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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Russia

    Govt. steps in to tackle Russian trade hurdles

    | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India

    The government has convened a multi-Ministerial group to look into how to overcome challenges in trade with Russia, including managing payments for exporters and importers.

    Recent course of updates

    • Many parliamentarians have raised concerns over India’s abstentions at the United Nations and the impact of Indian policy on India’s trade and ties with the US.
    • Developments indicate a possible revival of “rupee-rouble trade” in the wake of economic sanctions against Russian banks and entities by more than 40 US and European allies.
    • India’s position has been “steadfast and consistent”, and India has repeatedly called for the immediate cessation of violence and end to all hostilities.

    Gearing-up for a ‘Shaky’ response

    • FM responded to a question over India’s support on sanctions being “somewhat shaky” amongst Quad partners.
    • Leaders asked whether there would be any “negative impact” on India’s relations with its closest allies.

    India’s clear stance

    • Indian foreign policy decisions are made in Indian national interest and we are guided by our thinking, our views and our interests.
    • So, there is no question of linking the Ukraine situation to issues of trade, the FM clarified.

     

     

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  • ISRO Missions and Discoveries

    GSAT 7B and India’s other Military Satellites

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh cleared the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for procurement of a GSAT 7B satellite.

    What are the GSAT 7 series satellites?

    • GSAT 7 satellites are advanced satellites developed by the ISRO to meet the communication needs of the defence services.
    • The satellite was injected into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) of 249 km perigee (nearest point to earth), 35,929 km apogee (farthest point to earth) and an inclination of 3.5 degree with respect to the equator.
    • The GSAT 7 satellite was launched in August 2013 from an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from Kourou in French Guiana.
    • It is a 2,650 kg satellite which has a footprint of nearly 2,000 nautical miles in the Indian Ocean region.

    Utility of this satellite

    • This satellite is mainly used by the Indian Navy for its communication needs.
    • The GSAT 7 provides a gamut of services for military communication needs, which includes low bit voice rate to high bit rate data facilities, including multi-band communications.
    • Named Rukmini, the satellite carries payloads in UHF, C-band and Ku-band, and helps the Navy to have a secure, real time communication link between its land establishments, surface ships, submarines and aircraft.

    What will be the role of the GSAT 7B satellite?

    • The GSAT 7B will primarily fulfil the communication needs of the Army.
    • Currently, the Army is using 30 per cent of the communication capabilities of the GSAT 7A satellite, which has been designed for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
    • The GSAT 7B will also help the Army enhance its surveillance in border areas.
    • While many features of this satellite are still a closely guarded secret, it is expected that the state of the art, multi-band, military-grade satellite shall be a shot in the arm for the communication and surveillance needs of the Army.

    What is the role of the GSAT 7A satellite, which is already operational?

    • The GSAT 7A was launched in 2018 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
    • It has gone a long way in boosting the connectivity between the ground radar stations, airbases and the airborne early warning and control aircraft (AEW&C) of the IAF.
    • It also helps in satellite controlled operations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which gives a great deal of reliability to the operations as compared to ground-controlled operations.
    • This satellite has 10 channels in Ku band with switchable frequency for mobile users, one fixed Gregorian or parabolic antenna, and four steerable antennae.

    Future plans

    • A GSAT 7C satellite is on the cards for the IAF, and a proposal to this effect was cleared by the DAC in 2021.
    • This satellite would facilitate real time communication with IAF’s software defined radio communication sets.
    • It will increase the capability of the IAF to communicate beyond the line of sight in a secure mode.

    What other kinds of military satellites does India have?

    • An Electromagnetic Intelligence Gathering Satellite (EMISAT), developed by ISRO, was launched in April 2020 through a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C45).
    • It has an Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) package called Kautilya, which allows the interception of ground-based radar and also carries out electronic surveillance across India.
    • The ELINT package provides the capability in direction-finding of radar and fixing their locations.
    • It is placed in a 748-km orbit, and is said to be based on the Israeli satellite system.
    • This satellite circles the globe pole-to-pole, and is helpful in gathering information from radars of countries that have borders with India.
    • India also has a RISAT 2BR1 synthetic aperture radar imaging satellite, which was launched in December 2019 from Sriharikota.
    • It has the capability to operate in different modes including very high resolution imaging modes of 1×0.5 metre resolution and 0.5×0.3 m resolution with a swath of 5-10 km.

     

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  • Tuberculosis Elimination Strategy

    Fighting TB with lessons learnt during Covid pandemic

    | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    Context

    On World TB day, we need to ask how best we can leverage the lessons learnt from Covid-19 to help gain a new momentum in TB control.

