Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Wolf warrior diplomacy
Mains level: Read the attached story
Chinese President Xi Jinping will get an endorsement for a third term as President. His “wolf warrior” style of diplomacy has particularly attracted attention.
What does Wolf Warrior’ Diplomacy mean?
- A term that gained popularity, especially after Xi became President, “wolf warrior diplomacy” is a tactic for the Chinese government to extend its ideology beyond China and counter the West and defend itself.
- It is an unofficial term for the more aggressive and confrontational style of communication that Chinese diplomats have taken to in the last decade.
- A 2015 Chinese action film, titled ‘Wolf Warrior’, and its sequel have served as the inspiration for the term.
- The films, with their nationalist themes and dialogues, focus on Chinese fighters who frequently face off against Western mercenaries.
Do you know?
Panchasheel also called the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence was signed on 29p April 1954 and since then it has become a guiding principle of India’s bilateral relations with other countries.
Why China resorts to such diplomacy?
The change in strategy has been attributed to many reasons, such as:
- Xi’s more authoritarian tendencies as compared to earlier leaders
- Deteriorating US-China relations under former US President Donald Trump and
- Coronavirus pandemic-related accusations on China, etc.
What does this look like in practice?
- Some examples can be seen in the form of messaging on social media too, where Chinese officials are quick to counter any allegations by the West and proactively launch attacks.
- For instance, in 2021 Chinese government spokesperson Lijian Zhao tweeted a digitally morphed photo of an Australian soldier killing a child, claiming the Australian army was killing children in Afghanistan.
- This led the Australian Prime Minister to announce he would seek an official apology, but China did not budge.
- But this is not limited to Western countries.
Indian experience
- The new ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’ confronts head-on any criticism of China in the public sphere.
- They lecture host governments and don’t always show up when ‘summoned’ by foreign offices.
- Delhi has been at the receiving end for a while — especially during the recent crises of Doklam and Ladakh.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Windfall taxes
Mains level: Read the attached story
The government raised the windfall tax on domestically-produced crude oil by more than a third while doubling the rate on export of diesel and reintroducing the levy on export of jet fuel (ATF) in line with the rise in international oil prices.
What is a Windfall Tax?
- Windfall taxes are designed to tax the profits a company derives from an external, sometimes unprecedented event — for instance, the energy price-rise as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
- These are profits that cannot be attributed to something the firm actively did, like an investment strategy or an expansion of business.
- The US Congressional Research Service (CRS) defines a windfall as an “unearned, unanticipated gain in income through no additional effort or expense”.
- One area where such taxes have routinely been discussed is oil markets, where price fluctuation leads to volatile or erratic profits for the industry.
When did India introduce this?
- In July this year, India announced a windfall tax on domestic crude oil producers who it believed were reaping the benefits of the high oil prices.
- It also imposed an additional excise levy on diesel, petrol and air turbine fuel (ATF) exports.
- Also, India’s case was different from other countries, as it was still importing discounted Russian oil.
How is it levied?
- Governments typically levy this as a one-off tax retrospectively over and above the normal rates of tax.
- The Central government has introduced a windfall profit tax of ₹23,250 per tonne on domestic crude oil production, which was subsequently revised fortnightly four times so far.
- The latest revision was on August 31, when it was hiked to ₹13,300 per tonne from ₹13,000.
Why govt. introduced windfall tax?
- There have been varying rationales for governments worldwide to introduce windfall taxes like:
- Redistribution of unexpected gains when high prices benefit producers at the expense of consumers,
- Funding social welfare schemes, and
- Supplementary revenue stream for the government
Why are countries levying windfall taxes now?
- Prices of oil, gas, and coal have seen sharp increases since last year and in the first two quarters of the current year, although they have reduced recently.
- Pandemic recovery and supply issues resulting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict shored up energy demands, which in turn have driven up global prices.
- The rising prices meant huge and record profits for energy companies while resulting in hefty gas and electricity bills for households in major and smaller economies.
- Since the gains stemmed partly from external change, multiple analysts have called them windfall profits.
Issues with imposing such taxes
- Companies are confident in investing in a sector if there is certainty and stability in a tax regime.
- Since windfall taxes are imposed retrospectively and are often influenced by unexpected events, they can brew uncertainty in the market about future taxes.
- IMF says that taxes in response to price surges may suffer from design problems—given their expedient and political nature.
- It added that introducing a temporary windfall profit tax reduces future investment because prospective investors will internalise the likelihood of potential taxes when making investment decisions.
- There is another argument about what exactly constitutes true windfall profits; how can it be determined and what level of profit is normal or excessive.
- Another issue is who should be taxed — only the big companies responsible for the bulk of high-priced sales or smaller companies as well— raising the question of whether producers with revenues or profits below a certain threshold should be exempt.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SLBM, INS Arihant
Mains level: India's nuclear triad
The indigenous ballistic missile nuclear submarine INS Arihant has successfully launched a nuclear capable Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) in the Bay of Bengal with very high accuracy.
About INS Arihant
- Launched in 2009 and Commissioned in 2016, INS Arihant is India’s first indigenous nuclear powered ballistic missile.
- It is capable submarine built under the secretive Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project, which was initiated in the 1990s.
- INS Arihant and its class of submarines are classified as ‘SSBN’, which is the hull classification symbol for nuclear powered ballistic missile carrying submarines.
- While the Navy operates the vessel, the operations of the SLBMs from the SSBN are under the purview of India’s Strategic Forces Command, which is part of India’s Nuclear Command Authority.
Its role in India’s nuclear triad
- In November 2019, after INS Arihant completed its first deterrence patrol, the government announced the establishment of India’s “survivable nuclear triad”.
- It completed India’s capability of launching nuclear strikes from land, air and sea platforms.
- This places India in the league of the few countries that can design, construct and operate Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarines (SSBN).
Significance of the test
- The SLBM was launched from the country’s first indigenous Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarine INS Arihant.
- The test is significant for the nuclear ballistic submarine, or SSBN, programme, which is a crucial element of India’s nuclear deterrence capability.
Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs)
- The SLBMs, sometimes called the ‘K’ family of missiles, have been indigenously developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
- The family is codenamed after Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the centre figure in India’s missile and space programmes who also served as the 11th President of India.
- Because these missiles are to be launched from submarines, they are lighter, more compact and stealthier than their land-based counterparts.
- They are lighter compared to the Agni series of missiles which are medium and intercontinental-range nuclear-capable ballistic assets.
Marine Version of SLBM: Sagarika
- Part of the K family is the SLBM K-15, which is also called B-05 or Sagarika.
- It has a range of 750 km.
- INS Arihant can carry a dozen K-15 missiles on board. India has also developed and successfully tested K-4 missiles from the family, which have a range of 3,500 km.
- It is also reported that more members of K-family — reportedly carrying the code names K-5 and K-6, with a range of 5,000 km and 6,000 km respectively — are under development.
Strategic significance of the launch
- The capability of being able to launch nuclear weapons submarine platforms has great strategic significance in the context of achieving a nuclear triad.
- This is especially in the light of the “No First Use” policy of India.
- The sea-based underwater nuclear capable assets significantly increases the second strike capability, and thus validates the nuclear deterrence.
- These submarines can not only survive a first strike by the adversary, but can also launch a strike in retaliation, thus achieving ‘Credible Nuclear Deterrence’.
Message to our hostile neighbours
- The development of these capabilities is important in the light of India’s relations with China and Pakistan.
