Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Corruption Perception Index 2019
Mains level: Menace of corruption in India
The Corruption Perception report for 2019 has been released. It has revealed that a majority of countries are showing little to no improvement in tackling corruption.
About CPI
- The CPI is annually released by Transparency International.
- It draws on 13 surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories, giving each a score from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
India’s performance
- India’s ranking in the CPI-2019 has slipped from 78 to 80 compared to the previous year.
- Its score of 41 out of 100 remains the same.
- CPI highlighted that unfair and opaque political financing, undue influence in decision-making and lobbying by powerful corporate interest groups, has resulted in stagnation or decline in the control of corruption.
Global corruption
- In the Asia Pacific region, the average score is 45, after many consecutive years of an average score of 44, which “illustrates general stagnation” across the region.
- China has improved its position from 87 to 80 with a score of 41 out of 100, a two-point jump.
- Despite the presence of high performers like New Zealand (87), Singapore (85), Australia (77), Hong Kong (76) and Japan (73), the Asia Pacific region hasn’t witnessed substantial progress in anti-corruption.
- In addition, low performers like Afghanistan (16), North Korea (17) and Cambodia (20) continue to highlight serious challenges in the region.
- The top ranked countries are New Zealand and Denmark, with scores of 87 each, followed by Finland (86), Singapore (85), Sweden (85) and Switzerland (85).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ICJ
Mains level: Rhohingya settlement issue
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Myanmar must take effective measures to protect its Rohingya Muslims, including protecting evidence relating to allegations of genocide.
- It is important to note that these directions are “provisional measures” until the ICJ can finally decide if Myanmar has been committing genocide against the Rohingya. The final verdict could take years.
What is the case against Myanmar?
- Last year, the Republic of the Gambia moved the ICJ against Myanmar over alleged violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
- The Gambia urged the ICJ to direct Myanmar to stop the genocide, ensure that persons committing genocide are punished, and allow the “safe and dignified return of forcibly displaced Rohingya”.
- The Gambia and Myanmar are parties to the Genocide Convention that allows a party to move the ICJ for violations.
- Disputes between the Contracting Parties are settled according to Article 9 of the Genocide Convention.
How did Myanmar respond?
- Myanmar asked the ICJ to remove the case from its list, citing lack of jurisdiction of the court.
- Myanmar alleged that the proceedings before the court were instituted by the Gambia, not on its own behalf, but rather as a “proxy” and “on behalf of” the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
- Gambia is a member of the OIC, which includes 53 Muslim-majority nations.
- Myanmar cited the Gambia’s reliance on OIC documents to allege genocide and said the Gambia did not point to specific violations of the Genocide Convention.
- The court refused to accept Myanmar’s argument and said the fact that the Gambia “may have sought and obtained the support of other States or international organizations in its endeavour” does not take away from its right to bring a case against Myanmar.
Does the ICJ ruling indict Myanmar?
- Although a ruling against Myanmar dents its image internationally, the order of provisional measures does not translate into a finding against Myanmar.
- While granting provisional measures, the court is not required to ascertain whether Myanmar violated the Genocide Convention.
- The court found that it is sufficient at this stage “to establish prima facie the existence of a dispute between the Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfillment of the Genocide Convention”.
- Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s personal appearance before the ICJ to lead the defence of the military, however, shows the great stakes her country had in the case.
Effects of non-compliance for Myanmar
- For its part, Myanmar has denied that its military or paramilitary has participated in genocide of Rohingya and it is unlikely to alter its position.
- Provisional measures are essentially a restraining order against a state when a case is pending and can be seen as, at most, a censure.
- Provisional orders cannot be challenged and are binding upon the state.
- However, limitations in enforcing decisions of the ICJ are widely acknowledged by law experts.
What are these limitations?
- As per Article 94 of the Charter of the United Nations, all member states are required to comply with decisions of the ICJ.
- However, any action by a state can be secured only through consent of the state in international law.
- When a state fails to comply, the Security Council has the power to impose sanctions against it and ensure compliance when international security and peace are at stake.
- So far, the Security Council has never taken a coercive measure against any country to get an ICJ ruling implemented.
- Even with the stepping in of the Security Council, there are several hurdles in enforcement of ICJ decisions.
- Any one of the five permanent members of the Security Council with veto powers can block the enforcement of an ICJ decision against itself or its ally.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: Abuse of women on social media and its implications
The Amnesty International India has released a report titled “Troll Patrol India: Exposing Online Abuse Faced by Women Politicians in India”. The report analysed more than 114,000 tweets sent to 95 women politicians in the three months during and after last year’s general elections in India.
Highlights of the report
- The research found that women are targeted with abuse online not just for their opinions – but also for various identities, such as gender, religion, caste, and marital status.
- Indian women politicians face substantially higher abuse on Twitter than their counterparts in the U.S. and the U.K.
- Around 13.8% of the tweets in the study were either “problematic” or “abusive”.
- Problematic content was defined as tweets that contain hurtful or hostile content, especially if repeated to an individual on multiple occasions, but do not necessarily meet the threshold of abuse.
- While all women are targeted, Muslim women politicians faced 55% more abuse than others.
- Women from marginalized castes, unmarried women, and those from non-ruling parties faced a disproportionate share of abuse.
A matter of concern
- Abusive tweets had content that promote violence against or threaten people based on their race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, religious affiliation, age, disability or other categories.
- They include death threats and rape threats.
- Problematic tweets contained hurtful or hostile content, often repeated, which could reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes, although they did not meet the threshold of abuse.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Enemy Property in India
Mains level: Disposal of such Enemy Property
- A Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister will monitor the disposal of over 9,400 enemy properties, which the government estimates is worth about Rs 1 lakh crore.
