The article deal with the impact of the passage of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019 on Ladakh’s autonomy or participatory democracy.
What has changed?
Hill Councils: The Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh and Kargil read along with the framework of J&K’s special status and its bicameral legislative system gave Ladakh autonomy and participatory democracy.
The Hill Councils had the powers over land in Ladakh while the majority of the bigger concerns regarding land remained protected under Article 370 and J&K’s robust land protection laws.
Power to recruit the officers: Gazetted officers were recruited through the State Public Service Commission.
The District Service Selection Board made recruitments at the district level.
But today, there is no Public Service Commission in Ladakh and the Hill Councils’ power to make recruitments at the district level has also been affected by the Lieutenant Governor (LG)’s presence.
No law to protect the jobs: Technically, there also exists no law in Ladakh now that protects the land or even the jobs.
Loss of representation: the Reorganisation Act has taken away the six seats of the Members of Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council and wakened the functioning of the Hill Councils.
The only elected representation from Ladakh outside of Ladakh is a lone MP.
Conclusion
Steps need to be taken to address the issues related to the lack of representation in Ladakh in the wake of the passage of the Reorganisation Act of 2019.
The government is inviting the leaders of the five Central Asian countries — Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan — as guests for Republic Day on January 26.
Significance of Central Asian region for India
Return of Taliban in Afghanistan: The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has made Central Asia a region where great contestations for influence are unfolding.
There is a growing awareness that for leveraging influence in Kabul and harvesting that influence in the form of material gains, a firm footing in Central Asia is a prerequisite.
Economic dimension: Given the vast untapped mineral wealth of the region encompassing the five Central Asian countries and Afghanistan — estimated to be worth a few trillion dollars — there is a significant economic dimension to the unfolding saga.
Geopolitical angle: Washington hopes to create in Central Asia a vector of its Indo-Pacific strategy to contain China and Russia. At the same time, governments in Moscow and Beijing are circling the wagons.
Suggestions for India
India needs to work on an intricate network of relationships with the regional states while remaining mindful of the “big picture”.
Delhi’s non-aligned mindset needs to be turned into a strategic asset to navigate its long-term interests.
India’s membership of the BRICS and SCO will help.
Cooperation of Russia and China: The deepening of the traditional Indo-Russian mutual understanding has injected dynamism into Delhi’s regional strategy on the whole.
It is bound to have a calming effect on India’s tensions with China.
Delhi cannot have an effective Central Asia strategy without the cooperation of these two big powers.
Regional connectivity: India can use the card of regional connectivity to stimulate partnerships.
The time may have come to reopen the files on the TAPI and IPI gas pipeline projects. Both involve Pakistan.
Normalisation of India-Russia ties: Russia is well-placed to act as guarantor and help build both these pipelines, while China too will see advantages in the normalisation of India-Pakistan ties.
New geoeconomic partnership
Recently concluded third meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue in Delhi served a purpose to sensitise the Central Asian interlocutors that it attaches primacy to geoeconomics.
But India will have a challenge on its hands to flesh out the “4Cs” concept that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar presented at the event — commerce, capacity enhancement, connectivity, and contact being the four pillars of a new geoeconomic partnership.
The key areas are transit and transport, logistics network, regional and international transport corridors, free trade agreements, manufacturing industry and job creation.
They ought to be front-loaded into India’s Central Asian strategy.
Certainly, the EAEU integration processes must be speeded up.
Consider the question “With changing geopolitical scenario, India’s stake in Central Asia has drastically increased. In the context of this, examine India’s outreach efforts toward the region and the challenges it faces in it.”
Conclusion
A host of new possibilities open up if India’s initiative on Central Asia runs on a parallel track with an improvement in relations with China.
Why has Civilsdaily Student and Aspiring UPSC 2022 Civil Servant, Ashish Renewed his Program for One More Year With Us?
“Unlike other students in my batch, Ashish has been a dedicated and hardworking UPSC aspirant even before joining us. Since he is unable to prepare for UPSC fulltime, he compensates by studying for 6-7 hours everyday after he completes his work as a bank officer. He is always able to complete the weekly targets assigned to him 2-3 days in advance.”, says Ashish’s Civilsdaily Mentor Pravin sir as he sets the tone of our interview. Pravin sir has been mentoring Ashish for more than a year. Satisfied with his guidance, Ashish has upgraded his program once again for 2022 prelims.
