Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PFMS, PAC
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in its report found that the tasks related to the implementation of the PFMS appeared to have been dealt with a casual approach and there was no proper financial planning.
Public Finance Management System (PFMS)
- PFMS is an online platform developed and implemented by the office of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) under the Union Ministry of Finance.
- The PFMS portal is used to make direct payments to beneficiaries of government schemes.
- PFMS initially started as a Plan scheme named CPSMS of the Planning Commission in 2008-09 as a pilot in four States of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and Mizoram.
- It was for four Flagship schemes e.g. MGNREGS, NRHM, SSA and PMGSY.
- In December, 2013 the Union Cabinet approved the national roll out of PFMS for all States.
Mandate of PFMS
PFMS has been mandated the following:
- It acts as a financial management platform for all plan schemes and allows for efficient and effective tracking of fund flow to the lowest level of implementation for the planning scheme of the Government.
- It is mandated to provide information on fund utilization leading to better monitoring, review, and decision support system to enhance public accountability in the implementation of plan schemes.
- To result in effectiveness and economy in Public Finance Management through better cash management for Government transparency in public expenditure and real-time information on resource availability and utilization across schemes.
Achievements of PFMS
- PFMS can be credited to the transformation of Direct Beneficiary Transfers space in financial governance in India.
- An estimated 102 crore DBT transactions were done through PFMS in FY 19-20 amounting to about ₹2.67 lakh crore.
- Through efficient use of technology, PFMS is estimated to have saved about ₹1 lakh crore in direct beneficiary transfers.
Factors that could determine the successful evolution of PFMS in future
- Agility in terms of Onboarding/Integrating all Govt. accounts: Only after ensuring significant coverage, the true execution of the concept will take place.
- Effective data management capabilities: PFMS will have to add significant data management capabilities in order to ensure better monitoring/review to deliver on the idea of a decision support system for effective cash management or management of idle float in the system.
- Constantly upgrading: Adaption to rapid changes in technology is another key area that would call for a considerable amount of focus both in terms of gradation and monitoring.
- Collaboration with the banking system: Lastly, one of the most critical factors for the successful execution of PFMS is its integration with the banking systems.
What did PAC observe now?
- PAC is concerned over data security of PFMS.
- It observed that in the absence of a dedicated workforce, a key strategic system like the PFMS could possibly encounter new threats every now and then owing to the advancements in technology.
- It stressed the need for a thorough assessment of physical and technical infrastructure along with back-up arrangements required in the PFMS scheme.
Conclusion
- The PFMS has revolutionized the ways public finances are managed in the country.
- With constant improvement and increasing coverage, the scope of PFMS is ever-increasing.
Back2Basics: Public Accounts Committee
- The PAC is a committee of selected members of parliament constituted for the purpose of auditing the revenue and the expenditure of the Government of India.
- It was established in 1921 after its first mention in the Government of India Act, 1919.
- PAC is one of the parliamentary committees that examine the annual audit reports of CAG, which the President lays before the Parliament of India.
- It seeks to examines public expenditure.
- Those three reports submitted by CAG are:
- Audit report on appropriation accounts
- Audit report on finance accounts
- Audit report on public undertakings
Its members-
- It consists of not more than twenty-two members, fifteen elected by Lok Sabha and not more than seven members of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament.
- The members are elected every year from amongst its members of respective houses according to the principle of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.
- None of its members are allowed to be ministers in the government.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: National cybersecurity strategy
The National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has formulated a draft National Cyber Security Strategy, which holistically looks at addressing the issue of security of national cyberspace, the government informed the Lok Sabha.
What is the National Cyber Security Strategy?
Conceptualised by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), the report focuses on 21 areas to ensure a safe, secure, trusted, resilient, and vibrant cyberspace for India.
The main sectors of focus of the report are:
- Large scale digitisation of public services: There needs to be a focus on security in the early stages of design in all digitisation initiatives and for developing institutional capability for assessment, evaluation, certification, and rating of core devices.
- Supply chain security: There should be robust monitoring and mapping of the supply chain of the Integrated circuits (ICT) and electronics products. Product testing and certification needs to be scaled up, and the country’s semiconductor design capabilities must be leveraged globally.
- Critical information infrastructure protection: The supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) security should be integrated with enterprise security. A repository of vulnerabilities should also be maintained.
- Digital payments: There should be mapping and modelling of devices and platform deployed, transacting entities, payment flows, interfaces and data exchange as well as threat research and sharing of threat intelligence.
- State-level cyber security: State-level cybersecurity policies and guidelines for security architecture, operations, and governance need to be developed.
What steps does the report suggest?
To implement cybersecurity in the above-listed focus areas, the report lists the following recommendations:
- Budgetary provisions: A minimum allocation of 0.25% of the annual budget, which can be raised up to 1% has been recommended to be set aside for cyber security.
- Ministry-wise allocation: In terms of separate ministries and agencies, 15-20% of the IT/technology expenditure should be earmarked for cybersecurity.
- Setting up a Fund of Funds: The report also suggests setting up a Fund of Funds for cybersecurity and to provide central funding to States to build capabilities in the same field.
- R&D, skill-building and technology development: The report suggests investing in modernisation and digitisation of ICTs, setting up a short and long term agenda for cyber security via outcome-based programs and providing investments in deep-tech cyber security innovation.
- National framework for certifications: Furthermore, a national framework should be devised in collaboration with institutions like the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and ISEA (Information Security Education and Awareness) to provide global professional certifications in security.
- Creating a ‘cyber security services’: The DSCI further recommends creating a ‘cyber security services’ with cadre chosen from the Indian Engineering Services.
- Crisis management: For adequate preparation to handle crisis, the DSCI recommends holding cybersecurity drills which include real-life scenarios with their ramifications. In critical sectors, simulation exercises for cross-border scenarios must be held on an inter-country basis.
- Cyber insurance: Cyber insurance being a yet to be researched field, must have an actuarial science to address cybersecurity risks in business and technology scenarios as well as calculate threat exposures.
- Cyber diplomacy: Cyber diplomacy plays a huge role in shaping India’s global relations. To further better diplomacy, the government should promote brand India as a responsible player in cyber security and also create ‘cyber envoys’ for the key countries/regions.
- Cybercrime investigation: It also suggests charting a five-year roadmap factoring possible technology transformation, setting up exclusive courts to deal with cybercrimes and remove backlog of cybercrimes by increasing centres providing opinion related to digital evidence under section 79A of the IT act.
- Advanced forensic training: Moreover, the DSCI suggests advanced forensic training for agencies to keep up in the age of AI/ML, blockchain, IoT, cloud, automation.
- Cooperation among agencies: Law enforcement and other agencies should partner with their counterparts abroad to seek information of service providers overseas.
What next?
- India has to contend with the importance and necessity of cyber offences as much as cyber defence.
- As of today, India’s primary or possibly only response measures appear to be defensive.
- India has to also invest in more offensive cyber means as a response.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Airport traffic management
As more passengers take to the skies, airports in India’s top cities—Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru—are witnessing heavy traffic.
What is causing congestion at airports?
- There are lengthy queues at airport entry, check-in counters, security, and immigration.
- There is crowding at baggage claim areas too.
- This is the result of an unexpected surge in demand for air travel because of the holiday season—the last two years saw muted demand during this period because of the pandemic.
