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  • Parliament – Sessions, Procedures, Motions, Committees etc

    The ‘Union government’ has a unifying effect

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

    The Tamil Nadu government has decided to shun the usage of the term ‘Central government’ in its official communications and replace it with ‘Union government’. This is a major step towards regaining the consciousness of our Constitution.

    India the union

    • Seventy-one years since we adopted the Constitution, it is time we regained the original intent of our founding fathers beautifully etched in the parchment as Article 1: “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”.
    • The Constituent Assembly did not use the term ‘Centre’ or ‘Central government’ in all of its 395 Articles in 22 Parts and eight Schedules in the original Constitution.
    • What we have are the ‘Union’ and the ‘States’ with the executive powers of the Union wielded by the President acting on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister.

    Where is Central Govt defined?

    • Even though we have no reference to the ‘Central government’ in the Constitution, the General Clauses Act, 1897 gives a definition for it.
    • The ‘Central government’ for all practical purposes is the President after the commencement of the Constitution.
    • Therefore, the real question is whether such definition for ‘Central government’ is constitutional as the Constitution itself does not approve of centralising power.

    Intent of Constituent Assembly

    • On December 13, 1946, Pt Nehru introduced the aims and objects of the Assembly by resolving that India shall be a Union of territories willing to join the “Independent Sovereign Republic”.
    • The emphasis was on the consolidation and confluence of various provinces and territories to form a strong united country.
    • Many members of the Constituent Assembly were of the opinion that the principles of the British Cabinet Mission Plan (1946) be adopted, which contemplated a Central government with very limited powers whereas the provinces had substantial autonomy.
    • The Partition and the violence of 1947 in Kashmir forced the Constituent Assembly to revise its approach and it resolved in favour of a strong Centre.
    • The possibility of the secession of States from the Union weighed on the minds of the drafters of the Constitution and ensured that the Indian Union is “indestructible”.

    Preventing the secession

    • In the Constituent Assembly, B.R Ambedkar, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, observed that the word ‘Union’ was advisedly used in order to negative the right of secession of States.
    • Ambedkar justified the usage of ‘Union of States’ saying that the Drafting Committee wanted to make it clear that though India was to be a federation, it was not the result of an agreement.
    • Therefore, no State has the right to secede from it. “The federation is a Union because it is indestructible,” Ambedkar said.

    Then criticism of the ‘Union’

    • The usage of ‘Union of States’ by Ambedkar was not approved by all and faced criticisms from Maulana Hasrat Mohani.
    • He argued that Ambedkar was changing the very nature of the Constitution.
    • Mohani made a fiery speech in the Assembly on September 18, 1949 where he contended that the usage of the words ‘Union of States’ would obscure the word ‘Republic’.
    • Mohani went to the extent of saying that Ambedkar wanted the ‘Union’ to be “something like the Union proposed by Prince Bismarck in Germany, and after him adopted by Kaiser William and after him by Adolf Hitler”.

    Dr. Ambedkar’s clarification

    • Ambedkar clarified that the Union is not a league of States, united in a loose relationship; nor are the States the agencies of the Union, deriving powers from it.
    • Both the Union and the States are created by the Constitution, both derive their respective authority from the Constitution.
    • The one is not subordinate to the other in its own field… the authority of one is coordinate with that of the other.

    Features of Indian Union

    • The sharing of powers between the Union and the States is not restricted to the executive organ of the government.
    • The judiciary is designed in the Constitution to ensure that the Supreme Court, the tallest court in the country, has no superintendence over the High Courts.
    • Though the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction — not only over High Courts but also over other courts and tribunals — they are not declared to be subordinate to it.
    • In fact, the High Courts have wider powers to issue prerogative writs despite having the power of superintendence over the district and subordinate courts.
    • Parliament and Assemblies identify their boundaries and are circumspect to not cross their boundaries when it comes to the subject matter on which laws are made.
    • However, the Union Parliament will prevail if there is a conflict.

