Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Judicial corruption and pendency
Context
Departures from substantive and procedural justice need deep scrutiny as the fallout could severely imperil governance.
Judicial corruption in India in lower judiciary
- According to Transparency International (TI 2011), 45% of people who had come in contact with the judiciary between July 2009 and July 2010 had paid a bribe to the judiciary.
- The most common reason for paying the bribes was to “speed things up”.
- The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (April 2013) estimates that for every ₹2 in official court fees, at least ₹ 1,000 is spent in bribes in bringing a petition to the court.
- Freedom House’s ‘Freedom in the World 2016 report for India’ states that “the lower levels of the judiciary in particular have been rife with corruption” (Freedom House 2016).
- Allegations of corruption against High Court judges abound.
- Worse, there are glaring examples of anti-Muslim bias, often followed by extra-judicial killings by the police.
- Anti-Muslim bias alone may not result in erosion of trust but if combined with unprovoked and brutal violence against them (e.g., lynching of innocent cattle traders) is bound to.
Forms of judicial corruption
- Pressure and bribery: Judicial corruption takes two forms: political interference in the judicial process by the legislative or executive branch, and bribery.
- Despite the accumulation of evidence on corrupt practices, the pressure to rule in favour of political interests remains intense.
- Court officials coax bribes for free services, and lawyers charge additional “fees” to expedite or delay cases.
Case pendency
- According to the National Judicial Data Grid, as of April 12, 2017, there are 24,186,566 pending cases in India’s district courts, of which 2,317,448 (9.58%) have been pending for over 10 years, and 3,975,717 (16.44%) have been pending for between five and 10 years.
- Vacancies: As of December 31, 2015, there were 4,432 vacancies in the posts of [subordinate court] judicial officers, representing about 22% of the sanctioned strength.
- In the case of the High Courts, 458 of the 1,079 posts, representing 42% of the sanctioned strength, were vacant as of June 2016.
- Thus, severe backlogging and understaffing persisted, as also archaic and complex procedures of delivery of justice.
Understanding the substantive and procedural justice
- Substantive justice is associated with whether the statutes, case law and unwritten legal principles are morally justified e.g., freedom to pursue any religion,
- Procedural justice is associated with fair and impartial decision procedures.
- Outdated laws: Many outdated/dysfunctional laws or statutes have not been repealed because of the tardiness of legal reform both at the Union and State government levels.
- Worse, there have been blatant violations of constitutional provisions.
- The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (December 2019) provides citizenship to — except Muslims — Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.
- But this goes against secularism and is thus a violation of substantive justice.
- Alongside procedural delays, endemic corruption and mounting shares of under-trial inmates with durations of three to five years point to stark failures of procedural justice and to some extent of substantive justice.
Conclusion
Exercise of extra-constitutional authority by the central and State governments, weakening of accountability mechanisms, widespread corruption in the lower judiciary and the police, with likely collusion between them, the perverted beliefs of the latter towards Muslims, other minorities and lower caste Hindus, a proclivity to deliver instant justice, extra-judicial killings, filing FIRs against innocent victims of mob lynching have left deep scars on the national psyche.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Poverty in India
Mains level: Paper 2- Poverty reduction in India
Context
A recent World Bank Report has shown that extreme poverty in India more than halved between 2011 and 2019 – from 22.5 per cent to 10.2 per cent. The reduction was higher in rural areas, from 26.3 per cent to 11.6 per cent.
What explains the reduction in poverty?
- Poverty has reduced significantly because of the government’s thrust on improving the ease of living of ordinary Indians through schemes.
- These schemes include the Ujjwala Yojana, PM Awas Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, Jan Dhan and Mission Indradhanush in addition to the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission and improved coverage under the National Food Security Act.
- It is important to understand how poverty in rural areas was reduced at a faster pace.
- Much of the success can be credited to all government departments, especially their janbhagidari-based thrust on pro-poor public welfare.
