Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nominal GDP
Mains level: Paper 3- Economic slowdown caused by pandemic
Contradictions in the present crisis
- India registered negative economic growth in 1972-73, 1965-66 and 1957-58.
- All these were drought years.
- 1957-58 also registered a significant balance of payments (BOP) deterioration and 1979-80 witnessing the second global oil shock following the Iranian Revolution.
- Farmers harvested a bumper rabi crop last year and public cereal stocks at 94.42 million tonnes as on July 1 were also 2.3 times the required level.
- There’s no shortage today of food, forex or even savings.
- Foreign exchange reserves were at an all-time high of $538.19 billion.
- So, the real GDP decline of 5-10 per cent for 2020-21 would be the country’s first-ever not triggered by an agricultural or a BOP crisis.
“Western style” demand slowdown in India
- What India has been going through is a full-fledged recession bereft of consumption and investment demand.
- Households have cut spending.
- The same goes with businesses. Many have shut or are operating at a fraction of their capacity and pre-lockdown staff strength.
- This demand-side uncertainty and the resulting economic contraction is something new to India.
- Banks are also facing a problem of plenty.
- While their deposits are up 11.1 per cent, the corresponding credit growth has been just 5.5 per cent.
- At some point when all this reduced spending and investments leads to a further contraction of incomes, it is bound to reduce savings as well.
Why the government is not spending?
- Solution in such a situation is the spending by the government.
- There are three probable reasons why government isn’t doing that.
1.Optimism
- Hope that once the worst of the pandemic is behind us, people will start spending and businesses, too, will spring back to life.
- However, this assumes the economy wasn’t doing all that badly previously and that the lockdown hasn’t caused too much of permanent damage.
- The truth is that growth had already slid to 3.9 per cent in 2019-20.
2.State of Government finances
- In 2007-08 global financial crisis, the Centre’s fiscal deficit was only 2.5 per cent of GDP, whereas it stood at 4.6 per cent in 2019-20.
- The space for a fiscal stimulus, in other words, is very limited compared to that time.
3.Sustainability of debt
- Between 2007-08 and 2019-20, the Centre’s outstanding debt-GDP ratio has come down from 56.9 to 49.25 per cent.
- So has general government debt, which includes the liabilities of states, from 74.6 to 69.8 per cent.
- Economists such as Olivier Blanchard have shown that public debts are sustainable provided governments can borrow at rates below nominal GDP growth (i.e. GDP unadjusted for inflation).
- The nominal GDP averaged 11.1 per cent during 2014-15 to 2018-19.
- As against this, the weighted average interest rate on Central government securities ruled between 6.97 per cent in 2016-17 and 8.51 per cent in 2014-15.
- Only with nominal GDP growth falling to 7.2 per cent in 2019-20, and most likely zero this fiscal, has the Blanchard debt sustainability formula come under threat.
Way forward
- Government can take lessons from the Vajpayee period when the weighted average cost of Central borrowings more than halved from 12.01 per cent in 1997-98 to 5.71 per cent in 2003-04.
- In the last four months, yields on 10-year Indian government bonds have softened from 6.5 to 5.9 per cent and even more for states — from 7.9 to 6.4 per cent.
- Interest rates will fall further as banks have nobody to lend to.
Consider the question “Examine how covid induced economic recession is different from the past recessions? What are the options with the government to deal with the situation?”
Conclusion
Governments should borrow and spend. They need worry only about GDP growth, real and nominal.
Sources: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/a-crisis-without-villains-6557602/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Agriculture Infrastructure Fund
Mains level: Paper 3- Measures to achieve better price realisation for agri commodities.
The article analyses the highlights the importance of post harvest infrastructure for the better price realisation of agri-commodities. It also suggests the two areal which could help the farmers in this regard.
Purpose of Agriculture Infrastructure Fund
- Creating post-harvest physical infrastructure is as important as the changes in the legal framework (like the recent ordinances).
- The recently announced Rs 1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) will be used over the next four years.
- This fund will be used to build post-harvest storage and processing facilities.
- NABARD will steer this initiative in association with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, largely anchored at FPOs.
- The creation of the AIF presumes that there is already large demand for storage facilities and other post harvest infrastructure.
Reforms in 2 areas which could help farmers get better price realisation
1) Negotiable warehouse receipt
- More and better storage facilities can help farmers avoid distress sellingimmediately after the harvest.
- But small farmers cannot hold stocks for long as they have urgent cash needs to meet family expenditures.
- Therefore, the value of the storage facilities at the FPO level could be enhanced by a negotiable warehouse receipt system.
- FPOs can give an advance to farmers, say 75-80 per cent of the value of their produce at the current market price.
How NABARD can play an important role
- Since NABARD is also responsible for the creation of 10,000 more FPOs, it can create a package that will help these outfits realise better prices
- FPOs will need large working capital to give advances to farmers against their produce as collateral.
- NABARD can ensure that FPOs get their working capital at interest rates of 4 to 7 per cent.
- Currently, most FPOs get capital from microfinance institutions at rates ranging from 18-22 per cent per annum which is not economically viable unless the off-season prices are substantially higher than the prices at harvest time.
2)Improving Agri-futures markets
- A vibrant futures market is a standard way of reducing risks in a market economy.
- Several countries — be it China or the US — have agri-futures markets that are multiple times the size of those in India.
Way forward
- 1) NABARD should devise a compulsory module that trains FPOs to use the negotiable warehouse receipt system and navigate the realm of agri-futures to hedge their market risks.
- 2) Government agencies dealing in commodity markets — the FCI, NAFED, State Trading Corporation (STC) — should increase their participation in agri-futures.
- That is how China deepened its agri-futures markets.
- 3) The banks that give loans to FPOs and traders should also participate in commodity futures as “re-insurers” for the healthy growth of agri-markets.
- 4) Government policy has to be more stable and market friendly.