    Comparing the impact of Covid-19 and TB

    • In the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, 1.8 million people were reported to have succumbed to the virus.
    • In the decade between 2010-20, 1.5-2 million individuals died every year because of tuberculosis.
    • The difference in responses to the two pandemics can only be explained by the differences in the profiles of those who get infected.
    • TB disproportionately affects people in low-income nations, the poor and the vulnerable.
    • The increased burden on healthcare to manage Covid has led to a serious setback in TB control.

    Using lessons from Covid-19 for TB control

    • To leverage the lessons learnt from Covid-19 to control TB, we need to focus on the epidemiological triad: Agent, host and the environment.
    • Test, treat and track has been a strategy successfully employed for Covid.
    • Scaling up testing: We need to aggressively scale up testing with innovative strategies such as active surveillance, bidirectional screening for respiratory tract infections using the most sensitive molecular diagnostics, and contact tracing.
    • Vaccine: The biggest victory against Covid has been the speed with which vaccines were developed, scaled up and deployed.
    • We need to replicate the same for tuberculosis, lobbying for funding from governments and industry to develop a successful vaccine for TB.
    • Social security programs for the prevention of risk: Malnutrition, poverty and immuno-compromising conditions such as diabetes are some of the factors strongly associated with TB.
    • Social security programmes that work towards prevention of modifiable risk factors would possibly pay richer dividends than an exclusive focus on “medicalising” the disease.
    • Environmental factors: Environmental factors which have been neglected include ventilation of indoor spaces, educating individuals to avoid crowds when possible, and to encourage voluntary masking, especially in ill-ventilated and closed spaces.
    • Investment and actions: Covid has been a stellar example of how investments and actions can be swift, and public education can transform behaviour.
    • Similar aspirations for TB can help turn this crisis into an opportunity to re-imagine our overburdened and underfunded systems.
    • Involvement of private sector: We need to actively engage the private sector, build bridges and partnerships as we did in the case of Covid.

    Way forward

    • The country needs to invest in state-of-the-art technologies, build capacity, expand its health workforce and strengthen its primary care facilities.
    • It also needs to consider telemedicine and remote support as important aspects of health services.
    • We need to build an open and collaborative forum where all stakeholders, especially affected communities and independent experts, take a lead role.

    Conclusion

    We have ignored TB for too long. It’s time we acknowledge the magnitude of the disease, and work harder at offering individuals equitable healthcare access and resources that the disease warrants.

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  • Cashless Society – Digital Payments, Demonetization, etc.

    Sovereign green bond (SGB)

    | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    Context

    The other two major budget announcements pertain to the issuance of sovereign green bonds and a central bank digital currency. While geopolitical turbulence might make the current moment inopportune for experimentation, the government seems firm on both the proposals and they will most probably be rolled out.

    Sovereign green bond (SGB):  how it is different from a traditional bond

    • The sovereign green bond is a novel idea.
    •  It will be a part of the government’s borrowing programme.
    • The gross borrowing programme of the government is pegged at Rs 14.95 lakh crore.
    • The SGB (sovereign green bond) raised will be part of the aggregate borrowing programme and has to be used for projects which are ESG (environment, social and governance) compliant.
    • Hence, if the bond is being used to finance a power project or road, or in case it is used to finance revenue expenditure, it has to be ESG compliant.
    • If they succeed at the central level, green bonds can be replicated by states.

    Challenges for SGB

    • Pricing challenge: As these bonds are different from G-secs (government securities), they may have to provide a better return as all ESG compliant companies have to make special investments that will push up costs.
    • Low-interest rate: Further, given the low-interest rates prevailing today — real returns on deposits are negative — the SGBs can be issued as tax-free bonds, open to the public.
    • This will evince a lot of interest given that these are government-issued bonds.
    • The RBI and the government have been trying to get retail investors to participate in the government’s borrowing programme, and this move will expedite the process.

