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GS Paper: GS2

  • Moving away from parliamentary scrutiny

    The article discusses the important role played by the various committees and their significance.

    Committee system for legislative scrutiny

    • Over the years, the Indian Parliament has increasingly adopted the committee system as did the other democracies in the world.
    • This helped in housekeeping, to enhance the efficacy of the House to cope with the technical issues confronting it and to feel the public pulse.
    • But the committee approach also helped to guard its turf and keep it abreast to exercise accountability on the government.

    Important role played by the committees

    • Committees are the guardians of the autonomy of the House: consider the role of committees of scrutiny and oversight.
    • In the discharge of their mandate, the committee can solicit expert advice and elicit public opinion.
    • Besides the standing committees, the Houses of Parliament set up, from time to time, ad hoc committees to enquire and report on specific subjects which include Select Committees of a House or Joint Select Committees of both the Houses.
    • Departmentally-related Standing Committees (DRSCs)  were envisaged to be the face of Parliament in a set of inter-related departments and ministries.

    Issues

    • Committees of scrutiny and advice, both standing and ad hoc, have been confined to the margins or left in the lurch in the last few years.
    • While 60% of the Bills in the 14th Lok Sabha and 71% in the 15th Lok Sabha were wetted by the DRSCs concerned, this proportion came down to 27% in the 16th Lok Sabha.
    • The government has shown extreme reluctance to refer Bills to Select Committees of the Houses or Joint Parliamentary Committees.

    Conclusion

    The government must not forget that the primary role of Parliament is deliberation, discussion and reconsideration, the hallmarks of democratic institutions, and not a platform that endorses decisions already arrived at.

    Back2Bascis: Parliamentary Committees

    Broadly, they are classified into two categories — standing committees and ad hoc committees.

    1) Standing Committees

    • As the name suggests, these committees cover all the ministries and departments of the Government of India.
    • Standing committees are more permanent in nature, and are constituted from time to time in pursuance of the provisions of an Act of Parliament or Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.
    • The standing committees are further divided into financial committees and departmentally-related standing committees (DRSCs).
    • There are 24 DRSCs in total — 16 from Lok Sabha and 8 from the Rajya Sabha.
    • Financial committees are of three kinds — the estimates committee, the public accounts committee and the committee on public undertakings.

    2) Ad hoc committees

    • Ad hoc committees are appointed for a specific purpose and they cease to exist after they finish the task assigned to them and submit a report.
    • These include advisory committees and inquiry committees.
    • Advisory committees include select and joint committees on bills.
    • Inquiry committees are constituted to inquire into a specific issue and report on it.

  • World Bank’s Human Capital Index 2020

    India has been ranked at the 116th position in the latest edition of the World Bank’s annual Human Capital Index that benchmarks key components of human capital across countries.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.As per UN-Habitat’s Global Report on Human Settlements 2009, which one among the following regions has shown the fastest growth rate of urbanization in the last three decades?

    (a) Asia

    (b) Europe

    (c) Latin America and Caribbean

    (d) North America

    Highlights of the 2020 rankings

    • The 2020 Human Capital Index update includes health and education data for 174 countries — covering 98 per cent of the world’s population — up to March 2020.
    • It provides a pre-pandemic baseline on the health and education of children, with the biggest strides made in low-income countries.

    Impact of the pandemic

    • The analysis shows that pre-pandemic, most countries had made steady progress in building the human capital of children, with the biggest strides made in low-income countries.
    • The pandemic puts at risk the decade’s progress in building human capital, including the improvements in health, survival rates, school enrollment, and reduced stunting.
    • The economic impact of the pandemic has been particularly deep for women and for the most disadvantaged families, leaving many vulnerable to food insecurity and poverty.
    • Due to the pandemic’s impact, most children — more than 1 billion — have been out of school and could lose out, on average, half a year of schooling, adjusted for learning, translating into considerable monetary losses.
    • Data also shows significant disruptions to essential health services for women and children, with many children missing out on crucial vaccinations.

    India’s performance

    • India’s score increased to 0.49 from 0.44 in 2018, as per the Human Capital Index report released by the World Bank.
    • Last year, India had raised “serious reservations” over the Human Capital Index, wherein India was ranked 115 out of 157 countries.
    • This year India finds itself at 116th from among 174 countries.