    Answer this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following statements:

    1. The Executive Power of the Union of India is vested in the Prime Minister.
    2. The Prime Minister is the ex-offi cio Chairman of the Civil Services Board.

    Which of the given statements is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

    A wordplay indeed

    • The members of the Constituent Assembly were very cautious of not using the word ‘Centre’ or ‘Central government’ in the Constitution as they intended to keep away the tendency of centralizing of powers in one unit.
    • The ‘Union government’ or the ‘Government of India’ has a unifying effect as the message sought to be given is that the government is of all.
    • Even though the federal nature of the Constitution is its basic feature and cannot be altered, what remains to be seen is whether the actors wielding power intend to protect the federal feature of our Constitution.
    • As Nani Palkhivala famously said, “The only satisfactory and lasting solution of the vexed problem is to be found not in the statute book but in the conscience of men in power”.

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  • Digital India Initiatives

    What is AgriStack?

    | Agriculture | Mains Paper 3: E-Technology In The Aid Of Farmers

    The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare has entered into an MoU with Microsoft Corporation to start a pilot project in 100 villages to create a ‘Unified Farmer Service Interface’ through its cloud computing services.

    AgriStack

    • The AgriStack is a collection of technologies and digital databases proposed by the Central Government focusing on India’s farmers and the agricultural sector.
    • The central government has claimed that these new databases are being built to primarily tackle issues such as poor access to credit and wastage in the agricultural supply chain.
    • Under AgriStack’, the government aims to provide ‘required data sets’ of farmers’ personal information to Microsoft to develop a farmer interface for ‘smart and well-organized agriculture’.
    • The digital repository will aid precise targeting of subsidies, services and policies, the officials added.
    • Under the programme, each farmer of the country will get what is being called an FID, or a farmers’ ID, linked to land records to uniquely identify them. India has 140 million operational farm-land holdings.
    • Alongside, the government is also developing a unified farmer service platform that will help digitise agricultural services delivery by the public and private sectors.

    Issues with the move

    • Agriculture has become the latest sector getting a boost of ‘techno solutionism’ by the government.
    • But it has, since then, also become the latest sector to enter the whole debate about data privacy and surveillance.
    • Since the signing of the MoUs, several concerns related to sharing farmers’ data with private companies the major one being Microsoft whose owner Bill Gates is said to be the largest private farmland owner in the US.
    • In all the MoUs, there are provisions under which the agriculture ministry will enter into a data sharing agreement with the private companies of the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Patanjali.
    • The development has raised serious concerns about information asymmetry, data privacy and consent, profiling of farmers, mismanaged land records and corporatization of agriculture.
    • The formation of ‘Agristack’ also implies commercialization of agriculture extension activities as they will shift into a digital and private sphere.

    Why such concerns?

    • The project was being implemented in the absence of a data protection legislation.
    • It might end up being an exercise where private data processing entities may know more about a farmer’s land than the farmer himself.
    • Without safeguards, private entities would be able to exploit farmers’ data to whatever extent they wish to.
    • This information asymmetry, tilted towards the technology companies, might further exploit farmers, especially small and marginal ones.

    What are some major threats?

    • One of the biggest worries is the threat of financial exploitation.
    • We have already seen how microfinance firms have wreaked financial havoc in rural hinterlands.
    • Now, once Fintech companies are able to collect granular data about the farmers’ operations, they may offer them usurious rates of interest precisely when they would be in the direst need for credit.
    • With this, the risk of commodifying agriculture and farmer data ran high.

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  • Defence Sector – DPP, Missions, Schemes, Security Forces, etc.

    What is a Full Ship Shock Trial (FSST)?

    Prelims Only | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Various Security Forces, Agencies & Their Mandates

    The US Navy Friday carried out a ‘full ship shock trial’ on its newest and most advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to ensure its hardness was capable of withstanding battle conditions.

    What is a Full Ship Shock Trial (FSST)?