    Central bank digital currency (CBDC) and challenges

    •  For launching such a currency, the RBI has to address certain fundamental questions.
    • 1] Will it replace currency: Is a CBDC going to replace currency at some point in the future?
    • One must remember that there are several sections in India that are not conversant with technology.
    • 2] How will it be different from digital payments: If it is going to coexist with currency, how different will it be for the public from the digital payments that are being made today?
    • Will people need to choose between a mobile wallet and a CBDC wallet?
    • 3] Security of owner’s information: any issuance of CBDC on a voluntary basis also raises a question on the security of the owner’s information.
    • CBDC has to be clear on the issue of confidentiality as it is bound to be a matter of concern.
    • 4] The future of the banking system: If people have to be incentivised to move voluntarily to the CBDC, the cash exchanged must earn interest or else all money will go to bank accounts where a minimal interest rate can be earned.
    • Will we require savings bank accounts with commercial banks in case all cash goes to the RBI?
    • Will we then require ATMs for cash withdrawal? Will bank tellers become redundant? Will we need logistics companies that handle cash?
    • These finer issues need to be addressed by the RBI as the widespread use of CBDC will progressively lead to lesser need for banks.
    • 5] Issue of security: Any financial system that runs on technology can be hacked.
    • It has to be foolproof and power failure resistant.
    • There is a real danger of cyber fraud increasing as the majority of the population is not tech-savvy.
    • Similarly, there is always downtime for bank servers when banking transactions cannot be carried on.
    • This cannot be allowed to be the case with CBDC as it has to be available on a 24 x 7 basis.

    Consider the question “What are green bonds? How the green bonds can act as a tool to achieve the targets of sustainable development as a means of finance?”

    Conclusion

    The arguments for CBDC are compelling on the grounds of keeping up with the central banks of other countries, and the possibilities of taking advantage of new technologies like blockchain. But before embarking on these measures, it might be useful to keep in mind the issues flagged above.

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  • Trade Sector Updates – Falling Exports, TIES, MEIS, Foreign Trade Policy, etc.

    Exports in India

    | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Effects Of Liberalization On The Economy, Changes In Industrial Policy and their effects on Industrial Growth

    India’s annual goods exports crossed the $400-billion mark for the first time ever.

    The achievement of $400 billion in merchandise exports represents a growth of over 21 per cent from $330 billion achieved in FY2019 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Do you know?

    China’s total exports stood at $3.3 trillion ($3300 Billions) in 2021! Almost eight times of what we are celebrating!

    How did India achieve this?

    • The milestone was achieved due to increase in shipments of merchandise, including engineering products, apparel and garments, gems and jewellery and petroleum products.
    • The agriculture sector too had recorded its highest-ever export during 2021-22 with the help of export of rice, marine products, wheat, spices and sugar.

    Reasons behind the surge

    • One of the major reasons for jump in exports is rise in pent up demand, which had fallen as the Covid pandemic forced nations to remain under strict lockdown, thereby impacting global trade.
    • Beside, boost in domestic manufacturing due to production-liked incentive (PLI) schemes and implementation of some interim trade pacts have also led to surge in exports.
    • The Centre implemented a series of steps to promote exports of both goods and services and that includes the introduction of Refund of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) and Rebate of State and Central Levies and Taxes (RoSCTL) Schemes.

    External factors

    • One of the key factors driving the surge in exports is pent up demand that was not met during major waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.
    • Expansionary monetary policy by developed economies in response to the economic impact of the pandemic has also boosted demand for Indian exports.

    Where has been the increase in imports?

    • While exports have grown sharply, merchandise imports have grown even faster reaching $550 billion in the first 11 months of the fiscal.
    • It has seen sharp growth in imports of crude oil, coal, gold, electronics and chemicals.
    • Rising prices of commodities including crude oil and coal have played a significant role in adding to India’s import bill and taking the trade deficit for the first 11 months to a record high of $176 billion.

    Why exports are important?

    • Exports are one of the fundamental drivers of growth for any economy.
    • It can influence a country’s GDP, exchange rate, level of inflation as well as interest rates.
    • A robust export data is beneficial as it leads to increase in job opportunities, enhances foreign currency reserves, boosts manufacturing and also increases government’s revenue collection.
    • It is also a good means by which a country can bring itself out of the recession phase.
    • Besides, it also plays a key role in strengthening the domestic manufacturing units by scaling up their quality to make India made products compete and stand out against global peers.

     

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  • President’s Rule

    What is Article 355 of Indian Constitution?

    | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Federalism

    Considering the law and order situation in West Bengal, some politicians demanded the invoking of Article 355 to ensure the State is governed as per the provisions of the Constitution.

    What is Article 355?

    • It states that-

    “It shall be the duty of the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the Government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.”

    Cases for its invocation

    • This article thus comes handy when there are communal violence incidents. Over the period, this article has gained a different texture.
    • We know that the “public order” and “police” are state subject and states have exclusive power to legislate on these matters.
    • These subjects were entrusted to states because states would be in better position to handle any law and order problem.
    • Management of Police by states was also seen as administratively convenient and efficient.
    • However, there might be some circumstances where states are unable to maintain public order and protect people.
    • In such situation, centre can invoke article 355 and take measures such as taking law and order of state under its own hand, deployment of military etc.