- In the past, it has been too restrictive and unpredictable.
Consider the question “Creating post-harvest physical infrastructure is as important as the changes in the legal framework. In light of this, highlight the importance of recently announced Agriculture Infrastructure Fund and suggest the measures to increase the price realisation of agri-products by farmers.”
Conclusion
India needs to not only spatially integrate its agri-markets (one nation, one market) but also integrate them temporally — spot and futures markets have to converge. Only then will Indian farmers realise the best price for their produce and hedge market risks.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Marriage age issues and its discrimination nature
PM in his I-Day speech has announced that the central government has set up a committee to reconsider the minimum age of marriage for women during his address to the nation on the 74th Independence Day.
Try this question for mains:
Q.The different minimum age of marriage for women and men is a discriminatory provision. Analyse.
Back in debate
- The minimum age of marriage, especially for women, has been a contentious issue.
- The law evolved in the face of much resistance from religious and social conservatives.
- Currently, the law prescribes that the minimum age of marriage is 21 years and 18 years for men and women respectively.
Issue over majority
- The minimum age of marriage is distinct from the age of majority which is gender-neutral.
- An individual attains the age of majority at 18 as per the Indian Majority Act, 1875.
- The law prescribes a minimum age of marriage to essentially outlaw child marriages and prevents the abuse of minors.
What is the committee that the PM mentioned?
- The Union Ministry for WCD had set up a task force to examine matters pertaining to the age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering Maternal Mortality Ratio and the improvement of nutritional levels among women.
- The task force would examine the correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with health, medical well-being, and nutritional status of the mother and neonate, infant or child, during pregnancy, birth and thereafter.
- It will also examine the possibility of increasing the age of marriage for women from the present 18 years to 21 years.
How common are child marriages in India?
- UNICEF estimates suggest that each year, at least 1.5 million girls under the age of 18 are married in India.
- It makes our country home to the largest number of child brides in the world — accounting for a third of the global total.
- Nearly 16 per cent adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married.
Provisions for the minimum age for marriage
- Personal laws of various religions that deal with marriage have their own standards, often reflecting custom.
- For Hindus, Section 5(iii) of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, sets 18 years as the minimum age for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom.
- However, child marriages are not illegal — even though they can be declared void at the request of the minor in the marriage.
- In Islam, the marriage of a minor who has attained puberty is considered valid.
- The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 also prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men respectively.
- Additionally, sexual intercourse with a minor is rape, and the ‘consent’ of a minor is regarded as invalid since she is deemed incapable of giving consent at that age.
Evolution of the law
- The IPC enacted in 1860 criminalised sexual intercourse with a girl below the age of 10.
- The provision of rape was amended in 1927 through The Age of Consent Bill, 1927, which declared that marriage with a girl under 12 would be invalid.
- The law faced opposition from conservative leaders of the Indian National Movement, who saw the British intervention as an attack on Hindu customs.
- A legal framework for the age of consent for marriage in India only began in the 1880s.
Comes in: The Sarda Act
- In 1929, The Child Marriage Restraint Act set 16 and 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for girls and boys respectively.
- The law, popularly known as the Sarda Act after its sponsor Harbilas Sarda, a judge and a member of Arya Samaj, was eventually amended in 1978 to prescribe 18 and 21 years as the age of marriage for a woman and a man respectively.
Contention over different legal standards
- There is no reasoning in the law for having different legal standards of age for men and women to marry. The laws are a codification of custom and religious practices.
- The Law Commission consultation paper has argued that having different legal standards “contributes to the stereotype that wives must be younger than their husbands”.
- Women’s rights activists have argued that the law also perpetuates the stereotype that women are more mature than men of the same age and, therefore, can be allowed to marry sooner.
- The international treaty Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), also calls for the abolition of laws that assume women have a different physical or intellectual rate of growth than men.
Why is the law being relooked at?
- Despite laws mandating minimum age and criminalizing sexual intercourse with a minor, child marriages are very prevalent in the country.
- From bringing in gender-neutrality to reduce the risks of early pregnancy among women, there are many arguments in favour of increasing the minimum age of marriage of women.
- Early pregnancy is associated with increased child mortality rates and affects the health of the mother.
Upholding the Constitution
- Petitioners, in this case, had challenged the law on the grounds of discrimination.
- It is argued that Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which guarantee the right to equality and the right to live with dignity, were violated by having different legal ages for men and women to marry.
- Two significant Supreme Court rulings can act as precedents to support the petitioner’s claim.
- In 2014, in the ‘NALSA v Union of India’ case, the Supreme Court, while recognising transgenders as the third gender, said that justice is delivered with the “assumption that humans have equal value and should, therefore, be treated as equal, as well as by equal laws”.
- In 2019, in ‘Joseph Shine v Union of India’, the Supreme Court decriminalized adultery, and said that “a law that treats women differently based on gender stereotypes is an affront to women’s dignity”.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: West Bank and its location
Mains level: Israeli claims over West Bank and Gaza
Last week Mr Trump has announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had reached a peace agreement. Many countries, including the European powers and India, have welcomed it, while the Palestinian leadership, as well as Turkey and Iran, have lashed out at the UAE.
The strategic location of Gaza strip, West Bank, Dead Sea etc. creates a hotspot for a possible map based prelims question.
Consider this PYQ:
Q. The area is known as ‘Golan Heights’ sometimes appears in the news in the context of the events related to: (CSP 2015)
a) Central Asia
b) Middle East
c) South-East Asia
d) Central Africa
The Israel-UAE Pact
- The UAE and Israel would establish formal diplomatic relations and in exchange, Israel would suspend its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
- Israeli PM Netanyahu had earlier vowed to annex the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
- But now, as part of the agreement, Israel “will suspend declaring sovereignty over areas” of the West Bank and “focus its efforts on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim world”.