- Air traffic has been 1-7% above pre-covid levels of 4 lakh daily flyers for the past 10 days.
- Consequently, the personnel strength of CISF at check-in, the number of X-Ray machines and automatic trays for security, as well as baggage belts, have fallen short in handling the demand.
Which airports are most affected?
- The congestion is more severe at airports with maximum connectivity such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
- The worst-hit is Delhi—the busiest airport in India and 10th busiest in the world.
- Delhi handles the largest share of international as well as domestic air traffic in the country with a 27% share in international segment for the country and 20% in overall air traffic in India.
- The airport, with three terminals, has a capacity to handle around 70 million passengers per annum.
- Over the last 10 days, the airport has handled over 190,000 passengers daily, which is close to its full capacity.
Is airport congestion an India-specific problem?
- Globally, air travel continues to face disruptions.
- Europe’s busiest airport, London Heathrow, needs to hire around 25,000 staff to manage peak hours.
- Schiphol in Amsterdam has imposed a 20% cap on capacity to manage traffic.
- The aviation industry laid off thousands of people during the pandemic, and expects staff strength to realign by mid-2023.
What is being done to decongest airports?
- The aviation ministry has recommended a reduction in the number of flights and more manpower at all check-in and baggage drop counters.
- It has sought for increasing the number of X-ray machines and baggage trays for security check.
- The government will also analyse manpower requirements at immigration counters and, if required, additional personnel will be deployed.
- IndiGo, the largest airline in India, has asked fliers to report 3.5 hours early for domestic flights from Delhi.
Easing the airport congestion
- There is no immediate solution, and the government’s action plan will only bring temporary relief. Increasing the number of personnel at entry, security, and immigration will take time.
- Higher usage of the contactless travel platform—Digi Yatra—for passengers without check-in luggage is expected to ease the congestion a bit.
- Cities like Delhi and Mumbai need additional infrastructure.
- However, the Jewar airport in Noida and the Navi Mumbai airport are expected to be operational only by 2024.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Beypore Uru, GI Tags in news
Mains level: Not Much
The District Tourism Promotion Council, Kozhikode has applied for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the famous Beypore Uru (boat).
Beypore Uru
- Beypore Uru is a wooden dhow (ship / sailing boat / sailing vessel) handcrafted by skilled artisans and carpenters in Beypore, Kerala.
- They are a symbol of Kerala’s trade relations and friendship with the Gulf countries.
- It is purely made of premium wood, without using any modern techniques.
- The wood used is still sawed the traditional way which requires immense expertise.
- It takes anywhere between 1-4 years to build each Uru and the entire process is done manually.
Its historic significance
- Historical records show that Beypore has been a legendary maritime hub for traders from across the world since the 1st Century C.E.
- The iconic Uru ships have been in high demand for around 2000 years.
- The history of Khalasis, skilled natives engaged in launching the Uru boats at Beypore, dates back to 2000 years.
- The prominent people among them are Odayis. They manage the technical matters of ship building.
- Their family name comes from Odam (a type of small ship previously used in interactions/trade between the Malabar coast and Lakshadweep).
- They are also referred to as Mappila Khalasis as majority of them are Mappila Muslims.
Try this PYQ:
Q.With reference to ‘Changpa’ community of India, consider the following statement:
- They live mainly in the State of Uttarakhand.
- They rear the Pashmina goats that yield fine wool.
- They are kept in the category of Scheduled Tribes.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here.
Back2Basics: Geographical Indication (GI)
- A GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
- Nodal Agency: Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry
- India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 w.e.f. September 2003.
- GIs have been defined under Article 22 (1) of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.
- The tag stands valid for 10 years.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: India china border areas
Mains level: Chinese Transgression, India's preparedness and challenges
Context
- There has been yet another transgression by Chinese troops across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China. That it culminated in violence, that it took place this time in the Eastern Sector of their boundary dispute, or that it should take place in the middle of winter should surprise no one. If there is one lesson that can be drawn from India’s experiences with Chinese transgressions over the last decade or so, it is that the Chinese seem to set the pace on the nature and timing of these transgressions.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
Army’s statement about the clash
- On December 9, 2022, People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops contacted the LAC in the Tawang sector, which was contested by own troops in a firm and resolute manner.
- This face-off led to minor injuries to a few personnel from both sides,” “Both sides immediately disengaged from the area.”
Events of Chinese transgressions: Need to understand the nature and timing
- Depsang in Ladakh, 2013: Chinese troops came across the LAC, pitched tents and refused to move for several weeks until New Delhi threatened to cancel the planned visit of Premier Li Keqiang to India. This might have been a diplomatic victory for the Indian government but it also highlighted the inability of the Indian military to bring an end to the standoff or the unwillingness of the government to let the military take the lead in responding.
- Chumar in Ladakh, Sept, 2014 in the middle of the Xi Jinping’s first visit to India: Chinese intruded at Chumar, also in Ladakh, in the middle of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to India. This was in keeping with a reasonably long tradition of Chinese transgressions during important visits but it was also notable for confronting Indian troops in an area where they enjoyed a degree of military advantage.
- Doklam in 2017: China provoked India with infrastructure development in a third country in Bhutan’s Doklam territory. This was a case of China trying to browbeat an Indian treaty ally.
- Transgression across multiple locations in 2020 and Galwan valley clash: The Chinese PLA took advantage of Covid-19 and a lack of Indian military alertness to transgress across multiple locations on the LAC in eastern Ladakh. On June 15, 2020 episode when 20 Indian soldiers were killed and several others were injured in violent clashes with the PLA troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley.
- Status quo along the boundary are no longer going to be limited to the Western Sector: China has traditionally been active in areas close to Ladakh given the significance of the Xinjiang-Tibet region in its domestic narrative. However, with its sights on an ageing Dalai Lama, and the issue of his succession, Beijing will want to bring into focus its claims on Tawang, and the rest of Arunachal Pradesh.
- Huge investment in infrastructure in eastern sector: China has invested in infrastructure in the Eastern Sector over many years. This includes rail, road, and air connectivity, better telecommunications, as well as improved capacity to station and supply troops and artillery.
- Centrality of the boundary issue in the India-China relationship: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has repeatedly asserted that it is no longer possible to separate the boundary question from the overall relationship and that peace and tranquillity on the LAC is the key to restoring relations. However, China is likely to keep up the pressure on the ground along the LAC, even as they continue to suggest that the two countries look beyond the differences, much like Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s comments during his March 2022 visit when he claimed that the two sides need to “inject more positive energy” into the relationship.
India’s preparedness and learnings from the incident
- Indian Army anticipated such kind of transgression in eastern sector: The Indian Army had for long anticipated that the PLA would activate the eastern sector of the LAC, and to that extent, it is evident that steps were taken to beef up military preparedness in the region.
- Light on what gaps to address: What the incident has effectively achieved though is the lighting up of one more section of the LAC at a time the issues in Ladakh have not yet been settled, from the point of view of India.
- China appears not want to disengage: After 16 rounds of talks, a disengagement has taken place in eastern Ladakh, but it has not restored the status quo that prevailed in April 2020. China, for its part, appears reluctant to hold any further rounds of talks on the leftover problems in Ladakh, including its play in Depsang and Demchok areas.
