Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Digital diplomacy
Context
India is pioneering the concept of digital public goods, with it, there is an opportunity for India to embark on digital diplomacy.
Digital public goods in India
- Built on the foundation of Aadhaar and India Stack, modular applications, big and small, are transforming the way we make payments, withdraw our PF, get our passport and driving licence and check land records, to name just a few activities.
- There is an opportunity for India to embark on digital diplomacy — to take its made-in-India digital public goods to hundreds of emerging economies across the world.
How Digital Diplomacy can help India?
- This could be a strategic and effective counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
- Enhancing the productivity of emerging economies: Emerging economies are characterised by gross inefficiencies in the delivery of government services and a consequent trust deficit.
- Digital public goods spread speed, transparency, ease and productivity across the individual-government-market ecosystem and enhance inclusivity, equity and development at scale.
- Acceptance in emerging economies: India’s digital diplomacy will be beneficial to and welcomed by, all emerging economies from Peru to Polynesia, from Uruguay to Uganda, and from Kenya to Kazakhstan.
- Goodwill: It will enable quick, visible and compounding benefits for India’s partner countries and earn India immense goodwill.
Benefits of Digital diplomacy
- Reusability: The code is highly reusable
- Low cost: The cost of setting up an open source-based high school online educational infrastructure, to supplement the physical infrastructure, for an entire country is less than laying two kilometres of high-quality road.
- No debt trap: The investments required for transporting digital public goods are minuscule in comparison and there is no chance of a debt trap.
- Short gestation period: Unlike physical infrastructures such as ports and roads, digital public goods have short gestation periods and immediate, and visible impact and benefits.
- It plugs leaks: Digital infrastructure plugs leaks.
- It eliminates ghost beneficiaries of government services, removes touts collecting rent, creates an audit trail, makes the individual-government-market interface transparent and provides efficiencies that help recoup the investments quickly.
- Processes get streamlined and wait times for any service come down dramatically.
- Increases productivity: Productivity goes up and services can be scaled quickly.
- Benefits can be rapidly extended to cover a much larger portion of the population.
- Compounding instead of depreciation: Above all, the digital public goods infrastructure compounds while physical infrastructure depreciates.
Three ways in which digital public goods infrastructure compound
- Compounding happens for three reasons.
- [1] Growth of technologyy: Chips keep becoming faster, engines more powerful, and gene-editing technology keeps improving.
- [2] Network effect: As more and more people use the same technology, the number of “transactions” using that technology increase exponentially — be it Facebook posts or UPI transactions.
- [3] Rapid creation of new layers of technology: For example, the hypertext protocol created the worldwide web.
- Then the browser was built on top of it, which made the worldwide web easier to navigate and more popular.
- Thousands of new layers were added to make it what it is today.
- Growth of UPI in India: To give an example, consider the surge in UPI-based payments in India.
- This kind of growth doesn’t happen with a few entitled and privileged people using UPI more and more; it happens with more and more people using UPI more and more.
- Use of Diksha: The use of Diksha, the school education platform built on the open-source platform Sunbird, has followed the same trajectory — today close to 500 million schoolchildren are using it.
Conclusion
Made in India digital tools can help other emerging economies deal with economic, governance challenges.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Palk Bay conflict
Context
The arrest of 68 Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan authorities between December 18 and 20 and the impounding of 10 boats for “poaching” in the territorial waters of Sri Lanka has flared up the conflict between the two countries.
About Palk Bay
- Palk Bay is home to diverse resources including 580 species of fish, extends from Point Calimere of Nagapattinam district to Mandapam-Dhanushkodi of Ramanathapuram district over about 250 km.
- Source of dispute: It is an important marine zone between south-eastern India and northern Sri Lanka, has been a source of dispute for long.
About the conflict
- Negotiations: The genesis of the dispute can be traced to the October 1921 negotiations between representatives of the Governments of Madras and Ceylon, on the need for the delimitation of the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar.
- Delimitation: It was in the mid-1970s that two agreements were signed by India and Sri Lanka, under which the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) came into being.
- Instead of settling the issues, the pacts gave way to new problems, including the recurring incidents of Tamil Nadu fishermen crossing the IMBL and getting caught by the Sri Lankan authorities.
Cause of the problem
- Different fishing practices: The asymmetric nature of fishing practices in Tamil Nadu and the Northern Province of Sri Lanka is said to be the cause of the problem.
