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  • Police Reforms – SC directives, NPC, other committees reports

    Interference an investigating officer can do without

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary

    Context

    Instances of judiciary directing the investigating officer point to the need for restraint from the judiciary.

    Challenging the discretion of investigating officer

    • There have been growing instances of subordinate judicial officers, and even High Courts sometimes, directing the investigating officer to effect the arrest of a particular individual.
    • To deal with the issue, the Supreme Court of India recently made the observation that courts have no authority to direct an investigating officer to in turn direct the arrest of any particular individual connected with a crime
    • This points to the need for a slightly kindlier view of police conduct and more latitude to them in the standard operating procedures which they follow, especially when they investigate a complicated crime.
    • The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) vests sufficient discretion in the investigating officer to take such decisions as arrests and searches.

    Issues with court’s directions

    • Court observations that smack of a lack of faith in police ability and integrity will make grass-root level policemen even more arbitrary than now and force them into carrying out questionable actions that will cast aspersions on an officer’s ability to think for himself.
    • Court interference in the day-to-day investigation is not only undesirable but is also not sanctioned by law.
    • Only the Supreme Court, has been vested with enormous authority and discretion by the Constitution, the lesser courts shall not give directions in the matter of arrests and searches.

    Safeguard against police misconduct

    • We need to educate the Executive and the common man that it is now well-established law that the police have to register an FIR.
    • It is mandatory that every police station in the land should register a complaint under the relevant sections of a statute the moment a cognisable offence is made out in the complaint
    • There is another safeguard against police misconduct.
    • The CrPC makes it obligatory for the investigating officer to write a diary that details the action taken every day following registration.
    • When in doubt, the competent court, which already has a copy of the first information report, can demand to see the case diary.
    • Courts should remember that the police are a well-established hierarchy that is obligated to ensure objectivity during a criminal investigation.
    • Every investigation is supervised by at least two immediate senior officers.

    Conclusion

    Judicial interference in an investigation is counterproductive to the idea of justice. Therefore, there is a need for allowing more freedom to the investigating officers in the standard operating procedure that they follow.

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  • Addressing claims of backwardness by various politically powerful castes

    op-ed snap | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary,Government Scheme/Policies

    Context

    Two rulings of the Supreme Court have frayed nerves in Maharashtra on the broader question of “reservation”. The other pertains to OBC reservation in local bodies. Both issues have relevance beyond Maharashtra.

    Challenges in addressing the demand for reservation

    • Lack of quantitative data: The issue of actual numbers or population share of OBCs has been talked about for over a decade.
    • Besides, there is a need to understand the socio-economic situation of different backward communities.
    • In the last instance, we have to decide which groups are backward and what needs to be done for them.
    • The political class have consistently avoided the juridical reality.

    Consensus between judiciary and political class

    • That consensus after implementation of Mandal commission recommendation had three dimensions:
    • 1) Accepting that caste is the main cause of tradition-born backwardness among a large section of the population.
    • 2) Resorting to “reservation” as the easiest policy response.
    • 3) Recognising and accommodating the political aspirations of the backward sections by expanding the social base of the political elite.
    • But this resulted in the current deadlock on the question of social justice.
    • Today, not only the Marathas, but Jats and Patidars, too, claim that vast numbers among them have been left behind in the contemporary economy.
    • These demands have deflected attention from two matters.
    • 1) That the enabling provision of the Constitution aims at social backwardness (caused by societal location).
    • 2) That the causes of economic distress originating in development policies are distinct from backwardness primarily originating in caste location.
    • Granting reservations on an economic basis seems to have complicated matters.

