Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Right to privacy
Mains level: Paper 2- Surveillance and its impact on democracy
Context
The Pegasus revelations reflect an attack on Indian democracy and Indian citizens.
Role of government in protecting the fundamental and human rights of citizens
- The surveillance of the target group in India through Pegasus raises doubts about the functioning of democracy in India.
- Constitutional duty of government: The government has a constitutional duty to protect the fundamental and human rights of its citizens, irrespective of who they are.
- There is clear evidence that the rule of law has been undermined.
- More evidently, this reflects extremely poor governance.
- The Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing, and the National Security Council Secretariat should have forewarned the government and citizens against such surveillance seriously violating privacy and fundamental rights.
- The Supreme Court, in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), declared privacy a constitutionally protected value.
Violation of human rights
- India is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Article 12 provides that everyone has the right to the protection of the law against arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence.
- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, also signed by India, in Article 17 states, “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”
- In K.S. Puttaswamy, the Supreme Court noted India’s commitments under international law and held that by virtue of Article 51 of the Constitution, India has to endeavour to “foster respect for international law and treaty obligations…”
- The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 is a fallout of this commitment.
Recommendations on digital communication technologies
- The annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in 2014 made recommendations on “digital communications technologies”.
- Judicial oversight: The UNHCHR report stated, judicial involvement that meets international standards can help to make it more likely that the overall statutory regime will meet the minimum standards that international human rights law requires.
- At the same time, the report stated that judicial involvement in oversight should not be viewed as a panacea.
- Independent body: The report also recommended an independent oversight body to keep checks.
- Effective remedy to victim: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires states parties to ensure that victims of violations of the Covenant have an effective remedy.
- Role of business: The report also dealt with the role of businesses and stated that when a state requires that an information and communications technology company provide user data, it can only supply it in respect of legitimate reasons.
- Earlier, due to concerns of member states, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 68/167 affirming that rights held by people offline must also be protected online.
- The resolution also called upon all states to respect and protect the right to privacy, including in digital communication.
Conclusion
Indians have a right to call upon NSO to terminate the agreement, if any, with the Indian government or any private player and to cooperate with citizens to unravel the truth.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Abraham Accords
Mains level: Paper 2- Opportunities for India in middle east
Context
An Egyptian scholar, Mohammed Soliman, has recently written about the significance of what he calls the emerging “Indo-Abrahamic Accord” and its trans-regional implications to the west of India.
About Abraham Accord
- Abraham Accord, signed in August last year in Washington, signifies the normalisation of Israel’s relations with the UAE and Bahrain.
- The UAE and Bahrain were followed by Sudan and Morocco in signing the Abraham Accords.
- Although Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) had established diplomatic relations with Israel earlier, the Abraham Accords are widely seen as making a definitive breakthrough in the relations between Israel and the Arabs.
Factors in favour of accord
- Depth of trilateral relationship: Although India had relations with UAE and Israel for many years, they certainly have acquired political depth and strategic character recently.
- Converging interests: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s assertive claims for the leadership of the Islamic world and hostile stand against India on several issues, indicates converging interests between India, the UAE, and Israel.
- One of the unintended consequences of Erdogan’s overweening regional ambition, his alienation of Israel as well as moderate Arabs, his conflict with Greece, and his embrace of Pakistan is the extraordinary opportunity for India to widen India’s reach to the west of the Subcontinent
- Cooperation: There are many areas like defence, aerospace and digital innovation where the three countries can pool their resources and coordinate development policies.
- India’s extended neighbourhood: The notion of a “Greater Middle East” can provide a huge fillip to India’s engagement with the extended neighbourhood to the west.
India-Turkey relations
- Hostile approach on Kashmir: Turkey has been championing Pakistan’s case on Kashmir after India changed the territorial status quo of the state in August 2019.
- Blocking NSG entry: At Pakistan’s behest, Turkey is also blocking India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
- The new geopolitical churn is also driven by Pakistan’s growing alignment with Turkey and its alienation from its traditionally strong supporters in the Arab Gulf — the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Opportunities for India in extended neighbourhood to the west
- Relations with Greece: The renewed territorial disputes between Turkey and Greece, and Turkey’s quest for regional dominance has drawn Greece and the UAE closer.
- Greece has also looked towards India to enhance bilateral security cooperation.
- Greece’s European partners like France, which have a big stake in the Mediterranean as well as the Arab Gulf, have taken an active interest in countering Turkey’s regional ambitions.
- Erdogan’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to overthrow the current political order in the region, has deeply angered the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
- India’s relations with Egypt: If there is one country that can give substantive depth to the Indo-Abrahamic Accord it is Egypt.
- Located at the cusp of Mediterranean Europe, Africa, and Asia, Egypt is the very heart of the Greater Middle East.