- While Tamil Nadu’s fishing community uses mechanised bottom trawlers, its counterpart uses conventional forms of fishing, as trawling is banned in Sri Lanka.
- Difference in resources: The fishermen of Tamil Nadu continue to cross the IMBL, as the Sri Lankan side of the Bay is considered to have more fishery resources than the Indian side.
Way forward
- Weak away fishermen from trawling: The deep-sea fishing project, to wean away the fishermen of Tamil Nadu from bottom trawling, launched in July 2017, has not yielded the desired results.
- Relaxation of norms of the project is under the consideration of the Union Government, to draw greater response from the fishermen.
- Motivation for deep-sea fishing: Given the fact that deep sea fishing takes longer duration and has a higher recurring cost per voyage than what the fishing community experiences currently, the need for providing continuous motivation to the fisherfolk assumes critical importance.
- Other strategies: Various strategies, including the promotion of seaweed cultivation, open sea cage cultivation, seaweed cultivation and processing, and sea/ocean ranching should be adopted.
- Forming FPOs: There is a view that if the community is encouraged to form fish farmer producer organisations, it may take to sustainable fishing practices.
- Institution of stakeholders: A section of specialists favours the creation of an international institution of stakeholders for regulating the fishing sector in the Bay.
Consider the question “What leads to the dispute between India and Sri Lanka over the Palk Bay? Suggest the way forward for fishermen in Tamil Nadu.”
Conclusion
For all this to happen, sustained public pressure and political will are a must.
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Back2Basics: What is bottom trawling?
- A bottom trawl consists of a large tapered net with a wide mouth and a small enclosed end.
- The mouth of a trawl net has two weighted doors that serve not only to keep the net open, but also to keep the net on the ocean floor.
- These doors can weigh several tons.
- In addition to the heavy doors, the bottom of the net is a thick metal cable (footrope) studded with heavy steel balls or rubber bobbins that effectively crush everything in their path.
- As the net drags along the seafloor, living habitat in its path is crushed, ripped up, or smothered as the seabed is turned over.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Rythu Bandhu Scheme
Mains level: DBT schemes for farmers
The total funds disbursed under Rythu Bandhu, Telangana government’s direct benefit transfer scheme for farmers, will soon touch Rs 50,000 crore in the coming days.
What is Rythu Bandhu?
- Rythu Bandhu is a scheme under which the state government extends financial support to land-owning farmers at the beginning of the crop season through direct benefit transfer.
- The scheme aims to take care of the initial investment needs and do not fall into a debt trap.
- This in turn instills confidence in farmers, enhances productivity and income, and breaks the cycle of rural indebtedness.
DBT under the Scheme
- Each farmer gets Rs 5,000 per acre per crop season without any ceiling on the number of acres held.
- So, a farmer who owns two acres of land would receive Rs 20,000 a year, whereas a farmer who owns 10 acres would receive Rs 1 lakh a year from the government.
- The grant helps them cover the expenses on input requirements such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and labour.
How much does it cost the state exchequer?
- Since the Kharif season of 2018, the state government has been crediting Rythu Bandhu assistance to farmers.
- As of date, it has credited Rs 43,036.64 crore into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
- This season, the state government will disburse another Rs 7638.99 crore, taking the total sum disbursed so far to over Rs 50,000 crore.
Comparing with the PM-KISAN scheme
- The state government has often said that the Centre’s PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) scheme is a “copy” of Rythu Bandhu.
- Under PM-KISAN, a land-holding family receives an income support of 6,000 per year in three equal installments.
- Rythu Bandhu is based on anticipated input expenditure for each acre of land and there is no restriction on the number of acres owned by a farmer.
- PM-KISAN only provides support to the family and not to the farm units.
Criticisms of the Rythu Bandhu Scheme
- The scheme does not cover the landless or tenant farmers.
- Farmer bodies have been demanding that the state government should extend the agriculture assistance to tenant farmers as well.
- They have pointed out that those who work on lands taken on lease from landowners also need government assistance at the beginning of a crop season.
- It is difficult to bring tenant farmers under the ambit of the scheme because of the informal nature of the agreements they enter into.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mutual funds, Blockchain funds
Mains level: Not Much
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has ruled that Indian mutual funds (MFs) cannot invest in crypto-related products until government regulations on are clear.
What are Blockchain Funds?
- Blockchain is a digital ledger system that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a network.
- It is possible to have blockchain without crypto, but in practice the two are highly interlinked.