    Five reservation-related issues gaining renewed urgency

    • Intra-OBC differentiations: This issue was already raised by a member of the Mandal Commission itself.
    • Most states have failed to come up with an effective arrangement to addressing the issue.
    • The Centre is currently waiting for a report on this question.
    • Intra-caste stratification: Intra-caste stratification is increasing — something that was rather limited at the time of Mandal.
    • What sociologist D L Sheth called as classification is now becoming the central issue, with many complications.
    • Advantages and logic: The third question is about the specific advantages and logic of reservation in the three different arenas of employment, education and political representation.
    • Limits of reservation: There is need to discuss the limits of reservation and the need to think of additional measures to augment the policy of social justice.
    • Setting boundaries: With such widespread poverty and suffering, how do we distinguish between backwardness primarily caused by a group’s social location in traditional social order and backwardness resulting from distortions of the political economy?
    • Unless we grapple with this question, reservation is bound to remain a contentious issue.

    Way forward

    • The above questions are best left ideally to a third backward classes commission whose time has come.
    • Removing the 50 per cent cap legislatively needs to be considered.

    Conclusion

    We need to devise a mechanism to verify the claims of backwardness to address the increasing demands for reservation from the politically strong section of society.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Afghanistan

    Explained: India’s Afghan investment

    | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: India & Its Neighborhood – Relations

    As the Taliban push ahead with military offensives across Afghanistan, preparing to take over after the exit of US and NATO forces, India faces a situation in which it may lose all its stakes.

    India-Afghan ties

    • After a break between 1996 and 2001, when India joined the world in shunning the previous Taliban regime (only Pakistan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia kept ties).
    • One-way New Delhi re-established ties with the country in the two decades after the 9/11 attacks was to pour in development assistance, under the protective umbrella of the US presence.
    • India built vital roads, dams, electricity transmission lines and substations, schools and hospitals, etc. India’s development assistance is now estimated to be worth well over $3 billion.
    • And unlike in other countries where India’s infrastructure projects have barely got off the ground or are mired in the host nation’s politics, it has delivered in Afghanistan.

    A soft corner

    • Afghanistan is vital to India’s strategic interests in the region.
    • It is also perhaps the only SAARC nation whose people have much affection for India.
    • Taliban takeover would mean a reversal of nearly 20 years of rebuilding a relationship that goes back centuries.

    Projects across the country

    [1] SALMA DAM

    • Already, there has been fighting in the area where one of India’s high-visibility projects is located — the 42MW Salma Dam in Herat province.
    • The hydropower and irrigation project, completed against many odds and inaugurated in 2016, is known as the Afghan-India Friendship Dam.
    • In the past few weeks, the Taliban have mounted attacks in nearby places, killing several security personnel.
    • The Taliban claim the area around the dam is now under their control.

    [2] ZARANJ-DELARAM HIGHWAY

    • The other high-profile project was the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway built by the Border Roads Organisation. Zaranj is located close to Afghanistan’s border with Iran.
    • With Pakistan denying India overland access for trade with Afghanistan, the highway is of strategic importance to New Delhi, as it provides an alternative route into landlocked Afghanistan through Iran’s Chabahar port.

    [3] AFGHAN PARLIAMENT

    • The Afghan Parliament in Kabul was built by India at $90 million.
    • It was opened in 2015; PM Modi inaugurated the building.
    • A block in the building is named after former PM AB Vajpayee.

    [4] STOR PALACE

    • In 2016, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and PM Modi inaugurated the restored Stor Palace in Kabul, originally built in the late 19th century.
    • It is famous for the 1919 Rawalpindi Agreement by which Afghanistan became an independent country.

    [5] POWER INFRA

    • Other Indian projects in Afghanistan include the rebuilding of power infrastructure such as the 220kV DC transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province to the north of Kabul.
    • Indian contractors and workers also restored telecommunications infrastructure in many provinces.

    [6] HEALTH INFRA

    • India has reconstructed a children’s hospital it had helped build in Kabul in 1972 —named Indira Gandhi Institute for Child Health in 1985 — that was in shambles after the war.
    • ‘Indian Medical Missions’ have held free consultation camps in several areas.
    • Thousands who lost their limbs after stepping on mines left over from the war have been fitted with the Jaipur Foot.
    • India has also built clinics in the border provinces of Badakhshan, Balkh, Kandahar, Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar, Nimruz, Nooristan, Paktia and Paktika.

