Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Skill education in India
The article deals with state of the education and its relation with employment in India.
Improving higher education system
- Improving India’s higher education justice and worker productivity needs the broadening of our education ambition.
- Our focus on Gross Enrollment Ratio should also be anchored to Employed Learner Ratio -proportion of our 55 crore labour force in formal learning.
- For enrolling five crore new employed learners, India needs five regulatory changes.
Reflecting on global and domestic education experience
- Multi-decade structural changes include organisations that are less hierarchical, lower longevity, shorter employee tenures, higher competition.
- There is also change in the form of work: capitalism without capital, soft skills valued more than hard skills, 30 per cent working from home etc.
- There change in the form of education in which Google knows everything, so tacit knowledge is more valuable than codified or embedded knowledge.
- These shifts are complicated by a new world of politics, third-party financing viability, and fee inflation.
India faces financing failure in skill
- We have 3.8 crore students in 1,000-plus universities and 50,000-plus colleges.
- We confront a financing failure in skills:
- Employers are not willing to pay for training of candidates but a premium for trained candidates.
- Candidates are not willing to pay for training but for jobs.
- Financiers are unwilling to lend unless a job is guaranteed, and training institutions can’t fill their classrooms.
Steps need to be taken
- For many people the income support of learning-while-earning is crucial to raising enrollment.
- Many students lack employability and workers lack productivity because learning is supply-driven.
- Learning-by-doing ensures demand-driven learning.
- The de facto ban on online degree learning with only seven of our 1,000-plus universities licensed for online offerings.
- That needs to be changed.
- High regulatory hurdles creates an adverse selection among entrepreneurs running educational institutions.
Five regulatory changes
- First, modify Part 3 of the UGC Act 1956 and Part 8 of the UGC Act to include skill universities.
- Second, remove clauses 3(A), 3(B), and clause 5 of UGC ODL and Online Regulations 2020 and replace them with a blanket and automatic approval for all accredited universities to design, develop and deliver their online programmes.
- Third, modify clause 4(C)(ii) of UGC online regulations 2020 to allow innovation, flexibility, and relevance in an online curriculum as prescribed in Annex 1-(V)-3-i) that allows universities to work closely with industry on their list of courses.
- Fourth, modify clauses 13(C)(3), 13(C)(5), 13(C)(7), 18(2) of UGC online regulations 2020 to permit universities to create partner ecosystems for world-class online learning services, platforms, and experience.
- Fifth, introduce Universities in clause 2 of the Apprentices Act 1961 to enable all accredited universities to introduce, administer and scale all aspects of degree apprenticeship programs.
- These five changes would enable enrolling five crore incremental employed learner.
Conclusion
Reforming education requires thinking horizontally, holistically, and imaginatively. The reforms suggested here should be carried out considering these aspects.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues of the informal workforce
The article highlights the vulnerabilities of workers in the informal sector and also highlights the issues in the draft rules in the labour codes.
Context
- The budget referred to the implementation of the four labour codes.
- There is also a provision of Rs 15,700 crore for MSMEs, more than double of this year’s budget estimate.
Impact of pandemic on informal workers
- India’s estimated 450 million informal workers comprise 90 per cent of its total workforce, with 5-10 million workers added annually.
- Nearly 40 per cent of these employed with MSMEs.
- According to Oxfam’s latest global report, out of the total 122 million who lost their jobs in 2020, 75 per cent were lost in the informal sector.
- The National Human Rights Commission recorded over 2,582 cases of human rights violation as early as April 2020.
Issues with the draft rules in labour code
- The rush to clear the labour codes and form the draft rules shows little to no intent on part of the government to safeguard workers.
- The draft rules envisage wider coverage through the inclusion of informal sector and gig workers, at present the draft rules apply to manufacturing firms with over 299 workers.
- This leaves 71 per cent of manufacturing companies out of its purview.
- The draft rules mandate the registration of all workers (with Aadhaar cards) on the Shram Suvidha Portal to be able to receive any form of social security benefit.
- This would lead to Aadhaar-driven exclusion and workers will be unable to register on their own due to lack of information on the Aadhaar registration processes.
