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GS Paper: GS2

  • Strategic cooperation between India, Italy and Japan can ensure a free Indo-Pacific

    Context

    Recently, Mr. Draghi, Italy’s Prime Minister described Chinese competitive practices as “unfair” and invited the EU to be franker and more courageous in confronting Beijing on various issues. Against this backdrop, a trilateral partnership between India-Japan-Italy could play important role in the Indo-Pacific region.

    India’s growing centrality in Indo-Pacific strategic architecture

    • Countries that share similar values and face similar challenges are coming together to create purpose-oriented partnerships.
    • In the context of the Indo-Pacific, the challenges posed by China’s assertive initiatives clash with a region lacking multilateral organisations capable of solving problems effectively.
    • But as a new pushback against China takes shape and as Indian foreign policy becomes strategically clearer, there is new momentum to initiatives such as the Quad.

    India-Italy-Japan trilateral partnership

    • Recently, Italy has also begun to signal its intention to enter the Indo-Pacific geography.
    • It has done so by seeking to join India and Japan in a trilateral partnership.
    • Italy has become more vocal on the risks emanating from China’s strategic competitive initiatives.
    • On the Indian side, there is great interest in forging new partnerships with like-minded countries interested in preserving peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
    • The responsibility of keeping the Indo-Pacific free and open, and working for the welfare of its inhabitants falls on like-minded countries within and beyond the region.

    Potential of trilateral partnership

    • Their compatible economic systems can contribute to the reorganisation of the global supply chains that is now being reviewed by many players as a natural result of the Chinese mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    •  At the security level, the well-defined India-Japan Indo-Pacific partnership can easily be complemented by Italy.
    • At the multilateral level, the three countries share the same values and the same rules-based world view.

    The way forward for trilateral cooperation

    • The Italian government must formulate a clear Indo-Pacific strategy that must indicate its objectives.
    • But Rome must go beyond that in defining and implementing, at the margins of the EU’s common initiatives, its own policy with respect to the Indo-Pacific.
    • The India, Italy and Japan trilateral initiative can be a forum to foster and consolidate a strategic relationship between these three countries, and specifically expand India-Italy bilateral relations.
    • A trilateral cooperation can be the right forum for India and Italy to learn more from each other’s practices and interests and consolidate a strategic dialogue that should include the economic, the security and the political dimensions.
    •  To consolidate the trilateral cooperation in this field, the three countries need to define a common economic and strategic agenda.

    Conclusion

    A clear political will is needed from all sides, and Italy, in particular, should recognise its interests in playing a larger role towards the maintenance of a free and open Indo-Pacific. Robust India-Italy strategic ties can be the first step towards the realisation of this goal.

  • Arbitration in India: Issues

    Context

    Plagued by delays and rising costs, arbitration in India needs urgent attention. The pandemic has only worsened the situation.

    Issues with arbitrations process in India

    • Arbitrations in India suffers from rising costs and sluggish proceedings.
    • Arbitration proceedings are often dragged on by lawyers on either side filing misconceived applications at various stages of the proceedings.
    • Litigants, too, at times contribute to this delay with their stubbornness in not conceding a loss or defeat.
    • The courts have narrowed down the scope of judicial interference under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.
    • The very limited recourse for setting aside an arbitral award under the Act invariably means that it will be upheld, even if it appears unfair or illogical.
    • The aggrieved party may well be stuck with the award and precluded forever from challenging it.
    • Arbitration hearings are generally held in camera, and decisions are usually not publicly accessible, giving rise to doubts about impartiality and fairness.
    • Arbitration proceedings have become more complex with time.
    • The Supreme Court, in Guru Nanak Foundation v. Rattan Singh and Sons, had expressed disappointment against the procedural delays and tardiness in the resolution of disputes through arbitration.
    • Even the clauses providing for fees of the arbitrators and fixed timelines for disposal are often disregarded by the players
    • The inevitable consequence of these drawbacks is a slow departure of the biggest litigant, the government, from the arbitration spectrum.
    • A sector that is dominated by approvals, protocols and scrutiny, uncertainty about the budget outlay towards arbitrations and unexpected delays in disposal does not inspire confidence and detracts from the sanctity of the process.

    Way forward

    • Arbitrators have endeavoured to simplify the proceedings by limiting the pleadings, insisting on written arguments, reducing the number of sittings and laying down a schedule for various milestones.
    • Some restraint is needed from all quarters to bring its wheels back on the tracks. These are:
    • A small check on the arbitral fees and timelines.
    • Careful drafting of arbitration clauses.
    • Stringent procedural safeguards to curb delays.
    • Expeditious disposal of the court proceedings and legislative intent towards all of the above.

