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GS Paper: GS2

  • Tackling vaccine hesitancy challenge in rural India

    In rural India, concerns about COVID-19 vaccines are now increasingly commonplace.

    Vaccination dilemma these days

    • People voice their concern about what will happen to them if they get vaccinated and have doubts that the government is sending inferior quality vaccines to them.
    • Vaccination sessions in local health centers often see very few or no takers.
    • In contrast, urban vaccination sites face increased demand, especially in the 18-45 age group, and vaccine shortage is a major issue.
    • From a public health and equity perspective, this is a cause for worry.

    Why this failure?

    • The fear of vaccines and rural communities not only resisting but also outright rejecting vaccination is a reality.
    • Efforts by local health authorities to create awareness and convince people are of little avail.
    • There are contrasting dimensions to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout: one where people are enthusiastically accepting it and the other of resistance.
    • There are many diverse factors at play in this, which may go beyond the health concerns and have more to do with socio-anthropological aspects of health-seeking behavior.

    Vaccine hesitancy

    • Vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services.
    • It is complex and context-specific varying across time, place, and vaccines.
    • It is influenced by factors such as complacency, convenience, and confidence.

    Its scope

    • Vaccine hesitancy is not a recent phenomenon. It is neither limited to a particular community or country nor have we seen it only in the context of COVID-19.
    • We have also seen vaccine hesitancy among the urban and the more educated or ‘aware’ populations, with pockets of populations of socio-economically well-off communities refusing to get their kids vaccinated.
    • While vaccine hesitancy can lead to a firm rejection of vaccines, there’s also a possibility of people changing their perceptions over time.

    Socio-cultural context behind

    • Most of our fears and apprehensions stem from a deep impact of something adverse or unfavorable that we have personally experienced or our social circles have experienced.
    • Over time these become our beliefs, our innate guards.
    • In the context of the concerns described at the beginning of this article, we must look at vaccine hesitancy from a distinct lens of fear and not necessarily skepticism for new vaccines.
    • Rather, they seem to indicate deep-seated fears and belief in conspiracies, the fear of perhaps being discriminated and deceived, and of being omitted (from societal benefits).

    Building trust

    • Communities might not see the impact of a vaccine instantly, as it’s usually preventive in nature rather than curative.
    • People are used to taking medications or intravenous fluids when they are unwell or in pain, and they may feel better almost immediately, but that’s not the case with vaccines.
    • On the contrary, vaccines administered to a healthy person may lead to occasional side effects like fever, body aches, etc.
    • Add to those rumors about deaths post-vaccination, and it may not be so easy for people to get convinced about the vaccines.

    Way ahead

    • Addressing vaccine hesitancy in rural India would first of all require health systems to be honest and transparent.
    • Create awareness, let people know how vaccines work, how they help prevent disease, what are the probable side effects and how they can be managed.
    • Health authorities need to be comfortable about people raising questions while providing the answers as best as possible.
    • Being cognizant of local cultural sensitivities and working with trusted intermediaries is important in this effort.
    • Sustained and meaningful efforts need to be made to build trust, gain the confidence of communities and meet their expectations.
    • Even more crucial is to engage communities in planning, execution, and monitoring of health care services at all levels.

  • Places in news: Black Sea

    Russia accused Britain of spreading lies over a warship confrontation in the Black Sea.

    What is the issue?

    • Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a move that was not recognized by most countries in the world.
    • Russia has frequently responded at NATO warships visits near Crimea, casting them as destabilizing.
    • NATO members Turkey, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria are in the Black Sea, but warships from the US, UK and other NATO allies also have made increasingly frequent visits in a show of support to Ukraine.