- Independent India’s engagement with the region in the 1950s was centred on a close partnership with Egypt.
- If Delhi and Cairo lost each other in recent decades, India can rebuild the strategic partnership jointly with the Egypt government which is calling for the construction of a “New Republic” in Egypt.
- The notion of a “Greater Middle East” can provide a huge fillip to India’s engagement with the extended neighbourhood to the west.
- The familiar regional institutions like the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation might endure but are incapable of addressing the region’s contradictions.
Consider the question “Amid Turkey’s quest for regional dominance and hostility towards India, the deepening engagement between India, the UAE and Israel can be converted into a formal coalition on the lines of Abraham Accords” Comment.
Conclusion
The opportunities that are coming India’s way to the west of the Subcontinent are as consequential as those that have recently emerged in the east.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Article 21, 22
Mains level: Need for preventive detention
Preventive detention, the dreaded power of the State to restrain a person without trial, could be used only to prevent public disorder, the Supreme Court held in a judgment.
What is Preventive Detention?
- Preventive detention means detaining a person so that to prevent that person from commenting on any possible crime.
- In other words, preventive detention is an action taken by the administration on the grounds of the suspicion that some wrong actions may be done by the person concerned which will be prejudicial to the state.
PD in India
A police officer can arrest an individual without orders from a Magistrate and without any warrant if he gets any information that such an individual can commit any offense.
- Preventive Detention Law, 1950: According to this law any person could be arrested and detained if his freedom would endanger the security of the country, foreign relations, public interests, or otherwise necessary for the country.
- Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) 1968: Within the ambit of UAPA law the Indian State could declare any organization illegal and could imprison anyone for interrogation if the said organization or person critiqued/questioned Indian sovereignty territorially.
What is the difference between preventive detention and an arrest?
- An ‘arrest’ is done when a person is charged with a crime.
- In the case of preventive detention, a person is detained as he/she is simply restricted from doing something that might deteriorate the law-and-order situation.
- Article 22 of the Indian Constitution provides protection against arrest and detention in certain cases.
Rights of an Arrested Person in India
A/c to Article 22(1) and 22(2) of the Indian constitution:
- A person cannot be arrested and detained without being informed why he is being arrested.
- A person who is arrested cannot be denied to be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice. This means that the arrested person has right to hire a legal practitioner to defend himself/ herself.
- Every person who has been arrested would be produced before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours.
- The custody of the detained person cannot be beyond the said period by the authority of magistrate.
Exceptions for Preventive Detention
Article 22(3) says that the above safeguards are not available to the following:
- If the person is at the time being an enemy alien
- If the person is arrested under certain law made for the purpose of “Preventive Detention”
Constitutional provision
- It is extraordinary that the framers of the Indian Constitution, who suffered most because of the Preventive Detention Laws, did not hesitate to give Constitutional sanctity.
- B.R. Ambedkar was of the opinion that the freedom of the individual should not supersede the interests of the state.
- He had also stated that the independence of the country was in a state of inflancy and in order to save it, preventive detention was essential.
Issues with preventive detention
- Arbitrariness: The police determinations of whether a person poses a threat are not tested at a trial by leading evidence or examined by legally trained persons.
- Rights violation: Quiet often, there is no trial (upto 3 months), no periodic review, and no legal assistance for the detained person.
- Abuse: It does not provide any procedural protections such as to reduce detainees’ vulnerability to torture and discriminatory treatment, and to prevent officials’ misusing preventive detention for subversive activities.
- Tool for suppression: In the absence of proper safeguards, preventive detention has been misused, particularly against the Dalits and the minorities.
What has the apex court recently rule?
- Preventive detention is a necessary evil only to prevent public disorder.
- The court must ensure that the facts brought before it directly and inevitably lead to harm, danger or alarm, or feeling of insecurity among the general public or any section thereof at large.
- The State should not arbitrarily resort to “preventive detention” to deal with all and sundry “law and order” problems, which could be dealt with by the ordinary laws of the country.
- Whenever an order under a preventive detention law is challenged, one of the questions the court must ask in deciding its legality is: was the ordinary law of the land sufficient to deal with the situation?
- If the answer is in the affirmative, the detention order will be illegal.
Upholding the Article 21
- Preventive detention must fall within the four corners of Article 21 (due process of law) read with Article 22 (safeguards against arbitrary arrest and detention) and the statute in question, Justice Nariman ruled.
- The Liberty of a citizen is a most important right won by our forefathers after long, historical, and arduous struggles.
Conclusion
- The constitutional philosophy of personal liberty is an idealistic view, the curtailment of liberty for reasons of State’s security; public order, disruption of national economic discipline, etc.
- They are envisaged as a necessary evil to be administered under strict constitutional restrictions.
- India is a large country and many separatist tendencies against the national security and integrity existed and existing and a strict law is required to counter the subversive activities.
