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GS Paper: GS3

  • Innovation Ecosystem in India

  • Road and Highway Safety – National Road Safety Policy, Good Samaritans, etc.

  • Wildlife Conservation Efforts

  • River Interlinking

  • Steel Industry – Current challenges, National Steel Policy 2017, etc

  • Internal Security Architecture Shortcomings – Key Forces, NIA, IB, CCTNS, etc.

  • Forest Conservation Efforts – NFP, Western Ghats, etc.

    Also Read: Evolution of Forest Rights in India from 1856 to 2006 | In Depth Analysis of FRA & Its Issues

    The environment ministry came out with a draft National Forest Policy (NFP). The policy has been prepared by the Bhopal-based Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) and is aimed at facilitating ecologically responsible behaviour among stakeholders.

    source

    The proposed NFP is going to be third such document after India’s independence with first in 1952 followed by the second in 1988.

    Why is there a need for Forest Policy?

    • Forests and trees constitute nearly one fourth of the geographic area of the country.
    • Protection of this vast and valuable resource, improving and increasing the forest and tree cover requires adequate investment keeping in view the pressures on these forests, and the ecosystem services that they provide to the nation.
    • Large tracts of forest area in the country have degraded due to immense biotic pressure and lack of adequate investment.
    • The crux of the problem in India’s existing forest policy — the Forest Policy of 1988 — has been that it made the forest department the manager of the forests and the people lost their rights over it.
    • But as the Uttarakhand forest fires showed recently, a few hundred forest officials and a few thousand employees of the department can do nothing when a calamity strikes. They need community support in such emergencies.

    Key highlights

    • Less forest on hilly areas: Although the policy continues with the national goal of maintaining a minimum of one-third of the geographical area under forest or tree cover, Hills and mountainous regions may not be required to maintain two-thirds of the geographical area under forest cover.
    • Board to monitor management of forests: The policy states that a National Board of Forestry and State Boards of Forestry are to be established to ensure monitoring of the spread of the forest areas and management of forest cover.
    • Technology to minimize damage to forests: The policy states that forest land diversion projects related to mining, quarrying, construction of dams, roads and other linear infrastructure need to adopt special caution. Use of state-of-the-art technology which causes minimum pollution and damage should be promoted.
    • Green tax on citizens: The draft National Forest Policy (NFP) proposes the levy of a green tax for facilitating ecologically responsible behaviour and supplementing financial resources essential to address forestry woes.
    • Undermines FRA 2006: NFP ignores Forests Rights Act, 2006, which empowers local gram panchayats, especially in tribal areas close to India’s forests, and proposes a joint forest management-like mechanism to enhance agro-forestry.
    • New Mission: The policy proposes to launch a new Community Forest Management Mission, bringing government, community and private land under the new proposed management system.
    • Provisions for responsible tourism: It calls for developing “sound ecotourism models” with the focus on conservation while supplementing the livelihood needs of local communities.
    • Climate change to emerge as important factor in policy: It states that Climate change concerns should be effectively factored into all the forest and wildlife areas management plans and community ecosystem management plans.
    • Purchase of wildlife corridors: The draft policy indicates that CAMPA funds from diversion of forest land by industry are to be used for purchasing wildlife corridors from people.
    • Maintaining Urban forest: The policy also asks for management plans for city forests, parks, garden and woodlands to nurture and sustain urban health, clean air and related benefits.
    • Supports the Government Vermin Policy: In a nod to the Union government’s controversial decision to declare certain animals as “vermin” and implicitly sanctioning the slaughter of nilgai, wild pigs and monkeys in certain States, the forest policy recommends mitigating human-wildlife conflicts by taking up habitat enrichment, providing adequate and timely compensation in case of injury or loss of human life, property, crop damage or livestock casualties and developing teams of well-equipped and trained forest personnel.