    [7] TRANSPORTATION

    • According to the MEA, India gifted 400 buses and 200 mini-buses for urban transportation, 105 utility vehicles for municipalities, 285 military vehicles for the Afghan Army.
    • It also gave three Air India aircraft to Ariana, the Afghan national carrier, when it was restarting operations.

    [8] OTHER PROJECTS

    • India has contributed desks and benches for schools, and built solar panels in remote villages, and Sulabh toilet blocks in Kabul.
    • New Delhi has also played a role in building capacity, with vocational training institutes, scholarships to Afghan students, mentoring programmes in the civil service, and training for doctors and others.

    Various ongoing project

    • India had concluded with Afghanistan an agreement for the construction of the Shatoot Dam in Kabul district, which would provide safe drinking water to 2 million residents.
    • Last year, India pledged $1 million for another Aga Khan heritage project, the restoration of the Bala Hissar Fort south of Kabul, whose origins go back to the 6th century.
    • Bala Hissar went on to become a significant Mughal fort, parts of it were rebuilt by Jahangir, and it was used as a residence by Shah Jahan.

    Bilateral trade

    • Despite the denial of an overland route by Pakistan, the India-Afghanistan trade has grown with the establishment in 2017 of an air freight corridor.
    • In 2019-20, bilateral trade crossed $1.3 billion.
    • The balance of trade is heavily tilted — exports from India are worth approximately $900 million, while Afghanistan’s exports to India are about $500 million.
    • Afghan exports are mainly fresh and dried fruit.
    • Some of this comes overland through the Wagah border; Pakistan has permitted Afghan trade with India through its territory.
    • Indian exports to Afghanistan take place mainly through government-to-government contracts with Indian companies.
    • Exports include pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, computers and related materials, cement, and sugar.
    • Trade through Chabahar started in 2017 but is restricted by the absence of connectivity from the port to the Afghan border.

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  • Freedom of Speech – Defamation, Sedition, etc.

    Sedition Law and its discontents

    | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Indian Constitution – historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure

    The CJI is now convinced that sedition law (IPC 124A) is being misused by the authorities to trample upon citizens’ fundamental rights of free speech and liberty.

    What does Section 124A of the IPC say?

    • The section deals with the offence of sedition, a term that covers speech or writing, or any form of visible representation, which brings the government into hatred or contempt, or excites disaffection towards the government, or attempts to do so.
    • It is punishable with three years in prison or a life term.
    • “Disaffection”, it says, includes disloyalty and feelings of enmity.
    • However, it also says expressing disapproval of government measures or actions, with a view to getting them changed by lawful means, without promoting hatred or disaffection or contempt towards the government will not come under this section.

    What is its origin?

    • Colonial past: Sedition was introduced in the penal code in 1870, a decade after the Indian Penal Code came into force.
    • It was a colonial law directed against strong criticism of the British administration.
    • Putting curb on Freedom fighters: Its most famous victims included Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi.
    • Gandhi called it “the prince among the political sections of the IPC designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen”.

    Is it constitutionally valid?

    • Violative of FRs: Two high courts had found it unconstitutional after Independence, as it violated the freedom of speech and expression.
    • Reasonable restrictions: The Constitution was amended to include ‘public order’ as one of the ‘reasonable restrictions’ on which free speech could be abridged by law.
    • Kedar Nath Case: Thereafter, the Supreme Court, in Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar (1962) upheld its validity.
    • At the same time, it limited its application to acts that involve “intention or tendency to create disorder” or incitement to violence.
    • Thus, even strongly worded remarks, as long as they do not excite disloyalty and enmity, or incite violence, are not an offence under this section.

    Why the controversy now?

