Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: HELE power plants
Mains level: Paper 3- Clean energy transition plan
Context
India has a long way to go in providing electricity security to its people since its per capita electricity consumption is still only a third of the global average.
Ensuring energy security and role of coal
- Energy security warrants the uninterrupted supply of energy at affordable prices.
- Thanks to the Electricity Act of 2003, the installed coal-fired thermal power plant (TPP) generation capacity in India more than doubled from 94 GW to 192 GW between March 2011 and 2017.
- This sharp increase in the installed capacity has enabled the government to increase per capita electricity consumption by 37% while reducing peak demand deficit from 9.8% (2010-11) to 1.6% (2016-17).
- TPPs contributed 71% of the 1,382 billion units (BU) of electricity generated by utilities in India during FY 2020-21 though they accounted for only 55% of the total installed generation capacity of 382 GW (as of March 2021).
- Coal, therefore, plays a vital role in India’s ongoing efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7, which is “to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”.
Renewable energy utilisation issue and implications for consumers
- While variable renewable energy (VRE) sources (primarily, wind and solar) account for 24.7% of the total installed generation capacity, as of March 2021, they contributed 10.7% of the electricity generated by utilities during FY 2020-21.
- However, the ramp-up of VRE generation capacity without commensurate growth in electricity demand has resulted in lower utilisation of TPPs whose fixed costs must be paid by the distribution companies (DISCOMs) and passed through to the final consumer.
- The current level of VRE in the national power grid is increasing the cost of power procurement for DISCOMs, leading to tariff increases for electricity consumers.
- Therefore, India must implement a plan to increase energy efficiency and reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and airborne pollutants from TPPs without making power unaffordable to industries that need low-cost 24×7 power to compete in the global market.
Way forward: time-bound transition plan
- Phasing out: The plan should involve the progressive retirement of TPPs(unit size 210 MW and below) based on key performance parameters such as efficiency, specific coal consumption, technological obsolescence, and age.
- Increasing utilisation: The resulting shortfall in baseload electricity generation can be made up by increasing the utilisation of existing High-Efficiency-Low-Emission (HELE) TPPs that are currently under-utilised to accommodate VRE and commissioning the 47 government-owned TPPs.
- In addition, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is also constructing 11 nuclear power plants with a total generation capacity of 8,700 MW that will supply 24×7 power without any CO2 emissions.
- The combined thermal (220 GW) and nuclear (15 GW) capacity of 235 GW can meet the baseload requirement (80% of peak demand) during the evening peak in FY 2029-30 without expensive battery storage.
- The optimal utilisation of existing and under-construction HELE TPPs with faster-ramping capabilities and lower technical minimums also facilitates VRE integration.
- Since HELE TPPs minimise emissions of particulate matter (PM), SO2, and NO2, the transition plan offers operational, economic, and environmental benefits including avoidance of sustenance Capex and FGD costs in the 211 obsolete TPPs to be retired besides savings in specific coal consumption and water requirement leading to reductions in electricity tariffs and PM pollution.
Conclusion
The implementation of transition plan will enable India to safeguard its energy security and ensure efficient grid operations with lower water consumption, PM pollution, and CO2 emissions.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Internal democracy in political parties
Context
It is obvious that institutional intermediaries in a representative democracy must themselves be democratic. However, beyond the rhetoric, internal democracy in a political party is less straightforward.
How democratic accountability in a political party is different from that in a country
- Democratic accountability in a political party is qualitatively different from that in a country.
- A political party is a collaborative platform to capture state power to achieve a certain vision for society.
- In a country, there are sharp differences between citizens on the vision and values themselves and the role of democracy is not just to create a framework to negotiate conflict but to ensure that the state is representative of the largest section of the electorate through periodic elections.
- Thus, while democracy at the level of the country is a bottom-up opportunity to change direction altogether, democratic accountability in a political party exists within an ideological framework.
Is internal elections for party leadership a solution?
- Subversion of internal institutional process: Proponents underestimate the ability of existing repositories of power to subvert internal institutional processes to consolidate power and maintain the status quo.
- Independence of lower level: the assumption that the lower levels would be independent and hold the higher levels of leadership to account glosses over the many ways power asserts itself.