    About Black Sea

    • The Black Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia; east of the Balkans (Southeast Europe), south of the East European Plain in Eastern Europe, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia in Western Asia.
    • It is supplied by major rivers, principally the Danube, Dnieper, and Don.
    • The watersheds of many countries drain into the sea beyond the six that share its coast.
    • The Black Sea is bordered by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

    Must 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 pair given above are correctly matched? (CSP 2020)

    (a) 1, 2 and 4 only

    (b) 1, 3 and 4 only

    (c) 2 and 5 only

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

  • 60 Years of Antarctic Treaty

    The 1959 Antarctic Treaty (wef 1961) recently celebrated its 60th anniversary.

    Antarctic Treaty

    • The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements are collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS).
    • It regulates international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth’s only continent without a native human population.
    • For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude.
    • The treaty entered into force in 1961 and currently has 54 parties.
    • The treaty sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation, and bans military activity on the continent.
    • The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War.
    • India is a signatory of this treaty since 1983.

    Why is it significant?

    • Negotiated during the middle of the Cold War by 12 countries with Antarctic interests, it remains the only example of a single treaty that governs a whole continent.
    • It is also the foundation of a rules-based international order for a continent without a permanent population.

    Key provisions

    • The treaty is remarkably short and contains only 14 articles.
    • Principal provisions include promoting the freedom of scientific research, the use of the continent only for peaceful purposes, and the prohibition of military activities, nuclear tests and the disposal of radioactive waste.

    What the treaty says about territorial claims

    • The most important provision of the treaty is Article IV, which effectively seeks to neutralise territorial sovereignty in Antarctica.
    • For the Antarctic territorial claimants, this meant a limit was placed on making any new claim or enlargement of an existing claim.
    • Likewise, no formal recognition was given to any of the seven territorial claims on the continent, by Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom.
    • Russia, the United States and China — signatories with significant Antarctic interests who have not formally made territorial claims — are also bound by the limitations of Article IV.
    • And one sector of Antarctica is not subject to the claim of any country, which effectively makes it the last unclaimed land on earth.
    • The treaty also put a freeze on any disputes between claimants over their territories on the continent.

    How the treaty has expanded

    • Though the compact has held for 60 years, there have been tensions from time to time.
    • Argentina and the UK, for instance, have overlapping claims to territory on the continent.
    • When combined with their ongoing dispute over the nearby Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, their Antarctic relationship remains frosty.
    • Membership of the treaty has grown in the intervening years, with 54 signatories today.

    Where to from here?

    • While the Antarctic Treaty has been able to successfully respond to a range of challenges, circumstances are radically different in the 2020s compared to the 1950s.
    • Antarctica is much more accessible, partly due to technology but also climate change.
    • More countries now have substantive interests in the continent than the original 12.
    • Some global resources are becoming scarce, especially oil.

    Answer this PYQ:

    Q.The term ‘IndARC’, sometimes seen in the news, is the name of:

    (a) An indigenously developed radar system inducted into Indian Defence

    (b) India’s satellite to provide services to the countries of Indian Ocean Rim

    (c) A scientific establishment set up by India in Antarctic region

    (d) India’s underwater observatory to scientifically study the Arctic region

    Back2Basics: Indian Antarctic Program

    • The Indian Antarctic Program is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional program under the control of the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences.
    • It was initiated in 1981 with the first Indian expedition to Antarctica.
    • The program gained global acceptance with India’s signing of the Antarctic Treaty and subsequent construction of the Dakshin Gangotri Antarctic research base in 1983 superseded by the Maitri base from 1989.
    • The newest base commissioned in 2012 is Bharati, constructed out of 134 shipping containers.

    Various missions

    In 1981 the Indian flag unfurled for the first time in Antarctica, marking the start of Southern Ocean expeditions under the environmental protocol of the Antarctic Treaty (1959).

    (1) Dakshin Gangotri

    The first permanent settlement was built in 1983 and named Dakshin Gangotri. In 1989 it was excavated and is being used again as supply base and transit camp. It was decommissioned in the year 1990 after half of it got buried under the ice.

