Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Issues with the governance, importance of decentralisation.
The article examines the issues exposed by the pandemic with the current system of governance in India as well as the global level. Strengthening the local governments is suggested as the need of the hour.
How pandemic exposed the limits of systems
- Governance systems at all levels, i.e. global, national, and local, have experienced stress as a fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- There was a breakdown in many subsystems in health care, logistics, business, finance, and administration.
- Solutions for one subsystem backfired on other subsystems.
- For example, lockdowns to make it easier to manage the health crisis have made but it was disastrous for the economy.
Following 3 are the problems exposed in the governance
1) Mismatch in abilities and functions
- Human civilisation advances with the evolution of better institutions to manage public affairs.
- Institutions of parliamentary democracy did not exist 400 years ago.
- Institutions of global governance, such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, did not exist even 100 years ago.
- These institutions were invented to enable human societies to produce better outcomes for their citizens.
- The pandemic has revealed a fundamental flaw in their design.
- There is a mismatch in the design of governance institutions at the global level with the challenges they are required to manage.
2) Interconnected issues
- All 17 Sustainable Development Goal are interconnected with each other.
- Environmental, economic, and social issues cannot be separated from each other.
- Experts working in silos or by agencies focused only on their own problems cannot solve these problems.
- As government responses to the novel coronavirus pandemic have revealed, a good solution to one can create more problems for others.
3) Local solution requires local problems
- Even if experts in different discipline arrives at silo-ed solutions at the global level, they will not be able to solve the systemic problems of the SDGs.
- Because, their solutions must fit the specific conditions of each country, and of each locality within countries too, to fit the shape of the environment and the condition of society there.
- Solutions for environmental sustainability along with sustainable livelihoods cannot be the same in Kerala and Ladakh.
- Solutions must be local.
- For the local people to support the implementation of solutions, they must believe the solution is the right one for them.
Decentralisation of governance
- Governance of the people must be not only for the people. It must be by the people too.
- There are scientific explanations for why local systems solutions are the best.
- Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, had developed the principles for self-governing communities from research on the ground in many countries, including India.
- Indian Constitution requires devolution of powers to local government too.
- During pandemic States in India, such as Kerala, have weathered the storm better than others.
- A hypothesis is that those States and countries in which local governance was stronger have done much better than others.
Consider the question “Examine the issues with the current system of governance which were exposed by the pandemic. Also explain why decentralisation could improve many problems the governance faces.
Conclusion
The government has to support and enable people to govern themselves, to realise the vision of ‘government of the people, for the people, by the people’. Which is also the only way humanity will be able to meet the ecological and humanitarian challenges looming over it in the 21st century.
Original article:
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/enabling-people-to-govern-themselves/article32071943.ece
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Police reforms and criminalisation of politics.
The root cause of impunity with which police perpetrated crimes lies in the in a nexus. The nexus between politicians, criminals and government functionaries needs to be broken down. This article suggests the ways to do that.
The context
- The recent custodial deaths in Tamil Nadu and encounter of a criminal by the UP police showed the police in a bad light.
- However, when we dig deeper into the problem we realise that its root lies in the nexus of politicians, criminals and the government functionaries.
Past attempt to break the nexus
- In 1993, the Vohra Committee had submitted a report on the nexus between the criminals, politicians and government functionaries.
- DIB suggested that an institution be set up to effectively deal with the menace.
- There were discussions in parliament, but the matter ended there.
- There was hardly any follow-up action.
Criminalisation of politics
- The number of members of parliament with criminal background has been going up with every successive election.
- It was, according to the Association of Democratic Reforms, 30 per cent in 2009, 34 per cent in 2014 and 43 per cent in 2019.
- The present UP Assembly has 36 per cent or 143 MLAs with criminal cases against them.
- This lead to the administration turning a blind eye to the illegal activities of the criminals.
- The nexus has proliferated and grown in strength down the years.
- It creates an environment where the criminals who are part of the nexus are able to dodge the due processes of law.