- Independence and quality of electorate: The outcome of internal elections is contingent on the independence and quality of the electorate.
- In indirect elections (through delegates), the electorate would likely mirror the existing balance of power.
- In direct elections, there is a concern of ideological dilution and/or capture through opportunistic membership.
- It is evident that internal elections may factionalise power but cannot establish normative accountability, which extends to all members of the party along three interconnected axes of ideology, organisation and competence.
- Normative accountability is thus rooted in a dynamic context and is necessarily a deliberative process.
Democratic functioning in political parties is not an end in itself
- Unlike for the state, democracy is not an end in itself for a political party.
- The highest possible attainment of individual well-being and individual self-will through a democratic state is an end in itself.
- The purpose of a political party is the acquisition of state power.
- Democratic functioning may be an ideological imperative, operational choice, or legitimising tactic but it is not an end in itself for a political party.
Way forward
- Instead of looking at internal party processes, one way to decentralise power is by getting rid of the anti-defection law.
- The need to canvass votes in the legislature will create room for negotiation in the party organisation too.
- Most importantly, this reform will impose a similar burden on all political parties and may create space to change the overall political culture.
Consider the question “Lack of internal democratic functioning in the political parties has bearing on the overall political functioning of the country. Examine the factors responsible for its lack in India and suggest measures to encourage it.”
Conclusion
The role of democracy is not just to create a framework to negotiate conflict but to ensure that the state is representative of the largest section of the electorate through periodic elections.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Regulation of Gig Economy
Since the pandemic, there is a growing concern about the pay-out and job-securities of the delivery persons and other gig workers of the e-commerce companies.
E-com boom in India
- E-commerce in India is a nascent industry that is probably less than 13 years old.
- In this short period, it has captured the collective imagination of the nation.
- The covid-19 crisis has accelerated its adoption, and even die-hard fans of shopping at a physical store have switched to shopping online.
Various issues faced by the gig workers
- Harsh working conditions
- Quality of work and the temporary nature of engagement
- Absence of a social security net
- Long hours
- Delayed pay-outs
- Pressure to maximize speed of delivery (at the risk of road accidents)
E-coms under scanner
The bigger an industry gets, and the more successful it is perceived to be, the more responsible and thoughtful it needs to be in everything it does.
- Fairness in employment: Some of the concerns are fair and call for introspection on the part of e-commerce companies.
- Premature regulation: There is a rising demand for regulation of the gig economy created by them.
Significance of e-commerce sector
Anyone complaining about the quality of jobs being created by the e-commerce industry probably needs to spend some time understanding the history of job creation in India.
An attractive sector for India’s ‘jobs problem’
- Ample workforce: India is a demographically youthful nation, and every year between 17 and 20 million people look for jobs.
- Attractive sector: This includes around 5 million people who are abandoning highly exploitative and less remunerative farm jobs every year to find employment in other sectors, mostly in the nearest urban districts.
- Limited success of service sector: The IT and business process outsourcing industry has less than 200,000 jobs a year during its 25 years of existence. This is just a minuscule 1% of the total number of jobs that need to be created.
Data justifying un-steady flow of income
- According to CSO, only about 17% of India’s workers are regular wage earners and less than 23% of Indian households have a regular wage earner.
- In other words, 77% of our households did not have a steady flow of income.
- Self-employed (46%) and casual labour (33%) together account for nearly 80% of the workforce and claimed to earn less than ₹10,000 per month.
- These are the realities that cannot be ignored.
E-commerce: A game-changer
- The new-age platforms have done is nothing short of a miracle both in terms of creating jobs as well as paying a fair wage.
- It can be well established that it has provided a better remedy for unemployment in India.
Why do e-marketplaces matter?
- Failure of Skills: Neither skill nor knowledge is enough to ensure one generates income.
- Technology dependency and free market: Efficient marketplace which are enabled by technology, matters.
- Common platform: A startup such as the Urban Company is an example of a technology-powered marketplace for common services such as plumbing, carpentry, beauty, and house-cleaning, among others.
- Single marketplace: They brought consumers and suppliers of services (based on skills) on a common platform and made the whole process of matching demand and supply pretty seamless.