    • Frequent use: In recent times, the resort to this section is seen as disturbingly frequent.
    • Curbing dissent: Activists, cartoonists and intellectuals have been arrested under this section, drawing criticism from liberals that it is being used to suppress dissent and silence critics.
    • Misuse for propaganda: Authorities and the police who invoke this section defend the measure as a necessary step to prevent public disorder and anti-national activities.
    • Irrelevance: Many of them have also been detained under the National Security Act and UAPA.

    What is being debated about it?

    • Liberals and rights activists have been demanding the scrapping of Section 124A.
    • It is argued that the provision is “overbroad”, i.e., it defines the offence in wide terms threatening the liberty of citizens.
    • The Law Commission has also called for a reconsideration of the section.
    • It has pointed that Britain abolished it more than a decade ago and raised the question of whether a provision introduced by the British to put down the freedom struggle should continue to be law in India.
    • Some argue that a presumption of constitutionality does not apply to pre-constitutional laws as those laws have been made by foreign legislature or bodies.

    What has the apex court observed?

    • Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had flagged the indiscriminate use of the sedition law against people who aired their grievances about the government’s COVID management.
    • People have been charged even for seeking help to gain medical access, equipment, drugs and oxygen cylinders, especially during the second wave of the pandemic.
    • Justice U.U. Lalit, in his recent judgment, quashed a sedition case against a person for his alleged remarks about the PM and the Union Government.

    Way forward

    • The time is long past when the mere criticism of governments was sufficient to constitute sedition.
    • The right to utter honest and reasonable criticism is a source of strength to a community rather than a weakness, the CJI has recorded.

    Try answering this PYQ:

    Q.With reference to Rowlatt Satyagraha, which of the following statements is/are correct?

    1. The Rowlatt Act was based on the recommendations of the ‘Sedition Committee’.
    2. In Rowlatt Satyagraha, Gandhiji tried to utilize the Home Rule League.
    3. Demonstrations against the arrival of Simon Commission coincided with Rowlatt Satyagraha.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 1 and 2 only

    (c) 2 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

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  • Parliament – Sessions, Procedures, Motions, Committees etc

    What is Adjournment Motion?

    | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Parliament & State Legislatures

    Ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament, a political party from Punjab has decided to move an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha against the government on the three controversial farm laws.

    Revise all the devices of parliamentary proceedings from your Polity Book.

    Recalling the three laws

    1. Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020
    2. Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020
    3. Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020

    [Burning Issue] Agricultural Reform Bills, 2020

    What is Adjournment Motion?

    • Adjournment motion is aimed to draw the attention of the House to a recent matter of urgent public importance having serious consequences.
    • The matter proposed to be raised should be of such a character that something very grave which affects the whole country and its security has happened.
    • The House is required to pay its attention immediately by interrupting the normal business of the House.
    • It can introduce only in the Lok Sabha.
    • It involves an element of censure against the government, therefore Rajya Sabha is not permitted to make use of this device.
    • In the event of an adjournment motion being adopted, the House automatically stands adjourned.

    How it is held?

    • It is regarded as an extraordinary device as it interrupts the normal business of the House.
    • It needs the support of 50 members to be admitted.
    • The notice of an adjournment motion is required to be given on the prescribed form.
    • A member can give not more than one notice for any one sitting.
    • The discussion on this motion should last for not less than two hours and thirty minutes.

    Restrictions to the motion

    The right to move a motion for an adjournment of the business of the House is subject to the following restrictions. It should:

    • Not raise a question of privilege.
    • Not revive discussion on a matter that has been discussed in the same session.
    • Not deal with any matter that is under adjudication of court.
    • Not raise any question that can be raised on a distinct motion.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.The Parliament of India exercises control over the functions of the Council of Ministers through:

    1. Adjournment motion
    2. Question hour
    3. Supplementary questions

    Select the correct answer using the code given below: (CSP 2017)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 2 and 3 only

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  • Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

    Why the Amazon forests are no longer acting as a carbon sink

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Important Geophysical Phenomena

    The Amazon forests in South America, which are the largest tropical forests in the world, have started emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of absorbing carbon emissions.

