PM after repealing the farm laws has said that the process of repealing the laws — which are currently stayed by the Supreme Court — will take place in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament.
Repealing a Law
Repealing a law is one of the ways to nullify a law.
A law is reversed when Parliament thinks there is no longer a need for the law to exist.
Legislation can also have a “sunset” clause, a particular date after which they cease to exist.
For example, the anti-terror legislation Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act 1987, commonly known as TADA, had a sunset clause, and was allowed to lapse in 1995.
For laws that do not have a sunset clause, Parliament has to pass another legislation to repeal the law.
(Sunset Clause: A law shall cease to have effect after a specific date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law.)
How can the government repeal a law?
Article 245 of the Constitution gives Parliament the power to make laws for the whole or any part of India, and state legislatures the power to make laws for the state.
Parliament draws its power to repeal a law from the same provision.
A law can be repealed either in its entirety, in part, or even just to the extent that it is in contravention of other laws.
What is the process for repealing a law?
Laws can be repealed in two ways — either through an ordinance, or through legislation.
In case an ordinance is used, it would need to be replaced by a law passed by Parliament within six months.
If the ordinance lapses because it is not approved by Parliament, the repealed law can be revived.
The government can also bring legislation to repeal the farm laws.
It will have to be passed by both Houses of Parliament, and receive the President’s assent before it comes into effect.
Legislations required
All three farm laws can be repealed through a single legislation.
Usually, Bills titled Repealing and Amendment are introduced for this purpose.
IIT Madras has developed a robot that can, if deployed extensively, put an end to this practice of sending people into septic tanks.
HomoSEP
HomoSEP stands for “homogenizer of septic tanks”.
It has a shaft attached to blades that can open like an inverted umbrella when introduced into a septic tank.
This is helpful as the openings of the septic tanks are small and the tank interiors are bigger.
The sludge inside a septic tank contains faecal matter that has thickened like hard clay and settled at the bottom.
This needs to be shredded and homogenized so that it can be sucked out and the septic tank cleaned. The whirring blades of the robot achieve precisely this.
Manual scavenging deaths in India
A statement by the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry conveyed that in the five years till December 31, 2020, there have been 340 deaths due to manual scavenging.
Uttar Pradesh (52), Tamil Nadu (43) and Delhi (36) leads in the list. Maharashtra had 34 and Gujarat and Haryana had 31 each.
This is despite bans and prohibitory orders.
Various policy initiatives
Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (Amendment) Bill, 2020: It proposes to completely mechanise sewer cleaning, introduce ways for ‘on-site’ protection and provide compensation to manual scavengers in case of sewer deaths.
Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013: Superseding the 1993 Act, the 2013 Act goes beyond prohibitions on dry latrines, and outlaws all manual excrement cleaning of insanitary latrines, open drains, or pits.
Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan: It started national wide march “Maila Mukti Yatra” for total eradication of manual scavenging from 30th November 2012 from Bhopal.
Prevention of Atrocities Act: In 1989, the Prevention of Atrocities Act became an integrated guard for sanitation workers since majority of the manual scavengers belonged to the Scheduled Caste.
Judicial intervention: In 2014, a Supreme Court order made it mandatory for the government to identify all those who died in sewage work since 1993 and provide Rs. 10 lakh each as compensation to their families.
The report on ‘Health Care Equity in Urban India’ exploring health vulnerabilities and inequalities in cities in India was recently released.
About the report
The report is released recently by Azim Premji University in collaboration with 17 regional NGOs across India.
It notes that a third of India’s people now live in urban areas, with this segment seeing rapid growth from about 18% (1960) to 28.53% (2001) to 34% (in 2019).
The study draws insights from data collected through detailed interactions with civil society organizations in major cities and towns.
This also included an analysis of the National Family and Health Surveys (NHFS), the Census of India, and inputs from State-level health officials on the provision of health care.
It also looks at the availability, accessibility, and cost of healthcare facilities, and possibilities in future-proofing services in the next decade.
Key highlights of the report
Urban poverty on rise: Close to 30% of people living in urban areas are poor.
Declining life expectancy: Life expectancy among the poorest is lower by 9.1 years and 6.2 years among men and women, respectively, compared to the richest in urban areas.
Chaotic health governance: The report, besides finding disproportionate disease burden on the poor, also pointed to a chaotic urban health governance.