- The number of persons detained in these acts is not a very large and due attention is made before preventive detention.
- Having such kind of acts has a restraining influence on the anti-social and subversive elements.
- The state should have very effective powers to deal with the acts in which the citizens involve in hostile activities, espionage, coercion, terrorism, etc.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gilgit Baltistan
Mains level: Issues with PoK
Pakistan has finalized draft legislation to incorporate Gilgit-Baltistan, the region known before 2009 as Northern Areas, as a province of the country.
Gilgit-Baltistan: History of the region
- Gilgit was part of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir but was ruled directly by the British, who had taken it on lease from Hari Singh, the Hindu ruler of the Muslim-majority state.
- When Hari Singh acceded to India on October 26, 1947, the Gilgit Scouts rose in rebellion, led by their British commander Major William Alexander Brown.
- The Gilgit Scouts also moved to take over Baltistan, which was then part of Ladakh, and captured Skardu, Kargil and Dras.
- In battles thereafter, Indian forces retook Kargil and Dras in August 1948.
Accession with Pakistan
- In November, 1947, a political outfit called the Revolutionary Council of Gilgit-Baltistan had proclaimed the independent state of Gilgit-Baltistan.
- It declared GB was acceding to Pakistan only to the extent of full administrative control, choosing to govern it directly under the Frontier Crimes Regulation.
- It was a law devised by the British to keep control of the restive tribal areas of the northwest.
- Following the India-Pakistan ceasefire of January 1, 1949, Pakistan entered into an agreement with the “provisional government” of “Azad Jammu & Kashmir”.
- Much of its parts had been occupied by Pakistani troops and irregulars and were later taken over by Pak defence and foreign affairs.
- Under this agreement, the AJK government also ceded administration of Gilgit-Baltistan to Pakistan.
Not being incorporated as a province
- In 1974, Pakistan adopted its first full-fledged civilian Constitution, which lists four provinces —Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakthunkhwa.
- Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan were not incorporated as provinces.
- One reason ascribed to this is that Pakistan did not want to undermine its international case that the resolution of the Kashmir issue had to be in accordance with UN resolutions that called for a plebiscite.
- In 1975, PoK got its own Constitution, making it an ostensibly self-governed autonomous territory.
- This Constitution had no jurisdiction over the Northern Areas, which continued to be administered directly by Islamabad (the Frontier Crimes Regulation was discontinued in 1997)
- In reality, PoK too remained under the control of Pakistani federal administration and the security establishment, through the Kashmir Council.
Reasons behind
- The main difference was that while the people of PoK had rights and freedoms guaranteed by their own Constitution, which mirrors the Pakistan Constitution.
- However the people of the minority Shia-dominated Northern Areas did not have any political representation.
- Although they were considered Pakistani, including for citizenship and passports, they were outside the ambit of constitutional protections available to those in the four provinces and PoK.
Why GB is in focus now?
- Pakistan began considering changes to its administrative arrangements with increasing Chinese involvement in strategic development ventures.
- GB was vital to those projects, given that it provides only land access between the two countries.
- Since 2009, it has had a namesake legislative assembly.
Suppression of a movement
- There is anger against Pakistan for unleashing sectarian militant groups that target Shias, but the predominant sentiment is that all this will improve once they are part of the Pakistani federation.
- There is a small movement for independence, but it has very little traction. Some factions argue for its accession with India.
- While some reports have suggested that Pakistan’s decision is under pressure from China, wary that Gilgit-Baltistan’s ambiguous status might undermine the legality of its projects there.
Significance for India
- Gilgit-Baltistan is an integral part of India by virtue of the legal, complete and irrevocable accession of Jammu & Kashmir to the Union of India in 1947.
- The area’s strategic importance for India has increased in light of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor agreement.
- India is also concerned of a two-front war (with China as well as Pakistan) after the standoff in Eastern Ladakh last year.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fortification of food
Mains level: Under-nutrition issues
In a pushback against the Centre’s plan to mandatorily fortify rice and edible oils with vitamins and minerals, a group of scientists and activists have warned of the adverse impacts on health and livelihoods.
Food Fortification
- Food fortification is defined as the practice of adding vitamins and minerals to commonly consumed foods during processing to increase their nutritional value.
- It is a proven, safe and cost-effective strategy for improving diets and for the prevention and control of micronutrient deficiencies.
Types of food fortification
Food fortification can also be categorized according to the stage of addition:
- Commercial and industrial fortification (wheat flour, cornmeal, cooking oils)
- Biofortification (breeding crops to increase their nutritional value, which can include both conventional selective breeding, and genetic engineering)
- Home fortification (example: vitamin D drops)
Advantages offered
- Health: Fortified staple foods will contain natural or near-natural levels of micro-nutrients, which may not necessarily be the case with supplements.
