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  • HOW TO WRITE PERFECT ANSWERS IN UPSC MAINS?

    HOW TO WRITE PERFECT ANSWERS IN UPSC MAINS?

    Click here to register and get a free handout on Important tips for Mains answer writing

    One of the greatest student in Indian History is Arjuna. His dedication and hard work to improve his skill of archery are unmatched.

    Guru Dronacharya had instructed the cook at the ashram to not serve his students food at night. One day, however, the dinner got delayed. While everyone was eating at night, suddenly, the lights went off. As Arjuna ate in the dark, he realized that there was automatic coordination between his hands and mouth. He did not require vision to put his hand into his mouth. This was an amazing discovery for him. This meant that he could orient himself to shoot the target even in the night, through his other senses. He immediately took up his bow and arrow to practice in the dark. And from then on, the entire month, he would practice day and night!

    Day and night- just practice.

    If you want to ace your mains answer writing, then PRACTICE is your only option. Arjuna had practiced for decades before his real test in the Mahabharata war. Even you need to start your answer writing from day one and not leave it for “after the prelims” approach.

    Be Arjuna of Answer writing!

    Why Answer writing from Day 1 is necessary?

    Let me first develop enough knowledge to write answers: This is the biggest lie we tell ourselves. There is no such thing as “ENOUGH” in UPSC preparation. It is better to train ourselves from Day 1 – How to apply the knowledge that I have?

    Your knowledge is tested through your answers: If you have not learned the art to articulate your thoughts on paper, then that’s a disaster waiting to happen. Studying and writing answers is a symbiotic relationship and one reinforces the other.

    Prelims Magic: We all want quick results, we want our answers to be brilliant within a week after we clear prelims. Hence, the common excuse – I will deal with answer writing after prelims. Sorry to break it to you but magic is limited to Harry Potter books.

    Advantages of starting writing answer early:
    • Helps you retain concepts, facts, and figures.
    • Learning the trick to formulate the structure of the answer.
    • Helps to revise things and learn new things not covered by conventional books.
    • Improves your writing speed, and handwriting.

    Click here to register and get a free handout on Important tips for Mains answer writing

    Some common mistakes students make in answer writing

    • Not understanding the demand of the Question: Words like ‘Examine’, ‘Comment’, or ‘Discuss’ are used for a reason in the questions. Why would UPSC use different words if it wants the same structure from each question?
    • Structure a Mental Framework: If you lack the practice then, you are not able to create a mental framework. This leads to poor answers- you write points as you remember in a haphazard manner. This completely compromises your presentation.
    • Introduction, body, and conclusion: This is the ideal structure for the mains answer. One very common mistake is that students have a tendency to generalize the introduction and conclusion. Along with this, the scope of dimensions in the body is limited.
    • Low hanging fruits: Some elements in your answer like a diagram, reports/commissions, and supreme court judgments can uplift the quality of your answers. Students have a tendency to skip them.

    These are just a few mistakes, in the initial phase of answer writing, students make a lot of such mistakes which can cost them marks. The real Smart study is to overcome such silly mistakes in your answer writing from the very start.

    Click here to register and get a free handout on Important tips for Mains answer writing

    This Handout is drafted by SAJAL SIR himself which deals with 20 key points for Mains answer writing. This handbook can give you a new insight into what mistakes you are making while writing answers.

    This is absolutely free. So, go register yourself NOW! and GET the handbook in your email WITHIN 72 HOURS.

    Also, you will get a FREE MAINS MENTOR call post-registration.

    About the Author

    Sajal Singh

    Sajal sir is known to make Economics and IR as easy as a cakewalk. He scored one of the highest marks in GS in the 2017 UPSC exam. Under his guidance, more than 80 percent of Students qualified for UPSC interview 2020 in Smash mains Program.

    Sajal sir’s marks in UPSC 2017 GS Mains paper were:

    • GS Paper 1 – 132
    • GS Paper 2 – 125
    • GS Paper 3 – 130

  • Challenges in Vaccinating All

    Reoriented vaccine policy

    • The foremost challenge in vaccination in India has been a supply deficit.
    • Announcing a reoriented vaccine policy recently, the Prime Minister announced a coherent path forward.
    • Starting from June 21, the Union government will take charge of 75 per cent of the total procurement, and provide vaccines to states at no cost.
    • The government has reserved 30 crore vaccines with Hyderabad-based Biological-E by facilitating an advance payment of Rs 1,500 crore.
    • Fortnightly updates on the supply of vaccines to states are being taken to ensure transparency and efficiency in planning.