Ashish had started his UPSC-CSE preparation in March 2020. For 6 months, he prepared without comprehending what was written in the books. He followed random videos on Youtube for a topic he didn’t understand and read all the pages of many books recommended by different toppers. Ashish struggled to study a topic concisely. He did not know what was the relevant information he had to gather for a topic. Hence, though he studied hard he was unable to score well in test series. As a result of which, Ashish in his first Civilsdaily Mains Test was able to score only 50 marks out of 250 and 40 out of 200 marks in prelims.
Challenges of Ashish When He Studied Without Mentorship
By July 2020, Ashish decided he cannot waste anymore time and wanted a personal mentor for his UPSC-CSE preparation. He knew he had no time to attend coaching classes so he was particular about the kind of mentor he preferred. Ashish wanted a mentor who could help him minimize his study materials, guide him on how he could judiciously utilize the available time for preparation and set weekly targets for him. “I wanted to do the studying by myself, it’s not classes that I wanted. I wanted someone with whom I can develop micro and macro study plans, someone who evaluates test series frequently and assesses my performance. Someone who motivates me to stay focused when I feel like taking long breaks.” This on surface, might appear as trivial requirements, but let’s not forget that on a daily basis many aspirants grapple with motivation, consistency and time-management issues.
Ashish was unable to find the right mentor till he approached Civilsdaily. ” I was a regular reader of the current affairs compilation at Civilsdaily. That’s when I thought of enrolling in its mentorship program as well.” Under it’s mentorship program, Pravin sir has analyzed the previous year questions from year 1994 onwards for every topic in the syllabus. He will then suggest which book or online source Ashish can read for a particular topic. This way, Ashish is able to read about 2-3 books per subject, but not waste time by reading every page of those books.
Pravin Sir, Civilsdaily Mentor and Two-Time UPSC CSE Interview Aspirant
“To give an example, I asked Ashish to read Ramesh Singh for Fundamentals of Economy but for certain key concepts I asked him to read only from Shankar Ganesh.”, Pravin sir says and continues, “If there is any current affairs in Samachar Manthan that corresponds to what Ashish is reading this week, I will bring it to his notice.” Pravin sir conducts weekly counselling session where Ashish is free to discuss anything that bothers him personally even if it’s not related to his studies. Every aspirant has had those days when it’s been hard to just study. It happens to the best of us sometimes and for some of us, it happens more frequently. And it is understandable, Civil Service preparation is a long and often lonely process. Every aspirant, from toppers to those who have quit have been overwhelmed by this process at some point in time. Working alone is monotonous and that’s why regular counselling is required. “I believe that during this tough preparation phase, an aspirant is vulnerable to the smallest of the negative distractions. Counselling helps them stay on track and not react to anything going around them in an impulsive manner.” Pravin sir has also included all his students in the Habitat Club where he posts inspirational quotes and invites everyone for a weekly zoom session to conduct live answer writing practice sessions. “I conduct this zoom session right before and after the weekly prelims and mains test series. I feel its important for everyone in a group to discuss and debate on how they can improve an answer for a question. Over here, I also show the answer writing copies of other UPSC toppers”
When Ashish first wrote the test series, he had a problem of writing vague points which were not backed by relevant factual data. He also did not give current affairs examples of the points he discussed in his answers.
By November 2020, Ashish learnt how to improve the presentation of his answers by writing shorter points and backing it up with examples wherever necessary. He also highlighted sub-headings as boxes to get the attention of the examiner. However, while concluding, he still made vague points and did not offer solutions to the issues.
In the recent test series conducted on December 9 2021, Ashish improved his answer writing in terms of presentation, valid specific points and solutions, examples and statistics. However, he missed on giving an introduction that could have fetched him 1-2 marks extra by mentioning about the recent cryptocurrency bill.
Right now, Ashish is able to score 105 in advanced prelims test series, 120 in basic prelims test series and 100 out of 250 in advanced mains test series. “I feel reassured when I get timely support from Pravin sir and always look forward to our weekly interactions when I can inform him I completed the modules of the week.” When asked about one particular instance of mentorship that he cherishes, Ashish says, “I did not understand parliamentary committee topic once. Pravin sir was on call with me for half an hour and explained the whole topic till I understood. I really appreciate that from his end.” Ashish told us that Pravin sir directs him to the right videos and sources when he is unable to get conceptual clarity. “This often happens to me when I am reading any topic in international relations. Because of Pravin sir’s support, I am able to understand a topic in lesser time.” Due to the weekly topic wise prelims and mains test series, Ashish has improved his speed and accuracy to a large extent. “While before, I used to take 15-20 minutes to write an answer, now I am able to do so within 10 minutes.”
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In the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic, evaluating the state of inequality serves as an eye-opener on the income/wealth divides prevailing across regions.