- Two committees headed by senior officials will be set up for the disposal of immovable enemy properties vested in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India under The Enemy Property Act.
What is “Enemy Property”?
- In the wake of the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, there was migration of people from India to Pakistan.
- Under the Defence of India Rules framed under The Defence of India Act, 1962, the Government of India took over the properties and companies of those who took Pakistani nationality.
- These “enemy properties” were vested by the central government in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India.
- The same was done for property left behind by those who went to China after the 1962 Sino-Indian war.
- The Tashkent Declaration of January 10, 1966 included a clause that said India and Pakistan would discuss the return of the property and assets taken over by either side in connection with the conflict.
- However, the Government of Pakistan disposed of all such properties in their country in the year 1971 itself.
How did India deal with enemy property?
- The Enemy Property Act, enacted in 1968, provided for the continuous vesting of enemy property in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India.
- The central government, through the Custodian, is in possession of enemy properties spread across many states in the country.
- Some movable properties too, are categorised as enemy properties.
- In 2017, Parliament passed The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016, which amended The Enemy Property Act, 1968, and The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.
Who is an Enemy?
- The amended Act expanded the definition of the term “enemy subject”, and “enemy firm” to include the legal heir and successor of an enemy, whether a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy; and the succeeding firm of an enemy firm, irrespective of the nationality of its members or partners.
- The amended law provided that enemy property shall continue to vest in the Custodian even if the enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm ceases to be an enemy due to death, extinction, winding up of business or change of nationality, or that the legal heir or successor is a citizen of India or a citizen of a country which is not an enemy.
- The Custodian, with prior approval of the central government, may dispose of enemy properties vested in him in accordance with the provisions of the Act, and the government may issue directions to the Custodian for this purpose.
Why were these amendments brought?
- The thrust of the amendments was to guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties left by people who migrated to Pakistan and China after the wars.
- The amendments denied legal heirs any right over enemy property. The main aim was to negate the effect of a court judgment in this regard.
What did these court orders say?
- One major judgment was passed in the case of the estate of the erstwhile Raja of Mahmudabad, who owned several large properties in Hazratganj, Sitapur and Nainital.
- Following Partition, the Raja left for Iraq and stayed there for some years before settling in London.
- After The Enemy Property Act was enacted in the year 1968, the Raja’s estate was declared enemy property. When the Raja died, his son who stayed in India staked claim to the properties.
- After a legal battle that lasted over 30 years, an apex court Bench on October 21, 2005, ruled in favour of the son.
- The verdict opened the floodgates for further pleas in courts across the country in which genuine or purported relatives of persons who had migrated to Pakistan produced deeds of gift claiming they were the rightful owners of enemy properties.
- On July 2, 2010, the then UPA government promulgated an Ordinance that restrained courts from ordering the government to divest enemy properties from the Custodian.
- The 2005 SC order was thus rendered ineffective, and the Custodian again took over the Raja’s properties.
Enactment of the Amended Law
- A Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on July 22, 2010, and subsequently, a revised Bill was tabled on November 15, 2010. This Bill was thereafter referred to the Standing Committee.
- However, the said Bill could not be passed during the term of the 15th Lok Sabha, and it lapsed.
- On January 7, 2016, the President of India promulgated The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 2016, which was replaced by the Bill that became law in 2017.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Specialized Supervisory and Regulatory Cadre (SSRC)
Mains level: Governance of RBI
The RBI has decided to recruit 35% of the specialised supervisory and regulatory cadre from the market while the remaining 65% will be recruited via internal promotions.
Specialized Supervisory and Regulatory Cadre (SSRC)
- The SSRC will comprise officers in Grade B to Executive Director level.
- In Nov. last year RBI decided to reorganize its regulation and supervision departments.
- It merged the three regulatory departments (department of banking, non-banking and cooperative bank) into one and did likewise for the three supervisory departments.
- As a result, there is only one supervisory department which looks after supervision of banks, NBFCs and cooperative banks and only one regulatory department for these three.
- The move is aimed at dealing more effectively with potential systemic risk that could come about due to possible supervisory arbitrage and information asymmetry.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP)
Mains level: Data Analytics and its applications in governance
NITI Aayog has released its vision for the National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP).
National Data and Analytics Platform
- The platform aims to democratize access to publicly available government data.
- NDAP will host the latest datasets from various government websites, present them coherently, and provide tools for analytics and visualization.
- It will spearhead the standardization of formats in which data is presented across sectors and will cater to a wide audience of policymakers, researchers, innovators, data scientists, journalists and citizens.
- It will follow a user-centric approach and will enable data access in a simple and intuitive portal tailored to the needs of a variety of stakeholders.
- The development of NDAP will take place over a period of one year. The first version of the platform is expected to be launched in 2021.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Introduction of Bt cotton, and various cropping patterns
Context
This year, India is expected to be the world’s largest cotton producer, surpassing China in output. However, India’s productivity (yield per unit area), is much lower than other major cotton-producing countries.
India’s experience with cotton
- India is the only country growing hybrids: India is the only country that grows cotton as hybrids and the first to develop hybrid cotton back in 1970.
- What are hybrids: Hybrids are made by crossing two parent strains having different genetic characters.
- Greater yields: These plants have more biomass than both parents, and capacity for greater yields.
- Require more inputs: They also require more inputs, including fertilizer and water.
- Expensive seed production: Though hybrid cottonseed production is expensive, requiring manual crossing, India’s low cost of manual labour makes it economically viable.
- Rest of the countries: All other cotton-producing countries grow cotton, not as hybrids but varieties for which seeds are produced by self-fertilization.
- Key issues with the use of hybrids
- Hybrid seed cannot be propagated over generations: A key difference between hybrids and varieties is that varieties can be propagated over successive generations by collecting seeds from one planting and using them for the next planting.