- Taste: It provides nutrition without any change in the characteristics of food or the course of our meals.
- Nutrition: If consumed on a regular and frequent basis, fortified foods will maintain body stores of nutrients more efficiently and more effectively than will intermittently supplement.
- Economy: The overall costs of fortification are extremely low; the price increase is approximately 1 to 2 percent of the total food value.
- Society: It upholds everyone’s right to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger
Issues with fortified food
- Against nature: Fortification and enrichment upset nature’s packaging. Our body does not absorb individual nutrients added to processed foods as efficiently compared to nutrients naturally occurring.
- Bioavailability: Supplements added to foods are less bioavailable. Bioavailability refers to the proportion of a nutrient your body is able to absorb and use.
- Immunity issues: They lack immune-boosting substances.
- Over-nutrition: Fortified foods and supplements can pose specific risks for people who are taking prescription medications, including decreased absorption of other micro-nutrients, treatment failure, and increased mortality risk.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Haldibari- Chilahati Rail Link
Mains level: Not Much
The freight trains have started commuting via the restored Haldibari (India) – Chilahati (Bangladesh) rail link.
Haldibari- Chilahati Rail Link
- The Haldibari – Chilahati rail link between India and then East Pakistan was operational till 1965.
- The distance between Haldibari Railway Station till the international border is 4.5 km, while that of Chilahati is around 7.5 km till the ‘zero points’.
- This was part of the Broad-Gauge main route from Kolkata to Siliguri during the partition.
- Trains traveling to Assam and North Bengal continued to travel through the then East Pakistan territory even after partition.
- However, the war of 1965 effectively cut off all the railway links between India and then East Pakistan.
- The link was reopened in 2020 for the movement of passenger and goods traffic.
Other railway links between India and Bangladesh
As of now, five links connecting India with Bangladesh have been made operational which include:
- Petrapole (India) – Benapole (Bangladesh)
- Gede (India) – Darshana (Bangladesh)
- Singhabad (India) – Rohanpur (Bangladesh)
- Radhikapur (India) – Birol (Bangladesh)
- Haldibari (India) – Chilahati (Bangladesh)
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kuthiran tunnel
Mains level: Not Much
The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways has inaugurated the Kuthiran Tunnel in Kerala
Kuthiran Tunnel
- Kuthiran Tunnel is a Twin-tube tunnel at Kuthiran in Thrissur District of Kerala.
- It is located on National Highway 544, owned and operated by the National Highways Authority of India.
- It is Kerala’s first-ever tunnel for road transport and South India’s Longest 6-lane road tunnel.
- Kuthiran gradient is situated in the Kuthiran Hills, situated in the western part of Anaimalai Hills. The hills are a notified Peechi- Vazahani wildlife sanctuary.
- It will drastically improve connectivity to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
- The road will improve connectivity to important ports and towns in North-South Corridor without endangering wildlife.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fast reactors vs thermal reactor
Mains level: Paper 3- future of nuclear
Context
Bill Gates recently announced the decision to launch his own nuclear reactor with an eye on the possibility of exporting fast breeder reactors to power-hungry nations.
About the Gates plan
- TerraPower, the nuclear company founded by Mr. Gates, has just announced an agreement with private funders, including Warren Buffett, and the State of Wyoming, U.S. to site its Natrium fast reactor demonstration project there.
- Moreover, since it falls within the “advanced” small modular reactor project of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Department will subsidise the project to the extent of $80 million this year.
- Mr. Gates believes that the fast breeder reactors will replace the current reactors.
- The DOE and other nuclear enthusiasts also believe that small, factory-built, modular reactors will be cheaper and safer, and will be so attractive to foreign buyers.
The impact of Fukushima Daiichi accident on nuclear power situation
- The Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan on March 11, 2011 completely transformed the nuclear power situation.
- Countries phased out nuclear power: As the global community turned its attention to strengthening nuclear safety, several countries opted to phase out nuclear power.
- The nuclear industry was at a standstill except in Russia, China and India.
- Liability clause in India: Even in India, the expected installation of imported reactors did not materialise because of our liability law and the anti-nuclear protests in proposed locations.
- India had to go in for more indigenous reactors to increase the nuclear component of its energy mix.
Regaining place as a climate-friendly energy option
- Two factors have contributed to the emergence of nuclear power as a climate-friendly energy option once again after the Fukushima Daiichi accident:-
- 1) Intensive efforts to strengthen nuclear safety, and
- 2) Threat of global warming is becoming ever more apparent.
- Countries such as Japan and Germany reopened their reactors to produce energy.
- Organisations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) recognise the ability of nuclear power to address major global challenges.