    • During World War II, American warships suffered severe damage from enemy mines and torpedoes that had actually missed their target, but exploded underwater in close proximity.
    • The US Navy has since worked to improve the shockproofing of their ship systems to minimize damage from such “near miss” explosions.
    • In FSSTs, an underwater explosive charge is set off near an operational ship, and system and component failures are documented.
    • The FSST probes whether the components survive shock in their environment on the ship; it probes the possibilities of system failures, and large components that could not be otherwise tested.

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  • Bhutan’s Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) Programme

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

    Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) programme has been recently launched.

    TIWB Program

    • TIWB is a joint initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
    • India was chosen as the Partner Jurisdiction and has provided the Tax Expert for this programme.
    • It aims to aid Bhutan in strengthening its tax administration by transferring technical know-how and skills to its tax auditors, and through sharing of best audit practices.
    • The focus of the programme will be in the area of International Taxation and Transfer Pricing.
    • This programme is another milestone in the continued cooperation between India and Bhutan and India’s continued and active support for South-South cooperation.

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  • Services Sector

    [pib] Guidelines for Other Service Providers (OSP)

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

    The Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology has further liberalized the guidelines for Other Service Providers (OSPs).

    Do you remember quaternary and quinary sectors of Economy from NCERTs?

    What are OSPs?

    • These entities are business process outsourcing (BPO) organizations giving Voice based services, in India and abroad.
    • The term Business Process Outsourcing or BPO as it is popularly known, refers to outsourcing in all fields.
    • A BPO service provider usually administers and manages a particular business process for another company.
    • BPOs either use new technology or apply an existing technology in a new way to improve a particular business process.
    • India is currently the number one destination for business process outsourcing, as most companies in the US and UK outsource IT-related business processes to Indian service providers.

    Main features of the liberalized guidelines

    • Distinction between Domestic and International OSPs has been removed. A BPO centre with common Telecom resources will now be able to serve customers located worldwide including in India.
    • EPABX (Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange) of the OSP can be located anywhere in the world. OSPs apart from utilising EPABX services of the Telecom Service Providers can also locate their EPABX at third Party Data Centres in India.
    • With the removal of the distinction between Domestic and International OSP centres, the interconnectivity between all types of OSP centres is now permitted.
    • Remote Agents of OSP can now connect directly with the Centralised EPABX/ EPABX of the OSP/ EPABX of the customer using any technology including Broadband over wireline/ wireless.
    • No restriction for data interconnectivity between any OSP centres of same company or group company or any unrelated company.

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  • Population decline: Bane and Boon for the economy

    | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    Deflation. A recent (2014) study found substantial deflationary pressures from Japan’s ageing populationThe article argues that a decline in population is not always as worrisome as it is made to be.

    Declining fertility rate

    • China’s fertility rate of 1.3 children per woman in 2020 is well below replacement level, but so, too, are fertility rates in every rich country.
    • In all developed economies, fertility rates fell below replacement in the 1970s or 1980s and have stayed there.
    • In India, more prosperous states have fertility rates below replacement level, with only the poorer states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh still well above.
    • And while the national rate in 2018 was still 2.2, the Indian National Family Health Survey finds that Indian women would like to have, on average, 1.8 children.
    • In all prosperous countries where women are well educated and free to choose whether and when to have children, fertility rates fall significantly below replacement levels.
    • If those conditions spread across the world, the global population will eventually decline.

    Is the declining population good or bad for the economy

    • A pervasive conventional bias assumes that population decline must be a bad thing.
    • But while absolute economic growth is bound to fall as populations stabilise and then decline, it is the income per capita that matters for prosperity and economic opportunity.
    • It is true that when populations no longer grow, there are fewer workers per retiree, and healthcare costs rise as a percent of GDP.
    • But that is offset by the reduced need for infrastructure and housing investment to support a growing population.
    • A stable and eventually falling global population would make it easier to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to avoid climate change, and alleviate the pressure that growing populations inevitably place on biodiversity and fragile ecosystems.
    • And contracting workforces create stronger incentives for businesses to automate while driving up real wages, which, unlike absolute economic growth, are what really matter to ordinary citizen.
    • In a world where technology enables us to automate ever more jobs, the far bigger problem is too many potential workers, not too few.
    • Even when the Indian economy grows rapidly, its highly productive “organised sector” of about 80 million workers, fails to create additional jobs.
    • Growth in the potential workforce simply swells the huge “informal sector” army of unemployed and underemployed people.