    Consider the question “What are the issues faced by the arbitration in India? Suggest the measures to deal with these issues.” 

    Conclusion

    Arbitration still has the inherent potential and characteristics to outperform other modes of dispute resolution, but for that to happen, some changes are a must.

  • How China eliminated malaria and the road ahead for India

    Recently, El Salvador and China were declared malaria-free by the WHO.

    What is Malaria?

    • Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite called plasmodium vivax, p. filarium.
    • The parasite is spread to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes.
    • People who have malaria usually feel very sick with a high fever and shaking chills.
    • While the disease is uncommon in temperate climates, malaria is still common in tropical and subtropical countries.

    How many countries have successfully eliminated malaria?

    • Since 1900, 127 countries have registered malaria elimination. This is definitely not an easy task.
    • It needs proper planning and a strategic action plan based on the local situations.
    • All these countries followed the existing tools and strategies to achieve the malaria elimination goal.
    • The main focus was on surveillance.
    How did China eliminate malaria?
    • China followed some specific strategies, namely strong surveillance following the ‘1-3-7’system: malaria diagnosis within 1 day, 3 days for case investigation and by day 7 for public health responses.
    • Molecular Malaria Surveillance for drug resistance and genome-based approaches to distinguish between indigenous and imported cases was conducted.
    • All borders to the neighboring countries were thoroughly screened to prevent the entry of unwanted malaria into the country.

    What is the current scenario of malaria in India?

    • As per the Global Malaria Report 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) India shared 2% of the total global malaria cases in 2019.
    • India has a great history of malaria control.
    • The highest incidence of malaria occurred in the 1950s, with an estimated 75 million cases with 0.8 million deaths per year.
    • The launch of National Malaria Control Programme in 1953 and the National Malaria Eradication Programme in 1958 made it possible to bring down malaria cases to 100,000 with no reported deaths by 1961.
    • This is a great achievement been made so far.

    Unexpected resurgence

    • But from a nearing stage of elimination, malaria resurged to approximately 6.4 million cases in 1976.
    • Since then, confirmed cases have decreased to 1.6 million cases, approximately 1100 deaths in 2009 to less than 0.4 million cases and below 80 deaths in 2019.
    • India accounted for 88% of malaria cases and 86% of all malaria deaths in the WHO South-East Asia Region in 2019.
    • It is the only country outside Africa among the world’s 11 `high burden to high impact’ countries.

    Road ahead for India

    Collaboration:

    • India is a signatory to National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030 aiming for malaria elimination by 2030.
    • This framework has been outlined with a vision to eliminate the disease from the country which would contribute to improved health with quality of life and poverty alleviation.
    • China collaborated with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA for Molecular Malaria Surveillance.
    • In India, there are very dedicated expert scientists who can take up such assignments.

    Diagnosis:

    • India stands at a very crucial stage. The present challenge is the detection of asymptomatic cases in most endemic areas.
    • Molecular Malaria Surveillance must be used to find out the drug-resistant variants and genetic-relatedness studies to find out the imported or indigenous cases.
    • The surveillance must be strengthened and using smart digital surveillance devices would be an important step. Real-time and organic surveillance is needed even in remote areas.

    Monitoring:

    • The results of each malaria case can be registered in a central dashboard at the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, as it is done for COVID-19 cases by Indian Council of Medical Research.
    • All intervention activities must strictly be monitored.
    • Vector biology, site of an actual vector mosquito bite, host shifting behaviour, feeding time, feeding behaviour and insecticide resistance studies need to be carried out to support the elimination efforts.

  • Election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker

    The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly has been without a Speaker for most of this year.

    Election of Speakers

    • The Constitution specifies offices like those of the President, Vice President, Chief Justice of India, and Comptroller and Auditor General of India, as well as Speakers and Deputy Speakers.
    • Article 93 for Lok Sabha and Article 178 for state Assemblies state that these Houses “shall, as soon as may be”, choose two of its members to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
    • In Lok Sabha and state legislatures, the President/Governor sets a date for the election of the Speaker.
    • It is the Speaker who decides the date for the election of the Deputy Speaker.
    • The legislators of the respective Houses vote to elect one among themselves to these offices.
    • The Constitution provides that the office of the Speaker should never be empty.
    • So, he/she continues in office until the beginning of the next House, except in the event of death or resignation.

