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A dicey dollar could yet revive Keynes’s Bancor currency plan
The direct question in the exam from this article is not expected. Nevertheless, it is important to get a general understanding of the important role dollar plays in the world economy and the reasons for any viable alternative to it.
Context
- The dollar fell in July to a two-year low against the euro.
- When the covid-19 pandemic went global in March, the dollar strengthened on the back of safe-haven flows into US Treasury bonds.
What the depreciation of dollar indicate?
- The dollar’s subsequent depreciation reflects the changing prospects of the US and European economies.
- Some observers point instead to the agreement by European leaders to issue €750 billion ($884 billion) of European Union (EU) bonds.
- With the spread of covid-19 investors expect the Fed to keep interest rates low for longer.
- In the eurozone, the virus is under better control, and data from purchasing managers’ surveys are surprising on the upside.
- This improving outlook doesn’t mean that the European Central Bank (ECB) will start raising its policy rate in the near future.
- Interest rates determine the exchange rates as per the “interest parity” theory.
Factors responsible for holding currency
- 1) Normally, investors hold a currency when the issuer’s policies are sound and stable.
- 2) Banks and firms hold a currency when it is useful for invoicing and settling trade with the issuing country.
- But President Donald Trump’s administration has done more than any in living memory to disrupt US trade.
- 3) Governments, for their part, hold and use the currencies of their alliance partners.
Resilience of dollar
- The most striking takeaway from recent experience is the dollar’s resilience.
- US policy has been risky and erratic.
- But President Donald Trump’s administration has done more than any in living memory to disrupt US trade.
- Under Trump, the US today is no longer the reliable alliance partner it once was.
- Despite all this, countries continue to hold the dollar.
- The currency’s international role has not diminished significantly.
- It has declined only along select dimensions—its share in central banks’ foreign-exchange reserves, for example—and even there, only marginally.
No alternative
- The euro is not an alternative to the dollar.
- The stock of safe euro assets remains segmented along national lines.
- Nor is the renminbi a viable alternative.
- Given heightened tensions with China, no Western government will encourage its residents to depend on the People’s Bank of China for liquidity.
Conclusion
The only solution to this conundrum is more resources for the International Monetary Fund, so that it can supply countries in a crisis with the dollars that a future Fed fails to provide. This, of course, is the solution that John Maynard Keynes offered in 1944, albeit by another name-Bancor.
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Right to possession to women and issues
The Supreme Court in its latest judgement clarified that women’s right to their parents’ property is their birthright and clarified the air of confusion surrounding the issue due to previous judgements.
What was said in the judgement
- The judgement highlighted the patriarchal practices of the Mitakshra School of Hindu law — the guiding force of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
- It settled the confusion created by two of its own antagonistic judgments.
- In Prakash vs Phulawati (2016), it had ruled that the amendments to the Hindu Succession Act (2005) applied only to women whose parents were alive on September 9, 2005, the date of the notification of the act.
- In Danamma @ Suman Surpur vs Amar (2018) cases, it inferred that coparcenary rights were birthrights.
- The Supreme Court has now set forth the idea that coparcenary rights are birthrights free from limitations imposed by the dates of any legal notifications.
Issues that need to be addressed
1) Stree dhan issue
- Section 14 (1) of the Hindu Succession Act 1956 provides that women can acquire property as a full owner, and it can be carried over or retained post marriage as stree dhan.
- There are cases where the movable property may have been given to a daughter by her father as an intentionally undeclared and informal settlement between his descendants.
- At the same time, it is quite true that stree dhan over time gave way to the unethical and illegal practices of dowry.
- But the issue of stree dhan needs to be explained further in the light of this judgment.
- The ruling might impact dowry transactions that continue despite stringent anti-dowry laws.
2) Issues in claiming the right to property
- In the rural context, where most of the property is in the form of agricultural land claiming the property may not be easy.
- With patriarchy, it is doubtful if male heirs will share property-related documents, information.
3) Challenge of societal change
- On occasion, the law and courts may turn out to be progressive.
- However, we can not expect society to readily accede to progressive reforms.
- The challenge for economically dependent women in far-flung rural areas who are denied literacy, dignity and, sometimes, even a name and identity, in securing their rights is immense.
- In parts of Bihar, there are areas where women are still addressed by their village names or more commonly as someone’s wife.
Conclusion
Women are asserting their rights, both in conjugal and property matters. However, there are significant cultural, religious, educational barriers and caste and class inequalities that require a massive overhauling of social attitudes to overcome.
Back2Basics: Mitakshra School of Hindu law
- In the Mitakshara School, the allocation of parental property is based on the rule of possession by birth.
- Moreover, a man can leave his property in his will.
- The joint family property goes to the group known as coparceners.
- Ther are the people who belong to the next three generations.
- Hence, the joint family property by partition can be, at any time, converted into a separate property.