A timeline of Israel-Arab Conflict
Arab-Israeli ties have historically been conflict-ridden.
- Arab countries, including Egypt, Transjordan, Syria and Iraq, fought their first war with Israel in 1948 after the formation of the state of Israel was announced.
- The war ended with Israel capturing more territories, including West Jerusalem than what the UN Partition Plan originally proposed for a Jewish state.
- After that, Israel and Arab states fought three more major wars — the 1956 Suez conflict, the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
- After the 1967 war in which Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria.
- Arab countries convened in Khartoum and declared their famous three “‘Nos’ — no peace with Israel, no talks with Israel and no recognition of Israel.
- But it did not last long. After the death of Egypt President Gamal Abdel Nasser, his successor Anwar Sadat started making plans to get Sinai back from Israel.
- His efforts, coupled with American pressure on Israel, led to the Camp David Accords of 1978 with Israel’s withdrawal.
Significance of the deal
- It’s a landmark agreement given that the UAE is only the third Arab country and the first in the Gulf region to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
- In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
- The UAE-Israel agreement comes after 26 years. If more countries in the Gulf follow the UAE’s lead, it would open a new chapter in Arab-Israel ties.
Why did the UAE sign the agreement?
- The old enmity between Arab countries and Israel has dissipated.
- The Sunni Arab kingdoms in the Gulf region such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE had developed backroom contacts with Israel over the past several years.
- One of the major factors that brought them closer has been their shared antipathy towards Iran.
- Arab countries have signalled that they are ready to live with Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
What do Arab countries want from Israel?
- Arab countries expect a major change in the status quo on West Bank annexation which would put Israel under political and diplomatic pressure.
- The UAE-Israel agreement has averted that outcome.
- If a Democratic Party (Trump’s opposition and Obama’s allegiance) comes to power and restores the Iran deal, both the Israeli and the Arab blocs in West Asia would come under pressure to live with an empowered Iran.
- A formal agreement and enhanced security and economic ties make the Arab and Israeli sides better prepared to face such a situation.
- So there is a convergence of interests for the UAE, Israel and the U.S. to come together in the region.
Where does it leave the Palestinians?
- Unlike the past two Arab-Israeli peace agreements, Palestinians do not figure prominently in the current one.
- In the present UAE-Israel deal, Israel has not made any actual concession to the Palestinians.
- The Palestinians are understandably upset. They called the UAE’s decision “treason”.
Geopolitical implications of the deal
- The agreement could fast-track the changes that are already underway in the region.
- The Saudi bloc, consisting of Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain and others, see their interests being aligned with that of the U.S. and Israel and their support for Palestine, which Arab powers had historically upheld.
- Turkey and Iran now emerge as the strongest supporters of the Palestinians in the Muslim world.
- This tripolar contest is already at work in West Asia. The UAE-Israel thaw could sharpen it further.
Also read:
West Bank Annexation Plan
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NCC
Mains level: NCC and its mandate
In his I-Day speech, PM spoke about the expansion of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) in coastal and border districts of India.
Try this question:
Q.The Shekatkar Committee recommendations sometimes seen in the news are related to:
a) Modernization of Railways b) Modernization of Defence c) Road Infrastructure d) Cashless Payments
About NCC
- The NCC, which was formed in 1948, has its roots to British era uniformed youth entities like University Corps or University Officer Training Corps.
- It enrols cadets at the high school and college level and also awards certificates on completion of various phases.
- Headed by a Director-General of three-star military rank, the NCC falls under the purview of MoD and is led by serving officers from the Armed forces at various hierarchical positions.
- The NCC currently has 17 regional directorates which govern the NCC in units in various states or groups of states and union territories.
- Each school and college units have Associate NCC Officers and cadets are also assigned various leadership roles in the form of cadet appointments.
- NCC has a dual funding model where both the centre and states or union territories provide budgetary support.
Training the cadets
- The NCC cadets receive basic military training at various levels and also have academic curriculum basics related to Armed forces and their functioning.
- Various training camps, adventure activities and military training camps are an important aspect of NCC training.
- NCC cadets have played an important role over the years in relief efforts during various emergency situations.
- During the ongoing pandemic, over 60,000 NCC cadets have been deployed for voluntary relief work in coordination with district and state authorities across the country.
PM’s announcement
- Expansion of NCC in the border and coastal area has been under consideration of the Ministry of Defence for quite some time.
- PM took this I-Day to announce that from the 173 coastal and border districts, one lakh cadets, a third of them girls, will be trained.
- Currently, the NCC has the strength of around 14 lakh cadets from Army, Navy and Air Force wings.
- Border and coastal areas will get trained manpower to fight with disasters. Youth will acquire the required skills for careers in armed forces.
Significance of expansion
- In the coastal regions, where youth are already familiar with the sea, the training will increase interest in careers in Navy, Coast Guard and also Merchant shipping avenues.
- In the border area, the trained cadets can play an important role in various contingencies and also in supporting roles to the Armed forces in various roles.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Health ID System
Mains level: Developing digital health infrastructure
In his address to the nation on Independence Day, the PM has launched the National Digital Health Mission which rolls out a national health ID for every Indian.
Try this question for mains:
Q.What is the National Health ID System? How will it benefit transforming healthcare facilities in India?
National Health ID System
- This system finds its roots in a 2018 NITI Aayog proposal to create a centralised mechanism to uniquely identify every participating user in the National Health Stack.
- It will be a repository of all health-related information of a person.
- According to the National Health Authority (NHA), every patient who wishes to have their health records available digitally must start by creating a Health ID.
- Each Health ID will be linked to a health data consent manager — such as National Digital Health Mission (NDHM).
- The Health ID is created by using a person’s basic details and mobile number or Aadhaar number.
- This will make it unique to the person, who will have the option to link all of their health records to this ID.
What was the original proposal for the health ID?
