Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Plant growth hormones
Mains level: Not Much
A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal, has conducted a study on seed germination that could have a major impact on agriculture.
What is the study about?
- The study aims to determine the optimum timing of seed germination and thus ensure high plant yields.
- It focused on the interplay between plant hormones like abscisic acid (ABA) which inhibit the sprouting of the seed and environmental cues like light (which promotes the sprouting process) and darkness.
Note the following plant hormones and their functions:
|
Hormone
|
Function
|
| Ethylene |
Fruit ripening and abscission |
| Gibberellins |
Break the dormancy of seeds and buds; promote growth |
| Cytokinins |
Promote cell division; prevent senescence |
| Abscisic Acid |
Close the stomata; maintain dormancy |
| Auxins |
Involved in tropisms and apical dominance |
What is Abscisic Acid?
- Humans have glands that secrete hormones at different times to stimulate body processes such as growth, development, and the breaking down of sugars.
- Plants also have hormones that stimulate processes that are necessary for them to live.
- Abscisic acid is a plant hormone involved in many developmental plant processes, such as dormancy and environmental stress response.
- Abscisic acid is produced in the roots of the plant as well as the terminal buds at the top of the plant.
Function of Abscisic Acid
Abscisic acid is involved in several plant functions.
- Plants have openings on the bottom side of their leaves, known as stomata. Stomata take in carbon dioxide and regulate water content. Abscisic acid has been found to function in the closing of these stomata during times when the plant does not require as much carbon dioxide or during times of drought when the plant cannot afford to lose much water through transpiration.
- One of the crucial functions of abscisic acid is to inhibit seed germination. Abscisic acid has been found to stop a seed from immediately germinating once it has been placed in the soil. It actually causes the seed to enter a period of dormancy.
- This is of great benefit to the plants because most seeds are formed at the end of the growing season, when conditions would not be favorable for a new plant to sprout. The abscisic acid causes the seed to wait until the time when conditions are more favorable to grow. This ensures greater success in the plant’s ability to grow and reproduce successfully.
- ABA functions in many plant developmental processes, including seed and bud dormancy, the control of organ size and stomatal closure. It is especially important for plants in the response to environmental stresses, including drought, soil salinity, cold tolerance, freezing tolerance, heat stress and heavy metal ion tolerance.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Galaxies, Milky Way
Mains level: Not Much
SPT0418-47, a golden halo glinting 12 billion light-years away is the farthest galaxy resembling our Milky Way was recently spotted by astronomers.
Try this PYQ:
Which of the statements about black holes in space is/are correct? (CSP 2016)
- It is a region in space where the pulling force of gravity is so strong that light is not able to escape.
- It can result from the dying stars.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
SPT0418-47
- The galaxy, called SPT0418-47, is so far away that it took billions of years for its light to reach Earth and so our image of it is from deep in the past.
- It was picked up by the powerful Alma radio telescope in Chile using a technique called gravitational lensing, where a nearby galaxy acts as a powerful magnifying glass.
- This was when the Universe was 1.4 billion years old — just 10% of its current age — and galaxies were still forming.
- It has features similar to our Milky Way — a rotating disc and a bulge, which is the high density of stars packed tightly around the galactic centre.
What makes it special?
- This is the first time a bulge has been seen this early in the history of the Universe, making SPT0418-47 the most distant Milky Way look-alike.
- Thus the infant star system challenges our understanding of the early years of the Universe.
- Researchers expect these young star systems to be chaotic and without the distinct structures typical of mature galaxies like our Galaxy.
- This unexpected discovery suggests the early Universe may not be as chaotic as once believed and raises many questions on how a well-ordered galaxy could have formed so soon after the Big Bang.
Back2Basics: Milky Way
- The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy’s appearance from Earth.
- It appears like a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye.
- From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within.
- Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610.
- Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe.
- Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hornbill
Mains level: NA
A study based on satellite data has flagged a high rate of deforestation in a major hornbill habitat in Arunachal Pradesh.
Try this PYQ:
Q. In which of the following regions of India are you most likely to come across the ‘Great Indian Hornbill’ in its natural habitat? (CSP 2016)
(a) Sand deserts of northwest India
(b) Higher Himalayas of Jammu and Kashmir
(c) Salt marshes of western Gujarat
(d) Western Ghats
About Great Indian Hornbill
IUCN status: Vulnerable (uplisted from Near Threatened in 2018), CITES: Appendix I
- The great hornbill (Buceros bicornis) also known as the great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill, is one of the larger members of the hornbill family.
- The great hornbill is long-lived, living for nearly 50 years in captivity.
- It is predominantly fruit-eating, but is an opportunist and preys on small mammals, reptiles and birds.
- Its impressive size and colour have made it important in many tribal cultures and rituals.
- A large majority of their population is found in India with a significant proportion in the Western Ghats and the Nilgiris.
- The nesting grounds of the birds in the Nilgiris North Eastern Range are also believed to support some of their highest densities.
Their ecological significance
- Referred to as ‘forest engineers’ or ‘farmers of the forest’ for playing a key role in dispersing seeds of tropical trees, hornbills indicate the prosperity and balance of the forest they build nests in.
Threats
- Hornbills used to be hunted for their casques — upper beak — and feathers for adorning headgear despite being cultural symbols of some ethnic communities in the northeast, specifically the Nyishi of Arunachal Pradesh.
