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  • Why police reform recommendations have not been implemented

    The article discusses the status of implementation of the Supreme Court directives in the Prakash Singh case by the States.

    Background of the Prakash Sing judgement

    • Over the years, the National Police Commission made several recommendations for reform of the police force.
    • But many of these were not implemented effectively.
    • In 1996, two retired Directors General of Police, Prakash Singh and N. K. Singh, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) to know whether those recommendations had ever been implemented.
    • A decade later in 2006 that the Court delivered its verdict in what is popularly referred to as the Prakash Singh case.
    • In Prakash Singh v. Union of India, the SC relied on the eight reports of the National Police Commission (1979-1981) appointed by the Union.

    Following are some of the recommendations and provision and status of their implementations.

    Selection and minimum tenure of DGP

    • The provision regarding the selection of and minimum tenure for the DGP post has had partial if any, effect.
    • Corruption, politicking, and patronage-seeking at the top is so endemic that this provision has lost its sting.
    • The Security Commission consisting of the Home Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Chief Secretary, the DGP and five independent members is likewise ineffective.
    • How can one have at the apex of the reform system for the police those who have a vested interest in not reforming the police?

    Separation between investigation and prosecution wings

    • The Commission’s recommendation that there ought to be a separation between the investigation and prosecution wings, as is the system in many developed countries, required immediate enforcement by the judiciary.
    • Doing so will help weed out the corruption in criminal investigations would get a second look by the prosecutorial wing.
    • But, for that, it would require that this department be placed not under the Home Minister, but under the Ministry of Law and Justice.
    • This was never done.

    The Police Complaint Authority

    • Obviously, for police criminality, one cannot expect the police or the home department to take action against themselves.
    • An independent body was necessary.
    • The commission recommended that there should be a PCA at the state level, headed by a retired judge of the SC or high court chosen out of a panel of names proposed by the chief justice of the state.
    • A similar structure was envisaged for the PCA at the district level.
    • In addition, the PCAs would be assisted by members selected by the state from panels prepared by the State Human Rights Commission, Lokayuktas and the State Public Service Commissions.
    • The most important part of this decision was that the recommendations of the PCA would be binding on the state.
    • However, affidavits filed in the SC showed that not a single state or UT has implemented the PCA provision.
    • States have not constituted panels and appointed officials as chairpersons in the place of retired judges.
    • In many states, the name Police Complaints Authority has been changed.
    • For example, in Tripura and Mizoram, it is called The Police Accountability Commission, diverting attention away from the fact that the commission is for entertaining complaints against police persons.

    Consider the question “What are the Supreme Court directives for police reform in the Prakash Singh vs. Union of India case? To what extent states have implemented these directives?” 

    Conclusion

    On police reform, the recommendations exist, the SC order has been made but the Union remains defiant. Perhaps, now, after the Maharashtra fiasco, the SC may decide that this case pending for eight years merits listing.

    Back2Basics: The SC directives in the Prakash Singh case

    1) Limit Political Control

    • Constitute a State Security Commission to:
    • Ensure that the state government does not exercise unwarranted influence or pressure on the police.
    • Lay down broad policy guidelines.
    • Evaluate the performance of the state police.

    2) Appointment based on merit

    • Ensure that the Director General of Police is appointed through a merit–based, transparent process, and secures a minimum tenure of 2 years.

    3) Fix minimum tenure

    • Ensure that other police officers on operational duties (including Superintendents of Police in charge of a district and Station House Officers in charge of a police station) are also provided a minimum tenure of 2 years.

    4) Separate police functions

    • Separate the functions of investigation and maintaining law and order.

    5) Set up fair and transparent systems

    • Set up a Police Establishment Board to decide and make recommendations on transfers, postings, promotions and other service-related matters of police officers of and below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police.

    6) Establish a Police Complaints Authority in each state

    • At the state level, there should be a Police Complaints Authority to look into public complaints against police officers of and above the rank of Superintendent of Police in cases of serious misconduct, including custodial death, grievous hurt or rape in police custody.