- India’s capacity building on the nuclear powered submarines and of the nuclear capable missile which can be launched from them is crucial for nuclear deterrence.
- China has deployed many of its submarines, including some that are nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable.
Conclusion
- In an era such as this, credible nuclear deterrence is the need of the hour.
- The success of INS Arihant gives a fitting response to those who indulge in nuclear blackmail.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Landfills
Mains level: Hazards of landfill
The remediation of all legacy landfills in India are in full swing and a public dashboard on the progress at 2,200 such sites is in the offing.
What are Landfills?
- A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials.
- Some landfill sites are also used for waste management purposes, such as temporary storage, consolidation and transfer, or for various stages of processing waste material, such as sorting, treatment, or recycling.
Threats posed by landfills
Landfills have the potential to cause a number of issues. Infrastructure disruption, such as damage to access roads by heavy vehicles, may occur amongst others.
1) Leachate
- When precipitation falls on open landfills, water percolates through the garbage and becomes contaminated with suspended and dissolved material, forming leachate.
- If this is not contained it can contaminate groundwater.
2) Decomposition gases
- Rotting food and other decaying organic waste create decomposition gases, especially CO2 and CH4 from aerobic and anaerobic decomposition, respectively.
- Both processes occur simultaneously in different parts of a landfill.
3) Other threats
- Poorly run landfills may become nuisances because of vectors such as rats and flies which can spread infectious diseases.
- The occurrence of such vectors can be mitigated through the use of daily cover.
- Other potential issues include wildlife disruption due to occupation of habitat and animal health disruption caused by consuming waste from landfills, dust, odour, noise pollution, and reduced local property values.
Why clear landfills?
- Once removed, the sites would free up 15,000 acres of land.
- For instance, the largest such landfill, in Mumbai, is spread over 300 acres and contains 2.60 crore tonnes of waste.
- Delhi’s three landfills — Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla — contain around 2.8 crore tonnes of waste.
What is landfill remediation?
The most common methods for the remediation of landfills include:
- Excavation to recover recyclable materials
- Capping to reduce leachate generation
- Air sparging and soil vapor extraction to capture and remediate gases and
- Pump-and-treat of the leachate-contaminated plume
Significance of the portal
- Through the portal, citizens would be able to track the progress of their cities’ action plans for remediation of legacy landfills.
- The plans cover everything from remediation to the eventual reuse of the land.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Neelakurinji
Mains level: Read the attached story
As visitors keep pouring in to witness the blooming of neelakurinji on a vast area on the Kallippara hills at Santhanpara in Idukki, Kerala, an expert team has identified six varieties of the plant across the region.
Neelakurinji
- Kurinji or Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthianus) is a shrub that is found in the shola forests of the Western Ghats in South India.
- Nilgiri Hills, which literally means the blue mountains, got their name from the purplish blue flowers of Neelakurinji that blossoms only once in 12 years.
- It is the most rigorously demonstrated, with documented bloomings in 1838, 1850, 1862, 1874, 1886, 1898, 1910, 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 and 2018
- Some Kurinji flowers bloom once every seven years, and then die. Their seeds subsequently sprout and continue the cycle of life and death.
- The Paliyan tribal people living in Tamil Nadu used it as a reference to calculate their age.
Threats to Neelakurinji
- About 1,000 ha of forestland, grantis and eucalyptus plantations and grasslands have been destroyed in the fire.
- These large-scale wildfires on the grasslands where Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiiana) blossomed widely last year after a period of 12 years could have wiped out all the seeds of the endemic flowers.
- There are allegations that the areas coming under the proposed Kurinji sanctuary were set on fire with a motive to destroy the germination of Neelakurinji seeds.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Cyber security,Right to privacy,Technology
Context
- In a bid to upgrade the Indian Telegraph Act 1885, a law that is more than a century old, the Department of Telecommunications, or DoT, issued the Draft Indian Telecommunications Bill 2022 on 21 September. Among other things, the proposed legislation brings digital communications applications like Signal and Telegram under telecommunications law and regulation and treats them like internet and telecom service providers and broadcasters.
What are the Current regulations of communication networks?
- Information Technology Act 2000: Digital communication applications are currently governed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Information Technology Act 2000 where there is no licensing requirement.
- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI): The move has been debated for some years now, with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issuing multiple consultations on the matter, most recently in 2018.
- National Digital Communications Policy in 2018: DoT may have legitimate grounds for extending its jurisdiction over digital communications applications, including a policy mandate established by the National Digital Communications Policy in 2018. However, there is a conflict that must be resolved, namely the jurisdictional overlap between the prospective law and the existing information technology framework.
Why is security of communication networks important?
- National security: Communication networks are a part of our critical information infrastructure which was defined in the IT Act, 2000 as “the computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which, shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety.”
- Protecting critical Infrastructure: Communications networks are crucial to the connectivity of other critical infrastructure, viz. civil aviation, shipping, railways, power, nuclear, oil and gas, finance, banking, communication, information technology, law enforcement, intelligence agencies, space, defence, and government networks. Therefore, threats can be both through the networks as well as to the networks.
- Ready to Information Warfare (IW): Because of the increasing relevance of information technology (IT) to people’s lives, individuals who take part in IW are not all soldiers and that anybody who understands computers may become a fighter.
- To stop the adverse impact on information system: IW is inexpensive as the targeted party can be delivered a paralysing blow through the net and it may be difficult for the latter to discern where the attack originated. Large amount of useless information can be created to block or stop the functioning of an adversary’s information system.
- For Possible mass mobilisation: Thus, a People’s War in context of IW can be carried out by hundreds of millions of people, using open-type modern information systems. Even political mobilisation for war can be achieved via the internet, by sending patriotic e-mail messages and by setting up databases for education.
Why new law is necessary?
- No obligation on communication applications: A key reason for the DoT to bring such applications under telecommunications law is national security. Licensed telecom service providers must provide law enforcement authorities access to their networks and intercept messages in the course of investigations.Conversely, there is a contention that there is no corresponding obligation on digital communications applications, potentially leaving a gap in safeguarding national security interests.
- For increased Encryption and secrecy: A further assertion is that the encryption used by most digital communications apps hampers investigative efforts as it becomes difficult to ascertain user identity on these platforms and stop malfeasance.
- Necessary to Ensure security: The draft telecom bill attempts to address this gap by including a provision which enables the government to undertake measures in the name of national security, including issuing directions regarding the use of any telecommunication service.
- Licensing for more transparency: Presumably, licences issued for digital communications applications under the proposed legislation will prescribe conditions that would require these apps to give law enforcement authorities access to their systems for monitoring and intercepting communications.
- Existing law is sufficient: the IT Act already has provisions to enable lawful interception and monitoring of messages sent through digital communications applications. Under Section 69 of the IT Act, the central or state government may issue directions to do so in the interest of preserving, among other things, national security and public order. Moreover, rule 4 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) 2021 requires digital communications applications with 50 lakh users or more to enable identification of those sending messages on their platforms.
- Possible mass surveillance by Government: The implication here is that digital communications apps would have to break encryption and create meaningful pathways for the surveillance of their services. Importantly, while rule 4 has been challenged, it has not been stayed by any court, meaning digital communications apps must comply with it.
- New laws will overlap with IT Act: It would appear, then, that the provisions regarding national security in the draft telecom bill and the IT Act overlap. So how would the situation be resolved, as both have clauses that give them the ability to override provisions in other laws? Specifically, both the Draft Telecom Bill, 2022 and the IT Act have a non-obstante clause, a provision that enables a statute to uphold the enforceability of its provisions over others that contradict it. Thus, in case of a contradiction between these two laws, which would prevail?