- The National Health Policy 2017 had envisaged creation of a digital health technology eco-system aiming at developing an integrated health information system.
- In the context of this, the central government’s think-tank NITI Aayog, in June 2018, floated a consultation of a digital backbone for India’s health system — National Health Stack.
- As part of its consultation, NITI Aayog proposed a Digital Health ID to greatly reduce the risk of preventable medical errors and significantly increase the quality of care.
Stakeholders in the national health ID
- As envisaged, various healthcare providers — such as hospitals, laboratories, insurance companies, online pharmacies, telemedicine firms — will be expected to participate in the health ID system.
Back2Basics:
National Digital Health Mission (NDHM)
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Contempt of Court and its types
Mains level: Contempt of Court and associated issues
A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court has found a famous civil rights lawyer guilty of criminal contempt by ‘scandalizing the court’.
Try this question for mains:
Q.What is Contempt of Court? Discuss, how free speech can lead to the contempt of courts?
Contempt of Court
- According to the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, contempt of court can either be civil contempt or criminal contempt.
- Civil contempt means willful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or another process of a court or willful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
- On the other hand, criminal contempt means the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which
- Scandalizes or tends to scandalize, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or
- Prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or
- Interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.
What did the court rule in this case?
- The tweets had the effect of attempting to destabilize Indian democracy.
- A defamatory publication concerning “the judge is a serious impediment to justice”.
- The court could not ignore the disrespect and disaffection created by the “scurrilous” tweets.
- If such an attack is not dealt with a requisite degree of firmness, it may affect the national honour and prestige in the comity of nations.
A suo motu action
- The prior consent of the Attorney General (AG) of India is not required to suo motu initiate the inherent contempt powers of the Supreme Court.
- The Contempt of Court Act of 1971 cannot limit this power of the court. The statute only provides the procedure in which such contempt is to be initiated.
- The suo motu contempt powers of the top court are drawn from Article 129 of the Constitution, which says the Supreme Court, as a court of record, has the power to punish for contempt of itself.
What would be the penalty?
- The Contempt of Court Act of 1971 punishes with imprisonment that may extend to six months or fine of ₹ 2,000 or both.
- This is provided in case the accused may be discharged or the punishment awarded may be remitted on apology being made to the satisfaction of the court.
Also read:
Explained: What is Contempt of Court?
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Positive Pay Mechanism
Mains level: Not Much
The new ‘Positive Pay’ mechanism was recently introduced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Try this PYQ:
With reference to digital payments, consider the following statements:
- BHIM app allows the user to transfer money to anyone with a UPI-enabled bank account.
- While a chip-pin debit card has four factors authentication, BHIM app has only two factors of authentication.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2018)
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
What is the move?
- Issuers will be able to send all details to their bank, thereby ensuring faster clearance of cheques above Rs 50,000.
- All cheques will be processed as per the information sent by the account holder at the time of issuance of cheques.
- This will cover approximately 20 per cent of transactions by volume and 80 per cent by value.
- It will make cheque payments safer and reduces instances of frauds.
What is Positive Pay Mechanism?
- Positive Pay is a fraud detection tool adopted by banks to protect customers against forged, altered or counterfeit cheques.
- It crosses verifies all details of the cheque issued before funds are encashed by the beneficiary.
- In case of a mismatch, the cheque is sent back to the issuer for examination.
- By following such a system, a bank knows of a cheque being drawn by the customer even before it is deposited by the beneficiary into his/her account.
How does the mechanism work?
- Under Positive Pay feature, the issuer will first share the details of the issued cheque like cheque number, date, name of the payee, account number, amount and the likes through his/her net banking account.
- Along with this, an image of the front and reverse side of the cheque is also required to be shared, before handing it over to the beneficiary.
- When the beneficiary submits the cheque for encashment, the details are compared with those provided to the bank through Positive Pay.
- If the details match, the cheque is honoured. However, in the case of mismatch, the cheque is referred to the issuer.
- In this way, any cheque where any sort of fraud has happened cannot be cleared at all and hence, a depositor’s money can be protected.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Mauritius oil spill
Mains level: Chemical disasters these days
A Japanese ship recently struck a coral reef resulting in an oil spill of over 1,000 tonnes into the Indian Ocean near Mauritius.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Recently, “oil zapper’’ was in the news. What is it? (CSP 2011)
(a) It is an eco-friendly technology for the remediation of oily sludge and oil spills.
(b) It is the latest technology developed for undersea oil exploration.
(c) It is a genetically engineered high biofuel-yielding maize variety.
(d) It is the latest technology to control the accidentally caused flames from oil wells.
What caused the Mauritius oil spill?
- A Japanese vessel struck a coral reef resulting in an oil spill of over 1,000 tonnes into the Indian Ocean.
- The ship was carrying an estimated 4,000 tonnes of oil.
- The accident had taken place near two environmentally protected marine ecosystems and the Blue Bay Marine Park Reserve, which is a wetland of international importance.
How dangerous are oil spills?
- Oil spills affect marine life by exposing them to harsh elements and destroying their sources of food and habitat.
- Further, both birds and mammals can die from hypothermia as a result of oil spills.
- For instance, oil destroys the insulating ability of fur-bearing mammals, such as sea otters.
- It also decreases the water repellency of birds’ feathers, without which they lose their ability to repel cold water.
Some major incidents
- Some of the world’s largest oil spills include the Persian Gulf War oil spill of 1991 when more than 380 million gallons of oil was poured into the northern Persian Gulf by Iraq’s forces.
- The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is also considered to be among the largest known accidental oil spills in history.
- Starting April 20, 2010, over 4 million barrels of oil flowed over a period of 87 days into the Gulf of Mexico.
How is the oil spill cleaned?
- There are a few ways to clean up oil spills including skimming, in situ burning and by releasing chemical dispersants.
- Skimming involves removing oil from the sea surface before it is able to reach the sensitive areas along the coastline.