- Purchasing the seeds is must: Hybrid seeds have to be remade for each planting by crossing the parents. So for hybrids, farmers must purchase seed for each planting, but not for varieties.
- Pricing control to the companies: Using hybrids gives pricing control to the seed company and also ensures a continuous market.
- Increased yield used as justification for high prices: Increased yield from a hybrid is supposed to justify the high cost of hybrid seeds.
- However, for cotton, a different strategy using high-density planting (HDP) of compact varieties has been found to outperform hybrids at the field level.
Cotton planting strategies
- What other countries do?
- Compact and short-duration varieties: For over three decades, most countries have been growing cotton varieties that are compact and short duration.
- 5kg seeds/acre: These varieties are planted at high density (5 kg seeds/acre).
- These varieties have 5-10 bolls per plant.
- What is done in India?
- Low density and long duration: Hybrids in India are bushy, long duration and planted at a ten-fold lower density.
- 0.5 kg seeds/acre: Hybrids are planted at a lower density of 0.5kg/acre.
- Which strategy is more beneficial?
- The lower boll production by compact varieties (5-10 bolls per plant) compared to hybrids (20-100 bolls/plant) is more than compensated by the ten-fold greater planting density.
- Experience of Brazil: The steep increase in productivity for Brazil, from 400 to 1,000 kg/hectare lint between 1994 and 2000 coincides with the large-scale shift to a non-GM compact variety.
Why should India opt for short duration variety?
- Cotton being a dryland crop: Cotton is a dryland crop and 65% of the area under cotton in India is rain-fed.
- Advantage of short duration variety in the rain-fed area: Farmers with insufficient access to groundwater in these areas are entirely dependent on rain. Here, the shorter duration variety has a major advantage as it reduces dependence on irrigation and risk.
- Particularly late in the growing season when soil moisture drops following the monsoon’s withdrawal.
- This period is when bolls develop and water requirement is the highest.
- Productivity and input costs of the varieties: It has more than twice the productivity.
- Half the fertilizer (200 kg/ha for hybrids versus 100 kg/ha for varieties).
- Reduced water requirement.
- And less vulnerability to damage from insect pests due to a shorter field duration.
Impact of Policy
- Why India persisted with hybrids during 1980-2002
- Two phases of policy have contributed to this situation.
- The first phase- Before GM cotton: The answers lie with the agricultural research establishment.
- The second phase: The phase where the question of hybrids versus compact varieties could have been considered, was at the stage of GM regulation when Bt cotton was being evaluated for introduction into India.
- International experience not taken into account: It would not have been out of place to have evaluated the international experience, including the context of the introduction of this new technology.
- Agro-economic conditions were not taken into account: Importantly, agro-economic conditions where it would be used should have been a guiding factor.
- The narrow scope of evaluation: The scope of evaluation by the GM regulatory process in India was narrow, and did not take this into account.
- Consequently, commercial Bt hybrids have completely taken over the market, accompanied by the withdrawal of public sector cottonseed production.
Key takeaways
-
- Frist–Outcome of technology depends upon the context: Outcome of using a technology such as Bt is determined by the context in which it is deployed, and not just by the technology itself.
- Negative fallout: If the context is suboptimal and does not prioritise the needs of the principal stakeholders (farmers), it can have significant negative fallouts, especially in India with a high proportion being marginal and subsistence farmers.
- Second–Better consultation in policy: There is a need for better consultation in policy, be it agriculture as a whole or crop-wise.
- Socioeconomic consideration in GMO risk assessment: India is a signatory to international treaties on GMO regulation (the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety), which specifically provide for the inclusion of socio-economic considerations in GMO risk assessment.
- However, socioeconomic and need-based considerations have not been a part of the GMO regulatory process in India.
Conclusion
Given the distress, the cotton-growing farmers are facing this is the right time to review the grounds on which Bt cotton was introduced in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Climate change and India's SAPCCs. India acting at state level.
Context
The recent global climate summit, the annual Conference of the Parties (COP25), held in Madrid was a failure and that the multilateral process to address the climate crisis is broken. The growing global stalemate gives India the chance to focus on the State and sub-State levels.
COP 25 at Madrid and what future prospects
- Wealthy countries disowning responsibility: At several discussions on finance, ambition, transparency of support and pre-2020 action, wealthy countries were recalcitrant.
- Disavowing obligations: Although responsible for using the bulk of the carbon space in the atmosphere, they now disavow their obligations. With some even denying anthropogenic climate change.
- Complete severance of science from negotiations: At this stage, there is a complete severance of climate science from the negotiations and agreements at the global level.
- The question is, what can we do now?
- What can happen at the next COP?
- Hope of little change: The next COP will be held at Glasgow, U.K. (in late 2020) and there may be little change in the outcomes.
- The global political order may not alter much. The fact that we live in an unequal and unjust world is not going to change either.
- What else can happen on the global level?
- Right leader: The right political leaders could nudge action in a new direction.
- Green New Deal could pass: Younger members could be elected to the U.S. Congress and the Green New Deal could pass sometime in 2021.
- Growing activism: In the meantime, climate activism is increasing awareness and having some success in removing insurance and financial support for fossil fuel companies. But these kinds of changes will occur slowly.
- Participation of other stakeholders at next COP: At least one expert has called for a parallel action COP at future summits where sub-state actors, civil society groups, non-governmental organisations and academics can share ideas and nudge action.
The chance for India to develop climate change action at State and Sub-state level
- Chance to develop climate change action: The stalemate at the global level offers India the opportunity to focus earnestly on developing its climate change action at State and sub-State levels.
- Peripheral status of climate change: In the states, the environment and climate continue to be relegated to peripheral status.