- Introducing Digital India Act will likely to override other laws: Reports indicate that MeitY aims to introduce a newer version of the IT Act, namely the ‘Digital India Act’. This law will likely deal with matters related to lawful interception and other matters related to the governance of digital communications applications. If such a law is passed, the ‘Digital India Act’ would override the enacted version of the telecom bill.
- Judicial challenge of acknowledgment: A situation emerges where the telecom bill, if enacted, may face a judicial challenge. Based on the analysis of the court’s treatment of special laws, this proposed legislation is unlikely to prevail as the ‘Digital India Act’ will emerge after it
Conclusion
- National security and privacy of citizens an equally important. One cannot be traded for other. Arbitrary power of surveillance must be regulated by independent body under the parliament which will seek the transparency and accountability from law enforcement authorities.
Mains Question
Q.Unchecked communication networks are grave internal security threat. Comment why new law is necessary for interception and regulation of communication networks in India?
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Role of Women in livestock Rearing,Importance of livestock in Indian Economy.
Context
- The livestock sector is one of the most rapidly growing components of the rural economy of India, accounting for5% of national income and 28% of agricultural GDP in 201819.In the last six years, the livestock sector grew at 7.9% (at constant prices) while crop farming grew by 2%. In rural households that own livestock, women are invariably engaged in animal rearing.
What is mean by Livestock?
- Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting The livestock provides food and non-food items to the people. Food: The livestock provides food items such as Milk, Meat and Eggs for human consumption.
Role of Livestock in Indian Economy
- Livestock plays an important role in Indian economy. About 20.5 million people depend upon livestock for their livelihood. Livestock contributed 16% to the income of small farm households as against an average of 14% for all rural households. Livestock provides livelihood to two-third of rural community. It also provides employment to about 8.8 % of the population in India. India has vast livestock resources. Livestock sector contributes 4.11% GDP and 25.6% of total Agriculture GDP.
DO YOU KNOW?
- India is the world’s largest milk producer, followed by the United States of America, China, Pakistan and Brazil.
- India ranks 1st contributing 23 of the global production. In the last 3 decades, India witnessed over 3 times rise in milk production.
Role of Women in rural economy
- Mostly engaged in agricultural activities: It is widely recognised that the majority of women workers in rural areas (72%) are engaged in agricultural activities. However, with the exception of participation in dairy cooperatives, specifically in milk marketing, women’s role in the livestock economy is not as widely known or discussed.
- Rise in no of women in Dairy cooperatives: There were five million women members in dairy cooperatives in 2015-16, and this increased further to 5.4 million in 202021.Women accounted for 31% of all members of dairy producer cooperatives in 2020-21.In India, the number of women’s dairy cooperative societies rose from 18,954 in 2012 to 32,092 in2015-16.
- Sporadic nature of work: Conventional labour force surveys fail to accurately record women’s work in livestock raising for many reasons. Among the many problems in data collection, two significant ones are the sporadic nature of work undertaken for short spells throughout the day and often carried out within the homestead, and women’ own responses.
- Poor data collection: 12 million rural women were workers in livestock raising an estimate based on the Employment and Unemployment Survey of2011-12. However, with the augmented definition, according to estimates, around 49 million rural women were engaged in raising the livestock.
- Non recognition by policy makers: The problem clearly is that women livestock farmers are not visible to policymakers, and one reason is the lack of gender disaggregated data.
What are the Problems associated with women and livestock rearing?
- No specific data on women in the livestock economy: Recent employment surveys such as the Periodic Labour Force Survey fail to collect data on specific activities of persons engaged primarily in domestic duties. So, the undercounting of women in the livestock economy continues.
- Lack of Training: the reach of extension services to women livestock farmers remains scarce. According to official reports, 80,000 livestock farmers were trained across the country in 2021, but we have no idea how many were women farmers. only a few women in each village reported receiving any information from extension workers. Women wanted information but wanted it nearer home and at times when they were free.
- Difficulty to avail loans: women in poor households, without collateral to offer to banks found it difficult to avail loans to purchase livestock. Around 15 lakh new Kisan Credit Cards(KCC) were provided to livestock farmers under the KCC scheme during 2020-22.There is no information on how many of them were women farmers.
- Lack of technical knowledge: Women livestock farmers lacked technical knowledge on choice of animals (breeding) and veterinary care. Men invariably performed these specific tasks and took animals for artificial insemination.
- No active role in cooperatives: Women were not aware of the composition and functions of dairy boards and that the men exercised decisions even in women only dairy cooperatives. Further, the voice of women from landless or poor peasant Scheduled Caste households was rarely heard.
What are the Government policies?
- The National Livestock Policy (NLP) : The NLP of 2013, aimed at increasing livestock production and productivity in a sustainable manner, rightly states that around 70% of the labour for the livestock sector comes from women. One of the goals of this policy was the empowerment of women.
- The National Livestock: The National Livestock Mission (NLM) of2014-15 was initiated for the development of the livestock sector with a focus on the availability of feed and fodder, providing extension services, and improved flow of credit to livestock farmers. However, the NLM does not propose any schemes or programmes specific to women livestock farmers.
- Responsibility of state Government: The policy proposes that the State government allocates 30% of funds from centrally sponsored schemes for women. There is no logic for the 30% quota.
Conclusion
- Women’s labour is critical to the livestock economy. It follows then that women should be included in every stage of decision making and development of the livestock sector. Today, women livestock workers remain invisible on account of their absence in official statistics. We must recognise the due role of women in livestock rearing.
Mains Question
Q.How women contribute to rural economy? Despite being a core in animal rearing, why women are yet not recognised in policy framework of government?
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MCC
Mains level: Read the attached story
The Election Commission of India announced the date for Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections 2022. Hence the model code of conduct comes into picture.
Model Code of Conduct
- It is a set of guidelines issued by ECI to regulate political parties and candidates prior to elections.
- The rules range from issues related to speeches, polling day, polling booths, portfolios, content of election manifestos, processions and general conduct, so that free and fair elections are conducted.
When does it come into effect?
- According to the PIB, a version of the MCC was first introduced in the state assembly elections in Kerala in 1960.
- It was largely followed by all parties in the 1962 elections and continued to be followed in subsequent general elections.
- In October 1979, the EC added a section to regulate the ‘party in power’ and prevent it from gaining an unfair advantage at the time of elections.
- The MCC comes into force from the date the election schedule is announced until the date that results are out.
Restrictions imposed under MCC
The MCC contains eight provisions dealing with general conduct, meetings, processions, polling day, polling booths, observers, the party in power, and election manifestos.
For Governments
- As soon as the code kicks in, the party in power whether at the Centre or in the States should ensure that it does not use its official position for campaigning.
- Hence, no policy, project or scheme can be announced that can influence the voting behaviour.
- The code also states that the ministers must not combine official visits with election work or use official machinery for the same.
- The ruling government cannot make any ad-hoc appointments in Government, Public Undertakings etc. which may influence the voters.
- Political parties or candidates can be criticised based only on their work record and no caste and communal sentiments can be used to lure voters.
For Political Parties
- The party must also avoid advertising at the cost of the public exchequer or using official mass media for publicity on achievements to improve chances of victory in the elections.
- The ruling party also cannot use government transport or machinery for campaigning.