Contributing factors
1] Identification of beneficiaries through SECC 2011
- The identification of deprived households on the basis of the Socioeconomic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 across welfare programmes helped in creating a constituency for the well-being of the poor, irrespective of caste, creed or religion.
- Deprivation criterion: Since deprivation was the key criterion in identifying beneficiaries, SC and ST communities got higher coverage and the erstwhile backward regions in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan and rural Maharashtra got a larger share of the benefits.
- Gram Sabha Validation: Social groups that often used to be left out of government programmes were included and gram sabha validation was taken to ensure that the project reached these groups.
2] Widened coverage of women
- The coverage of women under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana and Self Help Groups (SHG) increased from 2.5 crore in 2014 to over 8 crore in 2018 as a result of more than 75 lakh SHGs working closely with over 31 lakh elected panchayati raj representatives, 40 per cent of whom are women.
- This provided a robust framework to connect with communities and created a social capital that helped every programme.
- The PRI-SHG partnership catalysed changes that increased the pace of poverty reduction and the use of Aadhaar cleaned up corruption at several levels and ensured that the funds reached those whom it was meant for.
3] Creation of basic infrastructure
- Finance Commission transfers were made directly to gram panchayats leading to the creation of basic infrastructure like pucca village roads and drains at a much faster pace in rural areas.
- The high speed of road construction under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadhak Yojana created greater opportunities for employment in nearby larger villages/census towns/kasbas by improving connectivity and enhancing mobility.
4] Availability of credit through SHGs
- The social capital of SHGs ensured the availability of credit through banks, micro-finance institutions and MUDRA loans.
- Livelihood diversification: The NRLM prioritised livelihood diversification and implemented detailed plans for credit disbursement.
5] Implementation of social sector schemes
- In the two phases of the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan in 2018, benefits such as gas and electricity connections, LED bulbs, accident insurance, life insurance, bank accounts and immunisation were provided to 63974 villages that were selected because of their high SC and ST populations.
- The performance of line departments went up manifold due to community-led action.
- The gains are reflected in the findings of the National Family Health Survey V, 2019-2021.
6] Universal coverage schemes
- The thrust on universal coverage for individual household latrines, LPG connections and pucca houses for those who lived in kuccha houses ensured that no one was left behind. This created the Labarthi Varg.
7] Increase in fund transfer to rural area
- Seventh, this was also a period in which a high amount of public funds were transferred to rural areas, including from the share of states and, in some programmes, through extra-budgetary resources.
8] Community participation
- The thrust on a people’s plan campaign, “Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas” for preparing the Gram Panchayat Development Plans and for ranking villages and panchayats on human development, economic activity and infrastructure, from 2017-18 onwards, laid the foundation for robust community participation involving panchayats and SHGs, especially in ensuring accountability.
9] Social and concurrent audit
- Through processes like social and concurrent audits, efforts were made to ensure that resources were fully utilised.
- Several changes were brought about in programmes like the MGNREGS to create durable and productive assets.
10] Focus of states on improving livelihood diversification
- The competition among states to improve performance on rural development helped.
- Irrespective of the party in power, nearly all states and UTs focussed on improving livelihood diversification in rural areas and on improving infrastructure significantly.
Conclusion
All these factors contributed to improved ease of living of deprived households and improving their asset base. A lot has been achieved, much remains to be done.
UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Election of the President
Mains level: Read the attached story
The value of the vote of an MP in the presidential polls to be held in July is likely to go down to 700 from 708 due to the absence of a Legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir.
Do you know?
The value of an MP’s vote has been 708 since the 1997 presidential election.
What is the news?
- Before it was bifurcated into the UTs of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir in August 2019, the erstwhile State of J&K had 83 Assembly seats.
- According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the Union Territory of J&K will have an Assembly, while Ladakh will be governed directly by the Centre.
The President of India
- The President of India is recognised as the first citizen of the country and the head of the state.
- The elected President of India is a part of the Union Executive along with several other members of the parliament including the Prime Minister, Attorney-General of India and the Vice – president.