Income and wealth inequality in the world
The top 10% of the global population share 52% of the total income, while the bottom half survives with a mere 8.5% of it.
This leaves the 40% in the middle with 40% of the income.
This distribution shows the tendency of a rising middle class with lower disparity in income, but it also shows that the status of the poor is worsening day by day.
Inequality of wealth: In terms of wealth, the top 10% of the global population own 76% of the total wealth, while the bottom 50% share a mere 2%.
Some additional features of this exposition of inequality also relate to imbalance of women’s share in income as well as the ecological inequities indicated by the differential carbon emission levels.
Factors responsible for rising inequality
[1] Absence of effective measures of redistribution
Inequality varies across regions. It is moderate in Europe and sharp in Africa.
The top 10% have an income share of 36% in Europe vis-à-vis the top 10% with a share of 58% of the total income in West Asia and North Africa.
Measures for redistribution: This disparity shows that worsening inequalities are avoidable with appropriate measures in place.
[2] The absence of measures discouraging undue accumulation
Kuznet’s curve not follower everywhere: While there is an argument in literature that inequalities are a manifestation of the average level of income, as explained by the Kuznets’ theory, the prevailing pattern across countries does not follow the same.
Average income level is poor predictor of inequality: The average income levels seem to be poor predictors of the levels of inequality, with high-income countries such as the U.S. having higher levels of inequality as against countries such as Sweden, which have moderate levels of inequality.
Similar contradictions are also seen when we contrast middle-income nations such as Brazil, India and China as against Malaysia and Uruguay.
Hence, emerging inequalities are not necessarily an outcome of rising levels of income in the post-liberalisation era, but a depiction of poor redistributive policies towards discouragement of accumulation by governments with due sensitivity towards inequalities.
How inequality hurts government finances
This prevailing pattern of wealth concentration and differential levels of income around the world has also resulted in rich nations having poor governments.
Such a situation has two underpinnings: one, governments have a limited capacity to act on inequality aversion measures and two, private interests overshadow the distributional fairness of wealth.
Way forward
Focus also needs to be placed on reducing disparities in capability domains like education and differential endowments (tangible and intangible) that have the potential to sustain inequalities.
Consider the question “How rising income and wealth inequality could harm us in various ways? What are the factors responsible for the rising inequality? Suggest the way forward.”
Conclusion
The rising levels of income and wealth need to be addresses by policy measures and reducing disparity in capacity domains.
GS-1 Population and associated issues, poverty, and developmental issues
GS-2 Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.
GS-3 Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment; Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.
GS-4 Public/Civil service values and Ethics in Public administration: Accountability and ethical governance; strengthening of ethical and moral values in governance; ethical issues in international relations and funding; corporate governance.
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In order to reduce transportation and logistic cost, the union government along with the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is working on warehouse policy.
What are Warehouses?
A warehouse is a building for storing goods.
Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc.
They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, towns, or villages.
Objectives of the New Warehousing Policy
Logistics boost: The new policy is aimed at improving logistics throughout the country.
Supply chain management: The modern warehouses will house cold-storage chains and will be able to store all kinds of cargo—wet and dry.
De-congesting cities: These facilities are expected to come up outside city centres so that large trucks carrying the cargo do not need to enter the city to unload their goods.
Fuel efficiency: This will also help boost bulk carrying capacity and save fuel.
Curbing air pollution: The idea is to minimize pollution and traffic congestion in major cities.
Who will frame and implement the policy?
NHAI: The policy will be framed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). It will also be the implementing agency.
How?
Through Land Banks: There are land banks along the highways and expressways of the country with the NHAI.
PPP mode: Tenders will be floated for such land parcels, inviting private players to develop warehousing zones in PPP mode on a revenue-sharing basis or for a fixed fee.
What will be the impact on logistic costs?
Logistics cost-saving: Warehousing zones will help cut India’s logistics cost, which is 14%-16% of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to 8%-10% of GDP in China and 12%-13% in the US.
Establishment ofMMLPs: The warehousing zones and multi-modal logistics parks (MMLPs) are being set up by the NHAI.
FMCG sector boost: This will help Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms, steel and cement makers stock inventory near major hubs.
How will MMLPs aid warehousing policies?
Integration of multi-modal transport includes the development of 35 MMLPs.
The MMLPs are aimed at fostering inter-modal connectivity through dedicated railway lines and access from highways to provide connectivity to an airport or a seaport or an inland waterway terminal.
The aim is to:
Remove deficiencies related to logistics
Draw the associated costs down, and
Strategically integrate highway projects and other connectivity initiatives
Why such move?
