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  • Jharkhand’s SAAMAR campaign to fight malnutrition

    The Jharkhand government has announced the launch of the SAAMAR campaign to tackle malnutrition in the state.

    We can expect an MCQ like:

    Q.SAAMAR campaign sometimes seen in news is related to:

    () Bovine health

    () Mother and Child Health

    () Non-communicable diseases

    () None of these

    SAAMAR

    • SAAMAR is an acronym for Strategic Action for Alleviation of Malnutrition and Anemia Reduction.
    • The campaign aims to identify anaemic women and malnourished children and converge various departments to effectively deal with the problem in a state where malnutrition has been a major problem.
    • Every second child in the state is stunted and underweight and every third child is affected by stunting and every 10th child is affected by severe wasting and around 70% of children are anaemic NFHS-4 data.

    Features of the scheme

    • Although existing schemes are there, seeing the current situation, the intervention was required with a ‘different approach to reduce malnutrition.
    • SAAMAR has been launched with a 1000 days target, under which annual surveys will be conducted to track the progress.
    • It talks of convergence of various departments such as the Rural Development Department and Food and Civil Supplies and engagement with school management committees, gram sabhas among others and making them aware of nutritional behaviour.
    • Most importantly, the campaign, as per the note, also tries to target Primarily Vulnerable Tribal Groups.

    Outlined strategy under the scheme

    • To tackle severe acute malnutrition children, every Anganwadi Centres will be engaged to identify these children and subsequently will be treated at the Malnutrition Treatment Centres.
    • In the same process, the anaemic women will also be listed and will be referred to health centres in serious cases.
    • All of these will be done by measuring Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) of women and children through MUAC tapes and Edema levels.
    • Angawadi’s Sahayia and Sevika will take them to the nearest Health Centre where they will be checked again and then registered on the portal of State Nutrition Mission.

    Why need such a scheme?

    • The state government runs various schemes under Child Development Schemes, National Nutrition Mission among others to deal with the situation, but it is not enough.
    • Dealing with malnutrition in the state monitoring has been an important concern due to the lack of doctors or health care workers.

  • What are the Diatoms?

    The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has relied on a forensic test known as diatom tests for leads in an alleged murder case of a person inviting high stage political drama.

    What are Diatoms?

    • Diatoms are photosynthesizing algae that are found in almost every aquatic environment including fresh and marine waters, soils, in fact, almost anywhere moist.
    • Diatoms have cell walls made of silica, each species has a distinct pattern of tiny holes in the cell wall (frustule) through which they absorb nutrients and get rid of waste.
    • A diatom is a photosynthetic, single-celled organism which means they manufacture their own food in the same way plants do.

    Diatoms are important as they:

    • provide the basis of the food chain for both marine and freshwater micro-organisms and animal larvae
    • are a major source of atmospheric oxygen responsible for 20-30% of all carbon fixation on the planet
    • can act as environmental indicators of climate change
    • form the basis of some household goods such as pest/mite prevention and mild abrasive

    Never underestimate UPSC. Try this PYQ before you reach any conclusion.

    Q.Which one of the following is the correct sequence of a food chain?

    (a) Diatoms-Crustaceans-Herrings

    (b) Crustaceans-Diatoms-Herrings

    (c) Diatoms-Herrings-Crustaceans

    (d) Crustaceans-Herrings-Diatoms

    What is a diatom test?

    • Diagnosis of death by drowning is deemed as a difficult task in forensic pathology.
    • A number of tests have been developed to confirm the cause of such deaths with the diatom test emerging as one of the most important tests.
    • The test entails findings if there are diatoms in the body being tested.

    The science behind

    • A body recovered from a water body does not necessarily imply that the death was due to drowning.
    • If the person is alive when he enters the water, the diatoms will enter the lungs when the person inhales water while drowning.
    • These diatoms then get carried to various parts of the body, including the brain, kidneys, lungs and bone marrow by blood circulation.
    • If a person is dead when is thrown in the water, then there is no circulation and there is no transport of diatom cells to various organs.