- Damage to the environment: This neglect has led to the destruction of ecosystems, forests, water-bodies and biodiversity.
- Vulnerability and economic costs of the neglect: Numerous studies have shown the high economic and ecological costs and loss of lives due to extreme events.
- We do not need more data to stimulate action. As is also well recognised, India is extremely vulnerable to the effects of warming.
Progress made by the states so far
- The first round of SAPCCs: With support from bilateral agencies, States initially took different approaches in the first round of State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs).
- Some of them set up separate climate change cells while some collaborated with academic institutions.
- A few produced detailed action plans while others developed strategy documents.
- Still, others integrated improvements in energy efficiency (contributing to reducing emissions), while almost all focused on adaptation.
- The synergy between climate change and development:
- Attention to climate change offers co-benefits to India for development. For instance-
- Efficiency reduces pollution: Improving energy efficiency in industry reduces costs and local pollution.
- Transport and congestion: Improving public transport reduces congestion, pollution and improves access.
- Natural farming and fertilisers: Using natural farming methods reduces fossil fuel-based fertilizers, improves soil health and biodiversity.
- These examples show that there are synergies in the steps to be taken for good development and climate change.
- Next round of SAPCCs and strategies
- The next round of the SAPCCs is being drawn up, under recommendations from the Centre.
- Where should be the focus? The focus ought to be on integrating the response to climate change with the development plan in different departments.
- States together to contribute NDCs: Since the States together are to deliver the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that India has promised, it means that they require guidance from the Centre.
- Unfortunately, most State government departments are handling climate change as a fringe issue and do not seem to recognise its urgency.
Integration of various sectors for climate action
- Identification of sectors: Line departments for government schemes and programmes in key development sectors, such as agriculture, transport and water, should be identified for carefully integrating actions that respond to climate change.
- Integration at district level: This integration should also take place at district and sub-district levels. But only a demonstration of its success in some departments would show how this can be done.
- The realisation of climate as an important issue: But first and foremost, States need to get the signal that climate is an urgent issue.
- Funds for implementing SAPCCs
- How funds for implementing SAPCCs will be obtained is not clear.
- There will not be enough from the Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund and bilateral agencies to support all States unless new sources are found.
- Use of coal cess: The coal cess in India is a good initiative, and as others have pointed out, could be used for environment and climate-related expenses.
- Alternative sources: Alternative sources from high emissions’ industries and practices would be an option, but still probably insufficient.
Way forward
- Performance analysis of first SAPCCs: There is also needs to be a clear analysis of how the first round of action plans fared.
- Challenges and performance: What were the challenges and how did they perform?
- Reasons for success and failures: Which approaches and projects were successful and ought to be scaled up and what lessons do the failures offer?
- Finally, what institutional structure works best?
- Need for the greenhouse gas inventory: The country needs reliable greenhouse gas inventories.
- Individual research groups and the civil society initiative, GHG Platform India, have been producing such inventories.
- Such inventories would be useful in synchronising and co-ordinating State and Central mitigation programmes.
- Programmes with longer timelines: States must also develop their programmes with longer timelines.
- With mid-course correction based on lessons and successes that can be integrated into the next stage of the plan.
- If the second round of SAPCCs were treated as an entry point to long-term development strategy, the States and the country would be better prepared for climate change.
- Ultimately, climate should be part and parcel of all thinking on development.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- Role of informal sector in Indian economy, How expansionary fiscal policy can help more than represented in the official data.
Context
That India is in the midst of a serious economic slowdown is no longer in question. The debates are now mostly about what to do about it.
Where is the GDP growth coming from?
Fall in consumption expenditure in absolute terms: The leaked National Sample Survey (NSS) consumer expenditure data -shows that real monthly per capita expenditure has in fact fallen in absolute terms between 2011-12 and 2017-18.
- 8 % decline in a rural area: In rural areas, consumption expenditure decreased by 8.8 per cent.
- 2% decline in an urban area: While in urban areas it increased by 2 per cent, leading to an all India decline of 3.7 per cent.
- Where is the growth coming from: If average consumer expenditure is down, then where is the GDP growth coming from?
- Consumer expenditure contribution: After all, according to National Accounts Statistics (NAS) consumer expenditure is around 60 per cent of the GDP.
- And given the other contributors to GDP-investment and government spending- are not growing spectacularly, consumer expenditure should be growing rather than decreasing.
- So, to get an overall 5 per cent growth rate, consumer expenditure should be growing at higher than 5 per cent.
- NSS vs. NAS- a genuine puzzle: How can consumption expenditure be going down in absolute terms according to the NSS estimates and be growing at more than 5 per cent according to the NAS?
- Variation in data a norm: That these two types of estimates of consumption expenditure do not match is well-known, and that is the case in other countries as well.
- The discrepancy at alarming proportions: In the 1970s, consumer expenditure according to NSS estimates was around 90 per cent of consumer expenditure according to NAS, but in 2017-18 it was only 32.3 per cent.
- Data from two different countries: It is as if we are looking at data from two different countries.
- One where the consumption expenditure growth is positive and propping up the GDP growth rate and the other where it is actually falling.
A few inferences that pertain to the state of the economy and the policy options.
- Reasons for the discrepancy between NSS data and NAS data.
- First- Presence of large informal sector:
- 50% contribution to GDP: Informal sector accounts for nearly half of the GDP and employs 85 per cent of the labour force.
- Guesswork on performance: In national income accounts, growth in the informal sector is estimated by extrapolating from the performance of the formal sector. Which is largely guesswork.
- Second- Making effects of the expansionary policy less pronounced:
- Expansionary fiscal policy more effective than appear to be: Because of the presence of the informal sector, expansionary fiscal policy will be more effective than what would appear from official statistics, as a big part of its impact will be felt in the informal sector.