Ans.E-commerce boom
The e-commerce sector has been driving the demand for logistics and warehousing across global markets.
It has emerged as the most prominent driver of Indian warehousing market volumes along with the third party logistics sector.
This sector’s share in transactions has grown from 18% in FY17 to 31% in FY21.
The Indian market is on the verge of its next phase of growth with domestic groups such as Tatas and Reliance entering the business.
Thus far, Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. have driven the market.
The J&K Delimitation Commission has proposed to increase six seats for the Jammu division and one for the Kashmir division evoking sharp reactions from the regional parties.
What is Delimitation and why is it needed?
Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of an Assembly or Lok Sabha seat to represent changes in population over time.
This exercise is carried out by a Delimitation Commission, whose orders have the force of law and cannot be questioned before any court.
The objective is to redraw boundaries (based on the data of the last Census) in a way so that the population of all seats, as far as practicable, be the same throughout the State.
Aside from changing the limits of a constituency, the process may result in a change in the number of seats in a state.
Delimitation in J&K
Assembly seats in J&K were delimited in 1963, 1973 and 1995.
Prior to August 5, 2019, carving out of J&K’s Assembly seats was carried out under the J&K Constitution and Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957.
Until then, the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats in J&K was governed by the Constitution of India.
However, the delimitation of the state’s Assembly was governed by the J&K Constitution and J&K Representation of the People Act, 1957.
There was no census in the state in 1991 and hence no Delimitation Commission was set up by the state until 2001 census.
Why is it in the news again?
After the abrogation of J&K’s special status in 2019, the delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the newly-created UT would be as per the provisions of the Indian Constitution.
On March 6, 2020, the government set up the Delimitation Commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, which was tasked with winding up delimitation in J&K in a year.
As per the J&K Reorganization Bill, the number of Assembly seats in J&K would increase from 107 to 114, which is expected to benefit the Jammu region.
Factors considered during Delimitation
The number of districts had increased from 12 to 20 and tehsils from 52 to 207 since the last delimitation.
The population density ranged from 29 persons a square km in Kishtwar to 3,436 persons a square km in Srinagar.
The remoteness of the place, inaccessibility etc are also considered during the exercise.
What’s new?
Ans.Reserved constituencies for SC/STs
For the first time, in Jammu and Kashmir, nine seats are proposed to be allocated for Scheduled Tribes out of 90 seats on the basis of population.
Seven seats are proposed for Scheduled Castes.
Concerns raised over Delimitation
Jammu vs. Kashmir: Concerns had been expressed over how the delimitation process may end up favoring the Jammu region over Kashmir in terms of the seats.
Under-representation of Ladakh: Arguments have been made on how Ladakh has been underrepresented, with demands for statehood/sixth schedule.
Non-proportionate reservations: It is argued that seats for STs should’ve been divided in both Jammu province & Kashmir province, as the ST population is almost equal.
Do not forget to answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.With reference to the Delimitation Commission, consider the following statements:
The orders of the Delimitation Commission cannot be challenged in a Court of Law.
When the orders of the Delimitation Commission are laid before the Lok Sabha or State Legislative Assembly, they cannot affect any modifications in the orders.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
PM launched the UDAN scheme nearly five years back with the aim to take flying to the masses. However, many routes have launched by airlines have been discontinued.
UDAN Scheme
The Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme is a low-cost flying scheme launched with the aim of taking flying to the masses.
The first flight under UDAN was launched by the PM in April 2017.
It is also known as the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) as it seeks to improve air connectivity to tier-2 and tier-3 cities through revival of unused and underused airports.
Working of the Scheme
Airlines are awarded routes under the programme through a bidding process and are required to offer airfares at the rate of ₹2,500 per hour of flight.
At least 50% of the total seats on an aircraft have to be offered at cheaper rates.
In order to enable airlines to offer affordable fares they are given a subsidy from the govt. for a period of three years.
Present status of working
A total of nine rounds of bidding have taken place since January 2017.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has set a target of operationalizing as many as 100 unserved and underserved airports and starting at least 1,000 RCS routes by 2024.
So far, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has awarded 948 routes under UDAN, of which 403 routes have taken off that connect 65 airports.
Out of the total 28 seaplane routes connecting 14 water aerodromes, only two have commenced.
Issues with the working
Discontinuance: In reality, some of the routes launched have been discontinued as most of the routes awarded under UDAN are not active.
On-paper Ambitions: UDAN was expanded to provide improved connectivity to hilly regions and islands through helicopters and seaplanes. However, they mostly remain on paper.
