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  • Rohingya Conflict

    Rohingya Deportation case

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

    The article highlights the issues with the order passed by the Supreme Court allowing the deportation of Rohingya refugees.

    Context

    • Recently, in its order in Mohammad Salimullah v. Union of India, the Supreme Court rejected an application to stay the deportation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

    Principle of non-refoulement

    • The Supreme Court noted the petitioners’ reliance on a judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dated January 23, 2020, which recorded the genocidal conditions that resulted in 7.75 lakh Rohingyas being forced to take refuge in Bangladesh and India.
    • The Supreme Court relied on the word of the government that the principle of non-refoulement, or forcible repatriation to a place where the refugee’s life is in danger, applies only to signatories to the UN’s Refugee Convention of 1951 or its 1967 Protocol.
    • It must be stated that a UN Special Rapporteur was not heard, as the Court felt that serious objections had been raised to her intervention.
    • The Supreme Court accepted that the right not to be deported flows not from the right to life and liberty under Article 21, which applies to all human beings, but from the right to reside and settle in India under Article 19(1)(g), which applies to citizens alone.

    Why the judgement needs reconsideration

    1) India has recognised genocide as an international crime

    • India is a signatory to the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention, 1948),
    • Acceding to the Convention in 1959, India has recognised genocide as an international crime, and that the principles of the Convention are “therefore already part of common law of India”.
    •  India has also ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) have a bearing on non-refoulement.
    • Article 6(1) of the ICCPR, which mirrors Article 21 of our Constitution.
    • A number of other UN conventions particularly those dealing with the rights of women (CEDAW) and children (CRC) also have a non-refoulment element in it and both of which have been declared by the Supreme Court to be part of our domestic legal framework.

    2) Prevention of genocide

    • The leitmotif of the Genocide Convention is prevention.
    • Prevention is also central to Article I, under which the contracting parties confirm that genocide is a crime under international law, “which they undertake to prevent and to punish”.

    3) Preemptory norm

    • It is increasingly accepted in public international law, that non-refoulement and other protections emanating from the Genocide Convention, are peremptory norms that apply to state parties as well as non-parties.
    • That non-refoulement is jus cogens, a norm from which there can be no derogation whatsoever. I
    • At least three high courts (Gujarat in 1998, Delhi in 2015, and Calcutta in 2019) have held that non-refoulement is part of the right to life and liberty protected by Article 21 of our Constitution.

    What should the Supreme Court do

    • There are two possible solutions.
    • The first is that in its interim order, the Court specifies that the Rohingya refugees may not be deported unless “the procedure prescribed for such deportation is followed”.
    • It is a long-held principle of Indian jurisprudence that the word “procedure” means “due process”, or a procedure that is just, fair, and reasonable.
    • The Supreme Court can, thus, suo motu clarify that due process requires that they not be deported as long as there exists a reasonable threat of persecution in Myanmar.
    • Alternately, since the order in question is an interim order, the Supreme Court could swiftly hear the main petition on its merits, and clarify the law on non-refoulement and Article 21. 

    Conclusion

    The order on the deportation of Rohingya refugees needs reconsideration by the Supreme Court considering the India’s treaty obligations on the genocide.

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  • What the US’s recognition of killings of Armenians as genocide mean

    Explained | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Effect Of Policies & Politics Of World On India’S Interests

    What is genocide

    • According to Article II of the UN Convention on Genocide of December 1948, genocide has been described as carrying out acts intended “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.

    Why Armenians were targeted

    • In a way, the Armenians were victims of the great power contests of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
    • The resentment started building up after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 in which the Turks lost territories.
    • In the Treaty of Berlin, big powers dictated terms to the Ottomans, including putting pressure on Sultan Abdülhamid II to initiate reforms “in the provinces inhabited by Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the Circassians and Kurds.”
    • The Sultan saw this as a sign of strengthening ties between the Armenians and other rival countries, especially Russia.
    • Post the treaty, there were a series of attacks on Armenians by Turkish and Kurdish militias.
    • In 1908, the Young Turks wrested control from the Sultan and promised to restore imperial glory.
    • Under the Turks, the empire became more and “Turkik” and persecution against the ethnic minorities picked up.
    • In October 1914, Turkey joined the First World War on the side of Germany.
    • In the Caucasus, they fought the Russians, their primary geopolitical rival.
    • But the Ottomans suffered a catastrophic defeat in the Battle of Sarikamish by the Russians in January 1915.
    • The Turks blamed the defeat on Armenian “treachery”.