    7) Set up a selection commission

    • A National Security Commission needs to be set up at the union level to prepare a panel for selection and placement of chiefs of the Central Police Organizations with a minimum tenure of 2 years.

  • Ukraine urges NATO to speed up membership

    Ukrainian President has urged NATO to speed up his country’s membership in the alliance, saying it was the only way to end fighting with pro-Russia separatists.

    North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

    • The NATO, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 European and North American countries.
    • The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.
    • NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
    • NATO’s Headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.

    Its members

    • Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 30.
    • The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.
    • NATO currently recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine as aspiring members.
    • An additional 20 countries participate in NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs.

    Why NATO matters?

    • The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global nominal total.
    • Members agreed that their aim is to reach or maintain the target defence spending of at least 2% of their GDP by 2024.

    Also read:

    India & NATO

  • E9 Initiative for Digital Learning

    Nine countries including India, China and Brazil will explore the possibility of co-creating and scaling up digital learning to achieve the UN sustainable goal on quality education under the E9 initiative.

    The E9 is the first of its kind global collaboration for digital learning. Note the participating countries.

    E9 Initiative

    • It is the first of a three-phased process to co-create an initiative on digital learning and skills, targeting marginalised children and youth, especially girls.
    • The initiative aims to accelerate recovery and advance the Sustainable Development Goal 4 agenda by driving rapid change in education systems.
    • It is spearheaded by the UN, the E9 countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan.
    • It will have the opportunity to benefit from this global initiative and accelerate progress on digital learning, according to UNESCO.

    Various functions

    • The initiative will discuss the co-creation of the Digital Learning initiative by the nine countries.
    • This Consultation will highlight progress, share lessons and explore opportunities for collaboration and scale-up to expand digital learning and skills.
    • In addition, a Marketplace segment, for public-private partnership will focus on promising local and global solutions and opportunities for digital learning to strengthen local ecosystems.

  • Mahendragiri Hills

    The Odisha government has proposed a second biosphere reserve in the southern part of the state at Mahendragiri, a hill ecosystem having a rich biodiversity.

    The 5,569-square kilometre Similipal Biosphere Reserve is Odisha’s first such reserve and was notified May 20, 1996.

    Mahendragiri Hills

    • Mahendragiri is a mountain in the Rayagada subdivision of the district of Gajapati, Odisha, India.
    • It is situated amongst the Eastern Ghats at an elevation of 1,501 metres.
    • The hill and its surrounding areas are recognized as a biodiversity hot spot due to numerous medicinal plants and other species that are found here.
    • Mahendragiri is inhabited by the Soura people, a particularly vulnerable tribal group as well as the Kandha tribe.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.From the ecological point of view, which one of the following assumes importance in being a good link between the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats? (CSP 2018)

    (a) Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve

    (b) Nallamala Forest

    (c) Nagarhole National Park

    (d) Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve

    Why designate it as a biosphere reserve?

    • The area of the proposed Mahendragiri Biosphere Reserve is around 470,955 hectares and is spread over Gajapati and Ganjam districts in the Eastern Ghats.
    • The hill ecosystem acts as a transitional zone between the flora and fauna of southern India and the Himalayas, making the region an ecological estuary of genetic diversities.
    • The rich flora in Mahendragiri represents 40 per cent of the reported flora of Odisha, with around 1,358 species of plants.

    Back2Basics:  Biosphere Reserves

    • A biosphere reserve is an area of land or water that is protected by law in order to support the conservation of ecosystems, as well as the sustainability of mankind’s impact on the environment.
    • Each reserve aims to help scientists and the environmental community figure out how to protect the world’s plant and animal species while dealing with a growing population and its resource needs.
    • To carry out the complementary activities of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, biosphere reserves are traditionally organized into 3 interrelated zones, known as:
      1. the core area
      2. the buffer zone and
      3. a transition zone or ‘area of cooperation

  • Xenobots: Robots developed from stem cells of frogs

    Researchers have developed robots from stem cells of frogs called Xenobots.