Suggestions
- 1) We must have a law which debars persons with serious criminal cases from entering the assemblies and the Parliament.
- 2) The criminal justice system must be revamped as recommended by the Malimath Committee.
- 3) The Supreme Court’s directions on police reforms must be implemented.
- 4) An institution comprising representatives of the police/CBI/NIA, IB, IT department, Revenue Intelligence and Enforcement Directorate should be set up to monitor the activities of the mafia and criminal syndicates in the country.
- 5) A Central act on the lines of MCOCA should be enacted to curb the activities of organised criminal gangs.
- 6) The concept of federal crime, as recommended by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, should be accepted.
- Crimes with all-India ramifications or are trans-national in character, like those of terrorism and organised crimes, should be brought within the ambit of federal crimes.
Consider the question “The nexus of criminals, politicians and government functionaries is at the root of many problems the country faces today. Examine the problems created by the nexus and suggest ways to deal with the problem.”
Conclusion
We must, without further delay, build an environment where police become an instrument of service to the people, where monsters like Dubey do not thrive and become a menace to society.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Managing religious institutions in India, Devsom Boards etc.
Reversing the 2011 Kerala High Court decision, the Supreme Court upheld the right of the Travancore royal family to manage the property of deity at Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram.
Try this question from CSP 2016:
Q.In the context of the history of India, consider the following pairs
| Term |
Description |
| 1. |
Eripatti |
Land, revenue from which was set apart for the maintenance of the village tank |
| 2. |
Taniyurs |
Villages donated to a single Brahmin or a group of Brahmins |
| 3. |
Ghatikas |
Colleges generally attached to the temples |
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
a) 1 and 2
b) 3 only
c) 2 and 3
d) 1 and 3
What did the apex Court say?
- The court said that as per customary law, the shebait rights (right to manage the financial affairs of the deity) survive with the members of the family even after the death of the last ruler.
- The ruling ends the legal battle the temple and members of the royal family have fought with the government for decades over control of one of the richest temples in the world.
What is the case about?
- The central legal question was whether the heirs of the last Ruler of Travancore could claim to be the “Ruler of Travancore” after the death of the ruler in 1991.
- The court examined this claim within the limited meaning of that term according to the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act, 1950 to claim ownership, control and management of the ancient Temple.
Earlier cases of ownership: A background
- All the temples which were under the control and management of the erstwhile Princely States of Travancore and Cochin were under the control of the Travancore and Cochin Devaswom Boards before 1947.
- However, as per the Instrument of Accession signed, since 1949, the administration of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple was “vested in trust” in the Ruler of Travancore.
- The state of Kerala was carved out in 1956 but the temple continued to be managed by the erstwhile royals.
The legal battle
- In 1971, privy purses to the former royals were abolished through a constitutional amendment stripping their entitlements and privileges.
- The move was upheld in court in 1993 and the last ruler of Travancore who died during the pendency of this case continued to manage the affairs of the temple till then.
- In 1991, when the last ruler’s brother took over the temple management, it created a furore among devotees who moved the courts leading to a long-drawn legal battle.
Is the temple the property of the royal family?
- The character of the temple was always recognised as a public institution governed by a statute.
- The argument of the royal family is that the temple management would vest with them for perpetuity, as per custom.
- Even though the last ruler executed a detailed will bequeathing his personal properties, he had not included the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple as his personal property or dealt with it in his will.
What about the treasure in the vaults?
- A consequence of who has administrative rights over the temple is whether the vaults of the temple will be opened.
- In 2007, the heir claimed that the treasures of the temple were the family property of the royals.
- Several suits were filed objecting to this claim and a lower court in Kerala passed an injunction against the opening of the vaults.
- The Kerala High Court in the 2011 ruling passed an order that a board be constituted to manage the affairs of the temple, ruling against the royal family.
What impact would this ruling have?
- Since 2011, the process of opening the vaults has led to the discovery of treasures within the Padmanabhaswamy temple, prompting a debate on who owns temple property and how it should be regulated.
