Polity is the key to success in UPSC, and here’s why:
Up to 20 questions in Prelims – 40 marks!
Command over Polity means great writing material in essays.
The knowledge of polity can be used in GS papers, IR, and national issues.
Polity concepts are highly useful in writing Ethics answer.
Master polity and your score can rise by 100 marks in Mains.
It is easy to master the subject if you know the right tricks!
This is why we believe that all UPSC aspirants who are serious about clearing Prelims in this attempt should know the 5 Most Valuable Topics in polity and the smart way of completing the syllabus in time. And we would like to share these with you for FREE in the upcoming webinar with Sudhanshu Sir.
For example, these are the areas that UPSC has focused on in the previous years:
And where are these questions sourced from?
But what about this year? Sudhanshu sir will explain, in detail, in the webinar.
How to complete the Polity syllabus ‘effectively.’
How to revise the syllabus in record time.
How to use the knowledge of Polity for better answer writing.
How to use the knowledge of polity for writing better essays.
How to make sure you answer ALL the polity questions in Prelims correctly.
How to use Polity to gain advantage over other candidates.
You can learn all of this and more for absolutely free in the webinar.
DO NOT miss this opportunity to know the right way of completing your Polity syllabus for UPSC 2022. The webinar is absolutely free and you can gain up to 40 MARKS in Prelims by attending this session. But there are just limited slots available so we request you to register now!
The Delhi High Court upheld the view that the “Right to Privacy” includes the “Right to be Forgotten” and the “Right to be Left Alone”.
Right to be Forgotten in India
The Right to be Forgotten falls under the purview of an individual’s right to privacy, which is governed by the Personal Data Protection Bill that is yet to be passed by Parliament.
In 2017, the Right to Privacy was declared a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in its landmark verdict.
The court said at the time that “the right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution”.
What was the recent case?
The TV celebrity had moved Delhi High Court with the plea that orders be issued to Google and relevant entities to facilitate the removal of posts, videos, articles and any information related to incidents that he was involved.
His plea cited that his presence on the internet is a source of “utmost psychological pain” to him.
Legal issues
India does not have a law yet on right to be forgotten.
In the meantime, the Information Technology Rules, 2011 — which is the current regime governing digital data — does not have any provisions relating to the right to be forgotten.
The Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill was tabled in Parliament in 2019 and is being examined by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).
Key features of PDP Bill
Personal Data: Section 20 of the PDP Bill says that a ‘data principal’ — or the person who generates the data or to whom the information pertains — can rightfully ask a ‘data fiduciary’, which is any entity that stores or processes such data, to “restrict or prevent the continuing disclosure of his personal data” in specific circumstances.
Purpose of data: To seek the erasure of data, it is necessary to establish that it “has served the purpose for which it was collected or is no longer necessary for the purpose; was made with the consent of the data principal.
Right to be forgotten: The Bill says that the right to be forgotten can be enforced only on an order of an adjudicating officer following an application filed by the data principal.
Contravention with Free Speech: However, the decision on whether the right to be forgotten can be granted with respect to any data will depend on whether it contravenes “the right to freedom of speech and expression and the right to information of any other citizen”.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has clarified that companies have to ensure that funds transferred to implementing agencies are actually utilized for them to be counted towards mandatory CSR expenditure.
What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?
CSR is a type of business self-regulation that aims to contribute to the societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethically-oriented practices.
It rests on the ideology of “give and take” i.e. to take scarce resources from the environment for running a business, and in turn to contribute towards economic, social, and environmental development.
CSR in India
India is the first country in the world to make corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandatory, following an amendment to the Companies Act, 2013 in April 2014.
Businesses can invest their profits in areas such as education, poverty, gender equality, and hunger as part of any CSR compliance.
All companies with a net worth of Rs 500 crore or more, a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more, or net profit of Rs 5 crore or more, are required to spend 2 per cent of their average profits of the previous three years on CSR activities every year.
What is the recent clarification?
The MCA has clarified that excess Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure prior to FY21 cannot be set off against future CSR expenditure requirements.
Corporate donations to government schemes cannot be counted as CSR.
The ministry has also clarified that companies have to ensure that funds transferred to implementing agencies are actually utilized for them to be counted towards mandatory CSR expenditure.
Impact of the move
This clarification may impact donations to state government schemes which are often done for the sake of managing relationships with the government.
The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has rolled out a new series for vehicles registration ‘BH’ to avoid re-registration of vehicles while moving to another state.
Bharat series (BH-series)
There was a procedure of re-registration of a vehicle while moving to another state.