Electing the President
- The provisions of the election of the President are laid down in Article 54 of the Constitution of India.
- The Presidential and Vice-Presidential Election Act 1952 led to the establishment of this Constitutional provision.
Qualifications to become the President of India
The qualification of be the President of India are given below:
- He/ She must be an Indian citizen
- A person must have completed the age of 35.
- A person must be qualified for election as a member of the House of the People.
- Must not hold a government (central or state) office of profit
- A person is eligible for election as President if he/she is holding the office of President or Vice-President.
Actual course of election
- The President of India is elected indirectly by an Electoral College following the system of proportional representation utilizing a single transferable vote system and secret ballots.
- MPs and MLAs vote based on parity and uniformity values.
Electoral College composition-
(1) Legislative Assemblies of the States:
- According to the provision of Article 333, every state’s Legislative Assembly must consist of not less than 60 members but not more than 500 members.
(2) Council of States:
- 12 members are nominated by the President of India based on skills or knowledge in literature, arts, science, and social service to act as the members of the Council of States.
- In total, 238 represent act as representatives from both the States and Union Territories.
(2) House of the People:
- The composition of the House of People consists of 530 members (no exceeding) from the state territorial constituencies.
- They are elected through direct election.
- The President further elects 20 more members (no exceeding) from the Union Territories.
Uniformity in the scale of representation of states
To maintain the proportionality between the values of the votes, the following formula is used:
Value of vote of an MLA= total no. of the population of the particular state/ number of elected MLAs of that state divided by 1000.
Single vote system
- During the presidential election, one voter can cast only one vote.
- While the MLAs vote may vary state to state, the MPs vote always remain constant.
MPs and MLAs vote balance
- The number of the total value of the MPs votes must equal the total value of the MLAs to maintain the State and the Union balance.
Quotas:
- The candidate reaching the winning quota or exceeding it is the winner.
- The formula sued is ‘Winning quota total number of poll/ no.of seats + 1’.
Voters’ preference:
- During the presidential election, the voter casts his vote in favor of his first preferred candidate.
- However, in case the first preference candidate does not touch the winning quota, the vote automatically goes to the second preference.
- The first preferred candidate with the lowest vote is eliminated and the votes in his/her favor are transferred to the remaining candidates.
Why need Proportional representation?
- The President of India is elected through proportional representation using the means of the single transferable vote (Article 55(3)).
- It allows the independent candidates and minority parties to have the chance of representation.
- It allows the practice of coalition with many voters under one government.
- This system ensures that candidates who are elected don’t represent the majority of the electorate’s opinion.
Why is President indirectly elected?
If Presidents were to be elected directly, it would become very complicated.
- It would, in fact, be a disaster because the public doesn’t have the absolute clarity of how the president-ship runs or if the candidate fits the profile of a president.
- Another reason why the direct election system isn’t favorable is that the candidate running for the president’s profile will have to campaign around the country with the aid of a political party.
- And, this will result in a massive political instability.
- Moreover, it would be difficult and impossible for the government to hand out election machinery (given the vast population of India).
- This will cost the government financially, and may end up affecting the economy as well.
- The indirect election system is a respectable system for the First Man of India (rightly deserving).
- The system/method of indirect electing of the president also allows the states to maintain neutrality and minimize hostility.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Health Star Rating System, FOPL
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is expected to issue a draft regulation for labels on front of food packets.
What is FoPL?
- In India, packaged food has had back-of-package (BOP) nutrient information in detail but no FoPL.
- Counter to this, FoPL can nudge people towards healthy consumption of packaged food.
- It can also influence purchasing habits.
- The study endorsed the HSR format, which speaks about the proportions of salt, sugar, and fat in food that is most suited for consumers.
- Countries such as the UK, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Hungary, and Australia have implemented FoPL systems.
What warranted such rating in India?
- Visual bluff: A lot of Indian consumers do not read the information available at the back of the packaged food item.
- Burden of NCDs: Also, India has a huge burden of non-communicable diseases that contributes to around 5.87 million (60%) of all deaths in a year.