Multiplicity and non-coordination: The multiplicity of healthcare providers both within and outside the government without coordination challenges to urban health governance.
Lack of political attention: Urban healthcare has received relatively less research and policy attention.
Major recommendations
The report calls for:
Strengthening community participation and governance
Building a comprehensive and dynamic database on the health and nutrition status, including co-morbidities of the diverse, vulnerable populations
Strengthening healthcare provisioning through the National Urban Health Mission, especially for primary healthcare services
Putting in place policy measures to reduce the financial burden of the poor
A better mechanism for coordinated public healthcare services and better governed private healthcare institutions
Conclusion
As urbanization is happening rapidly, the number of the urban poor is only expected to increase.
A well-functioning, better coordinated, and governed health care system is crucial at this point.
The pandemic has brought to attention the need for a robust and resourced healthcare system.
Addressing this will benefit the most vulnerable and offer critical services to city dwellers across income groups.
Chips or processors power every possible product on the market from high-end cars to washing machines. There is a worldwide shortage of semiconductor chips.
What are Semiconductors?
A semiconductor sits between a conductor and an insulator and is commonly used in the development of electronic chips, computing components, and devices.
It’s generally created using silicon, germanium, or other pure elements.
Semiconductors are created by adding impurities to the element.
Giants of global chip industry
Semiconductor manufacturing is now dominated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in Taiwan and Samsung Electronics in South Korea.
American chipmaker Intel now plans to spend $20 billion to build two new chip factories in Chandler, Arizona.
These new fabs will also manufacture chips designed by Amazon, Qualcomm, and other customers.
Why is there a semiconductor shortage?
During the pandemic, manufacturing came to a standstill impacting the supply chains of products that need one or more of these.
As the automotive sector almost shut down last year, chip makers shifted capacity to cater to increased demand for electronics items such as cell phones and laptops.
Since orders for advanced chips are placed well in advance, manufacturers have not yet been able to come back to pre-pandemic production schedules to cater to all sectors.
The automotive chips are of medium-level complexity, compared to the really small and extremely complicated ones on smartphones and personal computers.
Building something this small, featuring billions of transistors is an expensive process.
Has India missed the bus in setting up chip factories?
There is a lot of risks involved in setting up a chip plant.
Past initiatives to set up chip manufacturing units in the country never took off due to lack of long-term vision, lack of government incentives, and poor planning.
Now the government is keen to promote manufacturing and has even proposed tax incentives under Production Linked Incentive Scheme.
Things are progressing slowly, but the recent announcement of Tata Group entering semiconductor manufacturing is being seen positively.
How is the chip crisis playing out in geopolitics?
The global chip crisis and geopolitical tensions with China have shifted focus back on semiconductors.
The US, which was once a leader in chip manufacturing, wants the crown back.
The protectionist US is looking to bring manufacturing back to America and reduce its dependency on a handful of chipmakers mostly concentrated in Taiwan and South Korea.
China’s renewed aggression on Taiwan is also being seen in light of the chip crisis.
Impact
The crisis is expected to cost the global automotive industry $210 billion in revenue in 2021.
The global semiconductor shortage has affected many industries for more than a year and because of that, they are either forced to pay more for products or being asked to wait a little more.
The consumption of integrated circuits in products is ever increasing and a large manufacturing sector for these kinds of integrated circuits are a part of the supply chain.
The shortage has affected smartphones, personal computers, game consoles, automobiles, and medical devices.
Soil erosion, coupled with changing climatic conditions, has been writing a cruel destiny for the inhabitants of Majuli in Assam, the largest river island in the world.
About Majuli Island
Majuli is a riverine island in the Brahmaputra River, Assam and in 2016 it became the first island to be made a district in India.
Majuli has shrunk as the river surrounding it has grown.
It had an area of 880 square kilometers (340 sq mi) at the beginning of the 20th century but having lost significantly to erosion it covers 553 square kilometers as at 2014.
It is the abode of the Assamese neo-Vaishnavite culture.
Its formation
The island is formed by the Brahmaputra River in the south and the Kherkutia Xuti, an anabranch of the Brahmaputra, joined by the Subansiri River in the north.
It was formed due to course changes by the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries, mainly the Lohit.