    Note the countries bordered by the Amazon forests.

    Amazon forests

    • The Amazon rainforest is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America.
    • This basin encompasses 7,000,000 sq km of which 5,500,000 sq km are covered by the rainforest.
    • The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Bolivia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.
    • It represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world.

    Why in news?

    • A significant amount of deforestation in eastern and southeastern Brazil has turned the forest into a source of CO2 that has the ability to warm the planet.
    • Not only the Amazon rainforests, some forests in Southeast Asia have also turned into carbon sources in the last few years as a result of the formation of plantations and fires.

    What have the researchers found?

    • Over the years as fossil-fuel emissions across the world have increased, the Amazon forests have absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to moderate the global climate.
    • But researchers are not saying that because of significant levels of deforestation (over the course of 40 years) there has been a long-term decrease in rainfall and increase in temperatures during the dry season.
    • Because of these reasons the eastern Amazon forests are no longer carbon sinks, whereas the more intact and wetter forests in the central and western parts are neither carbon sinks nor are they emitters.
    • Another reason for the eastern region not being able to absorb as much CO2 as it did previously is the conversion of forests into agricultural land.

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  • Innovations in Sciences, IT, Computers, Robotics and Nanotechnology

    What are Doppler Radars?

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

    The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Doppler Radar in Mumbai, which surveys weather patterns and forecasts, stopped working after heavy rainfalls.

    How does a Doppler radar work?

    • In radars, a beam of energy– called radio waves– is emitted from an antenna.
    • When this beam strikes an object in the atmosphere, the energy scatters in all directions, with some reflecting directly back to the radar.
    • The larger the object deflecting the beam, the greater is the amount of energy that the radar receives in return.
    • Observing the time required for the beam to be transmitted and returned to the radar allows weather forecasting departments to “see” raindrops in the atmosphere, and measure their distance from the radar.

    What makes a Doppler radar special?

    • It can provide information on both the position of targets as well as their movement.
    • It does this by tracking the ‘phase’ of transmitted radio wave pulses; phase meaning the shape, position, and form of those pulses.
    • As computers measure the shift in phase between the original pulse and the received echo, the movement of raindrops can be calculated.
    • Thus it is possible to tell whether the precipitation is moving toward or away from the radar.

    Types of Doppler radar

    • In India, Doppler radars of varying frequencies — S-band, C-band and X-band — are commonly used.
    • They help track the movement of weather systems and cloud bands and gauge rainfall over its coverage area of about 500 km.
    • The radars guide meteorologists, particularly in times of extreme weather events like cyclones and associated heavy rainfall.
    • An X-band radar is used to detect thunderstorms and lightning whereas C-band guides in cyclone tracking.

    Why are they called ‘Doppler’ radars?

    • The phase shift in these radars works on the same lines as the “Doppler effect” observed in sound waves.
    • It tells that the sound pitch of an object approaching the observer is higher due to the compression of sound waves (a change in their phase).
    • As this object moves away from the observer, the sound waves stretch, resulting in lower frequency.
    • This effect explains why an approaching train’s whistle sounds louder than the whistle when the train moves away.
    • The discovery of the phenomenon is attributed to Christian Doppler, a 19th-century Austrian physicist.

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  • Issues with coercive Population Policy

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies

    Context

    Recently, the government of Uttar Pradesh released a “Population Policy” in which it stated its intention to bring the gross fertility rate in the State down from the existing 2.7 to 2.1 by 2026.