    (2) Maitri

    The second permanent settlement, Maitri, was put up in 1989 on the Schirmacher Oasis and has been conducting experiments in geology, geography and medicine. India built this station close to a freshwater lake around Maitri known as Lake Priyadarshini.

    (3) Bharati

    Located beside Larsmann Hill at 69°S, 76°E, Bharati is established in 2015.  This newest research station for oceanographic research will collect evidence of continental breakup to reveal the 120-million-year-old ancient history of the Indian subcontinent.

    (4) India Post Office in Antarctica

    It was established in the year 1984 during the third Indian expedition to Antarctica. It was located at Dakshin Gangotri. This post office was indeed situated in a stunning location and it was more than just a post office. An interesting fact about this place is that as many as 10,000 letters were posted and canceled in this post office in total in the first year of its establishment.

  • Blended mode of teaching

    Blended mode of teaching and its advantages

    • A recent circular by the University Grants Commission (UGC) proposes that all higher educational institutions (HEI) teach 40% of any course online and the rest 60% offline termed as blended learning (BL).
    • The UGC argues that this “blended mode of teaching” and learning paves the way for:
    • 1) Increased student engagement in learning.
    • 2) Enhanced student-teacher interactions.
    • 3) Improved student learning outcomes.
    • 4) More flexible teaching and learning environments, among other things.
    • 5) Other key benefits such as the increased opportunity for institutional collaborations at a distance and enhanced self-learning accruing from blended learning (BL).
    • 6) BL benefits the teachers as well. It shifts the role of the teacher from being a “knowledge provider to a coach and mentor”.
    • 7)  The note adds that BL introduces flexibility in assessment and evaluation patterns as well.

    Challenges

    • All India Survey on Higher Education (2019-20) report shows that 60.56% of the 42,343 colleges in India are located in rural areas and 78.6% are privately managed.
    • Only big corporates are better placed to invest in technology and provide such learning.
    • Second, according to datareportal statistics, Internet penetration in India is only 45% as of January 2021.
    • This policy will only exacerbate the existing geographical and digital divide.
    • Third, BL leaves little room for all-round formation of the student that includes the development of their intelligent quotient, emotional quotient, social quotient, physical quotient and spiritual quotient.
    • The listening part and subsequent interactions with the teacher may get minimised.
    • Also, the concept note assumes that all students have similar learning styles and have a certain amount of digital literacy to cope with the suggested learning strategies of BL.
    • This is far from true. Education in India is driven by a teacher-centred approach.

    Suggestions

    • The government should ensure equity in access to technology and bandwidth for all HEIs across the country free of cost.
    • Massive digital training programmes must be arranged for teachers.
    • Even the teacher-student ratio needs to be readjusted to implement BL effectively.
    • This may require the appointment of a greater number of teachers.
    • The design of the curriculum should be decentralised and based on a bottom-up approach.
    • More power in such education-related policymaking should be vested with the State governments.
    • Switching over from a teacher-centric mode of learning at schools to the BL mode at the tertiary level will be difficult for learners.
    • Hence, the government must think of overhauling the curriculum at the school level as well.
    • Finally, periodical discussions, feedback mechanisms and support services at all levels would revitalise the implementation of the learning programme of the National Education Policy 2020, BL.
    • It will also lead to the actualisation of the three cardinal principles of education policy: access, equity and quality.

    Conclusion

    Government must take steps to address the concerns with blended learning before implementing it.

  • The ‘Union government’ has a unifying effect

    The Tamil Nadu government has decided to shun the usage of the term ‘Central government’ in its official communications and replace it with ‘Union government’. This is a major step towards regaining the consciousness of our Constitution.

    India the union

    • Seventy-one years since we adopted the Constitution, it is time we regained the original intent of our founding fathers beautifully etched in the parchment as Article 1: “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”.
    • The Constituent Assembly did not use the term ‘Centre’ or ‘Central government’ in all of its 395 Articles in 22 Parts and eight Schedules in the original Constitution.
    • What we have are the ‘Union’ and the ‘States’ with the executive powers of the Union wielded by the President acting on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister.