    Back2Basics: Human Capital Project

    1. As part of this World Development Report (WDR), the World Bank has launched a Human Capital Project (HCP).
    2. The HCP programme is claimed to be a program of advocacy, measurement, and analytical work to raise awareness and increase demand for interventions to build human capital.
    3. There are three components of HCP:
    • a cross-country human capital measurement metric called the Human Capital Index (HCI),
    • a programme of measurement and research to inform policy action
    • a programme of support for country strategies to accelerate investment in human capital.

    Human Capital Index (HCI)

    1. The HCI has been constructed for 157 countries.
    2. It claims to seek to measure the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18.
    3. The HCI has three components:
      • Survival: as measured by under-5 mortality rates
      • Expected years of Quality-Adjusted School: which combines information on the quantity and quality of education
      • Health environment: Using two proxies of (a) adult survival rates and (b) the rate of stunting for children under age 5. 

    HDI vs. HCI

    1. UNDP constructs Human Development Index (HDI) for several years.
    2. The HCI uses survival rates and stunting rate instead of life expectancy as a measure of health, and quality-adjusted learning instead of merely years of schooling as a measure of education.
    3. HCI also excludes per capita income whereas the HDI uses it.

  • National Medical Commission

    The National Medical Commission (NMC) has replaced the Medical Council of India (BoG-MCI), as per information released by the Health Ministry.

    National Medical Commission

    • National Medical Commission (NMC) is an Indian regulatory body of 33 members which regulates medical education and medical professionals.
    • It replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI) on 25 September 2020.
    • The Commission grants recognition of medical qualifications, gives accreditation to medical schools, grants registration to medical practitioners, and monitors medical practice and assess the medical infrastructure in India.
    • The NMC will have four separate autonomous boards: under-graduate medical education, post-graduate medical education, medical assessment and rating and ethics and medical registration.

    It’s legal backing

    • The NITI Aayog had recommended the replacement of MCI with NMC.
    • The decision was approved by most states and after its approval by the Prime Minister and NMC bill was passed by parliament and approved by President on 8 August 2019.
    • National Medical Commission ordinance was brought in to replace Medical Council of India in early 2019 through an ordinance issued in January 2019 by the President of India.
    • The Supreme Court had allowed the Central Government to replace the medical council and with the help of five specialized doctors monitor the medical education system in India, from July 2017.
    • The government dissolved the MCI in 2018 and Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (102 of 1956) stands repealed.

  • India needs a China plan

    The article discusses the issue of dealing with China in the aftermath of clashes on the border.

    Understanding the importance of Tibet

    • Tibet is the roof of the world, with vast mineral and natural resources.
    • The mighty rivers that emanate from its expansive glaciers — such as the Brahmaputra, the Yangtse, the Yellow river, the Mekong, the Salween and the Indus — together with thousands of their tributaries have nurtured civilisations in peripheral countries for centuries.
    • The Kailash Mansarovar is centered in this region.
    • In an act of naked aggression, China occupied Tibet in 1959.
    • A buffer was eliminated, and the de facto boundary of China became contiguous to that of India.
    • That boundary was deliberately left undemarcated to enable further expansion.

    Understanding China’s stand

    • China has land borders with 14 neighbours covering an estimated 22,100 kilometres.
    • Post-independence, and as its economic status increased, so did its military muscle.
    • China embarked on claims based on perceived imbalances of treaties forced on countries when they were weak.
    • Some of these have since been resolved after bloody clashes such as with Russia and Vietnam, while others have been resolved using a combination of lucrative offers.
    • Russia accepted half of China’s claim, Kazakhstan was given lucrative economic deals, Kyrgyzstan retained 70% of the land, ceding just 30%, and so on.

    Way forward

    • The road ahead will have to be evolved and based on a study of the manner in which China has negotiated its boundary disputes with 12 of its neighbours.
    • Under the prevailing circumstances, it has become imperative to form a group of experts.
    • This group will plan and prepare, short-, medium- and long-term goals to achieve them within a suggested time frame.

     Conclusion

    Let us play down the rhetoric and adopt a pragmatic approach. It can no longer be a part-time issue to be addressed only when a crisis occurs. The crisis is upon us now.

  • What are Lok Adalats?

    A daily wager in Odisha has moved the Lok Adalat against PM after he allegedly failed to get an Aadhaar card registered in his name despite 21 attempts.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. With reference to National Legal Services Authority, consider the following statements:

    1. Its objective is to provide free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of the society on the basis of equal opportunity.
    2. It issues guidelines for the State Legal Services Authorities to implement the legal programmes and schemes throughout the country.