    Xenobots, the name itself suggests its peculiarity.

    Xenobots

    • Xenobots, named after the African clawed frog are synthetic organisms that are automatically designed by computers to perform some desired function and built by combining together different biological tissues.
    • They are less than a 1 millimeter (0.039 inches) wide and composed of just two things: skin cells and heart muscle cells, both of which are derived from stem cells harvested from early (blastula stage) frog embryos.
    • They can self-heal after damage, record memories and work together in groups.
    • These biological robots can record information about their surroundings and move using cilia – minute hair like particles present on their surface.

    Its applications

    • These soft-body living machines can have several applications in biomedicine and the environment.
    • They could be made from a human patient’s own cells, which would bypass the immune response challenges of other kinds of micro-robotic delivery systems.
    • Such xenobots could potentially be used to scrape plaque from arteries and with additional cell types and bioengineering, locate and treat disease.

  • [pib] What are Wolf–Rayet Stars?

    Indian astronomers have tracked a rare supernova explosion and traced it to one of the hottest kind of stars called Wolf–Rayet stars or WR stars.

    Space science-related terms these days are often focused on Gravitational waves, Black holes etc. But basic terminologies are very important and need to be taken care of. For example, a layman may hardly find any difference between Novae-Supernovae, Neutron star, Nebula etc. UPSC often tries to bust you with such basic differences.

    Wolf–Rayet Stars

    • Wolf-Rayet stars represent a final burst of activity before a huge star begins to die.
    • These stars, which are at least 20 times more massive than the Sun, “live fast and die hard”.
    • Wolf-Rayets stars are divided into 3 classes based on their spectra, the WN stars (nitrogen dominant, some carbon), WC stars (carbon dominant, no nitrogen) and WO where oxygen is in dominant quantities.
    • The average temperature of a Wolf-Rayet star is greater than 25,000 Kelvin, and they can have luminosities of up to a million times that of the Sun.

    What have Indian researchers studied?

    • Indian astronomers have conducted the optical monitoring of one such stripped-envelope supernova called SN 2015dj hosted in the galaxy NGC 7371 which was spotted in 2015.
    • They calculated the mass of the star that collapsed to form the supernovae as well as the geometry of its ejection.

    Their findings

    • The scientists found that the original star was a combination of two stars – one of them is a massive WR star and another is a star much less in mass than the Sun.
    • Supernovae (SNe) are highly energetic explosions in the Universe releasing an enormous amount of energy.
    • Long-term monitoring of these transients opens the door to understand the nature of the exploding star as well as the explosion properties.
    • It can also help enumerate the number of massive stars.

  • Address the silent crisis of India’s gender deficit

    The recently released Gener Gap Report paints a grim picture for India. The deal with this issue.

    Where India Stands

    • The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2021 was released last week.
    • The report lays bare our silent crisis of gender inequality, aggravated by the covid pandemic.
    • India has slipped 28 places to 140th position among 156 countries on the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Index.
    • The country is now 37.5% short of an ideal situation of equality, by its index, last year it was a 33.2% deficit on the whole.
    • Back in 2006, we were almost 40% short, but even the slight progress made over the past 15 years has been highly uneven.
    • Gains were made on the education and political empowerment of women, we slid sharply on health and economic parameters.

    Factors to consider

    • Though pandemic has been responsible for the decline to a significant extent, many of our deficiencies are pre-covid.
    • Some of the drop in India’s international rank over the past two years, for example, has to do with regression in the field of political power.
    • The proportion of women ministers more than halved to 9.1% of the total, though our count of female Parliamentarians did not budge from its long stagnancy.
    • Our performance over the past decade-and-a-half has been poor on women’s economic opportunities and participation.
    • Indian workforce has been turning more predominantly male.
    • Senior managerial positions in the corporate sector have not seen sufficient female appointees.
    • At the aggregate level, our income disparity is glaring.
    • Women earn only a fifth of men, which puts India among the world’s worst 10 on this indicator.
    • We fare worse on women’s health and survival, with India beaten to the last rank only by China.