“Prelims, Mains and Interview are 3 stages of pilgrimages and I found all of them equally challenging”, says Vaibhav Rawat IAS after securing All India Rank 25 in UPSC 2020 Exam.
He started his preparation in 2018 without any idea of what was civil services or the challenging syllabus of UPSC. Fresh out of his job in Samsung R&D, Vaibhav initially faced umpteen difficulties in understanding or remembering what he had read. However, with daily studies there was an improvement and he was slowly able to master the topics. In his first attempt, Vaibhav reached till interview stage but missed out on the final ranking by a whisker. After this, he took the mentorship of Sajal Sir to score high marks in Mains and Interview. Vaibhav proves the saying that, successful people are not gifted but they work hard.
Upon finding his name in the final pdf, Vaibhav asserts that his parents are more happier than him. For Vaibhav, there is only relief as he doesn’t have to start the exhausting cycle of UPSC preparation all over again.
Open to All, Free to Attend—Ask me Anything Session with Vaibhav Rawat IAS
Vaibhav Rawat is geared up for an Ask me Anything Session with all Civilsdaily UPSC aspirants. For anyone wanting tips on certain topics, preparing for UPSC Mains in the last 3 months or suggestions on improving their marks, this session will be useful. Your questions will be Vaibhav’s answers which are drawn from his own experiences. Just register yourself with us as soon as possible to confirm your presence.
Key Takeaways of Vaibhav Rawat’s Webinar
1. Importance of having a role model. Who was Vaibhav Rawat’s idol and how did that help him stay calm and focused towards his goals?
2. Unpredictability of UPSC .What to study when you are not sure of the type of questions which would come in the exam?
3. The art of answer writing in Mains. What are few of the common practices Vaibhav followed in the Mains exam?
4.Memory techniques followed by Vaibhav Rawat. What did he do to recall important dates, names, statistics, conventions for the exam?
5. First Attempt v/s Second Attempt. How did Vaibhav approach prelims, mains and interview preparation?
6. Tips for beginners. Why is it better to work for a year or two before preparing for UPSC?
A major part of the session would be interactive and in Q&A format. This will surely benefit any aspirant who are in midway of their preparation.
Webinar Details
If you are studying hard but are unsure that you are studying right, then its time to get some assurance from the topper himself! Register for thisfree webinarby IAS officer Vaibhav Rawat.
Organic Farming is poised to become 75000 cr rupee market by 2025. The Indian Organic market is expected to grow at an annual rate of more than 20%. However, India’s share in the global organic market is just 1%. India has potential but there are challenges.
The road to transforming the agricultural practices in India to absolutely an organic one, is accompanied by challenges that require expert intervention and a proper discussion.
We shall study them in brief.
Context
The relevance and need for an eco-friendly alternative farming system arose from the ill effects of the chemical farming practices adopted worldwide during the second half of the last century.
In the present times, the practice of organic farming has gathered immense prominence in India as the government introduced several welfare measures and subsidies to promote such practices.
Organic farming is one of the several approaches found to meet the objectives of sustainable agriculture.
It opens up a sustainable doorway to prevent various health hazards originating from the agro-based products that we consume.
What is Organic Farming?
Organic farming is an agricultural system that uses fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting.
It is a system of management and agricultural production that combines a high level of biodiversity with environmental practices that preserve natural resources.
It may also have rigorous standards for animal welfare.
Organic Farming in India
Organic farming is in a nascent stage in India. About 2.78 million hectare of farmland was under organic cultivation as of March 2020, according to the Union Agriculture Ministry.
This is two per cent of the 140.1 million ha net sown area in the country.
The top three states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra — account for about half the area under organic cultivation.
Madhya Pradesh tops the list with 0.76 million ha of area under organic cultivation — that is over 27 per cent of India’s total organic cultivation area.
Sikkim is the only state to be considered fully organic.
Important Government Initiatives
India introduced the organic farming policy in 2005.
The 2.78 million ha was covered under organic farming in India is about two per cent of the 140.1 million ha net sown area in the country. Of this,
1.94 million ha is under National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP)
0.59 million ha under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)
0.07 million ha under Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Regions (MOVCDNER)
0.17 million ha under state schemes or non-schemes
This shows that NPOP scheme covers about 70 per cent of the organic area of the country, of which 30 per cent is under conversion.
