A 2018 report on “vital statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System” shows crucial data of sex ratios of major states in India.
Sex Ratio
Sex ratio at birth is the number of females born per thousand males.
Sex ratios are among the most basic of demographic parameters and provide an indication of both the relative survival of females and males and the future breeding potential of a population.
Try this PYQ
Q.Consider the following specific stages of demographic transition associated with economic development:
Low birth rate with a low death rate
High birth rate with a high death rate
High birth rate with a low death rate
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1, 2 and 3 only
(b) 3, 2 and 1 only
(c) 2, 3 and 1 only
(d) 3, 2 and 1 only
Statewise data
Arunachal Pradesh recorded 1,084 females born per thousand males, followed by Nagaland (965) Mizoram (964), Kerala (963) and Karnataka (957).
The worst was reported in Manipur (757), Lakshadweep (839) and Daman & Diu (877), Punjab (896) and Gujarat (896).
Delhi recorded a sex ratio of 929, Haryana 914 and Jammu and Kashmir 952.
The number of registered births increased to 2.33 crore in 2018 from 2.21 crore registered births the previous year.
The United Arab Emirates will extend its “golden” visa system — which grants 10-year residency in the West Asian nation — to certain professionals, specialised degree-holders and others.
Do you know?
India is the world’s top recipient of remittances with its diaspora sending a whopping $79 billion back home in 2018 a/c to the World Bank.
Golden Visa Programme
The “Golden Card” programme is open to investors and “exceptional talents” such as doctors, engineers, scientists, students and artists.
The visa categories include:
General investors who will be granted a 10 years visa
Real estate investors, who can get a visa for 5 years Visa
Entrepreneurs and talented professionals such as doctors, researchers and innovators: 10 years Visa
Outstanding students — will also be permitted residency visas for 5 years
All categories of visas can be renewed upon expiry.
Benefits for India
The Indian expatriate community is reportedly the largest ethnic community in the UAE, constituting roughly about 30 per cent of the country’s population of around nine million.
Though most of the Indians living in the UAE are employed, about 10 per cent of the Indian population constitutes dependent family members, according to the Indian Embassy.
The isolated UK Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most remote human settlement, has been declared the largest fully protected marine reserves in the Atlantic Ocean at 687,000 square kilometres.
Note the location of Tristan da Cunha Islands in the Atlantic.
Tristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha, which is inhabited by less than 300 humans is a small chain of islands over 6,000 miles from London in the South Atlantic and the water around the islands are considered to be the richest in the world.
The mountainous archipelago is home to tens of millions of seabirds and several unique land birds that are comparable to the Galapagos island finches.
The island group is also home to the World Heritage Site of Gough and Inaccessible Islands, which is one of the most important seabird islands in the world.
Significance of protection
After joining the UK’s Blue Belt Programme, it will become the largest no-take zone in the Atlantic and the fourth largest on the planet.
This will close over 90 per cent of their waters to harmful activities such as bottom-trawling fishing, sand extraction and deep-sea mining.
The almost 700,000 square kilometres of the Marine Protection Zone (MPZ) is almost three times the size of the UK and will safeguard the future of sevengill sharks, Yellow-nosed albatrosses and rockhopper penguins.
MPZs involve the management of certain natural areas for biodiversity conservation or species protection and are created by delineating zones with permitted and non-permitted areas within that zone.
The Leonid meteor showers are currently making their yearly appearance and will reach their peak in India on November 17 and 18. In August this year, there was another meteor called Perseids Shower.
Try this question from CSP 2014:
Q.What is a coma, in the content of astronomy?
(a) Bright half of material on the comet
(b) Long tail of dust
(c) Two asteroids orbiting each other
(d) Two planets orbiting each other
What is Leonid Meteor Shower?
Meteor showers are named after the constellation they appear to be coming from.
The Leonids originate from the constellation Leo the Lion– the groups of stars which form a lion’s mane.
They emerge from the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which requires 33 years to revolve once around the Sun.
These meteors are bright and among the fastest moving– travelling at speeds of 71 km per second.
During this year’s showers, peaks of around 10 to 15 meteors are expected to be seen every hour.
The Leonid showers include fireballs– bright and large meteors than can last longer than average meteors, and “earthgazers”– meteors which appear close to the horizon with colourful and long tails.
What is a meteor shower?
On its journey around the Sun, the Earth passes through large swathes of cosmic debris.
The debris is essentially the remnants of comets — great frigid chunks of matter that leave behind dirty trails of rocks and ice that linger long after the comets themselves have passed.
As the Earth wades through this cloud of comet waste, the bits of debris create what appears from the ground to be a fireworks display in the sky — known as a meteor shower.