- It should also ensure that public places such as maidans etc., for holding election meetings, and facilities like the use of helipads are provided to the opposition parties on the same terms and conditions on which they are used by the party in power.
Campaigning
- Holding public meetings during the 48-hour period before the hour fixed for the closing of the poll is also prohibited.
- The 48-hour period is known as “election silence”.
- The idea is to allow a voter a campaign-free environment to reflect on events before casting her vote
- The issue of advertisement at the cost of public exchequer in the newspapers and other media is also considered an offence.
- Mosques, Churches, Temples or any other places of worship should not be used for election propaganda. Bribing, intimidating or impersonation of voters is also barred.
Is it legally binding?
- The fact is the MCC evolved as part of the ECI’s drive to ensure free and fair elections and was the result of a consensus among major political parties.
- It has no statutory backing. Simply put, this means anybody breaching the MCC can’t be proceeded against under any clause of the Code..
- The EC uses moral sanction or censure for its enforcement.
What if violated?
- The ECI can issue a notice to a politician or a party for alleged breach of the MCC either on its own or on the basis of a complaint by another party or individual.
- Once a notice is issued, the person or party must reply in writing either accepting fault and tendering an unconditional apology or rebutting the allegation.
- In the latter case, if the person or party is found guilty subsequently, he/it can attract a written censure from the ECI — something that many see as a mere slap on the wrist.
- However, in extreme cases, like a candidate using money/liquor to influence votes or trying to divide voters in the name of religion or caste, the ECI can also order registration of a criminal case under IPC or IT Act.
- In case of a hate speech, a complaint can be filed under the IPC and CrPC; there are laws against the misuse of a religious place for seeking votes, etc.
Using powers under Art. 324
- The Commission rarely resorts to punitive action to enforce MCC, there is one recent example when unabated violations forced EC’s hand.
- During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the EC had banned a leader and now party president from campaigning in order to prevent them from further vitiating the poll atmosphere with their speeches.
- The Commission resorted to its extraordinary powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to impose the ban.
- It was only lifted once the leaders apologised and promised to operate within the Code.
What if given Statutory Backing?
- Both the ECI and several independent experts, believe that giving statutory backing to the MCC would only make the job of the Commission more difficult.
- This is because every alleged offence will then have to go to an appropriate court, and right up to the Supreme Court.
- Given the flaws of our legal system, election petitions filed decades ago are still pending before many High Courts — it is anybody’s guess what that situation might lead to.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Living Planet Report, Index
Mains level: Not Much
There has been a 69 per cent decline in the wildlife populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, across the globe in the last 50 years, according to the latest Living Planet Report by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
What is Living Planet Report?
- The Living Planet Report is published every 2 years by the World Wide Fund for Nature since 1998.
- It is based on the Living Planet Index and ecological footprint calculations.
- The report is the world’s leading, science-based analysis, on the health of our planet and the impact of human activity.
Issues raised by various versions of the report
- The 2018 report found a “decline of 60% in population sizes” of vertebrate species overall from 1970 to 2014.
- The tropics of South and Central America had an 89% loss compared to 1970.
- The 2018 report calls for new goals post-2020 alongside those of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
- The 2020 report says systemic changes are necessary to stop the destruction of global wildlife populations, including a complete overhaul of food production and consumption industries.
- The 2022 report found that vertebrate wildlife populations have declined by an average of almost 70% since 1970, and attributes the loss primarily to agriculture and fishing.
What is the Living Planet Index (LPI)?
- The Living Planet Index (LPI) is a measure of the state of the world’s biological diversity based on population trends of vertebrate species from terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats.
- The LPI was adopted by the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) as an indicator of progress towards its 2011-2020 targets.
- It can play an important role in monitoring progress towards the post-2020 goals and targets negotiated at COP15 this December.
| Features of the LPI |
Common misconceptions |
| The LPI is shows the average rate of change in animal population sizes |
The LPI doesn’t show numbers of species lost or extinctions, although some populations do decline to local extinction |
| Species and populations in the LPI show increasing, declining and stable trends |
Not all species and populations in the LPI are in decline |
| About half of the species we have in the LPI show an average decline in population trend |
The LPI statistic does not mean that 69 per cent of species or populations are declining |
| The average change in population size in the LPI is a decline of 69 per cent |
The LPI statistic does not mean that 69% populations or individual animals have been lost |
| The LPI represents the monitored populations included in the index |
The LPI doesn’t necessarily represent trends in other populations, species or biodiversity as a whole |
| The LPI includes data for threatened and non-threatened species – if it’s monitored consistently over time, it goes in! |
The species in the LPI are not selected based on whether they are under threat, but as to whether there is robust population trend data available |
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Eco-sensitive Zones (ESZs)
Mains level: Not Much
The Supreme Court has indicated that it may consider taking up Kerala’s review of the Supreme Court’s judgment to have a 1km eco-sensitive zone ringing protected forests, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries across the country.
What are the Eco-sensitive Zones (ESZs)?
- Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs) are areas notified by the MoEFCC around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
- The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to the protected areas by regulating and managing the activities around such areas.
- They also act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.
How are they demarcated?
- The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 does NOT mention the word “Eco-Sensitive Zones”.
- However, Section 3(2)(v) of the Act, says that Central Government can restrict areas in which any industries, operations or processes or class of industries, operations or processes shall be carried out or shall not, subject to certain safeguards.
- Besides Rule 5(1) of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 states that central government can prohibit or restrict the location of industries and carrying on certain operations or processes on the basis of certain considerations.
- The same criteria have been used by the government to declare No Development Zones (NDZs).
Defining its boundaries
- An ESZ could go up to 10 kilometres around a protected area as provided in the Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2002.
- Moreover, in the case where sensitive corridors, connectivity and ecologically important patches, crucial for landscape linkage, are beyond 10 km width, these should be included in the ESZs.
- Further, even in the context of a particular Protected Area, the distribution of an area of ESZ and the extent of regulation may not be uniform all around and it could be of variable width and extent.
Activities Permitted and Prohibited
- Permitted: Ongoing agricultural or horticultural practices, rainwater harvesting, organic farming, use of renewable energy sources, and adoption of green technology for all activities.
- Prohibited: Commercial mining, saw mills, industries causing pollution (air, water, soil, noise etc), the establishment of major hydroelectric projects (HEP), commercial use of wood, Tourism activities like hot-air balloons over the National Park, discharge of effluents or any solid waste or production of hazardous substances.
- Under regulation: Felling of trees, the establishment of hotels and resorts, commercial use of natural water, erection of electrical cables, drastic change of agriculture system, e.g. adoption of heavy technology, pesticides etc, widening of roads.
What is the recent SC judgment that has caused an uproar in Kerala?
- On June 3, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court heard a PIL that sought to protect forest lands in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, but was later expanded to cover the entire country.
- In its judgment, the court while referring to the 2011 guidelines as “reasonable”, directed all states to have a mandatory 1-km ESZ from the demarcated boundaries of every protected area.
- It also stated that no new permanent structure or mining will be permitted within the ESZ.
- If the existing ESZ goes beyond 1-km buffer zone or if any statutory instrument prescribes a higher limit, then such extended boundary shall prevail, the court, as per the Live Law report, said.
Why are people protesting against it?
- There is a high density of human population near the notified protected areas.
- Farmer’s groups and political parties have been demanding that all human settlements be exempt from the ESZ ruling.
- The total extent of the wildlife sanctuaries in Kerala is eight lakh acres.