- A foreseeable challenge is updating information on the online portal at regular intervals, especially by the migrant or seasonal labour force.
- It is also unclear as to how these benefits will be applicable in the larger scheme of things.
Neglect of informal sector
- The draft rules fail to cater to the growing informal workforce in India.
- The growing informal nature of the workforce and the lack of the state’s accountability makes it a breeding ground for rising inequality.
- The workers face the risk of violations of their human and labour rights, dignity of livelihood, unsafe and unregulated working conditions and lower wages.
Consider the question “Assess the impact of covid pandemic on workers in the informal sector. Also examine the issues with the draft rules in the labour code.”
Conclusion
The Code on Social Security was envisaged as a legal protective measure for a large number of informal workers in India but unless the labour codes are made and implemented keeping in mind the realities of the informal sector workers, it will become impossible to bridge the inequality gap.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Criminal Defamation
Mains level: Women safety issues
The Delhi High Court has dismissed former Union Ministers’ criminal defamation complaint against a famous journalist over her tweets accusing him of sexual harassment.
What is the #MeToo Movement?
- The #MeToo movement, with variations of related local or international names, is a social movement against sexual abuse and sexual harassment towards women, where people publicize allegations of sex crimes.
- The phrase “Me Too” was initially used in this context on social media in 2006, on Myspace, by sexual harassment survivor and activist Tarana Burke in the US.
- It is aimed at demonstrating how many women have survived sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.
You must know this!
The Vishaka Guidelines were a set of procedural guidelines for use in India in cases of sexual harassment. They were promulgated by the Indian Supreme Court in 1997 and were superseded in 2013 by the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
What did the court say?
- Women have the right to put their grievances at any platform of their choice and even after decades.
- The court also rejected the argument that the former union minister was a man of a stellar reputation.
What is the case?
- The former minister had filed a criminal defamation case against the person in October 2018 since she did not produce any proof.
- The criminal case was initiated to create a chilling effect against women who spoke out about their experience of sexual harassments.
Legal backing of the acquittal
- Criminal defamation is defined in Section 499 of the IPC as making or publishing any imputation about a person intending to harm, or knowing it will harm the reputation of a person.
- Any statement or article criticizing a person or accusing them of any sort of problematic behaviour will obviously lower their reputation.
- Hence this is always emphasised in legal notices and complaints to courts alleging defamation.
- However, the law recognizes that a person’s reputation can’t be a shield against their own bad behaviour and that there can be various circumstances when outing this bad behaviour is in the public interest.
- This is why Section 499 of the IPC also prescribes several exceptions to claims of defamation.
Is it a win for the survivors?
- It should be noted that this does not necessarily mean that a corresponding criminal case for sexual harassment against the man would be successful.
- This is because the allegations of harassment would have to be proved against the man beyond all reasonable doubt.
- Therefore even though the present defence of truth was accepted by Delhi HC, this would not guarantee that the former minister would be convicted, as the standard of proof is different.
Conclusion
- This judgement will set an example for the reluctant or other ousted women who are willing to revisit the cases of sexual misconduct against them.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Money Bill , Art 110
Mains level: Money Bill- Finance Bill issue
In a pre-emptive move, the opposition has written to Lok Sabha Speaker, urging him not to bypass the Rajya Sabha by declaring key Bills as “money bills”.
What is a Money Bill?
- A money bill is defined by Article 110 of the Constitution, as a draft law that contains only provisions that deal with all or any of the matters listed therein.
- These comprise a set of seven features, broadly including items such as-
- Imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax
- Regulation of the borrowing of money by the GOI
- Custody of the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI) or the Contingency Fund of India, the payment of money into or the withdrawal of money from any such fund
- Appropriation of money out of the CFI
- Declaration of any expenditure charged on the CFI or increasing the amount of any such expenditure
- Receipt of money on account of the CFI or the public account of India or the custody or issue of such money, or the audit of the accounts of the Union or of a state
- Any matter incidental to any of the matters specified above.
Who controls such bills?