- Therefore in Mitakshara School, sons have an exclusive right by birth in the joint family property.
Coparcener
- Coparcenary is a term often used in matters related to the Hindu succession law, and coparcener is a term used for a person assumes a legal right in his ancestral property by birth.
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Issues with the graded autonomy
The article analyses the issues the graded with the graded autonomy to the Higher Education Institutes.
Background
- NEP 2020 provided for phasing out of the system of affiliated colleges and the grant of greater autonomy in academic, administrative and financial matters to premium colleges.
Concerns with the autonomy
- The move has raised concerns about the politico-bureaucratic interference in the internal functioning of universities.
- It has also raised concerns about the substantial burden on universities which have to regulate admissions, set curricula and conduct examinations for a large number of undergraduate colleges.
- Concerns have long existed about over-centralisation, due to constraints imposed on the potential for premium affiliated colleges to innovate and evolve.
- These apprehensions about the autonomy came to be used by successive governments to build a case for the model of graded autonomy.
The push towards graded autonomy
- Successive governments have pushed through measures that have largely allowed for greater penetration of private capital in higher education.
- Recommendations of recent education commissions have promoted the unequal structure of funding for higher education.
- Under this, hierarchy in higher education was created: Central government-funded universities, provincial Central government-funded universities, regional universities and colleges funded by State governments, etc.
- The National Knowledge Commission (2005) stated that good undergraduate colleges are constrained by their affiliated status… the problem is particularly acute for undergraduate colleges which are subjected to the ‘convoy problem’ as they are forced to move at the speed of the slowest.
- In turn, the dominant policy discourse vocally propagates “graded autonomy” for better performing Higher Educational Institutions.
- Under which academic excellence can be supported through a grant of special funds and allowing greater power to such institutions.
- This basis has been gradually enforced with the UGC in 2018 granting public-funded universities the right to apply for autonomy based on whether they are ranked among top 500 of reputed world rankings or have National Assessment and Accreditation (NAAC) scores above 3.26.
NEP 2020: Centralisation and autonomy
- NEP 2020 is a combination of enhanced centralising features and specific features of autonomy.
- Deeper centralisation is indicative in the constitution of the government nominated umbrella institution, Higher Education Council of India (HECI); Board of Governors, the National Education Commission etc.
Concerns
- The model of graded autonomy will encourage hierarchy that exists between different colleges within a public-funded university, and between different universities across the country.
- While the best colleges gain the autonomy to bring in their own rules and regulations, affiliated colleges with lower rankings and less than 3,000 students face the threat of mergers and even closure.
- A shrinking of the number of public-funded colleges will only further push out marginalised sections.
- Autonomy could lead to more inaccessibility as the independent rules and regulations of autonomous colleges and universities shall curtail transparent admission procedures.
- Graded autonomy can be expected to trigger a massive spurt in expensive self-financed courses as premium colleges, which will lead to exclusion.
Conclusion “Examine the issues with the autonomy of Higher Education Institutes in the NEP 2020.”
Conclusion
More than deliverance, autonomy represents the via media for greater privatisation and enhanced hierarchization in higher education.
Sources: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/privatisation-via-graded-autonomy/article32396753.ece
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20th August 2020| Daily Answer Writing Enhancement
Important Announcement: Topics to be covered on 21st August-
GS-1 Changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.
GS-4 Emotional intelligence concepts.
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Domicile-based job quota in MP
The Madhya Pradesh government’s recent decision to reserve all government jobs for “children of the state” raises constitutional questions relating to the fundamental right to equality.
Try this PYQ:
One of the implications of equality in society is the absence of- (CSP 2018)
(a) Privileges
(b) Restraints
(c) Competition
(d) Ideology
Constitutional provision for Equal Treatment
- Article 16 of the Constitution guarantees equal treatment under the law in matters of public employment. It prohibits the state from discriminating on grounds of place of birth or residence.
- Article 16(2) states that “no citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State”.
- The provision is supplemented by the other clauses in the Constitution that guarantee equality.
- However, Article 16(3) of the Constitution provides an exception by saying that Parliament may make a law “prescribing” a requirement of residence for jobs in a particular state.
- This power vests solely in the Parliament, not state legislatures.
Why does the Constitution prohibit reservation based on domicile?
- When the Constitution came into force, India turned itself into one nation from a geographical unit of individual principalities and the idea of the universality of Indian citizenship took root.
- India has single citizenship, and it gives citizens the liberty to move around freely in any part of the country.
- Hence the requirement of a place of birth or residence cannot be qualifications for granting public employment in any state.
But are reservations not granted on other grounds such as caste?
- Equality enshrined in the Constitution is not mathematical equality and does not mean all citizens will be treated alike without any distinction.