    Dealing with two complex challenges

    • Two other complex challenges that need immediate focus are vaccine hesitancy and the much-discussed digital divide in the country.

    1) Challenge of vaccine hesitancy

    • Contextualised and curated approaches are crucial.
    • The WHO has put forth the BeSD (behavioural and social drivers) vaccination model, which emphasises “motivation” as the vanguard of human psychology during a vaccination drive.
    • Vaccination coverage could be increased by incentivising and motivating citizens.
    • Unfortunately, in India, misinformation, disinformation and misplaced beliefs have led to fears about the potential harmful effects of vaccines.
    • The diversity of India necessitates community engagement at the local level to counter this narrative of misinformation.
    • A successful information campaign requires dissemination through mediums that invoke trust.
    • Local languages and dialects should be used to engage people via local radio, television channels and regional newspapers.
    • Another network that can be leveraged at the district level is that of the ASHA workers and the auxiliary nurse-midwives.
    • These are trusted local figures.

    2) Bridging the digital divide

    • It is important to introduce solutions that bridge the digital divide.
    • A toll-free helpline number 1075 has been activated for those without internet.
    • Similarly, districts can explore missed-call campaigns, which could ensure that minimal infrastructure is being optimised for processing high-volume user requests.
    • Even though the reported adverse events following immunisation stands at only 0.012 per cent, dedicated representatives can provide vaccine-related pre- and post-counselling to individuals.

    Way forward

    Startups could help bridge digital divide

    • The devastating effects of the second wave in rural areas have prompted fintech startups to enable vaccine registration.
    • PayNearby has helped over 8 lakh citizens register through its network of agents called “digital pradhans”, who are present in kirana, ration, mobile and hardware stores, frequented regularly by rural users. 

    Use points of contact for publicising benefits of vaccine and registration

    • Almost 81 crore beneficiaries, 75 per cent of whom are in rural areas, procure ration from 5,46,165 fair price shops across India.
    • There are over 11 lakh business correspondent outlets in India working mostly in rural areas to advance the mission of financial inclusion.
    • A network of around 1,54,965 post offices (as on March 2017) exists in India of which 1,39,067 are in the rural areas.
    • Such points of contact can be leveraged as dedicated units for publicising the benefits of Covid vaccines and as physical locations for vaccine registration

    Direct engagement with citizens

    • The Prime Minister recently described district officials as “field commanders” in our efforts against Covid.
    • This ambit should move beyond just the district bureaucracy to the extensive network of public services. 
    • A stellar example of direct engagement also stems from the success of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
    • Direct engagement with citizens contributed greatly to the operational success of previous immunisation campaigns like the pulse polio programme.

    Consider the question “What are the factors responsible for vaccine hesitency? Suggest the ways to deal with it.”

    Conclusion

    Thinking local and utilising established networks to create culturally resonant messages is the need of the hour to reduce vaccine hesitancy, bridge the digital divide and achieve vaccine saturation.

     

  • Can the G-7 give new direction to globalisation?

    The article highlights the challenges associated with the globalisation and important role G-7 can play in dealing with these challenges.

    The context that makes this G-7 Summit significant

    • The most significant expectation of the summit is that it will help determine the shape of globalisation.
    • There has been much discussion of the possibility of the G-7 pushing for global coordination on minimum corporate taxation.
    • The summit also seeks to redefine the broader relationship between states and markets in three ways.

    Redefining the relationship between states and market in 3 ways

    1) States reasserting the control over markets

    • States are reasserting control over the terms on which markets operate.
    • The idea of Neoliberalism did convey the idea that states should follow where the market leads, or step in only where there is a market failure.
    • However, this account of the relationship between states and markets had four harmful consequences.
    • 1) It provided a misleading picture of what makes economies vibrant.
    • 2) It led to a sense of loss of collective control over our economic future.
    • 3) It led to great inequality.
    • 4) In some fields like technology, it created new forms of corporate power.
    • To reverse some of these consequences, some coordination at the global level on taxation, or treatment of technology monopolies etc is required.