- China is only increasing the economic gap between itself and India: China has only increased the economic gap between itself and India and in the intervening years, not only built up more infrastructure in its border provinces but also tried to integrate these regions much more closely with neighbouring economies such as Pakistan and Nepal through grand projects such as the Belt and Road Initiative and pressuring Thimphu to open formal diplomatic ties with Beijing.
Way ahead
- India’s relationship with China has been teetering from bad to worse over the last 32 months since the standoff in Ladakh began, and it seems unlikely to improve unless Beijing’s calculus vis a vis India and the region undergoes a drastic change.
- While Delhi’s G20 leadership may bring opportunities for engagement with Beijing, what is required first is a clear vision and a grand strategy to deal with the China challenge, instead of reacting to each crisis as it emerges.
Conclusion
- With its sights on an ageing Dalai Lama, and the issue of his succession, Beijing will want to bring into focus its claims on Arunachal Pradesh. The border stand-off seems to have been managed for now, but Delhi needs a clear vision, grand strategy to deal with China instead of reacting to each crisis as it emerges.
Mains question
Q. There has been yet another transgression by Chinese troops across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China. Why China has opened new front in eastern sector? Discuss.
(Click) FREE1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WPA, FRA, CITES, etc.
Mains level: Issues with wildlife conservation , forests rights and criminalization laws
Context
- Rajya Sabha passed the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021. The Lok Sabha had passed the Bill in the Monsoon Session. While aspects of protecting species against wildlife trade in line with international standards have scrutinised by civil society, MPs and the Parliamentary Standing Committee, the impact of the criminal legal framework fostered by the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) is less known.
- The latest amendment invests in this conception of protected areas and species by adding to the list of protected species and augmenting the penal repercussions.
- The Bill amends the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 by increasing the species protected under the law.
- There are 50 amendments to the Act proposed in the Bill.
- Substituting the definition of ‘Tiger and other Endangered Species’ to ‘Wild Life’, this Bill includes flora, fauna and aqua under its protection.
- The Bill also regulates wild life trade as per the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
Criminal laws and wildlife conservation in latest amendment
- Criminal laws remain unchallenged: The need for criminal laws to assist wildlife conservation has remained unchallenged since its conception.
- Human- animal conflict not interpreted correctly: From regulated hunting to complete prohibition and the creation of ‘Protected Areas (PA)’ where conservation can be undertaken without the interference of local forest-dwelling communities, State and Forest Department control over forests and the casteist underpinnings of conservation would not have been possible without criminal law. In this context, pitting wildlife species against communities as human-animal conflict has eluded the true cost of criminalisation under the WPA.
- Questionable WPA’s policing framework: The recent move to increase penalties by four times for general violations (from ₹25,000 to ₹1,00,000) and from ₹10,000 to ₹25,000 for animals receiving the most protection should raise questions about the nature of policing that the WPA engenders.
Study by the Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project (CPA Project) in Madhya Pradesh
- Records found says forest dwellers are majority of accused in wildlife related crimes: found that persons from oppressed caste communities such as Scheduled Tribes and other forest-dwelling communities form the majority of accused persons in wildlife-related crimes.
- Found that forest department use threat of criminalisation for cooperation: The Forest Department was found to use the threat of criminalisation to force cooperation, apart from devising a system of using community members as informants and drawing on their loyalty by employing them on a daily wage basis.
- Cases filed not only for serious crimes: Cases that were filed under the WPA did not pertain solely to the comparatively serious offence of hunting; collecting wood, honey, and even mushrooms formed the bulk of prosecution in PAs.
- Cases files are still pending: Over 95% of the cases filed by the Forest Department are still pending.
- Most cases filed were for hunting were lesser protected animals: Hunting offences that were primarily filed against Schedule III and IV animals (wild boars) which have lesser protection than tigers and elephants formed over 17.47% of the animals ‘hunted’ between 2016-20. Among the animals hunted the highest, only one in top five belonged to Schedule I (peacock). Surprisingly, fish (only certain species relegated to Schedule I) formed over 8% of the cases filed. A whopping 133 cases pertaining to fishing (incorrectly classified as Schedule V species) were filed in the last decade in Madhya Pradesh.
- Making FRA subservient to the WPA: Forest rights, individual and collective, as part of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) were put in place to correct the injustice meted out by forest governance laws. These rights recognised forest-dependent livelihoods. But in inviolate PAs, making the FRA subservient to the WPA, thereby impeding its implementation.
What is forest rights Act, 2006?
- Recognizing rights of forest dwelling communities: The Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 recognizes the rights of the forest dwelling tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers to forest resources, on which these communities were dependent for a variety of needs, including livelihood, habitation and other socio-cultural needs.
- Aim to balance rights and protect: It aimed to protect the marginalised socio-economic class of citizens and balance the right to environment with their right to life and livelihood.
- Individual rights: The Act encompasses Rights of Self-cultivation and Habitation which are usually regarded as Individual rights.
- Community forest rights: Community Rights as Grazing, Fishing and access to Water bodies in forests, Habitat Rights for PVTGs, Traditional Seasonal Resource access of Nomadic and Pastoral community, access to biodiversity, community right to intellectual property and traditional knowledge, recognition of traditional customary rights and right to protect, regenerate or conserve or manage any community forest resource for sustainable use.
Conclusion
- Criminal cases filed by the department are rarely compounded since they are meant to create a ‘deterrent effect’ by instilling fear in communities. Fear is a crucial way in which the department mediates governance in protected areas, and its officials are rarely checked for their power. Unchecked discretionary policing allowed by the WPA and other forest legislations have stunted the emancipatory potential of the FRA. Any further amendments must take stock of wrongful cases (as in the case of fishing) and resultant criminalization of rights and lives of forest dwelling communities.
Mains question
Q. Briefly explain the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2022. Illustrate with an example how criminal laws and wildlife conservation are working under the Wildlife Protection Act and Forest Rights Act.
(Click) FREE1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Urban rural manufacturing shift, advantages and challenges
Context
- There is growing evidence to suggest that the most conspicuous trend in the manufacturing sector in India has been a shift of manufacturing activity and employment from bigger cities to smaller towns and rural areas. This ‘urban-rural manufacturing shift’ has often been interpreted as a mixed bag, as it has its share of advantages that could transform the rural economy, as well as a set of constraints, which could hamper higher growth.
Recent data by Annual Survey of Industries for 2019-20
- In terms of capital: The rural segment is a significant contributor to the manufacturing sector’s output. While 42% of factories are in rural areas, 62% of fixed capital is in the rural side.
- In terms of value addition: In terms of output and value addition, rural factories contributed to exactly half of the total sector.
- In terms of employment: In terms of employment, it accounted for 44%, but had only a 41% share in the total wages of the sector.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
- A report on manufacturing shift brought out by World Bank: The movement of manufacturing away from urban locations was brought out by the Work Bank in a report a decade ago, “Is India’s Manufacturing Sector Moving Away from Cities? Policy Research Working Paper, World Bank).
- Higher urban-rural cost caused this shift: This study investigated the urbanisation of the Indian manufacturing sector by “combining enterprise data from formal and informal sectors and found that manufacturing plants in the formal sector are moving away from urban areas and into rural locations, while the informal sector is moving from rural to urban locations”. Their results suggested that higher urban-rural cost ratios caused this shift.
- Steady investment in rural areas: This is the result of a steady stream of investments in rural locations over the last two decades.