Several meteor showers can be seen around the year. According to NASA, over 30 meteor showers occur annually and are observable from the Earth.
Reforms in power sector in the UK were extensive and offers some important lessons for India. This article elaborates on the issue of reforms the challenges in introducing such reforms in India.
Background of the power sector reforms in UK
After living with vertically integrated utilities till 1989, they unbundled.
Unbundling created markets both at generation and retail end.
Today, they are back to a situation where 70% of the power generated is sold outside the wholesale market.
The Electricity Act, 1989, which paved the way for the appointment of a regulator and thereafter, leading to unbundling, both vertical and horizontal.
Twelve distribution utilities were set up (called RECs) along with three-generation companies and also a national wires company (called NGC).
All of them were privatised barring Nuclear Electricity.
Retail competition was introduced in 1990 and was extended to all consumers in 1998.
A wholesale market was set up for generators.
The next major step was to fragment the generators because the regulator felt that they were colluding.
NETA in 2001 was primarily a tie-up between gencos and their consumers with long-term power purchase agreements.
The Energy Act, 2012, was enacted, which envisaged further changes.
Issues with Power sector reform in India
The Electricity Act, 2003 is a very cautious and timid exercise compared to what has been done in the UK.
Through the Act, we have merely unbundled and ring-fenced our utilities so that there is transparency in the accounts; this itself took us several years.
There has been no attempt to create a wholesale market or a full-fledged retail market where the consumer chooses the supplier.
Large consumers, having loads in excess of 1 MW, however, have the option of open-access where they can opt to receive supply from some other entity, instead of his incumbent utility.
The road to open access though has been bumpy, and discoms have opposed it tooth and nail.
Besides what was possible in the UK may not be possible in India.
The UK did not have a regime of cross-subsidies where the commercial and industrial sectors subsidise agriculture and low-end domestic consumers and also did not have high commercial loss levels.
Moreover, in the UK, all consumers were metered, unlike India.
There is yet another factor: ‘Power’ falls in the Concurrent List.
The Centre and states rarely see eye-to-eye on several issues concerning the sector, especially on matters relating to distribution.
Consequently, any major change does not get accepted.
Issues in introducing reform in India
The CERC floated a discussion paper in December 2018 about the creation of a wholesale market in India.
This amounts to retrofitting, and retrofitting in an existing architecture has its limitations.
But the issue is whether India should attempt creating a wholesale market or for that matter a full-fledged retail market in India, especially after the experience of the UK.
The UK is almost back to the era of vertically integrated utilities, and consumers barely switch their retailer.
Way forward
We need to privatise our distribution sector by creating joint ventures with the government.
the government will have to undertake initial hand-holding till such time commercial losses are wiped out.
This is the model which was followed in the case of Delhi and has proven successful.
Commercial losses have come down from 50% to single-digit figures within a span of 10 to 12 years.
Once we reach that stage, we can think of creating a full-fledged retail market where a consumer can choose her supplier.
Consider the question “Despite several reforms in the power sector, India still lacks full-fledged retail. What are the challenges in the creation of such a market. Suggest the ways to deal with the challenges.”
Conclusion
The Indian consumer is only interested in good quality power supply at a reasonable price. We only need to take policy measures so that the incumbent utilities can provide this, since, this will be the least costly path.
India and the US are the two largest democracies in the world but the electoral systems of the two countries are poles apart. While the Indian system is charmingly simple, the US system is extremely complex and confusing. Let’s have a look at that:
A Brief about the US parliamentary system
The senate of the US is the upper house of the legislature. This senate, together with the United States House of Representatives forms the United States Congress.
The Senate has several powers, which include confirming appointments of federal judges, cabinet secretaries, other federal officials, military officials and ambassadors.
The Senate is also known as the world’s greatest deliberative body.
Before the general election, most candidates for president go through a series of state primaries and caucuses. Though primaries and caucuses are run differently, they both serve the same purpose. They let the states choose the major political parties’ nominees for the general election.
In general, primaries use secret ballots for voting. Caucuses are local gatherings of voters who vote at the end of the meeting for a particular candidate.
Then it moves to nominating conventions, during which political parties each select a nominee to unite behind.
(2) National Convention
After the primaries and caucuses, most political parties hold national conventions.
Conventions finalize a party’s choice for presidential and vice-presidential nominees. To become the presidential nominee, a candidate typically has to win a majority of delegates.
This usually happens through the party’s primaries and caucuses. It’s then confirmed through a vote of the delegates at the national convention.
But if no candidate gets the majority of a party’s delegates during the primaries and caucuses, convention delegates choose the nominee. This happens through additional rounds of voting.