    Where is Central Govt defined?

    • Even though we have no reference to the ‘Central government’ in the Constitution, the General Clauses Act, 1897 gives a definition for it.
    • The ‘Central government’ for all practical purposes is the President after the commencement of the Constitution.
    • Therefore, the real question is whether such definition for ‘Central government’ is constitutional as the Constitution itself does not approve of centralising power.

    Intent of Constituent Assembly

    • On December 13, 1946, Pt Nehru introduced the aims and objects of the Assembly by resolving that India shall be a Union of territories willing to join the “Independent Sovereign Republic”.
    • The emphasis was on the consolidation and confluence of various provinces and territories to form a strong united country.
    • Many members of the Constituent Assembly were of the opinion that the principles of the British Cabinet Mission Plan (1946) be adopted, which contemplated a Central government with very limited powers whereas the provinces had substantial autonomy.
    • The Partition and the violence of 1947 in Kashmir forced the Constituent Assembly to revise its approach and it resolved in favour of a strong Centre.
    • The possibility of the secession of States from the Union weighed on the minds of the drafters of the Constitution and ensured that the Indian Union is “indestructible”.

    Preventing the secession

    • In the Constituent Assembly, B.R Ambedkar, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, observed that the word ‘Union’ was advisedly used in order to negative the right of secession of States.
    • Ambedkar justified the usage of ‘Union of States’ saying that the Drafting Committee wanted to make it clear that though India was to be a federation, it was not the result of an agreement.
    • Therefore, no State has the right to secede from it. “The federation is a Union because it is indestructible,” Ambedkar said.

    Then criticism of the ‘Union’

    • The usage of ‘Union of States’ by Ambedkar was not approved by all and faced criticisms from Maulana Hasrat Mohani.
    • He argued that Ambedkar was changing the very nature of the Constitution.
    • Mohani made a fiery speech in the Assembly on September 18, 1949 where he contended that the usage of the words ‘Union of States’ would obscure the word ‘Republic’.
    • Mohani went to the extent of saying that Ambedkar wanted the ‘Union’ to be “something like the Union proposed by Prince Bismarck in Germany, and after him adopted by Kaiser William and after him by Adolf Hitler”.

    Dr. Ambedkar’s clarification

    • Ambedkar clarified that the Union is not a league of States, united in a loose relationship; nor are the States the agencies of the Union, deriving powers from it.
    • Both the Union and the States are created by the Constitution, both derive their respective authority from the Constitution.
    • The one is not subordinate to the other in its own field… the authority of one is coordinate with that of the other.

    Features of Indian Union

    • The sharing of powers between the Union and the States is not restricted to the executive organ of the government.
    • The judiciary is designed in the Constitution to ensure that the Supreme Court, the tallest court in the country, has no superintendence over the High Courts.
    • Though the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction — not only over High Courts but also over other courts and tribunals — they are not declared to be subordinate to it.
    • In fact, the High Courts have wider powers to issue prerogative writs despite having the power of superintendence over the district and subordinate courts.
    • Parliament and Assemblies identify their boundaries and are circumspect to not cross their boundaries when it comes to the subject matter on which laws are made.
    • However, the Union Parliament will prevail if there is a conflict.

    Answer this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following statements:

    1. The Executive Power of the Union of India is vested in the Prime Minister.
    2. The Prime Minister is the ex-offi cio Chairman of the Civil Services Board.

    Which of the given statements is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

    A wordplay indeed

    • The members of the Constituent Assembly were very cautious of not using the word ‘Centre’ or ‘Central government’ in the Constitution as they intended to keep away the tendency of centralizing of powers in one unit.
    • The ‘Union government’ or the ‘Government of India’ has a unifying effect as the message sought to be given is that the government is of all.
    • Even though the federal nature of the Constitution is its basic feature and cannot be altered, what remains to be seen is whether the actors wielding power intend to protect the federal feature of our Constitution.
    • As Nani Palkhivala famously said, “The only satisfactory and lasting solution of the vexed problem is to be found not in the statute book but in the conscience of men in power”.