  • Places on PM Modi’s Bangladesh Visit

    PM Modi will be on a two-day visit to Bangladesh where he will take part in commemorations of some epochal events there.

    Bangabandhu shrine in Tungipara

    • Located about 420 kilometres from Dhaka, Tungipara was the place of birth of Rahman, the architect of the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence.
    • This is also the place where he lies buried inside a grand tomb called the ‘Bangabandhu mausoleum’.
    • Millions of people gather here every year on August 15, to observe the day when Rahman was assassinated by a group of disgruntled army officers.

    Harichand Thakur’s shrine in Orakandi

    • Thakur was the founder of the Matua Mahasangha, which was a religious reformation movement that originated in Orakandi in about 1860 CE.
    • At a very early age, Thakur experienced spiritual revelation, following which he founded a sect of Vaishnava Hinduism called Matua.
    • Members of the sect were the namasudras who were considered to be untouchables.
    • The objective of Thakur’s religious reform was to uplift the community through educational and other social initiatives.
    • Members of the community consider Thakur as God and an avatar of Vishnu or Krishna.
    • After the 1947 Partition, many of the Matuas migrated to West Bengal.

    ‘Sugandha Shaktipith’ (Satipith) temple in Shikarpur

    • Modi is also scheduled to visit the Sugandha Shaktipeeth which is located in Shikarpur, close to Barisal.
    • The temple, dedicated to Goddess Sunanda is of immense religious significance to Hinduism.
    • It is one of the 51 Shakti Pith temples.
    • The Shakti Pith shrines are pilgrimage destinations associated with the Shakti (Goddess worship) sect of Hinduism.

    Rabindra Kuthi Bari in Kushtia

    • The Kuthi Bari is a country house built by Dwarkanath Tagore, the grandfather of Nobel laureate and Bengali poetic giant Rabindranath Tagore.
    • The latter stayed in the house for over a decade in irregular intervals between 1891 and 1901.
    • In this house Tagore composed some of his masterpieces like Sonar Tari, Katha o Kahini, Chaitali etc. He also wrote a large number of songs and poems for Gitanjali here.
    • It was also in this house that Tagore began translating the Gitanjali to English in 1912, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

    Ancestral home of Bagha Jatin in Kushtia

    • Jatindranath Mukherjee, better known as ‘Bagha Jatin’ (tiger Jatin) was a revolutionary freedom fighter.
    • He was born in Kayagram, a village in Kushtia district, where his ancestral home is located.
    • Jatin acquired the epithet ‘Bagha’ after he fought a Royal Bengal Tiger all by himself and killed it with a dagger.
    • Jatin was the first commander-in-chief of the ‘Jugantar Party’ which was formed in 1906 as a central association dedicated to train revolutionary freedom fighters in Bengal.
    • This was the period when Bengal was seething with nationalist furore against Lord Curzon’s declaration of Partition of the province.
    • Inspired by Jatin’s clarion call, “amra morbo, jagat jagbe” (we shall die to awaken the nation), many young revolutionaries joined the brand of the freedom struggle that the Jugantar Party represented.

    His legend:

    • Jatin is most remembered for an armed encounter he engaged in with the British police at Balasore in Orissa.
    • They were expecting a consignment of arms and funds from Germany to lead an armed struggle when the British found out about the plot and raided the spot where the revolutionaries were hiding. A
    • lthough Jatin lost his life in the Battle of Balasore, his activities did have an impact on the British forces.
    • The colonial police officer Charles Augustus Tegart wrote about Jatin: “If Bagha Jatin was an Englishman, then the English people would have built his statue next to Nelson’s at Trafalgar Square.”
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  • [Burning Issue] Domicile Reservations in Private Sector

    Two weeks back, the Haryana Governor gave his assent to the Bill providing 75% reservation in the private sector to job seekers from the state. And much recently Jharkhand government announced 75% reservation in private sector jobs with a salary of up to Rs 30,000 for locals.

    Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had sought responses from all states on whether the 50% ceiling limit on reservation needs to be reconsidered.

    In this edition of Burning Issues, we shall dive into what and how reservation for Private Sector would be; its repercussions on the principle of equality in our country and ultimately the performance of the private sector.

    Reservation: A backgrounder

    • Reservations are an affirmative action against social discrimination prevalent in society.
    • They have had a place in India for over a century, much before they were written into the Constitution as a leg up for socially and educationally backward sections.

    Private Sector: Diluting Reservation to the point of irrelevance

    • The issue of extending reservations to the private sector was occasionally mentioned in political circles whenever the issue of inadequate employment opportunities for the unprivileged in the public sector was discussed.
    • But it was never seriously debated.
    • The issue got trans-formed into demand after the country introduced structural reforms and after the acceptance of the globalisation process.

    LPG era concept

    • Economic liberalisation brought in its wake a shift in emphasis from the public to the private sector.
    • It was decided to prune the size of the public sector by disinvesting capital and allowing not only Indian but also foreign private investors to invest in those areas of economic activity like power generation and distribution which were once reserved exclusively for the public sector.

    Why is the demand gaining momentum?

    • There is an implicit assumption in this demand that employment opportunities are increasing in the private sector merely because it is expanding.

    (1) LPG reforms

    • The policy of LPG reduced the number of employment opportunities in the public sector, which, in turn, reduced the job opportunities for backward communities.
    • A revelation of the reduction of employment opportunities in the public sector made some political parties and their leaden advance the demand for extending reservations to the expanding private sector.

    (2) Populist impulse

    • The demand- jobs for locals only are bound to go down well with the electorate.
    • The leadership has been supporting the general cause of SC/STs and OBCs have only been repeating their support for the demand for extending reservations to the private sector.
    • While the political facet is a purely opportunistic political game plan.

    (3) Rising unemployment

    • Given India’s population growth, each year there are close to 20 million (or 2 crore) people who enter the working-age population of 15 to 59 years. But not everyone seeks a job.
    • Just after last year’s lockdown, the unemployment rate has shot up to more than 30 percent, with 122 million people losing their jobs.

    (4) Agrarian stress

    • The agrarian sector is under tremendous stress across the country, and young people are desperate to move out of the sector.
    • But there is a serious dearth of jobs (private and government).

    (5) Inter-state migration

    • Every campaign for a sons-of-soil policy, for job reservation, whips up this anti “outsider” sentiment.
    • In the case of Haryana, one of the reasons given for justifying reservations was the proliferation of slums, presumably attributed to “outsiders” shifting to the State for work.

    (6) Corporate preferences are biased

    • The Centre and many state governments probably doubt the robustness in the industry’s efforts when it comes to affirmative action.
    • Several reports — for instance, the State of Working India 2018 released by the Centre for Sustainable Employment of the Azim Premji University.
    • It has shown that discrimination is one of the reasons for under-representation of Dalits and Muslims in the corporate sector.

    (7) Xenophobia

    • Another major reason for the appeal of jobs for locals is inherent xenophobia. This is not unique to India or Indian States, but is universal.
    • It was spectacularly manifest in the Brexit vote, when Britons thought that foreigners were taking away local jobs, and hence voted to secede from the European Union.
    • The actual facts were much less damaging. If anything, the so-called foreign workers contributed to the local economy through their productivity, and by paying both consumption and income taxes.

    Why it is a bad idea?

    It is worth examining why this idea is ultimately infructuous or irrelevant.

    (1) Against Equality as well as meritocracy

    • It goes against the Constitution of India.
    • In fact, it violates several fundamental rights, such as freedom to move anywhere, the right not to be discriminated on the basis of place of birth, the right to be treated equally before laws and the right to pursue one’s livelihood.
    • These are enshrined variously in Articles 14, 15, 16 and 19 of the constitution.