The candidates then campaign across the country to explain their views and plans to voters. They may also participate in debates with candidates from other parties.
(3) Electoral College
When Americans go to the polls in presidential elections they’re actually voting for a group of officials who make up the electoral college.
‘Electoral College’ is the term given to the body of individuals who are selected or elected to be “electors”.
These electors then vote for the president and vice president of the US.
The electoral college meets every four years, a few weeks after election day, to carry out that task.
To win, a presidential candidate has to just attain a simple majority of 270 electoral votes.
How does it work?
The number of electors from each state is roughly in line with the size of its population.
Each state gets as many electors as it has lawmakers in the US Congress (representatives in the House and senators).
California has the most electors – 55 – while a handful of sparsely populated states like Wyoming, Alaska and North Dakota (and Washington DC) have the minimum of three.
There are 538 electors in total.
Each elector represents one electoral vote, and a candidate needs to gain a majority of the votes – 270 or more – to win the presidency.
Electing the ‘Electors’
Unlike India, it’s not just one election but a bunch of simultaneous elections in the US.
In many states, a voter will be choosing not just the US president but 20 different contestants on a single ballot.
These include the member of the US Senate and the House of Representatives, state senate, governor, state attorney general, Supreme Court judge, among others.
Election Management
There is no centralised election management body like the Election Commission in India.
All 50 states, and within these, more than 3,000 counties have different management bodies.
The date of the election is fixed — the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November — since 1845.
(4)General Elections
The General Election refers to the voting process in which every US citizen who is at least 18 years of age can vote to chose the President.
Unlike in most elections, the person who becomes president is not necessarily the candidate who wins the most votes on Election Day.
Instead, voting for the president of the United States takes place in two-steps.
First, voters cast ballots on Election Day in each state.
In nearly every state, the candidate who gets the most votes wins the “electoral votes” for that state, and gets that number of voters (or “electors”) in the “Electoral College.”
Second, the “electors” from each of the 50 states gather in December and they vote for president.
The person who receives a majority of votes from the “Electoral College” becomes President.
Winning the elections
To win the US presidential election, one needs 270 electoral college votes, an absolute majority of the 538 electors.
The complexity of the election process and the multiplicity of authorities is a perfect breeding ground for confusion.
This, however, is perhaps the first time that a candidate — Donald Trump — has cast aspersions on the legitimacy of the election even before the first vote has been cast.
A comparison with India
(1) Election Management
There is no centralised election management body like the Election Commission in India.
All 50 states, and within these, more than 3,000 counties have different management bodies.
The date of the election is fixed — the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November — since 1845.
(2) Electorates
Unlike India, it’s not just one election but a bunch of simultaneous elections in the US.
In many states, a voter will be choosing not just the US president but 20 different contestants on a single ballot.
These include the member of the US Senate and the House of Representatives, state senate, governor, state attorney general, Supreme Court judge, among others.
(3) Political parties
The most important aspect of the difference between electoral process in India and USA comes from the nature of their party systems.
It is common knowledge that there are two dominant parties in the USA political scene with polar different ideologies, viz. the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
Although the Libertarian Party, Green Party, and other smaller parties exist, they are considered to be independent entities as they are outliers and cannot quite compete with the two major ones.
India, however, has many parties that operate on the state level and only a few that successfully operate on the national level.
(4) Electoral College
The onus to register as a voter lies on the voter and it is neither compulsory to register nor to vote.
The last date for registration varies from one month prior to the poll to the same day (polling day).
Any person turning 18 even on polling day is eligible to register.
The voter identification system varies too — from different photo identity proofs to self-authentication without a photo.
(5) Voting systems
The voting systems are diverse — voting at polling stations on poll day, early voting in person, absentee voting by mail.
The ballot design varies from state to state. Voting technology varies from direct recording electronic voting machines (like Indian EVMs) to paper ballots (marked by pencil or pen).
But scanning is invariably used to facilitate counting. Some states have the VVPAT — Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail.
The hours of voting are longer — 13 hours — as compared to minimum eight hours (usually nine) in India.
(6) Voters’ turnout
The turnout in the last presidential election was 61.8 per cent (compared to India’s 66.8 per cent). With low registration, this effectively means that less than 45 per cent of eligible Americans voted.
Voting demographics show that older people — 65 plus — tend to vote more than 18-24 year-olds by as much as 25 percentage points.
People with more education and income vote more than the less endowed.
Similarly, women vote in larger numbers. Blacks and Hispanics vote less because of lack of interest.
(7) Election regulation
The US has two federal bodies — the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC).
