Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Provisions of the FRBM Act
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with the FRBM and alternative framework
The article highlights the failure of FRBM Act to contain India’s rising debt and suggests an alternative framework.
Issues with the FRBM Act
- Economic disruption caused by the COVID has prompted calls for a relook atthe Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM).
- The introduction of the FRBM in 2003 reflected the belief that setting strict limits on fiscal deficits, both for the centre and the states, was the solution.
- But this framework didn’t work.
- Apart from the initial period, when growth was booming, the deficit targets were largely honoured in the breach, leaving the primary balance [Revenue-Non-intrest expenditure] essentially unchanged (Figure 2, phase 2).
Debt has increased to record levels
- India’s general government debt has soared.
- It is now close to 90 per cent of GDP — the highest independent India has ever seen.
- The debt ratio will come down naturally as GDP normalises.
- Even so, on current policies, it is likely to exceed 80 per cent for the foreseeable future.
Would such a high level of debt be sustainable?
- Briefly, sustainability depends on two key factors:
- 1) The primary balance (PB), revenue less non-interest expenditures.
- 2) The difference between the cost of borrowing and the nominal growth rate (r-g).[interest-growth differential]
- Debt does not explode when the primary balance is greater than the interest-growth differential.
- In India’s case, PB has been negative as the government has run primary deficits.
- But this has been counterbalanced over the past decade by favourable differentials, as interest rates have been lower than growth.
- Hence, the broadly stable debt ratio.
- This equilibrium has now been upset by the sudden increase in debt.
- If the interest-growth differential consequently turns unfavourable, as occurred during the previous period of high debt in the early 2000s (Figure 2, phase 1), then debt sustainability could only be preserved by shifting the primary balance into surplus.
- And this would not be easy.
Why shifting primary balance intro surplus is not easy
- Primary deficit of the Centre and states combined is typically about 3 per cent of GDP. [say PB is -3% of GDP]
- So, shifting the primary balance into a modest surplus [i.e. turning PB from -ve to +ve] would require an adjustment of 4 percentage points of GDP.
- But non-interest expenditure is only roughly 20 per cent of GDP.
- If tax increases were ruled out, then a sudden adjustment would require non-interest spending to be cut by no less than 20 per cent (4 divided by 20 times 100).[20% of 20 is 4]
- Clearly, this would be politically impossible.
- But this would render India susceptible to panic and possibly even crises.
- The government needs to eliminate the tension, undertaking a pre-emptive consolidation to prevent the need for a sudden adjustment.
Strategy based on 4 principles
- The government should start by defining a clear objective, based not on arbitrary targets but on sound first principles: It should aim to ensure debt sustainability.
- To this end, the government could adopt a strategy based on four principles.
1) Abandon multiple fiscal criteria
- The current FRBM sets targets for the overall deficit, the revenue deficit and debt.
- Such multiple criteria impede the objective of ensuring sustainability since the targets can conflict with each other,
- This creates confusion about which one to follow and thereby obfuscating accountability.
2) Don’t get fixated on specific number
- Around the world, countries are realising that deficit targets of 3 per cent of GDP and debt targets of 60 per cent of GDP lack proper economic grounding.
- In India’s case, they take no account of the country’s own fiscal arithmetic or its strong political will to repay its debt.
- Any specific target, no matter how well-grounded, encouraging governments to transfer spending off-budget such as with the “oil bonds” in the mid-2000s and subsidies more recently.
3) Focus on one measure for guiding fiscal policy
- In this regard, Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felmanwe propose targeting the primary balance.
- This concept is new to India and will take time for the public to absorb and accept.
- But it is inherently simple and has the eminent virtue that it is closely linked to meeting the overall objective of ensuring debt sustainability.
4) Don’t set yearly target for the primary balance
- The Centre should not set out yearly targets for the primary balance.
- Instead, it should announce a plan to improve the primary balance gradually, by say half a percentage point of GDP per year on average.
- Doing so will make it clear that it will accelerate consolidation when times are good, moderate it when times are less buoyant, and end it when a small surplus has been achieved.
- This strategy is simple and easy to communicate; it is gradual and hence feasible.
Consider the question “Despite the FRBM framework India’s debt level have touched a historic high. In light of this, examine the reasons for the failure of FRBM in controlling the debt level and suggest the way forward to make India’s debt level sustainable.”
Conclusion
COVID has upended India’s public finances. It is time to learn from past experience and adapt. Adopting a simple new fiscal framework based on the primary balance could be the way forward.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Implementation of the SC recommendations in Prakash Singh case
The article discusses the status of implementation of the Supreme Court directives in the Prakash Singh case by the States.
Background of the Prakash Sing judgement
- Over the years, the National Police Commission made several recommendations for reform of the police force.
- But many of these were not implemented effectively.
- In 1996, two retired Directors General of Police, Prakash Singh and N. K. Singh, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) to know whether those recommendations had ever been implemented.