     

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  • Primary and Secondary Education – RTE, Education Policy, SEQI, RMSA, Committee Reports, etc.

    Mid day Meal Scheme

    | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    A parliamentarian has recently asked the government to re-start the mid-day meals in reopening schools and to ensure that the meals provided are cooked and nutritious.

    What is the Mid-Day Meal Scheme?

    • The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal program designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide.
    • It was launched in the year 1995.
    • It supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in:
    1. Government, government aided, local body schools
    2. Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education centres,
    3. Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and
    4. National Child Labour Project schools run by the ministry of labour
    • The Scheme has a legal backing under the National Food Security Act, 2013.

    Objective: To enhance the enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improve nutritional levels among school going children studying in Classes I to VIII

    History of the scheme

    • In 1925, a Mid Day Meal Programme was introduced for disadvantaged children in Madras Municipal Corporation.
    • By the mid-1980s three States viz. Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the UT of Pondicherry had universalized a same scheme with their own resources for children studying at the primary stage.
    • In 2001, the Supreme Court asked all state governments to begin this programme in their schools within 6 months.

    Features: Calorie approach

    • Primary (1-5) and upper primary (6-8) schoolchildren are currently entitled to 100 grams and 150 grams of food grains per working day each.
    • It also include adequate quantities of micronutrients like iron, folic acid, Vitamin-A, etc.
    • The calorific value of a mid-day meal at various stages has been fixed at a minimum:
    Calories Intake Primary Upper Primary
    Energy 450 calories 700 calories
    Protein 12 grams 20 grams

     

    Why in news?

    • The flagship report of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 estimated that as of April 2020 369 million children globally were losing out on school meals, a bulk of whom were in India.
    • As many as 116 million children — actually, 116 million hungry children — is the number of children impacted due to indefinite school closure during the pandemic.

    Why discuss it now?

    • The recent Global Hunger Index (GHI) report for 2020 ranks India at 94 out of 107 countries and in the category ‘serious’, behind our neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
    • The index is a combination of indicators of undernutrition in the population and wasting (low weight for height), stunting (low height for age), and mortality in children below five years of age.

    What measures were resorted to counter this?

    • In March and April 2020 the GoI had announced that the usual hot-cooked mid-day meal or an equivalent food security allowance/dry ration would be provided to all eligible school-going children even during vacation.
    • Nearly three months into this decision, States were still struggling to implement this.

    What lies ahead?

    • Across the country and the world, innovative learning methods are being adopted to ensure children’s education outcomes.
    • The GHI report calls for effective delivery of social protection programmes.
    • With continuing uncertainty regarding the reopening of schools, innovation is similarly required to ensure that not just food, but nutrition is delivered regularly to millions of children.
    • For many of them, that one hot-cooked meal was probably the best meal of the day.

     

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  • International Space Agencies – Missions and Discoveries

    What is NASA’s Artemis I Mission?

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    On March 17, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) rolled out its Artemis I moon mission to the launchpad for testing at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, United States.

    What is the Artemis I Mission?

    • NASA’s Artemis mission is touted as the next generation of lunar exploration, and is named after the twin sister of Apollo from Greek mythology.
    • Artemis is also the goddess of the moon.
    • Artemis I is the first of NASA’s deep space exploration systems.
    • It is an uncrewed space mission where the spacecraft will launch on SLS — the most powerful rocket in the world — and travel 2,80,000 miles from the earth for over four to six weeks during the course of the mission.
    • The Orion spacecraft is going to remain in space without docking to a space station, longer than any ship for astronauts has ever done before.
    • The SLS rocket has been designed for space missions beyond the low-earth orbit and can carry crew or cargo to the moon and beyond.

    Key objectives of the mission

    • With the Artemis Mission, NASA aims to land humans on the moon by 2024, and it also plans to land the first woman and first person of colour on the moon.
    • With this mission, NASA aims to contribute to scientific discovery and economic benefits and inspire a new generation of explorers.
    • NASA will establish an Artemis Base Camp on the surface and a gateway in the lunar orbit to aid exploration by robots and astronauts.
    • The gateway is a critical component of NASA’s sustainable lunar operations and will serve as a multi-purpose outpost orbiting the moon.

    Other agencies involved

    • Other space agencies are also involved in the Artemis programme.
    • The Canadian Space Agency has committed to providing advanced robotics for the gateway.
    • The European Space Agency will provide the International Habitat and the ESPRIT module, which will deliver additional communications capabilities among other things.
    • The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to contribute habitation components and logistics resupply.

    What is the mission trajectory?