- In situ burning means burning a particular patch of oil after it has concentrated in one area.
- Releasing chemical dispersants helps break down oil into smaller droplets, making it easier for microbes to consume, and further break it down into less harmful compounds.
- Natural actions in aquatic environments such as weathering, evaporation, emulsification, biodegradation and oxidation can also accelerate the recovery of an affected area. But these occur differently in freshwater and marine environments.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sarabhai Crater
Mains level: Chandrayaan 2 Mission
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has named a crater captured by Chandrayaan 2 Orbiter after Vikram Sarabhai.
Try this PYQ:
What do you understand by the term Aitken Basin? (CSP 2012)
(a) It is a desert in southern Chile which is known to be the only location on earth where no rainfall takes place
(b) It is an impact crater on the far side of the Moon
(c) It is a Pacific coast basin, which is known to house large amounts of oil and gas
(d) It is a deep hypersaline anoxic basin where no aquatic animals are found
Sarabhai Crater
- “Sarabhai” Crater is named after Dr Vikram Sarabhai and around 250 to 300 kilometres east of this Crater is where the Apollo 17 and Luna 21 Missions had landed.
- The crater captured in 3D images shows that the Crater has a depth of around 1.7 Kms taken from its raised rim and the slope of Crater walls is in between 25 to 35 degree.
- These findings will help the Space Scientists to understand further the process of the lunar region filled with lava.
Who was Vikram Sarabhai?
- Sarabhai was an Indian physicist and astronomer who initiated space research and helped develop nuclear power in India.
- He is internationally regarded as the Father of the Indian Space Program.
- Known as the cradle of space sciences in India, the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) was founded in 1947 by him. He was the founder of ISRO.
- He started a project for the fabrication and launch of an Indian satellite.
- As a result, the first Indian satellite, Aryabhata, was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian cosmodrome.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Critical Wildlife Habitat (CHW) under FRA
Mains level: Forest dwellers role in its conservation
- The COVID-19 pandemic has driven migrant workers back to their villages, including many situated inside or on the fringes of forested areas, including sanctuaries and national parks.
- Even as they seek to remake livelihoods there, a new battle has emerged between the forest department (FD) and these local communities.
- It pertains to the declaration of a Critical Wildlife Habitat (CWH), which a PIL in the Bombay High Court seeks to get the department to urgently notify.
Try this question for mains:
Forest dwellers are integral to the very survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem. Analyse.
What is Critical Wildlife Habitat (CHW)?
- CWH is a provision under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA).
- The Act primarily focuses on recognising the historically-denied rights of forest-dwellers to use and manage forests.
- The CWH provision, however, is an attempt to assuage concerns of wildlife conservationists.
- It allows for the possibility that in protected areas (PAs) — wildlife sanctuaries and national parks — these rights could be attenuated, and, if absolutely necessary, forest-dwellers could be relocated in the interest of wildlife conservation.
Forest dwellers vs. Wildlife
- Conservationists believe that wildlife needs absolutely “inviolate” areas — those devoid of humans and human activities.
- Many others believe human-wildlife co-existence is generally possible and must be promoted if we are to have “socially just conservation”.
Achieving balanced conservation: The FRA provisions
- A careful reading of the CWH provisions in the FRA shows that it is open to both possibilities, as long as they are arrived at through a rigorous and participatory process.
- It requires setting up a multi-disciplinary expert committee, including representatives from local communities.
- It also requires determining — using “scientific and objective criteria” and consultative processes — whether, and wherein the PA, the exercise of forest rights will cause irreversible damages.
- It then requires determining whether coexistence is possible through a modified set of rights or management practices.
- Only if the multi-stakeholder expert committee agrees that co-existence or other reasonable options are not possible, should relocation be taken up, again with the informed consent of the concerned gram sabhas.
- For any such process to commence, the Act requires that all forest rights under the FRA must first be recognised.
Issues with the FRA
(1) Concerns of eviction
- Hardline conservationists took FRA as a great opportunity to complete its agenda of evicting forest-dwellers from PAs.
- It has been observed that many villages were resettled when they had rights claims pending, others had their claims illegally rejected or incompletely granted, and several had not even applied to this controversy erupted.
- However, there are settlements in some of these PAs, and of course, people in villages adjacent to all the PAs are likely to have customary rights.
- In spite of the court ordering rapid completion of the rights recognition process, there has been almost no progress on this front.
(2) Issues with expert committees
- The constitution of the expert committees is faulty. They do not contain expert social scientists familiar with the area. Wildlife enthusiasts are sometimes substituted for experts in life sciences.
- Many members have challenged the very constitutionality of the FRA, making a travesty of the idea of “objectivity” in the process.
(3) Criteria judging the damages
- The criteria being used by the committees to determine the threat of “irreversible damage” to wildlife are quite extreme and are not supported by any consensus even among ecologists.
- There are no objective criteria decided yet by these committees.
Conclusion
- The FRA begins by recognising that forest dwellers “are integral to the very survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem”.
- In that context, the CWH provision should not be seen as simply a tool for evicting forest-dwellers to create so-called “inviolate” spaces.
- It is an opportunity to rigorously and participatorily explore all avenues of co-existence.
- Such co-existence is indeed possible. In general, forest-dwellers harbour both the knowledge and the attitudes needed for conservation.
- Co-managing PAs is, therefore, the most effective and socially just long-term solution, and relocation should be seen as the absolute last resort.
B2BASICS
Forest Rights act
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Census of India
Mains level: Need for reforms in Census and Surveying
- In all likelihood, the February 2021 Census will have to be rescheduled to ensure comparability with earlier censuses.
- This will also affect the National Sample Surveys and others that use the census as the sampling frame.
- The delay can, however, be used to introduce much-needed reforms to this gigantic exercise whose roots go back to the late 19th century.