- Input costs are relatively less in rural area: Rural areas have generally been more attractive to manufacturing firms because wages, property, and land costs are all lower than in most metropolitan areas.
- Factory floorspace supply constraints: When locations get more urbanised and congested, the greater these space constraints are.
- Increased capital intensity of production: The driving force behind such a shift is the continuing displacement of labour by machinery as a result of the continuous capital investments in new production technologies. In cities, factories just cannot be expanded as opposed to rural areas.
How this trend is a welcome sign?
- Fulfilling the need of balanced development: Given the size of the Indian economy and the need for balanced regional development, the dispersal of manufacturing activities is a welcome sign.
- Created an opportunity for small scale industries to survive after liberalization: In the aftermath of trade liberalisation, import competition intensified for many Indian manufacturers, forcing them to look for cheaper methods and locations of production. One way to cut costs was to move some operations from cities to smaller towns, where labour costs are cheaper.
- Source of livelihood diversification in rural area: The shift in manufacturing activities from urban to rural areas has helped maintain the importance of manufacturing as a source of livelihood diversification in rural India.
- Make up for loss of employment: This trend helped to make up for the loss of employment in some traditional rural industries. The growth of rural manufacturing, by generating new jobs, thus provides an economic base for the transition out of agriculture
What are the challenges ahead and a solution to it?
- While the input cost is less but the cost of capital is high, offsetting the benefits: Though firms reap the benefits of lower costs via lower rents, the cost of capital seems to be higher for firms operating on the rural side. This is evident from the shares in rent and interest paid. The rural segment accounted for only 35% of the total rent paid, while it had 60% of the total interest payments. The benefits reaped from one source seem to be offset by the increased costs on the other front.
- Skill shortages in rural area: There exists an issue of “skills shortage” in rural areas as manufacturing now needs higher skilled workers to compete in the highly technological global ‘new economy’. Manufacturers who need higher skilled labour find that rural areas cannot supply it in adequate quantities. Manufacturers who depend only on low-wage workers simply cannot sustain their competitive edge for longer periods as this cost advantage vanishes over time.
- Solution to this issue lies in skill development: This suggests the need for clear solutions to the problems of rural manufacturing and the most important is the provision of more education and skilling for rural workers. A more educated and skilled rural workforce will establish rural areas’ comparative advantage of low wages, higher reliability and productivity and hasten the process of the movement out of agriculture to higher-earning livelihoods
Conclusion
- Given the size of the Indian economy and the need for balanced regional development, the dispersal of manufacturing activities is a welcome sign. However, the compulsions of global competition often extend beyond the considerations of low-wage production and depend on the virtues of ‘conducive ecosystems’ for firms to grow.
Mains Question
Q. There is growing evidence to suggest that the trend in the manufacturing sector in India has been a shift of manufacturing activity and employment from bigger cities to smaller towns and rural areas. Discuss the reasons for this trend and note down the challenges ahead.
(Click) FREE1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Recusal of Judges
Mains level: Read the attached story
A Supreme Court judge recused herself from hearing a writ petition filed by Bilkis Bano against the decision to prematurely release 11 men sentenced to life imprisonment for gang-raping her during the 2002 riots.
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.
Back2Basics: Bilkis Bano Case
- Bilkis Bano is a gangrape survivor of the 2002 riots in Gujarat. Rioters brutally attacked Bilkis and her family, raped the women and killed many of them.
- Her case was taken up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Supreme Court. Later, the Supreme Court transferred the investigation to the CBI and the case to Mumbai to facilitate a free and fair trial.
- Eleven men were convicted by the trial court and sentenced to life. The Bombay High Court confirmed their life terms in 2017.
- In 2019, the Supreme Court awarded compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Bilkis — the first such order in a case related to the 2002 riots.
- The convicts were later released after the state government’s remission to them for spending more than 15 years in jail.
Issues with this remission
- Causality of a heinous crime: The remission runs contrary to the spirit of contemporary thinking on treating crimes against women and children as so heinous that the perpetrators should not be considered for remission.
- Whimsy release: The CrPC does permit premature release in the form of remission or commutation in life sentences, but it should be based on a legal and constitutional scheme, and not on a ruler’s whimsy.
- Political considerations: It would be unjustified if given for political considerations merely because of elapse of the minimum number of years they have to serve.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: OIC
Mains level: Pakistani narrative for Kashmir
India strongly condemned the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation chief’s visit to Line of Control (LoC) from the Pakistani side.
What is OIC?
- The OIC — formerly Organisation of the Islamic Conference — is the world’s second-largest inter-governmental organization after the UN, with a membership of 57 states.
- The OIC’s stated objective is “to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world”.
- OIC has reserved membership for Muslim-majority countries. Russia, Thailand, and a couple of other small countries have Observer status.
India and OIC
- At the 45th session of the Foreign Ministers’ Summit in 2018, Bangladesh suggested that India, where more than 10% of the world’s Muslims live, should be given Observer status.
- In 1969, India was dis-invited from the Conference of Islamic Countries in Rabat, Morocco at Pakistan’s behest.
- Then Agriculture Minister Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was dis-invited upon arrival in Morocco after Pakistan President Yahya Khan lobbied against Indian participation.
Recent developments
- In 2019, India made its maiden appearance at the OIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Abu Dhabi, as a “guest of honor”.
- This first-time invitation was seen as a diplomatic victory for New Delhi, especially at a time of heightened tensions with Pakistan following the Pulwama attack.
- Pakistan had opposed the invitation to Swaraj and it boycotted the plenary after the UAE turned down its demand to rescind the invitation.
- Earlier this year, the ousted Pakistani PM called a OIC summit which ended up without any remarks.
What is the OIC’s stand on Kashmir?
- It has been generally supportive of Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir and has issued statements criticizing India.
- Last year, after India revoked Article 370 in Kashmir, Pakistan lobbied with the OIC for their condemnation of the move.
- To Pakistan’s surprise, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — both top leaders among the Muslim countries — issued nuanced statements, and were not as harshly critical of New Delhi as Islamabad had hoped.
- Since then, Islamabad has tried to rouse sentiments among the Islamic countries, but only a handful of them — Turkey and Malaysia — publicly criticized India.
How has India been responding?
- India has consistently underlined that J&K is an integral part of India and is a matter strictly internal to India.
- The strength with which India has made this assertion has varied slightly at times, but never the core message.
- It has maintained its “consistent and well known” stand that the OIC had no locus standi.
- India asserts that- OIC has become a “mouthpiece” of Pakistan and that the organisation has been taking “blatantly communal, partisan and factually incorrect approach to issues”.
OIC members and India
- Individually, India has good relations with almost all member nations. Ties with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, especially, have looked up significantly in recent years.
- The OIC includes two of India’s close neighbors, Bangladesh and Maldives.
- Indian diplomats say both countries privately admit they do not want to complicate their bilateral ties with India on Kashmir but play along with OIC.
Way ahead
- India now sees the duality of the OIC as untenable, since many of these countries have good bilateral ties and convey to India to ignore OIC statements.
- But these countries sign off on the joint statements which are largely drafted by Pakistan.
- India feels it important to challenge the double-speak since Pakistan’s campaign and currency on the Kashmir issue have hardly any takers in the international community.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Loan Write-Off
Mains level: NPAs
Banks have written off bad loans worth ₹10,09,511 crore during the last five financial years, finance minister informed the Parliament.