- Why is it so? The reason is that a big segment of the population is located in the informal sector; they are poorer and tend to spend a much higher fraction of their income on consumption.
- This group has been seriously affected by the economic slowdown.
- Third-Results of expansionary policy would be apparent after a delay
- Apparent effects of policy much worse than what it would be: The effect of an expansionary policy on the budget deficit will look much worse than what it would be since the estimates of its effect on income expansion and tax collection will be largely based on the formal sector.
- Informal sector boosting the formal sector: Some of the income generated in the informal sector will boost demand in the formal sector through consumer demand for mass-consumption items (for instance, biscuits, as opposed to automobiles).
- Good medium-term pictures: Therefore, in the medium term, once the engine of the economy starts moving, the income expansion and deficit numbers will look better.
- Final-Tax cuts will achieve little
- Only 3-5% population affected: The tax cut will affect barely 3-5 per cent of the adult population.
- Contribution of taxes in GDP: Income tax revenues amount to around 5 per cent of the GDP and corporate income taxes around 3.3 per cent.
- Rich tends to save more: Most of the tax is paid by the richest among these groups (the top 5 per cent taxpayers contribute 60 per cent of individual income tax revenue), and the rich tend to spend a smaller fraction of their income (and save more).
- Little impact on GDP: Irrespective of the number of people affected, and even if they spend the entire increase in their income as a result of the tax cut, the overall economic impact will be small relative to the GDP.
- The futility of tax cut: Therefore, a tax cut for the rich would be less effective in raising spending compared to an equivalent amount being given to poorer groups who spend a much higher fraction of their incomes.
Conclusion
The government should not underestimate the role of the informal sector in the economy. To get the engine of the economy revving, an expansionary fiscal policy that harnesses the energy of the informal sector to boost aggregate demand is the order of the day.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Democracy Index 2019
Mains level: Fallouts on democracy in India
The latest edition of the Democracy Index spells gloom for India. The world’s biggest democracy slipped 10 places in the 2019 global ranking to 51st place.
Democracy Index
- The report is published by The Economist Intelligence Unit — the research and analysis division of The Economist Group, which is the sister company to The Economist newspaper.
- It records how global democracy fared, analysing 165 independent states and two territories.
- The 2019 survey attributes the primary cause of “the democratic regression” to “an erosion of civil liberties in the country”.
India’s performance
- India’s overall score fell from 7.23 to 6.9, on a scale of 0-10, within a year (2018-2019) — the country’s lowest since 2006.
- India was graded in electoral process and pluralism (8.67), government functioning (6.79), political participation (6.67), political culture (5.63) and civil liberties (6.76).
- In the Asia and Australasia region, India ranks eighth, behind Taiwan and Timor-Leste.
- The report talks about the repeal of both Article 370 and Article 35A and various restrictions such as house arrests, internet shutdowns and excessive use of forces.
India: A flawed democracy?
The Index also categorizes India under “flawed democracies”, i.e. countries that hold free and fair elections and where basic civil liberties are respected, but have significant weaknesses in aspects of democracy, such as problems in governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020
Mains level: Unemployment in India
The report World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020 (WESO) was recently released.
About the Report
- The WESO report is an initiative of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
- ILO forecasts that unemployment will rise by about 2.5 million this year.
- The ILO is a UN agency whose mandate is to advance social justice and promote decent work by setting international labour standards.
- The report analyses key labour market issues, including unemployment, labour underutilization, working poverty, income inequality, labour income share and factors that exclude people from decent work.
Highlights of the report
- Global unemployment is projected to increase by around 2.5 million in 2020.
- The number of people unemployed around the world stands at some 188 million.
- In addition, 165 million people do not have enough paid work, and 120 million have either given up actively searching for work or otherwise lack access to the labour market.
- In total, more than 470 million people worldwide are affected, the report said.
- Almost half a billion people are working fewer paid hours than they would like or lack adequate access to paid work.
- Not enough new jobs are being generated to absorb new entrants to the labour market.
Data on working poverty
- Currently working poverty (defined as earning less than USD 3.20 per day in purchasing power parity terms) affects more than 630 million workers, or one in five of the global working population.
- Inequalities related to gender, age and geographical location continue to plague the job market, with the report showing that these factors limit both individual opportunity and economic growth.
- Some 267 million young people aged 15-24 are not in employment, education or training, and many more endure substandard working condition.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Global Risks Report 2020
Mains level: Read the attached story
The top five risks to humanity are recently published in the Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Top five risks
- An important finding of the report is that today’s younger generation, consisting of “Millenials” born after 1980 have ranked environmental risks higher than other older respondents in the short- and long-terms.
- According to the report, the top five risks by likelihood over the next decade are:
- Extreme weather events like floods and storms
- Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Major natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and geomagnetic storms
- Major biodiversity losses and ecosystem collapse
- Human-made environmental damage and disasters
Top 5 risks by severity of impact over the next 10 years
- Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Weapons of mass destruction
- Major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
- Extreme weather events (e.g. floods, storms, etc.)
- Water crises
Top most strongly connected global risks
- Extreme weather events + failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Large-scale cyber-attacks + breakdown of critical information infrastructure and networks
- High structural unemployment or underemployment + adverse consequences of technological advances
- Major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse + failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Food crises + extreme weather events
Other risks
- The report also warned about the increasing economic and societal costs due to non-communicable diseases and the lack of research on vaccines and drug resistance to address the threat of pandemics in the recent future.
- “Economic confrontations” and “domestic political polarization” are significant short-term risks in 2020, the report said.
- This is a warning for the global South including India and Africa where social unrest has seen a rise. For example, unrest has grown among India’s youth.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: 'Time to Care' Report
Mains level: Income inequality in India
The report ‘Time to Care’ was recently released ahead of the 50th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
‘Time to Care’ Report
- It is published by Oxfam International.