- In the event proposed legislation contains other features, ones that are not merely incidental to the items specifically outlined, such a draft law cannot be classified as a money bill.
- Article 110 further clarifies that in cases where a dispute arises over whether a bill is a money bill or not, the Lok Sabha Speaker’s decision on the issue shall be considered final.
What surrounds the ‘Money Bill’ controversy?
- While all Money Bills are Financial Bills, all Financial Bills are not Money Bills.
- For example, the Finance Bill which only contains provisions related to tax proposals would be a Money Bill.
- However, a Bill that contains some provisions related to taxation or expenditure, but also covers other matters would be considered a Financial Bill.
- Again, the procedure for the passage of the two bills varies significantly. The Rajya Sabha (where the ruling party might not have the majority) has no power to reject or amend a Money Bill.
- However, a Financial Bill must be passed by both Houses of Parliament.
- The Speaker (nonetheless, a member of the ruling party) certifies a Bill as a Money Bill, and the Speaker’s decision is final.
- Also, the Constitution states that parliamentary proceedings, as well as officers responsible for the conduct of business (such as the Speaker), may not be questioned by any Court.
Back2Basics:
What is Finance Bill?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Juvenile Justice Act, 2015
Mains level: Key provisions of Juvenile Justice Act
The Union Cabinet has approved a slew of amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
What are the key features of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015? Discuss the proposed amendments by the WCD ministry.
Juvenile Justice Act, 2015
- The JJ Act, 2015 replaced the Indian juvenile delinquency law, Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.
- It allows for juveniles in conflict with Law in the age group of 16–18, involved in Heinous Offences, to be tried as adults.
- The Act also sought to create a universally accessible adoption law for India.
- The Act came into force from 15 January 2016.
Key features
- Change in nomenclature from ‘juvenile’ to ‘child’ or ‘child in conflict with law’, across the Act to remove the negative connotation associated with the word “juvenile”
- Inclusion of several new definitions such as orphaned, abandoned and surrendered children; and petty, serious and heinous offences committed by children;
- The Act mandates setting up Juvenile Justice Boards and Child Welfare Committees in every district. Both must have at least one woman member each.
- Special provisions for heinous offences committed by children above the age of sixteen years – Under Section 15, special provisions have been made to tackle child offenders committing heinous offences in the age group of 16-18 years (in response to the juvenile convict in Nirbhaya Case).
- Separate new chapter on Adoption to streamline adoption of orphan, abandoned and surrendered children – To streamline adoption procedures for orphan, abandoned and surrendered children, the existing Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is given the status of a statutory body.
- Inclusion of new offences committed against children – Sale and procurement of children for any purpose including illegal adoption, corporal punishment in child care institutions, use of child by militant groups, offences against disabled children and, kidnapping and abduction of children.
- Penalties for cruelty against a child– offering a narcotic substance to a child, and abduction or selling a child has been prescribed.
- Mandatory registration of Child Care Institutions
What are the news amendments?
The amendments are aimed at strengthening the Child Protection set-up to ensure the best interest of children.
(A) More powers to the DM
- These include empowering the DMs and the additional DMs to monitor the functioning of agencies responsible for implementing the JJ Act.
- The District Child Protection Units will function under the DMs.
(B) Evaluating shelter homes
- Before someone sets up a shelter home for children and sends their proposal for registration under the JJ Act to the State, a DM will have to assess their capacity and conduct a background check.
- A DM could also independently evaluate the functioning of the Child Welfare Committee, Special Juvenile Protection Units and registered childcare institutes, the Minister stated.
(C) Members of committees
- The proposed amendments also define the eligibility parameters for the appointment of members of the Child Welfare Committees.
- These committees are tasked to decide on children in need of care and protection and mandate their background checks.
(D) Definition of Children
- It is also proposed to expand the definition of children in need of care and protection and include those children who have been victims of trafficking or drug abuse or child labour.
- It would also include those children who have been abandoned by their guardians.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: XR
Mains level: Climate activism
Delhi Police have named some environmental activists who are volunteers of a global environment movement seeking to call attention to the climate change emergency, in the Greta Thunberg ‘toolkit’ case.
