Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- How can budget address the issues of informal sector
Context
We need to insure the most vulnerable against shocks such as Covid, but even more, we need to create good job opportunities for the unskilled. What can the budget do?
Impact on informal economy
- The last two quarters have seen a substantive recovery in the Indian economy.
- Corporate profitability of our largest firms has hit a new record this year.
- So have GST collections, another indicator of the formal economy, with an average monthly collection of Rs 1.2 trillion in the second and third quarters.
- The glass though is half full, the informal economy was particularly badly hit by Covid and its associated lockdowns.
- Small enterprises, retail, hospitality, and construction were all hammered.
- These were our main source of recent employment growth.
- Agricultural employment has risen in the last year-and-a-half, while manufacturing and services employment has fallen — this is the opposite of development.
- Informal service sector jobs may not seem like great jobs to us, but they are greatly prized relative to eking out a marginal existence in agriculture.
- We need to insure the most vulnerable against such shocks, but even more, we need to create good job opportunities for the unskilled, equip people at all levels to participate more fully in the modern economy, and systemically promote wider policies of inclusion.
What can the budget do?
- Create good jobs for unskilled: The way it can do so directly is through accelerating spending on infrastructure.
- The National Infrastructure Pipeline has identified a good set of projects.
- The government should be complimented for its intention and ambition; what we need now is implementation.
- Labour-intensive manufacturing: Most countries developed by putting millions to work in labour-intensive manufacturing.
- We do not have the huge firms in export-oriented labour-intensive sectors that employ millions in China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.
- Bangladesh has thrived by putting millions to work in manufacturing.
- A booming garment sector employs 4.4 million.
- As 80 per cent of those employed in garment factories are women, Bangladesh has twice the female labour force participation ratio of India.
- Implement labour laws: In June and September 2020, the government passed four labour laws.
- These laws have since been left dormant.
- The budget should announce a time frame for implementation, notification by the Union government and then by the states.
- Investment in education and skilling: India has among the least skilled workforces in the world.
- Under 5 per cent of our workforce is formally skilled, compared to 96 per cent in South Korea, 75 per cent in Germany and 52 per cent in the US.
- That is why the work of the National Skills Development Corporation is so important.
- Can the budget specify it as an independent entity controlled and run by the private sector that is then held accountable for delivering on our skilling targets.
- Education is even more important, especially primary education.
- Pratham’s education reports make for sobering reading.
- The New Education Policy has a proposal that every second standard child should be able to read and do arithmetic at the second standard level as a foundation for further education.
- This welcome initiative must receive greater dedication and focus from both government and industry.
- School education is a state subject, so the Union budget can at best incentivise states to do the right things, say by linking the flow of additional funds to those that demonstrate improved second standard learning outcomes.
- As a part of CSR, many companies work actively with schools.
- Education is already the largest single area for CSR spending, accounting for one-third of the Rs 9,000 crore spent by the top 100 companies.
Conclusion
Other policies for economic inclusion must go beyond social inclusion. These include measures like reducing tariffs to benefit millions of consumers instead of thousands of firms. Industrial policies that help all firms such as the ease of doing business, instead of incentivising a selected few.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ICJ
Mains level: Paper 2- Genocide prevention issue
Context
Incendiary speeches at a religious assembly include calls for the genocide of Muslims in India and can be seen as part of an ongoing pattern of targeting minorities.
Background of the convention against genocide
- India’s role: India has signed and ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948.
- In 1946, Cuba, India and Panama co-sponsored General Assembly Resolution 96(I), which affirmed genocide as a ‘crime under international law’.
- As a result of this resolution, a convention on the prohibition of genocide was drafted, which was passed by the General Assembly in 1948 and came into effect in 1951, with more than 150 states party to the convention presently.
- Legal obligation: Legal obligations on states that are party to the convention include:
- the obligation not to commit genocide,
- to prevent genocide, and to punish genocide(Article I),
- to enact legislation to give effect to the provisions of the convention (Article V);
- to provide for effective penalties for those found guilty of criminal conduct (Article V); and
- the obligation to try those charged with genocide in a competent tribunal (Article VI).
No legislation enacted by India
- Since signing the Genocide Convention and ratifying it, to date India has not enacted any legislation in accordance with Article VI of the Genocide Convention.
- At the outset, India is in violation of its international obligation to criminalise genocide within its domestic law per Articles V, VI and VII, and to take all means to ensure the prevention of genocide.
- Indian domestic law shows that there are no comparable provisions for the prosecution of any mass crimes, least of all genocide.
- Indian Penal Code provisions relating to rioting, unlawful assembly and ‘promoting enmity between different groups’ do not embody the basic elements of the crime of genocide, which is against a collectivity or a group, with the specific intent to cause its destruction.
- These also do not pertain to another key aspect of the Genocide Convention – that of prevention, and creating the conditions in which such hate speech and other associated acts are not allowed to flourish.