Benefits offered
- Decent pay: A consumer of a service is willing to pay more for better quality of service if there is a consistent and reliable process of evaluating the capability of service providers.
- Self-employment: Most of these workers are always self-employed and even with these platforms, they operate in a gig mode which isn’t structurally different.
- Better livelihood: Youth from rural India had been joining the Ola and Uber platforms in large numbers, many of whom were either unemployed or heavily under-employed.
- No skill-compulsion: When skilling is voluntary and driven by a free market mechanism, the outcomes are magical.
- Industrializing the services: These platforms did ‘industrialize’ the services—industrialization allowed effortless consumption and created structured mechanisms to scale services and service capabilities.
- New consumption pattern: The technology enabled markets resulted in ‘new consumption’ which, in turn, led to creation of more goods and service providers.
Way forward
- As far as the e-commerce industry is concerned, there are several obvious lessons that can contribute towards its growth, going ahead.
- Also it is not fair to paint the entire industry as exploitative or be unduly critical of the gig model which is actually a very good model.
- Many of the gig workers themselves would be reluctant to take up full time and fixed salaried jobs. Pushing for premature regulation could be lethal.
- And finally, it is unrealistic to expect the e-commerce industry to create jobs that are probably as well paying like the IT industry.
Conclusion
- Creating high-paying jobs was never easy and will never be easy.
- Nor is it realistic that everyone, or even a majority of the 20 million, will be employed in high-paying jobs.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CBI
Mains level: Issues with CBI
The Union Government has told the Supreme Court West Bengal state govt does not have any “absolute” power to keep the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from investigating crimes inside the State.
What is the issue?
- A case of post-poll violence was transferred to the CBI by the Calcutta High Court.
- Hence the State Police is under a cloud.
- In a response to this, the West Bengal had filed a suit against the Union of India under Article 131 of the Constitution.
What is Article 131 of Indian Constitution?
- Article 131 states talks about the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court on matters subject to the provisions of Constitution between the Government of India and one or more States.
- Thus, the Article allows a state to file a suit in the Supreme Court in case of any dispute that it may have with the central government, invoking the court’s “original jurisdiction”.
Why WB challenged the Union govt?
- The State has challenged the CBI’s jurisdiction to register FIRs and conduct investigations in the State in myriad cases.
- West Bengal said it had withdrawn “general consent” to the CBI way back in 2018.
- The State said the CBI’s actions were a direct attack on the federal structure of governance.
What is this ‘General Consent’ about?
- Unlike the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is governed by its own NIA Act and has jurisdiction across the country, the CBI is governed by the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act.
- This makes consent of a state government mandatory for conducting an investigation in that state.
- Hence the CBI has jurisdiction only over central government departments and employees.
- However, it can investigate a case involving state government employees or a violent crime in a given state only with the consent of state government.
Arguments made by Centre
- The Centre said that the CBI was an autonomous body not controlled by the Union Government.
- Hence the suit was misplaced and should be dismissed.
Back2Basics:
Central Bureau of Investigation: Composition, Functions
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Global Agricultural Productivity Report, 2021
Mains level: Agricultural Productivity
Global agricultural productivity (GAP) is not growing as fast as the demand for food, amid the impact of climate change, according to a new report.
GAP Report
- The GAP Report is released by Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
- It urges the acceleration of productivity growth from smallholders to large-scale farmers to meet consumers’ needs and address current and future threats to human and environmental well-being.
Key indicator: Total factor productivity (TFP)
- In agriculture, productivity is measured as Total Factor Productivity or TFP.
- An increase in TFP growth indicates that more crops, livestock, and aquaculture products were produced with the same amount (or less) land, labor, fertilizer, machinery, feed, and livestock.
- TFP grows when producers increase output using improved technologies and practices, such as advanced seed varieties, precision mechanization, efficient nutrient and water management techniques, and improved animal care practices.
- Using agricultural inputs efficiently to generate more output reduces agriculture’s environmental impact and lowers costs for producers and consumers.
Highlights of the report
- Total factor productivity (TFP) is growing at an annual rate of 1.36 per cent (2020-2019).
- This is below the annual target of 1.73 per cent growth to sustainably meet the needs of consumers for food and bioenergy in 2050.