    Provisions in the Bill

    • This draft law, titled the Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilisation and Welfare) Bill, 2021, seeks to provide a series of incentives to families that adhere to a two-child norm.
    • The Bill also intends on disentitling families that breach the norm from benefits and subsidies.
    • It promises public servants who undergo sterilisation and adopt a two-child norm several benefits.
    •  The draft Bill also contains a list of punishments.
    • A person who breaches the two-child norm will be debarred from securing the benefit of any government-sponsored welfare scheme and will be disqualified from applying to any State government job.
    • Existing government employees who infringe the rule will be denied the benefit of promotion.
    • Transgressing individuals will be prohibited from contesting elections to local authorities and bodies.

    Issues with coercive population control policies

    1) Counter-productive measure

    • Through an affidavit filed in court, the central government argued that “international experience shows that any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions”. 

    2) Against international obligations

    • India is committed to its obligations under international law, including the principles contained in the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, 1994.
    • Foremost in those principles was a pledge from nations that they would look beyond demographic targets and focus instead on guaranteeing a right to reproductive freedom.

    3) Against right to reproductive freedom and privacy

    •  In Suchita Srivastava & Anr vs Chandigarh Administration (2009),  the Court found that a woman’s freedom to make reproductive decisions is an integral facet of the right to personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21.
    • This ruling was endorsed by the Supreme Court’s nine-judge Bench verdict in K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017).
    • A reading of the plurality of opinions there shows us that the Constitution sees a person’s autonomy over her body as an extension of the right to privacy.
    • A simple reading of U.P.’s draft law will show us that, if enacted, it will grossly impinge on the right to reproductive freedom.
    • However, In Javed & Ors vs State of Haryana & Ors (2003), the Court upheld a law that disqualified persons with more than two children from contesting in local body elections.
    • But the present UP Bill is far more disproportionate, therefore, the judgment in Javed can no longer be seen as good law.
    • The UP government will likely argue that there is no violation of privacy here because any decision on sterilisation would be voluntary.
    • But, as we ought to by now know, making welfare conditional is a hallmark of coercion.
    • Therefore, the proposed law will fall foul of a proportionality analysis.

    4) Negative consequences

    • An already skewed sex ratio may be compounded by families aborting a daughter in the hope of having a son with a view to conforming to the two-child norm.
    • The law could also lead to a proliferation in sterilisation camps, a practice that the Supreme Court has previously deprecated.
    • In Devika Biswas vs Union of India (2016), the Court pointed to how these camps invariably have a disparate impact on minorities and other vulnerable groups.

    Way forward

    • Experiences from other States in India show us that there are more efficacious and alternative measures available to control the growth of population, including processes aimed at improving public health and access to education.

    Conclusion

    For one thing, the reasoning of the Bill goes against the Puttaswamy case.  But as rousing as the nine-judge Bench verdict is, its legacy depends on how its findings are applied.

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  • e-Commerce: The New Boom

    The proposed e-commerce rules shield vested interests

    op-ed snap | | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    Context

    The proposed Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, have been drafted ostensibly in the name of the consumer.  The rules are driven more by the desire to shield the traditional brick-and-mortar stores, and handicap e-commerce firms, especially the foreign ones.

    Issues with the provisions of draft Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020

    1) Fall-back liability clause is unfair for those operating through marketplace model

    • Under this provision, e-commerce entities will be liable in case suppliers on the platform fail to deliver the goods to consumers, causing them a loss.
    • E-commerce firms in India operate through either the inventory model or the marketplace model.
    • As FDI is permitted only in the marketplace model.
    • Under the marketplace model, e-commerce platforms don’t hold inventory, but simply connect buyers and sellers.
    • Foreign players typically operate through this model. 
    • Considering that these platforms exercise little or no control over the inventory under this model, how can they be held liable for the sellers’ actions.

    2) Identifying goods based on country of origin and providing fair opportunity to domestic sellers

    • The draft rules also require e-commerce platforms to identify goods based on their country of origin.
    • And when goods are being viewed for purchase by consumers, the rules also mandate platforms to provide suggestions to ensure “fair opportunity” for domestic sellers.
    • This raises the question as to why the Make in India campaign is being pushed through the Consumer Protection Act.
    • Surely, if domestic manufacturers are competitive, consumers will automatically gravitate towards them.
    • Interests of consumers, not domestic manufacturers, should be at the core of the consumer protection framework.