    How the killings took place

    • As the War was still waging, the Ottomans feared that Armenians in eastern Anatolia would join the Russians if they advanced into Ottoman territories.
    • First, Armenians in the Ottoman Army were executed.
    • On April 24, the Ottoman government arrested about 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders. Most of them were later executed.
    • The Ottoman government passed legislation to deport anyone who is a security risk.
    • Then they moved Armenians, including children, en masse to the Syrian Desert. That was a march of death.
    • Before the First World War broke out in 1914, there were 2 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
    • According to a study by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, in 1922, four years after the War, the Armenian population in the region was about 387,800.
    • This has led historians to believe that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the course of the War.

    What is Turkey’s response

    • Turkey has acknowledged that atrocities were committed against Armenians, but denies it was a genocide which comes with legal implications.
    • Turkey also challenges the estimates that 1.5 million were killed.
    • The Turkish Foreign Ministry has issued a strong statement to Mr. Biden’s announcement saying it doesn’t not have “a scholarly and legal basis, nor is it supported by any evidence”.
    • Turkey has called on the U.S. President to correct the mistake of recognition as genocide.

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  • [pib] PM launches distribution of e-property cards under SWAMITVA scheme

    PIB | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies

    e-Property cards under SWAMITVA scheme

    • The Prime Minister launched the distribution of e-property cards under the SWAMITVA scheme on National Panchayati Raj Day (24 April).
    • 4.09 lakh property owners were given their e-property cards on this occasion, which also marked the rolling out of the SVAMITVA scheme for implementation across the country.
    • Under the scheme, the entire village properties are surveyed by drone and property card are distributed to the owners.
    • The Scheme has infused a new confidence in the villages  as property documents remove uncertainty and reduce the chances of property disputes while protecting the poor from exploitation and corruption.
    • This eases credit possibility also.

    About SWAMITVA Scheme

    • SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) was launched by Prime Minister on 24th April 2020.
    • It is a Central Sector Scheme to promote a socio-economically empowered and self-reliant rural India.
    • The Scheme has the potential to transform rural India using modern technical tools of mapping and surveying.
    • It paves the way for using the property as a financial asset by villagers for availing loans and other financial benefits.
    • The Scheme will cover around 6.62 Lakh villages of the entire country during 2021-2025.

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  • Civil Services Reforms

    Civil service reforms in India

    op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Civil Service

    The article highlights the role bureaucracy can play in the development of the country and suggests the ways to deal with the challenges faced by the bureaucracy.

    Background of the PSU’s

    • In the 1950s and ’60s, the private sector had neither the capability to raise capital to take the country on the path of industrialisation.
    • The state had to take on the role of industrialising the country by establishing PSUs.
    • The civil services became the natural choice for establishing and managing these units.
    • They delivered substantially, if not fully.
    • Even after privatisation, the bureaucracy would be required for the transition of PSUs from the public to the private sector.

    Need for structural transformation agenda

    • The goal of making India a $5-trillion economy needs a coherent structural transformation agenda and extraordinary implementation capacity.

    1) Dealing with crony capitalisms

    • Since Independence, the political survival of Indian regimes has required pleasing a powerful land-owning class and a highly concentrated set of industrial capitalists.
    • The elites of business houses and land owners share no all-encompassing development agenda.
    • Can the present regime find a way out of this conundrum?