    2) Global interdependence cannot be managed without global public goods

    • At one level the global roles of the G-7 or even the G-20 were something like the political steering committee for global capitalism.
    • Their most useful political roles were during the financial crisis, when global financial coordination was required.
    • But there was relatively little attention to the systemic vulnerabilities that globalisation might create.
    • These could be vulnerabilities because of the way supply chains were distributed, or those that arose from the creation of winners and losers within globalisation.
    • Most importantly, there was short shrift given to global public goods like health.
    • The Covid crisis has reminded us of all of these vulnerabilities.
    • The commitment of G-7 to provide one billion vaccine doses is a welcome step.
    • But whether this crisis-driven commitment will translate into an enduring and just framework for providing global public goods on health and environment remains to be seen.

    3) Geopolitical context

    •  There are two geopolitical “cold wars” that cast a shadow on the G-7.
    • The first involves China.
    • In the context of rising geopolitical tensions with China, greater coordination and unity of purpose amongst the G-7 will become more important.
    • The second is a threat of authoritarian disruption.
    • Greater global disarray strengthens the possibility of giving political support to these political tendencies.
    • It is important, therefore, to demonstrate that the G-7 countries are part of a functional democratic civilisation.

    Challenges ahead

    • Despite the directional changes, many of the central distributive conflicts that beset globalisation are likely to continue.
    • The talk of global public goods works only in a context where the advanced economies are at the receiving end.
    • Take the G-7 proposal for the coordination of taxation.
    • In principle, this is not a bad idea, if it can close off tax havens and prevent a global race to the bottom.
    • However, it is sobering to read the Tax Justice Network’s “The State of Tax Justice Report” 2020.
    • According to this report, the United States, Netherlands and United Kingdom are three of the top five countries (along with Cayman Islands and Luxembourg) responsible for tax losses inflicted on other countries.
    • The US, Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong are amongst the highest on the Financial Secrecy Index.
    • So, the visible corporate tax rate, or taxing at point of sales, may just be the window dressing the global tax problem that allows countries to hold onto their privileges.
    • Similarly, on climate change. There is a lot of encouraging talk of ambitious targets, investment-led transformations.
    • Intelligently done, this might be for the good.
    • But it could also repeat the familiar pattern of regulation serving to preserve the dominance of advanced economies.
    • There is also, in the talk of a new global economic order, the curious absence of discussions on finance.
    • But if one is looking at potential sources of vulnerability, the ability to create winners and losers, and possible threats to global resilience, then regulation and coordination of global finance deserve more attention.

    Consider the question “What are the vulnerabilities associated with globalisation. Suggest the solutions to deal with these vulnerabilities.”

    Conclusion

    If the G-7 wants to truly exercise more leadership, it will have to convince the world that all its wonderful new principles, resilience, inclusion, global public goods, are not simply ruses to serve only the interests of the developed world.

  • Protection of ‘Heritage Trees’ in Maharashtra

    The Maharashtra government will make amendments to the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act of 1975, to introduce provisions for the protection of ‘heritage trees’.

    What are Heritage Trees?

    • Under the proposed amendment, a tree with an estimated age of 50 years or more shall be defined as a heritage tree.
    • It may belong to specific species, which will be notified from time to time.
    • Experts believe that in addition to the age, the state climate change department should also consider a tree’s rarity, its botanical, historical, religious, mythological and cultural importance in defining a heritage tree.
    • The local Tree Authority will have to ensure tree census to be carried out every five years along with counting of heritage trees

    How is the age of the tree determined?

    • The most common method of determining the age of the tree is Dendrochronology – or tree-ring dating also called growth rings.
    • Each year, roughly a tree adds to its girth, the new growth is called a tree ring. By counting the rings of a tree, the age can be determined.
    • However, the process is invasive. To analyse the rings, core samples are extracted using a borer that’s screwed into the tree and pulled out, bringing with it a straw-size sample of wood.
    • The hole in the tree is then sealed to prevent disease.

    Why was the concept of heritage tree introduced?