    3) Overlapping/competing jurisdictions

    • Data protection: The draft rules have sought to safeguard consumer data by restraining e-commerce firms from sharing consumer data without consent.
    • But the data protection should be governed by the provisions under the Personal Data Protection Bill and not the Consumer Protection Act.
    • Considering the graded approach that is likely to be adopted under the Data Protection Bill, an e-commerce user’s data could be classified as per its vulnerability and be left under the jurisdiction of the data protection authority.
    • Dominant position: The rules also state that e-commerce entities are prohibited from abusing their dominant positions in the market. 
    • The “abuse of dominant position” has been given the same meaning as that prescribed under Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002.
    • This will open the scope for new consumer protection authority to enter into issues of abuse of dominant position — the domain of the Competition Commission of India.

    Consider the question “Over-regulation tends to curb competition and create monopolies instead of ensuring its holistic growth dovetailed with fair competition. In light of this, examine the issues with the draft Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020?”

    Conclusion

    The lines of demarcation that have been drawn up in the retail landscape — single brand vs multi-brand, online vs offline, domestic vs foreign — serve only to protect powerful vested interests, not benefit the consumer as is often proclaimed.

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  • Amnesty Scheme for violators of Environment Norms

    | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    The union environment ministry has put together an amnesty scheme for infrastructure and industrial projects that have violated environmental clearance (EC) norms for Environment Impact Assessment.

    What is the Scheme?

    The new amnesty scheme empowers regulatory institutions at both central and state levels:

    (1) To identify and report cases of violation

    • It refers to identify, examine and appraise violation projects, refraining from causing further environmental damage and also compensating for causing damage to the environment.

    (2) To take action against violators in terms of closure or demolition of a project

    • It defines three different actions to be taken for the violation projects depending upon their EC status.
    • In case the project has not obtained EC, it will be ordered to close its operations.
    • If the project has undergone expansion without obtaining EC for the expanded portion, it will be ordered to revert the activity/production to the limit granted in the existing EC.

    (3) To levy penalty on them that is akin to the scale of the project

    • It entitles the regulatory authorities to levy penalties on the proponent, in addition to the bank guarantee.

    Issues with the scheme

    • There is also no established procedure to ensure that the complaints made against the violator are not dismissed without hearing.
    • This ambiguity in the memorandum leaves scope for a less transparent redressal mechanism.
    • The penalties suggested could be termed as legitimating non-compliance.

    Criticisms

    • Environmental experts argue that such a move to regularise projects, irrespective of size, scale or impact, is purely a political move.
    • They regarded this move as weakening the EIA process.
    • This will be the largest regularization scheme for projects that have operated illegally in India and added to our total environmental and social burdens.
    • Thousands of projects operate in different states without any environmental approval.

    Way forward

    • Looking at the plethora of violation cases it is imperative to develop such a mechanism.
    • However, we should not compromise the existing environmental regulations and adopt a ‘zero tolerance for violation’.

    Back2Basics: Environment Impact Assessment

    • Environment impact assessment is a process under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which prevents industrial and infrastructural projects from being approved without proper oversight.
    • This process ensures that every project should go through the EIA process for obtaining prior environmental clearance.
    • EIA covers projects such as mining of coal or other minerals, infrastructure development, thermal, nuclear and hydropower projects, real estate and other industrial projects.
    • The projects are assessed based on their potential impact on the environment. Based on the assessments, they are granted or denied environmental clearance by a panel of experts.

    Loopholes in draft EIA 2020

    • The EIA new draft 2020 allows post-facto clearance.
    • This means that even if a project has come up without environmental safeguards or without getting environment clearances, it could carry out operation under the provision of the new draft EIA 2020.
    • This is disastrous because we already have several projects that are running without EIA clearances.

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