- Illegal logging has led to fewer tall trees where the bird’s nest.
Back2Basics: Hornbill Festival
- The Hornbill Festival is a celebration held every year from 1 – 10 December, in Kohima, Nagaland.
- The festival was first held in the year 2000.
- It is named after the Indian hornbill, the large and colourful forest bird which is displayed in the folklore of most of the state’s tribes.
- Festival highlights include the traditional Naga Morungs exhibition and the sale of arts and crafts, food stalls, herbal medicine stalls, flower shows and sales, cultural medley – songs and dances, fashion shows etc.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Meteor terminology
Mains level: Not Much
The Perseids meteor shower is going to be active from August 17-26.
Try this question from CSP 2014:
Q.What is a coma, in the content of astronomy?
(a) Bright half of material on the comet
(b) Long tail of dust
(c) Two asteroids orbiting each other
(d) Two planets orbiting each other
What is the Perseids meteor shower?
- The Perseids meteor shower peaks every year in mid-August. It was first observed over 2,000 years ago.
- The Perseids occur as the Earth runs into pieces of cosmic debris left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
- The cloud of debris is about 27 km wide, and at the peak of the display, between 160 and 200 meteors streak through the Earth’s atmosphere every hour as the pieces of debris.
- They travel at the speed of some 2.14 lakh km per hour; burn up a little less than 100 km above the Earth’s surface.
What are Meteor Showers?
- Meteors are bits of rock and ice that are ejected from comets as they manoeuvre around their orbits around the sun.
- As meteors fall towards the Earth, the resistance makes the space rocks extremely hot and, as meteorites pass through the atmosphere, they leave behind streaks of glowing gas that are visible to the observers and not the rock itself.
- Meteor showers, on the other hand, are witnessed when Earth passes through the trail of debris left behind by a comet or an asteroid.
- When a meteor reaches the Earth, it is called a meteorite and a series of meteorites, when encountered at once, is termed as a meteor shower.
- According to NASA, over 30 meteor showers occur annually and are observable from the Earth.
Where do the Perseids come from?
- The comet Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862 by Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle, takes 133 years to complete one rotation around the sun.
- The last time it reached its closest approach to the sun was in 1992 and will do so again in 2125.
- Every time comets come close to the sun, they leave behind dust that is essentially the debris trail, which the Earth passes through every year as it orbits around the Sun.
Back2Basics:
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: TFR
Mains level: Paper 1- Declining TFR in India
The article analyses and explains the declining trend in India’s total fertility rate. The aspirational revolution in the parents explains such decline.
What the projections say
- A new study was published in The Lancet, and prepared by the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
- It argues that while India is destined to be the largest country in the world, its population will peak by mid-century.
- And as the 21st century closes, its ultimate population will be far smaller than anyone could have anticipated, about 1.09 billion instead of approximately 1.35 billion today.
- It could even be as low as 724 million, the study projects.
- Until 2050, the IHME projections are almost identical to widely-used United Nations projections.
- It is only in the second half of the century that the two projections diverge with the UN predicting a population of 1.45 billion by 2100, and the IHME, 1.09 billion.
Present trends in India’s fertility rate
- In the 1950s, India’s Total fertility rate (TFR) was nearly six children per woman; today it is 2.2.
- Between 1992 and 2015, it had fallen by 35% from 3.4 to 2.2.
- It is even below the replacement rate in 18 States and Union Territories.
What explains the trends
- One might attribute it to the success of the family planning programme.
- But family planning has long lost its primacy in the Indian policy discourse.
- Punitive policies include denial of maternity leave for third and subsequent births, limiting benefits of maternity schemes and ineligibility to contest in local body elections for individuals with large families.
- However, these policies are mostly ignored in practice.
Aspirational revolution
- It seems highly probable that the socioeconomic transformation of India since the 1990s has played an important role.
- Over the years parents began to rethink their family-building strategies.
- Smaller families when compared with a bigger family with same income level, invest more money in their children by sending them to private schools and coaching classes.
- It is not aspirations for self but that for children that seems to drive fertility decline.
Consider the question “Examine the factors responsible for the declining trends in the total fertility rate for India. What are its implications for country?”
Conclusion
Demographic data suggest that the aspirational revolution is already under way. What we need to hasten the fertility decline is to ensure that the health and family welfare system is up to this challenge and provides contraception and sexual and reproductive health services that allow individuals to have only as many children as they want.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Current Account
Mains level: Paper 3- Steps taken by the RBI to stop banking frauds
The article explains the salience of the RBI’s recent restriction on the opening of current accounts by the companies.
Context
- RBI has put restrictions on who can open a current account with which bank.
What are the restrictions and why it matters
- A company that has borrowed from a bank cannot open a current account with another bank.
- It can open a current account with its lending banks under some circumstances.
- Otherwise such company is encouraged to use the cash credit and overdraft facilities under which it has borrowed.
Let’s understand why it matters
- Firms borrow from PSU banks, but open current accounts with private or foreign banks.
- When transactions move to current account of banks other than the lending bank, it loses visibility on end use of the funds.
- Basically the PSU bank has no idea where the money has gone.
- For example, when a firm gets money from its customers, instead of parking it with the lending bank it puts it in the current account with another bank.
- The lending bank has no way of knowing if the loan is going bad wilfully or otherwise.