- If one-km of ESZ is demarcated from their boundaries, around 4 lakh acres of human settlements, including farmlands, would come within that purview.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GHI
Mains level: Credibility of GHI
India ranks 107 out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index in which it fares worse than all countries in South Asia barring war-torn Afghanistan.
Global Hunger Index (GHI)
- The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
- It determines hunger on a 100-point scale, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.
- It is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
- The aim of the GHI is to trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.
For each country in the list, the GHI looks at four indicators:
- Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
- Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, those who have low weight for their height)
- Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, those who have low height for their age)
- Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five
India’s performance
- India’s child wasting rate (low weight for height), at 19.3%, is worse than the levels recorded in 2014 (15.1%) and even 2000 (17.15),
- It is the highest for any country in the world and drives up the region’s average owing to India’s large population.
- Prevalence of undernourishment has also risen in the country from 14.6% in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021.
- This translates into 224.3 million people in India considered undernourished.
How India performs among its neighbours?
- India’s score of 29.1 places it in the ‘serious’ category. India also ranks below Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84), and Pakistan (99).
- Afghanistan (109) is the only country in South Asia that performs worse than India on the index.
- China is among the countries collectively ranked between 1 and 17 having a score of less than five.
Has India improved somewhere?
- India has shown improvement in child stunting, which has declined from 38.7% to 35.5% between 2014 and 2022, as well as child mortality which has also dropped from 4.6% to 3.3% in the same comparative period.
- On the whole, India has shown a slight worsening with its GHI score increasing from 28.2 in 2014 to 29.1 in 2022.
Reasons for such poor performance
- Poor maternal health: Mothers are too young, too short, too thin and too undernourished themselves, before they get pregnant, during pregnancy, and then after giving birth, during breast-feeding.
- Poor sanitation: Poor sanitation, leading to diarrhoea, is another major cause of child wasting and stunting.
- Food insecurity: Low dietary diversity in India is also a key factor in child malnutrition.
- Poverty: Almost 50 million households in India are dependent on these small and marginal holdings.
- Livelihood loss: The rural livelihoods loss after COVID and lack of income opportunities other than the farm sector have contributed heavily to the growing joblessness in rural areas.
Issues over credibility of GHI
- India has ranked among many African countries while it is among the top 10 food-producing countries in the world.
- The GHI is largely children-oriented with a higher emphasis on under-nutrition than on hunger and its hidden forms, including micronutrient deficiencies.
- The first component — calorie insufficiency — is problematic for many reasons.
- The lower calorie intake, which does not necessarily mean deficiency, may also stem from reduced physical activity, better social infrastructure and access to energy-saving appliances at home, among others.
- For a vast and diverse country like India, using a uniform calorie norm to arrive at deficiency prevalence means failing to recognise the huge regional imbalances in factors that may lead to differentiated calorie requirements at the State level.
Conclusion
- The low ranking does not mean that India fares uniformly poor in every aspect.
- This ranking should prompt us to look at our policy focus and interventions and ensure that they can effectively address the concerns raised by the GHI, especially against pandemic-induced nutrition insecurity
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Carbon Dating
Mains level: Not Much
A Varanasi district court has rejected the plea to conduct carbon-dating of the disputed structure known to have been found inside the premises of the Gyanvapi mosque.
What is Carbon Dating?
- Carbon dating, also called radiocarbon dating is method of age determination that depends upon the decay to nitrogen of radiocarbon (Carbon-14).
- This method was developed by the American physicist Willard F. Libby about 1946.
- Carbon-14 is continually formed in nature by the interaction of neutrons with nitrogen-14 in the Earth’s atmosphere.
- The neutrons required for this reaction are produced by cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere.
How it works?
- Radiocarbon present in molecules of atmospheric carbon dioxide enters the biological carbon cycle: it is absorbed from the air by green plants and then passed on to animals through the food chain.
- Radiocarbon decays slowly in a living organism, and the amount lost is continually replenished as long as the organism takes in air or food.
- Once the organism dies, however, it ceases to absorb carbon-14, so that the amount of the radiocarbon in its tissues steadily decreases.
The half-life concept
- Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 ± 40 years—i.e., half the amount of the radioisotope present at any given time will undergo spontaneous disintegration during the succeeding 5,730 years.
- Because carbon-14 decays at this constant rate, an estimate of the date at which an organism died can be made by measuring the amount of its residual radiocarbon.
Its uses
- It has proved to be a versatile technique of dating fossils and archaeological specimens from 500 to 50,000 years old.
- The method is widely used by geologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and investigators in related fields.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Madal report ,Social Empowerment,Resevations-advantages and Disadvantages
Context
- The social justice discourse in modern India can be traced to the initiatives of social revolutionaries such as Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule, Shahu Maharaj and Periyar, B.R. Ambedkar during colonial rule. But the Mandal politics completely changed the social empowerment of depressed classes.
What is the Mandal way?
- The Mandal Commission: The Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC), was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to “identify the socially or educationally backward classes” of India.
- To address Caste based discrimination: It was headed by B.P. Mandal, an Indian parliamentarian, to consider the question of reservations for people to redress caste discrimination, and used eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine backwardness.
- Recommendation of Other backward classes: In 1980, based on its rationale that OBCs (“Other backward classes”) identified on the basis of caste, social, economic indicators made up 52% of India’s population, the commission’s report recommended that members of Other Backward Classes (OBC) be granted reservations to 27% of jobs under the Central government and public sector undertakings, thus making the total number of reservations for SC, ST and OBC to 49%.
- What Constitution of India says: As per the Constitution of India, Article 15 (4) states, “Nothing in this Article or in clause (2) of Article 29 shall prevent the State from making any provision for the advancement of any socially or educationally backward classes of citizens or for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes”. Hence the Mandal Commission created a report using the data of 1931 census which was last caste wise census and extrapolating same with some sample studies.
- Affirmative action taken: VP Singh was accused of using the Mandal Report which was ignored by the Janta government. It was a social revolution and affirmative action. Earlier 25% population of India which is SC ST was covered and now more than 50% of Other Backward Class came under reservation.
- Witnessed violent protest: The youth went for massive protest in large numbers in the nation’s campuses, resulting in many self-immolations by students.
- What is Mandal 2.0: In 2006, reservations were extended to OBC candidates in institutionsof higher learning popularly known as MandalII.
How mandal politics empowering the social groups?
- Helped to ensure the brotherhood: “Fraternity” as enshrined in the ‘Preamble’ of the Constitution, entails instilling confidence and camaraderie in the all communities. Reservations raised the hope of OBC communities to actively become the part of Government functionaries.
- Increased spending on socially backward group: Public spending is considered a reliable way to measure development. Governments can choose to distribute their limited resources in either economic or social sectors. Economic sectors, like industry, ports, highways, etc., generally support economic growth by attracting private investment. Social sectors like education, healthcare, and social security promote the welfare of the masses. Influential theories in social science argue that working-class coalitions support social welfare (Acemoglu and Robinson 2006, Rueschemeyer et al. 1992). In the Indian context, OBC and SC politicians should be expected to support social spending.
- Increased sensitivity towards backward classes: It is found that places with higher OBC political representation in combination with higher OBC reservation in the bureaucracy are more likely to spend more in social sectors.
- Removing the elite culture: Appointment of lower caste officials at the local level can help in breaking down long-established upper-caste patronage networks and hence potentially reduce ‘elite capture’ of government programmes.