    2) Implementing the development agenda

    • While the agenda is an outcome of political choices, the thinking goes that market mechanisms should be used as far as possible to make economic choices.
    • This argument is at the heart of the privatisation of state assets.
    • However, markets operate well only when they are supported by other kinds of social networks, which include non-contractual elements like trust.
    • Particularly in industrial transformation, there must be an essential complementarity of state structures and market exchange.
    • Only a competent bureaucracy can provide this.
    • It is for this reason that Max Weber argued that the operation of large-scale capitalist enterprise depended upon the kind of order that only a modern bureaucratic state can provide.

    3) Removing the constraints on the bureaucracy

    • The political and permanent executives had to work as a team through mutual respect for each other’s roles as defined in the Constitution.
    • Every deviation from these ideals has lowered the capacity of the state to deliver.
    • This is the result of electoral politics where the essence of the state action is the exchange relationships between the incumbent governments and its supporters.
    • All this is achieved by undermining the impartiality of the bureaucracy in implementing rules and giving opinions frankly.
    • The power to transfer is weaponised to bring the bureaucrats to heel and it works because authority sits with the position not the person.
    • The pressure on officials to behave contrary to the ostensible purpose of the department undermines to a great extent the ability of the state to promote development.
    • If privatisation is to work, then the corruption-transfer mechanism and its effects on the bureaucracy has to go.

    4) Corporate coherence

    • Corporate coherence is the ability of the bureaucracy internally to resist the invisible hands of personal maximisation by undercutting the formal organisational structure through informal networks.
    • If this goes too far, then everything becomes open to sale and the state becomes predatory.

    Consider the question “What are the issues facing civil services in India? Suggest the ways to deal with these issues.”

    Conclusion

    We need to fight the increasing tendency to grab public resources and restore to the bureaucracy its autonomy of action as envisaged in the Constitution by de-weaponising transfers.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-United States

    Amid concerns in India and Brazil, the unused vaccine stockpile in US

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

    Issue of diverting the vaccine stock to India

    • Epidemiologists to industry leaders are urging the Biden administration to release the reserve to countries like India and Brazil, given the assertion that the doses won’t be used in the US.
    • According to Brown University School of Public Health Ashish Jha, the US is “sitting on 35-40 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine Americans will never use”.
    • In early April, US chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said the US will likely not need the AstraZeneca shot. 
    • The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been granted Emergency Use Authorization by the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA).
    • With documented cases of blood clots in younger women in Europe correlated with the vaccine, FDA authorisation may be further delayed.

    What has the US said in response

    • Co-ordinator of the US Covid-19 taskforce that the Quad partnership and team is providing assistance across government to the country.
    •  He also stated that as their confidence around our supply increases, we will explore the option of exporting the vaccines.

    Vaccine inequality

    • According to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker, highest-income countries are vaccinating at a pace 25 times faster than the lowest ones.
    • The US has 22.9% of the world’s vaccines but only 4.3% of the world’s population.
    • China has 21.9% and 18.2% respectively, and India 13.8% and 17.7%, according to the tracker.
    • Almost half of all vaccines have gone to 16% of the world’s population.
    • The Washington Post reported that the world’s poorest 92 countries may not be able to vaccinate even 60% of their population for another three years.
    • India has vaccinated 8% per cent of the population with one dose and 1% with two. Brazil has vaccinated less than 12% with one.

    Impact on vaccination in African nations

    • India’s stalled vaccine exports have domino effects on the rollouts in African nations and other developing countries, as Serum’s productions were fuelling efforts globally before India’s second wave.

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  • RBI Notifications

    Cybersecurity norms for payment services

    | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Cyber Security

    What prompted RBI to take such step

    • Following a series of data breaches faced by operators including Mobikwik and payment aggregator JusPay, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon issue cybersecurity norms for payment service providers (PSPs).
    • On cyber frauds, Reserve Bank of India has issued very recently basic guidelines on cyber hygiene and cybersecurity for banks and certain NBFCs,
    • The standards for fintech-driven payment services providers will be similar to these cyber hygiene norms issued recently.
    • the critical challenge for regulators would be to speed up the absorption of fintech without undermining the financial system’s integrity or stability.

