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GS Paper: GS2

  • Partners in the Blue Pacific (PBP) Initiative

    To reinforce its Indo-Pacific strategy, the US – along with Australia, New Zealand, UK and Japan – announced a new Partners in Blue Pacific (PBP) initiative.

    What is Partners in the Blue Pacific (PBP) initiative?

    • The PBP is a five-nation “informal mechanism” to support Pacific islands and to boost diplomatic, economic ties in the region.
    • It speaks of enhancing “prosperity, resilience, and security” in the Pacific through closer cooperation.
    • It simply means that through the PBP, these counties — together and individually — will direct more resources here to counter China’s aggressive outreach.
    • The initiative members have also declared that they will “elevate Pacific regionalism”, and forge stronger ties with the Pacific Islands Forum.
    • The areas where PBP aims to enhance cooperation include “climate crisis, connectivity and transportation, maritime security and protection, health, prosperity, and education”.

    How is China trying to transform its ties in the Pacific?

    • As China signed a security pact with Solomon Islands in April, the deal flagged serious concerns about the Chinese military getting a base in the southern Pacific.
    • This is very close to the US island territory of Guam, and right next to Australia and New Zealand.
    • The deal, which boosted Beijing’s quest to dominate crucial shipping lanes criss-crossing the region, rattled the US and its allies.
    • It also triggered urgent moves to counter China’s growing Pacific ambition amid a power vacuum fuelled by apparent lack of US attention.

    What is being done by the US and its allies to counter China?

    • Before launching the PBP this month, the US and its partners started the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF).
    • Away from the Pacific, the G7 on Monday (June 27) announced a plan — Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) — to rival China’s BRI.
    • It promises to raise $600 billion to fund development projects in low and middle-income countries.

     

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  • India State Support Programme for Road Safety

    The World Bank has approved a $250 million loan to support the Government of India’s road safety programme for seven States.

    Programme for Road Safety

    • Under this, a single accident reporting number will be set up to better manage post-crash events.
    • It will be implemented in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
    • The $250 million variable spread loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has a maturity of 18 years, with a grace period of 5.5 years.
    • The project will also establish a national harmonised crash database system in order to analyse accidents and use that to construct better and safer roads.
    • The project will also provide incentives to States to leverage private funding through public private partnership (PPP) concessions and pilot initiatives.

    Road accidents in India: Key takeaways

    • The report ‘Road Accidents in India 2020’ released by the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) provides for key stats.
    • India has only 1% of the world’s vehicles but 11% of the global deaths from road accidents occur in India.
    • About 450,000 accidents take place in India annually, of which 150,000 people die.
    • There are 53 road accidents in the country every hour and one death every four minutes.

    Why are there so many road fatalities in India alone?

    • Weak enforcement of traffic laws: People hardly oblige to traffic rules and find easier to bribe policemen rather than paying hefty challans.
    • Speeding issue: More accidents on the highways have been attributed to higher vehicle speeds and higher volume of traffic on these roads.
    • Engineering bottlenecks: Issues such as gaps in the median on the national highways, untreated intersections, and missing crash barriers are some of the biggest engineering issues.
    • Behavioural issue: Driver violations such as wrong-side driving, wrong lane usage by heavy vehicles, and mass violation of traffic lights, intoxication are the biggest behavioural issues.
    • Lack of Golden hour treatment: Lack of rapid trauma care on highways leads to such high fatalities.

    Imbibing road safety: Way forward

    • Road safety education
    • Better road design, maintenance and warning signage
    • Crackdown on driving under influence of alcohol and drugs
    • Strict enforcement of traffic rules
    • Encouraging better road behaviour
    • Ensuring road worthiness of a vehicle
    • Better first aid and paramedic care

    Do you know?

    The ‘golden hour’ has been defined as ‘the time period lasting one hour following a traumatic injury during which there is the highest likelihood of preventing death by providing prompt medical care.

     

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  • Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D)

    The Ministry of Education has released the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) for 2019 which studied 83 indicators grouped in six categories.

    What is PGI-D?