- Its calculations are based on the latest data sources available, including from the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s Global Wealth Databook 2019 and Forbes’ 2019 Billionaires List.
Findings of the report
- Although global inequality has declined over the past three decades, domestic income inequality has risen in many countries, particularly in advanced economies and reached historic highs.
- The report said that the world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 per cent of the planet’s population.
- The report flagged that global inequality is shockingly entrenched and vast and the number of billionaires has doubled in the last decade, despite their combined wealth having declined in the last year.
- The Oxfam report further said “sexist” economies are fuelling the inequality crisis by enabling a wealthy elite to accumulate vast fortunes at the expense of ordinary people and particularly poor women and girls.
Income inequality in India
- India’s richest 1 per cent hold more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million people who make up for the bottom 70 per cent of the country’s population.
- The total wealth of all Indian billionaires is more than its full-year budget.
- Regarding India, Oxfam said the combined total wealth of 63 Indian billionaires is higher than the total Union Budget of India for the fiscal year 2018-19 which was at Rs 24,42,200 crore.
- It further said women and girls put in 3.26 billion hours of unpaid care work each and every day — a contribution to the Indian economy of at least Rs 19 lakh crore a year, which is 20 times the entire education budget of India in 2019 (Rs 93,000 crore).
- He said women and girls are among those who benefit the least from today’s economic system.
- They spend billions of hours cooking, cleaning and caring for children and the elderly. Unpaid care work is the ‘hidden engine’ that keeps the wheels of our economies, businesses and societies moving.
Data on earnings
- Oxfam said governments are massively under-taxing the wealthiest individuals and corporations and failing to collect revenues that could help lift the responsibility of care and tackle poverty and inequality.
- As per the report, it would take a female domestic worker 22,277 years to earn what a top CEO of a technology company makes in one year.
- With earnings pegged at Rs 106 per second, a tech CEO would make more in 10 minutes than what a domestic worker would make in one year.
- Besides, direct public investments in the care economy of 2 per cent of GDP would potentially create 11 million new jobs and make up for the 11 million jobs lost in 2018, the report said.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Carbon Disclosure Project
Mains level: India's various moves for curbing carbon emissions
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) 2019 report was recently published.
Carbon Disclosure Project
- CDP is published by the Global Reporting Initiative.
- It is aimed at measuring the carbon reduction activities undertaken by different companies and firms operating in various countries across the globe.
- The report surveys corporate commitments to science-based targets (SBT) and evaluates the climate change risk that they are exposed to.
India’s performance
- India secured the 5th spot on the project report.
- The CDP Report 2019 said that a total of 58 companies shared details about the environment-related activities undertaken by them in this year.
- The report also claims that over 98 percent of top Indian companies have formed some type or committee or group within its organization to drive and address climate-related issues.
- The report also showcased the changing mind-set of India Inc with nearly all major companies setting up some form of oversight to evaluate climate risk.
Global scenario
- The US topped the annual CDP report with 135 companies disclosing their climate-related activities, followed by Japan in the second position with 83 companies and the UK in the third position with 78 countries.
- While France was placed fourth with 51 companies disclosing their details, India was placed fifth with 38 companies committing to the science-based targets.
- In 2018, India had only 25 companies committing to the SBTs.
- India is followed by Germany and Sweden with 30 and 27 companies respectively, while Switzerland and Spain had 23 and 22 companies respectively.
- Netherlands was listed 10th on the list with 18 companies committing to SBT initiatives.
Importance
- India was ranked 5th, ahead of Germany and Sweden.
- India is the first developing economy with a maximum number of companies committing to the science-based targets.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Vyoma Mitra
Mains level: Various functions of Vyoma Mitra in ISRO's unmanned missions
ISRO unveiled its first ‘woman’ astronaut during the event ‘Human Spaceflight and Exploration’.
Vyom Mitra
- The AI-based robotic system is being developed at a robotics lab at the VSSC in Thiruvananthapuram.
- Vyom Mitra will be used for an unmanned flight of ISRO’s GSLV III rocket in December 2020, which, along with a second unmanned flight in July 2021.
- This will serve as the test of ISRO’s preparedness for its maiden manned space mission, Gaganyaan, being targeted for 2022 to mark 75 years of India’s independence.
Functions of the humanoid
- Vyommitra, equipped with a head, two arms and a torso, is built to mimic crew activity inside the crew module of Gaganyaan.
- Attaining launch and orbital postures, responding to the environment, generating warnings, replacing carbon dioxide canisters, operating switches, monitoring of the crew module, receiving voice commands, responding via speech (bilingual) are among its functions listed.
- It will have a human-like face, with lips synchronised for movement to mimic speech.
- Once it is fully developed, Vyommitra will be able to use equipment on board the spacecraft’s crew module, like safety mechanisms and switches, as well as receive and act on commands sent from ground stations.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: ‘Blue Corner’ notice
Mains level: Cooperation measures for International policing
Interpol has issued a Blue Corner notice to help locate an infamous fugitive self-styled godman weeks after the Gujarat Police sought the agency’s intervention for this.
‘Blue Corner’ notice
- According to the Interpol website, “Notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.”
- There are seven types of notices — Red Notice, Yellow Notice, Blue Notice, Black Notice, Green Notice, Orange Notice, and Purple Notice.
- The Blue Notice is issued to “collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime.”
Blue notices a/c to CBI
- The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) website refers to Blue Notices as ‘B Series (Blue) Notices’.