What is a loan write-off?
- Writing off a loan essentially means it will no longer be counted as an asset.
- By writing off loans, a bank can reduce the level of non-performing assets (NPAs) on its books.
- The bank moves the defaulted loan, or NPA, out of the assets side and reports the amount as a loss.
- An additional benefit is that the amount so written off reduces the bank’s tax liability.
- The loans written off by the banks are the depositors’ money.
Why do banks resort to write-offs?
- Recovery issues: The bank writes off a loan after the borrower has defaulted on the loan repayment and there is a very low chance of recovery. However, the chances of recovery from written-off loans are very low.
- Provisioning: After the write-off, banks are supposed to continue their efforts to recover the loan using various options. They have to make provisioning as well.
- Reduce tax liability: The tax liability will also come down as the written-off amount is reduced from the profit.
Who is at the forefront of write-offs?
- Public sector banks reported the lion’s share of write-offs at Rs 734,738 crore accounting for 72.78 per cent of the exercise.
- Among individual public sector banks, reduction in NPAs due to write-offs in the case of State Bank of India Rs 204,486 crore in the last five years.
- Among private banks, ICICI Bank’s reduction in NPAs due to write-offs was Rs 50,514 crore in the last five years.
- Axis Bank wrote off Rs 49,715 crore and HDFC Bank Rs 34,782 crore during the period, according to the RBI.
What about recovery of such loans?
- Since the loan account is not closed in write-off, the right to recovery of the amount is not waived by the lender or the bank.
- The bank or lender can try to recover the loan amount from the loan defaulter.
Back2Basics: Non-Performing Assets (NPAs)
- A NPA is a loan or advance for which the principal or interest payment remained overdue for a period of 90 days.
- Banks are required to classify NPAs further into Substandard, Doubtful and Loss assets.
- Substandard assets: Assets which has remained NPA for a period less than or equal to 12 months.
- Doubtful assets: An asset would be classified as doubtful if it has remained in the substandard category for a period of 12 months.
- Loss assets: As per RBI, “Loss asset is considered uncollectible and of such little value that its continuance as a bankable asset is not warranted, although there may be some salvage or recovery value.”
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fusion Energy
Mains level: Clean energy developments
US announced a “major scientific breakthrough” in the decades-long quest to harness fusion, the energy that powers the sun and stars.
What is Fusion?
- Fusion works by pressing hydrogen atoms into each other with such force that they combine into helium, releasing enormous amounts of energy and heat.
- This process occurs in our Sun and other stars.
- Creating conditions for fusion on Earth involves generating and sustaining a plasma.
- Plasmas are gases that are so hot that electrons are freed from atomic nuclei.
How is it carried out?
- Three conditions must be fulfilled to achieve fusion in a laboratory:
- Very high temperature (on the order of 150,000,000° Celsius);
- Sufficient plasma particle density (to increase the likelihood that collisions do occur); and
- Sufficient confinement time (to hold the plasma, which has a propensity to expand, within a defined volume).
- At extreme temperatures, electrons are separated from nuclei and a gas becomes a plasma—often referred to as the fourth state of matter.
- Fusion plasmas provide the environment in which light elements can fuse and yield energy.
Fusion Energy
- The process releases energy because the total mass of the resulting single nucleus is less than the mass of the two original nuclei.
- The leftover mass becomes energy.
What did the US achieve?
- The US experiment uses a process called inertial confinement fusion.
- It involved bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser.
Why is it perceived as energy of the future?
- Carbon free: Fusion Reactions could one day produce nearly limitless, carbon-free energy, displacing fossil fuels and other traditional energy sources.
- Efficient: Net energy gain has been an elusive goal because fusion happens at such high temperatures and pressures that it is incredibly difficult to control.
- Clean: Unlike other nuclear reactions, it doesn’t create radioactive waste.
Fusion still far from reality. Why?
- Significant though the achievement is, it does little to bring the goal of producing electricity from fusion reactions any closer to reality.
- By all estimates, use of the fusion process for generating electricity at a commercial scale is still two to three decades away.
- The technology used in the US experiment might take even longer to get deployed.
India’s progress: ITER project
- International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today.
- The idea for an international joint experiment in fusion was first launched in 1985.
- In southern France, 35 nations* are collaborating to build the world’s largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion.
- ITER is funded and run by seven member parties: China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Base Editing
Mains level: Not Much
A teenage cancer patient suffering from T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) has defeated her seemingly incurable cancer with the help of base editing technique.
Base Editing
- Bases are the language of life. The four types of base – adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T) – are the building blocks of our genetic code.
- Just as letters in the alphabet spell out words that carry meaning, the billions of bases in our DNA spell out the instruction manual for our body.
- Base editing allows scientists to zoom to a precise part of the genetic code and then alter the molecular structure of just one base, converting it into another and changing the genetic instructions.
- The large team of doctors and scientists used this tool to engineer a new type of T-cell that was capable of hunting down and killing cancerous T-cells.
What is T-Cell?
- T (thymus) cells are type of white blood cell.
- They are part of the immune system and develop from stem cells in the bone marrow.
- They help protect the body from infection and may help fight cancer.
- Also called T lymphocyte and thymocyte.
How base editing helped this teenage cancer patient?
- Doctors started with healthy T-cells that came from a donor and set about modifying them.
- The first base edit disabled the T-cells targeting mechanism so they would not assault patient’s body.
- The second removed a chemical marking, called CD7, which is on all T-cells.
- The third edit was an invisibility cloak that prevented the cells being killed by a chemotherapy drug.
- The final stage of genetic modification instructed the T-cells to go hunting for anything with the CD7 marking on it so that it would destroy every T-cell in patient’s body – including the cancerous ones.
- That’s why this marking has to be removed from the therapy – otherwise it would just destroy itself.
- If the therapy works, the patient’s immune system – including T-cells – will be rebuilt with the second bone-marrow transplant.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Geminids meteoric shower
Mains level: Not Much
Bengalurians are all set to witness the annual Geminids meteor shower.
What are meteor showers?
- Meteors are usually fragments of comets.
- As they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, they burn up, creating a spectacular “shower”.
- Meteors come from leftover comet particles and bits from asteroids.
- When these objects come around the Sun, they leave a dusty trail behind them.
- Every year Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere where they disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky.
What makes the Geminids unique?
- Geminids is one of the brightest and most reliable annual meteor showers.
- They are unique because unlike most meteor showers, they originate not from a comet, but from an asteroid, the 3200 Phaethon.
- The 3200 Phaethon was discovered on October 11, 1983.
- It is named after the Greek mythology character Phaethon, son of the Sun God Helios.
- It takes 1.4 years to complete one round of the Sun.
- As the 3200 Phaethon moves close to the Sun while orbiting it, the rocks on its surface heat up and break off.
- When the Earth passes through the trail of this debris, the Geminids are caused.
Why are they called Geminids?
- That comes from the constellation Gemini, from whose location in the sky the meteor shower appears to originate.
- The constellation for which a meteor shower is named only serves to aid viewers in determining which shower they are viewing on a given night.
- The constellation is not the source of the meteors.