    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

    What are Lok Adalats?

    • Lok Adalat (People’s Court) is an alternative dispute resolution mechanism.
    • The forum can settle cases pending on panchayat or at a pre-litigation stage in a court of law.
    • The decisions have statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.
    • Under this Act, the award (decision) made by the Lok Adalats is deemed to be a case of a civil court, final and binding for all parties, and not subject to appeal.
    • It has broad powers to devise its procedures, compared to national courts.
    • If the parties do not recognise the Lok Adalat (though there is no provision for an appeal against such a prize), they may initiate litigation by approaching the court of appropriate jurisdiction.

  • What is a Yo-Yo Test?

    In his interaction with fitness experts and influencers the PM asked about the yo-yo test, that is a vital part of the Indian cricket team’s fitness routine.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The Yo-Yo test sometimes seen in news is related to:

    Sports/ Healthcare/ Robotics/ Automation

    What is the Yo-Yo test?

    • The test was developed by Danish football physiologist Jens Bangsbo.
    • Two cones are placed 20 metres apart, and the athlete has to run between them when the beep goes off.
    • The beeps become more frequent after one minute, and if the athlete fails to reach the line within that time, he is expected to catch up within two more beeps.
    • The test is stopped if the player fails to catch up before the beeps run out.
    • The test has a beginner and an advanced level, and players are given scores. The minimum score set by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to pass the test is 16.1.

  • Weighing in on the efficacy of female leadership

    The article analyses the issue of women representation and leadership.

    Role of female leaders in pandemic

    • Germany, Taiwan and New Zealand have women heading their governments.
    • Three countries seem to have managed the pandemic much better than their neighbours.
    • A detailed recent study by researchers in the United States reports that States which have female governors had fewer COVID-19 related deaths.
    •  The authors of the study conclude that women leaders are more effective than their male counterparts in times of crises.

    Role of women as pradhans in gram panchayats

    • Women leaders perform significantly better than men in implementing policies that promote the interests of women.
    • This was demonstrated in study conducted by Nobel Laureate Esther Duflo and co-author Raghabendra Chattopadhyay.
    • They used the system of mandated reservations of pradhans in gram panchayats to test the effectiveness of female leadership.
    • Study concluded that pradhans invested more in rural infrastructure that served better the needs of their own gender.
    • This is also an important goal from the perspective of gender equality.

    Underrepresentation of women in politics

    •  Female members make up only about 10% of the total ministerial strength in India.
    • The underrepresentation of female Ministers in India is also reflected in the fact that there is only one female Chief Minister.
    • Despite this, women constitute just over 14% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha.
    • This gives us the dismal rank of 143 out of 192 countries for which data are reported by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

    State of Women’s Reservation Bill

    • Women running for elections face numerous challenges, it is essential to create a level-playing field through appropriate legal measures.
    • Attempts have also been made to extend quotas for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies through a Women’s Reservation Bill.
    •  Male members from several parties opposed the Bill on various pretexts.
    • Although the Rajya Sabha did pass the bill in 2010, the Lok Sabha and the State legislatures are yet to give their approval.
    • 24 years that have passed since it was first presented in the Lok Sabha.

    Way forward

    • Political parties can sidestep the logjam in Parliament by reserving say a third of party nominations for women.

    Conclusion

    There is substantial evidence showing that increased female representation in policy making goes a long way in improving perceptions about female effectiveness in leadership roles. This decreases the bias among voters against women candidates, and results in a subsequent increase in the percentage of female politicians contesting and winning elections.

  • Exploring the idea of Social Stock Exchange

    Context

    • The Securities and Exchange Board’s (SEBI) working group has submitted its report with recommendations regarding the structure, mechanisms, and regulatory framework for the proposed Social Stock Exchange (SSE).

    What are Social Stock Exchanges (SSEs)?

    • An SSE is a platform which allows investors to buy shares in social enterprises vetted by an official exchange.
    • The Union Budget 2019 proposed setting up of first of its kind SSE in India.
    • The SSE will function as a common platform where social enterprises can raise funds from the public.
    • It will function on the lines of major stock exchanges like BSE and NSE. However, the purpose of the Social Stock Exchange will be different – not profit, but social welfare.
    • Under the regulatory ambit of SEBI, a listing of social enterprises and voluntary organizations will be undertaken so that they can raise capital as equity, debt or as units like a mutual fund.