- To this effect, the Constitution underlines two distinct aspects which together form the essence of equality law:
- Non-discrimination among equals, and
- Affirmative action to equalize the unequal
Supreme Court rulings on quota for locals
- The Supreme Court has ruled against reservation based on place of birth or residence.
- In 1984, ruling in Dr Pradeep Jain v Union of India, the issue of legislation for “sons of the soil” was discussed.
- The court expressed an opinion that such policies would be unconstitutional but did not expressly rule on it as the case was on different aspects of the right to equality.
- In a subsequent ruling in Sunanda Reddy v State of Andhra Pradesh (1995), the Supreme Court affirmed the observation in 1984 ruling to strike down a state government policy that gave 5% extra weightage to candidates.
- In 2002, the Supreme Court invalidated appointment of government teachers in Rajasthan in which the state selection board gave preference to “applicants belonging to the district or the rural areas of the district concerned”.
- In 2019, the Allahabad HC struck down a recruitment notification by the UP PSC which prescribed preference for women who are “original residents” of the UP alone.
What about securing jobs for locals in the private sector?
- Such a law will be difficult to implement even if allowed.
- Private employers do not go on an annual recruitment drive to fill vacancies identified in advance but hire as and when required.
- The state can recommend a preference to locals but ensuring that it is followed would be difficult.
- In 2017, Karnataka mulled similar legislation but it was dropped after the state’s Advocate General raised questions on its legality.
- In 2019, the state government once again issued a notification asking private employers to “prefer” Kannadigas for blue-collar jobs.
How do some states then have laws that reserve jobs for locals?
- Exercising the powers it has under Article 16(3), Parliament enacted the Public Employment (Requirement as to Residence) Act.
- The act aimed at abolishing all existing residence requirements in the states and enacting exceptions only in the case of the special instances of Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura and Himachal Pradesh.
- Constitutionally, some states also have special protections under Article 371. AP under Section 371(d) has powers to have “direct recruitment of local cadre” in specified areas.
- Some states have gone around the mandate of Article 16(2) by using language. States that conduct official business in their regional languages prescribe knowledge of the language as a criterion.
- This ensures that local citizens are preferred for jobs. For example, states including Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu require a language test.
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Setting up of National Recruitment Agency
The Union Cabinet has approved the creation of a National Recruitment Agency (NRA) for conducting a Common Eligibility Test (CET) for various government jobs.
Try this question:
Q.Discuss the role and function of the newly setup National Recruitment Agency.
National Recruitment Agency
- NRA will be a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, headed by a Chairman of the rank of the Secretary to the Government of India.
- It will have representatives of the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the SSC, RRB and IBPS.
- It is envisioned that the NRA would be a specialist body bringing the state-of-the-art technology and best practices to the field of Central Government recruitment.
- The NRA will conduct the Common Eligibility Test (CET) for recruitment to non-gazetted posts in government and public sector banks.
- This test aims to replace multiple examinations conducted by different recruiting agencies for selection to government jobs advertised each year, with a single online test.
Salient features of NRA
- The Common Eligibility Test will be held twice a year.
- There will be different CETs for graduate level, 12th Pass level and 10th pass level to facilitate recruitment to vacancies at various levels.
- The CET will be conducted in 12 major Indian languages. This is a major change, as hitherto examinations for recruitment to Central Government jobs were held only in English and Hindi.
- To begin with, CET will cover recruitments made by three agencies: viz. Staff Selection Commission, Railway Recruitment Board and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection. This will be expanded in a phased manner.
- CET will be held in 1,000 centres across India to bid remove the currently prevalent urban bias. There will be an examination centre in every district of the country. There will be a special thrust on creating examination infrastructure in the 117 aspirational districts.
- CET will be a first level test to shortlist candidates and the score will be valid for three years.
- There shall be no restriction on the number of attempts to be taken by a candidate to appear in the CET subject to the upper age limit.
- Age relaxation for SC/ST and OBC candidates as per existing rules will apply.
Advantages for students
- Removes the hassle of appearing in multiple examinations.
- Single examination fee would reduce the financial burden that multiple exams imposed.
- Since exams will be held in every district, it would substantially save travel and lodging cost for the candidates. Examination in their own district would encourage more and more women candidates also to apply for government jobs.
- Applicants are required to register on a single Registration portal.
- No need to worry about clashing of examination dates.
Advantages for Institutions
- Removes the hassle of conducting preliminary / screening test of candidates.
- Drastically reduces the recruitment cycle.
- Brings standardization in the examination pattern.
- Reduces costs for different recruiting agencies. Rs 600 crore savings expected.
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Micro-plastic Pollution in Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean contains 12-21 million tonnes of microplastics — about 10 times higher than previously determined — according to new research published in Nature Communications.
Highlights of the report
- In the study, scientists studied pollution of the Atlantic Ocean caused by three types of plastics: polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene, which were suspended in the top 200 metres of the ocean.