Q.Climate activism is increasingly turning into a propaganda movement. Discuss.
What is Extinction Rebellion?
- The global movement Extinction Rebellion also referred to as ‘XR’, describes itself as a decentralized, international and politically non-partisan movement using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience.
- It aims to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.
- XR was launched in the UK on October 31, 2018, as a response to a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
- It had then declared that we only have 12 years to stop catastrophic climate change and our understanding that we have entered the 6th mass extinction event.
- The movement now has a presence in 75 countries, including India.
What does XR want?
- The group has “three core demands” of governments around the world.
- It wants governments to “Tell the Truth”, to “Act Now”, and to “Go Beyond Politics” in order to confront the climate and ecological emergency that the world is faced with.
- It wants them to communicate the urgency to bring change, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2025.
- XR seeks to “rebel”, and asks groups to “self-organise”, without the need for anyone’s permission, to come up with collective action plans as long as they adhere to the group’s core principles and values.
What activities have XR done so far?
- The group had announced a “Declaration of Rebellion” at launch, involving a public act of civil disobedience in London, demanding that the government reduce carbon emission to zero by 2025.
- The eventual plan was to coordinate actions in other countries and to engage in an “International Rebellion” in March 2019.
- The XR global website, however, states that the movement is “strictly non-violent”, and that they are “reluctant law-breakers”.
- In April 2019, Greta Thunberg, the teenage Swedish climate activist, lent her support to the group by speaking to its members in London.
XR and India
- The movement claims to have been inspired by 15 major civil disobedience movements around the world, including, apart from Women’s Suffrage and the Arab Spring, India’s struggle for Independence.
- It refers to Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt March in 1930.
- XR’s website says there are 19 groups in the country, including in the cities of Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Chennai.
Recent events
- One of the group’s early public events was a “die-in” protest organised at Bandra Reclamation in Mumbai in October 2019.
- Participants at “die-in” protests lie on the ground, pretending to be dead.
- Since the city was already seeing protests against the felling of trees at Aarey Colony for the Metro crashed, police did not grant permission for the “die-in” protest.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NHEM
Mains level: Hydrogen as clean fuel
Recently, the Finance Minister in her budget speech formally announced the National Hydrogen Energy Mission which aims for generation of hydrogen from green power resources.
Background
- With this announcement, India has made an uncharacteristically early entry in the race to tap the energy potential of the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen.
- The proposal in the Budget will be followed up with a mission draft over the next couple of months — a roadmap for using hydrogen as an energy source.
- The mission would have a specific focus on green hydrogen, dovetailing India’s growing renewable capacity with the hydrogen economy.
Hydrogen as an element
- The most common element in nature is not found freely.
- Hydrogen exists only combined with other elements and has to be extracted from naturally occurring compounds like water (which is a combination of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom).
- Although hydrogen is a clean molecule, the process of extracting it is energy-intensive.
- The sources and processes, by which hydrogen is derived, are categorised by colour tabs.
Its types as fuel
- Hydrogen produced from fossil fuels is called grey hydrogen; this constitutes the bulk of the hydrogen produced today.
- Hydrogen generated from fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage options is called blue hydrogen; hydrogen generated entirely from renewable power sources is called green hydrogen.
- In the last process, electricity generated from renewable energy is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Hydrogen for mobility
- While proposed end-use sectors include steel and chemicals, the major industry that hydrogen has the potential of transforming is transportation.
- This sector contributes a third of all greenhouse gas emissions, and where hydrogen is being seen as a direct replacement of fossil fuels, with specific advantages over traditional EVs.
- Hydrogen fuel cell cars have a near-zero carbon footprint.
- Hydrogen is about two to three times as efficient as burning petrol because an electric chemical reaction is much more efficient than combustion.
We already had H-CNG!
- In October 2020, Delhi became the first Indian city to operate buses running on hydrogen spiked compressed natural gas (H-CNG) in a six-month pilot project.