A vehicle bearing BH registration mark shall not require assignment of a new registration mark when the owner of the vehicle shifts from one State to another.
Format of Bharat series (BH-series) Registration Mark –
Registration Mark Format:
YY BH #### XX
YY – Year of first registration
BH- Code for Bharat Series
####- 0000 to 9999 (randomized)
XX- Alphabets (AA to ZZ)
Why such move?
Station relocation occurs with both Government and private sector employees.
Such movements create a sense of unease in the minds of such employees with regard to transfer of registration from the parent state to another state.
Under section 47 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, a person is allowed to keep the vehicle for not more than 12 months in any state other than the state where the vehicle is registered.
Who can get this BH series?
BH-series will be available on voluntary basis to Defense personnel, employees of Central Government/ State Government/ Central/ State PSUs and private sector companies/organizations.
The motor vehicle tax will be levied for two years or in multiple of two.
This scheme will facilitate free movement of personal vehicles across States/UTs of India upon relocation to a new State/UT.
After completion of the fourteenth year, the motor vehicle tax shall be levied annually which shall be half of the amount which was charged earlier for that vehicle.
Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetlands is facing a severe crisis due to wildfires and climate change.
Pantanal Wetlands
The Pantanal is a natural region encompassing the world’s largest tropical wetland area, and the world’s largest flooded grasslands.
It is located mostly within the Brazilian and extends to some portions of Bolivia and Paraguay.
It sprawls over an area estimated at between 140,000 and 195,000 square kilometer.
Roughly 80% of the Pantanal floodplains are submerged during the rainy seasons, nurturing a biologically diverse collection of aquatic plants and helping to support a dense array of animal species.
Risks faced
Unlike the Amazon rainforest, vegetation in the Pantanal has evolved to coexist with fire — many plant species there require the heat from fires to germinate.
Often caused by lightning strikes, those natural fires spring up at the end of the dry season, but the surrounding floodplains prevent them from spreading.
What’s different now is the drought, contributing further to the unusually dry conditions and exacerbating the fire risk.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the eco-sensitive zone of the Deepar Beel Wildlife Sanctuary on the south-western edge of Guwahati.
Deepar Beel
Deepar Beel is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Assam and the State’s only Ramsar site besides being an Important Bird Area.
It is located to the south-west of Guwahati city, in Kamrup Metropolitan district.
It is a permanent freshwater lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra River, to the south of the main river.
It is also called a wetland under the Ramsar Convention which has listed the lake in November 2002, as a Ramsar Site for undertaking conservation measures on the basis of its biological and environmental importance.
Major threats
Deepar Beel has long been used as a sponge for Guwahati’s sewage via a couple of streams.
The wetland has also suffered from seepage of toxins from a garbage dump at Boragaon adjoining it.
It has for decades been threatened by a railway track — set to be doubled and electrified — on its southern rim, a garbage dump, and encroachment from human habitation and commercial units.
The water has become toxic and it has lost many of its aquatic plants that elephants would feed on.
India has added 557 new species to its fauna reveals Animal Discoveries 2020, a document published recently by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
Major species discovered
The number of faunal species in India has climbed to 1,02,718 species. Among the new species, some interesting species discovered in 2020 are:
Trimeresurus salazar, a new species of green pit viper discovered from Arunachal Pradesh;
Lycodon deccanensis, the Deccan wolf snake discovered from Karnataka; and
Sphaerotheca Bengaluru, a new species of burrowing frog named after the city of Bengaluru.
Xyrias anjaalai, a new deep-water species of snake eel from Kerala;
Glyptothorax giudikyensis, a new species of catfish from Manipur; and
Clyster galateansis, a new species of scarab beetles from the Great Nicobar Biosphere.
Visitor species
Myotis cf. frater, a bat species earlier known from China, Taiwan and Russia, has been reported for the first time from Uttarakhand in India
Zoothera citrina gibsonhilli, an orange-headed thrush earlier known from southern Myanmar to south Thailand (central Malay peninsula) was reported for the first time from India based on a collection made from the Narcondam island in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Significance
The ZSI publication shows that India is a mega biodiverse country, rich in biodiversity, with 23.39% of its geographical area under forest and tree cover.
India is positioned 8th in mega biodiversity countries in the world with 0.46 BioD index which is calculated by its percentage of species in each group relative to the total global number of species in each group.
About Zoological Survey of India
The ZSI was set up by British zoologist Thomas Nelson Annandale, in 1916.
It is the premier taxonomic research organization in India.
It was established to promote surveys, exploration and research leading to advancement of our knowledge of various aspects of the exceptionally rich animal life of India.
The ZSI had its genesis as the Zoological Section of the Indian Museum at Calcutta in 1875.