- Cryptocurrency tends to power the resources needed for a public blockchain network.
- Unlike specific crypto-based investments, blockchain funds invest in multiple companies that are driving sustainable earnings from blockchain businesses.
- Some key companies in this ecosystem are US-based Coinbase Global Inc and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, and Japan’s GMO internet Inc.
Why has SEBI blocked Blockchain funds?
- Absence of regulations: SEBI concerns stem from unclear regulations around cryptocurrencies in India.
- Unclear future: While investing, trading and holding crypto assets are allowed in India as of now, the laws are still not clear as to how they are regulated and taxed.
- Possible ban: There is a possibility that the government may ban trading in crypto altogether or come up with stringent thresholds for investors to delve into this new asset.
- Taxing the gains: For taxation purposes, short-term capital gains from individual crypto investing are taxed at personal taxation rates, however, there are no clear guidelines for fund investing.
Are blockchain funds good investments?
- The technology is creating value by revolutionizing the way assets and digital records are managed and transferred.
- Many companies, particularly in financial services, are investing millions of dollars in researching and building Blockchain infrastructure.
- Although the technology is still in the nascent phase in India, its potential across the board is huge.
Back2Basics: Mutual Funds
- A mutual fund is a company that pools money from many investors and invests the money in securities such as stocks, bonds, and short-term debt.
- The combined holdings of the mutual fund are known as its portfolio. Investors buy shares in mutual funds.
- Each share represents an investor’s part ownership in the fund and the income it generates.
Mutual funds are a popular choice among investors because they generally offer the following features:
- Professional Management. The fund managers do the research for you. They select the securities and monitor the performance.
- Diversification or “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Mutual funds typically invest in a range of companies and industries. This helps to lower your risk if one company fails.
- Affordability. Most mutual funds set a relatively low dollar amount for initial investment and subsequent purchases.
- Liquidity. Mutual fund investors can easily redeem their shares at any time, for the current net asset value (NAV) plus any redemption fees.
Risks with MFs
- With mutual funds, one may lose some or all of the money invested because the securities held by a fund can go down in value.
- Dividends or interest payments may also change as market conditions change.
- The more volatile the fund, the higher the investment risk.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Regression Theorem
Mains level: Not Much
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in the TH e-paper edition.
Regression Theorem
- The regression theorem refers to a theory of the origin of money.
- It states that money must have originated as a commodity with intrinsic value in the marketplace.
- The idea was first proposed by Austrian economist Carl Menger in his 1892 work “On the Origins of Money.”
- This theory is offered as an alternative to the state theory of money which states that money (fiat money) can come into existence only when it is backed by the government.
Evolution of Money
- The regression theory argues that money comes into existence through a gradual process of evolution in the marketplace, without the need for any government sanction.
- Economists who try to explain the regression theory generally start with the question of why money, particularly fiat money which is simply just a piece of paper, has any value at all in the marketplace.
- The most common answer to this question is that fiat money can be used to buy other useful goods such as houses, cars etc.
- But this answer is insufficient —it tries to tackle the question of why fiat money can buy other useful goods by simply saying that it can buy other useful goods.
Why is fiat money, which has little intrinsic value, considered valuable?
- In real life, people accept money in exchange for goods in the present because they are aware that money was accepted as a medium in exchange for other goods in the past.
- For example, people accept wages in the US dollar today because they are aware that the dollar was used to buy cars, groceries and other goods in the market yesterday.
- This gives them confidence in the value of their money.
What made people accept money in exchange for other useful goods in the past?
Ans. Intrinsic Value
- Economists who advocate the regression theory of money argue that money must have originated as a useful commodity like gold or silver or the barter system.
- This is the only way, they argue, it could have possibly been accepted by people in exchange for other useful goods at some point in the past.
- If a thing did not possess any intrinsic value, it is unlikely that people in the marketplace would have accepted it in exchange for other goods and services.
- So, commodities like gold and silver must have been traded in exchange for other goods and services at some point in history purely because they offered some kind of personal utility to people.
- For example, these precious metals could have been used to make ornaments, to fill teeth, etc., which gives them intrinsic value.
- They maintain value over time because their supply cannot be easily ramped up as mining gold involves significant production costs.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indus valley civilization and its decline
Mains level: Aryan Invasion Theory
The 2022 calendar of the IIT, Kharagpur on the theme of “evidence” for “rebutting the Aryan invasion myth” has caused controversy.