    UPI dominated by limited players

    •  There are not too many payment systems in India and the number of players is limited.
    • Two apps provide about 70% of third-party services in the UPI system.
    • The concentration of two or three third-party providers in this retail payments space could give rise to competitive weaknesses. 
    • Therefore, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had laid down a framework for a more even distribution of share of third-party app providers in the UPI system.

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  • Financial Inclusion in India and Its Challenges

    Microfinance Institutions

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

    The article highlights the important role played by the microfinance sector in furthering financial inclusion in India and suggests measures to achieve holistic development of the sector.

    Important role played by microfinance

    • No other form of financial services has had the kind of far-reaching impact, in terms of fostering financial inclusion, as microcredit has.
    • Access to small, collateral-free loans for economically productive purposes has helped transform the lives of millions at the bottom-of-the-pyramid—especially women.
    • Over the past decade, India’s microfinance industry has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 26% to reach ₹2.36 trillion.
    • It has helped 50 million economically vulnerable Indians, 99% of them women, live a life of dignity and financial independence.
    • Assuming that these 50 million people who took a loan to start a small business employed at least one other person, it translates into 50 million additional jobs in the country.
    • This creates a ‘network effect’ that has a social impact at scale.

    Evolution of microfinance industry

    • Recommendations of the Malegam Committee, which became regulations, and practices such as relying on credit bureau data to assess a borrower’s creditworthiness have helped the industry immensely.
    • The vital role that microfinance plays in the last-mile delivery of financial services was acknowledged.
    • Subsequently, eight out of the 10 small finance bank licences granted were also given to microfinance institutions.
    • RBI has sought to undertake a comprehensive review of the sector again, after 10 years, to better align the regulatory framework with the sector’s current realities.

    Steps for development of sector

    • First, Entities should promote financial literacy through group meetings of borrowers.
    • Second, organizations should complement their microcredit operations with social development projects and community-connect initiatives.
    • Third, prospective borrowers’ indebtedness and ability to repay dues should be assessed properly.
    • Fourth, loans must be given only for income-generation purposes.
    • Fifth, every microfinance organization should devote time and resources for capacity building at the grassroots.
    • Sixth, rather than focusing on taking over the existing debt of a borrower, or lending to her further, institutions should focus on bringing new-to-credit customers into the fold.

    Consider the question “How can microcredit stimulate financial inclusion in India? Suggest the measures for the development of microfinance sector in India.”

    Conclusion

    There is much more that we, as a nation, collectively need to do in order to bring a vast population of unbanked and underbanked Indians into the fold of formal financial services.

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  • Foreign Policy Watch: India-France

    [pib] Exercise VARUNA-2021

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

    Details of the exercise

    • The 19th edition of the Indian and French Navy bilateral exercise ‘VARUNA-2021’ is scheduled to be conducted in the Arabian Sea from 25th to 27th April 2021.
    • The exercise will see high tempo-naval operations at sea, including advanced air defence and anti-submarine exercises, intense fixed and rotary wing flying operations, tactical manoeuvres, surface and anti-air weapon firings, underway replenishment and other maritime security operations.
    • Units of both navies will endeavour to enhance and hone their war-fighting skills to demonstrate their ability as an integrated force to promote peace, security and stability in the maritime domain.
    • On completion of exercise VARUNA-21, to consolidate accrued best practices and enhance interoperability, Indian Navy’s guided-missile frigate INS Tarkash will continue to exercise with the French Navy’s Carrier Strike Group (CSG) from 28th April to 1st May 2021.
    • During this period, the ship will take part in advanced surface, anti-submarine and air-defence operations with the French CSG.

    Significance of exercise

    • VARUNA-21 highlights growing bonhomie and showcases increased levels of synergy, coordination and inter-operability between the two friendly navies.
    • These interactions further underscore the shared values as partner navies, in ensuring freedom of seas and commitment to an open, inclusive Indo-Pacific and a rules-based international order.

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  • Judicial Reforms

    Need to address the systemic issues plaguing the judiciary

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

    The article highlights the issues facing the judiciary in India and emphasises the need for addressing these issues.