Significance of the Gambia’s proceedings before the ICJ against Myanmar
- The Gambia has initiated proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Myanmar on the basis of the Convention.
- The ICJ, relying on a previous case of Belgium v. Senegal, stated, “It follows that any State party to the Genocide Convention, and not only a specially affected State, may invoke the responsibility of another State party with a view to ascertaining the alleged failure to comply with its obligations erga omnes partes, and to bring that failure to an end.”
Conclusion
It is more imperative than ever that international legal protections against genocide are incorporated in domestic legislation. Furthermore, the fact that India has international legal obligations under the Genocide Convention which it is not adhering to must be rectified.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WEF and its various reports
Mains level: Read the attached story
PM Modi has made a special address ahead of the theme-setting World Economic Forum (WEF) Agenda on the ‘State of the World’ at Davos.
About World Economic Forum (WEF)
- WEF is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland.
- It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab.
- The foundation, which is mostly funded by its 1,000 member companies – typically global enterprises with more than five billion US dollars in turnover – as well as public subsidies.
- It aims at improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.
Major reports released:
- Engaging Tomorrow Consumer Report
- Inclusive growth & Development Report
- Environmental Performance Index
- Global Competitive Index
- Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report
- Global Gender Gap Report
- Global Information Technology Report
- Human Capital Report
- Inclusive growth & Development Report
- Global Risk Report
- Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report by WEF
Important agenda: Davos meeting
- The WEF is mostly known for its annual meeting at the end of January in Davos, a mountain resort in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland.
- The meeting brings together some 3,000 paying members and selected participants – among which are investors, business leaders, political leaders, economists, celebrities and journalists.
Why is WEF important?
- Common platform: The WEF summit brings together the who’s-who of the political and corporate world, including heads of state, policymakers, top executives, industrialists, media personalities, and technocrats.
- Influence global decision-making: Deliberations at the WEF influence public sector and corporate decision-making.
- Discusses global challenges: It especially emphasizes on the issues of global importance such as poverty, social challenges, climate change, and global economic recovery.
- Brings in all stakeholders: The heady mix of economic, corporate, and political leadership provides an ideal opportunity for finding solutions to global challenges that may emerge from time to time.
What are the main initiatives?
- Agenda 2022 will see the launch of other WEF initiatives meant for:
- Accelerating the mission to net-zero emissions
- Economic opportunity of nature-positive solutions
- Cyber resilience
Criticisms of WEF
- WEF has been criticized for being more of a networking hub than a nebula of intellect or a forum to find effective solutions to global issues.
- It is also criticized for the lack of representation from varied sections of the civil society and for falling short of delivering effective solutions.
Way forward
- WEF sees large-scale participation of top industry, business leaders, civil society, and international organizations every year.
- This collaboration is necessary for addressing global concerns such as climate change and pandemic management.
- It is one of such few platform, that provides an opportunity for collaboration through comprehensive dialogue.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Conflict-ridden towns in news
Mains level: Extremism across the world
A suspected drone attack on Monday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE, caused multiple explosions in which three Indians were reportedly killed.
Who is behind the attack?
- The Shia Houthi rebels of Yemen have claimed responsibility for the attack.
Who are the Houthis?
- The roots of the Houthi movement can be traced to “Believing Youth” (Muntada al-Shahabal-Mu’min).
- It is a Zaydi revivalist group founded by Hussein al-Houthi and his father, Badr al-Din al-Houthi, in the early 1990s.
- Badr al-Din was an influential Zaydi cleric in northern Yemen.
- This group is inspired by the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the rise of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in the 1980s.
- Badr al-Din and his sons started building vast social and religious networks among the Zaydis of Yemen, who make up roughly one-third of the Sunni-majority country’s population.
What led to the Houthis’ rise?
- When protests broke out in Yemen in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring protests that felled Tunisian and Egyptian dictators.
- The Houthis, now confident from their military victories and the support they enjoyed in Sadah, backed the agitation.
Why did Saudi Arabia attack Yemen?
- The rapid rise of the Houthis in Yemen set off alarm bells in Riyadh which saw them as Iranian proxies.
- Saudi Arabia, under Mohammed Bin Salman, started a military campaign in March 2015, hoping for a quick victory against the Houthis.
- But the Houthis had dug in, refusing to leave despite Saudi Arabia’s aerial blitzkrieg.
- With no effective allies on the ground and no way-out plan, the Saudi-led campaign went on with no tangible result.
- In the past six years, the Houthis have launched multiple attacks on Saudi cities from northern Yemen in retaliation for Saudi air strikes.
Not a one-way proxy war
- There are serious allegations against both the Saudis and the Houthis in the war.
- While the Saudi bombings caused a large number of civilian deaths, the Houthis were accused, by rights groups and Governments, of preventing aid, deploying forces in densely populated areas.
- Houthis have been using excessive force against civilians and peaceful protesters.