    Issues with the idea of Social Stock Exchange

    • SSE exists in one form or another in UK, Singapore, South Africa, Canada and Brazil, but it is yet to take off in any country.
    • It has been an instrument focussed on social enterprises with rather poor results.
    • The proposed SSE in our country could have been an interesting innovation if it was first.
    • Replicating an experiment from elsewhere in an extremely complex environment of endemic poverty, high inequality and regional variation does not seem a reasoned decision.
    • It is therefore important to analyse why it has been pushed as a key policy.

    Why civil society is sceptical

    • The 2020-21 Union Budget says that not-for-profit organisations will need to apply every five years for income tax registration to ascertain their charitable status.
    • They will also need to renew their 80(G) certificate that provides tax relief to their donors.
    • The not-for-profit sector would not be able to survive without the tax-exempt charitable status.
    • These restrictions will open the gates to corruption and bullying by the tax and government bureaucracy.
    • The SEBI working group was constituted of business leaders, government and SEBI officials with a token representative from civil society.
    • Composition of the committee reflects the real intent of the SSE, which is to create instruments for market to enter the social sector.
    • However, the way the exchange is envisioned makes it clear that the interests of the private sector are guiding the idea of SSE.

    Will the entry of private sector benefit social sector

    • The proponents of the SSE argue that it would help set standards and a performance matrix for the social sector.
    • SSE is also expected to help bench-marking of sector actors (credibility checks), organise information and data, help in impact assessments, and do capacity building for the sector.

    Solving complex social problems

    • Poverty or injustice are essentially systemic and political questions that need multi-pronged dynamic engagement.
    • Developing set standards of impact assessment and performance matrix has the risk of privileging only one approach to the developmental challenges at hand.
    • The SSE would create more intermediaries and benefit larger organisations.
    • More than 99 per cent of the three million NGOs in the country are in the small category and will be untouched by the SSE.

    Conclusion

    The core business of the SSE is to strengthen the social sector and bring new resources to it, SEBI for sure itself would admit that it is not the appropriate anchor.

  • Upholding transparency in governance

    The article discusses the issue of growing lack of transparency in the functioning of government.

    Issues with Transparent Governance in India

    1) Electoral bond

    •  They were introduced in February 2017— they allowed anonymous donations to political parties and, therefore, protected the privacy of the donors.
    • The Election Commission of India (ECI) criticised the opacity of this financial mechanism.
    • The ECI told the government that this arrangement would prevent the state from ascertaining whether a political party has taken any donation in violation of provisions under Section 29B of the Representation of the People Act.
    • Section 29B prohibits the political parties from taking donations from government companies and foreign sources.
    • Electoral bonds also made it impossible to check whether a company was giving to parties more than what the Companies Act (2013) permitted, that is 7.5 per cent of the net average profit of the three preceding financial years.

    2) Sealed envelopes

    • Sealed envelope has become a modus operandi in several Indian institutions, including the Supreme Court (SC).
    • In the case of political funding by electoral bonds or otherwise, a three-judge bench in 2019 directed political parties to submit the details of donations received to the ECI in sealed cover.
    • The Assam administration had to show the progress it was making in the implementation of the National Register of Citizens by submitting reports in sealed covers.

    3) Undermining RTI

    (A) Reluctance to fill vacancies

    • The government did not appoint a Chief Information Commissioner for a year after the incumbent retired in August 2014.
    •  Similaryly, government did not fill vacant information commissioner posts in the Central Information Commission (CIC) between 2016 and 2018.
    • The backlog of pending appeals had reached 30,000 cases in late 2019 as the CIC has become a rather dysfunctional body.

    (B) Government refusing to disclose infromation

    • The government refused to disclose information which was previously available under the RTI Act.
    • Queries about phone tapping are not responded to anymore.
    • In 2016-17, the home and finance ministries rejected close to 15 per cent of the applications they received while the RBI and public sector banks rejected 33 per cent.
    • The RBI, for instance, refused to give any information about the decision-making process that led to demonetisation.

    (C) Limiting the powers of CIC

    • During the 2019 Monsoon Session of Parliament, government amended the RTI Act to limit the power of the CIC.
    • The five-year fixed tenure for the Chief Information Commissioner and information commissioners was abolished.
    • Their salaries were not fixed any more,  but notified separately by the government.