- A decade later in 2006 that the Court delivered its verdict in what is popularly referred to as the Prakash Singh case.
- In Prakash Singh v. Union of India, the SC relied on the eight reports of the National Police Commission (1979-1981) appointed by the Union.
Following are some of the recommendations and provision and status of their implementations.
Selection and minimum tenure of DGP
- The provision regarding the selection of and minimum tenure for the DGP post has had partial if any, effect.
- Corruption, politicking, and patronage-seeking at the top is so endemic that this provision has lost its sting.
- The Security Commission consisting of the Home Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Chief Secretary, the DGP and five independent members is likewise ineffective.
- How can one have at the apex of the reform system for the police those who have a vested interest in not reforming the police?
Separation between investigation and prosecution wings
- The Commission’s recommendation that there ought to be a separation between the investigation and prosecution wings, as is the system in many developed countries, required immediate enforcement by the judiciary.
- Doing so will help weed out the corruption in criminal investigations would get a second look by the prosecutorial wing.
- But, for that, it would require that this department be placed not under the Home Minister, but under the Ministry of Law and Justice.
- This was never done.
The Police Complaint Authority
- Obviously, for police criminality, one cannot expect the police or the home department to take action against themselves.
- An independent body was necessary.
- The commission recommended that there should be a PCA at the state level, headed by a retired judge of the SC or high court chosen out of a panel of names proposed by the chief justice of the state.
- A similar structure was envisaged for the PCA at the district level.
- In addition, the PCAs would be assisted by members selected by the state from panels prepared by the State Human Rights Commission, Lokayuktas and the State Public Service Commissions.
- The most important part of this decision was that the recommendations of the PCA would be binding on the state.
- However, affidavits filed in the SC showed that not a single state or UT has implemented the PCA provision.
- States have not constituted panels and appointed officials as chairpersons in the place of retired judges.
- In many states, the name Police Complaints Authority has been changed.
- For example, in Tripura and Mizoram, it is called The Police Accountability Commission, diverting attention away from the fact that the commission is for entertaining complaints against police persons.
Consider the question “What are the Supreme Court directives for police reform in the Prakash Singh vs. Union of India case? To what extent states have implemented these directives?”
Conclusion
On police reform, the recommendations exist, the SC order has been made but the Union remains defiant. Perhaps, now, after the Maharashtra fiasco, the SC may decide that this case pending for eight years merits listing.
Back2Basics: The SC directives in the Prakash Singh case
1) Limit Political Control
- Constitute a State Security Commission to:
- Ensure that the state government does not exercise unwarranted influence or pressure on the police.
- Lay down broad policy guidelines.
- Evaluate the performance of the state police.
2) Appointment based on merit
- Ensure that the Director General of Police is appointed through a merit–based, transparent process, and secures a minimum tenure of 2 years.
3) Fix minimum tenure
- Ensure that other police officers on operational duties (including Superintendents of Police in charge of a district and Station House Officers in charge of a police station) are also provided a minimum tenure of 2 years.
4) Separate police functions
- Separate the functions of investigation and maintaining law and order.
5) Set up fair and transparent systems
- Set up a Police Establishment Board to decide and make recommendations on transfers, postings, promotions and other service-related matters of police officers of and below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police.
6) Establish a Police Complaints Authority in each state
- At the state level, there should be a Police Complaints Authority to look into public complaints against police officers of and above the rank of Superintendent of Police in cases of serious misconduct, including custodial death, grievous hurt or rape in police custody.
7) Set up a selection commission
- A National Security Commission needs to be set up at the union level to prepare a panel for selection and placement of chiefs of the Central Police Organizations with a minimum tenure of 2 years.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NATO
Mains level: Relevance of NATO
Ukrainian President has urged NATO to speed up his country’s membership in the alliance, saying it was the only way to end fighting with pro-Russia separatists.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
- The NATO, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 European and North American countries.
- The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.
- NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
- NATO’s Headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.
Its members
- Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 30.
- The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.
- NATO currently recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine as aspiring members.
- An additional 20 countries participate in NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs.
Why NATO matters?
- The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global nominal total.
- Members agreed that their aim is to reach or maintain the target defence spending of at least 2% of their GDP by 2024.
Also read:
India & NATO
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: E9 Initiative
Mains level: Digital learning coalitions
Nine countries including India, China and Brazil will explore the possibility of co-creating and scaling up digital learning to achieve the UN sustainable goal on quality education under the E9 initiative.
The E9 is the first of its kind global collaboration for digital learning. Note the participating countries.
E9 Initiative
- It is the first of a three-phased process to co-create an initiative on digital learning and skills, targeting marginalised children and youth, especially girls.
- The initiative aims to accelerate recovery and advance the Sustainable Development Goal 4 agenda by driving rapid change in education systems.
- It is spearheaded by the UN, the E9 countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan.
- It will have the opportunity to benefit from this global initiative and accelerate progress on digital learning, according to UNESCO.