    Separating judiciary from the executive

    • Today, the judiciary, especially the SC, is called upon to decide a large number of cases in which the government has a direct interest.
    • These can be politically sensitive cases too.
    • The framers of the Constitution understood the importance of the oath of office of judges of the Supreme Court of India (SC) and carefully designed its language.
    • The words, “without fear or favour” to “uphold the constitution and the laws” are extremely significant and stress the need for a fiercely independent court.
    • Article 50 of the Constitution provides: “The State shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State.”

    Master of roaster issue

    • The Chief Justice of India is the first amongst the equals but by the virtue of his office assumes significant powers as the Master of the Roster to constitute benches and allocate matters.
    • The SC has re-affirmed this position in a rather disappointing decision in Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms v. Union of India, (2018).
    • The result has been catastrophic.
    • Many matters were either treated casually or deflected for no reason from serious hearing.

    Accountability from legislature and executive

    • The SC is expected to seek strict accountability from the legislature and executive and any infraction of the Constitution and laws must be corrected.
    • Yet, this is not happening.
    • A country of billion-plus needs its highest court to stand for the people, not seemingly for the executive of the day.

    Inherent and fundamental challenges

    • The judiciary is besieged by inherent and fundamental challenges.
    • Millions of pending cases, quality of judges and their decisions, organisational issues and its integrity and impartiality, need urgent attention.
    • Yet, in the last two decades precious little has been done.
    • Justice is eluding the common man, including the vulnerable sections of society.

    Way forward

    • The new Chief Justice must seriously introspect and free himself of the bias in constituting benches and allocating cases and take concrete steps to revitalise the administration of justice.
    • Only then will the rule of law be restored and the Constitution served.

    Consider the question “Examine the inherent and fundamental challenges faced by the judiciary in India. Suggest the measures to deal with these challenges.” 

    Conclusion

    The Chief Justice of India on account of the position he holds as paterfamilias of the judicial fraternity, was suspected by none other than Dr B R Ambedkar. Let us hope the new Chief Justice makes serious efforts to prove otherwise.

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  • Zoonotic Diseases: Medical Sciences Involved & Preventive Measures

    Understanding infections after Covid-19 vaccination

    Explained | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education

    Breakthrough infections

    • There have been several cases of Covid-19 vaccinated people, even those who have received both doses, testing positive for the virus.
    • Such cases are referred to as “breakthrough” infections, indicating that the virus has been able to break through the defences created by the vaccine.
    • Such cases have led to some doubts being expressed about the effectiveness of the vaccine, and contributed to the already prevailing vaccine hesitancy. 
    • However, vaccines protect not against the infection, but against moderate or severe disease and hospitalisation.
    •  It typically takes about two weeks for the body to build immunity after being vaccinated.
    • So, the chances of a person falling sick during this period are as high — or as low — as the chances for any person who has not been vaccinated.
    •  Also, those in the priority list of vaccination, such as healthcare workers and frontline workers, have been prone to getting infected due to prolonged occupational exposure to the virus

    Full protection not possible

    • It is very well understood that no vaccine offers 100% protection from any disease.
    • However, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) in the United States, vaccinated people are much less likely to get sick, but it is never entirely ruled out.
    • Then there is the emergence of new variants of the virus.
    • Some variants of the virus are able to evade the human immune response, and therefore have a greater chance to break through the defences created through the vaccine.

    Breakthrough cases in India

    • Among 10.03 crore people who had taken only the first dose of Covishield vaccina, 17,145 had got infected.
    • That translates into a 0.02% prevalence.
    • Among the 1.57 crore people who received the second dose as well, 5,014, or about 0.03%, had got infected later.
    • About 1.1 crore doses of Covaxin have been administered until now.
    • Of the 93.56 lakh who took only the first dose, so far 4,208 have got the infection.
    • That is about 0.04% of the total.
    • Among the 17.37 lakh who have taken the second shot, only 695 had been infected, again 0.04%.

    Challenges

    • “Given the scope of the pandemic, there’s a huge amount of virus in the world right now, meaning a huge opportunity for mutations to develop and spread.
    • That is going to be a challenge for the developers of vaccines.

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