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  • Goods and Services Tax (GST)

    Fundamental problems facing GST regime

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

    The article highlights the fundamental challenges the GST faces in the form of trust erosion and politicisation of decision making in GST Council.

    Initial issues with GST

    • The multiple rates structure, high tax slabs and the complexity of tax filings as the problems underpinning India’s GST.
    • These were indeed the initial problems in the way GST was implemented, leading to some of its current woes.
    • However, technical fixes such as simplification of GST rates and tax filing systems will not succeed in addressing the fundamental problems with GST.

    Fundamental problems

    1) Politics influence the decision of GST Council

    • The 43rd meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council which consists of 31 States and Union Territorie is to be held on May 28.
    • Ideally, political affiliations should not matter in a Council set up to decide indirect taxes.
    • The GST Council was mandated to meet at least once every quarter, but it had not met for two quarters, due to the pandemic.
    • Several of the 14 members of the groups who belong to parties different from the party ruling in the Centre, requested the Finance Minister to convene the GST meeting to help them manage their finances.
    • None of the 17 members of the ruling group deemed it necessary.
    • Even the need for a meeting to determine tax revenues for States is evidently a political decision.

    2) Lack of trust

    • The GST Council is a compact of trust between the States and the Centre, set in the larger context of India’s polity.
    • The tragedy of the GST Council is that it is afflicted with spite and forced to function under the prevailing cloud of politics.
    • If the functioning of the GST Council is subject to the vagaries of elections and consequent vendetta politics, GST will continue to be just a caricature of its initial promise.

    3) Uncertainty after the guarantee of 14% growth ends

    • The States paid a huge price for GST in terms of loss of fiscal autonomy.
    • GST has endured so far primarily because the States were guaranteed a 14% growth in their tax revenues every year.
    • This minimised the risks of this new experiment for the States and compensated for their loss of fiscal sovereignty.
    • This revenue guarantee ends in July 2022.
    • This can lead to a crumbling of the precarious edifice on which GST stands today.

    Consider the question “What are the challenges faced by the States in the GST regime? What would be the impact on States as a guarantee of 14% growth in tax revenue comes to an end in July 2022?” 

    Conclusion

    The end of India’s grand GST experiment seems inevitable unless there is a radical shift in the tone and tenor of India’s federal politics, backed by an extension of revenue guarantee for the States for another five years.

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  • Coronavirus – Economic Issues

    Tackling rural economic distress

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

    The disruption caused by the second Covid wave has added to the hardship faced by the migrant workers and the rural poor. Dealing with it requires strengthening of  PDS and MGNREGS.

    Distress due to second Covid wave

    • Several States have imposed lockdown amid second Covid wave which will have severe implications for the livelihoods of those in the informal sector.
    • Migrant workers and the rural poor have been facing great distress over the past one year and the crisis for food and work is only going to intensify further.
    • The migrants have again become vulnerable due to the lockdown in different cities.
    • In this context, there is an urgent need to strengthen the public distribution system (PDS) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

    Steps need to be taken

    • The government announced 5 kg free foodgrains for individuals enlisted under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), for May and June 2021.

    1) Changes in PDS

    • Expand coverage: The government should expand PDS coverage immediately and include all eligible households under the schemes.
    • According to an independent study, about 100 million people are excluded from the ration distribution system owing to a dated database based on the 2011 Census.
    • Extend period: The Centre should also extend the free foodgrains programme to a year instead of limiting it to two months.

    2) Expand MGNREGS

    • The Centre had allocated ₹73,000 crore for 2021-22 for MGNREGS and notified an annual increment of about 4% in wages. 
    • Both these provisions are inadequate to match the requirements on the ground.
    • The central allocation for MGNREGS is about ₹38,500 crore less than last year’s revised estimate.
    • The budget for 75-80 days of employment in the year for 6.5 crore families given the current scale of economic distress.
    • By this rationale, at the current rate of ₹268/day/person, at least ₹1.3 lakh crore will have to be budgeted.
    • The government should also re-consider its decision of a mere 4% increase in MGNREGS wages and hike it by at least 10%.