    • SLS and Orion under Artemis I will be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, U.S. in the summer of 2022.
    • The spacecraft will deploy the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS), a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen-based propulsion system that will give Orion the thrust needed to leave the earth’s orbit and travel towards the moon.
    • On its way to the moon, Orion will be propelled by a service module provided by the European Space Agency (ESA).
    • The spacecraft will communicate with the control centre back on Earth through the deep-space network.
    • It will fly around 100 km above the surface of the moon and use its gravitational pull to propel Orion into an opposite deep orbit around 70,000 km from the moon, where it will stay for approximately six days.

    What are the future missions in the Artemis programme?

    • The second flight under the programme will have crew on board and will test Orion’s critical systems with humans onboard.
    • Eventually, the learnings from the Artemis programme will be utilised to send the first astronauts to Mars.
    • NASA plans on using the lunar orbit to gain the necessary experience to extend human exploration of space farther into the solar system.

     

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  • Nobel and other Prizes

    Abel Prize awarded to American Mathematician

    Prelims Only | Trivia | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the Abel prize for the year 2022 to American Mathematician Dennis Parnell Sullivan, for his contributions to topology in its broadest sense, and in particular its algebraic, geometric and dynamical aspects.

    Abel Prize

    • The Abel Prize is a prize awarded annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians.
    • It is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) and directly modeled after the Nobel Prizes.
    • It comes with a monetary award of 7.5 million Norwegian kroner (NOK) (increased from 6 million NOK in 2019).
    • Its establishment was proposed by the Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie when he learned that Alfred Nobel’s plans for annual prizes would not include a prize in mathematics.
    • The laureates are selected by the Abel Committee, the members of which are appointed by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

    Has any Indian won this prestigious prize?

    • R. Srinivasa Varadhan, an Indian-American citizen won the Abel Prize in the year 2007 for his valuable contribution in “probability theory and in particular for creating a unified theory of large deviation”.

     

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  • Parliament – Sessions, Procedures, Motions, Committees etc

    Indian Legislative Service

    | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Parliament & State Legislatures

    Context

    The appointment of Dr. P.P.K. Ramacharyulu as the Secretary-General of the Upper House by M. Venkaiah Naidu, Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, on September 1, 2021, was news that drew much attention. Ramacharyulu was the first-ever Rajya Sabha secretariat staff who rose to become the Secretary-General of the Upper House.

    Responsibilities and role of Secretaries-General of both the Houses

    • Secretaries-General of both the Houses are mandated with many parliamentary and administrative responsibilities.
    • Privileges: The Secretary-General also enjoys certain privileges such as freedom from arrest, immunity from criminal proceedings, and any obstruction and breach of their rights would amount to contempt of the House.

    Principle of secretariate independent of executive government

    • Article 98 of the Constitution provides the scope of separate secretariats for the two Houses of Parliament.
    • The principle, hence, laid in the Article is that the secretariats should be independent of the executive government. 

    Issues with appointing civil servant

    • A separate secretariat marks a feature of a functioning parliamentary democracy.
    • Against the principle of independence: Serving civil servants or those who are retired come with long-held baggage and the clout of their past career.
    • When civil servants are hired to the post of Secretary-General, this not only dishonours the purpose of ensuring the independence of the Secretariat but also leads to a conflict of interests.
    • Against the principle of separation of power: It breaches the principle of separation of power.
    • The officials mandated with exercising one area of power may not expect to exercise the others.
    • Lack of expertise: One of the prerequisites that demand the post of the Secretary-General is unfailing knowledge and vast experience of parliamentary procedures, practices and precedents.
    • Most of the civil servants lack precisely this aspect of expertise.

    Way forward: All-India service

    • There are thousands of legislative bodies in India, ranging from the panchayat, block panchayat, zila parishad, municipal corporations to State legislatures and Union Parliament at the national level.
    • Despite these mammoth law-making bodies, they lack their own common public recruiting and training agency at the national level.
    • Ensuring competent and robust legislative institutions demands having qualified and well-trained staff in place.
    • The growth of modern government and expansion of governmental activities require a matching development and laborious legislative exercise.
    • Creating a common all-India service cadre — an Indian Legislative Service — is a must.
    • The Rajya Sabha can, under Article 312, pass a resolution to this effect.
    • In the United Kingdom, the Clerk of the House of Commons has always been appointed from the legislative staff pool created to serve Parliament.
    • It is high time that India adapts and adopts such democratic institutional practices.

    Conclusion

    A common service can build a combined and experienced legislative staff cadre, enabling them to serve from across local bodies to Union Parliament.

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