    Significance of the policy

    • The policy recommendation for the launch of a national forest streams revival programme in a mission mode to tackle intensifying water crisis in India in the last few decades is a good step.
    • The levy of a green tax for facilitating ecologically responsible behaviour, supplementing financial resources essential to address forestry woes will act as a step to mitigate the effects of pollution.
    • Besides specifying how to manage forests, the draft policy said, “Other ecosystems such as alpine meadows, grasslands, deserts, marine and coastal areas should be protected and managed as well” and this will help to make it comprehensive.
    • It calls for developing sound ecotourism models with the focus on conservation while supplementing the livelihood needs of local communities which is a commendable move.

    Criticism of the policy

    • NFP ignores Forests Rights Act, 2006, which empowers local gram panchayats, especially in tribal areas close to India’s forests, and proposes a joint forest management-like mechanism to enhance agro-forestry. This move will bring back the forest department as the final authority over using forest resources instead of forest dwellers and communities dependent on them.

    Way forward

    • After facing much criticism from the Civil society the centre has withdrawn the draft policy recently. The criticism is not misplaced as the draft policy proposes to dilute the Forests Rights Act (FRA), do away with requirement of having two-third geographical area of mountainous and hill regions under forests, and for allowing industry to have commercial plantations on the forest land , increase the power of the forest bureaucracy and keep local communities out of the decision-making process.
    • While devising a new policy, the ministry must not only focus on increasing the forest area and bettering the quality of the forests but also ensure that the connection between forest-dependent communities and forests is not lost.

    References:

  • Port Infrastructure and Shipping Industry – Sagarmala Project, SDC, CEZ, etc.

    India has a coastline spanning 7516.6 kilometers, forming one of the biggest peninsulas in the world.

    According to the Ministry of Shipping, around 95 per cent of India’s trading by volume and 70 per cent by value is done through maritime transport. It is serviced by 13 major ports, 200 notified minor and intermediate ports. The total 200 non-major ports are in the following States:-

    Maharashtra (48); Gujarat (42); Tamil Nadu (15); Karnataka (10); Kerala (17); Andhra Pradesh (12); Odisha (13); Goa (5); West Bengal (1); Daman and Diu (2); Lakshadweep (10); Pondicherry (2); and Andaman & Nicobar (23).

    source

    Present situation of Indian Ports

    • The development of port infrastructure in India is not on par with other ports across the world. China’s 10th largest port is 50% bigger than India’s largest, all of India’s 12 ports that are officially classified as “major” carry less traffic between them than the single port-city of Singapore.
    • Colombo can handle more container traffic than all of India’s ports put together — With something like three-quarters of that being transshipment of containers from India, because India’s ports are too shallow to accommodate big container vessels. For a country with a long maritime tradition, this is a pathetic state of affairs.
    • Indian ships account for a tiny part of the country’s trade: About 15%, compared to the international norm of 40%. It has no civilian shipyards to compare with the world’s best. The two or three private ones that look to build commercial vessels are deep in debt and short of orders; most Indian ship-owners prefer to look to foreign yards, because of better quality and assurance on delivery schedules. In short, India’s maritime business needs a booster shot.

    What’s the reason for such situation?

    • The cost-inefficiency and non-competitiveness of the cargo has resulted in higher through-port and transport costs.
    • Shipping lines avoid touching ports in India because of the long waiting time. The capacity of various ports including Mumbai has already been exhausted and now capacities of other ports like JNPT are on the verge of exhaustion.
    • The turnaround time at ports in India is one of the biggest handicaps logistics service providers have to deal with. The major reason for the poor turnaround time at Indian ports is that they are not comparable to global standards.
    • There are 12 types of different taxes that Ships have to pay at our Ports
    • Three-quarters of Traffic Which Colombo port handles consists of transshipment of containers from India, because India’s ports are too shallow to accommodate big container vessels. This is the reason why Colombo Port handles more ships than all of India’s ports put together.
    • Governance issues: Major ports managed by Central govt. while minor ports by state govt. So skewed distribution of traffic, , lack of coordination in port traffic management and non-uniform tariff,resulting in suboptimal utilization of port infra.
    • Political pressure, lack of autonomy, absence of incentives, excessive bureaucracy, and hierarchical rigidities are contributors to the current state of the Indian ports
    • Inadequate dredging and container handling facilities
    • Many major ports are affected by silting and require frequent dredging
    • Except for Bombay and Madras, other ports do not have the facility of night navigation and pilots. This hampers working round the clock