- These three types of plastic are most commonly used for packaging.
- Scientists say that pollution caused by microplastics has been “severely” underestimated in previous assessments.
- They also estimate that based on plastic waste generation trends from 1950-2015 and considering that the Atlantic Ocean has received 0.3-0.8 per cent of the global plastic waste for 65 years.
- To date, a key uncertainty has been the magnitude of contamination of the ocean and our findings demonstrate that this is much higher in terms of mass than has been estimated previously.
Try this PYQ:
Q. Why is there a great concern about the ‘microbeads’ that are released into the environment? (CSP 2019)
(a) They are considered harmful to marine ecosystems.
(b) They are considered to cause skin cancer in children.
(c) They are small enough to be absorbed by crop plants in irrigated fields.
(d) They are often found to be used as food adulterants.
What are Microplastics?
- Microplastics are plastic debris smaller than 5mm in length, or about the size of a sesame seed.
- While they come from a variety of sources, one of them is when larger pieces of plastic degrade into smaller pieces, which are difficult to detect.
How does plastic reach the oceans?
- There are multiple pathways for them to reach the oceans.
- For instance, riverine and atmospheric transport from coastal and inland areas, illegal dumping activities and direct-at-sea littering from shipping, fishing and aquaculture activities, scientists have said.
- According to the IUCN, at least 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans every year and makes up about 80 per cent of all marine debris from surface waters to deep-sea sediments.
Why is plastic pollution especially harmful?
- Plastic can take hundreds to thousands of years to decompose depending on the type of plastic and where it has been dumped.
- Some marine species such as zooplanktons show preferential ingestion of smaller particles, making them easier to enter the food chain and their conversion to fast-sinking faecal pellets.
- Over the past few years, various news reports have shown that marine animals such as whales, seabirds and turtles unknowingly ingest plastic and often suffocate to death.
- While all sorts of marine species are prone to get impacted by plastic pollution, typically, bigger marine species tend to get more attention because of the amounts of debris they can hold up.
Impact on humans
- For humans, too, marine plastic pollution is harmful if it reaches the food chain. For instance, microplastics have been found in tap water, beer and even salt.
- One of the first studies to estimate plastic pollution in human ingestion that was published in June 2019 said that an average person eats at least 50,000 particles of microplastic each year.
- Consumption of plastic by humans is harmful since several chemicals that are used to produce plastics can be carcinogenic.
- Even so, since microplastics are an emerging field of study, its exact risks on the environment and human health are not clearly known.
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Job Losses during Lockdown
The data by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) briefs us about the job losses due to lockdown restrictions imposed because of the COVID pandemic.
We can utilize this data as examples for answer writing.
CMIE data on job losses
- Salaried jobs: They suffered the biggest hit during the lockdown, with a total loss estimated to be at 18.9 million during April-July.
- Informal and non-salaried jobs: They have shown improvement during the same period increasing to 325.6 million in July from 317.6 million last year, an increase of 2.5 per cent.
- Small traders, hawkers and daily wage labourers: They were the worst hit by the lockdown in April, comprising 91.2 million of the jobs lost from the total loss of 121.5 million in that month.
- Farm employment: A sharp rise was seen in June to 130 million, with good rains and the consequent sowing absorbing a lot of the labour that was lost in non-farm sectors.
About CMIE
- CMIE, or Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, is a leading business information company.
- It was established in 1976, primarily as an independent think tank.
- CMIE produces economic and business databases and develops specialised analytical tools to deliver these to its customers for decision making and for research.
- It analyses the data to decipher trends in the economy.
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Digital Quality of Life Index, 2020
India ranks among the lowest in the world in terms of Internet quality, according to the Digital Quality of Life Report.
Note the following aspects:
1)Organisation publishing the report
2)India’s rank and its comparison with neighbors
3)Rankers at the top
Digital Quality of Life Index
- It is global research released by online privacy solutions provider SurfShark.
- It releases a report on the quality of digital wellbeing in 85 countries (81% of the global population), in terms of e-infrastructure.
India’s ranking: Hits and Misses
- India occupies 79th place, ranking below countries including Guatemala and Sri Lanka.
- India makes it into the top 10 in terms of Internet affordability. With a ranking of nine, it outperforms countries such as the U.K., the U.S. and China.
- Additionally, when it comes to e-government, India occupies the 15th place globally, just below countries like New Zealand and Italy.
- However, at position 78, India’s Internet quality is one of the lowest across 85 countries analysed in the research.
Global rankings
- The report found that seven of the 10 countries with the highest digital quality of life are in Europe, with Denmark leading among 85 countries.
- Canada stands out as a country with the highest digital quality of life in the Americas, while Japan takes the leading position in Asia.
- Among the countries in Africa, people in South Africa enjoy the highest quality of digital lives whereas New Zealand leads in Oceania, outperforming Australia in various digital areas.