    • The 83-indicator-based PGI for District (PGI-D) has been designed to grade the performance of all districts in school education.
    • The data is filled by districts through an online portal.
    • The indicator-wise PGI score shows the areas where a district needs to improve.
    • The PGI-D structure comprises a total weightage of 600 points across 83 indicators.
    • They are grouped under 6 categories, viz., Outcomes, Effective Classroom Transaction, Infrastructure Facilities & Students’ Entitlements, School Safety & Child Protection, Digital Learning, and Governance Process.
    • These categories are outcomes, effective classroom transaction, infrastructure facilities and student’s entitlements, school safety and child protection, digital learning and governance process.

    How does the grading scale works?

    • The PGI-D grades the districts into 10 grades with the highest achievable grade being ‘Daksh’, which is for districts scoring more than 90% of the total points in that category or overall.
    • ‘Utkarsh’ category is for districts with score between 81-90%, followed by ‘Ati-Uttam’ (71-80%), ‘Uttam’ (61-70%), ‘Prachesta-I’ (51-60%), ‘Prachesta-II’ (41-50%) and ‘Pracheshta III’ (31-40%).
    • The lowest grade in PGI-D is called ‘Akanshi-3’ which is for scores up to 10% of the total points.

    Performance of the states

    • Rajasthan’s Sikar is the top performer, followed by Jhunjhunu and Jaipur.
    • The other States whose districts have performed best are Punjab with 14 districts in ‘Ati-uttam’ grade (scoring 71-80% on a scale of 100).
    • It followed by Gujarat and Kerala with each having 13 districts in this category.
    • However, there are 12 States and UTs which do not have even a single district in the ‘Ati-uttam’ and ‘Uttam’ categories and these include seven of the eight States from the North East region.

    Significance

    • The PGI-D will reflect the relative performance of all the districts on a uniform scale which encourages them to perform better.
    • It is expected to help the state education departments to identify gaps at the district level and improve their performance in a decentralized manner.

     

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  • G-20

    The Jammu and Kashmir administration has constituted a committee to coordinate with the delegates of G-20 countries scheduled to participate in a meeting to be held in the Union Territory (UT) next year.

    Why such move?

    • The participation of the delegates from G-20 countries will be a major boost to the efforts of the Centre to project the situation in J&K as normal.
    • This is especially after J&K’s special constitutional position was ended in 2019.

    What is G-20?

    • Formed in 1999, the G20 is an international forum of the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies.
    • Collectively, the G20 economies account for around 85 percent of the Gross World Product (GWP), 80 percent of world trade.
    • To tackle the problems or address issues that plague the world, the heads of governments of the G20 nations periodically participate in summits.
    • In addition to it, the group also hosts separate meetings of the finance ministers and foreign ministers.
    • The G20 has no permanent staff of its own and its chairmanship rotates annually between nations divided into regional groupings.

    Aims and objectives

    • The Group was formed with the aim of studying, reviewing, and promoting high-level discussion of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability.
    • The forum aims to pre-empt the balance of payments problems and turmoil on financial markets by improved coordination of monetary, fiscal, and financial policies.
    • It seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization.

    Members of G20

    The members of the G20 consist of 19 individual countries plus the European Union (EU).

    • The 19 member countries of the forum are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.
    • The European Union is represented by the European Commission and by the European Central Bank.

    Its significance

    • G20 is a major international grouping that brings together 19 of the world’s major economies and the European Union.
    • Its members account for more than 80% of global GDP, 75% of trade and 60% of population.

    India and G20

    • India has been a member of the G20 since its inception in 1999.

     

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  • Political crisis in Maharashtra underscores ineffectiveness of anti-defection law

    Context

    The political crisis in Maharashtra has brought focus back on the anti-defection law. By all accounts, the law has failed to shore up the stability of elected governments.

    About Anti-defection law

    • The Anti-Defection Law under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution punishes MPs/ MLAs for defecting from their party by taking away their membership of the legislature.
    • It gives the Speaker of the legislature the power to decide the outcome of defection proceedings.
    • It was added to the Constitution through the Fifty-Second (Amendment) Act, 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi was PM.
    • The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.

    How provisions of the law are being thwarted?

    • There are many ways to thwart provisions of the law:
    • The Speaker can sit on the defection pleas for the term of the assembly;
    • The beneficiary party can facilitate accretion of defectors to hit the magic two-thirds threshold.
    • The voters don’t seem to care about punishing the defectors either.

    Is an amendment to the law a solution?