    Steps taken by Government to improve the situation

    • The government has launched Sagarmala and its prime objective is to “promote port-led direct and indirect development and to provide infrastructure to transport goods to and from ports quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively.”
    • Under this plan, a comprehensive and integrated planning for Sagarmala for the entire coastline shall be prepared within six months which will identify potential geographical regions to be called Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs).
    • Government has proposed Central Ports Act 2016 to replace major port trusts act 1963 to give more power and autonomy to the major sea ports. Under the proposed act the Major ports will be able to lease land for port-related use for up to 40 years, and for non-port related activities up to 20 years
    • Government has given SEZ status to JNPT port
    • Passing of National Water ways Act 2015 and Coastal shipping agreement with Bangladesh which will give boost to coastal and inland waterways.
    • Port led industrialization and modernization of adjacent situated areas has been envisaged as mechanism for enhancing indigenous manufacturing potential and creating employment opportunities
    • Government has allowed 100% FDI for port development projects
    • 100% income tax exemption from income tax is extended to companies investing in port infrastructure. Further, a 10-year tax holiday has been given to enterprises engaged in the business of developing, maintaining and operating ports, inland waterways and inland ports.
    • Government has proposed to work towards converting 12 public port trusts in India into corporations under the Companies Act to bring greater efficiencies in operations, raise funds for growth and compete better with their private sector counterparts.
    • The Centre recently gave its ‘in-principle’ approval to set up the country’s13th major port at Enayam in Tamil Nadu

    What more should be done?

    As India eyes resurgence in port-led activities in the country the above mentioned problems faced by Indian ports, indicate the need for the Central government to undertake measures to facilitate trade through Indian ports, either in terms of building and maintaining infrastructure for handling desired capacities or undertaking relevant policy and regulatory reforms. These Reforms should include

    • In terms of infrastructure, it is important to maintain draft to serve bigger vessels, ensure mechanisation of ports through introduction of new equipment and procedures, build new facilities, upgrade existing facilities and automate systems/procedures.
    • In terms of policy and regulatory reforms, it is important to streamline tariff determination by TAMP along with a provision for periodic revisions, ensure transparent and effective contractual arrangements in PPPs, implement strengthened communication platforms for seamless information flow among stakeholders, strengthen system integration, ensure paperless clearance of procedures and transactions, develop user information portals
    • We also need corporatization of our major ports.
    • More major Sea ports should be built

    There is also need to improve the road connectivity between the ports and Hinterland.

  • Social Media: Prospect and Challenges

    The term social media is being used quite often by everyone and has become a popular topic of conversation, debates and controversies.

    “The social networking phenomenon continues to gain steam worldwide, and India represents one of the fastest growing markets at the moment”.

    This reflects the emergence of social media in India in upcoming time…so here is presenting a brief article on social media: prospects and challenges.

    • Introduction
    • What is social media?
    • Types of social media
    • Implications and uses
    • Challenges before social media
    • Prospects of social media in India
    • Concerns about privacy
    • Way ahead

    Introduction:

    • Social Media is the latest form of media available to the audience of varied groups. It is a form of electronic communication through which users share information, ideas, personal messages, videos and pictures and other content through it instantly.
    • The major reason behind its popularity is that the users are given a free service to create a virtual social world where they exchange photographs, play games, become friendly, fall in love, split, fight, argue and quarrel at many times without having met physically.
    • But, on the other side it is an encroachment to someone’s privacy which can lead to different type of illegal activities by using the information such as name, location, and email addresses.
    • Social media provides us a platform to express ourselves without any restrictions which is becoming a major challenge as it may infringe the fundamental rights of privacy of a human being.