- Healthy dietary choices: HSR will encourage people to make healthy choices and could bring a transformational change in the society.
- Supreme Court order: A PIL seeking direction to the government to frame guidelines on HSR and impact assessment for food items and beverages was filed in the Supreme Court in June 2021.
Which category of food item will have HSR?
- All packaged food items or processed food will have the HSR label.
- These will include chips, biscuits, namkeen, sweets and chocolates, meat nuggets, and cookies.
- However, milk and its products such as chenna and ghee are EXEMPTED as per the FSSAI draft notified in 2019.
Will there be pushback from food industry?
- Negative warning: Some experts opposed the use of the HSR model in India, suggesting that consumers might tend to take this as an affirmation of the health benefits rather than as a negative warning of ill effects.
- Lack of awareness: This is significant because there is lack of awareness on star ratings related to consumer products in India.
- Impact on Sale: Certain organisations fear it might affect the sale of certain food products.
When will the rating come into force?
- FSSAI’s scientific panel recommends voluntary implementation of HSR format from 2023 and a transition period of four years for making it mandatory.
- It noted that the proposed thresholds are in alignment with the models implemented in other countries and ‘WHO population nutrient intake goals recommendations’.
- FSSAI will analyse the nutritional information in 100 mg of packaged food.
- The food safety compliance system licensing application portal will have a module for generating certificates wherein a licensee can enter details of a product.
UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Wheat cultivation in India
Mains level: Public procurement of wheat
On May 4, the government lowered its wheat production estimates by 5.7% to 105 million tonnes (MT) from the projected 111.32 MT for the crop year ending June.
Decline in wheat production
- India is the second largest producer of wheat in the world, with China being the top producer and Russia the third largest — Ukraine is the world’s eighth largest producer of wheat.
- After five straight years of a bumper wheat output, India has had to revise downwards its estimated production.
- Unprecedented heatwaves across the north, west and central parts of the country, and March and April being the hottest in over 100 years, have caused substantial loss to the yield.
- Researchers attributed the lower estimates to “early summer” affecting the crop yields in States, especially Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Why is there a decline in govt procurement?
- Ukrainian war: Private traders have been prompted to buy more wheat from farmers as the price of wheat at the international level has shot up due to Ukrainian war.
- Higher prices: A large quantity of wheat was being bought by traders at a higher rate than the minimum support price (MSP).
- Hoarding by farmers and traders: Also, farmers are holding on to some quantity of wheat, expecting higher prices for their produce in the near future.
How will this impact the public distribution of grain?
- Wheat procurement is undertaken by the state-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other agencies at MSP to meet the requirements under the Public Distribution System (PDS).
- Other running welfare schemes is the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) introduced during the pandemic.
- The government has revised the grain allocation under PMGKAY for May to September 2022.
- According to the new guidelines, the FCI will fill the gap left by wheat with an increased allocation of rice.
- Pointing out that from next year, fortified rice will be distributed to the entire Public Distribution System (PDS).
Will domestic wheat prices be hit?
- As government wheat procurement has dipped, concerns are being raised about the stability of prices in the country.
- The availability of grain for internal consumption, many agri-experts argue should be a priority.
- The government has dismissed concerns about both prices and stocks, asserting that India is in a comfortable situation with the overall availability of grains.
- India has enough stocks to meet the minimum requirement for next one year for meeting the requirement of welfare schemes.
How is the global supply situation shaping up?
- In order to meet the gap created by reduced Russian and Ukrainian exports, importers are turning to alternative markets.
- Wheat-producing countries like India are looking to increase exports.
Will farmers benefit?
- Farmers will certainly benefit from the scenario as they are being offered a price above the MSP.
- Amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, new markets in countries like Israel, Egypt, Tanzania and Mozambique have opened up for India.
- However, if private traders continue to buy above MSP, eventually that could stoke inflation.
- More private buying of wheat will help India expand the agri-export basket to new countries, riding the current crisis situation.