    (2) Migration criteria not justified

    • The actual data on inter-State migration shows that inter-State migration is relatively low in India.
    • While the country may have an estimated 100 million migrants, most of them are intra-state not inter-state. As per 2011 census, India had only 5.6 crore inter-state migrants.
    • They often bring skills, motivation, energy which may be in short supply or lacking locally.

    (3) Free movement of labour

    • A more analytical aspect to highlight is that free movement of labour partly compensates for the uneven economic progress of different States.
    • The idea also goes against the established fact that migration of labour is good for the economy.
    • Many Indian states, Punjab, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, to name a few, have benefited from migrant labour.

    (4) Un-ease of doing business

    • Local reservation in the private sector may not be the ideal solution to tackle the unemployment crisis.
    • In fact, it can deter the corporate sector from investing in states that come up with such a rule.
    • A better way to engage with the private sector would be to make the youth of a state employable with proper investments in education, health and skill development.

    (5) Scapegoating the private sector

    • What distinguishes the private sector from the public sector is the inherent competition and a hunger for improvement.
    • Today, in the post-Covid era, India has a once in a lifetime opportunity to become the next manufacturing hub of the world.
    • In such a scenario, chief ministers should do well to engage with the private sector in a much more holistic manner, and not burden it with unfeasible rules.

    (6) MSMEs to be hit harder

    • MSMEs could be the hardest hit.
    • They do not have the necessary capital to relocate and many studies have shown that more than 50 per cent of employees are not residents of the state.
    • Entrepreneurs worry that the reservation declared by backward states like Jharkhand could limit the scope of recruitment and have an adverse impact on productivity and competition based on merit.

    Arguments in favour of quota in private

    • Often the privileged castes (or groups) use nefarious arguments to protect their interests.
    • Reservations once accepted in the constitutional framework are not a charity that is to be kept away from the ‘meritocracy’ of ‘private’ operations.
    • Like all other constitutional guarantees, one may feel the necessity to get ensured of equal opportunity in all spaces.
    • Giving preference and quotas for socially and educationally deprived sections in the private space is, therefore, in keeping with this fundamental tenet.
    • As the NCBC argues, with the number of jobs generated in the state sector shrinking steadily, for the promise of quotas in the Constitution to have any real meaning, it may be inevitable to extend it to the private sector.

    How have the companies received this move?

    • Most companies have slammed the new local job quota law and asked the government to focus on training and skilling local youth.
    • Several experts have explained that Haryana is facing immense competition from other states that have now started attracting industrial investment.
    • Those states, however, are offering liberal policies and employment-incentive schemes. The new local job law could severely reduce new investments in Haryana.
    • Reservation affects productivity and industry competitiveness.

    Way forward

    The government is not an employment guaranteeing agency rather an authority which should create an environment through its policies which minimizes inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities.

    • India has already suffered a huge brain drain to the West because professionals do not get the same support here.
    • Our dependence on the government for everything and lack of individual self-reliance has promoted incompetent people and strengthened the bureaucracy, which has hurt India immensely in the long-run.
    • Recently, with rapid technological innovations taking over, the government has finally understood that they are not made for business and had to embrace private sector with open arms.
    • A better way to engage with the private sector would be to make the youth of a state employable with proper investments in education, health and skill development
    • States like Kerala have instituted enlightened policies of training migrant workers in the local language and also offering good education for their children.
    • In the medium to long term there is no option but for a big national focus on education, skilling, training and enhancement of human capital, which can get us out of this scarcity mindset of rationing jobs for locals.