What is the Aryan Invasion Theory?
- It has always been understood that the Aryans migration from the Steppe happened after 2000 BCE.
- In 1953 Mortimer Wheeler proposed that the invasion of an Indo-European tribe from Central Asia, the “Aryans”, caused the decline of the Indus Civilization.
- As evidence, he cited a group of 37 skeletons found in various parts of Mohenjo-daro, and passages in the Vedas referring to battles and forts.
- However, scholars soon started to reject Wheeler’s theory, since the skeletons belonged to a period after the city’s abandonment and none were found near the citadel.
Basis of this theory
- This was first propounded when linguistic similarities between Sanskrit and the major European languages were discovered by European scholars during the colonial era.
- This tool was used by the colonizers to legitimize their rule in India.
- The theory hypothesizes that during 2000BC Aryans from Europe invaded or migrated into the Asian subcontinent.
- It states these ‘invaders’ killed the original Dravidians and set up the Aryan race in the South-Asian subcontinent.
- The Aryan Invasion Theory claimed that these ‘invaders’ were the root of modern Indian civilization, not the Harappan civilization.
Its rebuttal
- Recent studies have debunked the theory after DNA samples from 5000-year old Harappan remains were proven to be similar to modern Indians’ DNA as part of the Rakhigarhi Project.
Who were the Harappans then?
- The Harappans who created the agricultural revolution in northwestern India and then built the Harappan civilization were a mix of First Indians and Iranians who spoke a pre-Arya language.
- The Arya were central Asian Steppe pastoralists who arrived in India between roughly 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE, and brought Indo-European languages to the subcontinent.
- The new study says the Iranians arrived in India before agriculture or even herding had begun anywhere in the world.
- In other words, these migrants were likely to have been hunter-gatherers, which means they did not bring a knowledge of agriculture.
Try this PYQ:
Q With reference to the difference between the culture of Rigvedic Aryans and Indus Valley people, which of the following statements correct?
- Rigvedic Aryans used the coat of mail and helmet in warfare whereas the people of Indus Valley Civilization did not leave any evidence of using them.
- Rigvedic Aryans knew gold, silver and copper whereas Indus Valley people knew only copper and iron.
- Rigvedic Aryans had domesticated the horse whereas there is no evidence of Indus Valley people having been aware of this animal.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) Only 1
(c) 1 and 3 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ARIIA
Mains level: HEIs in India and their competence
Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2021 has been recently released.
About ARIIA
- ARIIA is an initiative of erstwhile Ministry of HRD, implemented by AICTE and Ministry’s Innovation Cell.
- It systematically ranks all major higher educational institutions and universities in India on indicators related to “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development” amongst students and faculties.
- ARIIA 2020 will have six categories which also includes special category for women only higher educational institutions to encourage women and bringing gender parity in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship.
- The other five categories are 1) Centrally Funded Institutions 2) State-funded universities 3) State-funded autonomous institutions 4) Private/Deemed Universities and 5) Private Institutions.
Major Indicators for consideration
- Budget & Funding Support.
- Infrastructure & Facilities.
- Awareness, Promotions & support for Idea Generation & Innovation.
- Promotion & Support for Entrepreneurship Development.
- Innovative Learning Methods & Courses.
- Intellectual Property Generation, Technology Transfer & Commercialization.
- Innovation in Governance of the Institution.
Key highlights of 2021 report
- Seven IITs and the IISc, Bengaluru, are among the top 10 central institutions in promotion and support of innovation and entrepreneurship development.
- The top rank has been bagged by the IIT, Madras followed by the IITs in Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur and Roorkee.
- The IISc has bagged the sixth position in the ranking followed by the IITs in Hyderabad and Kharagpur, the NIT, Calicut.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Deucha-Pachami Mines
Mains level: Not Much
Thousands of Tribals fear displacement following the implementation of the project to mine coals and basalts from the Deucha-Pachami coal block in West Bengal’s Birbhoom district.
Deucha-Pachami Mines
- Deucha-Pachami-Dewanganj-Harinsinga coal block is the second-largest coal block in the world; it is the largest in India.
- It is located in Deucha and Panchamati area under Mohamad bazar community Development Block of Birbhum district, West Bengal.
- The block has a thick coal seam trapped between equally thick layers of rocks, mostly basalt. It has a great economic value.
- The existence of these thick basalt layers, however, makes mining of coal difficult; foreign investment and technology will be hence needed for mining.
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