Why private banks may oppose the move
- Easy revenue source has got blocked.
- They can, of course, start lending to firms to retain this business but that would mean taking risk.
- It would be far safer to be with retail customers who have neither power nor lawyers to defend them against sharp banking practices.
Why it matters to bank customers
- Vanishing money raises the cost of funds to the bank and results in higher lending rates and lower deposit rates for us.
- For taxpayers, it means regular use of our funds to recapitalize the banking system that periodically goes bankrupt due to loans gone bad.
- So, an overall tightening of the system is great news.
Conclusion
For too long have the citizens been punished with greater scrutiny, tighter rules, higher costs and fewer benefits as compared to the suits. We should let the banks hand-wring, but celebrate the closure of each loophole as it happens.
Back2Basics: What is the current account?
- A current account is like a savings bank account, but with many facilities for swift and multiple transactions, overdraft facilities and it carries no interest.
- Banks like to sell these accounts as they enjoy huge floats, or money that just sits with the bank waiting to be used by the depositing firms.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- Challenges to secularism in India
Secularism in India faces multiple challenges. This article analyses challenge the Indian secularims faces from the party-political secularims.
Features of constitutional secularism in India
- Constitutional secularism is marked by at least two features.
- First, critical respect for all religions.
- Unlike some secularisms, ours is not blindly anti-religious but respects religion.
- It respects not one but all religions.
- Every aspect of religious doctrine or practice cannot be respected but respect for religion must be accompanied by critique.
- Second, intervene whenever religious groups promote communal disharmony.
- Thus, it has to constantly decide when to engage or disengage, help or hinder religion depending entirely on which of these enhances our constitutional commitment to freedom, equality and fraternity.
How populism is harming secularism
- Secularism has paid a heavy price in our country for being at the centre of public and political discourse.
- Populism based politics is indifferent to freedom and equality-based religious reform, it has removed critical from the term ‘critical respect’.
- It has even been complicit in igniting communal violence.
- This party-political ‘secular’ state, cozying up alternately to the fanatical fringe of the minority and the majority, was readymade for takeover by a majoritarian party.
- This takeover was accomplished by removing the word ‘all’ and replacing it by ‘majority’.
- Today, Indian constitutional secularism is swallowed up by this party-political secularism, with not a little help from the Opposition, media and judiciary.
Way forward
- 1) There is a need for a shift of focus from a politically-led project to a socially-driven movement for justice.
- 2) Also, a shift of emphasis from inter-religious to intra-religious issues.
- Such focus on intra-relisious issues may allow deeper introspection within, multiple dissenting voices to resurface, create conditions to root out intra-religious injustices, and make its members free and equal.
- 3) Europe’s secularism provided a principle to fight intra-religious oppressions.
- In India, secularism was not only a project of civic friendship among religious communities but also of opposition to religion-based caste and gender oppressions.
- A collective push from young men and women may help strengthen the social struggle of emancipation from intra-religious injustices.
- 4) Inter-religious issues also should not be ignored.
- Distance, freedom from mutual obsession, give communities breathing space.
- Each can now explore resources within to construct new ways of living together.
Consider the question “How populism in the politics thretens the idea of secularim in India? Suggest the ways to deal with it.”
Conclusion
Needed today are new forms of socio-religious reciprocity, crucial for the business of everyday life and novel ways of reducing the political alienation of citizens, a democratic deficit whose ramifications go beyond the ambit of secularism.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Assam Accord
Mains level: NRC and CAA debate
In February, a government-appointed committee had submitted its recommendations for implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, a key provision that has been contentious for decades.
Must read:
https://www.civilsdaily.com/burning-issue-assam-nrc/
What is Clause 6?
- It is a part of the Assam Accord which came at the culmination of a movement against immigration from Bangladesh.
- It reads: “Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.”
- For recognition as citizens, the Accord sets March 24, 1971, as the cutoff.
- As immigrants up to the cutoff date would get all rights as Indian citizens, so Clause 6 was inserted to safeguard the socio-political rights and culture of the “indigenous people of Assam”.
What has happened since?
- Several committees have been set up over the years to make recommendations on the implementation of Clause 6.
- None of them made headway on the provision’s contentious issues, however, until the latest CAA move.
- Following widespread protests against the CAA, the government gave an urgent push to Clause 6 to pacify the Assamese community.
Recommendations of the recent report
- Headed by retired High Court judge Biplab Kumar Sarma the committee was asked to fast-track its report.
- It submitted its report in Feb but the government did not make its contents public.
- But some Assamese activists independently made the contents public.
- Its brief was to define the “Assamese people” and suggest measures for the safeguard of their rights. The definition of “Assamese people” has been a subject of discussion for decades.
Key propositions
The committee has proposed that the following be considered Assamese people for the purpose of Clause 6. All citizens of India who are part of:
- Assamese community, residing in the Territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; or
- Any indigenous tribal community of Assam residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; or
- Any other indigenous community of Assam residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; or
- All other citizens of India residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; and
- Descendants of the above categories
Why 1951?
- During the Assam agitation, the demand was for detection and deportation of migrants who had illegally entered Assam after 1951.
- The Assam Accord, however, set the cutoff on March 24, 1971. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) was updated based on this cutoff.