- Built confidence and empowerment: According to IAS officer from Bihar cadre Lower castes would not have dared to enter the office of the DM (district magistrate) or BDO (block development officer). They thought that if they said something, they would be punished. That changed. Now they have the confidence to raise their voice against the DM. They don’t know if their job will get done, but they can enter his office without fear.”
- Statistics: The central list of OBC has 2,633 entries. According to the commission, many of the 2,633 entries comprise several classes, communities and sub-communities, etc, which means the total number of individually named classes/castes in the central list is between 5,000 and 6,000.
- Skewed benefits: 25 per cent of the reservation benefits were availed of by communities listed in 10 entries of the central list. Another 25 per cent were availed of by communities listed in another 38 entries.
- Few communities never got the benefit: The commission also found that 20 per cent of the communities, listed in 983 entries, could not avail of any benefits. Those in another 994 had a share of just 2.68 per cent.
- 1% but 50% reservation: Just about 40 of 5,000-6,000 castes/communities among the OBCs (other backward classes) — which constitute less than 1 per cent — have cornered 50 per cent of the reservation benefits in admissions to central educational institutions and recruitment to central services, a panel constituted by the government has found.
Conclusion
- Reservation is definitely an affirmative action to end the social discrimination. But it cannot continue forever. It’s high time that we should strictly enforce the creamy layer categorisation both in OBC and SC, ST reservations.
Mains Question
Q.How reservation helps in social empowerment of backward class? Describe the powers and functions of National Commission for backward class in India.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Population prospectus,NFHS report
Mains level: Declining fertility,Population prospectus and development
Context
- Earlier this year, the United Nations published data to show that India would surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2023.According to the 2018-19Economic Survey, India’s demographic dividend will peak around2041, when the share of the working age population is expected to hit 59%.
What is the Present status of India’s population?
- Declining Total fertility rate (TFR): The Total fertility rate (TFR) has declined from 2.2 (reported in 2015-16) to 2.0 at the all- India level, according to the latest National Family Health Survey of India OR NFHS- 5 (phase 2) released by Union Health Ministry.1.6 in urban areas2.1 in Rural area and 2.0 all India.
- Sex ratio: There are 1,020 women per 1,000 men in India according to the recently released Fifth Edition (NFHS-5). Such a sex ratio has not been recorded in any of the previous four editions of the NFHS.
Need for population control measures
- At present, India hosts 16% of the world’s population with only 2.45% of the global surface area and 4% of water resources.
- The ecosystem assessments also pointed out the human population’s role in driving other species into extinction and precipitating a resource crunch.
- So, the population explosion would irreversibly impact India’s environment and natural resource base and limit the next generation’s entitlement and progress. Therefore, the government should take measures to control the population.
What will be the Impact of declining fertility?
- Implications on Political economy: It’s not just the economic implications that we need to think about but also the implications of the political economy.
- Spatial difference: India’s fertility fell below 2.1 births for certain States 10 years ago. In four other States, it’s just declining. So, not only is the fertility falling, the proportion of the population that will be living in various States is also changing.
- North-south imbalance: The future of India lies in the youth living in U.P., Bihar, M.P. If we don’t support these States in ensuring that their young people are well educated, poised to enter the labour market and have sufficient skills, they will become an economic liability.
How India can take advantage of its demographic dividend?
- Investing In literacy: If China hadn’t invested in literacy and good health systems, it would not have been able to lower its fertility rates. In any case, we have much to learn from China about what not to do.
- Planning for elderly: Especially in the case of the elderly, where the estimates show that12% of India’s total population by 2025 is going to be the elderly. Every fifth Indian by 2050 will be over the age of 65. So, planning for this segment merits equal consideration.
- Focusing on gendered dimension: India certainly has the capacity to invest in its youth population. But we don’t recognise the gender dimension of some of these challenges. Fertility decline has tremendous gender implications.
- Lowering the Burdon on women: What it means is that women have lower burden on them. But it also has a flip side. Ageing is also a gender issue as two thirds of the elderly are women, because women tend to live longer than men do. Unless we recognise the gender dimension, it will be very difficult for us to tap into these changes.
- Educating the young girls: So, what do we need to do? India has done a good job of ensuring educational opportunities to girls. Next, we need to improve employment opportunities for young women and increase the female employment rate. Elderly women need economic and social support networks.
Do we really need the population policy?
- Existing policy is right: India has a very good population policy, which was designed in 2000. And States also have their population policies. We just need to tweak these and add ageing to our population policy focus. But otherwise, the national population policy is the right policy.
- Reproductive health is important: What we need is a policy that supports reproductive health for individuals. We also need to start focusing on other challenges that go along with enhancing reproductive health, which is not just the provision of family planning services.
- Avoiding the stigma: We need to change our discourse around the population policy. Although we use the term population policy, population control still remains a part of our dialogue. We need to maybe call it a policy that enhances the population as resource for India’s development, and change the mindset to focus on ensuring that the population is happy, healthy, productive
- Thinking beyond two child policy: Our arguments and discussions have not gone beyond the two-child norm. The two-child norm indicates a coercive approach to primarily one community. And there are too many myths and misconceptions around population issues, which lead to this discourse, which takes away attentions of from real issues.
Way forward
- Family welfare approach: We need to move from a family planning approach to a family welfare approach. We should be focusing on empowering men and women in being able to make informed choices about their fertility, health and wellbeing.
- Thinking about automation: As fertility drops and life spans rise globally, the world is ageing at a significant pace. Can increasing automation counteract the negative effects of an ageing population or will an ageing population inevitably end up causing a slowdown in economic growth? We need to look at all of that.
- Changing the mindset: We are where we are, so let’s plan for the wellbeing of our population instead of hiding behind the excuse that we don’t have good schooling or health because there are too many people. That mindset is counterproductive.
- Skill development and making population productive: It is not about whether the population is large or small; it is about whether it is healthy, skilled and productive. Thomas Malthus had said as the population grows, productivity will not be able to keep pace with this growth, and we will see famines, higher mortality, wars, etc. Luckily, he proved to be wrong.
- Adhering to the Cairo consensus: Cairo International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 stressed population. The Cairo Consensus called for the promotion of reproductive rights, empowering women, universal education, maternal and infant health to untangle the knotty issue of poverty and high fertility. The consensus also demands an increase in the rate of modern contraceptive prevalence, male contraception. States instead of releasing population control measures can start to adhere to implementing the Cairo consensus.
- Adopting Women-Centric Approach: Population stabilisation is not only about controlling population growth, but also entails gender parity. So, states need to incentivize later marriages and childbirth, promoting women’s labor force participation, etc.
- Seeing Population as a Resource rather than Burden:
- As the Economic Survey, 2018-19, points out that India is set to witness a sharp slowdown in population growth in the next two decades.
- Further, population estimates also predict a generational divide between India’s north and south, Fifteen years from now.
- So instead of population control policies at the state level, India needs a universal policy to utilize population in a better way.
Conclusion
- We have the capacity to tap into the potential of our youth population. There is a brief window of opportunity, which is only there for the next few decades. We need to invest in adolescent wellbeing right away, if we want to reap the benefits. Otherwise, our demographic dividend could turn easily into a demographic disaster.
Mains Question
Q.Why India’s fertility rate is declining? How India can convert its demography into opportunity by investing in gendered based population policy?
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Regulation of Online speech,freedom of speech,Public awareness
Context
- The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has mooted two proposals for governance of online speech government appointed grievance appellate committees (GAC) and the industry self-regulatory body (SRB) seek to preclude this contest in favour of a unilateral government and industry agenda.
What is an online speech?