    Conclusion

    • The politics of identity and polarization on region/religious lines seems inadequate for the elections.
    • The philosophy and pragmatism of universal excellence through equality of opportunity for education and advancement across the nation is part of our founding faith and constitutional creed.
    • Clearly, this is not the appropriate domain of being “vocal for local”.
    • Although some reservations may still be necessary for the socio-political condition in India, reservation on the basis of domicile or residence within a State would be highly discriminatory.
    • It is more likely that such politically motivated steps would be overturned by the judiciary as has been done several times in the past.

    References:

    https://www.jstor.org/stable/4416239?seq=1

    https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/states-rush-in-to-reserve-jobs-for-locals-and-prevent-inter-state-migration-of-labour

    https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/why-local-quota-in-private-sector-is-not-a-good-idea/story-L4NEcekdviQUw5gZYnxktL.html

    https://theprint.in/campus-voice/reservation-in-private-sector-will-barricade-indias-march-into-future/623054/

  • An effective plan to monetise government assets

    The article discusses the government’s proposal to monetise assets and proposes the idea of an independent commission to carry out the task of monetisation.

    Roadmap for monetisation of asset: National Monetisation Pipeline

    • Finance Minister had introduced a roadmap for monetisation of asset in the Union Budget.
    • In the budget, the government proposed to launch a ‘National Monetisation Pipeline’ to assess the potential value of underutilised and unused government assets.
    • A number of countries including the United States, Australia, Canada, France and China have effectively utilised this policy.
    • In India too, the concept was suggested by a committee led by Vijay Kelkar on the roadmap for fiscal consolidation in 2012.
    •  The committee had suggested that the government start monetisation as a key instrument to raise resources for development.
    •  It asked the government to use these resources for financing infrastructure needs.

    Why monetisation

    • The global pandemic forced the government to increase spending.
    • Thus, total expenditure of the government has jumped to ₹34.50 trillion against the target of ₹30.42 trillion.
    • On the flip side, revenue of the government is shrinking.
    • As a result, total borrowing has increased by 2.3 times, from ₹7.96 trillion to ₹18.49 trillion.
    • An increase in borrowing also increases interest cost.
    • The ratio of interest payment to revenue receipts was 36.3% in 2019-20.
    • As per revised data, it has increased to 44.5% in the current fiscal year and is projected at an all-time high of 45.3% in 2021-22.
    • Almost half of the revenue is going towards servicing old debts. To revive the economy, capital expenditure is indispensable.

    National Infrastructure Pipeline

    • In this backdrop, the government has already launched the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), with 6,835 projects in December 2019.
    • The project pipeline has been increased to 7,400.
    • The NIP has its own specific target and the government is committed to achieve it in the coming years.
    • It called for a major increase in funding.
    • For 2021-22, the government has proposed to spend ₹5.54 trillion, which is 34.5% higher than the budgeted amount of 2020-21.
    • Now, the government found that monetisation of government- and public sector-owned assets would be an important financing option for new infrastructure construction.

    Model for monetisation of asset: REITs

    • The government is looking at the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) model for monetisation of assets.
    • Under REITs, the land assets are transferred to a trust providing investment opportunity for institutional investors.
    • The government has another option to lease or rent out the assets instead of going for monetisation.
    • The government expects monetisation will generate ₹2.5 trillion in non-debt capital revenue.
    • The objective of asset monetisation is to raise resources for future investment into the sector.
    • A pipeline monetisation plan for Indian Oil, GAIL, and Hindustan Petroleum has been drawn up by the government.
    • It is expected that the government will raise ₹0.17 trillion by selling stakes in these three companies.

    Consider the question “What is asset monetisation? What strategy should be followed by the government in the monetisation of assets?

    Conclusion

    To handle effectively the task of monetisation of assets, the government should constitute an independent commission clothed with requisite powers and staffed by professionals and researchers to formulate and implement its monetisation initiative.

  • Digital lending

    Digital lending has been on the rise in India. However, there are several concerns about the model. The article discusses these concerns and suggests the policy approach.