    So, when declining populations turns to be a problem?

    •  Fertility rates far below replacement level create significant challenges, and China may well be heading in that direction.
    • At those rates, population decline will be precipitate rather than gradual.
    • If Korea’s (fertility rate 1.09) birth rate does not rise, its population could fall from 51 million today to 27 million by 2100, and the ratio of retirees to workers will reach levels that no amount of automation can offset.

    Conclusion

    The average fertility rates well below replacement level in all developed countries, and, over time, gradually falling populations. The sooner that is true worldwide, the better for everyone.

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  • Poverty Eradication – Definition, Debates, etc.

    Why counting of poor matters?

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

    Counting the number of the poor

    • If the state of the Indian economy is to be repaired, we need to meticulously count the number of the poor and to prioritise them.
    • The World Bank $2-a-day poverty line might be inadequate but it would be a start and higher than the last line proposed by the C. Rangarajan committee.
    • A survey in 2013 had said India stood at 99 among 131 countries, and with a median income of $616 per annum, it was the lowest among BRICS and fell in the lower-middle-income country bracket.
    • Since 2013 three important data points have made it clear that the state of India’s poor needs to be acknowledged if India is to be lifted.
    • The first being, the fall in the monthly per capita consumption expenditure of 2017-18 for the first time since 1972-73.
    • Second is the fall of India in the Global Hunger Index to ‘serious hunger’ category.
    • Third,  health census data or the recently concluded National Family Health Survey or NFHS-5, which had worrying markers of increased malnutrition, infant mortality and maternal health.
    • A fourth statistic, Bangladesh bettering India’s average income statistics, must also be a reason for Indians to introspect.

    Increase in number of poor in India

    •  In 2019, the global Multidimensional Poverty Index reported that India lifted 271 million citizens out of poverty between 2006 and 2016. 
    • Since then, the International Monetary Fund, Hunger Watch, SWAN and several other surveys show a decided slide.
    • In March, the Pew Research Center with the World Bank data estimated that ‘the number of poor in India, on the basis of an income of $2 per day or less in purchasing power parity, has more than doubled to 134 million from 60 million in just a year due to the pandemic-induced recession’.
    • In 2020, India contributed 57.3% of the growth of the global poor.
    • This has thrown a spanner in the so far uninterrupted battle against poverty since the 1970s.
    • Urgent solutions are needed within, and the starting point of that would be only when we know how many are poor.

    Debate on the poverty line

    • In 2011, the Suresh Tendulkar Committee report at a ‘line’ of ₹816 per capita per month for rural India and ₹1,000 per capita per month for urban India, calculated the poor at 25.7% of the population.
    • The anger over the 2011 conclusions, led to the setting up of the C. Rangarajan Committee.
    • In 2014, C. Rangarajan Committee estimated that the number of poor were 29.6%, based on persons spending below ₹47 a day in cities and ₹32 in villages.
    • The National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector in 2004, had concluded that 836 million Indians still remained marginalised.
    • The Commission’s conclusion was ignored — that 77% of India was marginalised — emphasising that it was a problem of a much bigger magnitude, than the figure of 25.7% conveyed.

    Why counting the poor matters?

    1) Helps in forming public opinion

    • Knowing the numbers and making them public makes it possible to get public opinion to support massive and urgent cash transfers.
    • The world outside India has moved onto propose high fiscal support, as economic rationale and not charity.
    •  In India too, a dramatic reorientation would get support only once numbers are honestly laid out.