- A recorded online speech is delivered, recorded, and then uploaded to the Internet for later viewing. Examples are TED Talks and presentations in online or blended speech classes.
- Such speech are recorded or sometimes made in real time using various social media platforms.
How unregulated online speech is becoming dangerous day by day?
- Gendered disinformation and harassment campaigns: Impacting the mental health, job performance, and if and how they engage with online spaces.
- GLAAD’s 2021 Social Media Safety Index says: 64% of LGBTQ social media users reported experiencing harassment and hate speech, including on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
- Contributing to communal violence: In countries like India and Sri Lanka, failure to remove and prevent the amplification of harmful content can contribute to profound offline consequences, including violence and death.
- Setting up Grievance appellate committees (GAC): The GACs, as per the draft issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), will be constituted by the central government and will serve as an appellate body against decisions of various social media platforms.
- Appointing Self-regulatory body by social Media platforms(SRB)?: As the name suggests, industries such as twitter, meta etc will appoint their own personnel and constitute the self-regulatory body to hear the grievances against the social media posts.
What are the Criticism over GAC and SRB?
- Lack of substantive framework: Not only has the government not laid down a substantive policy with objectively defined contours of forbidden speech, the government wants the right to apply this highly subjective criteria on individual pieces of content and/or users.
- Unreasonable removal of content: It is notable that the government has already arrogated this right and routinely issues take down orders (without providing rationale) to social media platforms to take down or block content with minimal pushback from platforms.
- Serving the Governments agenda: However, the national security, public order logic of takedowns does not apply to reinstatement of content/users proactively blocked by the platforms and it is likely that an additional purpose of the GACs is to provide an institutional avenue for the ruling government machinery to get a set of aligned accounts/content reinstated instead of just takedowns.
- Such regulations are said to be Non-democratic: It is evident that the GAC doesn’t meet even minimal standards of democratic legitimacy and should be scrapped. The industry SRB proposal too lack democratic legitimacy.
- Profit before public interest: Platforms have repeatedly shown themselves to be driven by profit motives, which are often at odds with public interest. It is thus likely that such a platform-led body will try and maximise the interests of the industry and individual platforms as opposed to the interests of the Indian people.
- It will increase Government’s unrestrained powers: Notwithstanding Twitter’s plea in Karnataka High Court against Centre’s “disproportionate use of power” to issue “overbroad and arbitrary” content-blocking orders, the track record of platforms in India of resisting government pressure has been very poor.
- For example recent Twitter episode: For instance, a former safety head with Twitter reportedly told US regulators that Twitter put a government agent on its payroll under duress.
- High Chances of Government’s pressure: The SRB may act as a rubber stamp providing false legitimacy for covert government pressure while the binding nature of SRB orders will make it easier for the government to exercise pressure on a single lever to ensure compliance across all platforms.
- Lack of consensus in SRB: The other real possibility is that such a body will be a non-starter, wracked by internal dissensions or non-compliance and thus pave the way for the government GAC. This possibility is indicated by the divergent views of the constituent platforms.
What are the Suggestions?
- Relooking the proposals: It is evident that neither of the two proposals meet the minimum standards of democratic legitimacy and need to be rethought.
- Follow the democratic way: Given the centrality of free speech in a democracy, no government or private body can have unmitigated right to make decisions regarding the contours of acceptable speech. The argument that an elected government has earned the executive right to determine standards of speech like other policy decisions is fallacious because speech is the only democratic way to contest the government itself.
- Least government interference: The governance of speech, including setting standards and implementation, must thus sit squarely outside the ambit of government.
- Independent body answerable to parliament: This can be achieved through a statutory regulator answerable to Parliament.
- Standard operating procedure to remove content: In the meantime, there has to be transparency in the manner content moderation decisions are taken, including the takedown orders issued by the government.
Conclusion
- The current proposals are preoccupied with policing individual pieces of content whereas the impact of social media platforms on our information ecosystems is fundamental. Social media platforms now play an increasingly interventionist role in amplifying certain voices and our public debate must move forward to review structural issues affecting information ecosystems.
Mains Question
Q.What are the perils of unrestrained online speech? Critically analyse the recent proposals by government to regulate the free speech.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: Hijab Row
The Supreme Court has delivered a split verdict in the Karnataka hijab ban case with one of the two judges on the Bench upholding the March 15 order of the Karnataka HC validating the government’s ban, and the other set aside the HC ruling.
What lies next?
- With the divided bench, the matter has now been directed to be placed before Chief Justice of India (CJI).
What is a Split Verdict?
- A split verdict is passed when the Bench cannot decide one way or the other in a case, either by a unanimous decision or by a majority verdict.
- Split verdicts can only happen when the Bench has an even number of judges.
- This is why judges usually sit in Benches of odd numbers (three, five, seven, etc.) for important cases, even though two-judge Benches — known as Division Benches — are not uncommon.
After the verdict
- In case of a split verdict, the case is heard by a larger Bench.
- The larger Bench to which a split verdict goes can be a three-judge Bench of the High Court, or an appeal can be preferred before the Supreme Court.
- In the case of the hijab verdict, the CJI, who is the ‘master of the roster’, will constitute a new, larger Bench to hear the matter.
Earlier cases with a split verdict
- In May, a two-judge Bench of the Delhi HC delivered a split verdict in a batch of petitions challenging the exception provided to marital rape in the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
- Justice Rajiv Shakdher held that the exception under Section 375 (which deals with rape) of the IPC is unconstitutional, while Justice C Hari Shankar held that the provision is valid.
About the ‘split’ ruling
- While Justice Hemant Gupta dismissed the appeals challenging the Karnataka High Court order, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed them.
- In his judgment, Justice Dhulia referred to the Bijoe Emmanuel case, saying it “squarely covers the issue”.
What is the Bijoe Emmanuel verdict?
- The Bijoe Emmanuel case came before up a Bench comprising Justices O. Chinnappa Reddy and M M Dutt in 1986.
- The court granted protection to three children of the Jehovah’s Witness sect who did not join in singing the national anthem at their school.
- The court held that forcing the children to sing the national anthem violated their fundamental right to religion.
- V J Emmanuel, the father of the children pleaded with the court that for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, only Jehovah should be worshipped.
- Since the anthem is a prayer, the children would stand up in respect when it was playing. However, their faith did not allow them to sing it.
- The Supreme Court had said that while the Kerala HC had examined whether or not the national anthem contained any word or thought, which could offend anyone’s religious susceptibilities, it had misdirected itself as that was not the question at all.
Why the hijab case should be heard by a larger Bench?
First and foremost, the matter should be heard by a larger Bench preferably 5 judges as-
- It has to be decided whether the right to practice religion can intertwine with the right and autonomy of educational institutions to decide their uniform.
- While private institutions have the autonomy to decide on the uniform, the court needs to study and decide whether such issues should be looked at in a uniform manner.
- Considering the complexities of the matter which also involves several issues such as female dignity, freedom of expression, and the school’s right to decide on the uniform.
- A Constitution Bench would also have the right to re-examine the Emmanuel verdict which was delivered by a two-judge Bench.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Krishi Satellite Program
Mains level: Space applications for agriculture
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proposed dedicated satellites for supporting the country’s agriculture sector.
Bharat Krishi Satellite Programme
- Minimum of two satellites are stipulated to guarantee adequate coverage of the entire agricultural area of the country.
- They will aid a gamut of farm-related activities related to crop forecasting, pesticide application, irrigation, soil data, and generation of critical data related to drought.