    3 digital lending models

    • Presently, there are three digital-lending models, seen through the regulatory-approach lens:
    • 1) Bank/NBFC-owned digital platforms operating under the direct regulatory purview of RBI.
    • 2) Fintech companies’ proprietary digital platforms, working in partnership with banks/NBFCs.
    • Being mere intermediaries, these platforms are not required to seek any registration with RBI, and are only indirectly regulated through RBI’s outsourcing guidelines applicable to Banks/NBFCs.
    • 3) Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms, which usually involve the otherwise unregulated retail lenders.
    • RBI has mandated such platforms to seek registration as NBFC-P2P; thus, they are directly regulated by RBI.

    Issues with digital lending

    • The specific issues are unauthorised lenders, exorbitant rates of interest, use of coercive repayment methods, and non-consensual collection or use of user data.
    • These issues entail serious adverse implications for borrowers and have systemic implications, hampering the rise of legitimate fintech players.

    Steps taken

    • With a view to curb such practices, RBI, in 2020, issued a notification to Banks/NBFCs mandating additional disclosures/compliances, and an advisory to borrowers warning them against such platforms.
    • Following the notification, Google removed several such loan apps from its PlayStore.
    • The Digital Lenders’ Association of India (DLAI) also issued guidelines to help borrowers identify such unscrupulous platforms.
    • In the regulatory pipeline on this front is the report of the working group on digital lending, constituted by RBI in January 2021.

    Framing effective policy solutions

    • Given the significant contribution of legitimate fintech players, it is important to ensure that any policy solutions to address such issues do not impede the growth of such players.
    • The key to this lies in adoption of light-touch regulation, along with the effective implementation of the already proposed regulatory initiatives.
    • For instance, the primary cause of the rising supply of unauthorised lending platforms is the existing credit information asymmetry that genuine lenders face in respect of small borrowers.
    • Here, operationalising and on-scale implementation of RBI’s proposed ‘Public Credit Registry’ and the ‘Open Credit Enablement Network’ (an infrastructure protocol enabling digital low cost lending to small borrowers through access of consented data) would lead to increased participation of legitimate players and curb proliferation of unauthorised lenders.
    • Another foundation for framing effective policy solutions lies in leveraging the interdependence and impact of each individual constituent of the digital lending ecosystem, on other constituents.
    • Apart from lenders/platforms/borrowers, these constituents also include the digital lending industry associations, consent managers and technology developers.
    • Regulators and industry associations working together can provide the necessary foundations for addressing these issues.
    • Other solutions spear-headed by industry associations could be to establish ‘certification system’ based maintenance of a repository of lending platforms for easy identification of genuine players.
    • Similarly, on the data protection aspect, a structural solution through coordinated efforts of various digital lending constituents is required.

    Consider the question “Examine the factors aiding the growth of digital lending in India. What are the challenges the sector face? Suggest the measures to deal with these challenges.”

    Conclusion

    For the continued development of the Indian digital lending economy, it is important to implement policy solutions that adequately protect the borrowers from malpractices, while, at the same time, do not dampen innovation in this fast-evolving sector.

    Source:-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/soft-touch-regulation-for-digital-lending/2215702/

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    Memory techniques with Poorti ma’am

    Time: 6:30 pm; Venue: Habitat- General club (Click here for link)

    https://youtu.be/-MgydTCBCkY

    Prelims is around the corner and Zeeshan sir is back with his signature sessions on Score Boosting and Tikdams for UPSC IAS prelims exam. These techniques can boost your score by 30 marks. Join Zeeshan sir at 6:30 pm.

    https://youtu.be/wJJUVdTPdJE

    Poorti, ma’am with her memory technique for UPSC IAS preparation will be taking mini Bootcamp sessions on Habitat. Since in this information-loaded exam memorizing things is a necessity Poorti ma’am will make it effortless for you. Learn the techniques.