Back2Basics:
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: India: UK FTA and advantages for India
Context
- The ties between India and the UK are often described as a Living Bridge, a dynamic economic force of people, businesses and ideas. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi drives forward plans to make India a developed nation within the next 25 years and the UK forges deeper trade relationships around the globe, our connections are growing stronger every day.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
Background: How India-UK trade relationship taking shape in recent time?
- Enhanced trade relationship: India and the UK are two of the largest economies on the planet. Economic relationship between the two is reaching new heights with an enhanced trade partnership.
- Minimised trade barriers: Both have lowered several trade barriers, pledged to bring down many more and set an ambitious target to double the value of India-UK trade by 2030.
- Opening up opportunities in UK: Since then, Indian firms, including established businesses and recent startups, have been finding opportunities in the UK.
- Business and investment in India: British businesses in fields ranging from food to financial services are expanding and investing in India. The car manufacturer, McLaren, which has just opened a showroom in Mumbai, is one example.
- FTA’s beneficial for future and mutual growth: An India-UK free trade agreement is a natural next step for both, bringing two nations with extraordinary plans for their futures closer still.
What are Free trade agreements (FTA)?
- Free trade agreements are agreements between the two or more countries or trading blocks that primarily agrees to eliminate or reduce customer tariff and non-tariff barriers on substantial trade between them.
Importance of Free Trade Agreements
- FTA include multiple trade aspects: FTAs cover a wide array of topics such as tariff reduction impacting the entire manufacturing and the agricultural sector; rules on services trade; digital issues such as data localization; intellectual property rights that may have an impact on the accessibility of drugs; and investment promotion, facilitation, and protection.
- Great impact on economy and society: Consequently, an FTA has a far-reaching impact on the economy and society. Given this, one legitimately expects transparency and greater scrutiny of the FTA process both during and after the negotiations.
- Greater market access works both ways: Prime Minister Modi has urged Indian businesses to export their products to the world with “zero-effect, zero-defect”. In other words, high-quality goods with no environmental impact. A free trade agreement between our nations could further help achieve this target. It would help Indian firms to sell to a market that imported almost £820 billion of goods and services from around the world in the last 12 months on record.
- UK will aid in the ongoing India’s economic progress: The Indian economy’s future is an exciting one, with the prospect of new technologies, growing businesses and better jobs for its citizens. The UK has the skills and experience to aid this progress. A deal that’s right for both could make it cheaper and easier for ambitious Indian businesses to tap into this expertise. It is also only right that the millions of SMEs that power India’s economy benefit from a deal.
- Investment in one another’s economy will multiply the opportunities: The British cybersecurity solutions firm, Telesoft Technologies, has just said it will pump £10 million into its India subsidiary over the next five years supporting a growing telecoms sector. A free trade agreement that smooths British and Indian firms’ path to invest in one another’s economy would mean such opportunities multiply.
- FTA can be a force of primary economic growth in uncertain times: A free trade agreement’s value cannot be measured entirely in rupees and pounds. Covid-19’s impact on supply chains, slow global economic growth and volatile markets mean we are living in uncertain times, where free trade could be the primary force of prosperity throughout history. It will help to build the long-term security that people around the world need right now.
Conclusion
- In the economic uncertainty, free trade can be considered as answer to building the long-term security that people around the world need right now. In this, the year of its 75th anniversary since Independence and its G20 Presidency, India is on a path to a new economic future. It would be great to have UK alongside on this journey, as we together can use trade to benefit our citizens and the world.
Mains question
Q. Trade between India and UK is on upward trend. Free trade agreement between the two will surely benefit both the countries. How India can take advantage of the FTA between the two?
(Click) FREE1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Competition Commission of India
Mains level: Issues of big techs market dominance, use, store and transfer consumer data
Context
- The Indian anti-trust body, the Competition Commission of India (CCI)’s move, in October, to impose a penalty of ₹1,337.76 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position in the android mobile device ecosystem, has forced us, once again, to rethink the market power of Big Tech companies.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
Background: Acknowledging the big tech company’s market distorting abilities
- India did not account for network effect of big techs: When India established the CCI under the Indian Competition Act 2002, it was to protect and promote competition in markets, and prevent practices that hinder competition. However, it did not account for the network effect of Big Tech companies as a force to reckon with.
- Countries are realised their market dominance and moved to transform competition law: As their market dominance increased rather exponentially, the European Union, the United States, and even Australia realised their market-distorting abilities and moved to transform their competition law.
- For instance, European union’s Digital market Act: The EU’s Digital Market Act and “gatekeepers” who will enforce rules and regulations ex-ante to foresee anti-competitive practices is an example.
- CCI is the competition regulator in India.
- It is a statutory body responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 and promoting competition throughout India and preventing activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India.
- It was established on 14 October 2003. It became fully functional in May 2009.
Big techs and the Market dominance issue
- Market dominance is natural but gets hazy when its abused: In any free economy, market dominance is natural but things get hazy when it is abused to prevent competition.
- Google’s case: As the CCI says, the intent of Google’s business was to make users on its platforms abide by its revenue-earning service, i.e., an online search to directly affect the sale of their online advertising services. Thus, network effects, along with a status quo bias, created significant entry barriers for competitors to enter or operate in the markets concerned.
- Fundamental role of pricing and as a determinant of competition: Predatory pricing entails the lowering of prices that forces other firms to be out competed. Amazon and Flipkart were accused of deep discounting and creating in-house brands to compete with local sellers. Only recently, the CCI raided their offices in an anti-competition probe, leading to Amazon being forced to cut its ties with Cloudtail.
- Consumers consent has no value: A crucial aspect of self-preferencing beyond the search algorithms is the bundling of services, especially with pre-installed apps, where the manufacturers eliminate competition without the consumer’s consent. Apple is facing heat in the U.S. and Europe over pre-installed apps after Russia forced Apple to provide third-party apps at the time of installation.
Use of data, issue of consumer protection
- Big techs self-asserted right to use, store and transfer consumers data: While the data economy has evolved, we have not dealt with its regulation as effectively. There is sensitive data stored on these platforms (financial records, phone location, and medical history). Big corporations have asserted ownership of the right to use or transfer this data without restriction.
- Data greed as a motivation: While one might attribute it to efficiency barriers, the greed for data is a motivation. Further, the storage and collection of women’s and children’s data need to be dealt with more cautiously to build a safe digital place.
- Market distortions lead to data monopoly and poor quality of services: Market distortion can also lead to poorer quality of services, data monopoly, and stifle innovation.
Steps to ensure a level playing field and consumer protection in the age of digital transformation?
- Urgent to need to prevent market failures and mitigate possible anti-competitive act: While the competition laws address that anomaly, they are too slow to respond in complex technical sectors. By the time an order is passed, the dominant player has gained an edge — as in the case of Google. Thus, in this context, there is an urgent need for ex-ante legislation to prevent market failures and mitigate possible anti-competitive conduct.
- Harmony of the competition law and e-commerce rule: For a consumer, there is a need to establish harmony of the Competition law with the new Consumer Protection Act 2020 and e-commerce rules. The new law should include a mechanism to ensure fair compensation for consumers who face the brunt of the anti-competitive practices of the Big Techs. This should ensure that the penalties and restrictions being imposed on companies also ensure proportionate compensation for consumer losses.
- Ensure a level playing field for local sellers: Pricing plays a fundamental role in defining the position of any digital platform in the marketplace. It is essential to establish an ex-ante framework to ensure a level playing field for local sellers. The Government’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform is a reliable option for these small players.