    Why proportionally fewer Indian women in jobs?

    • One explanation is that sociocultural attitudes go against women going out to work, unless the family lacks sustenance, and deprivation has been in decline for decades.
    • Another is that families prefer educated mothers to invest time in teaching their kids.
    • Both these motives are said to be influenced by upward income mobility and a quest for better lives.
    • Yet, the covid setback to both family incomes and gender progress would suggest the reasons are mostly attitudinal.

    Way forward

    • If the reasons are attitudinal, tax incentives and other schemes are unlikely to get women taking up more jobs.
    • What we need are new forms of social persuasion, which must go with credible assurances of gender equity in every sphere.

    Conclusion

    A country’s economic progress is inextricably linked to empowered women. So, India needs to act on the silent crisis of India’s gender deficit to move up the economic ladder.

  • India & NATO

    India has jettisoned many of its foreing policy shibboleths of late, however, avoiding NATO is not one of them. The article suggests engaging NATO to be in sync with the changing geopolitics.

    Why India avoided engagement with NATO in the past

    • India’s real problem is not with NATO, but with Delhi’s difficulty in thinking strategically about Europe.
    • Through the colonial era, Calcutta and Delhi viewed Europe through British eyes.
    • After Independence, Delhi tended to see Europe through the Russian lens.
    • The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union demanded a fresh approach to Europe.
    • But Delhi could not devote the kind of strategic attention that Europe demanded.
    • The bureaucratisation of the engagement between Delhi and Brussels and the lack of high-level political interest prevented India from taking full advantage of a re-emerging Europe.
    • In the last few years, Delhi has begun to develop an independent European framework, but has some distance to go in consolidating it.

    Ending political neglect of Europe

    • India has certainly sought to end prolonged political neglect of Europe.
    • The deepening maritime partnership with France since 2018 is an example.
    • Joining the Franco-German Alliance for Multilateralism in 2019 is another.
    • India’s first summit with Nordic nations in 2018 was a recognition that Europe is not a monolith but a continent of sub-regions.
    • India’s engagement with Central Europe’s Visegrad Four also highlighted the fact that Europe is not monolith.

    Why India should engage NATO

    • During the Cold War, India’s refusal was premised on its non-alignment.
    • That argument had little justification once the Cold War ended during 1989-91.
    • An India-NATO dialogue would simply mean having regular contact with a military alliance, most of whose members are well-established partners of India.
    • If Delhi is eager to draw a reluctant Russia into discussions on the Indo-Pacific, it makes little sense in avoiding engagement with NATO.
    • If Delhi does military exercises with China and Pakistan — under the rubric of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), why should talking to NATO be anathema?
    • To play any role in the Indo-Pacific, Europe and NATO need partners like India, Australia and Japan.
    • Delhi, in turn, knows that no single power can produce stability and security in the Indo-Pacific.
    • India’s enthusiasm for the Quad is a recognition of the need to build coalitions.
    • A sustained dialogue between India and NATO could facilitate productive exchanges in a range of areas, including terrorism, changing geopolitics; the evolving nature of military conflict, the role of emerging military technologies, and new military doctrines.
    • More broadly, an institutionalised engagement with NATO should make it easier for Delhi to deal with the military establishments of its 30 member states.
    • On a bilateral front, each of the members has much to offer in strengthening India’s national capabilities.

    What about Russia

    • Russia has not made a secret of its allergy to the Quad and Delhi’s growing closeness with Washington.
    • Putting NATO into that mix is unlikely to make much difference.
    • Delhi, in turn, can’t be happy with the deepening ties between Moscow and Beijing.
    • As mature states, India and Russia know they have to insulate their bilateral relationship from the larger structural trends buffeting the world today.
    • Meanwhile, both Russia and China have intensive bilateral engagement with Europe.