- Despite being a secular country that separates religion from the affairs of the state, Hindu temples, its assets are governed through statutory laws and boards heavily controlled by state governments.
- This system came into being mainly through the development of a legal framework to outlaw untouchability by treating temples as public land; it has resulted in many legal battles.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ports along the strait of hormuz
Mains level: India-Iran relations soured in recent times
The Iranian government has decided to proceed with the construction of Chabahar Rail Project on its own, citing delays from the Indian side in funding and starting the project.
What is the issue?
- Four years ago, India and Iran signed an agreement to construct a rail line from Chabahar port to Zahedan, along the border with Afghanistan.
- The Iranian Railways will proceed without India’s assistance, using approximately $400 million from the Iranian National Development Fund.
- The development comes as China finalizes a massive 25-year, $400 billion strategic partnership deal with Iran, which could cloud India’s plans.
The Chabahar Rail Project
- It is a 628 km Chabahar-Zahedan line, which will be extended to Zaranj across the border in Afghanistan.
- The entire project would be completed by March 2022.
- It was meant to be part of India’s commitment to the trilateral agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan to build an alternate trade route to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Why did Iran omit India from the project?
- Despite several site visits by engineers, and preparations by Iranian railways, India never began the work, ostensibly due to worries that these could attract U.S. sanctions.
- The U.S. had provided a sanctions waiver for the Chabahar port and the rail line to Zahedan, but it has been difficult to find equipment suppliers and partners due to worries they could be targeted by the U.S.
- India has already “zeroed out” its oil imports from Iran due to U.S. sanctions.
The contentious partnership with China
- Iran and China are close to finalising a 25-year Strategic Partnership which will include Chinese involvement in Chabahar’s duty-free zone, an oil refinery nearby, and possibly a larger role in Chabahar port as well.
- The cooperation will extend from investments in infrastructure, manufacturing and upgrading energy and transport facilities, to refurbishing ports, refineries and other installations.
- It is also rumoured that the Chabahar port will be leased to China surpassing India.
- Iran had proposed a tie-up between the port at Gwadar and Chabahar last year and has offered interests to China in the Bandar-e-Jask port 350km away from Chabahar, as well as in the Chabahar duty-free zone.
Back2Basics: India-Iran Partnership over Chabahar Port
- In 2016, India signed a deal with Iran entailing $8 billion investment in Chabahar port and industries in Chabahar Special Economic Zone.
- The port is being developed as a transit route to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
- India has already built a 240-km road connecting Afghanistan with Iran.
- All this were expected to bring cargo to Bandar Abbas port and Chabahar port, and free Kabul from its dependence on Pakistan to reach the outer world.
- Completion of this project would give India access to Afghanistan and beyond to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Europe via 7,200-km-long multi-modal North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Dehing Patkai WLS
Mains level: Wildlife conservation and various policy efforts
The Assam government has decided to upgrade Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary into a National Park.
Try this question from CSP 2019:
Which one of the following National Parks lies completely in the temperate alpine zone?
(a) Manas National Park
(b) Namdapha National Park
(c) Neora Valley National Park
(d) Valley of Flowers National Park
Dehing Patkai WLS
- Dehing Patkai WLS is located in the Dibrugarh and Tinsukia Districts of Assam and covers an area of 111.19 sq. km rainforest.
- It is located in the Dehing Patkai landscape which is a dipterocarp-dominated lowland rainforest.
- It spreads across the coal- and oil-rich districts of Upper Assam (Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Sivasagar) and is believed to be the last remaining contiguous patch of lowland rainforest area in Assam.
- The WLS due to their importance for elephant habitat was declared as Dehing-Patkai Elephant Reserve under Project Elephant.
- Post upgradation, Dehing Patkai will be the sixth national park in Assam — the other five being Kaziranga, Nameri, Manas, Orang and Dibru-Saikhowa.
Back2Basics:
[Prelims Spotlight] National Parks, Biosphere Reserves, Wildlife Sanctuaries in India – Part 2
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Tangam tribe
Mains level: Tribal issues in the NE
Last week Arunachal CM released a book titled “Tangams: An Ethnolinguistic Study Of The Critically Endangered Group of Arunachal Pradesh”.