    • Some have thus argued that the way forward is to amend the anti-defection law to fill these lacunae by mandating time-bound decisions by the Speaker and disqualifying defectors from standing for the next election as well.
    • These proposed amendments like the original law want to consolidate power without necessarily putting in the requisite politics.

    Why amendment to the law will not solve the problem

    •  Politicians are adept at subverting institutional processes for their own ends and there are many possibilities for payoff for defectors outside of elected office alone.
    • Moreover, politics has a rich history of exercise of power by proxy and the disqualified representative may simply choose to have a family member stand in their stead.
    •  The anti-defection law and proposed amendments approach the issue of defections from the prism of denying power to the defector, a framing which repeatedly comes up short in the face of a bigger and/or more punitive power.

    Way forward

    • Parties need to project power: Within this framework, if political parties want to resist defections, they must be able to project (imminent) power themselves.
    • Parties need to address organisational issues: At the same time, political parties must address organizational and ideological infirmities which have made them susceptible to mass defections in the first place.
    • Ideological clarity: Political parties need ideological clarity and the ability to attract individuals with a sense of purpose and not love for power alone.
    • This ideological depth if reflected in the party organization and its political programs will give members the ability to withstand lean periods of power.
    • Inner-party democracy: Political parties are failing to create intra-party forums where grievances can be expressed and resolved on an ongoing basis.
    • Internal mechanisms for inner-party democracy – from elections to deliberative forums – are ultimately at the discretion of the party leadership.
    • Scrap anti-defection law: Scrapping the anti-defection law would provide some institutional leverage to express intra-party dissidence and while it may be more chaotic in the short-term would lead to greater stability and political strength in the long-term.
    • Contributed to polarisation: The anti-defection law has undermined not just the very principle of representation but has also contributed to polarization in our country by making it impossible to construct a majority on any issue outside of party affiliation.
    • Avoid ceding political power to the judiciary: Political parties are repeatedly giving primacy to legal instead of political battles since these issues inevitably end up in court.
    • This repeated ceding of political power to the judiciary is a serious deviation from the democratic paradigm and must be checked.

    Conclusion

    Anti-defection law has failed to prevent the defections and subsequent toppings of the several state government. Scrapping it could provide leverage to express intra-party dissidence.

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  • How Hanoi and New Delhi are fortifying defence ties

    Context

    The two countries recently deepened bilateral cooperation with the signing of the Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030 during the recent visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to Vietnam.

    About the Joint Vision Statement

    • India and Vietnam Wednesday signed a Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030, “which will significantly enhance the scope and scale of existing defence cooperation”.
    • Boosting the scale and scope of defence cooperation: The Joint Vision Statement is aimed at boosting the scope and scale of the existing defence cooperation between the two nations.
    • Mutual logistic support: The two sides also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual logistics support.
    • Elevating CSP: This is the first agreement of its kind that Hanoi has entered into with any other country and elevates the standing of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) which Hanoi shares with New Delhi since 2016 (along with only Russia and China).

    Enhanced maritime cooperation

    • Both countries find convergence in their approaches towards the maintenance of stability and security of the Indo-Pacific.
    • This approach has translated into diplomatic and political support in the context of developments within the region and manifested in the form of tangible and functional cooperation instruments — the most vital being bilateral defence partnership.
    • Because of the volume of maritime trade that passes through sea lanes of communication in the Indo-Pacific and potential as well as estimated energy reserves in these waters, maritime cooperation between countries in the region have expanded exponentially.

    Emphasis on the cooperative mechanism

    • The enhanced geostrategic prominence and attendant uncertainties vis-à-vis China’s expanding and often abrasive footprints in the Indo-Pacific have resulted in an overall increase in emphasis on cooperative mechanisms and frameworks across the region.
    • Defence partnership between the two countries has been growing steadily following the signing of the Defence Protocol in 2000 and today covers extensive navy-to-navy cooperation.