    2) It helps in evaluating success of policies

    •  Recording the data helps to evaluate all policies on the basis of whether they meet the needs of the majority.
    • Is a policy such as bank write-offs of loans amounting to ₹1.53-lakh crore last year, which helped corporates overwhelmingly, beneficial to the vast majority?
    • This would be possible to transparently evaluate only when the numbers of the poor are known and established.

    3) Helps in addressing the concerns of real majority

    • If government data were to honestly account for the exact numbers of the poor, it may be more realistic to expect the public debate to be conducted on the concerns of the real majority.
    • Such data would also help in creating a climate that demands accountability from public representatives.

    4) To gauge the rising inequality

    • India has clocked a massive rise in the market capitalisation and the fortunes of the richest Indian corporates, even as millions of Indians have experienced a massive tumble into poverty.
    • To say that the stock market and the Indian economy are ‘not related’ is ingenuous.
    • Indians must have the right to question whether there is a connection and if the massive rise in riches is not coincidental, but at the back of the misery of millions of the poor.
    • If billionaire lists are evaluated in detail and reported upon, the country cannot shy away from counting its poor.

    Conclusion

    The massive slide into poverty in India that is clear in domestic and international surveys and anecdotal evidence must meet with an institutional response.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-China

    Why does China consistently beat India on soft power?

    op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: India & Its Neighborhood – Relations

    The article compares India with China in terms of soft-power both countries exert based on the measures produced by Lowy Institute in Australia.

    What is soft power?

    • Joseph Nye, who gave us the notion of soft power, suggests that it consists of foreign policy, cultural and political influence.
    • Foreign policy influence comes from the legitimacy and morality of one’s dealings with other countries.
    • Cultural influence is based on others’ respect for one’s culture.
    • Political influence is how much others are inspired by one’s political values.
    • Soft power is difficult to measure.

    The Lowy Institute in Australia has produced various measures which correspond roughly to foreign policy influence, cultural influence and political influence.

    1) India’s foreign policy influence

    • In diplomatic influence, overall, India ranks sixth and China ranks first among 25 Asian powers.
    • On networks, India nearly matches China in the number of regional embassies it has but is considerably behind in the number of embassies worldwide (176 to 126).
    • Multilaterally, India matches China in terms of regional memberships, but, crucially, its contributions to the UN capital budget are completely dwarfed by Chinese contributions (11.7 per cent to 0.8 per cent of the total).
    • In surveys of foreign policy leadership, ambition, and effectiveness, China ranks first or fourth on four measures while India ranks between fourth and sixth in Asia.

    2) Cultural influence

    • Lowy’s overall measure of cultural influence ranks India in fourth place and China in second place in Asia.
    •  Cultural influence is then divided into three elements, of which “cultural projection” and “information flows” are the most important.
    • In cultural projection, India scores better on Google searches abroad of its newspapers and its television/radio broadcasts.
    • India also exports more of its “cultural services” defined as “services aimed at satisfying cultural interests or needs”.
    • China does better on several other indicators.
    • For instance, India has only nine brands in the list of the top 500 global brands whereas China lists 73.
    • On the number of UNESCO World Heritage sites, India has 37 while China has 53.
    • Respect for the Indian passport also lags.
    • Chinese citizens can travel visa-free to 74 countries while Indians can only do so to 60.
    • In terms of information flows, in 2016–17, India hosted a mere 24,000 Asian students in tertiary education institutions whereas China hosted 2,25,000.
    • On total tourist arrivals from all over the world, India received 17 million, while China received 63 million.

    3) Political influence

    • In 2017 the two were not ranked that far apart in political influence.
    • The governance effectiveness index shows India scoring in the top 43 per cent countries worldwide and ranked 12th and China scoring in the top 32 per cent and ranked 10th.
    • On “political stability and absence of violence/terrorism”, India ranked 21st, and China ranked 15th.

    Consider the question “What do you understand by the term soft-power? How would you assess India’s soft-power potential in terms of various parameters?”