    Conclusion

    A large population is facing hunger and a cash crunch. The situation is only becoming more dire as the pandemic continues to rage on. Therefore, the Union government should prioritise food and work for all and start making policy reforms right away.

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

    Data central to effective climate action

    op-ed snap | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields,Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Article highlights the importance of data driven approach in dealing with the future disruptions and suggests the reforms in the system.

    Managing the disruption through data-driven tools

    • The data-driven tools were used for managing pandemic induced disruption.
    • This offers an opportunity to restructure the data ecosystem for managing the disruptions of the future that are more likely to be driven by climate change.

    Policies for data sharing in India

    • The National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), 2012 recognises the importance of data.
    • NDSAP recognised the importance of data in improving decision making, meeting the needs of civil society and generating revenue by permitting access to datasets.
    • In 2012, a government portal, data.gov.in was also established as a unified platform to enable sharing of data available with ministries, departments and other public agencies for wider public use.
    • The sharing of data in this platform, apart from others, is further streamlined through the nodality of Chief Data Officer-CDO in respective ministries.

    Challenges

    • Challenge remains about whether the collected data is usable, accessible and if it captures the details that end users are interested in.
    • Even after years of the portal’s operationalisation, there are multiple data-sets that aren’t updated regularly.
    • Though NITI Aayog has brought indices to track climate actions such as under SDG-13 of SDG India Index, but it remains vague in tracking improvements in climate resilience, by solely using number of lives lost due to extreme weather events.

    Reforms needed in data-ecosystem

    • 1) Complete dataset: There is a need to collect complete datasets required to assess climate risks and vulnerabilities.
    • This involves collection of datasets that are sex-disaggregated and geo-spatial and collect more nuanced dimensions like disaster response capacities.
    • Targeted research: There is a requirement of targeted research for designing better questionnaires and identifying new nodes for data collection.
    • 2) Reliability of data: The data collected has to be made reliable and usable through an accountability framework.
    • Legislation: A separate legislation in this regard would bring in the much-needed consistency in periodic collection of identified datasets and their proactive sharing in designated platforms.
    • 3) Centralisation of data: There is a need for centralising public data that currently exists with different departments and public institutions.
    • The National Data Governance Centre was planned to be set up in 2019 for precisely this objective.
    • But it is yet to be operationalised.

    Consider the question “How data driven approach could help India deal with the future disruptions that are more likely to be from climate change? Suggest the reforms needed in India’s data ecosystem.”

    Conclusion

    It is time that India places itself on track to address the issues around the known unknowns of climate change through data driven apporach.

    Source:

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/data-central-to-effective-climate-action/2258964/

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  • One-state solution, the way forward in Palestine

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

    The article highlights the challenges in the success of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and suggests the one-state solution instead.

    Background of the two-state solution

    • It involves dividing Palestine between the state of Israel and the indigenous population of Palestine.
    • It was first offered by the British in 1937 and rejected by the Palestinians already then.
    •  In 1947 the United Nations insisted that the Palestinians should give half of their homeland to the settler movement of Zionism.
    • The two-state solution, offered for the first time by liberal Zionists and the United States in the 1980s, is seen by some Palestinians as the best way of ending of the occupation of the West Bank .
    • It will also lead to the partial fulfilment of the Palestinian right for self-determination and independence.

    Interpretation of two-state solution

    • The Israeli interpretation, until 2009, was that the two-state solution is another means of having the territories, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, without incorporating most of the people living there.
    • In order to ensure it, Israel partitioned the West Bank which is 20% of historical Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab part.
    • This was in the second phase of the Oslo Accords, known as the Oslo II agreement of 1995.
    • One area, called area C, which consists of 60% of the West Bank was directly ruled from 1995 until today by Israel.
    • Now, Israel is in the process of officially annexing this area.
    • 40% of the West Bank, areas A and B under Oslo II, were put under the Palestinian Authority.
    • Palestinian Authority calls itself the state of Palestine, but in essence has no power whatsoever, unless the one given to it, and withdrawn from it, by Israel.
    • In 2018 a citizenship law was passed known as the nationality law.
    • As per the citizenship law, the Palestinian citizens who live in Israel proper which is Israel prior to the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and who are supposedly equal citizens of the Jewish state, will in essence become the Africans of a new Israeli Jewish apartheid state.