But both of them together do not add up to anything as powerful or effective as the EC in India.
In fact, they have no control over the election administration. Its role is confined to federal campaign finance regulations.
The EAC was created back only in 2002 to provide funding to states for upgrading their registration and voting systems besides establishing minimum voter identification standards. Its decisions are, however, not binding.
The article deals with the recent decision of the government to regulate digital media through the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and issues with it.
Regulating the press
Recently, government put the online news and current affairs portals along with “films and audio-visual programmes made available by online content providers” under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Through the move, government is clubbing the only sector of the media which has pre-censorship, namely films with the news media which has so far, at least officially, not been subject to pre-censorship.
The move hijacks matters before the Supreme Court of India relating to freedom of the press and freedom of expression to arm the executive with control over the free press, thereby essentially making it unfree.
It also hijacks another public interest litigation in the Supreme Court relating to content on “Over The Top” (OTT) platforms not being subject to regulation or official oversight to bring that sector too under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The move creates an artificial distinction between the new-age digital media which is the media of the future, the media of the millennial generation — and the older print and TV news media.
Reasons given by the government and issues with it
The explanation given is that the print media have the oversight of the Press Council of India and the TV media of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA).
Therefore the digital media needed a regulatory framework — no less than that of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
However, there is no comparison between the Press Council of India and the NBA as professional bodies on the one hand and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on the other.
The fate of the digital media under the control of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting leaves little scope for hope.
Consider the question “Regulation of digital media while solving some chronic issues gives rise to concerns over the freedom of press and expression. In light of this, examine the need for regulation of digital media by government and issues in it.”
Conclusion
The government regulations would be counterproductive for both the media practitioner and the media entrepreneur and for the startups that have been the new vibrant face of contemporary journalism.
The bigger medium-term problem facing Indian economy is the slowdown of aggregate demand — private final consumption expenditure (PFCE), investment and exports.
The largest component of GDP, PFCE, has declined as a share of GDP 68 per cent in 1990 to 56 per cent of GDP in 2019 .
The consumption of the top socio-economic deciles (top 10%) has stagnated.
Also the consumption demand of the rest of the demography ( 90%) — mostly in agriculture, small-scale manufacturing and self-employed — is not increasing due to low income growth.
How to increase income and productivity
Atmanirbhar Bharat depends on improving the income and productivity of a majority of the labour force.
First, incentivise the farming community to shift from grain-based farming to cash crops, horticulture and livestock products.
Second, shift the labour force from agriculture to manufacturing.
India can only become self-reliant if it uses its 900 million people in the working-age population with an average age of 27 and appropriates its demographic dividend as China did.
That is possible if labour-intensive manufacturing takes place in a big way, creating employment opportunities for labour force with low or little skills, generating income and demand.
India is in a unique position at a time when all other manufacturing giants are ageing sequentially — Japan, EU, the US, and even South Korea and China.
Most of these countries have moved out of low-end labour-intensive manufacturing, and that space is being taken by countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Mexico, etc.
India offers the best opportunity in terms of a huge domestic market and factor endowments.
Way forward
We need Indian firms to be part of the global value chain by attracting multinational enterprises and foreign investors in labour-intensive manufacturing, which will facilitate R&D, branding, exports, etc.
There is a need to aggressively reduce both tariffs and non-tariff barriers on imports of inputs and intermediate products.
Removing these barriers create a competitive manufacturing sector for Make in India, and “Assembly in India”.
Apart from trade reforms, further factor market reforms are required, such as rationalising punitive land acquisition clauses and rationalising labour laws, both at the Centre and state level.
We also have to go for large-scale vocational training from the secondary-school level, like China and other east and south-east Asian countries.
Consider the question “Key to faster economic progress of India lies in income growth and productivity of its labour force. Suggest the ways to achieve these.”
Conclusion
The COVID-triggered economic crisis should lead us to create a development model that leads to opportunities for the people at the bottom of the pyramid. A competitive and open economy can ensure Atmanirbhar Bharat.
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Finance Minister has announced a fresh set of relief and stimulus measures for the economy worth ₹1.19 lakh crore, including a scheme to boost re-employment chances of formal sector employees who lost their jobs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Atmanirbhar Bharat, which translates to ‘self-reliant India’ or ‘self-sufficient India’, is the vision of our PM of making India a bigger and more important part of the global economy.
It doesn’t mean “self-containment”, “isolating away from the world” or being “protectionist”.
It calls for pursuing policies that are efficient, competitive and resilient, and being self-sustaining and self-generating.
The five pillars of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ are stated as economy, infrastructure, technology-driven systems, vibrant demography and demand.