- New laws and provisions for digital marketplace: There is an urgent need to contextualise the law to the digital marketplace and devise new provisions with adequate ex-ante legislation. The EU has already noted this need through the Digital Markets Act. It is time that similar legislation is adopted in India.
Prelims shot: What is “ONDC”?
- Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) seeks to promote open networks, which are developed using the open-source methodology.
- The project is aimed at curbing “digital monopolies”.
- This is a step in the direction of making e-commerce processes open-source, thus creating a platform that can be utilized by all online retailers.
- They will encourage the usage of standardized open specifications and open network protocols, which are not dependent on any particular platform or customized one.
Conclusion
- Witnessing the big tech’s ability of market distortion, data monopoly and market dominance, Country’s competition laws need to be vigilant through an ex-ante framework to ensure highest consumer protection. With India now on the cusp of a digital transformation, it is essential that the country a level-playing field to ensure a fair opportunity for new-age start-ups and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Issues in public health management
Context
- A failure to examine and interpret public health problems from a population perspective is leading to ineffective and unsustainable solutions as far as complex public health problems are concerned. There is a strong tendency in public health to prioritise individual-oriented interventions over societal oriented population-based approaches, also known as individualism in public health.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
- Micronutrient supplementation at Individualistic level instead sustainable approach at public level: Problems such as undernutrition, for which individualist solutions such as micronutrient supplementation and food fortification have been proposed as solutions in lieu of sustainable approaches such as a strengthening of the Public Distribution System, supplementary nutrition programmes, and the health services.
- Diagnosis and treatment than the solutions that modify health behaviours: Similar is the case with chronic disease control, wherein early diagnosis and treatment is the most popular solution, with little scope for solutions that can modify health behaviours (through organised community action).
Recent evidences that show individualism is preferred over population-based approach
- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY): A nationwide publicly-funded insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) falls under Ayushman Bharat. It is the largest health insurance scheme in the country covering hospitalisation expenses for a family for ₹5 lakh a year. The goal is to ensure ‘free’ curative care services for all kinds of hospitalisation services so that there is no financial burden to the beneficiary.
- Approach needed: What is not talked about in the entire scheme is the need for hospitalisation services per year for any population.
- Approach preferred: Instead, every individual is given an assurance that if there is a need for hospitalisation expenses, the scheme will cover the expenses, highlighting the risk/probability of every individual facing hospitalisation in a year.
- Individualistic response: This is an individualistic response to the problem of hospitalisation expenditure faced by populations. This becomes obvious when one examines the data on annual hospitalisation across populations.
- vaccination for COVID-19 unlike other vaccinations: It was evident that a COVID-19 vaccine cannot prevent people from getting the disease but only reduce hospitalisation and deaths in the event of contracting COVID-19.
- Approach needed: To effectively manage COVID-19, what was needed was to have primary, secondary, and tertiary health-care facilities to manage the above proportion of cases. This is what a population-based approach to epidemic would be focusing on.
- Approach preferred: Instead, by focusing on a vaccination programme for the entire population, it is again an assurance and a promise to every individual that even if you get COVID-19, you will not need hospitalisation and not die. Even after the entire crisis, not much is talked about in terms of the grossly inadequate health-care infrastructure to ensure the necessary primary, secondary and tertiary care services for COVID-19 patients, in turn leading to many casualties.
- Individualistic response: The entire focus has been on the success story that every individual is protected from hospitalisation and death achieved through vaccine coverage. Most of the deaths due to COVID-19 are a reflection of the failure to offer ventilator and ICU support services to the 1%-2% in desperate need of it. Curative care provisioning is never planned at an individual level as epidemiologically, every individual will not necessarily need curative care every time. The morbidity profile of a population across age groups is an important criterion used to plan the curative care needs of a population.
What the data on population hospitalization suggests?
- Episode of hospitalization a year: Data from the National Sample Survey Organisation (75th round) show that on an average, only 3% of the total population in India had an episode of hospitalisation in a year (from 1% for Assam to 4% for Goa and 10% for Kerala the need also a function of availability). The proportion hovers around 3%-5% across most Indian States.
- Population based healthcare planning is necessary: This is population-based health-care planning. Instead, giving an assurance to every individual without ensuring the necessary health-care services to the population is not really helping in a crisis.
Determinants of individualistic approach
- Misconception in philosophy of public health: The dominance of biomedical knowledge and philosophy in the field of public health with a misconception that what is done at an individual level, when done at a population level, becomes public health. This is despite the contrasting philosophy and approaches of clinical medicine and public health and the evidence that support the latter and must be based on population characteristics and economic resources.
- Visibility impact and mistake of judging a population’s characteristics: Health effects are more visible and appear convincing at the individual level, wherein improvements at the population level will be clear only after population-level analysis; this needs a certain level of expertise and orientation about society an important skill required for public health practitioners.
- Market’s role and the effect of consumerism in public health practice: The beneficiaries for a programme become the maximum when 100% of the population is targeted. Instead of making efforts to supply evidence of the actual prevalence of public health problems, market forces would prefer to cast a wide net and cover 100% of beneficiaries. Propagating individualism has always been a characteristic feature of a consumerist society as every individual can then be a potential ‘customer’ in the face of risk and susceptibility.
Conclusion
- The need of the hour is population-level planning, which means, population as a single unit needs to be considered. All forms of individualistic approaches in public health need to be resisted to safeguard its original principles of practice, viz. population, prevention, and social justice.
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: LAC
Mains level: LAC skirmishes
The Indian troops deployed in the area of face-off in Tawang sector gave a befitting response to the Chinese troops and the number of Chinese soldiers injured in the clash is more than the Indian soldiers.
Increased clashes at LAC
- In January 2021, Indian and Chinese troops were involved in a face-off in a disputed stretch in Nakula area of North Sikkim.
- In 2017, troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction area which even triggered fears of a war between the two neighbours.
What is LAC- the Line of Actual Control?
- The LAC is the demarcation that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory.
- India considers the LAC to be 3,488 km long, while the Chinese consider it to be only around 2,000 km.
- It is divided into three sectors: the eastern sector which spans Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, the middle sector in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and the western sector in Ladakh.
- The LAC is only a concept – it is not agreed upon by the two countries, neither delineated on a map nor demarcated on the ground.
When did India accept the LAC?
- The LAC was discussed during Chinese Premier Li Peng’s 1991 visit to India, where PM P V Narasimha Rao and Li reached an understanding to maintain peace and tranquillity at the LAC.
- India formally accepted the concept of the LAC when Rao paid a return visit to Beijing in 1993 and the two sides signed the Agreement to Maintain Peace and Tranquillity at the LAC.
- The reference to the LAC was unqualified to make it clear that it was not referring to the LAC of 1959 or 1962 but to the ‘LAC’ at the time when the agreement was signed.
- To reconcile the differences about some areas, the two countries agreed that the Joint Working Group on the border issue would take up the task of clarifying the alignment of the LAC.
Issues with LAC
- India’s claim line is the line seen in the official boundary marked on the maps as released by the Survey of India, including both Aksai Chin and Gilgit-Baltistan.
- In China’s case, it corresponds mostly to its claim line, but in the eastern sector, it claims entire Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet.
- However, the claim lines come into question when a discussion on the final international boundaries takes place, and not when the conversation is about a working border, say the LAC.