    Consider the question “India has to end its prolonged political neglect of Europe and engage a major European institution like NATO. In light of this, examine the factors restraining India’s engagement with the Europe.“

    Conclusion

    India’s continued reluctance to engage a major European institution like NATO will be a stunning case of strategic self-denial and we should avoid it.

  • Understanding the issues with bond market in India

    What explains the Indian government borrowing at a higher interest rate than the interest rates for a home loan? The answer lies in the structural shortage in demand for government bonds. 

    How the government’s cost of borrowing matter

    • Interest on government debt is a transfer from taxpayers to savers who own government bonds.
    • As the government bondholders are primarily domestic, interest paid by the government is just a transfer from one hand to the other within the economy.
    • However, the government’s cost of borrowing does matter.
    • The large increase in interest costs limits the government’s ability to spend elsewhere.
    • But more importantly, this rate also affects the cost of borrowing for large parts of the economy.

    Understanding the term premium and credit spread

    • The RBI sets the repo rate, which is the short-term risk-free rate.
    • That is, the loan must be repaid in a few days and there is almost no risk of default.
    • The rate at which the government borrows is the long-term risk-free rate.
    • But the lender wants higher returns given the longer duration of the loan.
    • The difference between the repo rate and government’s borrowing cost, say on a 10-year loan, is called the term premium.
    • When a private firm takes a 10-year loan, it would have some credit risk too, which means a credit spread is added to the 10-year risk-free rate.

    Challenge posed by term premium

    • From an average rate of 73 basis points since 2011 (one basis point is one-hundredth of a per cent), and 120 basis points in 2018 and 2019, the 10-year term premium is currently 215 basis points.
    • In other words, the interest rate for a 10-year period borrowing is 2.15 per cent higher than the current repo rate.

    How this is related to dysfunction in bond market in India

    • Financial markets are forward-looking, and as the collective expression of the views of thousands of participants, efficient ones can occasionally “predict” what comes next.
    • But the Indian bond market is not one such: The view some hold, that the rise in term premium reflects future rate hikes by the monetary policy committee (MPC), is mistaken.
    • The Indian bond market is still too illiquid and not diverse enough to predict future trends.
    • Even though some pandemic-driven measures are being withdrawn, the MPC continues to be accommodative, and for several months at least, headline inflation is unlikely to force an abrupt change.
    • In any case, the spurt in yields after the budget points to the causality being fiscal instead of inflation-related.
    • But even the fiscal rationale seems weak.
    • The Centre’s tax collection for FY2020-21 has been substantially ahead of target, and state governments have also borrowed Rs 60,000 crore less than expected.
    •  Also, the14 states, accounting for three-fourths of all state deficits, have budgeted FY2021-22 deficits at 3.3 per cent, far lower than the 4 per cent average expected earlier.
    • Just these factors suggest that total bonds issued by the central and state governments should be lower than what the market had feared before the union budget was presented.
    • And yet, government borrowing costs have not returned to pre-budget levels.
    • This reflects dysfunction in the market.
    • Why else would a government be borrowing at a higher cost than a mortgage on a house?

    What is the reason for dysfunction in bond market

    • Dysfunction can be traced to residential mortgages being among the most competitive of loan categories.
    • On the other hand, there is a structural shortage in demand for government bonds.
    • In such a market where there is a structural shortage in demand the marginal buyer holds all the cards, and as any buyer would, demands higher returns.
    • Over 15 years,  the share of banks in the ownership of outstanding central government bonds has fallen from 53 per cent to 40 per cent now.
    • But no alternative buyer of size has emerged to fill the space vacated.
    • The RBI sometimes buys bonds to inject money into the economy, but of late this space has been used to buy dollars to save the rupee from appreciation.