Need for Organic Farming in India
The present system of agriculture which we call ‘conventional’ promoted an overriding quest for accumulation of wealth ignoring many objects of sustainability.
Reducing ecological damage: The need for organic farming in India arises from the unsustainability of agriculture production and the damage caused to ecology through the conventional farming practices.
Averting heavy mechanization: The high cost of the machines necessitated high profits, which in turn put pressure to raise productivity. Then, only those crops with high productivity were cultivated which needed increased quantities of fertilizers and pesticides.
Increasing menace of pests: Increasing use of pesticides resulted in the damage to environment and increased resistance of insects to them. Pesticides harmed useful organisms in the soil.
Productivity issues: The monoculture of high yielding seeds required external inputs of chemical fertilizers. The fertilizers also destroy soil organisms leading to reduction of crop yields in the long run.
Food safety: The consumers are increasingly concerned about the quality of the products they consume and food safety has become a crucial requirement. Safety, quality and hygienic standards are increasingly becoming popular.
Employability of agriculture: The agriculture and allied sectors in India provides employment to 65 per cent of the workers and accounts for 30 per cent of the national income.
Combatting desertification: Organically cultivated soils are relatively better attuned to withstand water stress and nutrient loss. Their potential to counter soil degradation is high and it may help to combat desertification.
Maintenance of genetic diversity: The genetic base of crops is very important and a reduction of genetic diversity leads to the emergence of pests on a large scale.
Benefits of Organic Farming
Establishing harmony with nature: Organic agricultural practices are based on a maximum harmonious relationship with nature aiming at the non-destruction of the environment.
Improvement in Soil Quality: Soil quality is the foundation on which organic farming is based. Efforts are directed to build and maintain the soil fertility through the organic farming practices.
Increased Crop Productivity and Income: The cost of cultivation is lower in the organic farming due to the non-use of fertilizers and chemical insecticides. The yields and net income are low, but it increased progressively with years.
Low incidence of Pests: Bio-control methods have been successful in pest control. Indigenous technological products such as Panchagavya (five products of cow origin) which was experimented.
Employment Opportunities: Organic farming requires more labour input than the conventional farming system.
Indirect benefits:
Consumers get healthy foods with better palatability and taste and nutritive values
Farmers are indirectly benefited from healthy soils and farm production environment
Various challenges
(A) Raising agricultural productivity per unit of land:
This is the main engine of agricultural growth as virtually all cultivable land is farmed.
Water resources are also limited and water for irrigation must contend with increasing industrial and urban needs.
All measures to increase productivity will need exploiting, amongst them: increasing yields, diversification to higher value crops, and developing value chains to reduce marketing costs.
(B) Reducing rural poverty through a socially inclusive strategy that comprises both agriculture as well as non-farm employment:
Rural development must also benefit the poor, landless, women, scheduled castes and tribes.
Moreover, there are strong regional disparities: the majority of India’s poor are in rain-fed areas or in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic plains. Reaching such groups has not been easy.
Poverty alleviation is a central pillar of the rural development efforts of the Government and the World Bank.
(C) Ensuring that agricultural growth responds to food security needs:
The slow-down in agricultural growth has become a major cause for concern.
Policy makers need to initiate and conclude policy actions and public programs to shift the sector away from the existing policy.
Way forward
(1) Promoting new technologies and reforming agricultural research and extension:
Major reform and strengthening of India’s agricultural research and extension systems is one of the most important needs for agricultural growth.
(2) Improving Water Resources and Irrigation/Drainage Management:
Agriculture is India’s largest user of water. There is a need to manage as opposed to exploit the use of groundwater.
(3) Facilitating agricultural diversification to higher-value commodities:
Encouraging farmers to diversify to higher value commodities will be a significant factor for higher agricultural growth, particularly in rain-fed areas where poverty is high.
(4) Promoting high growth commodities:
Some agricultural sub-sectors have particularly high potential for expansion, notably dairy. The livestock sector, primarily due to dairy, contributes over a quarter of agricultural GDP and is a source of income for 70% of India’s rural families.
(5) Developing markets, agricultural credit and public expenditures:
India’s legacy of extensive government involvement in agricultural marketing has created restrictions in internal and external trade, resulting in cumbersome and high-cost marketing and transport options for agricultural commodities.