    Join Poorti ma’am at 9 pm

    Instructions for joining Habitat

    1. Click here for Habitat
    2. If you haven’t registered already, click on ‘Register a new account’ and enter your details.
    3. Choose a username.
    4. That is it. Welcome to Habitat.

    For access through the Mobile app:

    1. Install the Mobile application (click here) from your Appstore.
    2. Use the same email id and password as you used above.

  • 19th March 2021| Daily Answer Writing Enhancement

    Important Announcement:  Topics to be covered on 22nd March-

    GS-1  Role of women and women’s organization.

    GS-4 Ethics and Human Interface.

    Question 1)

    The Extremists of today will be Moderates tomorrow, Just as the Moderates of today were Extremists yesterday. Comment with respect to Indian national movement. 10 marks

    Question 2)

    One of the key areas of administrative reforms has been lateral entry, but the success of lateral entry hinges on how it is designed. In light of this, describe the advantages and challenges in the success of this reform. 10 marks

    Question 3)

    Examine the role e-commerce can play in improving the access to greater markets and opportunities to become a part of the national and global supply chains.Also, identify the challenges the e-commerce sector faces in India. 10 marks

    Question 4)  

    What are sources of ethics and their ideals in Indian tradition? 10 marks

    Reviews will be provided in a week. (In the order of submission- First come first serve basis). In case the answer is submitted late the review period may get extended to two weeks.

    *In case your answer is not reviewed in a week, reply to your answer saying *NOT CHECKED*. If Parth Sir’s tag is available then tag him.

    For the philosophy of AWE and payment, check  here: Click2Join

  • Plea against sale of Electoral Bonds

    CJI has agreed to urgently hear a plea to stay the sale of a new set of electoral bonds on April 1, before Assembly elections in crucial states such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

    Note the denominations of the Electoral Bonds and the issuers.

    What is the news?

    • Data obtained through RTI has shown that illegal sale windows have been opened in the past to benefit certain political parties.
    • There is a serious apprehension that any further sale of electoral bonds before the upcoming State elections would further increase illegal and illicit funding of political parties through shell companies.

    What are Electoral Bonds?

    • The electoral bonds were introduced on January 29, 2018.
    • An electoral bond is like a promissory note that can be bought by any Indian citizen or company incorporated in India from select branches of the State Bank of India.
    • The citizen or corporate can then donate the same to any eligible political party of his/her choice.
    • The bonds are similar to banknotes that are payable to the bearer on demand and are free of interest.
    • An individual or party will be allowed to purchase these bonds digitally or through a cheque.

    How to invest?

    • The bonds will be issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 100,000 and Rs 1 crore (the range of a bond is between Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 crore).
    • These will be available at some branches of SBI.
    • A donor with a KYC-compliant account can purchase the bonds and can then donate them to the party or individual of their choice.
    • Now, the receiver can encash the bonds through the party’s verified account. The electoral bond will be valid only for fifteen days.
    • The 29 specified SBI branches are in cities such as New Delhi, Gandhinagar, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Mumbai, Jaipur, Lucknow, Chennai, Kolkata and Guwahati.

    Issues with them

    • The plea has argued that the sale of electoral bonds had become an avenue for shell corporations and entities to park illicit money and even proceeds of bribes with political parties.
    • There are documents from the RBI and the Election Commission that say the electoral bonds scheme is detrimental to democracy.

    Govt.’s view: Anonymity of the donor matters

    • The government has defended the scheme in court, saying it allowed anonymity to political donors to protect them from “political victimisation”.
    • The Ministry of Finance’s affidavit in the top court had dismissed the Election Commission’s version that the invisibility afforded to benefactors was a “retrograde step” and would wreck transparency in political funding.
    • The government affidavit had said the clause of secrecy was a product of “well-thought-out policy considerations”.
    • It said the earlier system of cash donations had raised a “concern among the donors that, with their identity revealed, there would be competitive pressure from different political parties receiving donation”.

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