Challenges ahead
- Delay in adoption: Even as IPCC and IEA recognise the importance of nuclear power, it remains uncertain whether the value of this clean, reliable and sustainable source of energy will achieve its full potential any time soon.
- Policy and financing framework issue: In some major markets, nuclear power lacks a favourable policy and financing framework that recognise its contributions to climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
- Without such a framework, nuclear power will struggle to deliver on its full potential, even as the world remains as dependent on fossil fuels.
Concerns with Gates plan
- Proliferation risk: TerraPower announced in March that Natrium would be fuelled with uranium enriched to 20% U-235 rather than explosive plutonium.
- The critics believe that there will be a rush to make 20% enriched uranium world wide.
- The main objection to nuclear enrichment beyond a point in Iran arises from the fact that it would lead to weapon-grade uranium being available for them.
- Facilitates the production of material used as nuclear explosives: The other objection being raised against is that the principal reason for preferring fast reactors is to gain the ability to breed plutonium.
- That is surely what foreign customers will want.
- The way it is configured, the reactor would make and reuse massive quantities of material that could also be used as nuclear explosives in warheads.
- Focus on India and China: The opponents of TerraPower believe that India and China will be encouraged in their efforts to develop fast breeder reactors and may even want to buy them from Mr. Gates.
- India’s fast breeder reactor, which is not subject to international inspections, is seen as capable of feeding the nuclear weapons capability of India.
Conclusion
With the threat of global warming due to climate change amplifying with each coming day, the world needs to take a serious relook at the adoption of nuclear technology.
Back2Basics: What is a fast breeder reactor?
- This special type of reactor is designed to extend the nuclear fuel supply for electric power generation.
- Whereas a conventional nuclear reactor can use only the readily fissionable but more scarce isotope uranium-235 for fuel, a breeder reactor employs either uranium-238 or thorium, of which sizable quantities are available.
- Uranium-238, for example, accounts for more than 99 percent of all naturally occurring uranium.
- In breeders, approximately 70 percent of this isotope can be utilized for power production.
- Conventional reactors, in contrast, can extract less than one percent of its energy.
Natrium fast reactor demonstration project
- Natrium nuclear power plants represent a significant advance over the light water reactor plants in use today.
- The Natrium plant uses a sodium-cooled fast reactor as a heat source.
- This heat from the reactor is carried by molten salt from inside the nuclear island to heat storage tanks outside the reactor building, where it is utilized as needed for generating electricity or industrial processes.
- The net effect is that the overall plant can load follow, thus increasing the revenue and value of the plant while maintaining the optimum constant reactor power.
- At the same time the cost of the overall plant is reduced since many of the systems outside of the nuclear island need not be nuclear safety grade.
- The Natrium reactor enables these abilities because it operates in much higher temperature regimes than the light water reactor, thus pairing well to the temperature requirements of the molten salt heat transfer medium.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Minsky moment
Mains level: Paper 3- Policy intervention needed for recovery of economy
Context
In recent times, several economists have been arguing that the Government does not need to do anything with the economy. They argue that like after the Great Depression, the economy rebounded worldwide, and so will it with us. The argument is fallacious on four accounts:
Four factors that make recovery different from the recovery after the Great Depression
1) Demand destruction
- In the case of the Great Depression, demand was created by the Second World War effort, especially in the United States.
- Demand destruction: In the current scenario, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in demand destruction.
- This is because many jobs have been lost, and even where jobs were retained, there have been pay cuts.
- Both of these trends were confirmed in the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy and other surveys.
Bright spot on export front
- The only bright spot in this dismal scenario is that the western world has spent a lot of money stimulating the economy.
- However, the Indian exporter face the challenge of rising freight costs and structural issues such as a strong rupee relative to major competitors.
- Only the Indian IT sector is placed well to capitalise on rising demand in the world markets.
2) Inflation and factors driving it
- India is suffering from stagnant growth to low growth in the last two quarters.
- As in the low initial base set by last year, almost any growth this year is seen as a significant growth percentage.
- Commodity prices and monetary policy: Inflation in India is being imported through a combination of high commodity prices and high asset price inflation caused by ultra-loose monetary policy followed across the globe.
- Liquidity infusion: RBI is infusing massive liquidity into the system by following an expansionary monetary policy through the G-SAP, or Government Securities Acquisition Programme.
- Foreign portfolio investors have directed a portion of the liquidity towards our markets.
- India has a relatively low market capitalisation, therefore, India cannot absorb the enormous capital inflow without asset prices inflating.
- Supply chain issues: Additionally, supply chain bottlenecks have contributed to the inflation we see in India today.
- Rising fuel prices: India’s usurious taxation policy on fuel has made things worse.
- Rising fuel prices percolate into the economy by increasing costs for transport.
Impact of inflation
- The middle and lower-middle-class get destitute due to regressive indirect taxes and high inflation, with their wealth eroding due to said inflation.