    Ruling party or Opposition?

    • Usually, the Speaker comes from the ruling party.
    • In the case of the Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, the position has varied over the years.
    • Until the fourth Lok Sabha, the Congress held both the Speaker and Deputy Speakers positions.
    • In the fifth Lok Sabha, whose term was extended due to the Emergency, an independent member, Shri G G Swell, was elected the Deputy Speaker.
    • The tradition for the post of the Deputy Speaker going to the Opposition party started during the term of Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s government.
    • The first time the Deputy Speaker’s position went to the opposition was during the term of Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao.

    Their roles

    • According to the book Practice and Procedure of Parliament, published by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the Speaker is “the principal spokesman of the House, he represents its collective voice and is its sole representative to the outside world”.
    • The Speaker presides over the House proceedings and joint sittings of the two Houses of Parliament.
    • It is the Speaker’s decision that determines whether a Bill is a Money Bill and therefore outside of the purview of the other House.
    • The Deputy Speaker is independent of the Speaker, not subordinate to him, as both are elected from among the members of the House.

    Why need Dy Speaker?

    • The Deputy Speaker ensures the continuity of the Speakers office by acting as the Speaker when the office becomes vacant.
    • In addition, when a resolution for removal of the Speaker is up for discussion, the Constitution specifies that the Deputy Speaker presides over the proceedings of the House.

    Issue over time limit for election

    • The Constitution neither sets a time limit nor specifies the process for these elections.
    • It leaves it to the legislatures to decide how to hold these elections.
    • Haryana and Uttar Pradesh specify a time frame for holding the election to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker’s offices.
    • In Haryana, the election of the Speaker has to take place as soon as possible after the election.
    • Uttar Pradesh has a 15-day limit for an election to the Speaker’s post if it falls vacant during the term of the Assembly.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following statements:

    1. The Speakers of the Legislative Assembly shall vacate his/her office if he/she ceases to be a member of the Assembly
    2. Whenever the legislative assembly is dissolved, the speaker shall vacate his/her office immediately.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2013)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

  • EAM hands over relics of 17th century Georgian Queen St. Ketevan to Georgia

    After a long-standing request of Georgia, External Affairs Minister handed over the holy relics of 17th century Georgian Queen St. Ketevan nearly 16 years after they were found in Goa.

    Who was St. Ketevan?

    • Queen Ketevan was a 17th century Georgian Queen.
    • From Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia, she was tortured and killed in 1624 in Shiraz during the rule of the Safavid dynasty.
    • Portuguese missionaries were said to have carried the relics to Goa in 1627.
    • In 2005, after years of research and study of medieval Portuguese records, the relics were found at the St. Augustine Church in Old Goa.

    Importance of Georgia for India

    • Georgia a strategically important country situated at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
    • Relations between Georgia and India date back to ancient times.
    • The Panchatantra influenced Georgian folk legends. During the medieval period, Georgian missionaries, travelers, and traders visited India.
    • Some Georgians served in the courts of Mughal emperors, and a few rose to the rank of governor.
    • India was among the first countries to officially recognize Georgia, doing so on 26 December 1991.
    • India is a net exporter to Georgia.
    • The main commodities exported by India to Georgia are cereals, nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances, pharmaceuticals, electrical machinery and equipment, aluminium and aluminium articles.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following pairs:

    Sea Bordering Country
    1. Adriatic Sea Albania
    2. Black Sea Croatia
    3. Caspian Sea Kazakhstan
    4. Mediterranean Sea Morocco
    5. Red Sea Syria

    Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched? (CSP 2019)

    (a) 1, 2 and 4 only

    (b) 1, 3 and 4 only

    (c) 2 and 5 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

  • Mekedatu Dam Project

    Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are again at the crossroads against the Mekedatu dam project in the Cauvery River Basin.

    What is the Mekedatu Project?

    • Mekedatu, meaning goat’s leap, is a deep gorge situated at the confluence of the rivers Cauvery and Arkavathi, about 100 km from Bengaluru, at the Kanakapura taluk in Karnataka’s Ramanagara district.
    • In 2013, then Karnataka announced the construction of a multi-purpose balancing reservoir project.
    • The project aimed to alleviate the drinking water problems of the Bengaluru and Ramanagara districts.
    • It was also expected to generate hydroelectricity to meet the power needs of the state.

    Issues with the project

    • Soon after the project was announced TN has objected over granting of permission or environmental clearance.
    • Explaining the potential for damage to the lower riparian state of TN, it said that the project was in violation of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.
    • It stated that the project will affect the natural flow of the river Cauvery considerably and will severely affect the irrigation in TN.