- Clause 6 is meant to give the Assamese people certain safeguards, which would not be available to migrants between 1951 and 1971.
- If the recommendation is accepted, those who migrated between 1951 and 1971 would be Indian citizens, but they won’t be eligible for safeguards meant for Assamese people”.
What are these safeguards?
Among various recommendations, the key is the reservation of seats in Parliament, Assembly and local bodies; reservation in jobs; and land rights. The panel recommends the Assamese people be given:
- 80 to 100% reservation in the parliamentary seats of Assam, Assembly seats and local body seats be reserved for the “Assamese people”.
- 80 to 100% of Group C and D level posts (in Assam) in central government/semi-central government/central PSUs/private sector
- 80 to 100% of jobs under Government of Assam and state government undertakings; and 70 to 100% of vacancies arising in private partnerships
- Land rights, with restrictions imposed on transferring land by any means to persons other than “Assamese people”.
Several other recommendations deal with language and cultural and social rights. On language, it recommends:
- Assamese language shall continue to be official language throughout the state with provisions for use of local languages in Barak Valley, Hill Districts and the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts.
- Mandatory provision of an Assamese language paper for recruitment in state government services with alternatives for Barak Valley districts, BTAD and Hills Districts.
- To set up Academies for all-round development of each of the indigenous tribal languages including, Bodo, Mishing, Karbi, Dimasa, Koch-Rajbongshi, Rabha, Deuri, Tiwa, Tai and other indigenous languages.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: HUF
Mains level: Women's property right
The Supreme Court has expanded a Hindu woman’s right to be a joint legal heir and inherit ancestral property on terms equal to male heirs.
What is the ruling?
- The SC Bench ruled that a Hindu woman’s right to be a joint heir to the ancestral property is by birth and does not depend on whether her father was alive or not when the law was enacted in 2005.
- The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 gave Hindu women the right to be coparceners or joint legal heirs in the same way a male heir does.
- Since the coparcenary (heirship) is by birth, it is not necessary that the father coparcener should be living as on 9.9.2005, the ruling said.
What is the 2005 law?
- The Mitakshara school of Hindu law codified as the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 governed succession and inheritance of property but only recognised males as legal heirs.
- The law applied to everyone who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion.
- Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and followers of Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj are also considered Hindus for the purposes of this law.
- In a Hindu Undivided Family, several legal heirs through generations can exist jointly.
Background
- Traditionally, only male descendants of a common ancestor along with their mothers, wives and unmarried daughters are considered a joint Hindu family.
- The legal heirs hold the family property jointly.
- Women were recognised as coparceners or joint legal heirs for partition arising from 2005.
- The 174th Law Commission Report had also recommended this reform in Hindu succession law.
- Even before the 2005 amendment, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had made this change in the law, and Kerala had abolished the Hindu Joint Family System in 1975.
What did the law bring in?
- Section 6 of the Act was amended that year to make a daughter of a coparcener also a coparcener by birth “in her own right in the same manner as the son”.
- The law also gave the daughter the same rights and liabilities “in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son”.
- The law applies to ancestral property and to intestate succession in personal property — where succession happens as per law and not through a will.
How did the case come about?
- While the 2005 law granted equal rights to women, questions were raised whether the law applied retrospectively and if the rights of women depended on the living status of their father.
- Different benches of the Supreme Court had taken conflicting views on the issue. Different High Courts had also followed different views of the top court as binding precedents.
- The Prakash v Phulwati (2015) case held that the benefit of the 2005 amendment could be granted only to “living daughters of living coparceners” as on September 9, 2005 (the date when the amendment came to force).
- In February 2018 a bench headed by Justice A K Sikri held that the share of a father who died in 2001 will also pass to his daughters as coparceners during the partition of the property as per the 2005 law.
The present case
- These conflicting views led to a reference to a three-judge Bench in the current case.
- The ruling now overrules the verdicts from 2015 and April 2018.
- It settles the law and expands on the intention of the 2005 legislation to remove the discrimination as contained in section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
- It gave equal rights to daughters in the Hindu Mitakshara coparcenary property as the sons have.
What was the government’s stand?
- The solicitor argued in favour of an expansive reading of the law to allow equal rights for women. He referred to the objects and reasons of the 2005 amendment.
- The Mitakshara coparcenary law not only contributed to discrimination on the ground of gender but was oppressive and negated the fundamental right of equality guaranteed by the Constitution.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UPSC and other constitutional bodies
Mains level: NA
The President of India has appointed Pradeep Kumar Joshi as Chairman of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
Try this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- The Executive Power of the Union of India is vested in the Prime Minister.
- The Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of the Civil Services Board.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2015)
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Backgrounder: UPSC
- Established on 1 October 1926 as Public Service Commission, it was later reconstituted as Federal Public Service Commission by the GoI Act 1935; only to be renamed as today’s UPSC after the independence.
- The UPSC is India’s premier central recruiting agency responsible for appointments to and examinations for All India services and group A & group B of Central services.
- The Department of Personnel and Training is the central personnel agency in India.
- It is also required to be consulted by the Government in matters relating to the appointment, transfer, promotion and disciplinary matters.
Appointments to the UPSC
- As per Article 316 of the constitution, the Chairman and other members of UPSC shall be appointed by the President.
- In case the office of the Chairman becomes vacant his duties shall be performed by one of the other members of the Commission as the President may appoint for the purpose.