  • Bhutan’s Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) Programme

    Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) programme has been recently launched.

    TIWB Program

    • TIWB is a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
    • India was chosen as the Partner Jurisdiction and has provided the Tax Expert for this programme.
    • It aims to aid Bhutan in strengthening its tax administration by transferring technical know-how and skills to its tax auditors, and through sharing of best audit practices.
    • The focus of the programme will be in the area of International Taxation and Transfer Pricing.
    • This programme is another milestone in the continued cooperation between India and Bhutan and India’s continued and active support for South-South cooperation.

  • Why does China consistently beat India on soft power?

    The article compares India with China in terms of soft-power both countries exert based on the measures produced by Lowy Institute in Australia.

    What is soft power?

    • Joseph Nye, who gave us the notion of soft power, suggests that it consists of foreign policy, cultural and political influence.
    • Foreign policy influence comes from the legitimacy and morality of one’s dealings with other countries.
    • Cultural influence is based on others’ respect for one’s culture.
    • Political influence is how much others are inspired by one’s political values.
    • Soft power is difficult to measure.

    The Lowy Institute in Australia has produced various measures which correspond roughly to foreign policy influence, cultural influence and political influence.

    1) India’s foreign policy influence

    • In diplomatic influence, overall, India ranks sixth and China ranks first among 25 Asian powers.
    • On networks, India nearly matches China in the number of regional embassies it has but is considerably behind in the number of embassies worldwide (176 to 126).
    • Multilaterally, India matches China in terms of regional memberships, but, crucially, its contributions to the UN capital budget are completely dwarfed by Chinese contributions (11.7 per cent to 0.8 per cent of the total).
    • In surveys of foreign policy leadership, ambition, and effectiveness, China ranks first or fourth on four measures while India ranks between fourth and sixth in Asia.

    2) Cultural influence

    • Lowy’s overall measure of cultural influence ranks India in fourth place and China in second place in Asia.
    •  Cultural influence is then divided into three elements, of which “cultural projection” and “information flows” are the most important.
    • In cultural projection, India scores better on Google searches abroad of its newspapers and its television/radio broadcasts.
    • India also exports more of its “cultural services” defined as “services aimed at satisfying cultural interests or needs”.
    • China does better on several other indicators.
    • For instance, India has only nine brands in the list of the top 500 global brands whereas China lists 73.
    • On the number of UNESCO World Heritage sites, India has 37 while China has 53.
    • Respect for the Indian passport also lags.
    • Chinese citizens can travel visa-free to 74 countries while Indians can only do so to 60.
    • In terms of information flows, in 2016–17, India hosted a mere 24,000 Asian students in tertiary education institutions whereas China hosted 2,25,000.
    • On total tourist arrivals from all over the world, India received 17 million, while China received 63 million.

    3) Political influence

    • In 2017 the two were not ranked that far apart in political influence.
    • The governance effectiveness index shows India scoring in the top 43 per cent countries worldwide and ranked 12th and China scoring in the top 32 per cent and ranked 10th.
    • On “political stability and absence of violence/terrorism”, India ranked 21st, and China ranked 15th.

    Consider the question “What do you understand by the term soft-power? How would you assess India’s soft-power potential in terms of various parameters?”

    Conclusion

    Soft-power theorists suggest that the ability to persuade rests on the power of attraction. We in India may think we are more attractive than China. The numbers show otherwise.

  • What is Recusal of Judges?

    In the last week, two Supreme Court judges have recused themselves from hearing cases relating to West Bengal.

    Can you list down some basic principles of judicial conduct?

    Independence, Impartiality, Integrity, Propriety, Competence and diligence and Equality are some of them as listed under the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct.

    What is the Recusal of Judges?