- Especially in the case of the lower middle class, inflation is lethal as they do not have access to any hard assets, including the most fundamental hard asset, gold.
- The increase in fuel prices will also lead to a rise in wages demanded as the monthly expense of the general public increases.
- This leads to the dangerous cycle of inflation and depleting growth.
3) Interest Rate
- The only solution for any central banker once he realises that inflation is entrenched is tightening liquidity and further pushing the cost of money.
- If this does not dampen inflation, repo rates will need to go up later this year or early next year.
- Tightening the money supply is a painful act that will threaten to decimate what is left of our economy.
- Rising interest rates lead to a decrease in aggregate demand in a country, which affects the GDP.
- There is less spending by consumers and investments by corporates.
4) Rising NPA and its impact on credit growth
- Rising interest rates, lack of liquidity, and offering credit to leveraged companies instead of direct subsidies to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to counter the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects will result in NPAs of public sector banks climbing faster.
- Our small and medium scale sector is facing a Minsky moment.
- The Minsky moment marks the decline of asset prices, causing mass panic and the inability of debtors to pay their interest and principal.
- India has reached its Minsky moment.
- This means that the public sector unit and several other banks will need capital in copious amounts to make up for bad debt.
- The Union government’s Budget is in no position to infuse large amounts of capital.
- As a result of the above causes, credit growth is at a multi-year low of 5.6%.
Way forward
- Indian economy is in a vicious cycle of low growth and higher inflation unless policy action ensures higher demand and growth.
Conclusion
In the absence of policy interventions, India will continue on the path of a K-shaped recovery where large corporates with low debt will prosper at the cost of small and medium sectors. This means lower employment as most of the jobs are created by the latter.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: United Nations Security Council
Mains level: UNSC reforms
India will take over the Presidency of the UN Security Council on August 1 and is set to host signature events in three major areas of maritime security, peacekeeping, and counterterrorism during the month.
Key agendas on the table
During its Presidency, India will be organizing high-level signature events in three major areas:
- Maritime security
- Peacekeeping and
- Counterterrorism
About United Nations Security Council
- The UNSC is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security.
- Its powers include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization of military action through Security Council resolutions.
- It is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states.
- The Security Council consists of fifteen members. Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, and the United States—serve as the body’s five permanent members (P5).
- These permanent members can veto any substantive Security Council resolution, including those on the admission of new member states or candidates for Secretary-General.
- The Security Council also has 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms. The body’s presidency rotates monthly among its members.
Issues with UNSC
(1) Non-representative
- UNSC in its current form is not representative of the developing world and global needs — with the primacy of policy being a political tool in hands of P5.
- By 1992, India, Brazil, Germany, and Japan (referred as G4) had put up their claims and logic for demanding inclusion as permanent members.
- India has been part of UN since its inception and has contributed maximum peacekeepers to UN so far, has a strong case.
- Brazil is the largest country in Latin America (unrepresented continent) and fifth-largest in the world. Japan and Germany are one of the largest financial donors to UN.
(2) Rivalry with G4
- The pitch for reforms of G4 was lowered by their regional rivals like Italy, Pakistan, Mexico and Egypt.
- They started formulation of another interest group, known to be “Uniting for Consensus” opposing G4 becoming permanent members with veto power.
(3) Rigid framework
- Reforms in the UNSC also require an amendment to the UN charter, in accordance with Article 108.
- This highlights that any reform of the Security Council not only requires the support of at least two-thirds of UN member states but also all the permanent members.
(4) Veto power
- The stance of P5 members to expansion has been varying as per their national interest, like most P5 members agree to Indian inclusion, except China.
- It becomes obvious that even if one member of P5 doesn’t agree to any reform, the UNSC cannot be reformed.
- There have been many proposals since its inception from totally abolishing veto power to selectively using it for vital national security issues.
(5) No consensus
- It has been seen in past that the UNSC, in some of the major global security issues, could not arrive at a consensus and interventions that happened by countries mainly from P5 without UNSC resolution.
- US entry in Iraq war or Warsaw Pact war in Afghanistan are few cases in point.
- The UNSC has thus become an organization, which can pass strong resolutions against weak countries, weak resolutions against strong countries and no resolution against P5 countries.
Suggested reforms
- Expansion: Besides the existing P5 members, an expansion of UNSC from five to 10 permanent members, with the addition of G4 and South Africa. This will provide equitable regional representation besides balancing the developing and developed world to meet the aspirations of humanity.
- Abolition of veto: The expansion of P5 without veto power makes very little impact on the problems, because of which the reforms are required. Ideally the veto power should be abolished.
Will UNSC reforms ever happen?
- Under the given charter, articles and structures, there is very little hope for UNSC reforms in near future.