    Issues with two-state solution

    • The endless negotiation on the two-state solution was based on the formula that once the two states become a reality, Israel will stop these severe violations of the Palestinian civil and human rights.
    • But while the wait continued, more Palestinians were expelled and the Jewish settler community in the West Bank grew in size.
    • The two-state solution is not going to stop the ethnic cleansing; instead, talking about it provides Israel international immunity to continue it.

    Way forward

    • The only alternative is to decolonise historical Palestine.
    • New state should a state for all its citizens all over the country, based on the dismantlement of colonialist institutions, fair redistribution of the country’s natural resources, compensation of the victims of the ethnic cleansing and allowing their repatriation.
    •  Settlers and natives should together build a new state that is democratic, part of the Arab world and not against it, and an inspiration for the rest of the region.

    Conclusion

    The one-state solution is the way forward in Palestine and that should be the state for all citizens.

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  • National Green Tribunal’s Role and Contributions

    NGT upholds rights of pastoralists in Banni Grasslands

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

    The National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered all encroachments to be removed from Gujarat’s Banni grasslands.

    Banni Grasslands

    • Banni Grasslands form a belt of arid grassland ecosystem on the outer southern edge of the desert of the marshy salt flats of Rann of Kutch.
    • They are known for rich wildlife and biodiversity and are spread across an area of 3,847 square kilometers. Two ecosystems, wetlands and grasslands, are juxtaposed in Banni.
    • They are currently legally protected under the status as a protected or reserve forest in India.
    • Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has identified this grassland reserve as one of the last remaining habitats of the cheetah in India and a possible reintroduction site for the species.
    • The region hosts a nomadic pastoralist community, the Maldharis, whose livelihoods depend on this protected shrub-savanna.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Which one of the following is the correct sequence of ecosystems in the order of decreasing productivity?(CSP 2014)

    (a) Oceans, lakes, grasslands, mangroves

    (b) Mangroves, oceans, grasslands, lakes

    (c) Mangroves, grasslands, lakes, oceans

    (d) Oceans, mangroves, lakes, grasslands

    What is the recent NGT verdict?

    • The court also said the Maldharis will continue to hold the right to conserve the community forests in the area, granted to them as per the provisions in Section 3 of Forest Rights Act, 2006.
    • NGT highlighted that the lack of coordination between the forest department and the revenue department lead to the problem of encroachment.
    • The grassland was first declared a “protected forest” in May 1955, using the nomenclature of the Indian Forest Act, 1927.
    • Since then, the actual transfer of the land from the Revenue department to the Forest department has not been completed.

    Back2Basics: National Green Tribunal

    • The NGT has been established in 2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010.
    • It works for:
    1. effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection
    2. conservation of forests and other natural resources including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment and
    3. giving relief and compensation for damages to persons and property and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto
    • It is not be bound by the procedure laid down under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, but shall be guided by principles of natural justice.
    • The Tribunal’s dedicated jurisdiction in environmental matters shall provide speedy environmental justice and help reduce the burden of litigation in the higher courts.
    • The Tribunal is mandated to make and endeavour for disposal of applications or appeals finally within 6 months of filing of the same.
    • Initially, the NGT is proposed to be set up at five places of sittings and will follow circuit procedure for making itself more accessible.
    • New Delhi is the Principal Place of Sitting of the Tribunal and Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai shall be the other four place of sitting of the Tribunal.

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  • Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

    WHO BioHub: Global Facility for Pathogen Storage

    IOCR | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    The World Health Organization (WHO) and Switzerland have signed an MoU to launch a BioHub facility that will allow rapid sharing of pathogens between laboratories and partners to facilitate better analysis and preparedness against them.

    WHO BioHub

    • The BioHub will enable member states to share biological materials with and via the BioHub under pre-agreed conditions, including biosafety, biosecurity, and other applicable regulations.
    • The facility will help in the safe reception, sequencing, storage, and preparation of biological materials for distribution to other laboratories, so as to facilitate global preparedness against these pathogens.
    • It would be based in Spiez, Switzerland.
    • Pathogens are presently shared bilaterally between countries: A process that can be sluggish and deny the benefits to some.