Why is LAC so disputed?
- The delineation of the LAC has also not been done based on the accepted norms of control.
- This has resulted in the existence of a number of areas of differing perceptions all across the LAC which is the primary cause of conflict.
- China has changed its documented stance and has been looking for justifications for the conflict escalation.
Worry for India
- China is developing infrastructure in the Indian-claimed areas.
- Moreover, it is being developed at an unprecedented pace by China in these areas.
- These are potential sovereignty markers which will be a restricting factor for future negotiations.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Western Disturbances
Mains level: Not Much
The days have been unusually warm for winter in New Delhi with the maximum temperature remaining above normal mostly on account of fewer western disturbances affecting this year.
Western Disturbances
- A western disturbance is an extratropical storm originating in the Mediterranean region that brings sudden winter rain to the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent.
- They are labelled as an extra-tropical storm originating in the Mediterranean, is an area of low pressure that brings sudden showers, snow, and fog in northwest India.
- In the term “extra-tropical storm”, storm refers to low pressure. “Extra-tropical” means outside the tropics. As the WD originates outside the tropical region, the word “extra-tropical” has been associated with them.
- It is a non-monsoonal precipitation pattern driven by the westerlies.
- The moisture in these storms usually originates over the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.
- Extratropical storms are global phenomena with moisture usually carried in the upper atmosphere, unlike their tropical counterparts where the moisture is carried in the lower atmosphere.
- In the case of the Indian subcontinent, moisture is sometimes shed as rain when the storm system encounters the Himalayas.
- Western disturbances are more frequent and strong in the winter season.
Impact: Winter Rainfall and Extreme Cold
- Western disturbances, specifically the ones in winter, bring moderate to heavy rain in low-lying areas and heavy snow to mountainous areas of the Indian Subcontinent.
- They are the cause of most winter and pre-monsoon season rainfall across northwest India.
- An average of four to five western disturbances forms during the winter season.
Its significance
- Precipitation during the winter season has great importance in agriculture, particularly for the rabi crops.
- Wheat among them is one of the most important crops, which helps to meet India’s food security.
Try this PYQ:
Consider the following statements:
- The winds which blow between 30°N and 60°S latitudes throughout the year are known as westerlies.
- The moist air masses that cause winter rains in the North-Western region of India are part of westerlies.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) Only 1
(b) Only 2
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Post your answers here.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CM Breakfast Scheme
Mains level: Mid-day meal program
This newscard talks for replicating Tamil Nadu’s CM breakfast scheme in other states.
CM’s Breakfast Scheme
- The scheme covers around 1.14 lakh students in 1,545 schools which include 417 municipal corporation schools, 163 municipality schools and 728 taluk and village panchayat-level schools.
- The inauguration of the scheme marks an important milestone in the State’s history of providing free meals to school students.
How has the idea evolved?
(a) Pre-independence
- In November 1920, the Madras Corporation Council approved a proposal for providing tiffin to the students of a Corporation School at Thousand Lights at a cost not exceeding one anna per student per day.
- Theagaraya Chetty, the then President of the Corporation and one of the stalwarts of the Justice Party, said the boys studying at the school were poor, which affected the strength of the institution ‘greatly’.
- The scheme, which was extended to four more schools and facilitated higher enrollment of students.
(b) Post-independence
- The concept saw a Statewide application in 1956 when the then CM K. Kamaraj decided to provide free noon meal to poor children in all primary schools across the State.
- The Budget for 1956-57 contained a provision for supplying mid-day meals to schoolchildren for 200 days a year, initially covering 65,000 students in 1,300 feeding centres.
- In July 1982, it was left to the then CM MG Ramachandran to extend the programme to children in the 2-5 age group in Anganwadis and those in 5-9 age group in primary schools in rural areas.
- Subsequently, the scheme now called Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Nutritious Meal Programme — was extended to urban areas as well.
- Since September 1984, students of standards VI to X have been covered under the scheme.
Beneficiaries of the programme
- As of now, there are nearly 7 lakh beneficiaries spread over 43,190 nutritious meal centres.
- This includes around 3,500 students of National Child Labour Project (NCLP) special schools.
- Besides, as a consequence of the collaborative implementation of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and the nutritious meal programme, around 15.8 lakh children in the age group of 2+ to 5+ years receive nutritious meals.
Impact on school education
- Rise in enrolment: After the improved version of the mid-day meal scheme in 1982, the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) at primary level (standards I to V) went up by 10% during July-September, 1982 as compared to the corresponding period in 1981.
- Girls’ enrolment: The rise in boys’ enrollment was 12% and in the case of girls, 7%, according to a publication brought out by the Tamil Nadu government on the occasion of the launch of the Scheme.
- Increase in attendance: Likewise, attendance during July-September 1982 rose by 33% over the previous year’s figure.
Focus areas programme
- Anaemia is a major health problem in Tamil Nadu, especially among women and children, says the 2019-21 National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5’s report.
- From 50% during the period of the 2015-16 NFHS-4, the prevalence of anaemia in children now went up to 57%.
- This and many other health issues can be addressed through the combined efforts of the departments of School Education, Public Health and Social Welfare and Women Empowerment.
- Besides, a continuous and rigorous review of the progress of the scheme and nutritious meal programme should be carried out in a sustained manner.
Why it can be implemented in other states?
- An interesting feature of this scheme is the cost-effective delivery of the service as it is complementary to the existing schemes.
- Further, the income of the Anganwadi workers substantially increased on account of multiple roles played by them.
- In the same way, the morning breakfast scheme makes use of the physical infrastructure (like cooking place and utensils) built for mid-day meals scheme.
Conclusion
- In other words, with small additional expenditure, the government is able to provide substantial benefits to the children
- The scheme must be extended to all the schools in the state.
- Further, the scheme is worth replicating in other states in India.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sri Aurobindo Ghosh
Mains level: NA
PM will participate in a program commemorating Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary.
Sri Aurobindo (1872 –1950)
- Sri Aurobindo Ghose was a philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist.
- He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as Vande Mataram.
- He joined the Indian movement for independence from British colonial rule, until 1910 was one of its influential leaders.
Major activities
- Aurobindo studied for the Indian Civil Service at King’s College, Cambridge, England.
- After returning to India he took up various civil service works under the Maharaja of the Princely state of Baroda.
- He became increasingly involved in nationalist politics in the Indian National Congress and the nascent revolutionary movement in Bengal with the Anushilan Samiti.
- He was arrested in the aftermath of a number of bombings linked to his organization in a public trial where he faced charges of treason for Alipore Conspiracy.
- However, Sri Aurobindo could only be convicted and imprisoned for writing articles against British colonial rule in India.
Try this PYQ:
Q. What was the main reason for the split in the Indian National Congress at Surat in 1907?
(a) Introduction of communalism into Indian politics by Lord Minto
(b) Extremists’ lack of faith in the capacity of the moderates to negotiate with the British Government
(c) Foundation of Muslim League
(d) Aurobindo Ghosh’s inability to be elected as the President of the Indian national Congress
Post your answers here.
Click and get your FREE Copy of CURRENT AFFAIRS Micro Notes
(Click) FREE 1-to-1 on-call Mentorship by IAS-IPS officers | Discuss doubts, strategy, sources, and more
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
Attend Now