    • A heritage tree will get special protection.
    • Crucially, the tree’s age will determine the number of trees to be planted as part of the compensatory plantation – that is anyone cutting a heritage tree will need to plant trees in the same numbers as the cut tree’s age.
    • According to the current Compensatory Plantation in the state, one sapling has to be planted for each tree that is cut.
    • In Mumbai, as per the Tree Authority set up in 1976, to help in regulating the felling of trees and providing for the planting of an adequate number of new trees, the compensation ratios are 1:3.

    Changes with the amendment

    • As per the amendment, the number of trees planted will be equal to the age of the heritage tree that is cut.
    • For instance, if a 52-year-old tree is to be felled, then the party felling the tree will have to plant 52 trees in compensation, with each compensatory tree at least 6-8 ft in height at the time of planting.
    • The organization planting the compensation trees will also have to ensure the survival of the plantation for seven years and geo-tag the trees.
    • Such plantations can be carried out either in the same plot or a common amenity plot.
    • Through the introduction of a heritage tree, the state environment wants to discourage the cutting of heritage trees.
    • The amendment has the fine for illegal felling of trees from a maximum of Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh per tree.

    What is the economic value of the tree?

    • In case compensatory plantation is not possible, the tree feller has to pay compensation for the economic valuation of the trees being felled.
    • While the state government has not defined the economic value of the tree, experts say that the amount of oxygen that a tree releases into the environment should determine its economic value.
    • A realistic assessment of the economic value of a tree, which may be permitted to fell, concerning its value to the environment and its longevity, about factors such as:

    the production of oxygen and carbon sequestration, soil conservation, protection of flora/fauna, its role in habitat and ecosystem integrity and any other ecologically relevant factor, distinct from timber/wood

    Tree Authority formation

    • The amendments also make room for the formation of the Maharashtra State Tree Authority and also tree authority in local civic bodies and councils.
    • The Tree Authority is tasked with “increasing the tree cover in urban areas and protecting the existing ones.” Experts shall be a part of the local tree authority.
    • Their knowledge and expertise will form the basis of decisions taken up by the authority.
    • A proposal to cut more than 200 trees of age 5 years or more, will be referred to the state tree authority.
    • The local TA will have to ensure that the project is not sub-divided into smaller parts to keep the number of trees below the defined threshold.
    • Ensure preparation of a tree plan and should aspire over the years to have 33 percent green belt in their area.

  • Delhi’s Master Plan 2041

    The Delhi Development Authority gave its preliminary approval to the draft Master Plan for Delhi 2041.

    What is the Master Plan 2041 for Delhi?

    • The draft of the Master Plan seeks to “foster a sustainable, liveable and vibrant Delhi by 2041”.
    • It includes analysis, recommendations, and proposals keeping in mind the population, economy, housing, transportation, community facilities, and land use.
    • The current master plan of Delhi — Master Plan 2021 — expires this year.
    • The first volume is an introduction, providing an overview of Delhi in present times, its global and regional positioning, estimates of population, and projections for 2041.
    • The draft MPD presents a plan for the city for the next 20 years.

    What are the main focus areas of the master plan?

    • In the housing sector, it talks about incentivizing rented accommodation by inviting private players and government agencies to invest more, keeping in mind the large migrant population.
    • It addresses parking problems and suggests a ‘user pays principle, which means users of all personal motor vehicles, except for non-motorized ones, have to pay for authorized parking facilities, spaces and streets.

    How does the master plan tackle environmental pollution?

    • The draft plan aims to minimize vehicular pollution through key strategies, including a switch to greener fuels for public transport and the adoption of mixed-use of transit-oriented development (also known as TOD).
    • It also addresses improving the quality of water, which is taken from the Yamuna river as well as various lakes, natural drains and baolis.
    • The draft lays a clear boundary of the buffer zone near the Yamuna river and explores how to develop it.
    • As per the plan, a green buffer of 300-metre width shall be maintained wherever feasible along the entire edge of the river.

    How is it different from the 2021 Master Plan?

    • The world has gone through a drastic change due to the pandemic, and the growing population has led to shrinking spaces and unemployment.
    • The 2041 plan aims to develop common community spaces to provide refuge spots, common kitchens and quarantine space in an emergency.
    • To improve the nighttime economy, the plan focuses on cultural festivals, bus entertainment, metro, sports facilities, and retail stores included in Delhi Development Authority (DDA)’s Night Life Circuit plan.
    • It also proposes to reduce vulnerability to airborne epidemics through decentralized workspaces, mandatory creation of open areas, better habitat design and green-rated developments to reduce dependence on mechanical ventilation systems.