    What do the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court say?

    • The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, in its final order on February 2007, made allocations to all the riparian States — Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, apart from the Union Territory of Puducherry.
    • It also stipulated “tentative monthly deliveries during a normal year” to be made available by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu.
    • Aggrieved over the final order for different reasons, the States had appealed to the Supreme Court.
    • In February 2018, the court, in its judgment, revised the water allocation and increased the share of Karnataka by 14.75 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) at the cost of Tamil Nadu.
    • The enhanced quantum comprised 4.75 tmc ft for meeting drinking water and domestic requirements of Bengaluru and surrounding areas.

    What is Karnataka planning?

    • Encouraged by the Supreme Court verdict, Karnataka, which sees the order as an endorsement of its stand, has set out to pursue the Mekedatu project.
    • Originally proposed as a hydropower project, the revised Mekedatu dam project has more than one purpose to serve.
    • A hydropower plant of nearly 400 MW has also been proposed.
    • The Karnataka government has argued that the proposed reservoir will regulate the flow to Tamil Nadu on a monthly basis, as stipulated by the Tribunal and the Supreme Court.
    • This is why Karnataka has contended that the project will not affect the interests of Tamil Nadu farmers.

  • Issues with school enrolment in India

    Context

    Proportion of children attending the government schools has been on the decline. This has several implications.

    Issues with school education in India

    • A quality, free and regular school education represents our most potent infrastructure of opportunity, a fundamental duty of the state.
    • Meritocracy represents the idea that people should advance based on their talents and efforts.
    • But India’s meritocracy is sabotaged by flailing government schools.
    • The proportion of India’s children attending a government school has now declined to 45 per cent.
    • This number is 85 per cent in America, 90 per cent in England, and 95 per cent in Japan.
    • India’s 100 per cent plus school enrolment masks challenges; a huge dropout ratio and poor learning outcomes.
    • We have too many schools and 4 lakh have less than 50 students (70 per cent of schools in Rajasthan, Karnataka, J&K, and Uttarakhand).
    • China has similar total student numbers with 30 per cent of our school numbers.

    It is not Government Vs. Private schools

    • Demand for better government schools is not an argument against private schools.
    • Because, without this market response to demand, the post-1947 policy errors in primary education would have been catastrophic for India’s human capital.

    Way forward

    • We need the difficult reforms of governance, performance management, and English instruction.
    • Governance must shift from control of resources to learning outcomes; learning design, responsiveness, teacher management, community relationships, integrity, fair decision making, and financial sustainability.
    • Performance management, currently equated with teacher attendance, needs evaluation of scores, skills, competence and classroom management. Scores need continuous assessments or end-of-year exams.
    • The new world of work redefines employability to include the 3Rs of reading, writing, and arithmetic and a fourth R of relationships.
    • India’s farm to non-farm transition is not happening to factories but to sales and customer services which need 4R competency and English awareness.
    • English instruction is about bilingualism, higher education pathways, and employability.
    • Employment outcomes are 50 per cent higher for kids with English familiarity because of higher geographic mobility, sector mobility, role eligibility, and entrance exam ease.
    • India’s constitution wrote Education Policy into Lists I (Centre), II (State), and III (concurrent jurisdiction); this fragmentation needs revisiting because it tends to concentrate decisions that should be made locally in Delhi or state capitals.

    Conclusion

    Government needs urgent measure to addreess the issues which has bearing on its future.

  • Delimitation of Jammu and Kashmir

    The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission has completed its consultation with various and stated that it would base its final report on the 2011 Census to add at least seven more seats to the 83-member Assembly of the erstwhile state.

    Agenda for delimitation

    • Delimitation will be conducted on the basis of the 2011 census report. This assumes significance because the last delimitation exercise was conducted 26 years ago in 1995, and that too was based on the census of 1981.
    • Apart from the demographics indicated in the Census, the commission will also take into account practicality, geographical compatibility, topography, physical features, means of communication and convenience available.
    • Twenty-four seats that are reserved for Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) would not be delimited in this process. This further makes the delimitation exercise relevant because some political parties argue, that this freeze has created inequity for the Jammu region.
    • The commission will also specify the number of seats to be reserved for the SC and the ST communities in the UT. This is important because despite having a sizeable tribal population, no seats had ever been reserved in the past for the Scheduled Tribes in Jammu and Kashmir.
    • A draft report will be prepared and put in the public domain for consensus and feedback. Only after the fresh comments, the final draft will be prepared.