Since its inception, the ZSI has been documenting the diversity and distribution of the fauna of India towards carrying out its mandate of conducting exploration-cum-taxonomic-research programmes.
The ZSI has published an extremely large amount of information on all animal taxa, from Protozoa to Mammalia.
Try answering this PYQ:
Q.With reference to India’s Biodiversity, Ceylon frogmouth, Coppersmith barbet, Gray-chinned minivet and White-throated redstart are: (CSP 2020)
(a) Birds
(b) Primates
(c) Reptiles
(d) Amphibians
[wpdiscuz-feedback id=”l3b1pdstu5″ question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here[/wpdiscuz-feedback]
Polity is the key to success in UPSC, and here’s why:
Up to 20 questions in Prelims – 40 marks!
Command over Polity means great writing material in essays.
The knowledge of polity can be used in GS papers, IR, and national issues.
Polity concepts are highly useful in writing Ethics answer.
Master polity and your score can rise by 100 marks in Mains.
It is easy to master the subject if you know the right tricks!
This is why we believe that all UPSC aspirants who are serious about clearing Prelims in this attempt should know the 5 Most Valuable Topics in polity and the smart way of completing the syllabus in time. And we would like to share these with you for FREE in the upcoming webinar with Sudhanshu Sir.
For example, these are the areas that UPSC has focused on in the previous years:
And where are these questions sourced from?
But what about this year? Sudhanshu sir will explain, in detail, in the webinar.
How to complete the Polity syllabus ‘effectively.’
How to revise the syllabus in record time.
How to use the knowledge of Polity for better answer writing.
How to use the knowledge of polity for writing better essays.
How to make sure you answer ALL the polity questions in Prelims correctly.
How to use Polity to gain advantage over other candidates.
You can learn all of this and more for absolutely free in the webinar.
DO NOT miss this opportunity to know the right way of completing your Polity syllabus for UPSC 2022. The webinar is absolutely free and you can gain up to 40 MARKS in Prelims by attending this session. But there are just limited slots available so we request you to register now!
On India’s 75th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Centre will launch ‘PM Gati Shakti Master Plan’, a Rs. 100 lakh-crore project for developing ‘holistic infrastructure’ and to and give an integrated pathway to country’s economy.
What are the focus areas of the project?
Gati Shakti will be a National Infrastructure Master Plan for our country
Leveling up local manufacturers: The Gati Shakti plan will help raise the global profile of local manufacturers and help them compete with their counterparts worldwide.
Economic zones: It also raises possibilities of new future economic zones. India needs to increase both manufacturing and exports.
Infrastructure development: Infrastructure development has the ability to create a multiplier effect with every rupee invested, yielding much higher returns.
Employment opportunity: To act as a source of employment opportunities for the youth in future.
Why need such a plan?
The push for infrastructure is in line with the government’s efforts to step up capital expenditure in infrastructure to promote economic growth.
Infrastructure development has the ability to create a multiplier effect with every rupee invested, yielding much higher returns.
A similar plan, called the National Infrastructure Pipeline was previously announced.
Let us learn about the National Infrastructure Pipeline in short.
What is the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)?
NIP includes economic and social infrastructure projects.
During the fiscals 2020 to 2025, sectors such as Energy (24%), Roads (19%), Urban (16%), and Railways (13%) amount to around 70% of the projected capital expenditure in infrastructure in India.
It has outlined plans to invest more than ₹102 lakh crore on infrastructure projects by 2024-25, with the Centre, States and the private sector to share the capital expenditure in a 39:39:22 formula.
What are the key benefits of NIP?
Economic: Well-planned NIP will enable more infra projects, grow businesses, create jobs, improve ease of living, and provide equitable access to infrastructure for all, making growth more inclusive.
Government: Well-developed infrastructure enhances the level of economic activity, creates additional fiscal space by improving the revenue base of the government, and ensures the quality of expenditure focused in productive areas.
Developers: Provides a better view of project supply, provides time to be better prepared for project bidding, reduces aggressive bids/ failure in project delivery, ensures enhanced access to sources of finance as a result of increased investor confidence.
Banks/financial institutions (F1s)/investors: Builds investor confidence as identified projects are likely to be better prepared, exposures less likely to suffer stress given active project monitoring, thereby less likelihood of NPAs.
Why the infra sector is given more emphasis these days?
Pandemic induces Slowdown: Slowdown due to the pandemic is a good time to catch up on infrastructure capacity and increase the expenditure.
Multiplier effect on job creation and economy: Infrastructure spending is a critical component of the fiscal stimulus as it has multiplier effects on the economy and job creation.