- Climate change has already reduced productivity growth globally by 21 per cent since 1961, the report said.
- In the drier regions of Africa and Latin America, climate change has slowed productivity growth by as much as 34 per cent.
- The report noted that middle-income countries including India, China, Brazil and erstwhile Soviet republics continued to have strong TFP growth rates.
Agricultural productivity in India
- India has seen strong TFP and output growth this century.
- The most recent data shows an average annual TFP growth rate of 2.81 per cent and output growth of 3.17 per cent (2010–2019).
Key recommendations
- The report urged accelerating investments in agricultural R&D to increase and preserve productivity gains, especially for small farmers.
- It identified six strategies and policies that would create sustainable agricultural growth at all scales of production:
- Invest in agricultural research and development
- Embrace science-and-information-based technologies
- Improve infrastructure for transportation, information and finance
- Cultivate partnerships for sustainable agriculture, economic growth and improved nutrition
- Expand and improve local, regional and global trade
- Reduce post-harvest loss and food waste
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Ramappa Temple, UNESCO Heritage sites
Mains level: Ancient temple architecture
The Union Minister for Culture, Tourism has unveiled the UNESCO World Heritage Listing plaque at Ramappa – Kakatiya Rudreshwara Temple in Palampet.
Rudreswara Temple
- The Rudreswara temple was constructed in 1213 AD during the reign of the Kakatiya Empire by Recharla Rudra, a general of Kakatiya king Ganapati Deva.
- It is also known as the Ramappa temple, after the sculptor who executed the work in the temple for 40 years.
- The main temple is flanked by the collapsed structures of the Kateshwarayya and Kameshwarayya temples in Palampet, about 220 km from Hyderabad.
- An inscription dates the temple to 1135 Samvat-Saka on the eighth day of Magha (January 12, 1214).
- It is India’s 39th UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Total 40 in number after Dholavira).
Its architecture
- The temple complexes of Kakatiyas have a distinct style, technology, and decoration exhibiting the influence of the Kakatiyan sculptor.
- The temple stands on a 6 feet high star-shaped platform with walls, pillars, and ceilings adorned with intricate carvings that attest to the unique skill of the Kakatiyan sculptors.
- The foundation is built with the “sandbox technique”, the flooring is granite, and the pillars are basalt.
- The lower part of the temple is red sandstone while the white gopuram is built with light bricks that reportedly float on water.
- European merchants and travelers were mesmerized by the beauty of the temple and one such traveler had remarked that the temple was the “brightest star in the galaxy of medieval temples of the Deccan”.
Surviving through ages
- According to the temple priest, some of the iconography on the temple was damaged during the invasion of Malik Kafur in 1310.
- Treasure hunters vandalized the rest.
- But the biggest test for the temple was an earthquake in the 17th century (one of the biggest was that of 7.7-8.2-magnitude on June 16, 1819).
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.Which one of the following was a very important seaport in the Kakatiya kingdom? (CSP 2017)
(a) Kakinada
(b) Motupalli
(c) Machilipatnam (Masulipatnam)
(d) Nelluru
Post your answers here.
Back2Basics: UNESCO World Heritage Sites
- A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area, selected by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for having cultural, historical, scientific, or other forms of significance, which is legally protected by international treaties.
- The sites are judged to be important for the collective and preservative interests of humanity.
- To be selected, a WHS must be an already-classified landmark, unique in some respect as a geographically and historically identifiable place having special cultural or physical significance (such as an ancient ruin or historical structure, building, city, complex, desert, forest, island, lake, monument, mountain, or wilderness area).
- It may signify a remarkable accomplishment of humanity, and serve as evidence of our intellectual history on the planet.
- The sites are intended for practical conservation for posterity, which otherwise would be subject to risk from human or animal trespassing, unmonitored/uncontrolled/unrestricted access, or threat from local administrative negligence.
- The list is maintained by the international World Heritage Program administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 “states parties” that are elected by their General Assembly.
UNESCO World Heritage Committee
- The World Heritage Committee selects the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger.
- It monitors the state of conservation of the World Heritage properties, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund, and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States Parties.
- It is composed of 21 states parties that are elected by the General Assembly of States Parties for a four-year term.
- India is NOT a member of this Committee.
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