- The lack of reforms can push the credibility crisis of UN to a degree that it becomes unsustainable for it to function, or incidences of side-lining the UN increase manifold.
- If the UNSC does not appoint new permanent members then its primacy may be challenged by some of the new emerging countries.
- There is also a possibility that if UN doesn’t reform itself, it may lose relevance and alternate global and regional groupings may assume greater importance.
- No P5 member is likely to compromise this power in its own national interest, which is generally prioritized before global interest, thus making the reformation process a mirage.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Montford reforms, Elections in India
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Assembly chambers at Fort St. George, the 17th-century vestige of the colonial era, and Tamil Nadu’s seat of power have completed 100 years of existence.
Do you know?
Fort St. George is the first English fortress in India, founded in 1639 at the coastal city of Madras, the modern city of Chennai. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further settlements and trading activity, in what was originally an uninhabited land.
Elections in Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu witnessed elections in November 1920 as a result of the Montagu-Chelmsford Report and the Government of India Act of 1919.
- The electors included only men, accounting for just 3% of the population.
- The concept of dyarchy came into being with Ministers, who were Indians, gaining limited control over certain subjects, such as local self-government and education.
- It was then that the office of the Chief Minister, also called Premier, got instituted.
Key works accomplished
- Reservations in public employment: For the first time, caste became the basis for appointment to public services. It took over 70 years for the Central government to follow the principle in its institutions for education and employment.
- Above 50% cap in reservation: In December 1993, the scheme of 69% reservation for Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, SCs and STs got legal safeguard. The law was subsequently included in the IX Schedule of the Constitution, through an amendment passed in Parliament, so that its validity could not be challenged.
Other facts
- Women’s suffrage: In early 1927, Muthulakshmi Reddy, the well-known medical practitioner and social activist, became the first woman member of the Council and, in no time, became the Deputy President of the Council.
- Gopuram as an emblem: The symbol features a ‘gopuram’ (temple tower) – characteristic of south Indian temples has been adopted as the state emblem.
- Change of name: During the two-year rule of the DMK founder C.N. Annadurai, the Assembly, in July 1967, adopted a motion renaming Madras State as Tamil Nadu, which later got the approval of Parliament.
- Social reforms: It has passed several landmark laws for the welfare of women, such as Devadasi abolition, equal rights to women in property and the constitution of the State Commission for Women.
Back2Basics: Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
Central Legislature thereafter called the Indian Legislature was reconstituted on the enlarged and more representative character.
- Bicameral legislature: The act set up bicameral legislatures at the centre consisting of two houses- the Council of the States (Upper House) and the Central Legislative Assembly (Lower House).
- Election and nominations: It consisted of the Council of State consisted of 60 members of whom 34 members were elected and the Legislative Assembly consisted of about 145 members, of whom about 104 were elected and the rest nominated.
- Separation of power: The central and provincial subjects were demarcated and separated.
- Diarchy: The Provincial subjects were further divided into Transferred Subjects and Reserved Subjects, the legislative council had no say in the latter.
- Communal representation: The principle of separate electorate was further extended to Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans.
- Working review: It provided for the appointment of a statutory commission to report the working of the act after ten years.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Strategic Petroleum Reserves Programme
Mains level: Oil prices volatility and its impact on India
Under Phase II of the petroleum reserve program, the Government has approved two additional commercial-cum-strategic facilities at Chandikhol (Odisha) and Padur (TN) on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Strategic Petroleum Reserves Programme
- To ensure energy security, the govt had decided to set up 5 million metric tons (MMT) of strategic crude oil storage at three locations namely, Visakhapatnam, Mangalore, and Padur (near Udupi).
- These strategic storages would be in addition to the existing storage of crude oil and petroleum products with the oil companies and would serve as a cushion during any supply disruptions.
- The petroleum reserves established are strategic, and the crude oil stored in these reserves will be used during an oil shortage event, as and when declared so by the Government of India.
- The construction of the Strategic Crude Oil Storage facilities is being managed by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), a Special Purpose Vehicle.
Why need SPR?
- The Gulf War in 1990 caused a sharp rise in oil prices and a massive increase to India’s imports.
- During the subsequent 1991 Indian economic crisis, foreign exchange reserves could barely finance three weeks’ worth of imports while the government came close to defaulting on its financial obligations.
- India was able to resolve the crisis through policies that liberalized the economy. However, India continued to be impacted by the volatility of oil prices.
- In 1998, the AB Vajpayee administration proposed building petroleum reserves as a long-term solution to managing the oil market.
- Three storage facilities were built in underground locations in Mangalore, Visakhapatnam and Padur.
Construction of ISPR
- The crude oil storages are constructed in underground rock caverns and are located on the East and West coasts of India.
- Crude oil from these caverns can be supplied to the Indian Refineries either through pipelines or through a combination of pipelines and coastal movement.