Inclusive Growth: Quality infrastructure is important not only for faster economic growth but also to ensure inclusive growth and uplifting standard of living of people.
Easy access for essential Social Services: Lack of adequate infrastructure not only holds a lack of economic development, but it also causes additional costs in terms of time, effort and money of the people for accessing essential social services.
What are the recent projects included in the Infrastructural planning?
Sectors such as energy (24%), roads (18%), urban (17%) and railways (12%) amount to around 71% of the projected investments.
The projects will also be spread across sectors such as irrigation, mobility, education, health, water and the digital sector.
What are the key infrastructure sectors which have a massive role in India’s economic development?
(1) Green Infrastructure:
Green infrastructure refers to natural or semi-natural ecosystems that provide water resource management by introducing the natural water cycle into urban environments.
It provides effective measures to manage urban flooding, water supply and quantity regulation, at the same time generating multiple environmental benefits.
India will benefit if investments are steered towards green-infrastructure projects.
Green bonds can provide a long-term source of debt capital for renewable infrastructure projects.
Germany is one country that has been a nest for the innovation and application of green technologies. This can provide a useful lesson for India.
By reducing local temperatures and shading building surfaces, green infrastructure reduces the cooling demand of buildings, thus cutting energy needs.
(2) Logistics Sector:
The logistics sector needs to be improved because of its impact on improving competitiveness in the economy.
Improving logistics sector has huge implication on exports and it is estimated that a 10% decrease in indirect logistics cost can increase 5-8% of exports.
The Indian logistics sector provideslivelihood to 22 million-plus people and improving the sector would facilitate a 10% decrease in indirect logistics cost, leading to a growth of 5-8% in exports.
The worth of Indian logistics market would be around US$ 215 billion in next two years compared to about US$ 160 billion currently. Today, the Indian logistics sector is a sunshine industry and is going through a phase of transformation.
key objectives for logistics in India, to be achieved in the next five years:
Creating a single point of reference for all logistics and trade facilitation matters in the country which will also function as a knowledge and information sharing platform
Driving logistics cost as a % of GDP down from estimated current levels of 13-14% to 10% in line with best-in-class global standards and incentivize the sector to become more efficient by promoting integrated development of logistics
(3) Social Infrastructure:
Social services include, education, sports, art and culture; medical and public health, family welfare, water supply and sanitation, housing; urban development; welfare of Schedule Castes (SCs), Schedule Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Castes (OBCs), labor and labor welfare; social security and welfare, nutrition, relief on account of natural calamities etc. Expenditure on ‘Education’ pertains to expenditure on ‘Education, Sports, Arts and Culture’.
India is committed to achieve these SDGs and a strong social infrastructure is key to achieve them.
The government has been focusing on provisioning of assets such as schools, institutes of higher learning, hospitals, access to sanitation, water supply, road connectivity, affordable housing, skills and livelihood opportunities.
This gains significance given the fact that India is home to the world’s youngest population as half of its population is below the age of 25.
It has also been estimated that demographic advantage in India is available for five decades from 2005-06 to 2055-56, longer than any other country in the world. This demographic advantage can be reaped only if education, skilling and employment opportunities are provided to the young population.
Being a developing economy “there is not enough fiscal space” to increase expenditure on critical social infrastructure.
India has made significant progress in quantitative indicators such as enrolment levels and physical infrastructure like construction of school buildings, drinking water facilities, toilet, etc.
India has been successful in achieving gender parity in the school sector and in higher education it is moving towards a better gender parity.
Growing expenditure on health is burdening the public in general and is one of the highest in South Asian countries as per Economic Survey 2020-21.
(4) Ports:
The major economies of the world have always realized the potential of shipping as a contributor to economic growth. For instance, control of the seas is a key component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The entire shipping infrastructure in peninsular India only helps foreign shipping liners. Foreign ship owners carry our inbound and outbound cargo. This is the case in container shipping too.
India has unrealized potential in shipping, with 7,500 km of coastline and 14,500 km of navigable or potentially navigable waterways.
More than one billion tonnes of cargo was handled across over 200 ports in India in 2015 with maritime logistics accounting for 90 per cent of international trade by volume and 72 per cent by value.
As a country, we have still not optimized our carrying capacity. Much of foreign currency is drained as transshipment and handling costs every day.
As a result, there is a wide gap between carrying capacity and multi-folded cargo growth in the country.
India needs to revamp institutional and regulatory environment around ports.
Corporatization of ports is one way of achieving efficient and world class ports by the conversion of major port trusts into truly commercial organizations.