- It says, “The ‘B’ series notices are also called ‘enquiry notices’ and may be issued in order to have someone’s identity verified; to obtain particulars of a person’s criminal record; to locate someone who is missing or is an identified or unidentified international criminal or is wanted for a violation of ordinary criminal law and whose extradition may be requested.”
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SERVICE Initiative
Mains level: NA
The Steel Authority of India Ltd has launched an initiative called SERVICE to promote Voluntary Philanthropist Activities (VPA) by its employees.
About SERVICE
- SERVICE stands for “SAIL Employee Rendering Voluntarism and Initiatives for Community Engagement (SERVICE)”.
- It aims to promote and facilitate philanthropist activities by the employees in a structured manner.
- The Minister also launched a portal for the employees to register for the scheme.
- This dedicated portal will act as a platform for enabling faster interaction and communication amongst the various stakeholders.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3-Climate change and adoption of clean and sustainable energy to tackle with it.
Context
Significance of electricity in our life
- Interconnecting economic prosperity: Electrical energy is a juncture that inter-connects economic prosperity.
- Amplifies social equity.
- Ushers in a liveable environment for us.
- No development in its true sense is possible if we leave aside energy and specifically sustainable energy.
- It is almost indispensable for holistic and sustainable progress of any kind.
Burning of fossil fuel and climate change
- Singular reliance on fossil fuel: Ever since the industrial revolution, development has almost singularly relied on the burning of fossil fuels, emitting huge volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
- 41% of electricity from coal: As per data by the World Coal Association, a little over 41% of all electricity generated is produced from coal.
- Problems with coal: Burning coal for electricity production leads to-
- High level of hazardous carbon emissions.
- Rising levels of pollution: water and air pollution during mining and air pollution during burning.
- Working condition of miners: Added to the disastrous working conditions of miners, coal cannot be regarded as a sustainable source of energy.
- Global warming and climate change: Despite increasing awareness, not much is being done to mitigate climate change.
- Rise over 1.5oC and Consequences: IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has reiterated that unless global temperature rise is not kept within 1.5 degrees Celsius, natural and human systems will be irreparably damaged.
- Rise over 2o C and Consequences: Even a slight increase in atmospheric temperature by 2 degrees Celsius will result in a substantial rise in sea levels.
- Consequences for human life: The rise in sea level would, in turn, translate into a whopping 10 million more people going homeless and another 50% people facing severe water scarcity.
- The aim of becoming carbon neutral: To join the efforts, many global public and private stakeholders have pledged their allegiance into becoming net-zero carbon emitters.
- But we are still far from achieving our objectives, as the IEA (International Energy Agency) recently reported that the Earth’s temperature rise will range between 1.8 degrees Celsius and 2.7 degrees Celsius soon.
Sustainable energy as a necessity
- Energy efficiency and energy management: As the world is evolving into an interconnected form of world-of work, life and more-energy efficiency and energy management have slowly come to be a central driving force.
- Sustainable energy a necessity: In order to power smart homes, industries, hospitals and other mission-critical operations, sustainable energy is no more a matter of choice, but of necessity.
- IoT to help achieve energy efficiency: Technology adoptions like IoT and connected services can greatly enhance energy efficiencies and many global behemoths are coming to terms with this reality.
- Demand for an alternative source of energy: Environmental factors, coupled with rising costs and stringent regulatory guidelines, are adding to the demand for alternative sources of energy.
- Alternate as well as sustainable: The alternate sources are expected not only to satiate the growing consumption needs but are proven to be a sustainable option in the long run.
Electricity 4.0
- Electricity 4.0: That is, sustainable methods of energy generation and efficient and cost-effective usage of produced energy.
- The sustainable energy need of the sustainable future: To lay the foundation stone for a sustainable future, there is a critical need to investigate how we create and consume energy.
- The answer lies in renewables becoming the dominant source of power, globally.
- A new form of energy mix: There is a growing need to build a new form of energy mix under Electricity 4.0, with renewable ways of electricity creation, at its very core. A new order where-
- Electrical internet of things (EIOT).
- Cloud computing.
- Artificial intelligence.
- And the tools of today’s digital era are fully leveraged to maximise energy efficiency.
Way forward
- Given that the major cause of global warming is Carbon Dioxide, so the first step to combat it would be-
- Electrifying the planet: The augmented proliferation of energy-efficient, electricity-based equipments that are prevalent now, such as e-mobility, electrical heating, innovative applications such as electric aviation fleets can be one way to do that.
- Scale up the production of renewable energy: The immediate need is to scale up the production of renewable electricity and build conducive public-policy frameworks to further this goal.
- Adoption of digital technology: It is imperative to adopt digital technology in order to optimise the efficiency of our energy consumption and electrical networks. Digital connectivity, software and artificial intelligence can well be dubbed as the fulcrum that will support our transition toward Industry 4.0.
- Concerted efforts from all stakeholders: To reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions or to promote energy decarbonisation, concerted efforts are required from all stakeholders – the community, regions, government and the private sector.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 3- Need to define the natural forests and effects of climate change on forests.
Context
Global warming, drought and El Niño may lead to increased forest fires.
The success story of India
- Reduced deforestation: India has succeeded in reducing deforestation to some extent through an effective Forest Conservation Act and large-scale afforestation programme.
- Comparison with other countries: India performed better when compared with other forest-rich tropical countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Without the Forest Conservation Act and its reasonably effective implementation, India would have lost significant extent of forest area.
- Increased afforestation: India has also been implementing significant scale afforestation, though the rates of afforestation have declined recently.
- Agro-forestry, involving raising fruit tree plantations contribute to some extent.
- Commercial plantations of eucalyptus, casuarina, teak, poplar, etc., have been raised by farmers for commercial purposes.
- The above steps have resulted in potentially reducing the pressure on natural forests.