    Conclusion

    Soft-power theorists suggest that the ability to persuade rests on the power of attraction. We in India may think we are more attractive than China. The numbers show otherwise.

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  • Disasters and Disaster Management – Sendai Framework, Floods, Cyclones, etc.

    Compensation for Covid deaths

    | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Disaster Management

    The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict seeking compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of those who have died of Covid-19 or related complications.  The Centre has stated that state governments cannot afford to pay this, and had argued in favor of a broader approach including health interventions.

    Provisions for Compensation

    • Last year, the Centre declared Covid-19 as a notified disaster under the Disaster Management Act.
    • Section 12(iii) of the Act says the National Authority shall recommend guidelines for the minimum standards of relief to be provided to persons affected by disaster.
    • It includes “ex gratia assistance on account of loss of life as also assistance on account of damage to houses and for restoration of means of livelihood”.
    • The Centre revises this amount from time to time.

    What is the latest amount?

    • On April 8, 2015, the Disaster Management Division of the Home Ministry wrote to all state governments and attached a revised list of “norms of assistance”.
    • Under “ex gratia payment to families of deceased persons”, it specified: Rs 4 lakh per deceased person including those involved in relief operations or associated in preparedness activities.
    • This is subjected to certification regarding cause of death from appropriate authority.

    So, what about compensation for Covid?

    • Last year the Home Ministry wrote to state governments that the central government has decided to treat it (Covid-19) as a notified disaster for the purpose of providing assistance under SDRF.
    • It attached a partially modified list of items and norms of assistance.
    • It did not specify payment of ex gratia to families of deceased.
    • Some states have decided to pay, but not for all deaths.

    How has the government responded to the petition?

    • The Centre has submitted that ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh is beyond the affordability of state governments.
    • It argued that if Rs 4 lakh is paid to the kin of each, it “may possibly” consume the entire amount of the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF).
    • This would leave states with insufficient funds for organizing a response to the pandemic, or to take care of other disasters.
    • The centre argued that the term ex gratia itself means the amount is not based on legal entitlement.

    Way ahead

    • A broader approach, which involves health interventions, social protection, and economic recovery for the affected communities would be a more prudent, responsible, and sustainable approach.

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  • Judicial Reforms

    What is Recusal of Judges?

    | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Executive & Judiciary

    In the last week, two Supreme Court judges have recused themselves from hearing cases relating to West Bengal.

    Can you list down some basic principles of judicial conduct?

    Independence, Impartiality, Integrity, Propriety, Competence and diligence and Equality are some of them as listed under the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct.

    What is the Recusal of Judges?

    • Recusal is the removal of oneself as a judge or policymaker in a particular matter, especially because of a conflict of interest.
    • Recusal usually takes place when a judge has a conflict of interest or has a prior association with the parties in the case.
    • For example, if the case pertains to a company in which the judge holds stakes, the apprehension would seem reasonable.
    • Similarly, if the judge has, in the past, appeared for one of the parties involved in a case, the call for recusal may seem right.
    • A recusal inevitably leads to delay. The case goes back to the Chief Justice, who has to constitute a fresh Bench.

    Rules on Recusals

    • There are no written rules on the recusal of judges from hearing cases listed before them in constitutional courts. It is left to the discretion of a judge.
    • The reasons for recusal are not disclosed in an order of the court. Some judges orally convey to the lawyers involved in the case their reasons for recusal, many do not. Some explain the reasons in their order.
    • The decision rests on the conscience of the judge. At times, parties involved raise apprehensions about a possible conflict of interest.

    Issues with recusal

    • Recusal is also regarded as the abdication of duty. Maintaining institutional civilities are distinct from the fiercely independent role of the judge as an adjudicator.
    • In his separate opinion in the NJAC judgment in 2015, Justice Kurian Joseph highlighted the need for judges to give reasons for recusal as a measure to build transparency.
    • It is the constitutional duty, as reflected in one’s oath, to be transparent and accountable, and hence, a judge is required to indicate reasons for his recusal from a particular case.

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