) persons employed in any bureau or other organisation established by the State for purposes of intelligence or counterintelligence; or

    (d) persons employed in, or in connection with, the telecommunication systems set up for the purposes of any Force, bureau or organisation referred to in clauses (a) to (c), be restricted or abrogated so as to ensure the proper discharge of their duties and the maintenance of discipline among them