    What is Delimitation and why is it needed?

    • Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of an Assembly or Lok Sabha seat to represent changes in population over time.
    • This exercise is carried out by a Delimitation Commission, whose orders have the force of law and cannot be questioned before any court.
    • The objective is to redraw boundaries (based on the data of the last Census) in a way so that the population of all seats, as far as practicable, be the same throughout the State.
    • Aside from changing the limits of a constituency, the process may result in a change in the number of seats in a state.

    How often has delimitation been carried out in J&K?

    • Delimitation exercises in J&K in the past have been slightly different from those in the rest of the country because of the region’s special status — which was scrapped by the Centre in August 2019.
    • Until then, the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats in J&K was governed by the Constitution of India, but the delimitation of the state’s Assembly was governed by the J&K Constitution and J&K Representation of the People Act, 1957.
    • Assembly seats in J&K were delimited in 1963, 1973 and 1995.
    • The last exercise was conducted by the Justice (retired) K K Gupta Commission when the state was under President’s Rule and was based on the 1981 census, which formed the basis of the state elections in 1996.
    • There was no census in the state in 1991 and no Delimitation Commission was set up by the state government after the 2001 census as the J&K Assembly passed a law putting a freeze until 2026.

    Why is it in the news again?

    • After the abrogation of J&K’s special status in 2019, the delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the newly-created UT would be as per the provisions of the Indian Constitution.
    • On March 6, 2020, the government set up the Delimitation Commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, which was tasked with winding up delimitation in J&K in a year.
    • As per the J&K Reorganization Bill, the number of Assembly seats in J&K would increase from 107 to 114, which is expected to benefit the Jammu region.

  • [pib] India Industrial Land Bank (IILB)

    The GIS Enabled Land Bank is gaining immense popularity.

    Try to answer this question in short:

    Q.Discuss the benefits of digitizing land records in India.

    India Industrial Land Bank (IILB)

    • The IILB is a GIS-based portal with all industrial infrastructure-related information such as connectivity, infra, natural resources and terrain, plot-level information on vacant plots, line of activity, and contact details.
    • It was launched by the Ministry for Commerce and Industry in 2020.
    • Currently, the IILB has approximately 4000 industrial parks mapped across an area of 5.5 lakh hectares of land, serving as a decision support system for investors scouting for land remotely.
    • The system has been integrated with industry-based GIS systems of 17 states to have details on the portal updated on a real-time basis and will achieve pan-India integration by December 2021.
    • In the previous quarter (Apr – Jun 2021) total users were 13,610 out of which 12,996 were unique users with total page views of approximately 1.3 lakh.

  • Civil society need to play role in strengthening of institutions

    Context

    In the wake of the second wave of Covid, our failure as a country to hold our government accountable is evident. Civil society perhaps also needs to re-examine its role.

    What constitutes civil society

    • India’s civil society has many actors:
    • Grassroots organisations that connect to the last mile and provide essential services.
    • Think tanks and academic institutions that churn out new policy ideas and generate evidence.
    • Advocacy organisations that amplify and build support for causes.
    • Large impact funds and philanthropists who decide how these organisations get funded.

    Challenges faced by civil society

    • Government have significantly curtailed the kind of activities that civil society actors can engage in.
    • Philanthropists and donor organisations often find themselves unable to support initiatives that strengthen India’s democracy and its accountability mechanisms, for fear of retribution.
    • By ignoring the politics around policy and focussing disproportionately on technocratic solutions, civil society has also missed the wood for the trees.

    How civil society can play role in reforms of democratic institutions

    • In the absence of a strong push from civil society, our democratic institutions have no intrinsic incentive to reform.
    • There is a need to re-examine parliamentary rules that are heavily tilted in favour of the sitting government, strengthen the judiciary, bolster federalism and the independent media, while creating transparency in decision making within the executive.
    • Civil society has an important and irreplaceable role to play here.
    • Civil society organisations too need to broaden their agenda to include issues that strengthen India’s institutions while collaborating to present a strong unified voice that demands more transparency and accountability in all areas and levels of policymaking.
    • This involves taking more fights to the courts on transgressions by the government, building public opinion about expectations from a well-functioning democracy and creating tools and fora that help citizens engage with policymaking more readily.

    Conclusion

    To not see the strengthening of institutions and the deepening of checks and balances as important areas of work is our collective failure, one we must address immediately.