Various functions
- The initiative will discuss the co-creation of the Digital Learning initiative by the nine countries.
- This Consultation will highlight progress, share lessons and explore opportunities for collaboration and scale-up to expand digital learning and skills.
- In addition, a Marketplace segment, for public-private partnership will focus on promising local and global solutions and opportunities for digital learning to strengthen local ecosystems.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mahendragiri Hills
Mains level: Biosphere reserves in India
The Odisha government has proposed a second biosphere reserve in the southern part of the state at Mahendragiri, a hill ecosystem having a rich biodiversity.
The 5,569-square kilometre Similipal Biosphere Reserve is Odisha’s first such reserve and was notified May 20, 1996.
Mahendragiri Hills
- Mahendragiri is a mountain in the Rayagada subdivision of the district of Gajapati, Odisha, India.
- It is situated amongst the Eastern Ghats at an elevation of 1,501 metres.
- The hill and its surrounding areas are recognized as a biodiversity hot spot due to numerous medicinal plants and other species that are found here.
- Mahendragiri is inhabited by the Soura people, a particularly vulnerable tribal group as well as the Kandha tribe.
Try this PYQ:
Q.From the ecological point of view, which one of the following assumes importance in being a good link between the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats? (CSP 2018)
(a) Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve
(b) Nallamala Forest
(c) Nagarhole National Park
(d) Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve
Why designate it as a biosphere reserve?
- The area of the proposed Mahendragiri Biosphere Reserve is around 470,955 hectares and is spread over Gajapati and Ganjam districts in the Eastern Ghats.
- The hill ecosystem acts as a transitional zone between the flora and fauna of southern India and the Himalayas, making the region an ecological estuary of genetic diversities.
- The rich flora in Mahendragiri represents 40 per cent of the reported flora of Odisha, with around 1,358 species of plants.
Back2Basics: Biosphere Reserves
- A biosphere reserve is an area of land or water that is protected by law in order to support the conservation of ecosystems, as well as the sustainability of mankind’s impact on the environment.
- Each reserve aims to help scientists and the environmental community figure out how to protect the world’s plant and animal species while dealing with a growing population and its resource needs.
- To carry out the complementary activities of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, biosphere reserves are traditionally organized into 3 interrelated zones, known as:
- the core area
- the buffer zone and
- a transition zone or ‘area of cooperation
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Xenobot
Mains level: Biomedicines and their applications
Researchers have developed robots from stem cells of frogs called Xenobots.
Xenobots, the name itself suggests its peculiarity.
Xenobots
- Xenobots, named after the African clawed frog are synthetic organisms that are automatically designed by computers to perform some desired function and built by combining together different biological tissues.
- They are less than a 1 millimeter (0.039 inches) wide and composed of just two things: skin cells and heart muscle cells, both of which are derived from stem cells harvested from early (blastula stage) frog embryos.
- They can self-heal after damage, record memories and work together in groups.
- These biological robots can record information about their surroundings and move using cilia – minute hair like particles present on their surface.
Its applications
- These soft-body living machines can have several applications in biomedicine and the environment.
- They could be made from a human patient’s own cells, which would bypass the immune response challenges of other kinds of micro-robotic delivery systems.
- Such xenobots could potentially be used to scrape plaque from arteries and with additional cell types and bioengineering, locate and treat disease.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Wolf–Rayet Stars
Mains level: Not Much
Indian astronomers have tracked a rare supernova explosion and traced it to one of the hottest kind of stars called Wolf–Rayet stars or WR stars.
Space science-related terms these days are often focused on Gravitational waves, Black holes etc. But basic terminologies are very important and need to be taken care of. For example, a layman may hardly find any difference between Novae-Supernovae, Neutron star, Nebula etc. UPSC often tries to bust you with such basic differences.
Wolf–Rayet Stars
- Wolf-Rayet stars represent a final burst of activity before a huge star begins to die.
- These stars, which are at least 20 times more massive than the Sun, “live fast and die hard”.
- Wolf-Rayets stars are divided into 3 classes based on their spectra, the WN stars (nitrogen dominant, some carbon), WC stars (carbon dominant, no nitrogen) and WO where oxygen is in dominant quantities.
- The average temperature of a Wolf-Rayet star is greater than 25,000 Kelvin, and they can have luminosities of up to a million times that of the Sun.
What have Indian researchers studied?
- Indian astronomers have conducted the optical monitoring of one such stripped-envelope supernova called SN 2015dj hosted in the galaxy NGC 7371 which was spotted in 2015.
- They calculated the mass of the star that collapsed to form the supernovae as well as the geometry of its ejection.
Their findings
- The scientists found that the original star was a combination of two stars – one of them is a massive WR star and another is a star much less in mass than the Sun.
- Supernovae (SNe) are highly energetic explosions in the Universe releasing an enormous amount of energy.
- Long-term monitoring of these transients opens the door to understand the nature of the exploding star as well as the explosion properties.
- It can also help enumerate the number of massive stars.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now