- Under Art. 318, the President is empowered to determine the number of members of the Commission and their conditions of service.
- As per Art 319, a person who holds office as Chairman shall, on the expiration of his term of office, be ineligible for re-appointment to that office.
- But, a member other than the Chairman shall be eligible for appointment as the Chairman of the UPSC.
- Also, the Chairman of a State PSC shall be eligible for appointment as the Chairman or any other member of the UPSC.
Removal of members/chairman
- As per Art. 317, the Chairman or any other member of a UPSC shall only be removed from their office by order of the President on the ground of “misbehaviour” after the Supreme Court inquiry report.
- The President may suspend the Chairman or other member of the Commission until a report of the Supreme Court is received.
Distinguishing features
- The commission reports directly to the President and can advise the Government through him.
- Although, such advice is not binding on the Government.
- Being a constitutional authority, UPSC is amongst the few institutions which function with both autonomy and freedom, along with the country’s higher judiciary and lately the Election Commission.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cloud Storage, Krishi Megh
Mains level: NA
Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare has launched the Krishi Megh Data Recovery Centre.
Do not get confused with the name ‘Krishi Megh’. One might mistakenly relate it to some weather forecasting tool of the Indian Meteorological Department.
Krishi Megh
- The Krishi Megh has been set up at National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad.
- It has been set up under the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP), funded by both the government and World Bank.
- It has been built to mitigate the risk, enhance the quality, availability and accessibility of e-governance, research, extension and education in the field of agriculture in India.
- Currently, the main data centre of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is at the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) in New Delhi.
Back2Basics: Cloud Storage
- It is a cloud computing model that stores data on the Internet through a cloud computing provider who manages and operates data storage as a service.
- It is delivered on demand with just-in-time capacity and costs, and eliminates buying and managing your own data storage infrastructure.
- It gives agility, global scale and durability, with “anytime, anywhere” data access.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Loya Jirga
Mains level: Taliban
The Afghan Loya Jirga approves release of 400 ‘hard-core’ Taliban prisoners.
The term seems peculiar. We may expect a prelim question on the same.
What is Loya Jirga?
- A Loya Jirga is a special type of jirga, or legal assembly, in Pashtunwali, the traditional code of laws of the Pashtun people.
- It is mainly organized for choosing a new head of state in case of sudden death, adopting a new constitution, or to settle national or regional issue such as war.
- It predates modern-day written or fixed laws and is mostly favoured by the Pashtun people but to a lesser extent by other nearby groups that have been influenced by Pashtuns (historically known as Afghans).
- In Afghanistan, Loya Jirgas have been reportedly organized since at least the early 18th century when the Hotaki and Durrani dynasties rose to power.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various provision under GST
Mains level: Paper 3-GST compensation cess and issues
The article deals with the issue of shortfall in the GST compensation cess and the challenge Central government faces to pay the promised compensation to the states.
Background of the cess
- GST subsumed several taxes, including those which were the preserve of the States.
- Therefore it required an amendment to the Constitution of India.
- The amendment affected the Seventh Schedule, so it required ratification by the legislatures of half the States.
- Before the GST, States exporting goods to other States collected a tax.
- But the GST is a destination-based tax, i.e., the State where the goods are sold receive the tax.
- This implies that manufacturing States would lose out while consuming States would benefit.
- So, in order to convince manufacturing States to agree to GST, a compensation formula was created.
- Under which States were promised compensation for loss of revenue for a period up to five years.
- The Act for compensation to states assumed that the GST revenue of each State would grow at 14% every year, from the amount collected in 2015-16.
- This scheme is valid for five years, i.e., till June 2022.
Compensation cess fund
- A compensation cess fund was created from which States would be paid for any shortfall.
- An additional cess would be imposed on certain items and this cess would be used to pay compensation.
- The Act states that the cess collected and “such other amounts as may be recommended by the [GST] Council” would be credited to the fund.
- In the first two years of this scheme, the cess collected exceeded the shortfall of States.
- In the third year, 2019-20, the fund fell significantly short of the requirement.
The problem and its source
- A key source of the problem is that the 2017 Act guaranteed a tax growth rate of 14%, which is unachievable this year.
- The 14% target was too ambitious to start with.
- Given the government’s inflation target at 4%, this implied a real GDP growth plus tax buoyancy of 9%.
- But, the Central government is constitutionally bound to compensate States for loss of revenue for five years.
Solution to the problem
1) The Constitution could be amended to reduce the period of guarantee to three years thus ending June 2020.
- But most States would be reluctant to agree to this proposal.
- It could also be seen as going back on the promise made to States.
2) The Central government could fund this shortfall from its own revenue.
- The Centre’s finances are stretched due to shortfall in its own tax collection combined with extra expenditure to manage the health and economic crisis.
3) The Centre could borrow on behalf of the cess fund.
- The tenure of the cess could be extended beyond five years until the cess collected is sufficient to pay off this debt and interest on it.
4) the Centre could convince States that the 14% growth target was always unrealistic.
- If the Centre can negotiate with States through the GST Council to reset the assured tax level, it could then bring in a Bill in Parliament to amend the 2017 Act.
Consider the question “What were the reasons for making provisions under GST for paying the states compensation for tax revenue shortfall? What are the implications of the provision for the Central government?”