    • Recusal is the removal of oneself as a judge or policymaker in a particular matter, especially because of a conflict of interest.
    • Recusal usually takes place when a judge has a conflict of interest or has a prior association with the parties in the case.
    • For example, if the case pertains to a company in which the judge holds stakes, the apprehension would seem reasonable.
    • Similarly, if the judge has, in the past, appeared for one of the parties involved in a case, the call for recusal may seem right.
    • A recusal inevitably leads to delay. The case goes back to the Chief Justice, who has to constitute a fresh Bench.

    Rules on Recusals

    • There are no written rules on the recusal of judges from hearing cases listed before them in constitutional courts. It is left to the discretion of a judge.
    • The reasons for recusal are not disclosed in an order of the court. Some judges orally convey to the lawyers involved in the case their reasons for recusal, many do not. Some explain the reasons in their order.
    • The decision rests on the conscience of the judge. At times, parties involved raise apprehensions about a possible conflict of interest.

    Issues with recusal

    • Recusal is also regarded as the abdication of duty. Maintaining institutional civilities are distinct from the fiercely independent role of the judge as an adjudicator.
    • In his separate opinion in the NJAC judgment in 2015, Justice Kurian Joseph highlighted the need for judges to give reasons for recusal as a measure to build transparency.
    • It is the constitutional duty, as reflected in one’s oath, to be transparent and accountable, and hence, a judge is required to indicate reasons for his recusal from a particular case.

  • What is Chicago Convention of 1944?

    A private commercial flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk by a MiG-29 fighter jet of Belarus.  The incident received considerable global attention.

    How justified was Belarus in taking such a decision?

    • The answer lies at the junction of Belarus’s domestic laws as a sovereign country and international laws governing the action that states can legitimately take to deal with threats to security, real or perceived.
    • The issue of the use of military aircraft to neutralize potential threats posed by civilian aircraft acquired a different kind of urgency in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001.
    • Generally speaking, international law grants sovereignty to nations over their airspace as it does in territorial waters.

    The Chicago Convention of 1944

    • The Convention on International Civil Aviation, better known as the Chicago Convention of 1944, to which Belarus is a signatory state, prohibits any unlawful intervention against a civilian aircraft.
    • At the same time, it has various provisions under Article 9 which permit a sovereign state the right to impose restrictions.
    • This includes enforced landings at a designated airport in its territory, in “exceptional circumstances or during a period of emergency, or in the interest of public safety”.
    • Once a flight has landed, Article 16 provides the host country the right to board/search the aircraft.
    • This is probably the clause that provided cover for the local authorities to board Mr. Morales’s aircraft in Austria in 2013.
    • But the Chicago Convention applies only to civilian aircraft of the contracting parties.

    Other such laws

    • International law might also have to be examined in light of the International Air Services Transit Agreement (IASTA), also concluded in Chicago in 1944.
    • According to this agreement, contracting states grant to one another the freedom of air transit in respect of scheduled international air services, that is, the privilege to fly across territories without landing.
    • Belarus is not a signatory of IASTA.

  • Delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir: how, why

    The Union government’s invitation to 14 key political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir for a meeting with the PM has led to speculation about the possible scheduling of the Assembly elections. However, the delimitation of constituencies is crucial for kick-starting any political process in J&K.

    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 change in the number of seats in a state.

    Do not forget to answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.With reference to the Delimitation Commission, consider the following statements:

    1. The orders of the Delimitation Commission cannot be challenged in a Court of Law.
    2. When the orders of the Delimitation Commission are laid before the Lok Sabha or State Legislative Assembly, they cannot affect any modifications in the orders.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

    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.

    What is the status of this 2020 Delimitation?

    • Although the Commission was tasked to finish delimitation in a year, on March 4 this year, it was granted a year’s extension.
    • This was done at the request of the panel members since it couldn’t make much progress due to the Covid-19-induced shutdown across the country.