Try this question for mains:
Q.The Census of India needs a basic overhaul beyond its procedural digitization. Critically analyse.
Background: Census of India
- The decennial Census of India has been conducted 15 times, as of 2011.
- While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1881.
- Post-1949, it has been conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
- All the censuses since 1951 were conducted under the 1948 Census of India Act.
- The last census was held in 2011, whilst the next will be held in 2021.
Census 2021
- The Census 2021 will be conducted in 18 languages out of the 22 scheduled languages (under 8th schedule) and English, while Census 2011 was in 16 of the 22 scheduled languages declared at that time.
- It also will introduce a code directory to streamline the process
- The option of “Other” under the gender category will be changed to “Third Gender”.
- There were roughly 5 lakh people under “other” category in 2011.
- For the first time in the 140 year history of the census in India, data is proposed to be collected through a mobile app by enumerators and they will receive an additional payment as an incentive.
- The Census data would be available by the year 2024-25 as the entire process would be conducted digitally and data crunching would be quicker.
Issues with the Census
(1) Data quality issues
- The past four decades have seen a decline in the quality of data and growing delays in its release despite technological innovations.
- The use of census data in delimitation and federal redistribution has been questioned on grounds of poor quality, while the Covid-19 pandemic revealed the obsolete and poor quality of data on internal migration.
(2) No major reforms
- The legal foundation of the census has remained largely unchanged since newly independent India enacted permanent census legislation in 1948.
- Despite sustained problems, the census has not seen any major reform after 1994 when both the Census Act, 1948 and Census Rules, 1990 were amended.
(3) Old methods and questionnaire
- The methodological core – extended de facto (synchronous) canvasser-based enumeration – too has remained intact even though the length and layout of schedules changed quite a bit.
- The Household Schedule, for instance, grew with the footprint of the state, from 14 questions in 1951 to 29 questions in 2011.
(4) Workforce issues
- Data collection has not kept pace with improvements in data processing technology due to the lack of motivated and adequately trained enumerators.
- Given the high salaries of school teachers, the modest honorarium paid for census work does not cover the opportunity cost of conducting the door-to-door enumeration.
Understand the ‘purpose’ of the census
Reforms should begin with the design of schedules based on a clear understanding of two essential functions of the census:
(a) Resource allocations
- First, census facilitates the rule-based distribution of power and resources through constitutionally mandated redistribution of taxes, delimitation of electoral constituencies and affirmative action policies.
- It is also used in routine policy-making across tiers of government.
(b) Population projections
- Second, census serves as the sampling frame for surveys and is also the basis of population projections.
- Other routine policies require distribution of the headcount by households, marital status, age, sex, literacy, migrant status, and mother tongue.
- Put together, these variables are sufficient for choosing representative samples for surveys.
What can be done?
1.Cut the questions
- Nearly half of the ‘Houselisting and Housing Schedule’ of the census is devoted to questions on household amenities and assets.
- These questions can be dropped because the information can be more appropriately collected through sample surveys and administrative statistics.
Why put fewer questions?
- Cutting down the length of unwieldy schedules has several advantages.
- First, it will improve data quality by reducing the workload of enumerators.
- Second, it will also free up senior census officials and help revive the earlier tradition of producing detailed administrative and other reports crucial for understanding the context of data.
- Third, shorter schedules will seem less invasive and assure respondents uncomfortable with sharing too many details.
- Fourth, it will cut down processing time and help in reducing delays in the release of data.
2.Dealing with data manipulation
- There is poor accounting of migrants that distorts estimates of urbanisation as well as the inter-state distribution of the population.
- There exists grassroots manipulation of data-driven by political and economic considerations.
- There is a need to demystify census operations and build trust in the impartiality of the exercise, better scrutiny of electoral records and welfare schemes to weed out bogus beneficiaries.
Conclusion
- These reforms are essential to ensure that the census exercise is able to fulfil its constitutional, policy and statistical obligations and also clear the ground for debates on the future of census in the digital era.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: West Bank and its location
Mains level: Israeli claims over West Bank and Gaza
The United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a deal to halt the annexation of occupied land sought by the Palestinians for their future state.
What is the deal?
- The deal halts Israeli annexation plans, the Palestinians have repeatedly urged Arab governments not to normalize ties with Israel until a peace agreement establishing an independent Palestinian state is reached.
Significance
- The announcement makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state to do so and only the third Arab nation to have active diplomatic ties to Israel.
- For Israel, the announcement comes after years of boasting by Israeli PM Netanyahu that his government enjoys closer ties to Arab nations than publicly acknowledged.
West Bank and its annexation plan
- The West Bank is located to the west of the Jordan River.
- It is a patch of land about one and a half times the size of Goa, was captured by Jordan after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
- Israel snatched it back during the Six-Day War of 1967 and has occupied it ever since.
- It is a landlocked territory, bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel to the south, west, and north.
- Following the Oslo Accords between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) during the 1990s, part of the West Bank came under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
- With varying levels of autonomy, the Palestinian Authority controls close to 40 per cent of West Bank today, while the rest is controlled by Israel.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sixth Schedule
Mains level: Special provisions for North-east India
The revival of the demand for two autonomous councils has made political parties and community-based groups call for bringing the entire Arunachal Pradesh under the ambit of the Sixth Schedule or Article 371 (A) of the Constitution.
Try this question from CSP 2015:
Q.The provisions in Fifth Schedule and Sixth Schedule in the Constitution of India are made in order to-
(a) protect the interests of Scheduled Tribes
(b) determine the boundaries between States
(c) determine the powers, authority and responsibilities of Panchayats
(d) protect the interests of all the border States
What is the Sixth Schedule?
- The Sixth Schedule consists of provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, according to Article 244 of the Indian Constitution.
- Passed by the Constituent Assembly in 1949, it seeks to safeguard the rights of the tribal population through the formation of Autonomous District Councils (ADC).