    Various forms of social media

    • Social Networks– Services that allow you to connect with other people of similar interests and background.  Usually they consist of a profile, various ways to interact with other users, ability to set up groups, etc. The most popular are Facebook and Linkedin
    • Bookmarking Sites – Services that allow you to save, organize and manage links to various websites and resources around the internet.  Most allow you to “tag” your links to make them easy to search and share.  The most popular are Delicious and StumbleUpon.
    • Social News– Services that allow people to post various news items or links to outside articles and then allows it’s users to “vote” on the items.  The voting is the core social aspect as the items that get the most votes are displayed the most prominently.  The community decides which news items get seen by more people.  The most popular are Digg and Reddit.
    • Media Sharing– Services that allow you to upload and share various media such as pictures and video.  Most services have additional social features such as profiles, commenting, etc.  The most popular are YouTube and Flickr.
    • Microblogging– Services that focus on short updates that are pushed out to anyone subscribed to receive the updates.  The most popular is Twitter.
    • Blog Comments and Forums – Online forums allow members to hold conversations by posting messages.  Blog comments are similar except they are attached to blogs and usually the discussion centers around the topic of the blog post.  There are many popular blogs and forums like RSS Feeds.

    Implications and uses of social media:

    • Social media serve as a superior medium to stay connected with friends and family, to meet new people, and make new friends.
    • It seems to be the most effective form of communication as feedback is instant.
    • It is like a boon to introverts as they find a safer zone to initiate conversations.
    • It is an upcoming media to integrate people and follow the principle of many voices one world.

    Effect on Function & Performance of government 

    • Accountability and transparency in Government
    • Various deals, decision by representative are Instantly getting shared on Social media
    • It is helping people decide that what things are actually done by Government
    • It is also causing swift actions by government
    • Making representative more closer through Digital interface
    • Democratising effect

    Effect on Governance and Institutions

    • It is providing voice to the people
    • Office delays, and Bureaucratic red tapism, absenteeism has been affected.
    • Recent protest on free speech has also caused judicial activism thus prudent judiciary in even of infringement of rights
    • It also helps political leader during election campaign for propagating manifesto
    • Cost of dissemination of information, expenditure of government has been reduced Vis a Vis to other forms of Information.

    Challenges before Social Media:

    • The misuse of one’s personal information, hacking of accounts, morphing of personal photographs, addiction of social networking sites, spam and viruses are most high-flying problems faced due to social media.
    • Some other prospective challenges are illiteracy, reach and accessibility of internet, lack of censorship on social media, need of regulatory body to govern the social media.
    • The most worrying aspect to the social media is the fact that it cannot be controlled and therefore it goes without saying that its consequences can also be dangerous and uncontrollable for all those who use it recklessly and in an irresponsible manner.
    • Frequent networking on sites like Facebook could also generate negative feelings like inadequacy, envy, jealousy or even aggressive behavior.

    Concerns about privacy:

    • Most networking sites do not really protect an individual’s privacy. A simple example is that of photos being posted on such sites without taking permission from all the people concerned.
    • There is no authenticity of the data posted nor can everything be taken on its face value.

    Prospects of social media in India:

    • There has been a remarkable increase in the internet connectivity in India. There has been successful penetration of personal computers even in the small cities and towns in the country. We all witness the intense mobile penetration in all nooks in India.
    • Seeing the high number of youth in the country who are tech friendly, it can be said that there is a bright prospect of social media in India.

    Way ahead:

    • Social media in India has to meet other challenges apart from illiteracy, reach and accessibility that are revenue generation.
    • There has been a rapid increase in social networking sites, microblogging, media sharing and bookmarking sites. India is lucrative market and social media is certainly gaining opportunities to deepen its roots resulting into a strong foothold in India.
    • There is need to regularize the social media. Some agency must be deputed to monitor the anti-social activities taking place on virtual world of social media. Laws relating to cyber crime should be made more stringent. There should be a separate policing department for cyber crimes.
    • There is a need of extensive research study for finding ways to regularize crime against social media.

    Social Media, with all its benefits and the potential for more, is definitely a boon, however misuse or irresponsible usage can have negative effects on individuals and society, especially the young impressionable minds. We need to guard against the negative impact of the social media, which ought to be used in the correct manner for creative or productive purposes so that it is progressive to mankind and society at large, rather than regressive.

    References:

  • e-Waste Management