    What challenges will its implementation face?

    • The master plan on paper looks like a perfect document for the city’s progress.
    • However, when the implementing agencies try to replicate it on the ground, they face challenges like confrontation from political wings, lack of resources and funds, corruption in different departments, lack of political and bureaucratic will and multiplicity of agencies.
    • For instance, despite talks of increasing surface parking, removing junk vehicles, imposing fines for dumping debris, garbage burning, and segregation of waste, a lot of these things could never be implemented.
    • In some cases like, increasing parking or increasing its charges, there is resistance from politicians due to vote-bank politics. In other cases, lack of funds and improper implementation mar the projects.

  • EnVision Mission to Venus

    Following NASA’s footsteps, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that it has selected EnVision as its next orbiter that will visit Venus sometime in the 2030s.

    Last week, NASA selected two missions to the planet Venus, Earth’s nearest neighbour. The missions called DAVINCI+ and VERITAS have been selected based on their potential for scientific value and the feasibility of their development plans.

    What is EnVision?

    • EnVision is an ESA-led mission with contributions from NASA. It is likely to be launched sometime in the 2030s.
    • The earliest launch opportunity for EnVision is 2031, followed by 2032 and 2033.
    • Once launched on an Ariane 6 rocket, the spacecraft will take about 15 months to reach Venus and will take 16 more months to achieve orbit circularization.
    • The spacecraft will carry a range of instruments to study the planet’s atmosphere and surface, monitor trace gases in the atmosphere and analyses its surface composition.

    What are other such missions?

    • EnVision will follow another ESA-led mission to Venus called ‘Venus Express’ (2005-2014) that focused on atmospheric research and pointed to volcanic hotspots on the planet’s surface.
    • Other than this, Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft has also been studying the planet’s atmosphere since 2015.

    Why are scientists interested in studying Venus?

    • At the core of the ESA’s mission is the question of how Earth and Venus evolved so differently from each other considering that they are roughly of the same size and composition.
    • Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system because of the heat that is trapped by its thick cloud cover.
    • Last year, a team of scientists reported that they had found phosphine gas (a chemical produced only through biological processes) in the atmosphere of Venus.
    • This triggered excitement in the scientific community that some life forms might be supported by the planet.
    • But the existence of life on the planet is nearly impossible given the high temperatures of Venus and its acidic atmosphere.

    Back2Basics: Venus Planet

    • For those on Earth, Venus is the second-brightest object in the sky after the moon.
    • It appears bright because of its thick cloud cover that reflects and scatters light.
    • But while Venus, which is the second closest planet to the Sun, is called the Earth’s twin because of their similar sizes, the two planets have significant differences between them.
    • For one, the planet’s thick atmosphere traps heat and is the reason that it is the hottest planet in the solar system, despite coming after Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.
    • Surface temperatures on Venus can go up to 471 degrees Celsius, which is hot enough to melt lead.
    • Further, Venus moves forward on its orbit around the Sun but spins backwards around its axis slowly.
    • This means on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the East.
    • One day on Venus is equivalent to 243 Earth days because of its backward spinning, opposite to that of the Earth’s and most other planets.
    • Venus also does not have a moon and no rings.

  • What is Fastly Internet Outage?

    Several big websites around the world went down for about half an hour because of a major issue with the content delivery network (CDN) of American cloud computing services provider Fastly.

    Global internet outage: Which websites were affected?

    • com, Reddit, Twitch, Spotify, Pinterest, Stack Overflow, GitHub, gov.uk, Hulu, HBO Max, Quora, PayPal, Vimeo and Shopify are some of the big names.
    • Prominent news websites impacted were the Financial Times, the Guardian, the New York Times, CNN, and Verge, to name some.
    • Most users would have seen a 503 error when trying to access these websites, indicating that the browser was not able to access the server.

    What is Fastly?

    • Fastly is a cloud computing services provider, which offers CDN, edge computing, cloud storage services.
    • All of its geographies, including the three stations it has in India — Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi — were suffering from “Degraded Performance”.