Why did the Houthis target the UAE?
- This is not the first time the Houthis attacked the UAE. In 2018, when the UAE-backed forces were making advances in Yemen, the Houthis claimed attacks against the Emirates.
- They stayed focussed entirely on Saudi Arabia and Saudi-backed forces inside Yemen.
Try this PYQ:
Consider the following pairs:
Towns sometimes mentioned in news: Countries
- Aleppo: Syria
- Kirkuk: Yemen
- Mosul: Palestine
- Mazar-i-sharif: Afghanistan
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1 and 4 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 3 and 4 only
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Smog Tower
Mains level: Effectiveness of smog towers
Some researchers in New Delhi have observed paradoxical phenomena near the smog towers. The air closest to the tower should be cleanest, but the device recorded the opposite in several instances.
What are Smog Towers?
- Smog towers are structures designed to work as large-scale air purifiers. They are fitted with multiple layers of air filters and fans at the base to suck the air.
- After the polluted air enters the smog tower, it is purified by multiple layers before being re-circulated into the atmosphere.
Structure of the Delhi smog tower
- The structure is 24 m high, about as much as an 8-storey building — an 18-metre concrete tower, topped by a 6-metre-high canopy. At its base are 40 fans, 10 on each side.
- Each fan can discharge 25 cubic metres per second of air, adding up to 1,000 cubic metres per second for the tower as a whole. Inside the tower in two layers are 5,000 filters.
- The filters and fans have been imported from the United States.
How does it work?
- The tower uses a ‘downdraft air cleaning system’ developed by the University of Minnesota.
- Polluted air is sucked in at a height of 24 m, and filtered air is released at the bottom of the tower, at a height of about 10 m from the ground.
- When the fans at the bottom of the tower operate, the negative pressure created sucks in air from the top.
- The ‘macro’ layer in the filter traps particles of 10 microns and larger, while the ‘micro’ layer filters smaller particles of around 0.3 microns.
- The downdraft method is different from the system used in China, where a tower uses an ‘updraft’ system — air is sucked in from near the ground, and is propelled upwards by heating and convection.
- Filtered air is released at the top of the tower.
Likely impact
- Computational fluid dynamics modelling suggests the tower could have an impact on the air quality up to 1 km from the tower.
- The actual impact will also determine how the tower functions under different weather conditions, and how levels of PM2.5 vary with the flow of air.
Issues with smog towers
- Many experts say that the smog towers are not a viable method to clean city’s air.
- The government had talked about 80% pollution reduction at inlet and outlet of the tower but never mentioned about the effect of distance from the tower.
- Instead of spending ₹40 crore on two towers, the government could have spent the funds on several other options such as replacing the small and polluting industrial boilers or chimneys etc.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Unemployment since the pandemic
Global unemployment is projected to stand at 207 million in 2022 (21 million more than in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic began) says ILO World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2022.
World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2022
- The report examines the impacts of the crisis on global and regional trends in employment, unemployment and labour force participation, as well as on job quality, informal employment and working poverty.
- It also offers an extensive analysis of trends in temporary employment both before and during the COVID-19 crisis.
Key highlights
(1) Job Losses in 2022
- It is estimated that in 2022 around 40 million people will no longer be participating in the global labour force.
- The downgrade in the 2022 forecast reflects the impact of ever new variants of COVID-19 on the world of work.
- Global working hours in 2022 will be almost two per cent below their pre-pandemic level.
- This is equivalent to the loss of 52 million full-time jobs.
(2) Pauperization
- The pandemic has pushed millions of children into poverty.
- It is estimated that in 2020, an additional 30 million adults fell into extreme poverty (living on less than $1.90 per day in purchasing power parity) while being out of paid work.
- The number of extreme working poor — workers who do not earn enough through their work to keep themselves and their families above the poverty line — rose by eight million.
(3) Impact on women
- Women have been worse hit by the labour market crisis than men and this is likely to continue.
- The closing of education and training institutions will have long-term implications for young people, particularly those without internet access.
Key suggestions
- There is the need for a broad-based labour market recovery — the recovery must be human-centred, inclusive, sustainable and resilient.
- The recovery must be based on the principles of decent work — including health and safety, equity, social protection and social dialogue.
Back2Basics: International Labour Organization (ILO)
- The ILO is a UN agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice through setting international labour standards.
- Founded in 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and oldest specialised agency of the UN.
- The ILO has 187 member states: 186 out of 193 UN member states plus the Cook Islands.
- The ILO’s international labour standards are broadly aimed at ensuring accessible, productive, and sustainable work worldwide in conditions of freedom, equity, security and dignity.
Its Governing Body
- The Governing body is the apex executive body of the ILO which decides policies, programmes, agenda, budget and elects the Director-General.
- It meets three times a year, in March, June and November.
Major reports released:
- World Employment and Social Outlook
- World Social Protection Report
- Global Wage Report
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