The reasons include:
Failure to set up airports or heliports due to lack of availability of land
Airlines unable to start flights on routes awarded to them or finding the routes difficult to sustain
Adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Various challenges
Lack of funds: Many small airlines await infusion of funds, to be able to undertake maintenance of aircraft, pay rentals to lessors, give salaries to its staff, etc.
Maintenance issue: Many players don’t have more than one or two planes and they are often poorly maintained. New planes are too expensive for these smaller players.
Availability of pilots: Often, they also have problems with the availability of pilots and are forced to hire foreign pilots which costs them a lot of money and makes the business unviable.
Competition: Only those routes that have been bagged by bigger domestic players such as IndiGo and SpiceJet have seen a better success rate.
Way forward
The govt offers subsidies for a route for a period of three years and expects the airline to develop the route during this time so that it becomes self-sufficient.
Airlines need an extension of the subsidy period for their operational continuity.
Due to the rise in COVID cases, travel restrictions and passenger safety too needs to be taken into consideration in the loss-making of such airlines.
The Centre has shown its disagreement with the conclusions drawn by Reporters Without Borders about press freedom in India for various reasons.
World Press Freedom Index
The PFI is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders since 2002.
It is based upon the organization’s own assessment of the countries’ press freedom records in the previous year.
It intends to reflect the degree of freedom that journalists, news organizations, and netizens have in each country, and the efforts made by authorities to respect this freedom.
It is careful to note that the index only deals with press freedom and does not measure the quality of journalism in the countries it assesses, nor does it look at human rights violations in general.
India’s ranking
India is ranked at 142 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index 2021.
In the South Asian neighborhood, Nepal is at 106, Sri Lanka at 127, Myanmar (before the coup) at 140, Pakistan at 145 and Bangladesh at 152.
China is ranked 177, and is only above North Korea at 179 and Turkmenistan at 178.
What the report said about India
Targeting women: It has been highlighted that the “campaigns are particularly violent when the targets are women”.
Criminal prosecutions: Often used to gag journalists critical of the authorities.
Draconian laws: It termed various Indian laws such as – laws on ‘sedition,’ ‘state secrets’ and ‘national security’, draconian.
Curb on freedom of expression: The report has also highlighted the throttling of freedom of expression on social media.
Censorship on social media: It specifically mentioned that in India the “arbitrary nature of Twitter’s algorithms also resulted in brutal censorship”
Reservations held by India
India along with many nations has reportedly disgusted the outcomes of this report. It stated that media in India enjoy absolute freedom.
The government does not subscribe to its views and country rankings and does not agree to the conclusions drawn by this organization for various reasons:
Non-transparent methodology
Very low sample size
Little or no weightage to fundamentals of democracy
Adoption of a methodology that is questionable and non-transparent
Lack of clear definition of press freedom, among others
Why is the report biased?
The report is a subjective measure computed through the prism of western liberals.
It tends to default to a homogenous view of mass media which then facilitates comparison between countries.
There are no questions about media ownership or about their economic concentration in private hands.
The phrase ‘anti-national’ has not been defined in statutes, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has informed the Parliament.
Defining Anti-national Activities
(1) Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act
The UAPA is aimed at the prevention of unlawful activities associations in India.
Its main objective was to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India.
(2) Sedition Law
Section 124A IPC deals with attempts to bring into hatred or contempt or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government established by law in India.
This law was enacted by the British colonial government in 1870 with the sole object of suppressing all voices of Indians critical of the government.
(3) NCRB Reports
In 2019, when the National Crime Records Bureau released the annual Crime in India report for year 2017, it included for the first time a new chapter on “Crime Committed by Anti National Elements.”
The chapter listed – “North East insurgents, Left Wing Extremists and Terrorists (including Jihadi terrorists)” as the three anti-national elements.
Attempts for defining
There are criminal legislations and various judicial pronouncements deal with unlawful and subversive activities which are detrimental to the unity and integrity of the country.
In this regard, it is relevant to mention that the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976 inserted in the Constitution Article 31D (during Emergency) which defined “anti-national activity”.
This Article 31D was, later, omitted by the 43rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1977.
Supreme Court guidelines
In the ultimate analysis, the judgment in Kedar Nath (1962) read down Section 124A and held that without incitement to violence or rebellion there is no sedition.
It says that ‘only when the words written or spoken etc. which have the pernicious tendency or intention of creating public disorder the law steps in.
Who maintains the data of such individuals?
The onus of maintenance of such data lies with the respective states.
‘Public Order’ and ‘Police’ are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
Hence the data about the number of people arrested for indulging in anti-national activities are not maintained centrally.