Conclusion
The Constitution makes it obligatory for the Centre to make up for shortfall by the States. The cess collected will not be sufficient for this purpose. The GST Council, which is a constitutional body with representation of the Centre and all the States, should find a practical solution.
B2BASICS
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/making-up-for-shortfalls-in-gst-collection/article32319744.ece
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-U.S. ties
This article analyses what the new shift in the India-U.S. ties will require for the mutual benefit.
Following 12 factors would influence the depth and longevity of the India-U.S. ties.
1) Outcome of the U.S. Presidential elections
- The success of India’s new bonding with the U.S. will depend on the outcome of the U.S. Presidential elections.
- The Democratic party candidate with the Left wing and liberals in the U.S. has been highly critical of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
2) Need to build trust with the U.S.
- India purchased of the S-400 air defence missile system from Russia disregarding the U.S. concerns.
- India refused to send Indian troops to Afghanistan.
- We need to build trust with the U.S. that we will give to the U.S. as good as it gives us.
- For this structuring we must realise that India-U.S. relations require give and take on both sides.
- What India needs to take today is for dealing with the Ladakh confrontation with China.
- India needs U.S. hardware military equipment.
3) Fighting the U.S. enemy in neighbourhood
- The U.S. needs India to fight her enemies in the neighbourhood such as in Afghanistan.
- India should send two divisions gradually to Afghanistan and relieve U.S. troops to go home
4) Intelligence sharing and cooperation
- India needs the support of the U.S. and its ally, Israel, in cyberwarfare, satellite mappings of China and Pakistan.
- There is a need for sharing intercepts of electronic communication, hard intelligence on terrorists, and controlling the military and the Inter-Services Intelligence in Pakistan.
5) Developing naval bases
- India needs the U.S. to completely develop the Andaman & Nicobar, and also the Lakshadweep Islands as a naval and air force base.
- These naval bases can be used by the U.S and shared along with its allies such as Indonesia and Japan.
6) Economic relations and India’s concerns
- The economic relations must be based on macroeconomic commercial principles.
- Free, indiscriminate flow of U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) is not in India’s national interest.
7) Technology sharing
- India needs technologies such as thorium utilisation, desalination of sea water, and hydrogen fuel cells.
8) U.S. should allow import of agricultural product
- The U.S. must allow India’s exports of agricultural products including Bos indicus milk, which are of highly competitive prices in the world.
9) FDI in India
- FDI should be allowed into India selectively from abroad, including from the U.S.
- FDI in India should be based on the economic theory of comparative advantage and not on subsidies and gratis.
10) Tariffs
- Tariffs of both India and the U.S. should be lowered, and the Indian rupee should be gradually revalued to ₹35 to a dollar.
- Later, with the economy picking up, the rupee rate should go below 10 to the dollar.
11) Stay away from certain issues
- India should not provide the U.S. with our troops to enter Tibet, or be involved in the Hong Kong and Taiwan issue.
- There is always a possibility of a leadership change in China.
- Thus, China’s policy changed very favourably towards India.
- In the cases of Tibet, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, we have made explicit agreements.
- In the case of Tibet, two formal treaties were signed by Nehru (1954) and A.B. Vajpayee (2003).
12) Trilateral commitment to world peace
- In the long run, India, the U.S., and China should form a trilateral commitment for world peace provided Chinese current international policies undergo a healthy change.
Consider the question “What are the factors influencing the India-U.S. ties? Suggest the pathway to address the issues that hamper the deepening of India-U.S. ties.”
Conclusion
Both countries need to recognise each other’s concern and work towards the deepening of the ties for the mutual benefit and with a view to dealing with the challenges confronting both the countries.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- India-China relations
The economic grip China exerts on the world protects it from the threat of isolation. This article examines this issue and its implications for India.
Worsening U.S.-China ties and implications for other countries
- After years of cooperating with one another, the U.S. and China are currently at the stage of confrontation.
- Both are seeking allies to join their camps.
- This places several countries in Asia, in a difficult position as most of them, loathe to take sides.
- The U.S. may not necessarily be the first choice for many countries of Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.
- In the case of China, it is clearly more feared than loved.
China’s aggression
- Beijing’s virtual takeover of Hong Kong has only confirmed what had long been known about China’s intentions.
- In March-April this year, China further stepped up its aggressive actions, renaming almost 80 geographical features in the region as an index of Chinese sovereignty.
- Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and South Korea have all complained about China’s menacing postures in their vicinity.
How countries are resisting China
- Hardly any country in Asia is willing to openly confront China, and side with the U.S.
- East Asian countries explain that China was always known to be over-protective of the South China Sea.
- And China consider South China Sea a natural shield against possible hostile intervention by outside forces inimical to it.
- No U.S. assurance and Chinese aggression has been enough to make countries in the region openly side with the U.S. and against China.
China’s economic grip and lessons for India
- Despite a series of diktats from Washington to restrict economic and other relations, China remains unfazed.
- China seems confident that its stranglehold on the global economy ensures that it does not face any real challenge.
- It would be wise for India to recognise this.
- It is equally necessary to realise how fickle some of these countries can be when it comes to economic issues.
- At a recent meeting in Washington Australia (a member of the Quad) made it clear that China is important for Australia.
- Likewise, the U.K.’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, recently stated in its Parliament, that the U.K. wants a positive relationship with China.