    Its significance

    • This will ensure timeliness and predictability in response activities.
    • The move is significant in the view of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the need to underline the importance of sharing pathogen information to assess risks and launch countermeasures.
    • The move will help contribute to the establishment of an international exchange system for novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and other emerging pathogens.

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  • Global Geological And Climatic Events

    What is a Supermoon?

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location

    The Moon will have the nearest approach to Earth on May 26, and therefore will appear to be the closest and largest Full Moon or “supermoon” of 2021.

    Tap here to read more about Solar and Lunar Eclipses

    What is a Supermoon?

    • A supermoon occurs when the Moon’s orbit is closest to the Earth at the same time that the Moon is full.
    • As the Moon orbits the Earth, there is a point of time when the distance between the two is the least (called the perigee when the average distance is about 360,000 km from the Earth).
    • Also, there is a point of time when the distance is the most (called the apogee when the distance is about 405,000 km from the Earth).
    • Now, when a full moon appears at the point when the distance between the Earth and the Moon is the least, not only does it appear to be brighter but it is also larger than a regular full moon.
    • According to NASA, the term supermoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.
    • In a typical year, there may be two to four full supermoons and two to four new supermoons in a row.

    What is happening today?

    • Two celestial events will take place at the same time.
    • One is the supermoon and the other is a total lunar eclipse, which is when the Moon and Sun are on opposite sides of the Earth.
    • Because of the total lunar eclipse, the moon will also appear to be red.
    • This is because the Earth will block some of the light from the Sun from reaching the moon.
    • The Earth’s atmosphere filters the light, it will soften “the edge of our planet’s shadow” “giving the Moon a deep, rosy glow.”

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  • Air Pollution

    [pib] Recycling Carbon Technology

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

    A Bangalore-based startup has received the National Award 2021 for developing efficient catalysts and methodologies for the conversion of CO2 to methanol and other chemicals.

    Carbon Recycling

    • It has led to the improvisation of process engineering to enhance the production of chemicals and fuels from anthropogenic CO2.
    • It has integrated multiple components involved in the CCUS (Carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration) to develop a complete solution for the environmental issues due to global warming.
    • The current capacity of CO2 conversion is 300 kg per day, which can be scaled up to several 100 tons on an industrial scale.

    What is CCUS?

    • Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) encompass methods and technologies to remove CO2 from the flue gas and from the atmosphere.
    • CCUS involves multiple aspects that need to be in sync for the successful removal or capture of CO2 from the flue gas or the atmosphere, followed by utilization and storage.
    • Carbon capture involves the development of sorbents that can effectively bind to the CO2 present in flue gas or the atmosphere, which is expensive.
    • In addition, there has been a considerable debate about the fate of captured and compressed CO2.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-Afghanistan

    As the US exits, Afghanistan finds itself at the crossroads

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

    The article highlights the implications of the U.S. exit from Afghanistan for the region.

    Status of the Afghanistan peace process

    • The Afghanistan peace process has been in disarray as the conference to be hosted by the United Nations in Istanbul, remains suspended due to the reluctance of Afghan’s Taliban.
    • Now there is some hope of breaking the impasse as the Taliban have expressed an openness to attend the Istanbul summit.
    • United States President Joe Biden is insistent on withdrawing the troops on September 11, even without any power-sharing deal between the warring parties.
    • Taliban leadership, who may feel the urgency to resuming negotiations than completely abandoning them for fear of losing the international legitimacy they enjoy at the moment.

    How the U.S. exit will affect Pakistan

    • After months of negotiations, the U.S.-Taliban deal was signed in February 2020, and Pakistan took full credit for it.
    • As the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan for almost two decades had kept the U.S. reliant on Pakistan for operational and other support.
    • Pakistan smartly mobilised this factor against India.
    • With the disappearance of this lethal dependence, Pakistan faces an uphill task in conducting a viable Afghan policy.
    • Pakistan cannot keep America invested in it on military, economic, and societal fronts without partnering with the U.S. to ensure a smooth transition of power in Kabul.