- Underground rock caverns are considered the safest means of storing hydrocarbons.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NASA-ISRO SAR
Mains level: Not Much
The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, aimed at making global measurement of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging, is proposed to be launched in early 2023, informed Earth Sciences Minister.
Note the key features of the Mission. Every statement has a unique information.
NASA-ISRO SAR
- NISAR is a joint collaboration for a dual-frequency L and S-band SAR for earth observation.
- NASA and Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO signed a partnership on September 30, 2014, to collaborate on and launch NISAR.
- The mission is targeted to launch in early 2022 from ISRO’s Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district, about 100km north of Chennai.
- It is capable of producing extremely high-resolution images for a joint earth observation satellite mission with NASA.
- It will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in our planet’s surface less than a centimeter across.
Objectives of the NISAR
- NISAR will observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity on ascending and descending passes, sampling Earth on average every six days for a baseline three-year mission.
- It will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses, providing information about biomass, natural hazards, sea-level rise, and groundwater, and will support a host of other applications.
- It would also provide data on natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides.
What are L and S Bands?
- L band waves are used for GPS units because they are able to penetrate clouds, fog, rain, storms, and vegetation.
- The S-band is used by airport surveillance radar for air traffic control, weather radar, surface ship radar, and some communications satellites, especially those used by NASA to communicate with the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.
- NISAR uses a sophisticated information-processing technique known as SAR to produce extremely high-resolution images.
- Radar penetrates clouds and darkness, enabling NISAR to collect data day and night in any weather.
What is collaboration?
- NASA is providing the mission’s L-band SAR, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem.
- ISRO is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band radar, the launch vehicle, and associated launch services for the mission, whose goal is to make global measurements of the causes and consequences of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Stellar Middle Age
Mains level: Not Much
Stars like our Sun can go through a mid-life crisis, according to new research carried out by scientists from IISER Kolkata.
Stellar Middle Age
- At about 4.6 billion years of age, the sun is middle-aged, that is, it will continue to live for roughly the same period.
- There are accurate methods for estimating the age of the Sun, such as by using radioactive dating of very old meteorites that have fallen on the Earth.
- However, for more distant stars which are similar in mass and age to the Sun, such methods are not possible.
- One of the methods used is called gyrochronology.
- There is a relationship between rotation rate and age, that is the rotation rate of a star slows down with age.
How does it occur?
- When the stellar wind escapes from the star, it carries away with it a part of the angular momentum of the star, which results in its slowing down.
- The stellar wind has two drivers: one is the high temperature of the outer atmosphere of stars – the corona – which results in an outward expansion and hence plasma winds that emanate out.
- The other is the magnetic field.
- The magnetic field actually heats the corona and so when magnetic activity is strong the winds are strong and since wind carries away the internal (rotational) angular momentum of the star, it slows down its rotation.
- This is called magnetic braking.
- As the star ages, due to this mechanism, its rotation slows down and this relationship is used in gyrochronology to estimate the age of the star.
Impact
- This can lead to dramatic changes in their activity and rotation rates.
- The study also provides an explanation for the breakdown of the long-established relation between rotation rate and age in middle-aged sunlike stars.
- However, there is a breakdown of the gyrochronology relationship, because, after midlife, a star’s rate of spin does not slow down with age as fast as it was slowing down earlier.
- Another intriguing fact is that the Sun’s activity level has been observed to be much lower than other stars of similar age.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: e-RUPI
Mains level: Digital Payments
The Prime Minister has launched e-RUPI, a person and purpose-specific digital payment solution.
What is e-RUPI?
- e-RUPI is a cashless and contactless instrument for digital payment.
- It is a QR code or SMS string-based e-Voucher, which is delivered to the mobile of the beneficiaries.
- The users of this seamless one-time payment mechanism will be able to redeem the voucher without a card, digital payments app, or internet banking access, at the service provider.
- It has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India on its UPI platform, in collaboration with the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, and National Health Authority.
How does it work?
- e-RUPI connects the sponsors of the services with the beneficiaries and service providers in a digital manner without any physical interface.
- It also ensures that the payment to the service provider is made only after the transaction is completed.
- Being pre-paid in nature, it assures timely payment to the service provider without the involvement of any intermediary.
Benefits offered
- It is expected to be a revolutionary initiative in the direction of ensuring a leak-proof delivery of welfare services.
- Even the private sector can leverage these digital vouchers as part of their employee welfare and corporate social responsibility programs.
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.Which of the following is the most likely consequence of implementing the ‘Unified Payments Interface (UPI)’?
(a) Mobile wallets will not be necessary for online payments.
(b) Digital currency will totally replace physical currency in about two decades.
(c) FDI inflows will drastically increase.
(d) Direct transfer of subsidies to poor people will become very effective
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