- It is evident that few nations across the world are willing to risk China’s ire because of strong economic ties.
India’s relations with neighbouring countries: concerns
- India’s relations with Nepal, meanwhile, have hit a roadblock over the Kalapani area.
- In Sri Lanka, the return of the Rajapaksas to power after the recent elections does not augur too well for India-Sri Lanka relations.
- The strain in India-Bangladesh relations is a real cause for concern since it can provide a beachhead against Chinese activities in the region.
Growing Chinese presence in India’s sphere of influence
- In July, the Chinese Foreign Minister organised a virtual meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
- In this meeting, China proposed economic corridor plan with Nepal, styled as the Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network.
- China has also made headway in Iran to an extent, again at India’s expense.
Conclusion
Geo-balancing is not happening to China’s disadvantage. This lesson must be well understood when India plan its future strategy.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Direct and indirect taxes
Mains level: Paper 3- Increasing proportion of indirect taxes in India and issues with it
India, with a tax-GDP ratio of 10.9 per cent in 2019 needs an overhaul of its tax system. This article analyses India’s growing dependence on indirect taxes and its implications for the poor.
Important changes in direct taxes
- The wealth tax was abolished in 2016.
- Wealth tax was replaced by a 2 per cent surcharge on super-rich individuals with taxable income of over Rs 10 crore.
- But the government rolled back the increase in surcharge in 2019.
- Corporate taxes were slashed from 30 per cent to 22 per cent to attract foreign investors and induce Indian companies to invest.
- Cuts in corporate tax that have resulted in a revenue loss of Rs 1.5 lakh crore have contributed to making the state poor.
Increasing indirect taxes and cess
- The share of indirect taxes has increased by up to 50 per cent of the gross tax revenue in FY2019 from 43 per cent in FY2011.
- The combined share of customs and excise duties and value-added tax reached an all-time high of 10.5 per cent of GDP.
- This high was following a three-year-long steady increase in customs or excise duty on commonly used goods, such as petroleum products, metals and sugar, automobiles and consumer durables.
- This is also when the service tax was hiked steadily to 18 per cent under GST from 12.4 per cent in 2014.
- Swachh Bharat cess and Krishi Kalyan cesses were imposed in addition to GST.
- The permanent nature of these cesses has been widely opposed by the states and criticised by the CAG.
- CAG has pointed out the lack of transparency and incomplete reporting in accounts on the utilisation of amounts collected under cesses.
- All of this is troubling because indirect taxes often penalise the poor and the middle class more than the rich.
Case for the wealth tax
- High tax rates on the wealthy in Europe have played a key role in ensuring a strong social security net for the poor.
- This successful example should encourage India to consider the rationale for a wealth tax.
- Higher taxes on the super-rich could be used for cash transfers and a fiscal stimulus, that, in India, at 1 per cent of GDP each, have been negligible so far.
- A wealth tax, a COVID-19 cess on the super-rich and a surcharge on the super-rich for their income from listed equity shares are critical for mitigating the current situation.
Issues with such policy
- Cuts in corporate taxes, increased indirect tax revenues, decreased capital expenditure and practically no change in revenue expenditure on health and education show that India’s taxation policy is more business-friendly than pro-poor.
- This is happening at a time when a supply-side oriented approach to the economy is counter-cyclical.
- Faced with increased expenditure amid pandemic Centre increased the duty on fuel by a record Rs 10 per litre on petrol when global crude prices have been falling.
- This speaks of the government’s increased dependency on indirect tax-based revenues.
Examine the implications of India’s growing dependence on indirect tax revenue? Suggest the measures to reduce such dependence.
Conclusion
COVID-19 may be a blessing in disguise if it allows India to reform its tax system in order to make it work towards inclusive growth and sustainable development rather than targeting only investment-led economic growth.
bACK 2 BASICS
GO THROUGH THE ARTICLE BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TAXATION:
Taxation in India: Classification, Types, Direct tax, Indirect tax
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BoP, BoT, Current Account
Mains level: BoP Crisis
India’s balance of payments this year is going to be “very very strong” on the back of significant improvement in exports and a fall in imports said the Commerce and Industry Ministry.
Try this PYQ:
Q.In the context of India, which of the following factors is/are contributor/contributors to reducing the risk of a currency crisis? (CSP 2019)
- The foreign currency earnings of India’s IT sector
- Increasing the government expenditure
- Remittances from Indians abroad
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Balance of Payment
- BOP is the oldest and the most important statistical statement for any country.
- In a nutshell BOP of a country is “a systematic record of all economic transactions between the residents of one country with the residents of the other country in a financial year”.
- Economic Transactions include all the foreign receipts and payments made by a country during a given financial year.
- Foreign receipts include all the earnings and borrowings by a country from the other countries.
Read the complete thread, here, at:
India’s Balance of Payments: Current Account, Capital Account, Goods and Services Account
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indus River Systems
Mains level: Indus Water Treaty and its significance
India has refused a request by Pakistan to hold a meeting on issues around the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) at the Attari check post near the India-Pakistan border.
The IWT has been in existence since 1960, and reached a flash point in the aftermath of the Uri attacks in 2016 with PM declaring that “blood and water couldn’t flow together”.
About Indus Waters Treaty, 1960
- The IWT is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank signed in Karachi in 1960.