    Impact on China

    • The Taliban now draw support from a wide variety of regional powers, including Russia, China and Iran.
    • However, these countries too want the insurgent group to moderate its position.
    • China, which has a beneficiary of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, seems confused as the American exit looms large.
    • The U.S. exit would leave Beijing vulnerable to its spillover effects particularly in the restive Xinjiang province.
    • That is why China has remained invested in all major regional Afghan-centric negotiations.

    Implications for India

    • India has been the key regional backer of an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled peace process.
    • India is concerned that the Taliban-dominated regime in Afghanistan might allow Pakistan to dictate Afghanistan’s India policy.
    • That is why India has underlined the need for a genuine double peace i.e. within and around Afghanistan.
    • But despite being offered a seat at Istanbul at the U.S.’s behest, India remains a peripheral player.
    • The strategic competition between the China and the U.S.,  China’s growing rivalry with India, and New Delhi’s tense relationship with Islamabad are some of the factors which will certainly affect the situation in Afghanistan as the U.S. leaves the country.

    Consider the question “What are the implications of the U.S. exit from Afghanistan for the region? Examine its impact on India.

    Conclusion

    While the exit would bring the U.S.’s “forever war” to an end, it is unlikely to result in peace if Afghan stakeholders show their utter inability to take the process forward.

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  • Coronavirus – Health and Governance Issues

    Why community efforts are essential for real change

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: NGO, SHG & Civil Society

    The article highlights the important role played by civil society and suggest the need for the new framework for the participation of community in the solution of problems.

    Important role played by civil society in second wave of Covid

    • We also have to realise that the state or the market cannot be the only provider for what citizens need.
    • Effective social interactions and community participation can play an important role in scaling up some of the actions that have been found useful.
    • During the second wave of Covid infections, communities emerged as resilient entities across the country.
    • Active engagement with civil society: Recently,  the Prime Minister called for an active engagement of civil society in coping with the pandemic.
    • The empowered group of secretaries has also identified the role of civil society during this period of crisis.

    Tasks for NITI Aayog: New framework

    • NITI should engage government institutions that encourage public participation and also support new frameworks for crisis management.
    • This new framework should critically look into the weaknesses and failures of the existing ones in attracting community participation in an effective manner.
    • This would also help in NITI’s own goal of localisation of development as part of its SDG strategy.
    • NITI should create mechanisms for facilitating the creation of required space for community initiatives.
    • It should leverage advanced technologies ABCD — artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing and data analytics for bridging demand-supply gaps.
    • It is time for NITI to apply the institutional framework where it has to, to rationalise select activities of communities and overcome the failure of the state where it is imminent.
    • NITI should partner with willing state governments to explore the launch of platforms that promote cross-learning and experience-sharing to reduce the cost of operations.
    • This may help in scaling up and, in some cases, overcome the asymmetric flow of information.
    • Opportunities for the participation of communities in decision making and their implementation at local levels may be explored.
    • The advantage for NITI is DARPAN, its portal for all voluntary organisations/non-governmental organisations engaged in development activities.
    • Several informal entities, start-ups and others, at times undefined, may also have to be engaged.

    Initiatives and micro-models

    • Several micro-models are coming up, but few have a larger footprint.
    •  In Nandurbar, for instance, a district collector could achieve what now seems a rare coordination between beds, number of critical patients and supply of oxygen.
    • At the end of the day, they had more beds with oxygen than required.
    • Breathe India and HelpNow represent an array of options, these apps have facilitated access to oxygen concentrators, hospitals and ambulances.
    • There are several such initiatives that are taking place across the country with little connection with each other.
    • These micro-models need to be scaled up.

    Consider the question “The role played by the civil society during the second covid wave highlighted its importance. What we need is a new framework for community participation. In light of this, discuss the important aspects of such framework.”

    Conclusion

    Solutions to any social problem call for an effective collective action that coordinates the aspirations of several groups of stakeholders. The present situation underlines the necessity of combined efforts to face this challenge.

    B2BASICS

    What is civil Society?

    • The society considered as a community of citizens linked by common interests and collective activity is a civil society.
    • It is the aggregate of non-governmental organizations and institutions that manifest interests and will of citizens.
    • It is referred to as the third sector of the society distinct from government and business.

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