    Dealing with Chinese transgression

    • Vietnam has and continues to be one of the most vocal countries with respect to China’s periodic transgressions in the South China Sea.
    • Freedom of navigation: In India, Vietnam has found an equally uncompromising partner when it comes to the question of violations of freedom of navigation and threats to sovereign maritime territorial rights as enshrined under international maritime law.
    • New Delhi has supported Vietnam’s position in the South China Sea with respect to Beijing’s destabilising actions and coercive tactics backing by reiterating the irrefutability of the UNCLOS.
    • India has also not backed down from continuing ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL)’s oil exploration project in Block 128 (which is within Hanoi’s EEZ) despite China’s protests.
    • Emphasis on naval diplomacy: It is also in the last few years that Vietnam has augmented its emphasis on naval diplomacy and strengthened its ties with the US alongside the extension of its engagement with India and other ASEAN members.
    • Despite the fact that the China factor has provided impetus to the solidification of ties, it is also important to consider that mutual cooperation is not driven solely by it.
    • Support in the rubric of Indo-Pacific: Both countries have expanded areas of collaboration and are supportive of each other’s individual and multilateral involvements within the rubric of the Indo-Pacific.

    Conclusion

    Convergences between New Delhi and Hanoi has naturally found expression in bilateral relations and the two countries are poised to develop their partnership further in the coming years.

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    Back2Basics: About UNCLOS

    • UNCLOS is sometimes referred to as the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty.
    • It came into operation and became effective from 16th November 1982.
    • It defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world’s oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.
    • It has created three new institutions on the international scene :
      1. International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea,
      2. International Seabed Authority
      3. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf

  • Democratic Backsliding in America

    Context

    With the US Supreme Court’s overturning of abortion as a constitutionally guaranteed right, America has taken another step towards democratic backsliding.

    Background of the Roe v Wade case

    • Bodily autonomy: Roe, the 1973 outcome of an unmarried woman’s crusade for bodily autonomy, had declared overbroad, and consequently unconstitutional, a provision of the Texas Penal Code which permitted only those abortions that were “procured or attempted by medical advice to save the life of the mother”.
    • Right to abortion: While locating the right of privacy within the guarantee of personal liberty enshrined in the fourteenth amendment of the American constitution, Roe embodies a supervening constitutional right to abortion emanating from this right of privacy.
    • The right to abort was held to be a constitutionally protected right within the right of privacy.
    • Recognition of states’ rights: The decision simultaneously recognised the state’s interest in protecting the life of the foetus as also the life of the mother. 
    • Roe is not only relevant as a progressive trailblazer for reproductive rights in the United States but is also fundamental to constitutional jurisprudence globally for the interpretative tools it employed.

    Overturning of Roe Vs Wade case

    • The US Supreme Court on June 24 overturned a half-century-old right to abortion, granted by a 1973 Supreme Court decision in the Roe vs Wade case.
    • No nationwide right to abortion: With a 5-4 majority, the court has said that American women have no nationwide right to abortion.
    • Rather, state legislatures should decide whether women can have that right in their respective states.
    • Concerns about the life of the unbors: In the court’s opinion, the right to privacy stemming from the 14th Amendment is not relevant, for abortion concerns not only the pregnant woman but also the life of the unborn.
    • Not mentioned in the 1787 constitution: Moreover, the court said, abortion is neither “enumerated” as a right in the original 1787 constitution nor is it consistent with American history and tradition.
    • Taking away the right once granted: In a democracy, can a right once granted be taken away?
    • As the world’s oldest surviving democracy, the United States has figured prominently in this debate.
    • With the overturning of Roe vs Wade, this debate has now become wider.

    Was the right to abortion constitutionally justified?

    • Protection of liberty and privacy: The 1973 court decision allowing the right to abortion was based on the 14th Constitutional Amendment (1868).
    • Even though abortion was not mentioned in the 1787 US Constitution, abortion’s defence was derived from the 1868 Amendment
    • This Amendment, the court said, allowed protection of liberty and privacy, something the state could not impinge upon.
    • Not absolute right: The 1973 court also argued that this right was not absolute, limited as it would be by considerations of “protecting potential life”.