    Solutions

    • The solution to the problem of bond market may lie in getting new types of buyers.
    • The RBI opening up direct purchases by retail investors is a step in this direction, though it may not become meaningful for a few years.
    • That leaves us with tapping foreign savings.
    • The limit on share of government bonds that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) can buy has been raised steadily.
    • But without Indian bonds being included in global bond indices, these flows may not be meaningful, and would be volatile, as they have been over the past year.
    • To enable inclusion in bond indices, the RBI and the government have earmarked special-category bonds which are fully accessible (FAR) by foreign investors.
    • The FTSE putting India on a watch-list for “potential future inclusion” in the Emerging Markets Government Bonds Index is a step forward, and, one hopes, triggers similar actions by other index providers.

    Consider the question “How the lack of retailness in the bond market affects the cost of borrowing of the government as well as the private borrowers? Suggest the measures to deal with the issues.”

    Conclusion

    The issues with bond markets in India highlights the urgency to find new buyers for government bond as it has implications not just for the government’s own fiscal space, but also for the cost of borrowing in the economy.

  • What is the Pre-pack under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code?

    The central government has promulgated an ordinance allowing the use of pre-packs as an insolvency resolution mechanism for MSMEs with defaults up to Rs 1 crore, under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

    Read till the end to know about the ‘Swiss Challenge’.

    What are Pre-packs?

    • A pre-pack is the resolution of the debt of a distressed company through an agreement between secured creditors and investors instead of a public bidding process.
    • This system of insolvency proceedings has become an increasingly popular mechanism for insolvency resolution in the UK and Europe over the past decade.
    • Under the pre-pack system, financial creditors will agree to terms with a potential investor and seek approval of the resolution plan from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
    • The approval of a minimum of 66 percent of financial creditors that are unrelated to the corporate debtor would be required before a resolution plan is submitted to the NCLT.
    • Further NCLTs are also required to either accept or reject any application for a pre-pack insolvency proceeding before considering a petition for a CIRP.

    Benefits of pre-packs over the CIRP

    • One of the key criticisms of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) has been the time taken for resolution.
    • One of the key reasons behind delays in the CIRPs is prolonged litigations by erstwhile promoters and potential bidders.
    • The pre-pack in contrast is limited to a maximum of 120 days with only 90 days available to the stakeholders to bring the resolution plan to the NCLT.
    • The existing management retains control in the case of pre-packs while a resolution professional takes control of the debtor as a representative of creditors in the case of CIRP.
    • This allows for minimal disruption of operations relative to a CIRP.

    What is the key motivation behind the introduction of the pre-pack?

    • Pre-packs are largely aimed at providing MSMEs with an opportunity to restructure their liabilities and start with a clean slate.
    • It provides adequate protections so that the system is not misused by firms to avoid making payments to creditors.
    • Pre-packs help corporate debtors to enter into consensual restructuring with lenders and address the entire liability side of the company.

    How are creditors protected?

    • The pre-pack also provides adequate protection to ensure the provisions were not misused by errant promoters.
    • The pre-pack mechanism allows for a swiss challenge for any resolution plans which proved less than full recovery of dues for operational creditors.
    • Under the swiss challenge mechanism, any third party would be permitted to submit a resolution plan for the distressed company and the original applicant would have to either match the improved resolution plan or forego the investment.
    • Creditors are also permitted to seek resolution plans from any third party if they are not satisfied with the resolution plan put forth by the promoter.

    Back2Basics: Swiss Challenge

    • A Swiss Challenge is a method of bidding, often used in public projects, in which an interested party initiates a proposal for a contract or the bid for a project.
    • The government then puts the details of the project out in the public and invites proposals from others interested in executing it.
    • On the receipt of these bids, the original contractor gets an opportunity to match the best bid.
    • In 2009, the Supreme Court approved this method for the award of contracts.
    • This method can be applied to projects that are taken up on a PPP basis but can also be used to supplement PPP in sectors that are not covered under the PPP framework.