    Answer this PYQ from CSP 2018:

    Q.The terms ‘WannaCry, Petya, Eternal Blue’ sometimes mentioned news recently are related to

    (a) Exoplanets

    (b) Crypto currency

    (c) Cyber attacks

    (d) Mini satellites

    What is a CDN?

    • A CDN refers to a geographically distributed group of servers that work together to provide fast delivery of Internet content.
    • They house content close to the telecom service providers’ networks.
    • Majority of web traffic across the world today is routed through CDNs.
    • Platforms such as Netflix, Facebook, Amazon — ones with large quantities of data held in global libraries — host their geographically relevant content closer to where that content is to be consumed.
    • This ensures the end customer is able to access the content faster.
    • Another reason companies rely on these CDNs is to help protect their sites against traffic spikes, distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks, etc.
  • Why Consistency Matters? : Swati Sharma (AIR 17 UPSC 2019) || JOIN WEBINAR NOW

    Why Consistency Matters? : Swati Sharma (AIR 17 UPSC 2019) || JOIN WEBINAR NOW

    What makes Swati Sharma a winner? Did she also fail? How did she manage herself between her failures? How did she manage to clear all the Prelims she appeared in?

    Join Swati in a Live Webinar as she takes you through her UPSC journey.

    Click on the link below to join the live session:

    https://zoom.us/j/95119172668?pwd=TWZhekY5eGFjZ0JCOFB6WjZmTnR1UT09

    From this webinar, you can expect:

    • Swati’s own success story and guidance tips/conversations.
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    • Important Civilsdaily softcopies takeaway for exam preparation.
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    See ya all !!

  • 12th June 2021 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions

    [WpProQuiz 672]

    [WpProQuiz_toplist 672]

  • [Yojana Archive] One Nation-One Election

    May 2021

    Have you been hearing the words ‘simultaneous elections’ often these days? That’s because there is a proposal to conduct the elections to the Lok Sabha and a State assemblies at the same time.

    What are simultaneous polls?

    • Currently, elections to the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha are held separately — that is whenever the incumbent government’s five-year term ends or whenever it is dissolved due to various reasons.
    • This applies to both the state legislatures and the Lok Sabha. The terms of Legislative Assemblies and the Lok Sabha may not synchronize with one another.
    • For instance, Rajasthan faced elections in late 2018, whereas Tamil Nadu will go to elections only in 2021.
    • But the idea of “One Nation, One Election” envisages a system where elections to all states and the Lok Sabha will have to be held simultaneously.

    Simultaneous polls in India

    • India had concurrent elections for the first two decades.
    • Starting from the first general elections of free India in 1951 and the next three cycles of elections, the country witnessed concurrent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
    • Exceptions to these were a few states like Kerala where a mid-term election was held in 1960 on the premature dissolution of the Assembly.
    • In Nagaland and Pondicherry where the Legislative Assembly was created only after the 1962 general elections.

    End of the era

    • The fourth Lok Sabha constituted in 1967 was dissolved prematurely in 1971 ahead of its normal term resulting in a mid-term Lok Sabha election.
    • This was the beginning of the end of simultaneous elections in India.
    • Extension of the term of Lok Sabha during the National Emergency declared in 1975 and the dissolution of Assemblies of some States after the 1977 Lok Sabha election further disturbed this cycle.
    • Currently, there are at least two rounds of Assembly general elections every year.

    Making simultaneous elections a reality

    • Sections 14 and 15 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, empower the Election Commission to notify elections any time during the last six months of the term of the House and not earlier than that.
    • Therefore, if the terms of the Houses are expiring within a window of three to four months, it would be legally possible to hold elections simultaneously to constitute the new Houses.
    • In other words, to contemplate simultaneous elections, we need, as a starting point, a situation where the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assemblies of all States and UTs have their terms ending together.

    Synchronizing the terms of the Houses

    • Both the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies (ordinarily) have a term of five years.
    • Article 83 of the Constitution provides for the tenure of Lok Sabha. Identical provisions are present in Article 172(1) regarding the term of the Legislative Assemblies.

    There is no duplication of work in preparing the electoral rolls for the two elections and hence no extra labor or expenditure is involved on this count.

    What is required?