- The buses will run on a new technology patented by Indian Oil Corp for producing H-CNG — 18 per cent hydrogen in CNG — directly from natural gas, without resorting to conventional blending.
Try this PYQ from CSP 2019:
In the context of proposals to the use of hydrogen-enriched CNG (H-CNG) as fuel for buses in public transport, consider the following statements :
1. The main advantage of the use of H-CNG is the elimination of carbon monoxide emissions.
2. H-CNG as a fuel reduces carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon emissions.
3. Hydrogen up to one-fifth by volume can be blended with CNG as fuel for buses.
4. H-CNG makes the fuel less expensive than CNG.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Green hydrogen has specific advantages
- One, it is a clean-burning molecule, which can decarbonize a range of sectors including iron and steel, chemicals, and transportation.
- Two, renewable energy that cannot be stored or used by the grid can be channelled to produce hydrogen.
- This is what the government’s Hydrogen Energy Mission, to be launched in 2021-22, aims for.
Philosophy behind NHEM
- India’s electricity grid is predominantly coal-based and will continue to be so.
- In several countries that have gone in for an EV push, much of the electricity is generated from renewables — in Norway for example, it is 99 per cent from hydroelectric power.
- Experts believe hydrogen vehicles can be especially effective in long-haul trucking and other hard-to-electrify sectors such as shipping and long-haul air travel.
- Using heavy batteries in these applications would be counterproductive, especially for countries such as India, where the electricity grid is predominantly coal-fired.
Back2Basics: How hydrogen fuel cells work?
- Hydrogen is an energy carrier, not a source of energy.
- Hydrogen fuel must be transformed into electricity by a device called a fuel cell stack before it can be used to power a car or truck.
- A fuel cell converts chemical energy into electrical energy using oxidizing agents through an oxidation-reduction reaction.
- Inside each individual fuel cell, hydrogen is drawn from an onboard pressurized tank and made to react with a catalyst, usually made from platinum.
- As the hydrogen passes through the catalyst, it is stripped of its electrons, which are forced to move along an external circuit, producing an electrical current.
- This current is used by the electric motor to power the vehicle, with the only byproduct being water vapour.
Issues with H-Fuel cells
- A big barrier to the adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has been a lack of fuelling station infrastructure.
- There are fewer than 500 operational hydrogen stations in the world today, mostly in Europe, followed by Japan and South Korea.
- Safety is seen as a concern. Hydrogen is pressurized and stored in a cryogenic tank, from there it is fed to a lower-pressure cell and put through an electrochemical reaction to generate electricity.
- Scaling up the technology and achieving critical mass remains the big challenge.
- More vehicles on the road and more supporting infrastructure can lower costs. India’s proposed mission is seen as a step in that direction.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PLI scheme and various sectors
Mains level: Make in India promotions
The Union Cabinet has approved the production-linked incentive scheme for the telecom sector with an outlay of ₹12,195 crores over five years.
Why such a scheme?
- The scheme aims to make India a global hub for manufacturing telecom equipment.
- The sector is expected to lead to an incremental production of about ₹2.4 lakh crore, with exports of about ₹2 lakh crore over five years and bring in investments of more than ₹3,000 crores.
PLI Scheme
- The PLI scheme aims to boost domestic manufacturing and cut down on imports by providing cash incentives on incremental sales from products manufactured in the country.
- Besides inviting foreign companies to set shop in India, the scheme aims to encourage local companies to set up or expand, existing manufacturing units.
UPSC can directly as the sectors included in the PLI scheme. Earlier it was only meant for Electronics manufacturing (particularly mobile phones).
Benefits for MSMEs
- For inclusion of MSMEs in the scheme, the minimum investment threshold has been kept at ₹10 crores, while for others it is ₹100 crore.
- For MSMEs, a 1% higher incentive is also proposed in the first three years.
Employment generation
- The scheme was also likely to generate 40,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities and generate tax revenue of ₹17,000 crores from telecom equipment manufacturing.
Which equipments?
- The telecom manufacturing would include core transmission equipment, 4G/5G Radio Access Network and wireless equipment, access and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), IoT access devices, other wireless equipment.
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