Need to measure ‘natural forest’
- Increase in an area under forest: According to the latest biennial State of Forest Report (SFR) of the Forest Survey of India (FSI), an area under forests has been increasing.
- Natural forests not specifically measured: It is not clear what percentage of increase in forest area is due to changes in natural forests which are generally rich in biodiversity.
- The report doesn’t specify what percentage of change in area is due to commercial plantation and what percentage is contributed by horticulture or urban parks.
- Need to define ‘natural forest’: What will be of most concern to forest and biodiversity conservation is to understand the status of natural forest and biodiversity.
- India can use the same definition of forests but must estimate and report the area under natural forests and other forest plantation categories.
- India needs to define ‘natural forests’ first, further, this would involve additional staff time and resources.
- The resilience of natural forests to forest fires: Tropical forests rich in biodiversity are likely to be more resilient than monoculture dominated plantations or exotics.
- Vulnerability to forest fires varies from forests to forests: Studies by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have shown that degraded forests, fragmented forests and biodiversity-poor forests are more vulnerable to climate change.
Climate change and its impacts
- IPCC reports on large scale loss: The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports have repeatedly concluded that climate change will lead to large-scale loss of biodiversity, before the end of the current century or even earlier.
- Modelling studies by IISc.: Preliminary modelling studies by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have shown that about 20% of forests will be impacted by climate change.
- No change to adapt: The modelling studies means that existing forest biodiversity and its structure and composition will not be able to adapt to the new climate and there could be mortality or forest dieback.
- The threat of forest fires: Further, warming, drought and El Niño will lead to increased forest fires, and may even be favourable to forest pests.
- Unfortunately, the models currently in use for assessing the impact of climate change are not suitable for the complex and highly diverse forest types that exist in India.
Conclusions
- Given that global warming will continue, India will have to brace itself to adapt to the impending impacts. In India, there is very limited research on climate change and its impacts on forests, putting our famed biodiversity-rich country status under threat.
- India needs to realistically assess, monitor and model climate change and its impacts and be prepared to adapt to impending climate change.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2-Foreign relations with Pakistan, Issues and need to resume the talks.
Context
Pakistan is changing significantly, which is good for itself and its neighbour as well.
Changing Pakistan
- Major stakeholders in favour of peace: The civil society, the political parties, and even the military establishment of Pakistan have come to favour peaceful and cooperative relations with India.
- Both the power-centre on the same page: Both Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan’s two centres of power, are now on the same page in seeking “honourable peace” with New Delhi on the basis of “sovereign equality”.
- Heavy price paid by Pakistan: There is a broad consensus in Pakistani society and polity that their country has paid a very heavy price by supporting the forces of Islamist extremism and terrorism.
- The futility of using terrorism as foreign policy: There is also consensus that using terrorism for achieving mistaken foreign policy ends in Afghanistan and India.
Conducive conditions for dialogues
- Four factors have influenced the welcome winds of change in Pakistan.
- First-Realisation that Pakistan has suffered a lot:
- Harm at home and to the global image: There is the across-the-board realisation that Pakistan has suffered a lot, both domestically and in terms of damage to its global image, by supporting religious extremism and terrorism.
- A large number of casualties: Terrorists have killed a shockingly large number of civilians -certainly far many more than in India. Several thousand soldiers have lost their lives in the army’s “war on terror”-more than the number of casualties in all the wars with India.
- The threat of FATF blacklisting: Furthermore, Islamabad is under relentless pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to act decisively and irreversibly against terrorist organisations.
- Second-Decrease in religious radicalisation in Pakistan
- The decrease in the financial support to radicalism: What has contributed to the diminished importance of religious radicalism is also the shrinking inflow of petrodollars from Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries that promoted this agenda.
- The ideological influence of religious radicalisation on Pakistan’s civil society is clearly declining.
- Change in Saudi Government Policy: Export of Wahhabism is no longer a foreign policy priority of the Saudi Arabian government.
- Changing policies in UAE: The United Arab Emirates has gone a step further, under the leadership of Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, it is pursuing inter-religious tolerance with a zeal that has surprised Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
- Third-Interest of China
- Rise of China as an economic and security partner: The third factor is China, which has emerged as Pakistan’s most important economic and security partner.
- The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and BRI: The flagship projects under Beijing’s BRI has begun to modernise Pakistan’s infrastructure spectacularly, but its security is which could be threatened by terrorism is also the concern for China.
- Connection with China’s Xinjiang Province: China has urged Pakistan’s ruling establishment to take firm steps to curb the activities of Islamist groups because they can easily foment trouble in China’s Muslim-majority Xinjiang province.
- India-China relation factor: Beijing is also engaged in a steady effort to improve relations with New Delhi, in recognition of India’s rising economic and geopolitical stature in Asia and globally.
- Possibility of India-China-Pakistan cooperation: China’s President Xi Jinping even mooted cooperation among China, India and Pakistan at Mamallapuram summit.
- Fourth-Military establishment in favour of peace.
- The military establishment seems to be fully convinced of the need for normalisation of India-Pakistan
- Opening of Kartarpur Sahib Corridor: The opening of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, perhaps the greatest confidence-building measure between the two countries since 1947, is almost entirely due to Gen. Bajwa’s personal commitment to the project.
- The economic crisis in Pakistan: Bajwa’s is also said to be convinced of the need to open the doors for economic and trade cooperation between the two countries given a serious economic crisis Pakistan is going through.
- Discussion on the Kashmir issue: The Pakistan Army may also be ready to discuss a solution to the Kashmir issue on the basis of a formula Gen. Pervez Musharraf had discussed with PMs Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh.
Conclusion
India needs to seize the opportunity to resume the talks with Pakistan on all the contentious issues and try to resolve the disputes so that the improved relations could help both the countries and the neighbouring countries.
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