- This trade relationship will stay even when the global crisis is over, which means farmers will get about 10%-15% extra price as market prices are ruling above MSP.
What about export plans?
- After Egypt, Turkey has also given approval for the import of Indian wheat.
- India has been eyeing deals with new export markets in European Union countries too.
- Despite the crop loss and revision of the output estimate, the Centre maintained that no curbs would be placed on wheat exports and that it was facilitating traders.
UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: El-Nino, La-Nina
Mains level: ENSO impact on Indian Monsson
This year the La Nina is being blamed for worsening the longest spell of heatwaves from March to April in north, west and Central India.
In most years, meteorologists considered the La Nina to be a friend of India.
What is El Nino and La Nina?
- While El Niño (Spanish for ‘little boy’), the more common expression, is the abnormal surface warming observed along the eastern and central regions of the Pacific Ocean (the region between Peru and Papua New Guinea).
- The La Niña (Spanish for ‘little girl’) is an abnormal cooling of these surface waters.
- Together, the El Niño (Warm Phase) and La Niña (Cool Phase) phenomena are termed as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
- These are large-scale ocean phenomena which influence the global weather — winds, temperature and rainfall. They have the ability to trigger extreme weather events like droughts, floods, hot and cold conditions, globally.
- Each cycle can last anywhere between 9 to 12 months, at times extendable to 18 months — and re-occur after every three to five years.
- Meteorologists record the sea surface temperatures for four different regions, known as Niño regions, along this equatorial belt.
- Depending on the temperatures, they forecast either as an El Niño, an ENSO neutral phase, or a La Niña.
Impact on India
- El Nino during winter causes warm conditions over the Indian subcontinent and during summer, it leads to dry conditions and deficient monsoon.
- Whereas La Nina results in better than normal monsoon in India.
- It has been established that Indian summer monsoon is a fully coupled land-atmosphere-ocean system and that it is linked to ocean temperature variability.
- In an agricultural country like India, the extreme departure from normal seasonal rainfall seriously affects the agricultural output and thus the economy of the country.
Try this PYQ:
La Nina is suspected to have caused recent floods in Australia. How is La Nina different from El Nino?
- La Nina is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperature in equatorial Indian Ocean whereas El Nino is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperature in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
- El Nino has an adverse effect on south-west monsoon of India, but La Nina has no effect on monsoon climate.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) Only 1
(b) Only 2
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Post your answers here.
UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indus valley civilization and its decline
Mains level: Not Much
DNA samples collected from two human skeletons unearthed at a necropolis of a Harappan-era city site in Rakhigarhi, Haryana have been sent for scientific examination.
Why in news?
- DNA analysis might tell about the ancestry and food habits of people who lived in the Rakhigarhi region thousands of years ago.
About Rakhi Garhi
- The ancient site of Rakhi-Khas and Rakhi-Shahpur are collectively known as Rakhigarhi, located on the right bank of the now dried up Palaeo-channel of Drishadvati.
- It is located in the Ghaggar-Hakra river plain in the Hissar district of Haryana.
- Seven mounds are located here.
- The site has yielded various stages of Harappan culture and is by far one of the largest Harappan sites in India.
- The site shows the sequential development of the Indus culture in the now dried up Saraswati basin.
Major findings at Rakhi Garhi
- Findings confirm both early and mature Harappan phases and include 4,600-year-old human skeletons, fortification and bricks.
- Digging so far reveals a well-planned city with 1.92 m wide roads, a bit wider than in Kalibangan.
- The pottery is similar to Kalibangan and Banawali.
- Pits surrounded by walls have been found, which are thought to be for sacrificial or some religious ceremonies.
- There are brick-lined drains to handle sewage from the houses.
- Terracotta statues, weights, bronze artefacts, comb, copper fish hooks, needles and terracotta seals have also been found.
- A bronze vessel has been found which is decorated with gold and silver.
- A granary belonging to the mature Harappan phase has been found here.
- Fire altars structures were revealed in Rakhigarhi.
UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now