- ADCs are bodies representing a district to which the Constitution has given varying degrees of autonomy within the state legislature.
- The governors of these states are empowered to reorganize boundaries of the tribal areas.
- In simpler terms, she or he can choose to include or exclude any area, increase or decrease the boundaries and unite two or more autonomous districts into one.
- They can also alter or change the names of autonomous regions without separate legislation.
Autonomous districts and regional councils
- The ADCs are empowered with civil and judicial powers can constitute village courts within their jurisdiction to hear the trial of cases involving the tribes.
- Governors of states that fall under the Sixth Schedule specify the jurisdiction of high courts for each of these cases.
- Along with ADCs, the Sixth Schedule also provides for separate Regional Councils for each area constituted as an autonomous region.
- In all, there are 10 areas in the Northeast that are registered as autonomous districts – three in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram and one in Tripura.
- These regions are named as district council of (name of district) and regional council of (name of region).
- Each autonomous district and regional council consists of not more than 30 members, of which four are nominated by the governor and the rest via elections. All of them remain in power for a term of five years.
B2BASICS
Try this question from AWE Initiative:
The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution is often referred to as a charter for autonomy of a wide magnitude, but it has failed to decrease the tension between different stakeholders at the ground level. Elaborate. (150 W/ 10 M)
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National flag
Mains level: NA
The final design of the Indian National Flag, hoisted by PM Nehru on August 16, 1947, at Red Fort, had a history of several decades preceding independence.
Note various personalities involved in the development of our National flag. It may be no wonder to accept a personality-based question on such topics.
Story of our National Flag: A timeline
(1) Public display for first time
- Arguably the first national flag of India is said to have been hoisted on August 7, 1906, in Kolkata at the Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park).
- It comprised three horizontal stripes of red, yellow and green, with Vande Mataram written in the middle.
- Believed to have been designed by freedom activists Sachindra Prasad Bose and Hemchandra Kanungo, the red stripe on the flag had symbols of the sun and a crescent moon, and the green strip had eight half-open lotuses.
(2) In Germany
- In 1907, Madame Cama and her group of exiled revolutionaries hoisted an Indian flag in Germany in 1907 — this was the first Indian flag to be hoisted in a foreign land.
(3) During the Home Rule Movement
- In 1917, Dr Annie Besant and Lokmanya Tilak adopted a new flag as part of the Home Rule Movement.
- It had five alternate red and four green horizontal stripes, and seven stars in the saptarishi configuration.
- A white crescent and star occupied one top corner, and the other had Union Jack.
(4) Final version by Pingali Venkayya
- The design of the present-day Indian tricolour is largely attributed to Pingali Venkayya, an Indian freedom fighter.
- He reportedly first met Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa during the second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), when he was posted there as part of the British Indian Army.
- Years of research went into designing the national flag. In 1916, he even published a book with possible designs of Indian flags.
- At the All India Congress Committee in Bezwada in 1921, Venkayya again met Gandhi and proposed a basic design of the flag, consisting of two red and green bands to symbolise the two major communities, Hindus and Muslims.
(5) During Constituent Assembly
- On July 22, 1947, when members of the Constituent Assembly of India, the first item on the agenda was reportedly a motion by Pandit Nehru, about adopting a national flag for free India.
- It was proposed that “the National Flag of India shall be horizontal tricolour of deep saffron (Kesari), white and dark green in equal proportion.”
- The white band was to have a wheel in navy blue (the charkha being replaced by the chakra), which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Greater Male Connectivity Project
Mains level: India-Maldives Relations
India will fund the implementation of the Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP) in the Maldives with $500 mn packages.
Try this question from 2014:
Which one of the following pairs of islands is separated from each other by the ‘Ten Degree Channel’?
(a) Andaman and Nicobar
(b) Nicobar and Sumatra
(c) Maldives and Lakshadweep
(d) Sumatra and Java
About Greater Male Connectivity Project
- The GMCP will consist of a number of bridges and causeways to connect Male to Villingili, Thilafushi and Gulhifahu islands that span 6.7 km.
- It would ease much of the pressure of the main capital island of Male for commercial and residential purposes.
- When completed, the project would render the Chinese built Sinamale Friendship bridge connecting Male to two other islands, thus far the most visible infrastructure project in the islands.
- At present, India-assisted projects in the region include water and sewerage projects on 34 islands, reclamation project for the Addl island, a port on Gulhifalhu, airport redevelopment at Hanimadhoo, and a hospital and a cricket stadium in Hulhumale.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: OSOWOG Initiative
Mains level: Global collaboration for Solar Energy
The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has put calls for proposals to the One Sun, One World, and One Grid (OSOWOG) initiative on hold till further notice.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- The International Solar Alliance was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015.
- The Alliance includes all the member countries of the United Nations.
Which of the above statements is/are correct? (CSP 2016)
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
OSOWOG Initiative
- Under the project, India envisaged having an interconnected power transmission grid across nations for the supply of clean energy.
- The vision behind the OSOWOG mantra is ‘The Sun Never Sets’ and is a constant at some geographical location, globally, at any given point of time.
- With India at the fulcrum, the solar spectrum can easily be divided into two broad zones viz. far East which would include countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Lao, Cambodia etc. and far West which would cover the Middle East and the Africa Region.
Implementation
- The OSOWOG would have three phases. In the first phase Phase I, Middle East, South Asia and South-East Asia would be interconnected.
- In the second phase, solar and other renewable energy resources rich regions would be interconnected.
- In the third phase would vie for global interconnection of the power transmission grid to achieve the One Sun One World One Grid vision.
Benefits of the project
- Attracting investment: An interconnected grid would help all the participating entities in attracting investments in renewable energy sources as well as utilizing skills, technology and finances.
- Poverty allevation: Resulting economic benefits would positively impact poverty alleviation and support in mitigating water, sanitation, food and other socio-economic challenges.