    4.Diluting Whisleblower’s Protection Act

    • Whistleblowers can now be prosecuted for possessing the documents on which the complaint has been made.
    • Issues flagged by them have to be in “public interest”.
    • Issues flagged should not be “affecting the sovereignty and integrity of India”, related to “commercial confidence” or “information received in confidence from a foreign government.

    5.Issues with statistical information

    • The National Statistical Commission and the Chief Statistician of India faced a credibility crisis when the new GDP series was released.
    • Similarly, the National Crime Records Bureau has been affected by delays (its 2017 report was released in October 2019) and deletions.
    • The National Sample Survey Office has also raised several concerns.

    Conclusion

    Transparency is not only necessary for maintaining a democratic polity, it is also necessary for making the economy work. Government actions must be informed by this fact.

    B2BASICS

    Electoral bond

  • What are Abraham Accords?

    The White House has marked the formal normalization of Israel’s ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Bahrain has created a significant inflexion point in regional history and geopolitics.

    Try this question:

    Q. What are Abraham Accords? Discuss how the Israel-Gulf synergy could impact India’s relations with Israel.

    What are Abraham Accords?

    • The Israel–UAE normalization agreement is officially called the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement.
    • It was initially agreed to in a joint statement by the United States, Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on August 13, 2020.
    • The UAE thus became the third Arab country, after Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, to agree to formally normalize its relationship with Israel as well as the first Persian Gulf country to do so.
    • Concurrently, Israel agreed to suspend plans for annexing parts of the West Bank. The agreement normalized what had long been informal but robust foreign relations between the two countries.

    New friendships

    • Externally, Israel, the UAE and Bahrain share the common threat perception of Iran.
    • Internally, while all three have their respective hotheads opposing this reconciliation, these seem manageable.
    • They are relatively more modern societies which share the overarching and immediate priority of post-pandemic economic resuscitation.
    • They have lost no time to set up logistics such as Internet connectivity and direct flights to pave the way for more active economic engagement.
    • If these sinews evolve, other moderate Arab countries are likely to join the Israel fan club.

    India and the Gulf

    • Now India has stronger, multifaceted and growing socioeconomic engagements with Israel and the Gulf countries.
    • With over eight million Indian diasporas in the Gulf remitting annually nearly $50 billion, annual merchandise trade of over $150 billion.
    • It sources nearly two-thirds of India’s hydrocarbon imports, major investments, etc. Hence it is natural to ask how the new regional dynamic would affect India.

    The Israel-GCC synergy

    • With defence and security cooperation as a strong impetus, both sides are ready to realize the full potential of their economic complementarity.
    • The UAE and Bahrain can become the entrepôts to Israeli exports of goods and services to diverse geographies.
    • Israel has niche strengths in defence, security and surveillance equipment, arid farming, solar power, horticultural products, high-tech, gem and jewellery, and pharmaceuticals.
    • Tourism, real estate and financial service sectors on both sides have suffered due to the pandemic and hope for a positive spin-off from the peer-to-peer interactions.
    • Further, Israel has the potential to supply skilled and semi-skilled manpower to the GCC states, particularly from the Sephardim and Mizrahim ethnicities, many of whom speak Arabic.
    • Even the Israeli Arabs may find career opportunities to bridge the cultural divide. Israel is known as the start-up nation and its stakeholders could easily fit in the various duty-free incubators in the UAE.

    Implications of the new trinity

    • Geopolitically, India has welcomed the establishment of diplomatic relations between the UAE and Israel, calling both its strategic partners.
    • In general, the Israel-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) breakthrough widens the moderate constituency for peaceful resolution of the Palestine dispute, easing India’s diplomatic balancing act.
    • However, nothing in West Asia is monochromatic: The Israel-GCC ties may provoke new polarization between the Jihadi fringe and the mainstream.
    • The possibility of the southern Gulf becoming the new arena of the proxy war between Iran and Israel cannot be ruled out, particularly in Shia pockets.
    • India would have to be on its guard to monitor and even pre-empt any threat to its interests in the Gulf.

    Way forward

    • Israeli foray into the Gulf has the potential to disrupt the existing politico-economic architecture India has carefully built with the GCC states.
    • India has acquired a large and rewarding regional footprint, particularly as the preferred source of manpower, food products, pharmaceuticals, gem and jewellery, light engineering items, etc.
    • Indians are also the biggest stakeholders in Dubai’s real estate, tourism and Free Economic Zones.
    • In the evolving scenario, there may be scope for a profitable trilateral synergy, but India cannot take its preponderance as a given.