    Issues with the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade case

    • 1] No constitution can anticipate the evolution of rights:  Abortion was not mentioned in the 1787 constitution, nor explicitly in the 1868 amendment.
    • That is because women were not autonomous political agents at that time.
    • Until they were given the right to vote in 1920, they were not a constitutional category in the US, as was true virtually everywhere in the world.
    • Women are autonomous agents today. Norms change; rights evolve.
    • 2] Ignores rape and incest:  As the court’s dissent note puts it, this majority decision ignore rape and incest.
    • If abortion as a right is dissolved, women can be forced to give such unwanted births.
    • The majority decision of the court is silent on this important matter.
    • 3] Against the right to participate equally in economic and social life: Having a child is not simply a deeply moral obligation to the unborn.
    • It is also a decision that affects “the ability of women to participate equally in (the nation’s) economic and social life”.
    • These words are from a later decision, known as Casey (1992), when the US Supreme Court added the concept of “undue burdens” to support the idea of abortion.
    • 4] Right over body ignored: Men don’t have to deal physically with pregnancy, whereas the foetus grows inside a woman’s body for nine months.
    •  If men have the right over their bodies, which can’t be taken away by the government,then women should also have autonomy over their bodies as well.
    •  Maternity must be a voluntary choice.
    • There is no going back to the notion of rights as they were viewed in the 18th century — unequal, unneutral, unbalanced.

    Conclusion

    Typically, as they evolve and deepen, democracies allow the arc of rights to broaden further, not retreat. After this judgment in the US, the stakes have become much higher and the democratic challenges bigger.

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  • Upper House, a question

    Context

    This article seeks to re-articulate a question pertaining to the composition of the Council of States.

    Historical background and CAD over the issue of second chamber

    • Lokanath Misra led the charge against a federal second chamber in the Constituent Assembly stating that there was not need for the second chamber and also that it will not serve any useful purpose.
    • Shibban Lal Saksena, was equally emphatic: He said that as per their experience, the Upper House acts as a clog in the wheel of progress.
    • They were not the only ones who had concerns. Other members expressed them too in different contexts during the Constituent Assembly debate on draft Article 67.

    Issues with the role of Rajya Sabha

    • Unable to protect the interest of the States: Article 1(1) of the Indian Constitution states “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.”
    • Therefore, the primary responsibility of a Council of States would be to protect the interests of the states vis a vis the Union.
    • There is hardly any empirical evidence that substantiates that the Rajya Sabha has measured upto the task ever since it came into existence on April 3r 1952.
    • No focus on states: From 1952 to 2003, at least there was a veneer of a state focus when it was mandatory that any citizen desirous of contesting a Rajya Sabha election had to be an elector from that particular state.
    • By amending Section 3(1) of the Representation of People’s Act 1952 and doing away with the domicile requirement, the Government removed this fig leaf also in 2003.
    •  A five-judge bench did not uphold tha challenge to this judgement.
    •  This amendment and the subsequent judgment buried the earlier practice of individuals entering the Rajya Sabha from anywhere based upon rather dodgy but still some form of domicile credentials.
    • All states do not have bicameral legislature: Twenty-four states have unicameral legislatures, that is, only one legislative body, and only six states are bicameral.
    • If the bulk of the states can make do with one House why not the Centre?
    • Rajya Sabha as continuous house argument: It is also argued that the Rajya Sabha is a continuous House as opposed to the Lok Sabha that gets mandatorily dissolved every five years if not sooner.
    • That can be fixed with a simple amendment to Article 83 (2) that should state that “Lok Sabha would remain in existence till the time its successor body/house is not constituted.
    • Article 83 (1) would stand deleted and consequential amendments can be carried out to other parts of the Constitution.

    Conclusion

    It would be instructive to keep in mind that the Basic Structure doctrine enunciated by the Supreme Court in Re: Kesvananda Bharti holds parliamentary democracy to be basic structure, not bicameralism.

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  • Caution in buying Russian cruide

    Context

    This week the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times both reported on India emerging as a major buyer of Russian oil.

    Background of rising fuel prices due to Ukraine crisis

    • A significant fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been the rising cost of petroleum.
    • In response to the invasion, Western countries, including the United States and Europe, have imposed an array of sanctions against Russia.
    • Reduced purchases from Russia: Europe and the United States have seen the price of oil steadily rise after they reduced their purchases from Russia.
    • For now, Russia has been able to mitigate the impact of sanctions by selling crude, oil and coal at reasonable prices in greater volumes to newer bulk buyers like India, to combat Europe trying to wean itself off Russian crude.