- Reduced project cost: The proposed integration would lead to reduced project costs, higher efficiencies and increased asset utilization for all the participating entities.
Issues with project
- It is hindered with the issues of intricate geopolitics, unfavourable economics, unwarranted globalisation and undue centralization that act against the concept.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BRR
Mains level: Not Much
In efforts to have a single source for all non-financial disclosures by corporates, a government-appointed panel has made various proposals on business responsibility reporting, including putting in place two formats for disclosing information.
Try this PYQ:
Which one of the following is not a feature of Limited Liability Partnership firm? (CSP 2010)
(a) Partners should be less than 20
(b) Partnership and management need not be separate
(c) Internal governance may be decided by mutual agreement among partners
(d) It is corporate body with perpetual succession
What is the Business Responsibility Report (BRR)?
- Business Responsibility Report is a disclosure of the adoption of responsible business practices by a listed company to all its stakeholders.
- This is important considering the fact that these companies have accessed funds from the public, have an element of public interest involved, and are obligated to make exhaustive disclosures on a regular basis.
- BSR is to be submitted as a part of the Annual Report.
- It contains a standardized format for companies to report the actions undertaken by them towards the adoption of responsible business practices.
- It has been designed to provide basic information about the company, information related to its performance and processes, and information on principles and core elements of the BSR.
SEBI recommendations for BSR
- As per the report, reporting may be done by top 1,000 listed companies in terms of their market capitalization or as prescribed by markets regulator SEBI.
- The reporting requirement may be extended by MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) to unlisted companies above specified thresholds of turnover and/ or paid-up capital.
- The panel has suggested two formats for disclosures — a comprehensive format and a “lite version” — and also called for the implementation of the reporting requirements in a gradual and phased manner.
- Smaller unlisted companies may adopt a lite version of the format, on a voluntary basis.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Strategic autonomy and alignment with the U.S.
India has been maintaining strategic autonomy in its foreign policy since Independence. But the end of Cold War and growing closeness towards the U.S. raises concerns. This article addresses this issue.
India’s foreign policy: characterised by autonomy
- India has historically prided itself as an independent developing country which does not take orders from or succumb to pressure from great powers.
- Indian maintained this stance in its foreign policy when the world order was bipolar from 1947 to 1991, dominated by the U.S. and Russia.
- Also, when the world was unipolar from 1991 to 2008, dominated by the U.S.
- Or when it is multipolar as at the present times.
- The need for autonomy in making foreign policy choices has remained constant.
Flexibility in foreign policy
- However, strategic autonomy has often been adjusted in India’s history as per the changing milieu.
- During the 1962 war with China, Prime Minister Nehru, had to appeal to the U.S. for emergency military aid.
- In the build-up to the 1971 war with Pakistan, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had to enter a Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union to ward off both China and the U.S.
- And in Kargil in 1999, India welcomed a direct intervention by the U.S. to force Pakistan to back down.
- In all the above examples, India did not become any less autonomous when geopolitical circumstances compelled it to enter into de facto alliance-like cooperation with major powers.
- Rather, India secured its freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity by manoeuvering the great power equations and playing the realpolitik game.
Concerns over India’s growing closeness to the U.S.
- As India is facing China’s growing aggression along the LAC, Non-alignment 2.0 with China and the U.S. makes little sense.
- Fears that proximity to the U.S. will lead to loss of India’s strategic autonomy are overblown.
- Because independent India has never been subordinated to a foreign hegemon.
What should be India’s strategy
- In the threat environment marked by a pushy China, India should aim to have both- American support and stay as an independent power centre by cooperation with middle powers in Asia and around the world.
- For India complete dependence on the U.S. to counter China would be an error.
- Such complete dependence would be detrimental to India’s national interest such as its ties with Iran and Russia and efforts to speed up indigenous defence modernisation.
- A wide and diverse range of strategic partners, including the U.S. is the only viable diplomatic way forward in the current emerging multipolar world order.
Consider the question “Does India’s close alignment with the U.S. harms its strategic autonomy? Suggest the strategy to balance India’s security concerns and maintaining strategic autonomy.”
Conclusion
We are free and self-reliant not through isolation or alliance with one great power, but only in variable combinations with several like-minded partners. India is familiar with the phrase ‘multi-vector’ foreign policy. It is time to maximise its potential.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2- Role of judiciary in democracy and challenges it faces
The article analyses the role of the judiciary in democracy and the challenges it has been facing.
Challenges to democracy
- Growing lack of faith among many Indians in the functioning of the Supreme Court (SC).
- The politicisation of the civil service and the police.
- The creation of a cult of personality
- The intimidation of the media.
- The use of tax and investigative agencies to harass and intimidate independent voices.
- The refusal to do away with repressive colonial-era laws and instead the desire to strengthen them.
- The undermining of Indian federalism by the steady whittling down of the powers of the states by the Centre.
Role and challenges judiciary faces
- In recent years the Supreme Court has done little to stop or stem the degradation of democracy.
- Some examples: Court’s refusal to strike down laws like UAPA that should have no place in a constitutional democracy.
- Its unconscionable delay in hearing major cases.
- The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated trend towards authoritarianism and the centralisation of power.
- But the hearings and orders of the past few months show, the Supreme Court seems unable or unwilling to check these ominous trends.
- The failure of the SC is in part a failure of leadership.
- One chief justice has accepted a Governorship immediately on retirement, and another has accepted a Rajya Sabha seat.
- Powers of the Master of the Roster are imperfectly defined, and can lead themselves to widespread misuse by the incumbent.
Consider the question “Examine the role of the judiciary as the guardian of the Constitution. What are the challenges judiciary facing the judiciary in recent times?”
Conclusion
Time has come for all the serving justices in the highest court of the land to think seriously about the ever-increasing gap between their calling as defined by the Constitution, and the direction the Court is now taking.
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