- The satellites will be owned by the Department of Agriculture and not by ISRO. The ISRO will provide the technical support.
- An ‘Earth Observation Council’ be created for addressing the current deficiencies in earth observation capabilities and data utilisation.
- Such a council can tackle shortcomings in this area in a centralised manner.
Why need such program?
Current deficiencies include:
- Discontinuity in earth observation missions
- Low utilisation of available remote sensing data
- Technology gaps and
- Absence of a streamlined mechanism for data processing and dissemination as required by the industry
Applications of space for agriculture
Satellites in use
| Satellite Type |
Satellite |
Objectives |
| Multispectral imaging satellite |
Resourcesat-2 & Resourcesat-2A |
Multispectral imaging for crop production forecast, land, water and natural resource inventory and management, and disaster management support |
| Cartography satellite |
Cartosat-1 |
High resolution cartographic mapping, digital elevation mapping – drainage and irrigation networks, topographic mapping and contouring |
| Radar imaging |
RISAT-1 |
All weather imaging capability targeted for kharif crop (June to November) during south-west and north-east monsoon seasons. Flood and natural disaster management |
| Meteorological forecasting |
Kalpana-1 |
Comprehensive weather status reporting and forecasting |
| Meteorological observation |
INSAT-3D & INSAT-3DR |
Improved meteorological observations including vertical – temperature and humidity–atmosphere weather forecasting and disaster warning |
Issues in harmonizing space technology
- India’s satellite data is sequestered within the government.
- The private sector has limited access to it, even though it plays an increasing role in the country’s agriculture value chain.
Various govt programs
- Following are some of the programs that are functioning in full spirit-
- In 2017, these insular projects were integrated into a single entity, the National Programme on use of Space Technology for Agriculture (NPSTA).
| NPSTA Constituent Programmes |
Goals of the constituent Programme |
| National Programme on use of Space Technology for Agriculture (NPSTA) |
Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based observations (FASAL) |
Crop Forecasting |
| National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring Systems (NADAMS) |
Drought Assessment |
| Coordinated programme on Horticulture Assessment and Management using Geoinformatics (CHAMAN) |
Horticulture assessment and development |
| C(K)rop Insurance using Space technology and Geoinformatics (KISAN) now incorporated into Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna |
Crop Insurance |
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GHGs relased by Stubble Burning
Mains level: Delhi Air Pollution issue
To prevent stubble burning, the Union Environment Ministry announced a ₹50 crore scheme on to incentivise industrialists and entrepreneurs to set up paddy straw pelletization and torrefaction plants.
What is Stubble Burning?
- Stubble (parali) burning is a method of removing paddy crop residues from the field to sow wheat from the last week of September to November.
- It is usually required in areas that use the combined harvesting method which leaves crop residue behind.
- This practice mostly carried out in Punjab, Haryana and UP contributes solely to the grave winter pollution in the national capital.
Emissions from stubble burning
- The process of burning farm residue is one of the major causes of air pollution in parts of north India, deteriorating the air quality.
- Stubble burning is a significant source of carbon dioxide (CO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and hydrocarbons (HC).
Despite emissions, why do farmers burn stubble?
- Crop residue burning is practised by the farmers to prepare the land for the next cultivation.
- The major reason behind the stubble burning is the short time available between rice harvesting and sowing of wheat as delay in sowing wheat affects the wheat crop.
- Between the harvesting of the paddy crop and the sowing of the next crop, there is only a two to three weeks’ time window is left.
- Even though farmers are aware that the burning of straw is harmful to health, they do not have alternatives for utilizing them effectively.
- The farmers are ill-equipped to deal with waste because they cannot afford the new technology that is available to handle the waste material.
- Therefore, stubble burning is considered one of the cheapest methods to clean the field after the harvesting season.
Impact of stubble burning
- Air Pollution: Stubble burning emits toxic pollutants in the atmosphere containing harmful gases like Carbon Monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds (VOC). These pollutants disperse in the surroundings and eventually affect air quality and people’s health by forming a thick blanket of smog. Along with vehicular emissions, it affects the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital and NCR.
- Soil degradation: Soil becomes less fertile and its nutrients are destroyed when the husk is burned on the ground. Organic content of soil is completely destroyed. Stubble burning generates heat that penetrates into the soil, causing an increase in erosion, loss of useful microbes and moisture.
Alternative solutions
- Power generation: The available paddy straw can be effectively used for power generation, which will go a long way towards overcoming the problem of disposal of crop residues and power deficit in the region.
- In-situ decomposition: Suitable machinery for collection, chopping and in situ incorporation of straw is required. We can use Pusa Biodecomposer, Biomethanation etc.
- Organic manuring: Convert the removed residues into enriched organic manure through composting.
Conclusion
- Unless financial assistance is to be provided by the Centre for boosting farm mechanization, it is difficult to completely stop stubble burning.
- States need to make alternative arrangements for the consumption of paddy straw into the soil as per the directions of the NGT.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NGLV, PSLV, SSLV, GSLV
Mains level: Not Much
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is developing a Next-Gen Launch Vehicle (NGLV), which will one day replace operational systems like the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
What is the news?
- PSLV, often dubbed the ‘trusted workhorse’, “will have to retire” one day, said ISRO chairman.
What is NGLV?
- NGLV will feature a simple, robust design that allows bulk manufacturing, modularity in systems, sub-systems and stages and minimal turnaround time.
- Potential uses will be in the areas of launching communication satellites, deep space missions, future human spaceflight and cargo missions.
What all modifications would be required?
- In NGLV, ISRO is understood to be looking at a cost-efficient, three-stage, reusable heavy-lift vehicle with a payload capability of 10 tonnes to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).
- NGLV will feature semi-cryogenic propulsion for the booster stages which is cheaper and efficient.
- For that, at least 10 tonne capability to GTO is needed.
- Correspondingly, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) capability will be twice that.
- However, payload capability will be lower when the rocket is reusable.
Back2Basics: Various satellite launch vehicles in India
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Rythu Bharosa
Mains level: Read the attached story
Ethiopian Agricultural Minister is in Andhra Pradesh (AP) to study the first-of-its-kind Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs).
What are Rythu Bharosa Kendras?
- Set up for the first time in the country, the RBKs are unique seeds-to-sales, single-window service centres for farmers that have been set up across the state.
- They are a one-stop solution to all farmers’ needs and grievances. RBKs sell pre-tested quality seeds, certified fertilisers and animal feed.
- Farmers can purchase or hire farm equipment, and even sell their produce at the prevailing MSP in the RBKs.
- The RBKs provide services like soil testing and make recommendations — on which crops to sow, and quantity and type of fertiliser to be used.
- The state government also pays crop insurance, procures grains and makes payments to farmers through the RBKs.
Have the RBKs proved to be helpful to farmers?
- RBKs facilitate interaction between farmers, agriculture scientists, and agriculture extension officers right at the village level.
- Apart from providing services and items for sale, RBK officials demonstrate new farm equipment and provide training to farmers.
- Based on inputs provided by officials after soil testing and weather conditions, many farmers have changed their cropping patterns and benefited immensely.
- The RBKs have been responsible for elimination of spurious seeds and uncertified and dangerous fertilisers, which can cause crop damage and failures.
- The RBKs, staffed by agriculture and horticulture graduates, help farmers decide the crops they should cultivate in a scientific manner.
How has it been received by the Centre?
- The Centre has recently nominated the RBK concept for the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s “Champion’’ award.
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