- According to this agreement, control over the water flowing in three “eastern” rivers of India — the Beas, the Ravi and the Sutlej was given to India
- The control over the water flowing in three “western” rivers of India — the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum was given to Pakistan
- The treaty allowed India to use western rivers water for limited irrigation use and unrestricted use for power generation, domestic, industrial and non-consumptive uses such as navigation, floating of property, fish culture, etc. while laying down precise regulations for India to build projects
- India has also been given the right to generate hydroelectricity through the run of the river (RoR) projects on the Western Rivers which, subject to specific criteria for design and operation is unrestricted.
Talks stalled on key projects
- Among the key points on the table was evolving a procedure to solve differences on technical aspects governing the construction of the Ratle run-of-the-river (RoR) project on the Chenab in the Kishtwar district.
- India has called for the appointment of a ‘neutral’ party while Pakistan favours a Court of Arbitration to agree upon a final resolution on the design parameters of this hydropower project.
- According to the IWT, India has the right to build RoR projects on the three ‘western’ rivers — the Chenab, Jhelum and Indus — provided it does so without substantially impeding water flow in Pakistan downstream.
- Pakistan believes that the project’s current design does pose a serious impediment and has told the World Bank that it wants a Court of Arbitration (CoA) set up to decide on the issue.
- India says this is only a technical issue and mutually solvable.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Negative Import List
Mains level: Defence manufacturing promotion measures
The Defence Ministry announced a list of 101 items that it will stop importing.
Try this question for mains:
Q.Being one of the top importers of defence equipment India is well placed to enhance its domestic manufacturing capacity of defence equipment. Yet, India lacks it after repeated attempts to achieve it. Examine the reasons for this and suggest measures to overcome this anomaly.
Negative Imports List
- The negative list essentially means that the Armed Forces—Army, Navy and Air Force—will only procure all of these 101 items from domestic manufacturers.
- The manufacturers could be private sector players or Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs).
Why such a decision?
- Reduce imports: As per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks defence exports and imports globally, India has been the second-largest importer between 2014 and 2019 with US$ 16.75 billion worth of imports.
- Boost domestic industry: By denying the possibility of importing the items on the negative list, the domestic industry is given the opportunity to step up and manufacture them for the needs of the forces.
- Boost exports: The government has been hoping that the defence manufacturing sector can play a leading role in boosting the economy, not just for the domestic market, but to become an exporter as well.
Items included in the negative list
The items mentioned in the negative imports list include:
- water jet fast attack craft to survey vessels, pollution control vessels, light transport aircraft, GSAT-6 terminals, radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, to certain rifles, artillery guns, bulletproof jackets, missile destroyers, etc.
Impact of the move
- The items in the list are of proven technologies and do not involve any critical or cutting-edge technology for a next-generation weapon system or platform.
- Little benefits for domestic players in short-run: Against each of these items are mentioned a year when import embargo would kick in, leading to apprehensions that demands will be placed with foreign vendors until then, leaving very little for domestic producers.
- The biggest challenge for the government and the armed forces will be to keep this commitment to domestic producers in the event of an operational requirement.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Optical fibre cables and their working, AandN Islands
Mains level: Digital India outreach in AandN Islands
PM has launched the submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Andaman & Nicobar Islands to the mainland.
Try this PYQ:
Q. Consider the following statements regarding optical fibres:
- A layer called the cladding, which has a refractive index more than that of the core, surrounds the core of the optical fibre.
- Light is propagated in an optical fibre by refraction and internal reflection.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?(CSP 2010)
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
What is a submarine communications cable?
- A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to transmit telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea.
- The optical fibre elements are typically individually coated with plastic layers and contained in a protective tube suitable for the environment where the cable will be deployed.
- Compared to satellites, using internet connection through submarine cables is more reliable, cost-efficient and of large capacity.
About the project
- About 2,300 km of submarine optical fibre cable (OFC) has been laid at a cost of about Rs 1,224 crore to provide better connectivity in the UT.
- The project envisages better connectivity from Chennai to Port Blair and seven other Islands — Swaraj Deep (Havelock), Long Island, Rangat, Hutbay (Little Andaman), Kamorta, Car Nicobar and Campbell Bay (Great Nicobar).
- The project is funded by the government through the Universal Service Obligation Fund under the ministry of communications.
- The foundation stone for the project was laid by PM Modi in December 2018 at Port Blair.
Expected outcomes
- The OFC will enable the delivery of faster and more reliable mobile and landline telecom services to Andaman & Nicobar Islands, at par with other parts of India.
- The submarine optical fibre cable link will deliver bandwidth of 2 x 200 Gigabits per second (Gbps) between Chennai and Port Blair, and 2 x 100 Gbps between Port Blair and the other islands.
- 4G mobile services, which were constrained due to limited backhaul bandwidth provided via satellite, will also see a major boost.
Benefits of the project
- Better connectivity in the region will facilitate the delivery of e-governance services such as telemedicine and tele-education.
- E-commerce: Small enterprises will benefit from opportunities in e-commerce, while educational institutions will utilise the enhanced availability of bandwidth for e-learning and knowledge sharing.
- Business Process Outsourcing services and other medium and large enterprises too also benefit from better connectivity.
- Low cost internet:The internet bills in Andaman and Nicobar will also come down substantially.
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