Try this question from CSP 2019:
Q.Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:
- PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
- A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG status.
- There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.
- Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1, 2 and 3
(b) 2, 3 and 4
(c) 1, 2 and 4
(d) 1, 3 and 4
Who are the Tangams?
- The Tangams is a little-known community within the larger Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh and resides in the hamlet of Kugging in Upper Siang district’s Paindem circle.
- In 1975, the community’s population was pegged at 2,000 spread across 25 villages.
- From 2016 to 2020, a team from the Centre for Endangered Languages (CFEL) of Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU), carried out extensive field research and documented the community.
- Their survey revealed that Tangams were now concentrated in only one village (Kugging), with only 253 reported speakers.
- As per the UNESCO World Atlas of Endangered Languages (2009), Tangam — an oral language that belongs to the Tani group, under the greater Tibeto-Burman language family — is marked ‘critically endangered’.
Why are there only a few speakers?
- Kugging is surrounded by a number of villages inhabited by Adi subgroups such as Shimong, Minyongs, as well as the Buddhist tribal community of Khambas, among others.
- To communicate with their neighbours over the years, the Tangams have become multilingual, speaking not just Tangam, but other tongues such as Shimong, Khamba and Hindi.
- They rarely speak their own language now since their population is restricted to a single village. Moreover, the Tangams are relatively unknown — even within their state.
- The village lacks proper infrastructure in all basic sectors of education, health, drinking water facilities, road and electricity. Roads have reached Kugging only in 2018.
- Not a single person from the community has gone to university.
Why are the languages at risk?
- The diversity of languages has led various communities to depend on English, Assamese and colloquial variety of Hindi called Arunachalee Hindi as the link languages.
- Many believe this shift has led to the loss of native languages of the tribal communities.
- Even the numerically larger tribes like Nyishi, Galo, Mishmi, Tangsa etc. whose population exceed the ten thousand mark are also not safe from endangerment, hence marked unsafe.
- The younger generation of these tribes especially in the urban areas has mostly discarded the use of their mother tongue.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Islands of Polynesia
Mains level: NA
How did the Polynesian peoples come to live on the far-flung islands of the Pacific? The question has intrigued researchers for centuries.
The newscard contains some trivial facts. However, aspirants are advised to observe the map.
Study on Polynesia
- Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl brought the topic to public attention when he sailed a balsa-wood raft called the Kon-Tiki from Peru to Polynesia in 1947.
- His goal was to demonstrate such voyages were possible, supporting theories linking Polynesian origins to the Americas.
- Decades of research in archaeology, linguistics and genetics now show that Polynesian origins lie to the west, ultimately in the islands of Southeast Asia.
New evidence for American interlopers
- A new study published in Nature reports genetic evidence of Native American ancestry in several Polynesian populations.
- Other researchers have previously found evidence of indigenous American DNA in the genomes of the modern inhabitants of Rapa Nui.
- Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is the part of Polynesia closest to South America.
- This suggests the “Amerindian” genetic component was likely introduced later via Chilean colonists.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mont Blanc
Mains level: Alps and its orogeny
The melting Mont Blanc glacier in the French Alps yielded a clutch of newspapers with banner headlines from when Indira Gandhi became India’s first and so far only woman Prime Minister in 1966.
Try this MCQ
Q.The Mont Blanc in the Alps can be located near the conflux of which of the following two countries?
a)France and Spain
b)France and Italy
c)Spain and Italy
d)Greece and Slovenia
Mont Blanc
- Mont Blanc is the second-highest mountain in Europe after Mount Elbrus. It is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe.
- It rises 4,808 m above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence.
- The mountain stands in a range called the Graian Alps, between the regions of Aosta Valley, Italy, and Savoie and Haute-Savoie, France.
- It is the tallest peak in the Alps and the highest summit in Western Europe, hence its epithet the “Roof of Europe”.
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