In terms of infrastructure, it is important to maintain draft to serve bigger vessels, ensure mechanization of ports through introduction of new equipment and procedures, build new facilities, upgrade existing facilities and automate systems/procedures.
(5) Transport infrastructure
India’s population growth and economic development requires improved transport infrastructure, including through investments in roads, railways, and aviation, shipping and inland waterways.
A key goal of India’s suite of regulatory reforms is to attract more foreign investment into the sector, including through new investment vehicles and innovative financial instruments. By 2030, transport is expected to attract over 60 per cent of infrastructure investment in India.
We need sound public transport infrastructure because if we do not have proper infrastructure we cannot have urbanization.
The Government of India has a range of projects to improve road infrastructure-
The National Highways Development Projects, which require investments of up to USD170 billion
The Bharatmala project, stretching from India’s western to eastern land borders which is unique and unprecedented in terms of its size and design.
The Northeast Express Highway (1,300 km express highway in northeast India).
Technologically sound projects which are engineering marvels such as the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge, Chenani Nashri Tunnel and Bogi-Beel bridge and world-class expressways such as the Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Western Peripheral Expressway are the recent key achievement showing India’s technological readiness in the sector.
Road Infrastructure in India
(6) RAIL
India’s railways play a major role in affordable transport of passengers and cargo across the country
It is one of the largest networks in the world with 7,216 stations; 92,000 km of track and 1.3 million employees.
Indian railways carried eight billion passengers and transported over one billion tonnes of freight in 2017–18
However, most major corridors are facing severe capacity constraints and there are safety issues.
The Ministry of Railways plans to improve and expand the rail network, renew the train fleet, and improve passenger safety.
It plans to invest up to $170 billion over the next five years, with the largest proportion aimed at network expansion and decongestion, and safety.64 Investments are also planned for station redevelopment and the dedicated freight corridor between Delhi and Mumbai.
The Government of India is seeking greater private investment through:
Allowing 100 per cent FDI in railways for construction, operation and maintenance of suburban corridor projects, high-speed train projects, railway electrification and signaling, among others.
Encouraging the development of new investment vehicles such as the Railways of India Development Fund to attract long term investment from global institutional investors.
What are the major constraints in the implementation of infrastructural projects?
The major implementation constraints that will be faced possibly in future are:
Revenue shortfall: Slippage in revenue estimates may not be ruled out on account of the realization of lower than anticipated increases in nominal GDP growth, direct tax buoyancy, and disinvestment targets.
Lesser funds with States: The Union government has accepted the 15th Finance Commission report recommendation, according to which vertical share of tax devolution from the center to states has been reduced 42% to 41%.
Increasing Fiscal Deficit: Infrastructure development in India will be funded by fiscal stimulus. This can be reflected as the Centre has indicated taking the fiscal deficit to 4.5% of GDP by 2025-26.
However, the rising fiscal deficit can cause macro-economic stability issues like high inflation, crowding out, a downgrade of international ratings, etc.
Structural Problems: Due to the lengthy processes in land acquisition and payment of compensation, the rate of implementation of projects is very slow on global standards.
Getting approvals are very difficult in terms of land access, environmental clearances; impending litigation in court delays the infrastructure projects.
Time and cost overruns due to delays in project implementation and procedural
Delays and lesser traffic growth than expected to increase the riskiness of the projects
Stalled or languishing projects and a shortfall in funds for maintenance
Conclusion
Infrastructure development is the key to economic growth and well-being of the country’s people, as it will propel economic growth, improve quality of life contribute to GDP nationally.
It is seen that investments in infrastructure equal to 1% of GDP will result in GDP growth of at least 2% as infrastructure has a “multiplier effect” on economic growth across sectors.
Capacity creation and expansion in important segments like roads and highways, power, railways, renewable sector, ports, airports, metros etc, is a must for delivering impressive results.
Over the period, formalization of the economy has taken place and any growth now onwards once projects like Gati Shakti Master Plan, NIP is in place will be more sustainable, rather than a boom-and-bust process.
Therefore, massive infrastructure development is a sure way of achieving the government’s $5 trillion economy target.
This is will give a boost to several sectors, create new jobs directly and indirectly, and eventually boost the commercial market, thereby propelling the country’s economic growth.
Huge fiscal stimulus, provided by the government in the Budget 2021 is a step in the right direction. However, it needs to address structural and macroeconomic stability concerns, emanating from high public expenditure.
Maintaining consistency is one of the biggest issues faced by IAS Aspirants. Streak’s initiative is to help Aspirants in their day-to-day preparation. You can follow the monthly, weekly, and daily timetables and continue this streak until you find yourself on the final list.