    Why India increased purchase of Russian oil

    • India has chosen a different route.
    • Cope with rising fuel prices: We are the third-largest importer and consumer of oil in the world and have increased our purchase of Russian oil to cope with rising oil prices elsewhere.
    • We are also refining crude oil or turning it into products like jet fuel and diesel and selling it to Europe and other nations.
    • Curb inflation: Importing Russian crude also helps us curb inflation that has been made worse by rising fuel prices.
    • Halting the fall of the rupee: Procuring discounted Russian oil is an effort by the government to bring down prices and halt the decline in the value of the Indian rupee.
    • India’s behaviour is governed by our best interest, which is the most important element of any astute foreign and economic policy.

    Issues with purchasing oil from Russia

    • The European Union has announced a ban against insuring ships carrying Russian oil, to commence this December.
    • Insurance ban: Countries like India, China and Turkey that are increasing their oil purchases from Russia have six months to find a work-around to the insurance ban by using non-European insurance companies.
    • European companies own most of the ships carrying Russian oil to India.
    • These insurance sanctions will impact the companies that own these ships as well.
    • Dependence for batteries: Apart from geopolitical changes in the world indicating the rise of China, there is a major change: Electric vehicles and electric batteries substituting for non-renewable resources like petroleum and diesel.
    • India cannot afford to be dependent on an unhindered supply of electric batteries from China, given geopolitical considerations and border disputes between the two nations.

    Way forward

    • To weather the new electric era that will no doubt be dotted with territorial wars and national security concerns, India would do well to preempt shortages in the arena – by putting in place factories which will build the electric batteries that will power our futures.
    • What the invasion of Ukraine has taught us is that we need to be more self-reliant and have in-house energy sources.

    Conclusion

    India needs to factor in the implications of comprehensive western sanctions as it increases its purchase of discounted Russian oil.

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  • Issues with use of NMMS app in NREGA

    Context

    The National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) app seeks to improve citizen oversight and increase transparency in NREGA works. This causes significant difficulty for NREGA workers.

    About NMMS app

    • National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) App  was launched by the Minister of Rural Development on May, 21 2021.
    • The National Mobile Monitoring App is applicable for the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers for all the States/ Union Territories.
    • This app is aimed at bringing more transparency and ensure proper monitoring of the schemes.
    •  The main feature of the app is the real-time, photographed, geo-tagged attendance of every worker to be taken once in each half of the day. 
    • The app helps in increasing citizen oversight of the programme.

    Issues with the use of the app

    • While such an app may be useful in monitoring the attendance of workers who have fixed work timings, in most States, NREGA wages are calculated based on the amount of work done each day, and workers do not need to commit to fixed hours.
    • Disproportionately affects women: NREGA has historically had a higher proportion of women workers (54.7% in FY 2021-22) and has been pivotal in changing working conditions for women in rural areas.
    • Due to the traditional burden of household chores and care work on women, the app is likely to disproportionately affect women workers.
    • Lack of stable network: There are challenges of implementation with the NMMS as well.
    • A stable network is a must for real-time monitoring; unfortunately, it remains patchy in much of rural India.
    • NREGA Mates impacted: The app has adversely impacted NREGA Mates as well.
    • The role of a Mate was conceptualised as an opportunity to empower local women to manage attendance and work measurement in their panchayat.
    • To be a Mate, one needs to have a smartphone.
    • This new condition disqualifies thousands of women who do not own smartphones from becoming Mates.
    • Erosion of transparency:  The app claims to “increase citizen oversight” by “bringing more transparency and ensuring proper monitoring of the schemes, besides potentially enabling processing payments faster”.
    • With no physical attendance records signed by workers anymore, workers have no proof of their attendance and work done.
    • No clarity provided on corruption: While ostensibly the NMMS’s focus on real-time, geo-tagged attendance could be one way of addressing this corruption, the MoRD has not provided much clarity on either the magnitude of this corruption or the manner in which the NMMS addresses it.
    • No parameters: There are no parameters established to assess the app’s performance, either on transparency, or on quicker processed payments.

    Way forward

    • Social audits: Social audits are citizen-centric institutions, where the citizens of the panchayat have a direct role and say in how NREGA functions in their panchayat.
    • Audits have worked well in the past, allowing the local rights holders to be invested in decisions, and hold the administration accountable themselves.

    Conclusion

    The NMMS has very clear problems that will make it increasingly difficult for workers to continue working under NREGA, eroding the right to work that underwrites the NREGA Act.

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