    • This necessarily calls for either extending the terms of several of the Houses or curtailing of terms or a combination of both, that too by two to three years in some cases.
    • For enabling such curtailing or extension of the term, the relevant Articles of the Constitution mentioned above will have to be suitably amended.

    Why Simultaneous Elections?

    Two seemingly relevant factors in favor of simultaneous elections as opposed to separate elections are:

    1. Effort saving: Simultaneous elections reduce labour, time and expenditure in the conduct of elections; and
    2. Instances of pause in governance are addressed if elections are conducted in one go instead of staggered elections.

    [1] How is effort saving possible?

    • Electoral roll: Polling stations for Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections are the same. So is the electoral roll.
    • Labour: There is no duplication of work in preparing the electoral rolls for the two elections and hence no extra labour or expenditure is involved on this count.
    • Logistics: In the conduct of elections, all logistic arrangements are replicated for the two elections when the same drill can cater to both the elections if held together.
    • Security: This will also mean saving in terms of human resources. Another area of saving in simultaneous elections would be in the deployment of the Central Police Force.

    [2] Governance pause can be avoided

    • Instances of pause in governance is due to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
    • MCC is a set of behavior guidelines for candidates and political parties that comes into operation from the date election is announced by the Election Commission.
    • A crucial part of the MCC is the restrictions on the party in power.  If all elections are held together, the restrictions under MCC will be through in one go.

    [3] Help reduce campaign expenses

    • Simultaneous elections can bring considerable savings in the election propaganda campaign expenditure for the political parties.
    • Given that political funding is a major factor in the increasing menace of corruption, the move to reduce campaign expenditure is a welcome initiative.

    [4] Voter turnout

    • A nationwide election could push up the voter turnout since a once-in-five-years event is bound to attract more enthusiastic participation across all sections.
    • Frequent elections can bring in the election-fatigue factor at least among some sections of electors.
    • The simultaneous elections help address the fatigue element and the usually observed urban apathy in voting. Better electors’ participation will further add to the credibility of the election.

    Exceptions to this debate: Local Bodies’ Elections

    • The local bodies’ elections have not been considered for the analysis here.
    • This is for the reason that the elections to local bodies cannot be clubbed with the proposed simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha.

    Why?

    • The elections to local bodies are conducted under the superintendence, direction, and control of a different constitutional authority, namely, the respective State Election Commission.
    • Holding local bodies’ elections along with the other elections will require the team of the same polling officials to report to and take instructions from two different authorities simultaneously.
    • There is a distinct set of polling stations too for local bodies’ elections.
    • Further, the litigation forum before which these elections can be challenged is different.

    Challenges in ensuring simultaneous elections in India:

    [1] Synchronizing the Houses

    • Bringing the terms of all the Houses to sync with one another necessarily calls for either extending the terms of several of the Houses or curtailing of terms or a combination of both.
    • This may be by two to three years in some cases.
    • For this, relevant Articles of the Constitution will have to be suitably amended.

    [2] Midterm dissolution cannot be controlled

    • Even if the terms of the Houses are in sync as a one-time measure, we will still need an adequate legal safeguard in place to avoid mid-term dissolution and protect the simultaneous elections cycle.
    • This can be a tough task in conventionally fragile states with smaller assemblies with coalitions.

    [3] EVM related expenses

    • One aspect that could offset the savings would be the doubling of expenses on electronic voting machines (EVMs).
    • Considering that the incidental recurring expense in the storage and security of the EVMs will also be a considerable amount.
    • The overall expenditure in holding elections may not see any substantial dip on account of simultaneous elections.

    Arguments against the idea

    • National and state issues are different, and holding simultaneous elections is likely to affect the judgment of voters.
    • Since elections will be held once in five years, it will reduce the government’s accountability to the people. Repeated elections keep legislators on their toes and increases accountability.
    • When an election in a State is postponed until the synchronized phase, President’s rule will have to be imposed in the interim period in that state.
    • This will be a blow to democracy and federalism.

    Way forward

    • We need an adequate legal safeguarding place to avoid mid-term dissolution and protect the simultaneous elections cycle.
    • For maintaining the electoral cycle, some countries have legal provisions to the effect that for a ‘no-confidence motion’.
    • Their proposed resolution also contains a constructive ‘vote of confidence in an alternative government to continue with the tenure.

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